The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hugely, hugely disappointing: there's two pages about the leadup to Smile 195?-66... there's about three pages covering the post-Smile period 1967-2004... there's about five pages of interviews with Brian, Mike & Alan discussing Smile... but there's next to nothing about Smile. The impression Joe Q. Public gets is that it's an album Brian tried to make and... er, didn't. And in all three sections, there's some seriously poor factual research and highly misleading writing.  Examples:

"I first saw The Beach Boys in 1962... they were there to promote "Surfin'", their first Capitol 45." - Harvey Kubernik.

"Back at the house he [Brian]... figured out the parts [to a Four Freshman song]. He gave them to his mother and his youngest brother Carl to sing... His sister Maureen also became part of the group." - Sylvie Simmons

"One night in January 1967 Dennis turned up at Brian's house during a Smile recording session... [and] complained that The Beach Boys' candy-striped shirts had elicited ridicule in hip London circles. Parks equated this with US shame over the Vietnam war. He and Wilson took speed and spent all night writing "Surf's Up"." - Will Hodgkinson.

... and that's just on a brief skim. "The Full Story" ?  Not even close, and the worst of it is, people will read Mojo and think it's really how things happened.

Oh, and there's a competition as well. Guess what the prize is.  Correct - the hugely expensive boxed set/book version of... That Lucky Old Sun.

You'd at least expect Sylvie Simmons to know there was no Maureen Wilson... she's on the Nashville Stars n Stripes DVD for foda's sake (Sylvie, not Maureen), so you'd think she'd be a big enough fan...

And are none of the editors, proof readers, fact checkers big enough fans to know this?

Looks like you saved me some money there AGD. Thanks  ;D

I am thinking the same. The contents of the 45 will be on the box anyway. Or we can find them in MP3 or lossless at hundreds of web spots. And if the stories are as superficial as stated, I think I'll going to save me around € 15. That buys a nice CD, even some fine beers, or I'll give it to charity.

Ditto!  Thanks!

yeah i feel abit deflated, got mine today, looked exciting.
Read in about 10 mins, that is One Pound for every minute (as the actress said to the bishop)

still, nice vinyl - shame its a tenner in old sterling

Lots of vinyl copies for Ebay, WOO HOO!!!  ( is there any other reason to buy this?)

It's a shame, but those British magazines, even if they are the best rock trades today, contains more than a fair share of factual mistakes (witness the Uncut Music Guide special, Pink Floyd being the latest: lots of omissions/mistakes on the musician credits of each LP)

I recall the first MOJOs, from 1992 onwards. They were incomparably much better than the current mag. Little advertising (from class brands, like Raleigh bikes), excellent page aesthetics, lots of white space instead of stupid banners, photos that were a whole page in size, long stories, and few reviews (in fact, the only ones that really mattered, so: no idiotic star ratings). No attempts at moronic humour.

Then the decline began, in the late '90s. Every issue seemed to carry some unnecessary Top-100 list of total irrelevance. The number of busy ads grew every month. The price did not sink. More and more brief and hasty reviews appeared, and star ratings were introduced; every record seemed to get 3 or 4 stars - safe and cowardly, if you ask me.

Couple of years later: the cover-CD. Again, not relevant, save for the odd exception (the Trojan Reggae Sampler being my particular favourite).

IMHO the first ten to twenty MOJO editions were never surpassed by any other rock mag, anywhere, ever.

Well this sounds hugely disappointing. It's also most likely a rush job so it should be exptcted..

I'll still be getting one, the collector in me needs it

You have hoarding OCD and I claim my $ 0.25. I do Paypal.

I guess they felt they needed to compete with all the other magazines and do exactly the same as them

I got into MOJO around 1995/6, the Beatles Anthology era, and I loved it to pieces. IMO It was still strong throughout the early 2000s (despite the increasing number of Top-100 lists), but suffered when it moved away from the music nerdiness and tried too hard to become more of a lifestyle magazine. Take a look at the staff page, i can't remember the exact job title but there is someone credited with something like 'Brand Co-ordinator' or 'Lifestyle Advertising Manager'. I stopped subscribing and reading a couple of years ago and I haven't even browsed it since.

The featured indepth essays are shorter, and, as you say, the reviews section is 90% pointless. It had/has a great crossword though.

Maybe there just isn't that much to say anymore about the old music?

I quite enjoy Mojo and have a subscription to it. I can't remember any clear decline although don't doubt it occurred. I guess I treat it as easy reading. I quite enjoy the review section as a way of picking up on new music.

The errors in this Mojo BB special are a bit of a disappointment, as is the lack of any new insights. It's a nice special to own with the big Smile era photos an all, plus the 45. My advice, check it out in the shops first folks!

Although I respect everyone's personal opinion, this is my point of view. The Brand and Lifestyle things got in the way.

They lost me when the price creeped up to $13.50 CDN. With the taxes in the province I live in that works out to about $15.25 all in. At the same time it's going for $9.95 in the USA and our dollar is worth more than the greenback!

I still want to know how "Cabin Essence" sounded mixed down to mono!

Use the button marked 'mono' on your amp. That'll be $ 2.50, a snip, compared to the other options available.

Isn't there already a thread for this?

Yeah, Jonas, but BB/BW fanatics tend to wander.

And boy, can we wander.

How's the photography?

Pics are good. Two, three 'new' ones.

Any details on the new photos? That's my biggest anticipation - and I won't be able to get the issue until at least the weekend, if any stores 'round here even carry it.

Sounds like a sloppy editorial job on the text.

"No attempts at moronic humour. "

Too true.  What is it with mags like this? And 'moronic' is as apt a description as I 've ever heard.

No studio stuff - outtake from the Paradise Cove shoot, Hamburg 1966 shot (backstage, B&W), POP 1966 (Brian in those hideous check pants, B&W)

Thanks for the info - maybe they're giving us the chuck roast now and saving the filet for the box set... :)

I think the filet was served up long ago. But there's plenty of chuck roast to go around.  :)

How very disappointing, and yet unsurprising, that somehow the Smile/Mojo thing should be f***ed up.

Largely Mojo's fault, I would imagine, for employing hacks to write the articles rather than fans or music enthusiasts who know the facts. Or writers who know the meaning of the word 'Research'.

At any rate, cheers to AGD for his comments. Those € 15 (or heck, € 30 for collectors who buy 2 issues, one to keep mint etc.) will go a long way to purchase the double sessions set along with the Big One. Fandom is nice thing, but bankruptcy is something else entirely.

This is as good a quote as I've seen recently - suitable for T-shirts and mass-production!

It's true, though, and after reading through what is actually in the MOJO issue I think I may pass for now and check Ebay in a month when demand has weakened. For one, I am also saving money I might not have for the big box set...and for another, my main thing with the MOJO was the new photos if there were any. And it sounds like we got the ground chuck of the crop...why put a photo of Munich in a Smile issue when there are so many Jasper and Guy Webster photos available??? Anyway... :-D

Thank you for the nice compliment, and I agree with you on the other points.

One point I neglected to make - in the new interviews, both Brian and Alan make a point of praising Chuck Britz and his contribution to Smile. Nice touch.