The Smiley Smile Message Board

So where are all of Brian's home demos from the Smile period???? There seems to be demo-like songs scattered throughout their history, from Brian's early personal tapes with Spanish Assignments etc (heard on the PreHistory boots), the demos with Gary Usher, the piano demo of Don't Talk on the PS Box, and of course the later 70's songs like Still I Dream Of It, and then the Cocaine Sessions. It's always seemed to me that he probably recorded home demos of the Smile tracks with just the piano..... They must just be lost?? I mean I'm sure they would have turned up on the new Box, its just something that has always driven me crazy. I remember reading somewhere about someone (I think it was a photographer) housesitting for Brian in the late 60's and saying that he had tapes lying around everywhere..... I'm sure they're just lost, but I'd love to hear any other stories about this if anyone has them....

I don't think Brian did a whole lot of home recording of his music...at least prior to building the recording studio in the home on Belagio. If he did those tapes seem to be all long gone.

The Don't Talk demo was recorded in the studio and the In My Room/Little Deuce Coupe demos were recorded with Bob Norberg's amateur apartment setup with multitrack capabilities.  Even the Humble Harv demo (I believe) was recorded at Western.

The biggest boon for Smile research would be the discovery of the Inside Pop outtake reels (specifically the audio), which would contain a great deal of Brian demoing songs at home and in the studio.

No reason to do home demos when you're in the studio every day.

Here's the essay by photographer David Dalton I was thinking of:

http://www.gadflyonline.com/05-06-02/ftr-epiphany.html

here's the part about the tapes (I guess no demos haha)

Brian is deep. He really is. A little like Andy Warhol, he affected a sort of feeble-minded precociousness that acted as a protection. Once, when Brian and Marilyn were away I stayed in his house. In the bedroom I found a box full of tapes. I assumed they were studio demos or reference tracks and threw one on the tape machine. It was the strangest thing. All the tapes were of Brian talking into a tape recorder. Hour after hour of stoned ramblings on the meaning of life, color vibrations, fate, death, vegetarianism and Phil Spector.

not buying smile sessions unless this is on it

hahaha! :D :D

This is because all the previous house guests took all the good tapes left lying around.

What was this guy doing poking around anyway? Leave stuff alone, it's not yours.