The Smiley Smile Message Board

Im not sure if i got the boxset before it, (it was all in the same time period), but my first SMiLE cd was the 2 disc "bits and pieces" with the "dont talk" instrumental as the last track of one of the discs. It was 1998, I was 15... found it at a independant record shop.. $50 bucks it cost me, traded Alot of the cds and begged my dad for the money.. i jsut had to have it... and it went with me everywhere in my discman, for a long time.

The Preiss tape.

The Purple Chick Smile Reconstruction, a few years ago.

Aside from the bits ond bobs on 20/20 and Heroes of course, the 1st Smile I heard was around 1992 I think when I got a bootleg that started with about 15 mins of good vibes sessions followed by "look" incorectly listed as " holidays"  I think it was stuff bootleged from Mark L's rough mixes for the forthcoming Good Vibes box set. It was a bit Lo fi.

1988

1) Made In USA cassette tape: Heroes And Villains / Good Vibrations.

2) An American Band video: Mrs O' Leary's Cow / Bicycle Rider / Surfs Up

3) Surfs Up LP: Surfs Up

1989

4) 20/20 LP: Cabinessence / Prayer

5) Sunflower LP: Cool Water

6) Wild Honey single: Wind Chimes (smiley version)

7) Smiley Smile: Wonderful / Vegetables etc

1990

8) Smiley Smile / Wild Honey CD: Alt H&V etc

9) SMiLE 2580 Boot: The Linett leak

1993

10) Good Vibrations Boxset: I Love To Say Da Da / VegaTables etc

1994

11) SMiLE bits and pieces: Barnyard / I Wanna Be Around

1998)

12) Sea Of Tunes SMiLE: lots, notably Wind Chime version 1

I lose count after this because I started downloading stuff.

My SMiLE journey has been long and eventful,  but the end is now in sight.

1979...tape
1st time hearing the unreleased music

on Christmas 2004 I got Smiley Smile / Wild Honey and BWPS.

think I downloaded my first Smile boot in 2006, it was a mix done by a guy who used to post here, "king of anglia".

In Spring of 1999 I downloaded Ann Wallace's mix and not too much later discovered SMiLE Research Library with tons of downloads. I made my own mix around that same time on a cd-r.

1999 watching 'The Beach Boys & der Satan' on TV with all the SMiLE footage from 'An American Band' ("Fire", "Bicycle Rider", "Surf's Up"). Was impressed that they even did promo films for never released music.

The Beach Boys A California Saga by Tom Nolan. Then the World Record Club Capitol Years boxset on cassette.

My first Smile revelation came when, after getting the Greatist Hits LP for Xmas in 1981, I pondered how H&V and GV sounded similar (instrument and recording technique-wise). I then read in a rock history book about the aborted "Smile" project (and simultaneously thought in my teenage brain how stupid the author was because "Smiley Smile" was available everywhere and how could he get the name wrong). When I got hold of a used Reprise Wild Honey-20/20 reissue my first listen to Cabinessence had me feeling although I was hearing it for the first time, it sound soooo familiar to me.Then I got a hold of a less-than-legit compilation called "Made in the USA" which had the GV snippets as featured on the 1976 radio special "The Best Summers of Our Lives". That lp had info about the upcoming and also less-than-legit "Smile" and I thought I'd definitely get my hands on that. I still remember playing the tracks and while "DYLW" was playing looking at the back cover, then going outside looking up at the moon and thinking, "this stuff is cosmic!!". From that point I was hooked.

Around 1991 I picked up The Early Years version of Smile on CD from Red Eye Records in Sydney. The quality was obviously from cassettes and some songs were not from the SMiLE sessions such as Heroes and Villains and Wind Chimes (both from Smiley Smile) and Vegetables (which was the Laughing Gravy version!). A year later I got the Chapter One release which was way better in terms of audio quality.

1967-  teen magazines are full of news about H&V and the album to come.
1969- First heard Cabinessence
1971- First a local DC arts rag and then the Rolling Stone story detailed unheard music.
1972- Al Jardine tells me after a show at Ocean City, MD that Smile is "coming out soon".
1977-78- the Leaf and Priess books
1982- horrible sounding cassette of "Do You Like Worms" and a few others sent to me from Texas.
1983 plus- the rest of the story.

apart from the tracks on the 30 Years boxset, my first exposure was the Dave Prokopy tapes.

1979 poor quality cassette tape sent to me from a member of BBFUN - a year or so after the Leaf book.  Next came the original vinyl boots in 82 or 83 I think.  Prior to that I compiled my first fan mix using released material based upon the Leaf book and then Preiss.

Reading the Preiss book way back in 79 or 80, seeing the picture of the album cover in that book, must have stared at that picture for hours and hours,  being intrigued by the odd song titles mentioned, I became fascinated and from there it was an easter egg hunt, finding/hearing bits and pieces here and there - H&V on a jukebox in the game room of the Atari plant in San Jose, Surf's Up via "Good Vibrations - The Best of The Beach Boys (album with the wave breaking over the rock on its cover), Our Paryer/Cabinessence on 20/20, etc.  
Hearing Pet Sounds around this same period was part of it too, made me stop, shake my head, go "wha???"  I was confused that this was the same band that did that other stuff, how could that be?  waitaminnit, let me get a grip, let me sit down, let me think, this is too much, what does all this mean???   The experience of being a fan of their music made me think and challenged my beliefs in ways The Beatles never did, and it started with Pet Sounds/Smle.   Eventually I heard Smile Smile, and that threw a further monkey wrench into the gears - what the heck is going on???  That 66/67 period, a blip in time, just a brief moment that winked and was gone, incomplete, bits and pieces, no answers,  only questions, riddles, and no one, not even the band, would ever make music quite like this ever again - poof!  gone, yet still there in the remnants left behind.  During those years it was a lonely thing being a fan of theirs, they got less respect than they do now, so I oftened kept it to myself, but I knew there was something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something that kept drawing me back to this fascination, and to a band and its music that I knew was way more than people were imagining.

Well the first time I heard any SMiLE music was "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" in "An American Band".  I believe I saw that for the first time in 1987?  I rented it at a local video store along with a copy of "Yellow Submarine" I believe.

Same here.

..apart from the Box Set releases --Ryan Guidry's SMiLE mix

my first experience was SMiLE the Millenium Edition a few years ago.

My first real taste of Smile was BWPS in 2006. I had just watched the TV mini series and it piqued my curiosity. I had a friend who had BWPS, so I copied it from him. When I first heard it I had the typical "is this really the same guy singing?" reaction, but I got in to it, Heroes being the stand out for me. I saw Heroes on Sounds of Summer, with some other songs I wasn't familiar, bought it and was blown away. Not only by the Boys version of Heroes but by other later stuff like Wild Honey and I Can Hear Music. That was when it really started and got a hold of the twofers, a couple of books and then bootlegs. The more I learned and discovered the further I got pulled in! I think you all can relate  :)

After being a longtime fan of the band since I was a kid, and then completely obsessing over Pet Sounds in high school in the 90s, I bought the follow-up two-fer around 1997-98. Needless to say it was a shocking shift in style and I took more to Wild Honey. Slowly I grew into Smiley though and David Leaf's liner notes really ramped up my desire to hear the original Smile material. I had heard some of it before in the American Band video which I watched as a kid in the 80s. Then I tried desperately to get it in bootleg  and I almost did through a connection on the Cabin Essence website (where, incidentally, I became Public Enemy #1 a few years later), but I was a teenager who was skeptical about sending this person money through mail. So I waited a bit longer and bought a few more CDs. I got the Friends/20/20 twofer and was blown away by Our Prayer and Cabin Essence. Then there was the Endless Harmony doc on TV that played little snippets from a few tracks. That's where I heard a sliver of Wonderful, which immediately confirmed exactly what Leaf talked about in his liner notes - this was something altogether different from the Smiley version. Then just noodling around on the internet in my first year of university (1999), there was a website that had the 18 song (maybe 17 or 19? can't quite remember) track list available to listen and to download. I heard a few things at home, but then went to a friend's house, and we listened to it all on his computer in his basement. Then I brought the news to my other friend who lived in residence at the school and he downloaded it and made a copy for me. I think the website must have been taken down shortly thereafter. That summer of 2000 was the summer of the Beach Boys - saw Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds then too. That was really quite the time to be a Beach Boys fan just like now.

Same..

BWPS, followed a couple years later by purple chick

BWPS

Just a random observation: Kind of interesting how many of you were first exposed to this music via the PC reconstruction of BWPS.

I honestly don't know if I would've become such a fan if that was my first taste of SMiLE, meaning I enjoy BWPS but I guess I'm glad I discovered the music more or less in not such a sequential order.  I don't know if that makes any sense but that is my feeling on it anyway.

1973 – Read the entire 1971 Tom Nolan 2-part Rolling Stone article called “A California Saga” included in a music book called “Beach Boys Complete". A year or two later ran down the original copies of Rolling Stone.
1975 or 1976 – Smile was mentioned in a couple of magazine articles – I think Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, New Musical Express, Bomp, Phonograph, or one of those….
1978 - The Beach Boys & the California Myth (Leaf) book, soft cover.
1979 - The Beach Boys (Preiss) book, soft cover.
1978/’79 – My first SMiLE bootleg, cassette tape, that circulated amongst collectors. Source was either Priess, Reum, or Elliott.
1983 – My first SMiLE bootleg, vinyl.
1987 – My first SMiLE bootleg, CD.
1988 – Mark Linett SMiLE mixes.
1990 – Smile - Japanese T-2580-2 CD.
1990 – Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile – First of 4 Priore books, soft covers.
1990 - Smiley Smile 2-fer (bonus tracks - Cantina!) Priore played the tape of Heroes a few years before at a Beach Boys fan convention in Oakland, California.
1993 – Good Vibrations box set (bonus tracks).
1993 - SMiLE - Vigotone 110/111 2-CD boot.
1995 – Dave Prokopy SMiLE 3 tape set.
1999 - Sea Of Tunes Vol. 15 - Good Vibrations Sessions 3-CD boot. First heard alternate Good Vibrations (Asher lyrics) in 1976.
1999 – Sea Of Tunes Vol. 16, 17. Best quality SMiLE tracks to date.
2001 – Archeology.
2001 - Project SMiLE.
2004 - Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE (including instrumental tracks not included on original release).
2004 - Secret SMiLE.
2005 - SMiLE – Purple Chick Reconstruction.

And pretty much every SMiLE bootleg in between from 1978 to the present.
Fan mixes up the ying yang – Ann Wallace, Mok, Fast Eddie, Smile Shop, Dick Licker, etc. etc.

Copies of front and rear SMiLE cover slick artwork – early 1980’s.
Copies of SMiLE album booklet – late 1970’s.

Frank Holmes SMiLE front cover artwork (lithograph, framed behind glass - signed by Frank in 2003).

Mikie, are you sure the Priore playing of H&V wasn't at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach? There is a story to that tape which will make you laugh or cry depending on your mood.

Let's hear it then..........

I'd like to hear more about your story, Mr. Fooger!

No, this was definitely at a Les Chan hosted Beach Boys convention in Oakland in the 80's, well before it came out as the Heroes & Villains Smile Smile 2-fer bonus track in 1990. Dominic Priore was one of the guests that day - acted like a real hot dog. He was toting a cassette around like a purse and I remember asking him personally if I could have a copy and he declined with a F.U. look on his face. Later, he played it on the P.A. system for the audience and my jaw hung open for a few seconds.

Check your PMs >:D

Purple Chick for me, too. After hearing Smiley Smile, I never thought I would actually enjoy the song "Vega-Tables", but I was proven oh-so-wrong once I heard the SMiLE version. Now I can't get me enough o' them vega-tables.  :-D

My first encounter with Smile was with the "Made In USA" compilation (H&V and GV), that I used to listen as a kid.

A few years later: I was searching for BB music on... KaZaA.  :-X Most of the available songs were hits, or at least songs that I knew... Except for that one song that only one person was sharing, and that had a strange name... "Cabinessence". When I finally got it I started listening to it over and over again, not really knowing whether I liked it, not knowing why I was playing it so much, but knowing I had never heard anything like it before. And then it hit me: the song was simply fantastic, kinda in the same vein as H&V and GV, and I needed to get more of this. The Beach Boys did that?

So I went on the Internet, typed "Cabinessence" in Google, and found out about Smile. Over the following months, I grabbed all the information I could about the album, along with the few tracks scattered on old abandoned websites. The next step was the GV boxset, then the "Project Smile" CD, then BWPS, and then all the bootlegs and many fan mixes. And, in a few days, the Smile boxset, of course.


There's a lesson for record companies behind all this. I illegally downloaded one track, and ended up buying the entire BB discography.  ;D

If I may refine my original statement:

summer 1975 - the Nick Kent 3-parter for NME (first experience, period)

late 1970s - the Preiss tape (first experience of the unreleased music)

Can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. I'll even own up to buying Metallica's entire discography in 1999 and 2000 due to illegally downloading some of their stuff on Napster prior to the court case. WHAT NAOW, LARS?

(I don't listen to Metallica much anymore. I was young, forgive me.)

There;s no excuse

Once  a metal head

Always a metal head

Get off this board

;(

July 1989 - cassette tape, followed closely by,

August 1989 - LLVS.

1967 when I bought "Smiley" Smile and it wasn't the Smile that I had read about prior. Felt like I was totally f*cked and somewhat cheated. :(

I saw some BB movie with actors in the Fall of 2000.  Soon thereafter I was doing some research on the "smile album" and began downloading some tracks off Napster.  After hearing Surf's Up and Cabin, I purchased the 1993 Box set.  At that point, I was floored...and hooked.

Sometime in early 2001 I found SOT 16 & 17, Vigotone and Odeon boots.  I also purchased LLVS that year.  I made and distributed my first full SMiLE mix is 2003.

Within minutes of receiving the press release of the BWPS concert in London, I purchased tickets, then called my wife....yes, my first trip to Europe was based on the SMiLE concert.  Being there on 2/20/2004 was just unreal.  It was an amazing trip.

Can't wait for Nov 1.

Was (and still am) a big Beatles fan, and read mention of SMiLE in the Sgt. Pepper section of some book. Got curious. A friend from work played me Cabinessence, though he didn't tell me it was from SMiLE--still, it stuck in my head.

Heard stories about the Fire track. Then saw a $10 copy of Smile #2 (the vinyl) around...what, 1984 or so? Bought it on impulse, mainly to hear the Fire track. Then: Cabinessence! Got hooked on that track, since I'd already heard it (the vocals were slaying me), then...Worms...Wonderful...Bicycle Rider (presented just as a fragment)...and most of all, Surf's Up (also presented as a fragment). Everything about it then clicked in my head. I was hooked. Bought Pet Sounds. Bought everything legit I could find on Smile. Made my first tape comp, not knowing thousands of other people were doing the same. Kept telling people about it: you gotta hear this! Yes, it's the Beach Boys, but this is *different*!

Then came CDs, and the Internet, and all that followed. My interest spread out to most of the other BBs stuff, but as I've said many times, Smile was my gateway drug, which I've always found odd, as most peoples' entry into the Beach Boys was through their early stuff.

And it's still my favorite, in whatever form.

My first SMiLE experience was reading Look!Listen!VIBRATE!SMiLE! by Domenic Priore. His preamble made perfect sense.

I felt I could trust Brian on SMiLE because Pet Sounds showed he was really together upstairs. That's why SMiLE had to make sense on some level.

Those were not promo films for those songs. The "Fire" video was actually a promo film for Good Vibrations and "Bicycle Rider" was one of Dennis Wilson's pet film experiments which was shot silent (I think) Besides I don't see what Carl and Dennis demonstrating their amazing  ability to disappear and re-appear and transform into each other has much to do with the oppression brought upon the Natives of this continent by the European settlers.
back on topic
1993-Heard the bits on the Good Vibrations  Box Set but keep in mind, I was very young.
2005-Watched  American  Band then listened to BWPS and saw BWPS live in August 05 :)

I first heard the SMiLE material on the Good Vibrations Box in 2000.  I never really went after any SMiLE boots because I wasn't that blown away by the material back then and I didn't think to look further.  I did finally get the Purple Chick stuff, but that was only early this year.  Other than that, all the session stuff in the new box is mostly unknown material to me so this is going to be great! ;D

 :poke :bow :jedi :huh :psyche
one of these maybe?

Best prepare to meet your maker, for truly, you are going to expire on the spot from an excess of sheer, unbridled joy.  :thud

Let me think....

1st: June 1990;  hearing Surf's Up on the Superstars of the 70ies Warner Bros comp. ... my first month being a fan, having only heard the hits, and thinking WTF? Didn't like it at all.
2nd: Late 1990; buying the SmileySmile / Wild Honey 2fer and hearing the bonustracks, which I quite liked.
3rd: I think 1992, buying 2 CD-boots (a simple T-2580-2 release + 02-CD3317 "The Early Years") and a SMiLE T-shirt during a fan meeting.
From then on I was hooked, and bought more and more "rare" releases (if I could find them)...

Hey, that compilation was in my parent's LP collection (now in mine), it has some kind of rainbow-colored cover, right?
I remember listening to "Surf's Up" on it as kid and thinking "what a boring ballad", I expected a rocker like "Surfin' USA".

Yep, exactly my first thought as well. But don't worry, it's one of my favourites these days.  :)

Somewhere between seeing Beautiful Dreamer on the BeebBeebCeeb and thinking 'how cool is this music' seeing Brian live, where they did Prayer & H&V, and buying BWPS.

I must say, Andrew, it's good to know that however much you've heard of this stuff over the years, and also, er, more recently as well... you remain completely entranced and captivated by the music. Not for you, it seems, the slow decline into disappointment that often accompanies an enthusiasm held from a young age, and for many years.

What I mean is... so many long-standing fans of this stuff become snippy about it after a few years (and not just fans of SMiLE either... consider all the Lucas-hate that's going down among Star Wars fans at the moment...!). Look at some of the reactions to BWPS. "Oh no, he shouldn't have finished it like that, he should have finished it like *I* wanted him to finish it!" "Where's the Zen Koan Brian promised us?" "Brian's ruined SMiLE" etc etc. But the music reduced ADG to tears of joy at the Festival Hall in 2004, and he's still a believer. Maybe he's a slightly *grumpy* believer on occasion, but I still get the impression that the music still makes his heart beat faster, takes years off his age, and makes him feel good to be alive. It's absolutely not 'oh, it's that old over-rated s**t I listened to a lot when I was younger'.

I'm really looking forward to rejoicing and feeling good to be alive myself in just a few days, with a big box on my shelf and a brace of shiny new CDs in constant rotation in the player. My journey with this music hasn't been as long as some people. The Beach Boys were a washed-up embarrassment when I was a teenager. I would never have bought one of their records in a million years, because at that time, the most cutting-edge thing they could produce was 'Wipe Out' with the Fat Boys. Cringe.

But then I read that some old 60s dude called Brian Wilson had a solo record coming out. I didn't even know who he was at the time, but some of the stories of 60s drug-inspired craziness that were aired during the press trawl for the 88 album and the rumour that followed about SMiLE coming out piqued my curiosity (that was the first time I'd ever heard of SMiLE. I was amazed to think that someone might have recorded an album, and then not put it out for 22 years. Little did I know how long it would take after that!). I remember reading the story of the Fire session with amazement. What, this was one of THE BEACH BOYS??? The sad old guys with the tropical shirts, the surfing and the car songs? And he wanted to do an album about the Elements, with tracks called 'Do You Like Worms', 'Vega-Tables', and 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow'? I remember honestly wondering whether there had been a mix-up, whether this could possibly be the same Brian Wilson who was responsible for cheesy old schlock like Little Deuce Coupe, Be True To Your School, Barbara Ann and Little Saint Nick, which I would hear every Christmas on the radio and instantly turn off.

Then, as you do when you're young, I forgot about Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys for seven years. Never heard *any* of the SMiLE music at that point. Got heavily into electronica, ambient and House Music instead. Until, souring somewhat on that scene about 1994, I dug out my complete collection of Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel albums and returned to the 60s. And then I kept remembering what Paul McCartney had said about Brian Wilson's bass lines, and Pet Sounds... and then I saw the Don Was film on the BBC in late 1995. That knocked me out, particularly the partial rendition of God Only Knows sung round the piano with Brian and Carl, and also this sad, muted track called "'Til I Die". The hairs stood up on my neck at the finish of that one, and I wondered if it was from this SMiLE thing they kept talking about, too.

I remember very clearly thinking, "OK, so the rest of the Beach Boys albums are all total crap, right? but there must be something in this Pet Sounds thing, and maybe in SMiLE, too. Maybe Pet Sounds is the one good record in their discography that actually came out. I'll check it out." But my local store was out of Pet Sounds at the time, so I got the next best thing I could find - the UK 1995 double CD Greatest Hits compliation instead, the one that had the single edit of the disco version of 'Here Comes The Night' on it, for the first time on CD. It was fresh out at the time. Gave each of the early singles about 10 seconds in the player, then skipped them. Meh. Early 60s cheese, I thought. Straight to Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows, and Caroline No, which I knew from the Was film. They all knocked me for six with increasing power... and then I listened to the last track on the second CD, this weird old number called Heroes and Villains...

I wrote about listening to Heroes And Villains for the first time here recently, back in the summer (here (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,10620.msg197055.html#msg197055), actually). I more than liked it - I was instantly hooked, and knew I just *had* to know more about this record that never got finished. It grabbed me on many levels: the music, the harmonies, the lyrics and the production. I got on-line, fired up something called 'Alta Vista', and within a few days, someone called Dave Prokopy was sending me some cassettes from halfway across the Earth. And with few interruptions, I have followed Brian Wilson's twisting, shifiting, ever-changing musical story ever since...

I still can't stand Be True To Your frickin' School, though.

MattB

Side note to your post, Matt:

Your point about AGD is well-put. And it's good to acknowledge that kind of thing--it attests to the sheer power of the Smile music that it does hold up so well after millions of listens. It is, as VDP put it, "durable goods". AGD might be cranky at times, yes, but Smile soothes his savage breast for sure!

And I'd prefer that over the horrific phenomenon of what people with names like Dug Sulky do--collect every scrap of what's supposedly their "favorite" music, yet hate it (and write yards of bitter verbiage about how much they do), and then, inexplicably...keep collecting and listening to the stuff. Some people do make their own hells. (And then sell it to others!)

Bless you, AGD! (And Matt. And everybody else here.)

Late 2006 I brought the Sounds of Summer comp and loved Heroes and GV.
Got BWPS some time in 2007, wasn't too thrilled with it.
A friend sent me some stuff, including Sweet Insanity and IJWMFTT soundtrack with that version of Wonderful.
Sought out some boots and liked what I heard, relistened to BWPS and was captivated. Terrified my ex with Mrs. O'Leary's Cow and enjoyed it even more  :lol

Is that why your ex is your ex?  :lol

I was gonna say she wasn't diggin VDP's lyrics but Cow doesn't have any lyrics.

With a few very rare exceptions - GIOHM, anyone ? - the music has never let me down, and often moves and transports me, however familiar I am with it.  Sadly, over the decades of my fandom, the same cannot be said of some of the fans. I've met some wonderful folk who I'm proud to call friends, and many, many more who I don't see enough of, or have never met but surely want to... I've also met liars, fantasists, thieves, defrauders and flat-out assholes, not to mention folk who are so dumb it's a wonder they remember how to breathe. But always, the music wins out and 11/1/11 is going to be one of the best days of my life, because something I never dared dream could happen these last three and a half decades, will. Better, I'll be sharing it with you people here.

Better still, Phil Cohen is gonna be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pissed.  >:D

Gee, I wonder if I qualify for at least one of those adjectives......  ;D

I'm not trying to start anything, but how could you feel cheated by Smiley not being Smile? How would you have known the difference? Considering that there were quite a few of the same titles from both, what made you think back then that those same songs would have had different arrangements? For all we may have known in 1967, they could have been the same and just on an album of a similar name. Wasn't Surf's Up the only known title from Smile that was not a title on Smiley?

You tell us, Mikie. Anyway, I like you and enjoy your posts. :)

Reckon we should lift his ban on 1/11/11?  ;D

All cruelty aside, it's going to be a wonderful day. Looking forward to logging in here (after self imposed exile on the 28th, no spoilers!) and reading everybody bitching about the box just feeling the good vibrations as we listen to this beautiful music  :)

You tell us, Mikie. Anyways, I like you and enjoy your posts. :) [/quote]

Thanks a lot, Doc - you're a good man.  I enjoy your posts too!

I bought a copy of Pet Sounds in 2001, which then led to the two-fers. Smiley/Honey was one of the first ones i bought. Reading all the SMiLE talk in the liner notes really intrigued me. I then bought Friends/20/20. Our Prayer and Cabinessence would remain stuck in my head for weeks. Later in '01 i caught "An American Band" on tv. Hearing the Bicycle Rider section, some of Fire and Brian at the piano playing Surf's Up all for the first time totally blew my mind. From there i bought the GV box set and a copy of LLVS on the same day. Easily, one of the most satisfying days of my life. The next logical step was d/l bootlegs online. (Uh oh). Skip ahead to Feb 20, 2004 and i was on here all night, like many of you, obsessively reading every post. Now it's almost Nov 1st and it STILL kind of seems like a dream. I'm sure it will fully hit me when i'm in the record shop that morning staring at SMiLE on the shelf amongst Rihanna and Maroon 5 cd's.

Two, minimum.  ;D

I liked GIOMH (well certain parts of it anyhow) like "Fairy Tale", DLHKSAA and the chorus of "City Blues".  

Traveling back in time to the tune of 44 years or so one can only reproduce events that are not so transparent. I do remember, however, that the word was that this new album was going to be a completely different direction for the band. I did not understand at the time exactly how what I had heard in the fall of 66 in a pizza joint in Scottsbluff, NE., could be outdone by the band or anyone for that matter. My initial listening of H&V was a moving experience but was not as earthshaking as GV. It was a bit less than overwhelming-that as if something was missing the mark. I still thought it was an incredible piece of work. Then SS hit the shops, bought my copy, put it on the Webcor and pretty much figured out that this was either a mistake or something had happened to what was "supposed to be".  Call it a fan's intuition or whatever-the balance of the album had immediately given me the impression that these were chopped and shaped from something that was supposed to be on a much grander scale. The Beach Boys would never release something as stark and underproduced as this was. I did feel after PS, GV, H&V, let down and for the first time worried about the band and its future.

And now you're a week away from it's release OldSurferDude.

This is what brings this release home for me, just how long we've been waiting. Yes BWPS was great, but this is the offiicail release of THE BEACH BOYS SMiLE

44 years for this man here.

I'm truly, truly happy for you.

A very cool explanation. Thank you for that. I did not get to hear Smiley Smile until the Reprise 2-fer in 1974 and by then the minimalist sound was back in vogue. I missed out on hearing it in 1967 due to my brother falling away from The Beach Boys after Pet Sounds. Except for the hits, he was not thrilled with the changes and would not come back to them again until the release of 15 Big Ones. I was 10 years old when Smiley was released, and was not in a good financial position to buy albums at that age. I bought all the 45s from H&V onward and that would be all I knew of the Beach Boys until 1970 when Wild Honey, Friends and 20/20 8- Tracks were given to me as birthday and Christmas presents that year. It was probably well into the early 80s before I realized that the Smile songs on Smiley were different versions. I remember my first homemade cassette of Smile was soley all the released songs up through the Surf's Up album.

Greatly appreciated IHA :h5

When I was 10 years old--early 80s--my dad played the Pickwick compilation called "Good Vibrations", which contained H&V and of course GV.  Blew my tiny mind.  I already knew Endless Summer by heart, but this was a whole new thing.
Not sure when, but probably by 1983 I found that my little local liberry (yes, it wasn't even enough to be a "library") had a copy of the Byron Priess book.  I practically ate that thing to learn more about Pet Sounds and Smile.
Then I saw American Band on cable, and heard Surf's Up and Fire.  Holy crap.
I bought a Smile boot from a local record shop shortly after I got my first CD player.  I had no idea that there were such things as boots...silly me, I thought any CD in a store was legit. 
To be honest, for a time in the 90s I wasn't all that interested in Smile.  I think the obsessiveness of the fan community turned me off, and the endless gerbil wheels of discussion got wearying after a while.  But my interest has grown exponentially ever since BWPS.

Must've been great to be that young reading books about the Beach Boys (and/or fairly terrifying)!

I was a fan from a young age but had no interest in The Beach Boys other than listening to their music. I remember when I was young my mother or father told me that The Beach Boys were a bunch of drug addicts....I just couldn't believe they ever touched drugs haha. So it was a real shocker when I started reading about them a few years back.
______

My first SMiLE experience was reading a review for 'Greatest hits: Volume II' on itunes (probably the first year itunes existed) - someone wrote that 'Heroes and Villains' was the greatest song ever recorded by The Beach Boys. I listened to the sample and thought This isn't surf music! - I decided not to buy the album because it sounded too weird.

Years later I bought Pet Sounds, and I really understood it. Then I read on here how great BWPS is, and the rest is history.

So what changed? It looks like all us gerbils are still spinning the wheel. more so now than ever.  Gerbil, would have never have equated my fandom to that particular animal. ;)

Loving these stories!

For me, it was the American Band on VHS in the late 80s so I would have been about 10 and only knew 'The Hits'. When I heard Surf's Up over the opening titles, I thought it was called Chug A Lug so imagine my face when I bought Surfin Safari on cassette not too long after and heard a song about root beer!
Anyways, the thing that stuck with me was Fire and Bicycle Rider Theme and the video of Carl and Dennis changing.
Roll on a few years and I hear the songs on the boxset and then the twofers but the biggest eyeopener was a poster off the Bloo did me a massive favour a couple of years back and posted me 'a few' CDs which included the Smile Project-I'm not sure my ears have recovered.

It doesn't matter whether you've waited 44 or 4 years for this to happen-it is and next Monday/Tuesday is going to be a pretty special day. And, even though I've never even met most of you, I'm looking forward to spending next Tuesday morning with boxset in hand, CD1 starting up and logging on here.

Oh, I also think Phil should be unbanned-give the guy a chance to apologise. Just my 0.0125480p (current exchange rate!) ;D

My first experience was from an airing of the American Band special.  I don't remember everything SMiLE related from it, but I distinctly remember seeing the footage of Brian at the piano doing Surf's Up from the Bernstein special and being absolutely mesmerized by it.  I was 15 years old.  From that, along with the overall mysteriousness of the SMiLE story, I was hooked. 

My first major experience with the music outside of the initial intro was through the material included on the box set.  After hearing and being floored by that material, I started seeking out bootlegs.  I purchased a single disc cd boot of which I'm still not sure exactly which version it is.  I received that 2 disc vigatone set and the unsurpassed masters version in a trade through a trading community.  After that, BWPS SMiLE came out and I assumed that it would be the final word. 

My journey hasn't been nearly as long as many of you (16 years), but I am so incredibly excited for this release that I can barely think of anything else.  My wife is being a trooper, but I'm sure that she is sick of hearing me talk about it.  I was showing her pictures of the box from the web at dinner last night!

One more week!!

early 1980s: My father plays a BB cassette compilation in the car that includes the early hits but also later tracks like Surf's Up. My young mind is completely mesmerized by this mysterious track, and the BB's musical progression is part of my conception of them from an early age.

1987?: Despite my awareness of the BB's progressive music, at a Boy Scout camping trip, I get in a heated argument with a kid who insists that Brian Wilson was more creative than the Beatles, and that he made music that was better than Sgt. Pepper. (I wonder if this guy is buying the box next week.)

1989?: My dad picks up a "Surf's Up" vinyl LP and remembering the title track, I play it and am utterly disappointed by most of the other songs, thinking Surf's Up must have just been a fantastic anomaly in their career. I promptly forget about the LP, and the BB for that matter, for quite some time.

1995: I'm now starting college and I decide to check out that Pet Sounds album that McCartney keeps raving about. At the record store, I look at the tracklist. No Surf's Up. How can the BB's best album not have Surf's Up on it? (I seem to have forgotten about the earlier LP experience).

So I'm playing Pet Sounds in my dorm room, and it's slowly growing on me. A guy from across the hall says, "Hey you like the BB? Check this out." And he lays the GV Box Set on me! I know, what are the chances? The big moment is when I look at the chronological tracklist and I see all the "previously unreleased" songs listed after the Pet Sounds ones, including "Surf's Up". Suddenly I figure out what was going on, and what the hell happened to the Beach Boys after Pet Sounds. And then I actually listen to the tracks on disc 2.... what more needs to be said?

Through the years I am blown away by every Smile fragment that makes its way to the internet, on Anne Wallace's site, the old Smile Shop, etc etc. And 16 years after first learning about SMiLE, the Beach Boys are my favorite band and this music is one of the main reasons why. What a trip it's been.

What sort of boy scouts group did you belong to? We used to have farting contests and such like.

I can just imagine him pinning you down and forcing you to admit Brian is the greatest whilst slapping your head.

You are correct... My first actual SMiLE experience was Surf's Up during the american band vhs credits... I always remembered the song i was only about 7 years old... lol... But I always wondered about it, cause it was never on any of the cassettes my parents got me (all capitol bad comps)... Then when i was like 12 , a neighbor was throwing out a bunch of lp's, and me and my friends went through them.  I got a BB album called like "20 Good Vibrations" on Reprise, i recognized a few of the songs.. and i noticed a song called Surf's Up, put it on and im like damn this wasnt the song from the opening title :\.  Then it got to the second section and i rejoiced, and its been my favorite song of All Time.  Also, in the 80s.. most of the american band vhs' that were out, didnt include the inside pop performance, they were all about 70 minutes i think.. took a while to find the full length one.  Was happy to find out the American Band/IJWMFTT Dvd, had the full version! ;D

It was a late night campfire bull session. Somehow the topic of music came up. I thought the kid was crazy at the time, I really did.

We were kind of a strange, geeky troop. We often played Dungeons and Dragons during our free time at camp...

Right!? I feel like my childhood was incredibly unsophisticated after reading some of these posts :lol

I had read a number of articles and had been a  fan for a long time but I was actually unfamiliar with the unreleased SMiLE album.  Sometime in the early 80's, as I recall, I bought the Priess book on the band and from then on I was solidly hooked on the myth/ legend of the band.  Sort of became obsessed.  Like many of you.  Then, gradually, over the years, I pieced together the released material and the bits that I could find, and on the release of the box set, finally made my own best guess of what the album might have been like and created  my very own cassette tape, complete with a little Frank Holmes cover I printed off of the internet.  The fun part was putting together element pieces like the snippett of Fire from American Band, pieces from Smiley Smile (Woody Woodpecker), the workshop snippet from 20/20,  Wind Chimes, and the Water music from different sources.

So to answer the thread question, my first SMiLE experience lasted a number of years culminating in that little cassette.

Haha, no, but I'm sure it contributed.

My first AWARENESS was seeing a mention of "the ill-fated Smile album" in a music reference book, and I thought they were referring to Smiley Smile, which I had on cassette and really enjoyed because of its absurdity and wackiness. You know, how some people refer to albums by just one word to be terse (like when the Ray Manzarek character in the movie The Doors said something like, "I think it's our best album since Days," referring obviously to Strange Days, and how some people call that Beatles album Sgt. Pepper, a shortening that makes me cringe because Pepper isn't the subject; the BAND is!)...plus, the last time I saw the phrase "ill-fated" referred to an album it was Let It Be. I didn't know that Smile was much more than I knew from Smiley Smile.

My first actual EXPERIENCE was when I bought Good Vibrations: 30 Years of The Beach Boys. The ONLY REASON I bought that box set was so I could have the disc 5 version of "God Only Knows," which I heard on the Steve [Dahl] & Garry show on WLUP (I wasn't a fan -- my brother listened to Steve & Garry and he had the show on in his bedroom) -- they were playing bits of the box. By that time my Beach Boys fandom had really numbed and I was getting tired of it, but I NEEDED to own that version of "God Only Knows;" I felt it was worth the price of the whole box! (Then again, I used a $60 mall gift certificate to buy it at Musicland; that was a thank-you gift from my brother and his then-wife; they had just gotten married. Same brother, but he and his wife temporarily moved in to my parents' house while the house they were buying was being prepped.)

I remember hearing Steve & Garry play "Do You Like Worms" and "Love To Say Da Da" simply because the titles cracked them up, and I remember being not impressed in the least. When I got the box, I was still not impressed. "THIS is the genius stuff Brian was working on!?" But I did love "Vegetables," "Wonderful," and the "Surf's Up" demo. (For the longest time, I preferred the Smiley Smile version of "Wind Chimes.") Also really got into the string of "Heroes And Villains" fragments.

Mind you by this time I was already familiar with "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence," as I heard them on 20/20 from a vinyl copy I borrowed from the library. And you know what? I hated "Cabinessence." I thought it was the Beach Boys just trying to re-create a 1969 version of "Good Vibrations." (mellow verses sung by Carl, very intense verses...) I had no idea those two were discarded Smile tracks until I got the GV box. Learning that they were Smile tracks really made me grow to love "Cabinessence." But overall, I wasn't the least bit impressed by what I had heard from Smile.

Still, I knew I was missing some stuff, so maybe I didn't have the proper context. Right when I started my sophomore year of college that August, I discovered a weekly Beach Boys fan digest called "surfs-up." You'd e-mail your posts and replies, and Ethan Jones would put them together into a digest. And there was this chap named David Prokopy who was talking about his tape sets. So naturally I jumped in and got Dave's 2-tape Smile set, and found the liners to be very eye-opening. I listened to "Fire" on that hot, sunny, August afternoon...and it scared the crap out of me...wow...no wonder Brian wouldn't let it out! But Smile was really starting to fascinate me. I eventually got Dave's "upgraded" tape set after that (still two tapes; never got the three-tape set) with his new stereo mix of "Child Is Father Of The Man."

But the summer of 1993 was when I had my first real Smile experience.

You had a very strange route to get where you are today as far as this record is concerned.  In fact I think you took The Long And Winding Road route to get here  ;D

It's weird that "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" was the track that finally "drove you out of your tree".  Maybe because I'm probably more of a lyrics guy, although I thought that song was awesome I was already won over long before I heard that so I guess it always surprised me when people name check that track as the one that converted them.

Also in more general terms, I find it interesting how many people over the course of years/decades fell in and out of love with The Beach Boys.  I can honestly think of only one band that that has ever happened to me with and it basically was due to the fact as to how much that band's sound changed in a negative way and once that happened I never looked back and in fact discarded almost all of that particular group's records at a church yard sale.

Anyhow as the mystic says: "any road will take you there"

Another important event was when I borrowed 'Tens Years of Harmony' from my local library on cassette. I heard Surf's Up for the first time and was absolutely blown away. Even today that track sends chills down my spine. A few years later I picked up the Good Vibrations Box Set and haven't looked back.