The Smiley Smile Message Board

Come on Alan & Mark we have questions to ask to make us Smile even more :) So when will you guys be ready for our questions then?

I think Mark is doing a Q&A for IconFetch - we are supposed to send questions in to IconFetch....

Thanks for that. But why woudnt their come on here for? Are their both scared of what we may say to them?

At this point, were I they, I wouldn't touch this board with a 10 foot pole.

Some members have treated their dedicated work in a truly sickening fashion.

And given its sales, the box clearly didn't need the members of this board to do well ...

Not by me!!, I've loved it and find it funny on how anal & bitchy some people are when all our dreams (the Box set) come true. Just have to grin and bear it as I'm sure Alan and Mark are. The vast majority of people on here loved it and praised it highly as do I. 

And also if I was Alan and Mark I would be on this board and answering the bitchy comments in a mature manner why let a few rotten eggs spoilt things for the rest of us?. Reminds me of being a Doctor Who fan during the 80's :lol

Yeah but on the flipside we are a big part of the reason there is a boxset to begin with.  If there wasn't any interest in such a project, interest that was cultivated and homesteaded through places like "The SMiLE Shop" and this forum we may have never seen such a expansive release like the one we got.  The die-hards are a big part of this story, make no doubt about it whether they are satisfied with the finished product or not.  Personally I've enjoyed most everything I've heard on TSS.  A really wonderful job by Mark and Alan.

Like Wirestone said...this board specifically did not have any direct correlation to the box success.  There are many more hardcore fans (20K so far,  to be exact) who have purchased TSS without this board's help.  With that in mind, there is no requirement for the producers to favor us for a Q&A.  They have done enough to all Beach Boys fans all around the world by putting this together. 

Uh, that would be great and we all know they are very generous in sharing with us lot already. I hope we don't get too picky and opinionated, that's not us right?

What I think would be great is a section on the official website with all of the available documentation, tape box notes, acetate labels, album proofs and memos, etc.. I'm very generous with other peoples time and property, sssssoooooooo there's a balance.

Addition: or maybe on the DVD, if there is a DVD or whatever delivery technology is current at the time.

Sickening? Give me a break. ::)

Join the blue board if you don't like it. I'm sure every member there gives it a 1000000 out of 10.

That is not the point, and you know it. You and a few others act like you are owed a Q & A. With the way some of you act, I wouldn't recommend anyone coming in here to answer anything. I doubt anyone from the project would come here to be skewered by the likes of you, monicker, etc..

You know what I'd like? A separate Honored Guests forum where everyone has to use their real names. I think the entire forum would be less dogmatic -- me included -- without the veil of anonymity.

I agree. If they are nice enough to take time out to chat with us here, we should at least be kind and respectful to them. Going for the jugular never wins any friends.

What is the point then? What is so sickening to him? Show me something sickening, please.

Where has anyone acted like they're owed a Q&A?

I love the box and the work done by Alan and Mark.  I've obsessed over Smile for so long, for once I wish Brian or Van Dyke could answer some questions nagging us for ages.  Such as:
1.  Did you ever do a H&V mix with Great Shape and barnyard in 66?  If so did you erase it or destroy it.
2.  Why didn't you do lead vocals for Cabinessence, CIFOTM, Look and Worms back in 66.  If you did were they erased.
3.  Did you ever do a session for the 2nd part of Surfs Up.

We could go on and on.

I'll agree with you there.  The "bones" that this boxset makes for it's creators isn't going to live nor die on the devotion of this forum to the music.  However, I will always stand by my statement that without us there probably would have never been a boxset to be had in the first place.  I think if you want proof of that you need to look no further than statements made by The Beatles' camp around the time ANTHOLOGY was being released where they said without the bootleggers being able to dig in their pockets for so many years and doing so quite handily there probably wouldn't have been those ANTHOLOGY albums.  I'm not saying that the bootleggers should be honored or commended for their acts but in many ways the fanaticism surrounding things like SMiLE in essence facilitated an official release of the music somewhere down the road.  It was eventually going to happen with the lynch pin being the comfort level that Brian Wilson himself felt in revisiting the sessions something that was finally eased over (at least somewhat) in his revisiting of the the SMiLE music for BWPS in 2004.

As do I.  It's pretty astounding actually that (as far as I know, and correct me if I'm wrong) nobody has thought/dared to ask them relatively straight-forward questions like this.

They probably wouldn't get the answers they were seeking.  While I'm not discounting Van Dyke's massive contributions to the project, the creative direction of SMiLE as far as what was tracked and when things were tracked was mostly Brian's decision from what I understand.  So I'm not sure Van Dyke would be able to answer any of those questions for you unless he was in the studio with Brian at the time that these things went down and has recollections of them.

When it comes to Brian, I don't think you'd get a straight answer.  I honestly think that Brian's recollections of the SMiLE period do not go far beyond anything other than the most general of terms.  Most of the stories we have about SMiLE come second or third hand and to me that isn't surprising.  I don't think Brian would be able to answer specifics about what was tracked, erased, tracked but has since gone missing etc.  In fact I believe a few years ago after Hurricane Katrina, Brian put together a deal where if fans would make a donation to the relief efforts they'd be able to receive a phone call from Brian and ask him a question or two.  

I believe from all of this, someone on these forums asked him what "Air" was and was given a very general answer to that question.  I believe it was something along the lines of "It was a piano piece we never finished".  So I think in terms of specifics like the questions being brought up here you would be more apt to get answers like that than the ones you are seeking.

I think that even before TSS project, the occasions on which Alan or Mark appeared on this board they'd immediately be besieged by inquiries...plus keep in mind they've been walking a political tightrope with the various people they're working for and they have to be very mindful of what they say publicly.  You can sympathize with them if they don't want to pop up on TSS in their (probably very scarce) spare time, spend half a day managing peoples' questions, and then field an irate phone call from Capitol or somebody for having worded an answer poorly because they were answering 10 questions at once.  That's just my take on it.

I think some questions for them may have already been answered through another poster here. Just a guess.

Wasn`t it Mike Vosse who posted on an earlier version of this very board, after being bombarded by questions about minute details, said that us Smile fanatics need to get out more?