The Smiley Smile Message Board

The final segment of the Smile Sessions followup interview with co-producers Mark Linett & Alan Boyd is up at iconfetch.com. 

http://bit.ly/ugN6xD

They discuss why there wasn't a sessionography for disc one of the box, why they chose to leave Carl Wilson's vocal in "Surf's Up," if they used all the known segments of "Heroes and Villains," and what's next in the Beach Boys reissue program.

Alan also gives a shout out to the message board!

In addition, there's bonus material for Icon Fetch registered users where Mark discusses the upcoming Mobile Fidelity SACD of the stereo mix of Pet Sounds.

Enjoy,


Tony

Great stuff! Thanks for asking the questions we all want to know!

I think having the exact same Brian vocal doing both "Canvass the town"s sounds bad/strange and having Carl's vocal there is brilliant, something I used in my mixes of the song well before TSS.

There, I said it. imo.

And what's next in the reissue program?

No idea!  They kind of dodged that one, actually.  You'd think it would make sense to pick up where TSS leaves of with Smiley and Wild Honey, but since when did the Beach Boys make sense?   ;)

SMiLE 2

So we still don't know. There was some interesting stuff mentioned though by them though. Expanded, deluxe versions of Sunflower and Surf's Up, stereo versions of Today! and Wild Honey.

Expanded versions of Sunflower and Surf's Up sound exquisite to me. We'd probably get "Where Is She" and "(Wouldn't It Be Nice) To Live Again", which are things I reallllllly wanna hear. And I'm sure there's a lot of other interesting stuff from these sessions, such as "Burlesque", which I'm pretty sure is a Surf's Up outtake (maybe Carl & The Passions, I'm not sure).

Stereo Today! would be pretty sweet too, but I gotta admit stuff like "Please Let Me Wonder" sounds a lot better to me in mono than it does in stereo.

They alluded to this release (SMiLE) maybe bringing more stuff from the vaults.. I forget the exact words

I'd definitely buy that!

I listened, and I don't understood a word in 09:11
"I'm between starting to thinking about...version in next year"

The quote is "...between starting to think about the 50th anniversary next year and the fact that EMI looks like it's being taken over by Universal...everything is a bit 'fluctual' if that's a word."

I'm verrrrrry hesitant to start anticipating any of this. Or even anticipate anticipating, really. We know archiving etc. is going on, stereo mixes for possible (not definite) future releases are possibly being prepared without any specific intent. It really sounded more like he was throwing out possible ideas for future releases, not "We're working on an expanded version of Sunflower." Also, hate to say it, but I don't think anyone in this world hears "expanded Sunflower" and suddenly gets dollar signs in their eyes.

Isn't Hawthorne out of print solely due to sales not justifying productions? That kind of nixes chances for a follow-up anytime soon :(

Yeah, this might explain why they're so non-committal on the subject of future projects.  There are probably several they would like to try, but given the current business realities, who knows how feasible they might be financially? 

In this second part of the interview, you can clearly hear, and quite rightly too, the exasperation in his voice regarding some of the questions and the things he's been questioned on/read, regarding all their hard, hard work. Some of the questions specifically used in this interview I think are just nit picking rather than a chance to clear up/ask questions on some more interesting aspects rather than why there's a gap/crossfade and why isn't the crackle of fire louder.......jeez!! For such a great opportunity as a Q&A with the producers after release, purely to acknowledge and appease fan reaction, this was a massively missed opportunity. I'm actually dissapointed but props to iconfetch for even doing this.

I'm gutted my question about whether Brian was ever played the new melody fragment from DYLW wasn't asked.

...saying that, hearing them say themselves that they don't believe that Brian intended to sing "canvas the town" on the first part of surfs up is a nice back up of something i thought and commented on the moment we heard the 67 surfs up.

I think we will get something. It's the 50th anniversary. I'm not so sure we'll get a catalog overhaul, but I think we will hear some new, unreleased stuff. I'm pretty sure Mark and Alan pretty much have everything ready to go, and just need the go ahead. So I think we'll hear the cream of the crop. Most of the best, honestly has been released. But as I said, "Where Is She?" and "(Wouldn't It Be Nice) To Live Again", which Alan Boyd has cited as being two of the best unreleased songs, would probably be released along with some other really good stuff, whether they do expanded versions of those albums, a new rarities compilation, or (for some weird reason) a box set.

The stereo versions on the other hand, might not be as likely. But I think for Sunflower and Surf's Up, we got a good chance of seeing those, especially since they are looked at very highly in critical corners. And yes, they aren't the Boys highest selling efforts, but many other albums by many less popular bands have gotten deluxe treatment.

Like a five disc box set dedicated to one of their most famous works, albeit an unreleased one?

= )

Well yes, haha.....buuuuuuuuuuut we must remember that in a press release for The SMiLE Sessions it said this:

"The Beach Boys and Capitol/EMI will celebrate the band’s 50th Anniversary in 2012. Plans for commemorative releases and other anniversary activities will be announced."

So I'm cautiously optimistic. First off, I can't imagine just another standard hits compilation, and secondly, SMiLE has done so well that I'm sure Capitol and the Boys would like to follow up on that success with something else similar (like more awesome unreleased material).