The Smiley Smile Message Board

Despite Mark and Alan saying nothing new came out of the acetates they collected and previewed from Alan Jardine, Durrie Parks, and whomever else had them, it doesn't answer the question about the Child acetate with the additional vocals on the chorus that was used on CD 1.  What was the mix on this version?  What sections and in what order?  Or was it just an acetate of that single chorus section with the additional vocals?

And no Heroes acetates with a longer version of the single ever came to light?  If I remember correctly, the "five or six" minute version played by Mike to a reporter was described as a "tape" rather than an acetate or "record" -  would tape copies of test mixes be done to be played at home in 1967?

They did say that, and also that many people seem to have lost their Smile acetates over the years, which is a pain. It's possible some of these acetates were either always in the tape library, or simply in other hands other than the bands. I'd like for Mark or Alan to reveal where they got the Child acetate, if such thing were possible and they ever came back....

I personally found the book a bit of a let down, as I was hoping for lots more information about acetate sources, and more tech stuff as well

Yes, tape copies were made but it seems to have depended on which artist was in which studio, and what their preferences were for taking home a rough mix to study after the session. Brian seemed to prefer acetates, or perhaps the studios and engineers he worked with preferred to give acetates, because any mention of someone either hearing or receiving a Smile rough mix at that time mentions an acetate copy. You never hear tape, either cassette or reel-to-reel, mentioned.

Compare that to the Beatles - there are photos of them at Abbey Road dubbing cassette copies of rough mixes they had just done, it was I believe in '65 for some Rubber Soul tracks, or maybe even Help. I think some of those cassette dubs even leaked out on bootleg. Yet there are still some Beatle roughs which only exist on acetate...it's all very confusing. And why not just dub it on a reel-to-reel?

With Heroes, it was mentioned as an acetate when Bruce described it, and Mike's article definitely mentions a tape...could have been both, according to who was copying it and who was requesting the copy. I can't see either option being better or more cost-effective than the other, only that rough acetates can be very fragile...but they weren't being cut to last 40+ years, they were made to be disposable in a way.

Great topic.

Yeah I'd like to know what was on Bruce's and Alan's Heroes acetates - was it just the single version, or was it the cantina Feb mix?  If it was the single, was it missing some vocal overdubs or organ overdubs?

Even if there was nothing "new" on the acetates, completists/fanatics would like to know this stuff.

From what I could parse (and, indeed, remember) from one of the Iconfetch interviews, Linett said a lot of the people who had claimed to have had acetates checked for them and couldn't find anything. This may well be Bruce and Al...

Bruce, Al, and the mysterious "Durrie Parks Acetates" too, I'd add...

In all cases, those acetates wouldn't even be an issue if the people named, or those associated with them, hadn't mentioned them in public interviews. Or private interviews which eventually went public.

Or maybe one or more of the three named above did indeed have something on acetate which turned out to be something already existing in much better quality in the tape vaults, along the lines of Chuck Britz's Feb. 67 Cantina mixdown.

It would be nice to get all this cleared up.

Bruce seems to be fairly available, maybe someone will ask him for a definitive answer

Al stated in a recent interview on Youtube that he'd been listening to SMiLE acetates, did he not -  in one episode of the 13 part official behind-the-scenes doc, if I'm not wrong.

Al's never wrong… there must be something out there!

Durrie's acetates were (allegedly) auditioned and nothing of interest was found. Fact - of all the tracks on the box, precisely two are sourced from acetate, after the compilers had trawled every source they could think of. Dunno about anyone else, but this tells me everything I need to know about the topic.  Advanced particle physics it ain't. :)

COMMENT:  I first heard Heros and Villians in the form of an 8-track (multi-track). There were several versions in the works, some abandon. One version continued to be worked on over the years. Through his studio work Michael would have been familier with this tape. Acetates are mearly rough mixes of works in progress. An early form of cassette copies. When the Beach Boys started to record, an acetate record was the only means for them to listen to what they had done to a point, in their home. That is why there are so many. But acetates wear out fast, so get discarded as progress in a song evolves. Same can be said for the later use of cassette copies, but they don't wear out as fast and many still remain. ~swd