The Smiley Smile Message Board

One thing I keep thinking is that, if history is our guide, some of the "new songs" will be familiar to some of us, be it in terms of plugging in fragments, rewriting, or simply doing songs that haven't been put out yet even if they've been around a while. Barring noted archival additions and vocals of deceased members, I don't expect any actual original recordings a la "When Girls Get Together" because they would stick out like sore thumbs. But I doubt we'll truly have 10 or 12 or however many entirely new songs. (I could be wrong, just guessing, here.)

So, any guesses as to what percentage will be familiar, as to what specific things are most likely, or what you'd like to have included?

As far as old or "unreleased" material on the album, I think there is one that I'd almost guarantee on there: "Cool Head Warm Heart" by Mike. It's probably the best solo song he has, and even though it was on Songs from Here & Back, not many people have heard it, and besides, this will be a new Beach Boys recording. Myself, I don't really care for having material written by anybody but Brian on the album, but if Mike has to get a "solo" spot, have it be this.

With Brian, there is a whole backlog of material he could use. But I'm not sure what he could use. For the most part he used his best '80s material on his self titled debut. And I gotta say, and this a probably an unpopular opinion, but I wasn't really impressed with hardly any of the material from the Paley sessions. "Soul Searchin'" was great, but unfortunately Brian already used it without the other Boys vocals. The track for "Dancing the Night Away" sounds beautiful and I hope that build upon Carl's part with an awesome vocal performance, because I think that could be a great song. "You're Still a Mystery" is good, and with a better Brian vocal, I think it could be a standout. So I don't know, maybe they could use some '70s scraps that we've never heard, and likely a bit of material we've never heard. So I'm interested to see what we get.

As far as Al, it seems likely we will get "Waves of Love" which we have never heard, and I wouldn't doubt that if he gets a second songwriting credit, it might be one of those titles you see on Andrew's page. But probably nothing we have actually heard before.

I hope they bring back 'Chain Reaction of Love'. That's a great, great BW song and needs an official release.

I always liked the sound of Goin' to the Beach so wouldn't mind that being recycled in some way, possibly with different lyrics so it didn't repeat "going to the beach" so often! I dunno why they never included that song on KTSA, even with just Brian and Mike singing it round a piano it beat a lot of the stuff on that album. If they want a massive-sounding emotional song then Oh Lord could be fleshed out, there are parts of that scratchy recording that really get me emotionally for some reason.

"Oh Lord" will never be finished. :(

This is likely (and sadly) the case but my goodness can you imagine if it was, I really think it could be up there with anything they've ever done.

I always liked Goin' To The Beach, most of The Paley Sessions too. I don't really have a guess, but I would like to hear Stevie (which I doubt will happen!)

I mean, my guess is that it won't be on there but you never know, right?

It's kinda sad really that the premise (or title) of this thread is "Guesses on Familiar Material for the New Album".

The ultimate, to me anyway, would be an entire album of UNfamiliar material. All originals unheard even in bootleg form before.

I know it's asking too much - but we already have at least one cover of a song on the new album that's been covered a few times by other artists, and three versions (now 4) formally released by the original artist.

Eh. Those songs are the band's songs to finish if they so desire. If they think they can revamp an old idea, I'd love to hear it.

Depends on your definition of "familiar material": what's known to one person might be brand spanking new to someone else. Personally speaking, I'll be interested to see how much of Brian's new material is newly written (example - until I asked him about it in an interview, Scotty B was unaware that "California Role" was a retread of "Wondering What You're Up To Now" and dated back to the 2nd Landy era).

I'm sure that Brian will fit the Shortenin' Bread riff in somewhere on the new album.

How about an extended reprise version of Barbara Ann? If there's one surefire track guaranteed to light up any album that's the one. I can never reach the skip button on the CD player fast enough.

that'd be cool if they somehow ended the album with the Tune X guitar outro.  ZERO shot of that but y'know.  The only song from the paley sessions that i particularly liked was "still a mystery", though it doesn't sound complete.  It could do with rearranging.

+1 - one of the greatest unreleased BB songs imo.

It would be great to hear all new material, but how much solid new material does Brian have? He's the first to admit to chronic writer's block. Given the sheer glut of stellar meterial in the back catalogue, why don't they do us all a favour (and take the pressure off Brian) and rework the best of the unreleased stuff, plus however many new songs Brian can come up with?

Of course the Stevie in question isn't looking so hot these days.

With respect to your first sentence, definitely. That's why I said "familiar to some of us." And the latter sentence is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. There is a wide range of possibilities here, from just a borrowed musical idea, to a reworking of a full song (say, with new lyrics over a tune or some new section added), to a simple re-cutting of a (for purposes of this discussion) previously booted but unreleased complete song.

I can't help but think that for the majority of the band's career since the mid/late '60s, they used at least some previously existing material or ideas to supplement whatever was actually new. And Brian's solo career has certainly made heavy use of his previous work. And mind you, I'm not blaming them, especially if they decide they want to do proper versions of or pull bits from songs that (having not been released before) presumably didn't pass muster with them. It's their work, after all. So it's not judgment here, just curiosity.

And as an added bonus, any material that is rehashed from a boot gives the board members here yet another chance to say how much better the boot was than the released version. Everybody wins.

As AGD and I worked out in another thread, there is not a single Beach Boys album that contains all original material that was written/recorded specifically for that album (although FRIENDS comes close). Covers, reworking of older melodies and outright finished tracks from years earlier is the norm for this band.