The Smiley Smile Message Board

Not sure if this has been posted-but some documents related to Wild Honey are being sold on ebay-including the hand written message that was used for the back cover and a track listing with edits written on it.  What is fascinating is that the documents show that initially the album was to include a live version of "The Letter" from the Leid in Hawaii shows with Brian, plus "Game Of Love", "Lonely Days", "Cool, Cool Water" and something called "Honey Get Home." If the LP had been released this way-Country Air, How She Boogalooed it and Mama Said would have been left off.  According to the seller-David Leaf confirmed that the handwriting is Brians and that he scratched deleted those tracks with a pen and hand wrote in the now familiar titles.  It also said produced by Brian Wilson but he (or someone) has hand scratched that off and replaced it with "the BBs"  Also fascinating-in the hand written message that was to go on the back of the LP-there was a scratched out paragraph about how the Letter was recorded in Hawaii and was a teaser for an upcoming live album release!  Fascinating stuff from the most mysterious period in their career

Links? Haven't actually seen the handwritten lists.

Also, yerp, 'tis listed as such on Andrew's site:

Wild Honey
Brother 9003
projected release date ?December 1967
Recorded October & November 1967 except * September 1967
Produced by The Beach Boys except **, Brian Wilson
Wild Honey* - Here Comes The Night - Let The Wind Blow - I Was Made To Love Her - The Letter - Darlin': A Thing Or Two - Aren't You Glad - Cool, Cool Water** - Game Of Love - Lonely Days - Honey Get Home
 
   This album was originally scheduled to be the third release on Brother, with the track listing as above: why it was transferred to Capitol with a revised lineup is still unknown. The songs that didn't survive the move are a mixed bag as regards what is known about them: "The Letter" is almost certainly the Heider recording, while "Cool, Cool Water" is recognizable as the first section of the version as released on Sunflower and is available in (presumably) its original form on the 1993 box set. A fragmentary version of "Lonely Days" appeared on Hawthorne, CA and its unfinished state, and the fact that no finished version has yet been located, would appear to indicate that the Brother 9003 Wild Honey never existed as a finished master. "Game Of Love" is a cover of the Clint Ballard Jr. classic, a 1965 US #1 hit for Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders (lead vocal Mike) and "Honey Get Home" is merely a very basic track.
Possibility of release: to what end ?

Link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beach-Boys-BROTHER-T9003-WILD-HONEY-Back-Cover-BRIAN-WILSONs-handwritten-draft-/121000766279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2c352b47 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beach-Boys-BROTHER-T9003-WILD-HONEY-Back-Cover-BRIAN-WILSONs-handwritten-draft-/121000766279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2c352b47)

I find the asking price of almost metaphysical interest.

Considering the indeed absurd asking price (a mere 2000 dollars for three pieces of paper), I'll just paste this here:

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Beach-Boys-BROTHER-T9003-WILD-HONEY-Back-Cover-BRIAN-WILSONs-handwritten-draft-/00/s/NjU4WDUwNQ==/$%28KGrHqZ,!gwFBJG6+VjyBQfdhJhzs!~~60_3.JPG)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Beach-Boys-BROTHER-T9003-WILD-HONEY-Back-Cover-BRIAN-WILSONs-handwritten-draft-/00/s/ODAwWDcxNA==/$T2eC16R,!%298E9s4l7bdcBQfdhJm7Q!~~60_3.JPG)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Beach-Boys-BROTHER-T9003-WILD-HONEY-Back-Cover-BRIAN-WILSONs-handwritten-draft-/00/s/ODAwWDYyMQ==/$%28KGrHqF,!i0FBzVdTmNWBQfdhJ%28H5w~~60_3.JPG)

Description:
At auction is a lot of materials produced by Brian Wilson, Arny Geller, and Steve Korthof (Brian's cousin) for the aborted BROTHER RECORDS version (Catalog No. T9003) of the Beach Boys "Wild Honey" album. As you can see in the photographs, from a handwritten draft on yellow lined paper a typewritten copy (on typing paper) of the tracklisting and liner notes was produced, then both were modified to remove evidence that this album was to have included not only "Cool, Cool Water" (subsequently released on the 1970 Beach Boys album "Sunflower") but also a live version of "The Letter" (recorded in Hawaii) as a teaser for a planned live Beach Boys album.

Other tracks were substituted, and Brian's own handwriting (as verified by noted author David Leaf) showed the modifications to the side content and playing order which ended up being used for the album when it finally was released on Capitol Records.

This lot is a fascinating glimpse into the process by which a set of tracks were selected for each side of an album, in the days when it was necessary to work within the limitations of vinyl's playing time. Also included is a scrap of paper crediting the engineer and noting that the album and artwork were about to be delivered to Capitol Records.

They woulda done right by giving Mama Says the axe in favour of something like CCW(1967) or one of the two unheard tracks. They must be better than Mama Says which is horrendous after the uplifting 'How She Boogalooed It'

@runnersdialzero -

it's not really $ 2,000. The real price is meaningful, IMHO, if a bit on the expensive side.

I'd love to hear a finished "Lonely days" but from what I can tell from the short part that we have I don't think it would've fit on "Wild honey". Although the instrumentation is very basic like WH it sounds just to much like "Friends". No real edges. The album as it is is one of my if not my very favorite Beach Boys album. The running order imo could be enhanced (the alternate list looks quite good in that respect) but that's just a minor thing.

Has anyone know what "Game of Love" or "Honey Get Home" are?  I don't think I've heard of those before.

Edit: Oops, I didn't look at the comments above the pictures.  Sorry!

Cool to see the pics - never seen those. Thanks for posting.

So can we assume that it was Brian that changed produced by Brian Wilson to produced by the Beach Boys himself if it's indeed his handwriting?

I never heard it was someone else's idea than Brian's to change that.

Maybe because it's in stereo. If we heard it in funky mono it would probably fit right in.



You should post a smiley at the end of your statement so we can tell when you're joking.

I seem to recall seeing these documents on eBay before.

Scans/copies of these documents have been posted, re-posted, and available online for at least 6 years, possibly even 8. So they're not new discoveries, and some discussions specifically about the contents of them, the handwriting (who wrote what, etc), the lesser-known song titles, and all of it - it's not as much new information or a new discovery as it is someone deciding to offer them for sale. We were fortunate in the first place to see the scans made available those years ago, and possibly before that for whoever had seen them earlier.

I guess the point is how much great information and how many really interesting and informative *online* discussions of the past 6-8-10 (whatever) years don't seem to have much in the way of staying power, and tend to be forgotten or overlooked where the old-fashioned physical books containing the information still remain the most constant sources? Because I know those same documents were analyzed, proselytized, psychedelicized, and jazzercised on at least two boards I know of - this and The Smile Shop - and I thought just about all the "facts" you could get on them were already laid out.

For those interested, maybe a quick search of "Wild Honey memo" or something similar would be a good call. I can't afford to pay anything close to that for pieces of paper, but that collection would be cool to have hanging on the wall.  :)

Given that this was years before sunflower I don't see any 'joke' in my opinion that they shoulda put CCW at the end, not Mama Says....  (:lol)

These are from my old Collection....and are genuine......The pregnant question is...what was Brother 9002?

Actually agree with Rocker on that one. How She Boogalooed it is so cool. I can't describe why I like it, I just do. It makes me feel fucking awesome. S-O-C-K-I-IT-TO-ME!
Mama Says is a dud, only because I heard the SMiLE Veggies first and that was part of it.

I'm sorry, I can't resist this one: Remember Dana Carvey's "Church Lady" on Saturday Night Live?

Could it be.............SMILE?

 :-D

I was listening to my new "Wild Honey"  play list today which includes the two new remastered tracks.

I couldn't help but think what a tragedy it would be if we don't get the whole album remastered. I get that not every track can't be remastered in true stereo but they can do their best with it. JUST MAKE IT SOUND BETTER!

Vocally and lyrically the boys are at the top of their game with this one. Capitol need to step up to the plate and give it the treatment it deserves.

If I get the right chords for "Lonely Days" I already wrote a bridge and fade, so if you want it, GIMME THE CHORDS.

Could be Lei'd In Hawaii as well

You'll forgive us if we're not overly enthusiastic about the songwriting exploits of someone who can't figure out a few chords...

Well, the second quote wasn't from me but from somenone else. Actually, you would disagree with me, because I kinda like "Mama says" on there  ;D
BTW the Barenaked Ladies did a beautiful live version (dunno if they also recorded that in the studio) of "Mama says". Very good and probably more Beach Boy-y than "Wild honey"'s version

Puzzling.  It's short album -- all of the possibilities could have fit, and although there would have been more variety in the sound, it all would have made sense together.

These documents have been on the Internet (and discussed on BB message board forums) for quite a few years. I think the track line-up sheet was in one of the Beach Boys tome's, wasn't it? Leaf's or Preiss or a fanzine or one of those? I wonder how many times these documents have exchanged hands and been re-auctioned off amongst collectors since they were in Pete's collection.

If David confirmed that that's Brian's handwriting on the sheet with the original track listing, then I think he needs to go see an occulist, because it isn't - that cursive is nothing like Brian's handwriting at any stage of his life.

Oh, and Peter - you know better than most was Brother 9002 was.  ;D

Same exact thoughts I had.

The black ink in cursive looks like Palmer Method of handwriting. The Palmer classroom charts would show that "t" - in lower case as as well as that lower case "r."

Only the last page were there is printing does it even resemble anything I've ever seen of Brian's over the area with the cross out of "The Letter."  I agree with Andrew.

Sorry, Guitarfool. Didn't see your post before reiterating that the documents aren't new to the Internet.  I remember first seeing them in the early 2,000's.  Would be interesting to know who's possessed them over the years.....

I have them, I just want someone else to make sure I have the correct chords.

Can you say "Please"?   

Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that you probably won't get a good response after you say, "GIMME THE CHORDS". 

Just a thought........  ::)

I thought "Can't Wait Too Long" was slated to be part of Wild Honey.  Or was that from yet another tracklisting?  I can't imagine they wouldn't have at least considered it for an album at all, it's way too good.

 Brian and I discussed the original Wild Honey a bit. Nothing said that isn't here, but he did remember Mike singing The Game Of Love.

I know I've posted these exact samples on at least two other threads in the past for similar reasons, but I think it's worth reposting them here for those who aren't as familiar with it.

What I'm posting have been gathered from online auctions, or random appearances of these scans when they have showed up wherever they showed up. These are handwriting samples, most dating from the years 66-67 or thereabouts.

First, Brian in a memo to Michael Vosse:
(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/5q.jpg)

Next, another Brian note:
(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/1q.jpg)

Now, the Yellow legal-pad paper Wild Honey memo:
(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/7q.jpg)

Notice the way all the "R" letters are capitalized in the same style, along with other similar lettering. Could that be the same person's handwriting on all three of the above? The only addition there is whoever scribbled "Steve And Arny" in the margin.


Next, compare the handwritten "Smile Tracklist" memo to the Wild Honey tracklist:

(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/tracklist_composite-1.jpg)

Notice the unique "I" and especially the "Y", and it can be assumed the same person wrote on both of those tracklists.

And this is Diane Rovell:
(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/3q.jpg)


I'm not a handwriting analyst, not even close to that field, but even with an untrained eye when you look at them and compare, you can almost put together the who-wrote-what puzzle, at least enough for a few of the items in the "Wild Honey" memo package.

I'm wondering if there are any guesses who wrote in red ink on the WH tracklist.

And please fire away: If anything isn't right about those samples or my captioning/ID of them, *please* post the corrections! It would be great to confirm or re-confirm exactly who wrote these things, because even though I think it has been covered before, I'm thinking one of my "Brian" papers may not be Brian as I looked closer, so please correct anything that needs it.

Re: Brian's handwriting - some may recall that a few years ago Christie's of London were set to offer at auction some letters allegedly to his then girlfriend Betsey. I contacted them and pointed out that, aside from the internal evidence being entirely inaccurate ('Brian' claimed the BB had played a show with The Beatles), the handwriting was by two different people, neither of whom was BD Wilson. The lot was withdrawn - there's a thread about it somewhere . -

That said, I would say all the samples below are Brian - note the open dot over the lower case i - except for the handwritten Smile & Wild Honey track listings. Yes, even the one 'signed' by Diane. Compare with the note to David about the Capitol photoshoot (1993 box set booklet, Jon's book), which cannot possibly have been written by Diane.

also, cars can't read!

What's the story on that paper "describing" each member?

Note that the uniform "T"s in the WILD HONEY note are not replicated in the notes by Brian - I doubt it's his writing.

Am I correct in assuming that these came from the Capitol Records archives?