The Smiley Smile Message Board

If so I'd be curious to know how engaged Brian was when playing (or not playing?) his Baldwin organ and vocal contributions.  I know the band was in a low spot at this time and from what I've heard the show was pretty lame.  How was Brain's on stage participation level?  I assume more engaged than what we have now?

I wasn't there, but he does sound very into it. Doesn't make the show any better, mind. Any show where a performer heckles the crowd isn't a good one, really...

I don't know why everyone dislikes these recordings. It's the band in Smiley Smile mode performing live!

Dude, it is really badly played. The rehearsals are a much better example of that sound, IMO

You know, I kind of wish that the group had played the entire Smiley Smile album at those shows.  ;D I think that in some way it might have improved the album's reputation, as well as their own.

I love the shows myself. Brian cooks.

It would have been awesome if they had done Can't Wait To Long/Been Way To Long as an encore, especially with those opening harmonies.  :)

You're right. The last thing people wanted to hear in post-summer of love 67' was Cal Girls, You're So good To Me and Help Me Rhonda.

The best song from the show is H&V which imo shines with the Smiley arrangements. Had they flipped out more Smiley and Pet Sounds they coulda had a better performance. Mind you, by this stage they really needed backup  musicians but had yet to realise it. Also if they had practised and not sounded like a newly formed highschool band playing to parents the show might have been a notch better?

I don't really agree, if you listen to the tapes its a crowd of screaming teenage girls who probably REALLY wanted to hear the hits and not weird spaced out organ harmony music. I wish they went more in this direction, but don't think the crowd who had to be told to "cool it" during artistic songs were on that level yet

These concerts are shaky at times, but its the only show to hear Brian sing H&V with the classic voice and restore the live vocal blend to proper balance. This concert really is the coda to the original five's glory days.

That's the problem.  A lot of people like Smiley Smile, but when they want to give all the songs in the show a stripped down, Baldwin organ Smiley Smile treatment it just doesn't work.  Plus most of the performances from both shows are pretty stale.  I wouldn't release these shows.  Maybe a couple tracks for historical curiosity.  If anything, they should have given a pop hit in the making like Getting Hungry a full band arrangement as if would have sounded on any other album.  And I have no idea why they did that "song" called Hawthorne Boulevard.

As much as the quality issues are pretty true, I think it should be released. No matter what the quality, the tapes are compelling and as someone said, they are historical in that it was the final appearance of that lineup.

I'm biased here, because the whole Hawaii saga is one of my favorite points in BB's history. The fact that film exists but leaves enough incomplete to keep us guessing, the whole re-recording deal, the exorbitant sums of money they spent to ship a fucking Baldwin organ, a team of some of the best engineers along with at that time the most high-tech recording gear available in LA courtesy Wally Heider's rentals, the entire entourage of wives, family, etc...

It was about as expensive of a project as a major band could have staged in 1967, and the burning question remains: If they put that much effort into the preparations, the pre-production, the operations and logistics of the thing in order to facilitate that kind of recording and performance system...(wait for it)...

Why in hell did they not practice the actual setlist? Why spend all of those thousands to prepare the show, record the show, have the Baldwin there, and then turn it what sounds like an off-the-cuff performance on some of the material? Lead off the show with a blues jam that doesn't jam and goes nowhere? Why? Missed cues, blown vocals, a loose band sound, Brian doing various things on stage...

Could that have been one of the elements which had earlier in '67 doomed Smile? The preparations seem to outweigh the actual event(s). The inability to finish strong, in other words, despite running a world-class race up to the final stretch when it becomes most important to deliver. The finish line, the gold medal, was ultimately the band delivering the goods on stage, not having everything in place to record and prepare for the event. It didn't work out. The best recording equipment and engineers can't salvage a lackluster performance.

Just my interpretation and two cents.

And I'm curious where that rumor started about Brian wanting to have thousands of ukes passed out to the crowd... ;D

The rehearsals for the show are AMAZING. One of my favorite BB related recordings. It's like Smiley Live!

I agree, they're great to listen to - But I wanted to make sure we're talking about the same thing. Do you mean the actual rehearsals as in the songs like Surfer Girl recorded live in the empty arena in Hawaii before the shows, or do you mean the more fleshed out arrangements of songs like California Girls and whatnot which have a more studio quality sound, with the Baldwin and more clear vocals? Because those were recorded after the band returned to LA.

I bring that up because a mislabeling of the Boys' post-Hawaii attempts to re-record the concert at Wally Heider's in Los Angeles as "rehearsals" on several releases confused the whole timeline of how it actually happened. It's good to clarify that every now and then in case the information is still skewed about what tape is an actual Hawaii rehearsal versus their attempts to re-record much of the setlist in an LA studio after they returned from Hawaii and found the tapes mostly unable to be used or fixed enough to release.

why did they rerecord all of it, and not just overdub? I mean, some of the performances were alright, others sucked. H&V and Gettin' Hungry were not bad at all.
I recall The Letter being decent as well.
Which ones did they really f*** up? WIBN?

Interestingly, "Hawthorne Boulevard" was a tribute to "Whittier Blvd." by Thee Midniters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdKdC6bRtos), a Chicano rock group from East LA, which was a local hit released in 1964. (This is mentioned in the liner notes of a compilation of Thee Midniters's music, written by none other than Domenic Priore.)

Very interesting! What a great reference/trivia item, thanks for sharing that here!

And perhaps the joke/reference in 1967 would have played better in LA than it did to an arena full of Hawaiian residents, who probably had no idea what local record and band they were referencing, or what streets they were talking about in general.  :-D

Should you be curious about Thee Midniters further, the comp I alluded to is In Thee Midnite Hour!!!! released on Norton (which should give you an idea of the music to be heard!) in 2006.

Yeah, it's a rather strange inclusion anyway, I think, -- I wonder what compelled them to pay such a tribute? -- but especially for the reasons you indicated. I do like that it suggests The Beach Boys and Brian were keenly aware of the local scene (c. 1964 at least?) and so perhaps their place within it? It would be excellent to see a book on just that subject too...

I just had an interesting thought, regarding the incident where Brian yells at the audience during God Only Knows. Do you think that maybe it was a sign of Brian's faltering self confidence, and a possible indication of things to come? Kind of like he "snapped" for a split second, when he saw and heard(in his own mind) that the audience was turning against them when they were trying to perform a serious song/concert? Or am I just over analysing it, and it really was just a case of Brian basically saying "shut the hell up, my brother is trying to sing"?  ;D

I'd say you are reading too much into it. The way he says it doesn't sound that angry, it's more of jokey ad-lib. Then again, young Brian had a nice-guy voice, that's not very convincing for angry rants, so...

Those pre-show rehearsals, including Surfer Girl, GV & THWFOS, are great! Hopefully there's more yet to be heard.

Whether you think the shows are terrible or great-the answer to the question is that Brian is super-involved and takes a bunch of leads-as well as some emceeing duties.  If you hear the 1970 Seattle show-he is also still fairly involved-takes some leads and introduces a song-different guy from 1976 and truly a different guy from 1981

I love these recordings myself, and I always thought it was interesting that it's Al singing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" when Brian was there.

I would have really loved to see this one live.  I've only heard the official releases.  I'm sure there are just a handful of shows like this - Brian at the keys with his original voice and still engaged.  I wonder, was he that involved at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go show?  I know he walked off stage halfway through on the second night if I remember correctly.

I am far more interested in a recording of the Whiskey show(s) than the Hawaii ones, although that's because I heard the Hawaii ones.  Still, the six of them onstage in 1970 for a complete show is very cool and I'd love to hear what it was like.  Did Brian sing any lead vocals?

AFAIK only a low quality audience recording exists.

Judging from the small amount of pictures I've seen, Brian seems pretty "down" at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. He seems to keep his head down and his eyes closed. It will be interesting to read about this period in the upcoming concert guide book. I hope there are some pictures.  8)

I wish this board had more people who were there in the 60s-- were fans, went to the shows, bought the albums, read the interviews and formed opinions based on the info they had at the time.

... without Brian. He didn't walk offstage mid gig: he played both sets on the first night, then went home after the first set on the 2nd night, saying the sound was hurting his good ear.

well, it seems most of those formed opinions were "this band isn't good anymore!"

Okay, fair enough, but maybe their opinions changed over time. I greatly, greatly appreciate the insights of everyone on this board, but it would be nice to have more of that perspective-- "I was there." It would just enhance the board.

The problem is most of those people are 65-75 years old now. They probably don't care about getting on a message board. I do agree with you that it'd be awesome if there were more, and I definitely have noticed there are a few around here who were there, but it's just not going to be that many people in all honesty.

Yeah, I get that. Just musing.

From the recordings of the two Hawaii shows Brian sounds like the one most into the performance.  The Baldwin is the foundation instrument on all the songs and he takes a fair few leads as well.  Dennis is the one who sounds like he's on another planet, there are either no drums or the most minimalist you've ever heard.

Legend has it 60% of the band were tripping.  :brian

Somehow I find that very easy to believe. So, the official "Brian tripped only twice" story isn't so true after all, eh?

Gee, I wonder which ones...  ;)

But, both nights?

I would guess the 25th. On another note, there are stories of Bri taking acid into the 70's. Whether true or not it is very likely that he tried it more than twice but maybe he had two very significant trips that he recalls. It's probably something he doesn't feel comfortable talking about for some reason. In my opinion, it's the speed and to a lesser extent cocaine that did the most damage to him before the Landy years. I've noticed (ex)friends that used meth frequently lost their minds which led to either having to be hospitalized/rehabilitated or an early death. Not to mention that it rots yer teeth!

Actually, Brian only tripped once - from early 1965 to mid 1967.  ;D

i remember reading in ashland, ky's local paper (yep...made the news even in my little old home town) back in november 1970 about brian's ear trouble during these shows. the article said brian went to the hospital because of ringing and pain in his ear. brian said something in the interview about the pain and dizziness and he hoped to have an operation to fix the problem and that he wanted to tour with the group after the operation. surprised me when i saw this in our paper in 1970.

Blimey Amy, I'm old enough as it is… please don't go wishing even greater antiquity on me! :lol

I don't remember where I heard, or from whom, but I think it was that Brian only allowed Dennis to have a kick and a snare for these shows.  I may be totally off base, but hell, I'm old.   :old

Just watched the relevant footage in AAB. Interestingly, there's no bass drum or any cymbals as part of Dennis's kit. From what I can tell there's:

Snare
Hi-hat
2 x tom toms (one which has a tambourine resting on top of it)
1 x floor tom

Sometime during the concert he also switched from sticks to mallets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjbNwl0EKkY

I love the drum setup for the Hawaii shows. I love the whole instrumental setup, in fact. I really want to start a band that's organ, one guitar, bass, minimal drums, lots of singing.

Don't forget the acid too, dude!

I was a fan from 1963 on -- granted I was in 2nd grade at the start!  I didn't see them live until 1972 (whatta show!) but I followed their career closely and bought all the records -- including (and perhaps primarily) the singles.  I remember staying up to watch them on the Andy Williams show...anyway, the point I want to make is that obviously it was such a different world back then.  There was no Rock press prior to 1967.  Before that time, you might read a dab about them in "16 Magazine" -- maybe.  But really all you had was the records and the radio, and TV performances.  And after "Smiley Smile" you felt really isolated as a fan.  Even with the slow growth of the Smile Legend and the early 70s renaissance into "Endless Summer" saying the BBs were your favorite group made you mighty peculiar.  The advent of the internet and the revitalization of Brian Wilson were amazing occurrences for me.  I wasn't a lone freak anymore!

I love the concert and rehearsal recordings. Were there any trials of pairing the new recordings with the audience backgrounds?
I think the organ rocks, it's so early-farty-synth that we all know Brian would come to know in about 10 years. Especially the main groove to You're So Good To Me, Gettin Hungry, the "do it again"/Frogman backgrounds on Surfin, and especially the crappy intro to California Girls.  ;)

.

Just like in 2012.....I'm guessing he had a say that Al would perform it live beginning it in '66.  Al always sang it when Brian toured in the late 70s and 80s.  The only times Al's sung it since 1988 were when he toured with Brian in '06 ( they shared the lead) and 2012 with Brian in the band. I think Brian always preferred Al singing WIBN even over himself.