The Smiley Smile Message Board

I recently re-discovered my copies of these unbelievable collections. Are they hard to find nowadays? I think a lot of this stuff may end up on the upcoming box set.

No idea how hard to find they are as CDs (do people even make bootleg CDs any more?) but I know of many places they're publicly available for download...

I imagine quite a few tracks on those will make the box set, simply because the stuff on those CDs amounts to a 'best of' of other boots, as I recall.

One of the best things in my collection.  Great gold colored metal cases and cool booklet.

I believe this 16 set CD set came out around 1994 or '95. For its time, it was a pretty good compilation encompassing other boots, though a lot of it was lifted from the Capitol 2-fers and the '93 Good Vibrations box set. Some rarities and B sides and miscellaneous tracks were included and overal the tracks were of pretty good sound quality. They're 24k gold discs with nice booklets and packaging, but the track listings are goofed up. No Brian solo material. Again, this was a good bootleg comp when it came out, but then the Dumb Angel studio and live series came out and THAT was the "be all and end all" one to get (in addition to the SOT sets).

Thanks you guys.

Well, MIC will be a legit release with a lot of Capitol money thrown at it, so it'd better be great packaging! I thought the 2-fers and Good Vibrations and Pet Sounds boxes were very well done, so if they can match the Made In California release to those, it'll really be something.

Exactly. Hoping the box makes alot of my boots junk, like my old Smile stuff.

Yeah. A LOT.

No official product will ever make an unauthorized product junk, as nothing is ever released unedited.

Depends what you want them for. As far as I'm concerned, for example, The Smile Sessions made all my Smile boots redundant, because now I have all the songs in better sound quality, and they've also bothered to go through all those ten million takes of someone playing the Bicycle Rider riff for two minutes then Brian saying "can we have it a little more DA da da DA da" and it starting again, and find everything worth listening to. Likewise if we ever get, say, an official release of the Carnegie Hall show, I'll be fine with some of the tuning being cut out.

I can see that if someone's primary interest is historical, they're going to want access to the unedited tapes -- and I have enough of that kind of interest that I still *have* those Smile boots, in case I ever need to check something -- but if you just want to hear the music, then edited is better. And even for certain kinds of more, if you like, scholarly stuff -- if I want to figure out how a Pet Sounds track is constructed, what instrument is playing what and so forth, usually the sessions material on the PS Sessions box is enough without having to resort to the Sea Of Tunes stuff or whatever.

Yes, for regular listening, the official product is better. I disagree with you on the Pet Sounds sessions however, the multiple mixes of the songs as each part is laid down is the most informative Beach Boys experience I have ever had. And on the Smile stuff, I was bothered that some key dialogue was edited out for authorised mass consumption. I don't think everything worth listening to is on the official sources, by any means, and if it was feasible, the boxes would be bigger, ala a Rhino Handmade product. Official and unofficial complement each other, both are essential to the serious fan.

Then there are those who can't get enough. That's where the bootlegs came in. You hear every single unedited fragment from a session or demo or live or whatever. Without bootlegs, you wouldn't hear the unreleased outtakes/alternates/demos before it's released (if it's ever released). That's how we know that there's still stuff in the barrel to scrape for a possible legit release. And the live recordings........without the boots, how would we know there's a few good quality tapes in the can that could be released, i.e. the '66 Michigan shows, Hawaii '67, Carnegie, Unplugged '93, etc?

Ahhhh, bootlegs. Trying to think of the best Beach Boys ones. The Dumb Angel and SOT's come to mind, especially SOT 13, 14, 16 & 17 - the Pet Sounds and Smile Boxes. Journals was a good one. Long Lost Surf Songs....there were many. Vigotone and Yellow Dog, Silver Rarities, Spank, Brother Records......

The bootleg that really blew my head when it came out was Time To Get Alone. The Murry session, Party sessions, Pet Sounds outs, Good Vibes stuff, Holy Evening.

For me it was the Love You piano demos. To this day I still have a fond wish of Brian releasing an album of nothing but his voice and a piano.

There was a third set which was entirely Brian solo material. I found a copy recently though it wasn't in the best shape. Haven't even made my way through the whole thing yet as something called TWGMTR was released and I got distracted. I I ever get a spare minute I'll post the track list (though I think it was 4 or 6 CDs so might take a few coffee breaks!)

Even allowing they're was from 1994, the booklets in Journals are hugely inaccurate.

it´s a 7 CDs box set titled "Brian Wilson Sessions"

see the following link for the track list: 

http://www.surfermoon.com/boots/bws.shtml

I have this colllection as well; think I picked it up at a record collection show, when those things were held pretty regularly. I remember looking at the gold tins, and thinking, WOW. One of the jewels of my BB collection for sure.

That was a good boot. Even non BB fans I knew got a kick out of the Murry tape.

My all time greatest boot feeling though was travelling all the way up to Camden Market in 1990 for one of the big international record fairs and finding the T-2580 Smile boot. It was a large, busy, noisy hall, but my shriek of excitement made the room go silent, and everyone turned to watch me skip around holding my find aloft with a sh*t-eating grin on my face.

To make the excitement greater, I didn't have a CD player back then, and had to wait till my girlfriend finished work to listen to it.

Getting the Smile box was great, but nothing will ever compare to that first ilicit Smile moment.

Right on. I had heard the double-LP Smile boot with the first issue of the Linett tapes, but finding the triple-LP Vigotone set just as it hit the dealers was my big Smile moment.

As much as I love it, the internet has sucked all the fun out of everything.

You said it. Have you ever let out a shriek of excitement when finding something to download? (Besides Christina Hendricks' leaked cellphone photos, of course)

No, just a shriek of anger when I realise I've downloaded a virus.

The 2-CD Time To Get Alone material was already out there before that set came out. Nothing really new on that, unless you hadn't heard the Murry tape, Time to Get Alone by Redwood, or the stereo Ronda before, all of which were circulating previously. Again, a nice hodge-podge of stuff all in one spot. I liked Capitol Punishment too. Leggo My Ego was a nice little 3-CD box that came out a couple of years before the Pet Sounds box set. There's a few tit bits on there that aren't on the Pet Sounds box. Heroes & Villains Part 1 & 2 and East Coast Pipeline were/are also a couple of my favorites.

The Japanese Smile T-2180 CD was a good one to come up with. Very good quality and the nice artwork made it look legit! Got it for 20 bucks before it went up in price!

The Love You demos were circulating on cassette before the vinyl version before the CD version before the downloads version. Also good stuff.

Brian Wilson Sessions compiled pretty much everything that was out there up to that point and a nice set. I only downloaded that one as I didn't want to spring for another 6-7 CD set containing stuff I already had.

And of course all the vinyl boots in the 80's. Compiled a lot of stuff that was circulating on Maxell and TDK cassettes back in the late 70's and early 80's amongst collectors....

Yes...yes I have. I have never purchased a bootleg, so every unreleased thing I have ever heard was either downloaded or given to me by a friend. And personally, I'm glad, as whomever leaked/stole the recordings in the first place doesn't profit. Of course, I have reason to be biased in this case.

The folks who went out of their way to find those recordings, and present them in a nice manner, ala the triple vinyl Smile boot which included a poster, deserved to make a profit.

But not all - there's things I've heard on collector's tapes that have never, ever been booted.

Oh yeah, of course! Stuff like "Here Come De Honey Man", which was included on early Smile tapes.  :-D

Since in a lot of cases those recordings were stolen as opposed to leaked, well, I have a serious issue with that. It's not the recordings being available that I have an issue with, but rather how they got that way. I'm of the belief though that if there's a demand for product, the artist should make it available. If it was me, I would. Say I'd had ten years in, and there were people wanting to hear my unreleased early stuff. Well, put it up on the website, cheap download (say 25-50 cents). Voila...everyone wins. Hell, even *I* can afford to spend a quarter!

One of the best was "Get The Boot" of course, though highly controversial if I remember rightly. Wasn't it sourced from material stolen from Alan Boyd, by someone who posts on here. Am I correct on this? I know there was some controversy surrounding that one.

There's some great stuff on there I've never heard anywhere else. Hope some of that sees the light of day on the new box. I'll happily pay for official releases.

Yeah, that was it Stephen. Good stuff on that one, too.

... and the first Smile vinyl boot in 1983.  ;D

Bump!

What do you suppose these 3 gold tins (BB Journals 1 and 2 and the BW sessions) are worth today?  Much of the material has seen legit release or release on other boots (some in improved sound quality).  Anyone who purchased these at the time mind saying how much they sold for?  I have an opportunity to obtain all three through purchase or a trade (I'm trying to swing a trade).  But I am trying to decide the worth of it.  I am a big collector and it is a pretty impressive looking beast of a collection with over 20 discs and impressive packaging but I have so much of the material elsewhere.  I don't believe this question is in conflict with board rules.  If it is please feel free to delete it, mods.  To all the bootleg police out there, I am a guy who has purchased every legit BB / BW release faithfully and am a good customer and a buyer (not a seller).  :-)  Big thanks in advance for any helpful info!  I need a BB / BW fix before No Pier Pressure is released (already preordered the deluxe and vinyl).

I don't think this is pushing the rules so to speak, but it's definitely not allowed to openly solicit, offer for sale or trade, or in other ways promote the sale or "trade" of this kind of material publicly on the board beyond talking about the music itself. There were gray areas on these things before, but it's not as gray now.

Common sense should be the rule regarding any of these issues.

Some of these "releases" have been around for decades, some used to be openly advertised in the pages of record collector magazines and papers, it's not out of bounds to discuss them or what was done with them in the 90's or whenever. Just no open solicitations or offers posted here.

I am pretty sure these were about $100 bucks a piece in the early 90s.

Circa 1990-1995 or so, those days before recordable CDR was a universal consumer thing, single "silverdisc" discs were selling for around 25 bucks each, double-disc sets were around 50. Beatles - Unsurpassed Masters, Ultra Rare Trax, sold as single discs, 25 bucks each. Vigotone Smile, Gema Smile, Time To Get Alone, etc - 2CD's sometimes with a poster and stuff, 50 bucks. Some enterprising or unscrupulous dealer types were selling cassette dubs of these things for around 10 bucks or less each, which at the time was good if you wanted Ultra Rare Trax 1-6 on three tapes for around 25, or bad if the tape speed and levels were awful and the tapes of the no-name cheap variety. Which was often the case. But in some cases, where else could they be found by the average fan?

I remember around 92-93 (?) the "Pet Sounds" multi-CD outtake set was between 80-100 or maybe even more, which seemed crazy. What also seemed crazy in retrospect was how some shops/vendors openly advertised in international magazines these things for sale. Same with videos.

20-25 years ago. Man.