The Smiley Smile Message Board

As we're approaching certain albums, I've been wondering about the voting process...

For instance, which version of Smile will be voting for? I think Cabin Essence is a masterpiece, but I don't like the version on Smile Sessions (How did they manage to screw up that chorus...???). However I love the version on 20/20, but then...

Will Our Prayer and Cabinessence be excluded from the 20/20 vote as they're technically Smile songs? It'd probably make the 20/20 round a bit more unpredictable, and therefore fun, but whether it'd be fair I'm not sure...

Also, as it's safe to say that we all think Good Vibrations is a 100% stone-cold masterwork, how about making the Smiley Smile round also a bit less predictable and leaving it off the voting list? After all, Brian didn't really want it on the album, so we'd sorta be respecting his wishes :)

Perhaps Good Vibrations could just be automatically included into the final 'Survivor' tracklist?

Which reminds me, what about 'The Little Girl I Once Knew'? To me, it surely deserves to be on any definitive BB track-list, but it was never on an album....

As to your last point, I think there should be a separate "notable non-album tracks" survivor round. Maybe all the bonus tracks on the 1960s twofers, then maybe a separate round for post -60s officially available non-album tracks.

I'm hoping Pixletwin goes the Deluxe box.  Should keep us occupied until 2016 (when we'll need to reconvene to vote on the Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary collection)

Can you imagine the debates?

"How can you not agree that Good Vibrations (Inspiration): Western 6/2/66 (Part 1) is vastly superior to Heroes And Villains: Part Two (Master Take) 2/27/67, the musical structure and chord selection is of a much stronger build, and the way it changed my life back in '11 be never be equalled again!"

For SMiLE I was thinking about maybe presenting Soniclovenoize's 67 version for vote (since many of us, it seems, consider his version about as close to how an official release may have been sequenced). Otherwise I would only really do the TSS 2004 sequence version.

For all those little goodies I was thinking, congruent with the Christmas album round, I might do a bonus tracks round that would include the twofer stuff, assorted GV/MiC box set stuff and perhaps things from EH and Hawthorne.

What do you guys think?

Maybe more than one bonus round? Will be quite a few songs to choose from I think, and I would hate to see stuff like Little Girl I Once Knew, 4th of July, Live Again, Ol' Man River and Breakaway all compete with each other and only have one winner. It was hard enough to do Today!  :)

Good point. Maybe we can separate them by time period?

Sure. Split 'em up in 12 song chronological "albums", I'd say.

Sounds good to me. 

Reflecting the Twofers we have:

The Baker Man
Cindy, Oh Cindy
Land Ahoy!
I Do
All Dressed Up For School
Be True To Your School (single version)
Fun Fun Fun (single version)
In My Room (German version)
Dance, Dance, Dance
The Little Girl I Once Knew

I kind of don't want to include the single versions or alternate versions that aren't substantially different.

Couldn't we just do all non album singles and just include some of the box set stuff?

If so, only TLGIOK would be available from the above which isn't enough, to me.

Non-album rounds should be...

Pre-Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds through end of the sixties
Seventies
Eighties to Present

I think it would be a good idea to do the official releases as they wee released and leave alternates aside. Maybe just stick to the official LP's. I'm a pretty big BB fan but I haven't dug that deep as to finding soniclove's version and such.

Agreed.  I am wondering about the SMiLE tracks that appear on other albums...do we vote for them on those albums as well as for TSS? The versions are technically different...

Do it that way. I can't think of any other alternative, a fan mix shouldn't be used.

I saw someone above mention the error on the TSS edit of the "Cabin Essence" chorus, I really wouldn't consider things like that when voting when/if Smile happens. That was a digital editing error that happened in 2010/2011, it's not part of the song. Same for the occasional drifting vocal on "Surf's Up".

Yeah I think you're right.

Yes would definitely agree that sticking to the officially released albums makes most sense.

Really enjoying these survivor threads, pixeltwin, thanks for doing them!

True. The only alternates I'd agree with are the German version of In My Room, and the Spanish version of Kokomo.
Other than those, there should be no alternate versions of official releases

I wouldn't agree with either of those choices. Those are just the same songs, sung in a different language.
If the German version of "In My Room" wins and then competes against the English "In My Room," what would be the point of that?

I think a few alternate versions should be included, like Brian's demo of "Break Away."