The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've been having a discussion with someone, and they believe it's smile era, at which I think it's Sunflower/Surf's Up era. Can someone clear this up for me?

(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c31/justinplank/a.jpg)

Sunflower sessions I believe. Theres a lot of these pictures in Badmans book and in the booklet of the Caroline Now CD.

i thought the same...this person who was telling me it was smile was saying brian didnt have much to do with sunflower

The best proof that it's from Sunflower era is that in the wider angle shot, there are two Neumann U67s over the drums, a Stephen Desper approved technique, and a step up from the Smile era when it was more than likely one mic over head.

Plus, Brian didn't look like that in 1967.

that's what i thought, he had a little undercarrige under the chin in the early 70s. say, are there any shots of vandyke parks playing the pedals of the organ for good vibrations?

Stephen Desper posted that pic with a story of how Brian just sat at the drums and started wailing. Do a search.

Exactly - Brian is all over Sunflower. It was after that he took himself upstairs....

Brian had retreated during the "20/20" sessions, only offering minimal involvement.  He came back stronger for "Sunflower", possibly reinvigorated by the new recording contract with Warners.  When that album flopped sales-wise, he went, in Carl's words, "back to the bushes".  He then was involved to a greater extent with the "Spring" album, but of course that flopped even more.

Do you think Brian felt that it was his involvement with those albums that caused them to flop? So instead of "intentional sabotage", maybe he was just personally affected by the lack of success and thinking it was his involvement that was causing it?

here is the link
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,1203.0.html

thanx!    :D

That Desper story is great.

I bet Brian picked up A LOT from watching Hal play on his sessions. Although drumming requires an incredible built in feel for rythm, it's not something as vague as a guitar is to watch someone play. I WISH we could here more of these discarded tracks. Or a more complete, "Lonely Days". The drum fills on that one are great, incredibly simple but so effective.

Desper's book says that, at least performance wise, Brian did a lot for "Surf's Up". 20/20 has him on about half of it, but isn't it odd that "Were Together Again" "Old Man River" and "Walk On By" were all discarded. Had they been used Brian would have been as prominent as he was on Sunflower.

Speaking of "We're Together Again", why is this on the "Classics Selected By Brian Wilson" disc? I mean, that compilation has some WEIRD picks which lead me to believe Brian chose --- but "We're Together Again,"?

Cause its an almost unbelievably fucking great song.

It's good, it's not "Unbelievably fucking great" though.

The reason I brought it up though, is that it's like a ghost in their collection. It's just there --- a cover song on an album that is in no way classic, unless regarded as so by a big fan. Jason Penick's stereo mix of that song, however, is "Unbelievably fucking great".

Cover song? Isn't We're Together Again a Brian Wilson/Ron Wilson composition?

I wish Brian hadn't given up on 'Old Man River' and his cover of 'Walk On By"  :'(

I like "Wer'e Together Again" a lot myself. Brian's comp wasn't really a hits set so the song fit in fine.  Ron Wilson wrote it by himself.

Putting "We're Together Again" on the Classics CD was a wise move. For starters, you bet it's a great song.  Plus, it exposed something really well done and largely unknown to a wider audience.  And it just fits the mood of the album.