The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sJN8ql5htAM (http://youtube.com/watch?v=sJN8ql5htAM)

^Link to the first "side."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=o0_9DFQk3jI (http://youtube.com/watch?v=o0_9DFQk3jI)

^Link to the second "side."

So, as you can probably tell from the terminology, this is a two suite, "what would SMiLE have been had it came out in the 60s?" mix rather than the three suite "everything and the kitchen sink" mixes I've seen a lot of recently. My goal was to make a tight, flowing album. No mood or rhythm killing starts and stops like in the official 2011 release, and no BWPS fly-ins. I tried to give each side its own thematic identity, and I purposefully used a track order as different from the '04/'11 standard as possible.

I call it, SMiLE: Reflections, with Side One representing a look back on America and Side Two on Childhood. All audio is from the boxset except Look which I took from SMiLE AD 4.0, which is by far the best version of that song (in my opinion) and which I had no chance of topping. The pics in the video are by me. Please enjoy, constructive criticism is highly encouraged. If nothing else, it's a unique mix if I say so myself, and I hope it gives others ideas. Additional info is in the video descriptions.

Track List:

Side One
Our Prayer/Gee
Heroes and Villains
Cabin Essence
Do You Like Worms?
Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
Vega-Tables
Heroes and Villains (Reprise)

Side Two
You're Welcome/Whispering Winds
Wind Chimes
Child is Father of the Man
Wonderful
Look (I Ran)
Cool, Cool Water
Second Day
Surf's Up

No Food Gyrations!   :o

Umm...what?

I'm listening to the first side right now and I really like the bits added back into Worms and I love the intro to Vega-Tables.   

Good work!

Foooood fooooood fooood
Food gy- ra- tiooooooons

I never include GV in any of my SMiLE mixes. It was released way back in '66, with a b-side of a Pet Sounds rerelease, more or less exactly as Brian intended, and it doesn't fit, musically or thematically, into SMiLE at all.

I picture Side One to be a man looking back to how he lost the woman he loved in this chaotic "Heroes and Villains" society, built on the burning of the church of the American Indian. With Vega-Tables, he learns that yeah, life sucks, but live well and see the humor in life. We go back to where we started, "Heroes and Villains" and reflect.

Side Two is perhaps a century later, the (then) current one, the '60s. And it's Brian with that realization, lamenting on his lost childhood innocence, first with nostalgic fondness for some windchimes around the house. Then comes the realization that how you grew up determines what kind of man you'll be. A tale of such innocence taken away, and the healing (Wonderful) and a reprise (Look) transitioning to our narrator shifting his focus to the ocean, presumably in...dare I say it...blue Hawaii. This is Cool, cool water. This observation transitions into nostalgic memories of playing outside in the water as a child. Second Day's wa-wa-ho-wa chants are a merger of water and the crying of an infant. The flutes are the birds outside. A quick prayer for inspiration, and with these observations brewing in the mind, our musical guide churns out his analysis. Surf's Up. The album's clincher.

Anyway, bringing this back on topic, GV with its Mike Love, simple boy-girl lyrics doesn't fit into these sonic journeys. It'd sound hamfisted in and distracting. You're Welcome was released as a b-side so it's not that far-fetched as the Side Two opener, if Capitol insisted.

When Brian Wilson finished SMiLE in 2004 - and he told us he FINISHED it - he closed the album with "Good Vibrations". ;)

Add Good Vibrations like it's suppose to be and I'll listen to it.

And nobody, not even Brian knows what it would have been like in 67. Good Vibrations was added to the setlist in 04 but that doesn't necessarily make it so for the original vision of the album.

I understand there will be differences of opinion; that's the nature of SMiLE, and half the fun. And as I said, I encourage constructive criticism from you guys. But I ask that you keep an open mind. And not giving it a chance because I left off one particular song is not being open-minded, it's being ridiculous. When it comes to SMiLE, the only two things we can be 100% certain of are Prayer serving as an intro to the album and H&V appearing somewhere on there. Everything else is speculation. There's no "supposed to be." 

Frank Holmes told me personally that Good Vibrations was going to be on the Smile album. His front cover artwork reflects the song title. Rear cover slick mock-ups include it. Most Smile bootlegs over the years included the song. Good Vibrations was included on Brian's Smile album and live tour. The 2011 Smile Sessions boxe(s) included Good Vibrations. Even Priore talks about it in his Look Listen and Smile tomes. Recorded in a modular fashion like the Smile tracks. That's good enough evidence for me. It fit. Arguably the best song to be included on Smile other than Heroes & Villains and Surf's Up.

There are some wonderful bits in there that don't seem to be part of the Smile Sessions box or any of the boots I've heard.  Can you be so kind as to list your sources?  Thanks!

Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane fit Sgt Pepper too, and were seriously considered for inclusion at one point. I'd argue that they're better than most of Pepper's songs as well. Doesn't mean anything. I consider GV a precursor to SMiLE, not a part of it. Just because it was in the 04 setlist and some bootlegs doesn't necessarily mean anything either. So was Barnyard, so was Workshop, so was Little Red Book, Three Blind Mice and Can't Wait Too Long (the last 3 aren't even from the SMiLE Era.) If you include every song, every modular feel, the album becomes an overlong mess of disjointed segments which don't all fit, break up the flow and make the whole experience less than the sum of its parts. The bottom line? Some things, no matter how beautiful, just can't make the cut. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

That was a really good Child Is Father of The man! 

Thank you. That was the first unreleased SMiLE track I ever heard. I was hooked on the album ever since. I just hate how must bootlegs and the '11 version keep it so short and treat it on the same level as Barnyard or I Wanna Be Around. That is, a short 'pitstop' and not as a fleshed-out core track on the same tier as say, Cabin Essence or Do You Like Worms. There was so much recorded for it, why keep it as just an intro to Surf's Up?

So, that's why I went out of my way to separate it from Surf's Up. To let it stand on its own. And I put Look after it so I wouldn't have to butcher the opening piano part to keep the flow going. Then I noticed the piano intro of CIFOTM matches up well with the piano fade of Wind Chimes. I added "I'm in Great Shape" between CIFOTM and Wonderful to smooth the transition to both songs. I think it fits thematically as well, leading into Wonderful. I always took that song to be about an innocent girl who's been hurt recently by a "nonbeliever" but, despite the damage, she'll move on. In this context, IIGS fits as the beginning because that's when she's fine. Wonderful tells her story, and then Look is the musical reprise of her life and the revelation we've been presented with in CIFOTM. The idea that your childhood and the events therein determine what type of person you become later.

TL;DR: It's a personal fave track of mine, and the song most in need of a rearrangement. That was my favorite one to work on.

All of Our Prayer, Heroes and Villains parts 1 and 2, Do You Like Worms, Mrs. Olearys Cow, and Vega-Tables are from the box-set. I spliced two separate tracks from disk two to form the fade out of H&V part one. For 'Cow I spliced in a repeat of the fire crackling noises from Disc 4 in the background. Cabin Essence I edited in the last vocal chant from a SMiLE mix I found on YouTube but don't recall the name of

You're Welcome, Wind Chimes, CIFOTM (except the last two notes which are from a long since deleted mix on Youtube I downloaded) IIgs, Wonderful (the piano fade is from disc 3 material spliced together), are all boxset. Look is from SMiLE AD 4.0, which uses material from the boxset, Cool, Cool Water...the water chant, I Love To Say DaDa (the flutes are from the alternative mix renamed "Second Day" on Disc 4) and Surfs Up are all boxset.

I love it.

Thank you!

I like! Great work, my friend.

Well i don't know, it seemed complete to me (aside from a lack of lead vocals of course haha).  There are existing test-edit acetates of CIFOTM from 1966 that mimic the structures of both the 2011 and 2004 versions... We have two verses and two choruses...  Maybe the song was short by design?  Wind Chimes and Wonderful were both finished, and are both short. 

I don't really have any opinion on the meaning of the song, since there's no indication that the lyrics found on BWPS were from 1966 and not completely new.  I guess I just always think of it as an unfinished song. 

But regardless you did throw some cool stuff into it! 

I appreciate that. It was a joy to work on.

     Thanks. I must say that surprises me. There was a plethora of material recorded for it that all sounds great, why not use it?

I won't argue with you to include "Good Vibrations" because it's your mix and you can do what you want.  I think it's cool you didn't include it.  It's never been one of my favorite Beach Boys songs.  But I don't think there's any reason to think it would not have been on Smile.  Why have the title plastered across the cover artwork if it wasn't going to be on there?  The cover doesn't say "Barnyard, Barnyard, Barnyard!"  For better or worse GV's inclusion definitely seems part of Brian's plan.  It fits less on Smiley Smile and he included it there.  He's given indications it would be on there, and I've never bought into fan theories about Capitol meddling with his tracklists, either.

Thanks for the post, I look forward to listening.  So far it sounds great.

Appreciate the kind words. While I concede there's a strong argument for its inclusion, I believe there's valid reasons for leaving it off as well. And since most mixes tend to go the former route, I wanted to be different and show that a mix could exist without following the BWPS blueprint that nearly all mixes (and Disc One of the boxset) have blindly adhered to since.

As for the album cover, personally I always took it as a play on words (it's advertising the good "vibrations" or songs within the album, not necessarily GV itself) and a reminder to buyers that this isn't the 'fun in the sun' beach boys of 63. They made the far-out, psychedelic symphony, GV. And there's more of that to come within the album.

I read that GV being included on Smiley was because of Capitol, not Brian. It sounds laughably out of place, so if Brian did include it there it was a very bad misstep on his part. I assume he would've been more receptive to the idea of GV on SMiLE, though.

I'm not even convinced of that. Siegel describes a piece that must have been Our Prayer being played last when BW demos the smile acetates for him. And vosse also describes a piece very similar to op as closing out the album after surfs up. Granted, neither of the are a smoking gun, but the point is I don't think any part of smile is 100% certain not even our prayer as intro. I struggle to hear it as a good precursor to heroes which is the accepted first main track of most smile mixes. I do think our prayer moves exceptionally well into GV which makes me wonder if GV was to be the first track of the album after Prayer IF that was to be the intro. Definitely feel GV is smile through and through. I think the lyrics throw people. Each to their own.

Well, you've pretty much proved my point then. Nothing about SMiLE is completely certain, there's no one definitive cut. I get that many of you disagree with me on GV, but as you say, to each their own. If I couldn't convince you guys to see with me eye to eye on that, I hope perhaps I was able to get you to consider other possiblities regarding this music. Like, a two suite album is probably more realistic than a three suite, CIFOTM doesn't have to be just an intro to Surf's Up, H&V doesn't all have to be crammed together at the beginning of the album and wear out its welcome as an 8 minute mess, the tracks we typically consider "elements" sound just as good if not better when they're split up as opposed to be their own suite...etc, etc.

Right!

Again. While eating dinner with Frank Holmes in San Francisco in 2004, he told me that Good Vibrations was going to be on the Smile album. No speculation! Frank said he was at at least one of the Good Vibrations sessions and taking drives up and down the street with Brian smoking a J in a convertible. I believe Frank. The reason for the title "Good Vibrations" being included on the front cover was to help promote the album!

But you can do whatever you want - it's a free country. My only question is why you would "cut" such a great song like "Good Vibrations".  To me, to say something like you had to "cut" Good Vibrations is like saying, "Well, I had to cut Colin Kaepernick from the 49ers or cut Russell Wilson from Seattle or Peyton Manning from Denver" with no good reason for it. Song went to #1 and it gets "cut"? Naaaaahh.

Here's the one I've listened to lately. It's got Good effing Vibrations on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_569114557&feature=iv&src_vid=Sj49oNbCFXQ&v=8-zve4GqQhg

I really don't see why you have to be so disrespectful about it. It's a goshdarn SMiLE mix, there are no rules. I chose to do something different. I'm not asking you to consider mine the one true version of the album, but maybe if you could stand to not listen to GV for a mere 48 minutes you could give it a shot and tell me if there's anything you do like about it. Y'know, be a respectful adult, not a whiny brat complaining about something as silly as this.

You can't please everybody (or yourself) with a smile mix. ;D I liked you did something different with your mix.

Thank you. I got bored with the plethora of mixes that are more or less the exact same thing since '04. I noticed that anytime I tried to intro someone to SMiLE they lost interest between the overlong versions of H&V, all the fragmentary songs in the beginning, the disconcerting shift in tone between Surfs Up's somber poetry and Vega-Tables' upbeat humor, and GV usually comes off as an anticlimactic, unrelated to anything else finale.

I tried to remedy these issues by mixing up the track order, cutting the fragments in favor of beefing up the main tracks with outtakes from the sessions, and cutting GV in favor for songs they would fit thematically. Personally, I think Surfs Up works much better as a finale.

Thanks for sharing, Mujan! I bet you had a blast making this Smile mix. I think a case can be made for Good Vibrations fitting in thematically with Smile. Consider this: Smile might have been envisioned not only as a journey across the American frontier, from Plymouth Rock to the Sandwich Isles, but a journey through time as well. A nation growing from a child to adulthood. In that context, the #1 hit Good Vibrations may have represented the youth culture "now" of the journey's end that began so long ago. If you are willing to buy into this line of thought, it makes for a perfect song to follow Surf's Up, a song about ringing out the old guard. The classical "man and baton" makes way for  a new kind of music, and, more broadly, a new outspoken wave of social conscience. The ever-popular December '66 tracklist submitted to Capitol has GV following Surf's Up, and I feel that the album was planned that way. In my mind the two songs belonged together. So, while GV may not seem on the surface to mesh with the rest of Smile lyrically, I guess I'm with those who have posted here that they really can't imagine Smile without GV being a part of it. Coming soon, another Smile mix:

Till then, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. :3d

I think because you stated with so much certainty that GV wasn't meant for smile you are getting these reactions. His anecdote about frank Holmes is interesting and good evidence (along with the front cover text) that GV was intended for the album. Much that I try to leap to Mikie's defense as little as possible, I don't think it's  fair to call him a whiny brat for pushing his point.

I'd be interested to check out your mix though. Will listen when I get a chance.

Just for the record I was surprised Gould Salutations wasn't here, I didn't care either way.  It's your mix, you can do what you want!

Hey, Mujan--I got to listen to side two (I chose that first because it had a lot of my favorite pieces).  Your mix has a wonderful flow.  The segues between tracks like "Wonderful," "Child," and "Look" were inventive without being cumbersome or too busy.  I think you found a great balance between having a straight, 12(ish)-track mix, akin to what probably would have been released in 67; and those kitchen sink mixes, which can be pretty inventive even though they do go overboard.  Mixes like this certainly show that cohesion and concision were what Smile needed.

And I agree that the 2 sides work better than 3 suites.  While I love each suite, I always feel like the album should end around "Surf's Up."  Not that "Surf's Up" should be the final track, just that that is a satisfying length for an album.  Enough to dig into, but not so much that it loses all sense of structure.

Exactly, Buddhahat.  Thanks for that.  :)

How many non-album singles did the Beach Boys have by the end of '66? (rerecordings don't count). I guess there was a recent example with Little Girl I Once Knew...

Look, Listen, Vibrate , SMiLE......

A SMiLE mix without Good Vibrations on it is not a SMiLE mix, its is just a mix of songs from around the SMiLE period.

And one without "Look"?

I appreciate your different take on GV and its place in the SMiLE Era. But I disagee. Good luck on your new SMiLE mix.

Look, I'm sorry I committed the great, unspeakable attrocity of leaving GV out. But how about we drop the hyperbole, eh? It's one song from an era that produced dozens. So all-encompassing is the SMiLE era that songs before and after it get thrown in as well.

Yes, and thank you for turning a simple difference of opinion into a stupid contest. If I say you win, will you feel better?

I appreciate your maturity and open mindedness about it.

He's not a whiny brat for pushing his point. He's just very closed-minded and ornery about different interpretations of the album. As I've conceded, there's a valid case for GV being on SMiLE. But, again, there's valid reasons to keep it off as well. But to say a SMiLE mix with GV is the only acceptable way, and my work isn't worth listening to because of that is pretty childish. At the end of the day, nobody can be absolutely certain what SMiLE would've been. I'm sick of all the virtually identical Tracklistings since '04 because "that's the way Brian did it." Yes, and that setlist was great. Doesn't mean there aren't other ways to sequence a mix.

I'm not adamant that GV isn't a SMiLE song per se. Just that it doesn't fit on my mix, and I try to leave it off my mixes as an example that the album can and does work without it.

I really appreciate that. That's what I was going for. Trying to bridge the idea of a simple 12 track album as VDP said it'd be, and an album length GV with modular editing and cohesive flow. So, rather than throwing every last modular feel together in the arbitrary 3 suites, I tried beefing up the core tracks and fitting them together by what sounds good together not "well, everyone else puts Vega-Tables right after Surf's Up...so I will too!"

I'm happy with the results, even if I committed the great sin of leaving GV off.

Indeed, Good Vibrations is the Light at the end of the tunnel.

I do like the treatment at the end of Wind Chimes except the fade is too jarring. Needs to be spaced apart a few more secs. Good Job

I believe I owe you a better answer. Your reply was well thought out and deserves a similarly weighted response. I don't believe GV fits. It's about the good vibrations felt with a loved one. SMiLE is the bad vibrations felt when looking at society. From the exciting (yet deadly) wild west, to the western expansion that burned down the church of the American Indian. All for some fertile farmlands to grow...dare I say it...Vega-Tables. It ends with us coming back to the present wild west...reflecting on the fact that, for better or worse, this land we've given our kids is built on horrors and misgivings. Yet the music goes on, in a celebratory, almost matter-of-factly way. What you make of that knowledge is your concern.

And Side Two moves us to the present with a new narrator looking back with less scope chronologicaly, but greater focus on the details of one or two individuals. There's also less scope but greater detail spatially, as this narrator tells of the details around his home and the nearby ocean, not the Americas. From nostalgic memories of wind chimes to the idea that your childhood raises your adulthood, to a girl who lost her innocence to a "nonbeliever" and subsequent soul search (Look) then back to water, in which burns are soothed, from which life begain. Our narrator is back to the present, this time nostalgic for the outdoors. A quick prayer for inspiration and our narrators back to  the present  expunging his own revelations on life in Surfs Up.

I guess you could say the Beach Boys released an EP along with the album with alt. GV takes on one side and Brian's original idea for "The Elements" on the other, as a third suite in the sixties. But that means only the last minute of Fire as we know it today, a flighty piano theme (not Wind Chimes), water sounds from nature spliced together (Not In Blue Hawaii) and god only knows for the Earth element (certainly not Vega-Tables.)

But as far as the album goes, it's all the vibrations (good and bad) that Brian feels looking back on society both at large and in depth, not love for a woman...that's not the theme of these two suites. There's allusions to it, you could argue that Side One's narrator is looking back on society because he blames it for his wife's death. While Side Two's narrator looks back to the past to escape society and then remembers something bad happened to a young woman he knew (perhaps loved?) and comes to the ultimate realization that the only thing pure in life is the innocence of children. But how easily, devastating, it is when it's taken away and it will determine how you become a man. There's no room for GV on either side, musically or thematically it doesn't fit anywhere.

The "Third Suite" could be the EP, and serve as a bridge or unifying theme of love and the eternal, universal elements. Some things cross over generations...

^Ah, now this is what I like to see. Constructive critisism. Thank you for that suggestion.

Re: Here's a SMiLE Rearrangement Ive been working on. Feedback appreciated.

My feedback is that it is ridiculous not to have Good Vibrations on any SMiLE mix as previously stated.

Well, I disagree. Care to convince me otherwise? Or just the usual lackluster "look listen vibrate smile!" schtick? I get that it's a good song and has been included on many (but not all) versions of SMiLE. But...there are other ways to do SMiLE. I wanted to focus on the core tracks of the era, not something that had already been released on its own terms, apart from the SMiLE music proper, without Van Dyke's involvement and without any thematic or musical ties to either side.

No one here is saying GV isn't a good song. But it's better as a standalone single, in my opinion. Not as a tacked-on selling point to an already tight album that flows musically and thematically without it.

I enjoyed that a lot.

I have no problem with you excluding it from your mix because you don't feel it fits thematically with your vision of the album, but you present your choice as an irrefutable fact: "good vibrations doesn't fit thematically or musically."

There is a case to be made for the lyrics not fitting with the other themes although, considering the stretches people go to tie the disparate themes of American expansion, cycle of life, elements, vegetables and wind chimes together, I'm not especially convinced that good vibrations can't be shoehorned in there also. I think an assumption is made that good vibrations doesn't fit because the lyrics were not written by VDP and they're not as dense, but neither are the wind chimes lyrics especially complex. One could argue that good vibrations fits with other cycle of life songs and deals with a similar  boy/girl as wonderful.

However, all that aside, my argument in support of its inclusion is that musically it fits. If I just listen to the backing track I hear nothing that separates it from other smile tracks, anymore than the backing track to wonderful sounds different to the backing track to old master painter which sounds different to the backing track to fire etc. Look even shares the same riff as GV and it could be argued that Brian envisaged those two songs working together on the album, even at that early stage of recording.

Good vibrations is the start of Brian's modular recording and everything that follows with smile is a development of that . He recorded good vibrations. He loved it. He wanted to build an album around it. (IMO)

You are completely right Mujan!
Love your mix and if you feel that GV shouldn´t  be in your mix, you have that right!
Great flow...
Rock on!
Nile

There is a precedence for BW productions appearing on albums after their initial release, the most glaring of which has to be Little Deuce Coupe on the "Surfer Girl" and "Little Deuce Coupe" albums.  To justify Good Vibrations exclusion on such grounds is unwarranted, in my humble opinion.

That said, it's your "Smile" mix, you can do what the heck you like with it… but don't be too offended by the fact that that there are those of us old farts who believe that Brian Wilson wanted it included in his original "Smile" mix back in 66/67, and that we defer to him for some reason…  ;D

I will get around to listening to your mix but cannot do it via YouTube as I need my ol' 'puter to do some work on… now if I could only burn it to a CD…

Personally, I think GV is an important part of SMiLE. It doesn't need to be the ending piece to the album, but the couple times I've played Smile for friends/family, they have all said that the fact it ends with GV was 'profound'.

That being said, I was more interested in your mix since you were doing something different with it by not including GV. SO while I personally prefer the album with the song included, I liked your mix a lot. Everything flows very well, and you made some interesting decisions I have not seen done before, like including Cabinessence so early on. Cool decisions. Its obvious you spend a great deal of time planning this all out.

It really does amaze me that Brian created an album that allowed its listeners to be creative just in assembling the pieces. There is really nothing like it.

Thanks very much.

To me, SMiLE was supposed to be a suqeul and combination of Pet Sounds and GV. It'd take the lyrical complexities of the former and combine them with the modular editing techniques of the later. I'm not presenting my case as irrefutable fact, so much as emphasizing that there *is* a case to be made for leaving it off, however much people may disagree. If you want to listen to GV, put it on before to get in the mood, or after to celebrate the genesis of the project. But each side of my mix is a better, more focused piece of music without it, in my opinion.

Much appreciated. Thanks for listening.

Thank you. I appreciate the fact that even though you disagree you were able to give it a chance anyway, which apparently is too much to ask of some of the people here.

I would say that crossfade between Wind Chimes and CIFOTM doesn't quite work.  Wind Chimes ends in this G7 to F progression (which feels like F is the resolution) and Child begins in Bm and then modulates.  So when the piano parts are overlayed, it becomes really dissonant and seems to not fit with the rest of the album mix.  I would say separate them and not crossfade them. 

Great mix, flows very well and I really dig your CFOTM but...
to me it isn't SMiLE as it would have been back then.

For years, iv'e made mixes after mixes after mixes of how SMiLE should go and iv'e found that the best way it to look at it is through "songs" and not side long "suites". For me, GV is a much a part of SMiLE as Sloop John B was on Pet Sounds. In this era, you had to give the record company a "hit" single. Brian was still making "normal" 60s records (with separate tracks on albums) and did so for the rest of his career with the Beach Boys. So it always confuse me as to why he would have gone full progressive mode with this album and making side-long suite. IMO, it always has been 12-13 modular songs, with fades, similar to what he created with Good Vibrations. Nothing more, nothing less.
 

Thanks for the suggestion.

These are most definitely side-long suites I've constructed, but not necessarily at the expense of the songs. That's part of the reason I discarded the smaller "feels" like Barnyard, Old Master Painter, Workshop and Holidays in favor of extending the core tracks with session outtakes. If you consider Wonderful and Look as one song, and Prayer/Gee & You're Welcome/Whispering Winds as unlisted intros to their respective suites, this *is* a standard 12 track album with 4 strong singles (H&V, Vega-Tables, Wind Chimes and Surfs Up) to take from it. Yes, there is a strong flow between the songs, but that's because I sequenced it in such a way that there's either a musical, and/or thematic connection between each song. Side One is especially true of this. Every song on that suite fades out on its own terms as its own seperate entity, but combined they also tell the story of American expansion and its devastating impact on the Indians. Side Two is a bit more modular, I'll admit. Most of the really strong, finished, fleshed-out tracks come in Side One. Side Two has Look, Cool, Cool Water, CIFOTM, Dada and Surf's Up...which are debatably the least complete SMiLE songs. So to compensate, these tracks were made to flow into one another to distract from, say, CIFOTM's lack of verses. Is it perfect? No. Is it exactly as SMiLE would've been in '67? No one can say. I'd like to think I was close, though. But compromises are inevitable.

Either way, I wanted to do something different. I noticed that anytime I tried to introduce someone to SMiLE, they lost interest between the overlong H&V versions right at the beginning, the Americana fragments that make the album sound very broken up and unfinished, the abrupt shifts in mood, theme and melody between the three suites (and between the various unrelated tracks incorrectly lumped together as the 'elements suite.') So I wanted a mix that remedied this. According to the majority of the people here, leaving off GV automatically invalidates my mix from being historically accurate. But overall, I think I'm closer with this train of thought then all the three suite mixes out there. I think too many mixers now miss the forest for the trees. They get too attached to some of these songs and include all of them in the mix, without caring that it makes their SMiLE too long, too choppy and less than the sum of its parts. I think I reached a happy medium here where every song is fleshed out enough to stand on its own, but it works well in its suite, and the album as a whole sounds great when played the whole way through.

I don't know man, I've seen lots of SMiLE mixes that don't follow the "three suite rule" and try to whittle it down. 

Also, if you had used GV, youtube would have pulled the video and hit you with a copyright violation and put restrictions on your youtube channel, so it's a good thing you didn't use it!  That's exactly what happened to me!   :P

Not saying I'm the first one to do something different, but the norm is definitely 3 suites, super-beefed up H&V and ending with GV since '04. I get it. That's the way Brian did it himself, who are we to question him about his music? And so, for better or worse, this playing order has become more or less the standard. I'm just trying to reaffirm the fact that in a span of over 30 years...things change. I doubt very much the '04 setlist would've been what we got in '67.

Mind recommending any other 2-suite mixes? Almost all the ones I have in my collection are 3 suite or one continuous, modular medley. Both interpretations are good when done well, but pretty unrealistic when considering Brian was working on a two-sided vinyl LP, not CDs as we have today. And as a previous poster stated, Brian was still doing "traditional" albums at this time. Taking all this and more into account, I think 2 suites is the most realistic yet paradoxically the least utilized option.

The reason there's a one year gap between the posting of Side One and Side Two is because Side Two was initially muted for copyright even without GV.

The song on the radio promo for SMiLE, what is it called again?

Yeah, you mean the only SMiLE song that had been released up to that point and was available for use in the promo?

Seriously guys...I get it. You like GV. Gotcha. I'm sorry for trying to do something different with a SMiLE mix. Sheesh.

i just wanna say there´s incredible lot of hate on this board, regarding different opinions!
I mean, the man put out an mix of an album that I´m sure everybody on this board loves (or songs, or bites to be precise) and you guys treat him like sh.t! I don´t understand...
He obviously put a lot of effort in this and you bug him over GV! One song! If you´re so damn righteous why don´t you bug him with Look, Holidays...???
I´m too preparing my own mix (and yes GV will be in it), and I´m seriously considering not to put in online for everyone on this board, but few individuals, who have also been decent, polite and supportive of Mujan in this story, and yes they too have GV in their mixes!
Very sad to see so much disrespect for this mix...

Disrespect? It is clear he has attempted many times to justify the songs exclusion. I have made 3 posts and they are obviously straight to the point that's me... Good Vibes is on the cover, in the radio promo, on the BW version and on the SMiLE sessions box.. what more does he need for Christ's sake.. who's being disrespectful...

The thread title itself requests feedback, not flattery…

That, along with statements like these:



Only invites it. I've enjoyed reading the discussion that has come from all this though. It's been interesting.

Thank you for the support, msn. It's greatly appreciated.

*Shrugs* I prefer to leave it off. Who says every SMiLE song has to be in every mix? How am I being disrespectful for making a choice and sticking to it? I wouldnt call *you* people disrespectful, but...I don't know...'closed minded,' certainly.

Certainly. Though, I would've preferred more constructive feedback (I don't like your version of X song, the transition between these two doesn't work, etc)  but, it's the internet I guess. If you think it'd be better if I included GV I don't mind you saying so. But refusing to listen at all or to call my work "not a real SMiLE mix" for leaving out one song among a pool of dozens is pretty hurtful, I will say.

I will say it's interesting to know how many people find the song so indespensible to the album. I always disliked its inclusion and preferred it as a standalone single.

Don't think of it as closed minded. Think of the inclusion of GV as a discipline, something to focus the mind even more, something to be worked with and word around. Creating a satisfactory mix that includes a song you think is unwelcome forces you to apply yourself more. Every job I do has rules and constraints that I have to abide by to make my work acceptable, and working within them makes me better at what I do – never stop learning. Throw out the rule book before you've learned what the rules are, what the disciplines are, and why they're there, and all you have is either chaos or substandard product.

in my opinion…   ;D

Taking it a bit *too* far don't you think? This is my third SMiLE mix that I've shared online. I used to include GV but I believe the album works better without it. You're free to disagree, but bullsh!t answers like this ("you're undisciplined! You don't appreciate the rules!") are just straight up condescending and unhelpful.

I'm sorry I insulted the Pop Music God by breaking commandment #7--thou shalt always hamfist GV into thy SMiLE mixes--but...he who is without sin, eh? I shared my mix here because I thought this was a chill, open minded, beach boys-loving community who might like it. Fu¢k me, right?

Here's a nice version of SMiLE without GV that could have been released in 1972!  ;)

(thanks to the Bellagio 10452 website!)

Side A

01 Heroes And Villains (12-minute version) (Prayer/Hvpt1/Hvpt2/DYLW)
02 Barnyard
03 The Old Master Painter
04 You Are My Sunshine
05 Cabin Essence (incorporating Who Ran The Iron Horse)

Side B

06  Vega-Tables
07  Wind Chimes
08  The ''Fire'' suite
09  I Love To Say Da Da (incorporating Cool, Cool Water)
10  Wonderful 
11  Child Is Father To The Man
12  Surf's Up

Hush! Don't you know that any SMiLE mix without GV is no SMiLE mix at all? Burn the tapes now! We will never speak of this again!

Seriously, man. How dare you post a mix without attaining black belt Smile-mixer status!

Well now that you mention it, yeah, pretty much!   ;D

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-beach-boys-smile-1967.html

There was another SmileySmile boarder here who made one too, I can't seem to find it though...  Also I first discovered SMiLE through Ryan's SMiLE back in the day, and he used the Cantina H&V and was a two-part suite.  I mean, most SMiLE mixes pre-dating 2004 would have been two sides of a theoretical album...  

And then here's a thread that might interest you.  Although there are some people attempting a long H&V, there are others who are not
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,11533.0.html

 :-\

Thanks for the links. Yeah this is why, although I love BWPS, I hate the influence it's had on mixes (and how its sequence was used on TSS, SMiLE's official release.) It seems everyone since has blindly followed that track order for better or worse when there's so many better options out there. Even the little 'details' of the BWPS order rub me the wrong way, like how Workshop is inexplicably after Surf's Up, not Fire. And while you all know and vehemently disagree with my stance on GV in SMiLE, I think if it must be included, it works better as a Side B opener, not the end of the album. Surfs Up just sounds like it was always meant as SMiLE's clincher to leave you thinking long after the music's actually over.

You've taken that completely the wrong way. Just carry on the way you are though.

If you meant it as a joke then I'm sorry. Hard to tell with all the needlessly obnoxious replies here. Still, couldn't you argue that making a SMiLE mix without GV (which, as many have pointed out, is the best most complete song from the era) is truly the sign of focus and challenging myself at mixes...?

Before the second wave of backlash occurs, no, I'm not saying my mix is 'better' for not having GV. All I've been saying from the beginning is I wanted to do something different

Making a SMiLE mix without GV (which, as many have pointed out, is the best most complete song from the era) is truly the sign of focus and challenging yourself at mixes.

Mujan - you made some grandiose claims about Good Vibrations not fitting thematically or musically within Smile that were bound to get a reaction. What did you expect? If you had just presented it as your personal preference to leave Good Vibrations off I doubt this thread would now be four pages. Of course people are free to do whatever they want with Smile mixes. Stick a Bieber song in there for all I care. Just don't try to tell me it's how Brian intended it.

I think it's pretty unfair to characterize your detractors as 'close minded', 'obnoxious' and 'disrespectful'. I hope I'm not included in that. I've tried to be courteous in all my posts in this thread. If you're wondering why I haven't listened to your mix I did start then something came up and I've not had a chance to continue. I liked the inclusion of bells and whistles (or whichever bit that was) in Heroes. Was disappointed that it started off exactly the same as BWPS though. Thought you were trying to get away from that? Will try to listen to the rest when I get a moment, although my enthusiasm is waning the more you insult good people here ...

Buddhahat, your eloquence, restraint and calming nature shame us! Mny thanks for your words of wisdom.

Really? Grandiose statements? You mean my personal opinions about a remix *I* made of an unfinished album of which nobody can be sure of the original playing order? Sure...ok. I guess it's my fault for not ending every sentence of every post with "in my humble, insignificant opinion" or "if that's okay with you guys."

I'm insulting people here? Do tell. I want to encourage discussion and *constructive* criticism, but all these dismissive "you didn't include GV? Your mix is worthless" type comments are pretty cold and frustrating. After getting berated a dozen times for not including ONE particular song from an era that produced DOZENS I think you'd get a little defensive too. I don't care if people prefer to have GV on their own SMiLE, but my mix isn't without merit just because it's different. I thought, I *hoped* that the guys st Smiley Smile off all places would've understood that. I didn't come here to insult anyone...but, yeah, the reaction I've gotten so far has largely been very closed minded, borderline mean spirited, I'd say. I'm just calling it as I see it.

I wanted to get away from many of the (as I see them) flaws of the BWPS playing order, but the Prayer-lead into HV has always been one aspect of that sequence I liked. I suppose I should thank you for at least giving it a chance, which is apparently too much to ask of the rest of this lot...

Agreed, John.  This is the second time in this thread that he told it like it is, and much better than I could.  Buddhahat has my newfound r-e-s-p-e-c-t.  :)

^Now see, this right here...

Like, why do you care so much about putting me down? Why is my SMiLE sequence this big, personal crusade for you? If you think it's wrong to exclude it, just state your reasons and move on. But, no. Why am *I* the rude one according to board consensus for defending an addmittedly controversial choice for a mix, but this behavior is acceptable?

Mujan, I'm not 'putting you down'. I was addressing Buddhahat. He and I have had words in the past and I was agreeing with John about the way he expressed himself there, in a non-argumentative way. Much to my chagrin!

There's no crusade. And nobody’s piling on, as you might suspect. I think you're paranoid. And waaaayyy too sensitive and defensive. I suggest you cut the crap and soak up all the positive comments coming your way and just ignore the negative ones (or the constructive ones that come across to you as negative). The more you continue to vehemently defend your Smile mix (and specifically your omission of Good Vibrations) the worse you present yourself. During the life of this board (and others) this is the first time I’ve ever seen somebody present a Smile mix or a certain mix to a song or track line-up and be so defensive about each little “negative” comment afterwards and trying to justify it. You should be glad to get this many comments about your mix. There are some posters who hardly get any comments at all regarding their mixes. And when there are not many comments, what does that tell you?

P.S. I believe each Beach Boys album in the 60’s had at least two singles released per album release. I also believe the Smile album was to have two songs/singles from the ‘66/’67 era on it; Good Vibrations and Heroes & Villains (possibly parts 1 & 2).

No. Wrong. False. Absolutely incorrect, my good sir. I am not defensive about "every negative comment." I've received all of maybe two or three legit criticisms which I genuinely appreciated and thanked the commentors in question for.

What annoys me, and what I *am* defensive about, are all these over the top "No GV? You ruined SMiLE!" comments, as well as refusing to even give my work a chance. I don't think I'm asking too much...just give it a chance and let me know what you think.

You have to admit though, you do seem pretty eager to throw your lot in with anyone who criticises this one decision I made, and you were very adament earlier that my mix was not worth listening to. Can you not see how, after almost 50 comments of that, a person might get sick of it, and a little defensive?

I agree, SMiLE in '67 would've had two singles on it. But (as I've said over and over--and to clarify once and for all, this is just my opinion) GV doesn't fit 'naturally' into either of these suites. I guess, as far as my mix goes, the singles would be H&V and either You're Welcome or Vega-Tables.

For the record, I don't Cate what you or anyone here thinks of me personally. I just want my work to be heard. I respect thisboard, I was a lurker when the boxset first came out and this site was the place to be to find mixes and remixes of SMiLE. I was really hoping you guys could give me some honest, constructive feedback to improve my mix. I was also hoping to give you guys some new ideas regarding the sequencing of SMiLE. What I never expected was this petty bickering over not including GV. It's not like my mix is the official release or you can't ever listen to GV again because I prefer to leave it off. I really don't understand the hate over my personal preference...

I'll chop in again if it can be taken as a genuine comment. Mujan, you just stated something with which I agree 100% - that GVs doesn't fit in with any part of any one of the three BWPS suites. Pretty sure Brian and Darian knew this in 2004 when they tagged on the end of the album rather than to incorporate it.

66/67 Smile though, for all the revisionist thinking of recent years, was highly unlikely to have been a three-part effort, just a pretty standard 12 or 13 song two-sided album with maybe some links between certain tracks and maybe one or two tracks that segued into one another.

Seems we agree on that much, after a fashion.

Maybe what's getting in be way here is that the inclusion of Good Vibrations back then was a dead-cert. Capitol would have insisted and i cant think of a single reason why Brian Wilson would have argued against its inclusion. Suspect arguments of "artistic integrity" wouldn't have entered his head (and given that Vibes was the pinnacle of rock record production at the time, I suspect he would have been damned proud of its achievement - both artistically and commercially - and adamant that it was to be included).

We're all getting side tracked by Good Vibrations and a 48-year-old unfinished album and not focussing on the statement you're trying to make with your mix; apologies for that.

I love Good Vibrations!  I love SMiLE!  I loved your mix!  A SMiLE fan mix is perfectly fine without Good Vibrations!  Isn't the point of a fan mix to do something different?  Well, there!

Also, if SMiLE isn't SMiLE (boy it's kinda hard to write it that way) without Good Vibrations, then what did one just listen to, if one listens to the official SMiLE (either BB or BW), and stops 5 minutes short of the album's ending?  Did one just listen to SMiLE?  Or did one just listen to a collection of songs from the SMiLE era?  And does that ruin the experience, one having to rush off before the album is completely finished? 

I think we need to get into some quantum theory to really answer these questions!

It's ok. Your comment just now is exactly the sort of discussion I was trying to ignite in the first place, so thanks for that.

That's how I've always seen GV on TSS/BWPS too--tacked on and unnecessary. I guess, historically speaking, SMiLE would've been more or less the songs I chose here, but with GV instead of Cool Cool Water. I used CCW tho, because even tho an LP SMiLE has no room for a third 'elements' suite, I still aimed to capture the feeling of the elements in my mix. Side One conveys Earth and Fire (destruction of the land under European expansion into America) and Side Two conveys Air and Water (nostalgic memories of a house on the beach...with wind chimes in the window I guess? Haha.)

Thank you very much for the kind words and common sense regarding GV. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

That's how I've always seen Sloop John B on Pet Sounds too--tacked on and unnecessary.  NOT!  

And why in the heck did they include GV on Smiley Smile?  It was tacked on and unnecessary.  NOT!

Jesus Christ, dude...we get it. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Its just straight up bullying at this point. And then you have the gall to play the victim when I call you out on it? Unbelievable. You like GV. You think it should be on SMiLE. You've made that very clear. Most people seem to agree with you, and I'll bet that makes you very happy. Can I please discuss *my* opinion on the matter without you hanging around beating a dead horse? Is there ANY common ground between us that we might discuss regarding alternate SMiLE tracklists? Please?

And from what I understand, GV *was* tacked onto Smiley without Brian's consent by Capitol. But, hey, don't let the truth get in the way of your asinine "GV or Die!" mantra.

Mujan, you're out of order again. Take a chill pill or whatever kids do these days. No-one's bullying you but you're laying into anyone who either fails to flatter you or points out some historical truth that gets in the way of whatever fantasy you've created in your mind.

The only place GVs was tacked on was the BwPS tracklist scenario… amazingly, GVs was contemporaneous with Smile 66/67 and Smiley Smile and couldn't have helped but fit in. It was never "unnecessary". That's a crass way of putting it.

I think we should all take a step back and remember that Mujan is not, in fact, Brian Wilson. Nor is this the only and final version of Smile to ever be posted.

Isn't the point of this to construct it however you want? Isn't that the fun of Smile - it's endless possibilities? This is, after all, his mix of Smile. It's ridiculous to constantly berate the guy for the exclusion of ONE song.

And, hey, if you want "Good Vibrations" so much, smack it on the end of the album. Let us all know how well that fits.

Yes that is fine, until you attempt to justify exclusion.  I have pointed out facts a) its on the cover, b) Its in the promo, c) its is on BWPS, d) its on SS box, e) Look ,Listen, Vibrate, SMiLE. Not opinion or conjecture...Not it doesn't fit....Not it's tacked on... Not it's one of dozen songs from that period....

^I cannot express my gratitude enough. Thank you. I'm honestly sorry I even posted this here. I was just trying to share a unique take on the album and nobody even gives it a shot just because of one thing they don't like.

I was just trying to do something different. At the end of the day, that's really all it boils down to. I prefer to leave GV off, you prefer to leave it on. Just. Get. Over it.

Except...I'm really not. This fella you're defending has constantly gone out of his way to chastise me for the way I made my own mix. He's allowed to be as rude and crude as he pleases, but when I reply in kind I'm "out of line" and "paranoid." Ok. I see he's never gonna drop this stupid point about GV, so I plan on ignoring his posts from now on. But I'm curious why he feels the need to keep coming back to reinforce the same point over and over and publicly endorse anyone else who tells me off.

I don't know what thread you're looking at fella, but I'm not laying into anyone who doesn't flatter me. I've grasciously accepted criticism and praise when it's been given. Most of the time tho, I've been defending the decision to leave off GV against the swarm of people who insist on telling me, over and over, that I'm "wrong" for leaving it off my own personal mix. I get it. Unpopular decision. But I got the message after the dozenth time. Would you people please be so kind as to tell me what else you think, positive or negative about the mix? I genuinely want to know--that's why I posted it. But I get the impression no one here save maybe 5 people even listened to it. All because of GV. When you work on something and you're proud of the results, you want feedback so you share it...it really stings when nobody bothers to check it out because of something trivial like this. If that makes me "too sensitive" then guilty as charged.

Fantasy in my head? You mean my version of SMiLE? The one that doesn't have to be 100% historically accurate?

Oh I'm crass now because I thought GV was unnecessary to BWPS? Sorry for...y'know...having an opinion. I guess.

I thought of all places on the web this would be the best hope for an intelligent discussion on SMiLE and alt versions of it. I see now that that's not gonna happen. But I'm sure you have some bullsh!t reason why that's my fault too for being so "out of line" or whatever. 

I listened to your mix and enjoyed it Mujan.

I thought the best bits were where you crossfaded unexpected stuff. I enjoyed the session material in Worms. The a cappella intro to Vegetables works very well - best success of the mix for me. It was also a pleasant surprise to hear the Heroes chants crossfaded into the Vegetables fade. For a moment I couldn't place which song they were from, thinking it was maybe the middle section to wonderful. I love listening to smile when I can't place something and can just enjoy the music at face value.

I also enjoyed your use of the unusual child bridge from Cool Water. It's a section I've wanted to experiment with to see if it can be reconciled with CIFOTM in any way. I find that bridge fascinating as it possibly links CW to CIFOTM and raises the question of whether it is not the water element at all but a cycle of life song. Marilyn's anecdote about Brian drinking chocolate milk from a baby bottle whilst composing it also suggest to me that it was not necessarily the water element or at least not initially so.

So no hard feelings re: the GV disagreement I hope. To clarify my position I never suggested it was a problem leaving it off your mix. It's inevitable that some smile songs and fragments have to be excluded and it's interesting seeing which songs fanmixers omit. Suggesting GV was not intended for Smile, had it been released in 67, is a different discussion entirely and that's where I disagreed with you.

That bit at 21.48, side one, is something of a revelation. It needs smoothing out a little but otherwise it fits exceptionally well, organically.

No, there's no hard feelings. Just as long as we can move on now, after 100 replies of the same point. I guess it's my fault for not clarifying that when I say I see my mix as 'what SMiLE wouldve been in the 60s' I mean my mix is a two suite, non-BWPS playing order, with no 'help' from BWPS fly-ins and (with the possible exception of CCW, depending on your interpretation) no songs made past the SMiLE Era (no Can't Wait Too Long or Diamond Head, etc.) Not that it's 100% historically accurate and definitely what Brian would've done.

I'm glad you listened and enjoyed it. Truth be told, after sparking up and 'chilling out' as some posters here so politely requested, I got some ideas how to improve things. I'm away from my home computer with all my files and software, so I won't be getting around to it for another two months or so, but...

--I'm gonna experiment with remixing the end of the Vega-Tables fade to include the Vegetable Fights with Hal. Not sure if thissll prove to be overkill or not, but in my previous mix I used them for the fade and to be honest I kinda miss them.

--I'm debating editing the H&V Piano Theme from Disc 2 into the Reprise at the end. Right after the HV Bicycle Rider Chorus and before the fade-out.

--I'm debating reinstating the first half of Holidays. I kinda miss it, even if it isnt one the better SMiLE tracks.

--I'm gonna listen to the most common criticism I've received so far and clean up the transition between WC and CIFOTM.

--I want to splice the 'pretty baby wont you rock with me Henry' chants back into the piano fade of wonderful.

--not sure if this'll work but perhaps splicing the harsher trumpet (is it a trumpet?) from CIFOTM Version 2 on Disc 3 (the one they used before they try the different sound and Brian proclaimes 'That's our baby!') over certain sections of Look. I love the SMiLE AD 4.0 version of Look, but the more I consider it I'm not sure it fits with my own mixes or not.

--This is an idea I got from this board: sync the Talking Horns over Surf's Up part 2. Preferably in such a way that after the last notes of SU proper have faded out, we're left with the well known opening "trumpet riffs" of George Fell Into His French Horn. Then, cut out the studio chatter but leave the trumpet conversation. This way, both Sides have a hidden comedy skit.

Not sure how well these ideas will work, and I won't be able to test them for awhile.

Thank you. I believe it was Mok's version where what we now know as the Vega-Tables fade was called Reprise. It sounded very 'Heroes and Villains-y' so I assumed it was a reprise of that song to be used later in the album. I thought it was incredibly short tho for the longest song in the SMiLE cannon. And as I've said, I dislike overlong HV mixes all hitting you in the face with every section right at the beginning of the album. So I added some other sections to the end of that reprise.

When the boxset revealed to me that what I'd always known as Reprise was really a fade from Vega-Tables I was honestly disappointed at first. It ended up working out perfectly for this mix, however. Great way to break up HV in such a way that all the big sections can be heard in one album without all coming at once so you get bored of the song halfway thru.

The "Vege-Tables" promo from Hawthorne, CA might be well suited for what you're trying to do.

That's exactly where I got the idea from in the first place. I just extended the fight and left out the recycled clip of Banana (or is it Louie?) barking from Caroline No. For my previous mix where I did use the fight, I had only a really crappy copy of the arguments to source from. Now, I have Unsurpassed Masters Vol 17 which offers a better quality source to use. My only fear is that having the fights and Beach Boy vocals might be too much going on. In which case, I was also considering having the arguments play over Workshop right after 'Cow as an intro to Vega-Tables. The problem with this is I don't want to go against my own goal of keeping my SMiLE as a 12 (more or less) track album that flows.

Mujan, is this only on Utube, or did I miss the post for a download link?

Utube eats up my sat. b a  n  d  w i d  t  h  somthin' awful plus I like to burn a cd of these mixes sometimes.

Unfortunately, yes, for the time being it's only on YouTube. I'll work on getting the mp3 and Flac files up soon, tho.

In the meantime, I know sound quality wise it's not the best option but you could use one of those 'YouTube to mp3' websites to convert it to an mp3 file. Sorry for the inconvenience, but like I said I'm away from my home computer with all my SMiLE files on it.

Loved this mix, nice job Mujan

Thanks very much. Glad you enjoyed it!

Doesn't the SMiLE AD mix use BWPS fly-ins? 

Yes I thought I heard some Bwps fly ins for the end of a couple of songs too. Haven't you used the bwps ending to Cabinessence?

I don't know. Does it? I didn't think there were any, at least in Look. Regardless, I'm considering taking it out anyway and making my own version of Look as an instrumental with the muted trumpet from CIFOTM over the Child throwback sections. As I've said, the SMiLE AD 4 version is my fave, and I think it's the closest we'll get to what Look was supposed to be (unless they find the lost vocal sessions) but because the vocals used are altered and mixed differently, I feel like the track sounds a bit out of place with the rest of my stuff.

The last "aaAahh!" Chant from CE is from a fan mix I downloaded from YouTube. I thought it was from the original sessions since it sounds so perfect with the original track, but I guess that's something I should double check. All other audio except Look is taken straight from the boxset tho. What parts are you referring to specifically?

Yeah, I didn't use any BWPS fly-ins in Look.

Thanks for clearing that up, and while I have your ear, I love your SMiLE mixes.

I did not.

I think they were asking me. And I'm not sure, but just to be  safe, I'll just leave the fade like in the official release when I touch up on this mix later.

That's what it sounds like to my ears, albeit only a couple of seconds of BWPS…

Yep, after revisiting BWPS, I think it might be the same chant. Ah well  :-\