The Smiley Smile Message Board

Anyone else catch this?

http://instagram.com/p/rFhfeqASyS/

That's an official instagram site!?

Cool... BW demo box set on the way...?

Has it been established that it really is Brian singing?

Are we sure it`s not Tony Clifton...  ;)

Yup, it's the official Instagram, and that clip is in much better quality than what I have (well, DUH, it better be!)

Aahhh... (leans back in chair, folds arms across chest, smiles inscrutably into beard...).  ::)

Much as you did on hearing the Usher clip of bv's for 'So Long/Turning point' a while ago Mr Doe ?
Hmmmm...,

Wow, that sounds great. Still some tape hiss, but the piano and his singing is really clear. Maybe amid all the press for the album, movie, and book, something else will released.

Silence ( AGD ) is golden. 

Sounds no different than the versions that have been circulating on bootlegs since the early 80's.

 :lol

Aside from an upgrade in sound quality of roughly four magnitudes.

Sounds better, but since the audio AND video was recorded by a camera (why??) you can't clearly tell how much better it is.

Cool to know its out there though...for that BW boxset we all need.

What video ? That's a still from summer/fall 1977 (i.e. a good year and more after the demo was recorded) that pans very slightly and the demo itself was recorded, albeit not professionally, at Brother studio. Sheesh...

I'm pretty sure that's a video of a still. Was it really that hard to understand that's what I meant?

Gee whizz...
(other acceptable words to follow such statements are: "damn..." "wow...." "seriously?..." "Merlin save me..." or "honestly..."


Not sure about the audio now though

Nah, maybe a little better but not 4 magnitudes better! Still has hiss and the vocal could be brought up more.  That's just a snippet - let's hear the rest of the Love You demos with the same treatment. Then maybe.....

Release them with the alternate takes we have on bootlegs + the OTHER alternate takes we don't have from the Brother Rarities set. That would be an excellent release.

Honestly...

Supposedly there were two or three takes of every song at that Brother session. It would be nice to have it all in one set, as well as the alternate studio versions from the rejected brother bonus tracks discs, and maybe a few more from the vaults. Throw in the booted alternate take of Still I Dream of It, and you've got one hell of a two or three cd set.  8)

Nope - you clearly stated that the video and audio were recorded by a camera, thus implying very strongly that both were recorded at the same time. Which as anyone here knows is nonsense or, my current word of choice in this situation, twaddle. Demos were recorded fall 1976, photo is from fall 1977. The demos have been doing the collectors rounds since 1982/1983.

and I still think the audio and video WERE recorded at the same time - the camera videoing the still with the music playing from some speakers. No sh*t this isn't a video of Brian sitting perfectly still while singing Airplane  :lol

Merlin save me...

But if you keep insisting that's what I meant , I guess I could still be wrong  :-\

Sometimes I think Andrew does this stuff for fun.  :lol

Great to see Love You receiving some "official" attention!

I'm sure most of us knew what you meant.

There are a few different "generations" of that demo session floating around. At least one version I've heard sounds much better than the others (far better than one song from the session from the IJWMFTT soundtrack CD, on which I still can't tell whether they had a really crummy tape of it or if they were purposely trying to make it sounds like something Brian recorded on a Walkman in his closet). I would imagine that version is closest to this new snippet, which may simply be one or two tape generations better.

the instagram doesn't work for me, but this one seems fairly clear: 
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Airplane+demo/2z2AGS?src=5

To be fair to Andrew, that's exactly what I thought he'd meant as well...

I just checked and, as I thought, the demo as heard on Instagramwas not recorded on a vidcam while playing over speakers in the room.

Quite possible that a silent video was shot of the photo, or rather, the photo was used as a video clip and the audio clip was added via Windows Movie Maker. I've done that quite a few times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR7BWKw6bz4

As an example.

are those the revised Mike Love lyrics?

:lol

The original lyrics, and at the correct speed (the booted versions are slightly sped up a semi-tone)

A rare example of Brian singing in his younger style with his older voice.

For some odd reason, that quick Instagram video does indeed appear to be a camera slightly shakily shooting footage of a photograph. But the audio is in-line, it’s not coming from speakers.

Listening again, and comparing to the best “source” I’ve heard, I don’t think the fidelity of this new version is that much better. As I’ve been speculating, I think it is simply perhaps a couple tape generations better, as the overall fidelity is very similar, but with the new version sporting less tape hiss. There are indeed some versions of this tape that sound rather sketchy. Some are taken from old vinyl. But I think there is one circulating version that sounds even better than what’s on the “Rarities” Dumb Angel set, for instance. The new version is also indeed running slower. It sounds too slow to me, but it could well indeed be simply that the tapes we’ve been hearing over the years are running too fast.

I’m still curious now how they came about putting the one track from this demo session, “Still I Dream of It”, on the IJWMFTT soundtrack. Don Was’ idea? Did they like the song but didn’t want to use the “Beach Boys” version (even if it has no other BB’s on it)? Did they really just have a crappy copy, or were they trying to make it sound like a home demo?

Odd indeed - that version is easily the crappiest I've ever heard. It's almost as if they "dirtied it up" for release.

BTW, given the source of the Instagram clip, I'd wager that it's the correct speed. Maybe they have some other demos ?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it was part of a set of fan-made remasters made by a certain collector with the initials 'BC' *cough* that included a version of 'Sherry She Needs Me' that sounded suspiciously like what appeared on the MIC boxed set, auto-tune and all. 


Allegedly.

Nah. The version I'm thinking of has been "around" for at least ten years, probably more.

That demo session sounds like it's being cut in a studio (asks the tape op/engineer if the tape is rolling, etc.). I would think it's possible if not likely that the tape is in the BB's archive, or Brian's own archive, and I'm sure there are some tantalizing bits they have that we still haven't heard.

I think this tape is great, especially for the Love You/Adult Child stuff. I would hope they could find an avenue to release this stuff. Perhaps a "Brian Rarities" set if the BB's won't do one.

It's the first sign that the wheels are in motion on the long sought after "Bedroom Tapes Sessions" !!!! :hat

With the film coming out could it be not out of the question for them to release a set of Brian home demos? They must know how sought after they are for fans.

This preview session - been doing the rounds since the very early 80s - was held in Brother studio, late summer/fall 1976. This kind of stuff would be ideal for the Big Beat treatment, from either Capitol or BriMel.

That would be ace.

That would indeed be awesome. I can't really see it happening though, at least not for all of the songs. Brian really stumbles over his fingers quite a bit.

Giggity

 :lol

I agree that it's crappy in regards to the sound quality, but it's always been the preffered version for me, even with it's flaws.  I've always found Brian's vocal in the IJWMFTT version to sound more heartfelt and sincere and I like the piano only approach more than the big band style on the more realized version.  The performance on the raw demo is just so real.  One of those moments that is painfully real and not easy to listen to when you know Brian's story, but is fascinating at the same time.  Maybe it's just me.

I think these piano demos are preferable to their studio counterparts in most cases (“Mona” and “Little Children” are still dreck in any version, but stuff like “Airplane”, “I’ll Bet He’s Nice” and the two Adult Child numbers are brilliant).

But in terms of the choice made for the IJWMFTT soundtrack, we’re talking about their use of a sub-par tape of that demo performance, not so much choosing the demo over the full-blown studio version. The exact same demo recording/performance circulates in markedly better quality. What AGD and I both are curious about is whether they purposely made that recording “low-fi”, perhaps to give it more of a “home demo” feel, like Lennon’s Dakota demos or something (some of which even sound better). On the tape used on the IJWMFTT soundtrack, there is less bass, it sounds more “tinny” and murky, etc. I think there might even be a tape dropout on it that isn’t on the higher quality version of the demos floating around, which may be the best evidence that they actually really just had a crappy cassette tape of the demo or something. Either that, or they really went all-out to downgrade the sound quality on purpose by just dubbing a copy of a copy of a copy. Slightly fascinating either way.

I myself just can´t believe that all these superb demos are in in their original form so crappy, full of hiss and everything...

I mean, if we look at Smile Sessions and CIFOTM choruses we had up to 2011 release, they were little bit better than Love you/Adult child demos but still in very low fidelity, bad shape let´s say...then in TSS they finally proved in very good shape and it seemed that it was down to bootlegers why they were so crappy...

Maybe I´m just over optimistic but I believe that the if LY/AC demos  were to be presented to us in official form that they would prove to be in very good shape and very enjoyable to listen ..not that I mind them in these form I JUST LOVE THEM! ;D

Come on Bri´ release them!

The Love You/Adult Child demos making the rounds were recorded on a tape deck, iirc

It had to have been a tape deck (don’t think many digital recordings were being made in 1976), but the question is whether it was cassette or open-reel (and if open-reel, was it direct to mono/stereo or captured on multi-track?). It’s unlikely it’s a cassette tape given the sonic quality. Also, it would have been silly to be inside their own professional recording studio but simply record onto cassette tape. So I’m guessing it was either captured straight onto maybe ¼ inch mono or stereo (can’t recall at the moment if there’s any true stereo ambience on the recording), or they rolled multi-track tape. I’m guessing the former, as this was clearly a “demo” session in the truest sense; demonstrating potential material.

But he’s in their own pro studio, he’s giving directions to the tape op/engineer, so I don’t think this was any sort of “tape deck sitting on the piano with one open mic” sort of situation. 

What's the point of releasing little snippets like this anyway?

Apparently 15 seconds is all Instagram will allow. Maybe it's a teaser...

I've never heard a stereo version in the 30+ years I've had those tapes. Yeah, I know "I'm Beggin' You Please" is stereo but that's from some three years later.

 I've never heard that demo before with Brian at the piano, brilliant. I've always liked the song "Airplane", especially the album version with Mike's vocals starting lead as imo he sings it the best. Not only on the album version, but he sings as great at a variety of the gigs the Boys did in the late '70's on the LY tour.

funny Mike's vocal is what kills the album version for me. really bad imo

I've always thought of Airplane as a good example of Mike as a singer. To me it's one of the better examples of Mike's "soft voice".

Agreed, Jay..one of the last really good Mike vocals before he fell off the rails (studio-wise, at least)

It goes nicely with Brian's pseudo falsetto parts. I think the up-tempo coda actually ruins what is other wise a really nice, "chill" song.

The uptempo coda is totally brilliant I think. Didn't Carl come up with that one?

It's too short, I can't detect any diff. from the version I have on my laptop. And that's the worst thing about Instagram.