The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'm not asking for bootlegs here, I would like to know if there are any backing tracks released from the Sweet Insanity sessions on any bootlegs.  I have the backing track from the Spirit of Rock and Roll, Water Builds Up, and Make a Wish (including backing vocals).  Is there any more out there?

Also I'll throw this out there: Has there been any sign of the Sweet Insanity Master tapes?  I know Brian said they were stolen, but based on his declaration that the Smile tapes were destroyed, I tend to believe the Sweet Insanity tapes were hidden and Brian doesn't feel comfortable to release them.

 :-\

Not sure about THIS aspect...so I'll throw it up in the air and see who takes a swing at it... ???

I am GUESSING that because a certain discredited doctor's name is all over this material that it has been put on a shelf where it'll likely sit for quite some time to come.  The recordings...in whatever state of completion, as was achieved at the time, kinda just sit there...on that shelf.  The doctor in question sabotaged some pretty nifty stuff I would imagine...just by breathing on it.

And really?  What did the guy, in fact, have to DO with any of it?  The material from the album sounds different because 'he' used up some of the oxygen in the room?  FHCS...there's more there than meets your ear.

I forget to mention, but there was also an interview in 2004 between Larry King and Brian Wilson with Melinda.  It was up on YouTube, but recently it got taken down.  Does anyone have the source or a copy to be published on YouTube for anyone again?

I know I'm in the minority, but I love SI, it's my favourite BW solo!

Such a rollercoaster, captures the period perfectly.

Aaaaaand cue the sarcastic replies.

Going back to the Sweet Insanity backing tracks, the reason we don't have them might lie in what Brian said in his interview that's in the 1997 Goldmine annual thingy...he was asked about Sweet Insanity, and Brian said that the tapes were stolen. Said they went to the studio and the tapes were gone. Seemed kinda sad about it. David Leaf added some comments about how there were some good tracks, named a few of them, and then said that at least there are bootlegs of the finished product. Brian's response was "Really?? Do you have any??? Bring 'em over some time! I wanna hear it!"

Snap! I think the same.

There was a Millennium version of Sweet Insanity and the remixes were so good ie clean, they were said to have been mixed in Japan from the original Master Tape.

I used to see the odd copy of Millenium Sweet Insanity on eBay now and then but that's all stopped now, unfortunately.

Was Chain Reaction part of SI or was that later? I love that song!

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Chain Reaction of Love is later--from the Paley sessions. I like a couple of tracks from the Sweet Insanity era--"I Do" aka "Do You Have Any Regrets" being at the top of the list--but feel that in general the material is pretty weak and certainly marred by the now-dated production style. "Thank You" AKA "Brian" could've been a really great track if not for the horrifying lyrics. Would be great if Brian one day were to redo that tune with a new lyric.

There's some a Capella mixes 'floating around'

I talked briefly with Gene Landy at the Beach Boys convention in San Diego in 1990. I told him I really liked Brian Wilson ’88 a lot and he said, “Wait until you hear the next one – it will blow that one away!” Well, it never came out. When I met Brian at a book signing in San Francisco the following year, I told him I was looking forward to Sweet Insanity coming out. He looked me straight in the eye and said with a raised voice, “Sweet Insanity!" Surf Nazi Kevin Leslie also looked at me with a quizzical look on his face and was probably wondering how I knew about it.

Sweet Insanity – Promo cassette (Beach Bum/BeachHead Music)
Sweet Insanity (Vigotone 112)
Sweet Insanity (Invasion Unlimited 9305-1)
Sweet Insanity Outtakes (Invasion Unlimited IU 9418-1)
Sweet Insanity – Special Edition (Ocean Records ORP-98001/2) (2CD)
Sweet Insanity Sessions (Scorpio BR902) (2CD)
Sweet Insanity Millenium Edition (Happy & Lucky Factory HAL001)
Sweet Insanity Sessions (Dynamite Studio BBBW 6090)
Sweet Insanity (Ever Green B008CQRPW0) (2CD)
Sweet Insanity (Dumb Angel Rarities, Volume 15) w/bonus tracks.
Come Back Brian (Vigotone 125)
Brian Wilson Sessions (CEDREM Sound Lab) (7CD) Disc 1: Sweet Insanity & More Landy Productions,
Disc 2: Sweet Insanity Outtakes

It must seem awkward to talk face to face with the man who caused Brian's problems back then!  I only have the promo cassette and some low quality bits and pieces of sessions...

Nobody seemed to be talking to him! He was just standing there by himself and I walked up to him and told him thanks for saving Brian's life. He appreciated that. It was because of Landy that Brian was there in the first place (both alive and present at the convention for the fans). But I didn't know at the time, until I picked up "The Wilson Project" and had dinner and a pitcher of Fosters with Steve McParland, that Landy was the controlling maniac he really was.

Anybody remember Evan Landy (or someone claiming to be him) posting on the old Wheeler board saying he would slap us with a libel suit if we kept 'spreading lies ' about his dad?

He would lose, as there are facts that prove Landy was controlling Brian!  Let him file a suit!

Was that during Gene Landy's lifetime? Pre 2006? Can one even slander a deceased man?

Added "Brian Wilson Sessions" (CEDREM Sound Lab) CD-25,26,27,28,29,30A,30B (7CD)

Disc 1: Sweet Insanity + more Landy productions
Disc 2: Sweet Insanity outtakes

1) Also add The Spirit. I don't know the catalog number or anything, but it has the aforementioned vocal isolations and some backing tracks, from both the '88 album and Sweet Insanity.

2) To answer CenturyDeprived's question...I don't know about slander, but legally it is impossible to libel the dead. You can say that Eugene Landy ate babies and there's no recourse because he's now dead.

Looks like the Dumb Angel disc is missing too. Or did I miss it? Forget which volume it is, but there's a disc in that series that centers on SI.

Yes! Thank you, sir. I'll add it to the list.

I've heard some of the Sweet Insanity millennium edition songs on Youtube and they definitely sound better, the sound is more clearer and sound more like an 'official' release would do. Interesting if they are remastered from the master tapes (although seems more likely the songs have been remastered with sound production software like Adobe Audition etc ) as on the other version I've listened to, you can hear it's sourced from a cassette tape.

Bump.

I think this should be revived.  The movie is coming out in two weeks.  I believe the world should hear Sweet Insanity, and the tapes should be found.  What do you all think?

Completely forgot to reply to this. This was back in 1996, but it is highly likely he was an imposter.

WHAT? HE ATE BABIES!!!!!!!  :lol

Were the tapes lost? I was under the impression that Sweet Insanity's no show was due to the record company not being happy with the finished product and refusing to release it.

I think the SI tapes were lost in the same way that BW burned the Smile tapes. Easy way to avoid answering a question.

Agreed....

The 2 you mention are my favorites, but yeah, the lyrics on the latter are awful. Sad that a good melody was wasted on those words.

You're forgetting - Brian never wastes a good melody; it'll be recycled someday! ;)

Seems most likely.
I think once Brian retires from making new music that a vaults clearing release is bound to happen. The Usher and Paley stuff, Sweet Insanity, all the rock and roll covers and probably a ton of stuff nobody even knows about.

There were actual officially sanctioned promo cassettes of SWEET INSANITY circulating circa 1991.  I remember seeing one, and getting a dub of it from the (then) pro-Landy music writer who had it given to him.

Yep, I scored a copy myself...along with a similar promo cassette of "In My Car"...from Rockaway a few years back. Still sitting in my studio unplayed. One of these days...