The Smiley Smile Message Board

...where John Entwistle and Keith Moon left the Who in '66 to form Led Zeppelin with...Jimi Hendrix.

Where the Beach Boys Smile was released in Dec. '66.

Where Manson and his "Family singers" got a record released and had a middling career in the hippie folk years of the
late sixties and early seventies.   

Where Dennis Wilson became a solo star.

Where the Beatles left it after the release of All You Need Is Love.

Where Pete Townshend joined Traffic and Blind Faith.

Where Jethro Tull had many hit singles.

Where the Kinks got better production.

Where the "Sinatra Meets Daltrey" album exists.

Where Murry was not a damaged soul.

Where....where.........

can they have left before that one please

Certainly...there's a dimension where they left it after Revolver too.

so many dimensions....

"All You Need is Love" is my favorite single by the Beatles, the flip, "Baby You're a Rich Man" is my favorite John song.  Ever.  Let's not change history before that, or after. :lol

I wouldn't want the Who doing other things with Led Zeppelin or Hendrix.  Definitely glad Pete wasn't in Traffic or Blind Faith.  Jethro Tull didn't need to have hit singles.  Why?  They were great the way they were.  Now it doesn't mater.

And what the hell is wrong with the way the Kinks were produced?

Man, you're a potato head. ;D

Where Nick Drake sold many many crate loads and became an influential producer

Where Diana Rigg became UK's grooviest PM

All wonderful suggestions - hell, ANY suggestion is fine as we are talking "altered history".   :p

I posted off the top of my head, on a whim, so my suggestions were really just fanciful ideas which popped into my (potato) head.

I am a very lonely spud.  :-D

...where people with pig faces are considered beautiful and what we consider to be beautiful is considered ugly and put away because of state-enforced social norms.

The Kinks' records could definitely sound better.

As an example, compare "Johnny Thunder" on the 3-disc VGPS (disc 3, track 8 ) to the album version.

Can you describe the difference in these JT versions/mixes?   I don't have the 3 disc release.

On one hand I sort of enjoy the low-fi demo quality of VGPS, but on the other I think about how the album would have sounded (and maybe even been received) if it had better production.    Some Kinks tracks back then sounded great, others sounded dismal, they seemed to lack a consistency in that area.  Oh well, they're still the Kinks and I'm not, so....   :-D
 I have had a bit of a hard on (ummm, yeah) for the idea of Moon and Entwistle as the Experience w/Jimi.  It would be a band of (basically) three Hendrix's!   Too much perhaps, but even if they had recorded one song and gone back to their respective gigs (sort of like how Moon did with Beck on Bolero) it would be interesting to hear (for me anyway).

Anyway, just diversions from reality....hey, why not?  :p

You can listen to the remix here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX7FDNC2NP4. If you listen to just the opening guitars, you'll notice a lot more, uh, depth to the sound than you'll find on the actual album version. Here's how the booklet describes it: "a fresh remix of the song showing superior fidelity to the previously issued versions, the result of re-synching various stages of the multitrack tapes. Unfortunately, this is the only the song that could be given this complete treatment".

You're comparing the stereo remix to the album version (stereo)  on the 3-disc?

I'm partial to the stereo mixes on late 60's Kinks.  You've picked a special stereo remix from 2004, where Andy Sandoval re-synched various stages of the multi-track tapes, to compare to the album stereo mix from 1968?  Discs one and two were mastered by Nick Watson, disc three was mastered by Andy.  So could that cause some differences?

I'll say Andy did a great job and go with the stereo remix.  This track sounds even more phenomenal on the anthology 1964-1971 box set (2014), though he is using the same (2:31) mix.  It just leaps out of the speakers.  This was mastered by Dan Hersch.  Andy worked wonders tweaking the box tracks.  I don't do a lot of A/B-ing, and there are many special mixes Andy did for the box that would make that a bit hard to do.  But.  Of the tracks chosen from the VGPS album he used the 2004 Mono mixes, except, "Starstruck" (2:40), the 2004 Stereo mix, "People Take Pictures Of Each Other" (2:22), a European Stereo mix, only released in France, Sweden, & Norway on October 1968 pressings, the Special Stereo mix of "Johnny Thunder" and his mix of "Creeping Jean" 2004.  "Days" uses the Single mix, also from 2004, "Berkeley Mews" is the one from 2004 (USA 1968 Ep and Kronikles 1972).  His notes for the VGPS tracks say they are not tinkered with (just using the 2004 mixes), but at the same time most everything on the box has the best sound these ears have ever heard, VGPS and otherwise.  

My point though, was about the producers chair.  That's mostly Ray.  I think he did a fine job.    

Bubbly, you posted while I was writing and listening, but I did play that youtube clip and played my sources on the "big" system.  The improvement is very noticeable.  That's pretty much how all the tracks sound on the box.  Better.  There's ten years separating the two releases.

 In my dimension Nick Drake spent several years at an asylum. About 1978, Island released a Nick Drake compilation and it became a slow building cult favorite along the lines of KING OF THE DELTA BLUES SINGERS. Finally released, Drake was able to resume his career on his own terms, around 1985.

Like!  Or he could have been off building houses...

But what of Diana Rigg?

Wow, that sounded amazing!  It like hearing that song for the first time all over again, only better. 

I thought of one, though it's hard for me to live in what if world.  Which is why I probably commented in the early morning hours SenorPotatoHead.
 I did put a big grin.  You were picking some of my favorite bands to rearrange.  It surprised me.  I sure don't want a dimension where traffic was anything more than what it was.  They were perfect.  Glad to see you coming around to The Kinks sound.  Andy has done the best job with the catalogue.

I like the thoughts on Nick Drake.

Here it goes, I live in a dimension where Bobbie Gentry didn't disappear into a wisp of smoke.

A dimension where we would have got one more Beatles album, or I'm okay with more.  They worked better as a unit.

wow, caught that interview the Kinks did with Clay Cole (in 1965, I am guessing).  [link: https://youtu.be/BdSRThrJplA ]

Very funny and extremely camp - no wonder they got banned!   :lol  
Cole asks them about the "award from the Queen" the Kinks are due to receive and then this is discussed a bit - was this just Cole confusing the Kinks with the Beatles and the band just playing along with it?  
They should have got the MBE's or whatever, even if they didn't actually.  

How can you post from dimension to dimension? ;D

There is a dimension where the similarity between Mike Love and Reg Presley's vocals is acknowledged (and yes, celebrated!)  :-D

I wonder if there is a dimension or "country" where I could play any of the videos that people are linking to in this thread.

It's tricky.  Maya- an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem.

...is my post really there, or do you just think it is?

Who is feelsflow? :brian

There is a dimension where in '65/'66 Glen Campbell takes over the group, leading the Boys into somewhat of a Country Music direction.  Al in particular adjusts to this new direction very well and establishes a sort of Folk/Country writing partnership with Glen.  Brian doesn't mind getting edged out as he goes solo and puts out a string of masterpiece concept albums (PS and SMiLE are only the beginning!) over the next several years, with the help of the Wrecking Crew. 

The Beach Cowboys ride a wave of hit after hit, crossing over back and forth between the Country and Rock charts and play to sold out concerts. 





Nah........not really!  ;D