The Smiley Smile Message Board

I put a post on the BBB reagrding this comp and I was wondering if AGD or someone else could answer this for me. Did Bruce Johnston put this comp together? I read an interview where he wanted to include SMiLE tracks on this so I was just wondering if he was the compiler behind the project. It was (and is) a great comp!

Bob Flory

Brad Elliott wrote a very good history of this comp album in the Winter 1982 issue of "Add Some Music". 
Last I heard you can still get the complete collection of issues via ESQ.  Bruce did initially have some such thoughts about the lineup including "SMiLE" tracks, but apparently the group drug its feet on putting together a firm lineup.  CBS received a single-disc master from Caribou in July, evidently put together by Guercio, but it wasn't what they expected.  Bruce, Mike, Alan, and two people from CBS subsequently held a conference-call in which they put together a rough lineup very similar to the final one.  This went through a couple of revisions, with David Leaf eventually adding input.  In the final stages, Carl became involved, and it was he who actually went into the tape vaults and found all the masters (probably remixing the live "Darlin'" in the process).  Carl also insisted that Bruce not be included in the group photo since he wasn't a Beach Boy through the whole ten-year period represented on the anthology, and also saw to it that the individual producer credits were listed.

Craig

Hey c-Man, thanks!

I do have Brad's inital interview with Bruce for Goldmine which included the following: 

With the New Year's show and party barely, a memory, the Beach Boys launched
into a very full year of touring. Early on, they told CBS (who distributes the Caribou
label, to which the group is signed) not to expect an album until the Fall at the earliest.
The company had been hoping to release product around May.

Also postponed until at least fall was a best of collection of tracks from the past decade.
At one time, that album had been planned for February release.

With no product to push, CBS dropped its financial support of the group's touring in May.
Probably contributing to that decision were the reviews the group had drawn in the first
months of the year. All around the country, the group had been knocked, for lackluster,
uninspired, stale performances. Lyrics were almost routinely botched.

Later in the interview with Bruce:

Brad: Walter Winnick with CBS was telling me it me it might get on a compilation album this year.

Bruce: Yeah, that will be on the compilation album. The compilation album, if we get It out, will be the best ... on level, the best album they'll ever have. Because it's gonna cover all the period from say '68,'69 on. It's gonna get the best of everything, like "'Til I Die," "Disney Girls," "Sail On, Sailor," "San Miguel." It's gonna have a lot of stuff on it. We're going to collage the "Smile" album in this compilation. We're gonna just take . . . go through the "Smile" album - Brian doesn't know this - and just take little sections of the tunes we have and put it out as kind of a sampler of the "Smile" album. 'Cause it'll be better as a teaser than the whole thing. It's great, but a lot of these things aren't finished. So it's better to go and collage them and ... for instance, if I played you the whole "Fire" part, it's Interesting, but it's kind of interesting like hearing Stravinsky do something.

Brad: "Fire" was just one part of an "Elements Suite."

Bruce: Oh, true, but it goes on and on and on and on.

Brad: Does the "Elements Suite" exist, completely?

Bruce: Everything's there.

Brad: The water section was somewhat similar to "Cool, Cool Water?"

Bruce: Mm-hrnrn.

Brad: The air section ... Brian has told someone.. . it's in an interview ... that "Air" was a piano Instrumental. Is that right?

Bruce: I'd have to just go back and look at everything. I'm just telling you the tapes are sitting around. We're just going to skim the "Smile" tapes and make a beautiful six-minute collage. You'll love it. It's better to do it that way, because musically now, as opposed to '66 or '67, it would be more interesting to just give you a peek at it than to do the whole thing. There's been too much press on it. It's like talking about bringing out the '67 Rolls Royce and they finally show it in '81. You go, "Oh, no."

Again, thanks c-man!

Bob

PS - Still got two LP copies of TYOH shrink-wraped. Man I gotta clean house!

When did Bruce officially rejoin?  I mean, wasn't he there for LA?  He was certainly there for KTSA and there are some tracks off that album on Ten Years...  He wrote the song! Yeah, that one too.

Didn't Bruce work on the Smile tapes for KTSA as well, or am I confused about the two different projects? 

i know he wanted to put can't wait too long on there...but that's not smile...andi believe san miguel was gonna go on there too...

And he was there at Knebworth...


Well, considering the outfits they were wearing in the gatefold, he was lucky...  :3d

This is a good comp far better then the Brother Years but  still too little Dennis.

Bruce did want DYLW on the LA album plus one other Smile track (which I can't remember).

 8)

Gee, that wouldn't have stuck out at ALL.

[/sarcasm]

Bruce was there through "Marcella" (the only cut from "So Tough" that he's on), also was on a couple of things after he left like "Calfornia", then came back for "L.A.".  Brad's exact paraphrase of Carl's stance was "Bruce was not a Beach Boys on a par with the others, and should not be included in th main photo.  If Bruce wanted his photo on the album, Carl stated, he could have a small 'mug' shot.  Bruce decided that if he wasn't wanted in the main photo, he didn't want to be pictured on the album". 

Brad states that the inner sleeve photo is from backstage at Central Park, 1977, but it's actually from the New Years Eve 1976 L.A. forum show.  There had been talk of "doctoring" Bruce into it, and that's when Carl objected. 

Craig

Do You Like Worms DISCO REMIX!!!

You just gave me a great idea... *heads to synth*

oooooo, i love bruce on I'll Bet He's Nice so much

There actually is a DYLW trance remix out there somewhere (an early Project SMiLE CD maybe?).

 ::)

The pictures of the record sleeve on Love You are also from that NYE '76 show and the after party.

My favorite personal story of TYOH;    I took the album cover to a BB show and got the band to sign it....then over the course of the show they mentioned it a couple of times, Mike asked where we were in the audience (second row) and we handed the album back to the band, and Al held it up for the audience to see, and tossed it back to us. 

That album cover  was beautifully and tastefully designed and had, maybe still has, the best compilation of post classic Beacboys songs on a single release.

Here is some more of Brad's interview with Bruce from early 1981. While it doesn't cover TYOH, it shows what Bruce's plans were concurent with the release of TYOH.

Brad: What Is the status of a new album, a studio album, this year?

Bruce: Hah. Are you kidding?

Brad: No.

Bruce: No. Singles. I'm trying to get everyone to go and record "Rock And Roll Lullaby," the B.J. Thomas record. I think it would be a great hit for us, just the way "Barbara Ann" was. I think it's good to do an old outside song.

Brad: So there are no plans for an album this year?

Bruce: Well, we'll have to. And it'll come because we'll do groups of singles.

Brad: When will it come?

Bruce: We wouldn't have an album out until the middle of the summer and that's probably too soon. We're gonna start with some singles around May. You know, the production gets passed around. Maybe I won't be the producer. Maybe it will be (James William) Guercio, 'cause it's his label. You've seen the production pass around. Ultimately, it should always be Brian, but sometimes he doesn't want to take the ball.

Brad: Is there a chance "I'm a Man" will be a single?

Bruce: Well, if I'm around, I'll get that onto the album ... and "Doo Ron Ron."