The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi Andrew,
Take a time capsule back to California in the mid-80's if you will.  Can you remember what Smile material you heard all those years ago?  Further, what material that you heard has never been released and has seemed to have disappeared?

Thanks.

It wasn't in California. :)

I was in California till '85.  Only Smile (related) music I heard was the (at that time) officially released stuff.  It amazes me to recall the many years this music was, by and large, only in my imagination (aided by various journalists/participants descriptions).  I swear, that's when Smile REALLY obsessed me. 

Hi AGD,
           I have a quick question for you if you don't mind me hijacking the thread. I want to fire a quick email to Brian's TM for this tour, any idea who I should be contacting? (PM is fine if more appropriate:-) )

AGD.  - wasn't there a version of . . . I think it was With Me tonight?  With all sorts of weird percussion like in Bag of Tricks or "Intro to Heroes".

I think it's time to give AGD a slot in the Ask the Honored Guests section!  :)

AGD, I get this pain in my calf when I force my boot off with the other foot. Is it a sign?

AGD, how are we to resolve the Mike/Brian discord among the fans?

What are the possibilities for lab-grown fish and could this provide a counter to our overexploitation of the oceans?

Yup.

Oh, you're going to answer questions selectively are you? What kind of Q&A is this?

Briefs or boxer shorts? ;)

What's your favorite kind of pizza?

When are you releasing your rock and roll album?

Andrew,

Do you remember hearing any vocals that you have not heard since?

There was also a version of "Do A Lot" (Mama Says) with sounds of running water and pots and pans clinking together reported by someone who was close to the Beach Boys studio vaults - he was the only one reporting hearing this however.  And didn't he say this was in a box marked "Great Shape" but the box didn't match the tape type?  That would be something if this was the missing Great Shape vocal session!

Might as well jump in too.  How do we fix the Vile Vortex? Good Vibes enough?

Is Genesis getting back together?

In 1981 I was trading concert tapes and vhs videos with some around the country. One of my contacts called me to plan a trip to come and see him. He said he had something he really wanted me to hear. By the time I got there, he had even more for me to hear.

First tape he played was the one we call the fire tapes. While still reeling from that, he played tape #2. This tape had the talking horns session, surf's up , holidays and the don't talk session. It was so earth shattering. He told me he SWORE that he would not make copies of it for anyone. He also promised to keep the tapes under wraps, but, he made an exception for me.

About a year later, he called again. He had a tape of the 12/66 comp Brian had made. It was again understood no copies were to be made. Still was earth shattering.

I've always had a feeling  that a legendary bootlegger who supplied material to the bootleg label Vigatone has a whole bunch of tapes that have gone missing from Brother Records.  This individual saved a lot of Byrds recordings which were thrown away at CBS Studios by rescuing it from the dumpster.  A good 25 years ago I tried to pry information about Smile from him at a East Coast record convention to little avail. 

I've always wondered what happen to him and his tapes.

Always wondered what was to have been on the Vigitone Smile box that got stopped by the whho figure before it could be released, and whether their source tapes were returned to Capitol/BRI/yrplace by those authorities? Or are they still sealed in evidence bags in a police warehouse somewhere?

What's your favorite Morrissey album?

Somebody find this tape! Also the Look vocals.

Come on, Wirestone.  By the time Morrissey went solo, Andrew was using the Hickey Script.

 :lol

An interesting philosophical poser. As they are all equally loathesome, there can, of course be no favourite.

Have you cracked Linear A yet, Andrew?

I need to track down the Vigotone mastermind and ask him - last time I checked he was living in my home town.

BicycleRider,

The initials of the supplier of most of the Smile material are G B.  Goodness knows if he is alive.  But I remember him telling me that he a had a notebook telling in detail the Smile material he had in his possession.  He via his persona Desmond Jones discussed the "Great Shape" tape years ago on Jon Hunt's Smile shop site.
It would have been very wise to have contacted this character prior to Smile box being released.

GM are the intials of the Vigotone producer.  He spent 8 month in confinement and paid over 50000 $ in royalties and penalties for his crimes.  Over 600 bootleg box sets and CDS were confiscated in the raid that ended in his arrest but no source tapes.  He put out a "sampler" from the forthcoming Smile box set called Heroes and Vibrations, Iwonder if he ever had the complete tapes that were planned for that box set.  It would not surprise me if the source was "Desmond Jones."

I think Mike (MJP) is saying that there is a difference between the owner of the Vigotone label (initials G.M.) and the source of the tapes (initials G.B.).

Lee

Hi Lee,

You know I always felt that somehow Alan Boyd and Mark Linett should have made contact with Desmond Jones if he is still alive.  After all, he was an employee of Columbia Studios and literally saved tapes (Byrds,Stones,Buddy Holly) that were being thrown away in the dumpster.  Maybe just maybe he has some of the Smile Columbia tapes that have gone missing. 

Yes I got that Lee - the question I have is if the source of the Vigotone Smile tapes was GB or someone else.  GM only produced the CD's from tapes he borrowed from other people.

To my knowledge, which is a good few years out of date, the proposed Vigotone box was never assembled.

Unless he asked for silly money, I'm thinking not, or we'd be listening to "GV" in true stereo by now.

Did Desmond Jones have a wife called Molly?

Did Paul McCartney meet them?  :-D

1. What is the meaning of Life?
2. are you going to run for president at the last minute?
3. how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop?
4. was Bill Cobsy at the Smile sessions? or have everyone forgot?
5. what is 1+1? is it 4?
6. Why can't I get rid of this itch?
7. How now brown cow?

Now that would explain a lot.

1. 42
2. wait and see...
3. ask Bruce
4. ah, that would be telling
5. 1+1 = 1, according to Pete
6. penecillin
7. c'est vrai

During the last full lunar eclipse a small mole developed on my earlobe while I was picking mistletoe at midnight. To guarantee immortality and future fertility, should I now bathe in the blood of a thousand virgin dormice or would I be better off waiting for my exam results to see if I've got into university?

Whatever happend to predictability? The milkman, the paper boy, evening tv?

Now I know,,,,and knowing is HALF the battle....

Do you have any helpful tips for trimming my beard?

Personally, I have a man who does that for me. He can singe like none other.