The Smiley Smile Message Board

I use Apple Music to listen to a lot of my music. I always have had physical copies of my BBs music, but I never got around to get a physical copy of Postcard From California. So I streamed it on Apple Music. Now it's gone! I checked other streaming services like Youtube and Spotify and it's gone from there too. It's not even on iTunes anymore. Why?

Someone fought the sea?  It's still at Amazon...7 used but available.

Al's album is gone but its legend lingers on.

Just checked amazon.  They have it on mp3 download for $8.99, and audio CD ($11.99 - US dollars) and some used copies for $7.00 plus shipping.

It is a great little album.   ;)

 I think Mike had it eliminated. I believe  I read a quote where he said " If they're not going to carry "Looking Back With Love," then they're not going to carry "Postcards from California"

Well geez, not only can you still buy a new physical copy, you can still buy the album via download for 8.99. So there are still numerous options to hear this. It's not out of print in either format.

Snag the CD, it'll sound better than streaming anyway.

The thread title made it sound like the album was OOP or something.

Funnily enough, I just noticed some of Al's CD's at Barnes & Noble last night, filed under "Beach Boys", so it's still out there. 

I bought my copy at Everyday Music in Bellingham a couple years ago - filed under Beach Boys. Glad I got it.

Maybe it is going to be reissued with yet another version of "Waves of Love".

I purchased Postcard whenever it came out, and kind of gave it a cursory listen. Then one afternoon I put my headphones on and listened to it from top to bottom, and doing that really elevated my opinion of it. A very good album.

Any idea how this did, sales wise? Can an artist like Al make a few bucks by putting it out?

It's still on YouTube!  :-D

....but blocked in America (and most other countries as well, I assume)   :'(

this is why I swear by getting hard copies, hate this digital crap.  I'm glad I got both copies of the album, except the Japanese copy.

The Japanese is a must get! There is a nice version of waves of love probably my favorite version and one of my favorite songs The Eternal Ballad

it's on the list with 'TWGMTR' edition.  need more money.  ::)
I've 'got' to buy BW merch next week.  priorities.

That album stands as some of the better BB stuff of the last decade.   It should not disappear from the market.   Just listened to some of it today on a personal comp with stuff from TWGMTR and NPP.    right up there with the best of recent years........and Glen Campbell too!

Anyone remember when this was about to come out and Al had sound samples of some of the songs? Wasn't one of them a full band version of California Dreamin' - i.e. not the version that appeared as a bonus track with Glenn Campbell and David Crosby?

I seem to recall that other tracks were mentioned in connection to this, maybe Santa Ana Winds and, perhaps inevitably, Crumple Car - or is this just wishful thinking on my part?

I actually have 3 copies of Postcard, bonus tracks on a couple, and one signed by Al that I picked up at the Big Sur General Store when I was out there on vacation. I think it's a really good collection of tunes.

I don't recall an alternate of Cal. Dreamin'. The other tracks were mentioned by Al, and "Crumple Car" did leak later on.

There were clips of what later became alternate mixes of some of the "Postcards" songs posted way back in like 2006 or 2007 or some point several years before the first 2010 release. "Don't Fight the Sea" was a more stripped down mix. The title track had Al singing the lines he later gave to Glen Campbell, and better Jardine-centric layered backing vocals.

I think there's an EPK-style video on the album Al posted on YouTube where it shows Brian in the studio singing lead lines for the title track that they of course didn't end up using.

The leaked Crumple Car is from the early 90s, isn't it?

Recorded  before 1993.

Thanks.

Of course that doesn't mean he didn't re-re-re-re-record it later...

I think a fair amount of the songs that ended up on "Postcard" had a long genesis. "Don't Fight the Sea" sounds like it retains little from the circa 1978 recording, but I think much if not most of it comes from the (mostly unknown until its release) 1989 sessions for the song, including most of Al's lead, Carl's lead, and Brian's parts. I think only a final verse lead from Al and Mike's background vocals and a few other things were added in the later 2000s.

I think a few of the stripped-down songs are probably all "new" recordings, meaning in the 2000s at least. "California Feelin'" is just Al's lead and Scott Slaughter on piano, and I don't think Al even hooked up with those Steve Heger guys like Scott Slaughter and the dude on bass until the early-mid 2000s (I saw Al do a gig with those guys in 2005).

We know Brian's other non-"Don't Fight the Sea" contributions were made specifically on June 10, 2007 (recorded at Big Sur in between Brian/Al shows on 6/9 and 6/11). Despite the likely PR-fueled explanation that Al was not doing the 2007 Brian UK tour because he was going to "work on his album", it does appear Al did a good hunk of recording in that 2007-ish timeframe.

I purchased Postcard from iTunes but I do most of my playlist organizing on Spotify, and I too noticed that the album had been yanked from that service.  So while I still have access to my purchased download, my Spotify playlists are all jacked up now.  I've always been curious about why albums come and go from those services.  Still Cruisin' was yanked a few years ago too, and last time I checked, only the partial album remained available.  Aside from me and the OP, I guess nobody here knows (or cares) why this happens.

It's perhaps somewhat like Netflix (or Amazon Prime Video), where movies come and go due to the licensing duration.

That may well be the case, but I've used Spotify since it was first available here in the US several years ago, and of the 400+ albums I've bookmarked and listened to over the years, I've only ever seen two disappear from the offerings: Still Cruisin' (partial) and Postcard.