The Smiley Smile Message Board

There are two different versions of the 4/4 Big Sur that's available. One is significantly slower in pitch than the other. Does anyone know which of the two is the correct one?

Version One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVamFiNw-rs

Version Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX3M77IuDvg

Version two sounds better to my ears, but why does it cut off before the song is over?? 

Thanks for posting this, as I've never heard the cleaner-sounding version 2. 

Any way you cut it, it's simply gorgeous.  I'm baffled as to why it was left in the vaults, and as to why, legally speaking, it's STILL in the vaults.

To me it sounds like the first slower version is the original speed, due to the guitar sounding a bit more natural. It could be the case of them recording the instruments in one key then deciding later to speed it up and shifting the key, though.

The voices in Version One sound way too slow.  Version Two sounds correct to me, although unfortunately missing about 8 seconds at the end.

Still waiting for an official release of this - far better than the Holland version, IMO.

I'm guessing the bootleg with the cleaner version accidentally cut the rest off for some reason. A real shame, that's definitely the cleanest mix you'll get! My version takes the end of another mix of the song of slightly lesser quality, and carefully stitches it onto the end of the cleaner version. You can barely tell there's a change! Check it out if you want  :)

http://jiggy22.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-beach-boys-add-some-music-album.html (http://jiggy22.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-beach-boys-add-some-music-album.html)

I tend to agree with the poster above who notes that the voices in Version One sound unnaturally draggy. Version Two must be correct.

I hear version two as being the correct version too, but because I am listening to the guitars and it seems to me that some of the hammer ons/pull offs, etc. sound unnaturally slower on the first- like it was mechanically done.  My take is that even if one makes a conscious effort to play parts at a slower tempo, the hammer ons, slides, and stuff like that are less affected by tempo than the actual sustain of the notes.

Listening to Stephen Desper's The Contender Songs video, the version of "Big Sur", presented there on the original reference disc, is at the Version 2 speed. I guess that answers it then?

Thanks all! Man, I wish they would just release it already!

Definatly man. I'm not a big fan of Mike's sole writing contributions (Sumahama for example) but he hits it out of the park on Big Sur. Especially the 4/4 version!