The Smiley Smile Message Board

Alright I've read countless articles and a few books, but this one question hasn't been answered. At which point in time did people actually take notice of the SMiLE material?

Let me be more specific

obviously back in the late 60's and 70's there was no way to hear any of the SMiLE material, except what was pieced together and officially released (Heroes and Villians, Our Prayer, Cabinessence, and Surf's Up). So at some point in time Joe Average got a hold of some of the SMiLE material that wasn't officially released, went ga ga over it. Told his friends, and the word spread about this genius album that was being worked on.

So when exactly did the bootlegs start and when did Brian Wilson fans begin obsessing over SMiLE?

Great question. Can't wait for the answers. =)

gotta agree with runalot...this is a great question and im curious of the answer as well!

I thought the bootlegs started with the American Band documentary. All the Beach Boys sessions were made available to the filmmakers and someone copied all the sessions tapes. That's where the Sea Of Tunes bootlegs originated from. That's how it leaked out. So, that was in the mid 1980's.

Also, I'm no expert, but I believe there was three vinyl record disc Smile bootleg. I don't know when this was made or where it originated from or even what the tracklisting was. We need Ian to explain this to us.

I collect vinyl above anything else so I can help here. The first Good Vibes outake surfaced in 1976 on a radio show. This was soon bootlegged on the Hawthrone Hot Shots double EP. In 1983 this take was used on Rarities. Then the first Smile boot came out in 1983. It was half commercially released versions and half Smile Tapes. A refurbished version of the same album with all Smile cuts came out in 85 (that's the only one I don't have so anyone who wants to get rid of one). Anyhow after that came a 1990 2 LP set that had really good quality and then in 1993 the 3 LP version. Sea Of Tunes disc 16 is also on vinyl. The 2 LP and 3 LP were and still are the basics. 

Now for as when Smile began to be obsessed over. I think as early as late 67 Paul Williams was writing articles about its loss. I think it  fan wise the 1971 Rolling Stone article and the 1975 Nik Kent article that got everyone obsessing. By 1985 American Band came out and Smile was now known to the generral public as well. So really it just built over time. I think once Beach Boys music went into general decline in 1976 is when all of the older material took on a new importance.

I can imagine that people were excited about Smile before it even was Smile. The Beach Boys had just released Pet Sounds and the Good Vibrations single. It seems logical that their next album was going to be spectaculair as well.

The first Smile CD boot came out in 1988, I think. Of course, tapes had been circulating for a good few years before that.

In print, the legend started with Derek Taylor and got some heavy assists from Wiliams & Seigal (1967), Nolan (1971), the 1972 announcement that it was going to be released in the UK press, Kent (1976) and Leaf & Preiss (1978)... but probably the biggest boost it eve got was Priore's Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile !! edition of Dumb Angel Gazette in the early/mid-eighties. That's when things really took off.

For me it was sometime in the 80s -  I'd read Leaf's book (paperback reprint) then picked up a SMiLE boot cassette at a market in Norfolk -  with the Miles Davis instrumental track thrown in as a blind. The stuff blew me away.

When I'd bought 20 Golden Greats in 76 (age 12) I got hooked by Heroes -  I'd record sections on a cassette player from my mono record deck, then record other sections, all out of order but attempting to be cohesive, to try to span it out as long as possible. When I realised there was a whole album's worth of quality material I could play around with, the obsesion set in.

And the best bit is that there just HAS to be more stuff out there, right? If Buddy Holly's phone calls in the 50s can be booted when they shouldn't ever really exist, then the Columbia vocal SMiLE sessions must still exist somewhere, in some form.

Not a blind - a tracker. Worked, too.  ::)

I got my first Smile boot, on cassette, while working at the Rhino warehouse on Olympic in L.A....the year...1982!! There was already a core of Smile heads around L.A. at that time.

To my knowledge, the first time a collection of unrel. SMILE-songs made the rounds in fan circles around 1978/79. The source was a compilation reel Dennis made for Robert Morgan and Byron Preiss labeled "The Fire Tapes".
Tracklist:
Do You Like Worms
Fire (without Fire effect)
Fire (with Fire effect)
Can't Wait Too Long (3 Fragments)
Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine (instrumental)
false Barnyard (the first one)

In 1982 sessions for "Holidays" and "George Fell Into His French Horn" turned up, followed by another booted comp. reel:

Our Prayer
Wonderful (all BG vocals by Brian)
Who Ran The Iron Horse (with vocals)
Cabin Essence (last part with vocals)
Child Is Father of the Man
Do You Like Worms

The tape Preiss described in his book was compiled and handed to him by Diane Rovell. The 2nd Smile CD - the 'Japanese' one - is essentially a copy of the tape Mark compiled for Capitol to show what was available for a proposed release, plus 15 minutes of "GV" bits and bobs.

Important note - Mark was in no way involved with the production of this boot. Someone working on the album kept bugging Brian's people for Smile stuff, so they copied this tape and gave it to him. He then passed it on to a DJ friend of his, who passed it on... and so forth. Eventually someone booted it. Not Mark, not the 'collaborator', not the DJ (from whom I got this info, btw and who is now no longer with us).

Melville - I've recently been doing some research into what may or may not have been happening with the BB tapes back when they were working on the "American Band" video, and I have to point out that the documentation indicates that the filmmakers did NOT have free and complete access to the tapes. 

In the early 1980s the tapes were stored at a secure media vault facility with restricted access.  All requests for material were made through management at the time, all requests had to be made in writing, and the the storage company's files from that period (the original tape requests, and the "shippers" that had to be signed before any material went out the door) still exist.  This documentation supports the claim that the producers of "American Band" were only pulling material that was applicable to that film.

All in all, I'd have to say it's time to retire that particular conspiracy theory!

Alan

All I can add is that the I clearly remember the moment in 1982, standing in my friend Tom's kitchen when I first heard "Fire"...it scared the holy hell out me. I hadn't experienced that creepy feeling since 1966/67 when I first heard Tomorrow Never Knows and I Am The Walrus. Fire sounded so freakin' spooky, tapped into some kind of serious darkness. It sounds like someone threaded a microphone into the bowels of hell. The thought that this was recorded 15 years earlier just pissed me off. People in general had no clue back then. Those early Smile boots were like passing around hits of Owsley to the uninformed. Sometimes they really freaked people out...and I was one of them that day in Tom's kitchen.

Is there any legitimate or interesting reason why "Can't Wait Too Long" surfaced on a SMiLE compilation reel?

It was (incorrectly) listed as a Smile track at least as early as 1976 (in the Ken Barnes book), which I would guess influenced the compilation of the first tape.

Alan, are you saying that the SOT's aren't even close to being representative of everything that's in Brother's vaults?

I heard an unmarked cassette tape in about 1981 that had most of what ultimately came out on the first vinyl SMiLE boot a year or so later.  I had talked with some folks in collector circles, with some names folks here would recognize, as early as 1979 or so about stuff that had leaked and was starting to make its way around.  Remember....this is before internet...mail and phone contact only.  I met quite a few folks through BBFUN and began purchasing collectable material about 1978.

My interest in Smile really started when I came across the 1971 Rolling Stone articles about 74 or 75.  Sometime in the mid 70s I read a re-print of the Cheetah article.  I found a cut-out copy of Smiley Smile about 1975 and it blew my mind with how weird it was....at that point I assumed that was basically a re-worked Smile.  When Leaf's book came out my personal quest was burning at fever pitch...that's when i joined  BBFUN and started making a few contacts.  I had started making my own Smile mixes onto cassette by 1978 with released stuff. 

I think my scenario is the same as many here who are about my age (46) or older.

Hi Rob,


Well, I'm not saying THAT - the SOT material mainly comes from the BB vaults, with some tracks from Capitol's vaults, and a few things from reels that are now missing from the BB archive.

I'm just saying that the evidence doesn't support the notion that all of this BB material was dubbed down by someone involved with the "American Band" video.

 :police: :police: :police:

Someone is going to pay to stealing those missing reels.  :)