The Smiley Smile Message Board

One glaring omission is the solo work of Dennis, Carl, and Brian - My Imagination and the song Happy Days is covered briefly, but that's it.  I assume that was intentional, to focus solely on the music released as "the Beach Boys" - but it certainly leaves some important stuff out of the story.

No mention of the Grammy the Beach Boys won, or the induction into the rock and roll hall of fame.

Little coverage of the writing of Kokomo - for example Terry Melcher's role - compare that to the footage devoted to Good Vibrations.  Yeah, GV is a much more important and artistically significant song - but this was their next number one song after GV and their next best selling single?  I would have been interested in its' creation other than the fact that Brian was excluded by Landy from participating.

Big Sur Festival, the Fillmore concert with the Dead, Rolling Stone's acceptance of the Beach Boys as hip again, ZERO mention of Jack Reiley, the Chicago/Beach Boys tours, etc.

It really wasn't a very good comprehensive history of the band.  Extremely selective and often superficial, except in places (Pet Sounds, Smile covered pretty well).  The result of decision by committee (getting all the Beach Boys to sign off on everything)?

Agreed. It is pretty clearly a commercial of certain aspects of the band as much as (or more than) a great documentary of them. But to be fair, to cover 30+ years in the kind of detail we would want would require (something I have suggested on here before, but of course over which I and you all have no power to change) a multi-DVD set, something at least along the lines of the Beatles Anthology DVDs. It would be great if someone would independently do such a thing, interviewing everyone separate, album by album, and incorporating as many people as possible.

Won't ever happen, probably, and of course if it didn't happen soon we'd lose more of them. Desper said something similar in one of his more recent posts--they're not getting any younger...

I really like Endless Harmony because it truly has heart. Its lyrical...thoughtful...humble. There are some masterful touches...the opening is super. Watching Mike hang himself is fascinating. Dennis and Carl walking off together at the end...incredible. The very last image we see is Dennis surfing...appropriate.  Considering the political dance he had to negotiate, i think Alan Boyd did a great job in a tough environment. The BB's need a 5 hour doc. to tell their story properly. I'd like to see a five hour doc. made by Mr. Boyd.

I think five hours wouldn't be enough. Seriously, I believe they'd need double that. And to be clear, I think Mr. Boyd did as good a job as could be done. But, well, I want the whole world: more details on every album, discussions about the unreleased/rejected albums, the hard times, such as the near break-ups and break-ups...all of it. Is that too much to ask (he selfishly asks knowing the answer is obviously and clearly YES)?

I agree they couldn't include everything that we the rabid fans would want - but the induction into the R & R Hall of Fame?  Shouldn't that have been mentioned?  (I know they wouldn't want to show Mike's crazed speech from that night)  The Grammy?  These are highlights of an artists' career, the recognition of their peers.  It would only have taken two mintues to include coverage of those two events.  Just seems weird what was left out.

I did post this Alan Boyd's thread but didn't get a reply, so, I thought I'd post it here...

Would love to see the complete interviews and also the 5 hour director's cut of "Beautiful Dreamer".
But before mentioning solo albums in such docus, they should make them officially available.

Hi Zander,

OK - got my new password set so I'm back online...

In response to your question:  Yes!  Those audio clips (Bruce on Wild Honey, and Brian and Al on Dennis) were from the Endless Harmony interviews.

We shot at least a couple of hours of footage on each of the guys - there is a lot of unused interview material in the vaults.

And yes - there were quite a few things I wanted to include that we just didn't have time (or budget) for.   It's a rather large story to sqeeze into 104 minutes!  I definitely would have liked to spend more time on the early 1970s, and more time on Dennis' music.

I wonder if the BBC documentary'll be released on DVD.  It was good on the early 60s - ver good, in fact, but merdaty after that.  The music took a back seat to the relationships, politics and scandal, though I think I remember Jon Stebbins saying that there was originally more on Dennis' music as opposed to Dennis' downfall, so if it is released, let it be an expanded version...

Mr. Boyd, any chance we'll see the leftover footage?

The one thing I missed in EH was the Inside Pop performancep, especially since you have Elvis Costello raving about it.

Also Brian? You must be kiddin'. :-D

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the reply, I know you're a busy guy e.g. sorting out  new releases for us and all!  ;D

I hope we get to see some of the unreleased footage someday...

Zander