The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was wondering if we could all make a list of Brian Wilson or Beach Boys songs that we know exist in demo form. It could be either group demos, Brian demo's, or any other members of the group. For example, we know about the "Garage Tapes", and the Sufin' USA and In My Room demos from the box set.  We also know about the Little Deuce Coupe demo from the Hawthorne double CD. There is a tape of Brian playing songs from the Love You album, and a few other unreleased songs from that time period. Then there are the Landy tapes. What about in between those years? Are there any demos of Brian doing songs from the So Tough or Holland albums? What about from Surf's Up or Sunflower? What about recordings of other Beach Boys? The only example I am aware of is the Little Child(?) tape that may or may not be Al Jardine. Mike supposedly composed Brian's Back on guitar. Are there any recordings of it?

"Don't Talk... " demo on the box set...

"H&V/'Barnyard', "Sail Plane Song" and "Barbara" demos on EH...

"Gonna Hustle You" demo...

Smile.

There's two versions of Surfin' USA as well - the Good Vibrations one, and the one with drums (played by Dennis?) on Hawthorne....

There's also Brian playing Mt. Vernon on piano, although that;s not strictly a demo
I'm Begging You Please
It's Over Now (two takes)
Still I Dream Of It
The cocaine tapes might count.

That's all i got off the top of my head

If you were to compile all of the circulating demo material you'd probably have a very decent 90 minute or so release. Of course there are some things that don't circulate, like Brian's 1974 California Feelin' demo, tons of Dennis' piano/vocal tracks which MIGHT be considered demos (ask Stebbins for more info, he was very general when he mentioned this a while back during the POB reissue hullabaloo), and tons of other Brian stuff.

Smile? Nice try.

Not all strictly piano/vox demos but:

Surfin' USA
Don't Talk (piano only)
Heroes and Villains/Barnyard
Vegetables
Little Red Book
Breakaway
Sail Plane Song
Awake
That Special Feeling
Mona
Let's Put Our Hearts Together
Airplane
They're Marching Along
Love Is A Woman
I'll Bet He's Nice
It's Over Now
Still I Dream Of It
I'm Begging You Please
There's So Many
Night Bloomin Jasmine
Walkin The Line
City Blues
Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel
Black Widow
In The Night Time

That's roughly all I've heard

Sail Plane Song is a demo? Even though that led to Loop de Loop, it always felt like it's own completed song to me.

Ugh.

Huge difference between a demo and unfinished or unmixed recording sessions.

Are there any demos of Carl or Al that exist?

I believe Al's 90s recording of "California saga" was thought of as a demo for Merle Haggard to sing it on "Stars&Stripes". Don't know if that's true, but he definitely uses some typical Hag-styles in his singing....

Same here. Much too undemo to be a demo.

It's not in circulation, but I've heard a guitar instrumental demo by Al of "Lookin' at Tomorrow".

Also a cassette tape of some subset of the band either in a car or on a tour bus trying to nail the harmony of the "Laguna's Three Arch Bay" line in "California Feeling"... and failing miserably.   :o

Lee

That short version of "Almost Summer" sung by Brian.

Is "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" finished or a demo?

Finished.

damn i would love to hear Merle Haggard sing some Beach Boys.

how about demos that turned out better than the finished product?
Sail Plane Song and Breakaway fit the bill for me.

Lonely Days is basically a demo.
There's also that snippet of Bacharach's "Are You There" from the "Walk On By" sessions... not exactly a demo.

Song fragment, not a demo.

Unfinished =/= demo.

Little Deuce Coupe from Hawthorne, CA - which I absolutely LOVE, by the way  :)

Sorry, missed seeing that in the first post oops  :3d

I think the word "demo" needs to be defined. When I say demo, I mean any "informal" recording of Brian or any other Beach Boy, in a home or hotel/motel. Or a friends house. Just something "casual" with piano/guitar and voice('s).

"Demo" is short for "demonstration", not "casual". By your definition, the campfire songs are demos.

I've never heard about that. Do you have any information on it? IS it circulating?

Ok, let's call them "home recordings". Any recording that a member of the group recorded for the specific purpose of playing it for the group to "critique", or learn for proper recording in a studio.

See, now you've just defined a demo. If you could make up your mind as to exactly what you're looking for - demo or casual - I think a lot of confusion will be avoided.  This is Queen of Hearts territory. :-\

In reading Brill Building history, I've come to understand Demo as a recording of a song either by the writer or a demo singer over a decent arrangement.  The purpose being to sell the song, get it recorded by an "act", and then distributed.  Sometimes the Demo recording and the Demo singer ended up as  the final product such as Eva Boyd on Locomotion.

I would think more of Ginger and the Snaps, Honeys, American Spring, or Redwood as material that might be considered at some point as Demos.

Rough Cuts that serve as guides for a final recording would not seem to be Demos by that definition.  Brian "demos" for the BeachBoys then would be more like Beatles "demos" for George Martin and the Beatles.

Just scanned this thread, and it seems obvious it should rate a mention- Bernstein/CBS "Surf's Up"?