The Smiley Smile Message Board

Has the documentary been aired since 1967? How hard is it to find? Was there any further development into the outtakes discussion a few years back?

All I have to say is this:  if I won a large amount of money, I'm talking multi millions, I would use a giant piece  of that money to hire a team of investigators to hopefully track down and find those outtakes.  I would spend millions if I had the resources to do so to find those outtakes. It would be my eccentric millionare hobby!   What would be involved anyways?  Is the trail cold and dead? Is it over? Or does it take hiring say 50 people to sit and watch reels all day.  Imagine the ad: WANTED:  get paid very well to sit 8  hours a day with 2 twenty minute breaks to watch old reels looking for  particular archival footage of the Beach Boys. Call....


Mark

A few years back a fella (or 2) went up on a quest for this holy grail. The material that was filmed has, I believe, never been found (and indeed is doubtful to still exist). However, the notes for these have been found, and someone here on this board I'm sure would be kind enough to supply you with a link to it.

Dream job...

http://www.thesmileshop.net/index.php/Inside_Pop_--_Outtake_reels_scene_descriptions

Does anyone know, and maybe this should go in the "Myth Busters" thread, but I've heard this documentary was initially solely about Brian and the band and what he was creating with the music of Smile, and some where along the line it was decided to broaden the scope of the thing to include other artists and the "new music" scene. 
Was that actually the case, or was it always meant to include other music as well?

That material sounds absolutely incredible....

I'm sure the whole thing has been uploaded to youtube in the past, though it doesn't seem to be there right now. It's certainly "out there" in trading circles. It's also available for viewing in the Paley Museum in New York (formerly the New York Museum of Television) should you be in the area - it's where I saw it for the first time. Here's their index entry:

http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=%22inside+pop%22&f=all&c=all&advanced=1&p=1&item=T80:0696

The Brian Wilson footage is really only the half of it. Lenny telling you how complex Pretty Ballerina is, or introducing the most incendiary performance from Janis Ian, or Gouldman, Nash & Noone having a post-gig "political discussion", or Tim Buckley playing No Man Can Find The War... it's a truly remarkable film.

Interesting link. Now I want to see the special just to hear how "Paperback Writer" is a social protest song. I mean, really? It's that kind of thinking, looking too deep into things for meanings that aren't there, that gave windbags like Bob Dylan a career. Even Brian Wilson thought that Dylan was an enemy of music.  Really, Dylan was enough to make me lose faith in the judgment of the 60s love generation.

WOW!!

IIRC, Bernstein implies that the song concerns artistic prostitution, which is not too far from the truth; that line about "changing it round" ("selling out") in order to please the potential buyer. The meaning isn't too far below the surface. While it's not a protest song in the Woody Guthrie sense of the term, it looks at society & comments on/criticizes it.

As for Bob Dylan making you "lose faith in the 60s love generation", I think that's precisely what he was for: to make you question everything. Neither side is always right. Sad but true. And like you, I've never been a fan either...

Cool, has anyone read descriptions on outtake reels containing footage of Tandyn Almer?

Do wa wa? Wonderful Dada? Interesting.

The perceived wisdom is that it was initially set to be just about Brian & his 'new' music, but as time passed and Smile began to founder, other artists were added. I'm thinking this is a wisdom we might question...

Yeah does anyone have any idea what these are about? Do wa waI'm thinking may be something to do with Love To Say Dada, but what is Wonderful Dada?

Remember, those notes are Oppenheim scribbling down what he's hearing, phonetically. Thus, "dine dine dine" is actually the "banjo" vocal of Cabinessence" (doing doing doing). Don't doubt the band did sing "da da", but very much doubt the did it to the melody of "Love To Day Da Da".

Good points - thanks.

I remember a thread about this a few years back, and somebody chimed in that the visuals and audio for this doc were most likely stored separately or some such. I think the upshot was that if one were to locate the footage, there wouldn't necessarily be audio to go with it. I might be babbling complete nonsense here. Anyone?

Sounds about right... but with Oppenheim's passing, I'm thinking it's all hypothetical now.

Damn - I'd give a lot to see that raw footage. Even mute, we'd learn something.

Not entirely sure on protocol here (and don't fancy being banished to the Bloo as punishment!) so let me just say that there is a site where you can download the whole original program

Unfortunately the site also has links to those type of recordings that we definitely don't own and I wouldn't want to tempt anyone!!

If you Google the fourth line in Surfs Up, should be the first link!

Man.........that was arduous

i'd make the sacrifice of my left nut to get that footage released

Don't do it - what sacrifices would you then have left with which to achieve the release of a SMiLE sessions box?

Thank you very much!

Any suggestions for playing / decoding this on a Mac would be much appreciated!

VLC player for Mac (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html) should play it fine.