The Smiley Smile Message Board

Why weren't these albums part of the
reissue series of a couple years ago?

My question exactly.  To me, BB 85, Still Cruisin' and Summer in Paradise all form a cool body of late period work with electronics.  Nevermind the fact that "Still Cruisin'" eventually went platinum.  Who but the Beach Boys could have a PLATINUM album go out of print?!  Unbelievable.  Just like most of the two-fers, SC and SIP go hand in hand.

Regardless of whether you think it's awesome or you think it sucks, no albums from arguably the greatest American band should be out of print!  Even Stars and Stripes should be in print from somewhere.

The reissue series focused upon albums released under the Brother Records imprint, which were the Warner/Caribou albums.  No one wanted to reissue SIP, and I can see why.  Star and Stripes would not be worth the reissue.  You probably have a case for Still Crusin, but it is not hard to find used.

Frankly, I still want a rarities release that acknowledges the great volume of good music unreleased 1970 and beyond.  Endless Harmony gave just a hint, and Hawthorne barely acknowledged that the band continued past the Capitol contract.  Do THAT before a reissue of Still Crusin or SIP, please....

I definitely agree that a rarities compilation would be pissah.  I wouldn't have so much of a problem with SC, SIP and SAS1 being out of print if at least *some* of the songs were available elsewhere on other compilations.  Out of those three albums (if you exclude the three classics at the end of SC), Kokomo is the only song available on any compilation.  That's sad.  SIP certainly doesn't rank among the band's best work, but there are some great songs on there (Lahaina, Strange Things Happen, Island Fever and Still Surfin' come to mind).  Frankly, SIP is still better than 15BO in my opinion.

The Beach Boys' rarities set, subtitled "Brother Rarities" is finished and has been for several years. It's in limbo, however, due to record company indifference.

I knew it had been proposed, but are you saying it was compiled and mastered?????

Now I AM mad...

To the best of my knowledge it's finished and mastered. Capitol has it on what seems to be a permanent back-burner. Why, I don't know. I heard it was supposed to be a double disc set. No tracklist has leaked, however.

As far as I know, there is no Brother Rarities compilation.  Tracklists were bounced back and forth, and a demo assembly of potential tracks was sent to the BBs at one point some years ago, but as far as an album being assembled and actually mastered - I don't think so. 

Thanks Alan.

I totally agree.

Thanks for the clarification, Alan.

This brings up another question, however. If there is in fact no Brother Rarities comp, why was such a title given to those "in the know"?

Because people really wanted a Brother Rarities collection - and it was being discussed.  As I recall, there was lots of back-and-forth at Capitol about the idea, and there was also a point when there was a plan to release the Brother albums as single CDs with bonus tracks...but that eventually went away, and Capitol released the two-fers instead.  I'm not sure how or where that decision was made.

Would you work with Capitol in putting together such a compilation provided the band and label both were up for it?

Absolutely - we've been cataloguing, researching and preserving all sorts of unreleased material from the BRI vaults for a couple of years now.  There's a lot of good material in there, including wonderful stuff that's never been booted or even discussed yet.  And we still have a ways to go before we've gone through it all....

Well, that's encouraging. At least something's being done.

My understanding is that it was the band itself who scuttled the single CDs with bonus tracks in favor of the twofers.  How that might have affected the Brother Rarities is unknown, but if I were to guess, the band has seemed VERY reluctant to let post-Capitol unreleased material to be released.  We have some live tracks, some alternate mixes, and two or three genuine rarities, and that's it -- compared to the 60's era which honestly is very well defined all things considered.

There's a lot of 60s stuff that hasn't even been bootlegged, especially Friends outtakes. Tracks like "Our Happy Home" and "Thank You" come to mind.

Yeah, but don't you feel like the 70's stuff is non-existant by comparison?  What have we really seen outside of a couple of tracks on the box set and Endless Harmony?  The 60's twofers had outtakes galore, plus you have Hawthorne.

We haven't even talked about gathering officially released material that has never been on a BB album, like What'd I Say or Problem Child.

I think it's due to the fact that among the unreleased 70s stuff, there are some absolute clunkers. I would hope that the BBs' horrible rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic won't come out anytime soon, if ever.

On the whole, what's come out on bootlegs is promising, and a suitable, maybe even excellent, release could be made of this material.

You could easily make a single CD of solid tracks from unreleased 70's tracks and never once cue up Battle Hymn.

You could make a double! Maybe a box set, but let's not get greedy.

Too late.  I'm pushing for three-disc box sets of every released album, plus 15 box sets of unreleased rarities.

You'd love my 14 disc collection of unreleased/rare BBs material. Or maybe my 5 CD set of unreleased/rare Brian material. Hell, you might even love the 3 CD set I have dedicated to Mike!

Doubt it.   8)

 ;) ;D ::) :P

Is it called "Lost In Love?"

Actually, it has no name. It's just THERE, yanno?

I'm told there was a wholsale change in top management, those people really interested in doing it right moved on and everything got lost in the shuffle - shame, as the original concept was a killer, for the 1962-69 albums as well as the Brother stuff..

I heard that too. Damn shame. Oh well, life goes on. Now where's my copy of the finished Dennis box set?  :D

Well, if one gets lined up, I'm sure you'll be the first to know.

You must not know how long a Dennis box set has been in the cards.

Still waiting after all these years!

NO beach boys album past holland is worth reissuing other than love you. I mean even now there are primary BBs I want doubles of and the others not so much. Primary- surfer girl, deuce coupe, shutdownvol2, all summer long, today, summer days, pet sounds, smiley, wild honey, 20/20, sunflower, surfs up ,holland and love you....but to the essentialist miu, light album, ktsa, selftitled, still cruisin, summer in paradise were/are not history making quality albums by any means/ and I dont care how much flack I get but with the beatles I put the bookend at revolver; meet the beatles, hard days, help, rubber soul and revolver the primary and for the stones- aftermath and between the buttons....took me years to weed out the albums that werent that great.

I would agree that the post-73 releases are not `quality albums`but I don`t think that means they deserve to pass out of print and into obscurity. A quick look at the Bellagio site also suggests that there are stacks of unreleased songs that could be included on all of the albums up to and including KTSA at least.

For Still Cruisin` it would be nice to see a re-release that included stuff like Rock and Roll to the Rescue (any versions), Kokomo (Spanish version), Make it Big (movie mix), Somewhere Near Japan (single mix), Lady Liberty etc. Even that Little Old Lady From Pasedena recording...

Summer in Paradise would be a harder sell but they could stick the UK versions on there along with Problem Child and Crocodile Rock. Not exactly a classic but if Bruce`s solo albums are considered worthy of a solo release then anything is!  :)

It is a shame that only Pet Sounds, Smile and the Christmas album have thus far had the full rarities treatment.

I disagree. This is the most important and influential rock band America's ever produced. Good, bad or ugly, it should all be available. It's also important for it all to be available because perspectives change. In the 80's, I didn't hear too many fans cite "The Beach Boys Love You" as a favorite album but by the 2000's, nearly all hardcore fans have it near the top of their favorites lists. That happened because it became available.   

Interesting to see the Brothers Rarities tracks mentioned so long ago in this thread. So was the comp Klay found the demo Boyd refers to as being sent to BRI?

Because they suck more than a vacuum cleaner.

Ridiculous statement...if only for the fact that LA Light is a terrific record that was overshadowed by a couple of mistakes.