The Smiley Smile Message Board

Found this link on the blue/black board, has this been discussed here?  Thoughts?

http://mvdb2b.com/b2b/s/BrianWilsonSongwriter19621969/SIDVD561

Never seen it before, cheers for posting. I think hope messrs. Doe and Ames Carlin will chime in with their boundless knowledge.

Amazon lists its release date as Nov 23, 2010.

Yummy.

That sounds fascinating ! Hope we'll get more infos soon !

A "must have", can't wait, Xmas is saved  ;D

I see it's labelled "SEXY INTELLECTUAL" ... well count me in!

Looks very cool indeed...it's about time I added another Beach Boys DVD to my colllection!

What a great time to be a Beach Boys fan! Can't wait to see it!

Is this an 'official' product with new interviews or just another cheap 2 DVD set?
Sounds really good. Can't wait if it's worth something.

anyone wonder why the title stops at 69? I'm sure there won't another volume to cover early 70s or mid 70s. Is it just perhaps the Capitol Years? If it's one of the typical dvds, I'm surprised they didn't use 62-67 (ending right after Good Vibrations).

It will certainly be entertaining for a documentary that might spend more than  5 minutes discussing Smiley-Wild Honey-Friends-20/20-Breakaway.

Any speculation of the 'rare' concert footage? prolly just same old stuff on other dvds, I'd be shocked if there were new stuff. Maybe a video of Good Vibrations (live in Hawaii in 67) with audio from 'live in London'?  ;)  It would be cool to have complete footage of the Boys performing on various tv shows (68/69) but then again, it'd be minus Brian, and it is about his songwriting.

I've checked out the MVD homepage, then looked at some amazon user reviews of their rock/pop product. Um... it all somewhat reminds me of something I got involved with a few years ago (The Beach Boys - Music In Review, which was a rubbish 2DVD set, although the booklet giving the once-over of their albums 1962-1973 was pretty damn good...  ::)), so I'm not doing backflips down the hallway. Would love to be proven wrong, mind.

I've got that DVD set you mentioned, it is indeed rubbish but it was a Beach Boys product so I had to buy it. What was your involvement in the project, you allude to the booklet but it doesn't seem like your writing style? Oh, and just who the hell is Graham McTavish?!

the trick is just to obsess over the bridge to be My baby until every perfect permutation of it comes to you.

To clarify - I did the booklet for the reissue, in the style of the ComGuide, so chances are you've got the original, entirely crap, version.  ;D

The version I have has the booklet only covering the Capitol era and is by a guy called Steven Rosen who seems to think that Surfin USA still warrants a 'C Berry' only songwriting credit! Also, just noticed that the front cover of the DVD states that 1961-1973 is covered, but as mentioned only 1962-1969 are covered, god know what version I've ended up with!

Why stop at 1969? Brian didn't. Many of his greatest moments occurred after 1969, though admittedly they were spread thinly.

I'll dig out my revised (= entirely re-written) booklet and zap it your way. Have to be a Word.doc, sorry.

As a taster, here's the Sunflower entry (please bear in mind this was written a few years ago):

Sunflower
Released August 1970 - #151

Once the Capitol contract was over, it took the band some time to find another home. The problem was twofold: in late 1969, The Beach Boys were viewed as either terminally unhip, commercially washed up, or both, while Brian Wilson was regarded by the music industry as a potential liability. It took then-manager Nick Grillo many months to close a deal with Reprise, the Warner Brothers subsidiary (a pact which included the reactivation of Brother Records), and even then, there was a proviso – Brian Wilson would be actively involved in the new album.

In the event, Brian did contribute significantly to an album that was, if anything, more of a collection of odd tracks than 20/20. As released, Sunflower was the second attempt at delivering an album Reprise found acceptable (the initial offering, Add Some Music, was rejected for the perceived lack of a strong single) and comprised tracks recorded as long ago as January 1969, plus another Smile cameo. This said, Sunflower is widely held to be the best “group” album of the band’s career, with all members contributing towards the final, and impressive, result. The material and performances alike are strong, and The Beach Boys never sounded better, thanks to Steve Desper’s warm yet detailed production (utilising for the first time a 16-track machine installed at Brian Wilson’s home studio). The one thing the album wasn’t was successful: for whatever reason the public turned their back on it and it failed to crack the Top 150 of the US LP chart, easily the worst chart placing for a Beach Boys studio album to date.

Once again, Dennis Wilson showed his creative star to be still in the ascendant. If the pseudo-funk of ‘Got To Know The Woman’ dipped a toe over the line marked “parody”, the balance was more than redressed by his other three compositions. Although unsuccessful as a single, ‘Slip On Through’ was infinitely more convincing: the instrumental track throbs, Brian Wilson’s falsetto soars and behind one of Dennis’s best lead vocals, the rest of the band weave a complex vocal tapestry. Better still was ‘It’s About Time’, a no-nonsense rocker with younger brother Carl effortlessly finding the groove and never leaving it, but best of all, and very probably Dennis’s crowning moment, was ‘Forever’, an achingly lovely ballad featuring some of the best group vocals on the LP and a truly heartfelt lyric.

Bruce Johnston’s offerings confirmed the musical path indicated by his instrumental on 20/20. Lush, more pop than rock and flawlessly executed, both ‘Deirdre’ and ‘Tears In The Morning’ adhered to the overall sound of the album, yet still managed to seem slightly detached despite sterling backing from the rest of the band. Also sung by Bruce, Alan Jardine’s main offering, ‘At My Window’, borrowed heavily from The Kingston Trio’s ‘Raspberries, Strawberries’ but managed to provide two surprises in Brian Wilson’s stilted spoken French part and a charming choral tag that would be reprised on the following album.

Brian Wilson may not have been too obviously audible on Sunflower, but showed a solid compositional presence on five of the dozen tracks. As with Dennis Wilson, if ‘Our Sweet Love’. Carl Wilson’s sole (co-)composer credit, meandered amiably if to no great intent, at least the journey was a pleasant one, and his remaining contributions ranged from excellent to outstanding. ‘Add Some Music To Your Day’, a precious ode to the universality of music, saw the lead vocal handed from member to member with effortless grace, underpinned with a backing vocals swirl of considerable intricacy. “Nice” wasn’t the word. For Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s ‘All I Wanna Do’, engineer Steve Desper created an amazing aural landscape of time-delayed vocals, outrageous echo and fathomless reverb, thus transforming a simple love song into a near-mystical experience. Factor in one of Love’s better lyrics and vocals, and Brian’s synth washes and slabs, and you’ve got something very special. ‘This Whole World’, a solo Brian Wilson composition, was something else too, a sparkling jewel that took less than two minutes to traverse more key changes than most bands manage in a career, draped with a backing vocal pad of cosmic unity and a crystalline Carl Wilson lead vocal. 118 seconds and not a single one of them wasted or misused.

And then… there’s ‘Cool, Cool Water’, an impressionistic, languid and undeniably evocative mood piece of great charm and quality. Originally recorded during the Wild Honey sessions, the piece owed its genesis to a riff from ‘I Love To Say Da Da’, the water section of “The Elements” from Smile. While the second section was cut just before Sunflower was released, and the first section is very likely the Wild Honey recording, the bridging vocal chant section (sometimes referred to as “the thunderstorm”) is an actual Smile era recording, overlaid with a synthesiser wash. The very mundane nature of the second part’s lyric, replete with synthesised water drops, engages: truly, music that makes you smile.

Wonderfully written AGD. Definitely not the version I owned which had garbage liner notes.

I agree, but you know how 'typical' documentaries are, they love mixing up the facts...basically making the 70s his resting time until 76 for the Brian's back tour....An American Band does it (I think) and Endless Harmony kind of hints at it, but sometimes, we just don't have enough time for our fav eras in the BB career.

It's possible that the creators of this DVD 1) are going to go into enough detail that they simply thought it would not work to try to smash a few more decades into a single product; 2) plan a second release with later music (as the "Under Review" or whatever it's called did with Queen and Leonard Cohen); 3) figured the hits more or less stopped in the '60s and for some reason were good enough to give those less-hit-ful (tm) last couple years. Or 4) I don't know.

Got back a couple of responses from people mentioned in the publicity blurb, and I'm feeling somewhat better about it now. Not back flips good, but... better.  ;D

Can you blag a free copy Andrew, then you can tell us all if it's worth shelling out for!  ;D

That's a damn fine notion.  ;D

The fact that it's centered around Brian rather than The Beach Boys gives me hope that it won't be just a bunch of stock footage of surfers with a nameless collection of talking heads giving their misguided commentary.

Will I be able to pop into Borders and buy this on impulse, as I like to do, when I feel like it, any day shortly after release, as is my habit since the 60's?


In other words, is this product old fart user friendly?  Or must one jump through cyber hoops to get it?

i'll def be looking to y'alls reviews to see if i get it

AGD -

I've got "The Beach Boys Videobiography" written by Andrew Doe and John Tobler.  It's a book that contains one DVD, which I have not yet gotten around to watching, and a write up on each of the BB albums thru The Beach Boys in Concert (with an erroneous cover photo of Beach Boys' Concert for the 1973 album).  I have not yet read the book either, but I do see that the Sunflower writeup is identical to the one you posted in this thread.

For some reason, there is no copyright date to be found anywhere in the 72 page book, which looks to be very well written and definitely a keeper.  Could you tell me when this was published, or when the text was written?  I'd like to know, for historical purposes, as perspectives can change over time, especially when newly discovered info comes to light.

Has anybody read "Endless Summer: My Life with the Beach Boys" by Jack Lloyd, released on July 26?

http://www.amazon.com/ENDLESS-SUMMER-LIFE-BEACH-BOYS/dp/1593931131/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3N9RA5GE6VEN&colid=25GWJG6WZIJL5

I wrote the text early spring 2007.

I have not, but thanxx for pointing it out! 
This could be interesting

Review from

http://www.beachboys.com/booksI.html

REVIEW:  Another book by another "insider" - Jack Lloyd's Endless Summer: My Life with The Beach Boys is readable, but filled with so much behind-the-scenes business deals and sleazy recounting of bedroom antics that I found it a dire experience.  Hired by Irving Granz to run the Beach Boys concerts (selling programs, counting the box office, and eventually doing promotional work), the author spends a great amount of time talking about the shady dealings behind the scenes, which included a lot of graft, a lot of theft, and a lot of favors.  Not only does he talk about The Beach Boys, but other acts that Granz handed him, including Sonny and Cher, The Pickle Brothers, and Paul Revere and the Raiders, to name but a few.  Fresh out of college, Lloyd learns the business from the ground up, and although he mostly paints himself with a virtuous brush, he has no qualms about showing the seamier side of show biz - with multiple lurid accounts of after-concert drunken orgies, drug use, stupid pranks, and irresponsible behavior, so that anyone who reads this will likely have any pre-conceptions about the personal lives of the Beach Boys irrevocably shattered.  No one is spared - Carl, Alan, Mike, Bruce and Dennis all have their exploits splashed over the pages, and Lloyd veers wildly between dry recounting of contracts, money disputes, graft, and white collar theft and sad, turgid scenes of young girls constantly prostituting themselves for the band and other hangers-on.  And despite the author's claim in the introduction that he limited both the foul language and the scenes of sexual escapades, this is a very R-rated book.  Since the author's time with the band was during the late 1960s, there are brief mentions of both the Maharishi and Charles Manson, but because Lloyd was primarily a business associate, his meetings with both were brief, and add little to the canon of knowledge.  Most comparable to Steven Gaines' seamy Heroes and Villains, Endless Summer tries hard to balance dry business facts with bedroom sleaze, and generally succeeds - unfortunately, it all left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and a little less respect for The Beach Boys.

Sounds like a fine read for long wintery evenings, with a good Pinot Noir within reach. Real literature. I will purchase it.

Reading Lloyd's book now -  I agree with the review from BBs.com though, it's not a pleasant read, it's not very well written and the Beach Boys don't come out of it too well...  so far that is, I'm not very far into it yet. Possibly the sleaziest BBs read yet.

In fact, possibly a future collector's item as I'm sure one band member or another is bound to sue sooner or later, which might lead to the book being pulped or withdrawn.

Dang, better go buy a box of them now!

i just did....  :)

Whether or not it's comparable to the Gaines book, I'll buy it. If you're a real fan, you'll read/hear both sides. I enjoy reading about the crust and the crumbs just as much as the bread itself. We don't know that much about the Beach Boys in the late 60's - Manson being an exception. And we still don't know everything about that!

Personally, I really liked the Gaines book, as long as it was factual........  ;D

Love the sleaze - as long it's factual.  So they had sexual escapades with fans?  Oh the horrors!  I suspect their backstage antics are a bore compared to some bands, like Led Zeppelin.  But I'm all over it!

Ever read Richard Cole's 'Stairway to Heaven'? Not much info on the band's musical abilities but mostly a great laugh when it comes to Zeppelin's pranks and antics.

Speaking of new books I just saw this on amazon

http://www.creationbooks.com/creation-titles/SURFINWITHSATAN.html (http://www.creationbooks.com/creation-titles/SURFINWITHSATAN.html)

 :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

well, looks like after this post you moved a few of the books for him. when i placed my orders earlier the book was ranked  715,000 something on amazon. right now it is ranked 54,623. not high but still a big jump up from earlier.

"No one is spared - Carl, Alan, Mike, Bruce and Dennis all have their exploits splashed over the pages, and Lloyd veers wildly between dry recounting of contracts, money disputes, graft, and white collar theft and sad, turgid scenes of young girls constantly prostituting themselves for the band and other hangers-on. "  This may seem awfully un-pc now, but I'd be surprised if this wasn't the case with most bands/singers of that era or later, famous or not.

yeah i would assume it was like that. 

Okay, more than half-way through the book now.

Poorly written and very poorly copy-edited.

Some of the book is taken up with dull and uninteresting tales of checking the books after gigs, securing dates for support acts (not pimping, of course).

Couple of counters to David Leaf's book but minor fluff.

There's one account of 17 guys having relations with one girls in the same room at the same time (she called in support) but even the salacious stuff is poorly handled. Nowhere near on a par with any of the Led Zep biogs, for example.

This comes across as a bit player telling tales after school. Maybe less than ten per cent of the book is interesting so far.

And amazingly so far, for a book about the Beach Boys – even one that handles life on the road rather than in the studio – Brian hasn't been mentioned. Almost like he didn't exist.

Thanks for helping me save some of my cash. So it'll be a porn DVD tonight then. Ah, well, never mind...

Again?

Well, I'm tired of Tracy XXX and Sensi Lubbe by now. I know every still. Time for something fresh.

Ahh, I was so counting on this being a really great read, since trading emails with his daughter last year? 
Seeing as how it sounds like a book written mostly about life on the road, it's probably not too surprising that Brian is missing. It's possible the author never even met Brian.
Guess it's better to wait for the inevitable Made for TV movie, which, if the book is as bad as you say, will surely happen. 

wouldn't it be something if a 2nd volume of this dvd came out for the 70s era? Had some remarkably rare demos for say: American Spring? (like the demo for Awake? btw, when was this recorded?) Anyways, wouldnt it be awesome to hear him sing Sweet Mountain with just a piano accompany?
perhaps more 73-75 material? 

only in my dreams

Gigs & sessions 1971 (http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs71.html)

Just finished Lloyd's book. The only good thing I can say about it is that there are some great, previously unpublished photos of the guys in it.

The rest, well there are lots of self-repetition, at least one factual error (regarding where the BBs were when MLK was shot), and plenty of sleaze that doesn't add anything worthwhile to the story.

Where does the author "think" the BBs were when MLK was shot?

Memphis, about go onstage for their show that night, which was actually scheduled for April 17th at the time of the shooting. According to AGD's site, they were in Nashville instead.

I was living in Memphis at the time. The BBs wound up playing there a week later than originally scheduled, on April 24th.

Given that MLK was shot on the 4th, not the 17th, well... makes you wonder about some of the other stuff. At best, that's lousy research/checking. On the 4th, the band were en route to the first stop of the tour, Nashville on the 5th.

Haven't even seen the book yet, but from the accounts here, I'd say the author( or whomever actually wrote/co-wrote it. Maybe they got some help from Todd Gold?) didn't bother with research or checking what they had against real world details. They took this guy's "diary" and published it. cut and dried. 
 I know I traded emails with this guy's ( Jack Lloyd)  daughter in the last couple of years; just wish I had thought to keep copies. Pretty sure they were selling some BBs stuff on Ebay. ( not that it matters)

Not much to go by but here's a short preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGjRMhzlKe4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGjRMhzlKe4)

Looks good, looks like a quality project (even though it's a tad odd to see a piano sound coming out of a Baldwin !).

while the book has many errors and there is a lot of stuff that may be exploitive in it.  There is a lot of factual info in there.  It's clear that he intermixes tours in his memory.  For example he is talking about the Aug 68 tour and then suddenly veers off into the August 66 tour.  But he clearly had notes about certain tours-notably the Oct 68 tour-that no one else has volunteered.  I was unaware of the Oct 18 1968 Knoxville show but sure enough I confirmed it from the local newspaper-his info for that tour is far more correct than Keith Badman's.  Probably because he was on that tour without Duryea and had to keep accurate box office notes.  He also provides important info on the May 69 tour (again there is a problem with his memory-he says he quit in April 69 but he was on the May 2-4 1969 tour).  Indeed in NME Mike discussed how he missed a show because he was in India and sure enough Lloyd supplies the show-May 2 1969 in Norman.  That Lloyd was indeed on that tour is confirmed by an article I have from Omaha for May 4-in which he is interviewed backstage.  So-when he was actually road manager-without Duryea he has accurate notes-but clearly in April 68 he was not keeping them.

Got any idea who were the first two narrators pictured?  David was easy

The first one is Russ Titleman, I think.

Well, the first one is Bruce Johnston!

Second is indeed Russ Titleman.

The third is Anthony DeCurtis (a writer for Rolling Stone among other publications).

The fourth is David Marks.

Oops, yeah, I meant 2 and 3.