The Smiley Smile Message Board

Bill Tobelman, who's written about Smile a fair amount over the years, posted that he was told about a "SMILE box coming out in May."  Second (third?) hand information to be sure (rumor was from a record store cashier who had heard it from Capitol at a record store event), but it adds a little more smoke to what hopefull will be FiRE...

I don't believe it myself. SMiLE yes....But a record store? :lol

If it doesn't happen, I will never, ever buy anything from that record store.

Something I've been curious about, was any work done on SMiLE by Carl during the early 70s? That is besides the completion of Surf's Up? Did they just take all the tapes out, listen to them, and then put them back? If Smile had been promised to Warners, and Mike Love was promoting it at shows, what would stop Carl from doing at least a little work on it?

 ;D ;D ;D ;D

The bad news is that the cashier's source was Capitol Records representative Dick Reising (who, by the way, is one of the greatest guys I've ever met in my life). 

From what I've read, it was essentially exactly as you said - Carl and Desper listened to the tapes, made safety copies, then put them back.  Maybe they didn't realize what they were getting into, and felt that Brian was the only person who could ever make sense of it all and actually finish the album.

You know if this turns out to be true, I'd say May, 2011 must be when all the planets in the solar system align or something. Not only Smile but also Duke Nukem Forever. Two impossible things people thought would never happen, I'm sure children born in May will be the vanguard of a new race of supermen.

:lol

Bill's post, although nowhere near concrete evidence, does shine a bit more hope on the possibility of a summer release. May would be much earlier than I'd anticiapte. Let's hope there's something in these chinese whispers!

Letsmakeit's prediction that we'd all have something to smile about come the end of April may not be too far from the truth!

Chinese whispers is a good term, Buddha...

No disrespect at all to Bill, or indeed to Jeff, but this could have come from a store assistant who heard it from Capitol at a record store event, via a Capitol Executive who'd read it on the SmileySmile board where it'd been reported following an Al Jardine interview posted online.

Classic.  ;D

Is this the same guy who had dinner with Andy Paley?

Seriously though, there is something in the air - hopefully it's not just Al Jardine's farts.

Is it true that Al refers to his farts as The Santa Anna Winds?

Winds of Change.

Possibly. But I don't think so this time. I remain, as I have been for some time, optimistic that interesting times lie immediately ahead.

I believe it too Andrew, just that I wouldn't rely on this as evidence!  ;)

I'm not.  8)

"On his porch, thinkin' about the torch," he's gonna light under his hiiiiind end.

Swedish frog.

He stays At His Window when they start a-blowin'.

If Al ever gives anyone a lift, be sure to roll down the windows as Al's been known to Honk down the Highway.

If I remember correctly Desper has said Carl DID do some work on the tapes before abandoning the project, not just transferring them to 8 track tape.  What's unclear is WHAT work he might have done - vocal or instrumental overdubs, and on what?  Could be Stephen is thinking about Surf's Up which was overdubbed in 70?  It's possible whatever overdub Carl did was wiped because it was unsatisfactory as well. 

Pulling info from a number of sources (including a most enjoyable day spent with SWD in LA), my impression of what happened is that he & Carl gathered all the available tapes, listened to them, realised they couldn't piece anything worthwhile together and returned them to the vault, but before they did that, they made safety copies of everything, which as it turns out was a very wise thing to do. I don't get the feeling that there was any further recording. The upshot, of course, was that they had to return $50,000 to Reprise (or more accurately, said sum was deducted from their next advance).

Hopefully the liner notes to any forthcoming Smile Sessions release will address this question. We'll see, and hopefully soon. Ish.

Not to drop any hints or anything... ;D

Unless there's an official announcement in the next two weeks or so, I'm afraid that a May release just isn't happening.  Capitol isn't going to unleash a package like this without a couple months (at least) worth of hype.

There was enough promotion done in '66/'67  ;)

Why May ?

Isn't that what the Capitol person said to record store person?

Ah.  Well, we'll see.

You're just screwing with us, aren't you?  :lol

The Beach Boys' name evokes Summer, so my best guess would be to release it no later than the end of June. It is not summer music, but the Boys' have been pigeonholed as a Summer band.

Doe - Do you know something we don't?!! The above seems loaded to me but maybe just a case of whishful thinking on my part.

Seriously though, have you talked to anybody nearer the inside who might've indicated that this smile release is on? A typically cryptic AGD response will suffice!  :)

Go on AGD!

 ;) for yes.
 :( for no.

Dare you!

I think the general assumption here - that is, this MB: Mr. Hoffman will disagree - is not if but rather when.  :spin

I think you're right to jump all over Andrew; however, I'd be jumping on him for this overlooked response on the previous page of this thread:

My caffeine deprived brain conjured up some scenario in about 1975 where Brian, coked off his mind, marches boldly into Capitol and smokes some of the Smile tapes before the staff down the vaults figure out why that slightly awkward 300lb dude was wearing a dressing gown, constantly wiping his nose, and gave a damn about session tapes in the first place. Too little, too late.

He tells the band during a lull in conversation at the next session, "I burnt the Smile tapes!"

Mike shakes Brian by the hand, Al & Bruce weep as they suddenly see their comfortable retirements sliding away in a endless dirge of singing 'Fun Fun Fun' to middle America, Dennis asks where he can get some, and Carl just gives a knowing SMiLE.


These essays still aren't getting done, y'know  ::)

So what are you hinting at?  That the CW/SWD "safety copies" have been located and fill in some of the gaps?

I don't have LLVS in front of me, but weren't these "safety copies" mentioned in an article in the early '70s in which Carl told the story of a tape (The Old Master Painter?) being accidentally shredded and (almost) thrown away?

Not at all, I have no knowledge of such things. I'm merely hinting that perhaps AGD is hinting that he might have. Or might not.  See? Perfectly clear!

I feel I can only repeat what Charlie Sheen said a day or so ago:

"What it was isn't what you thought it is, because it is what it is, because you claim so, because you confirm it, because you insist that it is what it is. And therefore, it ain't what it ain't."

I think that explains everything.  ;D

YES, Of Course.

That sounds like Al's announcements.

have you been at the tiger blood again, agd?!

LMAO

WINNING!!!

Could a radio station legally play the Smile promo (with GV in the background) that's on most boots?

Legally ? Unless it's from the original disc and they have clearance from Capitol, no.

Curious why this question came up - unless someone has a radio show and wants to play it!

Speaking in the US: There *is* a grey area with this kind of thing. If a radio show is syndicated and sold to other markets, there has to be all kind of permission and payments and fees and all of that to play something "unreleased". Think of your local Elvis shows, the Sinatra shows, some Beatles shows, etc. If they're syndicated you usually won't hear anything really rare or unreleased.

However, I know of several un-syndicated radio shows usually dedicated to one band or artist which regularly, and I do mean regularly, feature unreleased tracks, alternate takes, etc. I'm sure everyone's city or town has something similar - again, if it's not syndicated the grey area kicks in.

Example: Let's say the DJ plays an early take of "Day Tripper". If the station logs the song with the various groups and agencies as having played "Day Tripper" at 4:15 pm on a Thursday, it's been paid for, logged, and who will check if that station played take 1 or the original released version? There is the grey area. If they get paid for one airing of GV, will they raid your station to make sure it was the official version?

So if you work for a commercial station, have a show which is not syndicated, and wish to play that GV/Smile promo, it could fall into that grey area if you log it as having played Good Vibrations at the time you played it. Everyone gets paid, they're happy if you log it as playing whatever copyrighted music is featured.

If the complaints start flying in, though, it's a different story. :)

And these folks are now coming after Murry Wilson cartoons on YouTube, so watch for the black helicopters and mysterious clicks on your telephone if you do air it... ;D

I only asked because I saw at the top of the thread about getting a lot of promotion back in 66/67, so I was thinkin of Smile getting released now and what promotion could be used.
I do not have a radio station, but it'd be awesome though, I'd have the urge to play whole albums and only album tracks from my favorite bands. I'm surprised there aren't any radio stations, at least I haven't heard of, that play whole albums on the air.

The 'Million Units In Jan' promo was only used for record label use, and not for public consumption, iirc

speaking of that promo, was it re-recorded for the Beautiful Dreamer doc?
It's used on there but sounds like a different voice-over.

Yeah, it definitely was - Sounds like Nick doing the voiceover.

Right, it's not a radio spot as commonly identified...I can't imagine an advertisement boasting something like "we're sure to sell a million units in January!".  Personally, if I heard an ad like that, I'd make sure the last thing I ever did was buy the damn thing! 

When David Leaf was assembling "Beautiful Dreamer" he asked me to send him the cleanest version of the SMiLE advert that I had -- which was a second-generation cassette.  They must have run into clearance issues, because as has been mentioned, they ended up re-creating it for the documentary.

I also sent him Brian's "And ever since I blew my mind everything's been so groovy" quote from the Columbia Records "Rock and Other Four-Letter Words" LP.  Again unused, likely due to clearance issues.


Lee

Nick....Venet? or from Brian's band?

Agreed. One of the funniest ever...  :lol

Hopefully not Venet: he died in January 1998.  :o

Now I think I dare to believe it.

"We're sure to sell a million units... er... sometime."

I'm thinking the clearance issues for that Smile promo were related to Capitol more than anything else - since BWPS didn't involve Capitol at all and I think Brian and company wanted to distance themselves from 1966-67 with the project anyway. If that was even possible! But that re-record was kind of odd thinking back on it.

Wasn't there a discussion on this board several months ago where it was posted there may be *one* original copy known to exist of the salesman's promo album that had the Smile message? I guess it wasn't something a Capitol salesman would necessarily keep since they probably got a handful of them every week in their job.

 :lol yup. I think I will have my body frozen with cryogenics after my death. Just in case.

I didn't know if we were talking about the original voice over from 66-67 or the newer voice-over.

New voiceover is not the reanimated Venet, but sadly Walusko

The one "known" copy resides in the collection of a UK board member.
Plenty of other similar Capitol promos have survived, so it would seem odd that there haven't been more show up. one factor may be there aren't any tracks listed on the labels, and the label itself might lead a lot of people to think it holds mostly classical and "crap" music and pitch it. 

    (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww302/bgasnow/SmileSPRO4231pic.jpg)

If anyone want's to hear what Lee Dempsey was talking about where Brian says "And ever since I blew my mind everything's been so groovy" you can find it on this page:
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/365_days_project/page/2/

It's on track 1 of Rock & Other 4-letter Words.

Thanks Bill - where did that little quote come from?  Sounds like something from a Smile Vosse posse recording.

Brian's Vosse Posse era recordings often centered around a "set of values." This may be an Arthur Koestler matrix type of thing brought into play via chanting (also cool with Koestler). The idea is to bring about the dream-like state of mind.

Brian's "everything's been so groovy" quote seems down with the direction of the late sixties. He's part of the movement.

It was released on Rock And Other Four Letter Words (Columbia Masterworks MS 7193) in October 1968: the vocal clips were recorded specifically for the project.

Very interesting - thanks AGD!

That's not to say that the quotes weren't 100% accurate as to what the speakers felt & believed was it?

Actually that quote may be completely Brian's idea.

I was merely underlining that the clip was not, as suggested by an earlier poster, extracted from one of the Smile era recordings. Purely historical information, not metaphysical musing, on my part.