The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know not everyone likes this material (too minimal, too stoned, etc, etc...) but I personally enjoy this quirky little window of Beach Boys-ness....its kind of the end of the SMiLE/Smiley Smile era. Bring the Baldwin to Hawaii? Sure! I've heard the boots of both shows & the rehearsal/overdub sessions. I've always been curious about the film element of this project though. There is *some* footage in the American Band & Endless Harmony docs I believe....just how much was filmed for this? It was supposed to be kind of like a Magical Mystery Tour type thing right? Hey and who knows? Now that smile is coming out maybe people will get a hankering for more psychedelic Beach Boys product and this is really the only thing left that is still from that weird, inspired era (wishful thinking  :3d)

None of the film was pro-shot and it was all mute. The whole point about the Hawaii escapade was quick product in the shape of a live album. That Wild Honey exists is entirely due to the live album project going, as we say over here, tits up.

Oh, and a cover was readied. That was Brother 9002.

A page on a really rather good BB website has this to say about Lei'd In Hawaii:

In the wake of the disintegration of Smile, the relative failure of the "Heroes And Villains" 45 and the fiasco of the band's no-show at Monterey Pop, desperate measures were obviously required. Smiley Smile was due to be released in September, and much can be deduced of its perceived commercial potential that these two shows were set up in distant Hawaii with the set intent of producing a live album (and possibly film), to be released on Brother if the press of the time is to be believed (in 2006 it emerged that not only had the album been assigned a catalog number - 9002 - but a cover had been prepared). However, there were considerable problems bedevilling the project from the outset: at least two of the band were operating with decidedly altered perceptions, a state of affairs hardly helped by the refusal of Bruce to travel to Hawaii ("it had all got too weird" he later explained; that he was about the only one not doing some form of drugs is sufficient reason…). Somehow, Brian was cajoled into making the gig, but further complicated matters by insisting on taking his beloved Baldwin organ with him, and staying behind it for the shows, thus forcing Carl or Alan to handle the bass duties that Bruce's absence left vacant, despite neither of them being used to playing it. Chronically under-rehearsed, the band performed poorly, both instrumentally and vocally (although this could partly be down to them performing such unfamiliar live material as "The Letter", "Heroes And Villains" and "Getting' Hungry", the latter doubtless as it was the upcoming 45, as announced during the show), although the audience didn't seem to mind too much. The continual presence of Brian's organ is particularly annoying as the show unfolds Dennis' drumming is (even for him) basic in the extreme, and the tempos vary wildly. However, there are points of interest: during "Surfin'" Brian played a riff ('borrowed' from "Underwater", a top 40 hit by Candix labelmates The Frogmen) that later surfaced prominently on "Do It Again"… and the second show, opened by Dino, Desi & Billy, was prefaced by "Hawthorne Boulevard", an instrumental never heard before or since.
 
After all this, on return to Los Angeles it transpired that the tapes of both shows were unusable: the show of the 26th was simply badly recorded, whilst the previous day's gig would require extensive overdubbing before release. However, in a move that still baffles all BB historians, instead of doctoring the existing tapes the band - including Bruce - decamped to Wally Heider's studio in mid-September and basically re-recorded the whole show 'as live', doubtless with the intention of overdubbing an audience response track later. While these performances were a decided improvement on the August shows, they were also fairly laid-back, and the whole idea was quietly (and wisely) abandoned in favor of recording a new studio album. The intervening years have somewhat clouded the events of late summer 1967, thus the Heider sessions have often been mistakenly presented as rehearsals for the Hawaii shows. While the whole first show (plus the Heider sessions) is available on the Aloha From Hawaii (And Hollywood) bootleg, legal releases of this material have been piecemeal. "The Letter" was included on the 1983 Capitol Rarities album (swiftly withdrawn and unavailable on CD except as an expensive import), "Heroes And Villains" on the 1990 Concert/Live In London 2fer, "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring" (from a real rehearsal) on the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey 2fer, "Surfer Girl" (also a true rehearsal) on the 1993 box set, "God Only Knows" (a Heider recording) on  1998's Endless Harmony and "Good Vibrations" (again a true rehearsal) on Hawthorne, CA in 2001.

If I may chime in here, some thoughts from Alan Boyd:

The "Lei'd In Hawaii" material is definitely home movie footage, silent, shot on 16mm Kodachrome reversal stock. The scenes of Brian with the engineer (and the rest of the group and Marilyn, et al listening) must have been shot backstage at the venue in Honolulu. It's on one of the original rolls of film, along with performance shots, rehearsal shots, and scenes of the entourage's adventures on motorbikes, romping through the jungle, diving into pools, etc.

It's bright backstage there because they had the lights on - the performance footage is dark because the stage wasn't lit for film or video, and there are instances where the film appears speeded up because the cameraman (whom I believe was a member of the group's touring audio crew) knew he had to "under crank" the film (run it slower through the camera for a longer shutter speed) in order to get enough light on the film.

As for the video feed, that has to have been a B&W closed circuit feed set up so that the audio engineer could have some idea visually what was going on onstage - since he was backstage or off to the side, he'd have no other way of seeing what was happening. That's a common practice on mobile recording set-ups.

Those feeds certainly wouldn't have been recorded, at least not at that time. In 1967 recording video was still a pretty big deal - they were still using 2" tape with decks that were about the size of the average washing machine. 2" tape was very expensive stuff... one of the reasons so much early TV is gone is because the networks routinely re-used tape stock. The portable 1/2" B&W decks didn't come into use until the early 1970's, I think - and they weren't considered broadcast quality even then.

One last note - the footage shot of the Hawaii shows isn't comprehensive. The guy filming it was all over the place, grabbing quick bits here and there. There are no complete performances, and most of the shots are quite brief. I had to do some lip-reading to find Carl singing the first lines of "God Only Knows" for the "Endless Harmony" sequence, and I'm sure Malcolm Leo's editor had to do the same for "American Band." The other shots in our Lei'd In Hawaii "God Only Knows" sequence were from random shots of the two shows, and I recall having to slow some things down and move shots around a bit to make it appear as if the shots might have come from the same song.

A cover was readied? as in an album cover?
I never knew that, does anyone have a pic of it?

Before any silent movie fans pick me up on this, of course, the Hawaii footage wasn't mute, as there was no sound to begin with.

And yes, an album cover.

In the light of the upcoming Smile release - it would be nice to hear H&V without Mike's put down... Is the "clean" version available anywhere?

This is an older link I'm reposting here, it has some great info!

Thanks guys, I've read the Bellagio & Wally Heider stuff but hadn't read Alan Boyd's piece about the film footage.....so, all in all -- some half baked footage to accompany the half-baked show....fitting  :smokin

I love the whole "we really don't give a damn about playing well" attitude.  Take the opening of 'The Letter' - absolutely the worst way to start a concert, ever.  No energy whatsoever, and the song doesn't even have a proper ending... it just kind of slowly falls apart.

You can actually hear the audience *forcing* themselves to enjoy this terrible show.

My understanding is there are two complete shows and two rehearsals on tape in the BB archive, correct?

That's correct.

About those shows - it's my understanding one is mixed down in some form to mono, as if it were being readied for something, while the other is more raw. I dont believe either show was fully mastered, except whatever tracks trickled out on Rarities and two-fer "official" releases, but I could be wrong.

Read through the Dale Manquen and Bill Halverson stories about recording those shows, in the link I posted above, and consider how the group was spending an exorbitant amount of money to record those shows. The remote recording technology they were using was about as state-of-the-art as you could be in 1967.

It tells me there might be multitrack masters of those shows in the BB vaults, rather than the mixdowns. I could be wrong. Those would be an interesting find.

By the way-for those who had doubts-in an interview-while rehearsing on August 24th-Brian told a reporter that "We wanted to do another live album where the mood’s good.  And it’s great here.  We’re calling it ‘Lei’d in Hawaii." So that was the album title even at that point.  By the way Brian also stated  that "I had a particular insecurity about traveling, so I stopped doing the live shows with the group.  Now that I’m back again, it’s a bit frightening." While I agree that the concert is flawed-you certainly get no evidence of Brian's stage fright-indeed he basically emcees the show and takes more leads than he ever would again at a Beach Boys show-well...at least till the disastrous 81-82 period without Carl.  One thing's for sure-no live audience would ever hear his falsetto again in such good shape after these shows and the ones in 1970.

What a great intro into what I have to add, because I'd like to clarify some of Alan's quotes, and feel qualified to do so, as the original reels still exists in my archive.  While it's true that the film, quoting A.B.:"is definitely home movie footage, silent, shot on 16mm", this was a typical method of Dennis' madness.  Dennis had a very Andy Hardy/Little Rascal type psyche, a sort of 'let's put on a show/let's make a movie!' enthusiasm that often got the better of him...  By this I mean he often felt that you just needed to start filming, and it would all just happen!  Sometimes it did, however, the strange thing is that Dennis always felt sound was an afterthought.  As brillant as he was in the studio, he always felt that as long as things were being recorded, you could sync them later - in spite of being shown over & over again that you couldn't, especially if you weren't filming in sync.
That being said, there are examples of 100' reels that he thought out & plotted, little complete 3 minute movies, like the piece with Carl on the bicycle.  To view it raw, with multiple takes as it moves to it's conclusion, shows the brilliance in his mind.  That, and the things where he filmed multiple images in the camera, where you could see he had great cinematic potential.  But where the Beach Boys were concerned, it was mainly, "Let's get get it on film!", and we'll do something in post later...  A.B.: "It's bright backstage there because they had the lights on - the performance footage is dark because the stage wasn't lit for film or video", is an understatement, because the stage lighting was still so primitive at that time.  However, being Kodachrome film, when the lighting was sufficient, (particularly outdoors), there were some beautiful images, including in the control room!  And yeah, it's a shame that there isn't footage from the video feed.  There's a similar sequence where The Boys are gathered in the control room watching themselves, and fortunately that tv stuff exists. 
Two last A.B. comments, first regarding who shot the footage, "the cameraman (whom I believe was a member of the group's touring audio crew)"; now, I don't know if Alan has confirmed that any further than this guy having told me that - and I seriously don't believe he was capable of it...  We only know that Dennis couldn't have shot too much of this himself this time, as he's in most of it!  Finally,"One last note - the footage shot of the Hawaii shows isn't comprehensive. The guy filming it was all over the place, grabbing quick bits here and there. There are no complete performances..."  This is true, but also the reason this footage is the source of such a variety of footage, including the guys on minibikes, and diving off cliffs.  Gosh, I've gotta' transfer that stuff to Hi-def...

What an absolutely bizarre moment in the band's history.  Didn't somebody say something like "the band had ceased to function" about that time?

One thing that nobody ever talks about is Bruce's refusal to go to Hawaii.  He's also, if you listen closely, conspicuously absent from SMILEY SMILE (barring the vocals that were recorded for SMILE).  Think about the political implications of this...Bruce is low man on the corporate totem pole; a sort of phantom member, and he basically flat-out refuses to go or participate in the sessions?  Carl has to play the bass onstage?  Why wasn't he fired at that point?  I'm not saying he didn't have perfectly good reasons, I'm just saying that, given his position in the band, I'm surprised that after the Hawaii thing was over he was back in the fold like nothing ever happened.  It sounds like Bruce came very close to leaving the band in 1967, and the band wasn't much concerned about it until the Brian trip to Hawaii fell flat on its face.

The bizarre instrumentation, including Dennis' minimal drum kit, implies that Brian rearranged the band's entire live show from the ground up for LEI'D IN HAWAII (this may be part of the reason for the Wally Heider sessions, to make sure those arrangements were captured on tape). Artistically, this is really fascinating, but what a bad idea for a live album!  You have three elements that make it doomed to fail, all touched on in this thread:  the band's unfamiliarity with the arrangements and, for EVERY member, the instrumental role they're dealing with (Al and Carl - bass; Dennis - smaller kit; Brian - being there at all; Mike - theremin), plus the absence of someone they've been used to playing with onstage (Bruce); the disastrous pacing of the songs; and the very inappropriate laid-back arrangement style for a live concert.  It was like trying to do an unplugged show at a rock concert in '67.  Again, artistically intriguing, but doomed to fail.  If the band had really prepared for this and picked a more appropriate venue, it could have worked I suppose...but, wow.

I have to wonder if this wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back as far as Brian's leadership of the band.  It may be that with SMILEY SMILE there was a brief moment where the group thought it could get back to its 5-piece rock band roots, and that Brian might return to touring, and everything would be fine again.  And then it didn't happen, and then things proceeded as they did.  LEI'D IN HAWAII might be a much more pivotal moment in the band's history than previously expected...

And send a copy my way! :3d

That's been my theory for years...great minds think alike :D

I've always loved the Hawaii footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjbNwl0EKkY&feature=channel_video_title

I've seen that in print somewhere, from a contemporary source.

Bingo - found it, sent to me by some ne'er-do-well called... Rishton, I think it was.

Teen Set, 1/68, in Earl Leaf's roundup:

Now it can be told: Brian Wilson's head was so spaced out for months that he could hardly communicate or commit his songs to wax. You'll note the "Smiley Smile" album bore the credit "Produced by The Beach Boys" instead of the usual Brian Wilson credit... Bruce Johnston quit the team. Concert tours were cancelled... It gives me great pleasure to relay what the other Beach Boys told me: Brian's head is turned around straight again... Bruce is back.

From internal evidence (Smiley Smile is mentioned, the "Wild Honey" 45 isn't), it seems this was written in late September/early October 1967... which fits very nicely with Adam's analysis.

It always amazes me how much new information there is to learn about Leid In Hawaii, and this after questioning several people who have been quoted above. Thank you to Ed Roach and everyone for all the great stuff in this thread!

That TV monitor feed was what I asked both Dale Manquen and Alan Boyd about some years ago, if I recall...so the suggestion is that the TV feed shown being watched by the band in at least one clip still exists? Would it be on a 2" videotape if it did? I've never heard of anything like that possibly surviving, so this is very exciting news!

I'll have something more on this very soon...

(EDIT) I thought I could post a few photos from the film but I don't have the formats lined up to make it work...will hopefully have them soon.

 Now, see, this is a primo example of why I sometimes get really annoyed - you're not reading the original post properly. Here's what it says, my emphasis added in the hope that this time you'll read the salient sentence:

"As for the video feed, that has to have been a B&W closed circuit feed set up so that the audio engineer could have some idea visually what was going on onstage - since he was backstage or off to the side, he'd have no other way of seeing what was happening. That's a common practice on mobile recording set-ups.

Those feeds certainly wouldn't have been recorded, at least not at that time."

So, it couldn't have survived... because it never existed.

Alan synched an original print of Lei'd to the eight-track live recording of God Only Knows, which appears in EH.

Now this is why I sometimes get annoyed too, especially the overall tone which I definitely don't appreciate:

FIRST: That re-posted information was a direct answer to my very own question asked to Alan Boyd years ago (2005?) after writing numerous long posts on Hawaii in various forums and trying to research the Hawaii concerts, and finding those few frames of film that showed the concert being shown on a TV monitor as they were mixing the show, as best as I could see from that film. I've spent hours and many emails and other communications trying to figure out what exactly was going on in Hawaii from many angles, in this case the film itself (Mr. Boyd) and the actual nuts-and-bolts engineering of the show (Mr. Manquen). Short of Bill Halverson and Ed Roach who has already chimed in, those sources are pretty much the go-to guys for info about the recording and film.

NEXT: This is the quote I was referring to, from Ed Roach, posted above:

And yeah, it's a shame that there isn't footage from the video feed.  There's a similar sequence where The Boys are gathered in the control room watching themselves, and fortunately that tv stuff exists. 

To emphasize: "that tv stuff exists".

My response to that: Hooray! And *what* tv stuff is Ed Roach talking about? Sounds like something from one of the Hawaii films. I was excited to hear any TV stuff exists, which was my question about the 2" tape because that was how TV video was preserved in 1967. Just curious what's out there and excited about the possibility of what it may be.

I'd suggest if the post about the "existing" TV stuff is somehow annoying, Mr. Roach is the guy to ask for clarification.  :-D

Interesting footage, however ,the music is quite bizarre!

You may as well be butting your head against a brick-wall my friend! This guy would never admit it even if he knew was wrong.

I just wanted to post this coincidental thing to this thread....

I'm at the St. Charles show right now (intermission; almost stepped on Dylan on my way to the loo). They did "You're So Good To Me," and so help me, God, he came in too early in the end just like on the Wally Heider version, aka "Lei'd In Hawaii Rehearsal."

A while ago someone posted a picture cover of a fictious-released Lei'd In Hawaii LP from a webpage of fake album covers or something like that. Now I can't find it anywhere? Anyone could help?
Thanks.

I have stake in this conversation

Haha! That's what's great about it! Gettin Hungry is great! Mike and Brian sound amazing. This is classic, strange stuff.

I LOVE the "that's it" at the end of Gettin' Hungry.