The Smiley Smile Message Board

Ok its late at night for me, I'm only going by an hour or so of listening to a few of my own selection's from a complete Spotify version, plus whatever has been released this last week which has been the live stuff.

I've been concentrating on the live cuts mainly for a dose of some Carl Wilson brilliance.

After the many discussions about auto-tune on the C50 products, it is beautiful to hear his voice live again UNTOUCHED.

Vegetables is a great little track and Carl's leads on Wonderful, I Can Hear Music are exceptional to these ears, but enjoy them all.

Lucky You!
Here in Australia, only selected tracks - luckily that includes "Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again" - are available on Spotify.
In fact out of disc 6 for example, only two tracks are available!

So we kick your a*s in rugby and Spotify on the same day. Sweet! :lol

No sign of samples yet on iTunes, which is a surprise.

What are the new lyrics added to the extended mix of Meant For You?

It's About Time live is sheer brilliance. Could they rock or what? Amazing performance. Ricky was a great drummer.

A bit silly, actually, but this song does deserve to be a bit longer.



That one bored me a bit - I think the best rocker of the live stuff is All I Want To Do, to me their second best live performance after What'd I Say.

Doesn't it go into some lyrics sung by Brian about "have you ever seen a puppy with his head on his brother?  Have you ever...…"?

Have you ever seen a pony run alongside of his mother?
And have you ever seen a puppy dog laying his head on his brother?

Alternate Don't Worry Baby!!!!

Best thing on the box for me. Then again I haven't heard it all yet.

Can't we all just stop discussing MIC? I've been desperately trying to hear the new stuff all day long without success. Proxies, VPNs, creating new Spotify accounts, bribing people in the know, etc. etc. Nothing works!

Where's the crying smiley?!

Start a free account here: openvpn.net/‎

Download the Private Tunnel software. Log in through the Netherlands. Open Spotify and look up the album.

Enjoy!

Good lord... You are a genius! It's working.

I think I'm in love with you.  :3d

Oh, and you might resume your MIC talk...

Hearing what happens after the fade in Meant for You blew my Mucking Find!!!!!

OMG THE ORIGINAL DO IT AGAIN HAD THE "BOOM BOOM BOOM" IN THE INTRO!?!?!?! I THOUGHT THAT WAS ONLY THE 2012 VERSION!!!

Wow. R&R Music.... VERY good now! I dig!

It's over now is fixed!!!!!!! SO GOOD!

Soul searchin'.... one of the best Beach Boys Songs ever?

Having Soul Searchin' and You're Still a Mystery officially released is one of the greatest things about MIC.

Still a Mystery is a classic for the ages.

So, wow. California Feelin '74. The missing link.

I'm very impressed with Brian's piano playing here. It's a lot different from his usual "banging on chords" style.

His voice is clearly affected, but not quite in 15 BO territory yet. It still has a soft, high tone to it. He goes into falsetto a few times here, and it has that Sunflower-esque whine which was gone by '76.

Man he must've really been destroying his vocal cords in early '75.  Because his voice here is not nearly as bad as I thought it would've been.

"Why" features one of BW's coolest, most beautiful, and most interesting chord progressions ever.

It's a f*cking crime that it never had vocals recorded to it.

That said, it's so good that you can pretty much consider it a song by itself. Grateful for this one.

"Friends" and "Little Bird" live in 1968 is pretty much awesome.

We need a live box set.

Just got to these, Little Bird really picks up! VERY GREAT!

I'm really knocked out by these performances. I'd never heard any live recordings from 1968 prior to this but they really do these songs justice. They even have the banjo on "Little Bird"... Great stuff.

A live box has to be next! Amazing stuff, love the horns and energy.

Barnyard Blues! I'm loving it.

This!

Seems that the main difference in the new "Surf's Up '67" mix is that the vocal has less reverb.

How is "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"?

A little too much digital sounding verb & delay for me. Still good to hear it in full fidelity with no hiss, etc.

Right on!



Anyone notice a coincidence between these lyrics and somebody's signature?   


 ;)

Favorites:
WIBNT(LA)
The '68 live stuff
Soul Searchin'
The Leid Stuff!
Meant For You
The "Re-made" hot mix of Rock and Roll Music
Where is She?
Guess I'm Dumb backing track!

If you didn't read the spoilers regarding "This Whole World (acapella)" -  you have a big surprise coming your way at around 0:33!

Funny, I'd say Soul Searchin' may be my favorite song with Carl on leads, including GOK (but excluding Surf's Up...)

A very very nice surprise indeed!

Really tempted to have us here finish "Why" for the E-Collab...

What's the story on "Why"? Sounds like it was recorded in the 00's or something...

MIU Sessions. But it has kind of a similar groove Brian has been mining the past decade e.g That's Why God Made The Radio, Live Let Live etc.

Tried it. It's still not working for me.

Hey Pixletwin, it didn't work for me on my Mac, but it did work on iPad and iPhone...

Download the app, then download the server profile you want to use (in this case, Netherlands) and you will connect to the VPN. Then Google "Made in California" Spotify, and you will see the links, which will open in the Spotify app. (I wasn't able to find them from within the app).

Also, I don't know if this makes a difference, but I created a Spotify account on the Netherlands version of the site (spotify.com/nl)

Happy listening!

I also tried the tunnel. didn't work for me....

sh*t why is Spotify Norway pulling this sh*t on me???? I'm DYING to hear this!

Thanks b00ts. I still can't get it to work. It's ok. The set should be delivered to me on Monday, so I can just sit tight and wait until then.  ;)

Man, I can't seem to get enough of "Where Is She?"...  Nice to hear Brian's falsetto. 

I got it to work perfectly on Mac.

Just make sure you log in on spotify.com and change country to the Netherlands in your profile settings. Then log out, re-start Spotify and log in if necessary. "MIC" should appear doing a regular search.

So here's the question: the two 90's tracks... Could we have had Pet Sounds "2"?

REALLY DIGGIN' the stereo version of Wild Honey! Fantastic work by Linett, Boyd, and Wolfe on this set! So much here!

I think a Grammy award is in line here! Just great! Moving on to Disc 3 now!

A career spanning box set? Yeah??!!! We still need a LIVE box, though.   :o ::) ;D

Tried that and I can see only select tracks. Ah well.

I'm having the same problem, but it's not a big deal. It's only 3 days away after all.  :)

I love how a lot of the hits on the set have "little extra bits" before or after the song.

Just realized that BW's vocal quality in "California Feelin' 74" sounds identical in "Rollin' Up To Heaven".  Still sounding late 60's - early 70's-ish, but slightly deeper sounding.

These are the two tracks that link early Brian to the post-change Brian. 

And even still, it seems like quite a jump down from these two tracks to say.. "Back Home".

Crazy that we actually have this now.  So I guess the definitive "missing link" that shows significant change would have to be the rumored version of "In The Back Of My Mind" from '75.

Hey, I think most of you Smiley Smilers  will be really happy with this set.

Stereo 'Darlin'? Those vocals are SWEET! The same with Stereo 'Let The Wind Blow". All of the new STEREO mixes are great! 'Do It Again' in stereo? wow.....

Alternate version of 'Meant for You"? New song? Different lyrics? Nice job by Mike. No spoiler here. Just take a listen.

Nice alternate version of "Break Away". my favorite of that song.

The new mix of 'SUSIE CINCINNATI" IS BLOWING ME AWAY!! It first came on and I said 'What the....!!!"  ;) Al gets some more justice.

Linett and Boyd have done a great job!

I'm very happy that 'Soulful Old Man Sunshine' made the box. It's becoming one of my favorite BB Songs. Haven't heard it in a while. Great!

I'm a big fan of Dennis. 'Sound Of Free' coming up next. Soon on to disc 4.

Be patient everyone...it'll be here soon.  :)  (Got lucky that a record store in my town had one)

Sorry! Alternate version of 'Meant For You' with new lyrics sung by Al....or Brian. Damn. My BB street cred is at risk here.  ::) I'm really having trouble here. Sounds great, though.

Does anyone else hear a bit of Landy-era 'shouty' Brian in his vocals for 'Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love'?

Sorry for asking, but I didn't get around to them today, are the mixing/editing errors in the '67 "Surf's Up" and the Smile Sessions "Cabin Essence" fixed, here?

The set is as expected and I don't mean that in a negative sense at all.  Comprehensive would be the operative word.  "Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again" while not deserving of the homage that some here give it, is a beautiful song nonetheless and a worthy addition to the canon.  I'm amazed that both this and "California Feelin'" took so long to get squeezed out of the tube.  Easily two of the strongest unreleased Beach Boys songs in the canon.  You'd have thought they would have made an appearance on an archival set long ago, but good to have them here is outstanding sound quality. 

As more of a sixties era, Beach Boys fan myself, the alternative version of "Don't Worry Baby" is certainly a highlight for me.  I haven't gotten to the live performances yet as I want to listen to them in one sitting and haven't had the chance yet.  The BBC material that closes out the set is awesome though, what lovely versions of some classic songs.  It's nice that "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" have finally made it to the general public as well.  Strong songs and probably would've formed the backbone of an excellent Beach Boys mid nineties record if things had gone differently. 

The packaging is top notch too.  I wonder if the reason Bruce was left out of the headshots is because he didn't graduate from Hawthorne High School or they just didn't have access to a high school photograph of his?  I would be remiss not to mention that there is a bittersweet element to this package on several fronts but I'm not going to dwell on those right now. 

Final Word: If you can scrape up the money this is an absolutely enjoyable package to add to your Beach Boys collection.  Since it essentially came through in terms of what it was advertised as being I would feel comfortable in giving it the ol' five stars.

So what's next?  Maybe a Songwriter's Collection?  AGD's list seems to indicate that there are a number of Beach Boys demos in the vaults that I would love so see released.  A Brian Wilson demo of "'Til I Die" caught my eye and there seems to be an demo of version of "Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again" as well although the way AGD words it, it makes me think that particular demo is an instrumental.

Who was responsible for the sloppy ass autotune job on Brian's vocal on "You're Still A Mystery"?? When is Capitol gonna learn ?

Because of the ridiculous autotune, I'll have to refer to the bootlegs if I wanna hear this song. I could've given it an undetectable melodyne treatment for free out of the kindness of my heart in 10-20 minutes and made it sound 100x more listenable. Thanks for nothing guys!

It's Brian, and quite an unexpected highlight from the set for me!   8)
Also interesting to note that the very beginning of It's OK sounds like that same riff used in Mike, Come Back To L.A. > Some of Your Love.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/972288_10151704273242774_570349617_n.jpg)

We had this picture awhile back and there was some speculation it may have been MIC related. Any reason on what has been heard, that this is the case?

Guitar overdub for Goin to the Beach.

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No vocal from Mike, or did I miss that under the song thread?

So, I'm pretty sure it would be against the rules to ask for an mp3 or YouTube upload of Brian's California Feelin' demo, huh?  :police:

I'd delete that before you get the 7 day vacation in St. Louis.

Vocal circa KTSA.

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Hey, question for those with the actual box; does it mention if it's mastered for HDCD?

Is Carl singing with Dennis on Barnyard Blues?

Sure sounds like it to me.

edit.

Not so sure after listening to the fade-out.

Does the live version of All I Want To Do have a complete ending? Is it even the same recording that was issued on Rarities?

Complete ending meaning not a fade out?

Its a complete ending followed by Bruce, I think, saying "Goodnight". It does sound like a woman though. :lol

I will have to listen to Rarities to compare.


edit

Not the same ending as this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztkM9DO0Ano

Pretty good singing by Bruce during SIP live. Man his voice has gone down hill in 20 years!

Why wasn't Mona Kana released back in the day?

I think Get The Boot was it's first appearance.

The version on Rarities faded out before the song was over. I think the story was that the tape ran out. So I'm curios if this is the same concert performance, but just from an alternate(complete) source. Or was the tape running out story another one of those myths that everybody believed for all these years? Or is the recording on MIC from a completely different concert than the Rarities one?

I can't hear any guitar difference to this version? Anyone pick a moment when Scott plays on the MIC version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezurnMDfIo

Probably the same person who thought it'd be a good idea to drop shouty 2004 Brian into the bridge of Soul Searchin'.

"I Believe In Miracles"!!

That's one creepy ass chord change at the end. Makes you wonder if this piece was supposed to continue, or if that's just Brian messing around. So cool to hear this in high quality stereo.

I wonder if the section that follows that in the boot mix still exists in the vaults? That's my favorite part of CWTL. Would love to hear a clean stereo version of that!

Yikes, yeah I heard that. Why??

Not sure if it's Brian though, is it? Sounded like it might be Paley.

The phrasing of "out of my mind" made me think it was Brian from GIOMH. You might be right though; it's certainly not very distinct.

Aw, no no NO! This makes me want to cancel my order. Why can't they leave this stuff as it is?

No worries bro, it's still got plenty of stuff to make it worth it. But yeah, I agree. For a project of this magnitude.. ahh deja vu.

Here's some info from Brad Elliott:

[During the vault search] we went up to the second floor [of the Capitol Records building] to this little room where some special project tapes were stashed, and the first thing we pulled out were all the tapes of four British concerts from December 1968 – two at the London Palladium and two a week later at Finsbury Park. It turned out the second Finsbury Park show was put out as the live concert album that everyone always thought was recorded at the Palladium in 1969. But here we are with three other shows, so I start comparing the track lineups and noticed that Aren't You Glad was on the Finsbury tapes, but there was a different song in its place on the Palladium tapes. The song was marked something like I Wanna Make Love To You.

[It turned out to] be All I Want to Do. When we played it, we found the version from the first show was really sad. Vocally, they miss all their cues. After one verse, Mike Love says, “This is a song we really don't know yet, so bear with us.” The second show was better and that's the one we used, but you'll notice that it fades out before the end of the song. The reason for that is because while they were recording it, they actually ran out of (eight-track) tape. We tried to splice in the ending of the other version, but it was just too sloppy.

I'm not sure what I think about the new remix of "Sail Plane Song". I appreciate the idea of making it sound more psychedelic, but it sounds a bit too much "ProTools 2013" and not enough "LSD 1968", if you know what I mean...

Aren't they the same recordings? With the same Scott Totten guitars?

I think you're right. More like pitch fuckery. Cause it definitely didn't correct anything.

I unsure as to whether this set better proves that this is the best band in the world or the stupidest! Probably equal measures of both. Smile is often noted as the group’s missed opportunity but boy, have some of these tracks just strengthened the case for many, many, many other moments.

For example, "Where is She?" is heartbreakingly beautiful and really deserved a proper production and release. That said, I can see why Brian didn't do this at the time, it didn't really fit in with what the band were doing or with what Reprise wanted.

I'd have been so stoked if Brian took this track along with things like "Good Time", his arrangement of "Ol' Man River" and other
songs that didn't align with the band's direction and started a solo project around this time.

He was in a pretty good place physically/mentally in 1970, occasionally touring, helping produce the band/his friends. It's not too hard to imagine him giving it a solid crack. With the type of material that we know was floating around it could have been a great Ram-esque release.

I wonder how much traction the "Brian Wilson" name would have had at the time...

Ahhh...When I click on 'show more' on the youtube clip I got 'This will be part of the Made In California box set.' So yes. Looks like the one and the same.

The Beach Boys name had no traction at all so not so much I would have thought. Especially as while Brian was contributing some excellent stuff at this point, most of it was very uncommercial.

If the stories of DJs neglecting to preview new material based solely on "The Beach Boys" name are true, in that way, Brian may have one upped the band!

How publicised was Brian's reclusively at this time? I can see why "The Beach Boys release sixteenth studio album" may not have created too much hype, but "Brian Wilson, reclusive genius releases debut album" might have generated some buzz, even if the Beach Boys' stock was low at the time. At the least, I could see it performing as good as/better than Sunflower. It's still pop music, not exactly the gestation of Japanese noise rock. Some quirky records reached the mainstream at the time, a late 1970/early 1971 release along these lines may have seen some success:

Soulful Old Man Sunshine
Good Time
Sherry, She Needs Me
H.E.L.P. is on the Way
Sail Plane Song
Can't Wait too Long

Guess I'm Dumb
Take a Load Off Your Feet
Back Home
Games Two Can Play
Where is She?
Ol' Man River

The fun thing to think about is what otherwise clandestine "Where is She?" numbers could have been included/developed with this type of avenue in his hands...

Wait a minute. Are you guys saying that a 2004 Brian vocal was inserted into the 1995 version?!?!?

I've played around with mixes like this several times. They did after all ditch a bunch of Brian numbers from earlier versions of the Sunflower LP, and though I'm not sure I've seen it explicitly stated, I've gotten the impression that was something Brian was somewhat hurt by. With all the unused material he was cranking out (not to mention This Whole World...etc), had he finished these songs, I think a Brian solo LP in 1970 would have been killer. Consider also what Desper has said about Brian's recording habits during this time, that Brian would record and erase songs and simply never share them with the rest of the band. There was definitely a lot of bitterness there but Brian still had a solid LP in him I feel.

Carl AND Ricky actually.

Liner notes only say about when and where the recording took place plus who sang lead.



Probably not, as I don't hear them anyway, lucky me.

OK, so I'm trying not to listen to any more of this stuff until I get the set on Tuesday, but I do have a question for those who have listened...since "Sherry She Needs Me" has the Beach Boys vocals from '65, does that mean that the "Sandy baby, it's time we said goodbye" part is in there? Because that wouldn't make sense if they did.

Nah. It starts at the "Said goodbye" harmony build up. That part is actually very well done.

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Agreed!

Btw, is everyone still able to access the album? I've been logged out of the Netherlands IP address for almost a day - and I can still listen to the box set (minus "Back Home") on Spotify! I thought the service said it would crap out within an hour.

Not complaining.  ;D

Review: Top Ten Moments From Beach Boys' Made In California

http://rarerockinrecords.blogspot.com/2013/08/top-ten-moments-from-beach-boys-made-in.html

Many thanks to seltaeb and boots for the tips on accessing MIC through spotify Netherlands. I couldn't get it to work with my existing spotify account but starting up a new trial account once I had the Dutch VPN thing set up finally worked.

I haven't had a chance to listen to everything yet but just wanted to put my 2c in for the stand out bits I've heard so far.

I had low expectations for WIBNTLA thinking it couldn't possibly live up to the hype but I've been pleasantly surprised. I'd say its a slow burner. What I really love is the way the flute backing combines with the lyrics "high on a hill" - like the greatest bb tunes it transports me instantly. It's a very beautiful track and I can only echo the exasperation of others at why this was left off SU. It's the highlight of the set so far without a doubt and I'll be surprised if anything tops it.

Meant For You - WTF!! Thank God they ditched the crazy lyrics but its fun to hear this version.

Why - this is another highlight for me. Those chords are so Brian it sounds like Brian pastiche! I love this one.

Just going through the live stuff now - this makes for a really strong live best of on its own. If only just this was available on vinyl it would be a sweet, sweet LP. Bit sad there's no Vinyl featured in MIC. The live or rarities discs would have made for great LP releases for the die hards.

Anyway good stuff. Nothing beats hearing 'new' stuff from the bb vaults!

The early version of Amusements Parks USA is epic.

Also, the farting synths on the Love You tracks sound better than ever. Or is it me? :)

Yes and THANKS A LOT for the tip. There is a 100 mb limit on the free account but I just logged out of it and Spotify continued to work without it anyway..hopefully it will tomorrow as well

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Ok. After several listens I am sure this is the same track used and yes, on the MIC version there is now an ending with Bruce saying "Goodnight". Plus at 1.20 there is now some wicked guitar playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztkM9DO0Ano

I'm not saying I'm right, but there is hollering and whistling from the crowd that just sound the same on both tracks for me.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-beach-boys-are-made-for-california

Is it? I listened to it once, it seemed  little empty, much like an earlier cut to a song but I didn't hear a whole lot that made a huge difference from the album version.…I'm sure I'm wrong and maybe I didn't listen close enough for a just a casual listen…I'm sure headphones would make a world of difference.

Weird stuff going on in the 1995 sessions tracks. It does indeed sound like a different BW lead on You're Still a Mystery. Oddly enough, it may be doubled with the original vocal. Something peculiar going on, though, and the track suffers from the softer lead. Something about Brian's hard-edged original approach really works with the song.

As for Soul Searchin,' it sounds like there are some new layers of backing vocals in places, and someone is singing along with Carl in the bridge. Can't tell if it's Brian, Paley, or a really shoddy attempt at double tracking. I like the extra backing vox, but the bridge change is bizarre, given that it was Carl's last great recorded moment on a BB song ... but then, oh well.

The backing tracks, though, seem to be the same everyone is familiar with. And now everyone can play along and note that BW simply reused the Soul Searchin' backing track for GIOMH, along with some hamfisted Mertens overdubs.

Holy crap, the 1970 version of Back Home is quite a bit different than the version on Get The Boot.  ;D

I haven't listened to either song yet, but do you think it's possible that both songs - or at least "You're Still A Mystery" was brought out of the vaults during the TWGMTR? After I get the set and hear Brian's vocal I'll probably be able to have a better idea. But honestly this seems like the only reason why there'd newly added or different stuff. Unless of course maybe Brian did a new vocal since the end of C50.

Brian's vocal on YSAM sound's totally re-done, and autotuned to hell and back, like Al on From There To Back Again. The high parts in the chorus("It's happening again", etc) are vintage 1995 though. The whole track is quite a bit slower. I'd bet that this and Soul Searchin' were brought out from the vault during the making of TWGMTR. If you think about it, it makes sense considering the fact that they would have a track with Carl being included.

How?

The Get The Boot version sounds a lot more stripped down.

I love Brian's lounge singer type delivery on the CF demo!  I'm almost expecting some light clapping by the end of it.  So quirky and out there, quite different than the average Brian demo.

There are a few extra verses. There are also parts of a verse that sound like they were edited from the version that circulated on Get The Boot. There are also a couple different things in the music that I don't remember hearing on the boot version.

Cool I am sure it will be good.

The 1969(?) demo, the Get The Boot version, and the new MIC version all have quite a few differences in the lyrics.  ;D

So if anybody knows, what is the deal with 2012 mix of "Sail Plane Song"? I haven't heard it yet, but I've heard there's some different stuff going on during some of it. Does anybody know if these were Brian's ideas or if this something that Alan Boyd or Mark Linett recently put together without any Brian input?  Like in the case of "We're Together Again" the 2012 mix makes sense as the version with the strings was known of beforehand, so that makes it a worthwhile addition to the catalogue. But if the changes to "Sail Plane Song" had no historical basis well then it's kind of a nonsensical addition.

This mix makes heavy use of stereo panning for psychedelic effect so my immediate guess is that Brian wouldn't have had this type of vision for the song. That said, it was cut around the time Desper was brought in to try and bring stereo to the Beach Boys camp so there's perhaps a possibility that Brian was trying to cut a demo using stereo techniques to get familiar with this new process, even if he couldn't appreciate it himself.

I just posted it on another thread, but it really belongs here:

IMHO "Brian's Back" should have gotten voted off MIC by somebody. If there's one reason to hate Mike Love this is it! :o

I don't hate this song but it has no place on the set. If they were going to choose a song from First Love then they should have chosen a genuinely unreleased one. But really they should have just chosen a Beach Boys song.

Yeah, I agree. "Viggie" or "I Don't Wanna Know" would have been great.

Speaking of tracklist refinements, I was just thinking how good a "stripped back" mix of "We Three Kings of Orient Are" could have been. Less of that superfluous orchestration would really give those terrific vocals a chance to breathe. Anyone know if it could be done? Would have been a really nice way to offset disc one's lack of unique material.

Remember this shot of Brian back in May?

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/294745_10151631476397241_1422735651_n.jpg)


Just saying.

This is the main reason for me too that I feel it shouldn't be on there, but it is a not that good song with really embarrassing lyrics.

So I'm hearing a lot of these now.

The California Feelin' demo is so funny! Brian playing demented piano runs, singing really weird melodies, generally not giving a f***. He sounds like he really hates the song. As for his voice, it's hard to tell really - he's so not into giving a serious performance, but his falsetto sounds good. Good on them for releasing this, though, I would imagine that was a tough sell.

Dennis is my hero. My Love Lives On is so beautiful! Mona Kani, WIBNTLALALALALALA is of course a wondrous feat of human endeavour (just when his voice cracks on the I Know I Can Cry line...), Sound Of Free in good quality, the Be With Me demo is funny.

I would wager that the YSAM vocal is from the JT attempt at the tune. Maybe Brian didn't like his 1995 vocal - isn't he doing the falsetto on the boot, which would explain it's lower mixing here? Also, the track is a lot slower than the booted version.

Barnyard Blues is so freakin' good. It sounds so incredible I cannot believe they would be all like 'you know what guys, we haven't got anything, let's cover Chapel of Love instead'.

Rock & Roll Music - best mix of the tune. love the extra drums and falsetto vocal.

The banter at the start of There's No Other is hilarious. And it's my favourite Party! tune, so great to hear it like this.

If we're talking about wasted space, why is the Pom Pom Play Girl vocal outtake there?

Rare dissenting opinion - why in the name of God would you consent to the release of Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love? They sound awful on it.

Meant For You totally rules. Even though I in fact have never seen a pony run alongside its mother. Just totally cool to hear that harmony keep going on.

Can't wait to hear all of MIC... Mouth watering... :)

Wonder if they ever going to release the Coke sessions, or Daddy dear, great stuff!

Bleccchhh.... I will of course reserve judgment until I hear the tracks, but these were two of the songs I was most looking forward to hearing in improved sound quality. The circulating recordings certainly sound okay (though most versions run too fast; which I've gotten used to and thus the version of "Soul Searchin'" on GIOMH sounded too slow!), but I figured these tracks would be left in tact, especially since we already got a Frankenstein'ed version of "Soul Searchin"" on Brian's album, seemingly leaving the "original" version as the only one worth trying to release at this stage.

I do recall reading somewhere years ago that the version of "Soul Searchin" that we've heard for years that had been prepped by grafting Carl's lead and group backing vocals onto the Paley backing track was one that was "unfinished" in that not all of the group backing vocals had been carried over for whatever reason. So perhaps almost 20 years later they were able to grab all of those backing vocals and mix them onto that earlier backing track more easily with ProTools and whatnot. Most disappointing is the possibility that they f-ed with Carl's bridge lead again. Who is obsessed with covering the most amazing lead vocal lines on Carl's last great vocal peformance?

If Brian's lead on "You're Still a Mystery" has been futzed with, my best guess would be that Brian and/or his camp didn't want to release it as-is; I would have to guess the compilers would have preferred to leave these two tracks as-is. I'm still guessing some new overdubs and some of the track selection was down to the politics of involving the group members. I can't imagine why else we'd get alternate mixes of stuff like "It's OK" for any other reason.

Oddly, I think "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" is my favorite track on the whole set (aside from WIBNTLA and MLLO). It has an energy and passion to it that I love.

Random Thought: Summer in Paradise opening sound like the theme tune to an Aaron Spelling teen tv show

Also, the chord progression to 'Why' is utterly amazing. Totally classic BW.

Brian's vocal during the second verse of the acappella 'This Whole World' makes me curious if there's a complete Brian lead somewhere in the vaults, either as a demo or as a serious consideration that got scrapped in favor of Carl.

Also, I do enjoy the fact that they dropped in his lead for the first few verses of "Break Away" - a nice little treat for someone who'd be expecting the standard track, even if it's nothing new. Lots of little goodies abound for the people who are deeply into the BB's.

EDIT: NO.

Also, amid a lot of people giving the '74 "California Feelin'" a hard time, I wanted to state that I appreciate the f*** out of its inclusion, here. It's proof positive that the folks over there are paying attention to what we really want, and I'm sure it was tough to get past some people.

Even if some are disappointed by it, I find it absolutely fascinating. A really interesting documentation of Brian's "in between" voice in a way we haven't really ever heard before. It sounds much closer to his early 70s self than I would have thought given the descriptions, but jeez, there really are lots of moments there where you can tell he's overall on the verge of the change. Even if he is dicking around, I love the performance. Probably not my definitive version, but I love and, again, really really appreciate options with songs I love. Multiple versions of something you enjoy is never a bad thing.

Nice job, guys ^_^

Don't fret, kid - they're still great versions. I'm honestly not sure why Brian's lead isn't as it is on the booted version, hopefully we find out.

Also, I felt like the alternate mixes on the set were simply to give a different perspective on a song and less to do with band politics. I really like and appreciate them and, in the case of "Rock And Roll Music", holy shit - it does justice to the song in a way I didn't think possible. I don't mean to come down on the original, I've always liked it, but this one feels just right.

Sorry for the multiple posts, but varied thoughts:

It's so, so frigging nice to hear "It's Over Now" done some justice. Right speed, better mix. God, what a beautiful song.

I'll get the "bad" stuff out of the way now: I don't get why the error in the 2011 mono "Cabin Essence" again went unfixed (for a third time) or they didn't just go with the original stereo mix. The digital editing clicks on the stereo Smile version of "Wind Chimes" are still there (and are easily fixed). The digital processing on the vocal of "You're Still A Mystery" is more than I care for, but I'm happy with the song finally being released and it's still a good version.

I can't find anyone else saying it, and maybe my chronology is off here, but is it me, or was the melody Brian sings at the end of the alt "Don't Worry Baby" used for "Little Saint Nick"?

Glad they included the unused "Our Sweet Love" vocals.

The new mixes of "Susie Cincinnati" and "Rock And Roll Music" are just so well done. I'm generally not one of those people who say "The new mix really made me like it more", but shoot, in this case, they really did.

The partial Brian lead on "This Whole World" is indeed interesting and makes me wonder if a full Brian lead exists. I'd love to hear it even if it's seemingly not as good as Carl's attempt. "Good" feels stupid in this case - yes, less competent, but like Brian's scratch vocal for "Break Away" or even his unused first verse attempt, it just brings something else to the table. So cool. Would love to hear it if a full version exists.

I know some will probably disregard it, but the "Transcendental Meditation" instrumental just amuses the heck out of me. I just picture Brian guiding the folks on the track from the board but then laughing his ass off as he listens to "BWAAHHH. BWAH-NAH-NAH. BWAAAH" over and over. It has a spirit to it that Brian would go for full force on some of the stuff in the mid-70s. Always loved this song, I really appreciate the instrumental version seeing release (same goes for "Don't Go Near The Water"). An a capella with its 93 stack-o-Brians would be really cool to hear, too.

"Had To Phone Ya" instrumental is beautiful as always. I'd love to hear a full remix closer to this, bringing out some of the elements that were buried in the original mix, with vocals and the drum track.

The "Slip On Through" acapella is a really cool listen. Nothing unexpected or that I couldn't pick out of the original, but hearing everything in greater clarity makes me appreciate Denny as an arranger even more.

"Where Is She?" is a huge highlight. It really feels like Brian tapping into the same feel as he'd done with "Don't Talk" three years prior, but it's definitely its own song. One of Brian's most vulnerable vocals, it was a little unnerving and got me choked up the first day I heard it. It still kind of does. Classic Brian Wilson, I can't believe he never pursued it further or revived it during the many vault raids for material during his solo career. Love it.

The 1970 "Back Home" has a really cool groove to it that I somehow never heard on the booted versions. I don't think I'll come to appreciate it more than the 15 Big Ones version, but shoot, such a nice rendition. Glad it's hear, can't wait to hear the '63 version in greater clarity.

"Do It Again" stereo is very tastefully done. Feels just like the mono mix, but in stereo. I don't know if I'd ever heard the horns before, somehow. Nicely done. As a sidenote (not a criticism), the "woodshop" sounds and talking before the vocals aren't here, but I'm sure both were intentional. The former is easily inserted in nowadays if one so desires given it was released on The Smile Sessions. Anyway, again, just thought it was worth mentioning, nothing more. Also, the "Get together and s-do it again" is there! I know there's a tendency to clean up old,noticeable edts like this on new mixes, but I can't say I ever mind things like this staying in a remix. They're part of the original released versions and if they survive in later mixes, cool. If they're fixed, that's cool, too.

"I Believe In Miracles" is cool to hear with this kind of clarity, although I'm wondering why the track and later vocals weren't included in full.

The "Sherry She Needs Me" backing vocal fly-ins are great! You expect this sort of thing from fan mixes but rarely see them on proper releases. A little spooky to hear '76 Brian the whole song and then hear '65 Brian come in at the end (as it was with the booted version with Brian's studio comments at the very end). Glad this version finally saw release, it deserved it and, under different circumstances, absolutely deserved to be a classic on the Summer Days or Pet Sounds albums.

I really "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love?" Brian's vocal sounds like a scratch vocal, but I'll be darned if it doesn't have a world of charm on it. Very interesting to hear something new from these sessions. Not the strongest material on the box, but darn it, I like it and would rather have heard it than not. Like the "California Feelin'" demo, I really appreciate the inclusion of something like this that is a little rougher around the edges - not everyone can appreciate something like this, but darn it, there are plenty of us who do.

"Why?" is right out of the same book as "Summer Means New Love", "That's Why God Made The Radio", "Good Timin'" etc. Frustratingly incomplete, but even as an instrumental is a really enjoyable experience.

I'm so glad "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" have finally been released. Breaks my heart that the 95/96 album never came to be, as these two songs are miles ahead of much of the stuff they'd done since 1980 or so and especially better than Summer In Paradise. They've certainly aged much better.

Speaking of "Summer In Paradise" (the song), while I'm not a fan of that album, I'm glad to see its existence acknowledged here in the form of what I've heard is a much more tasteful live version (I haven't heard it yet). It's part of your past, you don't have to stand by it but acting like it doesn't exist is lame

I haven't heard much of the live stuff sans what's been posted for promotional purposes. Looking forward to it.

Overall, all new and exclusive tracks/versions/etc. are really well done. "Really nice jerb, fellers" feels like an understatement, but it's about the best I can do and I'm really looking forward to seeing the book, which looks awesome from the few pictures I've seen. Love for The Beach Boys = affirmed. ^_________________^

For those non-US residents looking for an alternative to stream MIC without Spotify (creating an account is free):
http://www.musicme.com/#/The-Beach-Boys/?cdfocus=0602537474714&q=beach+boys+made+in+california

Enjoy! :)

Samples! Yay!

This will hold me off until tomorrow.

Edit: Oh, it's more! Ahhhhh! Thanks so much. Will be writing up my impressions as I listen.

"Sherry she needs me" is funny at the end with the 1965 BBs and BW singing with 1976 Brian!!! :lol

Yeah! I felt like I was doing the TIme Warp!  :lol

Or 1976 Brian went back to give the BBs a warning of the future.... ;D

Ok, impressions of the new stuff:

Disc 1:

-Home Recordings / "Surfin'" Rehearsal Highlights (2012 Edit - Mono): It's in better quality but it's the same as Hawthorne with the exception of California Feeling vocals.
-"Surfin'" (with Session Intro - Mono): Same as above. Just remastered.
-"Lonely sea (original mono long version)" (The Beach Boys): Has a slate at the beginning. Brian sorta cracks up at the end
-"Surfers Rule" (with Session Intro) (B. Wilson, Love): Pretty cool session intro. I can see why Murry got unbearable after awhile.
-"Back Home" (B. Wilson, Bob Norberg): Only 30 seconds so far. Guess I'll hear the full thing tomorrow. The sample indicates clearer quality and it is in stereo.
-"Why do fools fall in love (2009 stereo mix/remaster/2012)" ): As AGD said, there's no intro so it's presented more like the actual single in stereo.
-"I Get Around" (with Session Intro - Mono) (B. Wilson, Love): Cool to hear Brian directing the band on playing the song.

Disc 2:
-"Amusement Parks USA" (Early Version) (B. Wilson, Love): Different phrasing on the vocals. Pretty much the same track. The lyrics are also rougher and somewhat different. Like the released version better. No dialogue during the middle as well.
-"Graduation Day" (Session Excerpt and Master Take, 2012 Mix): More of a session excerpt then the original. Has a tambourine which is dropped quick. First take displayed here has a more "ballady" feel. Has more punch to it then the twofer version.
-"There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (2012 "Unplugged" Mix with Party Session Intro): Some absolutely hillarious banter here. The band is having a TON of fun. The way they played a bit Ticket to Ride reminds me of Sloop at times. It then lunches into the song without the overdubs. Would kill to hear the whole album without overdubs.
-"Our Prayer" (2012 The Smile Sessions Stereo Mix) (B. Wilson): Just the 20/20 version albeit mixed a bit differently I believe. Slightly out of balance at the beginning.
-"Vega-Tables" (The Smile Sessions Stereo Mix) (B. Wilson, Parks): Good to have this on a format other then vinyl.
-"Wind Chimes" (The Smile Sessions Stereo Mix) (B. Wilson): Ditto, although it's the mono SMiLE sessions version here for some odd reason.
-"Country Air" (2012 Stereo Mix) (B. Wilson, Love): Goosebumps here. AGD was right, this is beautiful. Vocals are much easier to hear as well. I want this whole album in stereo so badly!

Disc 3:
-"Meant for You" (Alternate Version) (B. Wilson, Love): Wow, this was a revelation. No intro. Didn't expect the alternate lyrics to be sung over the backing vocals. This is SOOOOOO much better than what they went with.
-"Sail Plane Song" (2012 Stereo Mix) (B. Wilson): Countdown at the beginning. Piano is trippier. Vocals have some panning and works really well at the end. The tag is BREATHTAKING. A big improvement.
-"We're Together Again" (2012 Stereo Mix): Sounds so much better in stereo. The string overdub is mixed so much better then what the boot had. Longer ending as well. Great production.
-"Do It Again" (2012 Stereo Mix) (B. Wilson, Love): Absolutely beautiful in stereo. I think I still like in mono better but this is great too. Love those horns that kick in early. Never noticed that before.
-"Susie Cincinnati" (2012 Mix) (Jardine): The car sound is now in the beginning. The mix is MUCH MORE LIVELIER, hot damn! Vocals are much clearer too. This song kicks ass. The other versions can go screw themselves. Oh and the vocals on the tag are amazing. I can go on and on. This is one of my early favorites so far.
-"Fallin' in Love" (2009 Stereo Mix) (D. Wilson):
-"Sound of Free" (Mono Single Version) (D. Wilson, Love): So nice to hear this in better quality.

Disc 4:
-"(Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again" (D. Wilson, Stan Shapiro): Already heard this and noted in the WIBNTLA thread. Beautiful song.
-"Rock and Roll Music" (2012 Mix w/Extra Verse): This is...well, rocking  :lol . Why oh why did they not do this version.
-"It's OK" (Alternate Mix) (B. Wilson, Love): Interesting little intro at the beginning. Sounds more restrained. I prefer the released version but still an interesting version.
-"It's Over Now" (Alternate Mix) (B. Wilson): Oh yeah...this is awesome. More audible instruments. Kicks ass 100% more. Can believe this sat in the can for so long.
-"California Feelin'" (B. Wilson, Kalinich): Already gave me thoughts. Still awesome as when I heard it via Tongal.
-"Brian's Back" (Alternate Mix) (Love): Definitely a different vocal take from Endless Harmony. Shorter. While it's not the best, I still kinda like it. This version is better than the previous.
-"It's a Beautiful Day" (Single Edit) (2012 Mix) (Jardine, Love): Good to hear this in great quality. Never heard the full song until now so I can't tell how different the mix is from the original. Very catchy.
-"Goin' to the Beach" (Love): Already gave my though. Catchy, better than most of the songs on KTSA. New parts fit well.

Disc 5:
-"Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love" (Spector, Barry, Greenwich): Really cool sounding cover.
-"Da Doo Ron Ron" (Spector, Barry, Greenwich): Nice cover by Carl. Again, THIS gets left off of KTSA over School Day?
-"Soul Searchin'" (B. Wilson, Andy Paley): First time ever hearing this song. A really nice vocal with one of his best later vocals.
-"You're Still a Mystery" (B. Wilson, Paley): First time ever hearing this song. Really is a throwback to Pet Sounds. Pretty unique from a lot of other Brian written songs though.

I'll post my thoughts on the others songs at a later time. Just gotta relax and enjoy the rest 8)

The new "Our Prayer" stereo mix is all 1966, none of the 20/20 overdubs. Nice to have for stereo Smile fanmixers who like to keep it as close as they can to the originals (but I like them overdubs, darn it).

Thanks.

Disc 6 can summed up in one word...WOW  :o So many quality tracks.

That California Feelin' demo is a crack up.  :lol It's even more enjoyable then I had hoped.

Is it me or is Fun,Fun,Fun a remix? I can hear the horns now, wow!

Looks like they found more multis, Warmth of The Sun has Stereo Background Vocals, holy cow!

I don't know if this makes me crazy, but I have to say that while I love the 20/20 version of "Our Prayer", the SMiLE version just doesn't do it for me. I know the only difference is some more vocal overdubs, but gosh, what a difference they make. For some reason, they just make it SO much better.

The stuff I like most is the new Denny music.
WIBNTLA obviously, but also the live version of Little Bird. Anyone know who played the banjo?

And two more goosebump-moments: The demo of Be with me and the song My love lives on, which I had never heard of before. Those are two killer songs for me!

Barnyard Blues is cool too. I didn't expect two 1974 Dennis leads. I wonder who is with him on Barnyard Blues?

I'd say it is because the tag is longer here and ruined on the Britz stereo mix.



According to the book, Carl and Ricky.



There's No Other: Before the vocals kicked in, I thought it WAS Sloop - so Brian lifted that riff off a Beatles tag! :)

Susie: I always was a fan of this song. The 1970 single version also had the car sound at the beginning, which I don't prefer. My favorite mix is still the "Landlocked" one, but this one is done well, albeit not an improvement like on R'n'R Music.

Soul Searchin'/Mystery: If you really never heard these songs, you must get the whole Paley sessions. There are EVEN BETTER tunes than these two there.



Would you please so kind and remember me what that error was? I don't remember, and I don't hear it.

The click is the sound of the NR kicking in.
If you're listening on good speakers you should be able to hear it.

Thank you, but which second is it?

I love all of the "new" vocals on Soul Searchin'. Are they 1996 vintage? I'm really glad that this and Still A Mystery were included. I wish they had kept the original lead vocal, but this new one is nicely done. I was reminded just how good these two songs were. Can you imagine these two songs, plus Getting In Over My Head, with some nicely done Carl-Al-Mike overdubs a la God Only Knows, would have sounded as part of a Beach Boys album back in 1996? Even though there aren't any other Beach Boys on it, I think I would have included the early version of GIOMH just because Brian's lead is so awesome on it.

Is it just me, or does the version of You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling have bottom end completely drop out after the bridge("I'll get down my knees for you" etc)? I kept feeling like my ears had popped.

1:01-1:02

I had that happen to me on my first listening but it was later corrected.

"Warmth Of The Sun" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" definitely now have stereo elements that were previously missing...stereo backing vocals for WOTS and stereo backing track for FFF.  Interesting that these new mixes aren't noted in the track listing.

I guess they found another session tape from Shut Down Vol. II (the session from New Years Day, 1964 specifically).  I'm still holding out for the tape for the single version of "Be True To Your School" to be discovered some day.

Doesn't keyboard intro of "Barnayard Blues" sound very similar to piano chords of "Child Is The Father Of The Man"?

Mona Kana is much more blatantly Smile like from Dennis. I will listen again. Barnyard Blues is a nice little hidden gem.

The bigger problem is that the "Grand Coulee Dam" vocals are present in the second chorus on the 2011 mono. No idea how this even happened, but they still seem to be there on MIC if Spotify is using the right source for the track.

Could be wrong that they used the exact same mix with this error, we'll see. I was actually thinking they included the mono over the 20/20 stereo on the box to ensure a corrected mono mix was out there.

[/b]



According to Alan Boyd...Carl and Ricky.  :)

What happened to the "tape burst" on "Country Air"?
it's buried in there somewhere, but in mono it's oohhoo sooo present..
i am not happy with this..but vocals are wonderfull i must say!

Thanks, I couldn't place Ricky but it's obvious now.

You know what? It does kind of have that Smile vibe at the start.

Fun Fun Fun had horns? I didn't even know this. Amazing.

Cabin Essence is a total mess, IMHO. What a horrible muddy sound.

Damn! That's annoying to hear. The TSS version drives me nuts - they really messed up the chorus. Didn't think it could've sounded any worse? The band got it absolutely spot-on back in 1969 for 20/20 - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

God this oreo advertisement is annoying

I was really excited for You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling. It's always been one of my favorite unreleased tracks, but I'm very dissapointed with it on the box set. It sounds too, I guess, over produced. Still, it's nice to hear the song in good quality.

Welp.  I couldn't wait to take delivery of the hard copy after work today so I bought the MP3 version off of Amazon last night at 2am.

I won't re-hash all the praise for the new stuff....I agree.  I will say that I really love the fact that they extended the heads and tails on many of the old faves.

Guess I will read the booklet tonight when my shipment arrives at home.

There's too much echo on the vocal for my taste

Uh-huh. I actually prefer the cruddy quality bootlegged version over the released version.   :-\

Other than YLTLF, I'm really enjoying everything that I've heard so far. The '68 performances are incredible! They absolutly nailed Little Bird, and Friends.

Impressions so far - I like all the new mixes, which have done much to bring some of the sloppy originals up to scratch. I know, that comment will have many reaching for their knives, but can anyone really say the original Do It Again 'stereo' mix (if you can call it that) was a fine piece of mixing? Beautiful song, instrumentation and arrangement — *terrible* mix.

The booklet is beautifully done, and not the cheese-fest that the art for the GV box was.

One more observation for now — I really love the fact that the set brings out the Beach Boys' close and rewarding relationship with the art of the shuffle rhythm over the decades. It's not a form that the public immediately associates with the band, and even fans like us might have struggled to think of examples beyond California Girls until a couple of years ago. But then we got That's Why God Made The Radio and now, alongside TWGMTR, MiC brings out Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love, Soul Searching, and Why, which might be my favourite track of the whole set so far. For the next ten minutes, anyway...

I'm told that they used actual Brian 1966 test mixes for the TSS version. So the "Grand Coulee Dam" vocals are in Brian's mix. For me it's not a problem, I only hear it when I listen very, very closely. I even think it's nice that the two chorusses aren't exactly the same.

And at 1:01-1:02 you mean that tiny little scratchy sound? Well, I listen to old LPs frequently, so I never noticed that slight bug, and won't in the future. Oh, and I always turn the treble down ab bit, which even reduces that.



The muddy sound is what I like most about this mix. Makes it sound contemporary and authentic. I wish Surf's Up would sound like that! AND be in mono. (Which the TSS version is, of course.) And Wonderful too! ;D

Having heard a lot of the other unreleased stuff before, I went straight for disc 6.

Slip On Through vocals only is amazing.  Those guys were just geniuses at putting together vocal tracks.  Love hearing Mike's ribbon-miked bass vocals.  We're getting closer and closer to a full a capella Sunflower.

Another thought I had:  Don't Worry Baby, with the false start, it's pretty interesting how underwhelming and light the track is without the vocals.  I would love to just hear the full track without vocals.

Argh, post It's About Time the live tracks become awful. The Boxset Tour tunes are sung really poorly, Sail On Sailor is dominated by crappy synths.... Summer in Paradise is Summer In Paradise.

Listened to the first five discs on my proper stereo today - the mastering is great, big and bassy and the new stereo mixes rule. Very pleased with this!

I'll say this about "Rock & Roll Music"... yeah, the mix is nice, but almost too nice. Before, for example, I thought subtle drones in the chorus were in fact purely background vocals. Now, I know it's a combo of instruments and vocals. It's like a magician being forced to show you his tricks.

"Sail Plane Song" was a chance for the producers to show off, which is kinda odd, I thought. I doubt much of the mix is vintage.

And gosh darn, what's with all the added reverb on some of the songs? It's a bit extreme, so "wet", like Brian Wilson was secretly a dub reggae artist this whole time.


Otherwise, it's an excellent work.

What do you mean, 'secretly'? Haven't you been paying attention?

My feelings exactly.

The new Meant For You is my absolute favorite of everything here. It's just a shame they didn't include more stuff like this.

Maybe someday a Smiley Smile/Friends/Wild Honey box set!

Speaking of which, there's still plenty of known Wild Honey and Friends outtakes which could still see the light of day. Maybe there were some leftovers from Smiley too? Ofc a SS/WH/Friends box is unthinkable, but there certainly is more jewlery to be found in the vaults from those years.

Would especially like to hear what the original songs for WH sound like.

http://www.wmmr.com/music/news/story.aspx?ID=2031217

Great overview of the box and some great insights into the band by Howie.

It's annoying also because the one new WH stereo track released on this compilation is Country Air, even though it's the one track for which an official stereo mix has already been circulating.

I'd like to hear speculation on why instrumental for "Transcendental Meditation" was included on the box. It's not a particularly amazing arrangement in any way and is quite repetitive without vocals. Was this just Brian wanting something random thrown on the box? Did one of the producers fall in bizarre love with it?

Now "Why" is a kickass instrumental. With more time spent on it could've been a Pet Sounds style track. You listen to this and "Where Is She?" and you realize what a tease Brian was being. It's a shame for us music lovers that he couldn't get past whatever personal issues were holding him back and create all the great music he had stirring up within himself.

I don't even think this is possible for a number of reasons. It really muddles the sound and there's really no way Brian could have just tossed the "Grand Coulee Dam" vocals into it. They may have used a 1966 Brian test mix for the chorus, but it's basically not possible unless Brian went out of his way to partially mix down the tag vocals and insert them into the chorus perfectly.

Furthermore, take the first chorus, place it perfectly in line with the 2nd and invert it and bam - the track and backing vocals are only slightly there with the "Truck drivin' man" vocals and the "Grand Couleee Dam" vocals much more apparent. This basically proves that they used Brian's test edit for both chorii but put the "Truck drivin' man" vocals and the "Grand Couleee Dam" vocals over it. The former is obviously intentional, but the latter? I really doubt it.

Again, really muddles the sound and I'm surprised it hasn't been fixed on its third release or why a mix with errors was chosen over the '68 stereo mix. Just me.

My favorite tracks on MiC

-Country Air (Stereo Mix)
-Meant For You (Alt. Mix)
-Sail Plane Song (Stereo Mix)
-WIBNTLA
-California Feelin' (Both versions)
-Soul Searchin'
-You're Still A Mystery
-Friends / Little Bird (Live 1968)
-Help Me Rhonda (Live 1972)
-Guess I'm Dumb (Instrumental)
-Sherry She Needs Me
-This Whole World (A Cappella)
-Where Is She
-Why
-Barnyard Blues
-Our Sweet Love (Vocals and Strings)
-My Love Lives On

I'm absolutely loving "Why". Does anybody know when it was recorded?

M.I.U sessions

Another missed opportunity for the band. It had great potential to be an album highlight and even a classic.

The chord progression is out of this world!

The A Capella Slip On Through is blowing my mind. SO GOOD!

'Why' is interesting. I remember reading one of the band members (Carli?) talking about hearing some great music Brian was coming up with at the time but refusing to allow its release; I also remember some people on here claiming this was an early instance of people boosting Brian's rep by claiming this sort of thing with no evidence to back it up and that by that time BW was spent. Well...

Second Disc review:

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/08/27/review-the-beach-boys-made-in-california/#more-22110

Do we know if "Why" was intended as an instrumental or if Brian had written lyrics?

EXACTLY!  Well said, and... there are 2 or 3 reasonably nice songs on SIP.

Thanks for that. A good read. :)

Can anybody who already has the physical box confirm whether the liner notes state that the "I Believe in Miracles" vocal section of "Can't Wait Too Long"/"Been Way Too Long" was really recorded during the Smiley Smile sessions, as has been rumored on this board. Or were they recorded during the Wild Honey and/or 20/20 sessions, as with the rest of "Can't Wait Too Long"/"Been Way Too Long"?

No way it's an instrumental. Way too repetitive. It's clearly meant to be a backing track for something.

But what wirestone?...but what?....

MIC and TSS are really the only major archival releases I've experienced since I became a fan, and I've noticed that I don't always prefer the official versions to the lower quality bootlegs I'm used to listening to. I can't bring myself to delete my booted stereo Country Air for example because I like the little noise at the beginning of it, and this got my wondering, are there any old fogeys here who kept listening to something like Leggo My Ego even after stereo Pet Sounds was released? Just curious.

Thanks ORR.  Howie Rocks!

It says 'in 1967 during sessions for Smiley Smile'.

Just listened to the 1963 "Back Home". And man, it is jarring to hear such a young Brian on that track. It's like a completely different song when it isn't sung by a gruff yodeling man in his thirties.

(I admit, I do miss the "YAY-EE-AY-EE-AHY")

Thanks for the info, hypehat

There are so many great moments on this set, but I literally just sat there with my jaw dropped hearing the vocals-only Slip On Through. I knew there were some background vox buried in the verses, but holy mackerel. I've never heard such spooky and unique vocals. Can't get enough.

Yeah, I think I've gained new appreciation for that song (one I've always liked but never one of my favorites) from that mix.

Agreed so much.  This was my number one track to look forward to and it did not disappoint.  They were so on top of their game.  They could do anything with their voices.

Also, kinda funny that Al's Back Home doesn't start with "I'm goin' back this summer to Ohio," given that he's the one actually from Ohio.

Superduper review  :thumbsup

So I think I've listened to most of the stuff I was really looking forward to....so I guess I'll throw a review out here of a few things I dig.

*NOTE: long post....so skip if it's lame!

Glad to have both versions of "California Feelin'". I guess now that we have all these versions, it's pretty obvious that 1978 version is the version. The 1974 demo is so rough, but it is very endearing, and it's great to hear Brian still sounding that awesome in 1974. But in no way is it a definitive version. It's him throwing it onto tape to get a demo, and being kind of a cheeseball in the process. I personally feel he mighta been goofing off because he was scared to commit himself to really trying, and possibly failing.

"Where Is She?" was such a nice surprise for me. Not a surprise because it's great, but a surprise that it wasn't as rough as I suspected, and that's it's really a top Brian composition. So very nice, and as I've said before, coulda fit on Today! or Pet Sounds, which is saying something.

As far as Denny's stuff, it's great this his and Rumbo's "Sound Of Free" was included. So glad to have that. It'll be great to have this available to listen to at any time in great quality. Shame that they didn't include Dennis' true version of "Lady" on here instead of that 2009 "Fallin In Love" remix.Obviously "(Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again" is a great inclusion. I don't really have anything to say that hasn't been said. Shoulda been on the Surf's Up album though. Woulda made it exponentially better. Imagine an album with "Surf's Up", "'Til I Die", "Feel Flows" and "Live Again". Even if that was the only good material put on there, that's enough for a classic right there. I was also super impressed by "Barnyard Blues". I have to imagine the guy thought of Brian's "Barnyard" while doing this, but regardless it is great and I'm glad we've got it.

Also, I'm glad we got "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery". The presence of The Beach Boys on "Soul Searchin'" proves how much the group just working together takes something decent and makes it great. Brian's solo version of it is the definition of "meh", but this version with the guys doing their thing, it's really made into a great track. With "You're Still A Mystery" I gotta admit that at first I was kinda disappointed in Brian's vocal. But now that I've had some time, I like it. It works. He obviously didn't think that the other vocal worked for whatever reason, and this is the one he chose. Therefore, I'll listen. I would like to know when the vocal was from, if it's just a different take from 1995, or maybe it's a something from the TWGMTR sessions. Who knows if we'll ever figure that out. By the way, I know Alan Boyd rarely posts here anymore, but wouldn't it be neat if he did a chat here one day, and we submitted questions about the set? Might be an idea....

And lastly, the live stuff. Haven't really dug in yet, but I really liked "Runaway", lots of energy there. "Sail On Sailor" is neat, nice to hear Carl in '95 really knockin' this one out of the park. And "Only With You" is great. But the crown jewel of the live stuff, by far, is "Wild Honey". Blondie tears it up vocally, and the band absolutely rocks. This is easily one of my favorite things on the whole set. A mind blowing performance. And then on the flipside, "Summer In Paradise". Sure it's well recorded, well performed, whatever. But what an embarrassing song. I didn't eat dinner 'til late tonight since I was so taken with this set, but when I pulled up to the drive thru window at McDonalds this song was playing, and before the person opened the window I made sure to turn it off. It is just so very embarrassing. I couldn't be caught listening to that crap. I usually don't care, but that song is just too embarassing. The self referential lyrics, Bruce just sounding his wimpiest, ugh...although I can say I do agree with the message. So kudos on that, Doctor Love!

"You're Still A Mystery" definitely sounds like a modern Brian vocal.

That mix of "Graduation Day" blows the previous ones out of the water. I actualy quite like this song now.  :p

Hey, I tried this, that was interesting! I don't think you pull the right conclusions though. If you were right with the assumption they used the same chorus and overdubbed the truck and coulie lyrics, it should phase out more or less completely. It doesn't, but that could be due to compression after mixing, so the more important evidence is that there is some phasing going on, which would not happen if the same chori (if you want to declinate it in Latin) were used.

Then, the grand coulie vocal under the chorus is single tracked and with less reverb than on the tag. And as far as I know, they don't have the multitrack with the isolated vocal tracks, so they couldn't "fly that in", thus, it must be on the test mix. I assume Brian had Mike sing that line on the chorus trying out how that would sound. And when he did the test mix he may not have noticed the fader of that track wasn't all down.

And I love the muddiness. :angel:

I actually listened to Leggo My Ego yesterday and it's not something I'll listen to again anytime soon. It's still a decent collection, especially the alternate album they put together, but it's redundant now with the SOT sets and the official box set. I also gave the old Pet Sounds Rehearsals boot a quick listen. Could hardly stand it. I guess we're spoilt.

Definitely. It's definitely not 1995 (near the beginning, it sounds like a double tracked vocal that could also include the '95 vocal, but that's hard to say). I don't know if it was a Brian lead cut last year, or this  year, or perhaps several years ago or as early as the GIOMH sessions.

The "new" Brian lead isn't quite as troubling as I thought it might be. It definitely highlights the difference between the 1995 Brian voice and that of ten (or 18) years later. His voice sounds smoother, but also a bit more bored. His '95 vocal is very nasaly and kind of whiney, but it has more spark in it somehow.

I still do feel like not using a Brian vocal cut around the same time that that "reunion" took place in '95 kind of kills some of the novelty of it being a "reunion" track. I realize Brian probably cut the original lead in '95 on his own before the BB's came in to do the backing vocals (I guess we don't know a lot about the particulars of those sessions), so it's not neccesarily that they were all in the same room doing all the vocals at once together.

Listened many, many hours thanks to a Spotify free month premium subscription (my MiC is languishing in California--day 6 now, thanks importscd & DHL). I created a playlist of my favorites so far:

1) Meant for You alternate - I'm a Friends nut so I'll take every extra second I can get--even if it is about ponies
2) Where is She? - with all this new Dennis to fawn over I still find this Brian track trumps all (for me anyway)
3) Fallin' In Love - this one is new to me, like it better than WIBNTLA & American Spring's version on Pet Projects
4) My Love Lives On - excellent lead here, heartbreaking
5 ) WIBNTLA - being new to the Beach Boys I only became aware of this track's legendary status a few weeks before the release of MiC, it is stupendous and doesn't disappoint
6) Rock & Roll Music - 2012 Mix - now I NEVER expected this to be here considering I generally dislike 15BO but this version kicks some serious ass
7) It's OK - Alternate Mix - same comment as above
8) Barnyard Blues - one of those tracks I love at first listen
9) Soulful Old Man Sunshine - just got exposed to this because I got Endless Harmony just a few months ago, the love affair is still new
10) Why - Instrumental - new favorite instrumental track

I've said it a thousand times before. Why they didn't release the "hot" mix of Rock & Roll Music back in '76 is beyond me. At that point the Beatles had released it as a single around that time with the whole song intact and it did well. Even it the "hot" version was just on the single or on the album album or vise versa, it was MUCH better than what they let out.

I've only heard the bootleged version before this (which I assume was recorded from the "Best Summers Of Our Lives" radio special?)

It's great to hear it so clear. Don't remember hearing the "wooo" high part before - was that in this orginally? And Mike on the end. Don't have the boot handy now. And the drums are great all the way through - they seem more prevalent here.  That consistent tap tap tap tap. That Is that Dennis or Ricky? I think maybe Dennis as he was on the released version. Was this the same instrumental track as the released version pretty much or a whole different take? Same with the vocals or no?

I love it!

‍

Soaking in the box today. So much stuff to digest. A couple of thoughts and questions:

1) Knowing that he also worked on the track in Oct. of 1977, and even though the credit lists the original session, '74 date, hasn't it been noted that Denny's vocal for My Love Lives On *might* actually date from '77 as well? That is, his voice actually sounds like it's from that era to me. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, and they know for sure that it's from '74.

And...what a monster track. Sounds like the bookend to his life.

2) Good Time is the Love You mix. Considering that they placed it back in its rightful chronological place, I was actually hoping that they might use Desper's original (unreleased) stereo mix. Oh well. Minor gripe. On the other hand, I really would've preferred either the original Desper stereo mix of "Lady" or the original single mono mix to the 2009 reconstruction (I also prefer the other lyrics as well). But...we knew this one was coming...so no surprise here.

3) You're Still A Mystery: If that alternate lead vocal isn't of a more recent vintage than when the other one was recorded, I'll eat my (gluten-free) hat...lol. It also sounds like someone else is mixed in with the falsetto here (Matt? Someone else?) Though, I think I actually prefer these vocals. Nice one from Brian...whenever it was done.

Try logging in/logging out and refreshing the page. All of the songs should be up for everybody.

It's like hearing it on a regular album. It's fantastic. I never thought we'd hear it this good sonically as people were saying the sub-par quality recording (like the booted version) was all they could find. Subsequently, either they found the master or safe copy or Linett did some tricks to it, but it sounds as good as a released version now. I love it, and I'm very glad it's finally seeing the light of day.

P.S. And I'm glad they could get most of the '70 version of Back Home on here too!!  It's great!  The booted version is already great quality so I'm sure they didn't have to do much tweaking on this one before relese.

Anyone who easily has his/her fun spoiled by people who aren't very enthusiastic, please skip my post :D



Halfway through CD 1 now and I'm not impressed.


The master is sooo freaking loud, on half of the sounds every 'S' sound or snare hit the sound just distorts. It sounds like playing music with the pre-amp way too loud.  Also the stereo imaging is very wide.

The mix of Little Saint Nick is the worst I've heard so far. The sleighbells sound horrible.

I'm at track 26 now and my ears are getting tired from listening to the compression. It feels like i've been wearing headphones for hours.

I noticed this. Kinda sounds like they used a de-esser on a lot of the tracks.

Seems like echo has been added to the live tracks I've been listening to on Disk 6. Not sure why or if it's warranted....

They sound great though, just not real natural. 

What about the early version of Amusement Parks USA? I love it! The mad laughter by Brian is sorely missed, though. The backing track is one of the craziest things I've ever heard, but so damn good. Especially the organ.

Amusement Parks USA has must be the first incident of a cuss word in the BB discography. (Which I never noticed until I heard this mix)  :lol

What's with the autotune in Be With Me (Demo). It's so weird

Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again is such a sweet track! It reminds me of Summer's Gone. It has that same dreamy, melancholic feel.

It's very clear on SOT Vol. 9 (Disc 4) - goes on even longer on the boot than on MIC.  Hal Blaine's finest hour as a carnival barker.  It faded out on the released version. Would have been too risque to include it the full length in 1965.

Don't say puss

Idinat what Brian told Hal?  :-D

Just heard the new "It's OK" mix, albeit oin iPhone speakers so not the best listening experience. Sheds new light on the track – now I want to hear a totally stripped back vocals/handclaps only version!

This isn't quite the Hot Mix of Rock and Roll Music. I miss the whooshing sound effects between verses, kind of vacuum like. Still this MIC mix is good.

It calms down a bit after the first disc, which is good, because if it didn't, I'd never listen to the set.

I found the mastering to be very well done - I was listening to the CDs on a good system, but yeah. The only thing that struck me was the loud bass on the 65 and onwards cuts.

Certain tracks have audible compression and phasing, which is disappointing. It'd have been cool to hear all original mono to '68, then have it open up to stereo. Then add the first-time stereo tracks as a bonus.

"Sail On Sailor" certainly takes on a poignancy with Carl singing it.  Especially with the line "Stop the crying and the lying
and the sighing and my dying..." and knowing his condition at that time, my heart just sunk.  RIP Carl  :'(

I love "Where Is She", but it's pretty indebeted to "She's Leaving Home", isn't it?

No.

Have to agree with that. Brian lifted the melody line with the lyrics "She's leaving home after living alone for so many years" and built a song around it. Kind of interesting. Sort of like the breakdown in "Girl Don't Tell Me" aping "Ticket To Ride".

Yeah, it's somewhat like "She's Leaving Home", but so what? Brian made "Where Is She?" into his own thing and it's marvelous. Plus, he's good at taking other people's stuff and making it pretty incredible. "Surfin' U.S.A." anybody?

It's a melodic similarity in one section. Doesn't really warrant the assumption of Brian building the song around another. They're both very much their own songs, I'd hardly say it's "indebted" to the Beatles song.

I never said it was bad. I pointed it out because it was interesting. There's nothing negative about doing it. Bob Dylan made a career out of it.

Yeah, it's like the same four notes on an ascending line, that's it, that's where the musical similarities end.  There may be a lyrical similarity, in that both songs are about girls who have left, either permanently or temporarily, but that's really it. 

"When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)" here is listed as "2012 stereo mix" but it's not at all the same as the one on last year's mono/stereo 2-fer.

 :hat

This set is great. I love just about everything. "Sherry She Needs Me" is wonderful. I'd never really listened to it carefully before, but that won't be the case anymore. "I Believe In Miracles" is mesmerizing. I could listen to it forever. All of the demo's ("Be With Me", "California Feelin'", "Surfin'", etc) are great. There isn't anything about WIBNTLA and "Where Is She?" that hasn't been said, so I'll just say they're very good. The remixes are good too ("Susie Cincinnati", "Do It Again") are just as good as the unreleased stuff. Everything is good, but that's where I'll stop for now. Great stuff indeed.

BTW, is Good Vibrations: 30 Years of The Beach Boys no longer on iTunes? I'm assuming that MiC has replaced it, because I couldn't find it earlier this evening.

I dunno ... given all we know about BW idolizing the Beatles (and Paul specifically), and given the fact that about half of the folks on this board made the connection upon hearing the song, I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that Brian's song owes a debt to Paul's. After all, lots of songs are written by rewriting old ones; it's a time-honored trick of the trade, and it sounds like Brian started fiddling around with a phrase or two from the earlier tune and expanded it into this.

It's a very facile comparison.  I've noticed that people like to do this.  Two songs might share a meter and a couple of the same notes in a similar sequence, and people want to compare them, but I agree with C-man.  Just cuz they're both in triple meter and have six notes in common in their melodies does not really make them that much alike.  Certainly nothing more than a passing intersection.

I was never a huge fan of the Beach Boys rendition of this song (or the approach of "15 Big Ones" in general), but I liked the updated mix of "Rock n Roll Music." It seemed to add more life to the song.

Facile or no, the folks here aren't the only ones who'll make the link. Played the tune for my partner the other day (she's not a fan but aPpreciates their better stuff) hopin to impress her - she just muttered "rip-off of She's Leaving Home…". Very unexpected…

y people gotta Beatles-sh*t all over everything :'(

My daughter pointed it out today! She took it as being a shout-out, for what it's worth.

Brian probably wrote the song in '66 and Paul stole it off him

Like I said to Paul when I met him at the Smile premier in '04 "You're here to steal the rest of it, knobhead?"

Supposedly this 'alternate mix' of It's Ok is the 1974 version track-wise and the backups may be of similar vintage. I dunno.

R&R Music...wow. Was this the 'Brian mix' of the song that Carl supposedly vetoed? The falsetto part shows that there really wasn't much difference between Brian in 1974 and in 1976 as far as vocal quality, and that some of the gruffness was put-on.

Boo-Hiss to using auto-tune on 'Sherry She Needs Me'. And to my ears YLTLF sounds a lot like my treatment of it. Just saying.

Finally great to hear Carl in the RIGHT DAMN SPEED on 'It's Over Now'. It's funny, but that happened to a LOT of his vocals of this period ('Everybody Wants To Live Just Once' is another good example)

Yes.

- The Beach Boys released the only good thing he ever did when the Beatles made all of their other songs suck with Rubber Soul (it's okay, but overrated. worst Beatles album>Pet Sounds)
- Hearing the greatest track to ever be released in the history of music a.k.a. Strawberry Fields Forever drove their leader crazy.
- Brian Jones started writing Smile to beat Sgt. Pepper but junked it and went to bed for 40 years when John Lennon phoned him from England and said "I'm better than you"

Read between the lines dungbrain. It makes perfect sense that when in bed Brian would grow jealous/obsessed with the amazingness of the Beatles which would make him want to try rip off their work to save his band who after 1966 sold a grand total of four records worldwide. Get a music education, idiot.

Look, I'm going to go masturbate to side two of Yellow Submarine but you can email me at xXtHE-be4tleS.inVent3d.r0ck'n'RoLLxx@hotmail.com if you have any questions/think I'm wrong (lol as if)

Ha, are those genuine Youtube quotes? Love 'em

(http://02varvara.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/01-crying-baby.jpg)

That knobhead wasn't even at the premier… he was two days late.


Premier Inn, perhaps.  ;D

All of these CIF threads are starting to confuse me, so I guess I'll just put my comment here, and a mod can move it if need be. I was listening to Brian's demo of California Feeling, and I suddenly realized something that I thought was so coincidental that it was actually quite spooky. Remember that weird "outburst" Brian has during his CF demo(CAN'T YA FEEL IT?!?)? Well, isn't it really strange how Dennis basically does the same thing during his Be With Me demo(Come on, just you and me babe*)?  ;D



*slightly paraphrased, as I can't quite remember the exact words he said

Can anyone confirm that these two songs are new mixes? Crazy that they wouldn't be noted as being such.

The 1974 session for "It's OK", unless Roy Wood was misremembering when I asked him, was just a basic track. No vocals. 'Course, there could have been a later vocal session he wasn't at.

Well, it's plain to me that ALL Brian's songs owe a considerable debt to Paul. I mean, they all use notes, and chords, and keys... instruments and voices. Just like Paul did.

Pretty obvious when you stop and think about it, really. Dude never had an original musical thought in his life. The Beatles did everything first. No, really they did.

Pretty certain It's OK didn't have vocals before early 1976. Modern Recording (I think that was the title) did a terrific article on the session.

Absolutely. Just check out any Youtube comments about the Beatles. They were The Greatest Musical Geniuses Ever!.

Bach, pah, bollocks. Beethoven - Borehoven more like. Wagner, vat a vanker.

No, before the Beatles music isn't even worth mentioning.

 ;D I'm gonna use that sometime

Just A/B'd "ATIT" and have to say, I do NOT like the 2012 remaster. Dry, crisp, almost brittle: all the wonderful woolly warmth has been sucked out of it. Did the comparison because I seriously thought it was a remix. That noticeable.

I'd love to set up a t-shirt stall at the Bayreuth Festival.

i can't believe they remastered a tit

Yes, till it was dry, crisp and almost brittle.

If anyone's going to suck the wonderful woolly warmth from a tit, I'd like that someone to be me.

Perverts. I'm trying to discuss hard-core Beach Boys fandom with a bunch of perverts.  :ahh  :thud

Huh huh huh, he said hard-core, huh, huh

Heh....mine's just the opposite: not enough treble. Nothing but middle, actually...

Where did you see this article?

Can't speak for Mike, but I saw it when it was published back in the day. There are a few compensations to being as old as we are.  :)

Runners, thanks to your post the other day ,I know you love me, and God Only Knows I love you too, but to the casual listener, this will ALWAYS be a She's Leaving Home rip-off. Think about the history... Paul played the song for Brian in April 1967 while the latter was trying to finish SMiLE, Marilyn cried and Brian obviously felt intimidated. Brian must have started playing around with that line of melody and WiS results. Consider: on the one hand you've got a song about a girl leaving home, and in the case of the Brian recording it's about wanting a girl to COME home. And Brian's song is clearly indebted to Paul's melodically — with no prompting and no idea what the song sounded like in advance, I heard the connection right away.

I don't think anyone's saying the *whole song* is just like SLH, but one clearly begat the other. It doesn't mean The Beatles are better than the Beach Boys (who gives a flying one about that stuff any more anyway...?), but ya gotta man up and admit the link.

I like Where Is She, but it's not a mindblowingly brilliant lost gem or anything. I can see why it sat in the vaults for years, especially if it needed some mix-footlery to make it 'acceptable' for release. I suspect a bit of mixing out of dodgy elements and flying in of choruses has gone on to make the MiC version. Not based on anything, just a feeling. And didn't AGD say round these parts recently that he'd heard a version of this that was totally forgettable, but then added more recently that the MiC version was way more impressive?

I do wish BW had finished Why?, though. That one IS a nutbuster, even without any vocals.

Or, because this is possible with modern technology, maybe a hybrid multitrack arrangement has been created that wouldn't have been possible in 1976 (or would have been very hard to do), which uses the 1974 recordings for the backing track and flies in the completed vocals from the 1976 multitrack. Voilà: you can now mix It's OK with completed vocals and the 1974 instrumental backing. I'm not saying that's what happened for sure, because I'm guessing (hell, I've never heard the 1974 track, so I'm in no position to judge), but it seems to me that this sort of thing is eminently possible these days, and seems to have happened all over MiC. For the record, I couldn't really give two hoots about 'historical accuracy': my most important yardstick with this stuff is always "Does it sound good? Do I like it?"

And I *love* the new mix of It's OK. I've always liked the original, but this lifts it to a new level for me.

A genuine question, this: what are you listening on? Because I had an extended listening session on a fine stereo system this morning and could detect no excessive sibilance at all. The CDs didn't sound too overly compressed to me either — I was able to listen to the whole set at, uh, *extended* volume for over three hours without wanting to turn it off.

Also the waveforms don't look too bad (although this is an aspect I always consider AFTER listening and forming a judgement from that as to whether a CD sounds OK, not by looking first and deciding I don't like it before I even play the CD). They're certainly not brickwalled, or anything...

But maybe I've got tin ears. It IS a possibility — I listened to a lot of techno up far too loud on Walkmans in the 80s and 90s...

I got bitched at by the general public all the time at my jobs, and for what I'm sure is a lot less pay than what these compilers get (trust me, I get paid diddly squat). If they can't handle that half the reason music geeks listen to music is because they enjoy discussing the merits of the music, they should get jobs as janitors or something.

Er... do you mean the bit that I thought, on first listening, was Hal Blaine saying "Come on in and see Stella the snake dancer! She walks, she talks, she wiggles on her belly like a reptile! She got the biggest ass of any man or lady I've ever... [tails off]" and then, later: "Hurry, hurry hurry, folks — come on and see Stella. She shimmies, she shakes... she got the biggest ass..."

I think it's quite a witty joke, in fact. Isn't Hal *actually* saying "she got the biggest ASP..."?? That fits with the snake dancer angle, but is also risqué in a funny and witty way. I guess it was still too close to the line for 1965 though, because Brian and Chuck mixed it down or out back in the day.

I may be wrong, but I think it's ASP.

Or were you talking about a totally different swear word (as we call them on this side of the pond)...?

No, you're right. I was talking about that bit. I guess it could be ASP. I dunno.  :lol

I can't believe I'm discussing whether Hal Blaine said 'ass' or 'asp' on some recording back in 1965. I like to think he would see the funny side, if he only knew.

It is Asp. She is "Stella the snake dancer" An Asp is a snake.

I learned about the asp line from AGD in his complete guide. It's nice to have it not faded out on MiC. It's 2013 it's high time the Beach Boys shaked their asps a bit, no?

I know what an asp is. For whatever reason I heard it as "ass".

I wasn't trying to be a smart-asp.  ;)

I need to find the version with Hal's extended show calling. I think it's my favorite part of the song.  :lol

You were supposed to. A joke. Hur hur.

I know I'm the dude you quoted, but they definitely are new mixes.  And I have no idea why they're not noted as such.

"Fun, Fun, Fun" has always been missing the first stage tape with the backing track in stereo, and the original stereo mix of course ran much shorter than the mono single.  This new mix has both new stereo elements, the old stereo elements and has the full fadeout.

"The Warmth Of The Sun" of course has always had that lopsided mix due to the lack of the session master.  This new mix has the backing vocals in full stereo with Brian's vocals in the dead center and the fadeout runs over 10 seconds longer than the original mix, confirming that it is indeed sourced from the original session tape.

I guess the tape with these two turned up in the last year or so (possibly from the same source as the other SD II tape) but it's odd we haven't heard about it (and still haven't).  I just think it's amazing that these 50 year old tapes keep turning up.  It makes me hopeful that we'll get to hear more outtakes and remixes from this missing period in their tape library.

You guys are nuts!  It's been awhile since I've listened to the SOT disk, but this is from memory. It's clear as a bell:

Come on and see Stella!  She shimmies,  she shakes, she wiggles her ass like a reptile!

And.......Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, folks, see Stella!  She's got the biggest ass on a lady you've ever seen.........

Something like that. For real!

Well, I dug out my SOT disc and listened before my earlier post. As I said above, this is it:

"Come on in and see Stella the snake dancer! She walks, she talks, she wiggles on her belly like a reptile! She got the biggest asp of any man or lady I've ever... [tails off]"

and then, later:

"Hurry, hurry hurry, folks — come on and see Stella. She shimmies, she shakes... she got the biggest..."

I can't believe I am *still* posting about what Hal Blaine said on a recording in 1965. I gotta get out of here.

I think the BBC version of Hushabye might be my favorite early BW vocal.

Damn. These 15 Big Ones & Love You mixes sound SO CLEAN  :o


If that interview re: more reissues etc the whole albums are probably remastered already. If only Capitol would release em!!

To nitpick: The 15BO mixes are indeed new and sound fabulous. The Love You mixes are the same Carl-made ones we've always heard. (But newly remastered, so I would guess they're louder and have some EQ tweaks added).

Yeah, it's "Come on in and see Stella the snake dancer! She walks, she talks, she wiggles on her belly like a reptile! She got the biggest ass of any lady I've ever..."
 
"Hurry, hurry hurry, folks — come on and see Stella. She shimmies, she shakes... she got the biggest ass..."

There, I filled in the blanks for you. It is what it is, plain as day! Doesn't make sense that it's "asp". Plus, why else would they fade the "ass" part out on the record?  Hal always told dirty jokes to bust up the session guys and musicians.  This was right up his alley.

was the "Child Of Winter" intro to "It's OK" originally intended for the song?

it ALMOST sounds like it's a runoff from the track before. It seems like it just doesn't belong.

Simple wordplay/double entendre, ass/asp. Stella the SNAKE dancer... an asp is a SNAKE... asp sounds like ass... simple sophomore level joke.

One of the most the mind blowing tracks on MIC is "Sail Plane Song", seriously it just sounds better than ever before

Jesus christ, "Soul Seachin"  :o

I've always heard "ass".  Never hearda "asp" before. It's "snake" over here.  "She's got the biggest "asp" " just doesn't sound right to me.

But d00d, it's a strong (but not exact) melodic similarity in one section. Different chords, different arrangement, different production and moon, different style, and the rest of both songs are very, very different from one another. "She's Leaving Home" is about a daughter running away, "Where Is She?" is about teh wifey being away.

Also, you and a few other folks are talking like "Where Is She?" was recorded within days of Brian rushing home after hearing the song, but nop, it took place over two years later. To accuse Brian of deliberately lifting part of it for his own song or liken it to what he did with "Surfin' USA" is silly and extremely presumptuous.

Sorry, I will only "man up to" and acknowledge one section has an extremely similar melody to the other, but that's it. I wouldn't doubt it may have been Brian unconsciously using a variation on something he'd heard prior, but every songwriter under the sun is guilty of that.

Sorry, it's just some folks are doing the tired and predictable "BEATLEZ DID IT BEATLEZ DID IT" and no, they're two different songs, great and unique in their own ways with one similarity. For a casual listener to dismiss it as a Beatles "rip-off" shows how limited their knowledge and appreciation of art is and ultimately, it's their loss.


To me, it's one of the best things he did in the somewhat spotty late 60s/early 70s, which is why it upsets me to see people Beatles-shitting all over it. I actually saw someone saying there's a "With A Little Help" reference because Brian used the words "How do I feel" in the song, as if The Beatles invented those words. Just, enough with it all, already.

It's a type of snake like a copperhead, python, etc. I think it was an asp that bit and killed Cleopatra.

I fully approve of the decision to put Transcendental Meditation on the set. Kicks all sorts of ass. Too bad we didn't get vocals-only as well. Speaking of which, Slip on Through et al. are another mind-blower from Sunflower. When are we getting a box for that one?!

Since I was the one who brought this up none of this was really my intention to denigrate the song or suggest it was a whole-cloth rip-off.  This tune is totally something to be cherished, a newly-unearthed original (!), non-fragmentary (!!) non-instrumental (!!!) 60s-era Brian Wilson tune - that's a big deal!  I don't mean to suggest that the She's Leaving Home quote is even the most interesting thing about it.

It doesn't constitute shitting on the song to point out the similarity.  It also doesn't really serve to get legalistic and try to winnow it down to just "four notes" in common or whatever...I think there's just an overall similarity in feel, and it  sounds like Brian had She's Leaving Home on the brain as much as he did "Ticket to Ride" with "Girl Don't Tell Me", as somebody else pointed out.  Brian had a lot of amazing, made-out-of-whole-cloth moments in his writiing, and then he also had moments where he did something really interesting with other people's fabric.  And to uh, belabor a metaphor, pointing out the seams shouldn't be all that troublesome.

Thanks for the response! I don't have access to the original stereo mixes right now, so I wasn't entirely sure if it was just a really tweaked remaster (they can occasionally do more than you might think with the original master) or if it was indeed a proper remix.

I have just discovered "Sound of Free" for the first time ever and already I've played it 5 times in a row.

Agreed. I'd never go so far as calling it a rip-off but "She's Leaving Home" does sound like an influence...and what the hell's so bad about that? Nobody says boo when making Brian Wilson/Phil Spector comparisons (Phil of course being about 100 times more influential on Brian) but Beach Boys/Beatles is so off putting for people? If it makes runners feel better I know Beatle fans who are sick to death of hearing about Pet Sounds influencing McCartney. They don't want to know about "God Only Knows". They'll scream to high heaven that "Here, There and Everywhere", "Fixing A Hole", etc weren't influenced by Brian. They HATE hearing that. So eventually there may be such a thing as "Beach-shitting".  ;D 

‍

I no longer hate Rock n Roll music. This new version is great.

Oh man, good thing the extended version of "mean for you" didn't end up on Friends, those pony lyrics kill the beauty of the song  :lol

Me too! What a jazzy dissonant number. Kick ass drumming on it too. :) I wonder if they use some kind of tape delay on Slip On Through? It's really spacey how they sing on the verses.

Sounds like a Leslie speaker.

did Why? have anything done to it post MIU?
That's when it was recorded, right? It just sounds so new, granted, it's nothing we've heard but it just doesn't sound like anything from the era it came from.

Ha! I feel the other way. They take one of my favorite Beach Boys pieces to another level. Love them and can't believe they left them off the album!

[/quote]

Ha! I feel the other way. They take one of my favorite Beach Boys pieces to another level. Love them and can't believe they left them off the album!
[/quote]

I agree. The melody and the singing are just so beautiful he could be singing about just about anything and I'd dig it. Went from 38 seconds of beauty to 110 seconds of wonder

Ha! I feel the other way. They take one of my favorite Beach Boys pieces to another level. Love them and can't believe they left them off the album!
[/quote]

I agree. The melody and the singing are just so beautiful he could be singing about just about anything and I'd dig it. Went from 38 seconds of beauty to 110 seconds of wonder
[/quote]

Damn!  That's almost enough to make me want to open the box and listen

It's funny that on an album that proudly represents the Beach Boys at their peak unhipness, there was still a discussion where somebody said "you know, is that line about puppies and ponies is just a little too much".

... and this, gentlemen, is why this set is pretty much above criticism.  People will learn... people will discover.  :)

The synth bass in Solar System...wow. It sounds so different from the two-fer. In a good way.

Grrreat!!!  Picking up my copy in 15 hours and 16 minutes.

Can't hear a huge difference to the twofer myself. But I never get the hate around here for Solar System. I think it's a brilliantly unique bit of songwriting and production with only two things to drag it down: the "Mars... wife" line, and Bdub's slightly shaky vocal.

Brian Wilson and a big f**k-off Moog modular, ranting about planets and stars to a big raspy analogue bass line. For the win!

lmao

The "Mars... wife" line is the only decent line in the entire song!!

Bit late to the discussion here but just realised that I Believe In Miracles is the a cappella bit CWTL intro. Finally, an official release for this most bewitching of BB sections! I just wish it had continued into the next section which is equally as beautiful and the most Smile-like of anything recorded outside of the Smile Sessions proper. Makes me sad to think that bit may remain in the vaults now but great to see they've included at least part of it on this set.

Anyone have any info on the title though? Is that just what was written on the tape box for that piece? Was that the initial title before it was expanded into Been Too Long/Can't Wait Too Long?

Just played disk 3, what a fantastic representation of the guys post Smile/Smiley period. The stereo mix of Darlin' is just mindblowing, things that I never really noticed before just leap out and DEMAND your attention.
The extended version of Meant For You is erm interesting, bad lyrics but the extended vocalising really puts the song in a different light.
The strings really add to We're Together Again, which was a stunning song to begin with. Honestly I think if this had been made a couple of years earlier it could have been a #1 single.
The new mix of Susie Cincinnati - WTF? Lots of Al whoopin' and hollering which was never there before and only detracts from a groovy song.
Sound of Free - I've only ever had this in shitty bootleg form before and it really is like hearing the song for the first time ever. Dennis seems to have become somewhat of a sacred cow around these parts to the point that you can't say anything negative about the guy but damn! he really hit it out of the park with this song ("and great lyrics by Mike Love" - Bruce Johnston).

Next up Disk 5. (I never listen to these things in chronological order!)

Just some random observations.

Had no idea it was Carl singing Lead on All Dressed Up For School and Pom Pom Play Girl. Very similar to God Only Knows early take falsely attributed to Brian

Why Do Fools Fall In Love - Those horns in the instrumental break. Wow!!!

As noted, in a lot of ways this box set belongs to Dennis. Be With Me demo is my favourite.

Harpsichord denial in I Get Around now outlawed.

But cannot hear Autotune in Sherry She Needs Me - will listen again.

Loving the new vocal in Still A Mystery.

Not to keen on a few of the tracks marked '2012 mix' Too tinny. The new Suzie Cincinaati took an awful song and made it sound worse.

No hidden tracks.

Disk 5.

Very glad to have a decent version of Doo Ron Ron, Carl's vocal on it is great.
The two Paley songs are sorta 'Meh' for me.
Little Bird live is underwhelming just like the studio version. The ad-libbing is rather funny though.
All I Wanna Do and It's About Time rock live.
Wild Honey live is one of the coolest things I've ever heard. Blondie owned this song.
Tracks 22 & 23 prove that you don't need ex Wondermints in your band to do decent Smile renditions, these were both really good.
SIP live ain't actually that bad. Bruce shines on the last verse.

Was really looking forward to the alternative Amusement Parks USA - but it sounds almost exactly the same as the Summer Days... version! Bit of anti-climax that one.

Amen!  Speaking of SOF...it's so great to have a "clean" sounding release of this track.  It's such a great song...and for too long all I've had is a somewhat scratchy sounding version taped off of an original 45.  They did a nice job with this set...most definitely!

Disk 5

WIBNTLA - there's nothing else left to really say about this is there, other than it's a crying shame it wasn't released back in the day.
I really wish a Blondie/Ricky song had been included if for no other reason than this is pegged as a complete career retrospective and their songwriting talents did play a big part of early 70's BBs. This would have been the perfect time to get the studio cut of We Got Love out to the masses.
The 'hot mix' of Rock and Roll Music is a MILLION times better than the version Brian crapped out for 15BO.
Ditto for It's OK. They still represent everything I dislike about the "Brian's Back!" era but do a good job of showing what Carl could have done with material.
ARRRRGHHH!!! SOLAR SYSTEM ALERT! Still for me, hands down the worst thing they ever did until Boy George started offering them songs. Instant skip.
Nice to hear It's Over Now with the correct vocal speed. I'd forgot how good this song was.
Calfornia Feeling is nice enough but it's no latter day BW masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination.
I prefer the Endless Harmony version of Brian's Back.
Goin' To the Beach = Mike Love on autopilot.

that is a bit screwed up.

the only hint of Blondie is Wild Honey (live) and Sail On Sailor.

If you're gonna embrace some 80s stuff, embrace the Blondie era!

Absolutely.  For a relatively "new" (compared to everyone here at least!) fan like myself this set just keeps on giving.  I had never heard "It's A Beautiful Day" before and that was another one that blew me out.  Couple that with the alternate takes ("Meant For You") and the instrumental only tracks like "Don't Go Near The Water"...I have been in love with this set.  I'm taking my time absorbing each disk.

Okay onto playing "Sound of Free" a few more times...

You should read the comments about the set posted on the Beach Boys' facebook page.  All negative...dealing with price, rebuying the same material, and calling Mike Love the Beach Boys' Yoko Ono.  Yes, the price is high, but I think it would be worth having if it moves under $100.

This set has amazing music on it, no question. I'll even say hearing "Surfin' USA" for the millionth time can't be qualified as a bad thing in any way. But I don't think this set is above criticism. It just needs the right context. It also needs to be not targeted at anyone in particular in most cases. We just simply don't know if "Solar System" or "Da Doo Ron Ron" (neither of which I dislike) made the cut while Adult Child stuff (or fill in the name of whatever you think should have been included) didn't because of the compilers or the actual BB's choice, or sway. That is, for example, I'd guess the live take of "Summer in Paradise" was either Mike Love's choice, or it was picked by the compilers to get Mike to warm to the project. Had the compilers had total control, I doubt we would have seen that particular cut.

On the other hand, was it the compilers who felt the need to put the "Smile" vocal montage on there? It's amazing, but it takes up 10% of the disc, every hardcore fan has it, and new "novice" fans could have easily been just as well served by some other impressive vocal bits that could have been included that hardcore fans also don't have.

Also, the vocals-only mixes of "This Whole World" and "Slip on Through" prove clearly that we need vocals-only mixes of a ton of BB tracks. They would be the perfect "filler" for deluxe versions of album reissues that don't have a ton of otherwise previously unreleased material.

I don't really know how people who bought 50 Big Ones could justify Capitols move to turn a rarities set into yet another fleshed out greatest hits.

You're right...I went over to check it out and all the Mike Love hate is despicable.  Some ignorant "fans" out there.

What rarities set?

Bruce's vocal on Disney Girls sounds really strange....

Guyz, this isn't the "hot mix" of "Rock And Roll Music", it was done recently, nor was there ever a hot mix of "It's OK". Just wanted to clarify as I've seen a lot of folks make the mistake.

Also, much prefer the original mix of "It's OK". "Rock And Roll Music" gained a lot of life here, "It's OK" lost some. But hay, it is interesting and I'm glad to have it.

The "It's OK" mix is not new -- it's a '76 alternate mix for those that didn't note that.

I JUST WANTED TO SAY I KNEW THAT. I'M NOT A DUMMY, SEE "nor was there ever" :'(

This was never, ever pitched to anyone as a rarities set: all along, it's been referred to, and rightly, as a career-spanning box set.

This has been mentioned so many times over the past year. Is there a mental block going on in here?

I've just heard some MIC tracks on mp3 files and I like very much what I've heard. Now granted, this is on mid-fi PC speakers and listening on the main system here could be more revealing sonically. Especially listening to the actual CDs when they arrive but for now I am majestically happy with MIC. 

Don't get me wrong, I think they've done a good job with this set, but I would love a vinyl version. Probably would need to be truncated which would be fine if all the rarities were included. I think they've missed a trick with no vinyl, but maybe that's just the musings of a man currently lacking a CD player.

I cast doubts previously on the alternate Meant For You. Please forgive me - It is quite perfect.

Wow, so many cool new mixes on this collection that I'm hearing a lot of stuff that I never noticed before. I also prefer the sequencing of the 64/65 stuff over the GV box.

I'm perfectly happy with the box set. I just want more...MORE...

MORE!!!  

Same.

MIC is nice and everything but I hope it's not the final rarities collection that sees the light of day..

So much more should be released but I'm not holding my breath

On a whim tonight I decided to switch out  Beaches In Mind with Soul Searching and Bill and Sue with You're Still A Mystery (following the vinyl track order) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they gel into TWGMTR really nicely. Now if I can just figure out a way to place MY Love Lives On, it will be whole (for me).

It's nice to see It's a Beautiful Day get its due…makes me feel a little better for owning two copies of the Americathon soundtrack

I know the demo of BW from the 70s singing  In the Back of My Mind is considered the holy grail right now.…but what's left to release? (Not saying there isnt anything or i dont have hope)What tracks do you want to see the light of day?

I'm just afraid we'll get a statement like George Martin once said about the Beatles Anthology: "scraping the bottom of the barrell." Oh well, maybe BeachBoysCentral is on it's way!

My Solution, Carry Me Home, I've Got A Friend and Awake are a few that desperately need to be released. It's a shame non of these made the set.

Agreed! Way too many CD only releases. WIBNTLA and Where Is She needs to be a RSD 45.

LMAO! And I suppose I told you I was massaging your prostrate rather than fucking you up the ass, you'd believe that, too?

Same. Holy sh*t, I was really like "I'm sure it'll be cool, but it can't beat the final". Come to find out, it IS the final, just longer and surprisingly all the better for it. These guys gotta get there "alternate version" versus "alternate mix" or "alternate vocal" or something straightened out on releases.

Anyway, yeah. Was driving yesterday listening to an old set of Beach Boys mixes I made a couple years ago. "Meant For You" came on, faded and I said "baaaaww" and sang the pony/puppy lines myself. ;(

Oooooh, Yeah!!!!!

as if Murry himself were in the room saying it...

I put all of the new tracks from MIC on a playlist and placed them in chronological order.  It flows pretty well and it's almost like having another Hawthorne (with more of an emphasis on the Brother years). 

I really wish they could put out a new rarities set every two years or so without the need to release the same hits over and over again.  I can understand wanting to update the GV box but I hope this is the last time I have to buy Kokomo. :(

When the "pony/puppy" lines came up in Made For You, I couldn't help but think it was a little corny, until 1:04, when those harmonies made my hair stand on end. That moment more than makes up for the slight cheesiness.

It's things like this that annoy me about MIC.

(http://i.imgur.com/TTCdVZJ.jpg)

The top mix is the CG Stereo mix from EH V.1
The bottom is the MIC version. While there is notable compression on the top mix too, it can be far more dynamic than the MIC mix, especially from the intro to Verse and at various points in the second verse [I think, this is from looking, not listening].

And there's way too much darn treble!

This is exactly what I was posting about in "all of MIC" thread.  What I don't understand is, weren't Endless Harmony and Hawthorne CA compiled by the same people as the 2012 remasters and MIC?  Why the compression and treble on the latter?  Should we not be seeing the sound quality improve over the years?  My depressing theory is that it's yet another example of "designed for earbuds" contemporary mastering.

Endless Harmony was not compiled, mixed or mastered by Mark Linett.

... At least not the first issue with the ugly cover. He returned within a year or so to redo some things for the second version.

Too bad the recording your speaking doesn't exist, and is only a figment of your collective unconscious. I just spoke to a Capitol rep today and he confirmed that MIC is not coming out.

even with the Child of Winter intro?

Is that what it's supposed to be?

oh it TOTALLY is.. and it doesn't fit very well lol

Most likely why it wasn't included on 15 Big Ones or the single mix. This is an alternate mix, so we have something different (to piss & moan about) on the box set. ;)

According to DonnyL, this is not a new mix from Mark Linett, it is a mix from 1975-1976.

Disc 6

Slip On Through has some really weird ass backing vocals doesn't it? I dig it.
Guess I'm Dumb and Sherry really should have been finished for Summer Days!
Where is She is very good.
Hmmmmm, it must be said that Barnyard Blues is unlikely to go down as one of Dennis Wilson's finer moments to put it politely.
California Feelin' demo seems to have roughly 5 different era Brian vocals on one song.
My Love Lives On sounds like it could have walked right off POB. I like it but at the same time I think I've reached the limit to how much Dennis piano ballads I want to hear.
Hushabye is nothing short of stunning but can't compete with the finished studio version.


Overall I'm slightly disapointed with this disc, there is the odd bit of the dreaded barrel scraping on this one.

On first listen the Transcendental Meditation backing track doesn't really add anything to the album version.

Slip on Through sounds very unnatural to me.

Lots of good stuff too though.

QFT. Although I am gonna do a re-edit of all the existing versions to zap the pony & the puppy. Then I can have the best of both worlds...

I have this funny feeling that the 'alt version' is itself a 2012 assembly, something that takes various things recorded back in the day at different times and puts them together anew. I have absolutely no inside knowledge of any kind to back this up, but it sounds to me as though a few versions from different eras have been assembled for this. I've got this persistent feeling that there was never a multitrack in 1968 with all the pieces on it that we hear on the new alt version, in that order. I smell fly-ins. Don't know why I've got that feeling, and I could be totally wrong.

There's only one thing I can spot immediately that doesn't feel quite right. Between Mike's intro ("As I sit and close my eyes..." until "...these feelings in my heart, I know, are meant for you") and when the group vocals come in just after Mike stops singing, the tone of the backing organ changes totally. The incoming group vocals do a lot to mask the change, but I think there's an edit of some different sections there.

This *could* have happened for real back in the day, if someone had changed the drawbar settings on the organ very fast at that point... but it seems a bit too quick to be 'live' for me. Of course, it might be that two sections were edited together like that in 1968, too — I could be wrong.

And also, I'm not having a go at the resulting alt version — I love it. I can even forgive the pony and the puppy lyrics, because the singing is so damn marvellous, and I'm so glad the set's compilers decided to go to the trouble to give us this. I don't get too hung up on the whole 'historical accuracy' thing when the results sound as damned great as this track does.

I agree. The track speeds up a lot right as the "pony" section kicks in. There's also the missing intro, and I don't think we ever hear the exact "do do do's" that fade on the original version.

I can't believe how many people have problems with ponies and puppies. I legit love the lyrics. What fitting images to have with the loving beauty of the track.

The pony/puppy dog imagery reminds me of posters that would be on the wall of a young girl's room, which is akin to the warm, fuzzy saccharine-filled, mellow vibe that the Friends album presents to the listener anyways.

I think Glen Campbell did a terrific job singing Guess I'm Dumb but I do wish the Beach Boys did a version of it.   I'm actually surprised they didn't after Campbell's version didn't chart.

For me, the mastering is the only real letdown on the new box. I haven't gone back and compared to see if previous Linett masterings were simply pulled "straight" for some songs, or whether fresh transfers or any simple tweaking to those previous Linett remasters were done, but the tonal balance is, frankly, a bit brutal in places to my ears. I don't know if this was Linett's decision/taste, or he was simply acting on orders, but I really don't care for it on many tracks.

Take "Marcella' for example. Sounded really bright, glassy and and piercing to me when I first sampled it, so I pulled out my 2000 Sandoval-Hersch version to compare. While both may or may not be dynamically compromised, the earlier one just has a richer, better overall balance than the "whiter and brighter," 2013 Linett version (though, one might argue that even *that* earlier one is a bit over-EQed). The new Linett version also seems to have a bit of a channel imbalance -- with a louder right channel -- if one listens or looks at the waveform. Odd.

I don't know what anyone else's preference is, but personally again, and while perhaps not perfect, I'll still stick with that aforementioned Sandoval-Hersch 2000 version for this particular track. :)


(Note: I didn't pull out "Classics" to compare that mastering, but the earlier, '93 box set version, mastered by Larry Walsh and ML almost sounds like it's from an inferior tape source and with some possible NR on it. I also didn't dig out the original Gastwirt, CATP version. But, I seem to recall that one as being pretty uninspired, tape source-wise, as well.)


Anyway...if anyone wants to compare, I believe 30 second samples are still allowed. Uncompressed WAV for download or 320 kbps MP3s (both of which can be streamed in most browsers). Also note that the Sandoval-Hersch version is a few db louder for that section of the clip. Something to take into mind when comparing or ABX'ing:


WAV:

Marcella - 2000 - Sandoval and Hersch
http://www.lukpac.org/~dave/Marcella%20-%202000%20-%20Sandoval-Hersch.wav


Marcella - 2013 - Linett
http://www.lukpac.org/~dave/Marcella%20-%202013%20-%20Linett.wav


or:


320 kbps MP3:

Marcella - 2000 - Sandoval and Hersch
http://www.lukpac.org/~dave/Marcella%20-%202000%20-%20Sandoval-Hersch.mp3


Marcella - 2013 - Linett
http://www.lukpac.org/~dave/Marcella%20-%202013%20-%20Linett.mp3

On other remixed tracks the bridge of Wouldn't It Be Nice no longer has the phasing in the backing track. Sounds a lot better.

I heard someone else say it sounds a lot like "Some Of Your Love", and it does. The melody also just reminds me a bit of the "In the sum-sum-summertime" vocal at the end of "It's OK", although it's definitely not exact.

I heard it as "Some of Your Love" on my first listen. Or "Mike Come Back To L.A", whatever. Clearly the same melody line, though.

I also noticed that Mark fixed the missing "...arlin" in "Darlin' that was missing on the stereo version of 50 Big Ones.

So it hasn't bothered anyone else yet that the Beach Boys' voices are autotuned to the point of sounding like car horns throughout this ENTIRE collection (previously-released material included)?

The only completely  untouched track seems to be the Surfin' rehearsal. Even instruments are sometimes apparently run through the bitch.  Some of the supposed original alternate mixes (especially Sail Plane) sound like they are likely contemporary Pro Tools experiments.

How much did this cost again?!

Um, I would very much doubt that this is the case. Not saying a pinch of manual pitch correction isn't present on a handful of tracks, but given that a lot of things are simply remastered versions of earlier mixes, what you propose is simply impossible. The entire set would need to be remixed for this to even be a possibility.

Autotunoia: paranoia of the non-existant use of Autotune.

Can someone link me to said interview of whomever? Thanks.

Only the 15 Big Ones tracks are remixed.

The SH version has a much richer, fuller sound, no doubt about it.
Please enlighten me - what album/release/version/year?

So there are two different mixes? Which cover is on which one?

TM must be the worst BB song ever... But that's MO... ;)

I recall reading - many many years ago - that either
(memory doesn't serve me well) it was based on, or
a re-write of, or inspired by some 50's jazz tune. Not
strange at all, since most of the Wrecking Crew members
were jazz musicians. Does anyone else recall reading this?

Well — I do hear ya. The lyrics do kind of fit the vibe of Friends. I think I said on here when I first heard the track, that they remind me of an Athena poster, which is pretty much exactly what Ebb And Flow said straight after your post. For those that don't know, Athena is, or possibly was (they may now be no more for all I know), a UK High Street retailer of the kind of mawkishly over-sentimental posters that adorn the walls of sub-teenaged girls' rooms: puppies with big eyes looking sad, horses looking cute and fluffy kittens with pat one-liners underneath. I'm sure there are similar places in the States...

So although the lyrics sort of fit, they also pull me up short. I can sure see why the Boys canned them in 1968, when putting them in would have been a sure-fire way to wreck your credibility in the first few seconds of the new album (although of course tragically, back in 1968 Friends managed to do that anyway without any help from the ponies OR the puppies...).

Point is, I'd like to respect that creative decision from back then, and keep the fauna out of the track as the Boys did in '68, while still giving myself access to the superlative harmonies that grace the latter part of the new version. Working on a re-edit now...

With regard to Meant For You, less was definitely more, but the extended version is interesting in context of MiC.

The spoken word bits on I Get Around, Surfer's Rule and There's no Other really are the definition of barrel scraping. A shame they couldn't have included one or two of the genuinely unreleased songs from the Party sessions.

OK, I just finished listening to the whole thing. These are my first comments because I avoided all samples before my box arrived yesterday.

There was never a chance that this set was going to carry the same impact for me as the GV Box, which really kicked my BB fandom into high gear. Now most of the music is fused into my cortex but it's still fun to listen to it all again in another context with new mixes, added chatter, etc etc

Here were my favorites of the "new" (with asterisks) tracks as I listened through the set for the first time:

Country Air - this mix was really different and fun! There were some elements I missed from the old mix (was the "come on!" missing?), but also a lot of weird effects popping out... excellent.

Meant For You (alternate) - it was fascinating to hear the track continue on, but the mystery and concise brilliance of the fragment on Friends was still the right decision for that album.

Help Me Rhonda (w Dennis) - I'm not usually into live tracks because in my mind they never improve on the originals. However, this one got me thinking that perhaps Al was miscast in the lead role all these years. Sacrilege, I know, but the devil may care desperation of the lyric suddenly comes to life here and it's amazing. I don't know if 1964/65 Dennis could have pulled it off, though.

Guess I'm Dumb - majestic, evocative, beautiful, brilliant. Yes, I heard this outtake before, but now it's part of the official BB canon where it belongs.

Mona Kana - great Dennis track; quite SMiLE influenced (yes I heard it before but it has been a while).... I wonder if he ever planned lyrics to it.

Had To Phone Ya (Instrumental) - I've always enjoyed this backing track, which is very reminiscent of Love to Say Dada but in some ways, it betters it.

I Believe In Miracles - YES! THIS IS THE TRACK I MISSED FROM THE SMILE SESSIONS! I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS IN THE BOX! SUCH HIGH QUALITY! WOW! Oh, it's over? Still, that was amazing.

Why - OK, how many people did a double take when they realized that this is an MIU outtake? Wow, great chord changes. Brian clearly still had "it"... I know you all already knew that.

I liked a lot of other tracks, but these were the most thrilling for me on first listen. I'm sure others will emerge over time....

I keep listening to Sound Of Free.
What an amazing song!

Considering Sound of Free was released not as a BB song, but by Dennis Wilson & Rumbo, it's a miracle it (and a few others) made it to the box...

Now, I wonder if Almost summer will ever make it to a BB box.. ;) Actually, I like it - should have been a BB song. And the day someone says there IS a BB recorded version, I will, I will, I....'m gonna cry... ;D

Now, where's We got love?????

Two observations and a question.

1 -  Without pretending to say that The Beatles invented everything: It's unquestionable that "Where is she" is influenced by "She's leaving home". Another two factors: the beginning of the B part -with melody and chords that echo the "Silenty closing her bedroom door", and the time signature. This is not derogatory to "Where is shy", a really nice song which should have been developed and release in its time: is Brian beign influenced by Paul as "Here There and Everywhere", "Penny Lane", "You mother should known", "Dear Boy", "The Back seat of my car", and many others, including "New" are Paul's songs with Brian's influence over them.

2 - Re: The piano stylings of the "California feelin'" demo. Maybe is an example of Brian's love for Randy Newman's Sail away LP?

3 - What's the story with the backing tracks of "Soul searchin'" and "You're still a mystery"? For years it has been said that the bootlegged versions were the vocals from the Was session flown into the Paley instrumental tracks. The MIC versions are basically the same than the Landylocked  ones (or also, in the case of "SS", The GIOMH version) Who is credited with the production on the MIC liners? Of course this will be cleared with the soon-to-be-online C-Man's session research...

It's a great set, but it's a shame the Blondie/Ricky era is practically overlooked.

Where is Hard Times, We Got Love, It's A New Day, Carry Me Home? Or a different live Leaving This Town?

Also, the live set could have lived without all the 90s performances, except for Summer In Paradise. Sail On Sailor with Carl is nice, but it features a cheap piano and synths.

The BBs deserve a live box set, too :)

I only have the first ("fence" cover) Endless Harmony so I'm not sure of the differences between that and the second ("car" cover). 

Compare Endless Harmony's stereo California Girls to MIC.

Hasn't bothered me, mostly because what you're claiming is flat-out nonsense. Suggest you make an immediate appointment with your audiologist. Every single track ? Seriously ?? You any kin to Phil Cohen ?

They're just a bit of session recordings before and after songs. They aren't there in place of other songs, I would hardly call it "barrel scraping."

I did it a few times on a Beach Boys mix I made for friends actually, just as a "for fun" thing when there was a bit of amusing/interesting dialog. I think it's here for the exact same reason.

First version, released in 1998:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Endless1Cover.jpg)

Revised version, from 2000:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Endless2Cover.jpg)

I believe there's a third version, too, that fixes some minor mistakes in one of those main two versions.

Only one is, actually. R&R Music. The It's OK alternate mix comes from '76.

On SS, the production credit is: BW, AP and DW
On YSAM, the credit it: DW, BW and AP

My suspicion is that YSAM actually uses the Was instrumental track, which is why he's credited first.

I thought Had To Phone Ya was a remix, but I guess not.

Some of the 70s stuff sounds different, I suspect, because Mark L. hasn't remastered it since the 1993 set, if at all. The Brother years twofers from 2000 were handled by someone else.

I'd usually agree with you, but in these cases I think they are well worth including. IGA intro gives a good break down of instruments that are on the backing track (harpsichord!), Surfer's Rule gives the listener some classic Murry, and Carl's thing at the beginning of "There's No Other" is laugh-out-loud funny, if you're hip to Love vs. Wilson on Shut Down II.

Sandoval-Hersch:

http://www.amazon.com/Carl-The-Passions-Tough-Holland/dp/B00004TJXT

Is it just me, or are the Mike's vocals after the Pony bit the same as the ones before the Pony bit.

There is indeed version 1.0.1, but the only way you'll know is to listen: they used the wrong Promo in version 1.0 (what was said was at odds with the liner notes to that track).

No takers?  C'mon try it, particularly with a good pair of headphones.

My apologies, but what is it again that you're looking to compare -- mixing or mastering differences?

As noted, you have the first version of EH (or, perhaps, you have the slightly "fixed" issue of that), and that stereo mix of CG was done by Andrew Sandoval. It's the version with the second cover that has the mix done Mark Linett. So, at the very least, that one might be a better comparison with what's on MIC. :)

Also, when Linett's version came out, some people noticed that the syncing between the vocals and the backing track wasn't as precise as it might be. Perhaps, taking a cue from that, Mark re-did the stereo mix again a few years later for one of the other BB comps, and the syncing is a bit better there (it was either Classics or Sounds Of Summer, but I'm drawing a total blank right now as to exactly which one it was. I *think* it was Sounds Of Summer).

Sandoval's mix is much more straight forward, while Linett's more effect-laced. Apparently, the powers-that-be weren't happy with that first one, thus the re-do. Though, many fans actually prefer that simpler one.

It ain't just you.

I should also point out that, while Mark L. was not involved in the first Endless Harmony album release, Alan Boyd most definitely was (crossing over from his work on the documentary).

Both.  I was looking for points of comparison to illustrate how relatively treble-y and flat MIC seems to be.  But as you point out, I'm likely on the wrong track as this is comparing apples and oranges (or red apples to green apples) due to the different mixes.  I think the EH 1.0 version of California Girls has a much richer sound and a more logical soundstage.  It's more detailed (I can hear the bass strings vibrate when Carol starts her bum-ba-dee-da riff).  MIC sounds bright, somewhat harsh, the mix relatively confused, and the definition of the instruments isn't as precise.

Gotcha.

FWIW, I always preferred the Sandoval mix as well. The syncing was impeccable, and I personally feel that the drier, more straight-forward presentation worked just fine. About the only area where I could possibly envision (and agree on) the displeasure of the first mix by the powers-that-be was Brian's falsetto on the tag. A *bit* too naked and out front there, IMHO. Linett seemed to be going for a style that was either "vintage" or closer to his Pet Sounds stereo mix, though, as noted, it's certainly debatable whether adding those effects were actually an improvement.  

You already know my feelings on some of the MIC mastering choices from my "Marcella" comparison post, though I honestly haven't compared the new release of CG to any of ML's earlier ones.  :)

I've read quite a few people express that the early-mid 1970s are underrepresented on Made in California, but I can't fully agree with those opinions.
 
A third of the concert performances are from 1972-1975, the era got a pretty generous showing of outtakes (including the band's most talked about rarity) and around 40% of the album tracks between Surf's Up and Holland were included. Realistically how much more space could be devoted to them without giving the era undue weight? If you can believe it, proportionately speaking, the output on Smiley Smile to Sunflower is less represented.

Breaking from fact and throwing a little conjecture into the mix, I feel the demand for spotlighting this material is partially derived by how they're not as respected to the extent that they should be in the classic rock community. I think this leads people to believe this serious 70s rock would cause mass cultural reassessment and appoint them beside the Beatles in the annals of pop music. I thought this way at the start of my fandom, but now I recognise that the release of something like "We Got Love" just ain't gonna shake the world's status quo. Not a groundbreaking hypothesis, I've read it many times before, but now I'm really starting to understand it.

A bit late now, but this just made me laugh! ;D

Hadn't noticed this.

This is exactly why I should keep away from the board after these big archival releases! I just don't want to peek behind the curtain and pull the mixes apart. I have sufficient lack of understanding of recording, mixing, mastering etc. to be able to take, and enjoy, most of Linett's work at face value eg. the new mix of Do It Again which is outstanding.

The only track where I feel too much unnecessary technology has been applied for my tastes is Sail Plane Song but it's fun and I'm sure many will enjoy the psychedelic effects.

Apparently EH was issued four times:

The original version, the original version (with Dennis's corrected promo), a second version & the second version including Mark Linett's remix credits previously omitted.

Linett's adjustments to Sandoval's version include:

Correct version of Dennis Wilson's radio concert promo,

Punchier and slightly sped up mix of the hits medley,

Acappela mix, as opposed to binaural mix, of Surfer Girl,

Kiss Me Baby, California Girls stereo remixes,

Darlin' (live) remix,

Do It Again (early version) remix, slightly sped up and restores the bars that were edited from the fade in Sandoval's version,

Re-equalized and re-edited Heroes and Villains demo, and

a hidden bonus track at the end of Endless Harmony ("...kiss a little bit and fight a little bit...")

Maybe i should get one of the other versions. I've only got version one, never seen a UK version other

Also, Sandoval's overall sound is closer to the single mix of the mono, while Linett's sounds more like the mono LP mix. Listen to the horns, drums, background vocals and Brian's vocal on the chorus.

Could this be a case of Brian re-recording his lead for YSAM during the Was-produced sessions for his new album?

Regardless of some recent press accounts, the only official word we've had on the new album's production is that Joe Thomas is involved. Was is simply playing bass.

Although ... it's an interesting theory.

Man, Slip On Through A Cappella reveals some seriously intricate vocal parts.

Possible stupid question: Did Brian do all the vocal arranging, or did the other members take over some of these duties post Smile? I assume the backing vocals on Slip On Through are Brian's arrangement, but maybe not.

OK whilst I'm generally revealing my lack of BB expertise might as well admit the following:

I never paid Sherry She needs Me much attention, assuming it was a Four Seasons cover or something. I had no idea it was a BB original and what an incredible song it is too. Quite strange hearing the 65 track with the 70s vocal but in a good way. Quite a revelation for me, this one.

I've never been much of a fan of Vegetables, but I absolutely love the new live version. The cheesy sound effects (those good old synthesized whistles...) somehow sound more natural than any of the studio versions. It sounds like children's music, but really enjoyable children's music.

Not half-way through this set yet but it's jolly good, isn't it!   :D

I am very, very happy with this box set.

So much great stuff!

This is my favorite track from the box set.

To me, the vocals on Slip on Through just sound very collaborative.  They probably took what they learned and threw stuff out there.

My immediate takeaway upon first listen:  these guys could do ANYTHING with their voices.

The song I've returned to the most is "Barnyard Blues."  Just love the groove on this!

Still absorbing the whole thing...

Thanks for the notes! For the completist, this stuff is good to know.

No worries.

Ok, listened to the full set in order yesterday in one mammoth sitting. As a career-retrospective it really works amazingly well - to me, it more accurately represents what was happening when and who was doing what during the various stages of their career than Good Vibrations did.

I'm still desperately unhappy with what's happened to You've Lost That Loving Feelin' - the bootleg is just so much more powerful - and I'd say Sail Plane Song is an interesting failure... Oh, and just a few more rarities and personal faves (All I Wanna Do, Where I Belong) would've been nice...

Otherwise I'm happy with it! This is going to be a present for several friends and family from me this Xmas. Sod the cost, spreading the gospel is more important!   

Ticking into this set nicely but I have a query right from the start…

Just before Mike introduces the Radio Luxembourg show on Disc 1, track 1, there's a brief section of the Good Vibes track slowed right down (we've had this before on another release…) - can anyone tell me why it's slowed down in that way? It sounds bloomin' awful!

Rest of the set (not listening in order) i blowing me away all over the place.

Track 2, Surfin: Can I assume that the inclusion of recording session take calls before the guys get going is an indicator that Capitol now has the Hite Morgan (etc) session tapes that Brad Elliot tried to release as First Wave?

(http://www.surfsuprecords.com/images/firstwavecoverlarge.jpg)

http://www.surfsuprecords.com/tracklisting.html (http://www.surfsuprecords.com/tracklisting.html)

Am I the only one who really digs this mix of Sail Plane Song?

It's quirky, psychedelic, but it really works somehow. Nice little experiment.

I like the new mix, as well.

After listening to the live tracks on this set it is obvious that the Beach Boy's vaults contain a ton of live recordings. They havn't even begun to scratch the surface in releasing vintage live recordings.

A Beach Boys LIVE box set HAS to be next up for release. It would be nice to see a few complete concerts as well as live rarities. It would also be the perfect place for the BB50 Royal Albert Hall concert (on CD). They could easily do a six disc set with fantastic concert photos, back stage pass and whatever.

Who can we write to?  :ahh  :3d

As far as the slowed down Good Vibrations track, that's probably something to be taken up with the Radio Luxembourg folks. As far as track 2, that's lifted wholesale from the Good Vibrations box set, disc 1, track 4.

Did anyone else notice the talking during the Slip On Through acapella mix? Around 1:46. Sounds like Brian.

Is this version of Break Away the same as on Hawthorne, CA? I thought I noticed some minor differences but I'm really not sure.

I love this mix!

One of my favourite tracks on MIC

I collected my thoughts on the contents of the box set after listening to it for a week so this got quite lengthy.

My main thought while going through most of this stuff is that i don’t know of anyone else who realizes the full potential of music and elevates it to a sort of alchemy like the Beach Boys. When they are at their best, that brew of everything coming together in that highly idiosyncratic way that only they can concoct, it just sounds like actual magic. It really is on another plane. I also kept thinking, “What the f*** is this band? They are aliens.” I don't think i will ever fully understand them or ever stop being amazed by them (on multiple levels). My favorite thing i’ve read so far about the box set is from Quzi who said, “I’m unsure as to whether this set better proves that this is the best band in the world or the stupidest!” The answer, of course, is both.

Despite my posts in the YLTLF thread, ultimately, i am more happy with MiC than disappointed by it (redundant song selection aside). I am finding the issues on MiC easier to put aside than those on TSS (this project also just generally holds less weight than TSS). I think the sound is generally all right, though i too am in the camp who finds the EQ and mastering overly bright/harsh and will be turning down the treble knob a good amount.


As for some of the individual tracks:


This Whole World a cappella - This was the first track i went to, as i’m someone who wants an entire a cappella and backing track box set of some sort more than anything else. I was expecting glory on this one and that’s just what i heard. I listened to it three times in a row before i moved on to something else because i just couldn’t process what was happening to my mind, i felt so much joy and i wanted to cry. It really never ceases to astound me how different a Beach Boys song can sound when the vocals (or backing track) are isolated. The wordless section right before the outro is sublime, just out of this world. I would’ve never known those harmonies sounded like that! It’s cool to hear Brian’s lead part, but i can see why it was replaced. Would love to hear, if it exists, a whole pass at the song from him.

Slip On Through a cappella - This one blew my mind to bits, especially that second dizzying verse. That second verse is some of the craziest, most intricate backing vocals they’ve ever recorded. I have to admit that when the MiC tracklist was first announced, i thought this was a weird choice, of all songs, for an a cappella mix (though i still welcomed it), but i totally see now why it was an obvious choice. It's just so incredibly revealing. It is astounding how much information there can be in Beach Boys songs and how much of it gets buried.

Meant For You alternate version - This is why i love this band. Meditation, a pony, and a puppy dog. Who else but the Beach Boys? The perfect antidote to classic rawk. 

Where Is She - What an unexpected kind of sound, not what i had imagined this one sounding like based on the descriptions we had. This is a quiet little late night miniature bedroom masterpiece. I feel a universe more emotion and heaviness in an offbeat little song like this with kind of clunky but really heartbreaking lyrics and a “straight” subtle delivery than from any Dennis piano ballad. This is where it’s at for me.

We’re Together Again - Those strings! This song really comes together now and sounds as great as any of their top late ’60s stuff. How can any band leave songs of this caliber in the vaults? Only the Beach Boys. I would kill to be able to write something half this amazing. And this was just a little throwaway song they tossed off and left in the vault for decades.

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ - As it's been noted already, some of the magic of the bootleg version is gone due to the excessive echo (and how incongruous it sounds with the period), but let me tell you, this is SUCH a great arrangement, production, and performance that i honestly think it can’t be ruined. So take that. This one is one for the ages. I love how fast and coked up it starts and then immediately slows down as if Brian realized this. I’d genuinely rather listen to this than the original Righteous Brothers recording. There, i said it.

Amusement Parks USA early version - I love how absolutely bonkers this sounds. What an eccentric song and production that only Brian Wilson in the mid ‘60s could have ever come up with. This recording has so much power, it almost sounds like it’s on fire. I had to check to see if there was smoke coming out of my speakers. I don’t know what it is but this version and mix has more energy to it than the album version.       

Sail Plane Song - I’ve always adored this demo. I don’t think what Linett and Boyd did to it sounds bad per se, but it makes me uncomfortable because it’s such a significant alteration to the production of what is ultimately a demo. As others have pointed out, it already feels dated to 2013. It’s funny, i showed this song to a friend and they said something like “Whoa, they were doing stuff like that back then? This sounds so modern!” So, yeah, about that... Brian Wilson and Mark Linett Present Sail Plane Song. Also, why is the organ in the third verse gone? That was a highlight for me in the EH mix.

California Feelin’ - I’m generally more okay with composite revisionism than with revisionism that takes actual artistic liberties in coloring the production. To add a crazy panning delay or drench an entire mix in the wettest reverb is on a whole other level than to mix different vocal takes of the same song. My issue is with affecting the overall sound of historical recordings more so than futzing with chronology. Anyway, the band is in really great form here pretty late in the game. I love the sparsity of the arrangement and those anti-rock classic Beach Boys drums. It’s so great how understated, of all things, the chorus is. Bruce sounds like honey and the backing vocals are golden.

Sherry She Needs Me - This song and particularly this version is nuts in a really subtle way -- the lyrics, the ragged voice, the incongruity between the lead vocal and the backing track, and then the young sounding backing vocals coming in at the end, and the chord changes. It really wasn’t a bad idea to put 1976 Brian over this backing track, i think his then voice gives it a great edge that adds even more to the uniqueness of the song. It might have been a little too sweet had he tracked the vocal in ’65. As is, it’s a true gem and i’m really glad to have it here despite Sherry, baby, it’s time WEE~IOUE**UGHH#% said goodbye.

You’re Still A Mystery -  What a shockingly great song and production (not totally ideal, but consider the time). One of the biggest delights on the entire box set for me. Easily better than anything on TWGMTR, in my opinion. I like Brian’s tone here, and the Auto-Tune, though totally unnecessary, actually doesn’t bother me too much (of course i wish it wasn’t there). I don’t see how there’s any way this lead vocal could be mid ‘90s Brian. 

Soul Searchin’ - So glad to have this version in good quality. Such a great, punchy backing track and really idiosyncratic backing vocals, kind of wild, especially considering the tameness of the period. Man, they still had it. In the mid ‘90s!

Why - So great to get stuff of this caliber just out of nowhere like this. I really don’t think the guy ever lost “it” -- i think it just visited him less and less as the years went by. This almost sounds like it was written to be an instrumental...by someone else! I agree with whoever said it almost sounds like BW pastiche. This right here is what bands like the High Llamas wish they could do, ha. 

WIBNTLA - I’ve had to force myself to listen to it more than i ordinarily would despite being mostly pretty bored by it. The legend, man, the legend. After several listens i think the song is all right, though it gets better with each listen. But i don’t think (at least yet) that it’s as good as 4th of July or especially any of his ’68-’70 songs (excluding Be Still). But i think it’s better than anything that came after it except for Steamboat, which destroys WIBNTLA. I think it’s totally absurd the hype this got, but hey, we all have our opinions. I just don’t find interesting Dennis’ “Dennis” style (as opposed to his “Beach Boys” style like Little Bird, Celebrate The News, Never Learn Not To Love, etc.) and WIBNTLA seems to be somewhere in between the two. Those sustained shouty notes on the chorus grate on me (to say that this was his best vocal, i think, is nuts), and i hate the drums. I find the verses to be the best part of the song, and i actually like the coda and the transition into it. Go figure. Surf’s Up had songs with much more interesting arrangements and productions, i think. I can’t imagine this song on the album (on CATP though, yes), so i’m actually glad it ended up being left off. Here’s an unpopular opinion for you -- give me Take A Load Off Your Feet (one of my favorite BB songs), or any of Al’s other Surf’s Up songs, and Bruce’s Disney Girls, over WIBNTLA.

California Feelin' demo - I had no idea Brian could play piano like this, so unexpected. That is actually the more interesting/revealing aspect of this demo for me than his voice. I don’t really see myself listening to this one too much, but i’m really glad to see that unsafe choices like this made their way on. 

Back Home ‘63 - Nice backing track, but this song doesn’t really lend itself to this sort of arrangement. Brian’s delivery, and even the vocal melody itself, don’t quite work with this sort of WC arrangement/production. With the way Brian is singing, if you had only heard the vocals in isolation, you’d think it’d be a sparser backing track. It sounds more like he’s singing over the track rather than to it or with it, if that makes sense. I can see why this was not used and tried again later with the more stripped down “rustic” Sunflower type arrangement.

Back Home ‘70 - Such a great bass tone and drum sound on this one. Man, the 15BO arrangement is so half assed when you compare them to the other two.

Don’t Worry Baby alternate lead - I can see why Brian decided to have another go at the lead. Glad he did, but also glad we have the opportunity to hear stuff like this. We’re pretty lucky that stuff like this still exists.

Had to Phone Ya backing track - This is one golden nugget. Another bit of proof that BW could put together something just as great as his peak work nearly a decade after he supposedly lost it. Who makes music like this? What is this? It’s in a different universe from “rock” or “pop.”

Mona Kana - So great to have this in full quality. I’m an oddball because this one and Mexico, for me, are all time Dennis highlights. I think he is in top form here and it blows my mind that this was never used. This band, man. This could be opening titles of a Jerry Goldsmith score -- some of the mightiest praise in my book. 

Guess I’m Dumb backing track - One of Brian’s best, sounds really great here, though the horns seem too loud for a BW production.

Don’t Go Near The Water backing track - I wonder why this is missing so many overdubs. I know it’s not, but it almost sounds like a different version of the backing track.

It’s interesting that Transcendental Meditation shows up as a backing track and Our Sweet Love as an a cappella mix, but neither are anywhere else on the set. Doesn’t entirely gel with the arguments about how they couldn’t have really replaced certain selections for “new” additions because of the issue of paying for more rights. 

It’s Over Now - Great to have it speed corrected. Some aspects of the mix improve upon the GV mix (more clarity in the horns) and other parts of the mix are really puzzling, particularly the bridge with the strings being absurdly loud and Marilyn’s vocals being almost comically buried  ???. I know Marilyn’s voice is off-putting to a lot of people but come on...

Barnyard Blues - Was pleasantly surprised by this one too, as i wasn’t expecting anything, but this is pretty cool. Nice to see something so playful from Dennis. Great tack piano.

What’s with the backing track balance on Surfin’ U.S.A.? Does it sound weird to anyone else?

Fun, Fun, Fun - It's strange and cool to hear the two drums on each channel. Also, HORNS!

When I Grow Up 2012 stereo mix - Another case of presenting the music with a bigger sound than it originally had.

In The Back of My Mind 2012 stereo mix - Nice mix, questionable reverb quality -- listen at the very end to the decay of the reverb, sounds so hokey.

Love the Party intro before There’s No Other and that stuff like that made it on to such a big release.

Darlin’ in stereo sounds amazing. This is how it’s done. Hello horns.

Do It Again in stereo! Sounds great, although i prefer the bridge in mono. That baritone sax on the right channel sounds so good. By the way, i am now convinced that the tone and delivery of Brian’s falsetto in DIA is the exact tone and delivery that Jeff Foskett tries to emulate whenever he sings falsetto (or fosketto). 

Wild Honey in stereo sounds pretty great, so driving and open, but i wish the song’s centerpiece, the Tannerin, was more upfront in the mix like in the original mono mix. Man, the backing vocals really come alive in stereo. 

Country Air in stereo - Wow, those countermelodies in the backing vocals! Obviously never noticed that little inhaling ahhh at :30. Once again though, this mix is trying to sound bigger. The Wild Honey record is pretty dry. Why pretend it’s not? Also, why mix the Chamberlin so low when it’s such a prominent part of the arrangement?

Rock and Roll Music - This sounds like a bulldozer trampling the 15BO mix. What a transformative mix, makes you really realize what an eccentric cover this is. I mean, who would ever cover Chuck Berry and make it sound like this? 15BO needs a good reevaluation, i think. There’s some gold buried in places throughout that album.

It’s OK - That little Joe Meek sounding phrase at the start is one of my favorite little moments on the entire box set. Someone please tell me what synth that is. I think this alt. mix also improves on the original, though not nearly as much as R&R Music.

I wish they had used this opportunity to use the “Landlocked” mix of Good Time rather than the Love You mix. Or at least a recreation of it if the master is missing.

Susie Cincinnati new mix- The single mix is still, for me, the definitive one for this song, has more energy than this one or 15BO.

Is there a phase issue on Disney Girls? I don't see why or how there would be, but it sounds phasey (more than usual).

I’m not a live music/live recordings person at all, so i am one of the very few people around here that has no interest at all in any kind of live archival release (i’ve never even listened to any of their live albums), but one of the biggest surprises for me on the box set is the live in Chicago performance of Runaway. This is a great performance and, for whatever reason, it transcends my complete lack of interest in live recordings. I think it has something to do with the deliciously twangy 12 string, Al’s energetic delivery (a bit of a different sound for him and the group), and maybe the fact that i keep wanting to sing Summer Wine and Cuckoo Clock over it! The instrumental section is out of sight.

It’s cool to hear Friends and Little Bird live when they were still new songs, but i can’t see why i would ever want to hear them again when they're so close to the studio arrangements yet so inferior to them. My only other thoughts on the live stuff is that You’re So Good To Me is a pretty terrible performance and i can’t see why it would be included, unless it was to showcase Al covering for Brian. Don’t care for the ‘70s rawkkkage. And the ’90 performances make me cringe. 

Really happy to have the Lei’d in Hawaii stuff including a rehearsal (i don’t consider these live). Also, i wasn’t terribly interested in the BBC stuff at first but they definitely have their appeal in their rawness and peculiar lo-fi quality. Hushabye is my favorite of the three with its kind of surf treatment of the arrangement. It's a really nice spin on the studio arrangement, which is one of my favorite BB recordings. So i’m glad to have this BBC stuff too.

Why Don’t They Let Us Fall In Love - Hey, this one surprised me, really not bad at all. Pretty good even. Has a kind of updated 15BO vibe. I don’t mind at all that they sound a little drunk. 

Da Doo Ron Ron - I had only ever heard this one time before MiC. For a reason. Horrid lead vocal and just such an uninspired idea. What...were they doing here? I’m going to listen to the Crystals version 500 times in a row to erase any trace of this from my memory.

It’s A beautiful Day - This is pretty hard to get through. I think i had actually never made it all the through before listening to it here. Goin’ to the Beach sounds like fresh air coming after this atrocity. I am not one of those who think that Carl’s vocals alone can redeem these kind of disastrous songs. I actually think from the mid ’70s on he over sang everything and he developed this forced quality to his tone.   

Was actually expecting more embarrassing stuff in the latter era vault stuff, but i was pleasantly surprised. One last thing i want to mention (and this is not a complaint really, just an area of confusion) is that i can’t make sense of the running order of disc 6. Does anyone have any insight as to why such a non-chronological or thematic order was chosen, why it’s just all over the place? And why is some of the vault material (ex: Sail Plane Song) on the other discs rather than on disc 6? And why is the BBC stuff at the very end? Just wondering what the idea was here. I haven’t had a chance yet to read the liner notes so maybe the answer is there.

^ haha, fosketto.. good un monicker  :thumbsup

I think I prefer the falsetto in "Don't Worry Baby"'s outro to its usage in the intro of "Little St. Nick"
Absolutely beautiful.

yeah the resemblance is striking.

Monicker, I actually agree with you regarding your opinion that Carl developed an affected quality to his vocals starting in the mid 1970s. While his voice remained as beautiful as ever, to me he often sounds quite stilted in later years.

Not sure on why the lack of any discernible order on disc six. As for some vault material being incorporated into the chronological part of the box, I think the tracks that were incorporated are either finished recordings--e.g., "(Would It Be Nice to) Live Again--or have previously been released in some form--e.g., "Sail Plane Song."

nm

Live version of Sail On Sailor: assume the rogue handclapping is Bruce, and the bits where you can't hear the handclap is where he was adjusting his mic?

I hate it and I'll never play it again.

Well, I've had a good and thorough listen to the streaming version of the box on Rhapsody and overall I'm very impressed. It's probably not as historically important as the Good Vibrations box was, but it's a fine addition to the discography. The previously released selections are a good overview of the band's career. The fact that the unreleased stuff on the box amounts to basically a three disc box set on its own is great. This is the largest archival release we've seen since the Smile box, and second only to it in terms of the amount of material on hand.

It's great to finally have some great sounding copies of many of the tracks I've had on bootlegs for years, that's for sure. The unreleased studio selections were generally well chosen. More a cappella Sunflower mixes are fine by me. The few new stereo remixes are nice curios.

The big find on this box for me (besides the studio bits we've heard about for years) is undoubtedly the live material. Just more proof that the band should go back to these live tapes and make something happen with them. I was particularly wowed by the '68 tracks from Chicago because there is currently nothing from that period on bootlegs. Amazing stuff. Everyone wants their 1965 Chicago or 1972-73 live box sets...where's the 1968 box to go with them? The band apparently taped at least a half-dozen shows from the summer of 1968, so let's get that box set going!

Though the "modern-day" Brian Wilson vocals made the song difficult to listen to at first, I have to say "You're Still a Mystery" is just such a great song.

Who's the drummer on I Can Hear Music (live)? Bobby?

Dennis most likely, or both he and Bobby.

It is. I loved it instantly on the first listen. Early days yet, but I'm even tempted to say it's there best post-Where I Belong song. They should have salvaged this from the vaults for TWGMTR rather than Daybreak...

Seriously though, some other group could have had a very successful and respectable career simply on the back of the Beach Boys unreleased stuff alone.

I know I've been b*tching quite a bit here about having to buy all the hits yet again, but I'll quit that now and just review this thing as it is.

Disc 1:
It's hard to argue much with this tracklisting. I probably would've ditched 'Surfers Rule' in favor of 'Ten Little Indians' (no matter of you like the song or not, it was their third single and a top 50 hit, so I think it has enough historical value) or 'Hawaii', but apart from that I'm don't see anything essential missing or anything included that shouldn't have been. Great to see that 'Lonely Sea' made the cut, easily the most underrated early BB gem. The original 'Back Home' sounds a bit listless, but it's probably still the best version of the three.

Disc 2:
There's a bit more room for discussion here. I can imagine that quite some people would've added 'You're So Good To Me', 'Girl, Don't Tell Me' and one or two more songs from 'Pet Sounds'. And I think that the absence of 'Then I Kissed Her' is just a mistake: it's certainly not one of my personal favorites, but as a British #4/Dutch #2 it should've been included. For as far as I'm concerned they could've left off 'Amusement Parks USA' (although I like it better without the hysterical laughter), 'There's No Other (Like My Baby)', the radio station jingle (those things don't need to be released more than once), and three versions of 'Heroes and Villains' is a bit much. Also, I would've prefered the 'Smile' version of 'Wonderful' over the 'Smiley Smile' version. The new 'Smiley Smile' and 'Wild Honey' mixes sound amazing, by the way!

Disc 3:
I LOVE this disc. But then again, how can you not love a cd that collects pretty much all the essential "deep cuts" from 'Wild Honey', 'Friends', '20/20', 'Sunflower' and 'Surf's Up'? So many criminally underrated gems here. And again, the new stereo mixes sound amazing! The long version of 'Meant for You', the alternate 'Sail Plain Song' and the Dennis Wilson & Rumbo single are some really great surprises. 'Bluebirds over the Mountain' and 'Tears in the Morning' were fairly big hits in some countries and probably should have been included for that reason, but on the other hand I realize that most people just don't like these songs.

Disc 4:
Five songs from 'Love You'? Isn't that a bit much? And why no 'Lady Lynda'? That song was a pretty big hit in Europe. Has Al still not gotten over his ex? The single edit of 'Here Comes the Night' probably should've been here too. Some pretty cool surprises though. '(Wouldn't It Be Nice) To Live Again' is great, hard to understand why it was never released before. 'California Feelin'' is pretty good too. 'Rock And Roll Music' sounds so much better now. Glad to see 'It's A Beautiful Day' here, that song is way too good to be out of print. 'Goin' to the Beach' kinda sounds like a Status Quo song, too bad I hate Status Quo.

Disc 5:
Just five songs from the last seven albums, really? And this thing was supposed to be "career spanning"? Anyway, with the exception of 'Soul Searchin'', the unreleased studio tracks here all kind of suck. The live tracks more than make up for that, though. 'Runaway' is easily better than any of the cover songs on 'Concert'. 'Friends' and 'Little Bird' are amazing. I think that the BB were at their peak as a live band here. They might've been technically better and more solid in the early 1970s, but they just sounded "sweeter" to me in the late 1960s. And Mike actually sounds funny here, I never knew he had it in him. 'It's About Time' and 'I Can Hear Music' sound great too, I think I ever prefer the latter over the studio version. I'm also pretty glad with the 'Smile' songs from 1993, really cool to hear those.

Disc 6:
Ah, this is what it really is all about. Lots of great surprises here. The 'Sunflower' backing tracks are definately among the highlights of this box for me. 'Guess I'm Dumb' is amazing too, although pretty subtile, those might be some of the most beautiful backing vocals the group ever recorded. 'My Love Lives On' is at least as good as '(WIBN) TLA', IMO. Not sure if the world needed the 'Smile Backing Vocals Montage' and the 1967 'Surf's Up' again though, or YET AGAIN some 'Good Vibrations' recording session highlights, just two years after the release of the 'Smile Sessions' box. And weren't there some more interesting backing tracks to be found than 'Transcendenta; Meditation' and 'Don't Go Near the Water'?

BTW, I counted 19 Dennis Wilson songs on MiC against just 5 on the GV box. Hmm, I wonder if the success of the POB re-issue would have something to do with that? ::)

There aren't five songs from Love You, there's four.

Of course there are. My apologies.

Good Time
I'll Bet He's Nice
Solar System
The Night was so Young
Let Us Go on this Way

It's a real shame that they couldn't have included some of the demos from this period or 1 or 2 Adult Child songs instead of the already released stuff.

Ah yes, would've loved to see "That Special Feelin'" released!

Yes you're right, my mistake. However I would argue that Good Time is on CD 3 not 4 and is representing the Sunflower sessions rather than the Love You album.

Ah, yes, 'Good Time' is on there too! I knew I had counted five songs from 'Love You' earlier...

Apologies withdrawn.  ;D

Ah, but when you referred to the five Love You songs it was under the heading 'CD 4'. So I think only a partial apology withdrawal is allowed  :-D 

Random musing: I love how much more prominent the "Child Is Father of the Man" riff is on the live version of "Little Bird". Also, the chunky rhythm guitar and Dennis' vocal delivery bring out a funkiness in the song that is not present in the studio track. Quite a subtly different, but stirring, reinterpretation.

P.S., that is the weirdest out-of-time non-count-in at the beginning--no wonder Denny didn't come in on the downbeat. Still a great performance despite that flaw.

What key is california feelin in?

F#/Gb

Okay, with that technically ignored but used, I wanted to incorporate brian's 'Can't you Fell it?' etc into the actual chorus, but the piano in the demo was too overpowering. so I [in classic Freddie style] added it myself on top of the original. Not for the faint of heart

Alt California Feelin' Chorus: https://soundcloud.com/moar-freddie/alt-california-feelin-chorus (https://soundcloud.com/moar-freddie/alt-california-feelin-chorus)

Nice work Freddie. Oddly enough, your wave sample seems to bear a passing resemblence to a phallus.  :p

Spose you could say that. Looks painful though

...aaaaaaaaaaaand back to The Beach boys xD Mike's trousers are awfully tight at times, no?   ;)

I was just thinking "why oh why wouldn't they release Brian's version of Deep Purple?!!!??"

I wouldn't have minded if they'd included one of the upbeat tracks - preferably Life Is For The Living - rather than It's Over Now. Who sings the 'Heaven, heaven is far away' line - it's really horrible!

Marilyn.

I found a use for TWGMTR's inclusion - it has decidedly more dynamic range than the album version! Wooo!

And IIT is strangely sped up...

I love that bit!

It's the single version.

It's faster than the single version on 50BigOnes. The YouTube version [Mine] is also a Radio Rip likely sped up incase you were referencing that.

Me too! Never thought that was a bad part

Note: Somewhat strangely, the version on 50 Big Ones wasn't sped-up (even though it was the single version). At the time, only the iTunes version, the CD-single and radio promo single got the speed-up (e.g the BBC, when they debuted the song, probably played it from the latter).

My box set arrived today from FYE  ;D Love the books although it says that "My Love Lives On" is from 1974. Isn't it a Bambu era track?

I think they should given a full-disc to 1980 – 2012 and saved the live tracks for a 4 to 5 disc live anthology for release next year. Here's a nice (imo) track-list:

1. Keepin' the summer alive
2. Goin' On
3. Santa Ana Winds (alternate)
4. Da doo run run
5. You are so beautiful (live) {we have to have some Dennis on this disc}
6. Why Don’t They Let Us Fall In Love
7. Getcha Back
8. Where I belong
9. She believes in love again (stripped down version)
10. Male Ego
11. California Dreamin'
12. Rock 'n' roll to the rescue
13. East meets west (or chasin' the sky)
14. Kokomo
15. Somewhere near Japan (single version)
16. Still cruisin'
17. In my car (2012 mix, to tone down some of the production excesses)
18. Lahaina Aloha
19. Under the boardwalk (UK mix)
20. Strange things happen (US mix)
21. Summer in paradise (I don't mind personally which version)
22. Soul Searchin'
23. You’re Still A Mystery
24. Like a brother (not actually beach boys, I know)
25. That's why God made the Radio
26. Isn't it time (single mix)
27. Summer's Gone

Yep, there are technically two single mixes/edits. Glad to see the artificially sped up version released on CD for completion's sake although I really don't care for how it sounds.

For reasons not interesting enough to explain, I didn't get my box set in my hands until a week after it was released.  No matter since I have it now.  Thought I'd give a few random observations about it:

Disc I - Most of this stuff I already have on other discs.  Didn't give it much attention.  Can't say the "Session Intro" for "Surfers Rule" gave me much interest in wanting to hear it.  Although it was nice to hear the original version of "Back Home".  

Meant For You - One quick listen to the "extended" version is all you need to see why they cut it short.  Yikes.

Susie Cincinnati -  interesting mix but my favorite version of this song is still off Best of the Brother Years.

Good Time - was hoping for that mix with more prominent backing vocals to appear.  Oh well.

(Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again - Well here it is.  The song that allegedly cures cancer and psoriasis (at the same time!), and caused many a squabble from the fan nerds on this board finally graces us with its presence.  It's a good song.  I like it.  Deserved to be released sooner than it did.  In any case I'm glad to hear it.  The jazzy ending is a pleasant surprise.  

Rock And Roll Music - Now this is a damn good mix!  Always wondered why the final verse was missing.  Why didn't they just put this thing out to begin with?

Goin' To The Beach - Another tune that deserved to have been released on one of their albums.  If they can put "Santa Ana Winds" out on a record they could do the same with this.

Soul Searchin' / You're Still A Mystery - Really glad these two songs finally got an official release.  Yes, the mix on "Soul Searchin'" is messy - they clearly flew in BW's backing vocals from the GIOMH version.  And that is definitely a different lead vocal on "You're Still A Mystery".  Still, this was an interesting period for the group that I wish they hadn't abandoned.

Love the live tracks.  

Haven't explored Disc 6 too much but I like what I hear so far.  

It's a pity they didn't speed up Soul searchin'. It's soooo slow...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLTUM2pvZfs

Can't listen on here, but artificially speeding a whole song up almost never sounds good and always has a kind of nasty quality to it. I'd rather they just left things as they were in cases like this, and the song never sounded too slow, to me.

Just having my first proper listen to Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live again , absolutely sublime !

Whatwhatwhatwhatwhat?... To me, "Santa Ana Winds" is the best track they put out between Sunflower and TWGMTR. Although I don't rate "Goin' To The Beach" as low as some do, it is not 1% as good. Well, actually maybe 1%.


For my custom version of TWGMTR I use the album version of "Isn't It Time" sped up by one sixth... (http://smileysmile.net/board/Smileys/default/cool.gif)

Santa Ana Winds is incredible, agreed. Going To The Beach on the other hand ...

Santa Ana Winds is indeed a fine song. Just a shame about the spoken word intro and Mike's nasal vocals.

Would have been a decent choice for Al to cover on Postcards from California.

And it would have been cool if the live version had been included on MiC.

Anybody wish, the 1974 song "Wishing You Were Here" by Chicago could have somehow been put on here?  I do.

Yes, I know it's a Chicago song -- but Al, Denny and Carl's vocals totally make that song.  They ARE the song.  It's just sublime.  It's a song that really shows how fking GOOD the Beach Boys were.  It puts a giant exclamation point on what could have been ...the wasted years of the mid-70s.

 :'(

I implore everyone to go seek this song out immediately if you don't have it.  It's on Chicago VII.  The title, lyrics and the Boy's vocals are so painfully poignant on the fact that the Beach Boys and/or Brian Wilson WEREN'T there.  Wishing You Were Here.

 :'(

I'd like to hear the background vocal track(s) isolated.  But that would be even more unlikely than having a song from a different band on the box set.

How can you not listen to "It's over now" and not wish we had all of Adult/Child in that quality..

Oh, all the what if's

Very true.

"All I want to do" Studio version - Terrible.

Live version on MIC - INCREDIBLE!!!

YES. Has so much energy that is missing from the studio version.

"Terrible"? You on drugs, Shady.

Also, in terms of energy, Mike's studio vocal beats the pants off this version. The rest of the instruments I might grant you, but the studio version showed me a side of Mike that I didn't think he really had prior. The live version (whie nice), not so much.

100% agree. Hey, why don't they release an instruments only version so we could edit ourselves a no-spoken-intro version? Well, the nasality, all you can do is overhear those three lines and enjoy the rest.



I don't know, it's not hard to do for me, must be a God given talent of mine. ;D

I don't know if its auto-tune or what -- I suspect it's not -- but I'll take this as an opportunity to suggest that I do get a sense there is something on this (and 50 Big Ones) that gives everything a uniform sound.  For the better.  A big (HUGE) goal in mastering is to provide uniform sound/feel from track to track... especially important when covering such a vast expanse as they do here.

But it's a warmer, glossy sheen.  I'm not wearing my "audiophile hat" and suggesting it's good/bad for the source material, etc. -- but from a uniform listening experience, it's a very nice, classy sound.  There's compression, too -- to aid this effect... but again, I really think it serves the listening experience well across the entire set.

Thank God - I thought I was the only one. I love the studio version of All I Want To Do and yet all I ever read on here about it is criticism. Mike's vocal kicks ass, and how could anyone not love that cheeky fade?

Yeah Mike's lead is full tilt incredible - but the instrumentals (or the production) don't keep up with that intensity - whereas this live version is going on all cylinders. Jeesh, be thankful that some of us can appreciate this song now ;D

Ahem sooo, 'Summer in Paradise':

Shoot me, but I am pretty pleased they included this track in the set.

Way more melodic than 'Goin to the Beach', and cool acapella ending*.  I'd only ever really listened to the album version once or twice before on youtube and basically dismissed it, but a decent track in this form I'd say!!

*I love it when they throw in surprise acapella sections at BB-(related) shows...the end of Darlin' was probably the biggest highlight of this kind during C50, end of Hawaii is decent too, and also the way they emphasised the 'COMEE AND DO ITTT' before the final Do it Again chorus.

I did not. Made the whole song sound like it was intended for some kind of TV ad for a cruise package or something.

Nawwwww

[Edit]Consider it in terms of the performance.  First song in the set for major comeback tour; they're announcing their arrival...I found it to work well for the overall progression and flow of the set.

We already know what the song was intended for from the original classic recording, is what I am getting at.

I always loved the studio version but admit that the live version has more punch - I think it's my favorite MIC track.

Naw, it's a nice version overall (RoboFoskett can go to Hell, though), I just didn't care for that addition.

'Soul Searchin' has easily become one of my favourite BB's vocals.

Incredible song, they sound fantastic on it

RoboGohi love it

You would, you little Sprite-drinking POS.

The a Capella break in Do it Again (live-C50) made it my favorite version. Love that bit, gives it a bit more dynamic range and kicks it into high gear before right before the end.

Squirt is the balls, Sprite sucks.

Just fyi, Mike and Bruce had started doing that in 2010 i think, so that was not created especially for the c50 tour, it just carried over.

.

Thanks! Didn't know that.

Re Summer In Paradise. A few rather trite lyrics aside, I think it's a great song, especially live. The melody is great, the vocals on the chorus are terrific, and Bruce's solo is really nice (and I say this as someone who generally doesn't much care for his voice). Crap though the SIP album is, I still think it's a shame they avoided referencing the album in the MIC song credits section - we're told which albums all the other live songs originally appeared on, but not Summer In Paradise.

I guess that has to do with Summer in Paradise being an album that was neither ever issued or reissued on Capitol, it's like a black hole in the Beach Boys discography, it's been out of circulation officially for nearly two decades, and the band seems keen on letting it go forgotten or at least just sit as a footnote in their career.

TBH it should be forgotten. Hasn't it been out of print since it was released?

I'm really surprised the Do It Again (C50) version wasn't on MIC or any live tracks (not featured on the recent concert album) from C50 as well.

should've included Why Do Fools Fall in Love with the piano intro imo  :police:

A few more little session intros (such as seen on Surfer's Rule and I Get Around) would've been nice and wouldn't have taken up much room. In particular I would've like to have seen a snippet of the sessions for Friends (the title track) which is such a beautiful arrangement, much of which is quite hard to hear on the completed song.

Yes! At the moment it's only available on Summer Love Songs so it would've been nice to have it included.

I guess the piano intro was kind of overblown for 60s pop radio. Still wonder why they couldn't have put it on the album though. Love it.

I totally agree.…I think finally releasing the vocals only of Friends would have went over well. It was only on the Al Jardine B side to Dont Fight the Sea, which wasn't sold everywhere, I think.

Great suggestion.

Oh boy where do i begin...
  Besides being released a year after the actual 50th tour ended.. Talk about losing momentum.. this "box set" is just another way of getting our money. And we give in, shelling out over a hundred bucks for songs that we already have over and over and over.. and over. I believe with this release there have been over 200 or so compilations, bootlegs, imports, remasters, reissues, etc etc.. but hey whos counting!
  While I do think the "yearbook" theme is a good idea for an artist like justin bieber, it is a horrible idea for a ROCK band like the beach boys. It is a very juvenile, cheesy gimmicky looking book, (on the outside that is). The orange and yellow wave makes no sense to me whatsoever. I would expect a better looking package that is representing one of the most successful and influential bands of our time.
  I guess I cant complain too much about the first page with the band members "autographs" although brians looks like it was written by a 2 year old.. I LOVE any and all pictures of the beach boys, but nothing annoys me more then pictures that are mirror images of the actual pic, and there were some on here... there was also some errors in chart positionings... someone didnt do there homework!..
  I was a little disappointed there were no pics from 1968-1972. OH and Blondie and Ricky totally got the shaft in this collection. Whoever put this together must not like um them... Skipped from 1971 to late 70's then straight to the 80's... Shame on you all!!
  The pictures that are actually on the 6 discs are... bad. Well actually just the first and second discs.. I do love the sunflower pic on disc 3. Disc 4 Im glad they did a blondie and ricky pic. but why did they have to use the photoshopped brian pic!...also the beach boys font that is used on disc 4 is far better then the actually beach boys logo that they use.. Disc 5 and 6 are right on point! Love the Brother Records Logo!!
  Im not gonna even get into the song choice and order of them. would take waaaay too long. Made In California should have been called Made in a hurry...

Cheer up, Mate, it's Friday!

I wish they would have included: Rock + Roal To The Rescue in the track lineup..

Absolutely, let's make sure everyone knows that they became The Beach Boys Tribute Band in the 80s and 90s!

Youre upset, arent you?

Not really..

Send it back! If you are not upset, I'd hate to see when you are. ;)

I'm making my personal review of the release you morons!

Everything was negative, you a$$hole. What did you expect posting that review on a board like this? Now curse me up one better! ;)

You definitely don't sound upset...