The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.laweekly.com/2014-01-30/music/brian-wilsons-secret-bedroom-tapes/

Wow, It would be awesome if these 60 songs would see release.

Well now. Interesting that they'd post a lengthy article on this, although there's no mention of a definite release. Could be some early promo for such a release?

I guess this will see the light of day, at some point. May take a year, may take 37 years.
Once this kind of press is unearthed public demand will rise and rise

Thanks for the link. Fascinating article. So AGD: as you're quoted in the piece, have you heard much of this stuff? Or perhaps we're familiar with much of it from boots?

Either way this sounds fascinating and I would definitely buy a collection of Brian's more experimental, unreleased, demo material entitled 'The Bedroom Tapes'. What's not to love?!

I suggest we mention The Bedroom Tapes as much as possible from now on in the hope that whoever's blocking such a release realises there is a market for it amongst the fans.

A physical tape recording of Rooftop Harry apparently does exist.

"L.A. Weekly recently was granted access to many of these never-before-heard tapes from 1968-1974 - almost 60 titles in all - currently stored at the Beach Boys' archive on Vanowen Street, near Bob Hope Airport in Burbank."

Two quick questions: Who was responsible for granting this access and, more importantly, why (now) was this access granted?

Utterly flabbergasted, since I work on the exact same street, probably a block away, from where the article states these tapes are currently being stored.  

This is the next big thing!

Would love to what solo song "Spark in the dark" turned to. Or is that common knowledge and I missed it?

Its funky Pretty!!! ;D

Agreed. I guarantee if The Bedroom Tapes were given a proper release it would sell like hotcakes among us hardcore fans.

The Beach Boys name will continue to sell endless copies of Greatest Hits compilations, but if they don't release the rarities that the current market is hungry for, they'll be losing out on a lot of $. I mean, right now they could release a 60 minute recording of Brian chewing on steak and many of us would buy it - such bountiful fandom will fizzle out in the future. NOW IS THE TIME CAPITOL/BRI/ETC.

Thanks for posting this, superunison.

Great news, but haven't you all heard this before?  A carefully written piece from existent info.  Does Brian Chidester post here?  I guess I was expecting something more like a list of the 60 songs.  Alan, Mark and others must have knowledge of these as well, right?  But fine, put 'em out.  I'll buy.

Agreed Rab, I would love to hear what Brian was up to in the bedroom.... 8)

I remember reading that Steve Desper said he erased a lot of stuff Brian recorded in this period, on Brian's orders. I guess some things were preserved after all. 8)

It's obvious what you need to do.

I NEED this.

We all do.

According to AGD's site:

 This song is not, as is often claimed, an early version of "Funky Pretty". However, having
  started out sounding like "Loop De Loop", it contains a riff Brian reused over 20 years
  later for "Chain Reaction Of Love".

http://esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs72.html

Thanks!

I assume it has to do with building up public interest in BW. If more people are curious about the bedroom years, more people will get interested in his story and that will help sell the movie.

Great News! Let's hope they're released soon.

Thanks Superunison for posting the link. 

And thanks Brian Chidester for the article and Andrew for your always incisive input.

Woah! This is incredible news!

I would be beyond excited if these tapes end up getting released.

For all the boneheaded business moves the BBs have done throughout the last half century, this seems to be one of the smarter marketing maneuvers by them.

Seems like they're trying to cultivate another SMiLE-esque legend with these tapes in anticipation of the BW Biopic and book, and I hope they succeed in stirring up all kinds of interest.

If the end result isn't a box set in my hands I will be sorely disappointed.  :o

My guess is they're gonna try to milk as many miles outta these tapes as possible. Much like the stereo remixes we were getting piecemeal for a decade, then all out at once. I think they'll put out a few here and there, and then a big box set down the road. Sucks, but I'd be surprised if it were any other way.

A release like 'The Big Beat 1963' gives me hope that a full fledged rarity package is a realistic prospect. I'm doubtful we'll get a boxset full of rarities, but I'd be happy with even a downloadable album full of the stuff we want.

Crossing fingers. I think 'The Big Beat 1963' had much more limited appeal in terms of what it could be marketed as containing. Not much "legend" among music hipsters/elite could be built up from that stuff, even though the set ultimately contains some pretty cool stuff.

I'll speculate that these Bedroom Tapes are being viewed as an ace up their sleeve by the BBs/BW's people, something they could eventually get some real attention/accolades/$$ for as a full-on box set, much like TSS, if they play their cards right. I think it will be a physical release, too. But the band and their people, for product like this, have a history of showing that they're not usually ones to blow their load too soon, which is why I speculate the full set (sans a few tracks here and there) won't be released for some time.  I'd LOVE to be proven wrong though.

I think this is all hype.  If there were anything good in this collection, it would have been recycled into a new release.

Yet there doesn't seem to be any firsthand account by Brian of hearing these tapes. Lots of secondhand accounts, lifted from various books and documentaries down the years…

… but how much of this is new, and how much is an after-the-fact attempt to group logs of stray tracks into a lump - call it a future box set for convenience - for the story's sake?

Please tell us more Brian!

That article seemed custom-built to push nearly every one of my buttons.

I think the wife&managers machine has made some pretty solid moves leading up to most releases (although I don't know how much of the great PR ahead of C50 was their doing), it's the aftermath that is usually baffling.

great insight in this piece...

Brian has numerously stated, after he has been asked 'what advice would you give people today in the music business?

and he says, 'don't bum out half way through a song, finish it!.....'

this may be a big part of that period where he was coming up with 'great' ideas, but not completing the songs....

also interesting to me...... a recording of the song 'honeycomb'....

he mentioned that it could be a great hit for 'the beach boys' during one of the 50th BB reuion tour interviews......

which like Brian, seemed like a 'what the hell?' answer from the other guys ....  

it seems Brian when he gets something in his head that he thinks is great, and can't finish, he brings it back again years! later!

look at others like....... back home, sherry she needs me, the 'sweet insanity' tracks that came the basis of 'GIOMH'..

.'night blumin jasmine' for rio grande

California feelin that was part of 'songs selected by BW'......... and etc etc

and this is like, 'WOW!!!! it's the missing years of Brian Wilson!!!!  68 -74!!!  

any freak fan would give up his testicles for this!!  unless your a chick  ::)  of course....

A must have collection for the Brian Wilson story...

RickB

So, Van Dyke Parks can time travel as well, can he ? "I went over to Brian's with my new Walkman", a device not on sale 'til 1979. Presumably he's using "Walkman" as the generic term meaning "portable cassette recorder"...

Still, if Alan Boyd "confirms that enough material exists to comprise a new release focused solely on the "Bedroom Tapes." " then this is very exciting news !

How about he take the best of the best song from these tapes, and record it for the new album?   

I want to hear "Just an Imitation".

What a cool article!  Let me add my voice in saying I want to hear this stuff now!!!





And, yes, I would like to see Brian try to finish some things.  ("Can't Wait Too Long", for example.)  However, I also want to hear the unvarnished originals -- as I have yet to hear in the past, what, 35 years, Brian taking an old idea and making it better.  Except for SmiLE 2004, from 1978 on, his old ideas always seem to lose quite a bit in their latter translation, in my opinion.  But I keep hoping!

Love and merci,   Dan Lega

No, as I've said repeatedly for over ten years, "SitD" is several minutes of Brian noodling at the piano: starts off sounding like "Loop de Loop", wanders all over the shop and ends up with the basic "Chain Reaction of Love" riff.

I'm sorry :'(

Good god I need to hear this

GIVE ME THIS NOW

HOLY CRAP! :o


Perfect product for them to get out in the wake of the high-profile biopic and upcoming autobiography. 2014's gonna rock.

How do you know it hasn't been ?

My sentiments exactly.  BRING ON THE BEDROOM TAPES!

I've always believed that there is a much larger market for these types of releases than The Beach Boys or their management understand. It's almost like they don't want to screw up a certain type of 'branding'.

Awhile back on this forum, I suggested the that the group should release a box set called BURIED TREASURE. Add an extra 2 discs for these bedrooms tapes. A high profile release that would surely outsell MADE IN CALIFORNIA if marketed properly (like THE BASEMENT TAPES or SMILE SESSIONS):


This needs to be proper vintage or vintage-correct mixes. No Pro Tools edits ... proper analog mixing, etc. It needs to be compiled with care by someone with the proper artistic care and HIP FACTOR understanding.

Okay, maybe this is new… Honeycomb was previously thought to be a collab with Roy Wood and Wizzard, recorded same day in Oct 74 as It's Okay; now it's a Moog driven piece with notable bass parts:

Recorded at the same session as the "It's OK" basic track, late October 1974 (with Roy Wood & Wizzard), described by Tim White in his 1976 Crawdaddy 2-parter. Marilyn takes the lead vocal.

Those tracks have all been bootlegged. They're not of the same quality as "Smile." I have no idea of what motivated that author to write about this like it's some kind of revelation. I don't think he describes Brian in very flattering terms, either, it's actually rather cruel.

Bootlegged where? Thought the bulk of these didn't circulate?

Wouldn't that be great if Desper was involved?  ;D

Can you remind me Andrew, is that reproduced in Kingsley's excellent "Reader" volume?

At least some of them are on "Get the Boot," which is supposedly a hard to find four CD set, but not that hard to find.

Is it possible that "Where Is She?" hails from these recordings?

I see California Feelin' and Hard Times…

AGD!!!

For the love of all that's holy...good God man...spill your guts!  What do you know and when did you know it?

"My Solution" has been on some boot or other.  I could swear I've heard some of other stuff, but maybe I'm confusing the tapes this writer listened to with tracks that actually were officially released later, such as "California Feeling" and "Ding Dang." There's a difference between tracks never heard before at all and tracks that are demos of released product. Also, isn't "Honeycomb" the oldies hit? From everything I've read, it is. I never understood Brian's enthusiasm for that song, which is hokey and annoying. Not every single idea Brian had was good, and there's a reason that artists don't release every idea or song they ever wrote. I'm not sure why people think Brian would have enthusiasm for releasing every single he ever did. It's almost like some people think Brian should have no editorial filter even of his own making. 

Thanks AGD re: honeycomb info.


I wonder where Brian's mind is at on this particular tune..... I love the 60's Jimmie Rodgers, which was according to Jim,

recorded on the 1st take.......

What does Bri hear on this tune to BB it?

Rb

Aye, My Solution has circulated for decades for sure, and yes I think Ding Dang (alt version) is also out there… I'm away from my collection right now so can't double check.

The titles "Symphony of Frogs" and "Song to God" really stuck out to me. Does anybody have any information on these songs?

S. of Frogs sound like a cover of Macca's Frog Chorus!

I'm not sure about that. These tapes apparently come from 1968-1974, while Paul's 'Frog Chorus' was released in 1983.

Although 1968-74 is not a period of time that people (in general, I mean!) are likely going to care about regarding The Beach Boys, I think it works to the material's advantage that it is solo Brian Wilson recordings. Everyone loves a troubled, reclusive genius making their art away from public consumption -- and during a creative peak no less! It's mystifying and legacy-building narrative just waiting to happen, and this article does that exactly right. Based on that perception of Brian Wilson, I think a release of this material would do really well; the stuff might even nearly sell itself. Plus, this is exactly the time period that many contemporary bands influenced by The Beach Boys or Brian Wilson point to when asked about that influence directly.

I came pretty close to putting "My Solution" in my list at the Top 50 Songs thread, boot or not, but it got squeezed out at the last minute.....

The description of the Brian/Almer/Shapiro A&M project differs from what I've read before, where it was stated that it involved rewriting the lyrics of old BBs songs to remove "dated" surf/car references.  I had seen the lyrics to "Passing By" quoted.  If it was primarily building on the Friends material, those four tracks would be worth hearing.  I'm curious about whether "Wake The World" would have been filled out a bit more. 

There is no reason this stuff should stay unreleased. Worse case, we get it as a download only release

I've always wondered if Shapiro did any work with Brian. I would love to hear what the Friends reworking sounds like.

This stuff has to come out!

Let's crank up the excitement a little bit more with a revisiting of one of my favourite information leaks of recent times.

[/list]

What is "Just an Imitation?" I don't think I've heard of this track before.

Say, you wanna do it?

According to AGD, 'Just an Imitation' is a song from 1974; it reportedly was written about Murry. Apparently it's suppose to be fantastic.

Anyone who wanna mix The Beach Boys, present ya thumbs and fingers. You got razor cuts? You're qualified, son. Good looks.

From the article:

"Shapiro was a lyricist who worked with Brian Wilson and Tandyn Almer in the early '70s to rewrite the Beach Boys' Friends album for an unrealized A&M Records project. (Four tracks were completed.)


WHAT? I've never heard anything about that before, anyone else heard this? What tracks?

I read the article, scanned the posts, don't remember seeing it mentioned so I'll ask:

Are these still on the multitrack reels, have they been mixed down to a reel, or have they all been transferred to digital as part of an ongoing vault archiving project?

If they're still on reels of tape...early 70's...could be sticky...Donny, better fire up the oven!  ;D

Yeah, Stan worked at A&M with Paul Williams, too.  There were hopes of redoing quite a bit of Brian's material once they had acquired the publishing rites.  Sadly, Stan & I suffered similar fates having been cronies of Dennis'

Micky Dolenz has a stash of tapes too, from this same era, and from when his house was an unofficial after-hours hangout (and also a studio) for the Hollywood Vampyres and their cohorts. Micky not long ago said he has tapes of his partying buddies, names like Nilsson, Alice Cooper, Ringo, and I think he mentioned Brian Wilson too, who would visit his in-house recording studio and jam and work on songs. Dolenz's hangout crew was some of the same names mentioned with these BW tapes, and from exactly the same era.

Question for those who would know: Has Dolenz ever been approached about these reels of tape by someone official with an eye toward at least archiving them? He gave the impression they have not been heard by anyone outside, and unfortunately he also kind of hinted that no one would hear them.

I'm not gonna lie, the article has very, very much piqued my interest. After the release of Made In California, it seemed like there were only really very few awesome unreleased Brian Wilson tunes left in the vault. I figured that the 1975 version of "In the Back of My Mind" would have to be at least as interesting as the demo of "California Feelin'" and maybe that there might be a possibility that songs like "Rooftop Harry" were good and possibly releasable. And of course great stuff like "Stevie", which has already been bootlegged and deserves release. But besides those and maybe a few covers, like "My Little Red Book", "Smokey Places" and (in my opinion) "Calendar Girl", that would be about it.

Now comes this story, which to me seems to be a declaration from Brian's camp that they'd like to see this stuff released. The reason I say "Brian's camp" is that I noticed this Chidester character has written for publicity stuff for Brian before, and therefore it would make sense that maybe they gently asked him to get the word out about this stuff. However, I also noticed BRI declined to comment on the story, which is interesting, since, ya know Brian Wilson is one-quarter of BRI. And I have to imagine Al is in his corner. And that if Carl appears on any of the stuff, it seems that his family would be just fine with making a few bucks off of this stuff. Especially if they included any tunes cowritten by Carl, such as "Good Timin'", which realistically could make it on a proposed set in it's 1974 incarnation. And honestly, I don't see why Mike would really be against any of this. Maybe  he'd want it released as "The Beach Boys", and in the case of stuff like "My Solution", "Good Timin'" from '74, and I'm sure a few other things, I guess they are Beach Boys songs. Perhaps though, BRI really doesn't have any problem, and that the publicity machine is just getting ramped up. Let's hope so.

And hey, I don't wanna throw cold water on this whole thing, but you really gotta wonder, how much good Brian material is left in the vaults from '68 to '74? I mean, it's very, very possible that there's a lot we don't know of, but thanks to people like AGD with his great site, Alan Boyd, Adam Marsland, etc it seems we've been made aware of quite a lot and it just seems kinda unlikely that there's a treasure trove we were unaware of. And plus, let's be honest, The Beach Boys seemed to be content to get any scrap of Brian Wilson material they could in this era. Doesn't it seem a bit odd that if this material was around, we'd have heard more of it? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.


But anyways lastly, a decent chunk of the titles mentioned in the article seem like stuff straight off of Andrew Doe's site, such as "Brian's Jam", "Spark in the Dark", etc. Not really many titles we were unaware of? So did the author really hear SIXTY recordings?! All unreleased? I'm suspicious.

But regardless, I hope there is a lot more than we know of. And hopefully AGD, who was apparently interviewed for this article, could at least be kind enough to say whether he agrees with Alan Boyd and Brian Chidester that there is enough material for a good collection of this stuff.

If there were that many good songs, the BB would have recorded them. They were desperate for material back then. Carl would have fished the best ones out and finished them.   I doubt it would sell anywhere near what the Smile sessions did. Maybe more like the Hawthorne collection. If they released the '63 collection, though, why not this.

A few tracks allegedly from those tapes were uploaded to YouTube about a year or so ago. There was a discussion on here about it.

Get The Boot was 2 discs when it originally hit the fan circle.

They most certainly have NOT "all been bootlegged", unless I've missed something: care to list which tracks, and where ? Suggest you take more care in your phrasing in future.

I very much doubt all 60 odd tracks would ever see a release. As mentioned, if Brian was still knocking out potentially great half finished song ideas so frequently then the band would have had a new album out long before 15 Big Ones. I just hope one or two of the better tracks appear on a possible soundtrack album for the upcoming Brian biopic.

#firstworldproblems

The question is, is there a market for this stuff beyond the copyright extension exercise that was The Big Beat 1963 ? That is... us. My thinkign is, downloads are the way. Is there enough for a good collection ? I think so, but the notion of a box set is wishful thinking: 60 titles doesn't necessarily translate into 60 reels of tape. I'd lean towards one solid collation of the best stuff, not every last plink, plonk, cough and fart.

Mind, "Symphony of Frogs" demands inclusion due to the title alone !  :lol

Another possibility is that BW's people (or maybe the Beach Boys' people) are getting word of this stuff out there to grow its cult status, to build momentum for reworkings/re-recordings if the material as the basis for (a) new album(s).

You know, "Brian Wilson and/or the Beach Boys have completed for release a collection of masterpieces that have lain in a vault for more than 40 years. Fan-clamouring for the legendary Better Get Back In Bed tapes is on a par with that for The Smile Sessions, which finally saw the light of day in 2011. Sources close to the band, including Brian Wilson's producer and confidant Joe Thomas, say the tapes have a real Pet Sounds/Smile feel to them and, once they've been overdubbed with the best backing vocals the band had overdubbed since the Sunflower overdubbing sessions, auto tuned and drowned in reverb, could form the basis of the most important Beach Bous release since Stars and Stripes Vol 1."

Four cd set?
I thought Get the Boot was only two discs.

Unless this is a newer cd set?


Edit- never mind, Andrew beat me to it.   ;)

Fuckin' great news.

Someone transfer those suckers quick; Someone else price-up, print off or upload those puppies - I'm in!

This is very exciting. I would love a 60-track compilation of Brian's Bedroom Tapes. Include all the released and unreleased stuff in one package. Everything from the 2-minute Meant For You to the moog experiments.

Please!

While we're on the subject, what type of songs do we think might be considering Bedroom Tapes? Would I Went to Sleep count? A Day in the Life of a Tree? My Little Red Book?

Can you believe some people here are being negative about this already?

Rhetorical question.

Hope my own posts aren't coming across as negative…  I just don't read in the article any solid evidence that Brian C has heard these all of these tapes, as the implication seems to be. Most of the info is already out there about the unreleased stuff (some of the unreleased stuff is also out there), and there's a lot of second hand info… And the lumping together of several years' worth of material into the phrase "Bedroom Tapes" seems conveniently charged with marketing potential…

Not a bad thing, but there seems like there might be an ulterior motive…

Like everyone else I would love to have this collection in my collection of collections…

I share your high hopes but I just don't think presenting the work of this group from a hip perspective, or sticking to authentic period mixing techniques, is on anyone's agenda bar fans like us. The Beach Boys brand always gets in the way and someone has to package the thing in a surboard, a year book, a cheeseburger or somesuch just in case we forgot that the group's glory days were in the early 60s, in America. As an aside this heavy-handed branding really bugs me, as the group is so much more than that brief 3 or 4 year spell. You don't see Beatles products marketed with a huge moptop on the front or Liver birds all over the place - on the recent box sets the Beatles font is enough and the music is allowed to speak for itself - but the Beach Boys are continually reduced to this sort of insipid, tacky, American Graffiti caricature.

That said, if this were to be released it would not be a greatest hits package, but a focus on one corner of the group's history, so perhaps there would be more scope to market it appropriately. In my rant above I overlooked releases such as TSS that were beautifully presented without a surfboard in sight.

And of course this is all pretty moot as no release has been suggested yet but I agree with those that view this as some sort of water-testing, myth-building, pre publicity piece. The article seems custom built to get the Smiley board slavering again.

And every post added to this thread will be a good indicator of our desire for this release so I say let's aim for 100+ pages folks!

I wish these had been referred to as "Bedroom Sessions"… sounds far more kinky!

I see what you did there John.... :lol

I haven't had the time to read this article yet, but working for a living as a museum curator and knowing how museums, cultural institutions and archives often guard the location of their storage facilities, I'm pretty surprised to see Brian Chidester offering this much info about the Beach Boys archive. Will we see hordes of hardcore Beach Boys fans patrolling Vanowen Street these coming weeks?  :-D

I have much respect for Brian's past writing on the Beach Boys and similar subjects though - can't wait to read this!!!!

You are talking about the band that thought Summer In Paradise and Stars and Stripes were better than "Still a Mystery" and "Soul Searchin'".

Here's a question: why would Beach Boys Inc. be inclined to release a set of Brian's "Bedroom Tapes" from this era, yet refrain from releasing re-mastered versions of the actual albums from this same period (namely "Friends," "Wild Honey," and "20/20")? 

I was posting in that thread, and that led to another thread with all kinds of photos and info about Keith Moon's birthday bash where the shot of Moon and Brian in a bathrobe was taken - thanks for the info, though.  :) The Moon thread had the same cast of characters that were on Dolenz's tapes.

Here:
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=29be468fb57d187e89c97b43d0dc1e5b&topic=14540.msg329104#msg329104 (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=29be468fb57d187e89c97b43d0dc1e5b&topic=14540.msg329104#msg329104)

The question is still valid - Micky has a stash of tapes with Brian's recordings, yes a few scraps have come out with Harry and whatnot, but has anyone along the lines of Alan Boyd or another in an official capacity approached Dolenz about the status of the tapes Brian made with Dolenz for archival purposes?

If this article does indeed spur some kind of demand beyond here, I just thought a *hypothetical* release of Brian's recordings from the early 70's would be enhanced by whatever Dolenz has on those tapes of Brian recording in that exact same era.

My 2 cents: Such a release would better be geared to the "Brian Wilson" niche of the BB's fan universe. They may be better served for all kinds of reasons to somehow get the rights to them apart from a Beach Boys product, compile them in such a way that the Beach Boys' eventual use of any of these songs is a lesser point than the fact they are Brian Wilson home recordings, and put it out as a specialty kind of item under the name Brian Wilson.

It would sell more targeted to that fan niche, in my opinion, rather than making it a Beach Boys product.

Recall Pete Townshend and his "Lifehouse" tapes, not to mention his other demo releases. A lot of those solo Pete demos became Who classics, yet the home recordings Pete did to demo them and work them out were marketed as Pete Townshend solo works.

Did any hardcore Who fans mind that collections of Who demos from Townshend's home studio were released under Pete's name rather than The Who? The Brian home tapes are basically the same thing, sell them as such.

I think you're right Guitarfool, with the bio-doc coming out, the saleability of these sessions will soar. If the film's a success, many hip dudes will latch on to the Wilson aspect and lap up music such as this, as the obscure stuff will have an enigma that drives sales. There's always kudos in claiming to like the unreleased material above the hits. Maybe one day kids will be saying "okay yah. Brian Wilson, absolute genius dahling… love his work, very avante garde and cutting edge and oh-so deep…what was his band called again?"

Me? I like the popular tunes like Smile and the rest of that surf stuff…

Me too! My love of the Beach Boys started with an 8-track tape of Greatest Hits part 2 and grew from there, my obsession with the underground aspects of the Beach Boys took hold with the first unreleased Smile material I heard which led to the whole "unreleased" universe that existed outside The Beatles and concert soundboards, and all of it combined led to 2014. And Brian Wilson happens to be one of my biggest influences, yet I rarely listen to his solo albums for pleasure, and prefer his classics from the 60's for pure listening enjoyment.

So a release like this of the "Bedroom Tapes" should it ever happen would definitely go into the collection, but would I listen to it repeatedly? Would I put it on for pleasure listening? I'd reach for "All Summer Long", the "Party" SOT, all of the usual suspects before that.  :)

I'm just assuming such a hypothetical release would fall into the same category for a lot of us, whether everyone would admit it in public or not... ;D  Essential, but not in the same category as the go-to albums. Therefore, a niche better suited to the "Brian" segments of the fan base.

To be honest when I read this thread, I was dissappointed that they weren't recent songs.  If the songs were decent from the 60's they would have already been released, I'd much rather hear new material from him. 

Sounds plausible to me.

My Get the Boot is four CD's. But that may be down to the trading source I got it from. In other words, two of the discs may be bonuses of other material. It's a CD-R set, not an original silver CD boot. My Solution is in the set.

an intriguing article to say the least!

it's quite silly to say that just because something has remained unreleased for 4 decades or more, it must not be any good. especially when it comes to Brian Wilson. I can't believe anyone would take that stance when freaking SMiLE was finally just released.

as Bruce said, Brian wrote all kinds of amazing songs that "went number one in his living room" and apparently that was good enough for Brian.


RELEASE THIS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND CARL AND DENNIS WILSON!!!

I suspect some of it has been released in one form or another. 

Even TSS couldn't escape the surfboard ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2dXXYXr2c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2dXXYXr2c)

More than likely. Far as I know GTB was two single-disc volumes, shared online Beith artwork and only ever as lossy MP3s. There's a lot of info on this forum from just a few years ago… a search should reveal all.

Would love to know the full listing of your 4CD version!

I can't seem to find my boots, unfortunately. I'm sure they're somewhere. But I do remember it being four discs because I had a hard time finding enough discs for the trade. I was also sent Xeroxed artwork that I suspect the guy did himself (it had the same photos of Brian, but it was white on black instead of black on white and the font was different). I looked up the track listing for the two disc set and recall those titles being on there, but there was also "My Solution," some stuff that I think was from the SOT discs of post-Smile albums (with studio chatter), and even a couple of songs from the badly recorded Seattle show where Brian sang in place of Mike. 

The original Get The Boot tracklisting - anything else was added at a later date (annotations mine and a good few years old, hence need revisions):

Disc One
1. Beginning of the End -- Brian Wilson/Gary Usher demo, 4/16/62
2. Thank Him -- Brian Wilson/Bob Norberg demo, 1963
3. Side Two - Instrumental track, circa 1963
4. Back Home - 'Surfer Girl' outtake, June 14, 1963
5. Can't Wait Too Long - Vocals only fragment, 1967
6. Lonely Days - Rehearsal, 1967
7. Mona Kani - Dennis Wilson recording, 1968
8. Breakaway - Vocals only, 1969
9. Won't You Tell Me - Murry Wilson/Rick Henn composition, 1970
10. Back Home - Demo version, recorded 1969-70
11. Back Home - 'Sunflower' outtake, 1970
12. Walkin' - 'Sunflower' outtake, 1970
13. It's A New Day - Written by Dennis Wilson for a commercial, 1970
14. Barbara - Dennis Wilson demo version, circa 1970
15. Add Some Music To Your Day - Alternate version w/different lyrics, 1970
16. Slip On Through - Alternate backing track, 1970
17. Slip On Through - Live, Dennis Wolley Show, 1970
18. Our Sweet Love - Instrumental track/partial backing vocal, 1970
19. I'm Going Your Way - Written by Dennis Wilson, 1970
20. 'Til I Die - Vocals only, 1970-71
21. Surf's Up - Vocals only, recorded 1971
22. Rollin' Up To Heaven - Early 'dirty' version of Ding Dang
23. I've Got A Friend - live, early 1970's
24. Here She Comes - Live, fall 1972
25. Fairy Tale Music - Brian talking to and playing for a visitor, circa 1972

Disc Two
1. Snowflakes - American Spring outtake, 1972-73
2. Hard Times - Blondie Chaplin/Ricky Fataar song, recorded 1973
3. Battle Hymn of the Republic - Recorded at Jim Guercio's Caribou Ranch, 1974
4. Good Timin' - Instrumental track and lead vocal, recorded 1974
5. Don't You Just Know It - Brian Wilson/Jan Berry single, released 6/4/73
6. Why Do Fools Fall In Love - California Music 45, co-produced by Brian, 5/'75
7. Interview/Rock 'N' Roll Music [hot mix - Radio broadcast Spring '76 featuring Carl
8. Running Bear - '15 Big Ones’ outtake, 1976
9. Shake, Rattle and Roll - '15 Big Ones' outtake, 1976
10. Short Skirts - '15 Big Ones' outtake, 1976
11. Had To Phone Ya - Instrumental track, recorded 1976
12. New England Waltz - 'Adult/Child' outtake, recorded 1977
13. faux SMILE track from the 1983 vinyl boot (actually Miles Davis)
14. California Feelin' - Featuring Rocky Pamplin on vocals, 1977
15. Da Doo Ron Ron - 'Keepin' The Summer Alive' outtake, 1979
16. Oh Darlin' - Alternate vocal take, 1979
17. (We’re The) Endless Summer Beach Band – Mike solo track circa 1980
18. Back In The USSR - Details unknown; studio recording circa 1980
19. River Deep, Mountain High - Recorded by Brian Wilson, 1980
20. Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love - Brian Wilson, 1980
21. Rescue Me - Mike Love solo track
22. Stagger Lee - Mike Love solo track
23. Angel Come Home – early track, circa 1976
24. Where We Are - Carl Wilson solo track from early 1980s
25. At The Hop - 'The Beach Boys' (1985 lp) outtake, recorded 1985
26. Let's Dance/Do You Wanna Dance - Details unknown; possibly an 80s recording
27. I Can Hear Music - Recorded for a radio broadcast, Chicago 1996
28. Little Deuce Coupe - Recorded for a radio broadcast, Chicago 1996
29. Kokomo - David Marks recording, 2003

I'm thinking the trader used his "unique" four disc set to entice people to trade four discs instead of two, thus growing his trade list faster. I was pretty new to trading, so I didn't know any better. I didn't even have internet access at the time apart from work, and didn't have time to do much research (my company monitored my internet usage, so I was limited to lunch hour browsing). The guy also traded me a Monkees boot set that I later discovered didn't correspond to any other known boot tracklisting out there, so I suspect he liked doing his own compilations.  I do remember the tracks above being on it, and wanting to hear them after having read about them elsewhere, and finding most of them not being that good.

In re-reading Chidester's article, he mentions some tracks that have been discussed, but even he hasn't heard them yet, such as the one about the gorilla in Central Park. Now, that would be interesting to hear, but does a tape even exist?

sure ... I'll brace myself to get ripped apart on this board afterwards !!!

ha ... actually the sticky doesn't generaaly start til round '74 based on my experince ... but '60s non-backcoated tapes are fairly fragile

I don't think that is really accurate. "Where Is She?" is from 1969 and was just released last year. And that song is pretty freakin' awesome. And especially with the Beach Boys, I can think of some songs from the '60s that are a lot more than "decent" that weren't released until 2011! Here's a few for instance: "Child Is Father Of The Man", "Holidays", "Look", etc.

At the same time, I find it unlikely that there is really much that is substantial from this 1968 to 1974 era. While keeping in mind there very well could be a lot of stuff we don't know of, there's not a lot of super interesting stuff that I know of that would make a release like this tantalizing to many outside of us. I mean as far as things that could actually be considered somewhat completed songs that are still unreleased I guess you could throw "My Little Red Book" and the demos of "Awake" and "Silly Walls" on there. I mean, maybe something like "Rooftop Harry" is "finished" enough to be considered a complete song. Who knows? Then there is the medley of "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" with "Gimme Some Lovin'". I really hope that one still exists. From what David Sandler told me it sounds very, very interesting.

And then there's "Just an Imitation", which is supposed to be really great. However, I'm pretty sure it's been noted that there is no recording of this song at all, nor sheet music. So I would be very surprised if we ever see a release of that song. Although who knows, maybe they found a demo of it! Also, titles like "Pattycake", that's a decently well known one around our circle. However, once again, do we have any proof that this one was ever recorded? I know it's possible. But who knows?

Honestly, I think it would be interesting if maybe Alan Boyd came back to the board in some fashion and maybe updated us on stuff like this. It's not like he would be leaking unreleased material. He'd simply just be giving us info on whether certain things even exist in the archive, and maybe even could let us know what they sound like.

Some of these could've been recently (re)discovered. Some of the cuts on the boxed set were thought to have been previously lost but were found close to the originally planned release date. The fact that there was a different 1974 California Feelin that was unknown to pretty much everybody is a great example.

It would be really cool if there were a series of cd's of Brian's demos, like Pete's "Scoop" series. However, I think one of the main obstacles preventing that is the difference in the "approach" of the demos. Pete Townshend tended to make his demos full fledged productions, whereas with Brian, it's just a bare bones piano demo. Many people may find listening to only a piano and voice quite boring after so many songs in one sitting. That being said, I would love a "Brian Loves You" style cd.

Haha! Forgot about that one  ;D

THe appearance of Lifehouse in this thread is a tad spooky as I've been indoctrinating the kids with it this week… it is the dog's bollox, it really is.

Don't get me started on The Who and Pete Townshend.  ;D

Brian (Chidester) is basically recycling old news, isn't he?  We all know virtually every title mentioned (except Symphony of Frogs and Song to God were new to me), and all together he mentions 9 song titles (not including Ding Dang which has been released).  What are the other 51 songs? He's ilmplying these were written during the bedroom years between 1968 and 1974.  I'm not sure I buy the idea of a treasure trove of unreleased songs from this period.  I'd love to proven wrong though.

Yeah, what does the 1970 studio recording My Solution have to do with any of this?

Andrew, maybe you know more, maybe you don't, maybe you're sworn to secrecy. But have you heard any of these "bedroom tapes", besides the one's that obviously circulate? Like for instance, any idea on whether "Rooftop Harry" has a lead vocal? Or what "Brian's Jam" is? Whether "Just an Imitation" is in fact on tape somewhere?

And also, in the article you are quoted as saying "this period is important", however I noticed you didn't say "this material is important." Do you think there is anything left in the vault that truly is revelatory? I mean, me personally I would love to hear things as random as "Spark in the Dark" and "Brian's Jam", however if a set did get released, there would have to be actual songs there along with these. I mean, I think that 1975 version of "In the Back of My Mind" sure seems like something that is interesting enough to merit release (although I guess it falls outside of that '68 to '74 period), and stuff like "Awake" definitely deserves it place on "bedroom tapes" type release.

Anyways, basically what I'm saying is, is there really a bit more than we know of?

Can' t imagine ther is all that material unreleased, legit or boot, that we haven' heard somewhere.    After all, ther was a fair amount of old boot material on MIC, SMiLE box, and twofers.


Still, I dream of it........ 8)

I agree that a more consolidated compilation would make for better listening and obviously would require editing out every last plink, plonk and cough. However, I for one beg for the inclusion of every fart. I think Brian's farts are fantastic. As a matter of fact I would buy a copy just for Brian's farts alone, never mind the music. I imagine the farts may be more interesting to listen to than most of the songs themselves. Obviously "Rooftop Harry" has a very interesting description in the article and I would love to hear a clear copy of "My Solution" (who wouldn't?) but I swear I will boycott this release if they do not include the farts. Brian's early 70's farts had a certain resonance to them that was lacking in the 60's and before they got down right sloppy by the late 70's. These days you would be a very lucky individual to actually witness one of his farts and it is a crime not more attention and care is given to capturing them to digital media. McCartney's farts are not as exciting as Brian's but maybe that is because of the difference of one man being a vegetarian and the other addicted to steaks. "Symphony Of Frogs" is an odd title, isn't it? Here's to hoping we get to hear these tracks someday!

My understanding is that a track-by-track follow-up article for the next LA Weekly is being prepared even as I type.

That's "type" as in this post, not the article: I know what some of you are like for jumping to unwarranted conclusions, you little tinkers...  ;D

Great news.

Now I play the waiting game.

Which, of course, will likely lead to The Crying Game

I know all there is to know about that.

Oooo exciting! Ok, now this is stupid, but I'm not familiar with LA Weekly. But, as you say this is gonna be in the next one, does that mean like this week??? I sure hope so!

I'm assuming that it'll be put out on Thursday of this week. I say this because this one was released on the 30th, which was a Thursday.

I'd like to hear the stuff. I can't imagine there being a point to this article other than a heads up that a release of it will happen in the future.

It's like discovering there's a bunch of new parts of the holy bibble written by Jesus himself but never letting anybody ever read it. Just sitting in a room near the Bob Hope Airport growing old like the rest of us.  ???

One way to approach a release like this is to package it with another, well known album.  I'm thinking of something like Clapton's Give Me Strength:  The '74/'75 Recordings (http://"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F193D5Y/ref=s9_simh_gw_p15_d13_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1VVQBPYZZEFRM5J969DT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846").  Take note Capitol Records, that this was also 6 discs. 5 CDs/1 Blu-Ray and $65.  Not $140!!!.  Understand?  I digress...

But I don't know what Beach Boy album you could/would want to pair this with -- just a thought.  (I know, don't give them any ideas!)  So with that, a straight up The Beach Boys:  Brian Wilson's Bedroom Sessions box would be ideal.  One that cleverly plays upon and exploits the reclusive indulgence therein, beautifully packaged around that theme.  Go to town.  Win a fcking grammy, while you're at it.



Here's a pic of Clapton's excellent 74/75 sessions box...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/818SNop4aIL._SL1500_.jpg)

Hmm…  I guess it would have to be 15BOs and/or Love You. Love You would fit better, especially if the Love You demos could be tidied into the package neatly. Many many discs then!

Yeah... but I'd love a Love You box set release that focuses on:  Love You, 15 big'uns, Adult Child, MIU -- and anything else that might have happened during the "Brian is Back" era.  That seems like a more sensible way of getting Adult Child out.  A 76-79 box.

To me... this bedroom period (68-74) is kind of a total mess of stuff. It's post-SMiLE, Wild Honey, Smiley, Friends, 20/20, Old man river, Brother Records, Danny Hutton, Spring, Charles fcking Manson, Warner Bro., Sunflower, Carl & the Passions, Holland, Surf's Down... It's just a big blob of everything and nothing.  So maybe my idea sux.   :-D



EDIT:  Actually, maybe it's spread out on several "expanded album" box sets, that are all the rage these days.  An expanded box for Smiley Smile, which includes Wild Honey and all sorts of bedroom stuff.  And then an expanded Friends or 20/20 that includes both of those albums and related bedroom material.  Then one for Sunflower or Surf's Up... which includes both of those albums and Holland, with all the related bedroom material.

So that's 3 box sets I just created for Capitol!   :p

EDIT EDIT:  4 boxes, including the Love You box.

You have approximately 60 titles. Some of them are probably short snippets, and even if they are full length BW songs, they are probably only 2:00 or 2:30 long, maybe 3:00. Some of them might not be releasable.

I would think you could make a nice package out of two 80 minute CD's. Go with 2 CD's, a regular sized jewel case that holds 2 CD's, a chronological approach, and a nice booklet with infornmative liner notes (dates, musicians, etc.). It could be titled The Beach Boys - Brian's Bedroom Tapes.

I agree Sheriff, but I just created 3, $70 boxsets for Capitol records out of this material -- against your one $20 "fans only" 2-disc set.   ;D

Strangely enough, I might actually prefer the box sets?  :shrug

I really liked the Clapton 74/75 set, even though I have the two albums it "expands."  It anchors it, perhaps?  In the case of Made In California box, I think the first disc of 60's hits has been done to death -- so I stand by my criticism of that box.  But these 70s albums could use the exposure.

This is the problem.  The coining of the phrase Bedroom Tapes is convenient purely from a future marketing point of view but the fact is that what looks likely to be gathered together under that terms spans a whole mess of different years and projects.  It's pretty wide-ranging and probably inaccurate to lump it all togetehr in that way.


It's a shame that this wasn't alluded to in the text, or even plugged at the foot of Part One of the feature… surely someone missed a trick in the marketing department there?

Looking forward to it though…

Tricky to allude to or plug something that didn't exist at the time. When published, 'Part One' was, in fact, 'The Only Part'.

Curiouser and curiouser said Alex … or something…

It's almost as if someone on this LA Weekly reads this board … as if that were possible…

HUh!!  You had me there. at first I thought yu meant Capitol should pair it with  a  Clapton recording....   


As if ANYONE in LA can read....   Please use some sense before posting, John!

The packaging for the CDs could be in the shape of a bed.  The 'covers' would lift up to reveal some lovely CDs inside.  A tray could slide out the other end, containing the hardback book.  Remember where you read it first BRI! ;)

Nah. I'd think more along the lines of Metal Box, only as a circular metal ashtray instead of a tape canister. :lol

(http://korenshadmi.com/secure/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wilson_LA+a.jpg)

(http://korenshadmi.com/secure/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wilson_LA.jpg)

The original artwork by Koren Shadmi

YES.

:lol
I was thinking a digi-pack in the shape of Brian in his bathrobe, ala the RR shot from the Tom Nolan article - the CD label could be a shot of his hairy gut, which fits snuggly into the robe

I haven't read the article, did they call up Brian and ask him about it?  That would take the article from 'cool' to 'legendary' and I'll bet Brian would do it.  LA Weekly, he lives in LA, he loves sh*t like that.  Call him up!

Nothing to see here...I just peed a little, that's all.

 :lol

Would Brian even like the idea of calling it "The Bedroom Tapes"? I'd have to think he's had it up to here with the crazy Brian Wilson thing. If Brian doesn't mind, I think Melinda Wilson would. Besides which, he didn't work in his bedroom, but the living room. That's where his studio and piano were located. Maybe they could call it "10452 Bellagio. "

Some guy's already patented that title for one of those "no comment allowed" info websites…

I can't believe everybody seems to believe this material is probably going to be released. I would love to see it released, but we gotta be very realistic. A boxset full of demos in the vein of Still I Dream Of It and California Feeling '74 is just not going to happen. The material is so rough. It's just interesting for the diehard fans like us. But I don't think it's ever going to get a full blown major label release...

I...wouldn't be surprised if some of those songs are heard in some shape or form when the movie comes out...

Even Beach Boys said the same about the Smile sessions material… if what's happening here is an attempt to fire up enthusiasm for the tracks, and to give them a reputation as the rough workings of our greatest musical genius, the hope might be that they develop such a strong cult following that demand starts to grow and grow…  

The guys over on the Rollin Up Top Heaven* message board have been debating, analysing and clamouring for this stuff for years, just as the folks here and on predecessors like MaleEgo and the Smile Shop demanded the release of Smile, with eventual success.














* I made this bit up, there's no such board.**










** Yet…

+1 (!!!)

I assumed MELINDA was behind this whole thing. No past/unreleased material is sacred with Brian's wifeandmanagers, especially if you can make an album out of it. And, if the title fits, er....can help sell records, that'll be used, too. :police:

Your assumption is roughly 100% wrong.  Possibly more. :lol

Yeah, seems like WifeandManagers has always been reluctant to call attention to B-Dub's.......eccentricity (which, as we all know, is one of the things that makes him so spectacularly interesting).

If Melinda were that keen to see all of Brian's material released, she would have released the original Paley tapes by now, as well as Sweet Insanity, if they could find the master for that one.  Since BRI has the rights to material from the bedroom/living room tapes, there's even less incentive for her to feel much enthusiasm for this set of material. So, I doubt she's the one behind the article, though I could be wrong.

Oddly, the one behind the article is the guy who wrote it.

Brian Wilson's Genius: Readers Discuss a New Discovery

by L.A. Weekly readers   Thursday, Feb 6 2014

What if everything you thought you knew about Brian Wilson was wrong? What if he wasn't just a bubble-gum pop star who spiraled into crippling depression but a musical genius who, in addition to recording the long-delayed Smile, has a wealth of other tracks just waiting for an audience? The revelations in Brian Chidester's cover story last week, "The Secret Brian Wilson Bedroom Tapes," excited longtime fans and more casual listeners alike.

Dbpcservice writes, "Fantastic article."

Sean Broderick agrees: "I enjoyed reading this well-written article. As a person who very much appreciates music, I love to learn new information about truly great artists, such as Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. If and when Brian Wilson's Secret Bedroom (Music) gets released, I'll be buying it the first day it's available. When the 2011 Beach Boys Smile album was finally released, it was a thrill to hear the whimsical lyrics and music with all of the Beach Boys participating and singing. One of the big reasons the Beach Boys have been so successful is that they have six excellent lead singers, not just one or two. Thank you!"

Drmiguel.deleon writes, "Good article, except that the writer alluded twice to Brian Wilson's diminishing songwriting and experimentation, ostensibly ending in the mid-'70s. This, however, doesn't account for his ongoing work as a solo artist — just as there are many demos from that period, so also are there many unreleased songs Wilson has either composed or recorded since the late 1980s. The Beach Boys' reunion album, That's Why God Made the Radio, is a case in point. The story is that most of the music for that album was written and demo'd by Brian back in 1996, and the plan was a Beach Boys album at that time, but that Carl Wilson's losing battle with cancer sidelined the project.

"Would that Brother Records — and Brian himself — would release the demos, or else Brian could complete the recordings and send them out to a world that now appreciates his gift and the journey he's taken."

Finally, Killabagger reminds us of one factor affecting Wilson in the late '60s: "You all have to remember 1964-66 was the heyday of LSD use in L.A. It was legal, and pure, and it was everywhere. Brian and others were eating LSD like Tic-Tacs. As enlightening LSD is, too much makes you mental. I was there as a kid, and saw it big-time in Laurel Canyon."

Thanxx Ed! 

But I thought there was to be some new thought-provoking artcle on the "Bedroom Tapes" in this issue? 

I have the new LA Weekly and there ain't no thing 'bout the Bedroom Tapes in it.

Part 2 was supposed to be in this weeks issue.  I know I wasn't the only one Brian interviewed for it; think AGD had mentioned he'd done another, too.  Next week maybe; I do know the Weekly was really excited about the response.

So he started the whole thing saying that everybody thinks Brian is a bubblegum pop star and nobody realizes he's a musical genius.... except the guy writing the article.

'guess I can stop reading about right there.

I'm imagining the movie is going to strengthen the mythology around Brian Wilson and that team BW will want to captitalise with a suitably Brian-Wilson-troubled-genius 'on brand' release. Smile's been done so what's left? Well a collection of odds and sods under the suitably evocative title 'bedroom tapes' totally fits the bill doesn't it? It's a catch-all title that gives the compilers a lot of room to manoeuvre.

 I wouldn't be surprised if this is released in line with the movie. I can dream anyway ...

So, half a dozen fans or so wrote that they're excited. This article is Astroturf at its finest. None of it is revealing anything new, either. I'm not saying there aren't fans who wouldn't buy it, but it will never be Smile, Part II.

What are the odds of The Bedroom Tapes being released

What are the odds that you take down the annoying and disrespectful image of BW masturbating?

wat

Supposedly the author of the piece is doing a track-by-track analysis in an upcoming LA Weekly article. So I say we wait 'til after that's out to see whether it's all just a bunch of stuff we already know, or whether it's gonna be a super revelatory article that makes us all salivate to hear some unreleased late '60s/early '70s B-Dub.

Honestly, for the most of the posters here I suspect this comes down to whether there really is a decently sized chunk of cool unreleased Brian Wilson material from this period or not. I'm still skeptical, just because we haven't ever heard a lot about this era besides the most of the few titles in the original article ("Rooftop Harry", etc.)

As a bookmaker, I can say with absolute authority, 50/50 - they will, or they won't.

Of course, as a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson nutcase I want anything and everything ever recorded to be released, but realistically a simple 10-12 track "highlights disc" would do me just fine.  :)

Same here sweetdudejim, I can't quite figure out why there was no track-by-track or listing (and very little evidence that the author had heard much if anything of the tracks) in the first piece and why the second piece which we're told will do something along those lines is only being written, going by AGD's comment, as an after thought.

It was a joke.

Paging Dr. Cohen

Article is in the works.

.

Considering all the other gems that sat in the vault for years without getting released, I'm sure there's some great stuff here as well.

Still no article  :'(

The less you bet, the more you lose when you win.

Looking more and more like this was just a tease.

Where's Derek Taylor when you really need him???  >:D

Nope.

Who even cares about the bedroom tapes anymore? This makes up for the lack of that story.

http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/02/19/i-chaperoned-a-middle-school-valentines-day-dance?showFullText=true

I really hope we get to hear these bits, pieces, and hidden gems someday, no matter how small or insignificant they may be to the general public.  I'd be ecstatic for stuff like Clangin', Spark In the Dark, You're Riding High On the Music, Lucy Jones, Rooftop Harry, Gimme Some Lovin' and so on.  I think there's a chance that these tracks could be released based off how much we generously got with The SMiLE Sessions and MIC.

Stephen Kalinich said on FB that his work with Brian is being "released"

Have you got a link?

I'm with ya man. All those titles you mention, I doubt any of them are masterpieces, but I think we're just such big fans of Brian that to listen to his unreleased work from, say 1968 to 1975, would be exceptionally illuminating.

I do think however though, we need to keep our hopes in check as far as what this material actually is. Keep in mind that stuff like "Rooftop Harry" and "Gimme Some Lovin'" were never finished, and that stuff like "Spark in the Dark" and "Brian's Jam" were probably intended more to be nothing more than Brian trying out some ideas on tape. I also can't imagine that stuff like "Lucy Jones" or "You're Riding High on the Music" are anything special, although I'm sure they're probably fun.

I do have to say that one thing I wanna hear most falls outside of the '68 to '74 timeline though, and that would be Brian's take on "In the Back of My Mind" from 1975. It sounds fascinating, and it's probably now at the top of the list of unreleased BW material that I'd like to hear.

Apparently Brian's management are so keenly aware of his fans' thirst for unreleased work that they've had him record a load more very recently ;D

Sounds like a Dante & the Evergreens, " Time machine"  kind of thing. Maybe the Twilight Zone.... 
Yeah, that's it. we'll go back in time so we can hear that " A World Of Peace Must come" is GOING to be released. EARTH shaking news..... 
Not sure I can take such a revelation, it's TOO MUCH

I think, if you were to think about it a moment, you would realize that Stephen was also involved with other songs.
Like "Lucy Jones," which is a song relevant to this article.

Right.  And Stephen Is going to be involved with releasing Lucy Jones or anything else other than AWOPMC?  NO.  wrong all the way.   
On  December 27, via Twitter, he posted to  Facebook  of a vinyl release of AWOPMC on April 20, 2014 ( which is Sunday everywhere I've checked)

That'd likely be April 19, the annual vinyl orgy that is Record Store Day.

Yep, and alledgedly will be a coloured vinyl rsd release

The follow-up was going to be released in the next issue(s), but got hung up in publishing complications. It will now appear somewhere else at a future date TBD.

Here it is!!!

http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/03/05/brian-wilsons-secret-bedroom-tapes-a-track-listing

Ummmm...

This will surely please Woodstock:

OMFG  ;D
Drool.

oh my god :-D

Piqued my interest for sure, but quite a few of the holy grails were still listed as missing in action. Which then begs the question, are we talking about a couple dozen outtakes / demos or the treasure trove originally cited in the first article?

I've heard that many of the still missing tapes are listened to on a regular basis by Dan Rutherford

Woah if we get to hear that.  Love that song.

Til I Die (Demo and Alternate Version) =  :ahh  
Pretty much my reaction to all those tracks though.  They must see release someday!!!  :bow   

The early version of Our Sweet Love confuses me - isn't the author saying Brian sings lead and Carl overdubbed backing vocals and instruments on top of that early version?  Does he not know Carl sings lead on the song?  I've heard an early version with no lead vocal.  Hmmm.

Only a few of the listed tracks fall into a "bedroom tape" as I understand bedroom tapes.  Brian C's definition seems to be anything written and put to tape between 1968 and 1974.  In other words, any outtakes released or unreleased.

It certainly does seem incredible.
I'll take any Brian-and-piano demo I can get my hands on.


Well, to be fair, that title was his own creation. I guess he can put anything under that heading that he wants.

I have to say, this doesn't sound like much. At most, a disc's worth of demos and other worthy things that haven't been released yet, and a bunch more missing or destroyed. I'd be more interested in mid- to late-70s stuff that hasn't been booted, along with the BW stuff from the 80s and 90s that has moldered in the vaults.

I'd gladly take "only" one disc of this material, jeez Wirestone! Why not pad it out with mid-to-late-'70s stuff and then everyone can be satisfied? I suspect the stuff from the '80s and '90s has been in the vaults for good reason -- what has been released on Made In California doesn't exactly make me want to hear more, at any rate. (I do like "Soul Searchin'" though...)

We've all heard the Paley stuff, and several of those tunes are among Brian's strongest solo work. They deserve to be out.

"Patty Cake" - On June 4, 1973, Murry Wilson died. The relationship with his three sons was beyond fractured by the end and Brian himself chose not to attend his father's funeral. He instead flew to New York City with sister-in-law Diane, where the two visited the Bronx Zoo amongst other sightseeing ventures. Wilson wrote a song about the zoo's main attraction, a baby gorilla named Patty Cake.

When they returned from New York, Brian told me he couldn't believe the intensity of the look in Patty Cake's eyes.  Said he returned a second time, locked into her eyes & mind, "and everything made sense.  Everything's o.k. now..."  Obviously, though, things weren't o.k.

This was also the time of the legendary Pete Fornatale interview, where he and Diane talk about Patty Cake:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20l4v2ihN5M

Hey, while I'm at it, it broke my heart that the interview edited out American Spring's version of Dennis' song.  God bless youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5neKNaRMq0

And the original   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsevrVoJE-g

he had me at the 4 Friends outtakes. is this stuff coming out or WHAT???!!!!!

"Song to God"--SOUNDS AMAZING. GAH.

Amen.  Love the song, hate Jack's delivery.  Maybe some technical magic could even be done to marry Dennis's vocal to the finished backing track.  THAT would be phenomenal! 

The article was interesting, if not jaw-dropping. I was hoping to see some things that would make me salivate. But there really wasn't anything. But I will point out a few things I found interesting...

Cool to see that both "Our Happy Home" and "You're As Cool As You Can Be" from the Friends era are both still around. Would be interesting to hear both.

So, it seems that "All I Wanna Do" was yet another Sunflower song of Brian's that the rest of the group had to rally to put together ("Our Sweet Love" and "Cool, Cool Water" too). Also, the 1968 track sounds interesting at the least. I doubt it could top the Sunflower version though.

Interesting that it seems that the elusive "You Never Give Me Your Money" was indeed the Beatles song, but instead of a formal recording, just more of either Brian or Bruce messing around (apparently).

Seems like it's confirmed "Funky Fever" is a Spring outtake? Interesting.

So "Better Get Back in Bed" was originally "Pa, Let Her Go Out"? That's quite interesting. And also seems like a super early '60s type Brian topic. So maybe Brian was already heading in that direction by 1972? Anyways, if "Pa, Let Her Go Out" is on tape, I'd really be interested in hearing it.

And "I'm The Pied Piper" has a longer version? Yes please, I'll have that!

Big bummer that the tape for "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" (aka "Gimme Some Lovin'") apparently is missing. That was one of the early '70s Brian recordings that I most wanted to hear.

I also find it doubtful that either "Pattycake" or "Just an Imitation" exist on tape.

The writer says that "Brian's Jam" was recorded in Colorado, but that's not right. According to AGD's site, "Brian's Jam" was recorded in California in March 1974, along with "Clangin'". "Brian's Tune" was recorded at Caribou however. So it's possible he might be mixing those two up. Regardless, I'd love to hear "Brian's Jam", since I love his "Shortenin' Bread" groove. It really does groove so nicely.

And then, we see that "Lucy Jones" is a duet between Brian and Steve Kalinich. No surprise there. However, as I kinda suspected, no tape has surfaced for "You're Riding High on the Music". So I guess that leaves "Lucy Jones" as the last 1974 Brian vocal to look forward to.

And despite what the author says, "Grateful We Are For Little Children" is not a Brian title, right? And the "Daddy Dear" thing, that's not Brian. Hasn't it been confirmed that's Al? And plus, why would Brian be playing "Susie Cincinnati" in 1972? Even though he did like it enough to put it on 15 Big Ones, I find it doubtful that he'd sit at a piano at that point and play Al's song.

Anyways, I don't know why I went through all that, but....whatever.

Is this supposed to be a comprehensive list of known Brian recordings from this period?  The reason I ask is because I'm still wondering where that "Sweet and Bitter" song that came out a while ago on youtube fits into the scheme of things.

I wouldn't say "look forward to". More... "experience".  ???


Yes, it is - the D. Wilson credit is apparently a typo.

So are these tapes 100% going to be released at some point? Perhaps along with the album and movie? I really want to hear these songs.

Thought it would be convenient to post the entire released tracklist:


Track listing for bedroom tapes:

"I'd Love Just Once to See You" (alternate version)
"Whistle In" (alternate versions)
"Our Happy Home"
"New Song"
"Even Stephen"
"You're As Cool As Can Be"
"All I Wanna Do" (1968 version)
"My Little Red Book"
"Sail Plane Song"
"We're Together Again"
"Old Man River"
"America, I Know You"
"Break Away" (demo)
"Good Time" (tracking session)
"Our Sweet Love" (early version)
"Add Some Music to Your Day" (alternate versions)
"Raspberries, Strawberries"
"Back Home" (1970 versions)
"'Til I Die" (demo and alternate version)
"A Day in the Life of a Tree" (alternate version)
"Where Is She?"
"H.E.L.P. Is on the Way"
"Games Two Can Play"
"I Just Got My Pay"
"Soulful Old Man Sunshine"
"My Solution"
"What Can the Matter Be?"
"Awake" (demo) 
"Funky Fever"
"Honeycomb"
"Passing By" (new version)
"Song to God"
"Is Jack Rieley Superman?"
"Burlesque"
"Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'"
"Beatrice from Baltimore"
"Rooftop Harry"
"Body Talk"
"Sail on, Sailor" (demo)
"Spark in the Dark"
"Daddy Dear"/"Suzie Cincinnati"
"Mt. Vernon and Fairway - Theme"/"A Casual Look" (session)
"I'm the Pied Piper"
"Pa, Let Her Go Out"
"Patty Cake"
"The Second (Untitled) Fairy Tale"
"Won't You Tell Me?"
"Just an Imitation"
"Lucy Jones"
"California Feelin'"
"Child of Winter"
"Brian's Jam"
"Clangin'"
"Good Timin'
"Riding High on the Music"
"Grateful Are We for Little Children"

Gotta bear in mind that a bunch of the tunes listed in the article are, to all intents and purposes, hearsay and the tapes haven't been found.  And would they all class as BW recordings, or would most be in Beach Boys/BRI's ownership?

Yeah, but I believe the tapes you think haven't been found aren't really missing at all:
    >> The former Mrs. Wilson retains the masters to the Spring album, as well as a number of other Brian Wilson tapes from the period. <<

deleted.

There is so much stuff here that, just based on these brief descriptions, i would kill to hear -- this is the kind of stuff right here that interests me the most, the so-called "weird" and "uncommercial" material that is languishing in the vaults and in various people's storage rooms. And all those alternate versions!

To whom it may concern: You have my full intere$t in these tapes being released.   

I need a drooling emoticon to properly express my feelings about this article, as well as a suicide emoticon for all the nonchalant, too-cool-for-school responses that ensued. 

Is "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin" a cover version of the late '60s hit of the same name by the band Crazy Elephant?  If it is, it can't be too good.

All I could say was damn

Wow! This excites me even more then I was expecting! Looking forward to these in particular:
-What can the Matter Be?
-All I Wanna Do '68
-'Til I Die demo
-Passing By remake that apparently has lyrics
-New Song (Apparently in good quality I assume. Always loved this piece.)
-Spark in the Dark
-All the Fairy Tale stuff, especially the one with Carnie and Wendy
-Won't You Tell me (Love this one.)

So, about "Walkin'".. (and perhaps this would be a better question for the author)..

Do both (1968 & 1970) versions circulate? I believe I'm familiar with the 1970 version that has Brian giving up on the lead vocal.
I wonder if the '68 version has a full, lead vocal from Brian. Anybody know?

The Spencer Davis Group song "Gimme Some Lovin'".

Stevie Winwood singin' that joint! Great singer.

But anyways Andrew, do we know of this 1972 version of "Gimme Some Lovin'" is the same thing that David Sandler talks about? You know, the medley that combined "Gimme Some Lovin'" with "Baby I Need Your Lovin'"? I mean, I guess it really doesn't matter right now anyways since apparently the tape is lost (bummer).

And by the way, isn't there a 1977 version of "Gimme Some Lovin'" as well with Brian on the lead?



*Also Andrew, on your 1973 page for "shows and sessions" section, you have a listing for "Baby I Need Your Lovin'"/"I'm A Man". Anyways, I'm pretty sure you mixed up "I'm A Man" with "Gimme Some Lovin'". And secondly, since the "Gimme, Gimme Good Lovin'" session was  in 1972, that would probably mean the assumed 1973 session never existed. So I guess you could probably delete it from your timeline. Not trying to be picky or anything, but just trying to help you keep that right.

The title on the list is "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'.," not Gimme Some Lovin. The title is identical to the Crazy Elephant song, which can be found on YouTube. It was a bubblegum pop tune that was a US hit in 1969. From the description of the tune, I suspect it is the Crazy Elephant song.

You are correct that on the list it is "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'". It is also that title on the AFM sheet that c-man found.

However, it's pretty well known that it is indeed "Gimme Some Lovin'". I'm sure Andrew has his sources, and I know David Sandler himself has told me he worked on a medley of "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" with Brian.

I recently found a book that I thought I had lost, which is a compilation of interviews from '70s Melody Maker mag. An interview of Brian, done at his home in 1973, mentions that he played a song for the interviewer that sounded similar to the Spencer Davis song, but was not. I wonder if it's the same song discussed in the  LA article. Brian mentions he worked on it with David Sandler.

Would you care to post exactly what he said? I've never heard of this interview? Or at the least, which book it's in?

Perhaps I should post this in the "ask the author" thread, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me if "Our Happy Home" was actually the track "Untitled Instrumental - rehersals" from "Unsurpassed Masters 20 (1968-1969) Friends, 20/20, Odds and Ends" ??

Title is something like "The Giants Rock On".

Hopefully they can be released along with other Beach Boys outtakes such as Gold Rush and Our Life, Our Love, Our Land.

All this stuff should be out as it just makes them a few more bucks.

The writer compared it to "Cottonfields," with some similarities to "Gimme Some Lovin'." It's hard to tell if it's the "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" song or something else entirely. I don't have a scanner that works, so I took a picture of the interview with my camera phone and uploaded it to TinyPic. The image quality isn't the best, but it is readable if zoomed in. I omitted the first part of the interview, which describes the Bel Air neighborhood. The interview seemed to be a promotion for American Spring. While Brian is interviewed, Marilyn and Diane are quoted as well.  The name of the book is "Today's Sound," and it's a British Melody Maker book that somehow wound up on an American used book store. Here's links to the interview pics, in order:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=mvi8n6&s=8
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=28rionm&s=8
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=16m9gcg&s=8

Pretty sure the song Coleman wasn't allowed to name was "Shortenin' Bread".

I never thought of "Shortnin' Bread" as sounding like a Stephen Foster song, but I suppose it could.

great article! thanks for posting it.

 ;)

Soooo...any update on these rare gems/tapes seeing the light of day sometime soon?   ;)

My source is also one Sandler, D.  ;D

any update on these gems coming out anytime soon?

Aren't a few trickling out? On Made in CA, NPP, CA Feeling II…

whats npp?

N(o)
P(ier)
P(ressure).

Can you list specifically which ones are on MIC, NPP etc?   And the titles they are released under?    by the way, I'm still digging the gems I'm hearing on MIC.

Here are the songs that have official releases

Good Vibrations 30 years box set: H.E.L.P. is on the Way, Games Two can Play, I just Got My Pay
Endless Harmony: Break Away "demo"
Made in California: Sail Plane Song, We're Together Again, Old Man River, Back Home (1970), Where is She?, Soulful Old Man Sunshine, California Feelin' demo (1974.)
No Pier Pressure: In the Back of my Mind (1975)
California Feeling 2: Lucy Jones
A World of Peace must come: America, I know You

"Soulful Old Man Sunshine" was on Endless Harmony prior to being reissued on Made In California, but otherwise looks like an accurate list to me.  Several others have appeared in altered form (i.e. "Won't You Tell Me" was on the Sunrays - Vintage Rays box set with the same instrumental track but with a Rick Henn lead vocal), but not in the version described by Chidester in his article.

Lee

I'm hoping there might be another version of America, I Know You in which the lyric is scaled down to its key elements, as was done with Be Still. Less is more, even more so in that case.

and the original version of Sail Plane Song on Endless Harmony is superior to the one we got on MIC

I always thought they were the same song! What is the difference?

Use those things you have on either side of your head ....

I reckon we can also include:

From the GV box:

"It's Over Now" (Brian Wilson)
"Still I Dream of It" (Brian Wilson)

And "Still I Dream of It" from the I Just Wasn't Made for These Times soundtrack

Same song, different mix.

I thought of those as well, but Chidester's definition of the "Bedroom Tapes" cuts off at 1975 with the hiring of Landy.

Lee

I read this article multiple times 'cause it's very intriguing but never, not once, understood it the way that these are really "tapes from bedroom", and I think it's clearly stated that way in the article! It was just a period when BW..well he just gave up on being the "hot shot" recording producer and just chilled back...
And that's the reason I find these songs so appealing...

IMO the premise of the article is that there were spurts of creativity from Brian in the period from 1967 to 1975 when he was generally reported to be "out of it," and that despite the aborted sessions and erased tapes there are enough of those spurts still on tape that could be compiled together into a viable commercial release.  I've gone on record as saying that some of the recordings, again in my opinion, are not nearly as good as they seem on paper, and that I didn't agree with the overhype that L.A. Weekly gave the article with their purports of exclusive "granted access" to the Beach Boys' archive, when others BB historians and writers have heard many of these same tracks under various less-sensationalized circumstances, but I realize that their mission is to draw readers and sell advertising -- and their target audience isn't the few people who have had the opportunity to hear some of these tapes in their raw form.

On the positive side, the article did get us talking about Brian Wilson and his music, and that's never a bad thing...

Lee

Good point!

COMMENT:  Believe me, all the "spurts" are accounted for. There are no secret tapes found hiding under Brian's bed or in the closet or some old trunk. Certainly, with the studio under his bed (room), I can tell you that he did come down and start recording songs, but they were not commercial and only what you would expect for someone in Brian's condition at the time -- in other words, not worth the cost of the tape upon which they were recorded. There were exceptions, but you've heard them either as stand alone or sweetened parts.

The point of my post is that the article makes for a good weekend read for the average person, but when taken to heart so much by the fans that post here, I feel compelled to point out that there are no unreleased creations bubbling up out of the ether. After 11 pages of "hope," enough is enough. Get real. There are not sixty reels of goodies just wasting away, ready to be sprung on to an eager public. And, I agree with you, it's fun to talk about Brian and his music, but don't start believing your own fantasies, or you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment.  ~swd

There's a lot of great and interesting stuff, especially from the 70s and 80s, produced by Brian and the rest of the band that has not been released.

Just the "Proposed Brother Reissue Bonus Tracks" revealed a year or two ago alone shows that.

But yes, I think "Bedroom Tapes" is just a broad euphemism for "various interesting Brian things that haven't been released."

I think the hope was that such an article would spur BRI towards opening up the vaults in a more liberal fashion, and sticking some sort of label on them (perhaps trying to evoke the totally different and much closer to accurately-described Bob Dylan "Basement Tapes") would make a more succinct headline than "Various Unreleased Brian Wilson Recordings."

Stephen,

Have you ever commented publicly on this track mentioned in the article?:

"Song to God" - [Stanley] Shapiro also told [the author of the article, Brian Chidester] the story of the time Dennis Wilson had engineer Stephen Desper queue up a Brian Wilson reel-to-reel labeled "Song to God." According to Shapiro, as the tape ran and Dennis and Desper sat mesmerized, Brian came barreling down from his bedroom, ripped the tape off the playback and yelled, "Don't you ever touch that again! That's between me and God!" As [Chidester's] previous article stated, no tape for this has ever been found.

it could be argued that the inclusion of Brian's '75 rendition of In the Back of My Mind on NPP was a direct result of this article.

there are several titles mentioned that even the most hardcore fans have still never heard. here's hoping they all see proper release

COMMENT:  It's stuff like your quote above that I'm talking about. It's false stories like this one and statements from the previous fan, HeyJude that exercise the imagination of a "hopeful" fan into thinking some fantastic creation will turn up to reinvent rock 'n' roll. I suppose you could call every false-start, cough, throat-clearing, instrument tuning, or in-progress-dub that was captured on tape as "a lot of great and interesting stuff." It may be to a collector looking for every cigarette butt of Carl's, discarded coffee cup of Brian's, or used condom of Dennis' as a trophy to add to their collection, but in practical terms there are no endless shelves of unreleased hit singles, just waiting for the right time to come. Whatever you think is out there has been cataloged and categorized as uneventful. Certainly you could take the many tapes that exist and put them together in another box-set, but the amount of cost involved would not yield any noteworthy sales or be of any interest except to a handful of customers.

I myself have lots of "stuff." It's all over my house. It's on cassettes, acetates, reels, and even some early DAT's. Little by little I intend to provide them on my website as I did the Spectrum Concert tapes. The problem is that you can can't find equipment to play some formats. I still have the master that Dennis and Daryl made for me, which is the only real quadraphonic recording made by any Beach Boy. That together with odd things like all the water sounds programmed into Brian's Mellotron, or the wild-track of the bi-plane used for Loop d Loop (which has already been provided), or the original finished version of Sail-On-Sailor I recorded back at the house studio with Carl doing the lead, or multiple studio test mixes of Goin' On some of which may be of interest to a few fans, but I don't think there are any finished songs or even half-finished songs in the can and certainly not shelves full of possible money-making hits.

Maybe I'm too pragmatic for some of the stories floating around in fandom as exemplified by my exposé of the phantom, "Landlover" album that never was (see my book), but I would rather deal with reality then conjecture. I guess that's the engineer in me.

Thanks for reading my rant, ~swd       

Rant acknowledged Stephen.  And since I was quoting a direct passage from the article (not my words), I don't infer that your use of the second person "you" above was in reference to me personally.  At least I hope not...

I think some of us uber-fans look at some of the better tracks (and I know "better" is subjective) like "Soulful Old Man Sunshine," "(Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again," and "Where Is She?" that have been released after the fact on archival compilations, and are astounded that they were never released, when the likelihood is that if Carl and/or Dennis were still alive (especially Carl) they would still be locked away due to their imperfections, the bad memories they drag up, etc.  One man's trash is another man's treasure...  I once heard Bruce refer to the fans who dig this kind of stuff as "bottom feeders," so I think I know where he stands on the topic as well.

Going by the decreasing quality of "lost gems" released over the past 5 to 10 years, I'm betting that 90 percent of anything worthwhile is already out there in some form, boot or official release.     I've heard a lot of nice alternate versions and live material over recent years.    I think there must be some worthwhile live recordings we haven't heard.     

I'm only talking about recorded material we *know* exists and, in many cases, has been heard, and nobody is claiming all of the stuff is mind-blowing or that it is going to "reinvent rock and roll."

Numerous fans have heard the "Proposed Brother Bonus Tracks" that someone discovered at a record shop a couple years ago. It's not false starts and noodling and throwaway material. It's stuff like Dennis's "Carry Me Home" in pristine quality. Brian's demo for "'Til I Die", and a version of "'Til I Die" with alternate lyrics. An unedited version of "This Whole World" that extends well past the ending point of the released mix. The quirky and interesting "We Gotta Groove" with verse lyrics, and so on.

Some of it is alternate takes/versions of stuff we know and love (and nobody is saying the alternate/rough/demos material is necessarily better than what was released), and some of it (e.g. "Carry Me Home") is a full-fledged song and recording that has never been released at all. I'm surely not alone in feeling "Carry Me Home" is better than at least *some* of what the band released in the 70s.

All of this "unreleased" material is of course of interest mainly to super-fans interested in the minutiae of alternate takes and mixes and whatnot. But in a world where multi-disc sets of "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" sessions exists, I'd say there is oodles of *known* quality material (not pie-in-the-sky mind-blowing stuff that we're just guessing at or making up) that could be released.

The Beach Boys don't exist any longer as a functioning recording artist. As a group, they've released two albums of new studio material in the last 26 years (and one of those didn't have Brian Wilson on it). Brian Wilson is prolific in releasing new music; most of the other guys not so much. So what we have left is the archives, and there is plenty of interesting stuff just among what is *known* and has been heard that is well beyond "coughs" and "throat clearing" and "false starts."

George Martin was known to be dismissive of putting any archival Beatles material, and then between 1994 and 1995 was involved in compiling *eight* discs worth of archival material (two discs of BBC material plus the six "Anthology" discs).

For the Beach Boys, it is true that the 60s material has been mined pretty heavily. Other than putting out raw sessions, there isn't a lot left from the 60s as far as unreleased songs and significantly alternate versions. But there's a ton of that sort of stuff from the 70s and 80s. Some good, some not. But the Beach Boys have proven with past archival releases that they've left some AWESOME material on the cutting room floor.

If they had put out "outtake" collections in the past that all stunk and just consisted of false starts or 37 takes of the "Sloop John B" backing track, then perhaps it would be easier to assume nothing of note is in the vaults. But there's a ton in there!

And that's not even getting into live concert material, of which a ton of high quality material exists.

I don't think there's a misunderstanding about *what* is in the vaults. I think there's simply a difference of opinion about whether archival, unreleased material is interesting and worth releasing.

Fans like myself are well aware of the mixed feelings the artists and others involved in these recordings have about the recordings (e.g. Bruce using the term "bottom feeders"). I try to remember that side of things too. But nobody is making stuff up, or trying to trick people into thinking "Pet Sounds II" is in the vaults. It's just some fans, many very knowledgeable and if nothing else enthusiastic, who like the archival material and would like to see more released. I don't see how fans wanting that material is a bad thing.

If fans think "Endless Harmony Soundtrack" and "Made in California" and "The Smile Sessions" and releases like those were uninteresting dregs, then they can adjust their expectations of any future archival releases accordingly.

Comment to HeyJude:   touché    ~swd

For the record, that article was wildly overblown and filled with hyperbole and misstatements, not the least of which was the outright fabrication that "the LA Weekly was granted exclusive access..."

The fact is, it was written by someone who worked with us on a project some ten years prior to the publication of the LA Weekly article, and at that time he'd had an opportunity to hear some archival things that we had recently catalogued and preserved.  When he was working on the article many years later I was happy to answer some archival questions and describe some things we'd since discovered within the tape vaults.  I'm sure I played a couple of things for him over the phone, in the interest of helping him get his facts straight. But I was not at all pleased with the article as published in the LA Weekly.

(For a more realistic look at that era, I'd refer folks instead to the recent article in MOJO by Domenic Priore.)

Stephen Desper speaks the truth.  There's very little "undiscovered" Brian within the tape archive, and most of the material of note has found its way onto recent archival releases.  There is a small handful of unheard and very rough unfinished basic tracks that may or may not someday find a home if the label ever wants to undertake, say, deluxe multi disc packages centered on specific albums...and there are, of course, a few other items ("Walkin'" and "Carnival" come to mind) that have never been officially released but have long been passed around amongst collectors.  But there is no treasure trove of unheard Brian gems lurking in a dark corner of a dusty vault, as far as I know.  I've looked.

....and I should probably clarify, I'm speaking strictly about Brian Wilson material from the time period covered in the article. 

While acknowledging, respecting, understanding and believing what Messrs Desper & Boyd say above, I have to confess that I'd rather hear ten seconds of unreleased Brian Wilson mediocrity than ten hours of, say, U2, Coldplay, Adele or Mumford and Sons.

"My name is John, and I am a bottom feeder…"

I think it is indeed an important distinction to make, that there perhaps aren’t a bunch of unheard Brian gems, meaning songs we haven’t heard. But there is a good amount of archival material from the 70s and 80s from the entire band that is worth releasing. Maybe the band doesn’t want to put out a ton of the stuff. But it is there. Just looking at those “Proposed Brother Bonus Tracks” and weeding out the stuff that has since been officially released and stuff that, for some fans, is of little musical merit and/or has been in common “circulation” for eons (e.g. “Carnival”), there’s a good disc or two worth of material (which I think would make far more sense presented on deluxe editions of their respective albums, along with extra backing tracks, vocals-only mixes, etc.). How realistic such releases are is a different story. But I think most fans that frequent places like this board would love to see this stuff released. It isn’t all “bottom of the barrel” stuff.

Big Sur (Original Version)
‘Til I Die (Demo)
‘Til I Die (Alt. Lyrics)
Surf’s Up (Vocals-Only)
Awake (Brian Demo)
Fourth of July (Alt. Version)
Lady (Vintage Stereo Mix)
I’m Going Your Way
Add Some Music to Your Day (Alt. Version)
This Whole World (Alt. Longer Version)
Tears in the Morning (Alt. Version)
Carry Me Home
The Trader (Alt. Version)
Out in the Country
Holland EP Demo
We Gotta Groove
Lazy Lizzie
Marilyn Rovell


That’s just *some* of the tracks *solely* on the first two discs of that “Proposed Bonus Tracks” tracklisting. That’s weeding out stuff like “11th Bar Blues” and “Love You” alternate mixes, numerous “15 Big Ones” oldies outtakes, stuff like “Hard Times”, etc. There’s tons more of that stuff that’s out there, and more we haven’t heard. I could easily list a few dozen more that we know of from other track listings and stuff that has surfaced (and not surfaced).

It isn’t all A-List material. I love quirky Brian stuff, and even I’m not just totally *in love* with “Lazy Lizzie” or “Marilyn Rovell.” I don’t need more alternate mixes of “When Girls Get Together.” I’m guessing at least a few of these tracks were proposed and rejected already for archival releases (“I’m Going Your Way” and the alternate version of “Big Sur” seems like two relatively strong tracks for instance that I would have figured would have been released by now, and supposedly “Carry Me Home” was rejected for some thoughtful if, to some, disagreable reasons). But there’s lots of cool stuff. 

i wana hear those manson tapes stephen recorded!!!

Not to mention... there seriously needs to be proper releases of entire albums in instrumental version form + vocals-only form. Just like Pet Sounds. Yes, even the later albums.

I appreciate the amazing work at tracks like these that MIC assembled together, there was some *mindblowing* stuff like Slip on Through vocals-only, for example.

But even albums like 15 Big Ones have some incredible backing tracks (beyond the unbelievably great Had to Phone Ya one). While I bet the band is not super proud of the vocals on that album, I'm sure a good number fans like myself don't mind them at all. I would be beyond thrilled and ready to pony up bucks to hear 15 Big Ones + Love You in instrumental version form + vocals-only form, not to mention all the other albums. I'd re-buy every one, even Summer in Paradise. Not kidding.

Thank you to Stephen and Alan for posting in this, what can be at times very frustrating place.

Accidental post...

Nicely worded! My thoughts exactly!

I think that the only "Holy Grail" recordings that haven't seen the light of day remaining are:



The late 60's recordings done for A&M  by Brian with Tandyn Almer. Rerecordings of Beach Boy songs with alternate lyrics,
to make them less surf and car oriented and therefore easier for a publisher to offer for other artists to record.

Were they any good? does anyone know?

that might be the last bastion of musical surprise that could see the light of day someday.


 :)

Those would be very interesting to hear.  I suspect that Brian's "involvement" was relatively minor given the timeframe (1972-ish) and what we know about his condition at that time.  But you never know.  I've never talked to anyone who's heard them -- or that has at least admitted to hearing them...

[Edit - I see another thread where Debbie Keil talks about hearing "Passing By," and it had a Brian scratch vocal.  Interesting...]

Actually, it seems these sessions are from late '69/early '70 - in other words, the Sunflower era...I have scans of several AFM contracts with the client name "Brian Wilson Productions". I'm reliably told that these were backing track sessions for the rewritten song demos. The producer seems to have been Brian himself.

Very interesting Craig...  See my edit above about Debbie Keil having heard "Passing By."

Lee

If you ask me, the best still-unreleased Brian song or recording is the DW-produced "Stevie". THAT deserves release!  :)

There were also several intriguing BW sessions from 1980-'82 (seemingly unrelated to his concurrent "cocaine sessions" with Dennis), held at Western and Gold Star. Although AFM documentation for these exists, I'm told little from those sessions could be found in the vaults, except for the "Shortenin' Bread"/"My Solution" medley backing track...

Stephen, did  I  read this correctly or were you just kidding that you have or"the original finished version of Sail-On-Sailor I recorded back at the house studio with Carl doing the lead"?

That was my initial thought as well ! Can't believe no-one else picked up on that in the intervening 24 hours !!!!!

Yeah, I couldn't believe my eyes. I mean, this has been denied having existed, if
I recall? I hope Bother has a digital copy!

COMMENT:  As I have stated many times c-man, and will again make the statement again.  AFM contracts cannot be trusted to be what they claim to represent. ~swd

COMMENT:  Yes. It will be part of a study-video on Sail-On-Sailor.  We lived with Carl's lead for many months as a finished product, but when the song was not included in Surf's Up,  Blondie essentially copied Carl's inflections and phrasing with his replacement lead with the song being used in Holland -- As I understand, the new lead was recorded in the USA, after the group's return from Nederland.   ~swd

COMMENT:  I have heard the sessions Brian started when the group, and myself, were out of the country on tour. We reviewed the tapes upon return. There was nothing worth building on and so they were put in storage or re-used (in other words, erased). ~swd

COMMENT:  Is that Shapiro, the lawyer (who now heads BRI)?  At any rate, never heard of a song entitled "Song to God."  Never did Dennis and I hear such a song, nor did Brian come barreling into the studio. And, by the way, you don't just "rip" a professional tape reel(s) from a professional tape recorder.  There are hold-down clamps and a complex threading pathway, and to get to the control room required some gyrations -- you don't just "barrel down," so the story is replete with imagined gestures and simply put NOT TRUE.  ~swd

I would guess there are a few interesting unreleased songs, demos etc by Brian from the early 80s to now that are unheard/ not bootlegged. Though most fan interest always seems to centre on anything unheard from the 60s/ 70s, imo Brian's later career as a creative songwriter is  just as interesting. For starters, Brian seems to have been very musically active during the so-called Sweet Insanity and Paley Sessions eras, so who knows what unheard things may exist from those years? Then there is the unreleased stuff from the Gary Usher sessions in the mid-80s.

Hopefully, as time passes and people accept we've got virtually all there ever was from the 60s and 70s, interest may shift to the later years, where Brian seems far from the 'burn-out' he has at times been painted, judging by the beauty and sophistication of some of this later music we've heard already.

[Corrected sentence below.]

Stephen, you may be thinking of Elliott Lott.  Stan Shapiro was a friend of Dennis'; I believe at one time he worked at the William Morris Agency.

Thank you for confirming what I thought (and what Alan Boyd also confirmed) -- that the events in the article have been hyperbolized.

And count me among those who are eagerly anticipating the "Sail On Sailor" Study Video for a chance to hear the early version.

It's threads like this that make me so glad i'm not the only one that goes crazy over hearing unreleased Beach Boys material. ;D

Maybe Abe Somer?

I think that there is enough material for a single cd/download. The Party double  cd was a stroke of excellent thinking. Personally, I don't want to hear several takes of Hey Little Tomboy, but the alternate versions of several songs I would buy. The best "new frontier," if you will, is the long list of live performances through the years.

Perhaps so...but in my research experience, the majority of Beach Boys-related AFM contracts that I've uncovered match up perfectly with session tapes that I've been allowed to hear. There are some quite obvious exceptions where a contract was created after-the-fact just to have something to submit, but those are the exceptions, and they're blatantly obvious. In the case of the early '80s stuff I speak of here, interesting assortments of musicians were apparently booked for studio sessions with Brian, under song titles such as "Fly", "Candlesticks", "Up Again", "Why Don't You Tell Me Why" and "Cry Like A Baby". Whether these sessions actually took place or actually resulted in anything being committed to tape, I cannot say, as the tapes apparently do not reside in the Brother vaults as one would expect them to.

COMMENT:  I believe the current situation is that Elliott Lott has stepped aside from running BRI and in the interim is being managed by their lawyer, Mr. Shapiro, ESQ. It makes more sense that the story had it's beginning with Stan.  But I don't know which "Shapiro" started this tale, only wondering since my name was invoked. At any rate, it's a tall tale, and should not be taken any other way. ~swd

COMMENT:  Let me phrase this another way . . .  You can't construct accurate history of recording sessions by looking at AFM contract sheets. 

. . . Anymore than you could figure out what Brian had for his dinner last night by looking at last week's grocery bills of the Wilson household. ~swd

Thank you Stephen! I assume Brother has a copy? Don't suppose you have any of Dennis' takes at the vocal?

Sail on Sailor (Carl Wilson lead vocal)

COMMENT:  I wouldn't assume anything.  When I left after Surf's Up's release, the Sail-On-Sailor multi-track had Carl's voice doing the lead. It had been mixed down to two-track, intended to be a single release. The next time I heard it, it was on the Holland album with my tracking and background vocals, but with Blondie doing the lead. I doubt the multi-track still has the original Carl lead, but a two-track may still be somewhere.  Again, I wouldn't assume anything these days. ~swd

COMMENT:  Some of those titles can be heard at Recording The Beach Boys (Part One) - Addendum  at my website. ~swd

Well Stephen,  praise the Lord you kept a copy of the stereo mix with Carl on lead, I think. You seem seem to be giving mixed messages on that confirmation.

OK... so, the Beach Boys come back from Holland, make the initial submission of the album to Warners, who then reject it offhand for not having a "hit single" on it.  Van Dyke Parks comes to the rescue, says he'll get a single out of Brian, and goes to Brian and tells him (regarding Sail On, Sailor) to "finish the damn song!"  Brian says "hypnotize me, Van Dyke, into thinking I'm not insane!"  Perhaps Brian could have rather said "um, sorry to disappoint you, Van Dyke, but the song's already finished, and there's  a finished recording in the can with Carl on lead vocal... but I'd still think it would be pretty cool if you'd hypnotize me!!!"

COMMENT:  Not quite.  The song had been finished for some time, but Carl was never satisfied with his lead performance. He re-recorded the entire lead several times. Then a mixdown. Then go back and sweeten parts of the vocal. Then another mixdown. Not satisfied. Scratch the re-worked vocal. Make yet another attempt at lead. He seemed happy(er) with that one. Made another mixdown. Tape put back on the shelf. More songs came along from other group members. Surf's Up released. Group goes to Nederland. Carl sees talent in Blondie. Thinks he can do better vocal on SOS, but tape in LA.  Upon returning, Blondie tracks vocal. Carl happy with performance. More commercial. Brian has little input. Carl pushes for song's inclusion on Holland album. Album's success credited to a song that is actually a left-over un-released single from earlier House Studio sessions of the Sunflower/Surf's Up era.  ...or something more like that.  ~swd

... a hypnotizing story!

In all seriousness, thank you so much, Stephen, for all this wonderful insightful information!  Much, much appreciated!

My Little Red Book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHoJx0eow68

I was surprised to find this!

Here is a longer version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klcy1YKhI5o

Surf's Up was a great album . . . Can you imagine a Surf's Up with Sail on Sailor, Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again, and either Lady or 4th of July?  Best Beach boys album ever?

Brian gets into MY LITTLE RED BOOK as if that song were made for him!

Brian does a good job on Daddy Dear also!
He does a very good job on that! Was that ever on a bootleg even??

Hello Stephen and greetings from Germany !

For me it was very interesting to read about "Brian´s Mellotron". I am a huge fan of the Mellotron and still use it myself. I love it and I wondered why Brian - especcially when he owned one - used it so rarely. I guess he did it only on Country air and another tune I don´t remember. Did he demos with orchestra sounds with it ? What did he with it at all and why not more ?  Around 1967 everyone who had the chance, used it. The Moody Blues, The Beatles on Strawberry fields, Magical Mystery tour and on the white album, The Stones on their satanic majesties request and so on.  And who can think of these recordings without it ?????   It was absolutely IN then.  I guess Brian didn´t like it very much, although I have a DVD in which he praises it........

Hard to argue that, what with Pet Sounds, but a lineup like this one would have been exceptional in every way...

Sail on Sailor (Carl) (B.Wilson-Rieley-Kennedy-Almer-Parks)
Don’t Go Near the Water (Mike-Alan) (Love-Jardine)
Long Promised Road (Carl) (C. Wilson-Rieley)
Disney Girls (Bruce) (Johnston)
Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Live Again (Dennis) (D. Wilson)

Feel Flows (Carl) (C. Wilson-Rieley)
4th of July (Carl) (D. Wilson-Rieley)
A Day in the Life of a Tree (Jack) (B. Wilson-Rieley)
‘Til I Die (group) (B. Wilson)
Surf’s Up (Carl-Brian) (B. Wilson-Parks)

Certainly most of the 'Bedroom Tapes' aren't very commercially viable. The 'Awake' demo, 'Where is She?' and 'California Feelin' (Demo) have already been scraped out of the can too. I'd say reissue Disk 1 of Smile Sessions in stereo where possible (or if not, remaster tracks like GV which sound murky);fly the flutes from Second Day into Love to Say Dada etc. Releasing it solely in mono was a shabby decision in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, TSS is definitely appreciable to fans in mono, but stereo mixes wouldn't be bad  :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUaX52GbjSU

I think a lot of fans feel the ZILLION reissues of Pet Sounds and the multi-disc "Smile" set are enough on those fronts (some new mixes or new discoveries can be included on future archival releases, etc.). It's the 70s and 80s archival material that has barely been touched, in addition to live material from all eras, especially again the 70s and 80s (and even 90s).

Whether via a boxed set or multi-disc deluxe album reissues, it is that material that I'd rather see time and money spent on than fiddling around with more "Smile" remixes.

As far as being "commercially" feasible, not even the *actual albums* they released during the 70s and 80s were always commercially feasible. The archival stuff is all niche stuff anyway. I listen to the outtakes on "Endless Harmony Soundtrack" and "Made in California" more than I do "Heroes and Villains Fourth Section Overdub, Take 37B, Alternate Saxophone Mix."

"Second Day into Love to Say Dada Flute Remix" isn't more commercially viable than "Carry Me Home" or the demo of "'Til I Die", etc.

Their post-Smile albums deserves less attention than TSS, although I hope the piano of 'Til I Die is eventually released. Disk 1 could do with the stereo release Pet Sounds got.

Agree 100%

I feel we now have enough Pet Sounds and Smile stuff, besides for anything new that may be surfacing! Then that should be released! Bu enough with the different mixes of the same songs!

It seems I'm the only one here who's hoping they'll consider a stereo TSS.

We're kind of off topic with discussion of the mono mix of Smile, but I don't like it as well.  First the mastering is very compressed, the music loses the dynamics.  This may have been done to make the transition from studio tapes into acetates less glaring but there weren't that many sections from acetate, were there?  Child had one chorus taken from acetate.  Then I don't like the "fly ins" which required some digital time manipulation to make them fit and which further degrades the sound. 

Of course we've been told Brian wanted it in mono and wanted it to match as closely as possible the structure of BWPS, but I still think it could have sounded better.

I would tend to disagree for the most part. Brian produced a ton of excellent material post-Smile.

I have gripes here and there with mixing and mastering decisions on latter-day BB projects, but I wouldn't say the 5-disc Smile set was a "lackluster" release by any stretch. It was a huge floodgate of officially released "Smile" material. I may have preferred a few different bits here or there, but it was well done by leaps and bounds over what it would have looked like years ago (e.g. probably a 2-disc set or something).

Also, while I do have some issues with some latter-day remixes (e.g. the stereo mix of "Please Let Me Wonder"), I actually think the mixing on the mono "album" iteration of Smile is fine. I'd love to have the full thing in stereo too. But a lot of that stuff sounds inherently murky ("Do You Like Worms", etc.), so I don't have a huge beef with the mono mix, and it's certainly not something I would need to see revisited in lieu of getting more previously-unreleased material out there.

I also don't think the "album" version being in mono is drastically cutting down the number of new fans discovering the music. If someone is inclined to need something to sound "modern", then they aren't going to seek anything from that era out.

As for the "Bedroom Tapes", I think the moniker is too vague. In my mind, it basically means to lump together the stuff Brian did post-Smile and through the 70s. There's a lot of different stuff from that era. Full blown studio productions, home demos, and in between. I'm not sure what Desper specifically spoke to, but there is a TON of high quality material from the 70s (and some from the 80s) that could be released (much of it not "Brian" material, but material from other members), and I would prioritize that before re-noodling with more "Smile" mixes that few of even hardcore fans seem to be asking for.

I'm really saying that an entire disk dedicated to Good Vibrations seems rather wasteful. I meant to say that some of the unreleased post-Smile material, like Cows in the Pasture (had some of the Wrecking Crew on it) should be released. As for 'Smile', listen to some of the Disk 2-5 sessions to see how suitable stereo is for Smile. Since Pet Sounds has been getting so much attention for its 50th Anniversary, Smile (Disk 1) should have a 2017 anniversary reissue likewise. They ought to remix the TSS Good Vibrations; it's not as clear sonically as the 40th anniversary version of Good Vibrations.

Smile was always going to be in mono and that's how it should be, as Brian intended.

.

I think that's a pretty gross exaggeration. I would imagine some younger folks listening to stuff on Spotify might not even know what a "mono" versus "stereo" mix is.

It's not like "Help Me Rhonda" or "Good Vibrations" have dropped off the face of the Earth because they were only available in mono.

Certainly, stereo remixes give an extra marketing opportunity, and whatever radio programmers left playing BB songs will often snag the stereo remixes for their playlists. Some stuff gets a lot more breathing room via stereo remixes (the vocals on Pet Sounds is one obvious example), while other stuff sounds murky and muddy on the multitracks (the backing track to H&V, "Do You Like Worms", etc.) and a stereo remix won't bring a ton of extra clarity.

But "Smile" is such a niche (a LARGE niche, but a relative niche) item, it's not as if there's a bunch of people out there that would have *for sure* purchased the 5-disc boxed set, but decided against it because they heard the "album" iteration was in mono.