The Smiley Smile Message Board

https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B0714CTY2P/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85Z%C3%95%C3%91&qid=1495110644&sr=8-1&pi=CB192558960_AA75_QL70&keywords=sunshine+tomorrow+beach+boys

this is very interesting. also in the lastest issue of ESQ Al Jardine states that there will be a 2cd issue revolving around the Wild Honey era and other recordings from 1967

Get very psyched.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0714CTY2P/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495114902&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=beach+boys+wild+honey+%28sunshine+tomorrow%29

June 30 is listed as the release date.

I'm there  8)

 :laugh:

ESQ said that Al announced it to a Beach Boys newsletter. Does anyone know if there were more details in that newsletter?

Cool I'm assuming it is influenced by the new "Sgt Pepper" cd release as well as the anniversary of the "summer of love"...

Hoping it's gonna have a super ultimate, newly-revised version of Can't Wait Too Long on it.

I always felt that the two slightly different edits that have been officially released left much to be desired in terms of editing together a cohesive and not-too-repetitious version. I wouldn't be against flying in a few vocals that could fit, as was done on a few SMiLE Sessions tracks. After all, we will already have previously-released versions that we can listen to if we don't like a newly tweaked-with version.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but as long as the band also releases a version of a song that's not tampered with, I am totally down with hearing something like the Sail Plane Song version that we got on MIC.

This!


I've never minded the repetition on the 2fer version---it's always sounded great to me. At least that version has the fuzz-fuelled coda. But it lacks half the hallucinatory spoken/sung section. Otherwise it would have been perfect, in my opinion.

There are vocals (very faint ones) on a Brian demo of "CWTL". Maybe some genius could extract them and use those. 

From PSF:

Tracklist from www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/the-beach-boys-1967-sunshine-tomorrow/hnum/7269813
 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/the-beach-boys-1967-sunshine-tomorrow/hnum/7269813)

1 Wild Honey (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

2 Aren't You Glad (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

3 I Was Made To Love Her (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

4 Country Air (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

5 A Thing Or Two (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

6 Darlin' (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

7 I'd Love Just Once To See You (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

8 Here Comes The Night (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

9 Let The Wind Blow (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

10 How She Boogalooed It (Stereo Mix / Remastered 2017)

11 Mama Says

12 Lonely Days (Alternate Version)

13 Cool, Cool, Water (Alternate Version)

14 Time To Get Alone (Alternate Version)

15 Can't Wait Too Long (Alternate Version)

16 I'd Love Just Once To See You (Alternate Version)

17 I Was Made To Love Her (Vocal Insert Session)

18 I Was Made To Love Her (Long Version)

19 Hide Go Seek (Backing Track Master Take - Instrumental)

20 Honey Get Home (Backing Track Master Take - Instrumental)

21 Wild Honey (Session Highlights Instrumental)

22 Aren't You Glad (Session Highlights Instrumental)

23 A Thing Or Two (Track And Backing Vocals)

24 Darlin' (Session Highlights Instrumental)

25 Let The Wind Blow (Session Highlights Instrumental)

26 Wild Honey (Live In Detroit / 1967)

27 Country Air (Live In Detroit / 1967)

28 Darlin' (Live In Pittsburgh / 1967)

29 How She Boogalooed It (Live In Detroit / 1967)

30 Aren't You Glad (Live / 1970)

31 Mama Says (Session Highlights)

Disk 2 von 2

1 Heroes And Villains (Single Version Backing Track)

2 Vegetables (Long Version)

3 Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (Alternate Mix)

4 Wind Chimes (Alternate Tag Section)

5 Wonderful (Backing Track / Instrumental)

6 With Me Tonight (Alternate Version With Session Intro)

7 Little Pad (Backing Track / Instrumental)

8 All Day All Night (Whistle In) (Alternate Version 1)

9 All Day All Night (Whistle In) (Alternate Version 2)

10 Untitled (Redwood) (Instrumental)

11 Fred Vail Intro (Live / 1967)

12 The Letter (Alternate Mono Mix - Live / 1967)

13 You're So Good To Me (Live / 1967)

14 Help Me, Rhonda (Mono Mix / Live / 1967)

15 California Girls (Mono Mix / Live / 1967)

16 Surfer Girl (Mono Mix / Live / 1967)

17 Sloop John B (Live / 1967)

18 With A Little Help From My Friends (Mono Mix / Live / 1967)

19 Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring (Mono Mix / Live / 1967)

20 God Only Knows (Mono Mix / Live / 1967)

21 Good Vibrations (Live / 1967)

22 Game Of Love (Outtake / Live / 1967)

23 The Letter (Alternate Stereo Mix - Live / 1967)

24 With A Little Help From My Friends (Stereo Mix / Live / 1967)

25 Hawthorne Boulevard (Instrumental / Live in Honolulu / 1967)

26 Surfin' (Live In Honolulu / 1967)

27 Gettin' Hungry (Live In Honolulu / 1967)

28 Hawaii (Rehearsal Take / Live in Honolulu / 1967)

29 Heroes And Villains (Rehearsal Take / Live In Honolulu / 1967)

30 California Girls (Live In Washington, D.C. / 1967)

31 Graduation Day (Live In Washington, D.C. / 1967)

32 I Get Around (Live In Boston / 1967)

33 Surf's Up (1967 Version)

34 Surfer Girl (1967 A Cappella Mix)

well DAMN  :o

Sh*t. Think I'm more excited for this than the Pepper box.

:woot :woot :woot Can't wait for June to end!

This is amazing. Wild Honey is my favourite Beach Boys album after the Pet Sounds and Smile stuff.

I don't know if I'd quite go that far, as Apple's Pepper set is kind of mind-blowing in that it's the first time ever that Apple has dug in and done multiple discs of outtakes on one single album.

But yeah, the "Wild Honey" set looks amazing. I sense there may just be better leadership at BRI these days, and the right folks are being allowed to do the right thing in the right way with the back catalog and archival releases. It looks like they *crammed* as much as they absolutely could into this set. It also looks like it was programmed with extreme care, truly appealing to and being an excellent value for hardcore fans, but also including some key hit song titles and some "Smile" bits to pump up this release even more with casual fans and the critics and get the appropriate kind of buzz. It truly appears to be a "1967" set rather than simply a "Wild Honey" set.

Hell yes! 8)

Wow! What a collection, very happy to see this is happening. This along with the Pepper box has me excited for this summer, and I hope we see even more releases like this in the coming future.

Glad that there are so many Beach Boys fans out there that Capitol allowed to release such a thoughtful collection of outtakes/stereo mixes/live recordings.

Wow, that is interesting!

Plus Smiley Smile sessions, Lei'd in Hawaii plus more.....

Hide Go Seek is a new title to me.

It's a Honeys song- possibly they tried to remake it like they did on Thinkin' about You Baby into Darlin'.

I actually asked Mike that exact question. He didn't remember.

Friends set next? FRIENDS SET NEXT!!?!?!?!?

What we can also hope for is that this might serve as a template/model/jumping-off point for similar sets for the 70s (and 80s) material, as that's where the *huge* cache of tons of totally unheard stuff is.

I'd vote for "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up" to be tackled before "Friends" or "20/20", but hopefully they can all be tackled in some form.

Here's the Honey's "Hide Go Seek." Very interested to see what a 67 version by the BBs will sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgm3FkDPzpo

You finally get the job? ;D

Amazing tracklisting. WOW. They're getting my bucks on this.

Its almost a companion to the smile sessions box! :bw

Holy crap, this is absolutely amazing! Now, the original intended tracklisting of Wild Honey can finally be put together! IMO, the Sgt. Pepper box set lost me when they decided against "Carnival of Light", so it's nice to have something new to look forward to.

If I had to guess, if BRI is planning on releasing similar collections to this one, they'd most likely focus on two albums per collection. So, if we're going in chronological order, we'd see Friends/20/20 next, followed by Sunflower/Surf's Up. Thirty tracks per disc should be enough to cover the Sunflower material, right?

Lovely stuff.

I wonder if this is a kind of deluxe copyright extension release?

Any idea of price?

"Freinds" and "Love You" should be the next two sets...  ;D

Every LP should be (and could be) given this treatment. Like I said before, this thing is a best case scenario. The only shortcoming is that there's not a 3rd, 4th, and 5th disc. The BB catalogue and vaults should be allowed to be handled in a way that's amalgam of both FTD and Dave's Picks. The team is finally in place to make it happen.

I can tell you this, the band is all stoked about this being released and I felt a really warm communal pride from each of them about this music/era being singled out. They all talked incredibly lovingly about this material.

Thanks for your insights, Howie. That they have such warm feelings for the material is great. It also probably means material from specific other later eras might not elicit those same feelings, but I hope they can still get on board for this sort of treatment for all the albums. A "Holland" era deluxe set could be mind-blowing. The second disc of a set for "Keepin' the Summer Alive" could be more interesting than the KTSA album itself.

Not that every release has to be themed to any specific album. They probably should compile a bunch of Brian's stuff from the 70s and, as much as it's a misnomer, just call it "The Bedroom Tapes."

We can only hope that perhaps BRI is able to continue to service these types of releases to Capitol as the more "mainstream" side of these releases, and perhaps can also work on more of the "Dick's Picks" sort of stuff as downloads for the hardcore fans.

I'm really digging that the tracklisting for this new 2 CD set has a lot of strategy and thought put into it. It isn't fleshed out with like 37 versions of the same live song as on last year's PS set, and instead singles out the key SS/WH tracks from those '67 shows, and then fills in a few other interesting curios from Hawaii, etc.

I'm giddy like a schoolgirl over this 8)

We've got to get this set to sell and move units! If we want future sets of other BB albums to get similar treatment, that is.

I hope there's a way to tie in purchases of people buying the deluxe Sgt. Pepper and this.

Amazon's "people who bought this also bought....." feature helps sometimes with this.

Happily I already have a Pepper box (next to the Salt box).

As for the price of this 2CD set, if the figure in the German link is anything to go by, it should cost us mainland Europeans little more than 20 euros (at least I hope so).

I have this € 25 gift voucher from Bol.com (the more benign Dutch version of Amazon) leering at me from the wall above my desk. Little does it know...

Has recently been discerned who wrote "Lonely Days"?

I wonder(i.e. hope with every fiber of my being) if the Redwood instrumental is their version of Darlin'?

Wow. So excited about this! Almost seems like a dream to get some of those titles that I never thought would get release, like "Honey Get Home", "Hawthorne Boulevard", "All Day All Night" and "Game Of Love."

I only have one nitpick though. I don't really like that it looks as if we will get supposed "alternate versions" of "The Letter", "Lonely Days", "Cool, Cool Water" and "Can't Wait Too Long" where it woulda been nice to have all those random Wild Honey outtakes collected together, instead of scattered. But actually what we are getting on this set remains to be seen.

I will say it seems as though certain titles may have been lost over time, or in fact were just other names for tunes we already know. Of which, I'm speaking about "Good Time Mama" and "Good News." And  though I "Hawaiian Song" was apparently something that ultimately became "Little Pad", it doesn't seem like it warranted release I guess.

+1!   ;D

It has been awhile since I listened to "Hawthorne Blvd." from the Hawaii gig. My recollection is it's not exactly a brilliant instrumental piece. But it definitely belongs here for a myriad of reasons; it's certainly interesting as part of the story of 1967 and those Hawaii gigs.

Those Hawaii gigs in some ways sound unlike any other shows they ever did; they're important to hear. 

I'm really excited for this. I hope we get a similar Friends/2020 set next year.

No one's thanked you for posting this link and that list, Polly, so I'll do it now. :=)

Hopefully, we are getting your wish. Can't wait to hear this new version!

I'm still trying to figure these two tracks out:


22 Game Of Love (Outtake / Live / 1967)

24 With A Little Help From My Friends (Stereo Mix / Live / 1967)


They surely weren't played on the bottlegged Hawaii shows. Of "With a little help from my friends" there's only that studio recording with Bruce on lead making the rounds. Or is it filed under "live" because it was recorded during the sweetening sessions for the live album (if that is even the case)?


Anyway, since the Lei'd in Hawaii shows only were available in unusable quality for an official release on it's own, do you think they might have found the original tapes and we could expect some improvements in sound or is there no way those recordings can be made better sounding?

Fuckk. Yes


Best news since Smile came out!   :-D

:happydance :love :rock :listening :thewilsons :woot

Not to mention the entire package. (Sometimes emoticons say it best.)

What--no My Little Red Book?? Forget it, I ain't buyin'....  >:D

Seriously--what an amazing development...heartened by Howie's words that we may be seeing many similar products in the next few years, timed perfectly for the band's most interesting period.

It nah be a slight typo possibly. Because those two songs were recorded during sessions at Brian's house

I always assumed that the "live" designation for those tracks meant that they were recorded live in studio by the entire group in one take, with no overdubbing afterwards. Because they sure as hell never played Game of Love live, that's for sure!

"Hide Go Seek" kinda sounds like a reworking of "Don't Back Down".

Count me in. This is exactly the kind of archival release that needs to be getting out there.

I just posted most of this in... another place, but it should go here too...

Been super busy the last coupla days... and had only been checking in here every few days, wondering when something was gonna happen with the 'new' Wild Honey release. Just logged in to look again, and CANNOT. BELIEVE. MY. EYES.

Two minutes ago, I was reading, got to the end of the first disc tracklisting and thought that was all. I went 'yeah, that's a cool release. I'll have that. I'm pretty pleased with that, I guess.' And then I realised... there was more. And within ten seconds of that, I was literally WHOOPING. "It's f***in' Smiley Smile outtakes and alt mixes TOO????? You are KIDDING ME???!!!!"

And of course, new stereo mixes of the whole album, Heider session highlights, CWTL alt mix, stuff we've known as 'Lei'd In Hawaii' and I guess, er, 'A Vocal Element' for years now... ALL of that too.

This is, like, a dream release for me. Literally, as in I HAVE actually dreamt of having something like this since about 1997.

I cannot wait to hear this mutha. Capitol, take my money. Right now.

Mr Linett, Mr Boyd, Craig S, whoever else is responsible... thank you. You have basically managed to have legally released what we've all wanted for bloody YEARS. That must have taken unending patience, perseverance and effort.

Oh yeah... And thanks to those, er, Beach Boys guys too, I guess. Cheers!

Begone, May. Begone, June. Gimme. Just... gimme.

PS As a final note, yeah, I guess this IS the 1967 copyright extension release a few months early. I mean, with this coming out, the BB vault cupboards are pretty much cleaned out of 1967 material we want to hear, aren't they? I can't think of anything that's missing apart from 'Good Time Mama' 'Good News' and 'Hawaiian Song'... and I'll wager we'll find out what happened to them in the liner notes. I have no 'inside' telling me that... that's just a guess. But basically this release gives us all the tracks we want, and I'm betting the liners will give us the *information* we've all been wondering about for years. The team behind this are arch-fans like us, remember? And so I'll bet, like a lot of others have previously said here, that those three Smiley era 'tracks' were just section titles for bits of She's Going Bald and Little Pad, before those tracks got their final titles.

...er... probably.

PPS And yeah, Cabinessenceking. Yeah. Best release since SMiLE came out. No contest.

I was feeling kinda blah about my summer...
Is it overly dramatic to say now I am stoked and have something to live for?
So excited.  Can't wait.  Thanks to all involved.
I love this era.
I love The Beach Boys.
Life is good.
Damn.

I cannot resist dropping in to say that this is the most exciting BB news since the Smile box, and I am so incredibly stoked to get this.

Returning to lurk mode.   8)

Color me excited.

Official announcement? US release date?

Great stuff here, Nice to see all of the principal members excited about something, especially Mike excited about this kind of release. He hasn't always been all about these archival releases in the past.

Wait...will this be a physical copy unlike the previous copyright extension releases?

Just for the fun of it, here's the Rolling Stone's review of Wild Honey from 1968:


In any case it's good to see that the Beach Boys are getting their heads straight once again.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/wild-honey-19680224

It says "Disc 1" and "Disc 2" with the track numbering restarting at "1" on Disc 2.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/the-beach-boys-1967-sunshine-tomorrow/hnum/7269813

SPIN CDs of Newcastle show the 2 CD set at £12.99. Now, I regard that price as a bargain considering all these tracks !!!!!

(I am not pushing Spin, btw.....merely surprised at the low price

The expanded "Party" release was physical.

Oh yeah I forgot about that one.

This is a fantastic release from the vaults and more than I think any fan could have expected.  Kudos to BRI.  BUT . . . I guess this means a complete release of all the Smile sessions, every instrumental take and vocal session still extant, is not in the cards for 2017, the 40th anniversary and copy extension year?  I was hoping that would be the case . . . unless a digital only release at the end of the year is still a possibility.  Pepper is getting an anniversary release, Brian's "Pepper" should likewise.

All I can say is - wait 'til you hear "Aren't You Glad" in Stereo.
Mmm, mmm, mmm....

For the record. . .

"Hawaiian Song" is merely the backing track to one of the sections to "Little Pad."

There is no tape for "Good Time Mama" -- although it MIGHT simply be a listing for a portion of "She's Goin' Bald."

"Good News," -- although it sounds great -- was deemed not releasable. Two acoustics and Al barely on-mic running through The Kingston Trio tune.

Will "with a little help from my friends" be at the right speed?

Yes, it is at the "right" speed.

But I pressed Bruce hard on this and he admitted that it was HE -- and not a mastering snafu -- that slowed it and made it sound sluggish, because he wasn't happy with his vocal. I told him he was nuts. He said that if we truly thought it sounded better with how it was originally recorded to go ahead and "fix" it. Linett & Boyd went back and got it done beautifully. And It wasn't as easy to do as it sounds -- Mark could elaborate far better on exactly what needed to be done (maybe the backing vocs were recorded at a different speed? There was something -- I'm forgetting) -- I just recall it being a bit more more of a task than simply speeding a tape up -- and they nailed it.

I hate being cagey and letting stuff out without all of you hearing this. I really can't wait for everyone to have this.
This collection is TRULY what we've all dreamed about.

This is Grammy worthy.

C-man, can we expect to see some of your wonderful session research for this release?

Yes, but not a full-blown sessionography this time - for about half the album, the master takes are the only surviving multi-track tapes, so those are the only ones where we get to hear all the takes with chatter in-between, allowing us to determine who is playing what. Plus, space was limited. But, you'll get a ton of great sounding music and Howie's superb liner notes, with a little bit of historical session info.

Good enough for me! Thanks!

Woah! Thank you Howie (and indeed apologies for omitting you from the list of those I personally thanked above). That's a first for me... I've been wondering about what those tracks might be since late 1995, and this is the first time ever I've read the inside info on what they really are. I guess Good Time Mama will forever remain a semi-mystery, but I've always thought that was the end part of 'She's Goin' Bald' anyway, so I won't be losing too much sleep over that one.

Oh yeah, and it's really not just all about the Smiley outtakes for me, here, either. I am *really* keen to hear the new WH mixes. C-man's post above about Aren't You Glad — absolutely one of my favourite Beach Boys tracks — is making me even MORE excited about the new release. And I didn't think that was possible!

Cheers everyone!   ;)

MattB

That is an awesome set! Cant wait to get it! Anyone know which ones haven't been booted before?

any cool sounding psychedelic stereo "Panning" on the songs since it has been remixed into stereo?  ;D

UPDATE: There isn't EVEN a tape box for "Good Time Mama."

Thanks again, Howie!

Still reeling from actually knowing, finally, what 'Good News' is...! Of course, in some cases of this kind, finding the answer to a long-held question can be a bit of a 'popped balloon' scenario; I wondered for years (with no basis at all, clearly...!) about whether the track might be some beautiful Smiley-era Brian curio, heavy on the Baldwin organ and gospelly chords, maybe like the slow Old Man River takes from the following year — and hence, I thought, perhaps, the slightly Biblical track name — and even wondered whether it might bear some relation to an abandoned SMiLE snippet. And instead... it's off-mic Al demoing a cover of a folk track that never got taken any further!

If nothing else, that's a good reminder that sometimes the best versions of unknown tracks are the ones you create in your head before you ever hear the actual song... and the reality can be something of a let down! A salutory lesson, there, in not letting your imagination run away with you!

Despite all that, I'm delighted to have 'closure' on 'Good News' at long last.

Or has it been known for years what that was? If so, I missed the memo, clearly...!

So is there an official release date? Or even a ballpark month?

No matter how Unreasonable an unreleased song by the beach boys is like Good News, I think most us fans would still love to get our hands on it and buy it! I definitely would

As far as I can recall, we have never heard the tracks "Game of Love", "Honey Get Home", "Hide Go Seek", and the untitled Redwood instrumental. Although the alternate mixes may be unheard of as well.

Am I dreaming?

June 30th according to Amazon.  Can't wait!

My thoughts exactly. I never want to wake up.  ;D

It's pretty much the thread I've been waiting for and thought would never come.

Funny how life works.

Right, and actually, of those unbooted tracks above, Game Of Love is allegedly an unfinished cover (of the Wayne Fontana track, right?), and Hide Go Seek is presumably a 1967 retread of the song by the Honeys. They might be interesting, but I expect the best stuff on this set to be elsewhere...


Mmm, maybe. I had never heard the Kingston Trio original until prompted to go and seek it out tonight by this thread. I really like their version - I can hear a definite influence on the Fleet Foxes, although this connection has been much noted before. But it's only a couple of chords and it's the vocals that really lift the track - so if the Beach Boys' version has but a single off-mic vocal by Al, I think I can begin to see why it wasn't thought worthy of release, back in the day or in 2017...



That's *my* fear! As I said above, I *HAVE* actually dreamt about a set like this before. So I'm pinching myself rather a lot as I read this thread...!

Can't Wait to see what the cover looks like

Me too. I can imagine that if this sells well, it will certainly greatly increase the chances for more sets of this kind for this band.   Assuming this is a physical set with decent packaging, I am going to buy several brand-new copies as gifts for people, and I recommend that others do the same, because we don't want the sales on this to underperform.   It may sound silly, but if there were ever a time to want to do that,  I would tend to think that now would be it.

This could definitely be a testing the waters type of release to gauge the market for items like the famed "bedroom tapes".  I think the title of the set is a smart marketing idea as well, because  in addition to being an actual lyric that is relevant to the set, it has a very summer of love (not the song!) 1967 sound to it, which could pull in more casual fans  as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of that incredibly famous year for music and culture aesthetics.

I almost feel like this set might not have happened quite as elaborately as it seems to have been done, if not for the fact that the Fab four have an incredibly famous album coming out shortly in super deluxe form.  I'm sure that fact was not lost on Capitol.

Nope...the keen ears of Mr. Boyd recently deduced that one!

Ha! Your past username even was "Wild_Honey_In_Stereo".

I know  :lol :lol :lol

Long time waiting  ;D

As we were working on this project we went back and re-reviewed all of the surviving "Smiley" session tapes, and I was hoping to find "Good News" in particular even though there's nothing on any of the tape boxes or tracksheets mentioning that title.  On one reel there was this very brief fragment with a couple of acoustic guitars strumming and on that bit you can barely make out Al mumbling/singing off mic, difficult to discern the words he's singing... but there was something kinda familiar about the tune he was humming.  So I checked a couple of my dad's old Kingston Trio LPs, and there it was: "Good News," an old traditional gospel tune adapted by Lou Gottlieb (of the Limeliters), the first cut on side two of the 1959 LP "The Kingston Trio At Large."

The Kingston Trio version is on YouTube. Check it out.  A Beach Boys version might have been a wonderful thing. Al was definitely onto something there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-SGONxEJFM

Something like that would make for a nice little untitled "hidden track".  ;)

Pardon my stupidity everybody, but as far as there being a 1967 version of The Beach Boys doing "Time To Get Alone", is that new information, or was that already known? I feel like I may have seen something about it before, but I really can't remember. Obviously, I knew that there was originally the Redwood version and that ultimately The Beach Boys took the song instead (though Desper claims there that the BB re-recorded the instrumental track, others disagree).


I'm not sure if you'll answer Alan, but may I ask how the name "Good News" ever even appeared on Beach Boys land in the first place? Like how was it even known that this tune was messed around with during that era, to the point where it's listed on Andrew Doe's site?

Fascinating stuff, as ever, Mr Boyd. Thank you so much!

I could read about this stuff all day long...

I was actually mightily taken with that Kingston Trio track the other day, having never heard it before. And yeah, I reckon the Boys could have really made something of it! Ah well, file under 'Roads Not Taken'...!


I'm not Alan, but I know where *I* saw the title for the first time - in the second edition of Domenic Priore's Look Listen Vibrate SMiLE, which I read in either late 1995 or very early 1996. In my well-thumbed copy, the info is on page 156, in Brad Elliott's essay about recording dates throughout the SMiLE/Smiley period ('The Facts About SMiLE' - although someone said years later on here, I think, that Domenic rewrote some of what was printed under Brad's name in that essay, which Brad didn't agree to or with, so maybe it's more like '*Some* facts about SMiLE, with a whole bunch of wishful Dom speculation mixed in...!'. No idea if that's true, though, or what was changed if the rumour *was* true). Anyway, that text mentions Good Time Mama, Hawaiian Song and Good News as being (then-) unknown outtakes recorded during the Smiley sessions. Where Brad got his info, I don't know. And ever since then, I've wondered what that track might be... until the other day, on this very thread!

Wow. Mind. Blown.

PS Can't help re: TTGA, I'm afraid, I know nothing about the genesis of that one, really. I thought the Redwood recording was the earliest... and that would put it in 1967, though, wouldn't it? Perhaps this is that version... after all, much of Wild Honey is Brian and one or two supplementary musicians, isn't it? Perhaps the basic TTGA track for Redwood (not the strings, obviously) is the same...? But really, I might be talking smoke here about that one.

Thanks for the info! Didn't even know it was up on Amazon. Just pre-ordered.

No, actually, almost all of Wild Honey is the Boys on all instruments. Exceptions are the electro-Theremin on the title tune (Paul Tanner), strings & horns on "Aren't You Glad" (yes, there ARE strings on that one...very subtle, but they're there), Ron Brown's bass on a couple of tunes, Hal Blaine's drums and more horns on "Darlin'". That's it, I think. The rest is all our Boys. As for "TTGA"...there's a 1967 BBs version on the Hawthorne compilation. But this is a bit different. That's all I'm saying for now.

Thanks for the correction, c-man - I have known, and then forgotten again, so much of this stuff over the years. It was Ron Brown I was thinking of as the 'external' bass player. And I had got it mind, years ago (and, it now seems, quite wrongly), that Darlin' and Wild Honey were started as Brian on a piano track with him overdubbing himself on minimal drums, Love You style... but obviously not. Hal Blaine, eh? Didn't know HE was on there...!

Time To Get Alone. Another stone-cold classic track from this era. Another version cannot possibly go amiss. June 30th just cannot come fast enough...

Interesting that for so many years, Beach Boys fans confronted with the old classic party game: "With a wheezing, groaning sound, the Hot Tub Time Machine materialises in front of you. It's almost burnt out, but has enough juice left to take you anywhere in time and space... and then back home again when you're done. Where do you go and why, and what do you do when you get there?" would pretty much all opt to head back to somewhere around Terry Melcher's garden party in late 1965 or whenever it was, far enough back to 'oh so casually' get to know David Anderle, VDP and Bdub in time to get invites to the Siegal dinner parties and lifeboat games and firehat sessions and jovial self-asphixiation attempts in the living room tent, and all that stuff in 1966 and beyond — reliving Lewis Shiner's Glimpses, basically. For the first time, I have to consider that I might prefer to use it to just skip ahead six weeks instead! Having said that, I guess I can just about go the slow way round on that one. And then, when the Hot Tub Time Machine *does* turn up, as it self-evidently will one day (...!), I can *still* use it to go and assess Terry Melcher's mid-60s canapé-making skills.

Or something. Jeez, cut me some slack here... these days 'til June 30th won't fill themselves, you know...

[drums fingers on desk]

...[finishes scale matchstick model of Tower Bridge. With full opening mechanism.]

... [strains ears listening out for arrival of Hot Tub Time Machine]

I can't wait for the Hawaii tracks, its the original BBs last stand after smile.... :hat

While there's probably a "copyright extension" element/motivation/justification for most of these releases (and hey, if that's what will motivate the band/BRI/Capitol to do it, then by all means push that angle!), I may be alone in my "feeling" that the "Party" set and this upcoming "Sunshine Tomorrow" aren't in the same "throw it out as a digital only thing right before the end of the year" copyright extension category.

"Big Beat '63", "Keep and Eye on Summer", and the live releases are the "copyright extension" releases in my mind. Digital-only, bootleg-caliber cover art that looks like a fan designed it with Adobe Photoshop in 1999 (didn't one of them even use a reversed negative for the cover?), and usually released close to the end of each year. All welcome releases, no question. I almost surely listen to tracks on "Keep an Eye on Summer" more often than the "Party" 2-CD set.

While the "Party" set and maybe even the upcoming '67 set may have sprung from this same origin, I consider them more in the same category as "Hawhorne, CA" and "Endless Harmony Soundtrack", etc.

In particular, I sense with "Sunshine Tomorrow" that the team may be working with a new behind the scenes team to make this stuff classy, and allowing Alan Boyd and co. to do it right and uncompromised.

I have a good feeling as well that this thing will have some good cover art. No goofy stuff or comic sans serif fonts or reversed negatives.

Re cover art........my only source so far is Spin CDS, Newcastle...online....and they show a cover with a cream band or strip across top and bottom thirds . In between is art which looks to be culled from Smiley Smile.

Here you go:

(https://media.spincds.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/265x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/i/wildhoney_1_.jpg)

Source: https://www.spincds.com/1967-sunshine-tomorrow-2cd

Well done. Now I see it again...no cream, it is more white..

At least it's not brown?  I'm really looking forward to Sunshine Tomorrow but... dang. if that's really the cover, it's leaving me feeling the opposite of warm.

Thanks for all your work on this Alan!  Incidentally, Brian was very familiar with the "Good News" gospel song, as it appears on Brian's "garage tapes" on the Sea of Tunes boot "In the Beginning/the Garage Tapes."  I've thought ever since then that the Smiley outtake was likely the same song.  Great to get confirmation of this.

I'm going to go out on hopefully not too much of a limb and assume that's *not* the final/finished cover art.

One would assume the band's name and title of the set would be on the cover.

I would assume a set with a "Wild Honey" stereo remix as the prime focus would not feature a cover that's 2/3 blank and 1/3 excerpt of the "Smiley Smile" album cover.

That's not the cover art.

Thank goodness :D

Did anybody really believe that was the cover art?

If one was going to put up a placeholder, I'd go with that weird "Wild Honey" cover from Venezuela or wherever it was:

(http://www.popsike.com/pix/20110318/290546381239.jpg)

Looks like Spin thought so -- or put it in to fill a marketing gap

Howie, Alan, Craig or whoever else is in the know, can you tell us how it was possible to remix this into stereo after many years during which it wasn't possible? New tapes found?

Up to 92 on the best-sellers on amazon.

Amazing it's that high with no official announcement or promotion  :o

Now it's at an outstanding #89 in CD's & Vinyl, imagine how much higher it can get once an official announcement is made! This collection needs to be a hit if we want to see more like it in the future!

I will be buying this set that's for sure, I've never been as excited for a release as I am with this one  :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Here's the cover art and finally, the official press release (it's long).

(http://i63.tinypic.com/nnutf5.jpg)


THE BEACH BOYS OPEN THE VAULTS FOR ‘1967 – SUNSHINE TOMORROW,’
TO BE RELEASED WORLDWIDE ON JUNE 30
                                                                                                                                                                                         
New 2CD & Digital Collection Features New, First-Ever Stereo Mix of ‘Wild Honey,’ Plus 54 Previously Unreleased 1967 Studio Session Tracks & Live Recordings
 
New ‘Wild Honey’ Stereo Mix Also Debuts in 50th Anniversary 180-Gram Vinyl Edition
 
 
Los Angeles – May 23, 2017 – The Beach Boys have personally overseen the creative process for a new 2CD and digital collection, 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow, to be released worldwide on June 30 by Capitol//UMe. 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow features producers Mark Linett and Alan Boyd’s new, first-ever stereo mix of The Beach Boys’ 1967 Wild Honey album and throws open the legendary band’s vault to debut 54 sought-after 1967 rarities, 50 years after they were put to tape. Previously unreleased highlights on the new collection include The Beach Boys’ shelved “live” album, Lei’d in Hawaii, studio recordings from the Wild Honey and Smiley Smile album sessions, and several standout concert recordings spanning 1967 to 1970. Wild Honey’s new stereo mix will also debut in a 180-gram vinyl 50th Anniversary Edition on June 30.
 
1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow dives into a fascinating and frenetic chapter in The Beach Boys’ long, groundbreaking creative arc, exploring the band’s dynamic year in the studio and on tour. The Beach Boys’ final studio session for the shelved SMiLE album took place on May 18th, 1967, with Smiley Smile album sessions booked at Brian Wilson’s new home studio from June 3rd through the end of July. The band’s 12th and 13th studio albums were released exactly three months apart to cap the year’s studio efforts: Smiley Smile on September 18th followed by Wild Honey on December 18th.
 
“I wanted to have a home environment trip where we could record at my house,” recalls Brian Wilson in the liner notes for 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow. “I wanted to try something different, something new. I produced Smiley Smile, but Mike inspired me. He said ‘Brian, let’s make a really good, easygoing album’. We had an engineer convert my den into a studio. We had my piano detuned to make it ring more.”
 
“Just prior to that, Brian had built up this production peak and then just completely reversed field, and (for Smiley Smile) did something so light and airy, and y’ know, easy,” explains Mike Love. “That was an underground album, I figure, for us. It was completely out of the mainstream of what was going on at that time, which was all hard rock, psychedelic music, and here we come with a song called ‘Wind Chimes.’ It just didn’t have anything to do with what was going on – and that was the idea.”
 
“Times were changing,” adds Al Jardine. “We were happy to put our musical skills to work. We didn’t have to look at the clock; there was virtually 24-hour availability to experiment.”
 
“Take away their sorrow / Give them sunshine tomorrow”
 
On August 25th and 26th, 1967, The Beach Boys (absent Bruce Johnston, but with Brian Wilson on organ in his first concert appearances with the band in more than two years) recorded two concerts and rehearsals in Honolulu for a prospective live album to be titled Lei’d In Hawaii, applying a new Smiley Smile-inspired aesthetic to the performances. Just over two weeks later, the band (with both Brian and Bruce participating) began re-recording the live set in-studio at Brian’s house and at Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood, after the Honolulu concert tapes were deemed unusable. Although completed and mixed, the final planned audio element of a canned concert audience was not added and the Lei’d In Hawaii project was canceled. Those live, in-studio performances morphed into sessions for the Wild Honey album, primarily comprised of original Brian Wilson/Mike Love compositions.
 
In a 1976 look back at 1967’s most heralded albums, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau praised Wild Honey with an “A+” review, writing, “It’s perfect and full of pleasure; it does what it sets out to do almost without a bad second.”
 
Bruce Johnston says that Wild Honey showcases a band devoid of pressure: “Here’s the thing – the most important thing – you need to know about Wild Honey. It was just an album for us to exhale and do something real simple; but as it’s Brian and Mike’s music, it’s still fabulous and not so simple. I love the album.”
 
Two days after wrapping the Wild Honey sessions on November 15th, 1967, Mike Love, Carl and Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston returned to the road for The Beach Boys’ Thanksgiving Tour, premiering several songs from the forthcoming album at their concerts.
 
Preorder The Beach Boys’ 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow here:  https://UMe.lnk.to/19672CD
Preorder The Beach Boys’ Wild Honey vinyl LP here:  https://UMe.lnk.to/WIldHoneyStereo2017LP
 
The Beach Boys continue to hold Billboard / Nielsen SoundScan’s record as America’s top-selling band for albums and singles, and they are also the American group with the most Billboard Top 40 chart hits (36). “Good Vibrations” was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame® in 1994. ‘Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys’ has achieved triple-Platinum sales status and ‘The SMiLE Sessions,’ released to worldwide critical acclaim in 2011, was heralded as the year’s Best Reissue by Rolling Stone and earned a GRAMMY Award® for Best Historical Album.
 
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and recipients of The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, The Beach Boys are a beloved American institution that remains iconic around the world.
 
thebeachboys.com
facebook.com/thebeachboys
twitter.com/thebeachboys
 
 
Excerpted from the 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow Producers Notes by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd:
After the decision was made to shelve the unfinished SMiLE album in early 1967, The Beach Boys opted to return to recording as a self-contained band, working mostly at Brian Wilson’s home and using rented recording equipment. The two albums they released that year, Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, were both originally presented in mono only (with Capitol also issuing re-channeled “pseudo stereo” editions). Smiley Smile was remixed and released in stereo in 2012. Now, at last, The Beach Boys and Capitol present the first true stereo mix of Wild Honey, along with outtakes, session highlights, and selected backing tracks from both the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey sessions.
 
Note that the 8-track master for “Mama Says” could not be located, so that song is presented here in its original mono mix. In addition, the organ solo on “How She Boogalooed It” was actually overdubbed as the song was being mixed to mono (as was the organ on the rest of the song), so that section is also presented in mono.
 
The Beach Boys:  1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow [2CD, digital]
 
Disc 1
 
Wild Honey Album (Stereo)
(New stereo mix, except as noted *. Recorded September 15 to November 15, 1967 at Brian Wilson’s house and at Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood, California)
1. Wild Honey (2:45)
2. Aren't You Glad (2:16)
3. I Was Made To Love Her (2:07)
4. Country Air (2:21)
5. A Thing Or Two (2:42)
6. Darlin’ (2:14)
7. I'd Love Just Once To See You (1:49)
8. Here Comes The Night (2:44)
9. Let The Wind Blow (2:23)
10. How She Boogalooed It (1:59)
11. Mama Says * (Original Mono Mix) (1:08)
 
Wild Honey Sessions:  September - November 1967 (Previously Unreleased)
12. Lonely Days (Alternate Version) (1:45)
13. Cool Cool Water (Alternate Early Version) (2:08)
14. Time To Get Alone (Alternate Early Version) (3:08)
15. Can't Wait Too Long (Alternate Early Version) (2:49)
16. I'd Love Just Once To See You (Alternate Version) (2:22)
17. I Was Made To Love Her (Vocal Insert Session) (1:35)
18. I Was Made To Love Her (Long Version) (2:35)
19. Hide Go Seek (0:51)
20. Honey Get Home (1:22)
21. Wild Honey (Session Highlights) (5:39)
22. Aren't You Glad (Session Highlights) (4:21)
23. A Thing Or Two (Track And Backing Vocals) (1:01)
24. Darlin’ (Session Highlights) (4:36)
25. Let The Wind Blow (Session Highlights) (4:14)
 
Wild Honey Live: 1967 - 1970 (Previously Unreleased)
26. Wild Honey (Live) (2:53) - recorded in Detroit, November 17, 1967
27. Country Air (Live) (2:20) - recorded in Detroit, November 17, 1967
28. Darlin’ (Live) (2:25) - recorded in Pittsburgh, November 22, 1967
29. How She Boogalooed It (Live) (2:43) - recorded in Detroit, November 17, 1967
30. Aren’t You Glad (Live) (3:12) - recorded in 1970, location unknown
 
31. Mama Says (Session Highlights) (3:08)
(Previously unreleased vocal session highlights. Recorded at Wally Heider Recording, November 1967)
 
Disc 2
 
Smiley Smile Sessions:  June - July 1967 (Previously Unreleased)
(Recorded June and July 1967 at Brian Wilson’s house, Western Recorders, SRS, and/or Columbia Studios, except as noted *)
1. Heroes And Villains (Single Version Backing Track) (3:38)
2. Vegetables (Long Version) (2:55)
3. Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (Alternate Mix) (2:28)
4. Wind Chimes (Alternate Tag Section) (0:48)
5. Wonderful (Backing Track) (2:23)
6. With Me Tonight (Alternate Version With Session Intro) (0:51)
7. Little Pad (Backing Track) (2:40)
8. All Day All Night (Whistle In) (Alternate Version 1) (1:04)
9. All Day All Night (Whistle In) (Alternate Version 2) (0:50)
10. Untitled (Redwood) * (0:35)
(Previously unreleased instrumental fragment. Studio and exact recording date unknown. Discovered in tape box labeled “Redwood”)
 
Lei'd In Hawaii “Live” Album:  September 1967 (Previously Unreleased)
(Recorded September 11, 1967 at Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood, CA, with additional recording September 29, 1967 (except as noted *). Original mono mixes from assembled master ½” reel, dated September 29, 1967, discovered in the Brother Records Archives.)
11. Fred Vail Intro   (0:24)
12. The Letter (1:54)
13. You're So Good To Me (2:31)
14. Help Me, Rhonda (2:24)
15. California Girls (2:30)
16. Surfer Girl (2:17)
17. Sloop John B (2:50)
18. With A Little Help From My Friends * (2:21)
(Recorded at Brian Wilson’s house, September 23, 1967)
19. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring * (2:33)
(Recorded during rehearsal, August 26, 1967, Honolulu, Hawaii)
20. God Only Knows (2:45)
21. Good Vibrations (4:13)
22. Game Of Love (2:11)
23. The Letter (Alternate Take) (1:56)
24. With A Little Help From My Friends (Stereo Mix) (2:21)
 
Live In Hawaii:  August 1967 (Previously Unreleased)
(The Beach Boys recorded two complete concerts and rehearsals in Honolulu on August 25 and 26, 1967. Brian Wilson rejoined the group onstage for these shows; Bruce Johnston was not present. The following tracks derive from the original 1” 8-track master reels discovered in the Brother Records Archives.)
25. Hawthorne Boulevard (1:05)
26. Surfin' (1:40)
27. Gettin’ Hungry (3:19)
28. Hawaii (Rehearsal Take) (1:11)
29. Heroes And Villains (Rehearsal) (4:45)
 
Thanksgiving Tour 1967:  Live In Washington, D.C. & Boston (Previously Unreleased)
(The touring Beach Boys - Mike, Carl, Dennis, Al, and Bruce – embarked on a Thanksgiving Tour immediately after delivering the finished Wild Honey album to Capitol Records. For this tour, the band was augmented by Ron Brown on bass and Daryl Dragon on keyboards.)
30. California Girls (Live) (2:32) - recorded in Washington, DC, November 19, 1967
31. Graduation Day (Live) (2:56) - recorded in Washington, DC, November 19, 1967
32. I Get Around (Live) (2:53) - recorded in Boston, November 23, 1967
 
Additional 1967 Studio Recordings (Previously Unreleased)
33. Surf’s Up (1967 Version) (5:25)
(Recorded during the Wild Honey sessions in November 1967)
34. Surfer Girl (1967 A Capella Mix) (2:17)
(Previously unreleased mix of Lei’d In Hawaii take from the Wally Heider Recording sessions in September 1967)
 

Holy cow awesome about these last two songs on the set. WOW. I'm assuming this is a take of Surf's Up that differs from the 1967 version we heard on the Smile Sessions box set?

I think it's the same "1967 Surf's Up" that's on the Smile Sessions box. The accapella "Surfer Girl" seems to new to us.

"Sunshine Tomorrow" lists the track as 5:25 in length.

The version on "Made in California" is 3:48, the "Smile Sessions" version 3:47.

So if the track timings are correct, this new version is at the very least longer in some fashion.

They apparently/supposedly comped several takes together for the version we've heard already, so I'm curious if perhaps on the new set we get some false starts or something, and/or an alternate compilation of takes?

The Lei'd in Hawaii mono master - wow!  So With a Little Help from my Friends was recorded for the "live" Hawaii album?  And we finally get to hear Game of Love?  This is going to be the greatest BB vault release ... maybe ever! 

Also - could a stereo take of Mama Says be made out of the rehearsals?

Previously unreleased :  long Vegetables - so this is different from the long whistle Vegetables released on Hawthorne

Cool Cool Water - a new version not what was on the Smile Sessions!

Can't Wait Too Long - perhaps some unheard sections, or just a different mix of sections we've heard on boot and on the Smiley 2 fer?

Wow! Reading it like this makes it even more exciting!




That's how I understand it as well. So this is the album they would have released (between Smiley Smile and Wild honey?). Kinda strange that they wouldn't include their newest hit "Heroes & Villains", isn't it?
While we're at it, this is as good a place as any to mention that I love their '67 performance of H&V. Although just 5 guys and 4 instruments, it really works very well imo. Unfortunately they don't seem to have played it live after the Hawaii shows for a couple of years.

This is absolutely incredible...and only twenty bucks!?!  :o

I'm curious if the mono "album" version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" will play at Bruce's original intended speed (with "slow" vocal), while it's the stereo mix that has been re-done? I would assume that's the likelihood if they're pulling the "Lei'd In Hawaii" album proper from an original, vintage mix/tape.

I'm curious as well if they did the new mix of "With a Little Help.." by keeping the backing track at the same speed and then altering Bruce's voice digitally to keep it in the same key but sounding "speeded up" so to speak. It has been ages since I listened to it, but the "Rarities" version of the song was in the original (Beatles) key, so it was indeed always the "speed" of Bruce's voice that sounded off more than anything else. So I would imagine they'd be able to digitally "speed up" Bruce's voice but keep it at the same pitch and then also essentially "stretch" it so that it still fits the tempo of the same backing track.

Here you go:

This is the "slow" version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwqH4bj1zfw


And a speed corrected version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc8mRRZvNwA




EDIT:

Rolling Stone reports also:


Beach Boys Unearth Rare Songs for 'Sunshine Tomorrow' Set
Band will explore post-'Pet Sounds' era with alternate takes, live recordings from 'Wild Honey,' 'Smiley Smile' sessions

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beach-boys-unearth-rare-songs-for-sunshine-tomorrow-set-w483761

The "speed corrected" version still doesn't sound right to me. Unless Bruce used a weird singing technique. "Whaaaaat would you thhhhiiinnnnkkk if I saaaaang out of tuuuuunnnneeeee would you stttttaaaannnd up and waaaaalllllllkkkk oooouuuuutttt oooooooonnnnnnnn mmmmmmeeeeeeeeeee".

So true. Knowing the details makes it so much more exciting now!

Particularly interested to hear a few of the tunes, such as what the alternates of "Lonely Days", "Cool Cool Water" and "Can't Wait Too Long" are. Is it possible a full "Lonely Days"? That'd be neat. And "Cool Cool Water"....it's longer than the 1993 box set version. I wonder if it has that "Child Is Father Of The Man" progression incorporated? And with "Can't Wait Too Long" I'm wondering if this is maybe a version that was found in the vaults as is? Or maybe it's a version with only 1967 work on it? And none of the work that Brian did on it during 1968 nor any of the sweetening apparently done during the Keepin' the Summer Alive sessions? One can assume due to the "(Alternate Early Version)" description that this may indeed be the case.

Also interested to hear how "All Day All Night" differs from "Whistle In" and of course I'm intrigued to see what "Honey Get Home" and "Hide Go Seek" are, and if they truly did have finished instrumental masters, that for whatever reason weren't used for vocals.

Also, I wonder if the mono mix of "The Letter" is the same as the mono mix issued on Rarities? We already know "With A Little Help From My Friends" will be different due to Bruce's vocals being slowed down on the Rarities version. And as I'm about to post this, I see HeyJude was wondering the same!

Lastly, with  "Surf's Up" I'm assuming that it's probably a few false starts and session chatter followed by a complete take. Although who knows? We'll find out soon enough!

It still sounds like it is just a smidge slow still (if slow vs. fast are the terms we're using here). I realize this sits low in Bruce's range, but this still doesn't quite sound natural.

I'm wondering if "Can't Wait To Long"  has sections we've never heard before, or if the 1967 version of Surf's Up is an alternate take from the demo session. I noticed it has a run time of over five minutes.

The surf's up take is probably the full run-through BW did while tuning the piano for wild honey.

That's what I'm saying. It doesn't sound natural or "right".

I think I read that Brian did four or five "takes", with none of them being complete.

I am so excited for this set! ;D

I can't wait for this... the perfect set sans a possible Friends box set.

 ;)

Defiantly buying it!  :hat

(http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y395/Rich199/18582161_10155277643807487_6000188023893058692_n.jpg)

So excited  ;D

Big, Big , BIG thank you to all involved.

I am so happy about this release! I'll be buying both the CD set and the stereo WH LP.

Thanks to all involved.

1st post  :bw

Can't wait for Wild Honey in stereo  ;D

     No it was built using the recording we know by having in instrumental pass of just the track without vocal.

This is probably close to the original speed re: Bruce's vocal: https://soundcloud.com/smileyhoneyfriends-1/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-speed-corrected
I have no idea how they could get the track/BGV's and Bruce's vocal to all be at the same speed without some weird digital pitch/speed correction.

Looking forward to this new set and eagerly await another one for Friends next year!

Completely unexpected, delightful, superb, and wonderful -

who'd a thunk it?

With my Smiley Smile stereo disk, this is just a fantastic new perspective on the era.

By popular demand, there will no doubt be a Friends counterpart.

(BTW, I just looked at the site of my local retailer. ST isn't up there yet, but I spotted a funny unintended gag:

the Japanese version of a certain BBs album was titled: Stuck O'Trucks.

I've been wondering for 20 mins. now whatever that could mean?

Whoever has an idea, please let me know!)

Hey, wait, hold on.  Forgive me if I've got confused, but could this be the version with the Mike monologue?

Hi, Don.

If your local retailer is Dutch, it sounds to me like a case of mistaken pronunciation somewhere down the line. Like "wraps" being mispronounced "frups". ;D   

Ah! Cheers JK -

one of those occasions where I think: I should've thought of it...

...now, I hear a German voice in my fantasy, shouting out the infamous English four letter word... he or she actually pronounces that very near to what: 'f-ah-k' sounds like in our ears. So in a sense, the 'a' and 'u' are perhaps easily interchangeable, when one thinks visually.

Stick O'Tricks? Stock O'Trocks? Steck O'Trecks?

I get confused...

It looks like both version of "With a Little Help..." have the same running time on the new set, and these running times pretty much match up with the "old" version of the song as heard on "Rarities."

So if they've fixed Bruce's vocal, then some sort of digital pitch correction or digital time stretching was likely used, as the song would indeed be significantly shorter if they were just speeding up the tape to make Bruce's voice correct. Howie has already mentioned that they didn't simply speed the entire tape up.

That Soundcloud clip indeed sounds like it's probably pretty close to what Bruce's voice should sound like.

The question is, what speed was everything originally recorded in (and thus, what key did they record the backing track in, and what key did they intend?).

One scenario is that they recorded the backing track (and perhaps backing vocals?) in its original key as heard on "Rarities", and then Bruce speeded up the tape and then recorded his lead vocal so that when the song was slowed down back to its original speed, his voice and his voice alone would "sound slow." Howie has mentioned that it wasn't a production/mastering error that led to his weird voice but rather Bruce's choice of slowing his voice down. I'm curious to know *when* in the process of recording that Bruce decided he didn't like his own voice and decided he would slow it down. If it was during rehearsals prior to recording, then he could have indeed planned in advance to record the backing track, and then speed the tape up to cut his vocal so that it would sound "slower/lower" when returned to normal speed. So that's all just one scenario.

Another scenario is that the BB's *didn't* record the backing track in its original key as heard on "Rarities", but instead recorded it in a higher key at a faster tempo. Bruce would then have added his lead, and then both the backing track and his lead would be in a lower key and slower when the tape was slowed down. Perhaps it was at this "slower" speed that BB backing vocals were added, leading to *something* always being off speed when played back at either a slow or fast speed.

It appears the running time on all versions (both versions on the new set and the old "Rarities" version) have the same running time more or less, which presumably means all versions will have the same tempo. If Scenario #2 above is true, then they would need to then raise the pitch on the lead vocal and backing track while leaving the backing vocals and tempo the same, or "speed up" the entire thing but then pitch correct the backing vocals without making them sound "sped up". I don't think the latter is possible given the running time of the song on the new set. If Scenario #1 above is true, they would need to only pitch correct or "speed up" the lead vocal but then stretch it back out so it matches the tempo of the backing track.

Or, I don't know what I'm talking about!  :3d

Does anyone else really envision this as a three disc box, with the first disc having already been released for a few years?

Disc One: Smiley Mono and Stereo CD (although I may begin with the stereo at Track 12 for my personal listening experience)

Disc Two: Smiley Sessions and Outtakes, Lei'd in Hawaii, etc.

Disc Three: Stereo Wild Honey, Wild Honey outtakes, etc.

I've never envisioned that, but it's pretty cool!

The version with the Mike monologue was recorded at Wally Heider's for the recreated "live" album, the rehearsal take is from the actual Hawaii rehearsal, and has been previously released (on the Concert/Live in London 2fer)

Thanks for this.  So, in conclusion, I was indeed confused.  Still, nice to get these things out in the open, eh?

Uh... wait, hang on. I just happened to play the Live In London/Concert twofer the day before yesterday, for the first time in many years, and that 1967 live rendition of H&V... well, it surely is ACTUALLY live, not a rehearsal. I mean, you can hear an audience throughout the performance but especially in the quieter parts, screaming for Dennis and suchlike (it's really irritating, actually!). So surely that final track on the twofer was one of the ACTUAL live performances, not a live rehearsal before the audience came in? (unless they had an audience for the rehearsals as well. I know that does happen these days sometimes, but I thought not for these particular recordings)

Now, I know you hear audience noise at the start of the track because it's partly crossfaded on that CD from a 1964 performance of Don't Worry Baby, but that's far from the only crowd noise - as I just said, it interrupts all through the H&V performance.

Of course, this highlights one of the great confusions there has been over the last 50 years about the Hawaii recordings. As I understand it (and do weigh in if I'm wrong here), there are three kinds of recordings from that period, all related to the Hawaii concerts but not all of which were recorded during the concerts... or indeed even IN Hawaii:

• the band recorded live rehearsals on-stage in Honolulu, with no audience, before the shows (the lovely live recording of Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring, as included at the end of the 1990s SS/WH twofer, was one of these, I believe... surely the definitive recording of the band performing that tune);

• they recorded two days' worth of actual concerts (so with the audience screaming away throughout - I believe this is where the live bootlegs of those shows come from, one of which is the only source for the short number Hawthorne Boulevard, and also, I believe, where the live H&V at the end of the Live In London/Concert twofer came from);

• They re-recorded some tracks from scratch at Wally Heider's studio once back in LA, presumably because the Hawaii recordings were technically deficient or they were too out of their gourds on-stage in Honolulu to give decent performances, which rendered the live tracks unsuitable for the planned live album. Just to confuse matters still further, it looks as though they kept also tape running throughout the Heider sessions, so there are a lot of rehearsals for the 'studio Hawaii tracks' (which actually aren't from Hawaii, but LA) too — so when tracks have appeared from these sessions on boots described as 'rehearsals', it's often been really hard to tell whether they're the live rehearsals on-stage in Hawaii, or the studio rehearsals from back in LA at Heider's. Anyway, this is where the beautiful, if slightly loose 'Smileyized' performances of the time for Help Me Rhonda, California Girls, and God Only Knows come from. The version of God Only Knows from here was on Endless Harmony (a version I love so deeply that it almost — almost — eclipses the studio original for me), and the versions of California Girls and Help Me Rhonda were on MiC.

As I recall, Surfer Girl from this period is really problematic in this respect, as they played it in the live rehearsals in Hawaii (one of these performances made it onto Disc 5 of the GV boxed set in 1993), they played it live at the Hawaii concerts, and from memory they also rehearsed and recorded it, I think, at Heider's. So when on bootlegs we've seen 'Surfer Girl (Lei'd In Hawaii version)' or 'Surfer Girl (Hawaii rehearsal)', it can be really hard to know exactly what the photon we're dealing with.

Urm. Is that roughly right? To return to topic, if the version of H&V really is a live Hawaii REHEARSAL, then I would expect it to be different from the last track on the Live In London/Concert twofer... which was a 'real' live recording from one of the actual Hawaii concerts. And I wouldn't expect it to be the version with the Mike 'Nuclear Bomb' monologue, as that was from the STUDIO rehearsals at Heider's, back in LA...

...er... I *think*.

Anybody wanna step in, here...?

The "fake" live surfer girl has the past tence lyrics "used to go".... ;)

You pretty much got it, Matt. And yes, the live H&V at the end of the Concert/Live In London CD is from one of the two Honolulu concert performances, not a rehearsal.

Cool - don't know why I thought the Live in London was a rehearsal take.  A Good Vibrations rehearsal take was released I believe?  Anyway nice were getting another live version rather than a repeat of what was earlier released!

Are all the WH stereo tracks new, or were the 2001~12 mixes recycled?

Here's the live version as released on the Concert/Live in London twofer; it comes from the first show IIRC:

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


The second show is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1a5E9J32jk


Performance wise the second show was the better one. And I just want to repeat that I think the boys did a very good job performing H&V on stage. Unfortunately they didn't keep it in their set.

54 unrealeased recordings.  I am presuming  these ARE unrealeased.....not doubling tracks from MiC or such

Yes - on the Hawthorne, CA compilation.

Newly mixed.

Let's open the Friends, 20/20, Sunflower, Surf's Up, Carl & The Passions and Holland vaults.


What's with the Sunshine Tomorrow title??

Mabey from "Let The Wind Blow", "Take away their sorrows, give them sunshine tomorrow".

I like it very much.

It's thankfully not academic (The Annotated Survey Of One Of The Beach Boys' Most Intriguing Transitory Phases: The Wild Honey 50th Anniversary Tracks In Stereo And A Plethora Of Hitherto Unreleased Alternate Versions, Live Recordings, And Big Surprises That Even The Most Discerning Fans Haven't Heard Yet - Approved By The Band And Mike Love In Particular!!!')

Where was I? Oh, yes:

It is unexpected, and has something mystical about it: with a bit of insecurity and longing in it - and I always hear that line in my head when I read this title.

Wonderful, as is the artwork.

What? No love for 20/20?  :)

And yes, as pointed out above -* "sunshine tomorrow is from the "Let The Wind Blow" lyric.

That's good. Hopefully this time it's more faithful to the mono than other stereo remixes as of late.

Now, if you listen closely to this one, it seems like the backgrounds vocals are a "wall of Bruce". Interesting.  ;D

a "wall of Bruce"

none of their names' is not Bruce

not a one.

otherwise

we'd have a problem

Oh I got much love for 20/20! But I figured since 20/20 was more or less a collection of singles there wouldn't be much from the vaults

Thought this had been mentioned earlier, that this was another brilliant idea that sprang from the mind of Howie Edelson!

Well, there's stuff like "Mona Kani" and "Old Man River" - which, granted, have since been released - but maybe they could include session tape excerpts, and live stuff from the era - like the two complete London shows from late '68.

I've got a feeling that they would couple Friends with 20/20 when they release archive collection on these albums. There are much more things in the vaults to put on the collection - Some unreleased songs from Friends era, Friends remake in Early 1970s, and of course, sessions and alternate mixes of each song.

Wow this is exciting! One question though-

Is there anything here which is truly unreleased? Have all these tracks featured on bootlegs in the past?

This was discussed a couple pages back, but there is indeed unheard material on this disc, including (but not limited to) "Honey Get Home", "Game of Love", "Lonely Days (Alternate)", "Untitled (Redwood)", "Hide Go Seek", "Mama Says (Session Highlights)", "All Day All Night", and the "extended" 1967 "Surf's Up" recording.

I think the vast majority of the studio recordings are unreleased or "new".

65 tracks is extraordinary value. Has anyone calculated the total playing time?

Ahh, my bad; I did skim through all the pages but I missed that. Thanks for the run down!

No, but you're right.

Which makes me optimistic for a 'Friends', and other follow-ups. It is a fan thing, it is generous, it will sell, the numbers pressed won't be that high, but it won't be a loss leader.

Clearly a labour of love; and also it's not 'strictly academic', so to speak. It has a pleasant and spontaneous feel to me, not 'ramshackle', but simply joyous.

(Over a few years, I began to like the Made In California box more and more (more than I already did); for the same reasons. That one feels very 'free', mono and stereo versions, a bit of a wilfully 'semi-chaotic' track order on the last few disks, it's an great listening experience.)

While the guys actually in the trenches (e.g. Boyd and Linett) have done great work even when constrained by budgets and deadlines and band/label politics, I think "Sunshine Tomorrow" is looking like a new phase where a lot more of the planets are aligning in terms of this being truly a great release.

While monumental releases like the PS and Smile boxes are second to none, and we've had a few deep dive archive releases without filler (e.g. "Endless Harmony Soundtrack"), we've certainly had to get through a number of "better than nothing" releases and some cash grabs (the PS 50th boxed set, the "Singles" boxed set), and cases where some amazing stuff is sandwiched between our 87 billionth copy of the same hits ("Made in California").

With guys like Howie Edelson involved, along with Boyd and Linett doing their thing in the studio, I think this is a new phase, and "Sunshine Tomorrow", without having heard a note of it, finally looks like the whole thing is running on all cylinders as far as not compromising the "hardcore fan" service with some half-assed marketing effort. I can tell this set was expertly programmed. It doesn't have 50% retread material. It's all mouth-watering stuff for hardcore fans. PLUS, it's properly programmed and designed so that it *can* also be marketed beyond the hardcores. Hipsters who dig PS can get turned onto this music. Some recognizable "hit" song titles are also strategically sprinkled in there as well.

What I do hope is that BRI can expand this sort of thing even beyond mainstream Capitol/UMe releases, because I know there's a limit to what they're going to want to do wide-release physical CD releases for. Hopefully all involved have high hopes for this release but also know it ain't going to sell a million copies, and hopefully this is the beginning of similar targeted physical release on Capitol *as well* as some "Dick's Picks" sort of deeper releases for fans (digital at the very least).

Howie knows what fans dig and what they want, and what's needed for archival releases, so I think this is our best chance yet to see an ongoing award-winning-caliber team in place to get more stuff out there, instead of past years where Boyd and Linett did everything they could with what they were given and we kind of just accidentally sometimes got some cool stuff.

Further, *all* of the guys/camps/estates should be coming out of the woodwork and doing the whole marketing synergy thing like the ex-Beatles/estates have done with group *and* solo projects. More archival and new releases from individual members could be piggybacked on all of this.

My first post here, and I can´t wait for this release. Getting my Sgt Pepper Deluxe set tomorrow but I think the Wild Honey release might be even more exciting  :-D ;D
I really hope that this is a sign of things to come for albums like Friends, 20/20 and Sunflowers.
Sunflower being my absolute favourite BB album.

They're not using the "previously unreleased" designation on this set, perhaps because there's such a wealth of it that it might start to  seem redundant.

Thanks for your kinds words, Jude.

I don't want to besmirch any other band, but as someone who's quite aware of what's in several other group's vaults, of the "majors" (and I'm not exaggerating), The Beach Boys are the ONLY one where if its unreleased material was finally released, the entire narrative changes and history gets a revamp. The BB's are the only band who can get a 10th life from what they left on the cutting room floor. The Grateful Dead definitely do not have five more "Sugar Magnolia's" tucked away in the vault -- The BB's have 15.

There are many different avenues and tiers for this material to find its way out. I have a feeling that this release will break through to a new market.

I overheard two industry people today referring to it as the "followup to Smile."
Pretty cool.

Tell everyone you know about this LP.
If it sells, we'll get more.

Keep up the good fight Howie. :)

I don't post often anymore, but I have to say thanks to everyone involved in getting this package out in such a gorgeous way!  I'm thankful for living long enough to see the band's vast unreleased vaults finally being properly harvested.  And the cover art is PERFECT!

Well said as usual Howie.

I'll go one step further and say that the Beach Boys are the only band where a good portion of the time the unreleased material is better than much of the released material after a certain point. Hell, much of their unreleased material blows many other bands' released material out of the water!

Hell, "Why?" from the MIU sessions is better than the entire album.

Not better than "Matchpoint" or "Pitter Patter"!

What would be the 15 great Beach Boys songs still in the Vaults. I can think of a few

Carry Me Home
Boys And Girls
Out In The Country
Burlesque
Stevie
I'm A Man
I've Got A Friend(Backing Track)

This is amazing news. I'm always telling people that The BBs are THE most underrated and misunderstood famous band out there, and hopefully this set will further that line of thinking in more peoples' eyes to get them newfound respect.

The famous Jack Rieley quote may have been true, but hopefully sets like these will go a ways towards undoing some of the regrettable in hindsight decisions that led to amazing material being shelved for decades.

#8 on amazon at the moment  :)

There's supposed to be a version of Sweetie with Beach Boy vocals, but I don't know how finished it is or if it still exists.

Its better than both.  ;D

Jay wins! ;D

Exciting news, but stereo Smile material is conspicuously missing, especially so in light of the Pepper release. Still can't complain :)

No way I'd want "Smile" material bogarting space on this set. We got a pretty epic Smile set already. Sure, I'd like them to collect any orphaned Smile stereo mixes somewhere. But it's time to highlight something else in their catalog outside of PS or Smile.

Agreed

“I wanted to have a home environment trip where we could record at my house,” recalls Brian Wilson in the liner notes for 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow. “I wanted to try something different, something new. I produced Smiley Smile, but Mike inspired me. He said ‘Brian, let’s make a really good, easygoing album’. We had an engineer convert my den into a studio. We had my piano detuned to make it ring more.”


"We all really dug Motown, right?...So Brian reckoned we should get more into a white R&B bag. I also recall around that time the band, and Brian in particular, getting criticized very heavily for sounding like choirboys."  - Carl Wilson.

Hey, nothing says easygoing album like bullying your cousin into giving up a hit tune cuz you have bills to pay. Jeesh, if only Mike learned the lawsuit game earlier in life to get cash, perhaps Redwood would've been a successful af band under the guidance of BW.

I agree, it's the perfect era to try to pick up people who know the early stuff and PS, Wild Honey material is a great next step.

I wonder if that inspiration included Mike going to Heider's studio during a Redwood session Brian was producing, demanding the tapes from Brian as Carl stood by and watched, then walking out with them after shutting down the plans for the Redwood project Brian had been developing for Brother.

Eyyy, Brian was only in tears during that incident, it's not like there were any hard feelings.

I am really looking forward to this set though, hopefully the session tracks will shed light on the production of the album...ya know, who was in the studio directing and stuff.

Well, that was Brian obviously. Calling the shots and all that, i.e. producing the album.

I guess there were no hard feelings, after the Redwood tapes walked out of Heider's with Mike. (sarcasm). That's inspiration if there ever was a way to inspire!

Definitely.

A little off topic, but a now sadly defunct college radio station in town (the station for Rice University, if you're wondering) used to play the sh*t out of tracks from WH. Well, the *only* time I ever heard any of my tracks played on the radio came about 8 years ago...and it came after they played "Aren't you Glad".

Obvious to anyone who actually listens to the music maybe. Not so obvious to the jackasses trying to convince everyone here it was all Carl a couple years ago.

At this time, Sunshine Tomorrow is currently sitting at #3 in Best Selling Rock Vinyl & CDs list on Amazon, a truly amazing sight to behold. I'm so ecstatic to see the Beach Boys and Wild Honey earning the wider recognition that they both deserve!

It just gets better every day.

And how I love that cover art - who's responsible for this?

I never was too fond of the band name being done in, what is it? Neon light-y? I mean, like it's done on the Made In California cover - for me it is something, erm, semiotic: it marks the transition from the BBs 'art' into 'commerce', so to speak.

The track's 4:45 long, so it might be the Heroes rehearsal track without the Mike 'Nuclear Bomb' monologue over it, and with the many recorded sections sequenced together. The 'Lei'd in Hawaii' Heroes rehearsal I've previously downloaded was a lo-fi outtake, like the ones for God Only Knows (rehearsal) on Endless Harmony. From what I've heard, it's unfinished unlike the GV and God Only Knows rehearsals.

Huge improvement from the artwork in TWGMTR and MiC, that's for sure.

Wait, that's a misprint on the cover - shouldn't it be "Shunshine Tomorrow?"

 :-D :-D :-D

How astute, old sport.

I don't know if it was just a coincidence or was programmed thusly, but I think it ended up being *genius* to announce "Sunshine Tomorrow" right as the Beatles "Pepper" deluxe set is hitting shelves.

I think many folks are looking to "Sunshine Tomorrow" as a sort of "meanwhile, The Beach Boys were doing this" sort of set, and while I'm not prepared to say anything negative about multiple discs of Beatles outtakes being released (waiting to get my hands on the set today!), it has to excite BRI and the Beach Boys to see people actually saying they're *as* excited, or even *more* excited about "Sunshine Tomorrow" than they are about the Pepper set.

I know I've run into a few BB fans now and then that have a hang up about the Beatles being better/more popular, etc. But this is all great, if partially inadvertent, marketing synergy. Frankly, any BB fan that digs 1967 BB music should pick up the Pepper set, *and* any Beatles fan that digs 1967 Beatles music should pick up "Sunshine Tomorrow."

And hopefully, Amazon's "People who bought this also bought...." feature will help as well, and for once I won't have to see that people who bought Sgt. Pepper also bought a can of bug spray, a six-pack of bath towels, and a box of Omaha Steaks, and instead will see "Sunshine Tomorrow" in that list.

Maybe the isolated Mike 'Nuclear Bomb' monologue is a hidden track at the very end of the set?

In all seriousness, I actually would be surprised if there wasn't a hidden track on the set.

I wouldn't mind the projected H&V single w/I'm in Great Shape as a hidden track  ;)

I've been singing it all week but now I'm singing this. Damn. :lol

Mike Love didn't put the kibosh on Brian's Redwood outside project in its' totality--only the extent of it.  Danny Hutton has said that at the time they were beginning recording an albums' worth of material w/ Brian producing but Mike said to him 'No--not an album we'll start with a single only' and Danny wouldn't hear of it, it's a full album or nothing he replied.  So Redwood got nothing.  If Danny had agreed to a trial 45 instead then Darlin' would have not been a Beach Boys single.  In Mike's defense I think he didn't want his cousins attention taken away by a whole LP's work outside the group but 2 songs were fine

Comments from Chuck Negron (as told to Howie Edelson), as well as what Brian Wilson directly told Ray Lawlor, are pretty damning:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,21301.msg518000.html#msg518000

Mike was ruthless pulling the plug on Redwood, though a single only (brother Records label) was how Danny Hutton understood it at the time.  Brian offered to pay for recording a full album (even if he couldn't be producer) because he'd no doubt promised Danny that at the outset (apparently he wasn't taken up on that financial offer).  It's apparent Mike called the new Brother Records shots by this early incident and Brian learned that the hard way.  It's my belief that Mike's name was added to the Darlin' songwriting credit only AFTER Redwood refused a 45-only deal to start (but after some Redwood vocals had been recorded), interpreting the lyrics were modified by Mike (the title was a common Danny Hutton expression)

Check out this animated album cover from the band's Facebook.  :hat

(https://external.xx.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBMrFndhMUwQwZu&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsprcdn-assets.sprinklr.com%2F776%2FBeach_Boys_Wild_Honey_GIF-aa741cbf-943a-48af-8add-378553a1e814-588788389.gif&ext=gif&_nc_hash=AQCc6iUbymDzmIX0)

That is sweet

So cool!

I suddenly want a Wild Honey stained glass suncatcher or window sticker!

Nothing new but the press release is now also up on the official site:

https://www.thebeachboys.com/news/beach-boys-open-vaults-1967-sunshine-tomorrow-be-released-worldwide-june-30

Darlin' was a rewrite of Thinkin' Bout You Baby which was a Wilson-Love song, so wouldn't he have to be credited as a co-writer?  Or can you replace lyrics and if the original co-writer only wrote the original lyrics, can you drop them off of the remake?

Mike told me that he was literally finishing the lyrics to "Darlin'" during the tracking session (he said the same was true of writing the final lyrics to "Wild Honey.")
I specifically asked if the plan was to do the same to "Hide And Go Seek" (e.g. take an early giveaway and revamp it) and he had no recollection of that.

But to answer the question, Mike said that his contribution was definitely to "Darlin'" -- not merely the lyricist to "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby."

Is it true Mike wrote the lyrics to 'Mama Says'?

Was it one of the songs Mike got credit for in the songwriting lawsuit?  If not, I would say no.  Sounds like all Brian to me.

Did you ask him about the "redwood" incident?

Mike was co-credited on every song for Wild Honey (except the cover and Boogaloo) from time of release. Yet Mama Says is a carry over from Smile which, besides GV, Mike had zip to do with. So I think there's definite room to question just how accurate the credits are for these songs.

Mama says is right from SMiLE and the extent of  Mike's input from that project were vocal sessions. Wild Honey seems like BW credited Mike on everything in an attempt to smooth over the drama from SMiLE.

I think it is great that Brian has acknowledged Mike's inspiration of his music! :)

I asked Mike, point blank -- no pulled punches -- whether a deal was struck regarding the Wild Honey album publishing, which would list as a co-writer as a consolation for being "shut out" of the the past two LP's. He said that that was absolutely not the case and that he would have never made such a request of Brian.

Methinks Mike may not be remembering correctly.  Do a Lot first appeared Jan 3 in a piano/drums/vocal version as on TSS, right?  Probably as a possible Heroes section as it seems all the work on that day was on Heroes.  Unlikely Mike was contributing to Heroes lyrically at this point in the Smile saga.

Amen to that

I have no doubt Mike wants people to believe that and either he has completely forgotten the lyrical history behind Mama Says or actually thinks he helped co-write one of the wackiest parts of the SMiLE song Heroes and Villains (soon to be morphed into Vegetables) which is ridiculous beyond belief.

I bought the Sgt. Pepper 2 cd set last night and am blown the hell away by the sound. If Sunshine Tomorrow is anything close to that (and I think it will be) I think every fan here will be thrilled.

Thanks to EVERYONE who has made this set a possibility. I cannot wait to hear it.

From I Am Brian Wilson

Pretty sure Mike's credited on "Boogalooed It", too.

Whoops, you're definitely right.

I think that it would be great if the four surviving members of the group that recorded WH could get together and do a joint interview or two. I think it would be a nice promotion for the set. Maybe Howie could suggest the idea?

Could it be Mike contributed to the vocal arrangement and how they were sang/what parts were sang? I'm just wondering because his songwriting credit on Mama Says has confused me as well. Maybe it goes beyond lyrics?

Maybe he came up with "Poof!". That one wasn't on earlier versions I believe

lol! !

Great psycholinguistic contribution, sir -

there should be a symposium on this.

This could be the precedent Mike later used at the songwriting trial in 1994..... ;D

haha it would not surprise me if that's all he came up with. Wasn't it on Help Me Rhonda. The only thing he contributed  to that was the Bow Bow Bow bit

:lol

And maybe it was his idea for it to be a capella

Maybe it was his mama. :smokin

Mike has also said he wrote the first line of "Help Me Rhonda".

Looking forward to the "Mama Says" box set in February.  ;D

I've had this explained to me awhile back in here...I've read lotza stuff here and this new release konfuzes me as far as the Smiley Smile part.   My understanding is the nice studio recordings
that became Smile and 20/20 ect.  Were done in the commercial studios.  Then they said, shelve all of it,  Brian decided to record at home, and they did Smiley Smile -- new bare bones, minimalist  takes of every song except H&V and Good vibrations?   So other than new versions of what was already done and in the Smiley Smile box set, there is no overlap with Smile?   I know Brian was having lots of personal issues at the time and i think there was some union or other issues (can't remember).    I always wondered why not use the nice polished versions that were basically done instead
of  re-doing it ?   I know this has been talked about at length,  but I can just imagine the faces  when the press and Capitol execs heard Smiley Smile. :)   I love it.   Wind Chimes, Little Pad ect.
I love the SS versions much more.  Can you imagine someone new,  bringing home Beach Boys Today, Pet Sounds then...Smiley SMile???????  LOL.   
I think for people that don't take drugs....to get an idea, just listen to Smiley Smile.  The original mono mix. :) I've heard the bootlegs of the smile sessions,  what *I* hear on the sessions
is Brian is right on top of it.  And (nerd alert) I think Brian was using Tapewound strings on the bass (easier to play).    Just a super fascinating era for me. 
I bought Smiley Smile when I was in 5th or 6th grade.  I was like WHAT IS THAT??????   WHAT IS GOING ON THERE!  Same effect as King Crimsons Lizard had on me as a kid.  Lets see,
50+ years later, both are still faves! :)

Darlin was done in the studio?  I love Wild Honey, very very minimalist also. How many bands can just have a bass and piano and occasional percussion and get away with it? Not many.

Nice cover:

https://www.amazon.com/1967---Sunshine-Tomorrow/dp/B0714CTY2P?tag=ilovethatsong-20&ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&ascsubtag=e3c3e5a928d6fe7791dd544c234b652f

If enough ears get to hear this, I think this will increase (gradually) the audience for the BB or at least foster a greater appreciation for that era the same way Disc 3 of the 1993 box did.

Looks dull.

Pre-ordered--as must be the case with most of this board & our fine feathered friends over at PS, since the CD is currently sitting at #17 in rock.

I could only source and pre-order the new soon to be released 180 gram WH vinyl from Amazon.com. However, ST I pre-ordered from .co.uk as it came in cheaper.

I'm waiting until the benign Dutch version of Amazon has it. It's just a matter of time.   

I'm gonna be honest. It's this kinda sh*t that makes me annoyed that the only two major Beach Boys forums around are this one and the Pet Sounds forum. Cuz it's like, in this case Brian is just pointing out how Mike inspired him as it relates to the Wild Honey material. Just that, that's it, simply put. But instead, because of the hatred of Mike it gets turned into how he's such a cocksucker because of what happened at Heider. The only issue was just about the Wild Honey material and lo and behold the freakin' moderator does this kinds sh*t...

Now don't get me wrong, I think Mike has been a major jerk and has behaved heinously many, many times in the history of the group. First off, from where I'm standing he's the guy who broke up The Beach Boys in 2012 yet still gets to use the name despite the fact that we coulda gotten countless more great albums and live performances together if he'd have manned up. The ridiculous lawsuit he filed about BWPS and the promotional CD from that era were reprehensible, not to mention the written material that came with it which I think described Brian as doing nothing from apparently 1967 through the early 2000s, and Al as being mentally ill. His constant repetition about the problems of the Wilson family over the years has also gotten beyond old, not to mention his inability to take responsibility for anything that hasn't worked out. So it goes without saying that I think Mike Love is not the best guy in the history of the world. Besides Bruce or Ricky Fataar, he's probably my least favorite Beach Boy*.

However, when talking about the music and the good memories that BRIAN HIMSELF was bringing up, could we at least give the group (including Mike) their due and discuss the material in that way? Now unlike people like filledeplage or other nitwits, I am not against discussing non-music issues as it pertains to the group, not at all. But just randomly writing sh*t just to throw shade, I think it's lame, and just adds to bullshit that has permeated the Beach Boys fan community for so long. And as far as having an online community these days, it's either stay here and deal with some of the ridiculousness or go to the Pet Sounds forum and experience the alt-right racism and hate from The Real Beach Boy and filledesplooge and their ilk or the Dr. Love apologetics of AGD and Cam. Kinda sucks.

*Sorry Ricky. besides your lead on "Here She Comes" and the drums on "Sail on, Sailor" I just don't know that much about ya or have much to judge you on!

Seriously?, GF2002 is one of the most level headed posters here....

What!? You don't like the half ass artwork for the 50th reunion album or that cheesy "yearbook" !!??

For me, personally, I think the point was on topic because we're talking about something that happened during the same timeframe as was being discussed. Just my personal opinion, and nobody is required to agree.

In total fairness to Guitarfool, I mistakenly took Brian's quote out of context...Brian is referring to Smiley Smile (not Wild Honey) when he mentions that Mike inspired him. I keep forgetting there are Smiley Smile tracks on this set so I got confused when I was writing my rant of a post the other day. So if he was responding to my quote that's my bad for screwing the context of the quote up.

Wouldn't it be nice if a thread like this one did not have to turn into a Mike bash? It does get tiresome, especially since the Mike Brigade has chosen to take their crayons and move on...I mean, I understand the need to tweak those bozos now and again--like firing shots across the bow--but when a thread that is all about a fantastic archival release has to veer into the negative, we look worse than we really need to.

What I find to be among the most interesting aspects of BBs history is that WILD HONEY really is the last time that Brian and Mike seemed to work together "like the old days." It was a LOT more sporadic from that point on. So the question to ask is--was there something specific that prompted that change? Mike's trip to India took him out of the bulk of the FRIENDS sessions; Brian had depression issues that welled up after the FRIENDS sessions...the only Brian/Mike songs until 1976 are "Do It Again," "Add Some Music," "All I Wanna Do" and "Cool Cool Water." Seems like Jack Reiley had something to do with creating some additional separation between Brian and Mike as a songwriting team...

*Oops...I didn't read closely before replying*

Mike has more than one or two faults, Jay--just like most of us. His are just writ larger than most of us, in large part because he is in the public eye and seemingly has a giant need to keep stirring the pot.

And let's not escalate the antagonism here with loaded words like libel. You're not helping with what you wrote--and you know it.

Exactly. THANK YOU Don! Let's talk about the music. And when warranted, in other threads, those other things may come up and be of use, but not in a thread about the release of a bunch of super cool unreleased stuff.


Well, you are nearly correct. But there were a few more songs Brian and Mike did together during the Rieley era that you didn't mention; those being "He Come Down" (a Wilson-Love-Jardine co-write) and "Funky Pretty" (a Wilson-Love-Rieley co-write)  but as a whole your point still stands. And one has to wonder why this was.

*never mind*

Does anybody know what the unreleased Redwood instrumental is?

*Oops. Double post*

Somebody said it was on one of SOTs on this thread. Look up here.

All rab and gf2002 meant was there was darkness lurking behind the "sunshine tomorrow" that this release is trying hush up quietly.....

I don't think the release of 1967: Sunshine Tomorrow is trying to "hush" anything up.
Every member of this band is really excited about this and talking lovingly and freely about how much they loved this particular era and the work they did.
To a man, they were absolutely free of any angle, or politics, or spin and flowing with compliments and stories about each other.

The only ugliness I've seen regarding this project is here.

Exactly Howie. It sure sounds like this project was something the guys enjoyed speaking about with you, and I think it's super unfortunate certain people who should know better have to always cast a shitty look upon it just because Mike Love is involved. The man did lots of great work as it pertains to the lyrics and vocals, especially on Wild Honey. So hows about we cast aside the agendas for a while and enjoy this project, and give Brian, Mike, Al and company a reason to think that maybe they should release something like this every year!

I know there are those on the other "side" that are still pushing their nonsense, but how about we rise above it?

...is what I actually heard at my record retailer's, today.

I told him about ST, and he was very pleased with the news (the set hasn't been announced in his database yet, but it will happen). He's no diehard, but finds this phase in their career delightful; and some minutes later a couple joined our conversation. They were Beatles fans, but still told me that they at least would listen to ST.

What I bought?

The new Big Star tribute, new re-releases of two seminal reggae albums, and Debussy's La Mer - Prélude - Nocturnes, with Barenboim.

Agreed sweetdude on rising above, it's just hard after the last few years...

Staying with the little digression about Brian-Mike songwriting...I appreciate the correction on the songs, I simply omitted them because they were not Brian-Mike by themselves and we are missing some of the circumstances that may ensued in terms of how these songs came about.

Perhaps when we get to those LPs and we have archival releases for them (we can only hope!) some of these details will emerge. We can hope that Howie might find a way to coax some recollections at that time.

As for the minor dustup in the recent pages of this thread: it's all true that 1967 was an incredibly tumultuous year for the BBs. Much intrigue, and many heroes and villains (sometimes the same guy!). But what this new archival release is designed to do is remind us just how much music the band managed to produce in a year that started with them on top of the world and ended with a lot of folks in the world of music scratching their heads. Time has vindicated the band and the music, and their willingness to put this out there as a testament to their ability to survive and even thrive creatively is what is being celebrated with this release. Celebrate the news!!

returning to the DARLIN' Redwood issue and exactly what/when lyrics Mike Love wrote,  there is contradiction and inaccuracy to pass around.  Brian took the old THINKING 'BOUT YOU BABY melody and gave it the title DARLIN' for the first Redwood single based on Danny Hutton's use of the expression.  They (Redwood) even recorded it as a Brian Wilson production because it's been said "the Redwood vocals on DARLIN' were erased and no longer exist".  What lyrics did Redwood sing--new ones written by Mike Love, and the same as Carl sang when it became a Beach Boys tune before long?  Personally I don't think so, even if Mike supported a Redwood single-only release in theory

Looking at the year in terms of their recording and releases, this was an incredible "downer" year for the Beach Boys who seemed directionless.  Smile is abandoned.  Carl is in trouble for refusing the draft.
 They pass on Monterey.  Heroes is released and makes a disappointing 12 on the charts briefly before disappearing.  Smiley makes only 41 on the album charts, a new low for the Boys.  The live album is abandoned after recording the live concerts and a fake studio concert.  Brian decides to get into an "R & B bag" but the Wild Honey single continues the descent with a 31 placing, while Darlin' seems to be a small step in the right direction with a 19 placing. The Beach Boys are castigated in Rolling Stone, the arbiter of hipness, as being too caught up in trying to catch up with the Beatles, and suddenly their music has gone from cutting edge to irrelevant and old fashioned.  Brian tries to get something going with Redwood where he wouldn't have the Beach Boys/Smile/surf and car baggage but is denied by Mike and the group.

But as Don pointed out, through it all they were making incredible music that has more than stood the test of time.  This release will be both a vindication of Brian's vision and direction (or lack of direction, whatever - it seemed to work out for the music) and show that during the "years in the wilderness" between 1967 and 1971 (when they suddenly became hip again with Surf's Up)they were an incredibly productive and creative band.

A candle glows brightest right before blowing out..... :hat

100% agreed!!!

I'm really glad that a release like this is coming out where all the living participants seem legitimately enthusiastic.

Is there another post-Wild Honey release that could possibly garner such across the board enthusiasm from the living band members? Excepting Love You, the album Friends was Brian's last stand as a really major contributor to a BB album, yet that album has much less Mike presence, so would Mike be as hot on a big Friends reissue? I hope so, but I do wonder.

I guess if this set does sell well (which fortunately it seems it will do), and future box sets come out for other post-Wild Honey releases, at minimum the band members will probably put on an enthusiastic face to promote, if it means more moola for them. Kind of how Mike put on somewhat of a reluctant happy face about The Smile Sessions, even though I'm sure that material is not something that brings him as much joy or fond memories as Wild Honey. I suppose Brian would have no reason to be less than enthusiastic about a Sunflower deluxe release, even though his involvement was more minimal.

I have already pre-ordered two copies of Sunshine Tomorrow, one as a gift. Has anyone else on this board pre-ordered more than one?

You make some interesting points Century. And that's why you're one of my fave posters!  ;D

But yeah, as far as all the guys being gung-ho for a release, you've got a point. I know that Bruce has said that he thought Friends was "wimpy" and that in his opinion he didn't "think we were doing anything where Brian was at full strength." Now he has has said that he thinks the song "Friends" is fabulous though, and therein you have you're Bruce quote for the release saying how much he loved that song, and how he also got two tracks on the next album ("Bluebirds Over the Mountain" and "The Nearest Faraway Place"). I also remember Mike on the Warmth of the Sun Podcast where he was saying something like while "Friends" was a nice song, it was a waltz* and he couldn't understand how radio would play a song like that. As far as Brian and Al, I'm sure both would love a more in-depth examination of the Friends era.

Then as you go through the other years, I wonder really what you have to work with. So what I'm thinking would be next year covering Friends and 20/20 and 2019 doing Sunflower probably? Since a lot of the material was recorded in 1969. Then I suppose 2020 might be kinda quiet, although I think sometime between 2020 and maybe 2023 we might finally get that early '70s Denny solo album we've been waiting so long for. So that might be kinda neat. And who knows, maybe there is still early '70s treasure to be found from Brian and company. It seems for the most part that all the gold has been mined in those hills but who knows? Maybe there is more?


*Mike also apparently has trouble pronouncing the world waltz, pronouncing it something like "walse," though I admit I've heard other people pronounce it that way as well.

Thanks for the kind words, sweetdudejim. And I agree about your sentiment that it would be good to stir up less negativity when possible, especially in threads like this. I'm guilty of that sometimes too, I have no qualms admitting that.

20/20 is one of my absolute fave BB albums, yet I fear it'll get the short shrift because the band wants to avoid the Manson connection as much as humanly possible, and also because the 50th anniversary of that album is also the the 50th anniversary of  the murders. It's a damn shame that Never Learn Not to Love has never attained the dignity it deserves as a production, because as I mentioned in some earlier thread long ago, I feel certain that if that exact same song had no Manson connection, we'd have already seen an instrumental version released as a Hawthorne, CA type of bonus track situation, and maybe an alternate or vocals-only version. IMO it's THAT good, and possibly the closest Denny ever got to getting a Brian vibe with the backing vocals (maybe they were ghost-arranged by Brian?).

Anyway, crossing my fingers that we'll get more in the future. I absolutely REALLY feel we'll get a Sunflower deluxe release, since that's widely regarded by critics and fans as a solid contender for arguably the best BB album after Pet Sounds. (Tears in the Morning excepted!)

Buy more than one copy! Get a gift for a BB nut or two!

If only there were a Beach Boys album crying out for a bit of renewed attention in such a year!

1. That many fans care about this (or any BBs) CD's chart is really puzzling. I don't understand what big importance there is if it's sitting at #97, #3, #12 etc.
2. Reply to CenturyDeprived - forgive me saying this but your point about 50th T-LB murder Anniversary is absolutely stupid. 1st, it's done deal & very ancient case. Then, generally, the hypersensitive attitude by some of you about Manson connection baffled me since I read related posts. Why do we care if 1) BBs didn't kill these celebs 2) they recorded NLNTL before the murders Edit: 3) BBs track differs from Manson's demo. Therefore, there shouldn't be even question or point made about 20/20 Anniversary coinciding with murders' 50 jubilee. So what if it does? It wouldn't do BBs reputation any bad.

No worries, I read it the same way and apparently the post and the poster you're replying too here did as well. Maybe it's an issue with floating a quote like that in a press release and having it be taken to be applied to something else. We all thought it was Wild Honey as written above. No worries.

That was my issue when I read it. Brian had said regarding Redwood "Mike really put the screws on me". Contrast that with reading "Mike inspired me", again perhaps a mistake made in the context of that comment toward SS versus WH. He's also said they did not want him producing Redwood. And Carl's quote always stands out too because it's essentially what happened with the Wild Honey album - Brian wanted to go into more of an R&B and Motown direction, and he was tired of people relating their vocals to choirboys. So - On the album, Brian and Carl sang their guts out with a harder edge. Mike's vocals are the ones throughout the album, ironically, that were softer and gentler, even though he was the R&B guy. And this was even before he started meditating, when Brian and Carl had already explored some of those paths.

What I don't understand is this talk of negativity in bringing up what happened with Redwood. Despite some attempts to rewrite or dismiss what actually happened by some circles, it actually did happen as reported. It's fact. And the music surrounding Brian's project with Redwood is not only featured on this box set, but it's also a big part of what was happening in Fall '67, specifically the time period and music being featured on this box set. So it's at least relevant if fans wish to discuss it when discussing the box set which covers the period and the music being referenced. Right?

For me, a fascinating part of this is obviously we all know what happened to Redwood as Three Dog Night. They went on to huge commercial and popular success, as one of the top American bands of the 70's. Tens of millions of records sold.

And there was Brian who saw and heard something in this group to the point where it inspired him to want to write for and produce them. That's what Brother was set up in large part to do - To have a label outlet where the band members could bring in other artists and have a label to release the works. It was the template for what The Beatles and other groups would eventually do. Yet, there was Mike putting the kibosh on the deal, and trying to back-door the group with a lesser offer so Brian could not only work exclusively on producing the next BB album, but also write for the family band. It's no wonder Brian thought it was similar to some of what Murry did in the past regarding outside artists versus the family.

So yes, I am fascinated by the notion of not only the Redwood tapes and songs themselves, but also a group which would find enormous success a few years later walking out the door with Mike that time at Heider's studio. It's on a level with Decca's infamous rejection of The Beatles. They let a goldmine slip away. That must hurt.

Negativity? No - discussion on relevant topics.

Great points. See, the Redwood thing is relevant because it shows where Brian was at...this and Wild Honey marked the only time Brian went for a more edgy sound;  it's interesting to think about what would've happened had he got the support he needed.  Of course maybe we wouldn't have had gotten Friends,  and that would've sucked. ..

When I first read the track list for this release, tears came from my eyes. I was not expecting anything like this. It's like the 6th and 7th disc of the Smile sessions.
I'm also awed at the vastity of what must still lie unreleased in the vaults, and (again) at the greatness of the Beach Boys, which is beyond words.
Tears again as I'm writing this.

This.

I too am amazed about this 'vastity', incredible.

You know what? You're totally right. By constantly bringing up the worst of the what the guys in the group can do, keeping everything Brian versus Mike, you've been defending Brian's honor, and keeping the focus where it should be, which is on behind the scenes kerfuffles and intra-band nonsense, instead of on the absolutely beautiful music that Brian has given us.

And the thing is, nearly all of us know about the Redwood incident and we know that Brian didn't do a thing wrong. But you know what? You should keep going over it again and again so we can keep retreading this unfortunate part of Beach Boys history. Andrew Doe and his lackeys are long gone. Everybody agrees that this was a dark day. But let's push that at the expense of talking about how "All Day All Night" differs from "Whistle In" or what on earth made the guys wanna re-record "Hide Go Seek" as a 1967 Beach Boys tune. Surely Brian would prefer we talk about moments he'd rather forget than talking about his music.

You're barking up the wrong tree if you're trying to take personal shots at me to get a reaction, which is exactly what's playing out here. If you want commentary and opinions on the music, it's happening and will continue to happen in the discussion. If you want to air personal issues or grind axes, either do it off the board or don't bother at all.

What will not stand is this kind of post where you're preaching about what you think is or isn't appropriate to discuss here and trying to put whatever your personal beefs are against me or whoever/whatever else into this. It was bad enough what happened with Desper, so how about taking a deep cleansing/calming breath and sticking to what YOU want to discuss instead of trying to impugn what others want to post or discuss?

I would think the best approach to getting Mike on board for a Friends-era release would be to push the TM angle. Give Mike a platform to talk about how much TM has meant to him over the years, his trip to India, Back in the USSR again (if necessary), how TM affected the group's dynamics and sound, the band's relationship with the Maharishi, etc. I think there's a lot of potential there...

I suppose I will try to hope that discussion will return to the important stuff after this intermission, but I will say I think there is a conspiracy going on here. And trust me, if you saw the information I have on this, you might be wont to change your mind. Just sayin'...

Not only edgy, especially with Brian's and Carl's more soul-infused and "belting" vocals, but also stripped down. And that's where a track like Redwood's Time To Get Alone really stands out. It seems Brian was still the same Brian with the same grand production ideas from 66-67, cutting large groups of musicians at Heider's #3 - again, an exact copy of his old favorite room Western 3 - and throwing in a lot of his more unique sounds and arranging ideas from the Smile era.

So he never abandoned those ideas, I think the push was on for the Beach Boys to be self-contained and start playing as a group again, studio and live. I cannot get out of my mind that the criticism the touring group had been receiving on those tours prior to summer '67 played into this decision and sudden shift in sound. They wanted to be able to play live what was on the records, and I think Hawaii was the demonstration of that. The arrangements were changed to allow a self-contained band to do what they did on stage in Hawaii, and the Wild Honey album that followed was even more of a return to a self-contained group cutting the tracks versus having additional musicians anywhere near the level of PS/Smile.

Friends is interesting because it seemed to strike a balance of all of these elements. There were more session players involved than on WH, yet the band was still primarily the band cutting the tracks in the studio. And the types of songs on Friends, as short of an album as it was, also strikes a balance between the "heavier" sound of WH, the PS/Smile blends, and some which were new for the band too. They tried stripped down R&B which was a little jarring for their audience to have come out of nowhere with WH, then they went for a more reasonable balance between the studio production of the past year and the self-contained studio band vibe.

But what a set like this will show - minus what fans already know with Redwood and the like - is that Brian never abandoned his studio ideas of 66/67.

He shifted those ideas and working methods, including the large groups of session players, to Redwood and went for the leaner sound with the BB's. And I still think a lot of that played into the band being able to reproduce the records on stage after getting criticism in 67 that they were not successfully doing so in the press.

Conspiracy?  What are you even going on about? Nobody was taking shots at anybody until you started with it. As mentioned previously,  these posts were on topic because we were discussing things that were occurring during the time period in question. 

So yeah, let's see this "information " so we can drop the crap and get back on topic.

Ha, you called my bluff. I may or may not have been poking fun at a moderator of this board who sees everything as an underground plan to take him down and install Andrew G. Doe as President of all things Beach Boys.

I apologize for that. However, my point does still stand that, even as much as I detest so much about Mike Love and his greedy, Trump loving, insecure, jealous self, we could try to have this board not be a place to take potshots from the moderator all the time. As you just saw, I think there's a lot about the guy not to like. But I do think, and I think you know it too, that one of the moderators here does sure seem to take things a hell of a lot more personally than the other one, and also has apparently deemed himself Brian's online attack dog despite the fact that I don't think Brian needs one. And I'm done. If this gets me banned, so be it. I love this board, but I have noticed a pattern of unfairness from the one moderator and the quote about the Heider Redwood sessions just set me off.

Lastly, I do apologize for sticking this in the middle of the thread about this awesome release. Could we possibly move all offending posts between me, you and GF to the sandbox?

Anyway, crossing my fingers that we'll get more in the future. I absolutely REALLY feel we'll get a Sunflower deluxe release, since that's widely regarded by critics and fans as a solid contender for arguably the best BB album after Pet Sounds. (Tears in the Morning excepted!)

Buy more than one copy! Get a gift for a BB nut or two!
[/quote]

Plan to do just that, buying several copies in fact!  However don't get the slam on Tears in the Morning?  Could you be more specific about what you don't like about the track?  To me it is one of the highlights of the disk.

The Manson Connection has probably helped the BBs reputation with certain types of folks!  Not saying that it should, but, it is almost always mentioned in media discussions of Dennis and the Boys circa this time period....

For me it´s a highligt also

Um... I don't think it's a stupid point to make. Firstly, it's not how *I* personally feel about it; the Manson murders are very tragic, and it's unfortunate that this band has any tangential association, but I don't let it affect my enjoyment of Denny's music from that era, including Never Learn, which I think is one of his best productions, and as I said before... criminally underappreciated by the band themselves (it's been on no official BB compilations or anything like that after almost 50 years), so I tend to think the band has historically avoided the song for a reason.

My only fear is that there are a bunch of people who might feel the need to trip out about the connection, and that Capitol might continue to avoid giving the track any type of attention due to the unfortunate tangential association. I agree that is a stupid thing to happen on all counts, but don't call the act of my merely mentioning it "stupid"; I'm just stating an unfortunate reality of the public perception by some people as well as probable related corporate fear. This is probably a thing that has been discussed behind the scenes by the powers that be before. I suppose I could simply put my head in the sand, FDP-style, and pretend that this is not the case. But that would be stupid. I'm just trying to be realistic.

At a time when their musical output was being ignored commercially and they were out of favor and out of style with the rock world, the unusual Manson connection provides them with some "edge" and  collaterally connects them to the more violent and dark underbelly of the aftermath of the "love generation."  That PR angle may make this period more of interest to music fans who are unfamiliar with it.

Plan to do just that, buying several copies in fact!  However don't get the slam on Tears in the Morning?  Could you be more specific about what you don't like about the track?  To me it is one of the highlights of the disk.
[/quote]

I don't completely hate Tears in the Morning, I just find it a bit cheesy and kinda meh on the whole. I don't have to run to my player to skip it, but it's also not a track I'd ever really seek out to listen to on its own. Although the very end of the song from "I'm missing you..." on is pretty cool. I'd listen to Tears over Student Demonstration Time and When Girls Get Together.

Since we are on the topic of Redwood/Heider--despite a number of efforts from various posters to importune one of the moderators to just let it go (to little avail...)--I think we need to debunk a myth that keeps cropping up whenever the discussion of that event resurfaces.

What myth is that? The myth that Brother would have made a fortune with Redwood. This is a retrospective illusion that began with a questionable assertion by David Leaf back in the 1980s and seems to live in the minds of folks who need to add more drama and irony to the BB story.

There is NO evidence whatsoever that Brian Wilson would have been a commercially successful fit as producer for Redwood, and that the aborted efforts undertaken in 1967 were destined for huge chart success. Indeed, as a producer, Brian had no outside commercial success whatsoever. The assumption that Redwood (which underwent a series of stylistic changes in 1968 as they morphed into Three Dog Night) was going to storm the charts and make Brother a ton of money is just that--an unfounded and unprovable assumption.

It's based on the fact that Three Dog Night became a huge success from 1969-76. Somehow there is an assumption that because Three Dog Night, with its yodel-y version of Nilsson's "One" serving as springboard for success on AM radio, hit it big in 1969 that we can backtrack to 1967 with "Darlin'" and take it to the bank that their version of the song would have been a bigger hit than the BBs.

And then there's the underlying situation with Brother itself. Capitol was distributing Brother, and everyone was just coming out of a protracted set of disputes that in no way helped the band when their 1967 Brother releases appeared ("H&V" by far the best at #12, but considered by most to be a significant setback at the time; SMILEY SMILE taking a bath despite having "Good Vibrations" included; "Gettin' Hungry" sinking without a trace, and curiously marketed by Brother as "Brian & Mike").  What makes us think that the BBs had a business operation in place that could have provided the necessary support to a Redwood single in the fall of 1967? What makes us think that Capitol was particularly motivated to aggressively market anything that came from the Brother imprimatur? After all, it was summarily abandoned with the release of WILD HONEY.

I remember the first time David Leaf broached the idea that the BBs had had a incredibly ironic lost opportunity. That part made sense, but the idea that Brian was necessarily the right producer for Redwood/Three Dog Night--particularly based on the recordings they made in subsequent years--seemed like a total stretch at the time (1984-85) and that is still the case today. It's an exercise in needless myth-mongering for those who have some need to augment Brian's resumé when such is hardly necessary. In David's case, he was in the middle of advocating for Brian at record labels during this time, rewriting his book to cement the idea that Brian would be much better off going out on his own (a point that's hard to dispute, save for the identity of his "mentor" at the time...), and was caught up in the need to justify and accentuate Brian's importance in the commercial world of rock music (already moving into its "terminal" state in the mid-80s thanks to all the newly emergent technology).

It's a natural outgrowth of the times and the situation in which David was operating. It's also bad history.

We've all heard Redwood's work on "Time to Get Alone." Those of you who see it as a ticket to instant glory are clearly deluding yourself. The song is a very poor fit for those singers, who were clearly meant to do something significantly different stylistically than what the BBs were doing. (To get a better idea of this, go over to YouTube and listen to a track called "Mo-Jo Woman," a 1966 MGM single from The Enemys that features Danny Hutton and Cory Wells--this should make it clear how much of a stylistic stretch is being made given the natural predilections of the singers.)

Redwood was on the leading edge of a whole bunch of glorified bar bands, some of whom contained highly exploitable raw talent that fit with the commercial niches opening up at the end of the 60s, while others benefited from canny production and became big names (the Doobie Brothers and Ted Templemann, originally from Harpers Bizarre). Three Dog Night hit a giant sweet spot in that transition into the 70s, and they were great live due to the performance chops of the singers, but there was really precious little connective tissue between them and Brian Wilson (aside from his friendship with Danny Hutton) and it's really not that hard to play Devil's advocate and claim that Mike Love unwittingly did them a big favor when he went all territorial on Brian at Heider's.

Does that mean that Mike did the right thing in that moment? Of course not. But sometimes bad actions wind up having fortunate results. It's part of the complexity of life--and why it's ill-advised to make sweeping retrospective analogies and references that further distort what is already a complicated and opaque story.

How is it any different from Decca and the Decca executives who infamously passed on signing the Beatles getting challenged and even mocked as the folks who let the Beatles slip through their fingers? Go back to the point in time when Decca sent that rejection memo, and was there an indication that the Beatles in the near future would become what they did after EMI took a chance on them and signed them to what was their "joke" label Parlophone at the time? Most fans have now heard the "Decca Audition" tapes, was there anything special on there that would indicate what would happen in 1963 with that band, factoring in as well the replacement of Pete Best on drums at literally the last minute before cutting tracks with EMI? The Decca audition tapes are nothing special, but the point is Decca could have had them and passed on them, in part because they felt guitar bands were not "in".

Their mistake. But it's the same what-if scenario that happened with Redwood. Only a few songs got worked on before the plug was pulled, and it was when Brother was just beginning to do what it was set up to do, which is sign and develop outside artists.

It's just like The Beatles and Decca, despite the eventual results being what they were, it hasn't prevented 50+ years of Decca getting hammered if not mocked for letting a goldmine slip away before it had a chance to develop. Of course, it all worked out for both The Beatles and Redwood, but the discussion is about having something in your hands that had the potential to generate a lot of income and letting it slip through their respective hands. Stories like that are everywhere, of the ones that got away which went on to huge success with other projects and entities.

But the issue I think of is how it felt within Brother and the band/organization as Three Dog Night became a massive success and just like Decca, the thought must have been "we had them and let them go". It's part of the history on those and all related cases.

I also know that the ubiquitous song "Happy" as sung by Pharrell Williams was slated to go to Cee-Lo Green, but for a variety of managerial and other reasons Cee-Lo did not cut the track. So Pharrell decided to cut it himself, and it became one of the most successful songs and singles of the past 5 years or so. Tell me Cee-Lo isn't upset or even sad about knowing he had that goldmine in his pocket too and it slipped away. Same thing. Would it have become as big of a hit as Pharrell had with it? Who knows - no one can know - that's pure speculation. But that's also not the point. It's about seeing the potential in something or even grabbing opportunities when they're presented. Redwood/Beatles/Cee-Lo - all versions of the same thing.

I'd also say short of hearing how Brian cut "Darlin" with Redwood, a great song is a great song and the case can be made in hypothesis just as strongly that a tight R&B flavored take on Darlin from Redwood may have done better than the BB's own take on it. But we'll never know. So we discuss and speculate as fans do.

Simple.

Specifically addressed to you Don: I'll discuss the topic at hand, I enjoy doing so, but throwing this personal crap into the mix doesn't serve any purpose. So I'd invite a discussion on what is a relevant topic considering the material is being featured on the box set being discussed, but I'd ask that this other stuff be left out. 

I have to agree with this.

It actually originally started as a collaboration between Pharrell and Scott Weiland; it's one of the reasons why Scott's 2nd solo album was called "Happy in Galoshes", with the "in galoshes" part in a completely different font.  Something "happened" and that version never made it to Scott's album; *then* Cee-Lo was next.  It was re-written in the mean-time, but was not the first time Williams and Scott worked together.

That's a story for another thread though, as now we're getting off topic ;)

GF bashing seems to be a hobby.... ::)

There it is - More of the story. Exactly, and ultimately it was Cee-Lo who lost big because everytime I hear Pharrell's hit version, his vocal quality and sound are pretty damned close to how Cee-Lo sings and sounds as well. I can't un-hear Cee-Lo's voice on that song after knowing how plans collapsed that would have had Cee-Lo releasing that song.

It's just more of an example of something big slipping away, sometimes through no one's fault and sometimes through a specific decision that was made. But saying Redwood would not have been successful is like saying The Beatles would not have been successful if they had signed to Decca, and "Happy" would not be a hit if Cee-Lo sang it. No one knows. But talent is talent, and good catchy songs are good catchy songs no matter what happens to get in the way during the process.

 Some people have more bogus axes to grind than the actors manning the blacksmith booth at a Renaissance Fair.

I can't help but to think about Glen Campbell and "Guess I'm Dumb" along with this. It is/was a pretty great song, it wasn't a success, but it gave Glen a single on Capitol with related TV exposure as a solo vocalist to add to his resume, even though it predicted none of the massive success Glen would have in a few short years...as a solo vocal artist. I don't know who would have predicted that on the basis of that single. But I'd say Brian saw and heard something in him the same way he did with Redwood and wanted to cut records with him, even though the results were not commercially what they would soon become.

Talking about "what if" scenarios is fine, and sometimes fun. But it often portends a series of events that would have been so hugely different as to barely beg the "what if" question in the first place.

In cases where a label or company passes on an artist or product that then went on (usually immediately) to great success *in otherwise identical circumstances*, then the folks who passed on it should rightly kick themselves.

The Beatles/Decca thing is a whole can of worms, and I don't think anyone who has read Lewisohn's biography covering that timeframe could honestly say whether the Beatles would have had the same trajectory if they had been signed in January 1962 by Decca.

The Beach Boys kicking themselves over Redwood/Three Dog Night is a bit closer to Pete Best lamenting what would have happened had he stayed in the Beatles. It's a scenario that just wasn't realistic. It's almost certainly true that a full Redwood LP of songs produced and partly or mostly written by Brian wouldn't have been a huge hit, and then at that point we get into "Star Trek" level "alternate reality" scenarios where Redwood might have disbanded after that, or moved onto other projects. I doubt the Three Dog Night guys felt/feel they would have been as big or bigger had they linked themselves to Brian and Brother.

If Redwood had already changed their name to "Three Dog Night" and had their first hit album ready to go, and Brother passed on distribution or something, then maybe they should have been rightly kicking themselves.

And really, even in scenarios where someone passes on a seemingly "finished" product that goes on to great success, it's unclear if the same series of events would have unfolded. Atari passed on distributing Nintendo's "NES" in the early 80s. Would it have been successful still under Atari? Probably. But it would have been marketed differently, and by a company that had a bunch of their own baggage. So you never know.

It's probably true that while, interpersonally, and certainly *within* the BBs, Mike wasn't doing a good thing by throttling Brian's involvement with Redwood (Negron's story assures us of this), Mike probably did *unknowingly to all* do Redwood a huge favor by forcing them to steer to the later success they had.

And yeah, I think all of this is on topic and fair game, while I also think it's worth taking a step back and looking at how positive the surviving members are about "Sunshine Tomorrow" and how the project is MIRACULOUSLY side-stepping the FIFTY-SIX YEARS of awful band politics, and how one might be just snatching acrimony from the jaws of celebration by honing in so much on something that nobody seems to disagree was an awful moment for the band on a personal level.

I think a full, accurate history of everything to do with the band is immensely important. But I also know there are times when we should take the rare opportunity to coast on the euphoria of a new release like this. The whole Redwood thing is just one tiny morsel of the narrow (in the best way possible) focus of this new set.

So, for instance, as someone who will still drone on about C50 five years later, if all of a sudden BRI opened the flood gates and did a complete C50 show on Blu-ray and CD, un-futzed with, I probably wouldn't take *that precise moment* to lay into Mike again about how he blew the reunion. If the subject comes up, then fine. But if nobody is out there saying otherwise, I don't need to dredge it up again right at that moment. So with this Redwood thing, nobody is denying the story, right? Just because the press release for the set doesn't have a side-bar pointing out how Mike was a dick this one day about Redwood, it doesn't mean anything is being covered up. Read Howie Edelson's posts here over the years. This guy talks to *all* of the guys in interviews, is involved with this new set, and he tells it like it is. He has even specifically cited his conversation with Chuck Negron regarding the Redwood "incident." Is like a full page in the liner notes going to get into that nitty-gritty? Probably not, but do you want Mike to sign off on this stuff? As long as Mike isn't insisting on *changing* the story or something, then I have no problem just leaving the now *well-documented* Redwood incident out of liner notes if it means getting Mike to sign off on the stuff and for everybody to place as nice as a splintered band possibly could.

Just to clear the air here: I'm only concerned with the apparent unwillingness of a battle-scarred moderator to turn the other cheek in a thread where "bad vibes" were cropping up due to some strange need to remind us of the dark side of events in 1967 rather than simply celebrate the release of what looks to be a wonderfully conceived and executed revaluation of that most embattled year. This dispute is about that, and only that--there are no other axes being ground, "bogus" or otherwise.

I can only take this reaction as stemming from some kind of delayed PTSD from the trauma here. I am not trying to bash anyone personally, simply trying to remind folks to pay attention to the innate fragility of discourse as it occurs here. We are still trying to heal from a really lousy set of situations that transpired, and one thing that would really help is if everyone tried to put Archimedes' axiom at the forefront of what they post: do no harm.

As for Redwood/Three Dog Night--I referenced the significant talent in the band. I merely suggested that the form of their success was eventually matched to their natural predilections, which clearly are divergent from Brian's. Redwood had to shift 30-45 degrees, and get the type of focused production/A&R support that they needed (as non-writing performers) in order to tap their talent into the zeitgeist. That said, there is much more greatness and originality in "lowly" BB album cuts than in anything Three Dog Night ever did, their fantastic performance chops notwithstanding.

I'm wandering off for a bit, so that I will be sure to follow my own advice. I certainly hope GF will remember that I have great respect for his knowledge.

Final thought relevant to this thread--what is significant about the interest in the ST set is that it might be the greatest PR turnaround for the BBs since the release of Endless Summer. If they can turn people's interest to the 1967-73 years and bring that back into public scrutiny, the historical schisms that have plagued the band and its public might just be reconciled at last. Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished...

The key to having good PR buzzing around the band and the brand is to get all of that marketing synergy going even in their splintered state. The end of C50 showed us that even millions in tour proceeds and Top 3 LPs and rave reviews all around can't keep these guys artistically and physically *together*, so the next best thing is for them to follow the Apple model of all joining in on group archival projects, and hopefully cross-promoting the stuff on their various social media platforms and all of that good stuff. Will they go all out? I think the right team is finally in place to make that happen. Yeah, we probably won't see Mike promoting Brian's next solo album on his own Facebook page (though you never know....) anytime soon, but things are looking up for the *brand* for the first time in ages.

And who knows, maybe after massaging the situation for awhile on stuff like these archival releases, the right team being in place can get the guys to do something new together. But I don't want to get ahead of ourselves of course (and frankly, a vast archival program probably excites me more than the idea of a new group studio album anyway!).  :lol

My take away from the Redwood thing isn't so much "Brother had a fortune in their hands and threw it away" but rather the disrespect being shown toward Brian by the Boys. Chuck Negron has to know that things did work out in the end as far as his own group. But seeing Brian treated that way had to have been galling, which may be why it stood out to Negron.

That's my big issue. On topic, are there any stories about how the WH sessions themselves went, and what the prevailing mood was?

Right. And the lack of there ever being a morsel of public acknowledgement or owning up to said treatment, despite it obviously still bugging Brian enough to approve it being included in his autobio, with a finger pointed squarely at one band member in particular, who continues to la-di-da pretend that it never happened by simply omitting it from any discussion in 50 years. This effectively amounts to denial of said treatment, and I think that's what's very, very hard for some fans to simply put aside and pretend isn't a thing.

I want shitty treatment to be acknowledged by the perpetrators, and apologized for. Publicly. On Oprah. Kidding, but at the same time not really, because it would literally take SO much of the edge off for everyone who is bugged by it, especially probably including the guy who wrote about it in his bio. Brian said he wonders if Mike thinks about it or regrets it. In his damn bio. Like Cameron Diaz said in Vanilla Sky, "that means something".

Yep, I suppose I'm still advocating for a big public apology by Mike for lots of stuff, even though I know it'll never in a million years happen. Only because I truly believe it would help immensely in terms of healing relationships, as well as his reputation, if done sincerely.  I just want everyone to get along, and I dream for impossible things. Just my two cents on why people keep bringing this stuff up. I apologize in advance myself because I know it gets tiring, and I hate to contribute to negativity; the flipside is that I also hate to contribute to rewriting history, or pretending certain things didn't happen. I ain't down for that.

But I agree it's good to focus on the good at this point, and there appears to be lots of good stuff coming. I am glad that both Mike and Brian are both seemingly excited about this release. That's a good thing.

That's a great question which I hope gets explored too. The only reports offhand I can think of came from Brian, David Anderle, etc...the usual sources. Those reports ranged from what's pretty evident already, that the band knocked out the tracks pretty quickly and were doing it as a self-contained unit, which wouldn't be the case as much with the next album Friends that brought in more outside musicians, as I mentioned earlier. And there were reports of Brian wailing away on his vocals and playing piano, very into the performances, as well as Carl really getting into the R&B style of the music with his vocals, and even dancing around the studio as he recorded them.

As far as the mood, who knows. But as has been mentioned, considering what happened in those weeks, there had to be something there beyond the good vibes and harmony. But if asking about that aspect much less mentioning it gets tagged as going negative, it may have to remain unreported. But put yourselves into the positions the band was in after the Heider incident, ultimately they got the album done and did a good job but it would be natural if some tensions were hanging around there too. But they got it done.

Yes to all of this.

But. . . . . . . .

Someone somewhere's going to be having a shitty day and they're going to put on Sunshine Tomorrow and their day wont be sh*t anymore.

Beach Boys cure pain.

What is a great thing too is that hopefully the set and the focus on this era may get new fans interested in the material, or give people who are unfamiliar with it a chance to reappraise the music that was produced. It's what many of us have been trying to do for decades, introduce the music and get more people listening to it so they can hopefully find those nuggets to inspire and enjoy, songs like Aren't You Glad or even Little Pad which I love for specific reasons but which are nowhere near widely known.

And do you think with that renewed focus on the era which I'm sure will come with coverage in the music media as they start writing about this set, will there be questions about things like Redwood and Brother from these newer fans and "civilians", i.e. those not on fan boards and groups? The hypothetical is that people not as aware or invested in the group's story in this time frame may be surprised to learn the Beach Boys label was a half-step away from signing the group that would become Three Dog Night - I don't know how many average listeners will even know about that if conversations I've had with fans about even basic information is any indicator. So how would one answer a question like what happened with Redwood/TDN if the goal is to avoid negativity and focus on the music? It's part of the story because the tracks from Redwood are a part of the story, one of which became a favorite in concert even to this day which fans know. I'm just wondering because it may come up when these new fans and interested listeners discover that Darlin for one was not originally slated for the Beach Boys and has a backstory to it that involves another very popular band from the 70's. It's hard to separate the story from the music when they intertwine as they do in this case...does the answer to potentially curious fans ignore the story? I hope not.

And that sounds wonderful.

Won-Won-Wonderful,  in fact 8)

+1

Maybe rehabilitation centers will once again use the Smiley Smile tracks to help patients overcome substance dependence  ;)

Patch Adams had the right idea. I firmly believe that music heals. If not the body, at least the soul.  :)

You're absolutely right, we can't know whether the BW-produced Redwood material would have been a hit. It's just more myth-making from BW hagiographer David Leaf. And if they HAD hit it big, maybe we wouldn't have any of the BB records we love from the late 60's and 70's.

I think if Redwood had been produced by Brian, I don't think the group would have turned into Three Dog Night. I'm almost sure of it.  It's hard to say whether the group would have been successful with Brian at the helm. Although I can see them recording Soulful Old Man Sunshine, and I could see that becoming a big hit. 

That would've worked better than Time to get Alone.

I'm interested to learn how the production went with WH.  One track that I used to be iffy on but has become a favorite is Here Comes the Night . Looking forward to hearing it in pristine sound!

I think Time To Get Alone was especially unsuited for Chuck Negron's voice. He couldn't quite get high enough(no pun intended  ;D).

That's one of my favorites from WH. There are a few tracking sessions where the song had a more prominent  guitar part that seems to give the song a harder edge.

When Howie Edelson, perhaps in conjunction with Jon Stebbins, finally has the time to put together a Lewisohn-style bio on the BBs, I'm sure the Redwood saga can be delved into intricate detail, down to what Negron was wearing and how many doobs Danny Hutton had smoked during the session.

In the meantime, it is amazing how healing this music can be; this '67 music in particular.

This talk of "Wild Honey" and the '67 material, on into "Friends" and "20/20" material, has reminded me recently of how the third Capitol compilation "Sunshine Dream", following up on "Endless Summer" and "Spirit of America", might just be the most unique and (even if inadvertently) interestingly programmed set of them all (minus the BB Medley I guess). This might have been among my first entrees into some of that '67 material.

Anybody know if any of the BBs helped program the tracklisting on "Sunshine Dream?"

(https://littlewolfblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/beach_boys_back.jpg)

In hindsight, that set was prototype for Sunshine Tomorrow! 8)

Just be glad the *cover art* for "Sunshine Tomorrow" is immensely more elegant and appropriate than "Sunshine Dream."

Although, I guess it always made me want to go out and buy a pizza (that *is* supposed to be a pizza, right?)  :lol:

(http://www.beachboys.fr/images/sunshinedream.jpg)

What kind of pizza? :lol

Looks like a supreme to these eyes.  Maybe someone with inside knowledge can confirm. For what it's worth, Doe says that's a salami sub...

Someone who would know says its a sh*t sandwhich.... ;)

Looks like "Sunshine Tomorrow" is still selling well on Amazon. Good stuff.

I wonder if we might see a track or two released online (a la the "McCartney Archive Collection") before too long to help build buzz.

Maybe BRI could push some rare live videos to YouTube for this? Dig out a rare live concert version of "Darlin'" perhaps. I know there's not a lot of extant 1967 film material to use from SS and WH.

 :woot :woot :woot

Does anyone here know if BRI will be releasing a couple tracks online in order to give fans a sneak peak of what to expect? Capitol did it with the Sgt. Pepper's set, so it'd only make sense for them to do the same!

They also released a few live tracks prior to the Pet Sounds set last year.  Would be cool to have them release With A Little Help From My Friends to tie in with the Sgt. Pepper's set.

That's absolutely brilliant

Well, you know sometimes you just gotta let stuff go.  The "Redwood Incident" happened 50 years ago!  Fifty years ago people.  (damn some of us are getting old!).  And its not like it was the Kennedy assassination to start with....

 :lol  Indeed. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/what-s-on/music/music-interview-mike-love-on-the-beach-boys-endless-summer-1-8527766 (http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/what-s-on/music/music-interview-mike-love-on-the-beach-boys-endless-summer-1-8527766)

Mike sure can't! :lol

Then you'd better tell that to Brian too, who pointed the finger squarely at Mike about this specific incident in his autobiography, and went out of his way to wonder if Mike ever thought about it or regretted it. Brian has every right to have some unresolved pain about Mike's actions that day, as the mention in the book would lead me to surmise is the case.

Why can't Brian's cousin apologize or own up to anything? That's the question you should be asking.  Receiving sincere apologies from people (especially family) who have acted poorly is usually a pretty decent method to help hurt people "let stuff go."

It sure is. I hope somebody reads this and makes it happen. They could release the song(perhaps both mixes) as a limited cd single.

Or it's just a piece of band history relevant to this release. I mean, I understand this incident is rather inconvenient for some fans who can't seem to live with Mike getting a little flack for his past actions. For the rest of us, it's a moment that certainly shaped and defined what Wild Honey turned into...and considering this is a messageboard whose sole purpose is to discuss such things, I don't see why such discussions are sensitive to some here.

Sure, when I first listen to this amazing set I'm not going to be thinking about band politics/scuffles...and I know I will enjoy the music...we certainly all will. But that doesn't mean we can't discuss relevant topics (such as song credits or a studio incident that helped bring an amazing song to this album) just because they happened 50 years ago, because they are supposedly negative, or because some here are a little sensitive to these topics.

Thank you Guitarfool for writing some great posts above. Spot on.

This is exactly the sort of release news that I periodically check the board for. As another poster mentioned, it feels like I'm dreaming to see all those tracks in one place. My favourite period in one package. God I'd love it if they'd done the whole set on vinyl but it's cool that stereo WH is getting the vinyl treatment as a supplement to this set. Am preordering both today. Can't believe I overlooked this thread and news the last time I checked the board!

Where are UK folks preordering their copies of WH stereo vinyl? I can't see it on Amazon and Diverse Vinyl don't have it listed.

"Cheese pizza." – Brian Wilson

I forgot! :hat

Anyone know if SS is getting the same 180G reissue treatment as WH?

Absolutely, this incident was yet another among many examples of appalling behavior by Mike Love that deserve to be discussed to whatever degree anyone finds them interesting no matter how long ago they took place, an absurd criteria. I have a balanced view of the man and IMO the reactionary, hypersensitive recent support of him is just as onerous as the knee-jerk bashing he routinely receives.

It arrived there today. I've deposited it safely in my shopping basket.
There's one problem, if you can call it that. If I add another item costing 1 eurocent I won't need to pay postage costs. I'll have to think about that. :hat     

There's already a great pressing of the mono and stereo version of SS by Analogue Priductions. I have the stereo and it sounds excellent.

Does anyone know if "TARGET" will have a special extra CD version? I think I'll wait to order it till find out!

Just as a side note, I love your avatar - one of my favourite albums!

Thanks! Me too - The Brazilian Sgt Pepper!

While anything is possible, I would tend to doubt this is likely. It has been awhile since the last retailer-exclusive bonus tracks were added to an archival BB release. Wasn't the last one "Warmth of the Sun" back in 2007, which added a download-only live bonus track? Subsequent sets like "Smile Sessions", the PS 50th box, the "Party" set, and so on, didn't add retailer exclusive bonus tracks.

Brian's NPP in 2015 did, but new solo albums are a whole other ball of wax, where retailer bonus tracks are much more common and almost seemingly *expected* in some cases. Often, Brian's exclusives over the past decade-plus have been some sort of iTunes or other "digital" exclusives.

I recall there was an Amazon-exclusive version of Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged with an added lithograph. I imagine any potential exclusive would be in this vein (i.e. added merchandise instead of music).

Yeah, I think non-musical exclusives would be a bit more likely. Amazon has done that sort of thing in the past. Ironically, they also got a musical exclusive with Brian's Disney album, where Amazon's CD as I recall had one extra song and Amazon's digital version had two exclusives.

The 2CD Pet Sounds release at Best Buy came with a code to receive a free 7" record.

Yes; I would count that sort of stuff as more of the swag variety like the "Party" snapshots, etc. as opposed to exclusive, unique music tracks.

"Absolutely, this incident was yet another among many examples of appalling behavior by Mike Love that deserve to be discussed to whatever degree anyone finds them interesting no matter how long ago they took place, an absurd criteria. I have a balanced view of the man and IMO the reactionary, hypersensitive recent support of him is just as onerous as the knee-jerk bashing he routinely receives".

I too have a balanced view of Mike, I believe.  He, like most of us, is far from perfect.  Just as Brian is far from perfect.

But when someone is constantly under attack, is it not a bit unfair to condemn some for simply defending that person?  I guess you can call anything reactionary.  I guess if you saw someone mugging a pedestrian on the street and called the cops someone could call you reactionary and hypersensitive.

No, the onus of poor behavior is upon those who instigate it.  Some criticism of Mike is fine....to keep going over the same plowed over fields ad nauseam just seems to be motivated by malice.

The endless repetition of ancient purported behavior by the Mike bashers appears to be simply a case of them being malicious.  It would be as galling as me bringing up that Brian was a poor father to Carnie and Wendy over and over, or mentioning that Brian was a drug addict over and over.  Which I don't do nor would I do.  We basically on this board are all acquainted with the character and behavioral faults of the various group members at various times in their history.

Besides what is the point...it is not like bashing Mike over the Redwood incident is going to change history.  And ancient history at that!

It appears that the principals involved with this new release all seem to be on board and pushing in the same direction and even are perhaps, gasp, getting along together to a certain degree....given that, one wonders why some in the fan base want to needlessly put a turd in the punch bowl though.

I wonder how many of these folks constantly throw up things like this to their own friends and family members?  I would hate to be with someone who constantly brought up my perceived or real imperfections or mistakes that I may have made 25 years ago or even 25 days ago.

In the liner notes of the new release, Brian apparently credits Mike with being an inspiration for Smiley Smile.  Well, oh hell, the Mike haters can't stand for that.  Heaven forbid that something said even by Brian should be allowed to stand on its own as a nice thing to say about Mike.

That is one thing about today's society though.  Anyone with a keyboard can be judge or jury of another person and apparently are more than happy to be so.

I would say such dysfunction will hurt future efforts to promote the group to new listeners, but I fear that battle has already been lost.  As a friend of mine said, "oh Beach Boys fans, the hard core ones....they're the worst!".
 

 
   
 

First of all, if anyone thinks hardcore *Beach Boys* fans are the worst, then they haven't dabbled in the "hardcore" fan base of very many areas. The most obsessive, weird, missing-the-forest-for-the-trees, has-twenty-sealed-copies-of-an-album-they've-never-actually-heard Beach Boys fan pales in comparison to how bad it gets in other fields of interest.

There are a lot of things I don't like about BB fandom skewing older (compared to bringing on younger fans of, say, the Beatles, etc., and yes, I know there are plenty of young BB fans, which is great), but one good thing is that BB fandom has almost completely avoided the type of flamers and trolls who consider themselves "fans" of something online, the people who post endlessly on reddit and "4chan" and all of that.

Setting that aside, I'd say bringing up the Mike/Redwood stuff four days after the conversation died down here is kind of re-introducing the turd to the punch bowl after the bowl was empty and run through the dishwasher.

In the interest of talking about this amazing "Sunshine Tomorrow" set, let's get back to ideas of introducing some teaser for the set to YouTube and the like. What does everyone think? Would it be better to push one of the better, more recognizable songs via a stereo remix, or would it be better to push one of the outtakes? I'd say a kick-ass stereo remix of "Wild Honey" or "Darlin'" or "Here Comes the Night" might be a good way to get *new* ears on this stuff, to indeed look at this as the "Holy s**t! This is what they did after "Smile", and it's different but kinda just as good!" release.
 

Agreed 100% with every point here. Thank you for being one of the most consistent and well articulated voices of reason around here, why I keep coming back to this board and this topic in particular because oh man is this an exciting release. And the traction it seems to be getting and building upon only makes me more excited for more dedicated sets in the future, more than likely yearly releases if the copyright extension compilations have proven anything, although will we really have to wait until 2021 to get some great unreleased Surf's Up material, and then wait another 6 years to get any substantial Love You and Adult/Child bonus cuts? That's a bummer of a wait unless the success of this makes an incentive to release this kind of much-sought-after stuff sooner rather than later.

And yeah, I would really like a sampling of what we're gonna in this set considering it's only 3 weeks away from being our hands/headphones (still an exciting thing to think about!). Maybe a cool cut from the Lei'd sessions, like the Sloop John B version that's never been heard before. Would love to hear a slowed down version of an already massively popular song, and I think a lot other people would too.

If you look at the post I was defending, it was one that was a reasonable response to a reactionary criticism of the subject of the Redwood incident being brought up, as if by "getting over it" the poster meant that it was now irrelevant and should never be brought up again under any circumstances, no matter how germane it might be or how much it might shed light or provide perspective on band dynamics, which is simply silly.

I wasn't condemning anyone for defending Love, I was questioning the summary dismissal and invalidation of the subject in general, as having taken place so long ago that no one should ever discuss it or think about it any more. I would also suggest that your name here is not indicative of impartiality with regard to Love, although it may be merely a coincidence.  I too am extremely excited about the impending project's release but I don't think that an obligatory, conformist peer pressure not to deviate whatsoever from the positivity program is in anyone's best interests, although it's unfortunate that this subject has arisen in a thread devoted to expressions of anticipation and appreciation for the bright future that now seems to await the prospects for further archival releases. I doubt whether the prospects for attracting new fans to the group are materially affected by any dissection of intra-band dynamics, those would have to be shallow potential devotees indeed. Mr. Love himself has already said and done plenty of things through the years to repel converts to the music, which is after all the thing that will hopefully resonate with discerning folks who have their ears and hearts open.

I would add that you have used YOUR keyboard to throw shade in my direction, in a rather passive-aggressive manner which I find somewhat annoying.

BTW, "turd in the punch bowl", vivid and descriptive as it may be, is a truly nauseating metaphor that I would strongly advise you to consider eliminating from your repertoire of cliches.

I hope you weren't referring to my "bringing it up" as was quoted in the post that you are in part replying to. I didn't notice the date of the original post standing up for the potential relevance of the subject, and upon review it looks like although it was indeed a couple of days before I defended it, I wasn't part of the conversation at that time and just interjected on an impulse when I felt compelled to.

I care about where it sits on the charts and how many copies it sells because the better it does, the more likely we are to see more of this sort of thing. And in the case of the Beach Boys archives, it can make a difference in how the material is released. If this sells well, we are more likely to see physical releases of archival material rather than the download-only releases, which, while appreciated and enjoyed, don't quite hit the spot for me.

Is that a Good, Bad, and the Ugly reference I see? 

But he doesn't have the treasure.... ;)

I was only referring to the post from "Mike's the Greatest" and that it reintroduced the Mike/Redwood stuff that hadn't been discussed for four days.

No big deal, I've just been on message boards for so long that I've seen many times a slightly contentious discussion/topic just wind down on its own, only for someone to click reply days or weeks or months later, possibly not even noticing that what they're responding to isn't a particularly new post and thus they're kind of resurrecting the contentious topic. In all fairness, I'm sure at some point I've replied to old posts in a thread too.

I agree about the copyright releases.  At the end of the day, they can cost more than a physical release, and you only get an MP3 or a CDR.

There's two kinds of people in this world, Tuco -- those who license the Beach Boys' name, and those who resent it.

While I always prefer physical release, and I do think there can be an archival program that includes key physical releases (lavish sets, boxed sets, etc.), the type of large-scale archival project I'd like to see is one that would have to include digital-only releases. I don't think that's a problem, and even many of the digital-only releases have seen full CD quality (and in some cases high-rez) downloads offered as opposed to only lossy versions.

What I see in the future is a large cache particularly of live recordings, as in numerous shows from multiple tours where digital releases would be the only way to go (perhaps released day and date with a nice overview CD boxed set).

Not a bad idea, HeyJude, but I'd like to see printable album inserts also released, so those of us who burn the digital-only tracks to a physical CD could have liner notes and artwork, etc. Right now I have to create my own inserts.

I think that would be fair in lieu of a physical release.

I'm all for as many fan-friendly moves as possible. Printable covers and all of that sound great. But as a fanbase, while I think it's fine to throw suggestions like that in there, I think it's important for BRI and Capitol/UMe to not assume the fanbase is not so picky or stubborn as to still make the lack of a physical release component a big deal. Those companies may then assume fans won't buy the stuff if all they see is a digital-only release.

Let me reiterate, I'm a physical release guy. I'd prefer to have everything on CD. But that went out the door like a decade ago, and it's especially not going to happen if BRI actually authorizes a *vast* archival program along the lines of an Elvis/FTD or Dick's Picks sort of thing. And frankly, if they built up an archive of *dozens of dozens* of live show releases for instance, I'd actually prefer a less costly digital release. I'd rather pay 5 or 10 bucks for a download of a live show than pay $25 for physical CD release *only if* it gets into dozens and dozens of releases, because I wouldn't be able to afford an archive of like 50 shows at $25 a pop.

I think for some time there will still be room for physical release as the sort of capstone for a wider archival program. Key multi-disc sets/boxed sets for certain eras and albums, and a nice compilation of live stuff in a boxed set. Then, when it gets more into the voluminous bulk of stuff for the hardcores, it would almost certainly have to go download-only, other than the outside of chance of partnering with Amazon to do "MOD" discs or something.

It's a big deal to me, so raising "the stink" about that kind of thing is totally necessary in my opinion. Buying digital files is a waste of my money (that's just me). I happily plunk down my earned dollars for physical media (CDs and records). It brings me much joy to have something tangible that is mine, oftentimes in better quality than most downloads I could buy for the same or a higher price.

I'll buy this Wild Honey set because they are offering it to me as something I can hold in my hands. If they weren't, no sale and I'd just listen on Spotify - or honestly, find it through other means and burn it to a CD myself.

Like I said, I'm a physical CD guy too and I'm not here to defend the labels or the industry. I'm not just saying this. I've visited numerous Blockbuster and Hollywood Video locations going out of business and have a TON of DVDs and Blu-rays. Same with CDs.

I just know that the deeper they go into the archives and the more "hardcore" it gets, the smaller the audience. So I'm not interested in the labels (however much they would be unfairly generalizing the fanbase) having the perception that the BB fanbase is a bunch of fuddy-duddy old timers that, in 2017, *still* would boycott a digital-only release. If you tell them you'll illegally download their release if they refuse to release a physical CD of a random BB concert from 1977 or something, logic tells me the much easier answer on their end will be to simply not release it rather than do a print run for a CD that will only sell a few thousand copies, if that.

News flash: If BRI ever "opens the archives", as in truly opens the floodgates to a large archival program, there's *no way* it's going to all be available on physical CDs or even vinyl (even with the vinyl hipster element at play). And that's as it should be, because I'm not going to pay $50 for a double vinyl copy of the Jamaica Fest 1982 gig.

As for downloads, many if not most or all "digital" releases are now available as either high-rez (better than CD) downloads, and/or 16/44.1 CD quality downloads. That doesn't fix the "I need to hold it in my hands or no sale" thing, but for those pounding the table about sound quality, I think you can get most of even the past few years of "Copyright Extension" releases as either high-rez or at least CD-quality downloads.

I think BRI and Capitol/UMe know the BB fanbase skews older, and between that and "Sunshine Tomorrow" being a prestige product, it's probably among the reasons they've gone ahead and done a physical release for it instead of going download-only.

I think we're going to see any main "studio" releases like "Sunshine Tomorrow" on physical CDs, so there's no problem there. But I want BRI to go beyond that. Five years from now, I want to see a BRI catalog with 50 or more archival releases of studio and live stuff. And there's little chance that'll happen if fans say they'll skip downloads and just rip everything off of YouTube or something.

I think the inherent problem with digital downloads compared to physical media is that it isn't yet feasible, financially, for digital products to offer lossless audio quality.  This is an issue I have a personal contention with.  iTunes only offers lossless audio in selected products, for the hardcore fans, and the casual fan could care less.  In the case for audio preservation/back up, it is infuriating (especially as a BB fan) that record companies refuse to accommodate these needs.

Some (perhaps not all) of the previously released "copyright extension" releases have been released in 24bit/88kHz (much higher than CD quality) via HDtracks and other sites and there's no reason why that couldn't be continued with future digital-only releases.

The technology is there. FLAC  can be lossless,  The King Crimson (Discipline Global Mobile) site has FLAC -- because they actually care about their listeners.
Capitol might as well be EXXON or J.P. Morgan/Chase.  Its unfortunate bands  learned the hard way and had their dreams crushed.   The Beach Boys sure learned.

I think you have to go beyond iTunes. The 7digital website has at least 16 bit/44.1 FLAC files for copyright extension releases for Sacramento '64, Chicago '65, and Michigan '66. They also offer *high-rez* 24 bit/88.2 downloads for a number of catalog (in fact, it appears most of the catalog) and archival/copyright extension releases including the "Party" 2 disc set and Chicago '65. HDTracks also has the '64 studio set "Keep an Eye on Summer" in high-rez.

CD quality (16/44.1) if not high-rez (24/88.2) versions of any future digital releases would not be a problem as far as I can tell, and would be likely.

As I said, the only beef I could see someone having with a wide expanse of download-only releases would be the "holding the product in your hands" aspect, and that's something that I prefer as well, but realize is just ridiculous to expect given the industry and especially given the *breadth* we'd be looking for in a "opening the floodgates" Beach Boys archive scenario.

HIDE GO SEEK and the unknown Redwood instrumental tracks on this new CD are rather brief

I understand that lossless audio can be found by looking around on the web, HDtracks is cool btw, but what stinks is that lossless audio isn't offered to most products on sites the majority of people actually use (i.e. iTunes, Spotify, &c.)

I've seen track list for the 2nd CD of this set which has a track #35, though it's a bit confusing

I'm so glad that the compilers included these despite their brief length!!

Except that people who seek out lossless and high-rez content are people who tend to go to HDTracks and places like that as opposed to iTunes and Spotify. Most folks using something like Spotify are not looking for anything along the lines of a home stereo, high-rez, physical media sort of listening experience. It's mainly an on-the-go streaming sort of thing. Just like people going to McDonald's aren't looking for a five-star dining experience.

At the point that one is downloading lossless or high-rez content, I see zero difference (other than various cosmetic/user interface quibbles) when it comes to which website it's found on. The fact is that it's (mostly) out there now for those looking for it. 

Will the distortion on "Country Air" be fixed? My understanding from previous threads is that it is impossible to extract.

Just got an email saying that the WH stereo LP release has been delayed until July 21, due to increased demand requiring more pressings. I'm hoping the delay doesn't extend to the 1967 box set.

OTOH, a higher demand for the product than expected is a good thing....

Why would we want it to be fixed?

Surprised no songs have been released to promote this set yet. Didn’t we get to hear a few tracks from Pet Sounds 50 in the weeks leading up to its release? Come on Capitol/UMe!

Exactly my thoughts!

Yup!

I ain't payin' 40 plus bucks...plus tax...plus shipping and handling for THAT!!!   :o   Amazon knows me well...but not THAT well.  I'm sure they thought they had a sure-fire fish on the line.  I'm not gonna nibble on THAT worm.  Drop the price by 50-something percent, wheel...and come again...To rhatid!!!   ::)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Amazon.ca <store-news@amazon.ca>
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2017 11:42 PM
Subject: Re: "1967 - Sunshine Tomorrow (2CD)" by The Beach Boys and more Music

$40.60?  Are you kidding?  After ALL of the business I've given you ... you want to rob me?  Let me know when it's available for $14.60.  Until you do I won't be buying ANYTHING else from you.  Got it?  Man that's 'nervy'.

 Lee Marshall

p.s.  YOU should be ashamed of yourself.  BAD business.

Why is it $40? Mine is $19. Maybe you had two copies in your check out cart?

Perhaps that price is in Canadian currency. What's the current exchange rate between US and Canada?

We're sitting at about 75 cents on the dollar...give or take Emdeeh.  My wife just told me that Amazon called an hour ago and, as I was up late and slept in, she declined to wake me.  Apparently they're calling back at 10:00.  I'm sure that I've spent 10 grand with Amazon over these past 10 years...maybe more.  So...ya...they're calling.  Squeaky wheels get oiled.  Gotta stand up to B.S.  [Well at least I have to.]

I used Canadian amazon and pre-ordered it when it first came out. I have it locked in for 27 or so dollars and now they've just inflated the price to 40. It's BS

And, at 27 bucks, YOU over-paid S.M.  We all know that the price will drop to below 20 bucks...maybe closer to $15.00...soon.  Being ripped off never works for me...and I let 'them' know about it every time.  [whoever 'they' happen to be.]

Yeah, pretty strange.

Canadian fan (from Calgary and going to see Mike and Bruce in less than a month) Rich P here.  I preordered on the first day that had it listed for $20.65 and I ordered two copies so I could get the free shipping.  I hope they honour that price.  I once had them cancel my pre-order for an item that they later offered for substantially more.  $40 is too much.  Although, it is The Beach Boys and I know that even though I am complaining now I would drop the cash - cause I gotta have it!!!

Unless substantial information about a release changes, sometimes to the point where they create an entirely new listing for an item, Amazon doesn't tend to cancel orders despite price fluctuations.

Always worth keeping in mind is that sometimes Amazon customer service will help you out in these instances. If they cancel your order forcing you to re-order for a higher price, you can write explaining what happened and sometimes they'll adjust your price back down and/or give you some sort of credit on your account.

Similarly, while Amazon explicitly does not do "price matching", if you write them and tell them Amazon in another country has an item for substantially less, they *might* adjust your price or give you a credit.

It looks like $40.60 Canadian equals about $30.64 US. While I think it is frustrating they don't have some sort of relative price parity across various Amazon sites, I can't say 30 bucks for a 2-CD set is like *outrageous* beyond belief or anything. Typically new CDs are in the $10-$15 range, so $30 isn't that awful.

There may also be *other* Canadian retailers that offer the set for less. A quick look at the Canadian Walmart website shows a price of $18.97, presumably in Canadian dollars, which gets you to under $15 US.

These price differentials are all very confusing. I pre-ordered mine when it was announced, not on amazon.ca but on amazon.com, and my price is $19.98 before taxes and shipipng. It doesn't indicate an exchange for Canadian currency. If I do a search I see the same thing listed at two prices, one at $19.98 and one at $43.70 with (smh) in brackets and a note that it's an import. If I search on amazon.ca, there is only one price: $40.60.  So I don't know what's gonna happen with my order since I didn't order from the Canadian amazon... I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

If you ordered from Amazon.com (the US site), you're fine and the whole thing is simple. You'll be charged the current price (or, if it lowers between now and release date, you'll get the lowest price; this pre-order price guarantee is in place on both the US and Canadian Amazon sites). If you're in Canada and buying from the US Amazon site, it'll just convert the US dollars to Canadian dollars when you're charged when the item ships. All simple.

You obviously can order from either Amazon site; you'd just have to figure out which is more expensive including shipping costs. You also have to account for how it will probably take longer to ship from the US Amazon site to a Canadian address versus ordering direct from Amazon Canada. If you want the CD set sooner, possibly on release date, you'd probably be better ordering from Amazon Canada I'd guess if you have a Canadian address.

As for the second "SHM" listing on the Amazon US site, that's an import CD from Japan manufactured with the "SHM" ("Super High Material") process. It's a sham and I wouldn't bother with that version; it'll sound identical to other versions. It's not mastered differently. Rather, the CD simply has some slightly alternate materials that it's manufactured with. I have a few SHM CDs that I bought only because a few Japanese pressings had unique bonus tracks and the Japan version was only available as an "SHM" pressing.

Right. That makes sense. Thanks for logicking that out for me, LOL. Looks like with the exchange rate it'll come out just slightly better than if I had ordered from amazon.ca. Other Canadian fans, you might want to consider ordering from .com instead, you might get a better price.

Wow, I've never heard of someone doing that before..  Is the 2nd CD really cheaper than the cost of shipping?

ZERO PROMOTION.

Amazon' price has gone down to $16.59

Man, I can't be doing with all this Amazon horse-trading every time a new release comes out that I want, with prices going back and forth like this. And I don't get all the fuss over the date from which you're allowed to put in pre-orders, either... you still can't *have* the album when you pre-order it, which is all I'm interested in at this stage. And when you factor in the shipping c*ck-ups that *always* seem to delay the arrival of a new release from Amazon for somebody or another on here... it all adds up to a big fat 'I won't be buying this from Amazon, thanks very much'.

Having said that, maybe it's because I'm fortunate enough to still have a bricks and mortar retailer in the vicinity which I know will be carrying this set. In other words, I shun Amazon for releases like this... because I can. And I do appreciate that I'm lucky in this regard - not everybody has that freedom these days.

But like Paul McCartney going into Lewis's, buying an album and then savouring the look of it on the bus home... I positively *like* going to a shop to buy an album, and walking out with it in my hands. And that's what I'll be doing next week... on release day. And then, thank goodness, I'll be spared that business of 'There! Is that the postman coming up the drive??? It is, it is... er, it's not, it's a dog in the street. Oh, wait... that IS him!! Here it comes! It's here! Wild Honey in stereo, here I come... oh. It's just a telephone bill and a pizza delivery flyer. So, er... maybe tomorrow, then?'.

Which, when I'm waiting for music I really, really want, I absolutely CANNOT STAND!!!!!

Having said the above, it seems that Fopp in Cambridge, England, my surviving bricks and mortar retailer, are getting the grand total of ONE copy of Sunshine Tomorrow in stock next week. And you can't pre-order, pre-pay, or reserve over the phone. So I'm going to have to be there for opening time, sharp!

I know the Beach Boys are always going to play seventy-eighth fiddle to the Beatles (that's just the way it is, folks), but if the Capitol plan was to get a hip cachet off the back of what the OTHER great band of 1967 were releasing that year, I'd have to say they've failed for this release here, at least in the UK (and surely, the UK has traditionally been one of the best markets for this material?). No-one knows about this release over here outside hardcore fan circles, the surviving record shops are stocking minimal copies, and the media aren't talking about it. So buy plenty of copies, folks, because this is our best shot at getting more of this kind of stuff out there, and it ain't looking great for sales already. To paraphrase a well-known saying around these parts, we'll be lucky to sell 10,000 units in January. Er, I mean July. I hope not, but it feels to me as though similar releases for Friends, 2020, and Sunflower could be hanging by a thread...

By the way, since I posted that above, I have learned that Fopp in COVENT GARDEN, LONDON is only getting two copies of this in as well. And there will be three in HMV at Bury St Edmunds, which is it for major bricks and mortar retailers in the whole East of England now.

That suggests that other than via on-line retailers, there could be less than a dozen copies of this album on sale in the whole of the East of England (though I think there are still a couple of indie record shops in Norwich that I suppose might have some).

This... is not good. And does NOT augur well for UK sales...!

Amazon isn't complicated in the slightest when it comes to ordering a new release. You pre-order a release, and they'll *automatically* give you the lowest price the item ever reaches between when you order it and the end of the day on release day. Extremely simple and requires zero work on the customer's part. Also, Amazon doesn't charge you until the item ships out (usually a few days before release date), so it's easy to cancel pre-orders for most of the duration.

Also, Amazon usually offers and/or guarantees release date delivery. Every movie and music release I've ordered has reached me on release date. In the US at least, they've got the shipping process extremely dialed in.

There are no doubt plenty of valid complaints about Amazon, but the pre-ordering process is not one of them. It's beyond simple.

Currently #26 on the Amazon CD sales chart. Not too bad given the amount of promotion it has been given. I expect it might spike higher by/on release date/week.

It's also featured in Amazon's Top 20 "Upcoming Releases" chart where it appears it's at #3.

A back cover image from Amazon:


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61NqCDsk4HL.jpg)

And for no other reason than because "why not, it's cool", let's all look at the single artwork for "Wild Honey" again:

(http://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/the_beach_boys-then_i_kissed_her_s_8.jpg)

"You're So Good to Me" is up on the Beach Boys' official website:

https://www.thebeachboys.com/news/listen-youre-so-good-me-1967-sunshine-tomorrow-out-june-30 (https://www.thebeachboys.com/news/listen-youre-so-good-me-1967-sunshine-tomorrow-out-june-30)

You need a Spotify account to listen to it though.

This is...simply wonderful. So stripped down, that thudding bass/farfisa sound, with an incredibly soulful vocal by Brian - how beautifully strange to hear it like this.

Wednesday I have Friday on my mind.

Just got my copy! About to listen...

Gee thanks for the great packaging. That's all we get is a typical plastic cd case??

Untitled (Redwood) is Time To Get Alone

Whaddya expect----stained glass? :lol

Might be my new favorite version of the song. Agree with the word soulful, especially the end.

I prefer a jewel case to a digipak, though either will do. Jeez, what exactly do you want? This isn't a big deluxe boxed set or something. I think it's probably stretching it at this stage/era to get one of the major labels to put this thing out as a physical CD at all; I think trying to do big fancy deluxe packaging is just not an option unless it a big magnum opus 5 or 6-CD set like "Smile Sessions", etc.

If any set, and any band, any era was a representation "it's about the music, man!" rather than packaging or popularity or image, it would be *this* set.

I have that 40th Anniversary fuzzy, flocked "Pet Sounds" set, and it's a pain in the ass. It just absorbs dust more than a friggin' Swiffer, and at the end of the day I just want to pull the damn discs out and play them. Even the 2012 album remasters are more of a pain.

Bring on the "standard" jewel cases man. I actually prefer them, *and* what I really want is the music inside.

King of Anglia - please, put us out of our misery and reveal all! What is the version of Can't Wait Too Long like? Something we already know, or something previously unheard by most of us? And the 'long' version of Lonely Days? Anything previously unheard in the stereo WH mixes? What about the alternate Fall Breaks? Could a stereo Mama Says be made out of the session pieces? What's with the 'new' version of Surf's Up? And is the accapella Surfer Girl as good as the one I can hear in my imagination...?

I know - you're probably trying to, like, *listen* to the damn thing, and here I am making with all the annoying questions. Sorry... But you guessed it, I can't get my hands on this until tomorrow morning at 9.30 UK time... and that just seems like an intolerable wait right now!  ;)

MattB

Just got a shipping notice from Amazon -- it's on the way, due tomorrow!

 :happydance

without access to liner notes, a quick response:

Can't Wait Too Long - Different false solo starts: "This piano...so terrible, I hate it." Then the guitars and drum come in. Then familiar vocal parts are added. But not all the variations we've heard in the past. Distinctly different basic backing tracks (or mix), much more "Wild Honeyish" - not a revelation, but slightly different from the versions I've heard.

Fall Breaks is a beautiful backing and eventually vocal tracks mix, which I think was on the Smiley SOT - the stereo mix helps to make this music rather than just an ambient

Lonely Days - After the familiar first minute, there's another round of just instrumental tracking for an unfinished missing second verse - not much of a revelation here

Surf's Up has about five false starts, as Brian talks to Jim and self-corrects  - then Brian quickly trying out different sections of the song on solo piano before he goes into that beautiful take from 1967 that we already know. So this just adds 3:45 more documentary context at the head of the version we already know from '67 when Brian says "Maybe I should do the whole song over again..." and starts to countdown.

So a lot of the unreleased versions seem to augment previous releases or booted versions that I'm aware of. Just getting into it, this is a fabulous gift - one that induces us to listen deeply and re-evaluate. And take great pleasure in. Amazing.

Surfer Girl is as delicate a cloud of organized sound as is humanly possible. Gorgeous. A beautiful closer.

Great stuff PS! :bw

Can't wait for this

First impressions over morning coffee.

By giving us a very subtle "exploded view" of the Wild Honey tracks and vocals, we can now really see just how ingenious Brian's "orchestration" for this deceptively "back to basics" approach really was - you hear all of these little vocal snippets (highlighted with the "Made to Love Her" vocal inserts track) heretofore buried in the mono mix are now fully articulated in the stereo field, however minimal and subtle they are - little guitar riffs and vocal riffs flit in and out, all anchored by the now very deep bass (which goes right to my gut when augmented by a little sub in my stereo setup) and that particular tuning and sound of Brian's WH and SS piano. The new stereo mix and remastering lets these tracks breathe and arise out of the condensed and flattened squeezebox they were in and we can hear the details in a kind of 2 1/2- D. There is so much more palpable PLEASURE in the listening rather than imagining what I could be hearing if this album was mixed with modern ears and equipment (and by someone who could hear and delight in the details of a stereo mix)

Somehow this new collection - in toto - reshapes the Icarus myth of Smile. He took what he learned from the modular songwriting and studio orchestration of combining small parts into a whole stitched backing track that would only be understood in the context of the eventual vocal arrangement - and essentially transcribed it for his small ensemble and home studio setup (btw, the Detroit live versions of the songs are fantastic!). Everything jumps off the surface now - Darlin' practically explodes on that opening fanfare. There is now, for me, a real CONTINUITY between what he was doing in '66 and what he did in '67-'69.

And guess what? Wild Honey is now truly a record you can dance to! That thumpin' James Jamerson inspired deep bass throb and anchor throughout the record (who? Carl? Carol? Brian?) is "the Beach Boys moment that is kicking my ass right now..."

(And the alternative "Love Just Once to See" group vocals!)

Final thought here: By giving us the tracking sessions, Alan and Mark also re-teach us how to listen for the details once the vocals are added. This is a holistic idea of a record album, circa 2017. It's great to be alive. Thank you BRI and A&M.

UGH I can't wait... looks like a great set

I don't get paid until next friday...ugh...I have the musical equivalent of blue balls right now.Blue ears? :lol

On Spotify now.

Does anyone else have a problem with tracks 10, 16, 27, 54 and 64 being corrupted after few seconds?

Give me blue ears any day. :lol

People, Spotify and other services are awesome, but buy a physical CD copy of this thing as soon as you can! It'll sound better, and it'll count as a full unit sold towards the sales numbers. The price is great for a 2-CD set on Amazon right now.

Currently up to #11 in overall CD/Vinyl sales on Amazon, and #5 in the Rock subcategory.

It also looks like it's finally available as a digital download purchase on Amazon, although you're better off just buying the CD and ripping it, as the 2-CD set is cheaper right now.

Absolutely. I want to hold this little gem when it arrives today or tomorrow. And if the CD format helps its chart performance, so much the better.

The price at Bol.com (the Dutch version of Amazon) is now down to €17.99 ($20.54, £15.83).

"Sunshine Tomorrow" is also available at multiple sites in High-Rez format. It's pricey, but for those who are into having a 24-bit/88.2 kHz version, you can have it:

http://www.hdtracks.com/1967-sunshine-tomorrow

https://us.7digital.com/artist/the-beach-boys/release/1967-sunshine-tomorrow-6559781?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2

It looks like HD Tracks, even though the initial price is a bit higher, will get you the high rez version slightly cheaper with the 15% off coupon that the site offers.

I can't vouch for how much better this high rez version sounds, CD is fine for me for now.

I have a high-resolution portable player, so I wanted the 24/88.2 download. I grabbed it this morning from ProStudioMasters.com. Their price is almost $10 cheaper than HDtracks'.

I'm very excited to have this at last! I can't wait to delve into it.

Anyone else pre-order this from amazon.ca?  I haven't received a shipping notice and now the site lists it as "temporarily out of stock".  My local record store said that their shipment has been delayed.  What's going on?! 

Urgh. After the price doubled on Amazon Canada, I held off on buying it. Today I went to go see what the situation was and saw that the price was back down to around $18 but, as the poster above notes, it was temporarily out of stock. I purchased it but now don't know when I'll be getting it.

Does anyone here hear the absolute similarities between Got to Know The Woman and Hide Go Seek? Oh man, and I thought Cool, Cool Water was the only song from Sunflower that they dug up from the archives. :lol :lol

OK, so I already wrote this elsewhere, but what the heysaboda...

I was at my local record shop at 9.31am this morning, and out 2 minutes later with Sunshine Tomorrow in my hands. It's playing now. LOUD. Sounds absolutely A1!

I've only been through it a couple of times, but standouts in the WH stereo mix so far are Darlin', which for me is the one that sounds most like a cloth has been taken off the speakers. And a couple of tracks that I was a bit 'meh' about the past are really coming alive for me: How She Boogalooed It, which I always thought was OK, but now *rocks*, and A Thing Or Two, which I never really liked before but am starting to appreciate...

On the whole, though, I admit I don't feel the stereo album mixes are the *colossal* leap forward in quality that some seem to be hearing. They just seem like really good solid stereo mixes of the mono to me, and pretty darn faithful to it in terms of ambience and relative instrumental balance (that's *not* a criticism... achieving that close a similarity with the mono all these years later is a pretty tough call). The mixes that do really leap from the speakers for me are, perhaps strangely the session excerpts of some of the WH tracks where the lead vocals have been mixed out. The bass on the title track and Aren't You Glad sessions absolutely COOKS, and the horns on the Darlin' session positively blast from my monitors. I guess mixing out the vocals gave Mark and Alan a chance to spotlight the cooking instrumental backings to these tracks.

As a SMiLE/Smiley nut, the Smiley sessions are a revelation, as it always has been when we've managed to hear more of this stuff at intervals over the years. Good to hear the chimes outro back in the long version of Vegetables, the Wind Chimes alt tag is great to hear in a proper mix at last, and the alt Fall Breaks mix really highlights the complexities of that track. When the wordless vocals came in was a real chill up the spine moment for me. I'm also really digging the more garage-y 'Wild Honey-ized' version of Can't Wait Too Long. Such a shame they never got a finished version of it pulled together.

It's also terrific to hear contemporary mixes of the Wally Heider Hawaii concert rerecords, and to hear, at last, a full set in one place of Brian's 'Smiley-ized' arrangements of what were already BB standards like Sloop John B and You're So Good To Me. There have been lots of bootlegs and partial mixes of this stuff over the years, a couple of proper released mixes dotted about here and there, and I've often wondered what the plan was and what the full set was like. Now it turns out versions of them were actually 'finished' back in the day all along, and it's great to hear them! Good Vibrations was particularly interesting - if you ever wanted to swap out the track on Smiley Smile on the grounds that its production is 'too SMiLE to be on Smiley Smile' (if you follow me), now you know what to put in its place. I remember lots of on-line discussion about doing that kind of thing with some of the 1967 live GV rehearsal tracks (the one that was on Hawthorne years ago, I think)... but those performances were always just TOO ragged for me. But the Heider GV is like a proper 'Smiley-ized' GV for me at last (er... even though GV, er, WAS on Smiley Smile... oh, you know what I mean).

And the Honolulu rehearsal version of H&V shows that the band of Lei'd In Hawaii *could* play a pretty mean version of that challenging track. For years, the live versions from Hawaii have made me think the Boys just weren't up to playing it in Summer 1967. But the rehearsal we hear on Sunshine Tomorrow was recorded just before the concerts, and they really cook on it, inexplicably...! Maybe they had too much pre-show, er, tea...?

Finally, can I get a witness on how frickin' great Honey Get Home is? Short, sweet, BW genius at work... shame it was never finished as such, although I think the 'feel' may have ended up in the bridge of one of the many 1968 recordings of Old Man River (the upbeat one on the old 1990 Friends/2020 twofer)?

Kudos and serious thanks to all the dudes out there that made this set happen. They know who they are. As I've said elsewhere, this record did not NEED to come out... and if they hadn't been pushing for it to happen... well, it wouldn't have!

Wait though...there's a live "Heroes and Villains" from the Concert/Live in London twofer and I personally thought it was pretty great.

Yeah, a high rez portable player with a good output is probably the route I should take if I delve into that. I think high-rez is a case of diminishing returns. Good ol' redbook CD does it for me usually, but it would nice to archive all of the stuff at high-rez and have the option.

For those buying it, I think HD Tracks is still just slightly cheaper than ProStudioMasters if you use the 15% off coupon (we're talking like 66 cents or something). It also looks like ProStudioMasters offers FLAC and AIFF format while HDTracks offers FLAC, AIFF, and WAV, if for some reason someone just *really* needs it in WAV format.

Same here. Except for the sound quality of course. But all in all I'm very impressed with their two '67 live versions. Though only five guys and four instruments it sounds great. It probably would've sounded even better if they were clean and Bruce was there.




Sunshine tomorrow - ordered, now waiting for monday

Well, it would be dull if we all thought the same... I seriously wondered why they'd bothered putting that version of H&V on the end of the live twofer. I still think it's the worst version of the song (and of course there are lots of those) I've ever heard. It sounds like they're barely holding it together... and that can be a good thing live with some groups and songs... but to me H&V is not one of those songs. Myself, I find it very unforgiving of bad performances. Your mileage may (and probably does) vary...!

It's 2 p.m. local time and the mail has still not arrived.

 ???  :thud


EDIT: It has arrived! Going offline for a while to listen.

 :happydance

Since this is now in the liner notes and public, I think it's worth pointing to a little piece of information that I think is of key importance for the BBs and BRI doing right by the fans and the band as well starting with this set and into the future. On the last page:

Brother Records, Inc.: Jerry Schilling, President

Pausing between discs for a moment. How is it that I've listened to the WH album for all these years, a LOT of listens, and never noticed those marvelous doowop background vocals in "A Thing or Two" before!?! This is definitely a revelatory package. Kudos to all involved!

Wild Honey in stereo was a revelation! BW was still at the top of his game unlike a "lengendary" board historian would say.... >:D

How exactly did you mean 're-evaluate' in the context of this discussion, may I ask? Did you mean it generally in very personal terms or to look slightly differently at the Beach Boys' oeuvre (output of material) in light of this new release?

Agreed SB.  It couldn't be more obvious when you listen to the recordings. 

Gee, doesn't ANYBODY remember writing Lonely Days?

My mind is so completely blown by listening to this set. Cheers to whoever made the decision to just have the stereo version of the album, as opposed to both the stereo and mono versions, since that leaves more room for extra tracks which we have been gifted with.

I cannot imagine ever wanting to listen to the mono version again.

a few preliminary notes:

- A Thing or Two... what a revelation. So forward pushing and modern, and a song that should have been heard in this manner back then.
- backing track for Aren't You Glad... outtasight

 I have to let this all sink in more, more, more.

SOOO stoked right now. Thanks hugely to all the folks involved.

Friends and Sunflower (those two at minimum) absolutely need similar reissue treatment!

Yep. I wondered if it was just me.  :lol

I never noticed the connection between "Wind Chimes" (Smile version) and "Can't Wait Too Long" until now!

Biggest news of the day, if you ask me.

Definitely really great news.

Interesting. Former manager of the group and renowned member of the "Memphis Mafia" (look it up if you don't understand that one).

Anyways, hopefully he follows the great job Ernst Jørgensen has done with Elvis' stuff and apply it to The Beach Boys (and maybe even get them together again).

Hey Howie, if you're there, great job on the liner notes! 

Some first impressions here:

Wild Honey has always been one of my favorite albums and now this stereo release vaulted it into the Top Five. I'm generally a purist with music but not so with these Beach Boys stereo mixes. They actually improve the album (Pet Sounds included).

No big reevaluation for me but as Howie points out in the liner notes, this is the last full-on Brian and Mike collaboration in a big album sense. Considering this was 50 years ago, a sobering thought.

Man, they did the right thing in canning ``Lei,d``....its appalling compared to how great the band sound on the Thanksgiving Tour.

Great news if Jerry Schilling is running Brother.

Could not agree more!  Didn't take long, and look what we have already...

And I hope more to come! ;D

The proof, as always, is in the audio. As some of us have been saying for years. Just listen and the facts are right there.

Just curious, informal poll kind of thing. Since a narrative was put forth and argued that Carl produced most of Wild Honey, for those who have heard the new release, where on these tracks is Carl heard actually producing the album on the included tracks and session chatter?

check this out:
http://picosong.com/WLeG/

My disk 2 arrived cracked.... luckily amazons support is perfect... new copy on the way!

What a buzzkill! At least it's being corrected by Amazon, good for them.

Thank god for Spotify!

Amen. I am leaving the country tomorrow and my set is due to arrive while I am gone.

Have yet to see a physical copy here in any stores. Probably for the best in that I really couldn't afford to buy it til next week, but I was sure as hell gonna try! :D

Man oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man...

This album is perfect. Just perfect. From the progressive remix of "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter", to the beautiful stereo mix of the "Water Chant", I can't get enough of this beautiful collection of music. "Game of Love" and "Honey Get Home" TOTALLY exceeded my expectations, I'm so glad to finally hear them after all these years of speculation! Happy to hear "A Thing or Two" earning some much-needed positive reception from listeners. That's always been one of my favorite tracks off of Wild Honey, but I've seen some criticism of it in the past. And holy hell, that second version of "All Day All Night"! I could go on and on about everything that I adore about this set, but I think I'll just let the music speak for itself.

Thank you, and God bless The Beach Boys, Alan Boyd, Mark Linett, Howie Edelson, Jerry Schilling, and everyone else who made Sunshine Tomorrow a reality for us fans!

Does anybody else think "Untitled (Redwood)" might have been an early take for Time to Get Alone?  Given that the song was intended for Redeood, it makes sense.  I hummed the verse melody over it and it certainly fits.

Anyone else notice the slight pitch correction on Brian's vocal on Surf's Up (1967 Version) the second time he sings "columnated ruins do-MIN-o"?

I overlaid the version from TSS (2011) onto this version from Sunshine Tomorrow—you can listen here: http://picosong.com/WLm3 (http://picosong.com/WLm3) (notice the slight dissonance when he sings "domino").

I remember writing it. Or isn't that what you mean? :hat

(https://s13.postimg.org/h2f7ht81j/Scan_1.jpg)

Delayed for a week! :thud

Still, there are so many great, often ecstatic posts on the subject (most notably those by Matt B) to read while I'm waiting.

Christmas is going to be such an anti-climax this year!

8.1 out of 10 in Pitchfork:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-beach-boys-1967-sunshine-tomorrow/

While I agree 100% with your first comment (everyone has the mono version already) your second comment has me baffled.

Whenever I play PS these days, it's always the mono version. These labour-of-love stereo remixes open up the music wonderfully but at the end of the day the original mono version is definitive.

So I shall certainly want to listen to mine again. :=)

Jann Wenner was right about one thing -- the BBs weren't much of a live unit in 1967. Listening to the Detroit recordings here, I keep thinking, surely these are just rehearsals -- but no, there's applause at the end.

William; I started seeing the band in 1965, Brooklyn Academy of Music. They were great. Saw them several times 66/67/68.  They were great.  Jann Wenner, in my opinion, at that time was in the "The Beach Boys are irrelevant; they are not The Beatles " San Francisco camp.  I am not sure if this is his quote but it sums up that period :" I would rather "Get Back" with The Beatles than "Do it Again" with The Beach Boys "

I disagree wholeheartedly with Jann Wenner circa late 60's !

After 50 years of listening to the mono version of PS, definitive or not, I welcomed with open ears the stereo version of the album. Quite honestly, I'd categorize the stereo version as the genuine "definitive" version based on the fact that we get to hear everything that was involved with the recording. Since 1996, my days of listening to the mono version are long gone and it will be the same deal for anything that eventually gets released in the stereo format. For relatively new fans,
don't waste your hard earned cash on buying the mono version. Just throw a thick blanket over your speakers while listening to the stereo version and you'll have the full mono effect.

Could they make a new PS CD release from OSD's idea? ;D

Take these comments of mine with a pinch of salt, as I'm not much of a fan of live recordings, as I've often said here. I'm not very taken with the live recordings on ST either, but that's prolly just me. Live tracks have to be truly stellar to get me going... all too often, they just sound to me, at best, like slightly shoddily performed versions of the studio recordings, with mistakes, flubs, out-of-time performances, wonky vocals and irritating interjections by the crowd (er... or the band, shall we say...).

[I did say to take what I say with a pinch of salt... I am quite hard to please when it comes to live recordings].

But here's the thing. You can go and see a band and come away thinking they're great. And then listen to live recordings *from the same concert* and they don't sound half as hot. Actually BEING there live seems to, in my experience, smooth over some of the rough corners in a live performance. When you listen in your house in the cold light of day, the fluffed guitar solo seems to leap out at you more. Or that's what I've always found, anyway. (Brian is far from immune to this effect. When I listened to audience recordings of some of the SMiLE concerts I attended, I couldn't believe I hadn't heard some of the instrumental and vocal flubs on the night... the performances seemed blemishless when I was actually there).

So I actually agree with William and Ray above simultaneously. And I will say this about the Beatles and Jan Wenner: at least the Beach Boys were ANY kind of live outfit in 1967 and beyond (and arguably, had their finest days of live performances still to come). The Beatles never were a live outfit again! (and even if you say 'but what about the Rooftop concert'... it was hardly a gig of unbridled live brilliance... although that's thoroughly unsurprising for a concert given on a windy, wintery London roof in January)

Count me in with you, Ray. Jann Wenner did a great deal of damage to the BBs in late 1967 with his misguided condescension and obtusely arrogant pronouncements. It stayed in play over the next 4-5 years, making it incredibly difficult for the band to be recognized for its ongoing evolution. Fortunalely ol' Yawn stopped writing record reviews rather quickly, and he left the BBs in the more sympathetic (and much more knowledgable) hands of Arthur Schmidt and Jim Miller, who gave us much more credible coverage (culminating in Tom Nolan's landmark two-parter in '71). But the damage had already been done--the BBs had to work through this period with the equivalent of one arm and one leg tied behind their back(s).

I too am rarely enthused by live recordings. But to take the opportunity to put in a rare good word for Bruce -- he's absolutely right about how great the version of Aren't You Glad on the Live in London album is, which he was quoted on somewhere up thread. I heard this before the studio version, because it's on The Capitol Years boxed set that was my first major BBs purchase, and have always preferred it to the Wild Honey version. The live Aren't You Glad on Sunshine Tomorrow is from around the same period and similar, but not as good.

I'm only an occasional visitor here, so forgive me if this is no great revelation to some of you. But I have, sort of coincidentally, just come across this recording of the 1970 Big Sur Folk Festival show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18MS1eKAvTQ), of which I have the live album that includes Wouldn't It Be Nice. It's absolutely terrific for the first 15 minutes, at which point it segues into an inferior quality recording*. Anyway, it's now apparent to me that this is the source of the version of Aren't You Glad on ST.

* The changeover happens as Mike finishes a rather churlish introduction to what surely would have been Cottonfields, but it instead links up with a tinny-sounding Tears in the Morning.

I always had a soft spot for the Hawaii material. I first heard all of it maybe over a decade ago, and I listened many, many times. I used to fall asleep to those concerts on headphones hoping to pick out some detail, and I tried to research and write a lot about it that unfortunately never got finished (apart from some long forgotten online postings) due to some life events interrupting. But I think it stands in a very unique and special place in the band's history as the truly, undoubtedly final time that original lineup of musicians who practiced in Hawthorne with rented instruments before recording Surfin actually played as that same unit on the live stage.

We got a few teases on the two-fers, box sets, etc. Yes there are some ragged spots, but such is the nature of live performance with any band who doesn't mime or play to prerecorded tracks on stage. Perfection is not human when it's live music in front of a crowd. It's the experience. Hawaii was an experience and unfortunately the definite end of a special era.

That's what hit me listening last night. Surfer Girl came on, the full mix and the vocals-only. I had tears in my eyes. Stunning, emotional, etc. That was the Beach Boys, for the last time on stage playing together that way. I say "was" deliberately. That specific blend was never heard the same way again. How fortunate it was recorded.

Add in the quirkiness of the Baldwin organ, the looseness, the stripped down element, the setlist...I always thought those shows were a ton of fun to hear and absorb.

The tracks presented on this set from Hawaii...I'm just curious, Ghosty - which of them made you form the opinion you posted? I think the tracks presented each have their own strength, from the Boys revisiting their garage roots on Surfin, to the mid period You're So Good To Me, up to Heroes (which was only a month old when they did it 100% live and in full...), and then going back to pre-Beach Boys Hawthorne with the Freshmen cover, and the gorgeous timeless Surfer Girl...

I will say that one of the great, mythical "unbooted" tracks from days of old, "Hawthorne Blvd" didn't quite take off...in fact it stalled at the starting line...but it is a curio that fans can actually hear now officially.  Maybe reworking Thee Midniters wasn't the best choice to open a show...

I'm a realist when it comes to this stuff and the BBs surely sounded better in '66 live than the Beatles did.

But totally disagree about the Rooftop concert. The Beatles cooked on that gig, and that gig proves they could have smoked any band touring if they had wanted to.

Jann Wenner had a hangup about the BBs and that sucked. Just like he has his weird Lennon vs. McCartney thing. But "Get Back" *is* a better single than "Do It Again." And Get Back isn't like my favorite late era Beatles track or anything.

I disagree; the AP mono sounds great and is more in line with Brian's creative intention at the time of having the instruments blend together to form something new rather than being able to hear every distinct musical element.

Listening to track 17 I've been wondering what arrangement Brian had in mind early on for the "I Was Made To Love Her" Vocal Insert.
Maybe something like this?

https://soundcloud.com/ste_xxx/i-was-made-to-love-her-edit/s-tLTkW (https://soundcloud.com/ste_xxx/i-was-made-to-love-her-edit/s-tLTkW)

I'm actually not the biggest Beatles fan in the world, but I really can think of no time in their concurrent histories as live acts, that the Beatles were not head and shoulders above the BBs.  The Beatles were old pros by the time they made it, the Boys just the opposite.... The Beatles' Shea Stadium concert being a prime example, they rocked hard, played well and sounded very close to their records.   The BBs, bless 'em, never did sound that good in the sixties and when they finally did get their concert mojo going in the seventies it took a cast of thousands to do so.  Ok, not thousands but many sidemen and the officializing of a couple of them into temporary group member status.  I enjoyed this "big band" approach that they took.  But the original quintet never was that hot of a live band.  And I don't think without prime Brian vocally that they were even that hot as a vocal group in concert.  The Rolling Stone assessment of In Concert seems succinct and apt:  "Sloppy good".

The TAMI show? ::)

The 1968 and 1969 shows?

I will say the actual Hawaii live recordings (what little we get on this) are way WAY above the Lei'd performances that were to be dubbed over later. I can appreciate the historic nature of the recordings (well, the whole package is like that , really) and while the approach (sort of) works on some of the ballad material ("God Only Knows"), reducing dynamic songs like "California Girls", "Sloop John B", etc to a faint whisper does them a terrible disservice IMO. Good concept, wrong selections. I have to admit, though, I've never cared for the dribs and drabs we started getting from this session beginning with the box set. Maybe if they had waited and done it later the following year with Friends lp material like "Little Bird", "Meant for You" it would've worked better.

Was "Help YOU Rhonda" ever actually intended to be a part of the live album or were they just goofing around with the lyrics in the studio?  I've heard the actual Hawaii performances and they don't sing it like that.

The BBs were touring at the same time as the Beatles when they started - CA vs. Germany/UK.  Clearly Brian's arrangements are much more complex to recreate, instrumentally and vocally in a live setting during the time that they were both touring.

Like several other people here, I heard the BBs several times from 64-69 - the period I assume you're referencing.  They were excellent.  

I have no idea what you're talking about.  Do you have any further context for your comments?

BTW - I am also a Beatles fan.  Were you at a number of BBs shows in the 60's?

I'd say the Beatles Sweden '63 shows are hotter, as well as the Washington DC '64 show.

No knock on the Beach Boys. TAMI has a lot of energy. But then watch the BBs kind of plod on "Wendy" on the Sullivan show in '64.

Please know, I'm not trying to make it a weird horse race or anything. I love both bands. As in as hardcore as it gets on both.

As a live concert unit, the Beatles were in most cases just a better band. With good reason. The BBs didn't spend several years slogging through 12 or whatever hours per night in Germany.

The Beach Boys did a stunning job doing as well as they did trying to recreate those records in stage.

And, when the Beatles broke up and only McCartney was doing wonky college shows with Wings in '71-'73 and refusing to do Beatles tunes, the BBs *were* putting on a better show.

Really good and reasoned points Jude, the Beatles just had a ton of experience even before 1961. I just made the mistake of feeding the troll.

WOW The Game Of Love what did you guys think of that song! AWESOME Blown that it was never released! and the fullest version possible of Lonely Days! WOW cant believe those songs never got an official release.
Honey Get Home was awesome too! Never heard of that one before, and of course Hawthorne  boulevard is a nice little cover  of another song. Thank You BRI!

"Game of Love" oozes groovy, sexual tension, and I'm quite okay with it!  ;D

I'm listening to the Hawaii material from the set right now, again...lol.

It's great that fans and general public can hear their live take on Gettin Hungry. To me, the song works at least TEN THOUSAND times better live than it does on record. I've been saying that for years,  but with the improved sound on this set that Baldwin and the vocals just jump right out of the speakers. Damn. Maybe it was a better live tune in general, with the dramatic pauses, tempo changes, etc. But the way they do it live, it's exciting as hell, and it works! To have those pauses and changes on a record, a single no less, may have been too much outside the norm. But live, they could milk it a bit, play up those elements even more as part of the stage show, and boom - It got the girls in the audience screaming and cheering their approval.

That Baldwin organ sounds mean as hell on this one, right in your face, what a great sound. The decision to ship it to Hawaii was a good one in retrospect! The interplay between Brian and Mike works wonderfully on stage.

Now a question I've had, and either forgot the answer or never figured it out...what do those girls in the audience scream at Brian in unison after the song? He didn't hear what they said, and I can't make it out either for some reason. Anyone?

Here's what Gettin Hungry should have sounded like live . . . the Blondie/Ricky Beach Boys could have killed with this arrangement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpD__Fgpl_4

Absolutely 100% agree - The early 70's lineup would have rocked the song with an arrangement like that like a motherf***er on stage. Hearing the Hawaii take and that one, it's kind of a shame it fell by the wayside as it did considering how rocking and heavy it could sound apart from the studio release.

I am absolutely in love! I had to do a LOT of searching today to find it as I was, ironically enough, at the beach all week! My local record store didn't get it (very strange for them) so I tried Best Buy...nothing. Target...nothing. Finally, Barnes and Noble had ONE copy. Success!

I think it's "Hey Brian, how's your dog?!?"  He had been photographed a lot with Louie and Banana for teen magazines in '66 so not too strange.

Ultimately it's the screaming, whistling and general distractions that made those recordings unusable...the performances aside.  It's too bad that they didn't just record their rehearsals in the empty dome and just add the concert applause later...which is basically what they ended up attempting later at Wally Heider's studio anyway.  "Lei'd in Hawaii" really might have been the hit LP they needed in '67.

Just finished listening to disc 1 of "Sunshine Tomorrow" and boy was it ever great.  Found myself grinning..  feeling good..
These guys bring me so much joy.
And I hope we continue to get excellent archival releases like this. 
Thanks team!

I agree with you on the whole, but I think you'll find the Shea Stadium recording with which were all familiar was almost as heavily "enhanced" after the event as Lei'd in Hawaii would have been.

Here comes the night rocks my socks off, and I'm not even wearing any!