The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-brian-wilsons-retro-nineties-rarity-some-sweet-day-w500735

Nice track.  Sounds like it was written for Grace of My Heart from Andy Paley's description.

Sounds like Brian's 90s singing (and track with overdubs*). Nice, nice, nice!!!



* compared to the bootlegged version

Sounds like it was written for Brian Wilson and called "Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight."  :-D

Sweet! Sounds great!

BW: "I'm getting older but I don't give a g*ddamn. I can still sing my ass off. I'm only 74. Which is a f***ed age, but I don't mind it."  :lol

He can hardly sing his ass off.  Even the article noted he was in poor voice in concert.  His days of singing well are past him.  And what is with all the cussing, he sounds like a Tourette's sufferer....

A great song from Brian's '90's days!  :hat

The fact that the majority of the  Paley stuff is still sitting there unreleased is a crime against humanity.

Hopefully this set leads to a Paley collection! :bw

This!

Which proves you have no actual familiarity either with Tourette's *or* how Brian speaks in casual conversation in real life.

The version I've heard of this is a bit slower and sounds better because of it IMO.

I think this song is pretty average.  Still wont likely stop me from buying the collection.

This is my favorite post so far spending a half year here ;D

You are a terrible person, by the way would you like to be banned? It's one thing to pick at the music, but please don't spread insults toward Brian, he always has the most respect for Mike. Mike can't do one nice for him in return. This board used to be enjoyable before you came along.

That repetitive percussion sound that plays throughout the entire song is kind of grating, but other than that it sounds great.

Today is the first day of school where I am and it is ironic that Brian Wilson released a song called "Some Sweet Day".  I hope that is a good omen.

Thank you. This troll account is getting tiresome

So I must admit, I'm not blown away by this new tune. I don't think I had ever heard it via bootleg, but perhaps I did at some point. Regardless, I have to say that I'm not the hugest fan of the Paley sessions, though I do think that "You're Still A Mystery" is a classic, and though it's not from the 1990s sessions, "Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight" might just be my favorite solo Brian Wilson tune (unless you're counting "Caroline No"). I think that "Baywatch Nights" could've been incredibly great if it was finished, but even in it's unfinished state it's still beautiful with great vocals from both Carl and the group. I'd also like to say "Soul Searchin'" is pretty great as well, though I can really only take The Beach Boys version, since Brian's bridge vocal on the GIOMH version is....yuck.

But back to this one, maybe it'll grow on me. I like that they left the mid '90s vocal on there, cuz it's great to listen through all the different Brian voices we've heard over the years. Though next to his 15 Big Ones and GIOMH voices, this is probably one of his least commercial sounds, so I can understand why he replaced his vocal on "You're Still A Mystery."

I work with some troubled individuals. When I encounter someone on a message board who enjoys getting a reaction, I just work under the assumption they have some sort of condition. I know plenty of folk who are mildly on the autistic spectrum who thoroughly enjoy getting reactions from what they say or do. Just work under that assumption and ignore his posts if they bother you.

MTG had been doing this consistently since the "Male Ego message forum days.  That was like 15 years ago.  Clearly he still likes getting a rise out of people.  Some people don't grow up.  

It's a pretty textbook example of a "best of" compilation "bonus track." I wouldn't expect them to take a mind-blowing song worth building a new album around and sticking it on a "best of" compilation. I doubt they were even aiming to pick the best of the unreleased Paley tracks (I would guess many here would agree something like "It's Not Easy Being Me" is superior, or even the original version of "Gettin' in Over My Head", etc.).

Ideally, "Some Sweet Day" would have appeared on a multi-disc Brian rarities compilation (and/or a full disc of the Paley material).

Anybody else hear that woodwind melody line running through the song several times and here something similar to what they did running into the instrumental break on "A Friend Like You?" And yeah, the track also has a bit of "Da Doo Ron Ron/Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight" going on as well.

It's too bad they didn't do what I thought would have been a good idea, which was to put out a "Best of" disc and sell a "Deluxe" version with a second disc filled with rare singles, b-sides, soundtrack songs, and a selection of key solo outtakes.

Hopefully, though, doing a solo "Best of" might be the first step towards doing something on the "archival" side with Brian's solo stuff.

That's what I was hoping for.  About ten or so years ago, Robert Plant did a solo anthology.  The first disc was a best of collection of his solo career, and the second disc was odds and ends, and even some pre Led Zep stuff. 

This collection could've been a nice catch all for Brian's odds and ends, soundtrack songs, songs on tribute albums (Wanderlust would've been great), etc. 

A Brian catch-all would be nice and I've passively advocated for it. On the other hand, a lot of us have already collected most if not all of those random one-off tracks, so I'd *rather* see unreleased archival compilations as opposed to some weird catch-all that has "Walking Down the Path of Life", the alternate "Live Let Live", "Believe in Yourself", "Wanderlust", etc.. That is, if we could only get one or the other.

Brian's weird non-album tracks are interesting, but few of them are truly mind-blowing "should have been on an album" tracks. A few are, like "Message Man" and "This Song Wants to Sleep With You Tonight", and a few others.

What I'd really like is a good-sounding version of his great recording of "What a Wonderful World" from OCA sessions.

Perhaps one day we'll see a boxset of some of these gems, even if it's only in digital form (sadly, I can't imagine there's a huge market for a tangible Brian Wilson rarities box).

It's ok. I really don't care for the production that much,  esp in regards to the horns

I wasn't aware that the Beach Boys recorded a song called Baywatch Nights.  I thought it was a song that was written but never recorded.  I'd love to hear it.

And having heard it, you'd then really love to unhear it.

Also known as "Dancing the Night Away". Vocals exist on the bridge (Carl and Mike), rest of the track is instrumental/unfinished.

Something about the combo of the production and the horns is quite wacky. It's almost like they took Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight and rejiggered it for a Broadway musical.

I am almost positive the song is being played at an incorrect speed.

Listen to the version that's been floating around for years: https://youtu.be/FHt_LQBfZ-Y?t=40m11s

Tell me that's not a more natural / realistic vocal range for a mid-'90s Brian. Tell me that's not a more truthful sound for the backing instrumentation.

I recall that copies of the Paley sessions material were sent out at different speeds in an early attempt at copy protection. Is it possible the version on Playback is sourced from one of the sped-up dubs?

It's also possible, of course, that BW and Andy decided the song sounded better being pitched-up. Whatever the case, I'd bet you anything it wasn't recorded that way.

Wouldn't it be interesting if you are 100% correct, and somebody from the record company reads this post and realizes the error of their ways, in that they actually screwed up unintentionally, and fixes it before the actual release?

Stranger things have happened.

I'm not a huge fan of Brian's solo material pre BWPS, and listening to this track reminds me that it's probably that 90's voice. I'll take Brian's current voice any day over the 90's stuff. I'm kinda hoping this rip is accidentally pitched up, cause I'd really like to like it.

Depressing to read some of these posts. 'Some Sweet Day' is fantastic and the Paley tracks blow away almost everything BW has done since.

The track is at the correct, original as recorded speed........

I love it too Terrei.

Thanks Mark. Fantastic job on the 67' set also. Wild Honey really breathes.

While Mark Linett has since confirmed above that it's at the correct speed, it's worth noting as an aside that I would imagine at this stage the CDs have already been replicated and ready to ship out if not already shipped out for a 9/22 release. We would probably be stuck with it as-is anyway even if there was some sort of issue. Of course, these days they can of course much more easily and quickly fix problems on the "digital download" versions of tracks.

With Mark Linett confirming this new mix is running at the original/correct speed, it would be interesting to note if the first "batch" of Paley tracks circulated back in the day running too *fast*, while that second, crummy-sounding, early MP3-underwater-sounding batch (Some Sweet Day, Frankie Avalon, etc.) circulated back in the day running too *slow.*

I haven't a clue how all those tracks circulated, but the first better-sounding batch always sounded like it came from a cassette dub a few generations down, while that second crummy-sounding batch seemed to originate as super-duper low bitrate MP3s. I've never heard a version of songs from that second batch that don't have that gurgling/underwater early MP3 sound to some degree.

Thanks for the information, Mark.

It's a fun song for sure. For me, hearing it cold and being a newbie to this era, it does 'suffer' slightly from being similar to a BW88 track that I consider a favorite. No big deal.

While Brian has said he isn't heavily involved in this compilation (not surprising or shocking or problematic at all, despite straw man arguments to the contrary floated on other boards), I'd be curious to know how the choice of "Some Sweet Day" came about.

Sometimes with these "best of" bonus tracks, artists try to push a strong new single, while other times it's more a case of a "good, but not *too* good" track being picked. The idea being, you don't want to pick a crummy track, but you also would rather save an *amazing* track for a full, new album.

I would have to guess maybe they surveyed some of Brian's key unreleased projects, and went with a peppy, upbeat track (which might explain why "It's Not Easy Being Me" remains unreleased?).

Seems obvious to me why they'd pick it: (apparently contrary to popular fan opinion, I think) it's one of the best unreleased BW solo-era songs. It's just that he doesn't have any unreleased masterpieces from that era. But there's no shame in cool, fun, admittedly formulaic songs.

Those who don't like this probably should write off any chance of hoping a rock 'n' roll album, should one ever come about, because I'd bet this is the sort of thing such an album would include.

True, but unfortunately with the exception of the wrong mix of "Melt Away", which still has the incorrect mix on streaming services like Spotify, years after it became known that the wrong mix was used (and on perhaps Brian's best solo song ever, IMO).

TOTALLY unacceptable that this hasn't been fixed yet. How hard would it be to re-upload it? Just how hard? C'mon, powers that be! Please make it happen! I pay for Spotify and use it all the time, but when I want to listen to BW88, I have to bust out my old iPod classic to make sure I'm hearing the right original release mix of Melt Away. That extra vocal line is THAT important.

I think there's a pretty fair amount of solo Brian studio outtakes we've never heard that haven't circulated, but it's probably true that "Some Sweet Day" was deemed to be in the top tier.

A mult-disc set of Brian's unreleased solo material would be extremely scattershot, but also intensely fascinating; I would imagine demos would among the most interesting and intriguing items.

I'd say at least 4-5 of the other unreleased Paley tracks are better than "Some Sweet Day", and I'm not even *quite* as enamored with the Paley sessions as a whole as some other fans.

I think, somewhat like McCartney all of a sudden releasing *multiple discs* of his aborted collaboration with Elvis Costello in 1987/88, a *full disc* of Brian and Andy Paley's recordings, marketed as a sort of "lost 90s album", could do extremely well, especially with critics. Keep in mind that there are supposedly additional tracks Brian and Paley recorded in that timeframe that haven't circulated (a bunch of titles float around; I recall for instance they may have done Brian's early 80s song "The Boogie's Back in Town" that he performed at a BB show or two in 1983).

Oh I'd for sure love any such release, as I assume most everyone here would. And I don't deny that there might be stuff we haven't heard that's quite good. But it seems that as (marketing) people want to prove at every opportunity that "Brian is back," most anything that was all that good would've leaked by now. It's a different world than when the Beach Boys were leaving brilliant stuff behind (and even most of that got out eventually).

I have said it before, but I fear that we're going to have to wait for his death before a lot of that stuff gets released, even if only because he may decide to rerecord and release some of it yet (as he's been doing all along).

My least friends era in terms of Brian vocals but it's really good.

Very excited for the album

I'm no great fan of the Paley sessions, so didn't expect much from this tune, and didn't get much. It seems all so strangely un-Brian to me. I'd bet that "Run James Run" will prove much better.

P.S.
After some listens I think "Some Sweet Day" has potential after all, but would need a total re-recording with Brian's current voice, layered vocal harmonies and a completely different arrangement.

This has actually been one of my very favorite unreleased BW tunes from the first moment I heard it. It's very Paley, yes -- a certain BW band member I played it for said: "That sounds like Andy, all right" -- but BW has such a great time singing it, and that bridge has BW's fingerprints all over it. A lovely tune, not overambitious like some of the Paley stuff (Chain Reaction of Love, anyone?), but also fully fleshed out.

All that being said, I do prefer it slowed down by about 5 percent ...

So I listened again, and though it's not one of my favorite BW tunes I gotta say "Some Sweet Day" is growing on me. I'll be glad to have a copy of it when Playback is released.