The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was looking through another part of this board today, and I once again came across a picture I meant to save on my hard drive long ago.  Its the semi-legendary picture of the Beach Boys tape library, circa mid 1970s.  Like many of you, I'm fascinated by this picture:


(http://members.aol.com/rdf1206/library.jpg)


This is actually a very high resolution scan of this picture, and if you save it to your hard drive, you'll find that you really can zoom in closely on it.

Here's a bit of a guided tour through this picture.

The top shelf runs the gamut of familiar BB album titles- Little Deuce Coupe, Concert, Shut Down Volume II, All Summer Long, Christmas, Today, Summer Days, Party, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends 20/20, Sunflower, Surf's Up, So Tough, Holland, and the 1970s Concert album.

Next to the shelf are a few signs.  The first is only partially readable (I see the name Robert in there), the next one down says "Studio and Engineering by Paul Bramsem".  The last sign says "Thanks also, The Beach Boys! (especially Brian)".

The next shelf down reveals some very interesting tape box titles:

1.  Add Some Music To Your Day (presumably the early version of Sunflower)
2.  London (Live In London?)
3.  Tracks (no idea what this is)
4.  Another Copy of Pet Sounds (this one is marked "Mono")
5.  Spring
6.  Bellagio/Holland (what the ???)
7.  Vegetables (some sessions from the Smile Era?)
6.  Summer Concert (eh?)
7.  Holland
8.  Surf's Up
9.  Sunflower (Are these last three just backup copies or something?)
10. Beach Boys Remote, St. Paul (presumably a live recording... does this tape still exist?)
11. Misc. Beach Boys Material

And finally, the most incredibly interesting tapes:

12. "Brian"
13. "Brian- Dumb Angel"

There is also another tape sitting next to the Dumb Angel one, which is not entirely visible. 

First off, I'm wondering exactly where this picture was taken.  Is this the Capitol vault, containing the masters to everything?  Its strange to see what appear to be rough session tapes (Vegetables, Misc Tracks, etc), lined up next to what appear to be the masters Capitol and Reprise would possess.  And besides that, what are the Capitol and Reprise master tapes doing together?  Perhaps this is the Beach Boys vault, but I wasn't aware that a set of masters were also kept there. 

Also, how many of these tapes are still in existence today?  I know the Dumb Angel tape is apparently long gone... 

Was this photo published in any old book? I may be wrong, but it looks like a Photoshop job.

Stack-O-Tracks maybe?

This post (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,4165.msg68820.html#msg68820) answers a few of your questions.

are there any pics of Mike's on-stage costume rack from the 70's?????

As I understand it, as part of their settlement with Capitol the Beach Boys gained ownership of their post-1965 masters.  As part of their deal with Reprise, they leased them to Reprise for reissue.  According to Bruce a few years back, they own all their masters now.   They've leased them exclusively to Capitol for some time now.  I seem to recall Ed Roach said the photo was from the Brother library.  Alan, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

All on an old, dry wooden shelf. What if there was a fire?  :o

They should put that in the Smithsonian, next to Brian's ear.

This picture was taken at least 30 years ago.

Sad to say that none of those tapes are in the Beach Boys' archives now.

Alan,

The photo dates from late '74 - early '75 and was taken in the Brother Studio's tape vault in Santa Monica. The photo was taken by Ed Roach. The copy that is shown was probably from my old PetSite webpage as I enlarged the orginal photo to a higher resolution. I have even a higher resolution one.

Bob

PS - Just noticed that the link for the pic is to my old images webpage.

The tape on the far right of the bottom shelf, next to "Brian / Dumb Angel", appears to be "Wouldn't It Be Nice"...

I'm working on a project and was trying to find a copy of this picture. Could someone point me in the right direction or maybe post it here. thanks.

try here...

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,10132.0.html

Thanks, but I guess I should have been more specific. The one I was thinking of was the Brother Studios tape vault picture from the 70's.

 Which is what is pointed to in that thread Steve quoted, it sure seems to me.
Reading this thread, with the followup post from petsite, the tapes listed in the first post, are exactly the tapes shown in the picture

Whatever said piccy is, the Brother tape vault in the 70s, it ain't.