The Smiley Smile Message Board

I seem to remember a little while back that, after the success of The Beatles Love remixes, there was talk of Giles/George Martin being asked to do something like it with Smile, but I think he turned it down, which is probably just as well.

However, at a Beatles fan site I found the following (originally from The Times website):

What next for Giles Martin? “There’s a Brian Wilson project I’ve been asked to do,” he says. “I think God Only Knows is one of the best songs ever written, so I’m keen on that. At the moment I’m working on a Martin Scorsese music documentary. I’ve learnt almost everything I know from my dad, so I feel incredibly lucky.” He smiles. “Not that we sit around talking about the Beatles all the time. Mostly we just watch the snooker together.”

I wonder what he could be up to? Anyone heard anything else about this? He doesn't say he's working on GOK, just that he likes it, but it would would be interesting to get some new blood into the Beach Boys mix and would make a change from the dead hand of Mark Linnett.

BJ

http://beatle.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/all-together-now-with-a-little-help-from-dad%E2%80%99s-friends/#more-1548 (http://beatle.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/all-together-now-with-a-little-help-from-dad%E2%80%99s-friends/#more-1548)

Love is currently my favorite Beatles 'album'! That would be awesome if he did something like that for the Beach Boys!

Bad luck, sons. Because I veto this plan here and now. It amounts to sacrilege. Not one mortal soul shall ever tarnish and blemish the works of the mighty Professor Brian Douglas Wilson by 'twiddling the knobs'.

NO!

Can we get Giles Martin to remix TLOS?

I love LOVE and think it was a brilliant idea and well executed. Beatles have never sounded better on a format except the original vinyls.

Is it true that the Beatles always vetoed re-mastering their back catalogue out of vanity? Like in: we are the only band in the world that does not need that kind of overhaul?
Just asking.

(BTW: my 'NO' remains that: a 'NO'; I do have principles... :police:)

No.

eh... to what question?

I don't like Love. The only thing I like from it is While My Guitar Gently Weeps, because that's one of the only songs that's not just a bunch of songs on top of each other.

This may be an R&R urban myth, but I've read that there's a clause in The Beatles contract with EMI stipulating that the original studio albums will never be reissued in any other form than they were originally, which would of course explain the total and complete lack of bonus tracks on any of them. Evidently this clause postdated the Capitol hatchet job on the pre-Pepper releases.

As always, thanks Andrew. Seems to be a very rational answer to this question. What puzzles me however: suppose EMI would re-negotiate and re-issue everything in pristinely remastered format (perhaps without bonus material, to 'protect' history, as it were) - wouldn't there be a couple of billions to rake in for them (and Michael Jackson)?

I think by original format,it means exactly as released, no bonus tracks. I doubt a good remastering job would infringe the stipulation although, as has been pointed out, the remix GM did on some could be seen so to do.

I see your point. Perhaps it's more a philosphical point whether re-mastering would infringe previous obligations. Only two surviving members would be able to say OK to any, albeit ever so minute, change to the source material. On the other hand Lennon never lived to see the transition from LP to CD sound, and in theory could have said 'no', although that is taking things a bit to far I am afraid...

LOVE is pretty bad, a bunh of songs on top of each other..I don't get it.

No point destroying Brian's melodies like that.

But if he wants to remix Wild Honey in Stereo, i'm for that.  ;D

Um..., am I right that you are all for Giles Martin putting the likes of you in a blender?

Take two of the blue and three of the green pills and go to bed. Now.

You know the thing about the Beatles remasters before Pepper is they're absolutely fine if you're listening on a  CD player without headphones. Once you put the headphones on, it's much less so, especially Rubber Soul which isn't a very good mix at all. One of the reasons that I don't listen to early Beatles in headphones and started buying Beatle LPs.

No , I don't approve of a 'Love' style remix of PS.

The Beatles back catalogue is actually being remastered right now, but as mentioned earler no bonus tracks whatsoever will be issued.

Holy f*ckballs that's funny.


...err?


Oh, and I'm all for it. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

To the one you asked, directly above my answer.

Then you, Sir, have no imaginative or creative sensibility. I believe the surviving Beatles loved it.

Quite, Pet Sounds doesn't need messing around with, though a more contemporary (but not over-compressed) mastering job might be interesting.

I think, contrary to your insider information on the new Beatles issues, that there will be bonus tracks in some form or other. Everything I've read suggests re-mixes at the very least, and many bonus tracks have already been issued as part of the various Anthology series. I for one don't particularly appreciate bonus tracks on albums, though discs of extras are most welcome! When The Beatles catalogue finally gets reissued its likely to be on multiple discs per album, though will probably be after the tracks have been released on iTunes.

Just for a bit of fun. I have a late 70s interview of Bruce Johnston comparing this Thunderclap Newman song with a famous Beach Boys song.

If you haven't heard the interview, any ideas?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pGht71KFkY

Wind Chimes?? Busy Doin' Nothin?

No sorry.

From memory he says 'Listen to (BB song) with Something In The Air and its (BB song)'

Its nothing obscure. I would say in their 20 best known songs.

I am not a Beatles fan (this may surprise you) but I don't have nothing against them either. I don't own any album by them, save for the Lennon 'Rock 'n' Roll' effort (is more my Spector fandom). At any rate, the Beatles are better than Coldplay.
Now, I like the idea of the Beatles stuff being reissued. Why? Because it will prolong the life of the CD format for a couple of years. And that suits me just fine. Because I hate downloading. I hate having no booklet. I hate not having to bike to my favorite record shop. And I'd hate said shop eventually turning into a cell phone shop. That's why.

I, for one, REALLY like "Love".

Especially the "Strawberry Fields" version with splices of "Sgt. Pepper", "Penny Lane",  "Piggies",
and "Hello Goodbye" mixed seamlessly into the fade. Also the backwards "Sun King" vocals into
"Something", the intro into "Lady Madonna", etc.

I think that is overly reactionary to condemn any similar reconceptions of Brian's masterpieces as
somehow "sacreligious" or unacceptable. I'm sure George Martin and son could do some very ori-
ginal and creative reconfigurations of Pet Sounds or Smile, and I would be very interested to hear them. :3d

I am sorry. I don't see it as reactionary at all; neither do I see 'remixing' in the 'Love' format as 'progressive'. I must admit here that in my opinion there indeed are works of art that should not be tampered with. These favourite items for me exist as they are, outside of time and place, and are perfect in themselves. Yes, there have been art movements that applauded the painted moustache on the Mona Lisa, or graffiti on other old great paintings. I hate that.
Mind: I am not in favor of prohibiting such acts. But I see it more as: 'lesser talents doing their particular thang with the works of the true masters' and that has, for me, never lead to someting of additional, or, heaven forbid, more merit.

In short: if you like a 'messed up' God Only Knows, then you don't understand it.

The Beatles remasters are set for the new year, but as yet no information on bonus tracks.

Personally I think Brian's music would lend itself even more to the collage appoach than the Beatles', since he constantly employed it himself!

And Bollinger is better than Pepsi.

 ;D ;D ;D

Stars on 45 for the 21st Century.

I consider George Martin to be one of the Beatles, so I don't think it a blasphemy that he has gone back and created alternate mixes of the works (and they are simply alternates since the originals remain available). Martin has also appeared to be more knowledgable about the original recordings themselves than the band as evidenced by the bonus footage included on the ANTHOLOGY DVDs where McCartney thought he might have overdubbed bass on every take of "You Never Give Me Your Money" while Harrison didn't even know what song it was!

As to Martin and/or son reworking Beach Boys material, I have less enthusiasm.

Some of it was good, the Tommrow never knows mix with Within You Without You for instance, and a few other tracks.

But all in all, the CD wasint that great IMHO, now live in vegas at Cirque du Soleil that would of been great to see.

Maybe if they do a show with the BB tracks, i'd be for that...but just a CD, it's just not my thing...so sorry

For anyone interested.

'Wouldn't It Be Nice'

Robert W Morgan special of the week. 1978.

Just interesting how music can be interpreted in many ways by different people. Yeah I could listen to new mix. I don't think a update would damage the original anymore than this does.

 http://www.progressiveart.com/max/mona_lisa_portraits.jpg

I would've never thought they sounded like each other, but I definitely hear it now.

We really don't need another reissue of Pet Sounds...

the Beach Boys kind of did this sort of thing years ago with those medleys they released.

That f*cking 45 was the only Beach Boys record my dad owned. To this day, I still expect to hear Help Me Rhonda segue out of Good Vibrations.

You poor thing, you... if I were you I would sue my Dad Mike-Love style for a princely sum... for imposing mental damage onto you that won't go away for the rest of your life and will even retrogradely discolor all your memories from the time prior to being exposed to that record... so your whole life should be materially reimbursed to you.

Love was superb, a chance to revisit familiar work in a fresh light.

So we don't necessarily need another Pet Sounds... do we? How many versions have each of us here got? I've got an original 66 release, four other vinyl copies, at least five or 6 CD issues, a couple of 5.1 issues, the box set, two SoT boxes of outtakes, and a mass of other booted session stuff.

I'll bet most of us here have a similar hoard; I don't think another would go amiss, especially one that allows us to revisit the same material from a fresh perspective.

That said, SMiLE would be a much more suitable candidate.

That said, that said, I don't think it'll happen at the hands of the Martins. Suspect that if it ever does happen, it'll be Darian Sahanaja and Mark Linnet, with a over by Mark London. And they're fresh interpretation might not really be fresh enough, as they're too close and too familiar with the original work.

Thinking about it, it might be better if Bruce Johnston did the remix, maybe  even a rerecording along the lines of Pipeline, Deirdre etc from Going Public. Class!

Wot he said. I would call that effort: 'Hate'. I would.

Yeah, a disco remake of "Wooo-woooo! Wooo-wooo! Wonderful" - that would be something  >:D

Thank you for robbing my sleep for the upcoming, oh, 1001 nights and more. >:(

Oh, I think I can top that.  How about setting the entire PS album to rap beats and sub-bass, segueing all the songs together, and then having Snoop Dogg rapping rambling chants over the top of them.  Kinda like he did with the Doors' "Riders on the Storm" (check out YouTube).   :lol

Yes, I do realize I'm going straight to hell for even joking about this!  >:D

Kinda like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6T8ot6m-mI

I think what happened is that Brian himself said he liked what George & Giles Martin did with Love and said in an interview he'd like them to do something similar with Pet Sounds and other BB material. I think the Martins were less enthusiastic becuase they're not intimately familiar with the BB tapes, whereas George knew everything there was to know about the Beatle's material which they worked on to produce Love.

But if Giles' comment is to be believed, Brian has actually approached him about a project.....which is interesting...

As for Love...I like it sometimes. I get the "mash up" concept and it does work. They even made it in 4 sections so it actually works as a double LP....which is better than the CD (I own both) because the listener's attention is drawn to turing over the disc every 20 minutes or so...rather than hit with 80 minutes of music non-stop.

If Brian wants to try a remix, why doesn't he just do it himself? Giles is hardly a spring chicken or intune with todays younger listener anymore than Brian assisted by members of his band would be.

edit.

He's 39. I may stand corrected. ::)

I think the reason most BB fans dislike the Beatles 'Love' is because we have been ingrained to think that anything related to Love is bad. :)

Personally, I love this stuff! You don't have to buy it. Its not like some men in uniform are going to come to your house and take away the original albums and put them in a mixing machine.  You will still have your original albums, and so will I. But it is interesting to me, to see what can be done with music.

I think that if something were to be done like this for the BB, it should be Stephen Desper.

I got a kick out of 'Smells Like Sloop John B'

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

...And how can people who spent decades creating their own Smile mixes complain about mash-ups?  :-)

Cheers,
Jon Blum