The Smiley Smile Message Board

I don't know if this has ever been asked, but what is up with that Classics selected by BW album. Some of the selections seem a little odd. Let me explain.

First of all, we have H&V, Surf's Up, Wonderful: all songs originally intended for Smile. I'm pretty sure by 2002 he may have been playing these again live, but to already pick these as his favorites, well, I dont know.

Then we have Sail On, Sailor: these days he's pretty much said he hates the song (Warmth of the Sun blog, in concert)...so whats the deal?

Also, he mentions Funky Pretty as a favorite, not one he mentions too much.

I'm not saying I don't believe these choices were him, because the song commentary definately is him, but the choices seem a little odd for Brian, especially given the time.

For several reasons I love this compilation more than the majority of the others; the Warmth Of The Sun comp is another favourite. I am fond of the cover pic... it almost has religious overtones.

As for the song selection: I am a bit wary about Brian's input. The new recording of California Feeling sounds somewhat tired to me. But perhaps this very track was intended to be the album's selling point, apart from the stereo mixes.

So I share your doubts.

Personally, I doubt that Brian had anything to do with it. The songs, to me at least, seem the obvious ones that any outsider might pick in order to showcase Brian rather than the band. For example, the picks from the 1968-1973 albums feature 4 written solely by Brian and Marcella and Sail on Sailor. I don't see any of Brian's individuality in those picks. The only 3 with Mike writing credits are the super-hits and the only strange choice is We're Together Again which Brian may have nothing to do with the writing of.

Again, excepting WTA, and the new version of CF, all were favorites of Brian's live show. I think with SOS, Brian hates doing the song more than he hates the actual song. Either that, or he doesn't like the memories it conjures up (more likely). As with everything Brian says, you have to take it with a grain of salt. I wish someone would ask Brian *why* he doesn't like it.

I think he explained it in the "Warmth of the Sun" podcast series. IIRC it's mostly the lyrics he doesn't like.

I'm perplexed by the versions of two songs.  Why use the inferior Wonderful?  The true version had already been released on the Box Set.  The superior Time to Get Alone had been released on Hawthorne as well.  The overall sound is still excellent on the comp.  A California Feeling with Beach Boy backing vocals would have been nice but I don't know if that would have been feasible.

I can't complain about this album. THIS is what got me into Brian and the BB's back in 2003.
I wanted a decent overview of the band's career (the post-surfing stuff AND some non-hit surfing stuff) and this is the only one out there like that.

All their other compilations were just the hits - this wasn't. The fact that it has Time to get Alone AND Busy Doin' Nothing certainly justifies it.

I still feel this is the definitive single-disc compilation to introduce a newcomer to the band.

Seconded. It is a very special collection.

Ask Brian today what he thinks of a particular song he wrote and then ask him the same question 24 hours later to get the polar opposite responce.

Any "insiders" with an info/anecdotes on this collection?

I feel like Brian has only come to hate Sail On Sailor in the past few years of performing it...Maybe he just hates performing it? The words are a bit overwhelming to sing night after night. or maybe he hated that he didn't give two $hits about it at the time of writing it with Van or that so many other people had to help write it, btw...anyone know the individual lyrics that were written by whom?

My guess is that the bulk of the released BB lyric is Jack's, with bits of VDP and Kennedy.

That's the impression I've been under.

That sounds right. Nobody tells the story of how the song came together in the same way so I'm just going on instinct and on how different the KGB lyric is.

Nobody's yet mentioned the words David and Leaf which I would have thought most relevant.

I love this and 'Warmth' because they're both HDCD encoded. Heroes and the other stereo remixes sound spectacuar.

I became so tired of compilations that I never bought it.

Maybe I should.

well that's a matter of opinion.

Brian may have had nothing to do with writing We're Together Again? first time i've heard that.
I have heard that the only reason Brian has a writing credit on Deirdre is because of its similarity to WTA.

This compilation have stereo mixes made for this release?

Superior in your opinion. Not mine.  Nor Brian & Carl's either, evidently. :)

Has anyone ever asked Brian directly about the song's origin and subsequent development?

I don't think that they used the "wrong" version of 'Time To Get Alone'. The '20/20' version is the definitive one and the 'Hawthorne' version is, even if you personally like it better, work in progress so it makes sense that they used the more familiar version. But it's a different thing with 'Wonderful'. I also never understood why the 'Smiley Smile' version was chosen over the 'Smile' version.

honestly, if Brian chose the smiley version, that just makes it even more bizarre and interesting

Thinking about the Smiley Smile version versus the 'Smile' version; I wonder how Brian hears that song when he imagines it in his mind. It could be a different answer before and after BWPS.

It would not surprise me at all if he'd heard the Smile version much more often over the years than the SS version. Was he such an avid listener to their own albums?

Aside from the nice fade, i don't think the mix on Hawthorne of Time to Get Alone is anywhere near as nice as the official 20/20 version. And i love the Smiley Smile version of Wonderful. Perhaps Brian thinks the album deserves a break, which it does. But again, just one guys opinion...
Anyway, i really like this Classics album, it's a great selection of songs. I'd never, until the issue was raised here, doubted Brian had picked the tracks. Although it quite odd that, considering how much he bangs on about how Love You is the most underated BB album all the time (something with which I strongly disagree), he didn't pick a song from that album.
Funky Pretty is a great track - maybe, while listening back through their albums, he was reminded of how great it is (but At My Window? A nice track, but like the 9th or 10th best song on Sunflower).
It's a little disapointing that every single selection is primarily a Brian song - it would've been nice for him to have acknoleged his brothers songwriting talents also, even if it had just meant him opting for the predictable Forever. One of Carl's Surf's Up tracks would have been more than worthy of inclusion.

Probably because that was the released version and the "Smile"-recording wasn't finished in Brian's eyes for whatever reason. It's the artists deciding (in the best scenario)


Well, at least it's interesting to note that he recorded the Smile-arrangement for IJWMFTT

Yep! I was amazed at the time about that choice, and I found it strange that very few reviews made a point of it.

I wonder if that was done more specifically for the film than the soundtrack. It's the point in the film where they are discussing Smile, so it seemed natural they would use that arrangement to help show what Smile was supposed to be.

What if Brian had pulled a stack of tapes and acetates out of a safe, showed them to us, the viewers, and then had them locked away again, and subsequently had thrown the key in a vat of sulphuric acid? Would have made a great movie scene, wouldn't it?

For me, the definitive "Time To Get Alone" is Mark Linnet's recent remix on THE BEACH BOYS LOVE SONGS. I think the point of CLASSICS was to show the growth and diversity of Brian Wilson throughout the time period when most people associated the Beach Boys with "Fun, Fun, Fun" and little else. It's really an eye-opener for those raised solely on ENDLESS SUMMER or 20 GOLDEN GREATS.

For me the best "Hits" comp ever put out was "The Platinium Collection", which may or may not have been a UK only release. Standard surf stuff on CD1, then PS to 20/20 on CD2. Then CD3 picks up where most hits comps leave off with one or two tracks from the 70's stuff and ending with "Getcha Back" and "Kokomo". CD3 turned me from a casual fan into the obessive nut I am today as it made want to seek out all the great 'hidden' stuff they had done.

No, no and no again - the glorious resonance of "deep and wide" is reduced to an impotent whimper. I refuse to believe Brian listened to this and said "fine".

For me it's the Hawthorne version...gorgeous.

No no no. As always, its the original non-screwed about with, non-digitally remastered version that's the best. Leave 'em alone!! That's my opinion...

def going with the official version of time to get alone. 

Aren't most people talking about the alternate mix? That's not a remaster.

I'm not a fan of things being screwed with for no reason and I was very wary when folks on this board were distressed over this remix (especially the "deep and wide" moment). But when I finally heard it myself...I thought it was great! Of course, it's possible that I felt the original "deep and wide" echo effect was a tad over-the-top.  ;)

I haven't made up my mind yet on the new remaster of Time to Get Alone vs. the version on Classics.  I stick by Hawthorne as being definitive not just because of the wonderful fade but the horn break as well.  It's so much cleaner than the 20/20 or box set versions.  Why it wasn't used on Friends I find absolutely baffling.  Friends was such a short album in length that nothing need be dropped to accomodate it.

All three mixes have their big amount of pros and their trivial cons, really. I like them all.