I don't understand this about VD not contributing to the liner notes - the ESQ dude who has his unboxing on youtube points out at one point a piece written by VD in the accompanying book.  Is the book not the liner notes?  I guess I'm dumb.

Banning the guy in the first place was wrong IMO, and the schoolyard mentality that rears its crummy little head round here is often disappointing.   Considring the history, he can't be blamed for being fearful there would be problems with the release.  Maybe he came on too strong with some of it, but then people come on awful strong here about a lot of things.   Thankfully, for all of us, Phil's concerns turned out to be unfounded, but give the guy a break, stop this middle school mentality and extend the peace pipe.  In the spirit of Smile it would be the right thing to do. 

His newer artwork is also inculded in the accompanying book to the box set, isn't it?  I hope so anyway, I really want to see it.  I've seen the GV artwork and the MOLC art, but there's a few more newer pieces he did I think.   I bought some prints from him (via his website) back around when BWPS was released, spoke with him on the phone, seemed like a very cool dude.  Absolutely love his artwork too, as unique as the music itself. 

I think of all those who may have wanted to hear this and who won't get the chance, who maybe even never got to hear BWPS or any bootlegged stuff.   BWPS was a shock to me, never thought it would happen.  This release is the same, and as I (hopefully) am now just a day or so away from recieving my order I am very excited.   For some reason I keep remembering that Doonesbury comic when Pet Sounds was first released on CD.  You all must know the one I'm talking about.  I think of that with this release for some reason.   
Anyway, yes, THANK YOU to all who helped this release to happen!

I've got a copy of the Surfin' Colors release of LLVS.  It's well loved, but still in decent shape.  If you're willing to cover shipping I'd be willing to give it to you.   

Smile, (unreleased though it may have been) was always on my BB's top list:

Pet Sounds
Smile
Smiley Smile
Friends
Today
Surfer Girl (honorable mention)

The litho, lighted box and surf board sets were, as i recall, very expensive - and with that in mind there's no excuse for shoddy shipping.   

It's cinematic.  The first time I heard Cabin Essence, the movie it projected in my head was instaneous and clear.  This is nearly true for every other piece of Smile music.  The film in ones head - that's what the lyrics mean.  Apparently ML has never been able to listen visually, which makes me sad for him.

Most of all the vocal work in combination with those psychedelic Disney-like tracks, just incredible.  Never been anything like it since, a very unique moment in musical time.   There's also something I can't quite put my finger on, something that reaches something very deep inside me.  I cannot not say what that is, or ecpress it in any verbal manner really - it connects on some strange level like few other things have. 

Since, for many of us, the Preiss tape was our first tape of Smile:

Byron Preiss

I heard the tape long after I read the book, and that book, whatever one may want to say about it, was transformative to me.  Seeing that Smile cover art for the very first time, just how much it knocked me out, as simple as it is, yet intriguing as hell.   Man, it's been a long time - just a few more days.....

[i]spiritual enlightenment[/i]]

One could make the case that, excepting Pet Sounds and the Smile stuff, just about every Beach Boys album is under appreciated.  Some deserve to be, but most, whether they sold well at the time or not, and whether they are still loved today by a certain segment of the listening public or not, still could qualify as being under appreciated.   For all the reappraising that has gone on about the band and the music it created, they still seem under appreciated to me.  
And even with Smile, I mean here we are just a week or so from the release of the "most famous unreleased album of all time" and things seem pretty quiet, I mean yes, there's a lot going on in the world, but where's the promotion?  They're focusing on lighted boxes and surf boards.  Isn't it something that at a time when the USA is perhaps at it's most f***ked up, when people are beginning to rise up again against the tyranny that has ruled them for so long now, and they're seriously questioning what this country is about and what we're doing, that this music should finally see it's release?  A symphony about America, manifest destiny, heroes and villains, the natural world, childhood, innocence, [i]spiritual enlightenment[/i]....this album is as relevant today as it ever might have been.
Anyway, I love Surfer Girl and think it is an early masterpiece.  Great album.

What exactly were they shooting down though?  The songs themselves?  Wasn't there some upset later in '67 because Brian refused to use the Smile recordings on Smiley Smile?   They didn't want the music, then they changed their minds and did want it?

Reading the Preiss book way back in 79 or 80, seeing the picture of the album cover in that book, must have stared at that picture for hours and hours,  being intrigued by the odd song titles mentioned, I became fascinated and from there it was an easter egg hunt, finding/hearing bits and pieces here and there - H&V on a jukebox in the game room of the Atari plant in San Jose, Surf's Up via "Good Vibrations - The Best of The Beach Boys (album with the wave breaking over the rock on its cover), Our Paryer/Cabinessence on 20/20, etc.  
Hearing Pet Sounds around this same period was part of it too, made me stop, shake my head, go "wha???"  I was confused that this was the same band that did that other stuff, how could that be?  waitaminnit, let me get a grip, let me sit down, let me think, this is too much, what does all this mean???   The experience of being a fan of their music made me think and challenged my beliefs in ways The Beatles never did, and it started with Pet Sounds/Smle.   Eventually I heard Smile Smile, and that threw a further monkey wrench into the gears - what the heck is going on???  That 66/67 period, a blip in time, just a brief moment that winked and was gone, incomplete, bits and pieces, no answers,  only questions, riddles, and no one, not even the band, would ever make music quite like this ever again - poof!  gone, yet still there in the remnants left behind.  During those years it was a lonely thing being a fan of theirs, they got less respect than they do now, so I oftened kept it to myself, but I knew there was something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something that kept drawing me back to this fascination, and to a band and its music that I knew was way more than people were imagining.

Both bands were at the forefront of pushing what pop music could be, but they were on different tracks, two different types of pop music (albeit with similar attributes here and there).  The leaps Wilson was taking in this period, within the span of just a year or so, are to this day mind blowing.  What the Beatles (along with their producer and engineers) were achieving with four track technology is also still pretty amazing. 
They were two unique animals that complimented one another in the landscape.  The whole competition thing, the "better than" debates are really unnecessary.   The biggest thing is that one of the animals had a more obvious, integrated evolution, while the others was more chaotic and confused, taking giant leaps forward, yet retaining its stripes, growing legs, yet still afraid to leave the ocean and walk upon land.  One of the animals was fighting itself, pulling in different directions, couldn't make its mind up what it wanted to be, the brain and body weren't working together in harmony.   
Both were beautiful beasts though. 

Pet Sounds is always real cathartic.  As is that second side of Today (the li'l Pet Sounds).
Smiley Smile is like some strange little friend that I very much love to revisit. 
Wild Honey and Friends though I've found to be like comfort food.  They ease my mind, heart and soul. 
Most of Surf's Up too, and more recently I have gotten into and really appreciated the pain reliever that is Carl and the Passions - So Tough.   

Guys, I wasn't posting a DONATE SYMPATHY TO ME request. I appreciate it sincerely if you are similarly sincere but there are others here who will think or say I'm crying wolf, trying to pull the rug from under my own feelings and experiences in life. Or they consider it inappropriate for one to mention "to strangers" online rather than kept private. What if I have no one else to share anything with? In this life you have to pretend to be tough so that others don't call you a p*ssy or unenlightened for feeling badly.

Good words Ghost, and good thread.  I feel like jumping off a bridge (or some such a thing) at the moment, but I won't.   What I will do, later, is listen to PS or Smile/Smiley stuff and possibly get extremely drunk.  I am going to have to leave my job soon, of my own volition and actually in some ways it's a relief, but I have no idea what I am going to do from that point or how.   In a sense, jumping off a bridge is kind of a metaphor for what I am going through and/or about about to go through.
I will need all the BW music I can get and more, so thank you Ghost.  
And my apologies if this post here has brought a touch of "group therapy" to the proceedings, but you struck a chord with me and so there ya go.

I'm sticking with Murry.   
Without him,  we wouldn't all be here today on a forum for a band called The Beach Boys.   

Why should Myspace or Facebook be respected anyway?  They're just stupid social networking sites that waste peoples time.

In some cases you may be right (that's certainly true of many users), but the ability to easily and conveniently stay connected with people all over the world is hardly a waste of time.  Social networking isn't all bad.

Back in the day I bet there were people that lashed out against postal-mail services. I agree with Chris Brown - it can be stupid and a waste of time (gossip and drama), or it can be a convenient way to set up a social gathering, a study group, keep up with the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, or whathaveyou. Times are changing...social networking is the new telegraph.

You both make very good points, and thinking about it I realize that it's actually been a key source for me to keep in touch with much of my family.   Like anything I guess it comes with its good and bad points.  

Why should Myspace or Facebook be respected anyway?  They're just stupid social networking sites that waste peoples time.

I reported this page to facebook though because facebook profiles are only supposed to be for real people. Myspace was full of this sh*t and that's why it lost a lot of respect.

 You actually reported the page?  What a busybody thing to do.   Why not just not visit the page if you don't like it?   

Oh, well, then since I rarely know what's what I'll accept that answer and look forward to Nov. 1st.   I wonder what that is going to sound like"?

Exactly my intention. 

All F*cked Up For School

Then you have deepest thanks sir!  I have literally been in pain at times due to laughing so hard - and it's been awesome!  Almost better than f**king!
and "All F*cked up For School" is one of the best! 

Agreed the Smiley Heroes has the flow, but the "cantina" version is more exciting.  And in total agreement that it sounds incomplete, like there should be more to it, and maybe it would have been the "Part 1."  It sounds liek that, like you'd listen to that then flip the single over and you have the continuation on the b-side. 

I have another question, which maybe ought to be placed in the boxset thread, but people keep referencing a Wild Honey era Surf's Up as being on the coming release - where is that listed?  I know there's a Surf's Up 1967 listed, is that it?  How do we know that is from the WH sessions?  I don't know all the session date info, so I am assuming Surf's Up was only logged as being recorded in '66, and that this is where that assumption comes from?   Could it not be from the Smiley Smile sessions?  This may have been answered in some other thread but these Smile threads are getting so long that I haven't the fortitude to try and find it.  Just curious, though I guess my question(s) will be answered in about 2 months.

I'm waiting for Andrew to say this thread is friggin' childish!

You needn't wait for the Big Kahuna to say that - I'll say it:  It's f**king childish, puerile, stupid, dumb, etc.   And everyone of us knows this - but it's just a bit of fun which, personally for me, has supplied some howls of laughter which I have sorely needed and haven't had in a while. 
No harm meant. 

Mt. Vernon And F*ckway
F**king Pretty
F*ckboat
Don't Worry F*cker
It's F**king' OK
Old F*cks At Home
We're F**king Again
F*ck The News
F*ck Miguel
All This Is F*cked
Hold On Dear F*cker
F*ck It Good
The F*cker
California Saga: Big F*ck
Leaving This F*ck

Brian Wilson Reimagines F**king'
Carl Wilson: Young F*ck
Dennis Wilson: Pacific Ocean F*ck
Mike Love: F*ck Love
Bruce Johnston: F**king Public
Al Jardine: F*cks From California
Murray/Murry (how the hell is his name spelled??):  The Many F*cks of Murry Wilson