Is anyone actually putting any of this on a map?

Yes, the NSA   

Greenfield MA

Judd that is too funny 

The BW thread has some funny to it, but this one is simply hysterical - it needs to live (and Love?) forever.  You photoshoppers are brilliant!   Do more please, take it to the limit....one more time....many more times actually....please?!!

Someone has to do the Farts album....

Yet, still, there were to be twelve tracks or chapters or movements, blended and blurred.  That's what I believe was the concept -- and so did Brian...

That's really all we know.  Or I know.

Not according to VDP when I asked him back in... oh, late 90s/early 00s. Granted time and inhaling can powerfully modify memory but he was most insistent, when I asked him about the possibility of it being a double album (as was current back then amongst the likes of us), that it was set to be a single album, 10/12 tracks individually banded with no links, crossfades or segues between them (yup, I know that flatly contradicts Brian saying there might be talking between the tracks - in Melody Maker, I think, early 1967 - and that illustrates nicely the problem of who to believe and when). Dilemma. 

I'm nearly positive though that the exact quote is, "somebody might say something between verses."   So he wasn't really indicating linked songs, but rather "funny" stuff within individual songs.   

The "accessibility" thing has always sort of got my goat (and I love my goat!) because even though I "get" what people are talking about when they say this, I think it is severely underestimating the audience available to the band at that place and time.   They might have lost a few fans with this one, but I believe they would have gained more in return.  First off, listening to Good Vibrations - yes it's a far out, modern sounding track - but it's catchy as hell, it's pure pop magic, and frankly - who cares what the lyrics are - it's a winner no matter what the lyrics ended up being (I know many will not agree with this opinion, and that's fine - but I feel this way 100% - I love great lyrics too, but they are OVERRATED in importance).  Good Vibes was a #1 world wide hit, biggest of their careers - it set the stage for something different, the many press accounts at the time were setting the stage for something different, the UK were on their knees for the band and couldn't wait for the next release, the hipsters were cautious perhaps, but they were definitely going to give whatever the band released next a listen - you can bet your butt on that.   Now,. like GV, Cabin Essence, Surf's Up, Wonderful - these sound plenty captivating, catchy and accessible to me, and I believe they would have been at the time.  Mind blowing and amazing yes (first time i heard Cabin Essence I nearly sh*t myself freaking out over how incredible it was), but totally approachable all the same.  
Personally, I fully believe, whatever the chart peak it may have obtained, this thing would have impressed listeners - new and old, press and critics, as well as finally gained them more attention from older audiences.  
You can say I'm wrong (as is your right), but I feel I'm correct.  This music only seemed inaccessible because it was unfinished, which lends a faulty perception of it.  
and blah blah blah, what do I know?  I don't, this is just what I feel.

Good post! And I'm not only saying this because I agree with your intelligent observations. You have a knack for cutting to the heart of things.

Thank you 

  Lumpy Gravy IS Smile without of course the songs and the Beach Boys.

Exactly my thought the first time I heard Lumpy Gravy.  Great album, love it to this day.   

The "accessibility" thing has always sort of got my goat (and I love my goat!) because even though I "get" what people are talking about when they say this, I think it is severely underestimating the audience available to the band at that place and time.   They might have lost a few fans with this one, but I believe they would have gained more in return.  First off, listening to Good Vibrations - yes it's a far out, modern sounding track - but it's catchy as hell, it's pure pop magic, and frankly - who cares what the lyrics are - it's a winner no matter what the lyrics ended up being (I know many will not agree with this opinion, and that's fine - but I feel this way 100% - I love great lyrics too, but they are OVERRATED in importance).  Good Vibes was a #1 world wide hit, biggest of their careers - it set the stage for something different, the many press accounts at the time were setting the stage for something different, the UK were on their knees for the band and couldn't wait for the next release, the hipsters were cautious perhaps, but they were definitely going to give whatever the band released next a listen - you can bet your butt on that.   Now,. like GV, Cabin Essence, Surf's Up, Wonderful - these sound plenty captivating, catchy and accessible to me, and I believe they would have been at the time.  Mind blowing and amazing yes (first time i heard Cabin Essence I nearly sh*t myself freaking out over how incredible it was), but totally approachable all the same. 
Personally, I fully believe, whatever the chart peak it may have obtained, this thing would have impressed listeners - new and old, press and critics, as well as finally gained them more attention from older audiences. 
You can say I'm wrong (as is your right), but I feel I'm correct.  This music only seemed inaccessible because it was unfinished, which lends a faulty perception of it. 
and blah blah blah, what do I know?  I don't, this is just what I feel.

[Some possible outcomes]

Some possible outcomes

* It would have sold a million units.....in January!

* Then we would've had world peace.

* Ben & Jerry's would have named an ice cream flavor after Brian Wilson.


Only Rod Serling knows for certain.....only Rod......

Wait, Pet Sounds has a "Produced by Brian Wilson" credit doesn't it, on the rear cover?   I don't have it to look at at the moment, but I could swear it does.   If I am incorrect, which I may be I guess, I'll be gobsmacked.   

As Dieter (the Mike Myers character) used to say on SNL:  "Your story has become tiresome."    In other words, just give it a rest already "Mr. Positivity" - please!   
Love this groups music, have since I first heard it as a child and always will - but boy do I have to keep the personalities out of it most of the time, because they rarely ever fail to make me go, "Plllffftt!"    The best thing they could all do at this point is retire, go away, stop opening their mouths (to speak, anyway), cut Stamos free to go write his own damn songs.   Like The Who, this band has long made a mockery of its once magnificent self.   The list of "Ugh" moments is long and wearying for a fan to bear upon their shoulders.   

I'm weary, need a nap I think......

Striped Shirts were better...

I guess this begs the question: From 1962-autumn '67, what could these guys have worn besides the striped shirts that would've worked with their material? (like, during that era they couldn't have worn suits while singing 'Surfin Safari' imo).

Thoughts?

Well, here's a thought:  how about the clothes they actually wore, that they were comfortable in?   By the later half of the sixties the "band uniform" was kind of passe - unless you were doing something clever with it (whatever that might be).  I see pictures of them in their natural duds and I think, "just wear that, that looks cooler than the stupid striped shirts, the white suits and whatever else they were wearing on stage. 

There's absolutely no way of definitively saying how anything would have performed chart wise had it been released at some point in the past.   People use Pet Sounds relative disappointing sales to illustrate how Smile would have done, but Pet Sounds didn't actually do as badly as some would have it, and it was a total left turn from what the band had been doing previously, with little (or none) pre-readying of the public's perceptions.   By the time Smile would have been released the public already had GV to whet their appetites for "something different" and there was some media focus on the fact that the group was doing "something different".    Then there's the UK and Europe - where I firmly believe  the album would have been rapturously received.  In the USA?  Perhaps not as big as overseas, but still cannot see it, at the time, as being an out and out "dud".   That's my conjecture though, which is as correct (ie, not at all correct, because there's no way to know) as any other.  
As a side note:  I love the Beatles too, but I am so tired of hearing about "Pepper" - it was a fun, amazing achievement in recording at the time, but for crying out loud - it was a completely different animal to Smile, and in fact (or rather IMO) not even close to being the best album released that year of my birth (1967).  It had the biggest impact, at the time, of any other album, but that's because it was the Beatles and because nearly everyone feel over themselves to praise it.   I'm not saying it didn't and doesn't deserve its praise - just that it was a tad overblown.  

[edit]:  I will amend this by acknowledging that A Day In The Life is one of the all time greatest things ever committed to vinyl.   It's the one track that truly justifies Pepper. 

For Those Lei'd In Hawaii, We Salute You!   

[Psychedelic Disney]

Very good points Verlander and Daddy (ooh my!  ), so perhaps the term Psychedelic Disney would be a better all around description. 

So did Al stand on a box as they took their wedding vows? 

No, Lynda got down on her knees.    

I think they probably got devoured by Mothra, even though Godzilla gets blamed - it just isn't true!   

I hear tell a certain "Pet....something or other" is pretty good.....

Disney on acid (think Fantasia)

I've always been under the impression that, at least initially, part of the idea behind the album was to present the silly/dumb with the sublime/angelic, a melding of the two.   That's what Dumb Angel alludes to as a title, and Smile too I guess, at least in part.   If the psych sounds were edited down to the best bits, then it might actually work nicely.    It may in fact be a closer approximation to the original intent for the finished album than any version thus far (nefarious or official).  Though I repeat it MAY be a closer approximation, not that it is, or would be; because there are no facts to back that up really.  There's hints, but no cold hard solid irrefutable proof (just coverin' my ass before the Smile popo comes and gets me  )
As Surfer is wont to say: You're under arrest! 

It Makes Pet Sounds Stink, That's How Good It Is

Brian Wilson Reimagines Being A F***ing Genius

Wife And Managers

Melancholivity

Can I Please Just F***ing Retire Now? 

Head Phonetics

[The title "Pleasure island" btw sounds like the name of a porno!  ]

While checking out Wilsonart1's Dennis homage, Black Hills Gold on Youtube, I ran across this - probably been posted before, but didn't find it in the search - so here it is for any who are interested:  Dennis and Carly Munoz playing a Backgammon match
http://youtu.be/dFm5nyRUZQ4

I like the Capitol sequence.  It may seem a bit disjointed, as was stated, but it isn't all that much really, to me anyway.  It makes me wonder, what if some snippets from the humor sketches were used as brief interludes between the songs (I know this idea has been mentioned recently on here, and Brian himself seemed to have said as much back in the day) - would it provide more of an initial sense of "flow"?  
However, listening to this sequence as i currently am, it strikes me that...well, that I like it very much indeed!    Even without any between song "humor".   

I have a pair of Beatle boots that I've only worn to a couple of gigs 10 years ago (or so) because they are so slippery that I would wipe out at least one time each night. Now those boots that Gene Simmons wears look ridiculous enough to want a pair.

Gene got the mad boots - how does he stand/walk in them?  
Always wanted a pair of genuine Beatle boots, but then for all we know they could have been called The Shoes!  

I need a boot too, a left one, in a size 7 1/2 please, preferably with a Cuban heel and blue suede,  to go with the right one I currently have.   

Personally I always saw Cabin Essence as a nice album starter.  "Light the lamp and fire mellow, cabin essence, timely hello, welcomes a time for a change...."