There's still life in this thread I hope...I’m 47. I got my first Beach Boys album in 1975 - a Capitol- era hits collection issued only in New Zealand and Australia called, I think, “20 Golden Greats”-I lost it years ago. Soon after that I got Holland, which was their current album. After that I had to get everything, but besides “Pet Sounds” and some hits packages there was nothing much else in local record stores. It took over a year of systematic hunting in used-record shops to track down all the stuff I needed; “Smiley Smile” was the hardest to find.
After a while, though, I gradually got more interested in other music. For one thing the Beach Boys were an obsession I couldn’t really share with my friends, who were listening to Pink Floyd or Elton John. But the main reason was that “15 Big Ones” and “Love You” came out and I realised things had changed. I pretty much missed the next fifteen years.
Then in 1992 I heard most of the Smile tracks on an "unofficial" Japanese CD ...and realised that I had to get everything again. It was the original version of "Wind Chimes" that affected me the most. This was the real deal! These days I listen to some Brian or Beach Boys music almost every day.