Do we know that BRI *didn't* acquire them?

Honestly, I was wondering why the collective effort to buy them fizzled out, just because BRI said they would buy them. I assumed BRI might set an upper limit (25K?) and still could be outbid. The only way to have prevented this would have been for a collective to absolutely beat any bid, and then to turn the recordings over to BRI. Not sure why that didn't happen.

It was surprising that BRI/Capitol didn't buy them the first time. 10k is literal pocket change for a corporation.

Hindsight is 20/20.

The fact is a crowdfunding operation done at the last minute, with a month to organize, get the word out, collect contributions and ease people's concerns of its legitimacy was always gonna be a longshot. Especially when anyone collecting $$$ would be looked at with suspicion, there'd be no incentive for anyone to give more than anybody else ("I put in most of the moolah and get no extra reward?") and getting everyone their money back would probably be a huge pain the in the ass if it failed or we over-collected. ("Why do they get a refund but not me?")

I've never organized a crowdfund before but would've tried my best only if it came to it. OR I would've even given money to someone(s) I strongly dislike, who've bullied me for years, if they were organizing one themselves if it meant not launching two competing funds, had EH's people been independently working on the same idea. (They were considering it in their thread for awhile.) But when I saw "BRI is on the case, they don't want anyone driving up the price" the last thing I wanted was to be THAT GUY who fucks it up and forces them to overpay or accidentally outbids them and gets saddled with the responsibility of safely handling/delivering these fragile holy grails. Imagine the shame if I dropped one or my house had a fire or they got damaged in transit... The whole thing was a desperate hail mary play I didn't want to have to do unless there was absolutely no better option in the first place.

In any case, it's easy to virtue signal about what I could/should/would've done now anyway--that's just me venting steam. We trusted the ""professionals"" and learned for the umpteenth time that being in an official position doesn't mean someone knows or cares what they're doing. Look at this administration, look at doctors mutilating and lobotomizing people for decades, look at the outright lies promoting by media outlets, look at all the white collar crime business owners flaunt in the open without fear. I don't know why I expected better this time, I guess I thought the BB organization (not to mention surviving members) would take a personal interest in making sure the music didn't slip through the cracks again--especially with Brian's death so recent and the hunger for new material to capitalize on his legacy such an obvious business play. Not only is this a moral/artistic failure on the part of BRI but it's also a commercial/legacy failure as well--terrible look for the brand ("the last unknown work of Mozart's golden era just wasn't worth the price, apparently") and incalcuable loss of potential revenue/interest in the band down the line.

It's one of many examples I alluded to in my first post on this thread, how the owners of this material often don't even give a sh*t about it and rob the public of access to great art we'd all love to experience, that could greatly benefit our otherwise stagnant culture (monopolized entertainment businesses and AI discouraging or outcompeting human output) but they'd rather save a buck on their quarterly earnings sheet. It makes me sick, the way our society is organized. We incentivize short term thinking, ruthlessness and penny-pinching, then act surprised when the worst people imaginable obtain wealth, status and power. Our whole damn paradigm needs a major reset from the ground up, I say.

Pardon my rants but this incident almost feels like the straw that broke the camel's back in a way. Like, the ecosystem/constitution/long-term economic prospects for my generation and more are all in the toilet, everyone's got plastic in their blood because previous generations were careless, the powers that be are actively conspiring to make the humanities obsolete...and we don't even get a satisfying ending to Game of Thrones or a listen to the Durrie Parks acetates out of the whole deal. Bah humbug I say.

Happy to give you all a view, a like and a favorite. Hope it helps the algorithm boost your content.
Thanks for sharing 

If BRI wants them, why didn't they get them all those years ago when they would have been much cheaper?  There was no bidding required then.  Just a straight out purchase of $10.000 from some company Durrie gave them to to sell.  And they probably could have gotten them cheaper from Durrie, herself, as there would have been no middle man to pay.

Who the hell knows. Im pretty damn salty about the situation myself. I was going to try to coordinate a group effort but held back when I saw that the ""experts"" at BRI had it covered. Now I just feel played for a fool and these recordings that are very precious to me will never be heard. Beach Boys once again doing everything they can to fumble their own legacy and that of their greatest work (none but the hardcore fans have heard SMiLE except in that awful TSS format and probably walked away with a mediocre impression). Bunch of fucking amateurs if you ask me. I thought they'd have put in a ridiculously high secret max bid and had round the clock interns refreshing the page every microsecond to be sure they'd get it--you'd think a wealthy corporation could manage such a thing with arguably their last great unreleased collection at stake. Guess that was too much to ask of ol' Mike in between Trump/MAGA performances.

Can you tell I've become bitter in my old age? 

The auction's tomorrow. Apparently BRI is trying to procure them. There seems to have been some online bidding already.

Yeah I was shadowing the other forum and read their discussion of it. I'll take their word that BRI is bidding and doesn't want any fan efforts muddying the waters and raising the price. Otherwise I was going to try to coordinate a fan effort across all boards plus reddit to pool our money and keep these songs out of the hands of a greedy hoarder who won't digitize and share their contents. We'll just have to hope for the best I suppose.

I hope if BRI does obtain them, they make it all available to the public. Even if most of the songs are only slightly different, I'd pay full price to have the "Durrie Cut" of SMiLE in my collection. Especially since all these other legacy boxsets we've been promised seem to have stalled. (Was I dreaming or weren't we supposed to get a SMiLE rerelease by the end of this year? Why is there no further word on "Brian's Back" or "the Paley Sessions" even if they're still coming out in 2026 you'd think we'd get some promotional info by now!)

Ive come to hate almost all Christmas music with a white hot fiery passion. Call me Scrooge McGrinch because if I went my entire life never hearing another tacky "reimagining" of Deck the Halls or chorus girls obnoxiously belting out "Happy Holidays! Happy Holidays! Happy Holidays! May the Merry Bells keep ringing..." it'd be too soon.  They're just so cloyingly loud, fake, overly cheery and vapid. It actually makes me viscerally angry, especially some of the tackier remixes where the artist puts their obnoxious "spin" on these outdated commercial jingles from 1940--just write your own song, goshdarn it. (Cue "Christmas Shoes" and a finger on the monkey's paw curling!)

That said, I like the Carpenters' Merry Christmas Darling. I like Bing Crosby's original White Christmas. I like the actual Christian hymns (Silent Night, Hark! the Herald Angels sing, Oh Holy Night and One Star in the Night in particular), it's usually hard to screw those up. Last Christmas is good. My World is Beginning Today (from the Rankin-Bass "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" special) is a favorite. Despite its reputation I like McCartney's Wonderful Christmas Time, corny synths and all. The soundtrack to Charlie Brown Christmas is a jazzy masterpiece and I'm convinced it's the main reason that special resonated so well with people. Andy Williams' My Favorite Things cover from Sound of Music is ironically the best song on his holiday album--and it's not even really a Christmas song!

The worst are probably Winter Wonderland by any artist--of all the "classic" non-religious staples that refuse to die, that one's particularly annoying. 12 Days of Christmas, although the Muppets version is a cute novelty the first time. I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas, Let There Be Peace on Earth, All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Lennon's Christmas song all particularly annoy me. The Beach Boys' Christmas album is their worst of the 60s and honestly not much better than even SIP--yes, I'd go that far.

Breaks my heart in a way. They belong in a museum with digitized copies to source for a 60th anniversary boxset.

As a big lost/obscure media buff, the sad reality is the fans always care more about the art than the people who actually own it. Piracy is a necessary "evil" to ensure preservation in a world where film companies don't put most of their libraries on streaming, where videogame companies lose the original source code of their classic games and where music companies allow priceless reels to go missing from their vaults.

*steps off soapbox*

Anyway, I hope whoever can afford to buy these takes good care of them and backs them up immediately.

[SMiLE]

(Ooohh, it's quiet on board these days.)

I think the board is dead, it's just a matter of time. Im glad I could be one of the people making the last round of contributions but it is sad. The other board, while getting daily activity, seems to be pretty dead too compared to the glory days.

Well if it is doomed, J, you've certainly given it the most magnificent of farewell flourishes! I've got your round of (SMiLE) contributions bookmarked across the road. It should be much better known, for as long as that thread's around...

The "other board" is quiet, to be sure, but not dead. Same goes for the "other other board". I know the Dutch Beach Boys community operates on Facebook. Maybe this is a general tendency -- the socials have a lot to answer for.

Stay well out there, my friend.

You too, Old Sport!
Is the "other other board" Steve Hoffman? In any case I think the best online BB community these days (and probably for a long time) has got to be the subreddit. For better or worse it's less focused on the loud personalities of individual posters and more of a topics-oriented platform. The tradeoff is you don't know people but then it means interpersonal drama doesn't get in the way. While I have tremendous respect for *some* of the SMiLE scholars who've come before me, Cam Mott's name comes to mind and David Leaf, I do think sometimes the old guard gets in their own way with the endless circle-jerk. They allowed some bad faith actors to poison the well of discourse for too long unchallenged (not formally anyway) and insert themselves into the story too often for my liking. For example, like half of Leaf's new book is about the bootlegging scene in the 80s-90s and fan reactions to BWPS instead of actual insider info or unique insight into the music, when it's really not that interesting to anyone else. Priore's LLVS and 2005 book are like half-full of fan essays telling us the same stories of "when I first heard PS/CG/GV I was blown away...." and it gets really old to sift through. Long story short I think we're passed due for a new generation that isn't hung up on their nostalgic memories of hissy sixth-gen cassette recordings and ill-informed fan theories they refuse to let go of.

I do think it's funny they tried to do a harder rock song and it still sounds like the softest thing in the world though (Six Man Band).

I had to hear this for myself. Yes, those gorgeous harmonies completely soften the blow of "the Wrecking Crew just doing its damage", as one YT commenter puts it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwgfNaKrX_c

Thanks for the heads up, J. (Ooohh, it's quiet on board these days.)

I think the board is dead, it's just a matter of time. Im glad I could be one of the people making the last round of contributions but it is sad. The other board, while getting daily activity, seems to be pretty dead too compared to the glory days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qa8rswFKEY

Hal Blaine's Psychedelic Percussion ought to be here too. He's probably the best known of the Wrecking Crew, apparently the one with the closest relationship to Brian and it's impossible to read about the BBs career without coming across his name.

Anyway, I liked the album for what it is. None of these songs are going to enter my usual playlist rotations but they're extremely well performed, definitely psychedelic and would serve as great background noise for a stoned party or rave. I'd give it a 3 or 4 out of 5 depending on what mood I'm in and the context it's played in.

[Sail On: The Beach Boys Podcast]

This episode of Sail On: The Beach Boys Podcast is devoted to Murry:

https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/7-murry-wilson/id1312969389?i=1000399381294&l=en-GB

PS: Episodes 44-52 are devoted to SMiLE...

I do appreciate the heads up, Old Sport!

PS: Episodes 44-52 are devoted to SMiLE...

I would honestly rather those be avoided nowadays as any meaningful point of reference because so much information within them is outdated (applying to most episodes before Sunflower), but there are great musical insights from Steve Bonilla. My recommendation instead is to keep an eye on beachboyssessions.com in 2026.

I appreciate the heads up about the heads up too! And I'll be sure to do that--very much looking forward to what y'all have uncovered.

[1. VDP Interviewed by David Beard]

So I got my copy of ESQ issue #68, with the arm turning on an old-fashioned radio on the cover. I'll take this article by article (I'm gonna skip some of the more ancillary ones though)...

1. VDP Interviewed by David Beard

Van wanted to paint images in the listener's head, like the Greek concept of "Phantasm," which sounds similar to Brian's bisociative/pictorial thing I mention so often. He chose words that painted an image, not ones that necessarily made literal sense.

The way Van says "I thought it was important to capture the Western movement, the conquering of this continent and beyond--from Plymouth to Hawaii" feels significant to me. He could've said "we" but specifically says "I" and we know for the most part that Van picks his words carefully. Plus, a few noted instances aside ("tenny" in Veggies, "too tough to cry" in SU), Brian seems to have given him a good deal of lyrical freedom. I've speculated in the past that the "genocide of the Indians" / "manifest destiny" sub-theme was Van's idea and this quote would strengthen my hypothesis if true. It just seems to make sense, since Van is always into Americana and topical geopolitical commentary (Tokyo Rose) in his work while Brian is never so overtly serious or "white guilt" or "downer" as that. Brian, during and after SMiLE, is the fun eclectic interests guy, not the "race relations" guy. This would also serve as an elegant solution to the problem of why he and Van were butting heads as the project went on. (Mike sowing dissent and Brian bossing Van around certainly helped, but I think Anderle's quote of "Van wanted more sophistication/Brian wanted simplicity" and Van's insistence he left the arrangements to Brian are only compatible under this context; David misspoke, it was thematic not instrumental differences of opinion.) As Brian came to want a more explicitly fun, humorous, feel-good album, he realized Van's "we destroyed an entire culture" vibe just wasn't gonna work anymore. It makes perfect sense to me, anyway.

Heroes was the first song, reiterated yet again, and that established the "overton window" of the whole project (my words), the center of gravity from which all other pieces conceptually orbited. VDP explicitly says everything that came later "tried to connect to that scene." Bicycle Rider, rather than an actual guy riding a bike across America (a commonly parroted, misguided framing device people use to describe the album) was meant to evoke poker players using Bicycle brand cards at a seedy cantina. We know from other sources BR was actually in Heroes first, then Worms, then Heroes again, and it seems like putting it in Worms (a song about taking a boat ride to Hawaii) ruined the original intent of the piece. Worms, in this context, feels like a song that just never fully came together musically or conceptually. It's an example of how the original intentions of the music could get muddled with all this shuffling around. 

Sadly, VDP admits it's hard to remember exactly what they were trying to do all these years later, "so much nuance is lost."

Page 3 of the book, the point is driven home--VDP UNAMBIGUOUSLY ADMITS THE AMERICANA THEME WAS HIS IDEA. As clear and definitive proof we'll ever get that my long-held theory was correct! Van brought Western expansion and US historical references to SMiLE, and honestly that kinda explains everything if you ask me. When Brian went in the Smiley direction, what did he jettison? The manifest destiny stuff, as much as possible (Heroes was too far in the pipeline to just quit, Wonderful/Veggies work outside that context, WC I think conceptually predates Van's influence, the rest of the songs were reworked or new material). Anyway, according to Van, Brian was (initially) amiable because he'd gone as far as he could with boy/girl love songs. (I'd agree, after GV anything else in that category feels like an afterthought--Brian needed to expand as an artist and knew it...until he didn't.)

The way Van talks about Brian's sporadic, disconnected writing process at this time seems to imply Brian's quote in the TSS webisodes (where he credited Van with teaching him to work in a modular style) is wrong. Honestly, this was pretty obvious to me especially because GV was well on its way by the time the two started collaborating. That quote I always dismissed as "Brian being Brian."

Van says this "animated" style of work made him think of Chuck Jones Looney Toons, which ties in with his praise for the Holmes cover and how that influenced his vision for the album. VDP admits he had no idea where it was going but trusted in the creative process, he let the music take them where it would. He had no "grand plan," so the Western thing was more of a general idea, not a carefully planned "we start with this song, into that song/we should have songs about each region or era of the US" kind of thing. Fair enough, this all makes sense to me.

Van, like Brian in Earcandy '04, explicitly denies a Zen connection. The Tobelman theory, while charmingly eccentric and passionate, is officially dead. I still think the site is a cool bizarro work of Web 1.0 retro art, but he's similar to Priore in that he started off with a theory he liked then selectively chose/ignored evidence to make it work, and this shoddy investigation has had an outsized, undeserved influence on SMiLE discourse for too long. (It's even included as an external link on the wikipedia page, which is ridiculous.) We need a new paradigm of what the album is/was, and I hope my research may contribute to such a seismic shift in perspective.

Van reiterates he never asked Brian to change a note. Also, the music always came first, he calls it "the creative department" over the words, the words were always in reaction to the music. Again he says the words were impressionistic.

Van is aware of criticisms to his words (I recall it was "cool" for awhile to trash them on the forums, with the Kokomoists now governing the shadow-realm leading the charge there, perhaps to exonerate their patron saint). To this Van asks "what words would work better" rhetorically. Honestly, I'm on his side on this one. I can't imagine more perfect lyrics to CE, Wonderful, Heroes and Surf. Even outtakes like HGS have very interesting words. (I've tried writing lyrics to I Ran and CIFOTM in his style but I'm never satisfied my work matches his.) Van's lyrics are not too far removed from what Dylan was doing or the Beatles and Joseph Byrd would do the next two years. I always felt this was a bad faith criticism that says more about the complainers than it does Van's work. And I'm not even a huge VDP fan, I think he can be a bit pompous in interviews and his solo work largely isn't my cup of tea, but him and Brian balanced each other perfectly, like Jerry Seinfeld's corniness and Larry David's cynicism on Seinfeld.

Veggies was inspired by Curtis Springer, apparently a pirate radio late night host who advocated healthy eating.

VDP didn't like the name "Worms" and felt changing it to Roll Plymouth Rock was an appropriate decision. I disagree. Not sure who decided silliness on an album called SMiLE about HUMOR with a kiddie cartoon cover was somehow inappropriate. Hell, not sure who decided songs have to be named for their choruses either. One of the cooler things about SMiLE for me was how it threw out all the rules including naming conventions.

Van repeats the whole "asserting our Americanness" against the British invasion concept, reminding people it was ok to be an American despite the embarrassment of Vietnam and police brutality against civil rights marchers. He repeats the SU story more or less how it is in the 2005 Priore book, where the song was already written when Dennis heard it (minus the handful of syllables that included the title-drop), he asked "what's that called" and Brian asks Van what to call it, and Van says "Surf's Up!"

Van talks about SMiLE in terms of "cartoon consciousness" and says Holmes immediately "got it" when he drew in a cartoony style. This isn't new info but he repeats it here.

Van worked for Brian--he was hired by Brian, collaborated with Brian and followed his vision to the end (as opposed to the BBs). He left when he felt he wasn't being used productively anymore, asserts he made the right call, and clarifies he left "after Barnyard, I never made it to Fire." I notice there's a Barnyard session just before Liferaft (I suspect where the rift really began) as well as the Humble Harv demo on Nov 4 right before some scattered SU sessions, OMP and the Veggie Fight before Fire. This implies Van could've been gone or half checked out a lot earlier than has been supposed.

Asked when he left, Van discusses the same stuff as in the Priore 2005 book--the lawsuit distracted Brian, too many people were around so they didn't have that private space to work, he didn't know what the project was anymore or where it was going. Curiously, he doesn't mention Mike or drama within the BBs. Van says the music got too abstract for him--I suspect he's talking about stuff like Talking Horns which would fit the timeline of when he says he left. (It's been one of the biggest surprises for me, that Brian was the avant garde abstract one and Van was more inclined to do a traditional pop album, despite each man's reputation to the contrary.) I notice looking back through my notes there's no proof Van was at those Nov OMP sessions either. Could this mean Van was more or less gone even before the CE incident?

2. Michael Vosse Interview from our own, Cam Mott

(There's a Brian interview about CE that's as illuminating as you'd expect of the Big Guy. Nothing to comment on there EXCEPT Brian independently corroborates that the American history thing was Van's idea. Page 11. I think the point is made--without Van we wouldn't have the Americana stuff, for better and for worse.)

Vosse recounts the same meeting at Brian's he described in Fusion--Van invited him and Anderle over, they heard some demos of SMiLE and a dub of the not-yet-released GV. That was meeting #1, meeting #2 was for a TeenSet article about GV where they talked about the spiritual component of humor, then Brian called and offered him a job.

Vosse's first assignment was to record water sounds all over LA and he reported back "almost daily" for awhile. This implies that Brian's want for sound effects or even raw material for an entire song made of water goes back earlier than even I suspected--October, not November/December. Vosse also recorded sounds around Brian's house, like pebbles rolling down the incline of the driveway. The taxi cabber thing is mentioned, apparently it was an hour-long interview and Brian asked about the guy's experiences and opinions, not just directions around Chicago. So it would seem we only heard a small snippet of this on the PsychSounds bootleg. It's also stated Brian thought the guy was hilarious and wanted to capture the humor of the conversation. Then after that, Vosse tried to negotiate to get a BB movie made with the big studios. Nothing came of it and he doesn't mention the tantalizing animated "special" in this context.

Brian is said to have listened to anything new in RnR, further evidence he would've heard Revolver by the time Seconds came out. I think calling either that or RS "religious" is weird, but if either fits that description it's Revolver for sure.

Vosse helped arrange use of the fire station and truck for the GV video.

Very disappointingly, Cam asks directly about the comedy skits (he even mentions Hal Blaine veggies, trapped in a piano and liferaft ("a skit about getting lost in the dark at Columbia")) and Vosse gives a lame non-answer. "The Hal Blaine thing is in the Teen Set article. There was a lot of humor in the lives of Brian..." No new insight, no smoking gun "oh yeah, Brian was gonna use those to close out the sides!" but oh well. Cam even follows up to ask about Brian's intentions for them and Vosse brushes him off again. Cam asks about the Nov 4 chants and also doesn't get a very good answer. Vosse doesn't clarify what they were for, how serious Brian was about them, just that it's another example of Brian's idiosyncratic way for working, etc. When asked if there were other such recordings, Vosse says "plenty" but can't describe what the purpose was. I'm starting to think the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg is just scratching the surface, especially when Vosse mentions they played with paper clips and paper cups.

When asked specifically about the LA riots and unrest, Vosse mentions specific instances of police brutality but doesn't include PJR at all. (I'm telling ya, the guy was on the outskirts of that friend group at best.)

Cam even makes the Zappa connection and asks if the two interacted, but Vosse can't say. (Cam's really nailing it with these interview questions! It's a shame Vosse seems to have forgotten or grown less interested in the more off-beat aspects of the project since 1969. It's also a shame Cam himself seemed less interested when I came to the scene carrying the torch for these same subtopics...)

Vosse recalls live performance of the material was a topic of discussion amongst the group but doesn't really elaborate. When asked about the other guys he mentions only that Carl and his wife came over to Brian's house more often than any other. (It's significant Carl's wife and brother are in the LAX photo but no other BB spouse.) The vocal sessions are described as "arduous."

When asked about some of the SMiLE songs specifically, Vosse gives mainly surface level, one sentence answers. The most interesting insight comes from The Elements. Here, Vosse states that the Fire myth was mostly bullshit in his own opinion and also that his water recordings were connected to the song, in case there was any doubt. (You may be surprised--I've had posters argue passionately that SU was water because of the title and the Vosse recordings were for the "humor album" alone. Some people refuse to accept Occam's razor if their favorite theory is at stake but I digress.)

Vosse goes out of his way to say Van's lyrics were the equal to Brian's music and without "that creative parity" SMiLE wouldn't have been as amazing or even exist. (I agree--there's no guarantee we'd get a Pet Sounds 2 if Brian were left to his own devices and I think the anti-VDP naysayers don't appreciate that. Brian could've just stagnated earlier without a creative guy on his level to push him in an inspiring new direction. The industry is littered with people who struck gold with one album and followed it up with mediocre swill after.)

When asked about Brian's modular technique and whether this signals that he had lost control of the process, Vosse admits there was no grand plan but dismisses the notion that that's a bad thing or even unusual. I think to some extent he's right, he points to cases where great movie moments were found in actor's improv or the editing room which is very fair. To some extent, a lot of collaborative art is working around seeming problems (art through adversity) and letting things happen organically. But also, I think most filmmakers would say that it's a good idea to have some kinda plan going in--a finished script, storyboards, a general idea of what tone you want to impart. Then if you realize during the process that a particular actor is unexpectedly stealing the show, or a better idea comes to you, you can let things develop naturally from that foundation. But it's pretty rare for filmmakers to go in blind and it not resulting in a total mess. I'm less versed on music production but I imagine that can be more free-form since you don't have to worry about an overarching narrative that makes sense and there aren't hundreds of crewmen, extras and expensive cast who are getting paid every day the shoot drags on. Even then, I think there's a big difference between a band doing some jam sessions and fleshing out the highlights versus Brian's 30 sessions for Heroes, rerecording the same parts over and over again. I love the guy but I absolutely think he got carried away with pedantic perfectionism and many sources corroborate that.

Vosse is very dismissive of SS, saying "[it] sorta fit into the 'better than nothing' zone at the time." No mention of coming around to it, tying some of its concepts back into SMiLE's foundation, trying to justify Brian's thought process. No one ever wants to talk about this poor album.

^Cam Mott did fantastic here, he asked everything I would've and pushed for follow-ups when given a bad answer. (Not that this helped but he tried.) It just sucks Vosse wouldn't or couldn't elaborate on certain tangents but I guess after 40 years it's hard to remember something that happened for a few months that amounted to nothing. This just shows how important it was to get these guys on the record ASAP--the picture painted by 1969 Vosse versus 2004 Vosse is night and day.

3. Jon Hunt Article "The Many Faces of SMiLE"

Not much to say here, this is your typical summation of the sessions by a reverent uber-fan. To my delight he focuses on the humor skits but doesn't have any new info to offer except that apparently Bob Gordon was there on Nov 4. I'm not sure what his source is, maybe just "Bob Gordon's Real Trip" which I'm not sure if that was recorded at the same time or comes from the same reel. To my immense satisfaction, Jon Hunt says "there's a relation between the water chanting by Brian's friends during Psychedelic Sounds and the finished water chant of Love to Say Dada." So, if the co-founder of the Smile Shop forum's intuition means anything, there you go. Add that to the list of evidence--direct or circumstantial--that Undersea Chant and Water chant were related. I still maintain the connection is very obvious to anyone who's not insistent on arguing in bad faith to service their own fan theory.

Hunt claims Bob Gordon's Real Trip was recorded by BG himself and includes crunching leaves, water and veggies. Also, apparently, Brian wanted to make an entire movie about water. He claims Brian recorded Little Red Book on 2/14 when AGD has it in April '68. (I go with AGD especially on this one.) He also describes the "Untitled Instrumental" Spanish Guitar ditty that we now know was from Friends-Era. Hunt comes to similar conclusions as I have--the skits would likely have been used as fodder for "link segments" between tracks and the sound/water recordings were bound for the Elements primarily. I wonder if the leaves might've been for Air, like water sounds for Water, Veggie chants/crunching and Fire crackling effects. What sounds like a tea kettle whistling (and Badman says such a thing was recorded) might've been water OR air--perhaps the bridge from one to the other!

4. Jules Siegel Interview by David Beard

(There's an article about that Curtis Howe medicine man who inspired Brian's veggie kick. I don't have anything to say on this. There's mini articles on the Chicago Fire, Grand Coulee Dam, Hawaii's takeover, etc.)

It's nice to see Siegel get a chance to speak, I think he's one of the more unfairly maligned figures in the story and the fact that Priore got like 3 essays in TSS and like 2 in the BWPS concert booklet while Siegel, PJR, Guy Webster and Bob Gordon didn't get any still drives me nuts. (To be fair, maybe some of these guys couldn't be reached or declined but ALL of them, BOTH times? I doubt it.) 

Maybe the biggest revelation is that Anderle brought Siegel onto the scene as well. This discounts a small theory I was crafting that Siegel was sent by the Saturday Evening Post independently--IE he wasn't explicitly wanted by anyone but it was too good a press opportunity to pass up. That said, unlike the others (VDP, Vosse, Anderle, PJR) Siegel wasn't a friend, he and Anderle met at a convention and David pitched writing a story about Brian. Considering the animosity that would develop between these two years later, it's ironic.

Siegel is asked about the Lifeboat tape and could've shed some light on my theory that Brian delegated the tasking of setting up the game to him...but nope. He just says it was probably recorded at Brian's house to the best of his recollection and that he tried listening to it years later but shut it off as it was so embarrassing. I gotta say, I'm kind of annoyed by these guys giving dismissive replies to these questions that are obviously very important to the journalists asking them and us fans who paid good money to get the answers. This was my dream scenario--Siegel having a chance to tell all about the Lifeboat tape--that's how big of a SMiLE nerd I am--and he just brushes it off. Cam Mott at least asked followup questions to try to get more out of the subject but unfortunately Mr. Beard just moves on immediately.

I guess we'll never know if the Liferaft game was Brian's idea or Siegel interloping but I now assume the former. I don't think it makes sense for Brian to assemble all these people to do a skit and then just let Jules pitch a random game idea while the tape's rolling without trying to regain control or stopping the recording. Vosse also clearly knew what Brian wanted to get from the session since he can be heard explaining to some of the girls after the take has broken down beyond repair (Brian is frustratingly playing the piano so loud that it's impossible to hear what he's saying, except "that's what he's after") which leads me to believe he'd tell Jules to knock it off if he [Jules] were leading the group off-course with an unplanned distraction. But who knows--everyone seems to immediately dismiss Jules and suggest throwing him overboard, then Brian and Vosse say rude things to the others, clearly goading a fight, but not in the context of the game (such as "I vote X off the boat!" or "I say we draw straws!") instead it's just like "shut up, Y!" and "quit laughing, Z!" kind of general insulting language. That would imply they just wanted to start a fight (one of the two recurring comedy skit ideas, which could've been a barroom brawl, a Nov 4 "we've got to fight and then make up!" and culminated in the Hal Blaine Veggie argument) not necessarily a survival game. They seem to be ignoring Jules' setup or at least rendering it unnecessary.

^Possibly Jules knew Brian wanted to get everyone at each other's throats and suggested the game as a way to do it? Honestly, if so, it wasn't a bad idea on Jules' part. It'd be an interesting setup for a watery counterpart to the veggie fight, and was far more interesting of a concept than just Brian and Vosse telling everyone to shut up anytime they started to say anything that could've been interesting. This session went off the rails because of Brian, not Siegel--and is ironically a good example of Vosse's own moral of letting ideas develop organically rather than try to force a rigid structure on things.

Unfortunately, that's all we get. Siegel's final answer reiterates that he told Brian to release SU as a single right then after the Oppenheim performance but "Brian was in a phase of complicating things," which I think is dead-on. Ironically, he shares an anecdote where he [Siegel] said to Oppenheim "I think Brian is the new Bach" and was told "write that" but Siegel refused because he thought he'd be ridiculed, presumably lifting up a pop artist to the great Baroque composer. So he arguably made the same mistake, or let the same demons stifle him as Brian did. Beyond that, Siegel says that it's not about analyzing the "semiotics" of Brian's music, it's about how the music makes you feel. I agree that's the most important thing but I think that's what analysis is for--you know how a thing makes you feel and then want to dig deep "WHY does this make me feel that way/HOW does the artist accomplish that effect?" That's good criticism--bad criticism is getting too metatextual (IE the artist is problematic, or of such-and-such school/tradition, that is of no concern to the average audience member) or lambasting something that's effective just because it doesn't use as many arbitrary techniques or whatever. Side-note but a big problem I have with English class in grade school is the insipid focus on symbols, "vocab words" and foreshadowing rather than "which characters do you identify with and why? What message do you think the author was trying to convey?" That kind of media analysis misses the forest for the trees, and trains kids to see media literacy as dumb busywork rather than one of life's greatest pleasures. 

CONCLUSION

That's it. Honestly this was a great read and I'm really glad I purchased it. It's definitely on the shorter side and smaller than I anticipated (not 8.5 x 11" page size) but great journalism which I'm happy to support. The interviewers clearly knew their sh*t and asked the same questions I've been dying to see the principals asked (it's not their fault the guys can't remember much 35 years later). There was genuinely revelatory info in here as well as more validating confirmations of some of my theories. I think of all the SMiLE themed issues I made the right call getting #68--the others are great I'm sure but this one had the more tantalizing interviews. If I were to purchase another issue it'd be #67 if only I could buy one without the stupid "On a Holiday" CD that doubles the price. I'd recommend this magazine to any BB fan just based on this experience. I wish these interviews were more well-known among the community--I was treated like a lunatic for wanting answers on some of the stuff that's in these articles. Clearly a real publication thought they were important too.

Still nothing. I'll wait a a bit longer and put another bug in their ear, then if I still don't get a response a few more days after that, I'll spread the word to other BB communities that there's potentially a lost SMiLE article in the CSUDH vaults and hopefully someone can get through.

Hopefully they will be willing to pull the article for you and at least confirm if it's about the Beach Boys! I'll be in LA in January and can check it out then if it's still not resolved, but hopefully you'll have an answer before then

Thank you so much, it's awesome to know there are people like you who'd be willing to make the pilgrimage! Thankfully though, I did hear back late yesterday and unfortunately the article in question is about a different band called The Rising Son. The archivist did say for the record I wouldn't have had to go to CA to see it, but obviously it's of no use to me if it's not about SMiLE.

Apparently they don't have a complete collection of the LAFP, and are in the process of digitizing everything so their directory isn't completely thorough yet. They did say they "don't think they have every issue from 1966-67." So the dream of a PJR article about SMiLE is still alive but on life support. I'm increasingly skeptical but would love to be proven wrong. I'm thinking now that if such a thing existed we'd have probably seen it already, and it seems like PJR must not have been a particularly prolific contributor (or he has the misfortune of his articles tending to be only in missing issues, because the digitized issues of LAFP I've seen never include his writings). I hear anecdotes of how he had to fight the editor to get his Byrds concert review published and it makes me think he wasn't exactly writing the kind of stuff that was Art Kunkin's cup of tea, plus they don't even mention him in the issue about the LA curfew riots where he got hit in the head (unless the search function was broken, his name didn't come up). It's weird. The only articles he has that seem to have survived and are semi-widely reprinted are the Bob Dylan interviews.

I still think this is a tangent worth pursuing if for no other reason than thoroughness, but this is a guy who doesn't seem to have been particularly prolific, writing in a periodical that doesn't seem to have been too interested in music, whom everyone acknowledges was a "second tier" member of the Vosse Posse at best (he's only ever mentioned in passing or with a qualifier like "...and PJR to some extent") who doesn't seem to have stayed close in the way that Anderle/Williams and Vosse himself reunited to do interviews in the 90s and the BD doc as well as the TSS liner notes. I just get the distinct impression he wasn't really around much, influenced little, didn't have an official reason to stick around and the injury on 11/12 caused him to pull back if he was even still around by then at all. In any case, I can't do anything until or unless new issues of the LAFP turn up and are digitized.

I still can't help but wonder why, assuming there isn't an article out there, PJR didn't consider the SMiLE project worth writing about like he did for Dylan, the Byrds, Rising Son and Andy Warhol/the VU. Even if the music wasn't his style (what is he deaf?) it sounds like he was friends with Anderle/Vosse/VDP which should've convinced him there was something there, plus an easy scoop since they must have been willing to talk to a buddy! How could he just sit on a story like that--once it got canceled too, that should've been a great opportunity to interview his pals and get them on the record for such a massive "scandal." Or, if he did do any of this, I wonder why his writing is so much more obscure than any other contemporary article on the subject. Is it just because it wasn't on Priore's radar for LLVS? But the Vosse Fusion piece wasn't there either and that's still well-known and widely circulated among fans. If it exists and Priore didn't know about it, could that imply there are other SMiLE articles out there languishing in obscurity, waiting to be rediscovered in a similar manner to what I attempted to do? Probably. 

A person could go crazy thinking about it. Maybe I already have... (I just really love a good rabbit hole, especially lost media and unresolved mysteries--in that vein SMiLE is the gift that keeps on giving, even outside how great the music is or the personal connection I have with it, how it brought me back to spirituality.)

Still nothing. I'll wait a a bit longer and put another bug in their ear, then if I still don't get a response a few more days after that, I'll spread the word to other BB communities that there's potentially a lost SMiLE article in the CSUDH vaults and hopefully someone can get through.

In the meantime, these are some mock ups I had Gemini make of a "Brian imprisoned by Wind Chimes" cover art. I know using AI generated art is frowned upon but Im not a visual artist. If anyone else wanted to take a crack at the concept with traditional means I'd love to see it. Think of these more like a proof of concept.

Along with Catherine Spaak, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Not a bad singer either 

[New Mix Ideas Based on Yesterday's 4-Suite Thing]

I still haven't heard back, but I understand Windows was down for a lot of people yesterday so, I'm just hanging tight. I'll share when I get a response.

I'm unsure of which way it could go. I was beginning to doubt, thinking maybe this not-Dylan article was the Byrds concert review, but I found another source citing that article, which called it "Byrds Live" and his Andy Warhol article (the other subject I know he touched) has a different name ("Andy Warhol and the Night on Fire") as well. So if this article isn't about the BBs, it'll at least reveal one more thing this guy wrote. I searched this article name on the Internet Archive too--with and without every permutation of PJR's name--and nothing came up there either. This collection is the only mention of it I can find.

Another development, I found out that PJR republished his Bob Dylan interview in another periodical called "Fifth Estate" but googling this shows a bibliography just as sparse as the rest of this man's career. All we have are those same Dylan interviews.

New Mix Ideas Based on Yesterday's 4-Suite Thing

I made some new SMiLE sequences for reference later. These are named after, or in the style of, some Valentinian Gnostic Aeons. The first is a further modification of the Sophia/Sandalphon structure, taking what I've come to like best from both the more I think of it.

The earlier prospective album cover art, again, included: a Luna Park gate and nighttime amusement park against a cityscape, of I Ran and CIFOTM / the virginal young woman of Wonderful and possibly Heroes / the piano on the shore, like the sandbox of Surfs Up / the Indian archer, who I intend to recast in a WH-esque stained glass window aesthetic, the "church of the American Indian"

New cover ideas for the next four might be: veggie drawings / giant WC as a prison to a guy/ two trains golden spike for CE / the Beach Boys holding a giant firehose in front of a fire truck, in reference to the Surfer Girl and Surfin Safari covers in a Fire context.

And each one can have its own trigram printed on the front cover, where the picture is holographic! It'll never get manufactured but that'd be cool. Seven colors of the rainbow and white vinyl for Soteria (the one I'm most enthusiastic to try!)

Dumb Angel, Soteria

[You're Welcome] Heroes and Villains
My Only Sunshine
Cabin Essence
Do You Dig Worms? [Snippet of Taxi Cabber over fade, ~19 seconds]
Mrs O'Leary's Cow [Snippet or rest of Taxi Cabber slowed down]
Barnyard Suite [IWBA/Workshop/Barnyard]
Vega-Tables

Second Day [Water Chant/Dada/Breathing]
Wind Chimes
Wonderful [including I Ran]
Child is Father of the Man
Surf's Up [including Prayer]
And Then We'll Have World Peace

Dumb Angel, Logos

[Veggie Fight] Vega-Tables
Heroes
CIFOTM
OMP
CE

(Prayer) WC
GV
Worms
SU
Elements

Dumb Angel, Synesis

Heroes/Worms/Wonderful/CE/Prayer-SU
CIFOTM/Dada/WC/Fire/IWBA-FN/VT

Dumb Angel, Zoe

Fight-Veggies/Heroes/Wonderful/SU-Prayer/GV
Worms/CIFOTM/Cow/OMP/BYS/CE

Dumb Angel, Tharros

Heroes/Worms/CE/SU/Wonderful/CIFOTM
VT/GV/WC/OMP/BYS/Elements

Dumb Angel, Agape

Heroes/Won/SU/BYS/OMP/Elements
VT/GV/WC/Worms/CIFOTM/CE

Dumb Angel, Aletheia

Heroes/Wonderful/Worms/CIFOTM/CE/SU
WC/OMP/Fire/Dada/BYS/VT

Dumb Angel, Charis 

Fire/Heroes/Dada/Worms/WC/CE
VT/BYS/Wonderful/OMP/CIFOTM/SU

["The Sound of Sunlight Rising,"]

Quick update...

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8ff41bf#access-and-use

^This is a more easily searchable version of the California State University archive. The only potentially relevant article from PJR is titled "The Sound of Sunlight Rising," which is undated. Everything else deals with Bob Dylan and comes from 1965. I heard back from one of the archivists almost immediately and they said they could pull the material for me as early as Wednesday (today). I don't know if that means I'd have to go there in person or they're willing to share online (I asked in a follow-up, the wording seems to imply the former) but they seem very helpful and I asked if they could confirm if the article is about Brian/the BBs which I'm sure they ought to be able to do whether I have to go to California to read the entire thing or not. If it can only be accessed in person, I'll spread the word to every BB fan community I can find and hopefully someone nearby can read and summarize the damn thing. We'll see--this could be another "Al Capone's safe" or perhaps a major discovery in SMiLE archaeology. Definitely worth checking just in case. I tried googling the name of the article along with "robbins" and "los angeles free press" but nothing comes up on Google.

I also got a response from that lesser archive of the LAFP too--nothing. The guy who answered gave me Mark London's instagram as a "here's a person to ask BB questions" tip, but unless he also happens to be a major collector of vintage 60s underground papers I don't think the cover artist for BWPS can help me on this.

Random Thoughts on the Elements' Development & Album's Structure

It occurs to me now that my earlier Elements theory of a "country/outdoor living" medley (where we don't necessarily get the classic 4 unambiguously represented) morphing into 4 non-lyrical instrumentals and/or experimental vocalizations (or skits) would parallel the trend of other tracks if true, including Wonderful/WC/CIFOTM, which changed drastically in order to be more explicitly bisociative/pictorial. I take this as an additional assurance I'm on the right track, and that the overriding "problem" with each song was "how can this arrangement paint a clear, unambiguous image in the listener's mind" as much as "how do I order all the pieces together in sequence?" Writing a good melody came first, then getting it on tape and making sure it worked in and of itself, then tweaking instrumentation to be more impressionistic was the final step.

If I haven't pointed it out already: Heroes, Wonderful and SU are more explicitly narrative than the other tracks. They tell the stories of people's major milestones, recognizing a problem in society or coming to a life milestone and then ending on catharsis. Meanwhile: WC, VT, GV are "odes" to objects that the speaker has strong feelings about--there's no story, just enjoying a pleasant vibe. BYS/IIGS, OMP and Elements tell a story indirectly with repurposed lyrics or seemingly unconnectable, discordant melodies. (I suspect Fire was a metaphor for personal tragedy, anxiety or heartbreak while the others would build back to positivity afterward.) Worms, CE and possibly CIFOTM are seemingly pleasant events in the verse or chorus (which for the first two means a beautiful cabin to call one's own or exciting cross-country trip) intercut with a nagging conscience reminding the speaker of the past horrors which made it all possible.

Then Heroes, CE, Worms are explicitly historical--they clearly take place in specific eras and locations in US history. Wonderful, CIFOTM and SU are about parents' and kids' relationships with each other; they aren't explicitly removed from the Americana umbrella, but could easily exist outside of it too. BYS/IIGS, OMP and arguably VT or WC are celebrations of rustic pastoral living, where they could exist outside of US history too despite always being thought of as part of an Americana side/suite. (Like, people have lived on farms from Mount Vernon to the Dust Bowl and beyond--these songs can take place in any era.) Then Fire, Dada, arguably WC or VT (whichever you cede to "rustic country suite," keep the other here) could be thought of as elementals. This is a blueprint for a "four suite" SMiLE, more balanced than the "3 suite" BWPS/TSS/Reum model and these groupings are not a stretch either. I think history/agriculture and innocence/elements are naturally paired most often, while I myself have begun splitting traditionally-considered "element pieces" between sides recently. But I think there's a lot of sense in merging US history with the Elements: how Fire is a reference to a historical fire, WC and CE are similar celebrations to a nice new pad with quiet verses paired against loud choruses, plus Dada was a Heroes fragment. (The agriculture/innocence pairing that must follow is a bit more awkward though, in my opinion.) Really, I think the strongest "new" grouping among these 4 pieces would be a history/innocence side 1 and agriculture/elements side 2. The former would pair historical mistakes in "raising" the future with parental shortcomings--the need to forgive your ancestors and do better for the sake of future generations. Then the latter would basically mash what I consider "early elements" with "later elements," IE the natural world at its most empowering AND scary. One side is making peace with our past, familial and historical, despite its flaws--the other is about doing the same for nature, how it can make us healthy or ruin us if we abuse it. 

[Abraxas]

I've been playing side one of Santana's Abraxas a lot recently. The last track on that side is a real gem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr7z-ikOSR4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_at_Neshabur

What a name, Abraxas! Was he a Gnostic too?

Hi Julia,

I have The Beach Boys by the Beach Boys and just scanned through the Smile chapter. 99% sure there's no knew info there, but I'm sharing a folder with images of the chapter by direct message if you're interested. The one thing you might want to take a look at if you haven't already seen it somewhere else is the Derek Taylor articles "The Beach Boys: Maverick Millionaires" reproduced in full on pg. 231. It has the ring of genuine observation to me, and gives some insight into Brian and Mike's working relationship, suggesting that Mike was becoming more interested and involved in the business side of things in the mid-60s and noting the difficulty of making decisions by consensus without a manager. Also Mike's quotes on the facing page reiterate the point you made earlier in the thread (I can't remember which source) that Derek Taylor played a big role in making the England tour a success. Also an interesting quote from Carl saying he wishes Brian could have seen how well received their music was in England, suggesting that it might have helped him keep his confidence up.

Thanks for informing me about that source specifically--that's one I was more enthusiastic about from that list. It's interesting to think the issue that arguably led to the downfall of the Beatles also affected the BBs. In another life it might've been cool if Anderle managed them but he might've been too close to Brian (suggesting he go solo) for that to work.

Okay, I don't know why I addressed that last post to you like an email, Julia 

Did you read the Smile chapter in Timothy White's The Nearest Faraway Place? (It's on archive.org). If you haven't, that's worth taking a look, I think. Nothing that's going to, like, shift the narrative, but White was really interested in Van Dyke Parks and writes about Parks place in the industry in the mid-60s and his connections to Warner Bros and maybe has a bit of a different angle on it.

Hey it didnt read overly formal to me at all! Thank you very much for the PMs too.

I did. No offense to it as a source it just didn't say anything novel I found worth commenting on. You're right the VDP stuff is new and thorough though, I just wasn't as interested in that aspect of the story when I first read it. I looked it over again at your mention and one thing that's notable is, in his account, it sounds like the band unilaterally decided the music shouldn't be released, when the prevailing consensus narrative is the group was skeptical but willing (if begrudgingly) and Brian finally blindsided them again by canceling it himself.

[First, I combed the Internet Archive of what could be gleamed from searching his name, as well as the name of the LAFP itself in conjunction with "Beach Boys" or "Brian Wilson".]

Continuing on the hunt for a hypothetical PJR article about SMiLE in the Los Angeles Free Press...

First, I combed the Internet Archive of what could be gleamed from searching his name, as well as the name of the LAFP itself in conjunction with "Beach Boys" or "Brian Wilson".

https://archive.org/details/los-angeles-free-press-1966-11-18/mode/2up?q=beach+boys

^I found this issue from Nov 18 1966, less than a week after the LA riots where their reporter was bludgeoned and the damn paper doesn't even mention the poor guy's name. (According to a search function for "Paul Jay Robbins.") What a load that is, you'd think they'd at least acknowledge their own employee's noble stand and hardship. Just for fun I searched for Brian and the BB names too, nothing.

https://archive.org/details/waitingforsunstr0000hosk/page/128/mode/1up?q=%22Paul+Jay+Robbins%22

^In the process, I found this other book about the greater LA music scene of the time with some info on SMiLE. Nothing earth-shattering as you might suspect, but it's there. One more potential source we can cross off the list. The most interesting angle this account brings to the table is the author's speculation Brian was spooked by the failure of Spector's latest single (River Deep Mountain High) and sabotaging his own album so he'd never have to see it fail. The author claims the final session was April 14 (a date for Veggies, according to AGD's site, the last session before Dada) which...honestly, while technically an "unorthodox" take I think has a lot of merit. It's actually a pretty prescient observation on the part of an otherwise surface level "recounting the usual bits" writer, who elsewhere says Brian "fried his brain on acid."

https://archive.org/details/los-angeles-free-press-1966-09-09/los-angeles-free-press-1966-09-09.pdf

^Here's a September 66 issue of the LAFP. It allows searching the text but the only mention of PJR is of a general staff credit. So we can rule out this issue having anything.

https://archive.org/details/popgeniusofandyw0000sche/page/477/mode/1up?q=%22Paul+Jay+Robbins%22

^A citation for his review of an Andy Warhol expo, May '66.

https://archive.org/details/venicewestbeatge00mayn/page/161/mode/1up?q=%22Paul+Jay+Robbins%22

^Reference to an article on Venice Beach he wrote called "Op, Pop and Slop" that apparently was so controversial the paper issued an apology.

https://archive.org/details/van-dyke-parks-song-cycle-richard-henderson_202011/page/101/mode/1up?q=%22Paul+Jay+Robbins%22

^He wrote liner notes for Song Cycle but this book doesn't mention singing on the album specifically.

Outside the Internet Archive, I found the following through browsing Google for a few hours, searching various combos of "Paul Jay Robbins" and "Los Angeles Free Press" separately or together, as well as LAFP Archive, etc.

https://libguides.csudh.edu/los-angeles-free-press-collection#s-lg-box-30861993

^This is the most promising archive I could find surfing google for a few hours. I contacted them and politely asked if they have any PJR authored articles in the vaults, specifically anything related to SMiLE/Brian Wilson.

http://www.afka.net/Mags/Los_Angeles_Free_Press.htm

^Another, lesser archive.

https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22Beach%2Bboys%22%2B%22smile%22&scope=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&so=old

^A link to the JStor archives of LAFP, searching keywords "Beach Boys" and "smile." I haven't found anything yet but it's a thing. The closest is the June 9 67 issue having an article (not by PJR) about Carl's draft issues.

https://www.adsausage.com/blog/los-angeles-free-press-archive

^And this. I didn't see anything, I left a comment asking if they had what I'm looking for.

Considering how hard it is to find anything in this vein, I'm thinking my hypothetical PJR article is just a pipe dream. I'll still keep a lookout but I think if it existed someone else would've dug it up by now. It seems like PJR was a lesser contributor to the publication, first of all, with only the Bob Dylan articles living on and popularly referenced. It's said he had to fight to get his Byrds concert reviews published, and while the paper is said to have included movie and music reviews from what few issues I've browsed I don't get the sense it was a big focus. The founder and editor of the LAFP (Art Kunkin) was apparently a socialist more concerned with community stuff, local culture and activism--at least that's what I've read and the impression I get. I could see the "lame" and decidedly not-counterculture-coded BBs coming off as too insignificant to write about.

Regardless of whether a PJR article on Brian exists, I wonder if the man had that intention when he was hanging around that scene or not. I'd assume so--like I've said it would've been a MAJOR scoop, his friends were part of it, why the f*** WOULDN'T you want to write about it--but maybe he was there unofficially as VDP's friend. It'd track with Danny Hutton and Mark Volman, who had no reason to be there but were friends with the participants. It really does just seem like a waste though--I'd love to be able to get him on the record more substantially than that one chapter of the GV book, which left a lot unsaid. He had a career-defining opportunity and did nothing with it, or was prevented from doing so by a potentially prejudiced editor. That's kind of a minor tragedy within the greater tragedy that is SMiLE.

[I did my best to look him up anyway and here's what I was able to find...]

The Paul Jay Robbins tangent has been eating away at me lately--who was this guy, what did he do, what did he witness, why is he barely mentioned in any source, was he there as a friend (ala Danny Hutton or Mark Volman) or a journalist (ala Siegel and Oppenheim)? It sounds like he was in the friend group with VDP, Anderle and Vosse but why wasn't he offered a job like those three? How often did he stay around if he wasn't getting paid or writing an article about Brian for the Los Angeles Free Press? Why didn't David Leaf or other SMiLE documentarians get him on the record? Was he really hit in the head at the LA riots in November and is that where he dropped out of the scene? (Perhaps he was recovering in the hospital and recuperating at home after that, while everyone else stayed another 1-3 months depending on the individual.) He's not in the LAX photos to my recollection (I dont see his face nor see him listed in the captions) nor is he listed in the liner notes of the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg as a participant. If he was at the cutlery symphony, which cannot be determined with the info we have, it was his only appearance at a well-known iconic SMiLE event.

My guess? Robbins was probably a quiet person whose vibe wasn't right or who had more pressing things to do in his own life. He probably wasn't hired because he still had a full-time job of his own and there weren't any other roles for him in the BB organization. He probably came around a few times, or maybe just once or twice in October when he had some free time. It'd make sense he'd be allowed in if he was friends with at least two of the main participants (VDP, Anderle) and during the SMiLE era, if he wanted to be with his buds that meant going to Brian's house. If he was still around in early November, that knock on the head probably finished off his involvement. He must be a private person and has little if anything to say or I feel he'd have been approached or unilaterally offered his stories by now, online if not in a book or interview.

I did my best to look him up anyway and here's what I was able to find...

First off, on discogs, PJR is credited as a member of the choir on VDP's Song Cycle. He's credited as a co-writer on Van Dyke's single "Number Nine" (which involved translating the German from Beethoven's ninth).

https://ionamiller.weebly.com/sunset-strip.html
https://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/5499/6363

^These sources include a brief account of and by PJR at that LA protest. Apparently he was struck by a baton and saw a kid get beaten mercilessly by cops. (Both links appear to be of the same article by different names but the writing, at least the section about PJR, is identical.) He also is said to have been a member of some political action committee which would explain why he was at the protest outside of Brian's orders.

https://epub2pdf.obar.info/download/epubtopdf

^This source states that VDP introduced Robbins to Brian and it's implied at the same time as Vosse was brought in. My hunch tells me PJR was at that cutlery symphony dinner. That seems like it was the big "assemble the Posse" event, where everyone who'd be a regular or semi-regular was there. Besides the LA curfew thing, he participated in a civil rights march. I'd read the two Part III chapters here before and didn't find new info--what I'm quoting now comes from Chapter 6, which I'd skipped before. It's written by Dale Carter who explicitly claims to have interviewed PJR for the book. I guess that's one time he gave his story.

https://research.uca.ac.uk/2819/1/9%20Warhol%20proofed.pdf

^This article only briefly quotes a PJR piece and gives this citation for it: Paul Jay Robbins, ‘Andy Warhol and the night on fire’, Los Angeles Free Press (13 May, 1966). So, that's something he wrote, anyway.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Firesign/4ccGEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Robbins

^I can't investigate further but from what little of this book's preview I can see, he's listed as a FILM CRITIC for the LA Free Press. Which is strange since the two articles he wrote that I keep hearing of are about the Byrds and Dylan.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Counterculture/poKhEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=robbins

^This too, is only a limited preview but we get a citation to an article he wrote called "The Strip is a Bummer."

https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22Paul+Jay+Robbins%22&so=rel&efqs=eyJjdHkiOlsiWTI5dWRISnBZblYwWldSZmMyVnlhV0ZzY3c9PSJdfQ%3D%3D

^This has free access to a bunch of issues of the LA Free Press with PJR attached. I tried to search the docs themselves for his name but nothing comes up even though he's credited in the metadata. I quickly skimmed one or two but saw nothing. Someone else can take a deeper look if they want. I searched his name and Brian's as well as the BB simultaneously to see if he ever wrote an article about the SMiLE sessions but nothing came up. It doesn't appear as though JStor has the full directory of LAFP issues since we know from those earlier citations that PJR wrote articles dated 1966 but for some reason JStor only has issues from '65, '67 and like one from '68 (at least that have PJR as an attached name/author). So he may still have used the opportunity to give a contemporary account in his publication, and if so I think this may be yet another "Holy Grail" of SMiLE. Imagine a "Fourth Gospel," a contemporaneous account by a first-hand witness, that's gone unsung this entire time. Is it possible something like that could exist without anyone else ever mentioning it--I don't know and I want to find out. Even if PJR wasn't around for much, that may be a silver lining if he zeroes in on some session or details that others overlooked when trying to describe the grandeur of the entire saga in one article (and thereby recounting the same tired "greatest hits" package of Fire, Mike didn't like it, etc).

And if he didn't write an article...I don't know, somebody dropped the ball either him or the editor of LAFP who presumably wouldn't allow it, because...imagine being given the ultimate opportunity to watch the hottest man in pop music working on his would-be magnum opus AS A JOURNALIST IN AN UNDERGROUND COUNTERCULTURE PAPER and just not doing anything with it. Hell, even if he wasn't at Brian's very much, as friends with Anderle and VDP you'd think he'd be able to ask them about the most anticipated album of the year--wouldn't that be a major scoop for the LAFP. Like, what other article was he working on that could possibly top that?? Come to think of it, why wasn't it PJR breaking the stories that ended up appearing in Fusion, Cheetah and Crawdaddy up to two years later? Unless there's extenuating circumstances I don't know, it feels like he missed out on a career-defining scoop, honestly. Very interesting conundrum, this is...

https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22Brian+Wilson%22&scope=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&so=old

^For the sake of thoroughness, I checked the LAFP archives on JStor with just Brian's name, not PJR. Same thing, 1966 is skipped over for some reason.

https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/10-july-15-1966/bob-dylan-as-dylan/
https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/11-july-30-1966/bob-dylan-as-dylan/
https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/12-august-15-1966/bob-dylan-as-dylan/

^Probably the most well-known article PJR wrote, interviewing Bob Dylan.

https://musicianguide.com/biographies/1608001562/Byrds-The.html
^Of the Byrds, PJR is said to have written: "Their singular method is to unite, in a dynamic and irresistible adventure, the techniques and honesty of folk music, the joy and immediacy of r & r, and the virtuosity of jazz.... What the Byrds signify ... is a concept deeply applied to unification and empathy and a rich joy of life.... Dancing with the Byrds becomes a mystic loss of ego and tangibility; you become pure energy someplace between sound and motion and the involvement is total."

Julia, sometimes someone expresses my own ideas much better than I ever could. It has happened before, several times. But in this latest post you manage to do that to an extent I never experienced before. Fantastic, extremely thoughtful post... thanks for it.

Im pleasantly surprised there are others who agree, thank you

[Alt Elements Theory ahead...]

I heard back from David Leaf directly, whom I respectfully contacted about the prospect of releasing the 6-hour "director's cut" of Beautiful Dreamer. While he did seem enthusiastic about the prospect of showing more footage someday, he could give no more specifics than that. I'd made it clear in my message that I understand all the legal and practical reasons this may not be within his power to do. Just letting everyone know that avenue has been sought. At least it's a bug in his ear that there's some interest in such a thing. Fingers crossed.

By the way, he never talked to Paul Jay Robbins either.

Alt Elements Theory ahead...

Also, I'm looking further into the "Country Air = Im in Great Shape = Air?" theory. I notice looking at the CA and VT cornucopia/demo lyrics, they're three sets of verses with no chorus and two-repeated lines ("get a breath of that country air/breathe the beauty of it everywhere" & variations of "I like you most of all/like me the most of all" with "my favor-ripe vega-table"). Veggies has those weird out of step verses ("If you brought a big, brown bag of them home / I'd jump up and down and hope you'd toss me a carrot" & "I tried to kick the ball but my tennie flew right off / I'm red as a beet 'cause I got so flustered"). What if "Air" would've filled this hole with the IIGS and if necessary BY lyrics? What if the original elements, the one from October where Veggies demo was recorded and IIGS with the same master #, the one Frank Holmes was referencing, was also the Barnyard suite in a way? Maybe the earliest Elements wasn't necessarily the 4 Greco-Roman expressed in their purest form so much as "exposed to the elements" IE outside IE nature IE the pastoral joys of living on a farm growing healthy veggies to eat while working the land. What if the earliest "element suite" wasn't something like Veggies, CA-IIGS, Barnyard and All Day? The fact that IIGS and CA talk about the early morning, maybe "'66 Dada" wouldn't have been about the rest of the day on the fields?

If this were true, Nov 4's "fitness elements" demos of swimming/fish chants, veggie chants (or the fight recorded later), breathing (or smog recorded later) would be Brian deciding to take the concept more literally, of splitting the Element and Barnyard suites into separate medleys, one the agricultural lifestyle and the other a bisociative/pictoral 4-part instrumental (maybe w/ just vocalizations) that brings the 4 classic elements to mind unambiguously. Then the Fire incident kills this idea and the concept morphs into 4 separate tracks over the next few albums (FB&BtW, CCW, CA, Smiley Veggies). Could this be the evolution of the elements concept? I submit that it was, more or less.

I too have mixed feelings about Murry's role in the BB/BW story.  By nearly all accounts, Murry was not a nice man.
On the other hand, it's also the case that the steamrolling approach that Murry took as manager of the group in the first 3 or 4 years was a huge factor in their success.  By sheer force of personality, Murry turned a little band consisting of one extraordinarily gifted young musician/singer  (Brian) and 4 mildly talented others into worldwide stars. That doesn't happen in a vacuum.   It's like Steve Jobs in the early days of Apple... he was an a-hole but he created something great.

Also, it can't have been easy for Murry, as for any parent, to watch Brian's slide into psychosis in the late '60s.  To me one of the most interesting things in the Murry saga is the song "Breakaway."  Not only is it a hell of a great song that makes me wish that Brian and Murry had cut a whole album of songs together, but the lyrics also reveal real recognition that things had not been right with Brian's mental health. To me the lyrics suggest a genuine desire on the part of Murry to see Brian get to a better place mentally.

Yeah, like this letter is long and rambling and full of weird mental gymnastics but I see it as a genuine if EXTREMELY misguided attempt to explain himself and try to re-establish a connection with Brian. It reminds me a lot about some of the hurtful, annoying and misguided lectures my dad would have with me growing up, where even as an adult I'm like "wow my dad really was emotionally ignorant and put a lot on my conscience" but I know it came from a place of good intentions. My dad never hit me like Murry did, but he was hit himself just like Murry was. I don't know how or why but that used to be considered normal and now it's not. Sometimes I think we've even gone too far in the other direction and kids today are way too brazen and unruly because they know there's no consequences. (If you hear the experiences of most US teachers these days, modern schools sound like a horror story, with kids even physically assaulting teachers because the admins will just throw them under the bus to please unreasonable parents. And some of my friends with kids let them behave in a way that honestly shocks me, where if I acted as bratty and entitled as them, I'd have been yelled at in front of everyone and punished.) Not saying we should be whacking kids with belts, much less a 2x4, but a firm spank on the rear in extreme circumstances or the return of holding kids back a grade and expulsion might go a long way...

I think it's sort of a universal experience, realizing your parents were flawed people but trying to see the good in them. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan anymore after Disney oversaturated the brand with mediocre content, but there's a reason the original trilogy has become something of a pseudo-religion for many of us. In general, our culture could stand to practice a little more forgiveness and understanding even of "bad" people and less weaponized therapy speak. Like, not everything's a trigger or gaslighting or trauma or narcissistic or microagressions--sometimes people just act imperfectly and we all do it to an extent. It feels like we virtue signal about empathy and wanting men to be more vulnerable, but in my experience if you're a guy trying to talk about your problems to anyone you get laughed at, dismissed, demeaned or women lose respect/attraction for you. (Go ahead and tell me that's not true ladies, I've seen it firsthand on over a dozen occasions personally, to say nothing of corroborating stories from others.) There's pop articles everyday in my internet feed where men's problems are downplayed on a society-wide level, or feminist screeds about how male partners trying to talk to their women is "mankeeping" and emotional abuse...because men are evil no matter what they do. "Go to therapy" is often used almost like an insult or a "get out of my hair, I don't want to deal with this" than genuine advice. And as someone who's been seeking mental health resources myself recently, I'll be the first to tell you that the process is often very degrading and many therapists are just as screwed up as their clients. Kids raising kids and nuts leading nuts.

Again though, I'm not trying to say Murry wasn't an abusive dad and that his sons didn't have legitimate cause to be traumatized--just this letter alone is a doozy of emotional manipulation and passing the buck. But the ultimate standard we ought to strive for is the Christ-like figure of "I've been treated terribly, but I choose not to continue the cycle of abuse; the cruelty stops with me and despite what you've done, I forgive you." It's like, I know why we had to get rid of the religious dogma as a society and there are toxic elements of the Abrahamic religions but sometimes I think we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. The new secular creeds leave no room for forgiveness and reintegration; some of them, like modern feminism, castigate men for their "original sin" of "benefiting from the patriarchy" with no course for redemption. I say we acknowledge the good and bad of historical figures: Jefferson was a brilliant political philosopher who owned slaves, Walt Disney was a fantastic producer that fostered great art but was a tough boss who named names in the McCarthy hearings, Murry was a twisted individual who loved his boys but didn't know how to show it due to his own abusive, tortured life. And for those still living, we ought to understand their perspective, how they got there, then give them a chance to work out their flaws and choose kindness. With a few notable exceptions, I don't think anyone is truly all-bad. (Landy and a certain few in government right now may be the exceptions but that's a rare minority of the billions who've lived.)

I don't know. I guess I'm trying to say that as screwed up as Murry clearly was...I kind of understand how he got to that point. It's really tough being a guy sometimes and it feels like everything you do is wrong. Men of the past had to carry an enormous weight on their shoulders, knowing if they failed their wife and kids could go hungry. Men of today are told everything is their fault and they have to atone for the sins of the past they had no part in, or that it's ok for them to be treated like would-be rapists because a very small percentage do bad things. (And no women anywhere ever hurt anyone, no siree.) Like, it's hard for me not to become emotionally calloused and cynical and even bitter sometimes with the way things are, and the sh*t I've been through, and that's even without getting beat up as a kid or losing an eye. I can only imagine the horrors Murry endured to end up like he did. #SympathyForTheDevil I guess...

By the beginning of the next year, Murry was attending the "Caroline, No" tracking session, and things seemed rather peaceful.  By 1969, Brian and Murry were working on "Break Away" together. 

I don't think Murry attended the "Caroline, No" session in person...IIRC, he was on the phone with Brian, who held up the receiver to the control room monitor speaker at one point.  He eventually suggested Brian speed up the master tape, which Brian did, so obviously his opinion still mattered.  But as far as I know, after "Rhonda" Murry didn't attend another Beach Boys sesson until he sang on "Be Here In The Mornin'".

Brian acknowledges him at a CIFOTM session. I believe it's for Version 1 of that song. I know this is a twenty year old comment but in case anyone comes across this thread again...

Yes, please post your transcript!

COMPLETE WITH MISSPELLINGS AND INCORRECT GRAMMAR:


May 8, 1965

Mr. Brian Wilson
1047 N. Gardener
Hollywood, California

Dear Brian:

Your mother and I are leaving with Carl and Gwen for a twenty day trip of Europe, and confidentially, because Carl is not a well man, we are taking them on this trip with us to give both Carl and Gwen a little more happiness, because we fear something might happen to Carl within the next two or three years.  Under NO circumstances, ever mention to Shirley, Gwen or any of his family of our fears.

Both Gwen and Carl told us that all three of our sons thought their house is wonderful now and I am very proud of the job I did in supervising and helping to design their remodeling.  Actually it was a fairly easy job.

Now to the point of this letter; it has become very apparent to me that our family can no longer exist under the worrisome and trying conditions that have been going on for the last five or six years, and I think the time has come for us all to face facts straight in the eye.  As long as I can remember, we had a code of honor in the family regarding my sons: First, I tried to teach all of you never to be greedy or dishonest with anyone and be generous with each other.  Second, if anyone ever approached any of my children with pills, bennies or dope of any kind, to run away from them, not just walk away.  Thirdly, you were all told that if anything ever happened to me that I hoped you would take care of your mother.

Brian you were a wonderful young boy and regardless of what you may think, I gave you very much love and I idolized you as a baby.  You can never know how many hundreds of times I picked you up and kissed you and carried you on my shoulders, sang to you and taught you words, songs and so many things because you were a baby.  I can remember giving all three of my sons love in many forms and actually, when I was strict from time to time, it was because I felt it was my duty as a father to give you the security a punishment gives.  As boys grow into the adolescent time of their life, their brain tells them when they have done something wrong, and, believe it or not, children are sometimes disappointed when they are not punished because their brain tells them right from wrong.

The fact that your Grandmother Betty did not love your Grandfather Carl Korthoff as the normal wife does caused her to transfer her great love to her children and this is the reason your Mother and your Uncle Carl loved her so much because they could do no wrong.  It is time now to tell you that your Grandfather Carl was a very frustrated and unhappy man the last five years of his life because he knew fifteen years before that his wife didn't truly love him and I pitied this man because although Betty was a wonderful woman, she was not woman enough to leave him just because she was afraid Audree and Carl would suffer financially.

Now, in our own family, years later, we had three lovely sons and little by little it was only natural for my wife to automatically transfer a lot of her love from her husband to her sons because her own mother did the same thing; and to complicate matters, she resented authority in me of any kind because when her own father showed authority, she resented him.  Audree also resented interference of her own father against her brother, who was treated like a dog when he became old enough as a young man to have his own father become jealous of him.  In other words, Brian, all your Grandfather Korthoff saw in his own family was that Betty, Audree and Carl loved each other so very much he was always on the outside, and although he was a very smart man he was grieving and the only way he could fight back was to show his authority against Carl, and on occasion, your mother.

Now it may be very hard for you to understand how your mother could be affected by this love transfer to herself and her brother and how it could affect her own family years later, but if you will recall back many years, you will remember that when I gave an order for my sons to do a job, even though my wife didn't actually say something against me, the look of resentment against authority was there..... and if you will ask any psychologist about this, you will see that over a period of 15 to 17 years, looks of anger accompanied by swear words and degrading remarks to a father in front of his children while he is trying to do his job as a leader of the household, would render two automatic emotions to the children's brains: 1) that they would agree with the mother and would have resentment against the father; 2) it would make the child think that although he may have done wrong himself, the fact that the mother and children were in complete rapport in their resentment and rebellion made the act which they had committed wrongly almost right in their minds and this second emotion is the undoing of the love, direction and teaching which I always tried to convey to my sons.

I guess the third major factor which caused a loss of feeling in the family from sons to their father was that my wife could only remember how kind her mother was, and although Audree did not realize what she was doing, she was trying to raise you boys almost like girls, just as she was raised by her mother, and, although from time to time she took a coat hanger to you boys or bawled you out when you did something she felt was wrong, none of her correction really meant a lot or was too effective because you could only compare the more strict punishment I could render as a stronger human being, such as spanks on the bottom and, on occasion, more violent punishment and severe tongue lashings.  It is hard for me to explain, Brian, but I was powerless to cope with this situation and I was so much in love with my wife and adored her so much that I could not begin to undo intelligently the damage that was taking place in my own family.  No matter how you weigh it, parental difference of opinion in raising children can only leave marks on the children in one way or another and when you have three completely different personalities in children, this even complicates matters more.

Maybe now you can begin to understand that the last seven years has been almost a living hell for me and although I have wanted to give up completely on two separate occasions, something told me to hang on and keep trying because I felt my sons were worth it.  I believe I could have achieved part of the undoing of this unwholesome situation in our family when you all reached the ages of 17 or 18, but we found ourselves thrown into this vicious music business together.  Instead of having a beautiful thing develop, money and security of money began to change you so much that this and your first achievements as a songwriter, accompanied by the phony praises of Gary Usher, Lew Adler, Kirschner and countless other (Hollywood) people began to change you so much, in my opinion, that I could no longer reach you, and your natural resentment against me which had been building up through things mentioned before in this letter, became magnified to the point where you acted like you hated me on many occasions.

I can understand part of your becoming a man to give your father a bad time on some things, but not in your basic belief that you and Kent Lent agreed on that it was the smart way to use people and to not work if you could get by by outsmarting people and using finesse.  As you will recall, I have always tried to be a honest man in business and I have made it almost an obsession never to cheat anyone in a business deal, and although I know you have told many, many people in Hollywood that I am an honest man and never to worry about me in a business deal, I have seen you take the opposite point of view and try to do it the "cool" way.  The fact that you have told me on several occasions that you have to be ‘dishonest' in business to get the big money never ceases to hurt and frighten me and my only hope to God is that you are not so far gone but what you can realign your thinking as to your business practices and the uses of deception, which you know in your heart you have used on many occasions, not only against your father but your own brothers as well.

I do not have to relate all of them, but you have broken contracts with me in the Sea of Tunes Publishing Company by giving songs to Kirschner's Alden group.  You have recorded on Jan and Dean's record which was an absolutely treacherous act against not only your employers but the welfare of your family financially; but more important, the combined integrity of The Beach Boys group itself.  Now you may not think this is important but if you have no conscience about anyone else's feelings or that you don't care if your actions will hurt them, then I would suggest that you consult not only an attorney with some morals but also a psychiatrist and try to unravel your thinking in these areas.

In other words, Brian, the whole concept of my teaching my sons honesty in business was to try to make good men out of all of you, and I can't begin to remember the hundreds of times I was interfered with by my wife when I tried to make you all see the point I was trying to make; but I do know one thing, I can hold up my head in Hollywood and all over the world in the music as well as machinery business and you can't.  No matter how many hit songs you write or how many hundreds of thousands of dollars you may earn, you will find when you finish this short cycle of Beach Boy success that you didn't do it honestly and for this reason you are going to suffer remorse.  I have been trying to fight you on every act of what I thought was not honest to protect you from yourself some five or seven years later; because I knew that when competition hit you between the eyes that you would not be able to cope with this vicious competition, regardless of how talented you are, because you got so much much too fast and the fact that you used your own father and then threw him away when you thought you didn't need him will come back into your mind over and over again.

The way things are shaping up now, The Beach Boys cannot go on and on because cycles of music change as well as fads, like The Beatles, Presleys, etc., but the fact that my sons' singing your beautiful ballads and very catchy novelty songs can sustain you in this business over a longer period, and because you know this, you have used this extraordinary harmony talent and your great song writing ability as a tool towards your own ends.  I mean specifically that when you found out that The Beach Boys image and success was on its way you began to listen to phonies who said that The Beach Boys needed you and that you didn't need them (meaning your own brothers)... the fact that I was included as your guiding factor and manager didn't mean much to you either, and if you don't think this hurts to know that your son would abandon not only his brothers but his father as well, then you are completely mistaken.

I didn't mind so terribly much when you left our home to get an apartment, but the fact that you were ready to hit me in front of Gary Usher, when my wife and I were trying to get rid of Gary Usher and his evil influence on our family, did cause much hurt because you left fighting against your own family for the benefit of Mr. Usher and to his purposes and to your own selfish purposes and which you and Gary were scheming out.  You may have forgotten how Gary told you I was a square and didn't know what I was doing and that you didn't have to listen to me, besides countless other derogatory remarks made by other people such as Bob Norman, Jan Berry and the whole bunch.  How can you be so gullible when you know right from wrong is beyond my imagination, and over the past three years I believe I have spelled out every phony, pitfall and wrong doing that could come from any one of The Beach Boys' making foolhardy mistakes.   I don't believe I have to go too far into the Loren Schwartz bit because the proof of my estimation of this man's character and ability spoke for itself.  In other words, you would rather take the word of anyone against your father because you were taught to do this in your very early years as a young boy, hearing your mother tell me I was wrong in front of you, so I do understand what has caused some of your thinking.

Knowing how intelligent you are and how fertile your mind is, I know that you have come into almost an automatic way of thinking that you can succeed in life by taking the easy route or the "cool" way and I state flatly that you may get away with it financially, but you can't escape the eventual understanding that will come to you as a forty year old man that you are and were wrong.

I cannot believe that such a beautiful young boy, who was kind, loving, received good grades in school and had so many versatile talents, could become so obsessed to prove that he was better than his father.  I can tell you, although I am strong in many areas and consider myself fairly competent in not one area of music but in countless other fields as well, that I have something between my ears besides vacant air and I am proud of the job I did with my sons as their manager and guiding force, although I know I was wrong in my approach, but there again, what the hell could I do when my own wife, Mrs. Joanne Marks, Mike Love and a bunch of phonies that kept coming out of the walls would trick you all into thinking I was a mean man.

I am over the big hurt of losing my three sons as a manager for their benefit and good fortune, but I am not over the fact that I have lost my three sons' love, and I mean real love, because you are all in a distorted world of screams, cheers and financial success.  The money will not mean a damn thing to any of my sons if they are not happy when the job is done and it is a sad thing for three young beautiful songs to place their life's success on the success of a record album or a 45 RPM disc or to how successful they are in the eyes of the music world from how many seats they sell in a live concert.  I hope to God that you and your brothers review your thinking now before it is too late, because only more damage can arise from this temporary, fleeting image of success known as The Beach Boys.  Try to get back to fundamental thinking of honestly and try to treat your careers as a job and not a way of life.  Forget that you are trying to become the greatest producer and greatest songwriter for the benefit of the phonies.  Make this achievement for your own personal satisfaction and have pride when you do an honest job.

If you will recall, I didn't mind when you took practically all of the credit for the mixing and the productions for the first two years, but I know now it was wrong because you started to believe that you did it all single-handed.  You forgot all the wonderful suggestions Carl made along with those of your mother, Dennis and myself.  It was an easy thing for me to learn how to mix you guys because I knew the strong points of each of you as well as your weak points., and coupled with the natural music ability, if you can call it that, that I have, I know I did a good job and I have yet to have a son come up to me and kiss me with an honest emotion for doing many, many good recordings – and you may well believe that this is a slap in the face.

When you think of how you and Gary conned me out of a recording session and let me pay your bills, not only for that series of deals, but paying for studio time while you were experimenting with other artists, using my advice and on occasion my mixing ability, etc., you may begin to understand that it does hurt a father when his son conspired with weak people against his own father, and although I was delighted to be part of your growing success and to be around to see you develop into a great talent, I was grieving inwardly because I knew you were doing it the wrong way (the weak way). You must no listen to the phonies if you expect to become an honest man.

I tried to counsel your cousin but he was a problem child and got into trouble while in High school, later on with his first wife and by the grace of God, no bad publicity got into the papers until the paternity suit thing.  I am proud that my son, Dennis, reminded you all in front of Mike that I predicted he was trouble and would be disgracing all of us if he continued to go his way.  I can understand how five young men could become rebellious because everyone resents authority, including myself, but when five young men are so damned dumb in business at the start of their careers and will still give an experienced business man nothing but trouble from the word go, it is almost unbelievable, and although we did achieve a lot of good things together, the hurt that comes from knowing that most of this was achieved duress of threats, punitive measures and arguments is almost disgusting and I say honestly that my intent was pure and honest, and I handled myself in all facets of your careers so as to set an example of honestly as a figurehead, and not one of The Beach Boys can say that they always acted in honest endeavor and in good faith, as much as I did.

In other words, we all goofed, each in our own way, but I didn't do anything dishonest and I don't think that any of you can match my achievement in business experience and business practices, at this point of your lives.

The financial success and achievement of the Beach Boys' vocal group as given each and every one of its members a sense of false security and it has given vent for each member, in his own way, to take pre-calculated risks and on many occasions where if two or three of these premeditated risks were taken got into the papers and trades, this gigantic business deal could have gone down the drain.  I am referring, of course, to such things as statutory rape, drinking, lacsivious conduct on the part of one of the members, which I can prove, along with one or two more vilations of the law which could be construed as felonies by a judge in a court of law.  Dennis has done his share of things which have made me tremble from time to time and he has taken advantage of his position in the business with no regard to the out come of his actions to please his own personal self and to his satisfaction.  I state firmly and finally now that I will not now or ever go along with the thinking of my sons along these lines and I am worried that a continuance of this mockery in handling your lives and careers can only end in personality disasters, one way or the other, not to mention the character of each and every young man, who ever he may be.  The simple fact is that we all have to face up eventually to our mistakes and when this time comes, each and every one of you will become men.

Brian, your mother and I are growing further apart and a beautiful thing is becoming destroyed, and though she is a very wonderful woman, she is weak in her way because she loves you all so much and cannot bring herself, after all these years of siding with her babies, to do the right thing and really lay down the law to you fellows on the honesty and character bit.  Although she knows you are all three wrong in the way you do things from time to time, she cannot face up to anyone of you now because she has given up; and she is afraid to lose your love and you cannot blame her.  The fact that my wife and I are growing apart may not be a great concern to you as a human being, but it is a sad thing for me and with all of the memories, both good and bad, about my family of which I have been so proud, I have come to the final decision that all three of my sons should immediately be taken out of the music business to salvage the rest of their lives, and although this may be against the thinking of your employers, your attorneys and yourselves, you had no right collectively, or individually, to handle yourselves in the manner in which you have so boldly done, and you don't have the right individually to castigate anybody else for your own wrong doings.

I believe the best thing is for you all to have a serious talk in front of your own attorneys and explain the terrible things that have taken place, and then when I return from Europe we will have a general meeting, with your attorneys and three whom I have employed to give you all the facts of life; and I believe when this meeting is finished the attorneys will all concur that it would be the best thing for you all to dissolve yourselves as a group because the temptations are too great for five young men who will not take honest direction and who have boldly flaunted the laws of the land in one way or the other, and this is indeed a sad thing because the talent is so great and the achievements have been so wonderful.

I want you all to know that I loved you as my sons and still do, but I am absolutely crushed to think that it would all turn out the way it did and I do not say that it is all your fault – I know I failed my sons many, many times and couldn't spend time with them in their earlier stages of life when I wanted to, but it is pretty rough to run a vicious machinery business against millionaires and try to form your son's character and their sense of respect in front of a woman, wonderful in so very many ways, who could not face up to her real roll of responsibility as a parent.

I have protected your income tax payment for the year of 1964, and I am paying a sizable amount for doing this, but now I must see that you are paid in full sometime this year.  I have been trying to prevent Capitol from paying the Sea of Tunes Publishing Company the fortune owing to yourself so that you would not be penalized by the income tax bracket you have achieved.  My books are going to be audited by CPA's and I expect to pay you, after the audit and after receipt of funds from Capitol Records, approximately $276,000 and I am proud to turn over these funds to you as a tribute to your great talent, and if I should die by accident prior to this audit, I would ask that you, as my eldest son, obtain the audit from my legal records and see that you are paid,

Always be honest from now on in business, regardless of what business you may be in, and I now ask that after our legal meeting, which should take place in about thirty days, that we disassociate ourselves in any form of business together, such as artist and publisher, etc., because we can no longer work together in a truly honest father and son relationship, and I release you now completely as a young business man in this respect only; and ask that you answer now for all your own mistakes and do not now or forever complicate my honest business practices and life by your breaking legal contracts with me or anybody else.

Please try to understand that all I tried to do was make you all honest men, and instead of hating me for it, I ask that you all try to search your own hearts once in a while and try to be better.

You're an absolute hero. I was looking for this after reading Murry's wiki page a few days ago and all the links were dead. I cannot thank you enough and this goes to show a little archival and redundancy that seems unnecessary in the moment can really help people out years later.

I'm a weirdo because Brian's my biggest hero but I acknowledge he was a completely dysfunctional person who I wouldn't trust to petsit for the weekend. I acknowledge his faults and artistic shortcomings (BW88, etc) more than some on here. I think Carl was at least slightly more two-faced and self-serving than is popular to admit. And yet, and yet, I can't help but feel deep sympathy for certain characters in the BB story who are otherwise universally reviled. Murry is objectively much worse than almost anyone else in this umbrella except Landy, yet I can't bring myself to hate or attack him. I don't know why but I just can't. When I see things like this, or watch the dramatized portrayals all I can feel towards him is pity. I see a guy who was abused, maimed, insecure, never comforted, who couldn't be vulnerable even for a moment with anyone yet soldiered on as best he could. His best was physical and emotional abuse and he deserves to be condemned for that...but I see him as a victim himself, the product of a broken system. It just shows how trauma echoes through the generations, where a man like Murry produced a man like Brian who all but abandoned his own kids when he wasn't giving them drugs, or Dennis shagging with jailbait, getting in fights and drinking himself to death. He never told Brian he was proud probably because no one ever told him they were proud of what he'd done, so it was bitterness, denying what he'd been denied or twisting his outlook to think praise is to make weak.

The anecdotes of Murry reconciling with Dennis, I think, show he was not beyond redemption. He was capable of learning and getting better, but it was a time where mental health services were much more primitive if they existed at all--and men were not allowed to be "weak" or they'd lose face. Honestly, we're still not much better today, despite the virtue signalling to the contrary. I don't know, maybe I'm downplaying the actions of a monster, but I can't help but empathize with Murry. If he was a narcissist, and I'm not sure he was clinically speaking, I think it developed as a defensive layer against feeling chronically demeaned and unloved. Brian internalized his abuse in the opposite way, and overcompensated in not wanting to hurt his own kids by completely removing himself from their lives (which became abuse in the other direction).

[Now Im doing the Jon Stebbins book BB:FAQ. I'm just reading the SMiLE chapter, I checked and it looks like there isn't any substantial info on this era in the other sections of the book.]

Now Im doing the Jon Stebbins book BB:FAQ. I'm just reading the SMiLE chapter, I checked and it looks like there isn't any substantial info on this era in the other sections of the book.

1. So, just starting out, I don't like being pedantic, but I think to some extent it's gotta be done. There were no tapestries in the tent according to anyone else's testimony, there are only 4 songs unequivocally said to be written in the sandbox, singing in an empty pool only occurred in Smiley, and while Brian was known to film things on a whim (ala the Paul Williams story of Christmas eve at Brian's) I've never heard that he wanted to "film everything" during the sessions.* Again, this is artistic license I get it, I just think it's important to point out because if they get this wrong it makes me less inclined to believe other novel info.

*Oh how I wish he had though...would make my current hobby so much easier and more fun.

2. I appreciate the way Stebbins immediately notes how Brian wanted comedy skits and nature/water sounds incorporated into his music. I don't think this is really in doubt anymore, but at least back in the day there were a lot of "SMiLE-Conservatives" arguing that anything not explicitly orchestrated belonged on a separate "comedy album," which I'm still not sure even existed as a separate concept. I think Brian probably mentioned doing "a humor album" while recording the goofier bits from the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg, and some of his friends were too "straightforward" to understand that he was talking about SMiLE itself. Like, nobody had ever mixed the two before except arguably Frank Zappa, and even that was very slight in Freak Out, so they couldn't conceptualize a symphony, much less one directed to/about God, that would have comedic interludes. Either way, whatever your opinion on the intention of the PS bits, SMiLE was intended to talking on it of some kind (see: contemporary interviews, All Day studio chatter, etc) and it's possible that after opening that door, Brian was inspired to take it further in the future sometime, and offhandedly said "hey we could do a whole album of just these comedy skits!" But this was just Brian thinking of how he could take each individual concept to the next level--same as a supposed "sound effects album" and I'm sure if SMiLE were to remain 12 banded tracks, the concept of "a whole album/side is one suite/medley" would've come up the next time because he was clearly at least stepping his toes in that water with SMiLE.

^My opinion is that anything recorded during '66 (and possibly the Smog skit, which is a case where I must tentatively trust Badman's date of ~spring '67~ due to lack of additional evidence) was intended for SMiLE at the time it was gathered. Even if Brian changed his mind the very next hour, or his friends took down more tape than he could possibly use, these recordings were created for that purpose. I don't think Brian "morphed the two [separate concepts] when doing Smiley Smile" as Anderle claims, I think they had been one and the same since Nov 4 or possibly earlier. I think there was always more of Smiley in SMiLE than many of the "Pet Sounds 2" brand of theorists would admit (whom, by the way, I disagree with respectfully while understanding their aesthetic preference positively). That's why I was so excited at the thought of the name change from "Dumb Angel" (a "Pet Sounds 2" that begins with Prayer, has separate tracks, classical arrangements) to "SMiLE" (a "Proto-Smiley" that ends with Prayer, has some degree of linking cues/talking/laughing, bisociative arrangements) sometime in October, with Nov 4 representing the beginning of the new direction--Wilson meets Zappa! That would've tied things up perfectly...

3. The explanation of the title Dumb Angel on page 84 seems to be pulled from thin air: "an entity that tries its best to help others but constantly screws up everything it touches." I've never seen any insider claim that interpretation, and it's quite the reach from just the words "Dumb Angel" alone. I always thought that title was a reference to Brian himself, who's basically non-verbal (Anderle's words in Crawdaddy, plus he's evasive in interviews and frightfully shy) but mostly kind-hearted and trying to bring the message of God. Someone who's not going to be an eloquent philosophical preacher like Jesus, Buddha, Zarathustra, Mani, Lao Tsu, yet proclaims a similar declaration of divine love in the way he knows how. He can't explicitly verbalize the revelation from heaven so he expresses it in music instead. I don't think it needs to be any more than that. And I still think this is a better title than SMiLE, iconic as that name now is.

4. VDP left, came back, left again. Dates are not given.

5. Carl participated more than any other BB (which I've confirmed by tallying his appearances on the TSS sessionography).

6. I like the way this book describes BWPS: "once the dust cleared and the hype died down, many fans of SMiLE concluded that BWPS was only a facsimile, and a fair-to-good reproduction of the BB' SMiLE [...] the 2004 version is in no way the BB' lost SMiLE album. The concept is compromised, the context is wrong..." Harsh but accurate. However, I disagree with the wording in another quote in the same passage: "it was a surprisingly compact and efficient-sounding collection of songs." The purpose of this last statement is that BWPS proved SMiLE did in fact have a viable cohesive whole, it wasn't an unworkable mess, and I agree with the spirit of this statement if not the exact phrasing. I think the BWPS presentation is exhausting and drags due to pacing issues from the various 30-second roadbumps, fragmentary IIGS medley and three-part structure which makes it seem twice as long as it actually is. You walk away from BWPS feeling like you just sat through Gone With the Wind instead of Alice in Wonderland (the '51 Disney animated version). I love both of those movies, but the former I only break out on special occasions, maybe once a year or even every other year, the latter I could throw on at any time on a whim and never get sick of it. It's the difference between Electric Ladyland or The Wall versus Axis: Bold as Love or Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It's a great case study in how editing affects momentum, and therefore enjoyment.

^That's why I'm so hard on BWPS and adamant that SMiLE be officially released in an alternate structure: I think this presentation does the music a grave injustice and is why BWPS and TSS didn't make more of an impact among casuals.

7. I appreciate the way this book acknowledges Prayer could've opened or closed the album. I used to staunchly believe the former and now am equally convinced it was the latter.

8. I also like that Stebbins isn't afraid to admit how "evil-sounding" a lot of SMiLE is. Like psychedelics themselves, even if the trip is overall a 4-8 hour "discourse" on love and inspiration, in my experience there's always a significant underpinning of dread and sadness to the ordeal. (And they do feel like you've been through an ordeal after it's over.) I've had trips where I was laughing AND crying at the same time, where I literally wept with guilt over killing a fly earlier in the day and learned to love my worst enemies one minute, only to turn around and get caught in thought loops of my flaws and the people I've hurt in life. They're the most spiritual experiences I've ever had, but it always shows you heaven AND hell, so to speak. I love how SMiLE reflects this and isn't afraid to be spooky. I love how music as vaguely foreboding as Talking Horns or CE can come in a package adorned with an unassuming kiddie drawing. That's the insane dichotomy that makes SMiLE fascinating and it's what BWPS lacks with its one-dimensional, whimsical circus packaging with Brian forcing a smile every second of the concert footage. (Of all the eras of US history, SMiLE makes me think of colonial, Revolutionary, 1800s, the Psychedelic Sixties themselves and a hopeful future where we learn to live in peace with nature and stop the H&V-esque wars. The last period of history it makes me think of is that tacky early 1900s Barnum and Bailey aesthetic, but that's just me. It's just a little too generic, palatable and pretentious for my liking, can't say exactly why.)

9. Stebbins calls CIFOTM one of the most ambitious and beautiful sections of SMiLE, which is nice because it's an overlooked gem of a track that deserves its due.

That's it, that's the whole thing. He includes two verbatim press releases announcing the then-imminent TSS release. Overall this is a pretty slipshod depiction of the album, no offense to Mr. Stebbins personally. It's too lacking in detail to draw in a newbie OR serve as a useful reference to obsessives like me because the info is so basic when it isn't largely opinionated or outright incorrect. It's not really useful in filling in gaps or reframing what we thought we knew, it's just one guy giving a not particularly good summary. It's like "baby's first peek at SMiLE." In hindsight this is one I easily could've skipped, and while the rest of the book may be great and I'll check it out someday, I would recommend avoiding this if you're looking to learn about these particular sessions. I'm sure Mr. Stebbins is a great guy and I know he used to post here, but the truth is there's better sources to spend your time on.

Besides the incoming issue of ESQ I've got in the mail, that's it for me for the foreseeable future. If I continue to track down sources and commentate on them it'll be after a break of at least a few months. The next step in this project for the immediate future is to proofread what I've got so far and organize the info from each source into a series of answers to SMiLE's biggest questions, in conjunction with reposting to my blog.

For the record, these appear to be the BB books I haven't touched yet. If anyone wants to carry the torch, do me a huge favor, this could be your reading list--summarize the relevant info and point out differences to the consensus narrative. Or, if you have access to any of these texts already, let us know if they're worth the effort/price of tracking down. Thanks in advance.

The Beach Boys: A Biography in Words & Pictures by Ken Barnes
The Beach Boys by John Tobler
The Beach Boys Silver Anniversary by John Milward
The Beach Boys (Rock and Roll Hall of Famers) by Mark Holcomb
The Beach Boys: America's Band by Johnny Morgan
The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys: The Essential Interviews by John D. Luerssen
The Beach Boys Archives Vol. 1 by Torrence Berry
Surf's Up! The Beach Boys On Record 1961-1981 by Brad Elliott
In The Studio with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys by Stephen J. McParland

^This webpage (http://beachboys.com/booksI.html) was my source to see what BB books I was missing. If you notice anything there that wasn't already "reviewed" in this thread or listed here in my "suggested future reading list," it's because a) I did read them but they didn't have any novel info worth commenting on, b) they have a narrower focus that doesn't include SMiLE, c) I have it on good authority they're not worth my time, money or effort--either very basic info or badly written and error-prone.