Thanks for posting.   Daria seems like a positive person with a lot of good memories.  F Scott Fitzgerald famously claimed that there were no "second acts" in American lives.  But Brian Wilson did have a 2nd act... not only in his post-Landy musical career but also as a parent.  In many contexts, he's expressed regrets that he wasn't a better dad to Carnie and Wendy in the '70s and '80s... but quite miraculously he got a "do over" with a new batch of kids.  I remember being quite stunned (pleasantly) by one of Jason Fine's Rolling Stone profiles which recounted Brian and company going to one of the kid's basketball games followed by a family dinner at a restaurant.... it was also so NORMAL... a normalcy that had seemed to elude Brian for much of his life from the mid-60s to the mid-90s.

Apologies for the negativity... but whoever is in charge of these BW releases needs to start commissioning better cover art.

No complaints about the crew at BRI/Capitol/EMI. The 'We Gotta Groove' package is stunningly beautiful.

But this RSD package? Sigh.

I just learned the cover is taken from or based on a stained-glass window at Brother Studios.  Very cool.  Here's a link to a picture of the Boys beside it.  The real window is HUGE!  Like something you'd see in an old church.  And it's also not quite the same, is it? 

It seems to me that the box set cover uses the middle *section* of the window, possibly with some color alteration.  The window appears to depict the solar system with a sun and planets in orbit.  IIRC, there was an anecdote years ago about the stained glass window inspiring Brian to write "Solar System."

So.... how did VDP come into possession of a 'Time to Get Alone' acetate?  Is there an untold story behind this?  Did Brian offer VDP a chance to do lyrics for the track?

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.

L&M is quite consciously two different movies. The film's pitch-perfect reenactment of the recording sessions Pet Sounds/Good Vibrations/Smile era was like a dream come true for the hardcore fans.  The attention to detail in those scenes was over-the-top amazing, right down to Mike Love's driving gloves.

To me, the Landy era stuff made for a less interesting film and was a little too Melinda-as-savior saccharine for my taste.
 
However, it's difficult for us in the hardcore fan zone to watch a movie like this and judge it as a standalone work devoid of all the contexts of which we are aware and perhaps have preexisting opinions.

In another thread about this film a number of years ago, I mentioned that I first watched the movie with my father who was about a decade older than BW and was not a fan per se.  But my father who'd been a singer in a noted choral group in his youth found the '60s studio scenes quite fascinating from a semi-professional point of view.  He also seemed to enjoy the Landy era story purely as a human-interest story.  So, it was interesting to me that my dad, as a non-fan with no particular "dog in the fight," really liked the film (maybe even better than I did).  So from a filmmaking point of view, if it was aimed at a very general audience with no particular biases other than perhaps an interest in or appreciation of music), I'd say that it succeeded quite well

VDP claims he didn't write HGS but Im not sure I believe him. (Call it a misremembering or disownment.) He was even credited for SGB as I recall, unless wikipedia is wrong--which does happen--despite not getting credit for WC or Wonderful. That feels significant, like that song was REALLY VDP's. I think those lyrics are too sophistocated for Brian and too oblique for Mike. Mike could've written those words, but he'd never write a song that wavers between Mark Twain/public speaker imagery and a baby getting put down for a nap. At least, I don't think so.

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Yeah, "Bald" has always been credited to Wilson-Love-Parks.  It's possible, I suppose, that VDP didn't write the original HGS lyrics but suggested some new lyrics that became part of Bald. Or he did write some or all the HGS lyrics and simply forgot. Fifteen to twenty years ago, when BWPS and the TSS were in the news a lot, VDP was often asked by slightly skeptical interviewers about Brian's memory of the old days, and VDP would typically say that Brian's memory was better than his own.  We, in the obsessive fan department wrongly assume that the principals are as interested in all this trivia as we are.  I mean, on one level, we say how can any of them be mixed-up about who wrote what?  But stop and think about your own work. How much of your own memory is dedicated to minute details of things that happened decades ago? If someone pulled out, say, an email that I wrote to a client 20 years ago, and started asking me questions about it, my memory on the subject probably wouldn't be perfect.

I'm sure Van Dyke wrote all or most of the lyrics to Wind Chimes after Brian's opening line.

You're sure of this because why?  

So, on Smiley Smile, Brian and Murry simply stiffed VDP on Wind Chimes despite crediting him on H&V, Vegetables and She's Goin' Bald?  

 It's my understanding that VDP wasn't originally credited for Wonderful but that was corrected by at least 1990 when my Smiley-Smile Wild Honey CD was released, and yet VDP wasn't on WC until BWPS when he was pretty much added to everything except Fire and the covers like Sunshine/Master Painter etc.

I don't know.  In my opinion the WC lyrics are pretty straight-ahead, more in line with Brian's writing of that vintage on Time to Get Alone and various Friends tracks than the punny, flowery and baroque lyrics that VDP was writing for Smile and Song Cycle.  Even Well, You're Welcome is more punny than Wind Chimes, and VDP wasn't credited on that either.

Thanks, Julia.   It's taken as conventional wisdom based, not only on Brian's decades-long statements but only interviews from the likes of Anderle and other Vosse posse types, that Brian encountered "resistance" to Smile from the rest of the group.  But how does that jive with Denny's boundless enthusiasm about the album in fall '66?   "It's so good it makes Pet Sounds stink" etc.   For whatever reason, Denny's presence on Pet Sounds was fairly minimal, but he's all over the Smile vocal sessions and extant lead vocals.  For a long time, I took Denny's "And this is a prayer I'm working on for it!" line as a dubious boast of a younger brother who may have been attempting to over-emphasize his creative contributions to the group.   But then it occurred to me, what if it wasn't?  The fact is that Denny's 1/12/67 "I Don't Know" session with Brian's regular studio people (Carol K, Lyle R, Bill Pitman etc.) is indicative that his claims about creative involvement weren't just idle talk.

In Tom Nolan's long piece "The Frenzied Frontier of Pop Music" (LA Times magazine, November 27, 1966, as reproduced on LLVS, p. 169), Brian Wilson is quoted saying the following:  "And another thing that interests me... who was it, Karl Menninger, who said, 'The child is father of the man'? That fascinates me! Anyway, that's another song, Father of the Man."

Let's parse these statements. Frist, Brian credits the saying not to Wordsworth nor to VDP but rather to psychiatrist Karl Menninger.  I have no idea if Menninger ever used the saying or quoted Wordsworth or if Brian is just off-base, but Menninger did write a lot on the subjets of child psychology and child development, so Brian's attribution isn't insane.  The fact is that BW had an interest in psychology, was apparently an avid reader and often mentioned that he was studying psychology courses at El Camino Junior Colelge before he dropped out to do the Beach Boys.  It's very possible that VDP truly suggested the CIFOTM title, just as it's very possible that he suggested the cellos on Good Vibrations. But note that Brian says, That fascinates me!"  ME, not my friend Van Dyke Parks.  The other interesting thing is that this Brian says, "[T]hat's another song."   SONG, not track, not half-baked fragment, not chorus but SONG. In fact "Good Vibrations" and "Father of the Man" are the only specific songs mentioned by Brian in that piece.

 I'll put forth the hypothesis that in the fall of 1966, CIFOTM was a more fully realized song (probably with verse lyrics) at least in the mind of Brian Wilson. And Brian was likely demo-ing it to Dennis and others. The instrumental track of course was recorded along with the chorus vocals.   And then, for whatever, reasons the lead vocal didn't make it onto tape, Smile collapsed in the spring of '67, and the lyrics were lost and/or forgotten.

Good points, thank you both.

I guess I just do have a continuing quibble with the logic of "no one remembers it," "no one heard it in such a way that it stuck with them," "no one ever wrote it down," "no recording of it has ever surfaced"... ERGO... "it never existed."   The reason, again... it just seems like such random, dumb (-angel) luck that we know certain other Smile lyrics such as those of "I'm in Great Shape."  I'm old enough and a long term fan enough to confidently say that for 31+ years of Smile lore... until 1998 when the Humble Harv demo was found, no one, including Brian Wilson and all relevant Smile associates, ever suggested that IIGS lyrics existed (other than a few people mistakenly believing that the "eat a lot, sleep a lot" lyrics from Vegatables/Mama Says might be IIGS).

Of course, the conventional wisdom is that, until BWPS, "Child" was an instrumental track and a vocal chorus... and that's it. Period.

As I understand it, VDP has indicated that the 2004 verse lyrics were new and that he was unaware of anything else existing in 1966-67.

And yet... I'm not quite buying it...

A few things...

1.  The 1966 NME article: "I got a sneak preview of one of the tracks the previous night when Dennis played me a piano version of one track, Child is Father of the Man, a cowboy song, and then gave me the throwaway line of the year – "And this is a prayer I'm working on for it!"

Would Denny really bother to do piano demo of a "child-child-child-is-father-of the-man" snippet? Really? And, if he did, who in the hell would think it to be a sort of 'cowboy song'?  Now, I've heard the argument that the "cowboy song" was actually "Heroes and Villains."  Well, maybe, but the writer explicitly was under the impression of listening to "one track" not two.  Of all the Smile tracks that were allegedly more "complete" than Child, why did Denny pick this one to demo?

2.  In Part II of Paul Williams' late 1967 Crawdaddy interview of David Anderle, the pair are reminiscing about the various Smile tracks. Anderle rattles off a new titles and Williams states, "Child is Father of the Man." And Anderle says: "Which I understand will be on his next album. I just heard that from someone, I don't remember who told me."

Now, a couple things...  Paul Williams was a visitor to Brian's home during the Smile era and heard various acetates and live demos from Brian himself.  Would Paul remember a track and a chorus as one of the top Smile songs to call to mind?  And would Anderle believe it be near enough completion to go on the next album? The thing is, it sorta *was* on "his next album"... Friends.  Of course, Dennis recycled part of the track for "Little Bird."  But, again, we find a connection with Dennis.  Was it a situation in which Dennis intended to finish "Child," but for whatever reasons, changed his mind and just used part of it for Little Bird? 

3. We tend to think of VDP as *the* Smile lyricist, but just as Tony Asher didn't write lyrics for 6 of 14 Pet Sounds tracks, it's not unreasonable to suspect that Parks' lyrics would be absent from a similar share of Smile tracks.  For a long time, before BWPS, Parks was uncredited on Wind Chimes and Wonderful.  While the latter sounds like something he'd write, the former really doesn't.  If VDP's memory is accurate and he never wrote vintage CIFOTM verse lyrics, it's possible that it was a song for which Brian himself wrote the lyrics... perhaps intended for Dennis to sing lead.

4, The argument that  vintage CIFOTM verse lyrics would have surfaced by now if they ever existed is weak sauce, in my opinion.  If the Humble Harv demo had never surfaced, would anyone have the faintest idea what the I'm In Great Shape lyrics were?  If Frank Holmes hadn't preserved his notes, how much would be known of the Worms verse lyrics other than Brian throw-away singing a partial "once a upon the sandwich islands" during the track session?

Can anyone find a photo of the real Chrissie Jolly?  She's a somewhat mysterious young lady who reportedly left Siegel (temporarily) for his good friend (and best man) Thomas Pynchon (new novel coming out in a month, btw!).  I've always wondered about the gal after Brian allegedly claimed she was a witch messing with his brain through ESP.

RIP, Mark.    Another one gone...

So who from Brian's LAX crew are still among the living?

The Rovell sisters, Annie, Danny, Dean...

Mrs. Anderle?

Van Dyke and Durrie, but for whatever reason, they're not in all the pics. 

I thought that Brian wasn't allowed to use the original SMiLE cover for BWPS but I don't remember the details.

The story that was told on one or another of the fora 20 years ago is that, Brian's graphic artist in residence Mark London initially worked with Frank on some pre-concert posters and other promo materials  But at some point, as the story goes, Brian's "people" asked Frank how much $ he wanted for the rights to all of his Smile-related art (i.e., Smile shop, booklet illustrations, '90s updates).  Frank started asking questions about how his art would be used, merchandising, derivative uses, anticipated quantities, etc., and the response was along the lines of "Never mind all that. How much $ do you want?!"  And Frank's response again was, "How can I say when I have no idea what you're planning on your end?"   And again, Brian's "people" came back with another response like,  "What part of 'never mind all that' did you not understand?  HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT?!"   And then Frank said, "Fine," and proffered a number.  To which Brian's "people" said the number was ridiculous and told Frank to pound sand.

I've never particularly cared for Mark London's take on Smile, but clearly David Leaf disagrees and used it for this new book.  But the silver liniing is, as noted above by Don Malcolm, Frank's artwork was gloriously used and celebrated in the 2011 Smile Sessions releases. And of course will also be available for Capitol  for any future Smile packages.   If Frank's work had been used by solo Brian in 2004, that likely would not have been the case, so all's well that ends well in that regard.

I'm surprised, Dan, that David Leaf professes ignorance of your Inside Pop cataloguing.  I remember when you posted that info decades ago.
I finally got my library copy of DL's book.  It's okay, but is anyone else of the opinion that Frank Holmes gets short-shrift in this tome?  Yeah, Frank is mentioned here and there, but how do you do a book like this and not give the Smile shop artwork and booklet pride of place?  I mean, it's ICONIC.   For a long time, the cover and the booklet were the most "real" thing about Smile.

On a positive note, I think the color photo of Brian at the piano in the sandbox (near p. 100) is possibly the only one I've ever seen of the legendary sand box.

See, THIS is what I was talking about when I said on the other thread: "I kinda feel like we're long overdue for some kind of game-changing Smile tidbit..."

Of course the hope is that some genuinely lost piece of Smile ( e.g., full or partial versions of CIFOTM or IIGS or H&V or whatever) was captured by Oppenheim and his crew.

Many thanks for posting a review, Dan. Sounds like a decent read but probably not something I'm going to decide to own and put on the shelf next to my vintage first-edition of Dom Priore's LLVsS.  My public library has a copy of the book on order, and I've put a "hold" on it when it arrives.    AS a 30+ year Smile aficionado, I kinda feel like we're long overdue some kind of game-changing Smile tidbit... like when the "Humble Harv" demo surfaced way back when.   But, alas, perhaps the well is truly dry at this point, and there will never again be any truly "new" Smile anything.... but still I dream of it...

I, for one, am glad to see Al taking Brian's guys back on the road, and i'll happily attend one of their shows if I'm reasonably near one.

The Pet Sounds Band is a little hokey but it's more accurate than if they had gone with some variant of Surf/Summer/Beach.  Something arcane like the Radiant Radish Revival or the Dumb Angel Orchestra or the Bellagio Road Crew might have been more fun for the hardcore fan but would likely have baffled the wider audience. 

Toward the end of the 3rd segment, Carnie makes some comments along the lines of having been kept away from Brian over the last 20 years... and now finally being able to spend a lot of time with him.

The obvious implication is that Melinda wasn't welcoming toward her. And that's very sad.  No one owes us as fans any sort of explanation as to what was going on and why, but it's very strange. Clearly there were many periods over the past two decades when Brian and Carnie were in fairly regular contact and other periods when contact was strained. There often two sides to every story. Was Melinda just being a brat? Or if she was squeezing out Carnie and Wendy, did she have legit reason for doing so?

I also like Carnie a lot. She may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think she's similar to Brian in many ways. She's herself, says what she wants, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. She seems like a kind, loving person. I don't care about her salty language. She's not hurting anyone--just cursing a bit!

I agree.  It's a minor miracle that Carnie is so normal and down-to-earth.  Her salty vocabulary may not be everyone's cup of tea, but she's pretty obviously a good person.  She kicked her own substance abuse demons a quarter century ago. She's a family person with really normal husband and daughters.   Despite all the turmoil of her youth, she clearly adores her dad, and has a great love for her uncles, Grandma Audree etc.  She's not a person of anger or grudges. God bless her.

Whoa... despite some interesting tidbits and anecdotes, David Marks does possibly the saddest, most disturbing, train-wreck Beach Boys interview I've ever heard.
Sad that it sounds like he's spending his waning days and nights drunk, high and alone.  Tragic, really.

Thirty plus years ago, I read an interview with Milton Love in which he commented that Al Jardine was the only member of the Beach Boys who had really survived being a member of the Beach Boys.

"Brian Wilson called that last day too. Brian didn’t make the call but his assistant put him on the phone and he kept saying, 'Andy! This is Brian! This is Brian Wilson! I love you Andy!'

I'm not crying. You're crying.

Can't remember where I read it, but a long time ago, some interlocutor said to Andy, "You and Brian did a lot of demos that remain unreleased."  Andy corrected the person, saying something along the lines of "Brian and I did a lot of *masters* that remain unreleased."

Things allegedly began to seriously sour between Mike and Al during the recording of the 1992 "Summer in Paradise" album, with Mike reportedly complaining of Al's “severe attitude problem.”  

Things finally boiled over in the 1997 period when Carl was gravely ill, and Mike and Al bitterly disagreed over Al's idea of doing a "symphonic tour" wherein they would perform with music with various symphonic orchestras

From the horse's mouth...
Goldmine, July 28, 2000.

So what prompted your decision to stop touring with Love's version of the Beach Boys?

We had a symphony tour lined up for the United States. Lots of interested symphonies that could give our music a breadth and depth that we didn't have before and give them a little extra business they needed. A lot of symphonies were going bankrupt. For instance the San Diego Symphony was in a desperate state, and we were going to do our rehearsal concert there in San Diego. They would get one and we would get one. That kind of deal where they get one for their coffers and we'd get a chance to rehearse and get it underway. And then go to the Hollywood Bowl, get that wonderful place sold out and take it from there all over the country. Carry our charts with us and give them to all the different symphonies.

What happened?

Love steadfastly refused to do it. He insisted that Brian be there, I remember that remark which is not all wrong. I don't disagree with that. It would be great if Brian could be everywhere, but we all have to be realistic. He's not going to be predictable that way. He's got only so much energy for that kind of work. He's not built for it.

Brian never liked to tour.

I think Brian was designing our songs back in the day so we wouldn't have to be dependent on him. Anyway, I suggested that he conduct the concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I thought it would be neat if he could come out and take some credit for all that great work. Anyway, that wasn't to be. Mike refused to do it. I think it would've been a great tribute to Carl. It would have been built around the music, not the messenger. It wouldn't have been built around any one of us.

After Carl passed away, you were still in the band and then decided to leave the Love touring lineup sometime after that.

Right. It became one of those moments. Love continued to tour. He didn't stop touring. He just didn't want to tour in that modality. That wasn't his idea of "fun, fun, fun." [laughs] So he continued to work with his band, The California Beach Band, and he would go out and do dates and have surrogate singers do Carl's parts. I thought that was tasteless. While at the same time not going out with the Beach Boys because of Carl's passing so there's some kind of contradiction in that, in my opinion. In fact, my son Matthew at the time was still in that employ, which I did not disagree with because I don't want him to not be able to earn a living. But at some point it got uncomfortable.

So at what point did you pack it in with that lineup?

When Mike refused to tour with the Beach Boys. He just refused to tour with us in any fashion. I can't go into detail with you right now, [but] it got reorganized where Love took the band with an exclusive license and I didn't. And Bruce decided to go with the guy who sang all the hits. Matthew had to make some decisions of his own. We decided to form this entity - Beach Boys, Family And Friends, which I felt would mmore accurately define the harmonies and the vitality of what was missing in the waning years of the band.

https://troun.tripod.com/al.html