yup I need to add some jan and dean to my collection.  It's mad, coz I felt drawn to this kind of music in my early teens but didn't investigate further.  I spose there was no internet out there and there was Morrissey and the smiths.  No wonder I was miserable for so long in my life.  glad I've been reunited with this great stuff.  Jan and dean looked like good fun.

I've only been listening to the beach boys since February.  I am obsessed.  I live in Birmingham, West Midlands and would be interested in doing a smile bicycle ride before I die.  Has anyone done it?  Any stories or maps? How much fundage would one need? 

I'm older than you by a bit, but BWPS answered my remaining Smile questions. I'm glad we got the box, but I've never found the sequencing discussions all that gripping, mostly because I don't think the Brian of 1966-67 had the answers either. (For the record, I've always found the 12-track, banded album theory most persuasive, but who knows what those tracks would be like?)

Given the material he had to work with, BWPS is a marvel. It manages to square the circle of the sessions, and to do so with astonishing good humor. It's that change -- from the dark moodiness that overshadows the '60s stuff to the technicolor Looney Tunes vibe of the '04 record -- that turns off some folks, but to me it's essential. It's how modern-day Brian coped. It succeeds on its own terms. It's not the Smile, but it's a Smile, and from the only folks I'd want to hear it from.

're right
I think you'reoys the right.  Brian knew what he was doing with smile but not enough other people trusted his judgement.  He seems like an amazing person with an amazing ear.  he knew what he was doing.  There is nothing offensive there.  I've only been into the beach boys for 3 months and I am really making up for lost time.  The sheer volume of work before smile and the quality is amazing.  An then after.  There's always something new to discover with them.

all I have is a load of canals...but as I ride along them I'm very happy coz I've always got a beach boys song in my head or spinning some place.