[To prove it was Blondie some inquiring and cleaver fans had taken the a cappello mix to a place I never envisioned. Using a computer they compared the a cappella version with the released version and found that they were in sync – or the same track – proving my track was mislabeled and the singer was mis-identified.]

This thread is exhausting to read and the facts couldn't be more difficult to reach thanks to various distortions of what Desper and others actually wrote. The facts are quite simple. First, a link to the Hoffman thread (since everybody's referenced without linking it). Now, a basic summary:

 - Yes, disputing whether Desper's cassette contains a performance of Carl Wilson singing is beating a dead horse. But in one of his last posts, Desper acknowledged that the vocal tracks of his cassette and the single were identical. This was proven by synchronizing the tracks together. He knows they're the same performance.

To prove it was Blondie some inquiring and cleaver fans had taken the a cappello mix to a place I never envisioned. Using a computer they compared the a cappella version with the released version and found that they were in sync – or the same track – proving my track was mislabeled and the singer was mis-identified.

 - In spite of this, only a couple sentences later, he wrote that he has "no doubt" that Blondie (1973) sings on the final mix and that Carl (1971) sings on the cassette he digitized. No further scrutinization is necessary. Whether you consider Desper a reliable source rests on your belief of the supernatural. As he concluded:

What we have here is a visit to the Twilight Zone. Another Rock & Roll mystery that until understood, will always be an enigma.

 - On the Hoffman thread, it was suggested that Desper provide a photograph of his cassette to prove its date of manufacturing. Instead, he gave more anecdotal evidence (since it'd been serving him so well thus far):

The song list is by my hand, but the handwriting on the holder’s spine and the cassette itself is by an assistant, whose handwriting I recognize (it's rather distinct). He spells A Capella with one “p” and a capital “A.” No big deal except that he moved to Mexico in 1971, died soon thereafter, so that confirms the date of the cassette for me.

   Confirmed for him.

Personally, I had a question that he promised to address in the study video. It wasn't. And I think that video ran for over 2 hours. It could have easily been presented on his website via text with links to the separate audio portions. The fans would also (presumably) still have access to the information since the written text itself is not bound by copyright. Why a more accessible option wasn't taken, I guess, is yet another "rock and roll mystery".

It's Carl and Brian doubling each other

I read in the Gaines book that the Bellagio studio was upgraded substantially circa 1968, and that the job took only a day. When was that exactly? Before or after the Friends album? Thanks

It's not about facts, it's just an incoherent sentence. Maybe it's a misquote.

Does anyone here have info on what the actual costs were? Yes, I'm aware that $50k is the figure that gets reported, but where does that number originate? I tried making my own estimate, but it ended up in the hundreds of thousands, which seems way too high. I've also seen a contemporary magazine ad that states the single took $10k. And Brian has said it's $25k and $75k on different occasions.

p. 143, presumably Tony Asher quoting what Brian told him

"We were supposed to have done it [the Pet Sounds album] months ago, and I haven't even started it. I've done only one or two tunes and I hate them."

p.150, quote from Nick Venet

"You've got to understand that Brian was so impulsive, compulsive, you never knew what was coming next. The 'best of' package was put together while Brian was working on Pet Sounds. There was a great love at the time of Beach Boys product ... There were [salesmen] out there that could sell Beach Boys product and the [customers]  were asking for it. The Pet Sounds album was supposed to be ready a long time before, and it wasn't going to be ready. The whole company was geared up to the 'best of' package. Everything had been locked in, magazine advertising, the separations for the cover had been printed and stacked in a warehouse."

Monáe knew she wanted Wilson on Dirty Computer early in the album's creation process. "I was researching the Beach Boys, [and] I found out that the reason why their sound was so quiet, and their harmonies were blended but they were soft, was because they didn't want to wake up their parents," Monáe explains. "They were secretly recording softly so they didn't disturb their parents, and I just thought that was so cool.

Why were their parents sleeping at Columbia studios?

Sorry, what the Gaines book actually says is that there was supposed to be a new Beach Boys album finished by Christmas 1966, and I presume that that's when the compilation was prepared. Capitol decided to issue it after it seemed to them that Pet Sounds was never going to be finished.

I recently read the Gaines book which states that Best of the Beach Boys was released by Capitol simply because they were desperate to capitalize on the success of Barbara Ann, and that the compilation was going to come out regardless of how Pet Sounds was received.

This is one of the most profound events of the group's history, and yet I've never seen it discussed anywhere. Three questions that should be answered:

1) Who came up with the idea to promote Pet Sounds in this fashion? Derek Taylor?

2) Did this line inspire the notion of "progressiveness" or "prog" in popular music discourse? (I'm aware that there was such a thing as "progressive jazz" before this point.)

3) Is this the earliest reference to "progressive" pop/rock music in print? If not, then at least where "progressive pop" was coined?

I love Chuck's quote in the PS booklet about having to continually swipe Brian's hand off the console. Aaah those union days......

I looked for such a quote and couldn't find it?

I´m sure that there is no Mellotron / Chamberlain.  I´ve got one and I know all the sounds. Not one is on Love You.

You've got "one"? How did you manage to combine them?

The tambourine was not audible in the bootleg and might have been mixed too high here

"It has been written that Betty Willis was the voice of Rachel & the Revolvers on the rare Dot single produced by Brian Wilson which is NOT true. Betty Willis and Brian Wilson never crossed paths."
https://www.facebook.com/goldstarrecordingstudios/posts/1462111487249530

It's a hoax https://twitter.com/beachboyslegacy/status/947904464182239237

Where can Teresa be heard?

How Could We Still Be Dancin' -"Dancin' the Night Away", co-written with Andy Paley and recorded with Carl and Mike on Mar. 3, 1995

nope...

Why can't they make a legitimate attempt to compile a best-guess version of the final song?

They did. The only piece of CWTL we haven't gotten is what sounds like a '68 rerecording of the same arrangement that appears on Sunshine Tomorrow.

Nobody ever points out that - at the time - the High Llamas were passed around and written about a lot as sort of an "up-and-coming" indie band, and they were one of the first to be associated with that kind of '60s-revival alt-rock music scene from the '90s. It was a complete accident that Johnston stumbled upon Hawaii, and by extension, a musician of Sean O'Hagan's caliber. Keep in mind that the 1995 Paley timeline coincides EXACTLY with the rise of Britpop.

It's likely that he saw potential in the High Llamas as the counterpart to Oasis or Blur or something - a case of a broken clock being right twice a day. It had nothing to do with being "hip". This is a guy who, only three years before, thought that the group should record "Shortenin' Bread" with the Fat Boys as their next big hit.

And considering that the Beach Boys totally missed the boat on punk and new wave, it's easy to see why they didn't care too much for the Paley material, and why they wasted so much time trying to break into the charts again.

Yes, I'm familiar with that interview. Of course VDP got the Song Cycle contract because of Smile. But I was wondering if, in a Smile-less scenario, he would have been able to get a chance at an album, sooner or later. Lots of people inside the LA/San Francisco scene landed record contracts, perhaps VDP would have been signed by another label in 69, who knows? Anyway, I think VDP payed his dues with Brian through the years: his role in Reprise, then SOS, OCA...

VDP was already signed to MGM in 1965, where he recorded two or three singles. The thing about the Warners deal is that he got a $75,000 budget to record whatever he wanted, which wouldn't have happened without Smile.

Yeah I think he was either recording/practicing a piano part for what they were tracking, but then he goes into a quick divulgence, plunking the intro chords to Heroes and Villains (can you blame him?? That song is quintessential BW piano pounding)... to me it's the bass notes that confirm it's H&V. It's not the clearest, but it's there.

Contrary to popular belief, H&V is not the first nor the only pop song to have a 5-1 bass riff.

let's not forget ... where was he when Brian Wilson asked him if he'd write lyrics and collaborate with him in 1966?

Playing with Frank Zappa and the Byrds, and writing songs for Bobby Vee and Jackie DeShannon? That's a more hopeful position than the Beach Boys circa 1969. Are we going to forget that VDP saved their careers with the Reprise contract, and then again when he had to twist BW's arm into writing "Sail On Sailor"?

Has nobody ever considered that the failure of Smile may have impeded VDP's career? The Guardian, 1971: "Van Dyke Parks ... messed Brian up in 1967, particularly on the album Smiley Smile." Such a curious way of introducing Mssr. Parks. I wonder, for how many years was he known as "the guy who ruined Brian Wilson"? I don't think he got past that until the 1990s, when the cult legend of Smile (and Song Cycle) started bringing him calls from various indie acts. And thank God for those calls.

And you would argue that commenters on YouTube videos are a likely market for archival releases of Beach Boys sessions?

Commentors on YouTube videos = average fans = people who won't buy new Beach Boys product unless there's something of substance = enjoy stereo remix of The Smile Sessions, Paley sessions, expanded editions of various albums, and more that will ultimately attract new fans (Alan Boyd can attest for that re: Sunshine Tomorrow)

People who buy new Beach Boys product no matter what = obsessed fans = the majority of the ~150 active users on this forum / a chunk of the audience at a Brian Wilson concert = enjoy another reissue of Pet Sounds

Domenic Priore is a mixed bag. He'll often pose the weirdest arguments, like that the 2004 "Vega-Tables" was rearranged to sound like McCartney's "Come and Get It" (or maybe Brian invented piano block chords before McCartney!), or that "Heroes and Villains" took its bass line from Bob B. Soxx's "The Bells of St. Mary". It really takes away the credibility of everything else he writes. I think his Smile book has about 2 or 3 pages of people like Danny Hutton and Van Dyke fawning over how Brian was in the studio, but there's minimal specifics.

There is unfortunately not a lot written about the music itself. Only three that I know of:

* Add Some Music To Your Day : Analyzing and Enjoying the Music of the Beach Boys (1998)
* Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius (2007)
* Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective (2016)

The Pet Sounds 33 1/3 book is more like a generic biography, while the Smile book dissects BW's motivations and cultural stature circa 1966. Neither are musically focused.

Here is David Toop's Nov 2011 Smile essay: pt. 1 pt. 2