Got excited just by reading the titles, particularly by "Holy Man" at the end.

Ah, here is Spoonito's mega-H & V:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arpt53KsHO4

It features (from 15:55 to 16:59) the very best version of "Barnshine", which must be one of the best pieces of music ever recorded.

You're right, it's the "On and on" bit which was synced. However, I found that mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCEDU-Y_idM

I think that 1:04 to 1:40 is pure genius.

Interesting, and difficult! I tried to follow chronological order:

1960s:
Lonely Sea
In My Room
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Wind Chimes (the Smiley Smile one)
Time to Get Alone

Album: Smiley Smile

1970s:
A Day in the Life of a Tree
'Til I Die
Surf's Up (from same album)
The Night Was So Young
River Song

Album: Love You

1980's:
Santa Ana Winds
Love and Mercy
Melt Away
Rio Grande
Kokomo (what can I say, it's so catchy!)

Album: BW88

1990s (since I can't skip this, I'll cheat a little):
Fourth of July (GV box)
Fairy Tale Music (GV box)
Still I Dream of It (GV box)
Your Imagination
Lay Down Burden

Album: Imagination

2000's:
Heroes and Villains (BWPS)
Roll Plymouth Rock (BWPS)
Cabin Essence (BWPS)
Live Let Live (TLOS)
Going Home (TLOS)

Album: BWPS (TLOS counting only originals)

2010s:
California Saga: California (from A Postcard from California)
Nothing But Love
From There to Back Again
Pacific Coast Highway
Sail Away (the NPP one, of course)

Album: TWGMTR

A final thought: favourably surprised by being forced to let several really strong songs on the cutting floor for the 2000's and 2010's.

There is a Smile mix where the "With Me Tonight" (Smile take) chorus is mixed with the instrumental start of "Do You Like Worms" and it works PERFECTLY (it's rather exhilarating, indeed). I'll try to "recover" it and post a link.

Wow. Simply Wow. When one has listened to dozens and dozens of Smile mixes, doesn't expect to be blown away by the umpteenth one, yet it's what happened to me listening to yours. I consider this simply the best ever, with no offence meant to the many excellent ones. Thanks so much for creating and sharing (and re-encoding !) this psychedelic masterpiece.
Ah, I found also your fantastic 18-minutes Heroes & Villains, a dream come true. You fully realised what I have always thought, i.e. that Smile is inifnite because it's a fractal structure, where the parts are as complex and rich as the whole. And in fact, your H & V is as rich as Smile itself.
Thanks again!

P.S.
I forgot to add that imho yours mix is the nearest one to what a completed Smile should have been. I still think that, if released in 1967, Smile would have been much different, and somewhat disappointing, just like the released H & V, though very good taken by itself, was a pale shadow of what if could have been. It would have been a dozen very good songs, but hardly world rocking.
But your mix sounds like a good approximation of what could have come out if all the stars had aligned right, instead of wrong, and Brian had had all the support he needed (instead of some "support" he didn't need at all...). And maybe such a thing in 1967 would have Blown the Empire out of the Galaxy...  
 

To Hey Jude and Thorgil, I thoroughly enjoyed reading both of your posts above. Exceptional indeed! Thank you. 

Thank you, OSD.

The thing is, nobody really buys Brian solo albums. Same for Mike. They don't get streamed really either. Only The Beach Boys name would sell, and get some attention. Too bad they couldn't record together, but tour apart. In their late 70's, time is almost up...

Matt, I have 2 answers to this.
Firstly, "nobody" is a bit exaggerated; for example, I bought all of them, so "nobody" it isn't.
Secondly, you are obviously right that the BB name would sell more.... but someone nixed that possibility. Hints: first name is short for the thing Bruce keeps adjusting during touring BB's tours; family name should be the opposite of hate. Should.

I think VDP's work for (and with) Brian in those early Smile months is fantastic. Their artistic personalities, so different, merged miraculously, and the Smile project was the result. Would it have been completed and released if Van had stayed? Maybe, maybe not.

I'm no big fan of Van's other works, and that includes OCA, but don't agree with the flack he is getting lately, either. I always feel a deep respect and gratitude for the co-author of "H&V", "Surf's Up", "Wonderful" and "Cabin Essence".
 

No doubt he pulled back, but he was still writing. When the band turned in Holland, the label didn't hear a single so they went to Van Dyke Parks who showed up with that demo of Sail On Sailor. So it was still a case even at the time of Holland that when the band needed a hit, they went to something Brian was writing at this time.

I think chart failure may be overstated as a factor. Consider how Brian's ideas - no matter how "commercial" they may or may not have been - were being rejected by the band. He apparently didn't want them to use the chants on Cool Cool Water, but they did anyway. He didn't back the idea of doing Surf's Up when the band was going to put it out, yet he showed up out of the blue during one session to add a missing part to the song. He wrote something as magnificent as Til I Die during this time, and Mike called it a downer or something like that. He had the fairy tale, and apparently Carl compromised by doing that extra record bonus instead of putting it on the album proper. It goes on and on.

As I said previously regarding the time period around Friends and 20/20, a person can only hear the word "no" so many times before finally saying f*** it. Yet he still added his work to what the band was doing musically, and I don't think they had any choice to be honest. But for a guy who had been seeking approval and validation through his music since he was a kid, it wore him down to hear his ideas rejected so many times, whether they were smash hit record ideas or not.

I think you are right, Craig. It was not only Smile's "failure", but also what happened after that wore Brian down, as you say. He needed both psychological support (no wonder with a childhood like that and his other ongoing problems) and creative support (Brian has never been a wholly autonomous artist, always needs somebody to help him bring his creations to full fruition). In that period, it looks like he did not get much of either.

I don’t mean to say we’re increasingly insensitive to those deaths, just that it’s increasingly easier to do so.

And Heavens know it has always been too easy to begin with...

Here you get Stamos AND dancers!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCAtrNXm-D0

No McGrath?

This article dates back to 2001 and be warned, the writer goes out of his way to slaughter sacred cows with a most contentious piece. It does not reflect my opinion on the Beach Boys, but I think it contains enough home truths that it should be posted here. Bagge is very tongue-in-cheek and deliberately tries to provoke. But I admire his singular stand in some ways, flying in the face of popular opinion. If nothing else, perhaps it can redress the imbalance of negative bias against Mike Love. Have at it: http://www.mbird.com/2012/05/beach-boys-101-peter-bagges-in-defense-of-and-praise-for-mike-love/

I thought it was a pretty interesting read.   Offers a different POV that's often dismissed.  

Kds, sometimes I have agreed with you. But I can't ever ever agree with a "POV" which calls Brian "a gifted re tard". That's hateful beyond words, and it saddens me that you can defend that piece of trash, though you admitted that "it went too far".
It didn't go too far, shouldn't even have started.

Brian lost control, over the Beach Boys and their records, with the SMiLE implosion (implosion I think's the best term to describe those events then).  His creativity was fueled by that control, record after record leading up to SMiLE, and when the others (primarily Mike Love) began successfully over-riding his plans and decisions that dissipated his creative desires (it certainly took the 'edge' off them), a gradual decline over the next couple albums, until in effect the others could eventually say 'we don't need you anymore' to produce records

Or when the others THOUGHT they didn't need Brian anymore, while they DID need him, and facts proved exactly that. Count me the great Beach Boys songs after Love You and before TWGMTR.
Dennis was the only one among the others who was a very good songwriter, but even with him Dennis + Carl + Al + Mike + Bruce << Brian

Without the eggs laid by the Golden Goose, creatively, they lost steam in very few years.

Hopefully this don't just sound like i'm coming from a place of arrogance but since i'm in my 20s I don't think the level of coolness or sales for our favourite bands back in the 60s means very much anymore does it? It's all dinosaur music at this point.

I think in this day and age it's just wonderful to have all that incredible music out there from The Beach Boys OUT THERE for everyone to listen too. Looking back, despite everything else losing Carl at a young age is by far the biggest tragedy in the BB story in the last 35 years.

Also just look at how different The Beach Boys reputation is now.. I mean, just over 20 years ago the Beach Boys were recording the crap tastic Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 and being used as backing singers for Status Quo on UK tv! Ugh. Their musical reputation has never been more acclaimed than it is now. I've seen/met a lot of younger people that like the Beach Boys. Despite Mike Love's endless touring jukebox, it is largely Brian Wilson that the critics and music fans think of when they think of classic Beach Boys. Although that could largely be the influence of a million indie bands who worship at the church of Brian. Not to mention that the '67-'73 material + Love You + Pacific Ocean Blue have grown a hell of a lot in stature too. Plus of course the SMiLE and PET SOUNDS related projects have received rapturous acclaim and attention from music fans the world over.

There is still a lot of love and appreciation for the group that's become even more apparent in the 21st century, the 50th anniversary, the Love & Mercy film and BBC 'God Only Knows' release confirms that The Beach Boys will only increasingly be looked back upon as in the top tier of 'classic pop/rock' music of the last 50+ years. A similar situation to other uncool bands of the sixties like The Kinks and The Monkees whose reputation has only grown also. All the band politics stuff, gets washed away when you listen to 'Good Vibrations', 'All Summer Long' or 'Holland' or whatever. Listening to The Stones or The Who in 2018 is hardly a million miles less cool than listening to The Beach Boys at this point in time.

Thank god (and the Beach Boys) for making all that fantastic music! RIP to Carl and Denny. Long live Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Blondie Chaplin ect. Keep creating that wonderful life-affirming music guys, especially Brian!

You're right, Sam, and I had an epiphany just yesterday. I was getting a drink in my fav bar and suddenly there came "I Get Around" on the radio (actually TV playing radio). I risked a "Listen to the great Beach Boys!" and to my delight everybody present including the barmen, people from at least three generations, nodded and even commented favourably.

It kind of puzzles me that the hip crowd didn't tune in to Smiley Smile. Some of the vocals on that album are just effing amazing! But I guess the hip people were more into 20 minute guitar solos than out of this world vocals. So maybe Smile wouldn't have blown them away, either.

This: by 1967 people were starting to get into 20 minute guitar solos. Smile's near chamber music approach would have enjoyed a short success, then been wiped out by the big guitars and later by prog rock.
What happened to the Beach Boys after Smiley Smile makes us practically forget that the Beatles, with all their clout and with Sgt. Pepper's success, struggled for a couple years and then dissolved.
No, I don't think Smile would have changed music history. You don't stop a juggernaut with gossamer voices and the tinkling of wind chimes, nor with Swedish frogs.
But not being released in 1967 transformed Smile into something unique, the musical haunt of our lives, forever just beyond reach, and for that reason forever fascinating.

I love the cover of Da Doo Ron Ron. As for the rest, never mind.

If you use Firefox, just install the Adblock Plus extension, matter of seconds. Then the Ziggy site, as Rab said, will show you just one download button, the good one.
Thanks a lot, Syd!!!

Life Suite or R&R record? I'd love either one.

Same, I honestly don’t care either way. I think every BW solo record has a bit of charm and each one has at least a few gems/moments that stand out. And that’s all I’d want whether it be from a life suite, rock n roll album, or even just some piano demos. Or if Brian wants to chillax and not visit the studio again that’s cool too.

Yes, of course. But I'd be a bit unhappy if his last released song were "The Last Song". It's so sad.

Wouldn't his last released song be "Run James Run"?

If that's his final song, while not great, at least it's better than The Last Song.  

Oh, of course! I had been thinking only in terms of albums. And RJR may be not great, but I like it a lot, and is quite a cheerful song!
Thanks for the reminder.

Life Suite or R&R record? I'd love either one.

Same, I honestly don’t care either way. I think every BW solo record has a bit of charm and each one has at least a few gems/moments that stand out. And that’s all I’d want whether it be from a life suite, rock n roll album, or even just some piano demos. Or if Brian wants to chillax and not visit the studio again that’s cool too.

Yes, of course. But I'd be a bit unhappy if his last released song were "The Last Song". It's so sad.

I have only one regret: that the Wilson brothers did drugs.

Life Suite or R&R record? I'd love either one.

I did not know that Al played bass too, and I'm impressed.
"Only four strings"? Of course it may have been easy for you, Al, but it's not so easy really. Just check a YouTube tutorial about good bass playing...

Looked at the home photo and decided not to browse any further.
Nobody - nobody - would make a site about the Fab4 and omit Sir Paul in the home photo.
Nobody would make a site about the Rolling Stones and omit Keith Richards.
Nobody would make a site about the Who and omit Pete Townshend.
I could go on and on, but I hope my point is made.

The world of Beach Boys fandom is really unique... 

Imo Jeff is not bad by any means, but his voice lacks any "sweetness". Matt, on the other hand...