Joshilyn - do you plan to make any more BB videos?
I have been anxiously awaiting.

Also, any chance you can decipher the chord to let’s live before we die?

Do we know what happened with those durrie parks acetates that were on eBay? Did anything ever get released? Any chance we hear anything on there? I’d be willing to throw money down (as I’m sure many are) to get it uploaded

Can ANY one post chords the the unreleased/incomplete outtake of “Let’s Live before we Die” please? I have been begging others for awhile. I consider this a great long lost Beach Boys classic that could have been utilized all the way up to Today and I’d love to learn it and study it.

Having recently discovered Jan did the string arrangement on Surfer Moon - was this before or after Surf City? Is there a proper timeline of where I can read about the history of Brian and Jan collabing?

Do we know if Brian asked Jan or did he volunteer? Has either spoken of this song and his involvement?

Does dennis sing or play on when girls get together? Wikipedia has him listed as being in the track but not his role.

Tons of missed opportunities, as always.
Remixes of the first half a dozen albums.
Using AI to separate and totally remix them (like the recent Beatles tracks)
Another ‘keep an eye on summer’ type treatment for an album or two from the early days
More instrumentals, acapellas, etc from the early days
Proper stereo version of Smile sessions with new unearthed discovered (the Parks acetate for example)

As always, zero communication and missed opportunities.

Please spare me “they owe us nothing”. They aren’t getting any younger, and neither are we. I would like to hear the love you sessions before I meet Carl and Dennis

Would have loved to have heard this acapella performed with just the boys and no cameras or audience. Wonder how Brian sounded without all of the distractions around him.

Anything at all? I presume no, at this point.

I’m sure this has been asked before: but what if Pet Sounds was a massive success? Topping the charts and the unequivocal best selling Beach Boys album at the time. Would Mike change tune? Would the rest of the band welcomed and accepted more change? Would Capitol be more willing to Brian following avenues he wanted to musically?

Two questions.

Did the Boys ever talk about Dean Martin? Being that Carl married his daughter and the Sunflower album cover is on his property. Dean is a fantastic singer. I wonder if they ever harmonized or discussed music. Not to mention the Boys sang Things we did last Summer - and in similar style to Dean.

Secondly, please, can anyone provide some chords for the rare and never talked about instrumental “let’s live before we die”?

Love “I wanna be around” so much. Great work here. I think eventually Smile’s legacy will be just as it began: incomplete. Due to the ability to continue tinkering with it so much. I know for a fact there is still more Smile stuff in the vault. Will we get it? Don’t know.

I’m hoping for some Dennis AI to be applied to You’re so Good to Me (a song he originally was going to sing). Or I just wasn’t made for these times (a song he may have had a pass at and could still be present vocally). But most importantly: a day in the life of a tree. The first two would require a different Dennis vocal than Tree, however.

Did he sing on a young man is gone? Do we know? I think I hear him but not the whole time which is quite confusing.

Why did Dennis not sing during their hearts were full of spring in the early 60’s? You see him singing but not mic’d up.
Did he ever sing round with the group?
When brian stopped touring did they continue to perform this song? Was he present at the mic then?
Did Dennis sing on a young man is gone?

If there is down time due to the harvest for this 50 year anniversary - I wouldn’t mind a revisit from classic albums. Expansions, remix, out takes, acapellas, instrumental, unreleased etc of the first couple of albums. I’m sure more has been discovered in the vaults and it’d be interested to have, say, the first 4–5 albums compiled in one set. I know it’s wishful thinking but a boy can hope this one day comes. I feel these early stages have more to give and have not been explored in awhile. More is there. And can be done.

What is the weird stylophone sounding instrument throughout take a load off your feet? You hear it immediately at the songs start. It’s super noticeable in the alternate mix.

Maybe I have missed it. I hope I did. Was there anything released? Any shady 1.5 minute dump of stuff like last year? Any… anything? Is this thing on? Hello?

Do we know what SIZE timpani was used on those Today and Pet Sound sessions? I can't recall any timpani work on Summer Days. That's why I ask about Today and PS.

Forgive me if this has been answered: Is it Dennis singing the 'dom dom... king-dooom' part on 'Radio King Dom'? Really sounds like him. Have we had a whole break down on the Beach Boys that have played and or sang on the Fairy tale EP?

I don’t think it’s a mandolin. I recall reading a Rick interview where he discusses the song. Rick say Dennis came in, and Rick thought he was going to change this and that, but all Dennis did was slow down and then speed up … whatever it was, and it ‘gave a shimmering mandolin’ effect. I can’t remember much else. But that Rick liked Dennis contribution and spoke highly of them and Murry. I know someone knows that interview. I remember ‘shimmering’ being used as an adjective.

So, I’d like all of the unreleased stuff, acapellas, backing tracks, etc. but I do not own a record player. I’d like a CD so I can dump it into iTunes to put it on my phone. What are my options?

Can anyone recommend great record players too?

I seem to recall with Feels Flows I didn’t have this problem. I don’t want to miss out on unreleased stuff. And I’d like the booklet thing.

Howie, can you narrow it down to a month? Has this box set been a ‘circular firing squad’ fiasco like the last?

So are we trying to bite the hand that feeds us? What circular firing squad? I was very happy with the last years set and I don’t see the need to stir up sh*t. But maybe I’m off base and if so I apologize. But let’s just not get snappy with a guy who has already given some neat info about this set.

Please calm down. Way way down. Circular firing squad was a term used by I thought Howie, or someone else in the know in regards to the delayed sunflower boxset. No one is biting any hands. Nor is anyone stirring anything up. It was merely a question if this box set went smoother than Feel Flows boxset. That’s it. That’s it.

Howie, can you narrow it down to a month? Has this box set been a ‘circular firing squad’ fiasco like the last?

Can you at least tell us some things to be excited about? Or songs/snippets you enjoyed?

Edit

Are your castanets machine castanets or hand-held-on-a-stick??  There's these:

My belief is that, for stuff like "Then I kissed her" or "san miguel," the percussionist in question would use the machine castanets to tick out the same rhythm with both hands, so it almost sounds double tracked.  They probably got a little bit closer miking, as well.  The castanets on Sloop John could have been either type of the above, and are just tapped as single strokes, a little more distantly miked.  I'm 99% they are castanets -- it actually does sound like it, if you don't believe me wait till I do my Sloop John B video, and Brian had a little bit of an unconventional use of castanets thing going Sloop and That's Not Me.  Definitely not a temple block in any state.  Even muted, they still have a more defined pitch and fuller body than the Sloop sound.

Joshilyn, thank you for the great reply. I love your videos and I devour each one numerous times. You are a real treasure to this community. As a musician myself, I especially appreciate your videos and feedback. Are you saying that the 'clip-clop' sound in 'That's Not Me' is indeed a type of castanet? I am not denying this claim, but I am certainly intrigued. It sounds unlike any type of castanet. You do know Brian Wilson was asked this question directly, right? I would imagine Brian is well aware of castanets, but he did not say it was castanets. Something I think he would be familiar with - and something I think he would remember if Hal was playing something as simple and identifiable as castanets. But it's also Brian, so...

What do you think in regards to the castanets being over dubbed? For something like San Miguel - do you think it's simply one take of Hal and then effects are applied? Or do you think it's multiple takes and him playing it slightly off to give it a fuller sound?

Another reason I doubted Sloop was castanets is because of the Fendertones version on Youtube. A dude uses a single temple block held and that sounds much closer to the intro than castanets would. mic-ing them at different spots may yield different frequencies and tonality peaks that I admittedly have not explored in my own recordings as I typically close-mic castanets and woodblocks. Check out the Fendertones version if you haven't.

Also, this is slightly off-topic Joshilyn, but have you heard the fantastic 1964 album 'The Marketts - Out of Limits'? Great drumming by Hal. (and of course numerous fellow Wrecking Crew stalwarts). Some songs feature some castanets mixed way up in some songs, like 'Hyper-Space'. This is what brought me down the rabbit hole of: 'is it just Hal doing one take with some effects applied, is it multi over-dubs played slightly off, or is it multi takes and some effects applied'?

To answer your question: The castanets I have are the 'LP castanet machine' mounted to my drums. They can be played with a stick or with your hands. Both are the exact same note/frequency.

I'll also add that a lot of percussion instruments record a lot sharper sounding than they do acoustically in a room, something about the transients.  Castanets in particular are prone to sounding much thinner and clickier on record than they do in a room.

Yeah but that the Sloop John B intro sounds vastly different than San Miguel intro. I have some LP Castanets, which are meant to emulate the old sound. They do sound like the San Miguel sound, but not Sloop. That was one reason why I asked if Hal's castanets are over-dubbed / multi-tracked or if he intentional plays them a little off on an over-dub to give them more 'space'... Or if some delay/echo is applied after one tracking to give it a fuller sound. I think Sloop's intro uses something totally different than castanets. Doesn't sound close to that sound. I'm guessing a muted temple block.


Another question - does anyone know why 'Things We Did Last Summer' was left unreleased for so long? I think it's a great sounding record, albeit a little different than other tracks at the time. Perhaps it didn't fit? Has there ever been a definitive reasoning?