Interesting that virtually all the outsiders who came into the group’s orbit to collaborate with one or more of th group have nothing but negative impressions of our boy Mike.  To be fair, Student Demonstration Time wasn’t the only song Mike had going at this time - there was Big Sur, an excellent song that had nothing to do with cars.  And Roger Christian was the better car song writer anyway.

Has there ever been any info on why My Solution was recorded in the 1st place?

There's no way this was ever done with the intent of it being an album track on any project, right?

I'm guessing it was just written/recorded for fun/as a goof, but wondering if anyone knows any other info.

It was supposed to be a Halloween track - maybe a Halloween single?  Or Bside?

Podcast sheds some interesting light on what MIGHT have been one reason for the delay/halt in the project.  Alan mentions how they went through several iterations of the set in terms of sequencing the tracks, and the final track sequencing selection came about after input from “the group.”  The final selection is similar to what they did with Made in California, and we know who was behind that.  So perhaps - this is all speculation of course - the initial sequence of the albums with bonus tracks following including a capella, instrumental mixes, finished outtake songs and unfinished demos and Dennis tracks did not meet with a certain member’s approval, and the live versions and finished outtakes following the albums, with the demos, unfinished Dennis tracks and outtake songs on the fifth disc was just what this follicularly challenged member wanted to sign off on the set.

I've kinda lost interest in this set now. I suppose the plan was to build up anticipation, as they slowly release tracks for streaming, but in my case it's gone from a "must buy" to "if i happen to be in a cd store in the next few months and see it, i might buy it".
Other parts of life are more important right now.

I’m impressed - you must have an interesting life.  For someone like me who has no life nothing is more important and more eagerly anticipated than the release of this box set!,

Looks like the alternate lyric version of Till I Die has leaked on youtube.

I'd love to verify this, but I can't find it.

Found it. Interesting. aside from the lyric change, it's also very dry. Nice to hear that Rhythm King (Go Go setting) soloed.

It must be the mix that was on the Reprise Bonus tracks CDs that showed up at a California music store a number of years back.  That’s the mix I would have preferred being on Feel Flows - the extended mix with alternate lyrics is a Frankenstein creation that didn’t exist in 69-71.

Interestingly, it's not the mix that will be on the box (which clocks in at around 5 minutes).

This release isn't just celebrating the Sunflower/Surf's Up era, it's also celebrating the songs created and recorded during this time.  I'm fine with the idea of including live versions of these songs as performed through the years - most were not performed live in 69-71 anyway.

I suspect the live 69-71 concerts will come in a copyright dump online at the end of the year.

Since we now have a stereo Wild Honey and presumably the tapes necessary have been found, they should reissue Stack O Tracks in all stereo - with additional tracks.  I'd particularly like to hear more Love You tracks.  Make it a career spanning collection.

Alan has mentioned California Girls as one of his favorites, saying it was the perfect combination of commerciality and musical experimentation, or words to that effect.

Well we know why Van Dyke didn’t participate in the Smile Sessions box set - he was P.O.’d at the protracted negotiations between Capitol and Frank Holmes and the insultingly low amount of compensation offered to him.  They finally came to an agreement but by then the notes and book were essentially done and Van wasn’t in a frame of mind to contribute.

Not to flog a dead horse, but it is inconceivable to me that the engineer and co producer of Sunflower and Surfs Up wasn’t interviewed for this project and consulted on the remastering.  I understand they want a new mastering, but Steve is now the only one who knows what Carl and his intentions were in mastering how they did, and that info could be very helpful when remastering the albums even if they want to go for a more modern sound. 

Yes there was a report from someone who was there that sunny down snuff was attempted late December but was abandoned when objections to the lyric were raised by you-know-who - although it is also possible it was recorded and erased or the tape lost. 

So the early version is, as you say, the demo but there were at that time other sections planned - Brian says “here’s another section” when he goes into Barnyard, implying other parts were planned or to be written.  Later in December he did record Heroes Part 3 (the chimes “intro”).

Bicycle Rider was overdubbed in January with vocals and additional instruments in a Heroes session and so apparently was a kind of “chorus” although it may have just replaced Great Shape as Part 2 and not been repeated.  The final chorus WAS Bicycle Rider but in a minor key.

When he decided on the cantina version as side 1 of the single, Brian went on almost immediately to work on side 2/Part 2 - which we now know, thanks  to Cam’s detective work and contemporary reports from DerekTaylor in the press that Brian planned a 2 part single.  So all the 5 and 6 minute versions reported in the press up to June may have been edits of cantina with various Part 2 “sections”  although it seems pretty clear that at some point he abandoned cantina and started to rework the whole song into the eventual single.

It is kind of interesting, though, that the Beach Boys were apparently at least somewhat open to recording songs whose origin was from outside the group, with two Don Goldberg songs ("Sweet and Bitter" & "In the Country") and a Rick Henn song ("Won't You Tell Me") at least attempted (to one extent or another) by the Beach Boys around that time. Perhaps that made it easier for all of them to accept the idea of Blondie & Ricky contributing songs to C&TP and becoming members of the band.

I'd add Seasons in the Sun to that category, they even let Terry Jacks produce it!

Not disagreeing with anything you said, just worth noting that Out in the Country is primarily a Brian song, so it's a little different to those others.

And soulful Old Man Shunshine where Rick produced and co-wrote.  My impression is that they were desperate for a hit to rejuvenate their career - this is when they were playing to half empty music venues - and were more than willing to give outside producers and writers a shot.  If the Terry Jacks version of Seasons in the Sun was a hit, I suspect the Beach Boys version would have been a hit as well, although perhaps released under a pseudonym.

Well Dennis says he's working on a prayer, not writing the prayer.  But yeah, it's a stretch to conclude that was Truck Drivin' Man - just a thought that popped into my head.

Agree with Holy Bee that the "cowboy song" Dennis sang was most likely Home on the Range, which was originally intended for Dennis to sing, and either Dennis or the writer got the name wrong.  And the "prayer" he was working on for it - Truck Driving Man?

As for the chants, Brian was obsessed with chants during the Smile and post Smile period - there's the dinner chant he made everyone participate in with cutlery percussion, there's the elements chants in Psycodelic sounds, there's You're Welcome, there's "On and on she goes dum de doo dah" there's Mama Says, there's Water Water Water wada.  So not surprising he went back to a water chant idea for Wild Honey.

As for Dada being Water, the Preiss book from 1979 states that (although the piece described is actually the water chant) and in 72 when Carl talked about finishing and releasing Smile, on of the tracks he mentioned was Love to Say Dada (incorporating Cool Cool Water).  So you can see how the two have somehow been considered linked ever since, despite the fact I think Dada has nothing to do with water (or air for that matter).

SWD's book... And a vinyl copy of the original matrix mix to vindicate the innovation 50 years ago.

Or, you know, a way to actually listen to it in quad - I'm thinking a 5.1 mix, sans center and bass channels, on BluRay - we all want cool stuff, whether it's even a remote possibility or not is another matter.

The Analogue Productions SACD of both Sunflower and Surf's Up decodes with a surround sound processor to surround sound.  It's not a Desper matrix decoder, and the Desper matrix was not designed to decode into 4.0 (let alone 5.1), but because at the time in both the promotional materials included with the albums and in the press the albums were reported to be quadrophonic compatible, AP put in a surround sound option.  Stephen wasn't happy about it but when he found out why they had done it, he understood even though he didn't really approve.  It's not a discrete 4.0 but it is "surround."

I suppose I'll ask then, is there any reason that the output of the quad decode - the proper matrix - could not be released as discrete 4.0?

I had assumed that there would be no technical difficulty with this.

My understanding - and Stephen should really chime in on this - is that despite press releases saying that Sunflower and Surfs Up were quad encoded/compatible, in fact Stephen’s matrix was never a 4.0 quad matrix and so can’t be decoded to a true 4.O by any of the decoding algorithms used then or now.  AP has done the best they can do with what is encoded on the master tapes.  A new matrix would have to be made to get true “quad” and of course a new discrete 5.1 or 7.1 would be the best course if they want to release a surround mix.  Or they could manufacture lots of Stephen’s decoder devices and we could hear it the way he intended. 

I assume he was interviewed for the liner notes to the set?  I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t be.

For "Friends" - the album version was duophonic?  This is the first I've heard of that.  Why would that be?

Sorry for the double post

SWD's book... And a vinyl copy of the original matrix mix to vindicate the innovation 50 years ago.

Or, you know, a way to actually listen to it in quad - I'm thinking a 5.1 mix, sans center and bass channels, on BluRay - we all want cool stuff, whether it's even a remote possibility or not is another matter.

The Analogue Productions SACD of both Sunflower and Surf's Up decodes with a surround sound processor to surround sound.  It's not a Desper matrix decoder, and the Desper matrix was not designed to decode into 4.0 (let alone 5.1), but because at the time in both the promotional materials included with the albums and in the press the albums were reported to be quadrophonic compatible, AP put in a surround sound option.  Stephen wasn't happy about it but when he found out why they had done it, he understood even though he didn't really approve.  It's not a discrete 4.0 but it is "surround."

SWD's book... And a vinyl copy of the original matrix mix to vindicate the innovation 50 years ago.

Or, you know, a way to actually listen to it in quad - I'm thinking a 5.1 mix, sans center and bass channels, on BluRay - we all want cool stuff, whether it's even a remote possibility or not is another matter.

The Analogue Productions SACD of both Sunflower and Surf's Up decodes with a surround sound processor to surround sound.  It's not a Desper matrix decoder, and the Desper matrix was not designed to decode into 4.0 (let alone 5.1), but because at the time in both the promotional materials included with the albums and in the press the albums were reported to be quadrophonic compatible, AP put in a surround sound option.  Stephen wasn't happy about it but when he found out why they had done it, he understood even though he didn't really approve.  It's not a discrete 4.0 but it is "surround."

A couple of years ago we had the pleasure of attending a Brian Wilson concert called "Something Great from '68" that featured Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin and had the Zombies as the opening act performing their Odessey & Oracle album in its entirety, with Darian Sahanaja playing on stage with the Zombies. 

Then Brian and his band (including Al and Blondie) took the stage and performed the Friends album (or at least most of it) just like Brian had done in previous years with Pet Sounds and Smile. It was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Friends album.

But just prior to starting the Friends album set, Al said something which I thought was a bit odd. He said something to the effect that "this band up here knows these songs better than I do, and I was there when we recorded them, and while I have no idea why you would actually want to hear this album performed in its entirety, here it is."

He was clearly bemused by the idea of performing in its entirety what he apparently thought was mostly a "throwaway" album of mostly insignificant songs, but at the same time he was certainly willing to do it if that's what Brian and his band wanted to play and if that's what the audience wanted to hear.

So other than maybe "Cotton Fields," maybe that's how Al feels about Sunflower and Surf's Up or (especially) the unreleased Sunflower and Surf''s Up era tracks that he thinks are mostly forgettable or in some cases embarrassing or maybe even outright suck. Maybe there is just not as much juice or enthusiasm for the Sunflower and Surf's Up period among the surviving Beach Boys as there is with Beach Boys fans.

Al isn't the only one.  Bruce has gone on record saying how he didn't like Friends, thought it was too lightweight and needed to be - I'm paraphrasing here - heavier and more aggressive.  Ironic considering Bruce's lightweight contributions to Sunflower and Surf's Up - but he did do a "heavy" rock number for 20/20 along with his instrumental.

This is pure speculation with no basis in anything but could Mike be holding it up because he wants Brian to write some new songs with him?  He complained bitterly about TWGMTR that he wasn't allowed to write head to head with Brian.  Maybe he sees this box set release as a bargaining tool to accomplish this?

I was really surprised when I saw the Mike&Bruce Beach Boys in summer 2017, and Mike never once mentioned the 1967 Sunshine Tomorrow archival set that was newly released. During intermission there was even a slideshow advertising Mike's book and other stuff for purchase, but no reference to it.

But didn't Mike and his band do a "Wild Honey" tour for the 50th anniversary of the album, which at least indirectly ties in to the archival release?

Clearly something happened between June 19 and July 13.

Still think an article by Rolling Stone about the incredible unreleased music (Someone would have to give then a preview) and the “revelations” the box set contains and bemoaning whatever hassles are holding it up could turn the tide and trigger a release.

OK this has been bugging me lately - Mike made a big mistake on the chorus lyrics to Good Vibrations.  "I'm pickin' up good vibrations, she's giving me THE excitations!"  First line has 8 syllables, the second nine, and the "THE" sticks out like a sore thumb.  It doesn't even make sense - what's wrong with she's giving me excitations?  What are "THE" excitations?  So on probably the biggest song in their career, Mike blew the lyrics.  No wonder Brian wanted Van Dyke to do them after he'd promised them to Mike.

I REALLY hope this is a joke, but...

Sing "she's giving me excitations" to yourself, it sounds terrible. It's a vowel into a vowel. The 'the' pickup note gives it some swing, Mike knew what he was doing.

Uh, the excitations” is also a vowel into a vowel.  And  “me excitations”sounds fine, as countless crowds of fans at their concert know as this is what they sing when they sing along.