Go for it!

It's the story of where Brian's head was at in 1965, just like how SMiLE is the story of the same, one year later.

Johnny Thunder - The Kinks

12 Songs is his finest effort, but the first 5 are all stellar.

I think they had that when I bought the first album (it was at a record convention) and I forgot to get it. Like, I saw the first album, bought it, but didn't bother remembering that 12 Songs is supposedly better. I should've picked them both up.

I don't have this, but I remember looking at it in a store right when it came out and thinking that I might want to get it, but I didn't. I guess this would have been because of Forever being on Full House. Strange how things work out.

I have this album on a tape in my car, side two of which is All Summer Long (mono). Needless to say, I listen to it quite a bit. The Wild Honey outtakes are great, Cottonfields rocks, the alternate Good Vibrations is amazing (LOVE the fuzz bass part), Celebrate the News is awesome, and the rest of it is fun enough.

Yeah, I think the real knock against the collection is the fact that some of the later hits are lame covers, but I guess the same can be said for earlier hits, too. If they put Forever, Surf's Up, and Little Girl I Once Knew on there instead, well, that'd be pretty sweet. No single CD is ever going to be perfect because there are just too many songs.

I don't think anyone considers Smiley Smile "safer" or "formula". And we know where the discussion of "what were they thinking?" leads. I wish someone would talk to Brian and Mike and the rest of the guys about it.

That said, Smiley is miles more complex than people think, which is part of the brilliance.

I guess I was the target audience of this song when it came out (7 at the time) and my class actually danced to it every day, led by the teacher. I don't hate the song, but I hate people dismissing the Beach Boys because of it. Sort of like Student Demonstration Time!

I like what I've got of his. I saw him on Conan once and Conan was all pumped about Good Old Boys, so I bought it. I also have his first album and Little Criminals on LP (so I never listen to them), and I got Sail Away because of the Holland story about Brian. I like his style and I guess I understand his sense of humour, as far as I know.

I like the Bluebirds with the overdub track.

The plate reverb we have at bova sound was originally installed at the Ottawa National Arts Centre in 1967.

Sweet. Represent, yo!

The night I first heard the SMiLE concert bootleg, I was visiting home and I was going to bus overnight back to the city in which I was working. I had to work in the morning. My plan was to sleep on the bus. I listened to the CD (my friend burned it for me) through my stereo and loved the whole thing. Then I listened to the CD through a portable CD player while on the bus and what happened next was awful. I couldn't sleep.  Not because I was excited, but because the bicycle rider theme was playing incessantly, over and over in my head. I kind of sympathized with Brian scrapping SMiLE if that's what he was going through for a few months. So I tried to sleep on the bus and eventually did fall alseep at 6 in the morning or something while at the bus station waiting for a stopover.

That's my story.

Just to clarify: I don't know if Walking in the Rain is underrated or whatever, but I only heard it because of the box, not as a radio song/song that other people have covered, so I had to 'discover' it.

To Know Him is to Love him is also a great song. The "Whyyyy can't he seeeee..." part is so good.

I got my friends to listen to Big Star a bit. And my sister... I put Thirteen and In the Street in front of her and she was hooked to those songs (not the rest of the catalogue, but she's not an album person).

The volume thing is annoying, but I love the harmonica.

And while Guess I'm Dumb would make Today! better, I actually like Bull Session!

Shoot, now I don't remember! I think I found out about them from allmusic, actually. When I went to buy the twofer, the local store actually had it!

Probably out of step with the times, too.

Side 2 is amazing.

I remember when you (I think it was you) posted a link to an archived post by someone about how Smiley Smile was SMiLE from years ago... it was a great read.

Also, I read a book from my university library last year; a collection of essays about 'advances' in popular music or something. The essay about The Beach Boys was primarily about how brilliant Smiley Smile was. It was cool.

Two nights ago I did something rare. I went to my room and played the new Queen A Night At The Opera remaster through headphones in the dark with no other distractions. Sadly it was only through a boombox (which was all I have right now), but the fact that it was, as you say, a dedicated listen, well, it's been a while. Actually, I did get a chance to play my component stereo at Christmas, so I listened to a few records I hadn't played in a while. When I was younger, my favourite thing to do was play NES or SNES and listen to my stereo. I had hooked up two amps and had 8 speakers in the room. They were all broken but it was fun.

5 from me. It's thanks to this CD coming out that I was able to get into the Beach Boys again. I used to have 20 Golden Greats as a kid and I wanted something beyond Pet Sounds (which I had) to serve as a deeper introduction. Actually, I might have owned Smiley Smile/Wild Honey by the time I got this, too.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060104.wxhifi04/EmailBNStory/Entertainment/

I'm In Love With a Girl is really nice.

I don't think it has to do with "sabotage" but more just "leave me be in the studio and this is what I'll do". I really think Brian loved to sing those songs which is a quality I love on the album. He may not be trying to be perfect but he's enjoying himself. On the flipside, he really pours his heart and soul into some of the songs (The Night Was So Young, Let's Put Our Hearts Together) and I don't think those are in any way sabotage. So you have some 'silly' fun songs and you have some real emotional depth on the album. Sounds like The Beach Boys to me. If the presentation's a problem (i.e., people want better singing or less synths), well, there's not much you can do about it. I happen to love it.