Call me the devil's advocate, but I do really think that Mike puts in extra time to perform these songs 1) To cater to the hardcore fans, and 2) Because he really loves the music.  Like I said earlier, he could easily EASILY do a 90-minute show every night.  They did that during most of the 90's when the Beach Boys were still together!!  But he takes the time and makes the effort to include little gems here and there when he clearly doesn't have to.

     Excuse me, Eric, but Mike did practically the same hour or hour and fifteen minute hits only show since the very early 80's!   I, too, am very happy to see his new set lists these past couple of years.  However, it's probably going to be a long time before I forgive him for 20+ years of very boring same-old-same-old set lists.  (And why they've been doing "Duke Of Earl" for about 10 years straight now I'll never know!  If Mike feels he's got to perform some old Doo-Wop song, then why not do a different one every year?)

           Love and merci,   Dan Lega

Yeah, but if they're going to get back together to do "Pet Sounds", they may as well do "SMiLE", too.  Maybe if Mike saw how much a live audience dug "SMiLE" he'd finally change his mind about the project!   


Love and merci,   Dan Lega

The "correct"  master is the one that has been on the album since 1966 .

     Okay, if you want to get into semantics, I guess I should have said the "original speed" version.  That's the version I prefer.


          Love and merci,   Dan Lega

     Any chance the new Anniversary Edition of Pet Sounds will have "Caroline, No" at the correct speed, and not the speed at which Murry thought it should be?  (That is, a new mix from the new original master slowed down to it's correct speed?)  It probably doesn't bother most people, but I really don't like the speeded up version of the song any more, because I can tell Brian doesn't sound like he really should.  Thanks.


          Love and merci,   Dan Lega

The version you want is available on the PS boxset. We wouldn't alter the mix on the the regular version of the album after 40 years.

Mark

      Yes, the correct speed version is on the boxset.  I was just hoping that since you've now found the true mono master that you would also put "Caroline, No" on the new disc at the correct speed.  That way we would have the best sounding mono master along with the best sounding mono correct speed version of "Caroline, NO" all on one disc.  I didn't expect that you would get rid of the speeded up version, it just would have been nice to have the correct speed version as an extra cut, thereby having both versions on the same disc so we could easily choose between one or the other all in the best possible sound.

                Love and merci,   Dan Lega

     Any chance the new Anniversary Edition of Pet Sounds will have "Caroline, No" at the correct speed, and not the speed at which Murry thought it should be?  (That is, a new mix from the new original master slowed down to it's correct speed?)  It probably doesn't bother most people, but I really don't like the speeded up version of the song any more, because I can tell Brian doesn't sound like he really should.  Thanks.


          Love and merci,   Dan Lega

"It's no big deal, but Wild Honey came after Smiley Smile, so Wild Honey would have been their latest release"

Only Wild Honey hadn't been released yet - they introduce the songs as from their forthcoming album to be in the stores before Christmas.

     Oh, well that makes sense, then.  Thanks for clarifying!

              Love and merci,   Dan Lega

The recent boot A Vocal Element with shows from Nov-Dec 1967 show the live band doing album tracks from Wild Honey as well as Pet Sounds material, and doing it pretty well.  Interestingly, no tracks from their most recent release, Smiley Smile, other than Good Vibrations.  No Heroes!

   It's no big deal, but Wild Honey came after Smiley Smile, so Wild Honey would have been their latest release.


          Love and merci,   Dan Lega

[finally]

My copy finally showed up in the mail today. I preordered the book from Amazon back in April -- after this experience, I won't be preordering anything from them again.

    That is terrible, Emdeeh.  I ordered mine from Amazon on Tuesday of last week and it arrived just a few days later -- on Friday!  And this was with free shipping.  It doesn't make any sense that it took so long to get your copy out.

          Love and merci,   Dan Lega

The Good Vibrations video is from a 1970 New Orleans TV show that the color Cottonfields clip also dates from.

Thanks for this info.  Do you know more about it?  Such as... was it produced and shown only in New Orleans?  Was it a show only about the Beach Boys or did it have videos and music from other bands?  Where can we view the color Cottonfields clip?  (Because for some reason I'm not remembering that at all.)  Thanks.


        Love and merci,   Dan Lega

     I love musicals, but jukebox musicals usually don't work.  And besides, this possible musical sounds fake.  Why use the names Charlie and Dennis?  It obviously brings to mind Charles Manson and Dennis Wilson, which is not a good association.  And what kind of musical uses canned music?  Usually musicals have the actors singing their songs.  If this is for real, good luck.  But it doesn't sound like something I'd rush out to see unless it were really cheap.  I'd have to think long and hard about paying Broadway prices for a show like this.


        Love and merci,   Dan Lega

I believe that over 95% of Brian's contribution (I'll leave 5% for "That sounds great" and "Could I hear that part again") - whether it be for the live presentation or the recording of the CD - was simply an exercise in karaoke.

Brian did ALL of his work on SMiLE in 1966-67; he never re-visited it again for any length of time. 2004's BWPS was the work of Darian Sahanaja, Jeff Foskett, and some Van Dyke Parks.

The way Brian's promotional team made it appear that Brian "finished" SMiLE was the best "Brian Is Back" campaign yet. And, in my view, it rendered the project a fraud.

     Look, when you say BWPS is "the *work* of Darian Sahanaja, Jeff Foskett, and some Van Dyke Parks" and that Brian's involvement was only 5% or less, and the project was a big fraud, then EVERYONE is going to think you mean that Jeff Foskett helped in the creation, e.g. sequencing and writing of new music and lyrics, for BWPS.   If you didn't mean that, then good.  But I don't see how you can write it like that and not expect it to be taken the wrong way. 

            Love and merci,   Dan Lega

I believe that over 95% of Brian's contribution (I'll leave 5% for "That sounds great" and "Could I hear that part again") - whether it be for the live presentation or the recording of the CD - was simply an exercise in karaoke.

Brian did ALL of his work on SMiLE in 1966-67; he never re-visited it again for any length of time. 2004's BWPS was the work of Darian Sahanaja, Jeff Foskett, and some Van Dyke Parks.

The way Brian's promotional team made it appear that Brian "finished" SMiLE was the best "Brian Is Back" campaign yet. And, in my view, it rendered the project a fraud.

    Your thinking that Jeff Foskett had anything to do with sequencing the new SMiLE just renders the rest of your observations moribund, also.  It may be true that Darian did it all, but I've never heard one bit of evidence that Jeff Foskett had made even the tiniest of contributions to SMiLE 2004.  Yes, he announced he was going to be helping with putting SMiLE together, but after that the only evidence we have is that Darian (and possibly Van Dyke) helped with the sequence, and that Jeff was totally out of the sequencing loop.  Jeff has never said he helped with the sequencing.

     But let's look a little more at Darian and Brian sequencing SMiLE.  Suppose Darian came up with an idea that certain songs might work together well, and then he and Brian agreed or disagreed.  Once they agreed, then they sat around and played with those songs in different sequences until Brian said he liked that or didn't like that.  Now, would that be Darian or Brian sequencing it?  To me it would be both.  Now if Darian just came in with a sequence and Brian just listened to it and said "okay", then, yeah, that would be as if Darian did all the sequencing.  But I don't think Darian worked that way.  I think he wanted to involve Brian in the best way that he could, and I think Brian was interested.  Obviously, you don't think Brian was interested at all.  But please don't say that Jeff Foskett sequenced it, there isn't one tiny tidbit of evidence for that scenario. 

As far as what did Brian do, I will say this: I'd bet my working kidney that he came up with the "hot as hell" lyric, which is probably something he came up with spur-of-the-moment. It doesn't sound like a VDP lyric at all; if it did, it'd be more like "the sun beats down on the clown as the unicorns sip from the azure sea" or some other kind of Lewis Caroll-ish bit.

There. I said that too.

      First we get Jeff Foskett helping with the sequencing and then we get Brian writing the "Hot as hell" lyric?  Whew!  Van Dyke has forthrightedly stated that he came up with the idea of putting a lyric in "Water", and that he himself wrote the lyric.  This info is not hard to find.

              Love and merci,   Dan Lega

[Smile]

Excellent question, and one to which everyone has their own preferred answer. I've a feeling the truth - whatever it may be, from "Brian did it all" to "Brian was just there for the cameras" (both manifestly untrue, of course) - will emerge in time. Applying the methods of Sherlock Holmes to the material of Brian Wilson is, at best, an exercise in frustration and driving down dead ends.

One thing that sould be writ large across the top of this, and every other page concerning this subject - from the go-get Darian has stated many times that the material performed live and on the CD was chosen because it would work best in a live context. This is a Smile, but not the Smile.

     I've only just now ventured to look at this topic, and I have no idea if I'll ever make it through more than these first few posts, especially seeing as how I just have to respond to the second post, which is by none other than my good friend Andrew!  Andrew, I'll admit that when Brian and Darian first started on this enterprise that the goal was to just cobble together a version that could be played live.  But from what I can see in the end product and from subsequent discussion and especially from the fact that Van Dyke Parks was brought in, I don't see any evidence that the SMiLE that was presented in concert is any less than a true attempt to FINISH the album!  Please show any other evidence that SMiLE 2004 might be watered down for a concert presentation only.  Were there parts that were left out because of the difficulty of playing?  If parts were left out, then why didn't they put them back into the CD version?  Sorry, Andrew, but this idea doesn't fly with me one bit.  As I said, it does look like they started it that way, but from all evidence I've seen is that the concept changed and they truly tried to finish SMiLE as best as they could.  Show me one part that was left out because you think it was too difficult to play or sing and maybe I'll change my mind.


           Love and merci,   Dan Lega

    I can't find this article on the Iceberg website.  You didn't make it up, did you?


                Love and merci,  Dan Lega

     In regards to the "Good Vibrations" firehouse video that will be on the upcoming "Pet Sounds" CD/DVD release, I have a question about what seemed to be another "Good Vibrations" video.  I seem to remember on the "Endless Harmony" documentary a shot of a woman cheerleader in a star spangled costume flouncing about while "Good Vibrations" was playing.  I remember thinking this must be a totally different "Good Vibrations" video, but it was only a snippet.  Can you shed any light on this other video for me, Alan?  Thanks.

         Love and merci,   Dan Lega

    I asked Steve Kalinich what he could tell me about the lyrics to Mona Kani, and he said he remembered that there were a bunch of faux Hawaiian words in the song.  I'm hoping there are more lyrics than that written down or sung on tape someplace, but the fake Hawaiian may be all that there ever was.

         Love and merci,   Dan Lega

BTW Is there not a possibility the songs with the DVD, besides are to be got somewhere?

     Yes, at a big membership discount store, ("Sam's", I believe,) I found the Knebworth DVD packaged along with the CD for about $15!  (The CD is in the same case along with the DVD.)  Sure wish it was released like that and for that price originally!

             Love and merci,   Dan Lega

Thanks!  I love how Carl, without a microphone nearby, sounds exactly like Al Jardine on "Cottonfields"!   


Love and merci,   Dan Lega

    I haven't been here in a few days, and the original link is no longer working.  Is it still on YouTube?  Anyone have a direct link so I don't have to search through umpteen million clips?  Thanks!

         Love and merci,   Dan Lega

Unreleased - "adj : not (or not yet) made available for distribution or publication".

I'd say that the British Broadcasting Corporation made it available for distribution. Hmmmm ? 

    I wasn't trying to say that they were using the terminology perfectly.  I was just pointing out that since you and I know that "Rhythm Of Life" was shown on TV then the term "unreleased" must refer to the fact that you can't buy it on DVD or Video.  You can stop banging your head against the wall now!   


           Love and merci,   Dan Lega

and an excerpt from the unreleased BBC television documentary, “Rhythm of Life,” in which Sir George Martin joins Brian Wilson in the studio for a discussion of the album’s musical significance.

This, of course, is complete nonsense - the documentary was shown on BBC in the UK and has also been aired in the US.  Brian watches George remix "GOK" and tells him it's now better than when he - Brian - did the original mix. Yeah... right.

     Andrew, I didn't take this to mean that the "Rhythm Of Life" documentary hasn't been shown on TV, but that it has never been released on DVD.  So, since you can't buy it at your favorite DVD store, it is therefore unreleased?


        Love and merci,  Dan Lega

    Hey, Jon, were there any Entertainment Tonight-type TV cameras and personalities around to catch the procedings on film to show on TV later?  Thanks.


             Love and merci,   Dan Lega

Great pictures!   Thanks, Jon.

This is good news because it confirms what I've believed for sometime: these guys love each other and we are the only ones who don't understand and have our undies in a bunch.  If nothing else happens, I hope they continue to get together even if just for a "pop".

I'm so glad you knew it all along -- even though you and us ("we", as you said above) are the only ones who don't understand their true feelings.(?)

However, I'm not really sure Brian understands why Mike is suing him over SMiLE.  And I'm not sure Al understands why Brian voted against him touring under the Beach Boys name which while making Al happy and generating income also happened to be giving purpose, pleasure, and income to Brian's daughters, Carnie and Wendy, too.

But I'm glad you're congratulating yourself on your brilliant insight even though you had your undies in a bunch because you thought they didn't get along and didn't love each other.

Love and merci,   Dan Lega


PS -- I'm really glad to see all of them hang out together, too.  I'd pay to see them in a reunion concert in such a thing happened.  I also think that if they are going to get together to do Pet Sounds in concert then they might as well do SMiLE in concert, too!

It's bootleggers that present sessions that way for the most part.  Of course, on official releases, they edit the sessions down for time, but in most cases the complete session tape of any given session (assming a session tape exists) does exist in the vault.

So you're saying that as far as you know the tapes stored in the archives are not cut up?  That would be great news.  I think Alan said that, too. 

However, I still have my worries.  Because, while most of the SOT discs feature full, uncut up sessions, aren't there a few "SMiLE" sessions that are "cut up"?  I would have thought the bootleggers would not have skimped on presenting all the "SMiLE" material they could have.  Anyway, maybe once the Beach Boy Legal Bootleg store opens then we'll find out for sure.

In the same vein, do you or Alan know the specifics of the "Session with the Big Daddy" Earl Leaf segment from Today and SOT?  There does not seem to be a bit of overlap in the SOT and finished track.  Was the finished track a completely different take or was the finished track snipped out of the SOT session, thereby, no overlap?

Love and merci,   Dan Lega