Objectively, Love to Say Da Da was not considered to be the "water element" in Brian's 1966-67 recordings, but also, In Blue Hawaii is presented as the "water element" on BWPS (although it's not explicitly stated as such). At some point long before BWPS was constructed, this interpretation of LTSDD as water came to be among fans.

I have a sincere question about this. Do you think that the evidence you're looking at actually shows that Love to Say Da Da was *not* considered to be the "water element?" Or does it just show that *there is no evidence* that Love to Say Da Da was the water element? Because *eventually* that music became associated with water, so merely in the absence of evidence, we wouldn't necessarily know when that association started in Brian's mind. Does that make sense?

While I was thinking about this I had a fun thought. We know that across Brian's career he constantly reused ideas. It definitely seems like more often than not, if Brian landed on a chord progression or feel or idea he liked, he'd quite possibly find a home for it eventually, maybe years later. Which made me think about that famous quote about "air" being a piano piece he never recorded. Given how we know Brian worked, doesn't it seem more likely than not that if Brian composed something he liked enough to include in his conception of the Elements, that eventually he probably would have come back to those ideas in some way shape or form and used them somewhere? And if you accept that, than it's more likely than not that we *have* heard the Air music. We just don't *know* we've heard it. We have know way of knowing where it ended up! It could be hiding anywhere, on any album from 1967 to the Paley Sessions!

Just a thought that tickled me

Very good question, and thanks for asking! Certainly the latter, and I think the former statement is also something that we can say with near certainty.

Let me explain the context of these sessions a little bit more - on December 27 and 28, Brian was working on Heroes, and these were the first dates that the song was officially incorporated with what were previously the choruses of Do You Like Worms (bicycle rider) and Cabin Essence (iron horse), which were now bridges of Heroes. Brian was working on his own, so the work here was limited to lead vocals and mixing, which was achieved for the Heroes verse and bicycle rider, and just mixing for iron horse (all necessary vocals were in place). He also worked on Wonderful in some capacity, possibly recording a new lead vocal, creating a new mono mix, or both. Either way, that work is lost to time. Wonderful was possibly a B-side for Heroes at this point.

But he also did these Da Da tracks, and the song appeared to be in 3 sections - the DYLW verse (a section from a dead song, which was now an intro for a new piece - note the similarities in arrangement/feel and harmonic rhythm to the later LTSDD part 1), the Rhodes section, and the taped piano section. Recorded in the same modular fashion as many Smile songs by this point. As DYLW had effectively been killed off for the sake of Heroes, this appears to be an attempt to fill the hole that Brian had created in the project. This is why I agree with you that Smile was a salvageable project by the end of 1966 - Brian, at first, seemed to be a lot more careful in his destruction of other songs, by either letting them work without the section he used for Heroes (Cabin Essence was to be chorus-less by now) or writing a new song to incorporate the remaining pieces. Later, he would give no thought to this destruction, and it would rule out a great number of compositions from being included on the album.

Wind Chimes on Smiley Smile contains the melody and lyrics of... well, Wind Chimes, but the fade is the same music as Holidays! Does that mean Holidays and Wind Chimes were initially related? Nope, totally separate recordings, both their own songs, with ideas later combined in a new way. Same goes for dozens of variations of Heroes and Villains, and that's kind of where this really started to happen often - songs that were initially separate tracks being combined as one. It's a way to revive several incomplete ideas in a fresh way, without the need to use up more original music, and it's sort of beautiful, although destructive at times. This goes farther back than Smile, too. It's part of the essence of Brian's writing style, and it's a tool that never seemed to leave his "bag of tricks". He could be combining two unfinished songs as I type this.

This portion in the reply gets toward the core of what folks were reporting as early as Paul Williams' interview with David Anderle, where such switching around of parts was discussed as part of the project becoming stuck in its own gears, so to speak. But, having made those changes in an attempt to create a more "grandiose" version of H&V, and then leaving that by the roadside as well, we are really at the point where Brian could have conceivably gone back after he'd decided exactly what *was* going to be the released version of H&V (the single version that wound up on SMILEY) and restored the portions of the other songs that wound up being unused.

Which leads to the question of how and why "Cabinessence" was released, and how it was (apparently) found in an intact version using the sequence that was strung together earlier in December 1966. The "how" I think that the mega-scholars of SMiLE can easily cover, but the "why" is something that leads back into the area of inquiry that you folks really seem loath to discuss here. The fact that Brian felt happier (for a time) while he was putting SMILEY together is hardly surprising: given the intractable intensity he'd been dealing with during the previous month, a condition that had literally brought his prodigious work process to a halt, a resolution to the creative and interpersonal impasse that had been plaguing him must have been greeted with a sense of (creative) euphoria. (There are, however, audible examples of some "pain and strain" in the process, as manifested in the UM bootleg disk for SMILEY; as much of a sense of relief at having a way out of the earlier impasse might have propelled the project, it still had to be gotten through, and underlying it had to be a sense that the band wasn't going to escape from critical and commercial backlash once the LP was released.)

But the problem was that it didn't last but another nine months, and in the real world the LPs that came out as a result of this temporary rejuvenation did not re-establish the Beach Boys as a top-of-the-line commercial entity (no matter how much we may love them now). And that clearly came back into the picture in mid-1968, when it appears that Brian hits another, different kind of creative wall--more akin to "writer's block" than "too many options". All of which eventually leads back to the question: why was "Cabinessence" (in its original configuration) revisited by Carl and Dennis and prepared for release on 20/20? What triggered the decision to do that? Was it some kind of end play by the band to ensure that the SMiLE material would not be something that Brian could revisit? Did they think that those two tracks would sell more records if they were included? (Not remembering any type of publicity campaign by Capitol trumpeting the presence of "lost SMiLE tracks"--that would take another two years to occur, when the band's commercial situation in America was even more problematic than was the case in the fall of '68.)

Was there some kind of internal tug-of-war that played out regarding what Brian could/could not do? The Redwood incident may only be the most visible manifestation of such a process that unfolded over that period. What we go from is a memo from Engemann where Brian seems on board with a 10-track version of SMiLE to be issued on Brother Records which can still use the booklet, to a situation where two tracks from SMiLE end up on a subsequent LP two years later that is back on Capitol. While these matters may not be as alluring to those who want to focus on the musical puzzles, they are fallout results from a series of after-events stemming from the music that (arguably, at least) need just as much attention from researchers.

Pardon any presumption on my part, but perhaps we can start to bring this sprawling thread to a point of closure by looking at the places where the best hard info about the SMiLE->SMILEY nexus can be found, so we can put it into the very pivotal perspective of what happened afterwards...

Will's data on what I like to call "the Wrecking Crew SMiLE" is a terrific summary, and highly useful as it was written; IMO the best application of it, however, would be to map that back against the track list for SMILEY SMILE and the 2004 BWPS to see how everything ultimately shook out. All of that, in a giant table, will still not completely resolve the issue that dominated a good portion of this thread (transition or profound break).

Since Brian went back and made the 2004 SMiLE, we should conclude that his response to the "SMILEY SMILE is SMiLE" assertion would be "no." But it's also abundantly clear that to make SMILEY SMILE, he was still caught up in the raw materials for SMiLE, which had swirled around in the January-March '67 "we need a single" phase that derailed his original vision. And the evidence that he was looking for alternatives to the "Wrecking Crew" approach to the material is sufficient enough to support the idea that he was at least subliminally preparing himself for what was done to create the SMILEY SMILE tracks.

So, in essence, both assertions are true--as far as each one of them goes.

What's received less emphasis here, due in part to the thread being directed to musicological concerns, is the band dynamic and how that played out from December '66 to June '67, when all parties undertook a fresh start on portions of the SMiLE material. From my perspective, the new information about the work done at Brian's studio (and the new material in the SUNSHINE TOMORROW and WAKE THE WORLD compilations tells us that Brian rallied from the ouroborous-like detritus of SMiLE and produced material at a prodigious rate for another ten months before something changed, at which point he became the reclusive, foregrounded "crazy/eccentric" character that folks originally surmised he'd become when SMiLE was "scrapped" (which we all know now didn't happen).

The understanding between Brian and the band must have been worked out in the late May '67 time frame GF has noted, but it appears that the understanding was fungible, as evidenced by the Redwood incident, which smacks of the notion that everyone in the band BUT Brian could be an outside producer. Despite this, the band worked as amicably on WILD HONEY as they had on SMILEY, but things shift once Brian has re-asserted some of his "offbeat/eccentric" qualities on FRIENDS (the worst selling BB LP to that point, despite the sizable retroactive love for it). It looks to me that this is where the crisis that was deflected/delayed by the decision to reboot SMILE(Y) really comes to the fore; the turmoil/uncertainty that comes into play here is due to the fact that the band is now dealing with a case of "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country" and folks could see a "crash & burn" scenario headed their way. It's at this point that the rest of the band really gets in gear to write their own songs, and Brian is much less active until returning with "Break Away" early in '69.

This discussion may seem that it's not really related to the main issues in the thread, but I submit it is, simply because Brian made the decision to set aside the maelstrom of approaches that had buffeted and battered his original plan for SMiLE in order to keep the band together and avoid a family meltdown. He could have said "To hell with you guys, I'm moving on." But it appears that he wanted to get them to a point where they could carry on credibly with at least a significantly reduced amount of input from him. After three LPs of mostly still being in charge and writing the lion's share of the material (SMILEY-WILD HONEY-FRIENDS), he probably realized that he'd have to pull the plug more drastically in order to get them to the point where they could operate in that matter. But lo and behold, SMiLE enters the picture again in late '68, when, during the onset of his depression and reclusive phase, the band (or, more specifically, Carl and Dennis) pick the carcass of SMiLE for two tracks to fill out the 20/20 LP. That ensures that SMiLE will always be a Beach Boy thing, and that any chance of Brian using the unreleased portion of it for his own purposes was quashed.

All of that probably (and what was done with COOL, COOL WATER and SURF'S UP) probably explains why it was twenty-five years before another chunk of SMiLE appeared (in the '93 box set) and another dozen years transpired before Brian was ready to deal with it on his own terms. Perhaps there were some moments along the way where Brian may have wished that he'd actually "scrapped" it all. Thankfully, the fact the the band rather perversely validated SMiLE by using it as a "come-on" for the media and the fans prevented any possibility of that happening. And, as Liz notes, it became necessary to use the "SMiLE myth" to lift the band out of its "discarded prophet" status with the release of "Surf's Up."

A number of brilliant folks here, who are IMO in danger of getting lost in the trees rather than taking in the forest.

First principle: what are the reasons why SMILEY SMILE had to happen? It was not a project that started totally fresh; it had distinct antecedents and it was partially connected to something sprawling, complex, and increasingly controversial. There are many wonderful musical insights and observations in the last page or so of posts, but almost all of them are getting away from the historical realities that prompted this most unusual circumstance.

In May '67 it became clear to Brian and the band that they had to do something else, or the impasse they'd reached was going to tear everything apart. When a new recording setup came into play, it was up to Brian to figure out how to transpose it into a set of new arrangements and recording techniques that had only been partially in play in his most recent projects.

Instead of trying to generalize about these techniques and use that as a framework for differentiating (or tying together) the "Wrecking Crew SMiLE" from the "deceptively simple SMILEY"--all of which is interesting as hell and signals a high level of musical acumen--let's simply posit that one of the things that snapped Brian back into coherence after he'd floundered for several months is that he had to figure out how to do a number of things in this new-fangled recording environment. Each of the new songs (or revisions of previously recorded songs, or snippets borrowed to make a new song) had a different set of challenges and requirements in order to be completed as satisfactorily--and as quickly--as possible.

That last point should not be discounted: this was first and foremost emergency work, plain and simple--because so much time had elapsed, and so many raised eyebrows existed in so many places by May '67 that things simply needed to just get done. In a sense, having to refigure/rejigger this material in rapid mode may have helped to forestall Brian's collapse for another fourteen months or so because he had to focus so intently on cranking it out ASAP. Putting this back into actual historical perspective, it took a not-inconsiderable amount of sang froid on Brian's part to do all of that at that exact moment, because while SMILEY was being worked on, the Beatles' SGT PEPPER was taking the world by storm. And he had to know that the band was going to take a hit whenever SMILEY made it out into the world, and that there was probably going to have to be another project close on its heels to help limit the damage that was going to be done.

Brian needing to assimilate and synthesize all those issues in a compressed time frame is probably the most amazing part of this entire period. (And you can occasionally hear some strain in that, when you hear him on some of the booted SMILEY session tapes.) All of the techniques described in the previous posts, the listings of instruments utilized in arranging/recording the songs, and the differing approaches to recording the vocals suggest that Brian found a way to get everyone through a process that had just as much chance at going haywire as the one he'd just "sealed in a can."

Now all of that borrowed-from-Jacob-Burkhardt cyclical art/civilization theory stuff aside, of course SMILEY is going to sound more like SMILE and vice-versa: the overlap in material explains this, not a theory of art that doesn't quite have room for romanticism because when the art historians of the second half of the nineteenth century got into theorizing they were already caught up in the overwrought. The symphony was giving way to grand/grandiose opera, which was a sad development, since the sonata form applied to an orchestra had morphed into something ordered but flexible. GV, as the quintessential "pocket symphony" is the grand moment of romanticism stemming from Pet Sounds, as Brian races maybe just a bit too quickly through the stylistic permutations for his own good. Certain of the SMiLE tracks simply couldn't be reworked, they are singular artifacts of the "Wrecking Crew" style production process--and it's that fact that makes me find it highly plausible that Brian was hoping to get back to that material on his own once he'd figured out a path through the forest for the band. That echoes GF's observation that he was still looking to make more "orchestral" music even as he was scaling things down for the band. Keep in mind that his process for getting through WILD HONEY was very similar to what had been the case for SMILEY.

I think the band was always trying to put the best face possible on the ongoing situation whenever they are questioned about the "new album" during the spring of '67. By this point, they are seasoned veterans in terms of dealing with/deflecting the press. It's almost certainly that simple. And even if they are in a tussle with Brian over SMiLE, they are not going to voice any of that to the press--that would be like pouring gasoline on an already-existing fire...

Also, we have to be careful about applying the right dates to some of the quotes being referenced. That Bruce quote seems to be in reference to EMI's release of "Then I Kissed Her" as a stopgap single in the UK at the end of April, just as the band is arriving for their tour. Badman dates the quote as occurring on April 29th or 30th, which is a week ahead of Taylor's 5/6 squib.

That was the beginning of some very negative press in the UK, as GF has already noted.

I'm sticking with the theory that Brian used Derek T. as a go-between to signal his willingness to revisit issues that had contributed to an impasse. And that impasse had clearly left Brian dispirited, as his lack of progress in returning to the SMiLE tracks from late '66 during the band's absence in April-May demonstrates. He must have been feeling something rather opposite from those lines in the early version of H&V: "at threescore and five I'm very much alive/I still got the jive to survive with the...". Whatever he was doing with "DaDa," it clearly was superseded by the events that took place immediately thereafter, when the band returned, licking their wounds from the European tour and ready to engage in an altered plan of action.

And just as clearly (as GF has noted here a couple of times) Brian was working on the assumption that he could have some kind of "dual track" where he was overseeing a transition of the band into handling more of its own songwriting/production AND he was going to do his own outside productions (Redwood, clearly, and quite possibly some revamped version of the '66 SMiLE tracks).

I think the overarching mystery is what happened to the plans to have a Brother Records 9002/9003 etc. follow SMILEY SMILE, and why WILD HONEY wound up back on Capitol after all the time and trouble to establish Brother Records.

Great job, Adam--as noted at YouTube, a new level of gravitas for you in the presentation of this sensitive but crucial material. I think you're now set up for even more authoritative looks at the really major projects that Brian embarks on in the wake of his breakdown--looking forward to those episodes from you whenever time and circumstance permit. I urge everyone here to go watch and to consider providing Adam with some financial support in order to keep this ever-improving material coming our way...

I’m trying to get caught up so this may have been addressed already..

The whole thing with Derek Taylor’s words, and what the band said later… honestly? If I’m being completely and honestly objective, the whole thing sounds like spin. “It’s not destroyed , it’s scrapped! Cause Brian scraps what he destroys and throws away”. That’s what Taylor was saying if you take out the pretentious flowery talk. What the f*** does that even mean?  Why put out a purposely vague statement like that, full of doublespeak?  

The band not knowing the album was canceled…ehh… one would think it would become patently obvious once some of the songs were re-recorded and released, or were cannibalized to make new songs (Dada -> Cool Cool Water, Wind Chimes-> Can’t Wait Too Long). Just cause it worked once with R(H)onda doesn’t mean it would work again. Logically speaking, there is no way Smile could’ve ever come out once Smiley Smile was released , and certainly not after Wild Honey, regardless of memos. I personally believe all the post -Smiley talk about Smile was using the hype in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.

As for the original question posed in the thread, I have one of my own…

How much of what we’ve heard of Smile was vintage 1966 and 1967 work, and not compiled together after the fact?  I mean, Cabinessence didn’t have a lead recorded til 68. The bootlegs..:weren’t they based on edits made in vain attempts to release it over the years?

As I surmised, Billy, Taylor's words in that article could very well be go-between signaling from Brian, which would explain why it is so convoluted (if we set aside the bottle of scotch while at the typewriter theory). Given what we know about Brian, he might well have wanted to have that information get to the band in a more indirect manner, which would set the stage for a discussion of how to get past the roadblocks stumbling them...

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is the month away from the studio before the DaDa sessions. That reminds me of a passage in David Leaf's 1985 "codetta" material, when he suggests that the home studio was something the band argued for because Brian wasn't going to the studios anymore. The relevant passage stems from David's initial conversations with Steve Desper, whom he'd been unable to contact in 1977-78 when writing "the Myth":

In my original writing, I ignored the total disruption the studio caused in the Wilson household, and envisioned Brian's home studio as this terrific environment where Brian could be creative. My first mistake was in assuming that Brian even wanted a studio in his home. As Desper explains, in mid-1967, to the Beach Boys, the first obvious sign of there being something "wrong" with Brian was that he had stopped going to the studio. So, as Desper recalls, the Beach Boys brought the studio to Brian, hoping that the proximity of the equipment would stimulate him.

Now this could be somewhat more involved than how it's portrayed here. Since whatever new direction to be taken if the material from SMiLE was going to be "sealed in a can" would need to get underway quickly, and given that the band (as GF has noted) was looking for material they could both participate more directly in producing and be able to play live more easily, the best solution for all those requirements was to build their own studio. Putting it in Brian's house saved the cost of buying/renting a separate building, and it would (hopefully) focus everyone's creativity. And Brian cranked out a lot of material there during that first year--the SMILEY tracks, the WILD HONEY tracks and the FRIENDS sessions (though it's clear they were still doing some work at various studios throughout that period).

Circling back to the point where a decision to put a studio in Bellagio occurs, and looking at the month of production inactivity, it's clear that something had to give right at that moment. A new album from scratch with the band as the musicians, a studio where they could all become more proficient in production--there had to be some type of tradeoff in all that coming back to Brian...and the two things that come to mind are: 1) he gets to continue producing outside acts and (maybe) 2) he gets decision-making control over what happens to the stuff "sealed in a can."

And it looks as though both of those got taken away from him over time. The Redwood incident left him without an outside act to produce, and ultimately forced him to sneak unorthodox material onto the FRIENDS LP ("Busy Doin' Nothing," "Diamond Head," "Transcendental Meditation")--with the result being that the LP had only one single (that missed the Top 40), and the LP was their worst seller by far. That must have set off more alarm bells. Depression and reclusiveness followed in the fall of '68, and the response was to take away any chance that he could work on SMiLE by grabbing two tracks that were closest to being finished and putting them on 20/20--tossed on at the end of Side 2, just to fill out the LP. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment...

(As for the provenance of the SMiLE material, I think Alan Boyd is the man who has the most fingers on that pulse, since he compiled the SMiLE sessions box. There were clearly some compilations made in the late 60s, and early 70s--and I think the research experts can address that, including answering what part of those compilations were included in the materials provided to Byron Priess when he wrote his authorized bio in '79.)

--Speculation here--Brian has a despairing conversation with Derek Taylor, where he suggests that SMILE is going to put away. Taylor overreacts, sends out his press release about SMiLE being "scrapped."

--LEAVING TWO MYSTERIES: 1) if Smiley was mixed by mid-July, why wait two months to release it?

2) Why did the 10-track SMiLE LP disappear along with the Brother Records logo?

I can’t honestly imagine Derek Taylor, a publicist, rushing off to send out a press release without some serious approval and authority when there is no up side to the message and which would likely cause some damage to the group.  That’s exactly the opposite of what a publicist does.

I’m not sure that 2 months is a great deal of time considering it has to be pressed, advertised, jackets prepared and printed, orders received and processed - though it is not the kind of business I’ve been involved in so I could be wrong.

My point in the first place was that Smile may have been finished and that it was deliberately pulled by Capitol, Brian or the band.

From the data at Bellagio, we see that PET SOUNDS was released a bit less than a month after it was mastered.

And there is about a month between the last recording session for WILD HONEY (mid-November 1967) and its release date (December 18).

By the time SMILEY SMILE came out it was sixteen months since PET SOUNDS, and there was a lot of consternation about the non-appearance of the follow-up LP. With the mastering finished in late July and H&V released at just about the same moment, it's odd that it took another month UNLESS something else came up to delay it.

An analogous example is the FRIENDS LP, which also languished for a couple months after the mastering was complete. With the single doing poorly, and with a sizable amount of turmoil over touring dates, there may have been some second-guessing about the LP, which clearly had no other potential hits on it...which explains the flurry of additional recording activity at the time, including "Do It Again," which came out as a 45 just two weeks after the FRIENDD LP was finally release.

Delays of this type likely involve some other issues behind the scenes, most likely within the band. And the band had to be concerned about their career viability in May-June 1968...

Don, I think this may explain the delay in some part:



That was published in Billboard, July 22 1967. This was when the "deal" between Capitol and the band, establishing Brother Records and the distribution agreement was finalized. With the deal involving terms of the previous lawsuit settlement, I can imagine there were mountains of legal documents to sign and approve before anything could be put in motion. As noted in the article, KHJ (and other radio stations) had already been playing exclusive tape dubs of the Heroes single, but it had not seen an official release on 45rpm until 2 days after this article, so the machine moved pretty quickly. Note the dates on the Capitol/Engemann Smile memos too, concerning the booklets and album art - July 25th. It took the sealing of the deal to get all of these parts moving.

I can imagine there were more legal issues at work as well which delayed the album release, and also worth noting is that the "Gettin Hungry" single was released at almost the same time (within weeks at least) as the Smiley album that September.

Also worth noting is how Capitol released "Best Of volume 2" at the end of July, so maybe they staggered the releases so the shelves wouldn't be filled with two Beach Boys albums, one showing their old sound and the latest showcasing a radically different sound. Give the Greatest Hits vol 2 a chance to sell, run its course throughout the remaining summer months, then drop the new album? Just a thought.

Good point, GF. I tend to think that Capitol was again hedging its bets with the band at this point with a Best of vol 2, given that they'd gone so long without a new LP. (Which seems pretty wacky to us today, but they really wanted--and expected--three LPs a year in those days).

"Gettin' Hungry" was only kinda sorta a Beach Boys single; its release was rather perfunctory and was put out as "Brian and Mike." A certain amount of fence-mending and ego-stroking might have been at work there. And Capitol probably figured that it was worth it to do so in order to mark time for an impending LP release that they may have already suspected was going to have some amount of backlash associated with it.

My point was that the turnaround mechanism at Capitol at that time would pretty easily accommodate a month from mastering to in-the-stores. So the decision to do a Best of vol 2 must have been made in May or June, when things were still up in the air regarding exactly what was coming from the band in terms of a new LP. As it turned out, Best of vol 2 was a misfire, only getting up to the 50s on the sales charts.

But here's a question I don't think we've ever discussed previously. Presumably Capitol and the band overruled Brian about putting GV on SMILEY SMILE. If Brian had prevailed, however, you'd have a big hole on Side Two; without GV, the other five tracks amount to about 11 minutes of music. Seems that they would've needed to come up with something else to put on the record--but what would it have been? "Good Time Mama"?!

BTW, thanks to Will for grabbing the Taylor piece--I hadn't seen it in years and its tone confirms some things I remember sensing in it when I first encountered it. It's as paradoxical as anything else that surfaced in the "nether region" period--frankly, it reads like Taylor had downed half a bottle of single malt before he sat down at the typewriter. It confirms the idea that Taylor was channeling the strangeness that was abounding around the project and the band--and, of course, Brian--and was making his own odd call for help as he found himself slipping down the rabbit hole with his clients.

It's almost as if Derek is a go-between for Brian and the band, letting them know that he's open to some parallel prospect for the future--SMiLE "scrapped" as a Beach Boy project, with something else TBD in its place.

And the best guess that I think is available to us is that by doing so, he still hoped to keep most of SMiLE intact as his own project, while moving on to some rapprochement with the band. That explains Engemann's memo.

Only what happened was that the band, faced with Brian's depression in the "fall breaking back to winter" in 68-69, decided that they had no choice but to take away his sovereignty over the SMiLE material. Turning it into a "myth" and an ongoing mystery, a bauble they could use as needed.

--Speculation here--Brian has a despairing conversation with Derek Taylor, where he suggests that SMILE is going to put away. Taylor overreacts, sends out his press release about SMiLE being "scrapped."

--LEAVING TWO MYSTERIES: 1) if Smiley was mixed by mid-July, why wait two months to release it?

2) Why did the 10-track SMiLE LP disappear along with the Brother Records logo?

I can’t honestly imagine Derek Taylor, a publicist, rushing off to send out a press release without some serious approval and authority when there is no up side to the message and which would likely cause some damage to the group.  That’s exactly the opposite of what a publicist does.

I’m not sure that 2 months is a great deal of time considering it has to be pressed, advertised, jackets prepared and printed, orders received and processed - though it is not the kind of business I’ve been involved in so I could be wrong.

My point in the first place was that Smile may have been finished and that it was deliberately pulled by Capitol, Brian or the band.

From the data at Bellagio, we see that PET SOUNDS was released a bit less than a month after it was mastered.

And there is about a month between the last recording session for WILD HONEY (mid-November 1967) and its release date (December 18).

By the time SMILEY SMILE came out it was sixteen months since PET SOUNDS, and there was a lot of consternation about the non-appearance of the follow-up LP. With the mastering finished in late July and H&V released at just about the same moment, it's odd that it took another month UNLESS something else came up to delay it.

An analogous example is the FRIENDS LP, which also languished for a couple months after the mastering was complete. With the single doing poorly, and with a sizable amount of turmoil over touring dates, there may have been some second-guessing about the LP, which clearly had no other potential hits on it...which explains the flurry of additional recording activity at the time, including "Do It Again," which came out as a 45 just two weeks after the FRIENDD LP was finally release.

Delays of this type likely involve some other issues behind the scenes, most likely within the band. And the band had to be concerned about their career viability in May-June 1968...

It's clear that most of the original SMiLE tracks were not worked on for months--held in limbo by the centripetal actions that ensued when there was some form of blowback against the project as a whole. What comes next is two months of grappling with H&V in an attempt to get the right follow-up to GV.

The central point of a thesis that "SMiLE was ready in 1967" hinges on the idea that all of the vocals were recorded for the backing tracks. We know that this is not true, and that efforts went off in related but tangential directions in the first three months of '67.

Clearly H&V in some form would also have appeared on the SMiLE LP, but the waters are very muddy about what that would have been, and it became moot when the band started over for SMILEY SMILE and (mostly) re-recorded H&V (along with "Woody","Wind Chimes," "Wonderful" and "Whistle In").

The fact that they'd not been worked on for awhile was part of the lingering crisis about what to do, one that didn't get resolved until (as GF suggests) the band returned from its April-May tour with their own agenda items for SMiLE and the band's future. The album was in limbo, but the Engemann memo suggests that Brian was trying to keep SMiLE in play as a separate entity, at least for awhile. Did he give up and abandon all that when he was confronted by Mike etal over Redwood?

SMiLE was almost ready in '67, for sure. But the impediments that cropped up in terms of taking it over the finish line just got larger and more onerous. The more Brian worked on workarounds, the farther the finish line seemed to be. Carl's description omits the pain involved in it, but otherwise has the ring of truth.

GF, as I read this thread I was wondering if you were going to tie it all into the August Hawaii shows/media quotes, which strike me as the best evidence supporting your rendition of the overall events that led to the “produced by the Beach Boys” phase (even though that credit isn’t really accurate until 20/20). I’m glad you got there again, because despite some of the mini-discrepancies that can be pointed to, it’s really the only scenario that makes sense given what we now know about the production process at Brian’s house from summer 67 to early 69.

I think we can lay it out as a series of dot points:

--SMiLE as "grand project" was variably alienating to the rest of the band, divided between loving the material and worrying that their career as a band would go down a rabbit hole.
--December '66 strife ultimately caused a shift toward looking for a follow-up single (H&V) that could tide things over until they fully could sort out what to do.
--Brian, suffering from cognitive dissonance, floundered in his attempts to turn H&V into a version that managed to marry art and commerce.
--He sets aside those versions of H&V in March; Vegetables becomes the next (unsuccessful) attempt.
--Speculation here--Brian has a despairing conversation with Derek Taylor, where he suggests that SMILE is going to put away. Taylor overreacts, sends out his press release about SMiLE being "scrapped."
--With the band back on the road, Brian gets back into the studio with the Wrecking Crew ("Love to Say DaDa").
--Band returns from the road, ears on fire from criticism about their inability to match the more advanced material, which triggers a massive pow-wow about the future of the band, how to tailor tracks in order to make them more playable live, the need for the band to become more involved in the songwriting/production process, etc. Home studio idea comes into play here as (partially) a way for on-the-job production training for the band, primarily Carl and Dennis.
--Recasting existing SMiLE tracks for Smiley Smile begins, LP is recorded, assembled, mixed as fast as Brian can get through it; he's still got a plan to bring out the original concept of SMiLE, as captured in the Engemann memo, but this never comes to pass.
--LEAVING TWO MYSTERIES: 1) if Smiley was mixed by mid-July, why wait two months to release it? Was there further wrangling about the SMiLE tracks? Was the status of the royalty lawsuit and did it affect the timing? Were they thinking that H&V would be the catalyst for the record and when it didn't do that well, was there then wrangling about putting GV onto Smiley Smile? When exactly did that decision get made?
2) Why did the 10-track SMiLE LP disappear along with the Brother Records logo? Engemann memo suggests that it would appear as Brother 9002 and Wild Honey as 9003.
2a) Ten track SMiLE LP would have some added Smiley Smile overlap on it that Engemann etal may have missed, including very different versions of “Wind Chimes” and “Wonderful.” Could they have recognized some conceptual glitches about a 10-track SMiLE LP that had been initially overlooked?
--Hawaii trip reveals Brian contemplating a change/end to "Beach Boying" (at least for him), intimating some kind of transition to come.
--Brian works on songs for Wild Honey, but decides to give Darlin' to Redwood, which prompts another showdown. The band prevails; Brian sets aside more elaborate production plans ("Can't Wait Too Long" variants shelved when it can't successfully be turned into a "Wild Honey"-style song).
--Wild Honey single released in October, LP rushed out in December, "Darlin'" gives them a Top 20 hit.
--Mike goes off to India in early '68 and Brian comes out of hibernation with a lot of varied material, only a portion of which makes it onto the subsequent "Friends" LP. Dennis moves into songwriting/production.
--"Friends" single released, is a big chart disappointment; FRIENDS LP comes out late June, "Do It Again" rushed out as 45 from post-FRIENDS sessions.
--Brian makes one more attempt to build "Can't Wait Too Long" into a GV-type track, but can't pull it off; disillusionment and depression take over, and his reclusive phase begins. Even that is fraught, as the band is increasingly in his house recording tracks. He's apart from the band, but simultaneously surrounded by them.
--The band builds its first LP without him to the extent possible at the time, producing material that winds up as about half of 20/20. They didn’t quite have enough material ready to go, so they had to add “Our Prayer” and “Cabinessence” to the track list, which was another “twist of the knife” for Brian, meaning that he’d lost de facto control over how SMiLE would be handled.

Thanks so much for posting, Mark--you guys were all in great form. Howie's thoughts about "Wind Chimes" was especially eloquent, getting right to the heart of why the BB's music is so special and really "beyond" so much of what else is out there--it so often touches the essence of what being alive is all about.

Kudos also for the celebration of Dennis' achievements; we'll keep a candle in the window that we get another generous dollop of him in the CATP/Holland set. (And a nice try in getting Howie to give out some more of what we're gonna get--the intimation that there will be some Brian backing tracks from this period is extremely tantalizing!)

Dennis' 80th birthday will occur late in 2024, and I think that would be a most appropriate time for a full box set of his songs to appear, packaged in a way that would create a physical disk and CD/LP cover for this collection of songs. I suspect that there may be a few more versions/outtakes in the vaults as well that could be included at that point in time.

Absent such an ambitious release, we can still hope that a physical release of this material under Dennis' name will somehow surface. He (and it) really, really deserve that...

I completely agree. Just noticed on Amazon.co.uk that Jon Stebbins's The Real Beach Boy is for sale at £169.00 and that's for a used copy! So maybe another book would be a nice idea too.

Holy moly--I'm a big fan of Jon's book (his other ones, as well) but that price is just crazy! Perhaps Jon will be inspired by David Leaf to bring together the many strands of his Beach Boys research into a new project that ties together new info about Dennis' creative output, the fraught interaction between Dennis and the band as regards his solo material, and a revisit to the "FAQ" book to update where we are at in terms of what we know about the band. It seems that there's a lot of ground that he can cover now that wasn't really possible when he wrote THE REAL BEACH BOY.

And it should be noted that Stan Shapiro's account of "Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again" diverges a good bit from the recollections of Steve Desper, including some that have been posted recently here at the board. I don't know how anyone is actually going to be able to reconcile those accounts, to be honest--they seem to point to two different realities. From what I've seen elsewhere, I'm certain that Stan's authorship claims are absolutely on the money, however. It's also possible that Steve was a calming influence on Dennis, and that what he relates in terms of his conversations/dinners with him reflects his ability to "talk Dennis down" from the schisms that were certainly at play in the "home studio era."

If Jon Stebbins does a new book, I'd prefer a different title. Of course, I understand why he chose it. Apart from anything else, it identifies Dennis for those unfamiliar with the name, but it once again defines Dennis in  the context of a particular image rather than focusing on his music. The choice of name of the group really typecast them. It was a part of their success but such a downside too.

I hear what you're saying...I think that when Jon wrote the book he had incomplete access to Dennis' music, a situation that only slowly began to change in the ensuing years. (Think of how much material surfaced just recently, and that's apparently not the end of it, either.) Rather than updating the book as that was occurring, he participated in a documentary that attempted to go further into POB and Bambu material to further flesh that out...but a book that fully covers the evolution/ebb-and-flow of Dennis' songwriting career is still awaiting its ideal author.

Dennis' 80th birthday will occur late in 2024, and I think that would be a most appropriate time for a full box set of his songs to appear, packaged in a way that would create a physical disk and CD/LP cover for this collection of songs. I suspect that there may be a few more versions/outtakes in the vaults as well that could be included at that point in time.

Absent such an ambitious release, we can still hope that a physical release of this material under Dennis' name will somehow surface. He (and it) really, really deserve that...

I completely agree. Just noticed on Amazon.co.uk that Jon Stebbins's The Real Beach Boy is for sale at £169.00 and that's for a used copy! So maybe another book would be a nice idea too.

Holy moly--I'm a big fan of Jon's book (his other ones, as well) but that price is just crazy! Perhaps Jon will be inspired by David Leaf to bring together the many strands of his Beach Boys research into a new project that ties together new info about Dennis' creative output, the fraught interaction between Dennis and the band as regards his solo material, and a revisit to the "FAQ" book to update where we are at in terms of what we know about the band. It seems that there's a lot of ground that he can cover now that wasn't really possible when he wrote THE REAL BEACH BOY.

And it should be noted that Stan Shapiro's account of "Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again" diverges a good bit from the recollections of Steve Desper, including some that have been posted recently here at the board. I don't know how anyone is actually going to be able to reconcile those accounts, to be honest--they seem to point to two different realities. From what I've seen elsewhere, I'm certain that Stan's authorship claims are absolutely on the money, however. It's also possible that Steve was a calming influence on Dennis, and that what he relates in terms of his conversations/dinners with him reflects his ability to "talk Dennis down" from the schisms that were certainly at play in the "home studio era."

As usual you are wrong. Your hunch is full of crap. The over at smiley thread has not nor never was deleted. It was moved. Moved to forum feedback. In all its glory. Save space on your computer and delete that word file. Not needed. You can find andrew’s post there anytime you wanna look. And for someone who likes to say you hate the eh board you sure seem to spend a lot of time going there. Witty you are not.

Steve, it might as well be disappeared, given that "Forum Feedback" is about as far from the mainstream material on the board as one can get. And the moderator has seen fit to lock it for a second time (and hopefully this time it will stay locked!).

And, as is often the case, you fail to address the salient points made elsewhere in the post and remind us that you continue to manifest only intermittent control over "reptilian brain" functions when posting either here or over there.

And you'd be surprised (chagrined?) to discover just how witty some of the folk over at the NFP think I am, when they provide likes for my posts over there under my alias--including, IIRC, you yourself.

If that revelation makes folks over there more paranoid...well, it can't be helped.

Meanwhile, folks here might be interested to see AGD's review of David's book. It's a good one, and is part of the growing praise for David's highly satisfying "full circle" performance as captured in the new volume. Here is what he had to say:

"I bought both previous editions of this when they were published in 1978 & 1985 respectively, so the news that some 37 years later it was being updated was hugely welcomed. Was it worth the wait ? Yes, very much so. Anyone who claims to be a Brian Wilson/Beach Boys fan of any hue needs to read this book. Comprising the full text of both the original version and the later update (so in essence you're getting three books in one), and an extensive update covering the years 1985-2022, this view of the complex world of Brian Wilson from the inside is rarely less than revelatory, sometimes shocking and occasionally very funny. Brian's emergence from his years of personal troubles, through the horrors of the Landy years 1982-91 to his triumphant completion of the legendary Smile album (and more) is deftly handled by someone who started off as a fan in 1971 and was, by 2004, Brian's friend and confidante. Running parallel with Brian's story is that of David's journey to becoming a respected documentary maker, and this is relevant because were it not for his involvement with Brian, that would most likely never have happened. David's writing style remains engaging and conversational, even when relating the rigours of getting a tribute show or TV special to come to pass (or not, in some cases...). As both a Brian Wilson/Beach Boys fan/researcher/historian of nearly 50 years standing, I'm obviously not even close to objective, but I'll say it again: if you're in any way a fan of Brian and the Beach Boys, you need to read this book. Unhesitatingly recommended."

The only quibble one might have with the above is the assertion of how David's career moved into documentary filmmaking. While the two threads in the story are related, it seems to me (though, yes, I could be wrong!) that David established that aspect of his career through his ongoing work in television, and was already successful in the mid-1990s when he hit career gold with his look at A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. But one senses that AGD was looking for a way to justify the amount of text devoted to that aspect of David's career in the new book...and while that's laudable of him to do so, I'm not sure it's really necessary. Kudos again to David for having built such an impressive career, one that clearly stands on its own apart from his long interaction/association with Brian Wilson.

I'm surprised that this hasn't been posted or linked to "over there," but I'm disappointed to report that, at least for now, it won't be posted there, since the thread related to David's book has been locked (at least until the book is fully available worldwide). So let's invite those folk over here to lurk and see the AGD review that has been curiously undocumented over there. (Or perhaps it's in some other obscure cubbyhole?)

Dennis' 80th birthday will occur late in 2024, and I think that would be a most appropriate time for a full box set of his songs to appear, packaged in a way that would create a physical disk and CD/LP cover for this collection of songs. I suspect that there may be a few more versions/outtakes in the vaults as well that could be included at that point in time.

Absent such an ambitious release, we can still hope that a physical release of this material under Dennis' name will somehow surface. He (and it) really, really deserve that...

Add David Leaf to the EH board shitlist….

Mmm...not really. At least, not yet. There appears to be fallout because David has decided to bypass a visit to our fine feathered friends there after seeing how things played out with Howie. But the BBCGRS* reading is only at 4.4 at this point, as opposed to the Loma Prieta level they achieved with Howie. (The "big one," of course, occurred here, which permanently created the BB chat group version of the San Andreas Fault...)

Oh, and BTW...that thread over there called "Over at Smiley" where AGD had posted a clandestine lament about the events that had transpired with Howie...has been disappeared from the board.  Having had a sneaking hunch that this might happen, I made a point of copying that entry over into a Word file just in case. Here is the text:

"Exactly. I've been a "hard" fan since summer 1975 and though I never thought it would happen, the events of the last few weeks/months have just sucked all the joy out of it for me. I'm close to done with this band, at least to the extent I have been. I posted my thoughts on the latest release here at the time. As for Howie, he's been doing his job, and very well: he's all over the 'net and while he's not been single-handedly responsible for the reboot hitting the Top 30, that's got to have been a factor. But, some elected to focus on individual sentences instead of the overall message, and we lost what could have been a huge asset to this forum. So he didn't post much: 396 people who've registered with this board since it began haven't posted at all. That's almost exactly half. How many posts anyone makes is a meaningless metric (look at my posting total for proof of that). I need to work out how, or if, I can make all this fun for myself again and right now, with the added joy of there being new members who seem to have come here with the express intent of stirring it, I'm not seeing it. Some will see this as a good thing, and they could well be right. Time to regroup and reconsider. Back in my 30s I had a tshirt that said "I'm too old to have to put up with all this sh*t". If only I'd known..."

These are clearly the scattered, despairing laments of someone who knows that some real political damage occurred in that thread. And if I hadn't seen AGD relentlessly and remorselessly go after Lorren Daro's jugular here some years back, I'd probably be able to muster some sympathy for him, since he certainly wasn't close to being the main instigator of that firestorm. And we will continue to admire and use Bellagio10452 with the hope that all of this fallout will not cause it to disappear in a fashion similar to the post above.

This isn't meant as gloating--this is all sad stuff. In the meantime, I urge those who don't want to wait for the US release of David's book to purchase it from Amazon UK in whatever format they feel they can afford. While the price for the UK print edition is certainly not cheap, I can tell you that it's worth every penny/shilling/pound/dollar and more.

---
*BBCGRS = "Beach Boy Chat Group Richter Scale"

Welcome to you, Angela. The reviews at Amazon UK for David's book are all 5-star, including one from AGD (a fact that doesn't seem to have fully registered over at the NFP).

Several things can be true at the same time: you can be critical of how the audio mixes have been handled on recent Beach Boys projects without simultaneously dragging Howie and his team over the coals about it.  But part of the silliness of all this is we have two Beach Boys forums at odds with each other which most likely perpetuates a lot of this dysfunction. 

Pardon me for butting in again, but part of the "silliness" was the legitimate need to expel folks who then created their own forum, which perpetuates and reinforces the dysfunction. It should be instructive to us that they began all that on their own, and observations here (coupled with an escalating sense of disbelief...) followed. Check the timeline, and this will be confirmed. Many of us have discussed in various tonalities--from sympathy to black humor to derision to outright contempt--the excesses that occur there, despite many intelligent and highly knowledgeable posters: this most recent manifestation is really just more of the same, but at such a level of extremity that even their Dear Leader has come to see the incident as being tragically catastrophic. All of us reap what we sow...

The key going forward for those who advocate for the band as being right at the top of the list for most seminai, influential, historically significant entities in the history of popular music is to be thrilled that a record company would invest in another 80-track compilation and follow up with a(nother) legacy box focused on a period where the band had no hits. Billy's right: we've won the war--but some people just like fighting so much that they can't bring themselves to stop.

FWIW, several posts at the Nearest Faraway Place from AGD show some remorse and regret for how things went down in the SoS thread. I post links rather than quote or paraphrase:

https://endlessharmony.boards.net/thread/2058/over-smiley?page=2&scrollTo=56362

(Interesting that this thread purports to be locked, but is being used to surreptitiously express some perspectives that are seemingly meant to be kept away from full public scrutiny.)

Earlier in that same thread AGD also expresses what's clearly a UK-centric notion of the history of "BB fandom" and its "fall from grace" that seems to be built around the idea that the UK fan contingent is/should be the "lead dog" in a semi-unspoken hierarchy; and when that was somehow challenged, it caused the rifts that are now so prevalent...and that have erupted recently around aspects of the Sounds of Summer release.

No question that the material at Bellagio 10452 is a superb collection of facts/info, but--that said--the behaviors taken that caused the schism and the entirely justifiable need to expel those who ran the gauntlet in an effort to impose a highly revisionist interpretation of the band's history has sadly cast a not inconsiderable pall over that magnificent achievement. In fairness it should be noted that AGD has, at a number of points in the recent upheaval concerning SoS, attempted to be a moderating influence...but with little success. A good bit of that stems from the fact that when you create a monster, it becomes very difficult to control it--ask Dr. Frankenstein about that...

I find GF's historical overview of the BBs oscillating reception in the world and the double-edged sword of their still-evolving legacy to be a nicely nuanced perspective, even as it tends to underplay the essential ongoing tension in the band between Brian and Mike which still remains the tricky fulcrum that Azoff etal have to work around as they try to give the band's long-term legacy the softest-possible landing on an airstrip that is still not 100% smooth. Given all that, it's clear that Howie has been a superb ambassador for the band--a fact that AGD acknowledges as he laments the behavior that drove him away from the Nearest Faraway Place--and the success of SoS in the marketplace is a signpost that those in charge of charting the current strategy for cementing the band's legacy are by and large doing an excellent job. I hope that things will rapidly calm down and get aside so that the next phase of this most worthy effort--the CATP/Holland set--can be the set that everyone wants it to be: a reflection and revelation of the band's most intense period of all-inclusive creativity. That seems like the key missing piece to get put into place, and we should clear the deck so that the folks working on pulling that together can put all of their skill and attention into making that happen.

Howie, thanks for your clarification. That goes a long, long way--in my mind, at least--toward putting that into context and permitting it to be set aside. I hope that your explanation will become better transmitted in this often-crazy environment so that it might help put a stop to what's been happening. I hope it will...

I feel your hurt and anger at what has been transpiring, and I'm not here to fan those flames, really. I was not justifying the responses you've had to endure in any way, shape or form; I was merely trying to locate their specific source.

I am incredibly happy that Sounds of Summer is doing well, and whatever reservations about a couple of remixes I have say as much about me as anything else. I don't believe I've taken issue with anyone's character; if you feel that way, I'm sorry that such is the case, because it was certainly not my intent.

Thanks for your incredible efforts on behalf of the band and the fans, and thanks again for the clarification.

My copy came today--kudos to David for a very judicious yet still extremely satisfying coda to his earlier work. Stripping the original book down to the text has the effect of adding more weight to those words, and while there are (ahem) folks who will always take issue with David's unabashed exaltation of Brian, it must be said that without the original book and the ministrations that he and others provided, what we've all enjoyed (and agonized about) over the past quarter century would never have occurred. Had Brian become another "rock'n'roll casualty," I think Mike and Bruce would have been out of business, and the band would be seen in a much different light than has become the case. Let's get down to cases: Brian's survival is the most prominent reason why the band and its (primarily his) music is so revered today--his ability to overcome his demons is a powerful part of the entire narrative.

David may not have been the ace researcher or musical analyst in the pantheon of Beach Boys/Brian Wilson experts who've evolved over the past forty years, but he was essential to creating an environment where all of that could flourish. By "going inside," he helped to make things happen that clearly would never have come to pass otherwise.

As for what he didn't talk about, atp nails many of the reasons why such is the case. Additionally, I suspect that David knows about the factions that have grown up amidst Beach Boys fans and he (wisely, IMO) decided to pull back on material that would fan those flames any further. C50 is really a dead issue, except for those who are invested in "shifting the blame"--and David's involvement in that was, as noted, minimal. As it is, some of the cranks across at the NFP are clucking at him for his nineteen-year-old over-enthusiasm in peppering Mike Love with questions, as if it is a revelation of some telling character flaw. I commend David for revealing such "flaws" to us as he shows how his own perspective on life has grown over the years--and I'm especially glad to read more quotes from Debbie Keil, whose presence here is sorely missed.

Congratulations to a man of many accomplishments for a very satisfying coda to a story with a happier narrative arc than many of us care to admit. As for the larger picture: Brian's music may not be able to save the world, but it will always offer joy and solace to us no matter what happens. We are lucky to have it with us whenever we need it, and it will never let us down.

I think the big thing that has put Howie in the crosshairs was that quote about "be the producer they never had," which is just about the worst optics one could ever create in such a context. That statement has never been clarified or walked back, and it seems to be fueling some of the rage about the Sounds of Summer set.

My sense is that Howie was obliquely addressing that with his comments in his recent interview about the new "Marcella" mix (and I think rab's characterization of what Howie said was spot on). And I'm 95% certain I can see the train of events that led to that mix, and to the "Mess of Help" mix as well. Thrilled and titillated by certain segments of those tracks that were isolated (as revealed on FEEL FLOWS), the new remixes attempted to build from there. Was the experiment and direction taken for those justified? Maybe. Probably. Should they have been substituted into a new major box set in place of an earlier mix or a more conventional remix? Probably not.

So perhaps efforts of that type will be walked back a bit as we get closer to a CATP/Holland set. Particularly if most folks can simply sidestep the need to air their grievances with such vehemence. Too much derision often has the opposite effect in those being criticized, and folks start to dig in their heels. Given the lingering sentiment over at the Nearest Faraway Place, however, I don't think a Zoom session is going to happen. Which may be just as well: there's enough ugliness in the world already...

I do think it's important for Howie, Alan and Mark to talk more pointedly about the role of Carl Wilson in the 1969-73 period as the "executive producer" of the LPs that were released during that time. The band clearly acknowledged that, particularly in the CATP/Holland time frame, and those productions clearly have Carl's stamp on them. Despite all the rare stuff flooding onto YouTube, what strikes me as being (arguably) the most revelatory are some of the isolations of instrumental tracks from CATP and Holland, including one for "Marcella." It's a bit crude and on the lo-fi side, but hearing the backing track on its own makes it clear (IMNSHO) that it's the only way to build a truly viable remix of the track as a whole.

Play it loud (and I do mean LOUD...) and it should be clear just how much Carl was on it, working hard at synthesizing the band's 60s archetypes with the then-current rock instrumentation that had exploded into place in the early 70s. As transcendent as Brian's best work is, Carl successfully brought the band into a changed world in a way that Brian couldn't (or wouldn't) address. He deserves a great deal of credit for doing so--and given that he's no longer with us, he really needs a champion. Alan and Mark should consider focusing on that as a way to ensure that future "inside the tracks" efforts work as well as the "Sail On Sailor" instrumental that appeared in 2000 on HAWTHORNE--a track I love so much that these days I play it more often than the full song. If they can do that with the CATP/Holland box set, it should go a long way toward "calming the hordes." I am optimistic that they will do just that...

From a quick gander at the video, it's actually "Kiss Me Baby" where Ambha is on stage.

Mike has been at this relentlessly for nearly 60 years, and his shows have improved in recent years because there is the competition between the two factions to keep things focused.

I suspect that Azoff understood from the get-go that he'd never really get Brian and Mike on stage together again for more than a short tour, thus he's willing to let the situation exist so long as they give him maximum latitude to sell legacy and product. We'll just have to see what kinds of product they come up with to keep things moving after the big (and encouragingly splashy) release of SOUNDS OF SUMMER.

Not to keep people from reading Wirestone's entire essay, but these closing paragraphs are so particularly moving and well done that IMO they need to be read by anyone/everyone who comes into this thread:

We can’t stay young forever. But we can remember. Brian Wilson and his band told us that Monday night. We can’t go back to the days of Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum and Bill Graves, but we can remember the examples they set. I can’t go back to my high school days, when the years ahead stretched mysteriously, but I can remember how they felt.

We can remember, and we can build anew. We can share what we’ve learned to others.

I watched Brian Wilson leave the stage on Monday, a freshly minted 80-year-old man guided by an assistant and holding onto a walker. To some, it might have seemed sad. But not to me. I saw a man of ferocious tenacity, someone who built a sonic edifice that endures and who refuses to let others forget.

I can only hope that when I’m 80, when the span of time has swept me deep into the territory of cranky old men, that I’m here to do my own work, contributing to this majestic state I so love.

This is what every one of us, in our heart of hearts, aspires to if we haven't given up on life, or been ground down by the unavoidable passage of time. We can't go back to the days of Carl and Dennis, either, but we can remember them in all their complexity and pay homage to their contributions to a band (inspired by their love and respect--and often their indulgence--of their big brother) and ensure that their memory is kept alive--one of the very best aspects of the C50 tour, BTW. If the surviving members of the group can arrange for a semblance of a truce in order to focus on their legacy, then all of us should cast aside as much of these innuendos as we can, since they matter not one whit in terms of what the band has achieved during its roller-coaster sixty-year career. Brian has clearly been hurting for some time now, but he has proven to us that he's a survivor; as Billy said so well, if he didn't want to be there, he simply wouldn't be there. He has opted out before. I think he's there--and, increasingly, Mike is as well--because they recognize that America--and the world--needs their music and the message it carries. They--and we--still need "a mess of help."

Wirestone's message, if I may be so presumptuous, is that we should be thankful for that tenacity and dedication, because those who aspire and achieve great things continue to demonstrate it even when one might expect them to rest on their laurels. Thank you for a wonderfully written piece of journalism--and I have no doubt that you'll still be a tenacious and valuable contributor when you "grow up to be an (old) man." 

Absolutely terrific intro video, Joshilyn--a perfect setup for going through the SDSN tracks instrument by instrument. Looking forward to the future episodes!