Sitting back, contemplating my own collections, I suddenly wondered if Brian or any of the guys has a special room where he keeps 50 years plus of accumulated vinyl? Does Brian still have the copy of Rubber Soul that inspired him to do PS? What about Introducing The Fabulous Rosettes?

The meaning of the music has "evolved." I like that.

Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XoOV8dfM1I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4RSmusDfzg

My brother sent me a short video he made to accompany a recording of Surfing' USA. You know, guys paddling about, riding the curl, etc. But the sound track was not the original 1963 recording, but something much nearer to now. Mike's "old voice" is not what it used to be. But then, neither am I. And I got this odd feeling, not quite nostalgia.

nos·tal·gi·a  (nŏ-stăl′jə, nə-)
n.
1. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.
2. The condition of being homesick; homesickness.

No, that's not it.

What I mean is that, while the art, the recordings, are locked in and will always sound exactly the same, we our culture and society change, and with that our relationship to the art it has produced.

So, while hearing old Mike did not inspire me to head on out to the beach this morning, it did impart a sense of life-affirmation in despite the piling up of the years.

Hearing him sing When I Grow Up during the 50th evoked another response - a weird inversion of meaning not nostalgic but ruminative.

BEATLES...of course

Wow, where was I when this happened? Oh, yeah, I was in China.

But where are Wild Honey, Friends 20/20, the Concerts and random singles and B-sides?

Have been listening to the new Rolling Stones Mono Box for two weeks now...whew, excellent.

And earlier this year digging into the Beatles Mono Box, finally..what can I say - those early albums had balls.

Now I need to hear the Beach Boys 60's catalog restored.

My favorite latter-day album from the Beach Boys, I've been able to find the title track, Surfin, and Under the Boardwalk performed live, and wonder if anyone has ever come across any of the other tracks live. I'd particularly be interested in Lahaina Aloha and Strange Things Happen.

There is this oft expressed view that the Beach Boys degenerated into an on-the-road-oldies-act as a result of Endless Summer.

I think this is an unfair criticism, as they always featured selections from their latest album when on tour.

Part of the problem seems to arise from the fact that latest albums became fewer and fewer as time progressed

That they featured signatures tunes for decades is nothing unusual. The Stones still perform Satisfaction, McCartney Hey Jude. Fogarty Bad Moon Rising.

Granted, opening with California Girls and closing with Fun Fun Fun in 1972 or 1982 or 1992 or 2002 or 2012 would seem suggest a band on auto-pilot, but - well I'm thinking of Louis Armstrong blowing the roof off some place in Chicago in 1955 playing 30 year old tunes - make your hair stand on end - or Benny Goodman reviving the Fletcher Henderson arrangements 50 years on and going out of this life swinging.

What I'm wondering is how long newer material remained in the set-list? Did something like The Trader resurface from time to time? Did the selection of oldies change up? Did they find something new in the old warhorses after a thousand performances?

I don't know exactly what I was thinking about the term "Progressive" at the top of this. Probably something in the vein of social consciousness combined with musical growth. In the end I guess the Zen-like explorations of Friends are as Progressive as the spaced out meandering of Leaving This Town, and the grit in the guitar break of latter day Surfin' USA says something different from the rapier-like sting in the original.

Just hanging this evening, mulling things over.

A commentator in the rock press once described the Beach Boys as the most conservative of the great rock bands.

The Stones produced Street Fighting Man, the Beatles produced Revolution. Creedence produced Fortunate Son, Motown produced What's Going On.

The Beach Boys produced Do It Again.

It's thus not hard to understand why the Beach Boys were irrelevant and ignored as the '60's reached their climax.

And then there is the sight of them cavorting with Ronald Reagan in the '80's...but I'll just put that aside - can you imagine Lennon or Mick serenading Nancy?

Brian Wilson, master tho he is musically, has often seemed lyrically tongue-tied, relying on a string of lyricists,  Roger Christian, et. al. to put into words the ideas and feelings he was able to express in sound.

Still, Feel Flows is light years from Surfin' Safari, and I know of nothing, before or since that can compare with Cabinessence, so there is certainly progress in that.

Still, if there is any validity to the idea that artists produce work that reflects, interprets, informs and gives meaning to the time in which they live, can it be said that the Beach Boys did so? Or were they mere entertainers?   

I can recall a Christmas party, 1966, at which Pet Sounds was played in rotation with the Fugs and Herman's Hermits Greatest Hits. Twas really mind-changing.

Yes, and in June '67 hearing the first cuts from Pepper on AM radio, jumbled up with 1941 Mining Disaster and Up Up and Away, and feeling these were not just different sounds, but different ways of thinking.

No, I've never recovered from those years, never became a Young Republican, always longed to recapture that elusive feeling, that elusive moment.

The music was that powerful, that transformative. Believe it.

And now that the stars have turned in the wheel of heaven we find ourselves in the mirrored image of that time- Revolution.

With the Beatles retiring from the road at the end of that summer, yeah, it marked the culmination and end of that breathless rush of excitement, energy and creativity unleashed by their advent on Ed Sullivan early in '64.

Whew, what a run!

One commentator, I can't remember who, remarked the decade seemed to simultaneously speed by while taking a century to complete, so crammed was it with happenings of profound import and transformation - each year having a feel of it's own.

Pet Sounds clearly an extension of while simultaneously a departure from Summer Days, Sgt. Pepper likewise growing out of Revolver.

And yet, there is a ripeness to '67, like a fruit ready to turn, that is not yet evident in '66...I think...well maybe...hmmmm....

This just appeared in The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/31/three-albums-1966-beatles-revolver-bob-dylan-blonde-on-blonde-beach-boys-pet-sounds

Posing a question I have sometimes mulled over myself, wondering if it had really been that great or was it just the memory of hormones kicking in?

It almost seems I've spent a lifetime reacting to that year.

I posted the following in another thread but think it will be lost when that thread sinks from sight. Which probably won't matter to anyone, but it's my 2 cents worth on the subject. And by the way, the 2012 stereo version is a revelation:



I have, filed away somewhere, an article entitled “Smiley Smile is Smile,” written by I can’t remember who and don’t know when, but posted somewhere on-line sometime around the year 2000, plus or minus 4 or five years before or after.

OK, so there’s my bow to the citation gods, but what follows is not really about that article.

Well, yes it is, insofar as what I’m about here takes the idea that Smiley was not merely a poor substitute, but in fact a perfectly logical, internally consistent, culmination of the Smile project. And that as released was poorly mastered, improperly sequenced and, despite the fact that all the pieces were readily at hand, inexplicably incomplete.

An incomplete album, the pieces of which can now be brought together to reveal a coherent artistic statement, on a par with Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which must remain the benchmark against which all others are measured.

Guitars have been almost wholly removed, producing a minimalist aesthetic that is nevertheless “musical” – these guys were not simply producing an aural account of their hash parties – although the sweet, dreamy aroma of hashish does indeed permeate

The 1967 production is muddy, the 2012 Stereo Remaster reveals, not a stoned out indulgence, but rather a masterwork.

Here then is Smiley as I believe it should have, and could have, been released:


 1. Well, You’re Welcome (Smile Sessions)
 2. Heros and Villains (2001 Stereo Mix) edit sections sequence from 1,2,3,4 to 1,3,2,4
 3. Wonderful (2012 Stereo)
 4. Gettin' Hungry (2012 Stereo) edit out 1st instru section to “I wake up in the morning…”
 5. You're With Me Tonight (Previously Unreleased)(Hawthorne)
 6. With Me Tonight (2012 Stereo)
 7. She's Goin' Bald (2012 Stereo)
 8. Whistle In (2012 Stereo)
 9. Good Vibrations (Concert Rehearsal) (Previously Unreleased) (Hawthorne)
10. Mama Says (2000 Wild Honey)
11. Vegetables (Stereo Extended Mix) (Previously Unreleased) (Hawthorne)
12. Wind Chimes (2012 Stereo)
13. Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony) (2012 Stereo)
14. Cool, Cool Water (Track)/ Water [Stereo Mix] (Unsurpassed Masters)
15. Little Pad (2012 Stereo) edit out
16. Surf's Up (1967 Solo Version)(Bonus Track)(Smile Sessions)
17. Cabin Essence (Smile Sessions)
18. Cabin Essencence Tag (Unsurpassed Masters)

Running Time: 42:22


Well, You’re Welcome serves as a doormat greeting, inviting us to enter the Smiley reverie - and down the rabbit hole. Released as the flip-side to Heros and Villains.

Heros and Villains launches the listener off on a trip to the frontiers of the American psyche, circa 1967 and is thus perhaps best understood metaphorically. It’s start/stop structure has always bothered me, so rearranging the sections yields a nice flowing shuffle before introducing the music-box motif.

Carl’s whispering lead into Wonderful flows easily out of the dancing fade out of Heros as we turn inward, entering a kind of Alice in Wonderland scenario, with its veiled references and sexual allusions, the “god vibrations” interlude something like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
 
Getting’ Hungry may have served as something of a joking jolt following the “whispering winds” on Side Two but when placed after Wonderful on Side One takes on a different, I don’t know, accent – Wood blocks over a repetitive whirligig organ line - tension and release, tension and release. Lop off the first section so the song begins with Mike intoning the words “Well I wake up in the morning…” The bass note that accompanies his first syllable is the same as the na-na-na-na-na that ends Wonderful. I see the claustrophobia of the work-a-day office world alternating with landscapes drawn from a spaghetti western – trippy.

You’re With Me Tonight “with a smile” provides a nice little break in the unfolding stream of melo-dramas, a peak of the band at work in the studio reminiscent of earlier such appearances. And, of course, the ensuing little ditty conjures visions of, how shall we say – oral contraception?
“On and on she go down-be-do-down – on and on you go.” Hmmm…

She’s Goin’ Bald – Psychedelic Coasters – what are they doing here I forget. Is it Little Egypt or Along Came Jones? I get dizzy just thinking of this tune.

Coming up for air - Whistle In – “remember the day-ay, remember the night-night, all day long” – WTF??? – what does it mean? Whatever, this sweet little chant bookends Well, You’re Welcome. Between the two are five boy-meets-girl songs, the standard subject of a pop-tune, all psychedelicized to reveal whole other dimensions of meaning. Hendrix said the BBs reminded him of a psychedelic barbershop quartet (quintet?) He must have been referring to Smiley.

The single most important change in this reconfiguration is the removal of the studio hit single version of Good Vibrations at the heart of the song cycle. The dry rehearsal in its place fits perfectly the minimalist aesthetic of the album, enlightening all that has preceded it and all that will follow. The boy/girl theme is elevated to the plane of cosmic consciousness – sex as the dance of the universe.                             

Mama Says’ childhood admonitions serves here as a grounding and short interlude between what might have been sides one and two had the album been fully realized.

Side Two leaves girl/boy concerns behind on a meander thru a Wonderland of psychic landscapes - The Elements. A 16 beat bass-note (from Hawthorne, appended here) provides a nice, and again, minimalist, intro to the suite – earth, air, fire and water - Vegetables, Wind Chimes, Fall Breaks and Cool Water. Lyrical content, such as it is, takes second place here to what can only be described as musical equivalents to impressionist paintings – gurgling, gulping, whooping, wavering, babbling, ornamental vocal filigree – interspersed, inter-cut and overlaying the barest of instrumentations – bass notes, woodblocks, bells. Who knew that Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony) is in fact the legendary lost Fire from Smile, reduced to the flickering flame of a candle? And can anyone tell me the aural inspiration for Cool, Cool Water the purist of psychedelic vocal soundscapes? Was there an experimental “classical” composer working with such voicings whose work served as a model for these?

We surface, finally, within landfall and the refuge of a Little Pad “…in Hawaii,” but press on to the finale with, first, the portentous Surf’s Up, which pulls together, elevates and deepens all that has preceded, followed by the mysterious, majestic Cabinessence, which recapitulates and thus encloses all that intervened within the Americana theme initiated by Heros and Villains at the outset of the song cycle - a trip to the frontiers of the American psyche, circa 1967.

Nothing tops Cabinessence, which is perhaps the supreme masterwork in the Beach Boys’ catalogue.

Except perhaps a snippet of the fading vocal tag, minus vocals, that miraculously reveals a delicate Arabesque dancing as thru a window.

From all the above it can be seen that Smiley Smile was Smile, or the logical culmination of the experiments and explorations of the Smile sessions reduced to the barest minimum. The record suffered, however, by the fact that it was poorly mastered, improperly sequenced and, despite the fact that all the pieces were readily at hand, inexplicably incomplete.

To sum up:

The remastered 2012 stereo version of Smiley Smile reveals a beauty and delicacy that was lost or obscured in the muddy 67 release.

Of the missing pieces –

Well, You’re Welcome was complete, released as a flip-side but withheld from the album.

Good Vibrations rehearsal was in the can.

Alternate Vegatables was in the can.?

Mama Says is a Smile leftover released in this configuration on Wild Honey. But I’m not sure when this version was recorded.

Cool Water Chant is from the Wild Honey sessions, but hadn’t it first appeared during the Smile sessions.

Surf’s Up, from the WH sessions, works beautifully as a solo vocal/piano piece and took how long to record – 3 minutes?

Cabinessence was largely complete as the session tapes demonstrate, and might have been completed in relatively short order.

As for the sequencing – the record is a mess as released and thus incomprehensible. The addition of the missing pieces almost compel the sequencing outlined above to reveal – Smile - as it might have been.

My favorite memory of listening to Smiley is circa 1972 while in the Army. A buddy of mine had a stash of Orange Sunshine and we'd trip occasionally. I'd play Smiley while we all smoked weed to soften the landing, and can still clearly see the ear-to-ear smiles on their faces. Oh yeah, and the album art - which (along with CATP) is the best ever to enclose a BB album - faithfully captures the vivid awareness we experienced of the secret life of plants.

I don't know if it's true, but there was a story told of a clinic somewhere that played it to help people come down from bad trips.

Bad trips or good, I can personally attest to its magical powers.

Which remain undiminished to this day. I don't trip anymore (altho I would, given the right circumstances), but just last week enjoyed my extended version of Smiley while under the influence of some tastey Brownies.

I posted what follows about a year ago, but in an unfinished form.  Bought the original in September '67 and was perplexed and disappointed. This is the way I hear "Smiley" in 2016 and am amazed and delighted.


I have, filed away somewhere, an article entitled “Smiley Smile is Smile,” written by I can’t remember who and don’t know when, but posted somewhere on-line sometime around the year 2000, plus or minus 4 or five years before or after.

OK, so there’s my bow to the citation gods, but what follows is not really about that article.

Well, yes it is, insofar as what I’m about here takes the idea that Smiley was not merely a poor substitute, but in fact a perfectly logical, internally consistent, culmination of the Smile project. And that as released was poorly mastered, improperly sequenced and, despite the fact that all the pieces were readily at hand, inexplicably incomplete.

An incomplete album, the pieces of which can now be brought together to reveal a coherent artistic statement, on a par with Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which must remain the benchmark against which all others are measured.

Guitars have been almost wholly removed, producing a minimalist aesthetic that is nevertheless “musical” – these guys were not simply producing an aural account of their hash parties – although the sweet, dreamy aroma of hashish does indeed permeate

The 1967 production is muddy, the 2012 Stereo Remaster reveals, not a stoned out indulgence, but rather a masterwork.

Here then is Smiley as I believe it should have, and could have, been released:


 1. Well, You’re Welcome (Smile Sessions)
 2. Heros and Villains (2001 Stereo Mix) edit sections sequence from 1,2,3,4 to 1,3,2,4
 3. Wonderful (2012 Stereo)
 4. Gettin' Hungry (2012 Stereo) edit out 1st instru section to “I wake up in the morning…”
 5. You're With Me Tonight (Previously Unreleased)(Hawthorne)
 6. With Me Tonight (2012 Stereo)
 7. She's Goin' Bald (2012 Stereo)
 8. Whistle In (2012 Stereo)
 9. Good Vibrations (Concert Rehearsal) (Previously Unreleased) (Hawthorne)
10. Mama Says (2000 Wild Honey)
11. Vegetables (Stereo Extended Mix) (Previously Unreleased) (Hawthorne)
12. Wind Chimes (2012 Stereo)
13. Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony) (2012 Stereo)
14. Cool, Cool Water (Track)/ Water [Stereo Mix] (Unsurpassed Masters)
15. Little Pad (2012 Stereo) edit out
16. Surf's Up (1967 Solo Version)(Bonus Track)(Smile Sessions)
17. Cabin Essence (Smile Sessions)
18. Cabin Essencence Tag (Unsurpassed Masters)

Running Time: 42:22


Well, You’re Welcome serves as a doormat greeting, inviting us to enter the Smiley reverie - and down the rabbit hole. Released as the flip-side to Heros and Villains.

Heros and Villains launches the listener off on a trip to the frontiers of the American psyche, circa 1967 and is thus perhaps best understood metaphorically. It’s start/stop structure has always bothered me, so rearranging the sections yields a nice flowing shuffle before introducing the music-box motif.

Carl’s whispering lead into Wonderful flows easily out of the dancing fade out of Heros as we turn inward, entering a kind of Alice in Wonderland scenario, with its veiled references and sexual allusions, the “god vibrations” interlude something like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
 
Getting’ Hungry may have served as something of a joking jolt following the “whispering winds” on Side Two but when placed after Wonderful on Side One takes on a different, I don’t know, accent – Wood blocks over a repetitive whirligig organ line - tension and release, tension and release. Lop off the first section so the song begins with Mike intoning the words “Well I wake up in the morning…” The bass note that accompanies his first syllable is the same as the na-na-na-na-na that ends Wonderful. I see the claustrophobia of the work-a-day office world alternating with landscapes drawn from a spaghetti western – trippy.

You’re With Me Tonight “with a smile” provides a nice little break in the unfolding stream of melo-dramas, a peak of the band at work in the studio reminiscent of earlier such appearances. And, of course, the ensuing little ditty conjures visions of, how shall we say – oral contraception?
“On and on she go down-be-do-down – on and on you go.” Hmmm…

She’s Goin’ Bald – Psychedelic Coasters – what are they doing here I forget. Is it Little Egypt or Along Came Jones? I get dizzy just thinking of this tune.

Coming up for air - Whistle In – “remember the day-ay, remember the night-night, all day long” – WTF??? – what does it mean? Whatever, this sweet little chant bookends Well, You’re Welcome. Between the two are five boy-meets-girl songs, the standard subject of a pop-tune, all psychedelicized to reveal whole other dimensions of meaning. Hendrix said the BBs reminded him of a psychedelic barbershop quartet (quintet?) He must have been referring to Smiley.

The single most important change in this reconfiguration is the removal of the studio hit single version of Good Vibrations at the heart of the song cycle. The dry rehearsal in its place fits perfectly the minimalist aesthetic of the album, enlightening all that has preceded it and all that will follow. The boy/girl theme is elevated to the plane of cosmic consciousness – sex as the dance of the universe.                            

Mama Says’ childhood admonitions serves here as a grounding and short interlude between what might have been sides one and two had the album been fully realized.

Side Two leaves girl/boy concerns behind on a meander thru a Wonderland of psychic landscapes - The Elements. A 16 beat bass-note (from Hawthorne, appended here) provides a nice, and again, minimalist, intro to the suite – earth, air, fire and water - Vegetables, Wind Chimes, Fall Breaks and Cool Water. Lyrical content, such as it is, takes second place here to what can only be described as musical equivalents to impressionist paintings – gurgling, gulping, whooping, wavering, babbling, ornamental vocal filigree – interspersed, inter-cut and overlaying the barest of instrumentations – bass notes, woodblocks, bells. Who knew that Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony) is in fact the legendary lost Fire from Smile, reduced to the flickering flame of a candle? And can anyone tell me the aural inspiration for Cool, Cool Water the purist of psychedelic vocal soundscapes? Was there an experimental “classical” composer working with such voicings whose work served as a model for these?

We surface, finally, within landfall and the refuge of a Little Pad “…in Hawaii,” but press on to the finale with, first, the portentous Surf’s Up, which pulls together, elevates and deepens all that has preceded, followed by the mysterious, majestic Cabinessence, which recapitulates and thus encloses all that intervened within the Americana theme initiated by Heros and Villains at the outset of the song cycle - a trip to the frontiers of the American psyche, circa 1967.

Nothing tops Cabinessence, which is perhaps the supreme masterwork in the Beach Boys’ catalogue.

Except perhaps a snippet of the fading vocal tag, minus vocals, that miraculously reveals a delicate Arabesque dancing as thru a window.

From all the above it can be seen that Smiley Smile was Smile, or the logical culmination of the experiments and explorations of the Smile sessions reduced to the barest minimum. The record suffered, however, by the fact that it was poorly mastered, improperly sequenced and, despite the fact that all the pieces were readily at hand, inexplicably incomplete.

To sum up:

The remastered 2012 stereo version of Smiley Smile reveals a beauty and delicacy that was lost or obscured in the muddy 67 release.

Of the missing pieces –

Well, You’re Welcome was complete, released as a flip-side but withheld from the album.

Good Vibrations rehearsal was in the can.

Alternate Vegatables was in the can.?

Mama Says is a Smile leftover released in this configuration on Wild Honey. But I’m not sure when this version was recorded.

Cool Water Chant is from the Wild Honey sessions, but hadn’t it first appeared during the Smile sessions.

Surf’s Up, from the WH sessions, works beautifully as a solo vocal/piano piece and took how long to record – 3 minutes?

Cabinessence was largely complete as the session tapes demonstrate, and might have been completed in relatively short order.

As for the sequencing – the record is a mess as released and thus incomprehensible. The addition of the missing pieces almost compel the sequencing outlined above to reveal – Smile - as it might have been.

This release looks to be very nice. The tracks that have come out sans party chatter sound terrific. Too bad this thread has crawled up its own ass looking for potato chips.

I'll be darned - and I really hesitate to jump back into this - but I do believe SUMMER IN PARADISE (THE TRACK) IS A STRAIGHT REWRITE OF LET IT BE!

I have long thought there was a lyrical kinship, but while running SIP today began singing LIB, and it fits - I think.

Now I'll have to dig out the chart and see if it works harmonically.

hmmm...

I started this thread while listening to Summer in Paradise for the first time in years and musing over the memories it conjured of a time when my kids were young and we were poor and a vacation to Cocoa Beach was a treasure and the Beach Boys were our happy sound track.

And now you creeps have crawled out of the woodwork and sh*t all over that.

Well, f*** you all. It's pointless to continue coming here.

I'll be content with my happy memories and thank the Beach Boys for being a part of that.

Well, I hear Let It Be as bringing the Beatles to a close, Yes, I know it was recorded before Abby Road, and yes I know the Beach Boys can't touch the Beatles as a class act, but the song does, in its way, pass the torch.

Cannot understand the bitter denunciations of this album.

Guess I knew going into this that the knives would be drawn. Too bad, as I'm just musing, out loud and before the whole world, over the memory of a nice time and how the music conjures images.

Could just as easily meditate on slow dancing to Side Two of Today in 1965 and whispering I Love You into her ear as Please Let Me Wonder comes to a close.

There's nothing these guys did after Good Vibrations that can equal the classic outpouring that came before. Altho I'd vote Smiley thru In Concert the second best period on vinyl, the best live. Now that I think of it, I'm on the cover of In Concert, in the audience of course.

But 15BO-Love You? No way. I was just emerging from a long period away from rock in 76. I associate Johnny Hartman singing with John Coltrane in memory as the sound of that time for me. Whoa, Lush Life. Yeah, you wanna get laid? Drop the needle on to The Gentle Side of John Coltrane and watch how fast she drops her drawers. (Still works, by the way.) Anyway, news that a new Beach Boys album was out sent me to the bins, but what did I waste my $2.74 on? You guessed it. And the following was no better. Am I seriously supposed to romance a grown woman to the strains of "wub id de wumin...?" I don't think so.

It may not be the best rock album ever made, or even a particularly good one (altho, and oddly enough, I kind of associate it with Sticky Fingers but can't say why) but at least Summer in Paradise doesn't drag me into the depressing world of Brian Wilson's endless bummer.

Who were THESE guys?

Sorry. It's 6am in Nanjing and I'm on my first cup of coffee.

Who were there guys?

Can anyone tell me who plays on this album? I know it came with a foldout blow-up of the cover art, and I think on the back of that the credits.

I'm wondering if it was the touring band?