...And speaking of Darian and his access...didn't he say that the melody for "Song for Children" came from a clarinet line he heard bleed through someone's headphones on the original session tapes??? Whatever happened to that, and how did it elude the box? Can anybody hear it???

I don't remember hearing that, although it sounds similar to this from Sound on Sound's article on BWPS:

And while listening to the multitracks for the song 'Child Is Father Of The Man', Darian soloed a chorus lead vocal by Brian's late brother Carl and made discoveries which were later incorporated into the finished arrangements. Mark Linett explains: "When he's not singing, you can hear faint background vocal parts that no longer exist on the multitrack. They must have been in his headphones, and were picked up by the vocal mic. It could be that Brian decided he didn't need them, or that he was going to re-record them, but never did. You hear this sort of stuff throughout the tapes."

Now that would have been something to hear.

This has probably been covered many times here so I apologise if I'm retreading old ground, but was the detuned Wild Honey piano a grand or an upright? It sounds more like an upright to me.

Also, what exactly was the harpsichord used on Smile? Was it an electric Baldwin? It sounds like one but the photos of Brian and Van seem to show what appears to be an acoustic instrument.

The track on the CD1 mix of Great Shape seems not to match any of those in the sessions track. Am I mishearing things or is it a different take? Is it just that they synced the Humble Harve piano to the whole of the track, unlike the way the piano just appears below the vocal in Barnyard?

I must say I think the way they added a copied and pasted intro to it sounds dreadful. Also, given the length of the track for Barnyard is it possible there were meant to be more lyrics. In other sessions it seems Brain is quite specific about how long he lets the musicians keep playing a piece for and the fade-outs are generally shorter when used on BB records of the time. I may well be wrong, mind.

There definately isn't any pitch shifting going on. Also the notes do fit (until a beat or two before the end, which is why they suddenly drop out). The difference is that in the other choruses they come in with the first part of the vocal "Doo(G) doo(A) ooh(D)" followed by the second "Doo(F) doo(G) ooh(A)" part then both parts are repeated. The final chorus starts with the second part and finishes with the first. Perhaps that is what sounds odd to your ears but it's not been manipulated.

Also, the H&V image, I believe it has a 1996 copyright on it and I've read people saying that it was newly commisioned artwork from that year for a possible Smile release that never happened but in the Interview Holmes states that Van Dyke Park told him that after Brian saw the image he got the other Beach Boys to change the way they sang "Dude'll doo" to reflect the drawing. So apparently it is a 1966 drawing after all? Or I might have become confused about the accepted date of this image having spent so long lurking on here but not posting.

Try considering this - the "dude'll doo" sketch is included in the original booklet. Ergo a copyright of 1996 is utterly impossible.

Yes, that is why I said I may have become confused. I've been reading this forum for the past few weeks and I had thought that I'd read that somewhere. Unfortunately the search fuction on here is not much help so I could not doublecheck.

Thanx dude...any ideas about the Milky way bar?

No, no mention of that.

[For instance for DYLW- On a sidewalk there are 3 people standing behind sheets beads on the end of fishing poles. What is this all about?]

Seems that there are clues to some of the missing pieces of SMiLE to be discovered in these pictures...

For instance for DYLW- On a sidewalk there are 3 people standing behind sheets beads on the end of fishing poles. What is this all about? For Vega-Tables the word Vega is on a 4 signs...makes me think Fishmonk was right in his idea of Vega-Tables referring to Star Tables...

In the book that came with the Box Set there are drawings by Frank dated '96. One of them seems to represent Holidays. There is a surfer riding next to a Milky Way bar, a sign saying Ukelele Lady Lili, an anchor, a bottle of wine (port perhaps?)...If this drawing is 8 years prior to BWPS, could it be revealing clues to an authenticity of those 2004 lyrics?

I am curious as to what others see in this images.

I am very pleased with the inclusion of these images, in fact I wish there was more.

Holmes: "The blankets and fishing hooks are a reference to my childhood. I used to go to church socials, where they had a game called 'fish' where you'd put a little fishing pole over a blanket, and there'd be someone on the other side that would hang a little toy or gift onto that. Then you'd pull back and you'd have this little treat. So I had this as Indians selling Manhattan Island for $28 worth of beads."

All of this and a lot more is from an interview with Holmes in Priore's Lost Masterpiece book from 2005. There's a whole section on it. One thing that struck me is that he refered to "The lyric 'Do you like worms'". Of course it could have been a slip of the tongue and he meant to say 'title' though.

Also, the H&V image, I believe it has a 1996 copyright on it and I've read people saying that it was newly commisioned artwork from that year for a possible Smile release that never happened but in the Interview Holmes states that Van Dyke Park told him that after Brian saw the image he got the other Beach Boys to change the way they sang "Dude'll doo" to reflect the drawing. So apparently it is a 1966 drawing after all? Or I might have become confused about the accepted date of this image having spent so long lurking on here but not posting.

I don't use Reason but have found that the "saloon upright" on my Nord replicates the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey era BBs sound pretty well. The HonkyTonk Upright is a good tack piano sound and the Chamberlain Harpsichord does a great impersonation of the Wonderful type of sound. Not much use if you don't have a Nord keyboard though, but they are well worth it if you can stretch to one (I did have to sell a Farfisa Compact and a Vox Continental as well as take out a loan to afford one but I don't regret it).

I don't like what you did to Good Vibrations.

Well, thanks for the listen anyways! 

I didn't like it either. However, I did love what you did to I Love To Say Da Da, so much so that I had to sign up on the board to thank you for it. Very enjoyable.