With the "reunion" Beach Boys coming to an end, do you think that Capitol will see any reason to release any more Beach Boys archival CD product after the two greatest hits sets and the 12 back catalogue reissues?

Yes, and one reason can be summarized in a simple character: $.

In any case, Endless Harmony was released after the band splintered following Carl Wilson's death, and Hawthorne, CA was released several years after that.  The fact that the reunion tour will not be going on into January is thus not a reason to suspect a non-release of this box.

First time I listened to Smiley Smile track-by-track was via YT & without order. When the next came She's Goin' Bald, with all these vocal tricks, I thought this group can do great psychedelia. Generally, my point is The BBs are good at all genres they made/make attempts at. As for the subject, it's a very entertaining but at the same time, very beautiful composition. Wickedly-said "Do it!", Brian & Co.'s laugh are very catchy to hear, never fail to cheer me up. Addition of 2 finger snaps & chewing sounds are another (eccentric) advantages of the song. Carl's humming is amazing in its beauty! Saying that, LP is still not the most favorite on the record. Wind Chimes is the winner imo.   

I completely agree with you about "Wind Chimes."  I particularly love the Whispering Winds coda.  It's the one Smiley Smile song that, in my opinion, blows its Smile counterpart away.  (The Smiley Smile "Wonderful" is clearly the inferior version, and I'm undecided on "Vegetables"/"Vega-Tables.")

That said, I have to disagree that the BBs are good at all genres they make attempts at.  They are very clearly incapable of doing hip-hop, and their attempts at disco and reggae are disposable.

They were only ever planning to do the reunion for this one tour and Love/Johnston were going to continue touring afterwards in the same way that they had been beforehand.  I don't think anyone from the band has indicated otherwise.  As long as they can avoid suing each other, they will not regain their reputation of constantly feuding with each other.

As for the possibility of more recording, the fact that the band is apparently getting along makes it possible I guess, but they keep talking of a possibility, meaning that there are no definite plans.  For that reason, I'll only believe that a new album is going to be made when Andrew G Doe starts hinting at it in his way.

First, didn't Brian talk a bit about it in the booklet for Sunflower/Surf's Up?
And then you'd ask Stephen Desper. Maybe he has something to add.

According to Timothy White's liner notes, he said that "it was a real nice one" and proceeded to sing part of the song.  He doesn't provide any information about the writing or recording of the song (or at least none that appears there).

It was a great event.  The band played 5 songs--SG, Cal Girls, Help Me Rhonda (introduced by Brian stating, "I', really in the mood to hear Al Jardine sing..."), Kokomo, and I Get Around after about an 1 of talk.  I tried but did not get to ask a qiuestion.  Most questions were typically lame. When asked what was "on his buscket list?", Brian stated "What is a bucket list?"   After having the concept explained to him, Brian replied that he "would really like to record a rock n' roll album with the boys". Huge applause all around. AL and David seconded that. When asked on follow up if there were definite plans on a new album, Brian replied no definite plans, but they would likely be back in the studio after the first of the year. When asked about their various solo ventures, Al stated he had no interest in that, "this is the band (pointing to the group)."  He stated that they plan on continuing on this configuration, or something to that effect, I lost the direct quote. No quotes from either Mike or Bruce on these topics, but Brian, Al and David were very vocal and upbeat about the future of the band together.

Although that was not Cowsill in the facebook pic, he was on the box for the performance.  Also backing were Foskett, Darian  and Totten.

Had the chance to meet Mark London who was very nice and gave some great insight into the box set (it IS coming out, never fear). Mark is in charge of the entire Booklet, approx 80 pages.  Will be filled with NUMEROUS unreleased and unseen photos. Said he was given access to a box of photos that had been stored in Brian's garage for years. ASked him iof the boys themselves had any input in the tracklist--"oh absolutely!" As for a release date, he still says November is possibile, but may indeed be pushed back because they "just f*cked with the tracklist" . There will be a lot of unrealeased material, but he didn't go into specifics.

That sounds like great news all around, though I'm not sure how likely "likely" is.  Hopefully the reason that they "just f*cked with the tracklist" was because they are adding certain songs that are in high demand from fans.  This 80-page booklet sounds pretty good, too.

All this talk of wanting stripped down versions of TBBs '85 confuses me.  Yes, the production is dated, but in some ways it's the only thing interesting about the album.  There isn't very much artistic merit in the songs themselves, but the clash between definitively '80s style production and the band's attempts to recreate their former sound is at least an interesting historical document if not a musical masterpiece.  But there's so little substance that if you stripped the songs down there would be nothing left.  The problem is lack of good songwriting much more than anything else.

I sort of doubt that Mr. Wilson had gotten to the point that he had a good idea of sequencing and the existence of movements in Smile around 1967.  Perhaps he considered it as a possibility, but nobody involved in the project seems to have been aware of it.

Still, it's an interesting subject for two reasons: 1) I'd always been confused about the "Child is the Father of the Man" coda to "Surf's Up" on the eponymous album.  I think the song seems out of place on the album to begin with, but lyrically and melodically, the coda seems to come out of nowhere.  On Brian Wilson Presents Smile, however, because of the way that it's organized as part of the same movement as "Child is the Father of the Man," the coda doesn't seem to come out of the blue quite as much.  2) The sequencing on Brian Wilson Presents Smile sometimes works very well, but sometimes the attempt to create a flow between songs comes off as a bit forced.  The only movement I've ever found completely convincing is the second one.  That doesn't mean that he planned it as a movement, or that he planned to have the coda in the song, but the childhood connection already existed between the two songs even without the coda (the version of "Surf's Up" that he played on television ends with the lyric "a children's song"), so it wasn't too much of a stretch to connect them further.

I'd like to admit my ignorance on the subject of the lyrics of "Look"/"Song for Children."  Does anybody know whether these were written in 1966 or 2003/2004?  I know that the lyrics for "Do You Like Worms?" were written in 1966 but not originally recorded and I think that the lyrics for "In Blue Hawaii" were not written until the preparation for Brian Wilson Presents Smile, but I'm not sure about the other songs that appear as instrumentals in The Smile Sessions.

Found it!  It's The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook the World.

Did Brian really like Sgt. Pepper's? He never seemed that thrilled about it, except when he was in the bean bag chair.

He wrote the introduction to a book about The Beatles a few years back and cited that as his favorite album.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the book.

In an interview he said his favorite rolling stones song is "my obsession" which threw me off.

My Obsession was a big influence on Fire and Fall Breaks and all the associated stuff, as far as I'm aware. Just listen how similar it is. It was quite a revelation when a poster pointed this out recently and I listened again to the Stones track. I think it was a huge influence on some of the Smile music, Dada included!

The My Bloody Valentine quote is brilliant. Great to think Brian is (or was at least) into stuff that cool.

That's interesting.  On the very brief liner notes that he wrote for Classics Selected by Brian Wilson, he said that "Marcella" was the first song he wrote that was influenced by the Rolling Stones.

Adding a new song in preparation for the UK shows perhaps?  I wonder what else they'll throw in?

Crossing my fingers that the Royal Albert Hall show will be filmed.

If they did Surf's Up I think I would cry!

The 50 Big Ones track list consists primarily of songs that they have been playing on the tour.  The three exceptions are "The Warmth of the Sun," "Surf's Up,"and "I Can Hear Music."  Could this be a hint of what is to come?

I would cry twice if they played "Surf's Up"; first out of excitement, then because I didn't get to see it.

Review:
http://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore-showbiz/beach-boys-beaten-battered-still-rockin-033217656.html
The Beach Boys beaten and battered, but still rockin’

That article refers to songs called "Isn't She Lovely" and "Sitting on Top of the World."  What songs could the author be referring to?

I've always felt that Mike should release a solo album called Mike Loves You.

O.K. Great title. IMO ALL of the Dennis/Dragon vault material should be included, finished or not (not enough for  a dedicated album, so may be last chance unless the future holds a DW solo retrospective, a distant/distinct possibility). Hope band members who absorbed his estate permissions to absolve outstanding debts will agree that that's the high road, and programmers will concur. Not holding my breath. Thank You (For Your Love), Solar System (backing vocals only), Our Sweet Love " " ", Slip On Through backing vocals only, Cottonfields vocals only, Break Away " " ", In The Back of My Mind re-recording, I've Got A Friend instr. track, CA Feeling '74, WIBNTLA, and a particular Pet Sounds-era track (vague, I know, name escapes me), that's supposed to be esp. terrific, BARE MINIMUM! Unreleased, untreleased & more unreleased, as is undoubtedly planned. Will be much more material than this of course but these are ESSENTIAL must-hears. Oh, and The Flame's 2nd album (probably have to keep hoping & waiting for it's own dedicated release, may never happen....). Anticipation overfloweth!

I definitely agree about the DW/Dragon music.  I thought that the Taylor Hawkins lead vocal added to "Holy Man" worked very well on the POB/Bambu release and it'd be nice if they could do something like that for "I've Got a Friend" (as well as the original instrumental track).  I doubt that it'll happen, but it would be nice.

It would also be nice to see one of the CDs contain the "Adult Child" track in their intended running order.  It would take up less than half a disc, so hopefully there would be additional things before or after on the same disc, but since the album was more or less complete, it seems possible to do it that way.  At the very least, I'd like to see "Life is for the Living," "Everybody Wants to Live," and "It's Trying to Say."

There was a guy named "Bellagio Insider" on the old Smile Shop board who claimed that the original "Air" segment was a piano variation on a section or two of "Country Air," and that he was there when Brian was conceiving the Elements. Of course, he was later revealed as a fraud, but that idea always sounded plausible to me.

Didn't AGD have a similar theory? Or is I misremembering? Andrew?

In the complete guide he mentions that the theory exists but doesn't say whether he believes it or whether there is evidence for it.  However, since 'Cool, Cool Water' was considered for inclusion in Wild Honey, it seems possible that Brian was considering doing something with the elements for this album, even if 'Country Air' had nothing to do with Smile.  But if he was, he didn't get very far since 'Cool, Cool Water' wasn't included and as far as I know there wasn't either an earth or fire track considered for inclusion for his album.

But 'Country Air' is a fantastic song.  As with most of Wild Honey, I think the more minimalistic production style emphasizes the soulful vocal performances.

I hope that doesn't happen. I have those tracks already, as I'm sure most folk here do also. I'd rather have material that's fresh to our ears, even if it's limited to different (vintage) mixes of known tracks etc.

I assumed it will be a mixture of things that we all already own and things that have never been released (through official channels, anyway), so it's perfectly possible to include some or all of those bonus tracks along with things that we don't have.

For most cohesion, I'd give a tie to All Summer Long, and Pet Sounds.  The Beach Boys Love You is close but Brian's voice on "Good Time" gives the game away.

For least, I'd give it to Carl and the Passions-So Tough.  It might be a cliche to say that it sounds like it was made by three different bands, but that doesn't make it any less true.

One further note-while I generally think cohesion is a desirable trait, it cannot make up for a lack of quality.  MIU and Summer In Paradise both have a lot of cohesion, but they are two of the band's worst albums.  I guess the moral of the story is that it's better to be inconsistent than it is to be consistently bad.

I don't think in the world of "BRIAN IS IMPORTANT AND DOES EVERYTHING ALWAYS HE STILL OPERATES LIKE HE'S 22 NO REALLY YOU GUYS" that they'd just freely hand out songwriting credits.

Indeed, and remember that Thomas wrote the tag of "Sunshine" (the Imagination song, not the Keepin' The Summer Alive one) that is the most Brian Wilson-sounding part of the song.

I'm not sure I would count Mt. Vernon and Fairway among Brian's greatest accomplishments.

As far as I know, there isn't any Shut Down Vol. 2/All Summer Long two-fer.  Even though that would make sense chronologically, Shut Down Vol. 2 is paired with Surfer Girl and All Summer Long with Little Deuce Coupe because Surfer Girl and Little Deuce Coupe have two of the same songs.

In any case, I vote for the latter.  I think it's not only the strongest of the two-fers but possibly the best collection of Beach Boys songs currently available on any single CD.