Hey, folks!

I know it's not SUPER cool to be the third person to do something -- but I am still very proud of FINALLY finishing my Ai reconstruction of Smile, which I'm cheekily calling the Smile Shop version 3.0 as a callback to the old site that used to stand where this here board did back in the day.

The difference between my version and the others so far is that I don't hue as close to BWPS or the box set versions -- instead relying on what we know about the old version from back in the day combined with some (reasonable, I think) speculation. There's one bit I borrowed wholesale from Smile AD's Smile (the ending of his verse melody of Worms!) but everything else is kinda based on what we know from tapes, historical speculation, etc. My favorite bit is my recreation of Cool Cool Water based on Brian's track run through from Smiley (but using Dada as a track, giving it, I think, a Smile feel!)

Feel free to ask any questions about why I decided what kind of thing!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAsuxXPC7T8

ENJOY!

Hey! Just wanted to alert y'all -- I have a new version of Child Is The Father up on YouTube, with some AI verse vocals. I have always posited that the coda melody for "Surf's Up" had its origin as the verses for Smile's "Child" especially as we have two verses essentially written on the lyric sheet (the 2nd was apparently partly forgotten and never used). This was my chance to do proof of concept and back up my theories with some backing vocals that really create a bed for that melody. I'd still bet a buck these started here.

UPDATE!! NOW WITH SLIGHTLY BETTER MIX!

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

And here's a link to my version of "The Old Master Painter," featuring OMP lyrics!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGI6EVJyfZY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDcJKC5RWpI

Wanted to post a link to my AI-enhanced version of Worms. I tired to keep it a little more minimalistic -- my verse vocal is a little bit like a stripped down version of Dae Lims' version, that was pretty much where I was heading too. Also added in the "East or West Indes" vocal at the end. I think maybe it's a little more historically accurate than his but less fanciful? If that makes sense?

I am working on the others!

Not this again.. Please see the old threads for more on this.

Yeah, this again. Because this is integral to Smile in general. What do you think Brian was reading/studying when he made the damn album? Absolutely he was reading Buddhism ("healthy eating," the Elements, etc) and it affected his entire worldview at the time. He was reading other esoteric tomes as well. Brian was well-read and prone to that kind of book.

Hey everyone!

So, after giving things another once-over in my head... I decided that I would still like to release the model.
I discuss my thoughts in a video here: https://youtu.be/7svhZEOz0ZE

While I don't explain everything in the tutorial, I do explain just enough to get a dedicated fan across the finish line.
I'm so excited to see what you guys are able to create!

You can learn more here: https://youtu.be/qrojawZbKzU

I'm very glad -- I've been meaning to do some additional stuff (the Worms melody from the box set, etc) to supplement your Bookoff Smile -- plus "Can't Wait Too Long"!

(PS: hello, I am a former member of the "Smile Community" and used to run the site that preceded this one, The Smile Shop, nice to meetcha!)

(In all other ways, that's a thing of beauty, and I'm sure Blue Hawaii will be same)

That is a really great interpretation! I just, personally, can't get the other lines in the song to fit into that structure 

Don't wanna overshare, the surprise is part of the fun after all, but I put up a short of some progress.
https://youtube.com/shorts/58GyNt3kCGg?feature=share

Having a lot of fun with this! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do making it.

Hello! Logging in from the distant past to say: VERY much enjoying the Smile stuff, BUT:

It's BEADED cheering Indians, not BEARDED!

As myself an "Indian" (Anishinaabe / Metis), I can tell you: growing beards is not our strong suit in any way! Many tribes haven't facial hair at all. Beads, on the other hand, are a staple of most tribes!

EASY: This three album run:

Pet Sounds
Smile
Wild Honey

Do keep us posted about his health -- he's got a lot of friends and fans out here in Beach Boys land and everybody's seriously concerned about him. Express my best wishes to him, if you could!!

- Jon Hunt

Good wishes to my pal Alan Boyd -- get well soon, mah friend.

Basically, I agree with everything Jeff Mason says so eloquently above.

I can't say I'm terribly concerned with the opinion on this album of folks who see little merit in this band (or Brian Wilson solo project, as they like to think of them) aside from Pet Sounds, which was kind of a fluke and Brian was just ripping off the Beatles anyway and then he went insane and stayed in bed for 30 years while Mike Love (aka Satan) released "Kokomo".

This is the most awesome summary of none of the reviews thus far posted!

"Peace and money! Ain't life funny?"

Actually: "Easy Money / Ain't Life Funny."

One particular statement or theme in this review (http://www.letoilemagazine.com/2012/05/23/we-will-rock-you-the-square-sounds-of-the-beach-boys/), how Brian Wilson has always been a colossal cornball, doesn't hold up when you put his music and his productions from 1963-67 into that equation. At that time, he was one of the few producers who had the ears of most in the pop music business, had more clout than I'd bet 98% of people his age and background in the business at that time, and that point continues to be driven home every time another of his peers says in an interview how influential his records at that time were on other artists and producers making pop music. The driving force behind that clout and respect was mostly the way his records sounded and the way they were received by the public and the record biz types alike.

Cornball sells in very large quantities but it doesn't garner the same level of respect and the same aura as innovation.

It's not about hip, it's not about pop-culture iconoclastic imagery, it's about putting out songs that people heard on the radio and on record and considered to be at the forefront of pop recording at that time. Brian *was* competitive at that time and has admitted it, he *was* trying to outdo Spector and the Beatles and others, and he was making records that were cutting-edge for pop or teen music of that era. I'd suggest there was a different kind of drive behind those records and that music, a different kind of mindset that went into creating them which did not go into nearly everything the man released from the 70's onward with a few but very significant exceptions, and even those exceptions had a foot in the past rather than a start-from-scratch mentality. There was that competitive edge in that process which the man himself admits he discarded soon after the Smile era, and making that kind of music no longer appealed to him as much as making records which pleased him.

The statement about cornball would ring more true if the years from, say, 1963-67 were taken out of the equation.

I also think comparing anything from this album to something from the 60's classic era is a mistake, as shown by Brian's reaction when Al attempted to link it somehow to Pet Sounds during the PBS interview. The mindset going into this latest album was not 1965, even though some of the resulting sounds may have come out sounding like 1965.

The new album may be cornball, but to apply that overall to Brian's music from the 60's didn't feel right - not completely wrong, but not right.

Yeah, but Craig, Brian Wilson, even during the hitmakin' years was always way more about the Four Freshmen and Rosemary Clooney -- the epitome of pure corn, though of course awesome! -- than Chuck Berry. His roots have always been in music other people would consider corny/cheesy. The point is that he was able to transform his influences into great songs. But the corn was there -- always. It came out in his songs, too!

And yeah -- there's no point in comparing this record to stuff from the 60s, even though in terms of quality the last few songs are on a par with, say, a Pet Sounds or a Til I Die.

I see the points, but I also don't hear that cornball element near as much as the review would suggest in the final products, especially from the "Golden Age" which I'd list as 1963-67. Freshmen, Clooney, Gershwin...check. However, and I mean this seriously, do we as people who listen to a lot of music hear any of that in the truly great singles the man was making? I Get Around? When I Grow Up? California Girls? Wouldn't It Be Nice?

I could list more but I'd be tempted to say if you played those classic BB singles for people in a blind test next to a stack of Clooney or Freshmen records, the similarities would be threadbare at best. It reminds me of reading various City Paper type publications and 'zines in the early 90's where the music writers would hear a rock band doing a vocal harmony or a jazzy chord change and immediately trot out the "Brian Wilson" comparison tag.

Again, if we take the larger overview of the band's history, specifically the stage act which more fans have spent money on than any new record releases since the 70's, the cornball element is huge and yes, it should be celebrated and enjoyed because it is part of the band's fun identity, no problems from me on that point.

But to paint the recorded legacy of Brian Wilson with that broad of a brush, I think it does paint over what was a young man making among the best and most forward-thinking recordings of his time and among his peer group, and those recordings influenced and continue to influence those in his field. If the cornball element were that strong *at that time*, Brian's records would be in the same bin as Winchester Cathedral or They're Coming To Take Me Away - novelties that sounded interesting but were ultimately forgettable and disposable.

It's just a difference of opinion, not saying either is right or wrong. Reviews and articles should inspire debate and discussion, and this one did just that! It was hard to get past the word or the theme of "cornball" for me.

I don't hear it in the hot hit singles, no, but I surely hear it in some of the ballads. Listen to "Your Summer Dream" or "Ballad of Ole Betsy" and stuff like that, you don't hear that? Those aren't a little corny? I mean, they're gorgeous, sure, but also: a little corny. I could list like a million others, too, even some of the rock tunes. And no, it wouldn't have been "novelty songs." That's not true at all, I don't think. that's not the only "corny" music out there.

It is a reviewer's prerogative to be somewhat hyperbolic, and to speak to the particular audience that reads reviews on that type of website. The only mistake he made was asking for anyone's opinions here.
I'm not a fan of the sound of the record per se, and not because I think it isn't hip. But I still like reviews that take a stab at leaving no room for denial. That is a Paul Williams hallmark.

Werd.

I'm not a fan of the sound of the record for LOTS of reasons -- totally stated 'em in the article, too. The bits about hipness in there were jibes at people, and you and I both know a ton of 'em, who only like the Beach Boys *because* they're hip. I was just saying you aren't going to be finding any of that here -- the hip sort of "Pet Sounds redux" music or whatever, this record has none of that, and don't we all agree with that? The point of the article was simply that if you are able to overlook the godawful production touches, you're gonna find good songs.

I dunno how dude above so thoroughly missed the point I was making, esp. considering so many other people got it. I guess if you go into a review with your fists up and ready to fight, you're gonna find something to fight about.

 

The reviewer in said review suggested that one who doesn't like the production is just preoccupied with it not being hip.

You could not have more thoroughly missed the point I was trying to make. Hint: that's not even close. I'm glad it got your panties up in a bundle, but go back and read again with your hackles *down* this time and see if you get it.

Again: not. even. close.

I gotta a funny feeling most of the reviews will be pretty negative

I think you're probably wrong.

Yeah, but Craig, Brian Wilson, even during the hitmakin' years was always way more about the Four Freshmen and Rosemary Clooney -- the epitome of pure corn, though of course awesome! -- than Chuck Berry. His roots have always been in music other people would consider corny/cheesy. The point is that he was able to transform his influences into great songs. But the corn was there -- always. It came out in his songs, too!

And yeah -- there's no point in comparing this record to stuff from the 60s, even though in terms of quality the last few songs are on a par with, say, a Pet Sounds or a Til I Die.

Here's the review I did of "That's Why God Made The Radio" for a Minneapolis arts rag I write for called L'Etoile.

http://www.letoilemagazine.com/2012/05/23/we-will-rock-you-the-square-sounds-of-the-beach-boys/

Lemme know what y'all think, whether or not you agree and all that.

good stuff, my one problem is when you imply that the sophistication of pet sounds/smile was something brian did "totally accidently".  Isn't it established that Brian was going for sophistication?

No no -- I said it *happened* accidentally. I even say as much re: brian shooting for hip, but the accident was that those albums arrived (or, in the case of Smile, didn't arrive!) in a world that totally welcomed sophisto chamber pop. Right time, right place, kind of.

Here's the review I did of "That's Why God Made The Radio" for a Minneapolis arts rag I write for called L'Etoile.

http://www.letoilemagazine.com/2012/05/23/we-will-rock-you-the-square-sounds-of-the-beach-boys/

Lemme know what y'all think, whether or not you agree and all that.

[Imagination]

Brian's vocals sounded great on Imagination and from "Think About The Days" and "Spring Vacation", he sounds great on this new album, so if anything, I'm all for Joe producing Brian's vocals, if it is indeed his work. The autotune gets to be a bit much, but whatever.

There is a slathering ton of the damn stuff, isn't there?

This seems to be Wilson and Thomas' follow-up to Imagination, with Beach Boys vocals. Interesting.

Well, and with no "Sunshine." THANK THE LORD.

I haven't heard a stream. I've heard bits and bobs of the songs via a telephone conversation with a friend. That's it. Not enough to judge, really, and so I edited my comments. I can say, though, that lots of what I heard was better than "Spring Vacation." Just in case folks are worried.

Let us know what you think on the RR, contardo!

I WILL DAMMIT

I haven't heard a stream. I've heard bits and bobs of the songs via a telephone conversation with a friend. That's it. Not enough to judge, really, and so I edited my comments. I can say, though, that lots of what I heard was better than "Spring Vacation." Just in case folks are worried.

well don't feel the need to edit yourself.  If you have heard bits and bobs that's more than the rest of us, so share your thoughts, they are welcomed here...

I *can* tell you that any worry about Bon Jovi's involvement in "Summer's Gone" can be allayed. Because it's remarkable.

I haven't heard a stream. I've heard bits and bobs of the songs via a telephone conversation with a friend. That's it. Not enough to judge, really, and so I edited my comments. I can say, though, that lots of what I heard was better than "Spring Vacation." Just in case folks are worried.