Surfin' USA

Two observations:
1. The story of the construction of this song is starting to remind me of the very involved Good Vibrations.
2. Since Brian dislikes the "gibberish" lyrics, it'd be cool if he (and perhaps Van Dyke) rewrote them.

It's been written Murry had diverticulitis just before his first heart attack, and IIRC that he and Dennis would watch the fights together, at times "virtually" via phone.

I wish I had Brian's head of hair

A) Me too.
B) Alternately, I wish I looked like Jan Berry.

I just uploaded a new slideshow video that I made for 'The Elements' from Smile. I already made a video for 'The Elements' a few years ago, but I thought I could do it better, so here it is. I hope you'll check it out. This is probably the last Smile video I'll ever make. I'm not sure what comes next.

The Elements-   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSlSy2nfffk

I've just come across your Smile slideshow. A masterwork. Thank you.

[really]

A thread (and a song) incredibly near & dear to my heart...

Salty--your listing sounds pretty right on to me, after 5,000+ listens to the track over the years (g-d it, to think it's been nearly half a century...Lord help us all!).

Just making sure of one thing: when you talk "chorus," you are talking about the "One arm over my shoulder/Sandals dance at my feet" section that ends "Oo Marcella so sweet," yes? You guys are hearing Al singing these lines (or some of them)? I'm hearing Carl, particularly on the "dance at my feet" (which has some of the same hard-ass inflection that's on display in "Mess of Help").

Can you break down the lines in the choruses a bit more to guide me toward hearing where Al is on these?

Billy, really want to hear that extracted track! Can you maybe find the same for "Mess of Help" again? Remember being amazed by that as well when it was available to hear.

My little six-song iTune set designed to blow away bad vibes ("in 20 minutes or less!") kicks off with three BB songs all worked on (if not exactly released) in '72: "Marcella," "SOS" (the most instrumental version with vocals only at the ned), and "Mess of Help." Better than any ingested/injected drug for returning to "precocious adolescent" sonic ecstasy...

The magnificently energetic intricacy of the vocal arrangements on Marcella: unquestioned. Who was responsible for 'em: less certain. Remembering reading a "progress report" in a music mag in January 1972 from critic Billy Altman who was apparently present at the BBs December sessions and whose preview blurb was "over the galaxy" about "Marcella"...but it also  strongly intimated that Brian was very involved in those sessions (or, should I say, at the "Marcella" sessions, at least). That entire period, with its result of swapping out Bruce and adding in Blondie/Ricky and the internecine intrigues with Rieley etal, is still in need of a lot more documentary detail.

One last observation/question: given the unmitigated awesomeness of the live version of "Marcella," why do you suppose that Warners didn't at least try to put it out as a 45? Or would it be still somehow be seen as "too un-BB" to work commercially? I'm still of the opinion that they screwed things up by leading with "Mess of Help" as the first 45 from SO TOUGH--the advance tag line could've been "We can't wait for June!" with "Marcella" bringing the BBs into a perfect moment of alignment with the past and the present. My admittedly outré love for "Mess of Help" does not blind me to the fact that it couldn't "help" but confuse folks who'd just connected with SURF'S UP--the first reaction to it at the time was "that's pretty good! ...wait/what, it's the BEACH BOYS?? (insert brakes and car crash sounds here)." While Jack is famous for that quote about how the BBs "blew it," they had a "mess of help" from WB in 1972...

Brian said in his autobiography he was initially very involved in the Marcella session, IIRC.

Favorite: Smile (even in its unfinished state)
Least favorite: The Beach Boys (1985), except for Male Ego and Getcha Back.
Overrated: All Summer Long
Underrated:Friends (from outside the fan base)

Imagine if he was still this talkative in interviews.

Including the one I did with him in 2005.

(2) I have no intention at all of boycotting the recorded oeuvre of The Beach Boys, regardless of whether Mike & Bruce sing "Fun, Fun, Fun" for this Safari Club on Wednesday or not.  If Brother Records Inc. releases a Sunflower box set or some other issue in which I'm interested, I'm not going to say, "Well, Mike & Bruce played a gig for the big-game-hunting industry, so forget it."  I'd be lying if I pretended that was my position.   Mike and Bruce and their associates playing gig, reprehensible as it may be, has nothing to do with the music that Brian and Al and Carl and Dennis recorded 50 years ago.  

Exactly, the petition goes too far.

Breakaway, Aren't You Glad (studio and live), 'Til I Die, Funky Pretty, It's Over Now.

Sure, Brian surpassed Jan overall, but Jan far surpassed Brian for comedy.

I'll take The Submarine Races, One Piece Topless Bathing Suit, the spoken-word skits of Jan and Dean Meet Batman and Side 4 of the Jan and Dean 1971 Legendary Masters album (the entire original Filet of Soul is a bit much) way, way, way over Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson, Our Favorite Recording Sessions and Bull Session With the Big Daddy anytime.
Also, while Brian was progressing albumwise, IMO J and D were kind of falling apart in that area — their albums just before Jan's accident were kind of unfocused and, in two cases (Batman and Filet) had to be revised. And as much as I like A Beginning From An End musically, it is very bizarre.

Brian-I'm Waiting for the Day (empathy galore)
Mike- His part on Cool, Cool Water
Al-Susie Cincinnati
Carl-Where We Are
Dennis-Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Live Again)
Bruce-Disney Girls as featured on the Royal Philharmonic Album
David Marks-Getcha Back live in 2012, which I saw in Montreal.

I'm a huge Carl fan, so I am surprised I don't recognize the title Where We Are.

Where We Are is an outtake circa 1978 or so...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEksIhraQtg

Regarding fake live albums, Gene Pitney told Goldmine Magazine IIRC that his live album was a studio job in which the audience noise was taken from a boxing match, and that the album even included the bell from the match! And although James Brown was acclaimed for his Apollo live album, he had some fakes too, including one or two studio tracks from his 1963 Pure Dynamite album, the Showtime from 1964 which was all studio recordings with applause in between tracks, the 1970 Sex Machine album which was fake live on Record 1 but real live on Record 2, and 1971's Super Bad which may have been entirely fake live.

Brian-I'm Waiting for the Day (empathy galore)
Mike- His part on Cool, Cool Water
Al-Susie Cincinnati
Carl-Where We Are
Dennis-Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Live Again)
Bruce-Disney Girls as featured on the Royal Philharmonic Album
David Marks-Getcha Back live in 2012, which I saw in Montreal.

Just to add, the Beach Boys: Best of the Brother Years CD credits the song's production just to Al Jardine.

The Best Buy near me doesn't sell music, period. It's all technology stuff. I very much miss the Barnes and Noble book and CD store near me.

I miss Borders.

Al looks like he might not have been keeping it clean here. 

Poor Al looks like an anarchist on the gatefold of So Tough.

Al looks like he might not have been keeping it clean here. 

Exactly what I was thinking. Brian actually looks more sober, despite the beer can in hand.

To me, Brian just looks worn out from everything he had been through. Perhaps the saddest picture I've seen of him.

I'm getting a new car soon, and am considering getting a personalized plate that says "SMILE."

I'm almost finished the book. One question I have (and I haven't read the whole thread so I don't know if it was mentioned)- the infamous angry argument between the Beach Boys on the airport tarmac in 1977 is not dealt with at all. Considering, from what I've read, that at least some of the argument was about Stephen Love, why was this omitted?

This is from an article in '77 -

Earle remembers the first time he did a session with Brian. "About a year and a half ago, before 15 Big Ones was released we did some basic tracks and Brian was very tense in the studio. We recorded a version of 'Ding Dang', and a few weeks later waxed a song called 'Back Home.'
"Things started clicking," Earle recalls. "Carl came into the booth when we were playing back the track and said, 'Earle! This is the way it used to be! This is it! You're seeing it! It's happening now!"

I was under the impression Carl got excited during Brian's session for You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.

IIRC, Peter Ames Carlin thinks Brian was being mischievous.

Biggest career mishap:

The day Carl started to smoke.

 

Another option is subscribing to YouTube Music. The advantage over Spotify is you have access to both what is on Spotify and what is not on the srteaming sites but is on YouTube. Then you can create a playlist, download it online and listen offline.

There was also the story of Brian buying an expensive instrument for a member of the Wrecking Crew because it was needed for the session, and then saying "it's yours."