I never knew it was a corner lot.  Maximum foot traffic.  I heard it never made money.

I'm not buying his view of Brian as terminally square.  LA in the '60's was perhaps the most middle class city in the US- full of previously poor and ambitious people drawn there by defense jobs in the 1940's and 1950's. Look at the airport photo- is this the cream of LA hip?  Do those people look like they would be laughing behind Brian's back?  Danny Hutton's real hits were three years away, around the time that the Turtles stopped having them.  Jan and Dean were over by then.  Anderle got an industry job. Parks, as far as I know, remained a friend of Brian's.  Mike Vosse didn't start any trends with his high water pants and deck shoes.  The last big hit by the Byrds was not long after that picture was taken. What was "hip" in LA other than money? Brian was making lots of it and people were drawn to that. Lots of people were looking at things differently back then, and I think Brian was as clueless of where it was going to go as everyone else.  Americans were still very provincial back then- Americana was big in San Francisco as well- lots of folk songs got the psychedelic treatment up there, and the clothes were very 19th century.  So Hendrix didn't like the Beach Boys- Lennon didn't like Crosby, Stills, and Nash enough to sign them to Apple- no big whoop. And "Up From The Skies" would be a better record with the Boys doing Smile era backgrounds...

1967-  teen magazines are full of news about H&V and the album to come.
1969- First heard Cabinessence
1971- First a local DC arts rag and then the Rolling Stone story detailed unheard music.
1972- Al Jardine tells me after a show at Ocean City, MD that Smile is "coming out soon".
1977-78- the Leaf and Priess books
1982- horrible sounding cassette of "Do You Like Worms" and a few others sent to me from Texas.
1983 plus- the rest of the story.

In DC at the time we had an AM "underground" station called WHMC hosted in the evenings by Barry Richards (who has a new DVD out of some of his local 60's-70's TV shows).  He played "Add Some Music" steady for about a week and even pushed it a little by talking about it (Fred Vail hype?), but it never caught on and after a week it wasn't played anymore.  It really wasn't in tune with the heavier stuff played on that station, but it did get a good airing- I could sing all the lyrics by the time they stopped playing it. The single was available in all the record shops- wasn't hard to find at all, unlike every other single they put out until R&R Music.  I liked the song a lot but thought some of the lyrics were corny-  my 13 year old sister thought the "dentist chair" line was funny.

It certainly sounds like it's a "button job" but the mono version is not an unpleasant experience.  Very solid sounding and well balanced.

Although I read all the hype in the teen mags about H&V back in 1967 (and there was plenty-  this was the big followup to GV and all the publications hyped it) and I bought the 45 when it came out, I did not get the impression that something was missing in the fall of 1967.  They kept releasing albums and the teen mags were not full of "their great album has been scrapped" stories, so Smile fell off my radar until 1970-1971 when they signed with Reprise and stories started to filter out.  So I've been waiting 40 years.

This thread sparks a lot of memories. Please indulge me... I remember hearing the Wild Honey lp at the end of 1967.  I was 13 years old.  Even though I lived in an affluent area near DC,  I only knew one person who had a component stereo system- homemade Heathkit tube amp and AR speakers.  This was the time when stereo was getting more widespread, and I remember being really impressed with the Airplane's "After Bathing at Baxters" in stereo- I became more interested in audiophile things after hearing that. The rest of us had our parents console stereos of the day, and they were mid-fi at best.  The first copy of Wild Honey I heard was the stereo pressing- which is bass/treble rechannelled.  From across the room it didn't sound too bad, but I remember wondering why it sounded so dry and underproduced compared to H & V (I hadn't heard Smiley Smile yet). I liked most of the songs, and loved the pounding bass,  but it was so different from all the psychedelic stuff that everyone was buying.  When I heard Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" a month later everyone said Dylan's leading the way back to basics but you weren't allowed to say the Beach Boys were ahead of that pop game, things were starting to get Stalinist then- clear lines between the hip and unhip.  I don't remember what most of my friends thought about Wild Honey sound wise but more than a couple had this record, it was played a lot. None of then bought "Friends"- I think the group's exile was complete by then (I didn't buy it either until a couple of years later, but I did like the 45 of "Friends" and bought that).  My girlfriend liked "Darlin" and I remember girls in the neighborhood dancing to it off the radio. And "I'd Love Just Once To See You" had instant notoriety-  I remember hearing teenage boys singing that last line to girls to see what sort of reaction they would get...and most people thought the background vocals on "I Was Made To Lover Her" said "...you son of a bitch I love her".

For the most part, the 80's green labels are very good.  Stay away from "Today", and "Summer Days" which are rechannelled.  Pet Sounds is ok, but I still like the Warner cut of that one.  I also like the Capital original of "Friends" over the green label- there seems to be more dynamic range.  The rest are fine.  "Surfer Girl" lp is superb- they conquered all the heavy sibilances that are on all the other presses.

Circa 1974-75, Bomp magazine was selling copies of this on 5" reel and cassette, with the photo reproduced but not the letter.  I was wise enough to get the reel tape. Diane sounds very nasal and says she has a cold, but it always sounded to me like something more deliberate....

Elton wears a wig.

I was there last night as well.  There has been no promotion at all- my friends who usually go to Brian shows didn't even know he was playing.  I had a lawn seat but there were very  few people on the lawn and we sat just behind the regular seating. DC may be doing somewhat ok economically, but people are struggling beyond the inner suburbs, and I think all shows will suffer this year.  The show was very good, I don't have more to add, except that Probyn used the theremin-thing a few times in the Gershwin set to good effect, especially in "Summertime".  Thinking back, the crowd was about the same size as the Baltimore show on the first Pet Sounds tour (2000?).  I had 2 extra 10th row seats for that show and couldn't sell them for half the price.  The Mike and Bruce show will be there later in the summer, they usually sell out.

Manson offered free naked, eager,  and often teenaged female flesh- the most potent drug there is to a young male.  That the "golden penetrators" and their friends bought the Manson "submission is a gift"  brochure that went with it is unsurprising.

I was 12 going on 13 in 1967.  I mostly remember a lot of hype about H & V, and how it was going to be this huge progression from GV.  Back then, we got info from top 40 am radio or magazines like "Song Hits" or "Tiger Beat".  There was a weekly mag you could pick up at record stores and burger joints called "Go" which had a lot of info about new releases that was a fun read.  I don't recall reading much about Smile music in general, and the hype about H & V seemed to go on for months- must have been the Derek Taylor machine.  I bought the 45 on the day of release and didn't think it was such a huge progression but I kept playing the "My children were raised" part over and over- that blew me away. As a side note- I never saw the picture sleeve for H & V prior to 1974 or even knew of its existence.  Once I did see it I saw them everywhere.  Was this something pulled out of old stock in the 1970's?  Did anyone here see the picture sleeve in the 1960's?

I was at the November 1971 show at Georgetown University in DC and it was sold out and well appreciated by the crowd.  Jack Reilly came out before the show and asked the crowd not to call out songs until the end because the set list was already determined.  Somebody kept calling out "Don't Back Down!" during the second half anyway (there was an intermission). Dennis played drums during the encore.  The ads in the papers (obviously a Reilly concoction) stated "They've changed more than you".  I kept one of those ads for a while but it's long gone. There was applause when they mentioned their "new" album Surf's Up, which I was happy about, it wasn't getting any airplay.  The next time they showed up in my area was in April 1972 at the U. of Maryland, one of Bruce's last shows, and the crowd was larger.  I went to every show regionally (probably 15 shows) that I could get to after that up to but not including the Beachago circus.  The only one not well attended was the 2nd of 2 shows at Constitution Hall in DC in November 1972 (the first one appeared to be a near sellout, I was at both).  That 2nd show was great- Mike called everyone down to the front and they rocked to their most rabid DC fans for 2 hours- they did River Song and We Got Love- Mike had his maharaja outfit on for Jumpin' Jack Flash.  I stopped going to their shows 1974-1977 because they were monstrous again and played mostly hits.  Once Brian started touring in 1977 I went regularly, but it was sometimes painful to see him- he was very nervous. The last time I eagerly went to a Beach Boys show was in summer 1983 when they were doing shows after sporting events.  Mine was a soccer game at the famous RFK stadium in DC.  It was the last time I saw Dennis.  Brian was newly slimmed down and had a lot of energy- standing up and pounding the keys, playing tambourine, even waltzing with Dennis during the encore.  I only saw them one more time after that- in 1991 and they had dancing girls through the whole show- the crowd loved it but it seemed forced to me.  I've only seen Brian shows since then.

That single Reprise pressing of Pet Sounds came out circa 1974- I was giving it as birthday presents that year.

At either the 1980 or 1981 4th of July show on the DC Mall, Mike mentioned on stage that Brian had written a great new song "Stevie"- and then didn't perform it. Now that I've finally heard it I'm really angry....

I bought H & V when it came out in 1967. It had a plain white sleeve.   I never saw the picture sleeve until I started going to record shows in 1974.  Did anyone here get that sleeve in 1967? Everyone I've talked to that would remember back that far (and we are all east coasters) claims never to have seen one until the 1970's.

Terry and Candice rented a house up on Cielo Drive....

The problem with the sound of KTSA is the recording set up.  The notes say it was recorded with two synched 24 track machines and everything stereo miked.  That's 47 (with a synch track) or 48 tracks with all the tape hiss that is generated.  I'm sure they used some sort of noise reduction, resulting in the sludgy mess that disappointed me when I first heard it.

Yeah, it's always sounded like Carl to me.

I disagree about the 1990 Friends/20-20 cd.  That pressing has the stereo spread folded a bit towards the center (on Friends only, not 20-20), not the wide stereo spread of the lp and 2001 cd.  It sounds wrong to me.  The other comments are pretty much what I believe- the 1990 versions are basically less messed with but have too much noise reduction.  The 2001 versions have less noise reduction but more messing around with the signal, and are louder.  The bonus tracks were remixed for the 1990 and again for the 2001  versions, so there are some differences.  A couple of the 2001's have special bonus material after the end of the disc. "Today" has always sounded a bit muffled in all its incarnations- the best I've heard is the Japanese "Pastmasters" series cd version of it- but it still isn't a night and day difference.

If you want to see something hilarious, Brando does a "performance" during this show where he's playing guitar and wearing "clam digger" pants and doing that south sea island flapping knees dance while his then wife Tarita dances in traditional Tahitian grass skirt.  I've only seen this on a documentary- can't find it on the web.

From the first time I saw the Boys in concert in 1971 as a 17 year old, my fellow BB fans and I all thought it would be best if Mike toned down the corny jokes.  A lot of them seemed forced ("...Yes- take a load off your feet by elevating your consciousness!!").  But it became clearer the more shows I attended that the live band needed a more forceful frontman- Carl was always very shy at the mic until later in the 1970's; Dennis relied on his looks- never said too much until the heavy alcohol years; Al never said anything; Bruce usually did the announcement type stuff ("Voter registration out front". "Anybody see the Moody Blues last night?".)  So it was always down to Mike.  As the crowds got bigger, Mike did seem to tone it down and become more of a host, and when I have seen them in recent years my cringe reaction has been idle.  I met Mike after a show once- 1972 at Ocean City, MD- he, Al, and Dennis came out to a parking lot area next to the beach and chatted to anyone who wanted to chat.  It was clear that both Dennis and Mike were checking out the female talent but they weren't real obvious or aggressive- Dennis left after a few minutes with friends.  Mike listened attentively to my 18 year old blathering about liking all the new stuff, being a big fan, etc, and never let on that it was tiresome- he seemed happy that we all came out to the show.  So while part of me says he's nothing more than Eddie Haskell all grown up, he's also a decent and friendly guy.  There are plenty of jerks in show business, and if you got rid of them there would be few decent bands.  Hell, Van Dyke Parks is quoted in a recent Ugly Things issue stating that Terry Melcher thought David Crosby was the worst person he ever met in the music business- Manson was second! Ouch!! Mike Love combined hard work and good luck to get where he is- just like most successful people.

Ironically, the most successful album released that day was neither Dylan's nor Brian's, but Bill Cosby's "Wonderfullness".  He was huge back then.

Northern Light's Bio says the band began in 1975.  So when was "Standing Tall" recorded?  "Sweet Mountain" is from 1971 or 1972.