Is the endangered animal safari package included?

You can all

I'd love to be able to download the mp3's PLUS order the book (physical or digital). But unfortunately not possible. Never play cd's or vinyl, always transfer to mp3. Don't get me wrong, been a fan and bought vinyl ever since 1965, but times have changed...

I've seen there's Hi-Res mp3 available. Any information on that? The quality compared to cd/vinyl?

Qobuz lists a FLAC download for around £55, which is lossless format, higher quality than mp3. However you can rip FLAC files from the CD anyway with a computer.

24 bit 88.2 khz files are being offered, which is actually better quality than cd.

Actually no, that is not fact, only your own opinion. You're welcome to subscribe to a very narrow view of what the BB could have been at that time. From this vantage point of 2021, you may feel that way, but in 1966, anything was possible.

There's often a passive aggressive tinge to much of Bruce's Brian praise, I find. He always seems to be towing the line, like in the Smile book essay where he gushes about how great the music is but then asserts that it shouldn't have gone out under the Beach Boys name. His continued disdain for the Friends album still baffles.

I'm sure the HD will be a welcome upgrade, but otherwise the trend for these recent documentaries has invariably been: more superficial, more contemporary talking heads, more of an EPK for the band than a die hard deep dive. I'd love to be wrong, though, of course...

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

1. Smile Sessions
2. Pet Sounds
3. Friends
4. The Beach Boys Today!
5. Summer Days and Summer Nights
6. All Summer Long
7. Shut Down, Volume 2
8. Sunflower
8. Surf's Up
10. Smiley Smile

Honorable Mention: The Beach Boys Love You

Macca has always had that businessman side of his brain. Exploitative? Maybe. He wouldn't release all those variants though if there weren't so many people with the impulsive need to buy all of them. I was fine with a high resolution download myself.

I want to thank Mike Love for his continued uncanny ability to invent new and novel ways of making me embarrassed to be a Beach Boys  fan, well into the 21st Century!

Very cool. I had already heard that track a couple times and didn't pick up that there was a sample of Brian.

Re: Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues was my favorite; that was gorgeous. I didn't get into that last album as much. This one is growing on me.

I like Grizzly Bear too, but for me it's all about Daniel Rossen. I am a HUGE fan of that guy.

Nice work on this! I'm sure it was a challenge matching the phrasing from a different time signature... you have a natural sense of rhythm in your edits.

I made a couple minor tweaks and will include it in my "Friends Deluxe" playlist from now on; thanks so much.

There was a big blitz on AMC back when the Endless Harmony doc came out, and they were rotating rare BB clips between programs. These were two of them.

That second clip features the alternate tag of This Whole World that was allegedly going to be on the Feel Flows box...

Sure, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Dennis lobbied for its inclusion. He always seemed very fond of that track, and kept revisiting it! He also gave the press possibly the only contemporaneous quote about CITFOTM during the making of Smile, at least other than Brian.

That production / arrangement is so Brian through and through, and so integral to the recording, that I kind of consider it to be an unofficial (and arguably the quintessential) Dennis / Brian Collab.

I'm sure it's been discussed, but Dennis was seemingly *obsessed* with Child is Father of the Man. I can immediately think of at least three of his songs that quoted it musically: this one, Time off POB, and Away from the recent Wake the World set!

Here's an interesting thought. If Bruce had also isolated himself from Mike, in a way similar to Al, would Mike have taken the name solely for himself?

Yes.

I don't think we should lay the 60s to rest because, as I said, the copyright releases did not address much of what was recorded in early 1965. This is prime BB, with Pet Sounds coming right around the corner.

I also would love another Friends release, to supplement what we got last year.

No need to limit to one era, surely?

We're still missing a lot of session work from early '65.  The copyright release for 2015 focussed solely on Party!, unfortunately.

I put together a deluxe alternate edition of Friends. It clocks in at just under one hour. All tracks are from the Friends album unless otherwise indicated:

1. Meant for You - Alt (Made in California)
2. Friends - Instrumental Track (Wake the World)
3. Friends
4. Wake the World - Alt (Wake the World)
5. Be Here in the Morning - Instrumental Track (Wake the World)
6. Be Here in the Morning
7. When a Man Needs a Woman - Alt Instrumental (Wake the World)
8. When a Man Needs a Woman
9. Passing By - Alt (Wake the World)

10. Time to Get Alone - Alt Instrumental Track (Sunshine Tomorrow 2)
11. Time to Get Alone - Alternate Version (Sunshine Tomorrow)
12. Lonely Days - Alternate Version (Sunshine Tomorrow)
13. Our New Home (Wake the World)
14. Walk on By (I Can Hear Music)
15. I Went to Sleep (20/20)
16. Old Man River - Instrumental Track (I Can Hear Music)
17. Old Man River - a capella (I Can Hear Music)
18. Old Man River (I Can Hear Music)

19. Anna Lee, the Healer
20. Little Bird - Instrumental Track (Wake the World)
21. Little Bird
22. Be Still
23. Even Steven (Wake the World)
24. Diamond Head - Alt (Wake the World)
25. Transcendental Meditation
26. New Song / Transcendental Meditation (Wake the World)

I don't expect Mike to go that route, frankly. That's not to say I'm not done with him. I am. But I imagine he'll be a little more careful with future bookings. The almighty dollar means more to him than anything else, after all. This has been evident since at least 1966.

Beard seems like a nice guy, and I hold nothing against him personally, but clearly he depends on band access to do what he does, hence this drivel. Sad really, what people are expected to stoop to to stay in Mike's orbit.

No more ESQ for me!

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

RIP Neil

Well, it's complicated, isn't it? There's going to be some cognitive dissonance involved because I still love the music, plan to buy the good stuff (should any more be forthcoming) and I don't feel beholden to the terms of an activist who was clearly not a Beach Boys fan and had little to lose in not listening to their music any more. I only signed on when encouraged by Brian and Al. But separating the past from the present is not an easy thing to do when two of the members stand in opposition to most of what I believe in the current environment. I don't know how this will affect my enjoyment of the music at this point. It's strange days as a fan for sure, and it's sad, but Brian's great art will endure for me.

Never thought I'd see the day when the thought "I wish the Beach Boys were more like REO Speedwagon" could enter my mind.

Thing is, this should cut a little deeper for the Mike and Bruce Show than a simple "politics of the moment" consideration... Conservation and environmental concerns have been a part of the "branding" of this band since at least the 70s. It hasn't always jived with other political stances that the Love contingent has taken, and it appears that this dichotomy is finally being put to the test in a very public way. I guess we'll get a better sense of what these guys' real priorities are very soon.