To my ears, Imagination was the best Brian sounded on record until BWRG. Full stop.

Nice, gentle lead singing and the last sustained use of his falsetto in backing harmonies.

Well in my opinion, the better the song on Imagination the better his vocal. "Your Imagination" and "Cry" have great vocals, but "Sunshine" and "Dream Angel" less so. Just my opinion, anyway. "Your Imagination" is REAL snazzy, though.

Darian did a terrific job, better than anyone else. I also believe that Brian's band is the most talented band in the business period. That said, there are points to both arguments. Yes, they were replicating/duplicating the sound the best they could, but I've heard Mark Linnett say Brian wwas involved quite a bit in getting the right sound during the sessions, you can see a bit of that in the studio footage which, while edited to hell and perhaps mimed a bit, shows him so excited he could barely contain it. So there's no use arguing that Brian was brain-dead during the BWPS sessions and the band were note-for-note replacing the original sessions, there's subtle differences if you look for them and Brian was supervising everything.

The REAL benefit of BWPS is in two factors, one of which gets stated a lot first 1) it presents BWPS in a complete form and finally puts to rest the myth that Smile was disconnected chaos, and a bunch of fragments that made no sense. Put all together, you can hear Brian's compositional and arranging skills in full-force, and you can see that his vision in '67 was complete and expert. 2) and most important for me, you hear Brian fully invested in the vocals, doing his first album in over 30 years where he sings BEAUTIFULLY from start to finish and, when thinking about it, shows Brian fully abandoning the "we junked it, it made no sense, it's not appropriate" attitude. He's really caring about this material. And in the personal realm, it lead to him conquering his demon's, writing over a dozen brand new songs and constructing an album from start to finish as many of us thought he never would, and lead to him investing in a set of Gershwin material and singing his best since the 60s on that. For those two factors alone, I'll always love the record.

Didn't Brian also write a bunch of songs during the recording of That Lucky Old Sun, songs that weren't used on that LP?  Wonder if we'll ever hear those?

According to Brian, he wrote about 18 songs during that time. Ten of them are on the album proper, and three more original tunes (Message Man, Oh Mi Amor and Just Like Me and You) were released as bonus tracks. So that leaves five other tracks -- and frankly, Brian might be counting his versions of I'm into Something Good and TLOS in that total.

Point is, there may well be a few songs hanging around from that writing binge, but not an albums' worth. I do believe, however, that Brian kept writing with Scott intermittently afterward and piled up a few other new tunes.

There are more than five song titles from that period mentioned. If you know where to look. 

Personally, I would love a map

Wonderful post Jon, bravo!

Sad news, he and Mike Stoller were very talented writers.

Fantastic ! Thank you once more for your work and for sharing this with us !

Where can those vocal sessions/outtakes be found? They don't sound familiar to me

All (or most) of the vocal overdub sessions for the released version of IKTAA were booted on the fourth disc of the first SOT Pet Sounds Volume.

I'm pretty sure that the backing vocals on the chorus of IKTAA are mixed really low in the released version, I could've sworn I heard them on the stereo version...

Gosh I'm suprised, I was expecting a sludgy-by-the-numbers kinda think. This is GORGEOUS.

This sounds sweet! Can't wait!

I believe the demo dates from 1986.  The song was around as early as 1985, when it was mentioned by Timothy White in Musician magazine's cover story on Brian.

Debbie Keil posted here awhile back that "The Angel Song," something he wrote for her, was around circa '79-'82, and it was the nucleus for what became this song.

I could've easily went to two of the performances but found out with only a week's notice and had scheduled something else that I couldn't cancel. I'm a big fan of their best stuff, but considering the bad performances and lack of Nez I can't say I'm too dissapointed.

I'm very dissapointed to see I didn't include Neko Case: Middle Cyclone was one of my top 5 albums of 2009.

I agree about the album name. Hope Brian doesn't wind up competing with himself.... maybe the sales of the Smile Sessions will spur sales of the other.

It's a terrific title for the album, and who knows the proximity of both releases may help the Disney album's sales: "Well, you've heard the brilliance of the Smile sessions, here's proof Brian's still got it!" I'm very excited for the release of this...

Is pornography allowed in this forum? I won't speak for anyone, but I'm sure some might find it offensive.

Do the breasts scare you? Or make you desirous of warm milk?

I desire an intelligent forum with decency and taste in which there are no stupid posts. Perhaps I can be an example to you, or the moderators if this continues.

Is pornography allowed in this forum? I won't speak for anyone, but I'm sure some might find it offensive.

Great topic

Favorite Female Singers:
For the "standards" set: Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday; Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand I like but don't love
I adore Dionne Warwick's voice, especially on Bacharach tunes
Dusty Springfield of course
Joni Mitchell
Laura Nyro
Carol King
Ronnie Spector
Carnie has a great set of pipes, always like Marilyn and Wendy but Wendy isn't a terribly special singer to me.
Christine McVie
Stevie Nicks
I liked Karen Carpenter's voice quite a bit, the material was 50/50 or so
Mama Cass Elliott
Darlene Love
Linda Ronstsdt
Nicolette Larson (mostly when she worked with Neil Young's stuff)
Evie Sands
Nico
Carly Simon
Always liked Alanis Morissette, although I know many do not
Bonnie Tyler on the Steinman stuff was good

As far as new voices I LOVE Victoria Legrand, sorta like Alicia Keys and Joanna Newsom and even say Norah Jones or Regina Spektor have good voices.

Aha really, never knew you were a Gabriel-era Genesis fan! I was hooked since "Supper's Ready" years and years ago.

They used to rehearse in The Maltings in my home town in 1969. Rutherford's parents lived here. Charterhouse isn't that far away.

Fascinating stuff, I wish I lived in England sometimes. Great group.

Roger Waters is a great choice, very talented lyricist with a definite vision for the band, but with a much better melody writer (Gilmour) and singer (Gilmour) and filled with more talented instrumentalists (Wright especially and also Gilmour), and Roger is certainly extremely outspoken. One difference, though, is Waters could write good melodies every now and then (although mostly he was very limited).

Daltrey respects the talented creative force of the who.    Does Mike respect the talented creative force of the Beach Boys?

Does Pete take any crap?  Does Brian take any crap?

Townshend is a mater of communication with tons of honesty, so I'd say he's very apt with Roger. Pete always calls a spade a spade, almost to a fault.

Aha really, never knew you were a Gabriel-era Genesis fan! I was hooked since "Supper's Ready" years and years ago.

[to]

Well, Taylor doubled a fair amount of Jeff's parts, so that is missing in the blend. She also had some parts specifically suited to her, especially on TLOS where she has a few moments of her own ("Good Kind of Love" and "Southern California" spring to mind) and she did the highest "have you seen the grand cooley" on "Cabinessence," so I miss her musical contributions, even if they weren't directly heard, or if her visual element (as a straight man) was more evident.

Taylor as a straight man. Nope, can't see that one...

Ahem, pardon me, what I meant was thus "even if her visual element (to a straight man) was more evident." Sorry for the confusion Andrew. 

Well, Taylor doubled a fair amount of Jeff's parts, so that is missing in the blend. She also had some parts specifically suited to her, especially on TLOS where she has a few moments of her own ("Good Kind of Love" and "Southern California" spring to mind) and she did the highest "have you seen the grand cooley" on "Cabinessence," so I miss her musical contributions, even if they weren't directly heard, or if her visual element (as a straight man) was more evident.

Wowzers, I just can't wait, this will likely be great!

Here's the proof that Brian had put on weight in 1978.

I've got to hear the "Sail on Sailor" with Scott vocal!

You know, I have no idea why this popped into my head, but I'm wondering if Christine McVie has a picture of Dennis on her wall? I still can't believe no one's really interviewed her about Dennis (or, rather, that she has never talked about him, I know she finds it painful), as you had the drummer for America's band and one of the lead singers for one of the biggest groups of the 70s together for several years.

But Karen Lamm lived a hell of a life, each time I read more about her I learn something really interesting.