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Love You 100%.  I'm not saying Love You is my favorite BB album, or the best BB album, but I really hate almost all of Smiley Smile.  I know that people have debated whether or not "Good Vibrations" should even be on here; obviously, that (GV) is a great song, so I'm not including it in a "poor review" of sorts.  H&V is good, though I prefer the verse to the Bicycle Rider chorus.   I love "Vegetables".  There are parts of some other songs (like "With You Tonight") that I like that are otherwise ruined by psychedelic drug-fueled laughter and chaos.   If you couldn't tell, I'm very hit-or-miss when it comes to psychedelic music, and I know this makes me a "bad fan" (haha), but I still haven't listened to all of the original SMiLE -- or BWPS -- yet (partly because I don't know if I would like it or not).

Love You isn't perfect; I think it (like one of my favorite BB albums: Wild Honey) could use some more guitars.  There are definitely songs and some lyrics that lean more into the bizarre ("I Wanna Pick You Up", etc.).  However, there are others I love ("Roller Skating Child", etc.).

It took me until Brian died until I listened to some of their earliest and latest albums which Id written off because I knew I wouldn't care much for them. In one or two instances like Surfer Girl I was pleasantly surprised otherwise it confirmed what Id already suspected. (Surfin Safari and Stars n Strioes are not for me.) You dont have to listen to every release by an artist to be a fan and certainly not all at once. Ill never understand the people who give others grief for not slogging thru the 80s material we all know is almost all complete garbage just for the sake of completion. Theres other better music out there! Suffering thru mediocre music just because it has Brian's name on it doesn't make someone a better fan.

I mean, I still consider SMiLE some of the best music ever made so I think you should listen, but you do you 

Love You 100%.  I'm not saying Love You is my favorite BB album, or the best BB album, but I really hate almost all of Smiley Smile.  I know that people have debated whether or not "Good Vibrations" should even be on here; obviously, that (GV) is a great song, so I'm not including it in a "poor review" of sorts.  H&V is good, though I prefer the verse to the Bicycle Rider chorus.   I love "Vegetables".  There are parts of some other songs (like "With You Tonight") that I like that are otherwise ruined by psychedelic drug-fueled laughter and chaos.   If you couldn't tell, I'm very hit-or-miss when it comes to psychedelic music, and I know this makes me a "bad fan" (haha), but I still haven't listened to all of the original SMiLE -- or BWPS -- yet (partly because I don't know if I would like it or not).

Love You isn't perfect; I think it (like one of my favorite BB albums: Wild Honey) could use some more guitars.  There are definitely songs and some lyrics that lean more into the bizarre ("I Wanna Pick You Up", etc.).  However, there are others I love ("Roller Skating Child", etc.).

I love this!!  Is there any way that you all could consider adding tabs for the guitar and bass parts for future uploads of the sheet music to the official sites?

Thanks!!

P. S. A small preamble explaining how you all got involved in this project could be helpful and interesting as well, if you'd ever consider adding that.  I know c-man and Joshilyn have been working on these things for years, but less (I think) is known about how the rest of you worked your way into such an awesome and lucky group.

I never posted here when Brian passed, but I did post on Facebook.  Though I'm extremely late, I thought I'd place an edited version of my Facebook post (from June) here as well:

Many of you know how important music is to me. It was extremely important for Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys' co-founder, musician, songwriter, and producer extraordinaire.  He and his bandmates have gone through/went through six decades of harmony and turmoil together.  He overcame an abusive father, hearing loss, mental health issues, drug addiction, the deaths of his younger brothers Dennis and Carl, and much more in his 82 years to become one of the greatest songwriters of popular music, if not all music ever.    Who else could turn songs as complex as "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows", "Good Vibrations", and many others into catchy singalong hits that have endured for decades?

I can't remember my earliest memories of Brian and The Beach Boys, but I know that I will always love their music.  I had the honor of seeing Brian perform (with his friends: Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine and later addition Blondie Chaplin) twice: in 2017 and on Brian's final tour in 2022.  (I have also seen Mike Love and Bruce Johnston's touring band twice: in 2015 and 2019).  It is hard to try to put thoughts into words of how important Brian and his music have been to the lives of generations.  As others have written, he gave people joy with his music that he did not often have.

I would like to thank my parents for taking me to hear Mike & Bruce play Brian and the band's wonderful catalog of music in 2015 and to see Brian & Al (with Blondie) in 2022.  I would also like to use this opportunity to thank my great-uncle and great-aunt for giving me their collection of original 60s pressings of almost every Beach Boys record released during that decade and for taking me to see Brian & Al (with Blondie) in 2017 and Mike & Bruce in 2019.  This helped me develop from a casual fan to a hardcore fan of their hits and then to a hardcore fan of their broader catalog as I dove into deep cuts on these albums and more.   I would like to thank my guitar teacher, who taught me for 11 years, for making demo recordings, including covers of their hit "Little Deuce Coupe" and deep cut "Goin' to the Beach."  He also helped me with a professional demo of "Help Me, Rhonda", which I am still working on at the moment.   I've performed some of their songs when I have had a (very rare) gig in the past, at open mic nights, and at performances during college.   

Today, I listened to various versions of hits and deep cuts, including "Please Let Me Wonder", "I Get Around", "In My Room", "Sail On, Sailor", "Add Some Music To Your Day", and "The Little Girl I Once Knew".  I know I will be playing much more of Brian and the band's music throughout the summer (and of course beyond), especially in preparation for one of my friends and me seeing Al Jardine perform (with members of Brian's band) next month.  I am sure it will be emotional for Al, the band, my friend, me, and the rest of the audience as well at that concert and many others.

In the words of former Beatles and Beach Boys "press secretary" Derek Taylor, "Brian Wilson is a genius," and to modify these words slightly, Brian Wilson will always be a genius.

Are there any contemporary or retrospective interviews that go into this, out of curiosity ?

I agree with someon of you, GV doesnt have all this sense in the album... It was a link from.pet sounds from smile. But capital would have put it in the tracklist.

I wonder if there are any contemporary quotes about Good Vibrations not belonging or its inclusion being a record company thing? Or is that just an assumption fans have made over the years?

Personally, I've always thought it belonged in the Smile project, full stop. The Mike lyrics are a little outside of the Van Dyke Parks vibe, sure, but having one song about the rush of falling in love in the context of all the coming of age stuff makes sense to me. More importantly, I've always thought of the concept of good vibrations (thinking back to the famous Audree anecdote) as really a thesis statement for Smile: *vibrations,* not melodies or songs or lyrics or even music, but sound itself, on some deeper or more elemental level, can convey something beyond language. Smile is a sound experience, and what could be a better advertisement for that than the words "Good Vibrations Good Vibrations Good Vibrations"

But then, I've always thought Sloop John B belongs perfectly on Pet Sounds, too...

The only ones I can recall are AGD's book and Glimpses which is a fictional novel. Im not ready to die on the hill it was definitely a record company thing

Nothing further was planned, but the thought was that the sessions might move to Don Was' Chomsky Ranch studio on the proviso that he coordinate their schedules. He didn't, and in Don's own memory of what happened next (via Mark Dillon's book), a month passed before he told Brian that the material wasn't up to snuff, and that he should write better songs before they work on an album. Brian's enthusiasm obviously evaporated at that, and the situation never came up again. The group had already committed to Stars & Stripes at that point (started beforehand, in October '95) and by early 1996 were in Nashville working with Joe Thomas. Brian and Melinda put the blame on Carl for changing his tune and deciding Soul Searchin' wasn't commercial enough some amount of time after the fact, but clearly whenever this conversation took place it was already a non-starter. Bruce was gunning for the group to work with Sean O'Hagan and Melinda was gunning for Brian to focus on a solo album with Joe Thomas. Carl certainly didn't shut a project in progress down, and it isn't a situation where you can assign blame to any one person. Don Was, if someone has to take the fall.

Damn, talk about believing something and then finding out it just... didn't happen that way!

So sad about Don Was. I mean, I guess in general the whole point of working with someone like Don Was is that he'll tell it to you straight. But in this case, a real shame... Though that said, if Brian was that fragile about it I guess it would have taken an actual miracle to get an entire Beach Boys album recorded.

I agree with someon of you, GV doesnt have all this sense in the album... It was a link from.pet sounds from smile. But capital would have put it in the tracklist.

I wonder if there are any contemporary quotes about Good Vibrations not belonging or its inclusion being a record company thing? Or is that just an assumption fans have made over the years?

Personally, I've always thought it belonged in the Smile project, full stop. The Mike lyrics are a little outside of the Van Dyke Parks vibe, sure, but having one song about the rush of falling in love in the context of all the coming of age stuff makes sense to me. More importantly, I've always thought of the concept of good vibrations (thinking back to the famous Audree anecdote) as really a thesis statement for Smile: *vibrations,* not melodies or songs or lyrics or even music, but sound itself, on some deeper or more elemental level, can convey something beyond language. Smile is a sound experience, and what could be a better advertisement for that than the words "Good Vibrations Good Vibrations Good Vibrations"

But then, I've always thought Sloop John B belongs perfectly on Pet Sounds, too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oUVQcO3DcY

Love this.

Pet Sounds is just easier. It doesn't require as much guesswork, apologism, speculation, tedious assembly and revision, vigorous debate or trying to get your digital file to work on different stereo systems. It just is, and we can all agree it's brilliant. With SMiLE, a lot of things that are so "obvious" and amazing to me seem to be ridiculous to others and vice versa. It'll never have the universal appeal of PS. Also, every track on PS is amazing, where even I have to admit some of the SMiLE material, while very good, is notably inferior compared to the rest. (Im talking IWBA, Barnyard, OMP mostly--all great but hardly worthy of the best album ever symphony to God in my opinion.)

I agree. At the end of the day, Smile just wasn't finished, much as I love it. If we extrapolate from the songs that were actually finished in the 60s, I think it's obvious that a finished Smile would have been something else entirely. But some of the most beautiful songs on the record are missing lead vocals, for God's sake. The first movement of Surf's Up is one of the most sublime instrumental arrangements in music, the second movement is *just piano,* the third movement is from the 70s and the vocal arrangement is gorgeous, but it's not up to the level of Brian Wilson in 1966. The Smile of the mind is better than Pet Sounds, the Smile on tape, though....

Just my personal take, of course!