SMiLE rarities

[Sheriff John Stone]

What percentage of art is given to the public free of charge for the sake of art?

Is it 0%?

Even if it's less than 1%, then I still want the SMiLE rarities to fall in that percentage. Hey, if you read my above post, I wrote that I was probably being naive.

[Mark H.]

IMO if she has them, and does own them....they are a part of their family heritage and would be due fare compensation...art or no art....should they decide to sell them.  There's no ethical or moral issue to debate.  Brian has made millions off his art.

I had heard here or somewhere that there were some Smile era acetates that came into Durrie's possession as a result of her divorce...yeah she might have just found them in an old trunk or something...I'm assuming she retained posession to that stuff.

[Mahalo]

What percentage of art is given to the public free of charge for the sake of art?

I understand if she wants to be properly compensated, but IMO it would be wrong to take advantage of the situation out of greed like Heather Mills(    ).

[Jason]

to take advantage of the situation out of greed

[Chris Moise]

It seems odd to me that they didn't at least audition the Parks acetates during the preperation of BWPS. Why write a vocal melody and new lyrics for, let's say, CITFOTM without at least listening to the most finished '66 version? (assuming there is a CITFOTM in Durrie's collection). I was really frustrating that with all the hoopela surrounding BWPS we still don't know what the CITFOTM lyrics were or what Great Shape was.

[Andrew G. Doe]

From what I have read in this thread NO ONE has said that Durrie got them from a divorce settlement (notice Mark H. was just asking the question, not stating a fact):

Ok, point taken. Just add "If Durrie obtained acetates through divorce....." before reading the posts that upset you. Emphasis on the word "if".

She did - when I went to Van Dyke's house for a wonderful evening in March 1985, I was told, without prompting that he couldn't play me anything from his collaborations with Brian as "my first wife got everything in the divorce - I suggest you contact her".

A further point - they're acetates, ergo you play them too much, they degrade very badly. How much is too much ? I've been told 20, maybe 30 times... plus, they were literally left lying around: Alan used to have a cardboard box full in his studio. You factor in nearly 40 years of careless handling & storage along with their being played to death in 1966/67, I'm thinking all you'd get is mono hiss.

[XY]

Once again regarding missing SMiLE pieces that were recorded: Back in the day they recorded over the complete first instrumental session for "Heroes & Villains" for example. So everything's possible. And I do believe (only speculation!) that Brian erased a lot of vocal-work that he became unhappy with.
BTW, from what I've read, BRI did try to get hold of the Durry Parks acetates. I contacted her two or three years ago (and before you kill me, I'm a free person and allowed to do that) and she confirmed that she still has all this stuff -acetates, tapes & videos (?) in her words.
Even more interesting IMO would be the H&V tapes Brian did for the BB to learn their vocal parts. I think Bruce & Al mentioned those in different interviews. So I guess Brian sang all the parts himself for the boys and perhaps he did guide-vocals for other SMiLE tracks, like he did for PET SOUNDS.

[LostArt]

From the archives of this very site, for those interested who haven't read this stuff:

 http://thesmileshop.net/index.php/Durrie_Parks%27_Acetates

[Chris Moise]

From the archives of this very site, for those interested who haven't read this stuff:

 http://thesmileshop.net/index.php/Durrie_Parks%27_Acetates

Thanks for posting that. Some of those Peter Reum quotes really frustrate me.

"Brian and Van are such creative guys that they wouldn't have to hear Durrie's acetates to finish Smile"

"Durrie's stuff was unnecessary. If there is material she has that is not on the finished composition, it probably truly is an outtake, and would be interesting only for an archival release of the session sketches, like outtakes from Pet Sounds on the Pet Sounds Boxed Set (e.g. Brian screwing up the verses to WIBN)..."