SMiLE Sessions box set!

[juggler]

i feel like the tracklist isn't gonna tell us tooo much.  i guess the times will a little bit.  i hope they tag this sucker with you're welcome. i like that.

Yeah, a tracklist with just titles will tell us practically nothing, as we more or less know all the titles already. Of course, if any of the titles are annotated with blockbuster details (e.g., "Child is Father of the Man - Dennis sings lead"), we'll be in heaven.  As you say, the times may offer some clues.  


And, yeah, I have the same fears about this thing that some of you are mentioning.  Drive carefully, kids.  Wear your seatbelts.  And look both ways when crossing the street.    No skydiving, please.  If you've never owned a motorcycle, now is not the time to buy one.  And forget hang gliding.

I'm kidding, sort of, but if the Smile box really does come out this summer, those of us who are around to enjoy it really should be thankful for that fact alone.   And I hope that we all take a moment to remember all the BB/BW fans (including Dennis and Carl) who are no longer with us.  Maybe this will sound corny, but I hope that somehow, somewhere those folks are able to enjoy this too.

[Micha]

the recent Barnyard quote on the 78

Seems like I missed something there - what's that "Barnyard quote on the 78"? I thought that 78 contained just the long known mixes?

[Roger Ryan]

the recent Barnyard quote on the 78

Seems like I missed something there - what's that "Barnyard quote on the 78"? I thought that 78 contained just the long known mixes?

The reference is to the four lines of "Barnyard" lyrics inscribed on the inner run-off groove of the "Good Vibrations / Heroes & Villains" 78 rpm release (one line per side). Check this thread for more info...

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9933.200.html

[buddhahat]

Tiny snippet in this month's Mojo about The Smile Sessions:

SMiLE Be There

Van Dyke Parks tosses us a carrot re The Beach Boys' resurrected Opus

It was announced last month that the Beach Boys' unreleased Smile LP would be out in Summer. Entitled The Smile Sessions, its CD, download and extra-fancy box set will contain a "core" 1966/67 tracklist, plus alternate versions. It is released with the cooperation of Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love. Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks told Mojo that at the time, "Mike Love would have wanted The Beach Boys to continue forever in an endless summer, celebrating fast cars and faster women, in the suicide position. Brian wanted to go somewhere else and I was glad to be there." Of the package, he added, "I hear it's going to be beautiful."

[Jonas]

Arrrgggh, it's going to be difficult to illegally download the packaging.

[The Heartical Don]

Arrrgggh, it's going to be difficult to illegally download the packaging.

Er, Jonas -

would you as an honest, sincere person be even contemplating to commit such a heinous crime? 

[Mikie]

"Mike Love would have wanted The Beach Boys to continue forever in an endless summer, celebrating fast cars and faster women, in the suicide position. Brian wanted to go somewhere else and I was glad to be there."

If this is a recent VDP quote, it looks like he's not letting up on Mike!  Wonder if this will continue through interviews with Van Dyke around the release and promotion of the new Smile box.

[Shady]

That is such a bullshit quote. like Mike didn't write "All I Wanna Do", The Wild Honey album, and many other great songs post SMiLE.

I like Van Dyke but he's being a bit of a dick

[guitarfool2002]

"Mike Love would have wanted The Beach Boys to continue forever in an endless summer, celebrating fast cars and faster women, in the suicide position. Brian wanted to go somewhere else and I was glad to be there."

If this is a recent VDP quote, it looks like he's not letting up on Mike!  Wonder if this will continue through interviews with Van Dyke aound the release and promotion of the new Smile box.

I am not surprised at all - consider that Van Dyke Parks has had a history with Mike going back to 1966 and some feelings which were rubbed raw are still raw today, at least the way it would seem from the interviews. Business is business but one also wouldn't need to pretend to be an old friend if one wasn't friendly at all with that business associate for 40 years.

Remember an interview about 10 years ago where Van Dyke said the last time he saw Mike was when the band was recording Summer In Paradise? To sum up, Van Dyke walked in to find Mike meditating, and soon after Mike was asking him again about the "crow cries" lyrics. Then when they parted ways, Mike asked if Van Dyke wanted to split a plane ride back to LA, which they did and Mike said he'd split the cost. He gave VDP a business card with a number to call, Van Dyke later tried to call it, and the number was disconnected.

And Van Dyke also was very upset on how he was portrayed as a drugged-out hippie or an interloper in the various "authorized" Beach Boys TV movie biographies, at least one of which was filtered mostly through Mike's perspective.

It's not surprising someone might hold a grudge if their role in the history of a great band was reduced to being portrayed to the public through those movies as the guy who would most likely get stoned in the tent with Brian when that wasn't the truth.

[buddhahat]

Maybe VDP is also conscious that ML will be doing his best to revise his position on Smile in the forthcoming interviews and is getting a few jabs in early. I also wonder how much VDP will be involved in this upcoming release. From the above quote, I'd say it will be zero, but I may be wrong. If that's true, it will probably be tough for him seeing his baby finally come out without any input (beyond the BWPS sequence if they do use that).

[drbeachboy]

I'm surprised that he can hold a grudge, yet work with Mike and the band on Summer In Paradise, some 25 years later. Really, it sounds like sour grapes, because he was called on his work, especially 45 years later. Hey, but it is part of the mystique and history of Smile. I know that even through the 90's that Mike (in concert) would introduce H&V by saying how great the song is, but had no idea what the lyric was about. So, both guys have kept up the act.

[drbeachboy]

Maybe VDP is also conscious that ML will be doing his best to revise his position on Smile in the forthcoming interviews and is getting a few jabs in early. I also wonder how much VDP will be involved in this upcoming release. From the above quote, I'd say it will be zero, but I may be wrong. If that's true, it will probably be tough for him seeing his baby finally come out without any input (beyond the BWPS sequence if they do use that).

I doubt that Van Dyke would have had any more input in 1967, than say Tony Asher did in 1966. Both were Lyircists, but really had nothing to do with preparations of the album proper.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

That is such a bullmerda quote. like Mike didn't write "All I Wanna Do", The Wild Honey album, and many other great songs post SMiLE.

I like Van Dyke but he's being a bit of a dick

Agreed. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I've never been a VDP fan. Maybe it's because I could give two shits about lyrics as long as the song itself is good, singing's good, and the production is good. For me Smile's lyrics fit the music perfectly, but I have no interest in analyzing "deeper meanings"...at least not lyrically. And before anyone gets all pissy about it and calls me a simpleton or I'm not deep, or I'm not a fan...don't. I could go on and on about the song structure, and why everything works the way it does, but words to me are meaningless. And forgettable. *


*=first person who catches that reference gets a cookie

[Jason]

Agreed. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I've never been a VDP fan. Maybe it's because I could give two shits about lyrics as long as the song itself is good, singing's good, and the production is good. And before anyone gets all pissy about it and calls me a simpleton or I'm not deep, or I'm not a fan...don't.

Not a VDP fan? HOW DARE YOU call yourself a Beach Boys fan! That's it! I hereby resign from this board forever! How can you not enjoy the deep poetry of "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield"? Blasphemy!

 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

[Mikie]

 

[Mikie]

I remember that. VDP was stuck with the bill for the trip home, wasn't he?

One thing I read on the Parks thread (Hypehat) that I’d never thought of before:

"And if you were Van Dyke, wouldn't you be mad? Here is a struggling songwriter, given the chance to write for the most successful young man in American pop music, with the success, acclaim, and all the rest that that entails, and the chance slips by because there is resistance in the band. He has to leave. And he gradually sees the Beach Boys being on the cusp of something amazing, slowly twist and turn into a very sad affair, with dwindling musical/commercial stakes. And he sees Mike Love happy and Brian, well, not."

And it’s Van Dykes turn to be in the spotlight again. He was present at the BWPS concert in London in 2004 and received acknowledgement there; a good standing O from the audience after being introduced by Brian. Mike was not there and was busy suing Brian.

This time around, while this is Brian and Van Dyke’s baby, Mike is singing on it, and will be acknowledged this time for his vocal contributions in the liners/books. But like BWPS, VDP will bask in the limelight a little more with this release and get a few bucks more in royalties.

I liked Van's appearance in the "It's OK" TV special. Dim widdy pearl.....
He was saying essentially the same thing then as he did in the quote above.

[The Heartical Don]

Agreed. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I've never been a VDP fan. Maybe it's because I could give two shits about lyrics as long as the song itself is good, singing's good, and the production is good. And before anyone gets all pissy about it and calls me a simpleton or I'm not deep, or I'm not a fan...don't.

Not a VDP fan? HOW DARE YOU call yourself a Beach Boys fan! That's it! I hereby resign from this board forever! How can you not enjoy the deep poetry of "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield"? Blasphemy!

 

  did we just witness the start of the Global Moderator Wars? Will SSnet be there at all when 'it' will be released? We will be the laughing stock of the fan world... (starts sobbing inaudibly).

[Jason]

It's war, and there will be casualties. It will be akin to the Michael Love/Van Dyke Parks Celebrity Deathmatch.

[guitarfool2002]

I'm surprised that he can hold a grudge, yet work with Mike and the band on Summer In Paradise, some 25 years later. Really, it sounds like sour grapes, because he was called on his work, especially 45 years later. Hey, but it is part of the mystique and history of Smile. I know that even through the 90's that Mike (in concert) would introduce H&V by saying how great the song is, but had no idea what the lyric was about. So, both guys have kept up the act.

He was called by Terry Melcher to do some work on the music along with other top-level musicians, it's not as if Mike called Van Dyke personally. It would seem odd that for someone who had not seen him for years, one of the first points of conversation would be that "crow cries" lyric. And how about the part about Mike sticking him with the bill for the flight?

Well after that, I'd say it would be a safe bet that any hard feelings were only amplified by the Mike-centric TV movie portrayal of the "Van Dyke Parks" character, mentioned in my earlier post. So it's understandable in some ways if any kind of grudge was/is still there.

[Matt Bielewicz]

What flavour's the cookie, Billy? 'Cos that is none other than one of Basildon's finest, Dave Gahan, singing 'Enjoy The Silence'.

Ah yes. I don't *just* do amazing baroque-tinged wall-of-sound sunshine pop, y'know. I likes me a bit of icy northern European electro-house, too - and the more piercingly you can sense the chilly wind off the North Sea, and smell the stained, cracked concrete of the decaying New Town high-rise, the better. Plus I grew up about 10 miles from Basildon, so the 'Mode were like local heroes to me...!

I'm hoping for a bit of cherry and oatmeal halva bake, to be honest...  

MattB

[drbeachboy]

I'm surprised that he can hold a grudge, yet work with Mike and the band on Summer In Paradise, some 25 years later. Really, it sounds like sour grapes, because he was called on his work, especially 45 years later. Hey, but it is part of the mystique and history of Smile. I know that even through the 90's that Mike (in concert) would introduce H&V by saying how great the song is, but had no idea what the lyric was about. So, both guys have kept up the act.

He was called by Terry Melcher to do some work on the music along with other top-level musicians, it's not as if Mike called Van Dyke personally. It would seem odd that for someone who had not seen him for years, one of the first points of conversation would be that "crow cries" lyric. And how about the part about Mike sticking him with the bill for the flight?

Well after that, I'd say it would be a safe bet that any hard feelings were only amplified by the Mike-centric TV movie portrayal of the "Van Dyke Parks" character, mentioned in my earlier post. So it's understandable in some ways if any kind of grudge was/is still there.

So, Mike won't be calling Van Dyke up to the stage to take a bow after Smile's first performance?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

What flavour's the cookie, Billy? 'Cos that is none other than one of Basildon's finest, Dave Gahan, singing 'Enjoy The Silence'.

Ah yes. I don't *just* do amazing baroque-tinged wall-of-sound sunshine pop, y'know. I likes me a bit of icy northern European electro-house, too - and the more piercingly you can sense the chilly wind off the North Sea, and smell the stained, cracked concrete of the decaying New Town high-rise, the better. Plus I grew up about 10 miles from Basildon, so the 'Mode were like local heroes to me...!

I'm hoping for a bit of cherry and oatmeal halva bake, to be honest... 

MattB

Looks like we're out of cookies

[drbeachboy]

Duplicate post

[guitarfool2002]

I'm surprised that he can hold a grudge, yet work with Mike and the band on Summer In Paradise, some 25 years later. Really, it sounds like sour grapes, because he was called on his work, especially 45 years later. Hey, but it is part of the mystique and history of Smile. I know that even through the 90's that Mike (in concert) would introduce H&V by saying how great the song is, but had no idea what the lyric was about. So, both guys have kept up the act.

He was called by Terry Melcher to do some work on the music along with other top-level musicians, it's not as if Mike called Van Dyke personally. It would seem odd that for someone who had not seen him for years, one of the first points of conversation would be that "crow cries" lyric. And how about the part about Mike sticking him with the bill for the flight?

Well after that, I'd say it would be a safe bet that any hard feelings were only amplified by the Mike-centric TV movie portrayal of the "Van Dyke Parks" character, mentioned in my earlier post. So it's understandable in some ways if any kind of grudge was/is still there.

So, Mike won't be calling Van Dyke up to the stage to take a bow after Smile's first performance?

Perhaps the only way that would happen is if Van Dyke agrees to join Mike in his "chicken dance" during Cabinessence...