SMiLE Sessions box set!

[Micha]

I am incredibly excited. Mark Linett said that they have found new stuff that the bootleggers looked over....new songs? Maybe not. New mixes of songs? Some acetates? New session takes? All very possible.

Plus, it's not just about new stuff....it's about properly mixed versions of songs we have heard before. Take the MOJO 'Wonderful' single - Brian and that Harpsichord have never sounded clearer.

Exactly. People hoping for the music to the second movement of "Surf's Up" or the 7+ minute "H&V" will probably be massively disappointed. But hearing everything (including sutff we've all heard before) in best-ever sound, and IN CONTEXT (rather than spread out over a dozen disparate CDs) will be the triumph of this set.

I will be disappointed for the box sounding too clear. The other day I listened to Good Vibrations right after Cabinessence, and compared to the 1969 CE, the 1966 mastered GV had a muddy quality to it that I quite liked. All of SMiLE should be mastered that way. Probably I have the exclusive rights to that opinion...

[Roger Ryan]

None of the music in BWPS is new (with the possible exception the lead vocal over the water chant).

The brief string interlude before RPR is just quoting the melody of the "canvas the town and brush the backdrop" line from Surf's Up.

Likewise, the interlude before IIGS is just the melody line from "Around and 'round in the warmth / her body fanned the flame of the dance" line from H&V.

I know that but that's not my point. The fact that the segues quote other songs doesn't mean the segues themselves exist in 1966 form, which is what Linett is suggesting in this quotation.

Disc One is a 2011 creation and there really is no boundaries except for using 1966-1967 recorded music. Not that we are 100% sure about if segues will be used or not, but if they are, some transition pieces will have to be different than what was used on BWPS.  Even the beginning of I'm In Great Shape would have to be different, as the BWPS piece is a new arrangement altogether. I'm in agreement with Peter Reum in this respect; Sometime after Smile was cancelled and Brian went back to work more on the material, segues worked their way back into Brian's creative process. Had Smile been released in 1968, 1972 or 1988, I think segues would have been a part of Smile. Even though Brian has had relatively nothing to do with this new release, I have to think that the tracks, the sequencing and the use of segues are exactly what Brian wants it to sound like.

After I read the first reviews of how BWPS was presented in London, I put together the Beach Boy tracks in the same order to get a sense of how it all flowed. Using just the piano backing to the "Cantina" section worked pretty well as a lead-in to "I'm In Great Shape" and gave me a sense of what it would sound like when I heard BWPS myself. I imagine something similar could be done on Disc 1 if so desired.

[Sam_BFC]

Can anyone describe the 'Soul Made Beautiful' section to me so I know what bit you mean?

[Jason]

It's the first vocal bit after the Bicycle Rider piano/harpsichord bit on the H&V sections track on the Good Vibrations box set.

[Wirestone]

PS Oh, and surely the jury is also out on the lead vocal melodies from 'In Blue Hawaii' and 'On A Holiday', which are probably 2003 creations, and not of 60s vintage? To be clear, not the lyrics — the creation date of which are also uncertain as far as I know — but the *melodies* the lyrics are sung to.

I believe the vocal melodies of each of those songs are mostly built on instrumental lines from the original tracks.

[Jeff]

I want to hear what the composer would have done in 1966/67, not what his handlers persuade him to do in 2011.  Figuring out exactly what he "would have done" is an impossibility, I know, but I would rather they make their best guess instead of throwing up their hands and importing ideas developed decades later by the Wondermints.

Priore suggested that Alan Boyd has been working very hard on the history of Smile SINCE BWPS was put out. Linnet, in his interview, stated that where available, they are using Brian's mixes from 1966/67. To me, all signs point towards the fact that they are doing their best to recreate Brian's 1966/67 vision(s) for the album, however unclear they may have been to him.

I really, really hope you're right.

[Matt Bielewicz]

I will be disappointed for the box sounding too clear. The other day I listened to Good Vibrations right after Cabinessence, and compared to the 1969 CE, the 1966 mastered GV had a muddy quality to it that I quite liked. All of SMiLE should be mastered that way. Probably I have the exclusive rights to that opinion...

With the greatest respect to you, Micha, for you're a fine SMiLE scholar if ever I read one over the years, I think this post absolutely underlines the complete impossibility of this box set satisfying everyone. As if it weren't hard *enough* to achieve that, considering all of the rows there will be once we hear this thing in its entirety ('how DARE they leave out Swedish Frog' etc etc etc ad infinitum), I thought that the one, SINGLE aspect that everyone might be able to agree on as being a good thing, once the set was out, would be that we now had the source material in super hi-fi quality...

...but apparently not!  

So, bring on 'SMiLE: The GRiME Version 2011'. Bandwith-limited to 64kbps MP3 for that 'grungy' sound, and with the acetate rumble and clicks lovingly enhanced and added back for that full, authentic  'kept in a water-damaged crate in Durrie Parks' garage for 30 years' feel!



...Seriously Micha, I *am* kidding, honest...!

To Sam_BFC: Like I said above, 'Soul Made Beautiful' is just a five-second load of vocal harmonies. You can hear it on Disc 2 of the commercially released 1993 GV multi-disc box set (30 Years Of The Beach Boys), on Track 20 (entitled 'Heroes & Villains (Sections)', from 2 minutes 23 secs in, finishing under five seconds later at 2 minutes 28 secs. There are no lyrics, although you could render what the Boys are singing as 'Doobie Doobie Dooot Doot do-do'. It doesn't look very good written down, though.  

And finally, to Wirestone once again: you said 'I believe the vocal melodies of each of those songs [ie. 'On A Holiday' and 'In Blue Hawaii'] are mostly built on instrumental lines from the original tracks.'

Weeeeelll... again, up to a point. I'd say that the vocal melodies are very much logical things to sing as a result of what is present in the backing tracks, but the 2004 melodies certainly don't always follow something that already existed in the original instrumentals. Just a few examples off the top of my head:

In 'On A Holiday', while Brian's lead ('A pirate with a tune on a holiday' etc) pretty much follows lines in the original instrumental, the 'megaphone vocals' over the flutes later in the track ('abaft and forth, a starboard course...') don't follow any existing rhythm in the original track. OK, admittedly, these aren't sung to a melody so much as recited. But what about the 'rock, rock, roll' lyrics? They're definitely not anywhere in the original instrumental backing track of 'Holidays' from Summer 66...

Finally, during 'In Blue Hawaii', again, Brian's lead in the opening section ('I lose a dream when I don't sleep...' etc) is certainly musically 'suggested' by the backing track, even if no one instrument plays *exactly* the melody he sings. But once the song gets going in earnest, there's no instrumental precedent for the melody sung to the lines 'Hawaiiiiii... Hawaiiii lay beyond the sea... Hawaiiiiiii... Hawaii back to meee...'. Nor is there any precedent for the lines sung to 'Take me to a luau now and lay before me; wholly holy cow!'. There's nothing that has quite that rhythm or melody. And finally, I believe the melody and harmonies for the lines, 'Down in blue Hawaii... so far away from blue Hawaii' are also new.

Having made that point, I do feel, as I think you do, Wirestone, that there's absolutely nothing wrong with said melodies having been created and added later, particularly as this was done by the original creative team of BW and VDP. As I've said many times before, who would people rather have had adding new vocal melodies to old SMiLE instrumentals: Jack Rieley in 1972, Eugene Landy in 1989 (>shudder<)... or Van Dyke and Brian in 2003? I say better late than never, *absolutely*...!!!

MattB

[Andrew G. Doe]

Posted this on the Bloo, so may as well repeat it here: after Phil tried to bore the ass of everyone over there with his Eeyore-esque rant about the 'secrecy' surround the box, how no-one knew anything about it (wrong, Phil, that just means no-one's been speaking to you) and that it wasn't going to happen (just like he did here before he got told by several posters to STFU), I forwarded his post on to someonewhowouldknowforsure (no, not who you're thinking, at all) and got the OK to say the following.

"In answer to his question:  it is to be."

[Micha]

I will be disappointed for the box sounding too clear. The other day I listened to Good Vibrations right after Cabinessence, and compared to the 1969 CE, the 1966 mastered GV had a muddy quality to it that I quite liked. All of SMiLE should be mastered that way. Probably I have the exclusive rights to that opinion...

With the greatest respect to you, Micha, for you're a fine SMiLE scholar if ever I read one over the years, I think this post absolutely underlines the complete impossibility of this box set satisfying everyone. As if it weren't hard *enough* to achieve that, considering all of the rows there will be once we hear this thing in its entirety ('how DARE they leave out Swedish Frog' etc etc etc ad infinitum), I thought that the one, SINGLE aspect that everyone might be able to agree on as being a good thing, once the set was out, would be that we now had the source material in super hi-fi quality...

...but apparently not!   

Don't worry, Matt, I'm still looking forward to the box come out, to have it in my hands, to listen it through, hoping for new knowledge and unheard recordings. I'm even considering buying new speakers for that.
 
The perfect sound to me though for these songs is the way they were mastered in mono in 1965/66, that's the right "muddiness". The duophonic versions, however, are so muddy that even I hate them.

Then again, when I made a fan mix of "Wonderful" (with intro, middle eight, and outro!) a decade or so ago, I used the muddier Vigotone boot as source instead of the GV box set!

[The Shift]

Just received my copy of Uncut in the mail.

Have thumbed the life out of it and sad to report there's nothing in it about the forthcoming SMiLE editions.  Not even an advert. Not even a "Next Month" taster.

Looks like Phil was right all along and that this set really isn't happening.










 

[buddhahat]

Just received my copy of Uncut in the mail.

Have thumbed the life out of it and sad to report there's nothing in it about the forthcoming SMiLE editions.  Not even an advert. Not even a "Next Month" taster.

Looks like Phil was right all along and that this set really isn't happening.










 

Well, I'll be ...

Come back Phil, all is forgiven!

[Mikie]

It is estimated that 2-3% of all people go through a phase of obsessive-compulsive disorder in their lifetime (the so-called prevalence rate). Now, OCD is underdiagnosed as well as invisible, in that most patients hide it from the outside world, and even from friends and relatives. In the disorder, the cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry is out of balance. This causes the occurrence of obsessions (intrusive and very worrisome thoughts, and highly repetitive, hard to suppress) and compulsions (ritualistic behaviours that serve to diminish the impact of the obsessions). Neurotransmitters that have been shown to be involved in OCD are: serotonin, GABA, glutamate, and dopamine. Neural growth factors are also likely to play a part, e.g. brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).


Typical OCD can present itself as an intense longing to obtain a desired object, such as the archival release of music of special interest to the person. The person will go to great (some doctors say: any) lengths to get hold of that item. They keep on ruminating about it, and lose sleep over it. They would be willing to risk a career in crime to get it. The most severe cases will purchase said release multiple times, to make sure there are sealed substitute copies at hand, should anything happen to the 'playing copy'. These people are known for their endless discussions on their single topic, and can't be distracted in any medically defensible manner.

These are hard facts.

Re-posting courtesy of The Heartical Don.

[Shady]

 

[Shady]

Shameless bump, sorry folks no new news.

BUT! We are pushing August, should be a an eventful month 

[The Heartical Don]

Shameless bump, sorry folks no new news.

BUT! We are pushing August, should be a an eventful month 

I had a nightmare. See: the U.S.A. went bankrupt indeed on August 2, next week. The country's economical activity ground to a halt. No export any more, not even software and recorded music via the web, to various pressing plants all over the world. Obama and Boehner went into a boxing match to decide who had the right to the only tape of the SMiLE Sessions Box extant. That tape was totally copy-proof, because Mike Love had demanded that. Love also was behind the whole financial row, by the way. It was his only strategy to obstruct the release of SMiLE.

Obama won. He got the tape. But he was only willing to release the music on the condition that he would get elected for a second term.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Shameless bump, sorry folks no new news.

BUT! We are pushing August, should be a an eventful month 

I'd have to say, anyone expecting an August release of anything bar a press release is going to be hugely disappointed

[The Heartical Don]

Shameless bump, sorry folks no new news.

BUT! We are pushing August, should be a an eventful month 

I'd have to say, anyone expecting an August release of anything bar a press release is going to be hugely disappointed

I'm no expert. But since August is a mere two days ahead of us, I tend to agree totally.

[hypehat]

And lo, on August 4th, Mike Love went to the houses of the deserving and needy and left a SMiLE Sessions Box on their doorsteps, bringing joy into their hearts and peace to their souls.

[Steve Mayo]

after reading thru over 100 pages in this thread all i have to say is..i will gladly welcome this release. in whatever form,  sound, song list, lineup..whatever. with smile's history i will be thankful for its release, whatever form it may be. i don't care, just me a copy or two in my hands. i've waited years for this, i can wait for its release date.

[donald]

after reading thru over 100 pages in this thread all i have to say is..i will gladly welcome this release. in whatever form,  sound, song list, lineup..whatever. with smile's history i will be thankful for its release, whatever form it may be. i don't care, just me a copy or two in my hands. i've waited years for this, i can wait for its release date.

I agree completely.   However, it is hard to resist the opportunity to go on and on about it with other Beach Boy obsessives!

By the way, Mike and Bruce , (and Scott and John) are in Lexington on the 2nd.  I'd go but it is on a work night.  Think maybe I'll save my money to buy all of the cool new BB stuff coming forth over the next year or so.  I can wait. Meanwhile,  I've got a lot to listen to while I wait. 

[Steve Mayo]

after reading thru over 100 pages in this thread all i have to say is..i will gladly welcome this release. in whatever form,  sound, song list, lineup..whatever. with smile's history i will be thankful for its release, whatever form it may be. i don't care, just me a copy or two in my hands. i've waited years for this, i can wait for its release date.

I agree completely.   However, it is hard to resist the opportunity to go on and on about it with other Beach Boy obsessives!

By the way, Mike and Bruce , (and Scott and John) are in Lexington on the 2nd.  I'd go but it is on a work night.  Think maybe I'll save my money to buy all of the cool new BB stuff coming forth over the next year or so.  I can wait. Meanwhile,  I've got a lot to listen to while I wait. 

thought that was brian and his band?

[Andrew G. Doe]

By the way, Mike and Bruce , (and Scott and John) are in Lexington on the 2nd. 

Really ?  Lot of folk in Wausau, WI aren't going to be best pleased. 

[tansen]

Am I the only one who feels the whole Beach Boys reunion thing is a bad idea?

[Mike's Beard]

Expect the worse - hope for the best.

[desmondo]

Am I the only one who feels the whole Beach Boys reunion thing is a bad idea?

Nope - I am dreading it