SMiLE Sessions box set!

[Andrew G. Doe]

The so-called 'artwork' has only appeared in one semi-official place - the Examiner article re: Dom's participation where it was specificallyreferred to as a logo, not artwork - and one official one, the press release itself. The official press release of the same day states that artwork, release date and track listing will be released soon. I'm thinking that if Capitol had the rights to use Frank's artwork, it would have surely appeared on the original press release - and it didn't: instead they used the lettering that they did have the rights to. Do the math.

To date there have been three, and only three, official statements: the two Billboard pieces of 3/11 and the official Capitol press release of 3/14, and it seems to me that a lot of people - here and on other boards - have either yet to read the original texts and are relying of abstracts, have read and misunderstood or, in one extreme case, patently cannot read English. My view is that it would be bordering on the insane to release such a project without the truly iconic artwork, and if even I can see that, I'm sure Capitol do too. However, there may be financial constraints: the music biz isn't in the best shape.

As for this post:

I honestly hope that there will be educated hype surrounding this album. If the public goes into thinking this album is "fun-in-the-sun" this will probably not go well for the reviews on amazon or itunes. I hope the marketing campaign voices loudly that this is not a surf album.

I honestly had to sit back and read it again. Then check the calendar to see I'd not overslept two days and it was 4/1/11. Here's some extracts from the Capitol press release:

"THE BEACH BOYS’ LEGENDARY ‘SMiLE’ ALBUM SESSIONS TO BE RELEASED THIS YEAR BY CAPITOL/EMI
 
Never-Before-Released Original 1966-’67 Album Sessions Compiled for 2CD and Digital Packages and Deluxe, Limited Edition Box Set
  
Hollywood, California - March 14, 2011 – Between the summer of 1966 and early 1967, The Beach Boys recorded, in several sessions, a bounty of songs and drafts for an album, SMiLE, that was intended to follow the band’s 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds.  The sessions were ultimately shelved, and The Beach Boys’ SMiLE has never been released...

What Brian Wilson brought to the table, in his effort to maintain The Beach Boys' position among the top rock 'n' roll bands of the day, was beyond what anyone could have expected.  Beginning with “Good Vibrations,” then into SMiLE, Wilson had begun to construct songs in a modular form, crafting individual sections that would later be edited together to form a coherent whole.  In several intense bursts of creative energy, Wilson , drawing on the talents of the finest studio musicians in Los Angeles and utilizing the best studio facilities available on any given day, laid down dozens and dozens of musical fragments, all designed to fit together in any number of possible combinations.  No one had done this in pop music, and Wilson had just created “Good Vibrations,” The Beach Boys’ best-selling record in a long string of hits, by using this method.  His next endeavor would be an album-length version of this unique and luxurious songwriting parlance: SMiLE"

Anyone see any reference to surf, cars, girls ?  There's been hype, educated and otherwise, going on for something like 44 years. Capitol have been wanting to release this music since about 1988 so badly it hurt to watch. They know what they've got. This is Capitol vintage 2011, not 1966.

Read those three articles again, and Dom's interview - then you'll know as much as the majority of folk outside the Tower. Pretty much anythign else is conjecture, informed or (frequently) otherwise.

[PhilCohen]

This Phil guy really really irks me!!! It is like you have some other agenda!!!!

What other agenda. As I say, the important thing is that we're going to get the music.

[Jay]

That "digital packages" thing bugs me. I hope there aren't bonus tracks that you have to buy. Imagine having to shell out a certan amount for a "Heroes&Villains sessions excerpt", only to discover that it's the same exact "montage" from the 1993 box set.

[Andrew G. Doe]

That "digital packages" thing bugs me. I hope there aren't bonus tracks that you have to buy. Imagine having to shell out a certan amount for a "Heroes&Villains sessions excerpt", only to discover that it's the same exact "montage" from the 1993 box set.

Very understandable concern. Wouldn't it be terrible if one fan bought the box then, er, 'gifted' any exclusive bonus tracks to his friends ? Not that I'd condone anything like that, of course. 

[Dove Nested Towers]

Got to believe that they'll come to terms with Holmes at the 11th hour. I know him a little and am sure he cares enough about it all to move mountains to have it work out, provided he feels that he is being treated respectfully.Though the music itself is of course of paramount importance, the Smile Shop image is vital to the aesthetic integrity of the package, his booklet art also. There really can't be a proper release without these.

[The Shift]

Got to believe that they'll come to terms with Holmes at the 11th hour. I know him a little and am sure he cares enough about it all to move mountains to have it work out, provided he feels that he is being treated respectfully.Though the music itself is of course of paramount importance, the Smile Shop image is vital to the aesthetic integrity of the package, his booklet art also. There really can't be a proper release without these.

I'd love to say it's "all about the music" but I agree with you. SMiLE's like the air we breathe: 80% Nitrogen / 20% Oxygen… 80% music & lyrics / 20% Frank's art. The bulk is good on its own but ain't sustaining without the other elements.


Okay, bad analogy unless you come from a planet where breathing pure nitrogen is acceptable in polite society… but you get my drift.

[The Heartical Don]

Got to believe that they'll come to terms with Holmes at the 11th hour. I know him a little and am sure he cares enough about it all to move mountains to have it work out, provided he feels that he is being treated respectfully.Though the music itself is of course of paramount importance, the Smile Shop image is vital to the aesthetic integrity of the package, his booklet art also. There really can't be a proper release without these.

I'd love to say it's "all about the music" but I agree with you. SMiLE's like the air we breathe: 80% Nitrogen / 20% Oxygen… 80% music & lyrics / 20% Frank's art. The bulk is good on its own but ain't sustaining without the other elements.


Okay, bad analogy unless you come from a planet where breathing pure nitrogen is acceptable in polite society… but you get my drift.

What about nitrogen oxide?

[The Shift]

Nitrous oxide, surely?

[The Heartical Don]

Nitrous oxide, surely?

Of course. N2O, isn't it?

[The Shift]

It's a big NO-NO!

[The Heartical Don]

It's a big NO-NO!

Good. I never tried it myself.

[Roger Ryan]

If David Leaf was able to get (and animate!) Mr. Holmes' artwork for BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, I would hope Capitol would be able to procure it for a box set release.

I have no worries about casual fans of the Beach Boys expecting "fun-in-the-sun" music; I am a bit more concerned about casual fans expecting more vocals (especially leads) on the tracks! When I read message board posts like "I'm sure this will be better than that Wondermints' version from a few years back...", I worry that folks are going to be disappointed with how incomplete the Beach Boys' sessions were. I'm going to be absolutely thrilled to hear Brian's mono edit/mix of the "Child Is Father Of The Man" backing track whereas the casual fan is going to exclaim "Another instrumental?! Where are the Beach Boys?"

[Andrew G. Doe]

If David Leaf was able to get (and animate!) Mr. Holmes' artwork for BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, I would hope Capitol would be able to procure it for a box set release.

Been a while since I watched that... did they use the original booklet sketches, or the more recent additional ones ?

[The Heartical Don]

If David Leaf was able to get (and animate!) Mr. Holmes' artwork for BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, I would hope Capitol would be able to procure it for a box set release.

I have no worries about casual fans of the Beach Boys expecting "fun-in-the-sun" music; I am a bit more concerned about casual fans expecting more vocals (especially leads) on the tracks! When I read message board posts like "I'm sure this will be better than that Wondermints' version from a few years back...", I worry that folks are going to be disappointed with how incomplete the Beach Boys' sessions were. I'm going to be absolutely thrilled to hear Brian's mono edit/mix of the "Child Is Father Of The Man" backing track whereas the casual fan is going to exclaim "Another instrumental?! Where are the Beach Boys?"

Hmm... I have few worries about casual fans being disappointed about 'mere' backing tracks. I think no one really expects a full Beach Boys 'mirror image' of BWPS, or something resembling that (wonderful) album. The story's been out there for 44 years now, with growing awareness about what is, and what's not to be expected (of course we're all hoping for new stuff, snippets, vocal-only mixes, and so on).  But casual fans who consulted a thread every now and then, or browsed one of the many book on the boys, will roughly know what is realistic to look forward to, and what is not. I mean: someone who never informed him/herself on the history of Smile won't be suddenly shelving out $ 150 for that box, will they?

[Roger Ryan]

If David Leaf was able to get (and animate!) Mr. Holmes' artwork for BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, I would hope Capitol would be able to procure it for a box set release.

Been a while since I watched that... did they use the original booklet sketches, or the more recent additional ones ?

It's actually been a while since I've see it too. I know the newer stuff was in there (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow kicking the lantern, etc.), but I'm pretty sure there was a bit of the old stuff as well. Certainly the cover was used.

...I mean: someone who never informed him/herself on the history of Smile won't be suddenly shelving out $ 150 for that box, will they?

I was thinking more about the folks who would be buying the 2-CD set.

[Andrew G. Doe]

...I mean: someone who never informed him/herself on the history of Smile won't be suddenly shelving out $ 150 for that box, will they?

I was thinking more about the folks who would be buying the 2-CD set.

Trust me, come release time, people who don't even know who Brian Wilson is will know more about Smile than they ever wanted to. 

[The Shift]

...I mean: someone who never informed him/herself on the history of Smile won't be suddenly shelving out $ 150 for that box, will they?

I was thinking more about the folks who would be buying the 2-CD set.

Trust me, come release time, people who don't even know who Brian Wilson is will know more about Smile than they ever wanted to. 

You got a commission to write? Or speculationing about excessive media cover*?

* I can imagine now the Daily Mail's indignant review of the "crazed youngster music that came from the sex-and-drug addled world of the disfunctional American Beach Boys", probably in the same issue they have a lovely front cover photo and inside interview of the lovely first gentleman of English pop music, lovely Paul McCartney... or something...

[rab2591]

The so-called 'artwork' has only appeared in one semi-official place - the Examiner article re: Dom's participation where it was specificallyreferred to as a logo, not artwork - and one official one, the press release itself. The official press release of the same day states that artwork, release date and track listing will be released soon. I'm thinking that if Capitol had the rights to use Frank's artwork, it would have surely appeared on the original press release - and it didn't: instead they used the lettering that they did have the rights to. Do the math.

To date there have been three, and only three, official statements: the two Billboard pieces of 3/11 and the official Capitol press release of 3/14, and it seems to me that a lot of people - here and on other boards - have either yet to read the original texts and are relying of abstracts, have read and misunderstood or, in one extreme case, patently cannot read English. My view is that it would be bordering on the insane to release such a project without the truly iconic artwork, and if even I can see that, I'm sure Capitol do too. However, there may be financial constraints: the music biz isn't in the best shape.

As for this post:

I honestly hope that there will be educated hype surrounding this album. If the public goes into thinking this album is "fun-in-the-sun" this will probably not go well for the reviews on amazon or itunes. I hope the marketing campaign voices loudly that this is not a surf album.

I honestly had to sit back and read it again. Then check the calendar to see I'd not overslept two days and it was 4/1/11. Here's some extracts from the Capitol press release:

"THE BEACH BOYS’ LEGENDARY ‘SMiLE’ ALBUM SESSIONS TO BE RELEASED THIS YEAR BY CAPITOL/EMI
 
Never-Before-Released Original 1966-’67 Album Sessions Compiled for 2CD and Digital Packages and Deluxe, Limited Edition Box Set
  
Hollywood, California - March 14, 2011 – Between the summer of 1966 and early 1967, The Beach Boys recorded, in several sessions, a bounty of songs and drafts for an album, SMiLE, that was intended to follow the band’s 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds.  The sessions were ultimately shelved, and The Beach Boys’ SMiLE has never been released...

What Brian Wilson brought to the table, in his effort to maintain The Beach Boys' position among the top rock 'n' roll bands of the day, was beyond what anyone could have expected.  Beginning with “Good Vibrations,” then into SMiLE, Wilson had begun to construct songs in a modular form, crafting individual sections that would later be edited together to form a coherent whole.  In several intense bursts of creative energy, Wilson , drawing on the talents of the finest studio musicians in Los Angeles and utilizing the best studio facilities available on any given day, laid down dozens and dozens of musical fragments, all designed to fit together in any number of possible combinations.  No one had done this in pop music, and Wilson had just created “Good Vibrations,” The Beach Boys’ best-selling record in a long string of hits, by using this method.  His next endeavor would be an album-length version of this unique and luxurious songwriting parlance: SMiLE"

Anyone see any reference to surf, cars, girls ?  There's been hype, educated and otherwise, going on for something like 44 years. Capitol have been wanting to release this music since about 1988 so badly it hurt to watch. They know what they've got. This is Capitol vintage 2011, not 1966.

Read those three articles again, and Dom's interview - then you'll know as much as the majority of folk outside the Tower. Pretty much anythign else is conjecture, informed or (frequently) otherwise.

I hope by the time SMiLE is released most people will know all that information - however right now they don't, and it is up to the media to relay this information properly....I am hoping they do a good job and I am sure they will.

[The Heartical Don]

...I mean: someone who never informed him/herself on the history of Smile won't be suddenly shelving out $ 150 for that box, will they?

I was thinking more about the folks who would be buying the 2-CD set.

Trust me, come release time, people who don't even know who Brian Wilson is will know more about Smile than they ever wanted to. 

You got a commission to write? Or speculationing about excessive media cover*?

* I can imagine now the Daily Mail's indignant review of the "crazed youngster music that came from the sex-and-drug addled world of the disfunctional American Beach Boys", probably in the same issue they have a lovely front cover photo and inside interview of the lovely first gentleman of English pop music, lovely Paul McCartney... or something...

...and you even omitted the evident connection with that heinous series of murders by the Manson Gang... we're almost entering Moors Murderers Territory here...

[guitarfool2002]

I hope by the time SMiLE is released most people will know all that information - however right now they don't, and it is up to the media to relay this information properly....I am hoping they do a good job and I am sure they will.

This was my concern/comment in another thread - it is up to the media and those writing the history to relay the information properly, but how many times does the media get it right? Not just with Smile, mind you. That's what boards like this are for, to fill in the gaps.

I have to be honest, it was originally the music itself minus any artwork or photos or detailed history which originally drew me in. The music was so powerful, it then led me to the history and a few decades so far of obsessing over the details! But for some time, Smile for me existed on a cassette dub with no packaging or info, and I like to think the music is what will continue to amaze and influence those people hearing the tracks for the first time, although there are legions of fans who know the music from BWPS.

Let me throw this out there: Will the Smile history be any different in 2011 than it was when written for the BWPS project in 2004?

[The Heartical Don]

I hope by the time SMiLE is released most people will know all that information - however right now they don't, and it is up to the media to relay this information properly....I am hoping they do a good job and I am sure they will.

This was my concern/comment in another thread - it is up to the media and those writing the history to relay the information properly, but how many times does the media get it right? Not just with Smile, mind you. That's what boards like this are for, to fill in the gaps.

I have to be honest, it was originally the music itself minus any artwork or photos or detailed history which originally drew me in. The music was so powerful, it then led me to the history and a few decades so far of obsessing over the details! But for some time, Smile for me existed on a cassette dub with no packaging or info, and I like to think the music is what will continue to amaze and influence those people hearing the tracks for the first time, although there are legions of fans who know the music from BWPS.

Let me throw this out there: Will the Smile history be any different in 2011 than it was when written for the BWPS project in 2004?

It will. In what ways, I can't predict. But there surely will be some revisionism. Perhaps amiable realism will partly replace snobbery.

[guitarfool2002]

I hope by the time SMiLE is released most people will know all that information - however right now they don't, and it is up to the media to relay this information properly....I am hoping they do a good job and I am sure they will.

This was my concern/comment in another thread - it is up to the media and those writing the history to relay the information properly, but how many times does the media get it right? Not just with Smile, mind you. That's what boards like this are for, to fill in the gaps.

I have to be honest, it was originally the music itself minus any artwork or photos or detailed history which originally drew me in. The music was so powerful, it then led me to the history and a few decades so far of obsessing over the details! But for some time, Smile for me existed on a cassette dub with no packaging or info, and I like to think the music is what will continue to amaze and influence those people hearing the tracks for the first time, although there are legions of fans who know the music from BWPS.

Let me throw this out there: Will the Smile history be any different in 2011 than it was when written for the BWPS project in 2004?

It will. In what ways, I can't predict. But there surely will be some revisionism. Perhaps amiable realism will partly replace snobbery.

It's the "in what ways" part that has my attention - in the years since BWPS, how much has happened related to Smile? Or should I say, have there been any "Dead Sea Scrolls"-like finds which would alter the perception of Smile, or even a few facts about Smile that were not there in 2004?

One of the major effects of BWPS was that it brought the music out from the levels of fan mixes and underground legend into the mainstream who may not have bought the Beach Boys box set, and that history in the liners and elsewhere around BWPS is the history those listeners know. How much can the history be re-written without creating a situation where the same group of authors are re-telling the same story about the same music?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Let me throw this out there: Will the Smile history be any different in 2011 than it was when written for the BWPS project in 2004?

It will. In what ways, I can't predict. But there surely will be some revisionism. Perhaps amiable realism will partly replace snobbery.

There already is.

[Bicyclerider]

I hope by the time SMiLE is released most people will know all that information - however right now they don't, and it is up to the media to relay this information properly....I am hoping they do a good job and I am sure they will.

This was my concern/comment in another thread - it is up to the media and those writing the history to relay the information properly, but how many times does the media get it right? Not just with Smile, mind you. That's what boards like this are for, to fill in the gaps.

I have to be honest, it was originally the music itself minus any artwork or photos or detailed history which originally drew me in. The music was so powerful, it then led me to the history and a few decades so far of obsessing over the details! But for some time, Smile for me existed on a cassette dub with no packaging or info, and I like to think the music is what will continue to amaze and influence those people hearing the tracks for the first time, although there are legions of fans who know the music from BWPS.

Let me throw this out there: Will the Smile history be any different in 2011 than it was when written for the BWPS project in 2004?

It will. In what ways, I can't predict. But there surely will be some revisionism. Perhaps amiable realism will partly replace snobbery.

It's the "in what ways" part that has my attention - in the years since BWPS, how much has happened related to Smile? Or should I say, have there been any "Dead Sea Scrolls"-like finds which would alter the perception of Smile, or even a few facts about Smile that were not there in 2004?

One of the major effects of BWPS was that it brought the music out from the levels of fan mixes and underground legend into the mainstream who may not have bought the Beach Boys box set, and that history in the liners and elsewhere around BWPS is the history those listeners know. How much can the history be re-written without creating a situation where the same group of authors are re-telling the same story about the same music?

With the BWPS release, revisionism was rampant - things like Smile was always planned to be a three part suite, BWPS was how Brian was going to finish Smile back in 1967, now that Smile has been completed and released there isn't any need or desire to hear or to release the "fragments" from 1967, etc.

I'm sure there will be several new spins put on the Smile story by this release - Dom's writing for the book, he'll have some old and maybe some new theories to present as "fact" I suspect.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I think the most unpalatable revisionism surrounding BWPS was the amount of screen time afforded the loathsome Loren Darro to explain that, hey, the drugs weren't so bad for Brian, y'know. The desire to firmly and repeatedly plant my fist in the exact center of his greasy visage still lingers.