SMiLE Sessions box set!

[Mikie]

I love Smile-o-Philes who are so infatuated and obsessed and addicted to Smile that they're besides themselves with it, can't stop thinking about it, and tend to forget about all the other great music that The Beach Boys recorded.

[JohnMill]

The Beatles could never release a box set like The Beach Boys are going to do on 11/1.  They've boxed themselves in from a commercial standpoint where every release bearing the name "Beatles" has to be some type of musical revelation.

I don't understand where this is coming from. The Smile box set is built entirely on the notion that what the Beach Boys were doing was going to be a musical revelation. And the Beatles have plenty of releases that aren't grand in scope -- the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, Let It Be...Naked, and Live at the BBC come to mind. I mean, sure, every release gets tons of praise, but I don't recall anybody writing about Love being some major artistic achievement

You are missing the point.  My issue isn't what reviewers write about them but the perspective on the part of the group and their management that every release needs to be some kind of revelation.  They could never release something such as "Hawthorne, CA" or "Endless Harmony" or the some of the Bootleg Series discs that Dylan has released.  Everything that The Beatles do needs to be some type of major undertaking which they can market as something worthy of intense study or aesthetic value.  I also stand by my statement that given the way they choose to market themselves The Beatles would never release a box set like "Pet Sounds Sessions" or "Smile Sessions".  The Beatles just have a whole different attitude going on in regards to how they feel their public should perceive them which is why "Anthology" was the most sanitized archival release I've ever heard in my entire life.  

[2 and a half]

So... how 'bout that Smile box set, huh ? I hear it's gon' be some good.

Please don't try and hijack this Beatles thread with your Smile musings

[lance]

Beatles in the Smile thread?  The Hoffman forum is that way...  

I think you could say you liked Judy Garland and fifteen Hoffmanites would chime in with something about how she had nicked her entire career from the Beatles. Morons for the most part.

[hypehat]

So... how 'bout that Smile box set, huh ? I hear it's gon' be some good.

Please don't try and hijack this Beatles thread with your Smile musings

Yeah AGD, what kinda forum do you think this is? 

I find it hard to get clinical with The Beatles, as I was madly in love with everything they did during my formative years. So yes, I love The Beatles, but like John Lennon said, they're just four guys who made it very very big. (No jokes, please)

But I prefer Wilson and Co.

[lance]

Well, I'll admit, hwen I was in my twenties I was a huge Beatles fan and I was just as close-minded and conformist as all those rubes that I now despise from the utmost depths of my soul. Beatles fans ruin the Beatles for me. At this point, i'd rather listen to Ringo solo albums than most Beatles records(having memorized every note of the latter, I don't really need to listen to the Beatles.) Brian rose to higher heights; the Beatles were more consistent, though.

[The Heartical Don]

The Beatles leave me pretty cold. Don't know why. I can see the craftsmanship, the invention, the pioneering spirit... I had Sgt Pepper on vinyl, sold it without any regret. Perhaps it's their 'rockism' (White Album). Or the fact that they just weren't that good singers... McCartney is a shouter, yes, and can hum a tune, but...

I'll stick to Ringo's Rotogravure, then.

[willy]

55 days to go folks

[puni puni]

This is what the Beatles supposedly stood for as well, but, well, White Album.

blame john lennon for that

[The Heartical Don]

55 days to go folks

This.

[18thofMay]

I think we should ask Sean Lennon for his opinion!

[Runaways]

The Beatles leave me pretty cold. Don't know why. I can see the craftsmanship, the invention, the pioneering spirit...

yup, this is pretty much where i am.   And it's mostly as i said before, there's a sense of genuine/heart that is missing from their music. 

[dmcguire70]

I love Smile-o-Philes who are so infatuated and obsessed and addicted to Smile that they're besides themselves with it, can't stop thinking about it, and tend to forget about all the other great music that The Beach Boys recorded.

I can't believe it Mikie ,but i actually agree with you!

[dmcguire70]

Can we please rename this thread,

SMiLE Sessions box set!/Beatles vs The Beach Boys.
Thank you.

[hypehat]

Confession time, everybody - who said it isn't going to be released in the poll at the top of this thread? I did, shamefully.....

[dmcguire70]

Confession time, everybody - who said it isn't going to be released in the poll at the top of this thread? I did, shamefully.....

You're banned for three months Hypehat!!

[pmugghc]

I guess on topic for this Beatles thread: I actually never bought any Beatles records But I loved the Stones up to Exile. But Beach Boys are my true heroes since 1962!

[The Radiant Radish]

Could almost be a still right out of Mad Men. I guess this is the only accurate scene in the SMiLE section of the An American Family TV movie.

[rab2591]

Confession time, everybody - who said it isn't going to be released in the poll at the top of this thread? I did, shamefully.....

I voted "I don't like drugs and I don't like SMiLE, we might as well delete this discussion" - just to keep things interesting

[RadBooley]

Just saw this on You Tube,Heroes and Villains new mix by Mark Linett 2011,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CqsbXRuV90

Even though this is the same mix (I think?) that was put up for download on the Tongal Project site, I think this sounds dramatically better. Quite a bit less muddy to me than the one up for download and more in line with what I sort of expected a remastered tune to sound like. Good find!

SO ANYWAY YEAH HOW ABOUT THAT SMiLE GUYS.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Could almost be a still right out of Mad Men. I guess this is the only accurate scene in the SMiLE section of the An American Family TV movie.

Not so - a lot, a whole lot, of that movie was very accurate as regards period and detail: shame about the band history...

[ghost]

I'm with whoever said The Beatles leave them feeling cold. Just about every single Beach Boys album gives me a fulfilling listening experience. I feel good after it. After Revolver....Rubber Soul.... Pepper... I really can't wait for them to finish. There's nothing in it. I'm the taxman do do do i'm the taxman. Great. good day sunshine do do do do. docta robert he's a new and better man he does everthing he can docta robert. turn off yyer mind relax and fall asleep.

Compare with Pet Sounds - from the first moment it's an emotional catharsis you will never forget or leave entirely. Pet Sounds will be with us TILL DEATH. However I doubt many of us here will be whistling DR ROBERT upon death... more like Till I Die, or hearing the melody of You Still Believe In Me.

[The Radiant Radish]

Shall we say it's a little style over substance… oh and hilarious too!

When Brian becomes all Forrest Gump after those naughty drug people get their hands on him and since when did he take a toy spaceman figure into the Fire sessions?

I agree though that it looks very authentic.

[The Demon]

Sorry if this has been covered, but I just got back from vacation and won't go through all the in-jokes and detours.  I don't think this had been brought up yet, despite all the scrutinization of track timings on the box, but...

What do you all make of the "Surf's Up" stereo mix/tracking session excerpt piece on the vinyl?  Could it possibly be a fragment of the vocal attempt filmed for Inside Pop?  I think between this set and Pet Sounds it's the only time you see something labelled a session "excerpt" versus a tracking "highlight."  I just thought it was strange that most people bemoaned the lack of a 2nd movement track in with the CDs, but didn't comment on this, at least slight, oddity.

[Andrew G. Doe]

What do you all make of the "Surf's Up" stereo mix/tracking session excerpt piece on the vinyl?  Could it possibly be a fragment of the vocal attempt filmed for Inside Pop? 

Hugely unlikely - said vocal was just Brian: the rest of the band had left by then.