What If The SS Box Disappoints You?

[The Heartical Don]

...I mean: do you bear this possibility in mind? You've spent long years reading about SMiLE, bought many bootlegs, participated in several message boards, perhaps even constructed your own SMiLE mix... and after 44 years, finally, the best possible (most complete?) version of that monster, that beast, that legend, will see the light of day. And you'll pay a handsome price for it.

But what if you, contrary to your own expectations, will feel let down?

[Micha]

Actually I expect to be disappointed.

[buddhahat]

Disappointment is inevitable with any official release of Smile. I think, by its very nature, this music survives best in the  constant state of flux of our fantasy mixes. Once 'set in stone' something will be lost. However I reckon most here are down with that fact and are just welcoming the opportunity to have it all in one place in the best possible audio, and with a few unbooted nuggets thrown in for good measure (hopefully).

What I am not looking forward to is the monotonous griping that will slowly gather pace a month or so after the initial hysteria has died down. I can hear it now: "Why did they use Brian's BWPS sequence as a blueprint, even though we all know it was Darian's fanmix in the 1st place?!" "Why have they clipped 0.5 seconds from the end of George Fell Into His French Horn?" "Where is the 2nd take of Tones?" etc. I'm seriously considering abstaining from all BB message boards in the immediate aftermath of this release to avoid all such whingers!

[Mikie]

I won't be disappointed at all, no matter what. Even if I have all of it already on bootlegs. At minimum, I'm confident that everything that's out there on bootlegs will now be in better sound quality from the best sources. That's all I'm asking for, and anything I haven't heard already will be icing on the cake. And I'm confident that the packaging will be nothing less than stellar in starlight. And the biggest thing for me is knowing that SMiLE will finally be presented to the masses around the world, even to average listeners who only know The Boys from their surf/sand/girls material. It will undoubtedly turn new fans onto the Beach Boys and present them in a new light. Yeah, it shoulda coulda have been released much earlier, but better late than never. And if BWPS hasn't provided Brian with complete closure with SMiLE, I'm sure this release will surely do it. Too bad Carl and Dennis aren't here to enjoy it, but at least Brian and Van Dyke are. I completely trust Linett and Boyd on this - they both have a great track record so far and I'm sure Brian Wilson knows it's in good hands.

[buddhahat]

I won't be disappointed at all, no matter what. Even if I have all of it already on bootlegs. At minimum, I'm confident that everything that's out there on bootlegs will now be in better sound quality from the best sources. That's all I'm asking for, and anything I haven't heard already will be icing on the cake. And I'm confident that the packaging will be nothing less than stellar in starlight. And the biggest thing for me is knowing that SMiLE will finally be presented to the masses around the world, even to average listeners who only know The Boys from their surf/sand/girls material. It will undoubtedly turn new fans onto the Beach Boys and present them in a new light. Yeah, it shoulda coulda have been released much earlier, but better late than never. And if BWPS hasn't provided Brian with complete closure with SMiLE, I'm sure this release will surely do it. Too bad Carl and Dennis aren't here to enjoy it, but at least Brian and Van Dyke are. I completely trust Linett and Boyd on this - they both have a great track record so far and I'm sure Brian Wilson knows it's in good hands.

well said!

[juggler]

We all have our personal wish lists for this thing, and mine is probably more optimistic than most of yours (yes, I am half-expecting Surf's Up part 2).  With that said, I'm not going to be "disappointed" if stuff on my personal wish list no longer exists or never existed or has not been located for this release.  As far as I'm concerned, WHATEVER new music we get on this release is gravy at this point.  And, as to the not-so-new stuff, it'll be awesome to have it in better sound quality.  And I'm not going to be disappointed at all if the playing order isn't the way I would have done it because I can (and probably will) burn my own CDs in any and every order I want.

So, as to the music, no, I will not be disappointed. No matter what.

I have to admit, though, I could be disappointed with the packaging.  For all these years, I have expected that if a package like this were to come out, Frank Holmes' artwork would be part of it.  If that doesn't happen, yes, I'll admit that I probably will be disappointed.  If Holmes' artwork is absent, I would hope that Capitol will do as they've been doing and stick to the non-Holmes stuff from the vintage 1967 cover (i.e., the red SMiLE and blue THE BEACH BOYS in the familiar font) rather than come up with something completely new that inevitably WILL be a disappointment.

[Myk Luhv]

It's The Beach Boys. Something is bound to go almost inexplicably wrong!

[PhilCohen]

It's The Beach Boys. Something is bound to go almost inexplicably wrong!

I don't think that any of the surviving Beach Boys will force a postponement, but box fabrication or vinyl pressing problems could indeed cause a postponement. Remember, the vinyl edition of the Bob Dylan mono albums box was issued two months after the CD edition, due to a shortage of factories that could make quality vinyl pressings. In the end, the vinyl box got good reviews for its' quality.

We can all agree, that we want the CD/Vinyl/book box to be well-manufactured, and not be a disaster of missing discs, missing memorabilia, damaged packaging & disc-damaging packaging like Universal Music's recent Derek & The Dominos box......where most consumers got sets in unsatisfactory condition.

[Awesoman]

...I mean: do you bear this possibility in mind? You've spent long years reading about SMiLE, bought many bootlegs, participated in several message boards, perhaps even constructed your own SMiLE mix... and after 44 years, finally, the best possible (most complete?) version of that monster, that beast, that legend, will see the light of day. And you'll pay a handsome price for it.

But what if you, contrary to your own expectations, will feel let down?

Dare I say it:

I don't really care about the SMiLE box set.  Yeah I plan on purchasing it and believe I'll get something out of it, but I'm not one to blow things out of proportion.  I have no expectations for it.  Why should I?  The album was never completed.  A cohesive version of this album already came out in 2004.

[bgas]

Dare I say it:

I don't really care about the SMiLE box set.  Yeah I plan on purchasing it and believe I'll get something out of it, but I'm not one to blow things out of proportion.  I have no expectations for it.  Why should I?  The album was never completed.  A cohesive version of this album already came out in 2004.

THERE"S a different take. 
To me, that's like saying, "I don't need to hear the Beach Boys perform THEIR songs, because I have the "Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys".

[homeontherange]

I don't really care about the SMiLE box set.  Yeah I plan on purchasing it and believe I'll get something out of it, but I'm not one to blow things out of proportion.  I have no expectations for it.  Why should I?  The album was never completed.  A cohesive version of this album already came out in 2004.

Wasn't that more of a live version of Smile? Didn't really care for the production, instrumentation and vocals on that version. Still enjoyed it though

[The Heartical Don]

Dare I say it:

I don't really care about the SMiLE box set.  Yeah I plan on purchasing it and believe I'll get something out of it, but I'm not one to blow things out of proportion.  I have no expectations for it.  Why should I?  The album was never completed.  A cohesive version of this album already came out in 2004.

THERE"S a different take. 
To me, that's like saying, "I don't need to hear the Beach Boys perform THEIR songs, because I have the "Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys".

Um... isn't that stretching the comparison by a few millimeters? 

[rab2591]

If SS Boxset disappoints me:

i will shut out the world, put LOVE YOU in my system on non-stop repeat, curl up in the fetal position, and cry for hours. seriously.

All I want are cleaned up SMiLE tracks. I'm not looking for the Holy Grail here, just a nice mixing job. So I'm really in no position to be disappointed. That is unless Al's statement about the Boys finishing up the SMiLE tracks with their own voices was true. Then I think I will be crying for hours.

[Myk Luhv]

You should all be doing that with Love You anyway, jeez. Where the f*** is my Love You-era box set?!

[Catbirdman]

The musical content of the box set almost surely won't disappoint me. I am not expecting much in the way of previously-unheard material, so anything that we do get will be gravy to me. I do expect one or two gems, no idea what they'll be, but not much more than one or two. And as for disc one, the presentation thereof, and all the controversy it is likely to precipitate, honestly, I'm not that concerned. Their job is to present disc one to the world, balancing priorities of commercialism, historicity, taste, and common sense. In that pursuit they are guaranteed not to please everyone, and almost everyone will surely find bones to pick with their approach, large or small. That comes with the territory. So I just expect them to do their best, which I trust will not be half-hearted (I have great faith in Mr. Boyd especially), and that will be good enough for me.

Where I am much more likely to meet with disappointment is in the informational content. Brian and Van Dyke won't be around forever, and despite their nearly non-existent acknowledgment of particulars over the years, I still feel they are our best hope in gaining insight into some of SMiLE's more resilient mysteries. I'm thinking of questions like what exactly was the concept behind The Elements, and what exactly comprises its recorded and compositional history, as best as can be remembered 45 years later? That's just one example, but there are many others as we all know. It's my view that these are important questions. I feel like the larger world all too often dismisses details like this as geek-outs not worth bothering about. But these questions are not just for the trainspotters, they're essential in filling in and documenting the overall mosaic that is SMiLE. I believe this body of work will be of interest to many generations to come, and will come to be seen as one of the 20th century's most important works of pop art. And if I'm right about that, then wouldn't it be a small tragedy if we miss the opportunity to mine the data that lie within the minds of Brian and Van Dyke? Granted, that data will be skewed by time, haze, drugs and whatever else. But it's still the best primary source we've got. My biggest fear is that the producers of this set will wimp out and not mine that primary source sufficiently.

I also worry that there will be a cavalier attitude (especially in Domenic's essay) toward proper documentation and thoroughness in separating fact from fiction from plausible speculation. I will be disappointed if the essay and the accompanying informational content trot out old canards like "Mike hated SMiLE" and "Brian blew his mind on drugs" (or conversely, "drugs were a non-issue") and throw them out there as the unexamined prime insights into the elegant tapestry that is SMiLE, and expect us to just swallow that merda and like it, and shut up. Remember, this is a work that is so rich and deep it supports multiple theories and interests, from Zen interpretaions to expositions on the American experience, to fan dreams of a high-art concept album, and all supported by a compositional and recording-based musical topography that is so dense and varied that it almost rivals Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. That means one needs to explore that topography, the particular hills and dales, valleys and streams, in order to gain meaningful insights into the whole. "Because Dom said so" is just NOT going to fly with me if they're going to throw out sweeping generalities that "SMiLE was almost finished" or "Brian had a concept album in mind" without supporting those statements with documented facts and/or educated speculation into what was recorded and why (and when).

Another area that might bring disappointment is the packaging. If the box is flimsy I will be slightly disappointed. If the artwork is ugly I will experience real pangs. If Frank Holmes' artwork is not used or is used in horrible taste, I will probably retire to my bed for a month. I am also hoping for a cornucopia of vintage photos (especially the Jasper Dailey photos) in best ever quality, uncropped, and easily scannable without damaging the book (that is because I like to make my own homemade CDs, NOT because I intend to pirate and distribute anything). I am prepared to sustain a certain amount of disappointment in that area, but if the situation is too bad - i.e. if there are NO Jasper Dailey photos or if everything is in black and white or if it's an unredeemable scrapbook mess - then I will be very disappointed indeed.

[rab2591]

You should all be doing that with Love You anyway, jeez.

That made my day

[Jonas]

Are we really running out of things to talk about?

[SG7]

Donate it to Goodwill 

[Mikie]

Are we really running out of things to talk about?

Jonas, you're right.  I think I'll start a thread on the Global Moderators.

[Mikie]

I have to admit, though, I could be disappointed with the packaging.  For all these years, I have expected that if a package like this were to come out, Frank Holmes' artwork would be part of it.  If that doesn't happen, yes, I'll admit that I probably will be disappointed.

Good point.  Forgot about that possible disappointment.  Let's hope the issue is mute and that this thing has Frank's artwork included. To me, it's part of the legend of SMiLE.

[PhilCohen]

Are we really running out of things to talk about?

Maybe, until Capitol, Mark Linett or Alan Boyd reveal more information about the box.

[Jason]

Are we really running out of things to talk about?

Jonas, you're right.  I think I'll start a thread on the Global Moderators.

4PPR3C!47!0N 7HR34D$ R 6H3Y

[Mikie]

Whatsat?  Code for "Kiss my white posterior"?   Or the serial key to a copy of Microsoft Windows 7?

[Andrew G. Doe]

The thing that will disappoint - but in no way surprise - me about the box will be the reaction here and on other boards. Fans will bitch about, in no particular order...

why wasn't [insert your track of choice] given more representation ?

why wasn't there more documentation ?

why was that take chosen and not take 453b-1 from the SOT set ?

why was the track edited like that, it's wrong ? (only one person can say that with any legitimacy, and he sure doesn't post here)

why wasn't more material included ?

In short, fans being fans and thus insatiable.

Will there be any bones of contention/disappointments within the material itself ? Sure to be.  This is The Beach Boys, the band who have unerringly, over the last few decades chosen the wrong option when it would have been  far easier to do it right.

[Jason]

Whatsat?  Code for "Kiss my white posterior"?   Or the serial key to a copy of Microsoft Windows 7?

Leetspeak.

"4PPR3C!47!0N 7HR34D$ R 6H3Y" - original
"Appreciation threads are gay." - translation
"Appreciation threads r ghey." - transliteration