WhAt iS yOur HOly GrAll of SMilE sTufF??

[ghost]

That you hope is miraculously featured on the upcoming box set?

For this ghost, it would be a very complete feeling mix of Child is Father of the Man. Like a special "Brian remembered exactly how he was going to do it now" mix. Mostly because that song was lackluster on BWPS. None of the ominous foreboding bass or creepy piano, the fuzz is neutered and low in the mix. Personally I think the chorus to Child is one of Brian's most interesting moments and it seems extremely underrated. Sure I see people mention their love for the song but I never notice anyone remarking on how amazing it really is on the Smile sessions.

[homeontherange]

Low fuzz, no creepy piano? That ain't no Smile for me buddy.

[ghost]

Low fuzz, no creepy piano? That ain't no Smile for me buddy.

I know, that's what I'm saying, about BWPS...

[homeontherange]

Oh! Sorry, misread your text. Completely agree with you about that! There are various songs on BWPS that lack this sound. Like the Bicycle Rider chorus. I miss the fuzz bass there so bad. It's there somewhere in the background, but you can't hear the important notes. Why did they just ignore that part of the Smile sound?

[BiG GRiN]

I agree, unfortunately, they 'ignored' a lot of stuff on BWPS, like parts of H&V. I've read Brian saying most of the SMiLE era songs, like "With me tonight", "He Gives Speeches"... didn't fit with SMiLE. Maybe he's right, or not... but I regret it.

[rab2591]

They took the flutes and a lot of the bass out of 'Song for Children' and didn't put the brass parts in 'Surf's Up' - two of my complaints about BWPS.

Back on topic: a fantastic sounding 'Holidays' would make my day. Linett is a genius at mixing, so I really can't wait to see what he comes up with!

A miracle would be if they assembled Brian's album version of H&V based off some nearly-lost acetate.

[buddhahat]

That you hope is miraculously featured on the upcoming box set?

For this ghost, it would be a very complete feeling mix of Child is Father of the Man. Like a special "Brian remembered exactly how he was going to do it now" mix. Mostly because that song was lackluster on BWPS. None of the ominous foreboding bass or creepy piano, the fuzz is neutered and low in the mix. Personally I think the chorus to Child is one of Brian's most interesting moments and it seems extremely underrated. Sure I see people mention their love for the song but I never notice anyone remarking on how amazing it really is on the Smile sessions.

I was talking about this just the other day. Child is probably the most astonishing and beguiling of all the smile songs for me. The verse chords are just mindblowingly beautiful. I'd never heard it until I went to the 2nd RFH Smile show and when I heard those mournful verse chords it seemed a perfect expression of all the beauty and loss within brian's own story and also spoke to the part of me that had some weird lsd related problems in my late teens. It was a definite epiphany and sealed my Smile fanaticism from that day forth.

What Brian/VDP planned for the melody and lyrics to that verse section is the greatest question mark for me, so alongside an alternate edit of H&V, this too is my smile holy grail although I think unearthed Heroes material is more likely than anything to do with Child.

[puni puni]

CitFotM vocals, Holidays, and I Love To Say Da Da in stereo.

[Roger Ryan]

I think we're almost guaranteed that Brian's original edited backing track to "Child" will be on the box set...but that still leaves open the question of what the verse melody would have been like (assuming that Brian didn't get it right on BWPS).

I'm trying not to get my hopes up about anything on the set and, for the most part, I don't even know what a "holy grail" find would be for me. The realist in me knows that little was completed in any form and that I've heard most of what was recorded. I'll be grateful for any little surprises.

[37!ws]

Thing is, I was never a big fan of Smile until Brian finished it until 2004. I always found the BB-era sessions to be, well...dark, disturbing, creepy, unfinished, and just plain boring. Hell, even Brian sounds bored during the sessions. But having said that, I guess the holy grail for me would be any vocals found to things we only heard as instrumentals -- like the studio versions of "Barnyard" and "I'm In Great Shape," the verses to "Do You Like Worms," "Love To Say Da Da," "CIFTTM," etc.

[Micha]

The holy grail would be a version of Surf's Up with full lush BB background vocals throughout... But I'm sure that never existed.

Actually, the BWPS version of CIFOTM is one of the few moments where I like the BWPS backing track better than the 66/67 backing track. It really rocks. The old one is jarring.

[ghost]

The holy grail would be a version of Surf's Up with full lush BB background vocals throughout... But I'm sure that never existed.

Actually, the BWPS version of CIFOTM is one of the few moments where I like the BWPS backing track better than the 66/67 backing track. It really rocks. The old one is jarring.

That jarringness is very 'Brian Wilson' and very appropriate for Smile at that time. It's exactly where he was at with the recording techniques and songs he was writing. It was a new sound. No one was doing that sh*t. No one does it now. Brian's edits are the stuff of genius.

[Jason]

I always found the BB-era sessions to be, well...dark, disturbing, creepy, unfinished, and just plain boring.

Minus the "just plain boring", you've named just about every reason I love the sessions!

[ghost]

Smile has the LSD nervous smile. You're on the edge but enjoying it. It's getting a little heavy but you're riding the wave.

Like the Manson family heading back to the desert after you know what. 

[bossaroo]

I'm really hoping to hear more complete versions of "Child", "Look", "I'm In Great Shape" and "Barnyard" ...hopefully with more vocals.

and anything else I haven't heard before. pretty excited about hearing an extended "H&V" as originally intended.

obviously a backing track for the second half of "Surf's Up" would be huge, however unlikely.

also wondering if "Tones" will be included with some more explanation. I believe it is clearly related to "Little Pad", so I wonder if that or any other Hawaiian-themed stuff will turn up too.

[SMiLE Brian]

The completed album that Brian's hidden from everybody as one big joke.

[runnersdialzero]

WhAt iS yOur HOly GrAll of SMilE sTufF??

r u maken fun of uz

[ghost]

WhAt iS yOur HOly GrAll of SMilE sTufF??

r u maken fun of uz

Keep your beanie on bro.

[runnersdialzero]

WhAt iS yOur HOly GrAll of SMilE sTufF??

r u maken fun of uz

Keep your beanie on bro.

it not funny

[Bill Tobelman]

ghost said:

That jarringness is very 'Brian Wilson' and very appropriate for Smile at that time. It's exactly where he was at with the recording techniques and songs he was writing. It was a new sound. No one was doing that sh*t. No one does it now. Brian's edits are the stuff of genius.

I agree with this.

The recent SMiLE issue of MOJO '60s has an LSD article that mentions "...the almost violent shift of consciousness..." in the LSD inspired records from the 60s. Also of note is how the use of such "jarring" musical techniques are consistent with Arthur Koestler's creative formula.

[18thofMay]

ghost said:

That jarringness is very 'Brian Wilson' and very appropriate for Smile at that time. It's exactly where he was at with the recording techniques and songs he was writing. It was a new sound. No one was doing that sh*t. No one does it now. Brian's edits are the stuff of genius.

I agree with this.

The recent SMiLE issue of MOJO '60s has an LSD article that mentions "...the almost violent shift of consciousness..." in the LSD inspired records from the 60s. Also of note is how the use of such "jarring" musical techniques are consistent with Arthur Koestler's creative formula.

[ghost]

ghost said:

That jarringness is very 'Brian Wilson' and very appropriate for Smile at that time. It's exactly where he was at with the recording techniques and songs he was writing. It was a new sound. No one was doing that sh*t. No one does it now. Brian's edits are the stuff of genius.

I agree with this.

The recent SMiLE issue of MOJO '60s has an LSD article that mentions "...the almost violent shift of consciousness..." in the LSD inspired records from the 60s. Also of note is how the use of such "jarring" musical techniques are consistent with Arthur Koestler's creative formula.

High doses of said chemical are like that & I actually don't recommend them for inexperienced users. They can be too shattering all at once. You can't really space out acid doses well either unlike other powerful keys so it's basically an all at once fairly quick shift into that mode of consciousness changing all along. I think there's only a dozen or so people here maybe 20 or so in the active participating posting and reading (registered members) who really have any worthwhile experience with drugs. I joke around about them kind of but would not absurdify a serious discussion on what the impact of the drugs being used by Brian, The Beach Boys, even the Wrecking Crew et al, on the music, the audience, etc. It's a significant factor I feel as are the corresponding chemically-realized philosophic-mystical understandings that correspond to those states - the secret meanings of Smile, as Leonard Bernstein spoke of about the lyrics the new music of the generation was using. Brian & Van Dyke is the perfect example. It's a new language that transcends the ordinary limitations. Mike love was a larval being resisting Brian's psychedelic metamorphosis into a new child of the aeon.

[ghost]

I would not like to implicate Mike because I actually think he's a far out guy but Brian has said bluntly that Mike was a big reason why Smile didn't happen. When I heard about Mike Love being heard singing Wonderful backstage or somewhere during a Beach Boys event I realized something - what if Mike Love is protecting Brian's impeccable legacy as bizarre genius goose that laid the golden egg? BY giving renewed life [I realize some would say stasis] to the old Beach Boys - the surf, cars, good times band, he also gives life to those dedicated fans who dig that music - as good as it still really is as Mike plays it. I mean, it's not like a group of 10 year olds playing, it has its own merits for its audience, those who really dig it. The fan that likes it will go on the internet. Google > The Beach Boys > Wikipedia > read about Brian Wilson > intrigued by strange fellow > etc etc in the process finding out this esoteric side which Mike Love has referred to it as before. Beutiful, no? Mike Love - tuned in guy. So what, he makes money? Brian is a materialistic bastard and you know it. He's admitted it in interviews. To a poor guy like me doing nothing in life, Brian comes off sometimes like a greedy cokehead living as a rockstar instead of how I live. Like he needs a few millions to keep living each year. Ha! But I give it to him, because he digs that. I don't really need it. Mike Love provides renewed life to a beautiful duality. Mike Love is the Sun. Brian Wilson is the Moon. 

[Bill Tobelman]

With regard to a song that a few folks said they'd like to especially hear on the upcoming SMiLE set:

The song "Child is Father of the Man" is based upon a line from a Wordsworth poem as probably most of you know. What some folks may not be aware of (& some will likely think I'm nuts for saying this) is that the poem is about spiritual enlightenment (& thus why it is so appropriate). As such it's a neat little pocket guide to the larger (& hidden) process that is SMiLE.

Here's the poem:

My heart leaps up when I behold   
A rainbow in the sky:   
So was it when my life began;   
So is it now I am a man;   
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!   
The Child is father of the Man;   
I could wish my days to be   
Bound each to each by natural piety.

First line is about the awesomeness of nature/the universe.

Then we go back in time a la "fell in love years ago with an innocent girl" or the antiquated references in SMiLE.

Then we get the present moment, the current status.

The next line looks to the future a la "at 3 score & five I'm very much alive" or "my children were raised."

"Or let me die!" is the ego-death line much like "if I die before I wake" in BWPS as well as in the imagery of "Surf's Up" and maybe even "Cabinessence."

"The Child is Father of the Man" is the unexplainable level of understanding that words cannot do justice to. What I personally like to think this is is a time reversal sort of thing where both aspects of the mind's take on time are equally trivial. There is only the present moment....the now.

In the end a new self emerges wishing that the future be filled with more of the same (dare I say with the possibility to pass such an experience on---as Wordsworth did via his art form: poetry).

[ghost]

With regard to a song that a few folks said they'd like to especially hear on the upcoming SMiLE set:

The song "Child is Father of the Man" is based upon a line from a Wordsworth poem as probably most of you know. What some folks may not be aware of (& some will likely think I'm nuts for saying this) is that the poem is about spiritual enlightenment (& thus why it is so appropriate). As such it's a neat little pocket guide to the larger (& hidden) process that is SMiLE.

Here's the poem:

My heart leaps up when I behold   
A rainbow in the sky:   
So was it when my life began;   
So is it now I am a man;   
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!   
The Child is father of the Man;   
I could wish my days to be   
Bound each to each by natural piety.

First line is about the awesomeness of nature/the universe.

Then we go back in time a la "fell in love years ago with an innocent girl" or the antiquated references in SMiLE.

Then we get the present moment, the current status.

The next line looks to the future a la "at 3 score & five I'm very much alive" or "my children were raised."

"Or let me die!" is the ego-death line much like "if I die before I wake" in BWPS as well as in the imagery of "Surf's Up" and maybe even "Cabinessence."

"The Child is Father of the Man" is the unexplainable level of understanding that words cannot do justice to. What I personally like to think this is is a time reversal sort of thing where both aspects of the mind's take on time are equally trivial. There is only the present moment....the now.

In the end a new self emerges wishing that the future be filled with more of the same (dare I say with the possibility to pass such an experience on---as Wordsworth did via his art form: poetry).

Thus the "birth" motif in the 'creepy piano' part of Child is Father of the Man is free to be understood as a metaphor for the rebirth and reintegration of the mind after the death of the prior illusions. The horns resound stoically at the sight of new land ahead - new life, new potential. Timothy Leary said that our DNA wants us to leave planet earth and seed throughout the universe. In his cosmology, life began as cosmic seeds which were planted on this planet and, presumably, many others. Who is laying these DNA seeds on rocks in abstract voidness?