Your first SMiLE experience..

[Jameswilliam]

Im not sure if i got the boxset before it, (it was all in the same time period), but my first SMiLE cd was the 2 disc "bits and pieces" with the "dont talk" instrumental as the last track of one of the discs. It was 1998, I was 15... found it at a independant record shop.. $50 bucks it cost me, traded Alot of the cds and begged my dad for the money.. i jsut had to have it... and it went with me everywhere in my discman, for a long time.

[Andrew G. Doe]

The Preiss tape.

[Paul2010]

The Purple Chick Smile Reconstruction, a few years ago.

[richardsnow]

Aside from the bits ond bobs on 20/20 and Heroes of course, the 1st Smile I heard was around 1992 I think when I got a bootleg that started with about 15 mins of good vibes sessions followed by "look" incorectly listed as " holidays"  I think it was stuff bootleged from Mark L's rough mixes for the forthcoming Good Vibes box set. It was a bit Lo fi.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

1988

1) Made In USA cassette tape: Heroes And Villains / Good Vibrations.

2) An American Band video: Mrs O' Leary's Cow / Bicycle Rider / Surfs Up

3) Surfs Up LP: Surfs Up

1989

4) 20/20 LP: Cabinessence / Prayer

5) Sunflower LP: Cool Water

6) Wild Honey single: Wind Chimes (smiley version)

7) Smiley Smile: Wonderful / Vegetables etc

1990

Smiley Smile / Wild Honey CD: Alt H&V etc

9) SMiLE 2580 Boot: The Linett leak

1993

10) Good Vibrations Boxset: I Love To Say Da Da / VegaTables etc

1994

11) SMiLE bits and pieces: Barnyard / I Wanna Be Around

1998)

12) Sea Of Tunes SMiLE: lots, notably Wind Chime version 1

I lose count after this because I started downloading stuff.

My SMiLE journey has been long and eventful,  but the end is now in sight.

[Steve Mayo]

1979...tape
1st time hearing the unreleased music

[Aegir]

on Christmas 2004 I got Smiley Smile / Wild Honey and BWPS.

think I downloaded my first Smile boot in 2006, it was a mix done by a guy who used to post here, "king of anglia".

[rogerlancelot]

In Spring of 1999 I downloaded Ann Wallace's mix and not too much later discovered SMiLE Research Library with tons of downloads. I made my own mix around that same time on a cd-r.

[Jaspy]

1999 watching 'The Beach Boys & der Satan' on TV with all the SMiLE footage from 'An American Band' ("Fire", "Bicycle Rider", "Surf's Up"). Was impressed that they even did promo films for never released music.

[LonelyDays]

The Beach Boys A California Saga by Tom Nolan. Then the World Record Club Capitol Years boxset on cassette.

[Mooger Fooger]

My first Smile revelation came when, after getting the Greatist Hits LP for Xmas in 1981, I pondered how H&V and GV sounded similar (instrument and recording technique-wise). I then read in a rock history book about the aborted "Smile" project (and simultaneously thought in my teenage brain how stupid the author was because "Smiley Smile" was available everywhere and how could he get the name wrong). When I got hold of a used Reprise Wild Honey-20/20 reissue my first listen to Cabinessence had me feeling although I was hearing it for the first time, it sound soooo familiar to me.Then I got a hold of a less-than-legit compilation called "Made in the USA" which had the GV snippets as featured on the 1976 radio special "The Best Summers of Our Lives". That lp had info about the upcoming and also less-than-legit "Smile" and I thought I'd definitely get my hands on that. I still remember playing the tracks and while "DYLW" was playing looking at the back cover, then going outside looking up at the moon and thinking, "this stuff is cosmic!!". From that point I was hooked.

[John Stivaktas]

Around 1991 I picked up The Early Years version of Smile on CD from Red Eye Records in Sydney. The quality was obviously from cassettes and some songs were not from the SMiLE sessions such as Heroes and Villains and Wind Chimes (both from Smiley Smile) and Vegetables (which was the Laughing Gravy version!). A year later I got the Chapter One release which was way better in terms of audio quality.

[gxios]

1967-  teen magazines are full of news about H&V and the album to come.
1969- First heard Cabinessence
1971- First a local DC arts rag and then the Rolling Stone story detailed unheard music.
1972- Al Jardine tells me after a show at Ocean City, MD that Smile is "coming out soon".
1977-78- the Leaf and Priess books
1982- horrible sounding cassette of "Do You Like Worms" and a few others sent to me from Texas.
1983 plus- the rest of the story.

[GoofyJeff]

apart from the tracks on the 30 Years boxset, my first exposure was the Dave Prokopy tapes.

[Mark H.]

1979 poor quality cassette tape sent to me from a member of BBFUN - a year or so after the Leaf book.  Next came the original vinyl boots in 82 or 83 I think.  Prior to that I compiled my first fan mix using released material based upon the Leaf book and then Preiss.

[OneEar/OneEye]

Reading the Preiss book way back in 79 or 80, seeing the picture of the album cover in that book, must have stared at that picture for hours and hours,  being intrigued by the odd song titles mentioned, I became fascinated and from there it was an easter egg hunt, finding/hearing bits and pieces here and there - H&V on a jukebox in the game room of the Atari plant in San Jose, Surf's Up via "Good Vibrations - The Best of The Beach Boys (album with the wave breaking over the rock on its cover), Our Paryer/Cabinessence on 20/20, etc.  
Hearing Pet Sounds around this same period was part of it too, made me stop, shake my head, go "wha???"  I was confused that this was the same band that did that other stuff, how could that be?  waitaminnit, let me get a grip, let me sit down, let me think, this is too much, what does all this mean???   The experience of being a fan of their music made me think and challenged my beliefs in ways The Beatles never did, and it started with Pet Sounds/Smle.   Eventually I heard Smile Smile, and that threw a further monkey wrench into the gears - what the heck is going on???  That 66/67 period, a blip in time, just a brief moment that winked and was gone, incomplete, bits and pieces, no answers,  only questions, riddles, and no one, not even the band, would ever make music quite like this ever again - poof!  gone, yet still there in the remnants left behind.  During those years it was a lonely thing being a fan of theirs, they got less respect than they do now, so I oftened kept it to myself, but I knew there was something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something that kept drawing me back to this fascination, and to a band and its music that I knew was way more than people were imagining.

[JohnMill]

Well the first time I heard any SMiLE music was "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" in "An American Band".  I believe I saw that for the first time in 1987?  I rented it at a local video store along with a copy of "Yellow Submarine" I believe.

[Wrightfan]

The Purple Chick Smile Reconstruction, a few years ago.

Same here.

[JDShadow]

..apart from the Box Set releases --Ryan Guidry's SMiLE mix

[GeorgeFellInHisHorn]

my first experience was SMiLE the Millenium Edition a few years ago.

[Amanda Hart]

My first real taste of Smile was BWPS in 2006. I had just watched the TV mini series and it piqued my curiosity. I had a friend who had BWPS, so I copied it from him. When I first heard it I had the typical "is this really the same guy singing?" reaction, but I got in to it, Heroes being the stand out for me. I saw Heroes on Sounds of Summer, with some other songs I wasn't familiar, bought it and was blown away. Not only by the Boys version of Heroes but by other later stuff like Wild Honey and I Can Hear Music. That was when it really started and got a hold of the twofers, a couple of books and then bootlegs. The more I learned and discovered the further I got pulled in! I think you all can relate 

[Chocolate Shake Man]

After being a longtime fan of the band since I was a kid, and then completely obsessing over Pet Sounds in high school in the 90s, I bought the follow-up two-fer around 1997-98. Needless to say it was a shocking shift in style and I took more to Wild Honey. Slowly I grew into Smiley though and David Leaf's liner notes really ramped up my desire to hear the original Smile material. I had heard some of it before in the American Band video which I watched as a kid in the 80s. Then I tried desperately to get it in bootleg  and I almost did through a connection on the Cabin Essence website (where, incidentally, I became Public Enemy #1 a few years later), but I was a teenager who was skeptical about sending this person money through mail. So I waited a bit longer and bought a few more CDs. I got the Friends/20/20 twofer and was blown away by Our Prayer and Cabin Essence. Then there was the Endless Harmony doc on TV that played little snippets from a few tracks. That's where I heard a sliver of Wonderful, which immediately confirmed exactly what Leaf talked about in his liner notes - this was something altogether different from the Smiley version. Then just noodling around on the internet in my first year of university (1999), there was a website that had the 18 song (maybe 17 or 19? can't quite remember) track list available to listen and to download. I heard a few things at home, but then went to a friend's house, and we listened to it all on his computer in his basement. Then I brought the news to my other friend who lived in residence at the school and he downloaded it and made a copy for me. I think the website must have been taken down shortly thereafter. That summer of 2000 was the summer of the Beach Boys - saw Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds then too. That was really quite the time to be a Beach Boys fan just like now.

[Shady]

The Purple Chick Smile Reconstruction, a few years ago.

Same..

[Runaways]

BWPS, followed a couple years later by purple chick

[SMiLE Brian]

BWPS