Sheet music, photos go up for sale in London.

[Pretty Funky]

I seem to remember this from years ago. Auction halted due to legal action which seems to have been sorted.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/wouldnt-it-be-nice-to-buy-a-beach-boys-song-8537544.html


Wouldn't it be nice to buy a Beach Boys song?
Sheet music, photos, and other lost treasures of the Californian group, go up for sale in London next month

Paul Bignell  Sunday 17 March 2013

The Beach Boys' songs of youth and romance won a worldwide audience and fame to rival the Beatles. Now an archive of material, spanning the first two decades of their career and revealing how some of the songs were created, is to be auctioned in London next month.

Discovered in a storage facility in Florida, the material is thought to be one of the biggest collections to be put up for auction and represents thousands of pages of manuscripts, covering more than 150 songs. It consists of recording contracts, sheet music, photographs and handwritten lyrics and letters.

Such is the vast size of the archive – revealed here for the first time – that a reserve of $10m (£6.6m) has been set. It will be one of the largest amounts paid for a single collection of rock'n'roll memorabilia if the asking price is achieved.

The group, who formed in 1961, had instant success with songs such as "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Surfin' USA". By the mid 1960s, it was evident that leader Brian Wilson was an incredibly gifted songwriter, and their 1966 album Pet Sounds is often cited as one of the greatest albums ever recorded. On hearing the song "God Only Knows" for the first time, Paul McCartney called it "the greatest song ever written".

But by the late 1960s, Wilson's mental health deteriorated considerably and he became a recluse for much of the next decade, with his musical output proving patchy.

Wilson became addicted to cocaine and overeating, his weight ballooning during the late 1960s and his paranoia about producing material that would compete with the Beatles increasing.

The collection was discovered during a blind auction at a storage facility in Florida in 2000 and later sold to a private company as part of a larger sale after several years of prolonged legal disputes.

Alan Boyd, Beach Boys archivist and expert, said: "This historic collection, containing many of the Beach Boys' own publishing documents along with assorted handwritten musical pieces, vintage legal papers, and various promotional and personal items from their early years, presents a priceless look into the inner workings of this legendary group.

"Historical artefacts like Brian Wilson and Mike Love's signatures on the original songwriter agreements for their 1968 classic 'Do It Again', for example, or the original publisher's lead sheet for 'Help Me, Rhonda', and even the Beach Boys' own copy of the Library of Congress copyright certificate for 'Good Vibrations' – these take on a significance that the people who generated them could scarcely have dreamed of back in the early 1960s."

The Beach Boys themselves confirmed knowledge of the sale, but declined to comment further. It is understood they are unaware of how the vast archive of material came to end up in the storage unit, where it is thought to have languished since the early 1980s.

Ted Owen, the chief executive of Fame Bureau which is auctioning off the archive, said: "The finding of this huge archive is probably one of the great rescue stories in contemporary music history. This written record of the Beach Boys' creativity represents the largest and most valuable collection of its kind ever to reach an auction room."

The collection will be previewed in New York on 15 April and at the Hard Rock Café in London on 18 April



edit.

Here are some related stories from a few years back.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/beach-boys-sue-over-memorabilia-theft

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1052923/judge-dismisses-beach-boys-memorabilia-suit

And from this one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6543805.stm

....The sale, which included the original arrangement sheets for Good Vibrations and God Only Knows, both with handwritten notes by songwriter Brian Wilson, was cancelled half-an-hour before it had been due to start.


Now THOSE would would be worth collecting!

[Andrew G. Doe]

That reserve price is probably the single most insane thing I've read in regard to The Beach Boys these last 37-odd years.

[Rocker]

Thanks for the link. Would love to take a look into the collection.


"The Beach Boys themselves confirmed knowledge of the sale, but declined to comment further. It is understood they are unaware of how the vast archive of material came to end up in the storage unit, where it is thought to have languished since the early 1980s."


Brian probably traded it in for a bag of cake and coke



From the site:

[leggo of my ego]

It is understood they are unaware of how the vast archive of material came to end up in the storage unit, where it is thought to have languished since the early 1980s.

Well someone is "aware" and I would be more interested to know that story than exactly whats in the lot.

Damn 10 million smackers. 

[bgas]

It is understood they are unaware of how the vast archive of material came to end up in the storage unit, where it is thought to have languished since the early 1980s.

Well someone is "aware" and I would be more interested to know that story than exactly whats in the lot.

Damn 10 million smackers. 

Perhaps if you checked the links in the first post, you'd know more of the story

[Andrew G. Doe]

For 10 mill, this is the minimum I'd expect to be part of the lot:

the "GV" vocal multitrack...
the Smile pressing master...
every last AFM contract from 1961-1979...
the AFTRA contracts for the same period (vocal sessions)...
a complete concert listing, ditto...
Mike's sparkly waistcoat and gold lame turban...
the cast from Dennis' arm (signed by all the band members)...
one of Carl's Nudie jumpsuits...
Alan's boomerang...
Bruce's original demo for "I Write The Songs"...
the bowling shoes Brian stole from the bowling alley...
the mechanical parrots...
Murry's glass eye...
the (in)famous dinner plate...
the "Stand Back-Speak Normal" sign...
the Wild Honey stained glass window...
the sandbox piano...
a jar of sand...
Mike's juice jug...
fittings from the Harmony.

[drbeachboy]

For 10 mill, this is the minimum I'd expect to be part of the lot:


Murry's glass eye...
the (in)famous dinner plate...

  Can't begin to tell you the pictures running through my brain.

[bgas]

For 10 mill, this is the minimum I'd expect to be part of the lot:

the "GV" vocal multitrack...
the Smile pressing master...
every last AFM contract from 1961-1979...
the AFTRA contracts for the same period (vocal sessions)...
a complete concert listing, ditto...
Mike's sparkly waistcoat and gold lame turban...
the cast from Dennis' arm (signed by all the band members)...
one of Carl's Nudie jumpsuits...
Alan's boomerang...
Bruce's original demo for "I Write The Songs"...
the bowling shoes Brian stole from the bowling alley...
the mechanical parrots...
Murry's glass eye...
the (in)famous dinner plate...
the "Stand Back-Speak Normal" sign...
the Wild Honey stained glass window...
the sandbox piano...
a jar of sand...
Mike's juice jug...
fittings from the Harmony.

We know the stained glass isn't there, and probably not Murry's eye, but do we know that the rest isn't in the auction? 
If I lived in New York, I'd definitely be at the preview on April 15th, likewise for the London preview!

[Al Jardine: Pick Up Artist]

Hm, some of those artifacts I'll admit I need an explanation for

[SMiLE Brian]

10 million dollars for Brian's late 1970s clothing....

[Cam Mott]

I hope it has one of those finished SMiLE album covers so we can see if any changes were ever made to the back liner's track list. [fingers crossed]

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Ted Owen, the chief executive of Fame Bureau which is auctioning off the archive, added,
"Some items are more valuable than others obviously.  We are proud to be offering the crown
jewel of Beach Boy collectables, Mike Love's handwritten lyrics to "Summer In Paradise",
signed by Mike himself".

[Pretty Funky]

1961 Capitol/ Beach Boys contract featuring original member B Johnston?

[Andrew G. Doe]

That would be historical.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Hm, some of those artifacts I'll admit I need an explanation for

A new competition, anyone ?  I thought they were all pretty obvious with maybe three exceptions.

[Jukka]

Alan's boomerang...
the mechanical parrots...
the "Stand Back-Speak Normal" sign...


These got me baffled, or does Alan's boomerang refer to him returning to the fold soon after he left the first time?

[The Shift]

Ted Owen, the chief executive of Fame Bureau which is auctioning off the archive, added,
"Some items are more valuable than others obviously.  We are proud to be offering the crown
jewel of Beach Boy collectables, 12 copies of Mike Love's handwritten lyrics to "Summer In Paradise",
signed by Mike to himself".

Someone had to…

[Pretty Funky]

Alan's boomerang...
the mechanical parrots...
the "Stand Back-Speak Normal" sign...


These got me baffled, or does Alan's boomerang refer to him returning to the fold soon after he left the first time?

A google search gave me 2 with the help of the Gaines book but the boomerang one has me stumped!

[leggo of my ego]

It is understood they are unaware of how the vast archive of material came to end up in the storage unit, where it is thought to have languished since the early 1980s.

Well someone is "aware" and I would be more interested to know that story than exactly whats in the lot.

Damn 10 million smackers. 

Perhaps if you checked the links in the first post, you'd know more of the story

Thanks - I dont know what I would do without you. 

[bgas]

a far far lesser world it would be

[leggo of my ego]

I dont know but it sounds to me like "someone" in the Brother Records camp did a little
deal for a few boxes of goodies on the sly...  

Come 1994 and who would notice a few boxes missing ?  yeah, Right!

[NHC]

"m" usually means a thousand in the financial world, as in the Roman numeral, not a million.  We use two "m"s for that. $10,000 seems more likely to me.

[Pretty Funky]

Years ago on the Ego Board Bruce said he had a storage locker full of stuff he has collected over decades. Now THAT would be some pretty sweet product AND a cool 'Storage Wars' episode. Barry Weiss would go for broke!

[SMiLE Brian]

Its probably filled with polo shirts and shorts....

[Pretty Funky]

I would pick him as the most switched on memorabilia wise and could see him going around getting the guys to sign new albums, programs etc back in the day.