Sheet music, photos go up for sale in London.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Known, but unreleased:
What’ll I Wear (to School Today)
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Marilyn
No Big Thing
Canyon Summer
If It Can’t Be You

Lee, Lee, Lee... I think you'll find that was released a good 47 years ago. 

[LeeDempsey]

Care to enlighten me, oh enlightened one?

From the BMI database:

BA BA BLACK SHEEP (Legal Title)  
BMI Work #69957
Songwriter/Composer Current Affiliation CAE/IPI #
WILSON BRIAN BMI 33029517  
Publishers
IRVING MUSIC BMI 355698807

Note that this isn't logged as "Traditional / Public Domain / Arranged by Brian Wilson", which should be the case if it were either a) the root for the vocal arrangement for "And Your Dream Comes True" (which is logged as its own composition -- BMI Work #40865) or b) just a legal technicality to get the silly intro to "Barbara Ann" onto the Party! album.  This seems to be logged with BMI as an original songwriting composition that shares the same title as the traditional children's song -- except with one "a" ("Ba Ba Black Sheep") in the title, instead of the way the traditional / public domain song is logged ("Baa Baa Black Sheep").

Lee

[PaulCampbell]

Did anyone get a chance to visit the auction in London?

[Pretty Funky]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/arts/music/beach-boys-win-legal-fight-but-must-still-sell-a-collection.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0



Beach Boys Win Fight, and Lose It
 
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
 
Published: April 26, 2013


The Beach Boys have won an eight-year legal battle over a collection of their memorabilia, including more than 50 handwritten scores for hits like “Good Vibrations” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.” But it is a partial victory, as binding arbitration has forced the band to agree to sell the memorabilia and split the money with other investors, lawyers and corporate entities who say they have a legal claim to it, court records show.

The memorabilia was put up for sale at a London auction house, the Fame Bureau, this month in a sealed-bid auction that ends on May 15. With more than 2,000 documents, the collection has been appraised, conservatively, at $6 million to $8 million. It contains photos, letters, notes, signed contracts, lyric sheets and handwritten scores by Brian Wilson for major hits and a few unpublished songs. It even includes what appears to be the band’s first royalty check — for $990.

“It’s a historical collection,” said Ted Owen, chief executive of the Fame Bureau. “It’s one of those things you cannot put a price on, because there is no precedent.”

The story of how the collection finally came to market, court records show, is a convoluted tale involving allegations of theft and a failed real-estate company in Florida that used the Beach Boys memorabilia as collateral for loans. In the end, a half-dozen people who have no connection to the Beach Boys have a stake in the auction, among them a Florida investment banker and a firefighter’s widow in Yonkers.

At the center of the tale is Roy A. Sciacca, a tour manager and former musician who has a history of starting media companies. Mr. Sciacca, who has been largely left out of the final settlement, said he bought 28 boxes of memorabilia from the Beach Boys at a warehouse sale in Los Angeles in the 1980s, when he was a struggling Sunset Strip guitarist. He said that he heard about the sale from a flier and that the Beach Boys tour manager, Elliott Lott, supervised it, a claim Mr. Lott has denied.

“I bought so much stuff that the manager of my band at the time went and rented a Ryder truck,” Mr. Sciacca said in an interview this week.

Later, he said, he found that two boxes contained a cache of scores, lead sheets, signed contracts and other valuable documents; other boxes contained less lofty items like guitar cases, lighting equipment and a set of Stetson hats the band had worn onstage.

“What I found was, at the end of the day, I had everything from ‘Help Me, Rhonda’ to ‘God Only Knows,’ ” Mr. Sciacca said. “All their sheet music. All their scoring.”

In 2005 Mr. Sciacca, who had moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tried to sell part of the collection, about 100 items, through Mr. Owen, who at the time had an auction house in London called Cooper Owen. The Beach Boys sued in federal court in Los Angeles to stop the sale, accusing Mr. Sciacca of conspiring with a North Hollywood warehouse owner, Allan D. Gaba, who was his friend, to take the memorabilia without permission.

In April 2007 a federal judge threw out the suit, ruling that there was no evidence that Mr. Sciacca and Mr. Gaba had stolen the boxes. But the decision was overturned on appeal, and a trial date was set for December 2008. Just before trial, however, Mr. Sciacca and Brother Records — the Beach Boys’ corporate entity — agreed to work out a settlement and to go to binding arbitration, if necessary.

Court records show, however, that other business partners of Mr. Sciacca’s had a claim to the collection. While the appeal was pending, Mr. Sciacca had entered into an agreement to sell the memorabilia to Global Realty Development Corporation, a company with plans to build pachinko parlors in Japan, in return for stock. The company, in turn, had used the memorabilia as collateral to obtain $2.2 million in loans from five investors, among them Baruch Halpern, a venture capitalist in Aventura, Fla.

But Global Realty collapsed in early 2008 and defaulted on the loans as its top executives resigned and its stock became worthless. Mr. Halpern said he and the other investors moved to take possession of the Beach Boys memorabilia.

In December 2007, Mr. Sciacca had tried to cancel the sale to Global Realty, claiming he was never paid. Global Realty initially agreed to rescind the purchase agreement, but four months later reversed that decision, accusing Mr. Sciacca of failing to live up to the terms of the agreement, according to court documents and the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In the meantime, Mr. Sciacca had transferred ownership of the collection in March 2008 to Royal PJ, L.L.C., a partnership between himself and two other people, according to the records of the partnership. One of the partners, a Yonkers firefighter, Patrick Joyce, died in the line of duty in October 2009, and his widow now stands to receive a share of the money from the auction.

In the interview this week, Mr. Sciacca said the sale to Global Realty had been rescinded and denied having ever transferred the memorabilia to the Royal PJ partnership.

Around 2008, records show, two lawyers who had represented Mr. Sciacca in his first bout with the Beach Boys and other matters — Gary W. Pollack and Richard C. Wolfe — came forward and said they had liens against the memorabilia for unpaid legal fees.

For more than three years, the collection sat in the Fortress — a guarded, climate-controlled storage space in Miami — while negotiations between the parties went nowhere, Mr. Halpern said.

Then, in July 2011, Mr. Halpern persuaded others with claims to ask Brother Records to seek binding arbitration in court, as it had agreed to do in 2008, Mr. Halpern and two lawyers involved in the negotiations said. Court documents show that Mr. Sciacca did not participate in the arbitration hearings, despite being served with subpoenas. Mr. Sciacca maintains that he was not aware of the hearings.

Last year the arbitrator, a retired California state judge named Alexander H. Williams III, decided to draft a settlement without him, ruling that since Mr. Sciacca had not participated in the negotiations, he had “no ownership or financial interest in the collection.” Still, Judge Williams awarded Mr. Sciacca a portion of the sale price if it exceeds $6 million, but only if he signs the agreement. In October, a state judge ordered that the arbitrator’s award be enforced.

“All these parties who barely knew each other existed finally got together and, after months and years, hammered out an agreement,” said Mr. Pollack, the former lawyer for Mr. Sciacca.

In the end, the surviving members of the Beach Boys will receive only a fraction of the money from the sale, according to the arbitrator’s award. Brother Records stands to make no more than $1 million of the first $6 million in revenue, much of which will go to pay legal fees. About $4 million will go to investors in Global Realty. But Brother Records will receive a larger share if the sales price rises above $6 million.

For his part, Mr. Sciacca remains defiant. He has threatened to sue to recover the memorabilia if the sale is completed, though it is unclear on what legal grounds he could file a claim. “It’s going to be another war,” he said. “I was the original owner. I am still the owner today.”

[Cabinessenceking]

Another cockup by the BB and BRI. You would think that precautions would be made to protect important memorabilia such as this from ending up in the hands of wolves. It seems these people have a full right to seel what they got, it's not their fault that the true owners failed so hard at keeping a record what is where.

[The Shift]

I'm really glad that story cleared the water. I was hoping to buy a lock of Mike's hair but will now withdraw my bid in case I get sued afterwards.

[RONDEMON]

Update and not a great one.

http://www.globallegalpost.com/global-view/bad-vibrations-for-the-beach-boys-46680522/#.UYKcKrU4te5

[Pretty Funky]

This sale is being hyped as something special when it seems many of the items are in fact not original ie the sheet music. The band probably know this so are not expecting a major payout.  Again the Bruce post...

Re(2): Lost archive of songs and photographs
Posted on April 12, 2013 at 07:38:17 AM by Bruce Johnston

I read the on-line Daily Mail Beach Boys article today about "Lost treasure trove of Beach Boys lyrics, music and photographs to sell for $10m after lying in storage for years" and I took a look at the photos of the music scores for "Surfing USA" and "I Get Around" that were included in the article.
The caption under the score photo in the Daily Mail relating to "I Get Around" is:
"Up for sale are the original studio arrangements for I Get Around, left, and the handwritten lyrics for Ain't It Sad."

Perhaps this link might be of interest if you would like to enlarge the "I Get Around" and "Surfin' USA" scores:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306391/Lost-Beach-Boys-lyrics-music-photographs-expected-sell-10m-lying-Florida-storage-unit-years.html

I think that the "I Get Around" score pictured in the Daily Mail article was created a few years after the original recording for an arrangement that included horn parts that were added to "I Get Around" for concert performances. Also, looking at the "Surfing USA" score photo in the article, it also looks like an 'after the fact' concert score, too.

Back in the early "Surfin' USA" and "I Get Around" years Brian Wilson did not work from sophisticated musical scores. Perhaps a horn part might have been written on a manuscript page during the session but in those "Surfin' USA" & "I Get Around" days horn sections were not used other than a couple of saxophones possibly in the bridge of "I Get Around."

If I were a potential buyer of this Beach Boys 'Lost treasure trove.....'
I would certainly find some sort of a team of Beach Boys experts to analyze what it was I was considering to purchase for $10m dollars.

Bruce Johnston
Montecito
April 12, 2013


....so this is from a guy who has first hand knowledge of scores used in concert for the Beach Boys. I would take his word anyday over some guy talking up a $10m value. Let the buyer beware!

[Pretty Funky]

Details and pictures of the so called pot of gold!


http://famebureau.com/beach-boys-archives.html

[Andrew G. Doe]

Looks more like a crock of sh*t to me - some of those items are duplicated in that preview. A few new pics... on that evidence, I'd rate it as $10,000, tops.

[bgas]

They're in Las Vegas, headed to LA, with less than a week until the "auction". If they can't blackmai the BBs into buying their own stuff back they'll go broke.
Some of the contracts have historically brought good $$; but the sheet music is obviously crap, for the most part; most likely made for A&M to try and shop their songs.
There are some nice photos, who's willing to pay $10K each for them?

[Ed Roach]

They did a story about the auction on CBS tv here in L.A. yesterday.  Said they expect the sale to go for around 6 million!

[bgas]

They did a story about the auction on CBS tv here in L.A. yesterday.  Said they expect the sale to go for around 6 million!

Guess theyre still hoping the BBs will buy it. can't see them wanting to spend it, unless they can do it as a tax-write-off reclaiming stolen goods.

[LeeDempsey]

Looks more like a crock of sh*t to me - some of those items are duplicated in that preview. A few new pics... on that evidence, I'd rate it as $10,000, tops.

We're not that far apart Andrew.  I was guessing $50,000 with the assumption that there HAS to be something of value that hasn't appeared in any photos, but purely based on what we've seen, $10,000-$20,000.

Lee

[Mikie]

Not the original sheet music, eh?  And hopefully they're not passing it off as original, right? Or are they?  Has anybody authenticated it?

'Cause if it's original, then I can see it being part of the auction.  If not, what the hell is it worth?  Not that much, I'd suspect....

[bgas]

Not the original sheet music, eh?  And hopefully they're not passing it off as original, right? Or are they?  Has anybody authenticated it?

'Cause if it's original, then I can see it being part of the auction.  If not, what the hell is it worth?  Not that much, I'd suspect....

I think Lee and AGD are going halfies on a $10K bid for the goodies ( to give to Smiley posters as Christmas presents)

[LeeDempsey]

Not the original sheet music, eh?  And hopefully they're not passing it off as original, right? Or are they?  Has anybody authenticated it?

'Cause if it's original, then I can see it being part of the auction.  If not, what the hell is it worth?  Not that much, I'd suspect....

I think Lee and AGD are going halfies on a $10K bid for the goodies ( to give to Smiley posters as Christmas presents)

Tell you what -- I'll give 'em an extra $100 if Jimi Mastronardi will throw in that silk paisley shirt he's wearing in the video...

[LeeDempsey]

In a related story, The Fame Bureau announces the sale of the Reum-Bill-Woods-Dempsey collection.  Opening bid:
One hundred trillion gazillion shabbadabillion dollars...

[Steve Mayo]

if it's fire proof i'll start the bidding... 

[bgas]

Not the original sheet music, eh?  And hopefully they're not passing it off as original, right? Or are they?  Has anybody authenticated it?

'Cause if it's original, then I can see it being part of the auction.  If not, what the hell is it worth?  Not that much, I'd suspect....

I think Lee and AGD are going halfies on a $10K bid for the goodies ( to give to Smiley posters as Christmas presents)

Tell you what -- I'll give 'em an extra $100 if Jimi Mastronardi will throw in that silk paisley shirt he's wearing in the video...

Next I guess you'll be wanting his bow tie and penciled in stash?   

 
http://flic.kr/p/ehXnsQ

[Mikie]

In a related story, The Fame Bureau announces the sale of the Reum-Bill-Woods-Dempsey collection.  Opening bid:
One hundred trillion gazillion shabbadabillion dollars...

That reminds me.  What will happen with Derek's collection?  Not sure it's in good form to ask here, but anybody know? 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Looks more like a crock of sh*t to me - some of those items are duplicated in that preview. A few new pics... on that evidence, I'd rate it as $10,000, tops.

We're not that far apart Andrew.  I was guessing $50,000 with the assumption that there HAS to be something of value that hasn't appeared in any photos, but purely based on what we've seen, $10,000-$20,000.

Lee

Thus far, the one single item that made me go "Aaahhh" was the $990 royalty check from Candix with covering letter. Great historical importance. That'd go for four figures.

[LeeDempsey]

Looks more like a crock of sh*t to me - some of those items are duplicated in that preview. A few new pics... on that evidence, I'd rate it as $10,000, tops.

We're not that far apart Andrew.  I was guessing $50,000 with the assumption that there HAS to be something of value that hasn't appeared in any photos, but purely based on what we've seen, $10,000-$20,000.

Lee

Thus far, the one single item that made me go "Aaahhh" was the $990 royalty check from Candix with covering letter. Great historical importance. That'd go for four figures.

My thoughts exactly.  If they end up piecing out the collection that would be the only piece so far that I would consider bidding on.

Lee

[bgas]

Looks more like a crock of sh*t to me - some of those items are duplicated in that preview. A few new pics... on that evidence, I'd rate it as $10,000, tops.

We're not that far apart Andrew.  I was guessing $50,000 with the assumption that there HAS to be something of value that hasn't appeared in any photos, but purely based on what we've seen, $10,000-$20,000.

Lee

Thus far, the one single item that made me go "Aaahhh" was the $990 royalty check from Candix with covering letter. Great historical importance. That'd go for four figures.

My thoughts exactly.  If they end up piecing out the collection that would be the only piece so far that I would consider bidding on.

Lee

If they do piece it out, none of you will be able to outbid mitochondria2( his ebay) as the early years is his beat, and I presume, the meat of this summer's BBs tome

[Pretty Funky]

The auction date was today but has been extended one week  "DUE TO THE NUMBER OF REQUESTS FROM INTERESTED PARTIES WANTING TO PREVIEW THE COLLECTION".

....or more likely the massive fail that many have said it would be.