MIC modern reconstuction.

[Chris Moise]

It was meant to be a live performance piece. Why must old tapes be manipulated in an attempt to match it? Did Look really seem that naked without the worthless "chi chi chi" crap flown in? How did the Mickey Mouse vocals on Da Da fit the blueprints? Why is it okay to make a new Vegetables and Child Is Father of the Man that DON'T match BWPS but God forbid if the sped up "Whispering Winds" vocals are shoehorned in there to match The Master's Final Vision even if it sounds awful? CIFOTM on disc 1 barely qualifies as a song, whereas the original (and mostly replicated) verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus format at least presents the song in a manner which shows it had at least a little potential. If the excuse is that it has to match BWPS it doesn't hold water if they strayed on several occasions. As far as I'm concerned the mess on disc 1 doesn't exist. I rolled my own and feel sorry for any newbie who gets misguided by the fly-ins and historical revisionisms.

Post of the year. I try not to think about the abortion that is disc one.

[Wirestone]

It was meant to be a live performance piece. Why must old tapes be manipulated in an attempt to match it? Did Look really seem that naked without the worthless "chi chi chi" crap flown in? How did the Mickey Mouse vocals on Da Da fit the blueprints? Why is it okay to make a new Vegetables and Child Is Father of the Man that DON'T match BWPS but God forbid if the sped up "Whispering Winds" vocals are shoehorned in there to match The Master's Final Vision even if it sounds awful? CIFOTM on disc 1 barely qualifies as a song, whereas the original (and mostly replicated) verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus format at least presents the song in a manner which shows it had at least a little potential. If the excuse is that it has to match BWPS it doesn't hold water if they strayed on several occasions. As far as I'm concerned the mess on disc 1 doesn't exist. I rolled my own and feel sorry for any newbie who gets misguided by the fly-ins and historical revisionisms.

Post of the year. I try not to think about the abortion that is disc one.

You guys realize this happened like two years ago, right? And that the set won a Grammy and everything?

And God forbid ... studio trickery and sped-up vocals on a Beach Boys release? Shocking.

[alf wiedersehen]

If Mark and Alan cured cancer tomorrow, we'd all be bitching about how they didn't do it sooner.

[MBE]

I like The Smile Sessions a lot myself and feel like "flying in" parts is all what that album is about anyhow.

[Matt Bielewicz]

Amen to that. If Brian could have 'flown in' stuff in the 60s, he would have in my opinion, judging by how creative he got with the studio in other ways that *were* available to him then.

Disc 1 of TSS was always going to be contentious to the obsessives like ourselves, because we've invested so much in how *we* think SMiLE should sound over the years, and listening to Disc 1 is perforce an exercise in having to undo some of that. Brian's 2004 version of SMiLE was like that too for some, but at least that had completed performances on it. TSS Disc 1 was always going to need some futzing around to make it work, and some of the futzing was always going to be open to even more criticism than Brian's version.

For myself, sure, there's stuff on Disc 1 I like and bits I don't like as much. But I knew it would be like that, and I don't think it could have been avoided. One day, when I have time like I did in my 20s, I'll roll my own version to my satisfaction, like I did back then with the bits I had at the time. And *then* we'll have world peace. Or I will, anyway.

[Micha]

After all, if they'd stuck to historical accuracy, Brian and Van Dyke would never have finished SMiLE.

They didn't. 

OK, I knew that bit would be controversial! I think there was a thread 100s of pages long on that very topic here a few years ago, wasn't there?

So, how about: "they completed a version of SMiLE that they considered finished"...?

Again: They did too, unfortunately without using the 1966/67 vintage tracks.

[Micha]

He finished a Smile, but not the Smile, as conceived in 1966. BWPS is purely a 2003 construct.

But as SMiLE never was fully conceived in 1966/67, only several parts of it, SMiLE was finished in 2003/4.

It's not like Brian had a completed concept in 1966 and just didn't get around to record and assemble it all. So the "THE" SMiLE you think of doesn't even exist in thought. BWPS does exist, and is the only recording that could really be called "THE" SMiLE. If you say SMiLE is only SMiLE if it's the 1966 recordings and the contemporary voices, that's your definition and not the unquestionble truth.

[MBE]

Maybe I am wrong on this but what I think is being said is that The Smile Session is a different beast than what makes up a 1966-67 vintage album. That said it is a great comp, or blend, of Beach Boys 1966-67 music. I feel that it served its purpose though because it stands as a palatable whole now that gets in (to me) nearly all the great moments.

[debonbon]

I had no real problems with the Smile and I'm pretty easy to please with BB stuff but I sadly have a lot of problems with MIC. I wasn't prepared for such radical changes, even a lot of the stereo mixes I hadn't heard before erk me. I know after a few listens I will get used to it and enjoy it a lot more, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

[Matt Bielewicz]

I had no real problems with the Smile and I'm pretty easy to please with BB stuff but I sadly have a lot of problems with MIC. I wasn't prepared for such radical changes, even a lot of the stereo mixes I hadn't heard before erk me. I know after a few listens I will get used to it and enjoy it a lot more, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

Care to share details? What didn't you like?

[Micha]

If Mark and Alan cured cancer tomorrow, we'd all be bitching about how they didn't do it sooner.

You know, I really wonder what's keeping those two lazy guys from curing cancer.

[Mike's Beard]

It was meant to be a live performance piece. Why must old tapes be manipulated in an attempt to match it? Did Look really seem that naked without the worthless "chi chi chi" crap flown in? How did the Mickey Mouse vocals on Da Da fit the blueprints? Why is it okay to make a new Vegetables and Child Is Father of the Man that DON'T match BWPS but God forbid if the sped up "Whispering Winds" vocals are shoehorned in there to match The Master's Final Vision even if it sounds awful? CIFOTM on disc 1 barely qualifies as a song, whereas the original (and mostly replicated) verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus format at least presents the song in a manner which shows it had at least a little potential. If the excuse is that it has to match BWPS it doesn't hold water if they strayed on several occasions. As far as I'm concerned the mess on disc 1 doesn't exist. I rolled my own and feel sorry for any newbie who gets misguided by the fly-ins and historical revisionisms. Halleluah....holy sh*t. Where's the tylenol?

The difference now is that instead of giving us the snatch of "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" AND the complete track (like on "Endless Harmony") we get two different elements welded together into something new ("California Feeling"), which is confusing, jarring, and wrong (though I don't particularly care enough about "California Feeling" to get that bent out of shape over it).

Technology is running amok.

Do I win anything for spotting the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation reference?

[Mike's Beard]

If Mark and Alan cured cancer tomorrow, we'd all be bitching about how they didn't do it sooner.

You know, I really wonder what's keeping those two lazy guys from curing cancer.

Too busy trying to please Beach Boy obsessives.

[Micha]

If Mark and Alan cured cancer tomorrow, we'd all be bitching about how they didn't do it sooner.

You know, I really wonder what's keeping those two lazy guys from curing cancer.

Too busy trying to please Beach Boy obsessives.

Very good answer!

[Wirestone]

That all being said, I was on the record disagreeing with the BWPS reconstruction on disc 1 of TSS box -- it's nonsensical. A simple chronological assemblage of the best takes of the most finished songs and sections would have pleased me more. But I learned to live with it.

What's going on in MIC is quite interesting, though ... kind of an attempt to present an alternate history of the band, with bad mixing and out-of-sequence release dates wiped away. It seems to be an attempt to show the band's creative evolution, and the contributions of the members, in the most sympathetic way possible -- without focusing too much on any particular set of historical circumstances. A nice goal. Not sure if it entirely works, but by god 15BO sounds like an honest-to-god comeback now.

[SMiLE Brian]

BW knew what he was doing recording the parts on 15 big ones, he just didn't have the drive to mix for perfection anymore. Something during SMiLE destroyed  his will to finish songs at Pet Sounds levels.

[Micha]

BW knew what he was doing recording the parts on 15 big ones, he just didn't have the drive to mix for perfection anymore. Something during SMiLE destroyed  his will to finish songs at Pet Sounds levels.

Ah, the myth of SMiLE...

[Mike's Beard]

I listened to CD 2 today and found the Smile/Smiley era to be my least favourite part of the disc. As a particular snapshot into the group's career retrospective it really lacked the flow of the material before and after it. Some of the material (those vocal sections) really struck me as drugged out weirdness and 'arty' for the sake of being arty. When the Wild Honey stuff kicked in it was like a godsend.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

I listened to CD 2 today and found the Smile/Smiley era to be my least favourite part of the disc. As a particular snapshot into the group's career retrospective it really lacked the flow of the material before and after it. Some of the material (those vocal sections) really struck me as drugged out weirdness and 'arty' for the sake of being arty. When the Wild Honey stuff kicked in it was like a godsend.

yeah, i get what you mean. That stuff only really works in isolation

[Wirestone]

I listened to CD 2 today and found the Smile/Smiley era to be my least favourite part of the disc. As a particular snapshot into the group's career retrospective it really lacked the flow of the material before and after it. Some of the material (those vocal sections) really struck me as drugged out weirdness and 'arty' for the sake of being arty. When the Wild Honey stuff kicked in it was like a godsend.

Nonsense.

[Mike's Beard]

I listened to CD 2 today and found the Smile/Smiley era to be my least favourite part of the disc. As a particular snapshot into the group's career retrospective it really lacked the flow of the material before and after it. Some of the material (those vocal sections) really struck me as drugged out weirdness and 'arty' for the sake of being arty. When the Wild Honey stuff kicked in it was like a godsend.

Nonsense.

Care to elaborate? Or are you just being argumentative because you have a problem with me personally? Or maybe you really do consider a bunch of guys chanting "De de de Heroes and Villains" for what seems like an eternity to be a career highspot?

[silodweller]

I was just wondering if anyone else has found the bass to be a little too much on the stereo mix of "Do It Again"? 

[Wirestone]

I listened to CD 2 today and found the Smile/Smiley era to be my least favourite part of the disc. As a particular snapshot into the group's career retrospective it really lacked the flow of the material before and after it. Some of the material (those vocal sections) really struck me as drugged out weirdness and 'arty' for the sake of being arty. When the Wild Honey stuff kicked in it was like a godsend.

Nonsense.

Care to elaborate? Or are you just being argumentative because you have a problem with me personally? Or maybe you really do consider a bunch of guys chanting "De de de Heroes and Villains" for what seems like an eternity to be a career highspot?

If you seriously think the Smile material needs any defense, particularly on this board, I don't know what to tell you.

[Alan Smith]

I was just wondering if anyone else has found the bass to be a little too much on the stereo mix of "Do It Again"?  

Sounds great to me and a nice alternative presentation of the song; a treat for the gotta have a stereo mix crowd- someone was bitching about to much treble on the box the other day...

[Mike's Beard]

I listened to CD 2 today and found the Smile/Smiley era to be my least favourite part of the disc. As a particular snapshot into the group's career retrospective it really lacked the flow of the material before and after it. Some of the material (those vocal sections) really struck me as drugged out weirdness and 'arty' for the sake of being arty. When the Wild Honey stuff kicked in it was like a godsend.

Nonsense.

Care to elaborate? Or are you just being argumentative because you have a problem with me personally? Or maybe you really do consider a bunch of guys chanting "De de de Heroes and Villains" for what seems like an eternity to be a career highspot?

If you seriously think the Smile material needs any defense, particularly on this board, I don't know what to tell you.

You know, someone can be a big Beach Boys fan and not feel they have to love every last bit of Smile material.