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Author Topic: More Unknown Frank Holmes Drawings (Frank Responds)  (Read 7363 times)
leetwall97
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« on: October 09, 2016, 07:45:54 AM »

Here is a drawing that I don't recognize taken from Frank Holmes' website. We might have already addressed this picture before on the forum but I would like to know if this is perhaps related to an unknown Smile song.



One thing that should be noted about Frank's Smile drawings is that he only drew 6 of the songs back in the 60s. Then capital in the 90s asked him to draw all 12 songs for the canceled box set. Most of the Smile drawings we have are from the 60s, but this image is new to me. If this picture is based on Smile lyrics, then it could only be for either I Ran or Tones since he drew a picture for Child Is Father of the Man.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2016, 01:12:53 PM by leetwall97 » Logged
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« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2016, 09:32:37 AM »

This is 100% a description of the Great Depression.

Star: Person jumping off is reminisce of those who lost it all in the crash.
Shadows on the wall: People waiting in the bread lines
Factory: Represents those working to earn as much as possible
Barrel: A popular symbol shown in movies. Wearing a barrel meant you couldn't afford clothes
Ambulance: A symbol of emergency
Crops: Could symbolize a few things. The loss of them during the dust bowl or more optimistically, the reforms of FDR.
Track office: Part of the FDA and also part of the reforms during FDR's time in office.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2016, 09:40:06 AM by Wrightfan » Logged
leetwall97
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« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2016, 09:40:41 AM »

This is 100% a description of the Great Depression.

Oh wow! That's a very unique perspective. I like your analogy of the shadows on the wall! Are you saying the building in the bottom right is the factory?

I wonder what the dynamite and queen images are for...
« Last Edit: October 09, 2016, 11:04:21 AM by leetwall97 » Logged
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« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2016, 11:19:19 AM »

Certain elements definitely have that Grapes of Wrath feel to it. And Steinbeck certainly fits into the Smile vibe, almost like a potential missing piece, though I don't know if this picture is Smile related.

Still certain elements don't have a Grapes of Wrath feel to it, if memory serves, such as the dynamite and the Queen. But then there were very few Van Dyke lyrics that were clear cut like that anyway.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2016, 11:27:56 AM by Chocolate Shake Man » Logged
The Old Master Painter
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« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2016, 12:08:16 PM »

Frank Holmes must have illustrated the drawing that is shown above by interpreting a lyrical manuscript for a SMiLE song that the vocals weren't recorded for in 1966-67 (or maybe the vocals could be missing, as in the case with Tones and Look)... The question would be: which song? Has anyone confronted Mr. Holmes about this? Someone really should. Mr. Parks must know a thing or two about this, assuming that he wrote the lyrical manuscript that Frank Holmes based this mystery illustration on.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2016, 12:10:36 PM by The Old Master Painter » Logged
leetwall97
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« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2016, 12:43:17 PM »

There's something about a farmer who works from 9 to 5 at a track office. I think it has something to do with betting on horses. I think that's why the straw hat has the green eyeshade on top of it; those are the 2 hats he wears for his living. The hose with the empty stream coming out of it might have been from a lyric about an "empty hose" or something. I think this character might've been poor; he works two jobs, he has no water for his crops, he walks the soup lines...

The things I'm hung up on are the ambulance, the Queen, the barrel, the dynamite and the building in the bottom right.

If this is a Smile track, maybe the ambulance was a musical idea instead of lyrical. Perhaps Bag of Tricks or the H&V intros had something to do with this picture.

The ambulance could be for the dynamite or the falling star imagery.

I do like the idea of him being so poor he wears a barrel though. You'd imagine if that was the case then Frank would just draw a body inside it. The arm coming through the hole might be the hole in the barrel.

All in all, we definitely need to contact Frank to find out what this image is of. Does anyone here know how we can contact Frank Holmes?

UPDATE:
I'm using his att.net email on his website to contact him about the picture. If he doesn't use this email anymore let me know!

UPDATE:
He does.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2016, 01:18:17 PM by leetwall97 » Logged
JK
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« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2016, 02:25:05 PM »

Curiously,  the Lorna K of the preceding image has recorded an album that includes five Brian Wilson songs:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-my-room/id292156833

I've scoured the net in all directions (and then some) and found absolutely nothing about the unknown drawing...

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« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2016, 03:09:50 PM »

That picture bottom right looks like a baseball stadium.  There's nothing here that suggests 'Smile' to me.
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« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2016, 06:37:55 PM »

Frank Holmes has done lots of drawings for things besides Smile - I believe this is one of them.
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« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2016, 02:51:56 AM »

The images are disparate enough to be references to individual tracks on an unidentified (non-BB) album. And the illustration was never used. Just a thought...
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« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2016, 05:16:32 AM »

Lee, are you certain this drawing was meant to be a part of a Smile boxset in the 1990s?
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« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2016, 06:23:09 AM »

I'm curious about why Capitol would ask Holmes to do more illustrations in the 90s for a planned boxed set before getting Brian (and the other BBs, and BRI in general) to sign off on such a boxed set.

I suppose they could have asked Holmes to do some illustrations without paying him, but I would assume an artist who does works for hire like that would want to paid prior to doing the work.

Knowing how they had to supposedly sort of "sneak" Smile material onto the 1993 GV boxed set, it's weird that they would put money and effort in the mid 1990s toward the very precarious prospect of getting a Smile box out at that time.

Then again, not too long back a bunch of "promo" cassettes of a 1990s attempt by Capitol to release the 1977 Christmas album also surfaced, and that was apparently a project Capitol was trying to make happen, and did promo copies for, when they didn't even *own* the master tapes in question let alone get any approval to move forward on.
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« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2016, 06:45:37 AM »

What was the verdict on the Frank Holmes illustration that appeared to contain references to the lyrics of Holidays from BWPS, yet was dated 1990s (iirc)? I can't remember if it was ever resolved.
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leetwall97
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« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2016, 08:22:35 AM »

Lee, are you certain this drawing was meant to be a part of a Smile boxset in the 1990s?

I am not, but I recognize the style is similar to the Smile drawings. I'm getting ready to email Frank and ask him about the picture. He said in an interview he drew 12 new pictures in the 90s. There are 9 pictures in the box set from the 90s. You add the Fire picture and this, then there's still one left we haven't seen (assuming this is a Smile picture). I'm just going to ask him where the inspiration for the picture came from and go from there.

What was the verdict on the Frank Holmes illustration that appeared to contain references to the lyrics of Holidays from BWPS, yet was dated 1990s (iirc)? I can't remember if it was ever resolved.

I'll ask him about that too. I was never comfortable with the answers he gave originally about Holidays. The title Holidays has been mixed up over the years with I Ran, so I'm just going to ask him about the Hawaiian picture with the mystery man and Milky Way on it.

But to answer your question he said no lyrics were provided to him, and I find that amazing since that drawing has some very specific images. Darian said he can't remember if the lyrics from 2004 were original (he probably didn't ask). When he played the song on piano for Brian, Brian started singing the Plymouth Rock line. When asked about the song Holidays, Van said he'd never heard it before in his life until Darian played it for him, which or course isn't true since Van played piano on it back in the day.

So your confusion is justified. The common theme here for Holidays is that no one remembers anything about it... except Brian.

Maybe Holmes recognized there were no lyrics, but understood the theme of it and started borrowing lyrics from Van / Brian's other songs. Van's song "Out of Love" mentions a Milky Way and a Moon. I've yet to find a song that references the anchor, rum and shanty towns.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2016, 08:34:00 AM by leetwall97 » Logged
leetwall97
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« Reply #14 on: October 13, 2016, 04:24:53 PM »

With still no reply from Frankie, I'd like to update us on some other drawings we've never seen. These two are definitely Smile pics and are found as background pictures in the beautiful dreamer doc of Brian. One of them is for Wind Chimes (I've never seen this one):



You can see the Wind Chimes hangin' from the window. And the other unknown image (same source):



There's a silhouette man (or maybe a blackface vaudeville actor), with (what looks like) the "Oh, Mona" billboard sign found in the Old Master Painter drawing in the Smile Sessions box set here:

« Last Edit: October 13, 2016, 04:26:10 PM by leetwall97 » Logged
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« Reply #15 on: October 13, 2016, 05:22:41 PM »

I'm curious about why Capitol would ask Holmes to do more illustrations in the 90s for a planned boxed set before getting Brian (and the other BBs, and BRI in general) to sign off on such a boxed set.

I suppose they could have asked Holmes to do some illustrations without paying him, but I would assume an artist who does works for hire like that would want to paid prior to doing the work.

Knowing how they had to supposedly sort of "sneak" Smile material onto the 1993 GV boxed set, it's weird that they would put money and effort in the mid 1990s toward the very precarious prospect of getting a Smile box out at that time.

Then again, not too long back a bunch of "promo" cassettes of a 1990s attempt by Capitol to release the 1977 Christmas album also surfaced, and that was apparently a project Capitol was trying to make happen, and did promo copies for, when they didn't even *own* the master tapes in question let alone get any approval to move forward on.

I remember the Billboard article about this way back in 1995.  It was and is an interesting read.  Piece talks about doing a 3-CD set called "The Smile Era" (2 discs of Smile material and 1 disc of Good Vibrations sessions).  Leaf, Linett and some Capitol staff are quoted.  Also mentioned: plans to obtain the rights to Frank Holmes' drawings, as well as Brian's upcoming marriage to Melinda.

See Billboard, Feb. 4, 1995, p. 10
https://books.google.com/books?id=sAsEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA10&dq=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&f=false

p. 127
https://books.google.com/books?id=sAsEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA127&dq=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&f=false
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« Reply #16 on: October 14, 2016, 07:41:10 AM »

I'm curious about why Capitol would ask Holmes to do more illustrations in the 90s for a planned boxed set before getting Brian (and the other BBs, and BRI in general) to sign off on such a boxed set.

I suppose they could have asked Holmes to do some illustrations without paying him, but I would assume an artist who does works for hire like that would want to paid prior to doing the work.

Knowing how they had to supposedly sort of "sneak" Smile material onto the 1993 GV boxed set, it's weird that they would put money and effort in the mid 1990s toward the very precarious prospect of getting a Smile box out at that time.

Then again, not too long back a bunch of "promo" cassettes of a 1990s attempt by Capitol to release the 1977 Christmas album also surfaced, and that was apparently a project Capitol was trying to make happen, and did promo copies for, when they didn't even *own* the master tapes in question let alone get any approval to move forward on.

I remember the Billboard article about this way back in 1995.  It was and is an interesting read.  Piece talks about doing a 3-CD set called "The Smile Era" (2 discs of Smile material and 1 disc of Good Vibrations sessions).  Leaf, Linett and some Capitol staff are quoted.  Also mentioned: plans to obtain the rights to Frank Holmes' drawings, as well as Brian's upcoming marriage to Melinda.

See Billboard, Feb. 4, 1995, p. 10
https://books.google.com/books?id=sAsEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA10&dq=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&f=false

p. 127
https://books.google.com/books?id=sAsEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA127&dq=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q=beach%20boys%20%22Smile%20era%22%20Billboard&f=false

I definitely remember those reports from back then. I'm just still surprised Capitol put so much effort into the project prior to gaining approval from Brian or BRI. Brian was obviously still of mixed feelings. Mike may not have been the easiest sell, especially with Leaf involved (as the PS Sessions set situation later proved). Carl could also be temperamental about issuing old outtakes.

I suppose the idea would be to do a certain amount of work to have something to present to them to have them approve. But commissioning artwork seems a bit premature.

I guess the main question concerning that aborted Smile set would be much how the members of the band knew about the project or had given any indication of possible approval.
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« Reply #17 on: October 15, 2016, 03:06:11 AM »

I'm pretty sure that quite a few years ago, Frank did an illustration for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", and it went up for bid on Ebay. I can't remember much about why he did it to begin with.

About 15 years ago, there was an auction on Ebay conducted by (I believe) Derek Bill, who was a big time BB collector (as a lot of you know). Anyway, the auction was for a SMiLE cover slick reproduction, but it would be personalized by Frank Holmes. Also, you'd get all of the original SMiLE illustrations, but they were on a kind of thin cardboard. I actually won it! It isn't like any of it is really rare or anything; I was just thrilled to get the SMiLE cover with Frank's autograph on it.
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« Reply #18 on: October 17, 2016, 05:31:50 PM »

I think the Good Vibrations illo also was put up for sale on ebay.
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leetwall97
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« Reply #19 on: October 23, 2016, 01:12:34 PM »

Here is a drawing that I don't recognize taken from Frank Holmes' website. We might have already addressed this picture before on the forum but I would like to know if this is perhaps related to an unknown Smile song.

Frank finally responded! He says it's from a different album, and the picture deals with imagery about "a race track in Nebraska who had a triple crown winner named Omaha". But he did mention how the lyrical imagery is the same a Smile. How exciting to talk to one of the original artists from that period!

Congrats to Bicyclerider and john k for calling it!

I'm going to ask him about the roller coaster drawing next to the barnyard drawing in the Smile sessions box set soon, and then I'll get the facts straight on the Holidays drawing.

Also, does anyone know how much he usually asks for one of his drawings? I'm thinking about buying sone.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2016, 02:37:14 PM by leetwall97 » Logged
The Old Master Painter
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« Reply #20 on: October 23, 2016, 03:38:39 PM »

Here is a drawing that I don't recognize taken from Frank Holmes' website. We might have already addressed this picture before on the forum but I would like to know if this is perhaps related to an unknown Smile song.

Frank finally responded! He says it's from a different album, and the picture deals with imagery about "a race track in Nebraska who had a triple crown winner named Omaha". But he did mention how the lyrical imagery is the same a Smile. How exciting to talk to one of the original artists from that period!

Congrats to Bicyclerider and john k for calling it!

I'm going to ask him about the roller coaster drawing next to the barnyard drawing in the Smile sessions box set soon, and then I'll get the facts straight on the Holidays drawing.

Also, does anyone know how much he usually asks for one of his drawings? I'm thinking about buying sone.

Wouldn't the pricings for his artworks be stated on his professional website?
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leetwall97
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« Reply #21 on: October 23, 2016, 03:47:24 PM »

Wouldn't the pricings for his artworks be stated on his professional website?

You'd think. I'll check out the archives. His website used to be much more interactive back in the day.
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JK
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« Reply #22 on: August 31, 2017, 12:35:08 PM »

Here is a drawing that I don't recognize taken from Frank Holmes' website. We might have already addressed this picture before on the forum but I would like to know if this is perhaps related to an unknown Smile song.

Frank finally responded! He says it's from a different album, and the picture deals with imagery about "a race track in Nebraska who had a triple crown winner named Omaha". But he did mention how the lyrical imagery is the same a Smile. How exciting to talk to one of the original artists from that period!

Congrats to Bicyclerider and john k for calling it!

Wow. Only just saw this. That is most gratifying! It would be most interesting to find out which album...
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