Durrie Parks SMiLE acetates to be auctioned, Dec. 9-10

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

Saw this on the Hoffman board:

https://entertainment.ha.com/c/search/results.zx?dept=2182&mode=live&auction_name=7433&consignor_no=174&type=friend-consignorlive-notice

[Julia]

Breaks my heart in a way. They belong in a museum with digitized copies to source for a 60th anniversary boxset.

As a big lost/obscure media buff, the sad reality is the fans always care more about the art than the people who actually own it. Piracy is a necessary "evil" to ensure preservation in a world where film companies don't put most of their libraries on streaming, where videogame companies lose the original source code of their classic games and where music companies allow priceless reels to go missing from their vaults.

*steps off soapbox*

Anyway, I hope whoever can afford to buy these takes good care of them and backs them up immediately.

[juggler]

So.... how did VDP come into possession of a 'Time to Get Alone' acetate?  Is there an untold story behind this?  Did Brian offer VDP a chance to do lyrics for the track?

[WordRow«Rotator]

                              The great topical SMiLE~acetates BriANADROME~meme by CenturyDeprived/PapaLaPap (2020)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

     DiD TOPDRAWER (TOP''n'REER) ACETATES; D*PARKS/ONE DURRiE=#SMiLEr~PRELIM*S~"HEiR"!  RUDE, NO ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              SKRAP'd  SET  ATE  CAREER; 'n' POT (:rewardpot"?)  DiD  TOO,  W/ !««  

[WordRow«Rotator]

So.... how did VDP come into possession of a 'Time to Get Alone' acetate?  Is there an untold story behind this?  Did Brian offer VDP a chance to do lyrics for the track?

Could this explain it: The original Brian~produced Redwood (Three Dog Night) version being cancelled by the other Beach Boys ?
And btw: where is the BW/VDParks' "Sunflower Maiden" in all this ?

                             The great topical SMiLE~acetates BriANADROME~meme by CenturyDeprived/PapaLaPap (2020)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

     DiD TOPDRAWER (TOP''n'REER) ACETATES {BB);  D*PARKS/ONE DURRiE'h=SMiLEr~PRELIM*S~"HEiR"!  RUDE, NO ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              SKRAP'd  BB~SET  ATE  CAREER; 'n' POT (:rewardpot"?)  DiD  TOO,  W/ !««  

P.s.: check out the brand new limerick edition of the above banter in the SANDBOX section !

[harveyw]

I think these acetates are the same ones that Jeff Gold at Recordmecca auctioned some years back.
https://recordmecca.com/item-archives/beach-boys-8-original-smile-acetates-from-the-collection-of-van-dyke-parks/

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

The auction's tomorrow. Apparently BRI is trying to procure them. There seems to have been some online bidding already.

[Julia]

The auction's tomorrow. Apparently BRI is trying to procure them. There seems to have been some online bidding already.

Yeah I was shadowing the other forum and read their discussion of it. I'll take their word that BRI is bidding and doesn't want any fan efforts muddying the waters and raising the price. Otherwise I was going to try to coordinate a fan effort across all boards plus reddit to pool our money and keep these songs out of the hands of a greedy hoarder who won't digitize and share their contents. We'll just have to hope for the best I suppose.

I hope if BRI does obtain them, they make it all available to the public. Even if most of the songs are only slightly different, I'd pay full price to have the "Durrie Cut" of SMiLE in my collection. Especially since all these other legacy boxsets we've been promised seem to have stalled. (Was I dreaming or weren't we supposed to get a SMiLE rerelease by the end of this year? Why is there no further word on "Brian's Back" or "the Paley Sessions" even if they're still coming out in 2026 you'd think we'd get some promotional info by now!)

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

Especially since all these other legacy boxsets we've been promised seem to have stalled. (Was I dreaming or weren't we supposed to get a SMiLE rerelease by the end of this year? Why is there no further word on "Brian's Back" or "the Paley Sessions" even if they're still coming out in 2026 you'd think we'd get some promotional info by now!)

I want Cows in the Pasture! That was supposed to be out this year. Maybe Darian will help Fred finish it and premiere it in England in 2063.

[Tricycle Rider]

They sold for $31.9 thousand dollars! 

[SMiLE-addict]

Are acetates this old, like ... still any good anymore? If you stuck them on a record player would you get anything besides a bunch of noise and scratches?

[Dan Lega]

The auction's tomorrow. Apparently BRI is trying to procure them. There seems to have been some online bidding already.

If BRI wants them, why didn't they get them all those years ago when they would have been much cheaper?  There was no bidding required then.  Just a straight out purchase of $10.000 from some company Durrie gave them to to sell.  And they probably could have gotten them cheaper from Durrie, herself, as there would have been no middle man to pay.

[Julia]

If BRI wants them, why didn't they get them all those years ago when they would have been much cheaper?  There was no bidding required then.  Just a straight out purchase of $10.000 from some company Durrie gave them to to sell.  And they probably could have gotten them cheaper from Durrie, herself, as there would have been no middle man to pay.

Who the hell knows. Im pretty damn salty about the situation myself. I was going to try to coordinate a group effort but held back when I saw that the ""experts"" at BRI had it covered. Now I just feel played for a fool and these recordings that are very precious to me will never be heard. Beach Boys once again doing everything they can to fumble their own legacy and that of their greatest work (none but the hardcore fans have heard SMiLE except in that awful TSS format and probably walked away with a mediocre impression). Bunch of fucking amateurs if you ask me. I thought they'd have put in a ridiculously high secret max bid and had round the clock interns refreshing the page every microsecond to be sure they'd get it--you'd think a wealthy corporation could manage such a thing with arguably their last great unreleased collection at stake. Guess that was too much to ask of ol' Mike in between Trump/MAGA performances.

Can you tell I've become bitter in my old age? 

[BJL]

If BRI wants them, why didn't they get them all those years ago when they would have been much cheaper?  There was no bidding required then.  Just a straight out purchase of $10.000 from some company Durrie gave them to to sell.  And they probably could have gotten them cheaper from Durrie, herself, as there would have been no middle man to pay.

Who the hell knows. Im pretty damn salty about the situation myself. I was going to try to coordinate a group effort but held back when I saw that the ""experts"" at BRI had it covered. Now I just feel played for a fool and these recordings that are very precious to me will never be heard. Beach Boys once again doing everything they can to fumble their own legacy and that of their greatest work (none but the hardcore fans have heard SMiLE except in that awful TSS format and probably walked away with a mediocre impression). Bunch of fucking amateurs if you ask me. I thought they'd have put in a ridiculously high secret max bid and had round the clock interns refreshing the page every microsecond to be sure they'd get it--you'd think a wealthy corporation could manage such a thing with arguably their last great unreleased collection at stake. Guess that was too much to ask of ol' Mike in between Trump/MAGA performances.

Can you tell I've become bitter in my old age? 

My recollection is that they were digitized at the time of the first sale, unless I'm misremembering. If that's true, and assuming it was done even remotely properly (which I hope to God it was), than those infinitely duplicable digital files are more valuable than the acetates themselves at this point, which are only going to sound worse with every play and every year...

That said, I hear your bitterness, absolutely.

[WordRow«Rotator]

So Durrie finally turned "$MiL£ionaire"?  Well perhaps more "in spe" than in spades !?
But NOW [originally thanks to our former prolific poster: CenturyDeprived] she's got a {recently re~edited for this occasion ~ into a:}
LIMITLESS  LIMERICK to her name !  Created by CD+WR (20/20 vision//2025 version:)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"BRER B*    DiD  TOPDRAWER  (TOP & REER:)

A*C*E*T*A*T*E*S {:BB)  !  D*PARKS/ONE DURRiE'h ?...

= "SMiLEr~PRELIM'S  HEiR" !

    RUDE, NO?  SKRAP'D  BB~SET  ATE CAREER !

&  POT  (REWARD~POT?)  DiD TOO, W/BRER  B?««««««

[Don Malcolm]

Those words are not just rotating, they're REELING!!! 

It's like OSD on LSD! 

The scuttlebutt kings over at the nearest faraway place might have gleaned more info on the fate of the 'tates...will scope it out.

We can page Howie Edelson, who also might have more info to share. The mid-late 70s box set still seems to be on track. SMiLE it's not, of course, but there's still ~20 months for an "on-time" sixtieth SMiLE box.

There is still a chance that these will see the light of day, however slight that may be. Don't abandon all hope, Julia!

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

If BRI wants them, why didn't they get them all those years ago when they would have been much cheaper?  There was no bidding required then.  Just a straight out purchase of $10.000 from some company Durrie gave them to to sell.  And they probably could have gotten them cheaper from Durrie, herself, as there would have been no middle man to pay.

Who the hell knows. Im pretty damn salty about the situation myself. I was going to try to coordinate a group effort but held back when I saw that the ""experts"" at BRI had it covered. Now I just feel played for a fool and these recordings that are very precious to me will never be heard. Beach Boys once again doing everything they can to fumble their own legacy and that of their greatest work (none but the hardcore fans have heard SMiLE except in that awful TSS format and probably walked away with a mediocre impression). Bunch of fucking amateurs if you ask me. I thought they'd have put in a ridiculously high secret max bid and had round the clock interns refreshing the page every microsecond to be sure they'd get it--you'd think a wealthy corporation could manage such a thing with arguably their last great unreleased collection at stake. Guess that was too much to ask of ol' Mike in between Trump/MAGA performances.

Can you tell I've become bitter in my old age?  

Do we know that BRI *didn't* acquire them?

Honestly, I was wondering why the collective effort to buy them fizzled out, just because BRI said they would buy them. I assumed BRI might set an upper limit (25K?) and still could be outbid. The only way to have prevented this would have been for a collective to absolutely beat any bid, and then to turn the recordings over to BRI. Not sure why that didn't happen.

It was surprising that BRI/Capitol didn't buy them the first time. 10k is literal pocket change for a corporation.

[WordRow«Rotator]

Those words are not just rotating, they're REELING!!!  

It's like OSD on LSD!  

That leaves only one question:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    iS  D^RRiE  WEiRRD?        Si  ! «  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

LIMITLESS  LIMERICK to her name !  Created by CD+WR (20/20 vision//2025 version:)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"BRER B*    DiD  TOPDRAWER  (TOP & REER:)

A*C*E*T*A*T*E*S {:BB)  !  D*PARKS/ONE DURRiE'h ?...

= "SMiLEr~PRELIM'S  HEiR" !

    RUDE, NO?  SKRAP'D  BB~SET  ATE CAREER !

&  POT  (REWARD~POT?)  DiD TOO, W/BRER  B?««««««

And what a nice thing to say, Don !  And Thanx also for mentioning "GLIMPSES" earlier!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    LOOK, NO? DON MALCOLM, ML: = "OK L.A.~M"?      NO  !   "DON = KOOL" !« 

[Julia]

Do we know that BRI *didn't* acquire them?

Honestly, I was wondering why the collective effort to buy them fizzled out, just because BRI said they would buy them. I assumed BRI might set an upper limit (25K?) and still could be outbid. The only way to have prevented this would have been for a collective to absolutely beat any bid, and then to turn the recordings over to BRI. Not sure why that didn't happen.

It was surprising that BRI/Capitol didn't buy them the first time. 10k is literal pocket change for a corporation.

Hindsight is 20/20.

The fact is a crowdfunding operation done at the last minute, with a month to organize, get the word out, collect contributions and ease people's concerns of its legitimacy was always gonna be a longshot. Especially when anyone collecting $$$ would be looked at with suspicion, there'd be no incentive for anyone to give more than anybody else ("I put in most of the moolah and get no extra reward?") and getting everyone their money back would probably be a huge pain the in the ass if it failed or we over-collected. ("Why do they get a refund but not me?")

I've never organized a crowdfund before but would've tried my best only if it came to it. OR I would've even given money to someone(s) I strongly dislike, who've bullied me for years, if they were organizing one themselves if it meant not launching two competing funds, had EH's people been independently working on the same idea. (They were considering it in their thread for awhile.) But when I saw "BRI is on the case, they don't want anyone driving up the price" the last thing I wanted was to be THAT GUY who fucks it up and forces them to overpay or accidentally outbids them and gets saddled with the responsibility of safely handling/delivering these fragile holy grails. Imagine the shame if I dropped one or my house had a fire or they got damaged in transit... The whole thing was a desperate hail mary play I didn't want to have to do unless there was absolutely no better option in the first place.

In any case, it's easy to virtue signal about what I could/should/would've done now anyway--that's just me venting steam. We trusted the ""professionals"" and learned for the umpteenth time that being in an official position doesn't mean someone knows or cares what they're doing. Look at this administration, look at doctors mutilating and lobotomizing people for decades, look at the outright lies promoting by media outlets, look at all the white collar crime business owners flaunt in the open without fear. I don't know why I expected better this time, I guess I thought the BB organization (not to mention surviving members) would take a personal interest in making sure the music didn't slip through the cracks again--especially with Brian's death so recent and the hunger for new material to capitalize on his legacy such an obvious business play. Not only is this a moral/artistic failure on the part of BRI but it's also a commercial/legacy failure as well--terrible look for the brand ("the last unknown work of Mozart's golden era just wasn't worth the price, apparently") and incalcuable loss of potential revenue/interest in the band down the line.

It's one of many examples I alluded to in my first post on this thread, how the owners of this material often don't even give a sh*t about it and rob the public of access to great art we'd all love to experience, that could greatly benefit our otherwise stagnant culture (monopolized entertainment businesses and AI discouraging or outcompeting human output) but they'd rather save a buck on their quarterly earnings sheet. It makes me sick, the way our society is organized. We incentivize short term thinking, ruthlessness and penny-pinching, then act surprised when the worst people imaginable obtain wealth, status and power. Our whole damn paradigm needs a major reset from the ground up, I say.

Pardon my rants but this incident almost feels like the straw that broke the camel's back in a way. Like, the ecosystem/constitution/long-term economic prospects for my generation and more are all in the toilet, everyone's got plastic in their blood because previous generations were careless, the powers that be are actively conspiring to make the humanities obsolete...and we don't even get a satisfying ending to Game of Thrones or a listen to the Durrie Parks acetates out of the whole deal. Bah humbug I say.