Tones by Mr. Carl Wilson

[BiG GRiN]

Has anyone heard the Tones vocals? And what was Dennis working on at the time of Tones? I wonder if the 72 smile would've included Tones, Cool Water, Can't Wait Too Long, etc... Also, I can see the project seeming to be a big challenge if the fragments were spread across tape, etc...

Dennis recorded a track (with Carl, Bruce, and Billy Hinsche) under the working title "I Don't Know".  That was in January, a couple of months before Carl did "Tones".

Is it booted??

I have two versions of the song 'I Don't Know' I found on the web, not on bootlegs, just as a single mp3.

one is labeled:  "Dennis Wilson - I Don't Know (piano demo acetate)" (1mn 08s)
Dennis plays piano alone,  with poor sound quality.
In my opinion, it can be a fragment of the real 'I don't know' from Smile era;

and the other:  "I Don't Know (dennis wilson) mono 1-12-67" (2mn 28s)
full orchestration (guitars, drums, bass...), with better sound;
My opinion, it's the other song titled "I don't know" recorded in 1977 by Dennis; it doesn't sounds like a Smile era song.

Mystery, always mystery around SMiLE!

The "other song" titled "I Don't Know" recorded in 1977 by Dennis is, in fact, "Love Remember Me" as included in the new "Bambu: The Caribou Sessions", Disc Two of "Pacific Ocean Blue:  Legacy Edition".  So if the "mono 1-12-67" (2mn 28s) track isn't THAT...it could be the SMiLE-era "I Don't Know".

Ho, sounds interesting, i didn't know that;
so let me take a listen to "Love Remember Me" and I will be able to give you an answer without doubt;
maybe a new step to the thruth about SMiLE !

[Andrew G. Doe]

Well, I don't know why a '72 SMiLE would have included Can't Wait Too Long or Cool Cool Water, as those aren't really songs that were even originally included. Tones maybe, but that's probably even a stretch. Most likley it would be the same songs as the original, as there was a ton of covers and booklets waiting to be used-unless they were destroyed by that point.

Does anyone know when Capitol finally scrapped all those booklets and LP covers?

I don't know when they were scrapped, but they couldn't have been used in '72...because they had "Capitol Records" printed on them, and the '72 SMiLE would've been a Warner release. 

My understanding is that the slicks & booklets were pulped in late 1969 - coincidentally when the band's contract with Capitol expired. 

[BiG GRiN]

Has anyone heard the Tones vocals? And what was Dennis working on at the time of Tones? I wonder if the 72 smile would've included Tones, Cool Water, Can't Wait Too Long, etc... Also, I can see the project seeming to be a big challenge if the fragments were spread across tape, etc...

Dennis recorded a track (with Carl, Bruce, and Billy Hinsche) under the working title "I Don't Know".  That was in January, a couple of months before Carl did "Tones".

Is it booted??

I have two versions of the song 'I Don't Know' I found on the web, not on bootlegs, just as a single mp3.

one is labeled:  "Dennis Wilson - I Don't Know (piano demo acetate)" (1mn 08s)
Dennis plays piano alone,  with poor sound quality.
In my opinion, it can be a fragment of the real 'I don't know' from Smile era;

and the other:  "I Don't Know (dennis wilson) mono 1-12-67" (2mn 28s)
full orchestration (guitars, drums, bass...), with better sound;
My opinion, it's the other song titled "I don't know" recorded in 1977 by Dennis; it doesn't sounds like a Smile era song.

Mystery, always mystery around SMiLE!

The "other song" titled "I Don't Know" recorded in 1977 by Dennis is, in fact, "Love Remember Me" as included in the new "Bambu: The Caribou Sessions", Disc Two of "Pacific Ocean Blue:  Legacy Edition".  So if the "mono 1-12-67" (2mn 28s) track isn't THAT...it could be the SMiLE-era "I Don't Know".

Ho, sounds interesting, i didn't know that;
so let me take a listen to "Love Remember Me" and I will be able to give you an answer without doubt;
maybe a new step to the thruth about SMiLE !

Ok, here's the news; I took a listen to "Love remember me" and that's nothing to do with "I don't know";
so maybe it's the Smile era song, I just thought it was the 1977's version because it sounds more like 70's than 60's and the note 'mono 1-12-67' was a mistake.
But once again the 2 versions I have are totally different
It still a mystery... 

[Julia]

What I find amazing is that communication within the band at this point seems to be non-existent. I know all the stories about how there was this division between the Boys and Brian, and he was into 'communication on a non-verbal level', but still, it seems pretty weird.  In virtually every interview the other Boys have given about SMiLE, they really seem to be in the dark about the whole thing. I know Brian was the mastermind of these tracks, but wouldn't you at some point- since you ARE a member of the band-ask Brian questions about the tracks? Everyone just says 'he seemed out of it, he was spaced out, etc.'. They appear to have no clue whatsoever about any of it.

Again, old thread, I don't care.

I think this is the single most frustrating aspect of SMiLE research and why the album is so hard to pin down even after 60 years--Brian didn't tell anyone anything. The Leaf book I believe says as much--he kept EVERYONE in the dark. The plan, if there even was one, was in the drug-addled, unwell mind of an adult/child. The Badman book (so grain of salt) claims the Beach Boys were convinced SMiLE would be out simultaneously with their mainland European tour in the Spring of '67. How could they possibly think that was the case when surely they must know they only recorded vocals for a few songs? Similarly, VDP doesn't seem to know what SMiLE was going by interviews. He always sticks to talking about the first brainstorming sessions that produced Heroes/SU and nothing more. Almost like that's the only time even he knew. Van's testimonies of SMiLE's goals and concepts, as well as arguably the lyrics he was writing, were totally out of step with what Brian was saying in '66. Im really getting the impression he wasn't on the same page.

Brian was just off in his own world and it's a less-acknowledged (at least until recently) reason the whole thing came apart. The fact that we still don't know what Tones was says a lot.

[BJL]

What I find amazing is that communication within the band at this point seems to be non-existent. I know all the stories about how there was this division between the Boys and Brian, and he was into 'communication on a non-verbal level', but still, it seems pretty weird.  In virtually every interview the other Boys have given about SMiLE, they really seem to be in the dark about the whole thing. I know Brian was the mastermind of these tracks, but wouldn't you at some point- since you ARE a member of the band-ask Brian questions about the tracks? Everyone just says 'he seemed out of it, he was spaced out, etc.'. They appear to have no clue whatsoever about any of it.

Again, old thread, I don't care.

I think this is the single most frustrating aspect of SMiLE research and why the album is so hard to pin down even after 60 years--Brian didn't tell anyone anything. The Leaf book I believe says as much--he kept EVERYONE in the dark. The plan, if there even was one, was in the drug-addled, unwell mind of an adult/child. The Badman book (so grain of salt) claims the Beach Boys were convinced SMiLE would be out simultaneously with their mainland European tour in the Spring of '67. How could they possibly think that was the case when surely they must know they only recorded vocals for a few songs? Similarly, VDP doesn't seem to know what SMiLE was going by interviews. He always sticks to talking about the first brainstorming sessions that produced Heroes/SU and nothing more. Almost like that's the only time even he knew. Van's testimonies of SMiLE's goals and concepts, as well as arguably the lyrics he was writing, were totally out of step with what Brian was saying in '66. Im really getting the impression he wasn't on the same page.

Brian was just off in his own world and it's a less-acknowledged (at least until recently) reason the whole thing came apart. The fact that we still don't know what Tones was says a lot.

I’m sort of building on my recent reply in the "Why didn't Van Dyke finish the lyrics in the 60s to "Child is Father of The Man" thread here, but I think, again, this just really speaks to the fact that Brian was the producer, and until literally January, 1967, he was an extremely effective producer, despite his growing eccentricity. A huge part of a producer’s job is keeping track of everything and controlling the overall division of labor on a project. Brian was in charge. He made basically every decision, large and small, when it came to the Beach Boy’s music, and had since 1963. He had a secretary, of course, and other people working on the business side, but there was really no one else but Brian whose job was to know what was going on and keep track of all the pieces on the creative side. Almost all recording artists hire outside producers to do that job, because it’s really hard and complicated and not at all easy for an artist themselves to take on. But Brian actually seems to have thought of himself, if anything, as a producer first and a performing artist second.

Everything I’ve read about Brian’s working methods suggests, to me, that the other people working on Smile, including Parks and the band, knew just as much about Smile’s progress and what was going on as they (or their equivalents in Parks's case) had about Pet Sounds, and before that Today or Summer Days. They were recording tracks. Things were being finished. Eventually, there would be enough for an album, which Brian would assemble. They trusted Brian to execute because he had a very, very, very good track record on executing.

And even during Smile, he was working incredibly efficiently and effectively through the end of 1966, with the arguable exception of Good Vibrations. The Good Vibrations sessions were the closest Brian had come to losing control of a project up to then—and look how that ended! By Dec. 10th, it was #1 and the biggest hit of the band's entire career!