'Lost' Beach Boys album to be released after 40 years

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

According to the Sindy the Smile album is to be released.

There's a nice recording story in this article

Those original sessions saw him leading huge orchestral arrangements, even dressing musicians in firemen's helmets to create the perfect ambience for a grandiose "elements suite" which was to be placed on the album's side two.

No release date in the article though.  After such a build up, will it be any good?  It has mythical status and may bust a few illusions if it's crap.  Has anybody heard bootlegged tracks from it?

[Jet Set Willy]

He's playing it live too you know. Starting next friday in London.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

He's playing it live too you know. Starting next friday in London.

As long as Atomic Kitten aren't the backing singers again it shouldn't be too poor

[Darrell]

Has anybody heard bootlegged tracks from it?

There are a million and one fan edits of it already. There was an excellent page called Ryan's SMiLE Site which Capitol went and shut down a while ago.

There was another terrific site called DJ Mic Luv's Official SMiLE (background info here) which got a bit more creative than is normally done, producing really great results. Capitol shut this down as well, joyless twats. I still have this version burned to a CD somewhere, I think.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Cheers for that

[23 Daves]

There were many, many "Smile" websites on the Internet for a period, and Capitol thought little of any of them.  What's uncanny is that many of the fan edits of "Smile" that were produced sounded like early Beta Band material (or should that be early Beta Band sounds like Smile-era Beach Boys)?

To be honest, I've always found it very difficult to ascertain how this would sound as a coherent (or incoherent) whole.  The fact remains that "Smile" was very much an unfinished work, and Brian Wilson seemed to find the prospect of arranging all the various fragments of arrangements and tunes into any sort of smooth, coherent whole incredibly daunting.  Therefore, unless he's had massive change of heart, I'd be willing to bet that "Smile" is going to be a very good album, but not a masterpiece.  Flawed, in other words.

I'm glad it's coming out, though.

[Bonely Child]

Has anybody heard bootlegged tracks from it?

A quick search on Soulseek should turn up 90% of the commonly bootlegged material very quickly. If you've not heard Smile before, Sea of Tunes/Unsurpassed Masters Volume 16 is possibly the best one to go for as an introduction. (Actually, this turned up on Sharing the Groove a few weeks back. If you're lucky, the torrent might still be alive).

A lot of people seem to really enjoy the fan-mixes, but personally I tend to steer clear of them. It's nice when someone has - say - but Brian's demo vocal for Barnyard over the instrumental track, but sometimes the mixer has made changes that clearly move beyond just editing the tracks together and turn the project into something else altogether. Though I suppose maybe that's the idea.... it's just not to my taste.

Anyway, I've got tickets for next Sunday, and am looking forward to it wholeheartedly. I've got a few reservations about how happy Brian Wilson *actually* is to be re-visiting Smile, but if he pulls it off it'll be absolutely wonderful. And regardless of how the finished product turns out, the original sessions have provided me endless joy, and really are something everyone should hear. Fingers crossed for an official release, along the lines of the Pet Sounds Sessions!

[Bogey]

Well, he did Pet Sounds live a couple of years ago, and the reviews raved, didn't they?
I'm going to see him in Liverpool, which will be good. Except for the fact that it's in Liverpool.

[Bogey]

Um does anyone happen to know what to do with this SMiLE I've just downloaded? What the hell file format is it?

[Darrell]

Um does anyone happen to know what to do with this SMiLE I've just downloaded? What the hell file format is it?

Read that post back, and consider if you might be leaving out a bit of information that may or may not enable a human being to answer your question.

[Bogey]

Yes; you're right.

The Beach Boys Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 16.shnf it's called.

You see, I thought that perhaps other people had already gotten it or something, oh never mind. Anyway, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. Very frustrating.

[Bonely Child]

You've got two options really. You can download mkwACT from here, and decompress the shn files to wavs, to burn to cd. Or, you can get ShnAmp from here, leave the shns compressed, and play them back through WinAmp.

[Bogey]

Haha! Another piece of information I failed to include was the fact that this computer here, this one, is a mac. Oh dear.
I am a silly.

And I've figured it out!

In case anyone's interested, you need This

[Darrell]

.shnf?

What the hell is it?

[Pinball]

Just d/l Smile in a less shneffingly useless format like, say, mp3.. ;-)

[swinny]

Saw this live last night and I haven't stopped smiling since - was absolutely incredible stuff.

First half was a short acousticcy set, followed by a run-through of some Beach Boys hits...then a short interval before they came out and played smile in its entirety with only 2 stops in the whole thing...night was rounded off with a set of Beach Boys rock'n'roll choons before a final encore of Love and Mercy...Just hard to describe quite how ace the whole thing was, and the smile stuff worked so well and had everyone hooked despite the fact most in the audience obviously only knew certain parts (most evident from the fact released songs like "heroes and villians", "cabinessence" and "surfs up" all got stars in their eyes style claps as they started.)

I for one hope they just release a Live version of the album, to give everyone a taste of just what it was...leave the studio stuff alone...leave a little mystery.

[no_offenc]

Except for the fact that it's in Liverpool.

I'd say "Oh, do fuck off, you cunt.", but, uh.

Um.

Oh hell, do fuck off, you cunt.  *wink smiley*

[12 years, 11 months old]

Anyone bought this then? What do you think?

[Duffy]

I bought this yesterday, but haven't had chance to listen to it yet.

Just posting to say that, if anyone's interested, both the "Smile" CD and the "Pet Sounds Live in London" DVD are in WH Smith's "buy one get one ½ price" sale, which works out at a not-unreasonable £18.48 the pair.

[Bonely Child]

I've got it, and it's had repeated listenings over the last couple of days.

To be honest, even as a huge Brian Wilson fan, I wasn't sure he could pull this off. Even after the brilliant gigs, I still wasn't sure he could do it. But he has. Whilst not every track is superior to its 66/67 equivalent (though Cabin Essence is perhaps the only one where I would definitely take the vintage version over the modern without hesitation) the album as a whole is hugely better than anything that could be compiled from the original sessions. The new lyrics and melodies, and the superb sequencing, have made the whole thing cohere in a way that it never did before. Perhaps most astonishing of all, Wilson's vocals are great - contrary to what his solo album of a few months ago suggested - and in some places actually suit the material better than his youthful voice. It's an absolute triumph, basically, and I've been glowing from the thrill of finally having SMiLE all week.

[Jet Set Willy]

I bought this yesterday, but haven't had chance to listen to it yet.

Just posting to say that, if anyone's interested, both the "Smile" CD and the "Pet Sounds Live in London" DVD are in WH Smith's "buy one get one ½ price" sale, which works out at a not-unreasonable £18.48 the pair.

thankyou muchly, I will have to try and find Smith's at lunch tomorrow.

On a related note, did anyone else used to get really confused when their mum called WH Smiths "Smith's"? I know I did.

I saw SMiLE live earlier in the year which was great, BW's voice really wasn't up to much though.

[Marty McFly]

it got me thinking earlier today.. now that the new SMiLE has been released, sounding exactly how brian envisioned it, surely some canny bootlegger will knock up a version taken from the original recordings that has the same track listing and song structures as the new one.

it'd be interesting to hear..

[Jet Set Willy]

The version I heard live seemed to be pretty much based upon Ryan's SMiLE ting, but I haven't made the effort to compare it with what I know about the official ting so far.

[alan strang]

it got me thinking earlier today.. now that the new SMiLE has been released, sounding exactly how brian envisioned it, surely some canny bootlegger will knock up a version taken from the original recordings that has the same track listing and song structures as the new one.

They already started doing that after he performed it live!

I adore the new version. It's ages since I got so excited about an LP. There's the overwhelming feeling of mists clearing as the segues between tracks reveal themselves, one by one. 'Barnyard' links into 'The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine' so effortlessly that anyone who listened to the bootlegs will be kicking themselves that they didn't make the connection before.

As someone who's often tried, and failed badly, to sing along with that ridiculously high note on 'Surf's Up' (the line "Columnated ruins domino...") it's somewhat gratifying that Brian Wilson can no longer manage it himself. However, the backing vocalists can, and the clever mixing manages to cover it up perfectly. To be needlessly poetic for a second, it's like a choir of musical angels lifting aloft their ragged charge and carrying him at just the right moments. Or - less poetically - a case of Brian Wilson being saved by music he created a long time ago.

All the way through listening I kept thinking of the friendly rivalry between Wilson and Paul McCartney, each trying to top each other's musical efforts. If only Smile had been finished and released back then. Just imagine how good the next Beatles album would have been.

[Bonely Child]

it got me thinking earlier today.. now that the new SMiLE has been released, sounding exactly how brian envisioned it, surely some canny bootlegger will knock up a version taken from the original recordings that has the same track listing and song structures as the new one.

it'd be interesting to hear..

There's a torrent at //www.sharingthegroove.org at the moment that does exactly this. Without the transitions and additional material though, it's not quite the same - I'd pick the new version every time.

[Auntie Ovipositor]

I'm not a huge BW fan - he and his B Boys are very competent at what they do, I'm just not a fan of what they're going for. Good stuff for what it is, just not for me.

That said, the new version of Smile has what the original recordings that have been booted since lacked: his ability to craft albums. Play individual songs off of any of the boots all ya like, and some of them are pretty good pop songs. But they're not an album, and hearing the whole shebang strung together into a solid whole, it shows you where his genius lies. In my opinion, of course.

Like I said - I'm not a huge fan, but this makes all of the booted sessions drivel. The strung together tracks sound incomplete and context-less. Not that they were bad before, but now... not that interesting. Honestly.

His mastery of craft and his ability to get where he's going is undeniable. The fact that he completed this project so long after starting it shows that there's something at work with the guy that's hard to put into words but undeniable.

And I can only imagine how great this event is if you're a solid fan of the B Boys.

[TJ]

My only serious misgiving is that 'Cabinessence' sounds like one of those early 1970s copyright-free re-recordings of 1960s Beach Boys hits in comparison to the original, but I suppose there was no way round that really. Plus the album as a whole loses something by not having the actual Beach Boys' backing vocals. And I've never ever liked 'Vegetables'.

Aside from those minor quibbles, though, it's great.

[swinny]

It's fantastic...only thing I've listened to all week!

"Good Vibrations" is a tad ropey compared to the original, doesn't seem to have the same urgency about it, but still rounds the whole thing off fantastically. I think I kinda prefer this version of "Surf's Up" though...

Its just such a great  thing to listen to, flying all over the place - up and down, quiet and loud, simple and orchestral...and pretty much always sounds it knows exactly where its going. First thing in ages that hasn't just been put on as background music...was sat at the computer with it on last night and managed to spend the whole 45-odd minutes doing nothing except doodle away in time on a piece of paper - been a very very long time since an album has made me sit up and take notice in  quite the same way.

[Beagle 2]

Bloody hell. I've never heard any of Smile save good vibrations, and during my musically formative years I was so obsessed with the beatles that I was very disappointed with pet sounds, billed as it was as an album to rival any of theirs. So i've never really been mad keen on the Beach boys.

But that has just knocked me for six. Every song sent a shiver down my spine, it's just......stunning! What's weird is that even though i've just spun it the once and it's so complex, I can remember nearly every song straight away.

I always thought the cult status of this album might have been down to it's unique novelty value. I was wrong. I don't think I want to hear any original stuff, that will do me fine. Absolutely Phenomenal. I'm pleased i've waited this long to hear it now.

I thought good vibrations was fine too. And I agree, it's the first album in ages i've listened to with my eyes shut.

Stupendous.

[TJ]

Give "Pet Sounds" another go - I reckon it's more likely that you'll 'get' it now.

Incidentally, is anyone else annoyed by the trend amongst reviewers for trying to play down "Pet Sounds" whilst raving about "Smile"? As fantastic as the latter is, there's no contest as far as I'm concerned and it's pathetic that some people are trying to pretend that there is for the sake of being seen to have an 'interesting' opinion.