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

Started by aaaaaaaaaargh!, February 15, 2004, 10:46:40 AM

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swinny

Yeah, I kinda agree...Smile is fantastic, and I think it would have been fantastic had it come out back in '67 - however, its a very different beast to Pet Sounds...whereas it may beat it for trickery and imagination, nothing comes close to Pet Sounds for just sounding perfectly balanced between mood, lyrics, arrangement and production (Sloop John B aside, but thats mainly cos it sticks out like a sore thumb)...

But you are right, its as though Pet Sounds never happened for a lot of these reviewers...and I dare say its because they've probably never listened to it and are just repeating the popular "inspired the beatles to write sgt peppers" line...just as every smile review starts with a "took him ages cos he went mad" section...sure, that stuff is relevant, but i think Smile stands up in its own right as a very modern album more-so than the odd little whimsy most reviewers were probably expecting to get....i think thats partly why its been so well received, as I bet most were ready to give it mediocre marks and pass it off as "one for the fans".

Peking O

Not content with making a shit new television show, a well-known media terrorist has also taken time to inform us that a DVD from the "Smile" live shows is coming in April:

QuoteBy Chris Morris

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Surf's up, aboard a tidal wave of events tied to this past Tuesday's release of Brian Wilson (news)'s finally completed magnum opus "Smile" from Nonesuch Records.

On Sunday, two full performances of the work were taped at a Burbank soundstage for a DVD release in April by Warner Home Video.

Thursday (Sept. 30), Wilson kicks off a monthlong tour featuring complete performances of "Smile"; stops will include Carnegie Hall in New York (Oct. 12-13) and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (Nov. 2-3). And on Tuesday, Showtime will premiere "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile," a startling feature documentary about the arduous birthing of the album, directed by David Leaf, Wilson's longtime Boswell.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=769&ncid=689&e=6&u=/nm/20040930/music_nm/music_wilson_dc

Beagle 2

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

Yes you may well be right there, it must be 6 or 7 years since I gave it a chance, I just had them filed under "overrated" in my head.

When I first started reading the music press in the early 90's they used to bang on and on about smile, and it often came across as more of a "I'm so cool because I have seven versions of it and you have NONE I am the bestest at knowing about music" than a genuine recommendation. They'll probably be writing off the new recording and parading round their own special mixes now. In fact this
Quotetrying to play down "Pet Sounds" whilst raving about "Smile"
will probably stop now the proles can get their grubby hands on it down at Tesco's.

Ciarán2

Listening to "Smile" for first time now and I have a big huge grin on my silly little face. At "Vega-Tables" at the moment (aw, TJ...it's great!)

My hope for this is that is ushers in a whole new era of pop. I always thought it suspicious that old pop or rock stars get written off after a cetain point. I wondered what kind of work people like McCartney, Wilson, Bowie, Reed and so on would be producing in their 60s and 70s. You know like classical musicians produced great work in their final years, it could apply to pop and rock. Maybe "Smile" could be one of the first mature masterworks....but I'm getting a bit carried away there, maybe. Anyway I can dream.

First impression of this is that it is superb, light-hearted, an astonishing accomplishment given Wilson's history. Thrilled with it, the most important album of 2004, time and repeated plays will tell if it ends up my favourite.

Comparisons with "Pet Sounds" are a bit redundant and silly, it hasn't been made and released in the same cultural context. It's flippant where "Pet Sounds" was profound. There aren't really many similarities. It compares very well with contemporary releases, as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, I'm very happy. Happier than I expected to be with it. So...a result! Hurrah!

Jet Set Willy


Gazeuse

£9.77, Tesco...Haven't had a chance to listen propely yet.

morgs

Excellent, and I'm not too upset by the re-recordings of Good Vibrations and Heres and Villains either!  Going to keep playing it.  As a big fan of the BB I am glad that some version of Smile had finally appeared.  What might have been, eh?

Fuckwittio

I've given this a few listens now & reckon it's much better than a complete re-recording has a right to be. The band do a great job of replicating the music & the harmonies, and though they ain't quite the real deal & Brian's voice ain't what it used to be, it's a rare pleasure from start to finish.

As a fan of the various SMiLE bootlegs, it was fascinating to see how it all fitted together. I was kinda sad to see they left out 'He Gives Speeches', but aside from that, I was surprised at how close some of the bootleggers (particularly the defunct Ryan's SMiLE Site) got to Brian's vision.

It was interesting to see them doing the early version of 'Good Vibrations' with the different (inferior) lyrics and the high-pitched "I'm Picking Up!..." just before the chorus. I don't agree that they should've left it alone for the re-recording & just stuck on the original, as some critics have opined. It would beg unfair comparisons with the rest of the LP, surely? I reckon the new version is fine, and it flows beautifully in from 'In Blue Hawaii'. In fact, the sequencing & transitions are beautifully done through the entire LP, especially in the final 'suite'.

The entire LP is a highpoint, but the moment that really gets my hair standing on end is Brian's vocal at the end of 'Heroes And Villains': "I've been in this town so long..." You can hear every one of the 37 years that have elapsed since the original & his voice is imbued with such pathos, I couldn't help but shed a tear.

I never imagined we'd hear SMiLE as Wilson intended, so this was a big surprise, not least because he did it so well. I'm glad most people seem pretty happy with it; hopefully this will be a big encouragement to Brian, who's had a fair old shitty time this last 37 years. Hopefully this'll give him a second wind. The new recording's aren't, of course, as magical as those ghostly old bootlegs, but who's complaining? What is surprising is how close Wilson actually came to completing it in 1967 - many of the old out-takes are very close to the re-recordings. But if he had, would it be anywhere near as legendary? I think it's a better album than Sgt. Pepper's, but I don't think it would've blown it out of the water, like some critics have suggested, wishfully thinking. It may have sold better than Pet Sounds, due to the pre-release hype, but I think the times were going against them & they would've become uncool just as quickly as they did after Smiley Smile.

Mind you, where would Brian's songwriting have taken us after SMiLE if he had kept it up...?

Gazeuse

Yes, I agree with just about everything up there.

There are some lovely moments...Wonderful really takes wings and flies on a couple of occasions...Beautiful harmonies.

There are a few things which suggest that he might have done a few things differently had he been in better shape (ie. Some of the sections were a bit short and suggested that more would have been done to dovetail them together to make them less stop and starty). The transition into Good Vibrations is a joy though, as are the various themetic relations dotted about.

The flaws only serve to make it all the more poignant, I think. A bit like some of  the solo work of Syd Barrett.

I can thoroughly recommend it.

Darrell

I bought it today, it's been on three times already. A beautiful piece of work - I've only heard two bootleg versions previously, but this beats the hell out of either of them. As I'm not as familiar with the original tapes as some, for most of the time I completely forgot it was a re-recording. The way it flows so smoothly is magic itself. I genuinely almost shed a tear in amazement during those few bars of that rising "aah-aah" bit in Heroes and Villains.

If anyone doesn't go out and buy this, they are being not only totally silly, but also forfeit their right to a soul.

I'm off to put it on again.

oceanthroats

looking forward to hearing this, i've been listening to one of the live bootlegged london shows for months and loving it. i'd heard all the original smile session stuff before and it was a pleasure to hear all these familiar pieces connected together and just absolutely making sense in ways i just hadn't put together before. the wonderful/look/child is the father of the man piece just makes my head go all fizzy. i don't think this is actually out in australia yet? i'll have another look tomorrow. whenever it comes out i'll get it. its sounds like one of those rare times they get something that could easily go wholly wrong right. i'm really glad.

swinny

Well, Number 7 in the Album charts, and a Top 30 Single (from a very limited release)...I must say it's surpassed my expectations in terms of how it would be received commercially and critically.

I went to 2 of the live shows, and loved them both...but did have a slight worry it wouldnt all translate too well into a studio recording, and that a lot of the initial acclaim would have dimmed by the time the album "proper" came out...There are a few nay-sayers, but I dare say many of these are the "Not liking it cos everyone else loves it" types - or indeed those who just aren't willing to accept Brian and the Beach Boys were anything more than blokes in stripey shirts singing about cars and surfing.

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/wilsonbrian/smile/ - Metacritic shows some fairly decent reviews.

imitationleather

I bought it today and it's absolutely superb. Wow. Sorry, there's not much I can really say about it. Like a few people in this thread, I've never really rated The Beach Boys and I only bought this because the incredible amount of praise it's been getting. Consider me officially converted.

When I first listened to it I was on the train and I really had to try extremely hard to not start crying. I can't remember an album doing that to me ever before.

Ciarán2

Quote from: "swinny"http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/wilsonbrian/smile/ - Metacritic shows some fairly decent reviews.

The tinmixtape review there is great - the guy goes on about his dead dog. I can't be bothered to write much about "SMiLE" now except to say I am loving it. It'll take ages for it's arrival, let alone quality, to sink in.

swinny

Arrrgrgrgggghhhh....noooooo!!!!!

Would appear that Good Vibrations is to be released as a single from SMiLE as well now: http://www.nme.com/news/110270.htm

Can't help but think its a really bad idea - this is one of THE most important songs ever released, and also proved to be the Beach Boys biggest hit either side of the atlantic...I just think this will dilute some of the aura around what the songs means and what it did...It's an inferior version to the original I think, and out of context from the rest of the album won't do much to help shift any more copies of SMiLE - it'll just be a novelty record, in at 31 with a bullet and it deserves so so so so so much more than that.

I wonder how much of all this is Brian's idea...or just the record company after a few quids? I suppose at least we'll get to hear Mike Love's take on all this stuff soon enough and he's bound to have something to say about it....

swinny

Just a little heads-up for anyone interested - there is one of the BBC One Yentob "Imagine" things on tonight all about Brian Wilson and the history of SMiLE called "Beautiful Dreamer"....22.35 on Beeb1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20041201/20041201_2235_4223_57442_80

Darrell

Quote from: "swinny"Just a little heads-up for anyone interested - there is one of the BBC One Yentob "Imagine" things on tonight all about Brian Wilson and the history of SMiLE called "Beautiful Dreamer"....22.35 on Beeb1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20041201/20041201_2235_4223_57442_80

BUMP!

Jet Set Willy


A Passing Turk Slipper

Was just about to do the same. Can't wait for this to start, us up in Scotland don't get it 'till eleven though annoyingly.

no_offenc

I personally love this album a lot like.

And it's good to see how they put it together.  Really good, like.

lazyhour

Well.

After 30 minutes of "meh" at the start, that was one of the most lovely pieces of TV I've ever seen.

You'll have to excuse me, I've become a bit emotional...   I'm now winding down with some Van Dyke Parks.  It feels nice to be alive at this point.

swinny

Well even after the myths and reading about it and the bootlegs and the live shows and the actual release etc, that programme still managed to make me well up in places...How stunning was that old clip of Brian at the piano playing Surf's Up?!

lazyhour

Quote from: "swinny"How stunning was that old clip of Brian at the piano playing Surf's Up?!

It was a revelation.  I'd heard that performance before, but never seen it.  Wow.

oceanthroats

i love the album a whole lot but i was slightly spoiled because i had the live in london bootleg playing all the time.
but yeah, i think the best part of it for me is wonderful-song for children - child is the father of the man. particularly song for children, over the old look instrumental. that is just gorgoues for me, that's the real triumph. that's worth the whole thing. i like most of the rest of it. i don't like what they did to the holiday pirate song though, i don't like the lyrics so much. feel like there're too many words and they don't work as well as some of the other words do. i like bits of it but it doesn't seem to work as well as the music on its own. even though the music on its own seems to want words.
bah though, its a great piece of work, i'm very fond of it. the hawaii part is lovely, but i think the good vibrations version is a slight compromise. i've got the 66/67 version of the different 2004 smile one, and the good vibrations chorus is different, from what i can tell they used mike love's 'she's giving me excitations' version of the chorus from the famous one we all know, when the original version they base this new one on just had brian shouting 'good good good good vibrations yeah!' really loudly, and in the context of where the verses go and how they lead up to the chorus that chorus (without the excitations parts) works better with the new verses than the mike love one. i guess they used the mike love one to give him a co credit with tony asher, so as not to upset the guy and make him sue again. i always though asher wrote the 'i love th ecolourful clothes she wears' verses myself, but i'm guessing love wrote those too??? anybody know?
having said all that i know wilson toyed with ths song endlessly, but still, it doens't quite seem to fit as well as it did in that earlier version. i wonder what van dyke would have made of it had he had a go? good good good goodly vibraphonism columnated abrasionesque crowinessence...yeah!
i've seen wilson playing surf's up in the dark before by himself, there's a recording of that, or a similar recording with wilson on the piano alone singing it on the beach boys box set.

lazyhour

Quote from: "oceanthroats"there's a recording of that, or a similar recording with wilson on the piano alone singing it on the beach boys box set.

Yeah, that's what I have it on.  Most expensive CD purchase I ever made, that was.  And a fantastic thing it is too.  I can't recommend it enough.  Nice silly surboard-style box, too.

lardboy

Tonight - BBC4:

Pet Sounds

Brian Wilson, backed by a ten-piece band, performs the Beach Boys' classic 1966 album in its entirety in a concert at the Royal Festival Hall

Pet Sounds - Pop & Rock-Music And Arts    Thursday, 02.12.2004
Start Time: 23.00    End Time: 00.00    Duration in Mins: 60

I'm sure it's already out there via torrent etc, but just in case you've not had the pleasure...