Beach Boys - Wild Honey LP in Stereo - 'Sunshine Tomorrow' 2Cds + live digital release

I know that...they could include both

 

Sorry , I thought you meant they were the same since you only made one entry. Great track, in all versions!

 

I bought an early Capitol rainbow label copy of Wild Honey last month for a decent price. It says Mono on the jacket but the actual label on the record is Stereo (didn't realize it until I got home). Has anyone heard of this happening? I wonder if it was a manufacturing error or if someone assembled their own copy. I don't like the way it sounds, anyway. I listened to it with headphones and it's got this weird phase thing going on -- probably due to the re-channeling mentioned a few posts above.

I'll be picking up this true stereo release for sure, if it exists!

 

What a bargain!

 

Listening to my Analogue Productions stereo vinyl right now. The carnival-esque organ flourishes during the verses are definitely there (assuming that's what you are referring to).

I'm pretty sure "With Me Tonight" is the same as the mono. The mono has a sound like the boys are singing to you from behind a piece of glass or something whereas the remix serves them up all natural like. It sounds different but it's the same performance. Whether removing that phone booth sound was right or wrong is up for debate.

The harmonies at the end of "Gettin' Hungry" are so much more audible in the stereo mix than the mono. They are there, but they are a mile away, whereas on the stereo they are only about 20 feet away. I didn't notice anything that indicated a different take, and the low scat vocal parts were identical on both.

I used to have a burned copy of the Japanese Smiley Smile disc laying around here somewhere. I'll review it and see if these elements are different on that version.

The stereo remix is like an entirely different kind of album...altogether ("like an entirely different kind of album"). I do enjoy it very much but I also still love the spooky weirdness of the lo-fi mono original.

 

Those organ parts are not on the Japanese CD .The vocal part on Gettin' Hungry is also definitely different, at least on the Japanese CD.
So maybe I need to get the regular US CD, haha.

 

No apology necessary. You're right, it is great no matter which version.

 

I see what you did, there!

 

Oh, Lonely Days, Time To Get Alone basic track, the unreleased Game Of Love, and a song from the original album lineup called Honey Get Home.

 

That's the one I have too, it's one of my favorite records. I'd still buy an AP reissue, but I tend to like the mono versions better.

 

Well, ok, but the Analogue Productions stereo lp I just picked up of Smiley Smile is beyond Wonderful.

It's won-won-Wonderful...

 

To me it sounded like all bass, on one side.

 

I liked the smiley smile remix. If the wild honey remix is anything like it, I will bite.

 

A mono LP that was "playable on stereo & mono phonographs". Oh, that Capitol. How tricky.

 

A VERY intriguing preview from rock journalist and apparent Beach Boys insider Howie Edelson, from the Smiley Smile forum, regarding the Wild Honey LP stereo mix.
"After hearing the new stereo mix, I can't see how anybody would go back to the mono.
Brilliant, like walking into a painting. 3D.
There's so much there on the mono that the ear misses. With the stereo mix, you keep saying, "Wow, there's a HORN part under that? There's a harmony?"

It sounds incredible."

And a second post from him that's even more intriguing:
"No extraction mixes (a la "Help Me, Rhonda"). The one standout that comes to mind is that in "How She Boogalooed It" the instrumental portion couldn't be reconstructed in stereo, so for however many bars that organ solo is, it slides seamlessly into mono and back out into stereo. Seamless. Beautiful.

I seriously wonder how much better the LP would've done in the new age of FM radio sounding THIS GOOD in stereo had this mix -- which is VERY faithful to the mono mix (albeit in 3D) -- been what was originally released."
Back to me: From what he's indicating, Wild Honey may not be as minimalist as it appeared in mono. We'll see...

 

This will be fascinating. Wild Honey was sort of the album where I thought "holy cow, this band really can do anything if they want to" and even just a straight two-fer of Mono/Stereo as we saw with this last batch of reissues will at least be interesting. I'm salivating over the prospect of a box set, as outline in this thread, tho.

The trajectory of box set treatments for albums going from Pet Sounds to Smile to Wild Honey would be a deliciously Beach Boys type move too.

 

Wasn't it the Japan HMV site that had the first notification of the Beatles' 2009 remasters? And now a German site has the scoop on this apparent Beach Boys reissue? Wondering why North American or British sites don't post these first — nothing about this on Amazon.com yet.

 

There are many opportunities for Beach Boys sets...Wild Honey, Sunflower and Friends/ 20 20 set, expanded set of In Concert, a "Brian Wilson Bedroom Years" set, etc

 

The latter would be my #1 priority buy, with Sunflower a very close second.

 

All this 50th anniversary hoopla for "Party", "Pet Sounds", and now "Wild Honey". But what about poor "Smiley Smile", the one in the middle? I listened to it today another 4 times (mono and stereo two each) and I still love it, dammit. Mike should be on a "Smiley Smile turns 50" tour, singing "Wind Chimes" while laying down on the stage ("it's OK folks, just part of the show!"). Brian should be including 'Little Pad" and "Vegetables" in his setlist....instead he isn't even playing "Heroes and Villains" this year! Whennnnnnnnnnn will the underrated and charming "Smiley Smile" ever get the love? Will this year's December download contain 15 minutes of session chatter from the bottom of the swimming pool?

 

I think the HD Mono "Wild Honey" sounds nice. But a new stereo remix would be great. So we have to wait till July. I'm not interested in deluxe versions or Mono/Stereo 2fers (I have the 2015 download) - a standard stereo version of the album would be enough for me.

 

Here's what I wrote for that same online column for The Suburban newspaper, calling for a 50th anniversary reissue:

The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile album was a fascinating release for numerous reasons. Number one, it marked the end of leader Brian Wilson's efforts to advance musical production — the reason being the collapse of the Smile album in May of 1967, a source of devastation for Brian. While recording of Smile-related tracks took place over more than a year's time (if you count the first Good Vibrations session during the making of Pet Sounds in early 1966), the creation of Smiley Smile — a sort of mini-Smile— took a month and a half.

Also, with the exception of Good Vibrations and a revised Heroes and Villains, the sound on Smiley Smile was extremely minimalistic, not to mention murky and mono — the latter being very unusual for a major group's album in 1967.

Lastly, the album was the first since Surfin' USA in 1963 not to have a "Produced by Brian Wilson" credit — instead, it was "Produced by the Beach Boys."

The album marked the start of a commercial, but not artistic, downturn for the Beach Boys which lasted until 1976.

Some accounts of the album sessions claim Brian was out of it due to Smile's collapse, and was not that involved, but in his new book, Brian says he was very involved but decided to share the production duties with other members of the group, especially his brother Carl.

(I have long had my suspicions, though, that it was primarily Brian producing this and the subsequent Wild Honey album, also from 1967.)

A deluxe set, with mono and stereo mixes, alternate takes and definitive liner notes telling the story of the album sessions, would be a wonderful release.

 

Meanwhile in the "Love and Mercy" movie they show Brian in the other room while "they" work on the album, turning Smile into Smiley Smile. They choose which ever version of the story is suitable for the occasion, I guess.

There's a vintage audio interview from January '68 I think on youtube or somewhere ou out on the internet where Brian speaks rather coherently about 'Smiley Smile', praising it and giving the impression that he was very much responsible for leading the group in that direction.

He did smoke way too much hash, though.

 

Isn't that the scene where Murry tells Brian he's selling Sea of Tunes, two years early?