Brian Wilson's SMiLE vs Beach Boys' 2011 SMiLE

I guess anything is possible and would explain why they didn't turn up in 2011. My gut says they are lost though.

I was really disappointed that nothing truly revelatory turned up on the Durrie Parks acetates.

 

He has always pushed the idea that the whole thing was done, and that he had a session scheduled to mix the album the day after the last "Love To Say Da Da" session. For a reason I can't remember, Brian supposedly cancelled it.

 

Prior, right, not Brian Wilson.

 

Yeah, Priore said that Brian cancelled the session to mix the album. Which is so far from the truth, that it's ridiculous.

 

Exactly. This is why I got rid of my Priore books. Too much fiction.

 

Nice to see a new thread on Smile. A few years ago I was mixing and coming op with new tracklists everyday. I was especially concerned with creating some 'un-tinkered' versions of songs using material from the box (for example, restoring the complete fade to DYLW, Holidays and Wind Chimes, re-editing CIFOTM, Look, the beginning of TOMP where the vocals faded in much too late). Since then I came to accept these versions as the definitive Smile, -my- definitive Smile, but also quite true to the 'original' historic songs and recordings.

I enjoy the music listening to it in all kinds of arrangements, song by song, but most of the time a put on my compilation of all the tracks of BWPS, with the actual versions of the songs more important than the order of tracks. My definitive list:

- Prayer (mono from the box)
- Heroes and Villains (mono, BPWS edit from the box. Where possible I used parts from the '67 mono mix from Smiley Smile. The reason I see the BWPS order as definitive is that it simply sounds perfect and tells a complete story, the Cantina and Smiley Smile seem to be incomplete)
- Do You Like Worms (mono, TSS with complete fade. Moreover, I used the 'whahalaloola' part from the GV boxset, because I didn't like the reverb-crossfade on TSS)
- Holidays (stereo, with original fade-out)
- I'm In Great Shape / Barnyard (stereo / mono)
- The Old Master Painter (mono, with fade-out since I do not have it on HAV).
- Cabin Essence (20/20)
- Wind Chimes (stereo or mono. My mono mix cuts out the instrumental introduction, I like the original 'vocal' start).
- Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (mono with fire crackle, with the 'hav intro' tagged on to the beginning).
- I Wanna Be Around-Friday Night (stereo / mono, edited from the sessions material).
- Vega-Tables (Stereo mix)
- Love To Say Dada (GV Boxset mono - no high-pitched vocal overdubs)
- Wonderful (mono)
- Look (stereo, from sessions)
- Child is Father of the Man (re-edit. I couldn't get over an edit on the 2011 album version in the chorus, right at the end - the last 'repeat'. The original tape seemed to have some kind of drop-out there, and it seems they tried to fix it by dropping in a portion from elsewhere in the chorus. But: they used a bit where Brian's really high background vocals are missing - so when the drop-in stops, suddenly those vocals appear. I tried to fix it by re-do the drop-in, using a part -with- backing vocals, and splicing in the tambourine sound from the sessions. It may be far-fetched, but it works musically and technically. I was surprised no-one else seemed to have noticed this strange TSS edit)
- You're Welcome
- Surf's Up (1971 version - the vocal flyins just aren't perfect to my ears.)

I am quite happy with what we got in 2011, just thinking some things would have been so easy to include and so rewarding. Barnyard without the vocal-piano flyin, just the complete 1966/7 track with the stereo backing vocals. Love to say dada, stereo without the flyins. Do you like worms, complete stereo version. The old master painter, original intro (so strange they used a different take on the 2011 mono mix before the crossfade into the original vocal mono mix). Oh well, still so happy with the box. Maybe on the Smile Sessions 10th, 20th, 50th anniversary box set.

 

Was Brian Wilson's Smile recorded to tape?

 

Yes, which had to have made it extremely difficult when patching together all of the different segments. Had pro-tools existed back then, it would've been the perfect program to do that album on.

 

@Grunge Master misinterpreted @driverdrummer 's question. To my knowledge Brian Wilson's 2004 version of Smile was recorded on a digital workstation and edited in the digital domain.

 

I like your list a lot, but no "Good Vibrations"?

 

Oops, of course. Somewhere in the middle, opening track of a fictitious side 2.

 

Personally, I don't really feel like "Good Vibrations" fits the feel of the broader project, though it almost certainly would have been included in 1967 due to its popularity.

 

I have a Smile question and I might as well ask it here.

I read somewhere that, on the Smile Sessions box set (which I don't have because while I love Smile, I don't need hours and hours of outtakes), there is a particular outtake where you can faintly hear someone in the control booth (Brian? Van Dyke Parks?) sing the melody to Do You Like Worms with the lyrics that were written but never recorded (Once upon the Sandwich Isles...).

Anybody can confirm this? This would be an enormous (and almost miraculous) find, as the melody to the DYLW verses is one of the main missing pieces. It would also put the lie to the idea that the melody added to the BWPS version "was remembered by Brian all those years later", an idea which always struck me as obvious PR BS.

 

It's Brian quickly singing the melody with the words "Once upon the sandwich isles...", trying to show what he wants the tempo of the song to be.

 

Here it is, skip to about 3:15 and listen. You really should listen to the whole thing though, as it shows the master at work .

 

No almost about it. It was included. One album where it really doesn't fit the feel is Smiley Smile, yet it is included there. Not to mention that it was scrolled 3 times across the front cover of the Smile album.

 

And note the melody is completely different from the verse melody used for the song on BWPS!

 

And when the melody would continue the way Brian starts, the lyrics would be over twice as fast as well..

 

I prefer the Beach Boys' version. Brian's is mired in autotune. I hate autotune.

 

I would have liked to know what a combination of the two would sound like. For example, to have some original band members overdub some of the original recordings to complete them - CIFOTM, DYLW, IIGS/BY with the complete lyrics.

 

Pro-Tools existed back then.

 

O

In 1967? Uh . . . no.

 

I was talking about in 1966, when he first did it; I thought he was talking about the original SMiLE, not the one Brian did himself.

 

I still listen to BWPS quite often. I know The Smile Sessions is the better version, and I love that set, but something about hearing an older, weathered Brian sing these songs just works for me. Plus I was barely into my SMiLE madness when BWPS was released so I consider BWPS my SMiLE bible.

 

If only he'd gone on a bar longer. That was the single biggest oh my effing god moment on the Smile sessions set. That and the bit on Holidays when he's singing something in the back ground when everyone's talking. I swear that if in December 1966 or 1967 someone (David Anderle or Van Dyke ?) could have said to Brian, right now, go in the f-ing studio and bang a guide vocal down on each track to show the other guys what's happening here we would have little room for debate about how it was supposed to be with the possible exception of The Elements. That is the single biggest problem with 1966/7 Smile - no lead vocals. No wonder the other guys had no idea what was going on. If they had not released Cabin Essence on 20/20, imagine the difficulty we'd have now trying to figure that one out and without question that has to be one of the top 5 artistic moments of BW's career - that fade/tag is astonishing, a true sound painting, Vincent Van Go Go Parks at his finest. Has Darian (all praise be he !!!) or someone else not played that little "Worms" snippet and not asked BW what that's all about ? I mean, it could finish the track off vintage style. Get Al to bang down the lead, hey presto it's done. If only life were that simple.