Monday, December 24, 2018

The Beach Boys - SMiLE (upgrade)


The Beach Boys – SMiLE

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

December 2018 UPGRADE


Disc 1 – SMiLE ’67 Reconstruction
Side A:
1.  Our Prayer - Heroes and Villains
2.  Vege-Tables
3.  Do You Like Worms?
4.  Child is Father of The Man
5.  The Old Master Painter
6.  Cabin Essence
Side B:
7.  Good Vibrations
8.  Wonderful
9.  I’m In Great Shape
10.  Wind Chimes
11. The Elements
12.  Surf’s Up



BONUS MATERIAL:

Disc 2 – The Beach Boys Present SMiLE + Vintage Brian Wilson Mixes
1.  Our Prayer - Gee
2.  Heroes and Villains
3.  Do You Like Worms?
4.  Barnyard
5.  The Old Master Painter
6.  Cabin Essence
7.  Wonderful
8.  Look
9.  Child is Father of The Man
10.  Surf’s Up
11.  I’m In Great Shape
12.  Vege-Tables
13.  Holidays
14.  Wind Chimes
15.  Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
16.  I Love To Say Dada
17.  Good Vibrations
18.  Our Prayer (December 1966 Comp Reel)
19.  Wonderful (December 1966 Comp Reel)
20.  Cabin Essence (December 1966 Comp Reel)
21.  Child is Father of The Man (December 1966 Comp Reel)
22.  Do You Like Worms? (December 1966 Comp Reel)
23.  Vege-Tables (1967 Track Assembly)

Disc 3 – Behind The SMiLE
1.  Good Vibrations (March 1966 Reconstruction)
2.  Good Vibrations (May 1966 Reconstruction)
3.  Good Vibrations (June 1966 Reconstruction)
4.  Wind Chimes (Early Version Reconstruction)
5.  Wind Chimes (Backing Track Reconstruction)
6.  Wonderful (Chronological Reconstruction)
7.  Cabin Essence (Backing Track Reconstruction)
8.  Child is Father of The Man (Early Version Reconstruction)
9.  Child is Father of The Man (Stereo Backing Track Reconstruction)
10.  Do You Like Worms? (Backing Track Reconstruction)
11.  Surf’s Up (1966 Mix Reconstruction)
12.  Heroes and Villains (November 1966 Reconstruction)
13.  Heroes and Villains (January 1967 Reconstruction)
14.  Heroes and Villains (February 1967 Reconstruction/'Part II")
15.  Heroes and Villains (March 1967 Reconstruction)
16.  I Love To Say Dada (Chronological Reconstruction)
17.  The Elements (Excerpts from Psychedelic Sounds)


Merry Christmas and happy Holidays!  This is an UPGRADE to my reconstruction of The Beach Boys SMiLE album.  For this special occasion, I offer a special three-disc set...  Disc 1 contains the standard, upgraded mono and stereo versions of my SMiLE ’67 Mix, which attempts to recreate what the SMiLE album would have sounded like in 1967.  Disc 2 contains an all-stereo, all-Beach Boys version of SMiLE, structured in three movements just as 2004’s Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE; as a bonus, it also contains several vintage Brian Wilson mixes—mostly a reconstruction and remaster of Brian Wilson’s December 1966 Comp Reel, his first attempt to compile a series of SMiLE era mixes.  Disc 3 contains an hour of custom-made bonus material and reconstructions meant to showcase the making of the album—Behind The SMiLE. 

The upgrades in this December 2018 edition of SMiLE ’67 are:
- Remade “Child is Father of The Man” which follows the structure of Brian Wilson’s vintage three-minute 1966 test edit (both mono and stereo).
- Remixed “Cabin Essence” (stereo).
- Remade “The Old Master Painter” using the correct take 11 as the core of the song (stereo).
- Remade “The Elements” to be a completely self-contained track, separate from “Wind Chimes”, “Vege-Tables”, etc (both mono and stereo).
- All tracks banded as twelve separate, uncrossfaded songs, as per Van Dyke Parks.
- SMiLE 2004 reconstruction is updated with aforementioned sources and included on Disc 2
- Creation and inclusion of Disc 3, Behind The SMiLE, as well as remastered Brian Wilson vintage mixes on Disc 2

* See included essay ‘Behind The SMiLE’ for specific song, recording and argument information.


Much has been written about the unreleased album SMiLE; even more so in recent history due to The SMiLE Sessions boxset.  The first disc of that set was purported to be an accurate reconstruction of what SMiLE would have been.  But is it so?  Most likely not: the tracklist is based upon the sequence found on Brian Wilson’s 2004 solo album Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, in which the great artist finally “finished SMiLE”.  Well surely, that was how SMiLE was supposed to sound?  Again, most likely not: that sequence was devised by The Brian Wilson Band musical director Darian Sahanaja for the purpose of the previous year’s SMiLE Tour, as an interesting live performance that showcased all of the known and popular SMiLE tracks.  Furthermore, his vision of SMiLE seemed to be greatly influenced by sequences found on known bootlegs in the 1990s as well as fan fiction on their own SMiLE mixes.  As a matter of fact, Brian Wilson himself has admitted that what we think of as the “finished SMiLE” is not what it would have sounded like in 1967; Wilson himself didn’t even know what it would have sounded like, even in 1967!  By spring 1967, the album itself was abandoned and he focused on two songs for a single release (“Heroes and Villains” and “Vege-Tables”) and the structure of those two songs changed from day to day!   

How could we possibly assemble something that Brian Wilson himself couldn’t?  Fans and SMiLE aficionados have been spending the last 40 years making their own SMiLE mixes, so it’s not an unreachable dream.  After over fifteen years of research, I believe I have found a method to make an extremely educated guess to what the album contained and how it was structured.  First and foremost, I offer that SMiLE would have been a singular, two-sided album of twelve banded pop-songs, just as Pet Sounds was; not three conceptual suites or movements; it would not have been a three-movement suite as it exists today.  As much as we won’t want to imagine it, SMiLE is just an album.  Anything more might be succumbing to mythos. 

But of all the many pieces recorded for SMiLE, what would be included?  Our first clue is found in a handwritten tracklist addressed to Capitol Records, which was used to manufacture LP mock-up artwork for the album.  The tracks included, in this order: “Do You Like Worms?”, “Wind Chimes”, “Heroes and Villains”, “Surf’s Up”, “Good Vibrations”, “Cabin Essence”, “Wonderful”, “I’m In Great Shape”, “Child Is Father Of The Man”, “The Elements”, “Vege-Tables” and “The Old Master Painter”.  Any listener who can make a playlist will know this is a terrible track sequence for an album; there is no flow or cohesion and the two sides do not time-out correctly!  My theory is that this was not the specific intended track order of the album, but instead a shortlist of the songs that would be on the final album; note that the more completed songs are listed first and the most ‘under construction’ songs listed last.  Thus certain SMiLE staples not included on the list such as “Look”, “He Gives Speeches” or “Holidays” would be excluded from the final running order of an authentic 1967 SMiLE.  The one exception is “Our Prayer”, used as an (uncredited) opening track outside of the twelve, which was Brian Wilson’s intention at the time. 

The next step is to “finish” each of the twelve songs as close to how Brian Wilson envisioned the songs in 1966-1967.  Some already exist as finished mixes (“Wonderful”, the ‘Cantina Version’ of “Heroes and Villains”), while we have vintage test edits for others to base a reconstruction off of (“Do You Like Worms?”, “Wind Chimes”, “Child is Father of The Man”).  We will have to make educated guesses for the remainders based on primary sources and session information (“I’m In Great Shape”, “The Elements”).  Also note, no anachronistic digital “fly-ins” were used to complete songs; in my view, leaving some songs unfinished seemed more authentic than using sound elements recorded in 2004.  Finally, we will organize these twelve songs into two sides of an LP, unbanded (unconnected or unsegued) with each side beginning with a ‘hit’ and each side closing with an ‘epic’.

Side A of my SMiLE ’67 begins with “Our Prayer”, just as instructed by Brian Wilson on session tapes.  My mono mix uses the version from The SMiLE Sessions and stereo from Made in California.  It segues directly into the ‘hit’ of side A, “Heroes and Villains”.  Here we use what is called ‘The Cantina Version’, the mix of the song prepared by Brian on February 10th, 1967—what I believe is the version of the song truly intended for SMiLE; both mono and stereo versions taken from The SMiLE Sessions.  Next is also what follows on the Smiley Smile album: “Vege-Tables”.  My construction removes the third verse as I thought it was lyrically redundant and disrupted the gradual ‘winding-down’ flow of the song.  The mono mix is edited from The Smile Sessions and stereo mix edited from Made in California.  My own unique construction of “Do You Like Worms?” follows, based on Brian Wilson’s test mixes from December 1966.  Note that in my stereo mix—created from syncing the isolated vocals to the assembled backing tracks—the tack piano of the ‘Bicycle Rider’ theme pre-chorus travels stereophonically from right to left, reminiscent of the pilgrims and pioneers moving across America during the Western Expansion—who The Bicycle Rider presents!   All sources edited from The SMiLE Sessions. 

Next is a reconstruction of “Child is Father of The Man” based on the structure of Brian Wilson’s three-minute 1966 test edit, which featured a standard verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure.  All sources edited from The SMiLE Sessions.  Following is “The Old Master Painter”.  Although the song was known to conclude with the ‘Barnshine’ Fade from “Heroes and Villains”, here we utilize the rerecorded bird whistle Fade from March 1967 since the original Fade is already in use on “Heroes and Villains”.  Mono mix is edited from The SMiLE Sessions, stereo mix is a splice between that and the stereo master take from Unsurpassed Masters Vol 16.  Side B concludes with the epic song that cannot be topped: “Cabin Essence”.  While the mono mix is taken from The SMiLE Sessions, my stereo mix features the isolated lead vocals from 20/20 and backing vocals from The SMiLE Sessions, synced up to the stereo backing tracks from The SMiLE Sessions.  The result is a fuller stereophonic mix with the instruments panned left and right and vocals centered, rather than vice versa as per the common 20/20 version. 

Side B opens with the ‘hit’ of this half of the album, as it did on Smiley Smile: “Good Vibrations”, both mono and stereo mixes from the 2012 remaster of Smiley Smile.  Next is “Wonderful”, mono mix sourced from The Smile Sessions.  The stereo mix features the master from the 1993 Good Vibrations box set synced up with the isolated backing vocals from The Smile Sessions.  “I’m In Great Shape” is one of the many unsolved mysteries of SMiLE, and probably always will be.  Here we presume it to be the four-part ‘Barnyard Suite’ Brian alluded to in the 1970s, using “I’m In Great Shape” and “Barnyard” as its base; it is completed with “I Wanna Be Around” and “Friday Night”, both labeled as ‘Great Shape’ on their tape box and who also feature a slightly farm-like theme. 

Next is “Wind Chimes”, edited from the mono on The Smile Sessions and stereo edited from Made In California, but restructured to match Brian Wilson’s 1966 test edits.  Following is “The Elements”, a hotly-debated subject of SMiLE Lore.  Here we will create a self-contained piece that covers all four Elements without overlapping with previous songs (“Wind Chimes”, “Vege-Tables”, etc).  Fire is represented by the ‘Firetruck’ Intro to “Heroes and Villains”, crossfaded into “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” and concluding with the fire sound effects from the session; Earth is represented by the percussive “I Love to Say Dada – part 1” that brings peddles and rolling rocks to mind and concludes with vegetable chants from Psychedelic Sounds; Air is represented by “Second Day”, with its flute conjuring up images of the breeze and concluding with wheezing chants from Psychedelic Sounds; Water is represented by “I Love To Say Dada – Part 2”, it’s treated piano reminiscent of running water and concluding with underwater chanting from Psychedelic Sounds.  Finally, SMiLE concludes with the song Vosse stated was to end the album: “Surf’s Up”, mono and stereo taken from The SMiLE Sessions. 

If you find this reconstruct a bit hard to swallow, I don’t blame you; fifty years of SMiLE mythology has very much overshadowed the facts; hype has become reality.  So on Disc 2, I have also included an updated version of my all-stereo reconstruction of SMiLE based on 2004’s Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE.  If you feel that was how SMiLE should be, well, here it is!  Following are a set of bonus tracks, my own remaster of Brian’s original December 1966 Comp Reel, his first assemblage of SMiLE era mixes. Also included is my remaster of Brian’s test edit of “Vege-Tables”; not originally a part of the reel but is included for historical relevancy. 

But the real fun can be found on Disc 3, Behind The SMiLE.  Meant as a ‘making-of’ audio documentary, it is an assemblage of stereo backing tracks, alternate versions and possible variations.   Included are what I call ‘chronological reconstructions’, in which the many modulations of a specific song are organized in the order of when they were recorded.  In effect the listener can understand Brian Wilson’s ideas for a given song in real time.  Behind The SMiLE is also meant to be listened along with the included Behind The SMiLE essay, which includes recording notes for each song.   


Sources used:
1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow (2017 CD)
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys (1993 CD box set)
Good Vibrations (2006 40th Anniversary CD EP)
Made in California (2013 CD box set)
Smiley Smile (2012 CD remaster)
The SMiLE Sessions (2011 CD box set)
The SMiLE Sessions (2011 LP, son-of-albion vinyl rip)
Unsurpassed Masters Vol 16 (1999 CD)


flac --> wav --> editing in SONAR Pro & Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8
*md5, artwork and tracknotes included

104 comments:

  1. Thanks for the early Christmas gift.

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    1. Hey please could I hear this? I can't see a link anymore can it be sent as CD?

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  2. This is amazing! I'm excited that you've continuously revisited this project throughout the years to improve on something that was already more than listenable. Thank you!

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  3. Glad that you're not the only one pursuing the best sounding construction of an album that never existed in a concrete form in the mind of its creator.

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  4. Returning with a bang I see. Hope the McCartney & Wings Deluxe Editions inspire you equally.

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  5. Thanks, but I won't be downloading anything that insists on me installing software first!!

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    1. Me too - sadly, everything looks suspect nowadays.

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    2. Just discovered if you right click the orange download button and click "Copy Link Address" and then paste that into your search bar it downloads the files without opening a thousand pop ups forcing you to download other programs

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  6. SonicLoveNoize, there is a new “I’m In Great Shape” outtake released in “Wake The World: 1968 ‘Friends’ Sessions”. Would love if it if you try to incorporate this into your recreation.

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    1. Saw it, heard it, wasn't interested. We need more context and a reason for it. I don't really like to use things "just because", you know?

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  7. I second a Red Rose Speedway upgrade as well as The Kinks Village Green Preservation Society/Four More Respected Gentlemen.

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    1. Red Rose Speedway soudns like a Valentines Day release to me...

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  9. Great work! The problem with Smile has always been (even for Brian Wilson) knowing where to stop, and the idea that we must somehow incorporate every piece he recorded to get an accurate reconstruction has led to most fan reconstructions sounding scrappy. Your editing here is probably as close as we'll ever get to hearing it as it might have been envisaged by Brian Wilson. The incompletions are still apparent, of course, but we're so used to them by now it's hardly an issue, like the arms of the Venus de Milo.

    But to these ears, the first section of your stereo H&V (which you say is from the Smile Sessions) sounds suspiciously like mono. I've A-B'd it with the stereo version on the Smile Sessions and the stereo Smiley Smile. Care to comment? Is it my ears?

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    1. Yes, the first verse is in mono. That recording (vocals tracked on Feb 10th) only exists as a mono mix, as the mastertapes have been lost. The stereo versions on Smiley Smile (and on The SMiLE Sessions) are a completely different set of vocals, that imo are not as powerful as the ones from the 2/10 sessions. So unfortunately, my H&V is in mono for 50 seconds, because switching to stereo.

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  10. Hey sonic, just a very small tidbit that I thought would be useful in here:

    Since Vosse said the album would end with a "choral, amen sort of thing", and Brian said that Our Prayer would be the intro to the album, we end up with the same song on two possible places in the tracklist.

    However, what I ask is: why not do both? The intro with the December '66 edit of Our Prayer, and the outro, just after Surf's Up, using the "reprise" that is used on The Smile Sessions' "Love to Say Dada", at the very end.

    Did you consider something like that and decide it wasn't a good idea, or simply didn't think of it?

    (By the way, been reading your Behind the Smile essay for the second time now, fantastic stuff!)

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    1. Yeah, that's in interesting idea. Ultimately, I don't think I personally would do it though, since we don't have any direct evidence that BW intended to reprise musical elements or do any call-backs... otherwise, Vosse, VDP, Anderle, etc probably would have stated it at some point. I think the idea of having reoccurring musical motifs in SMiLE was an effect of BW just simply moving pieces from one song to another, rather than any sort of reality or intentional thing.

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  11. Incredible. I've seen/got a dozen different "reconstructions" of Smile that I've acquired over the years but this one is the gold standard. It really is just about all the Smile one needs.

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  12. Father Christmas brings gifts of yuletide merriment! This is perfect timing, was just listening to Sunshine Tomorrow, much to my surprise, offered through my American Airlines music channel on my way home from holiday vacation. Always on the wavelength, brother!

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  13. Thank you! I really enjoy all your content.

    Anything from The Kinks soon?

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  14. No place for "You're Welcome"? Is it unwelcome? :)

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    1. It's very welcomed as a b-side...

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    2. Since your "February '67 Reconstruction" is already Heroes and Villains, Pt. 2, would You're Welcome be the b-side to Vegetables, then? :D

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  15. Very nice! So far my favorite thing here is this version of "Old Master Painter", wow!

    Coincidentally, the past couple weeks I've starting redoing my own personal Smile mix, and being inspired by your mix, I had decided to lean a lot more towards doing 12 separate songs. It was cool coming to here to see the upgrade.

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    1. Yesterday I finally put bits down and put together another smile mix. This one was finally a 12 separate song mix (ok some flow happened, but each track strands on it's own, with a fade out) I ended up borrowing a few of your tracks.

      Side 1
      01 Intro (Our Prayer - TSS version)
      02 Heroes and Villians (new edit based on Cantina version)
      03 Do you like works (new edit)
      04 I'm in Great Shape (new edit)
      05 Vega-Tables (TSS version)
      06 Old Master Painter (new edit borrowing from soniclovenoize)
      07 Cabin Essnce - (soniclovenoize version)

      Side Two:
      01 Good Vibrations - (Single Version)
      02 Wind Chimes - (new edit borrowing from soniclovenoize)
      03 Elements - (new edit)
      04 Wonderful - (new edit)
      05 Child is the Father of Man (soniclovenoize version)
      06 Surf's Up - (Surf's Up version)
      07 Outro (You're Welcome - TSS version)

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    2. Mind sendin it to me tooo?

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  16. Thanks, Sonic; this is great. I have to say your 1967 version ( mono ) is my favorite, and probably as close to what would have been released then. Now if we only had the tracks for that Buffalo Springfield LP mentioned in John Einarson's book.....

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  17. One thing I've never heard about is where did the arrangement for the 1971 live version of "Heroes and Villains" come from? While they say that the song is from "Smiley Smile" they pull in both the elements of "Bicycle Rider" and the "The Heroes, The Heroes" chant. I wonder if it's from one an attempt to finish smile that was aborted has been lost.

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  18. Vocal quality is a good reason for using the mono section, but I doubt if a stereo Smile would have used mono sections! I stripped out your H&V and used the stereo version of the "original" (non-Cantina) because that's the version - in mono - I grew up with, and I get the quality vox (and the Cantina) on your mono album anyway.

    My introduction to Smile was Dave Prokopy's Smile Tape, back before music was shared over the internet. I think I've heard most of the fan attempts (Through A Vast Crystal Sphere's was a favourite). And the Domenic Priore book, which was the Smile Bible for many years. The work you've done here, with all the fascinating "back story" presented so cleverly, takes Smile reconstruction to a new level, and unless we get some new source material from the vaults, it's likely to be the reference standard, the inevitable quibbles aside! Brilliant work.

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  19. Thanks again, SonicLoveNoize. The FLAC mono “Cabin Essence” appears to be a fold-down of the stereo version.

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    1. Oh! You are right! Instead of using The Smile Sessions' mono Cabin Essence, I collapsed my own stereo mix. I completely forgot I had done that! So thus my notes are wrong. This is what happens when you revise something over a period of two years, lol.

      To be honest, it probably isn't a direct fold-down, as I probably split the L/R channels of the backing track and balanced them appropriately. Either way, I think it soudns better than the Smile Sessions mono mix, which was the idea.

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    2. The chorus on your mix sounds a lot more vibrant and full.

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  20. Happy Christmas Sonic! A marvelous present to see your latest presentation of Soniclovenoize Presents SMiLE (I'll stop now)


    After many years of listening to my own hacked up mix of SMiLE (made about 2009), I finally this year decided to do a remix adding in mostly bits from your previous SMiLE. I also chopped down my mix from its previous 60 minutes (being a BWPS configuration with extras!) to about 44 minutes... making it a little more plausible (a huge ask of Crapitol in 1967 on the hypothetical part of Brian, but plausible). Some tracks were easier to chop out than others (I had "He Gives Speeches" rolled into Plymouth Rock) and some sacrificial lambs were really missed ("Look"... I like "Look!") but I think I balanced it nicely. The track-listing is as follows:

    Side One
    1. Our Prayer
    2. Heroes and Villains (includes Gee and the Cantina)
    3. Roll Plymouth Rock (per BWPS)
    4. Cabin Essence
    5. Wonderful
    6. Child Is Father Of Man (that bass lick at the end of Wonderful segues nicely here!)
    7. Surf's Up

    Side Two
    The Elements
    8. Part 1: Earth (I'm In Great Shape, I Wanna Be Around, Workshop, Vega-Tables)
    9. Part 2: Wind (Holiday, Wind Chimes)
    10. Part 3: Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)
    11. Part 4: Water (Cool Water, Water Chant, I Love To Say Dada)
    12. Part 5: Aether (Good Vibrations)
    13. You're Welcome (a hidden track that Crapitol may or may not have known about... could be about a certain lawsuit...)

    Totally implausible and completely unrealistic?! Yeah, probably. The likelihood that Brian would be so focused, have Mike Love appeased, have this much Proto-Prog Rock in his mind, and create a Water Suite at the last minute out of song bits that IRL wouldn't get recorded until months later are pretty slim. But neither are anybody elses's mixes so... *shrugs* Would knock Sgt. Pepper's socks off, though.

    To ease the pain of keeping some stuff off of SMiLE, my head canon has the Beach Boys follow it up with a "companion LP" to SMiLE later in the summer called SMiLEY SMiLE. It's an odd disk that could've totally been a contractual obligation of filler, but it's as interesting and maybe as chill as the IRL version...

    Happy New Year!

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    1. Oh, right... so my totally rediculous SMiLEY SMiLE (known affectionately as "the filler album") track-listing would be:

      Side One
      1. You're With Me Tonight (SMiLE version)
      2. Barnyard/The Old Master Painter/You Were My Sunshine (includes False Barnyard as a coda)
      3. He Gives Speeches/She's Goin' Bald
      4. Look (A Song For Children)
      5. Fall Breaks And Back To Winter
      6. Little Pad
      7. Tune L

      Side Two
      8. With A Little Help From My Friends
      9. Trombone Dixie
      10. Getting Hungry
      11. Tune X
      12. Surf's Up (Home Version)
      13. Whistle In/Reprise

      Not great, but a nice little rest between SMiLE and my extended Wild Honey....

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  21. @ Sonic,
    I was reading your Behind the SMiLE notes and I noticed a minor mistake; it's Dennis who sings 'Truck Drivin' Man' in Cabin Essence, not Mike Love.

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  22. Superb - thanks so much for this. Really looking forwards to it, as I always do with your work

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  23. Sonic, just a small doubt I have:

    Why did you use the Smile Sessions version of "Vegetables", instead of making a mockup of the "April Assembly" acetate?

    I think that would be a more accurate representation of what the song would look like back in '67. Just organizing the fragments on the acetate, getting rid of the breakdown chorus, and adding the fade, just like Linnett did in '88, but without the damn crossfade! :D

    Was that a stylistical choice, as you felt such a version would be inferior, or you simply didn't think of it?

    Brilliant work nonetheless!

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    1. Good question.

      In my opinion, I don't think the "April Assembly" was the definitive assemblage of the track in 1967. I believe it was more a reel of a rough assemblage of what was done so far (much like his Dec '66 Comp Reel edits of Child and Cabin Essence). It sounded like a work in progress rather than a blueprint of how the track should be assembled. Very rough, very unfinished, missing many sections he had just put a lot of effort into recording (that Fade!!).

      Case in point, BW would just *two months later* rerecord most of the sections he tracked in April, and the Smiley Smile version did indeed have the musical ideas (albeit rerecorded) that were missing in the April Assembly (but without the Mama Said chorus, of course; perhaps that was already gutted). Then of course, Linett would make two entirely different edits in 1988 and 1993. Then it was different again for BWPS and different yet again for The Smile Sessions.

      Conclusions? There might *never* have been a definitive SMiLE construction of Vege-Tables. Which is why I did my own.

      So to answer your question, yes, it was more a stylistic choice. I assembled the song as I thought was most logical--which was essentially the Smile Sessions version but with the extra bit removed, so that the song starts uptempo and slows down steadily as the song goes. I toyed with using the Smiley Smile construction as a blueprint for the a SMiLE assemblage (but with the choruses and Fade restored) and simply did not like it as much as what I already had.

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  25. there has never been a music site with better "liner notes" and this is one of the BEST! i wish an awards show was dedicated to something i appreciate here in cyberspace. i would present a statuette now!

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  26. Fab as usual!

    You should tackle Marvin Gaye's LOVE MAN.

    Read all about it here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Our_Lifetime_(Marvin_Gaye_album)

    And check out this alternative mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYWeDAviTBI

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  27. Music aside, I applaud the obsession. Thanks for your efforts.

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    1. It's actually a curse. My gf never EVER wants to hear "Vege-Tables" again!

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    2. Not even for Veganuary?


      So... Will there be a reconstruction of the Blood on the tracks TP coming up?

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    3. It's a possibility, but I'm not specifically planning on it.

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  28. I heard of your name hundreds of times. I seen some of these compilations you did. But this was the first time I been to the site. And it's marvelous. I had a field day with the downloads. Thank You I actually thought about compiling many of these. Some I was surprised about. But great work. I wish I had a idea for another one. If I do I'll return with a idea. The one by Dylan with The Basement Tapes is off the grid I noticed. Cheers.

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  31. do you know of any version of Heroes and Villains that exists somewhere between the "cantina version" and the "kitchen sink version" something closer to the Smiley Smile cut, but w/o Smiley Smile production?

    also, what about an extended version of Good Vibrations with the "gotta keep those lovin' good, vibrations a'happenin' with her" over the "humdeeda humdeea o'oh" at the end?

    much appreciated. btw this version blew my mind, thank you so much. makes so much more sense than the 3 suite fanfic concept.

    *bows in respect*

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  33. This is the best Smile mix I've heard, expecially the Stereo one, for me is the ultimate one! Thanks!

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  34. Once in a while I check your blog for updates. This one was really nice.
    During the recording of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, in a move of desperation, Bruce Springsteen switched studio's to finish the album. I wonder if that was needed and if you could compile a strong album of the material he already recorded before this decision.
    Thanks again for your efforts.

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  35. Hi

    I just wondered if there was any way you could upload this with a different file-host as zippyshare now blocked in the uk for some unknown reason. Would be very grateful.

    Thanks - Justin

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  36. It's OK - I got in through a 'back door'. Cheers

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  37. Thank you for this, too.
    It is great to listen to the whole thing in a row. The music lines comes over and over, always with the same freshness and apparent simplicity (real complexity, in fact, many bridges comes to very different landscapes). It’s like in the lines that one of the two actors who played Brian Wilson in the movie about the supposed addiction and manipulations of BW. He explains how segments of music comes across his mind like ghosts obsessing him (it comes from a real interview). Great bass sound, too, in flac (of course). He defined some of the roots of punk music (there was so much for the ramones in several early songs) and at the same time could direct fine studio musicians in that unusual way. The Good Vibrations, Heroes and Wind Chimes reconstructions are awesome. It twisted the boundaries of the compositions in a joyfull way. Like often, the edited version sound is not as good as the tapes used for it. A mystery to me. Maybe it looses some quality during the mixing, or when a fashionable sound is build up... You should be one of those guys payed for finding deluxe editions bonus between shelves. Unless you’re actually doing more than that… Thank you for the share and work !

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  38. You have a lot of great skills in doing what you do with these projects and the logic behind everything is beyond reproach. The world needs more experts like you in music. Thanks for all your efforts. Now, to listen to this and "SMILE."

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  39. Dude, this has become one of my all-time favorite SMiLE mixes! I love your reasoning behind every track and your whole 12-track approach to the album. Thank you for your work. It inspired me to totally revise my own mix! I even made an alternate album cover and an entire second album of alternate mixes with extra bonus tracks acting as transitions!
    This is the link: SMiLE - The $19.67 Mix

    DISC 1
    1) Heroes And Villains (Threescore Interruption)
    2) Do You Like Worms (Alternate Mix)
    3) Old Master Painter (H&V Verse Remake)
    4) Vega-Tables (Alternate Mix)
    5) I’m In Great Shape (Barnyard Suite)
    6) Cabin Essence (Stereo Remix)

    7) Good Vibrations (Stereo Remix)
    8) Child Is Father Of The Man (Dada Intro)
    9) The Elements (Pillaging Pirates Mix)
    10) Wonderful (Henry Ending)
    11) Wind Chimes (Sped-up Tack Piano, Whispering Winds Coda)
    12) Surf’s Up (Stereo Remix)

    BONUS TRACKS
    13) Can’t Wait Too Long (Holistic Version)
    14) You’re With Me Tonight (Extended Version)
    15) Cool Cool Water (Dada Version)

    DISC TWO
    1) Heroes And Villains (Indians Chorus)
    2) He Gives Speeches (Stereo Remix)
    3) Do You Like Worms? (BWPS Verses, H&V Bicycle Rider)
    4) Why Won’t You Smile? (Lifeboat Tape Excerpt)
    5) I’m In Great Shape (Durrie Parks Acetate Mix)
    6) Those Are My Vegetables! (Vega-Tables Promo Stereo Remix)
    7) Vega-Tables (Laughter and Demo Overdubs)
    8) You’re With Me Tonight (Short Version)
    9) Old Master Painter (Fade Remake)
    10) Brian Falls In A Piano
    11) Cabin Essence (Alternate Chorus Mix)

    12) Good Vibrations (Humbedum Bridge)
    13) You’re Welcome (Stereo Mix)
    14) Wind Chimes (Slow Piano Bridge, New Segment)
    15) Brian Falls Into A Microphone
    16) The Elements (Four Part Mix)
    17) Down On The Ocean Floor (Alternate Mix)
    18) Child Is Father Of The Man (No Look)
    19) Rock With Me Henry (Alternate Version)
    20) Wonderful (Stereo Remix, Look Outro)
    21) George Fell Into His French Horn (Alternate Version)
    22) Surf’s Up (Demo Syncup, Orchestral Bridge, Percussive Coda, Prayer Outro)

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    Replies
    1. Shit man this stuff is good. You have a youtube channel or a Drive? feel free to email ndmartin@protonmail.com

      Delete
  40. Hi Sonic,
    I just discovered your blog and your work is amazing - especially your notes! Thank you!

    I have a feeble computer which choked about 2/3rd of the way into downloading the FLAC version of your SMiLE update - so I tried to get the mp3 version. That link seems to be pointing to your John Lennon Oldies But Mouldies project. That's cool, I wanted to hear that one too, but could you fix the mp3 link to point to SMiLE?

    Thanks

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  41. Thanks for your fast fix!

    The mp3 version came down fine.

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  42. This is brilliant. Thank you.

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  43. I have more than fifteen other ‘SMiLE’’s (from the best sources I believe, even the officials) and your version tops them by miles. You have made the Beach Boys sound truly wonderful in stereo (in contrast to the horrible usual), quite warm and dynamic and marvelous soundstage.
    I believe Brian Wilson must be very thankful to you, as he can finally prove (beyond reasonable doubt) that he created the greatest record of the 20th Century (many thanks for your sound engineering and production). Absolutely splendid!!

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  44. If you ever update this mix again, you should check out the information in this thread. It could be quite useful for a revised version of your Behind the SMiLE document.

    https://endlessharmony.boards.net/thread/635/sandbox-thread-smile?page=12&scrollTo=22882

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    1. Not sure if I'd need to revise that doc, afaik it's pretty correct, unless there was a typo or two...

      Delete
    2. A few things I spotted:

      1. The dates for the supposedly Jan 3 H&V sections are misleading/inaccurate. Quoting saltymarshmallow from the thread I linked:

      "Worth noting that this is a comp reel assembled after the fact with the date likely inaccurate for some of the sections, as Bag of Tricks' recording can be stamped to the later session on Jan 20. I don't know what that says for the actual worked-on order."

      "To be honest, I have no idea what to make of the Jan 3 reel. Only that Bag of Tricks was definitely Jan 20, per the 'experimental' AFM contract with Nick Pellico and the two horn players, and Tag to Part 1 and Pickup can't be from the same date as the others because of a different engineer."


      2. You should probably note that All Day was likely meant to come right before Pickup to 3rd Verse, as you can hear Brian play it that way on the piano during one of the early takes. (As heard on the Heroes and Villains Sessions Vol. 2 bootleg track 26.)

      3. Dennis was the one singing the "Truck Drivin' Man" lyrics on the 2nd CE chorus, not Mike.

      4. You should probably add some info mentioning the December I'm in Great Shape section remake (a looped snippet of it was included as a hidden track at the end of the 1968 Wake the World compilation). And also the December Children Were Raised that's on the same Durrie Parks acetate that only a select few people have ever heard.

      https://endlessharmony.boards.net/post/17076/thread

      5. There are actually 3 different versions of the CIFotM chorus vocals (not including the April version).

      http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,27030.msg659666.html#msg659666

      6. You seem to keep misspelling "Vega-Tables" as "Vege-Tables". Side note: some people have hypothesized that the name "Vega-Tables" was originally a pun referencing astronomy charts, or in other words: Vega (the star) tables. Get it?

      7. The chime-driven section was never actually called "intro". The original version was only found on a compilation reel containing mostly December sections, and so the spoken slate ("Heroes and Villains Part 3") is the only title it has.

      8. Additionally, the March remake of the chimes section is not technically known to be called "intro" either. It was found on the same tape containing the verse remake. The tape containing both was simply labeled "Intro to Heroes and Villains", with that title likely intended for the verse, not the chimes remake.

      https://endlessharmony.boards.net/post/23084/thread

      9. Calling Children Were Raised a second verse is kind of confusing. I'd consider "Once at night..." to be the 2nd verse. In fact, a Jan 31 tape containing CWR called it "Bridge to 3rd verses (or versions) (start with “My Children”)", likely referring to Three Score and Five as the "3rd Verse".

      Delete
  45. What a superb job you've done. This is now my go to listen for Smile. If only it were available on vinyl!

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  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  47. okay, more up to date version, but where's the download link? am I blind?

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  48. empty3
    https://mega.nz/file/7gwHkKIL#xsGMz1rb_deFMb2rmz0bIl2M7gOOsDqt4flK2Pb9dhk

    listless
    https://mega.nz/file/6kxjyYxA#32HAqQtoBurlTJPW73TWC1hvKFLIdqbDkCTiDu6quGE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Any chance you would re-upload the los-less version? Link is dead for me. Thanks!

      Delete
  49. Hi soniclovenoize, I love what you've done and have a few questions for you.
    1. Do you know if any of the tracks on your recreations have the overdubs the group made after the project collapsed, like on the 20/20 tracks for example?
    2. What's the "Child Is Father of the Man (original 1966 track mix)" that's on the Wake The World: Friends Sessions comp? Is it a mix from 1966 of where the song was at the time? Should it replace your mono version or something? Why was it even included?

    Sorry for not being knowledgable enough to answer these myself, but thanks once again for the Wonderful album.

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    Replies
    1. Oh wait I reread both your notes and the wikipedia article on the song and most of question 2 has already been answered.

      Delete
    2. I will therefore ask what the piece is at the end of the Friends Sessions version is that you didn't include, and why you didn't include it.

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    3. The piece hidden as an easter egg at the end of the CIFotM track on Wake the World is a (looped) fragment of one of the Durrie Parks acetates, featuring a previously-unheard version of the I'm in Great Shape backing track. To quote a Discord Q&A session:

      saltymarshmallow:
      I may as well ask something that had some foreshadowing when Alan dropped by a few weeks ago - what's the full story behind the new Great Shape fragment on the Friends set?

      Mark:
      It’s from the Drurrie Parks acetates which ended up with a record dealer who sold them for $10k and wouldn't allow us to have a copy. He played it for me once and I managed to get a part on my cellphone and added to the end of the CIFOTM acetate

      https://endlessharmony.boards.net/post/4472/thread

      Delete
  50. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  51. Absolutely incredible, side 2 completely blew me away. Great work! Thanks for sharing.

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  52. Thanks for this, but where is the download link? Am I missing something clear? English is not my first language, sorry for any trouble.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  53. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  54. Seems like the download link is down

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  55. think we could get new links for this? read rly good things about it and want to hear :-)

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  56. This may be of interest:

    https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-smile-that-returned-to-us.html?showComment=1636501373441#c5439703818547079330

    ReplyDelete
  57. D0VVkAqB#wRaV2-5qQLnJm4IknWWM-qkN_wsvg6K4O_YnPypZ_q8

    i9FVTCBC#pq9ZegmxkJNHQumcMLg2pfoXAVYW10dxHA7a25oc0h8

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  58. For those having trouble downloading:

    I'd jump up and down and hope you'd toss me a carrot....

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  59. For those flabbergasted for the download link, it already has been given.

    MY POWER 3 BRANCHES:
    https://mega.nz/file/D0VVkAqB#wRaV2-5qQLnJm4IknWWM-qkN_wsvg6K4O_YnPypZ_q8

    FROM LONELY AND CARELESS:
    https://mega.nz/file/i9FVTCBC#pq9ZegmxkJNHQumcMLg2pfoXAVYW10dxHA7a25oc0h8

    ReplyDelete
  60. I'd just like to give you a big big thank you for your '1967' SMiLE reconstruction –– for most of my adult life, I've been a Beach Boys skeptic, and while the Legend of SMiLE has always been fascinating to me as a pop music fan, I really did not take it seriously as anything more than a wonderful mythological 'engulfed cathedral' of sound that SMiLEheads and BB-Boosters worshipped –– in the 90s I was fascinated by Dominic Priore's 'yellow book' and fascinated by my post-punker and indie rock friends that had huge collections of vinyl tape and CD purporting to be lost fragments and / or completed versions. In other words, I was 'open' to the Idea of SMiLE but even after 'BW Presents SMiLE' and the 2011 official Capitol BB Archival release (both of which I investigated, but soon forgot about) I was not a member of the Church. I should point out that one of my all-time favorite LPs is VDP's 'Song Cycle', which I discovered soon after its original release (I was 10 years old) but completely as its own 'thing', Song Cycle having a reputation all on its own as a folly and an album maudit (Richard Henderson's excellent 331/3 book on the record is very illuminating.) As a teenager, I only vaguely knew that Parks had 'something' to do with SMiLE and the BB, and the BB were (to my 16-year old, just on the verge of discovering Punk Rock ears/self) nothing but the very worst manifestation of 1976 Bicentennial American proto-Reagan era propaganda (you had to be in high school in Florida in 1976 to appreciate just how gruesome the Bicentennial was, with Vietnam only recently 'finished', and Elvis about to kick the bucket in the Bicentennial hangover ...) Sorry about all of this blah blah blah, I just wanted to say that one of my periodic BB 'phases' came over me in 2021, one thing led to another, and after plunging into the vast confusing internet-hosted ocean of SMiLE (and post-SMiLE BB) reconstructions and anthologies, without any real idea what I was looking for, I found myself listening to the 'soniclovenoize 1967 SMiLE' and it completely won me over as a coherent, magnificent listening experience, finally heard by me as the absolute equal (and twin, in a way) to 'Song Cycle' that it is. Amazing work, your sequencing and details have now been seared into my brain as THE SMiLE album, the same way that such records as 'Forever Changes' and "The White Album' are. I've done my obsessive reading and catch-up work with the rest of the SMiLE artifacts (including the 2004 Brian and 2011 Capitol releases, and thousands of other historical artifacts going back to Vigatone and before) but it's still the soniclovenoize album that I reach for when I reach for SMiLE. THANK YOU!!! (PS I've also rectified by relative ignorance and/or disengagement with the BB corpus from 'Today' through 'Loves You', through your shares on this site and numerous other blogs etc, not to mention such very pleasurable 'official' releases as the terrific recent 'Feel Flows' box.) So that's my story, also known as 'How I Learned To Stop Worrying (and Love 'SMiLE' --- you could actually amend that to '( ... and Love 'The Beach Boys') --- again thank you thank you thank you! Mike Love Not War, man! :)

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  61. First of all thank you for all great work.

    Is it just me or are all md5 hashes wrong?

    ReplyDelete