Durrie Parks' Acetates

From The Smile Shop

Here's Andrew G. Doe's explanation of the acetates:

When Van Dyke & Durrie Parks divorced, she got, in essence, pretty much everything, and that included several acetates of Smile tracks that Brian gave VDP during that period. They're not tapes but actual discs, pressed up from the session tapes. The big drawback with an acetate is that it deteriorates rapidly with usage, and after maybe 20-30 plays can be unlistenable. Durrie has confirmed she has acetates, but not what she has (I suspect she probably wouldn't know after all these years) but that's where the trail went dead several years ago.

This was the initial mention of the acetates, from the Sail On, Sail On Sailor web site, dated September 2000, in a narrative from Durrie herself:

I'm afraid that I can only do some general statements, especially where there might be negative statements.

I can say that Brian Wilson is a wonderful, generous funny guy. Ditto Marilyn Wilson ... although obviously not a guy. They opened their hearts and their home to us.

Van Dyke and I lived in a garage apartment - very cool, behind Madame Mensior the hat maker in Hollywood - and a Yamaha 80 was our only transportation when we started going to the Wilson's and they started work on Smile. And I will tell you - definitively, that Van Dyke and I were introduced to Brian by David Crosby. We ran into David at The Troubadour and he took us - in his black Porsche up to Brian's. Brain was working on "Sloop John B". Van Dyke had been working with Terry Melcher - another great underrated talent and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

I used Brian's Corvette to run around when we were staying with them and clearly enjoy remembering driving with the top down listening to "Good Vibrations".

Dennis and Carl were great guys, too. Always gentle and caring.

Plus there were other people there - David & Sherill Anderle ... Danny Hutton. Danny stuck with Brian until the very end. Hutton was the only one I can recall going into the studio with Brian late in the game.

Mike Love has never been a favorite of mine and I'm sure the feeling is mutual. And I will say that drug experimentation was going on from time to time among various members of the group ... me included.

Importantly, we had a lot of fun. And there is nothing like being in a room when Brian sits down and plays the piano. He has a left hand like no one else.

Hope that helps. Next year after my daughter Zoenda gets married, she and Dave McIntosh, her husband-to-be, and I are going to actually go through the storage. Play the tapes ... look at the video ... check out the acetates. So stay in touch, let me know where you are ... and how the site is going ... and I'll try to be helpful.

Durrie

After I sent the notes to you I cruised through the site and wanted to send you a few notes. I hope that you don't object.

The first is to mention Derek Taylor as one of the vital components of the Smile experience ... and the elements. You know about those I'm sure. And Derek was the soul of discretion and the person I always refer to when wondering how much should be said. And vegetables.

Van Dyke and I were partial to salads. Strange as it may seem, salads were relatively unknown to Brian. He spent a lot of time with us in our apartment, and then of course we lived with them for a time. I made salads ... Brian took to vegetables.

Van Dyke had worked briefly with Frank Zappa - one freak out was enough for us - and Frank was also writing a song about vegetables. We took Brian to meet Frank. That was a fun moment.

Later Durrie

This has led to several discussions on the Smiley Smile Message Board, especially in 2004 when Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE was released. Here a few of those comments:

Brian and Van are such creative guys that they wouldn't have to hear Durrie's acetates to finish Smile. I think it was our need for historical piece connecting from '66 and '67 which drove us to try to get Durrie involved. They came at it as a bunch of ideas needing to be connected using their talents. They wrote new music, added new lyrics, as artists would. So, we have Smile, as it was always meant to exist, in their time, not ours! -- Peter Reum

What I am trying to mention is that many of us did not know whether Brian or Van would remember the material, and that perhaps Durrie's artifacts would help jog their memories. What apparently happened is that Brian had no trouble remembering his compositions, but needed lyrical help, which Van had no trouble remembering once they got together to listen. Hence, Durrie's stuff was unnecessary. If there is material she has that is not on the finished composition, it probably truly is an outtake, and would be interesting only for an archival release of the session sketches, like outtakes from Pet Sounds on the Pet Sounds Boxed Set (e.g. Brian screwing up the verses to WIBN). Hence, our wishes to get Durrie involved were more out of our fear of Brian and Van not remembering than anything else. We think like historians, not artists. Their approach was as artists, picking up where they left off and doing what needed to be done to make Smile complete. To them, it didn't matter that they used 60s material or wrote new material. -- Peter Reum

Interesting? With all due respect, I dare say any material that Durrie (or others) may have is of more historical value than being just merely "interesting". Especially if that material is different than any known archived material we currently have. Granted, Durrie's acetates/tapes (?) may not have proven essential or meaningful in the final realization of SMiLE, but as a piece of history, any tracks in Durrie's possession should not be overlooked or forgotten. Durrie's comments in JD Shadow's post are at least in part dated from 2000. Here it is -- another 4 years later -- and as far as we know, nothing has been done to assess or protect what material Durrie may have. I hope this is not the case. The biggest concern is the fragile nature of older acetates. Hope is that Durrie is receiving good counsel and that these materials are in proper storage and have been assessed and digital copies of these items have been made. I'd hate to see these (or any other historical SMiLE fragments) be lost to us. -- RickIndy

I have to wonder about this. For years we've been tantalized with tales of bootleggers stealing tapes, studios with stacks of unreviewed reels, and boxes of acetates in Durrie Parks' attic. I'm sure Darian compiled everything that was easily accessible, but was a major effort launched to find all the missing pieces? I have a funny feeling that just when most of us have accepted SMiLE 2004 as the real deal, someone will discover a new missing gem and we will all go back to making our own mixes again. :) -- Rick Manor

Rick you may be right! You are correct about the Drurrie Parks' acetates, because I asked Darian about it. They are still unable to get to the Drury Parks acetates -- he said that they were still "buried" in her garage and too hard to get at. Now this doesn't sound quite right to me -- most likely Drury is still holding them out for a big payday from Capital. (And I would bet she's holding them out with an outright or implicit OK from Van Dyke, himself!) Darian did mention that some SMiLE tapes were definitely missing from the library, so even if the acetates have nothing new, there might still be tapes floating around. Darian said they have an slight lead on someone who might have some or all of the tapes -- but what they can do with this slight information is a big unknown. (And maybe the info is wrong and the person doesn't have any useful tapes anyway!) -- Dan Lega

From Bob Hanes, July 2006:

Durrie HAS been approached by "official representatives" about archiving the acetates and then returning them to her and her daughter, since the acetates were the way a collaborator could take home and listen to "work in progress" back in the olden days. Ownership was Van's, and by default Durrie's. Cutting a working demo/acetate was common practice and part of the price of doing business in a recording studio. Durrie did reply to said "officials" that any compensation (BRI did agree to offer a finders fee to her for the use of the acetates) should go to "Van's daughter". I am chronically uninterested in the "hub bub" that accompanies Wilsonia & Beachboydom in general these days. Old I guess. But, I admit I would love to hear the acetates. The sessions and the working tapes are where the truth and inspiration seem to come together to insinuate the possibilities of genius. I find that stuff most rewarding. Listening to Brian "catterwalling" on the Cocaine Sessions or hearing him directing the studio musicians, whether it is on material from 1964 or from SMiLE is awe inducing in the extreme. IMHO, Ask Durrie again, I have no idea where she lives these days. It's been so many years ago, and she moved once, I found her again, and then I heard she moved again, but I lost momentum for the "hunt". GOOD LUCK all!