The SMiLEs That Never Were
From The Smile Shop
Contents |
1967 Brian Wilson SMiLE
1967 Post Smiley Smile SMiLE
You can expect SMiLE to come out on Brother Records within the next two months. There will be no more hang-ups. -- Bruce Johnston, August 26 1967
1972 Carl Wilson SMiLE
An unlabeled 8 track comp tape found during research for Hawthorne dates to early 1972 was compiled by Stephen Desper and Carl Wilson for a projected release of Smile in late 1972. The album was to be paired with Holland just as Pet Sounds was paired with So Tough. The tape includes:
- Good Vibrations (partial mix)
- Cabinessence – several sections
- Worms – sections 1,2,4,5,6,7
- Wonderful – GV box set version instrumental tracking with backing vocals only (booted on Vigotone’s 2CD set and the Japanese CD T-2580)
- Child is the Father, several sections
- Vega-Tables “cornucopia” version
- Heroes and Villains – two verses, one with vocals, one without, H & V intro (chimes version), H & V “barbershop Part 1”
- Barnyard – two versions, one with animal sounds, one without
- Prayer
-- Lou Shenk, A SMiLE Primer
1980's Al Jardine SMiLE
Per producer Steve Hoffman, he worked with Al Jardine sometime in the 1980's in an attempt to put the SMiLE recordings in "some type of order." Here's what he had to say about it on his message board in 2004:
My opinions of the ORIGINAL versions of the songs are clouded by some 1980's time spent with Al Jardine trying to get the tapes in order. He was working on a Bill Haley & His Comets mail order LP set with me and we wanted to at least assemble the SMILE stuff in some kind of order. I heard so many little snippets in search of a true song for so long that I just couldn't stand it any more. "Precious" passages with no beginning or end; countless half songs full of interesting instruments but not a full set of drums to be found anywhere.
At any rate, I never got paid a dime which is the bottom line. The mess just stayed a mess. Heck, Brian just re-recorded the whole thing instead of dealing with it....
So, I got burned out and never recharged....
Simple as that. I'm glad that people like the new version though. Good for Brian.
When Al Jardine was asked about this work, here's what he said:
Title: The Stephen Desper Thread Post by: ceddy10165 on July 17, 2005, 05:51:02 PM
Hi Mr. Desper, It was a pleasure to get to ask you a question yesterday over the phone from the CT convention. When you were on the phone with Al, I had inquired about any time Al spent in the tape library in the early 80s with Steve Hoffman, and he did not recollect the project, and suggested maybe it was you and/or Mr. Boyd who was doing the work.
More from Steve Hoffman:
He's (Van Dyke Parks) a nice guy but I always felt he wrote the way you so colorfully described (garbled gibberish masquerading as some kinda great prose)...
I just heard cassettes. Endless noodling.
I don't know what I heard; just hours and hours of unfinished stuff. Some tentitive, some not; all without beginning or end. Like a "short circuit" in a phonograph or something. Just someone who needed a real PRODUCER to help him get something actually FINISHED.
I don't mean to be hard on Brian but self-produced stuff sometimes takes a left turn to nowhere'sville if you know what I mean...
I've listened to many, many outtakes and odds and ends for maybe 500 different projects. SMILE was madness to me; I'd never experienced anything so fragmented and disjointed. I have a good imagination and can usually hear where things "fit". Not in this case.
(Al) was just trying to get their vault in order. I wanted him to hire me but he got someone else, I was way too busy at Uni releasing albums. Just as well; I hear it wasn't fun there.
Boots never do the artist any good. Doesn't matter who it is...
(Al) is a fan (of Bill Haley) who produced a neat reissue for direct TV.
No, (Steve did not master the Bill Haley album), Al, myself and the real engineer Dave Hernandez at MCA-Whitney Studios.
Yes (all three mastered it) and yes (Steve was an A&R person at MCA at that point.)
[Could this be "Haley's Golden Medley," released in April 1981?]
1988 Mark Linett SMiLE
The first major release of Smile bootleg material came from the 1988 cassette assembled by Mark Linett for Capitol during the 1987-88 sessions for Brian Wilson’s first solo album. Capitol had announced the imminent release of Smile and Mark Linett compiled a tape of material for record company (and presumably Brian’s) review. Most of the tape’s tracks were edited and mixed by Linett. The Smile material that later appeared on the Good Vibrations box set released by Capitol in 1995 came mostly from this tape. The Linett tape first appeared on the Japanese Smile T-2580 bootleg in 1991, and the Vigotone 2 CD Smile release in 1993 contained the best sounding version of the tape. Presumed Brian Wilson rough mono mixes are noted with an asterisk and multitrack edits by Brian (with sections sometimes further edited together by Linett) noted with two.
The Linett tape:
- Heroes and Villains (alt. version)*
- Heroes and Villains (sections)
- Do You Dig Worms
- Barnyard? (actually “false” Barnyard)*
- Wind Chimes**
- Fire Intro (actually Heroes and Villains intro)
- Fire
- George Fell . . .
- Surf’s Up trax
- Surf’s Up vox
- Child is Father*
- My Only Sunshine*
- Love Too Say Da Da (sic)
- Look**
- Vegetables**
- Wonderful (backing vocals only)
- Cabin Essence*
- The Prayer
- Holidays
- Well You Welcome (sic)*
- She’s Goin’ Bald (actually He Gives Speeches)
- I Wanna Be Around**
- Been Way Too Long
-- Lou Shenk, A SMiLE Primer
