The Smile Sessions Box Set [Box set]

The Beach Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 1, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 1966
• Number of Discs: 9
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B004RFYEEC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,696 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

129 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive and astonishing, November 1, 2011

By 

Justin Cole - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Smile Sessions Box Set (Audio CD)

It is difficult to accurately judge this set, simply because I am so shocked it actually has been released. While much of this material was leaked out on bootlegs over the past few decades (as well as the first official release of material on the band's box set in the early 90's), we finally have a legitimate release of a deluge of music from the aborted album's sessions.

First, the album itself. Using Wilson's 2004 solo release as its template, this does not entirely work as a stand-alone piece as many of the sections used here were not completed at the time of the original album sessions. That said, it is still astonishing to hear a straight runthrough of the closest "SMiLE" came to completion. And the vast majority of what is finished, and even most of what was not finished, is deeply awe-inspiring. That it was so close to potentially being finalized it its own time just makes the album's history that much more bittersweet.

Now let's get to the four additional CDs of sessions. Simply put, these are a godsend. It is fascinating to be a fly on the wall of these sessions, and the roughly 5 hours of material here was well chosen and carefully culled from the overwhelming amount of material on the master tapes. There is enough material on this set to intimidate even the most ardent Beach Boys fans, and yet it is incredibly well-organized, with multiple takes and disparate elements grouped by song (in album order) and then in roughly chronological order.

It is fascinating to hear tracks mutate over the course of multiple takes--sometimes into different songs. "Wonderful", for example, originally started out similar to the finished track, before taking a truly bizarre detour into an entirely different song (something akin to doo wop with lyrics saying "Come on pretty baby and rock with me Henry), only to eventually revert to how it was initially. You'll also hear discussions and a great many experiments, all of which are fascinating snapshots of the spirit of the times and these sessions.

I don't want to give away too many of the surprises to be found here, but these were some of my favorite discoveries from the sessions tracks:

- Creepy vocals done for the barnyard/animals section of "Heroes & Villains"
- The track which tends to show up alternately as "Tones" and "Tune X" on bootlegs really is from the "SMiLE" sessions, was written by Carl, and sounds pretty great when sourced from the master tapes
- Brian using the final 15 minutes of session time available with an orchestra to improvise a number inexplicably titled "Three - Blind Mice" (no relation to the children's song)
- Bizarre skits where Brian acts out being trapped in a piano, and then in a microphone
- Brian talking the horn players through getting the "talking horns" sound he wants for "Surf's Up"
- A chorus of Brians doing a multi-part harmony for Vega-tables
- The jazz improvisation that leads into a take of "I Want to Be Around"
- In between takes of "Our Prayer", Brian asking if the others "feel the acid kicking in"
- Eight-and-a-half minutes of the infamous "Fire" recordings
- A slightly jazzy instrumental take of "Da Da" on electric and regular pianos, that would have worked well in an early Peanuts cartoons
- and then the hilariously sarcastic intros to the next two takes of the same
- A great many variations of the different parts of Good Vibrations, many of which are quite significantly different from the passages used in the released version
- A Capitol promo ad telling retailers "SMiLE" will be released in January of '67, and how it is going to sell a million copies. This is like a communication from some strange parallel universe where it really was released at that time

Ridiculously extensive session notes often include session personnel and instruments played, the date, and usually the time, of each recording, master numbers (where available) as well as information regarding takes that were likely taped over or eventually stolen. These are found in the 60-page hardcover book that accompanies the set. My thanks to the designers for making a book of these dimensions a hardcover as it would otherwise be unwieldly.

This book is half of the total experience. It is a treasure trove of photos, quotes, reminiscences, lyrics, artwork and liner notes on a wide range of topics, and from a variety of viewpoints, as Wilson and Van Dyke Parks provide introductions, each of the Beach Boys give their own insights, Peter Reum relates the signifigance of this work, Domenic Priore provides a timeline of events and an essay on the relation of band to their peers at the time, Mark Linett gives an overview of the production of this set, and Frank Holmes describes the process of producing his imagery for the original booklet (which is also included in the 2 LP vinyl set contained here).

And all of this comes in a box that enhances the cover art by setting the various elements at different depths, turning the originally 2D SMiLE shop into a 3D diorama. While this component of the packaging surely added to the total cost, I think it is a nice touch and it give an unconcious indicator of what you are about to experience when opening the lid: "SMiLE" is about to become a reality, with deeper dimensions than it ever had in previous incarnations.

I find myself dismayed by the trend towards increasingly over-indulgent (which translates to overly-expensive) boxed sets, but here is one that truly warrants the cost. Unlike some other recent deluxe sets, this set is truly an immersive experience--a combination of music, art and text that will be keeping me fully engaged for weeks on end, and without any unnecessary trinkets that cheapen the legacy of that music.

A complete win.

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Brian Wilson "failed" with SMILE, November 5, 2011

By 

Record Producer (Burbank, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Smile Sessions Box Set (Audio CD)

Beautiful, inspirational, wacky, avante garde, often accessible, sometimes inaccessible, incredibly creative, like nothing you've ever heard, and even for a long-time Smile fanatic, there were endless sessions and material I had never heard before. I feel I finally understand SMILE thoroughly, and I offer four basic conclusions:

1) Brian was not only way before his time, he was way before technology's time. His modular approach to songwriting was an entirely new form of composition in pop music, and while he had SMILE in his head -- and probably multiple versions of SMILE in there at the same time -- the llimited technology of the day (small number of tracks on tape recorders, editing done by razor and tape, etc.) quite simply made his task IMPOSSIBLE. That he was able to piece together "Good Vibrations," "Cabinessence," the released version of "Heroes and Villains," and some other snippets is amazing enough. But to have expected him to release a 50- to 60-minute album with literally thousands of musical fragments and overdubs all managing to hold together as a musical whole would have been beyond the capability of ANYBODY in the decades before computers, digital editing, and other technological advances. Especially when all the time Capitol wanted more hit singles. SMILE was not about hit singles -- it was about a brilliant conceptual whole unlike any recording ever made in history.

2) There was never a SMILE that Brian's 2004 version can be compared to. It was a work-in-progress whose very nature allowed it to be shuffled and rearranged into an infinite variety of presentations. Had Brian finished SMILE in 1967, that would have been just one possible version of his music. So regarding claims that the original differed from the 2004 rendition because the bass sounded different or the strings sounded different, or anything like that just doesn't hold water. Not even cool, cool, water. Why? Because as a listen to the SMILE sessions reveals, Brian was changing sounds constantly. There's no way to know what a 1967-released version would have even sounded like. Brian might have totally redone "Wonderful" and "Wind Chimes" and other parts that listeners today think are "perfect," and those might have been replaced by very different arrangements/performances. It's obvious that SMILE was a living, breathing thing that hadn't coalesced into any kind of final presentation. Had Brian released SMILE in 1967, you might be listening to the SMILE sessions now, but instead of loving them, you'd be feeling thankful that Brian didn't go with many of the takes and approaches you've loved all these years, simply because you would have already accepted some "other" version that had met Brian's approval at the time.

3) Because of #2 (above), Brian's 2004 rendition of SMILE is the ONLY legitimate version of SMILE. And it's a five-star version, so put it on and enjoy it!

4) After steeping myself in the 1966-1967 fragments from this box-set and then revisiting the 2004 recording, I have come to the conclusion that anyone who thinks the 21st century version is a letdown is NUTS! Brian's faithfulness to the sound of the original tracks, his compositions, and the melodic and structural flow is incredible down to the finest detail. As glorious as I felt his 2004 version was when I first heard it, I now see it as even more of a masterwork. Not only is it one of the most amazing albums ever released, the reconstruction that was done to keep it as faithful to the original also makes it one of the greatest re-recordings in history.

I hope this is the last word on SMILE. Maybe soon Brian will revisit his modular songwriting approach and come up with some other brilliant works along those same lines. He came close with "Rio Grande," done many years after he was supposed to be all washed-up.

Buy the new archival release, listen to it, and appreciate the fact that Brian Wilson was probably not defeated by the drugs, or the arcane lyrics, or The Beach Boys, or anything else other than the fact that he chose to produce an epic of such detail and perfection that was beyond the ability of any living musician or engineer or producer on the planet at the time due to the scope of the project and the technological limitations within which he was forced to operate. Brian was like a man with a single-lensed camera trying to film a 3-D movie. It just wasn't going to be possible to complete a work of such incomparable brilliance and creativity given the music studio equipment of the 1960s. Not without leaning dangerously close to insanity. After all, "Good Vibrations" took six months or more all on its own.

I hope the legacy of this incredible release is that Brian attempted to touch the Sun, but NOBODY could have touched the Sun. However, Brian probably got closer than anyone else in pop music history.

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece !!!, November 1, 2011

By 

Nelson Wilson (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Smile Sessions Box Set (Audio CD)

Even though 'SMiLE' was never completed, upon hearing these wonderfully beautiful, unique and inspiring tracks, you can definitely get a sense that Brian Wilson was on to something more then just amazing 44 years ago. With a tentative release date just two months before 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' back in 1967, one wonders what could've - or would've - been if the Beach Boys had followed through and gotten it out there as intended... would 'Sgt Pepper's' still be heralded as the greatest album of all time ?? Hard to judge that one. I personally don't think so though after hearing 'SMiLE'. There are die-hard Beatles fans that would dispute that claim but upon listening to even these unfinished tracks from the Boys, they would be hard pressed not to be impressed with what the band was trying to achieve - or should we get more specific and say Brian himself. Remember, 'Sgt Pepper's' was the creation of the Beatles PLUS George Martin where as 'SMiLE' was the envisionment of Brian Wilson alone.

One of the most powerful songs on this release is the beautiful 'Surf's Up'. Far removed from their previous songs of fun, sun and surfing, the brilliance of this composition alone is worth buying the collection (or purchasing the MP3s). One of the biggest things that separates 'SMiLE' from any other Beach Boys recording is the addition of Van Dyke Parks as lyricist on the bulk of the material. Starting with the beautiful collaboration between Brian and Tony Asher on the Beach Boys' 1966 release 'Pet Sounds', Van Dyke's involvement was a natural progression for Brian in his growing skills as a producer and wanting to expand outside of the Beach Boys usual formula for songwriting. Van Dyke's words throughout 'SMiLE' as a whole, brought a depth to Brian's compositions that anyone would be hard pressed to match. Upon listening to 'Heroes and Villains', 'Wonderful', and 'Cabinessence', one can tell that these aren't your usual Beach Boys songs. The music is astonishing as always but lyrically, it is on another plane. To get a fuller understanding of what 'SMiLE' could've been like if it was completed, check out 'Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE'. Released and recorded in 2004 (with the assistance of his incredibly talented touring band), Brian decided to re-visit and completely re-create this masterpiece using these original Beach Boy tracks as a guide. It in itself is an astounding piece of work, but upon hearing these original versions of those songs (however incomplete in comparison to 'BWPS'), it really makes you smile (literally) to hear the true Beach Boys - Brian, Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike, and Bruce - and with their beautiful blending of vocals and stunning harmonies... there really has been nothing like them before or since. And more so, you really realize how so far ahead Brian was musically in the recording industry back then and why the term 'genius' was - and still is - very fitting for him. Even now, it may have come 44 years later then originally intended, but as you listen to 'SMiLE', it's still ahead of its time.