The Beach Boys - SMiLE (UPGRADE)

The Beach Boys - SMiLE

(soniclovenoize Stereo 1967 / BWPS Mix)

MARCH 2024 UPGRADE

Disc 1 – 1967 Stereo Mix

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

Disc 2 – BWPS Stereo Mix

Movement 1:

1.  Our Prayer / Gee

2.  Heroes and Villains

3.  Roll Plymouth Rock

4.  Barnyard

5.  The Old Master Painter / You Were My Sunshine

6.  Cabin Essence

Movement 2:

7.  Wonderful

8.  Song For Children

9.  Child is Father of The Man

10.  Surf’s Up

Movement 3:

11.  I’m in Great Shape / I Wanna Be Around / Workshop

12.  Vege-Tables

13.  On a Holiday

14.  Wind Chimes

15.  Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow

16.  In Blue Hawaii

17.  Good Vibrations

Happy Easter!  And what did the Easter Bunny bring you?  How about an upgrade to my stereo SMiLE mixes!  While my personal SMiLE interest was re-piqued in 2022 with my divisive Hitsville Mix, the common response was “Um, great… but what about an upgrade to your 1967 Mix, or your BWPS Mix?  I liked those…”  Well, I guess you were right, as the novelty wore off and I eventually circled back to my personal favorite– my original 1967 Mix… with some very minor changes influenced by the Hitsville Mix.  

As always, the premise of my 1967 Mix is “What would SMiLE have actually sounded like in 1967?”  Over the course of the last 50 years or so, many historical revisions and inaccurate assumptions have sort of twisted what I believe the original intent of the album actually was; this is absolutely fine, as it has been observed that SMiLE unintentionally became the world’s first listener-interactive album, in that it is up to you to finish it, using various mixes and sources.  Even the eventual Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE (BWPS) is more of Darian Sahanaja’s mix with the benefit of Brian Wilson actually fronting it!  But being the intentionalist I am, we will try to go to the source: what would this monster of an album sound like in its original incarnation?  

Well, the fact is that we will never know; SMiLE was never completed, and its author simply could not decide how it should be put together at the time of its creation.  We can, however, look at the probability of what it would have sounded like, based upon testimony of principal participants, Brian Wilson’s own rough mixes and studio documentation.  I have previously and exhaustively covered these specifics, so I am only going to very quickly gloss over them here.  But generally speaking:

1. This “authentic” SMiLE will exist “simply” as a standard twelve-song album.  The twelve individual songs (excluding “Our Prayer”, functioning as the album’s introduction) are not crossfaded or presented as a medley.  However, we are generally losing the two-second leader time between tracks, much as how Sgt Pepper was presented.  

2. The twelves specific songs are as listed on the January 1967 letter to Capitol Records from the band's own hand, although not necessarily in that specific order (see label for correct playing order).  The song order itself creates two 20-minute sides each,   sandwiched by the hit singles beginning the sides and the epic songs closing the sides.  There is no overarching concept, as originally suggested by Dominic Priore in the 1980s.  

3. The construction of those twelve songs is generally dictated by Brain Wilson’s own blueprint, as heard in his own 1966/1967 rough mix assemblages.  If a rough mix assemblage does not exist for a song, we will construct it in a similar fashion as the others to create a cohesive whole, or postulate what it would sound like based upon information available.  

One new revision from my previous 1967 Mix is my intentional exclusion of post-1967-recorded material.  With a cue taken by my previous Hitsville Mix, we will use recordings dating from just after the conclusion of the SMiLE sessions (“Whispering Winds”, “Water chant”, etc) in order to present a more complete SMiLE.  We will NOT, however, use any audio dating past the 1971 Surf’s Up sessions, especially NOT anything “flown” in from 2004 Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE.  Also, we will NOT be using AI-created Brian Wilson-emulated vocals to complete unsung verses; while I appreciate the technology and am not specifically against it, I chose to leave these recordings as complete as they were by 1971, for better or for worse.  This exercise is meant to see how complete a SMiLE could be using only vintage Beach Boys recordings.  

One final note: If this was released in 1967, yes, it would have been in mono only.  But I have always thought SMiLE was especially adaptable in the stereo format, as one is able to more easily appreciate its sonic treasures.  So since it is now possible to make a completely stereo SMiLE, well, we will!  

Side A begins with the stereo mix of “Our Prayer” found on Made In California, as an unlisted opening to the album.  This is followed by my complete stereo mix of the February 1967 “Heroes and Villains” (aka The Cantina Version), as blueprinted by the man himself, before he lost the SMiLE plot.  This is followed by “Vege-Tables”, which is the same mix as from my Hitsville Mix–a completely stereo version of Mark Linnet’s 1993 mix.  Next is “Do You Like Worms”, similar to my previous Hitsville Mix but with the Bicycle Rider theme panned from right to left, representing Western Expansionism.  A slightly improved mix of “Child is Father of The Man” is next, which follows Brian’s three-minute rough mix structure.  My Histville stereo mix of “The Old Master Painter” follows, but using the remade “Heroes and Villains” Fade, as the Barnshine Fade was already used in “Heroes and Villains” proper.  The side closes with my Hitsville stereo mix of “Cabin Essence”, but with a longer fade-out.  

Side B starts with “Good Vibrations”, using the fantastic 2022 stereo mix from Sounds of Summer as a base, but with the slightly longer fade.  Next is a new and improved stereo mix of “Wonderful”, with the lead vocal and bass centered, harpsichord panned left and backing vocals panned right!  Following is a new stereo mix of “I’m In Great Shape” with a better sync of the vocal and backing track, and my Hitsville stereo mix of “Wind Chimes” which follows Brian’s 1966 rough assemblages.  

“The Elements” has always been the most divisive track on SMiLE, but here I used the same construction as featured on my HItsville Mix, which ended up being the closest to what I imagined a vintage “The Elements” to actually sound like: each element is represented by one simple, repeated musical motif–here “Barnyard”, “Whispering Winds”, “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” and “Water Chant”--not already heard on the album.  Although I regret that the four segments do not follow their natural order, this is the most logical order in a musical and dynamic sense.  Note that this is a new stereo mix of “Barnyard” which features centered vocals and bass, backing vocals panned to the right and the rest of the backing track panned left.  Concluding is a new stereo mix of “Surf’s Up” featuring the lead vocal by Brian.  

While I personally do not enjoy the BWPS construction of this material, I recognize that many do, and feel it is THE version of SMiLE.  That is completely fine, so I am including an all-stereo reconstruction of the BWPS sequence as the second disc of this set.  I put great care into trying, to the best of my capabilities and materials at hand, to replicate that specific sequence as heard on Brian Wilson’s solo 2004 album–measure to measure!  All tracks are crossfaded and hard edited into each other, making three continuous Movements, as per BWPS.  Note that there were several interstitial orchestral pieces arranged by Darian Sahanaja that simply do not exist as a Beach Boys equivalent, and in those cases I had to substitute different or similar vintage recording.  Also, like the 1967 Mix, I am not using any modern fly-ins or AI-sung completions.  

Sources used:

Feel Flows (2021 CD box set)

Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys (1993 CD box set)

Made in California (2013 CD box set)

The SMiLE Sessions (2011 CD box set)

Smiley Smile (2012 CD remix/remaster)

Sounds of Summer (2022 deluxe edition)

Sunshine Tomorrow (2017 CD)

Unsurpassed Masters Vol 16 (1999 bootleg CD)

Unsurpassed Masters Vol 17 (2000 bootleg CD)

 

 

 LISTEN FOR FREE ON MY PATREON

The Beach Boys - SMiLE (Hitsville Mix)

The Beach Boys - SMiLE

(stereo “Hitsville Mix” by soniclovenoize)

Side A:

1.  Our Prayer

2.  Do You Like Worms

3.  Wind Chimes

4.  Heroes and Villains Part I

5.  Heroes and Villains Part II

6.  Surf’s Up

7.  Good Vibrations

Side B:

8.  Cabin Essence 

9.  Wonderful

10.  I’m In Great Shape

11. Child is Father of The Man

12.  The Elements

13.  Vege-Tables

14.  The Old Master Painter

Need something to be thankful about this Thanksgiving?  How about a new SMiLE?

I have gotten many requests for an update to my SMiLE mix lately… and while I don’t necessarily see any pressing need to upgrade my previous SMiLE reconstructions (as yes, I do stand by my ‘67 reconstruction!), I thought it would be a fun challenge to make a completely different SMiLE mix!  I call this the “Hitsville Mix” (named after a Brian Wilson ad lib while recording “Heroes and Villains”) and it is unassociated with my previous mixes.  It is a completely different mix and ideally, a different SMiLE listening experience, intending to be more unpredictable and bizarre, much like the actual Smiley Smile album.  Here, I am using ALL NEW stereo mixes I’ve made over the last few months, except “Good Vibrations”, which is the brand new 2022 official stereo extraction mix, which sounds the best it ever has! 

What is the theme/concept of the Hitsville Mix of SMiLE?  I gave myself a few guidelines:

1)  Unlike my previous “1967” mix, I am not beholden to strict “historical accuracy” or the theoretical artistic intent of Brian Wilson.  This is the mix that I wanted to make, rather than the mix I presumed Brian Wilson wanted to make.  

2)  ALL STEREO.  This requires, as aforementioned, new stereo mixes to be made for all songs, except “Our Prayer” and “Good Vibrations”, whose official stereo mixes are just fine. 

3)  As a challenge, I chose to limit myself to using the handwritten “Capitol Trackllist” as submitted to Capitol Records in January 1967 and subsequently printed on the reverse cover slicks.  The majority of SMiLErs discard this track sequence for various reasons and create their own track sequence–often based upon either Dominic Priore’s suggested tracklist in Look! Listen! Vibrate Smile! or Darian Sahanaja’s tracklist on Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE.  Here, we will try to make sense out of the long-derided track order.  

The end result of my Hitsville Mix is exactly how I hoped: it is a little more bonkers and less logical than my previous reconstructions, and keeps the vibe of Smiley Smile, albeit more hi-fi.  Songs are allowed to be fragments and don’t necessarily go anywhere; the listener is thrown curve-balls and the trajectory of the album is fairly unexpected; Side B is specifically bizarre but ends with a wow! 

Side A begins like any other mix–with “Our Prayer”, the stereo mix from Made in California as an unlisted introduction to the album.  This is hard edited into a new stereo mix of “Do You Like Worms”, which uses the tracking sessions from The Smile Sessions as a base, with isolated vocals from the Smile Vocal Montage, Unsurpassed Masters 17 and the (lousy) 2022 stereo mix from Sounds of Summer.  Following is “Wind Chimes”, here ignoring the stereo Made in California mix and instead presented as a similar structure as Brian’s 1966 test edit, using a pitch-corrected backing track taken from The Smile Sessions, with vocals taken from The Smile Vocal Montage and Unsurpassed Masters 16.  

The project’s flagship song “Heroes and Villains” follows, which is a completely stereo version of the classic “Cantina Mix”, including the Verse and Three-Score-Five sections!  But instead, after Whistling Bridge there is a cut to Bridge To Indians and Prelude To Fade to create an ending (since I am using the proper Fade to end the actual album).  Next is my attempt to create the theoretical “Part II” of “Heroes and Villains”, that would have been found on its 7” single (or combined to the legendary six-minute “Heroes and Villains”, if you are so inclined).  Using the Gee and Part 2 iterations as a base combined with excerpts from the Brian Wilson led psychedelic sounds, mock interviews and experimental raps, we are able to create a faux Vaudeville variety act!  What I am intending is that the listener can imagine The Beach Boys as a psychedelic barbershop quartet who are literally framing a series of comedy sketches, all onstage and concluding with a laughing audience!

One gripe SMiLErs have with the Capitol Tracklist is the placement of “Surf’s Up” in the middle of Side A; while strange, we will embrace it and own it, as a song about a maestro artist on-stage literally follows an on-stage performance!  Here is a brand new stereo mix I’ve created using the tracking sessions from The Smile Sessions as a base, combined with the isolated vocals from the Feel Flows boxset.  Here, I’ve chosen to use Carl’s lead vocal instead of Brian’s, which seemed more appropriate with the song’s placement on the album.  Following is the fantastic 2022 stereo extraction mix of “Good Vibrations” from Sounds of Summer. 

Side B begins with a new, improved stereo mix of “Cabin Essence”, using the backing tracks from The Smile Sessions, combined with the extracted vocal from 20/20 and The Smile Vocal Montage.  Next is a brand new stereo mix of “Wonderful”, with a more defined soundstage, sourced from the Good Vibrations box set and The Smile Vocal Montage.  Using the Insert as a segue, we can modulate up to “I’m In Great Shape”, which combines the backing track from The Smile Sessions and the vocal from the Humble Harve demo, hard edited onto a stereo “I Wanna Be Around”; this follows the BWPS structure, which was how I always envisioned the song being constructed.  

Next is a new stereo mix of “Child is Father of the Man”, using a structure that best fits this album’s track sequence, rather than any version that Brian Wilson specifically designed.  Next is an edit I am fairly proud of–a completely new version of “The Elements”, again made to fit this album sequence, rather than any historical accuracy.  It begins with the Earth section, represented by a brand new stereo mix of “Barnyard”; then it is overlapped with the Wind section, represented by the alternate Whispering Winds from Sunshine Tomorrow; Fire is next represented by “Mrs O’Leary’s Cow”, proper, without any Chimes or Heroes and Villains Intros which is otherwise common; concluding is the Water section, represented by the alternate Water Chant from Sunshine Tomorrow.  

The concept of this new mix of “Vege-Tables” is to make an all-stereo version of a specific edit of “Vege-Tables” I made 20 years ago, which mainly constituted Brian’s mono mixdowns from Unsurpassed Masters 17 and Mark Linett’s mix on the Good Vibrations boxset.  Thus, using the stereo mix from Made in California, tracking sessions from The Smile Sessions and vocals from The Smile Vocal Montage and Unsurpassed Masters 17, we are able to have both the extended reverb at the end of the first two verses, as well as the unique crossfade between the Do A Lot chorus and the Fade, now in true stereo!  The Hitsville Mix of SMiLE ends with a big send-off: “The Old Master Painter”, featuring a brand new (and more accurate!) stereo sync.  Note that the Barnshine Fade is used here to end the track as originally intended before it was gutted for the Cantina mix of “Heroes and Villains”, giving this SMiLE and joyous finale.  

Sources used:

Feel Flows (2021 CD box set)

Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys (1993 CD box set)

Made in California (2013 CD box set)

The SMiLE Sessions (2011 CD box set)

Sounds of Summer (2022 deluxe edition)

Sunshine Tomorrow (2017 CD)

Unsurpassed Masters Vol 16 (1999 bootleg CD)

Unsurpassed Masters Vol 17 (2000 bootleg CD)

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