Another total beauty of an album from the series "albums that never were" by soniclovenoise.
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 the set was purported to be an accurate reconstruction of what SMiLE would have been. But is it so? In fact it is 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? It is 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! By the time Wilson had finally resolved upon a final “Heroes and Villains”, the song was convoluted and lacking the magic of the original versions, as well as the magic the rest of the albums’ sessions implied.
- soniclovenoise

Back in 1967 Brian Wilson, the creative genius of the Beach Boys got to work with Van Dyke Parks to attempt to create the vision Brian had of the perfect album of all albums. Surrounded by mountains of recorded tape reels and sitting in his bedroom in a giant sandpit with a grand piano, lots of cocaine and his personal demons, Brian chased the the end of the rainbow to reach the pot of gold.
He didn't reach it. Others tried faithfully to follow the trail, looking for signposts and trying to use alchemy.
All failed in their quest and the pot of gold always remained just a little further on down the road. So many roads yet none reached the golden chalice, the goose that lays the golden eggs, the spell that works.
BuT fear not, fellow Searchers. Rejoyce! Rejoyce!
HELP IS AT HAND. MAGICK IS AFOOT.
The Dreamweaver, he who is known as soniclovenoise has shed light on the road [on so many roads] and did show me the sign so I'd be willin'. To keep on moving.
- StevesStuff

[freely shared only for fair use and to be used for research, educational purposes and review; not for any form of monetary gain or other personal profit nor advantage in any form.] This unique work of cosmic art is the intellectual property of the Creator, for Now & Eternity.
mp3 320kbps
http://www47.zippyshare.com/v/65866430/file.html
lossless flac
part 1: http://www47.zippyshare.com/v/17843850/file.html
part 2: http://www47.zippyshare.com/v/958194/file.html
Enjoy!

Very nice share Steve

More of the notes for this beautiful reconstruction.

The Beach Boys – SMiLE
(soniclovenoize reconstruction)
December 2018 UPGRADE


Disc 1 – SMiLE ’67 [full album in both mono and stereo versions].
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

{Please note: Although Brian Wilson is deaf in one ear, he thinks in stereo!-Steve.}

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’.
tbc.

Soniclovenoize sez:
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.
tbc.