Posted on 08/01/2010 6:40:24 AM PDT by curth
≤}B^)
The story of that project could fill a book. Well, in fact it has filled chapters in a couple of them.
It’s a 33.
Just got back from seeing Jersey Boys in Vegas. Loved the show the music.
Brian was under pressure to top both Pet Sounds an Sgt Pepper. He went into the studio, recorded a plethora of snippets and brief demo tracks. This was the way that he had taken to working; pulling everything together at the end in massive editing sessions.
Unfortunately, he found it harder and harder to put anything coherent together out of his growing pile of bits and pieces. Deadlines came and went; public announcements had been made; record covers had been printed; and yet, it all came to naught.
It was the occasion of Brian's further retreat into his own world for several years.
People would subsequently unearth master tapes, or Nth generation or cassette copies of them, and piece together from the available materials what they thought the album might have been intended to be. Several of these were sold as bootlegs.
Meanwhile, a number of pieces that had been intended for Smile did come out as singles or tracks on subsequent official albums. The most significant of these were Heroes And Villains and Surf's Up, both with lyricist VanDyke Parks.
Years later, Brian himself didn't know exactly what he had in mind for the album back in '67. His recent "re"make represents the closest approach we will ever have.
Paul was that way. I remmeber that on the White Album he came up with the song 'Helter Skelter' simply because he read that The Who was the loudest band in the world and he wanted to top them. John Lennon was most definitely not that way (although he did come up with 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away' to try to out-Dylan Dylan). By 1967 Lennon paid little attention to "the competition". He was pretty much leading the way.
By the way, 'Surf's Up' has been a favorite of mine since freshman year at college, 1971. I still listen to 'Caroline' and the piano version of 'Surf's Up' all the time.
never heard this — will order it — thanks so muc, I appreciate it.
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