Share - When Was The First Time You Heard SMILE Tracks?

Pretty sure the first unofficially released Smile stuff I heard was on a cassette purchased from English fan David Wall, who lived in Keighley, West Yorkshire. First bumped into him at a record fair at Halifax Civic Theatre … would probably have been in the early-mid 1980s but I can’t be sure. David died a few years back - only found out when I bought a signed copy of American Spring from Elliot’s Wall of Sound shop in Halifax Piece Hall, and was told it had come from the collection of a guy in Keighley who’d died recently.

Haven’t listened to that Smile tape for decades though I still have it, somewhere. It included Here Come de Honey Man, from the Miles Davies soundtrack to Porgy and Bess, which I guess pins it down to being a rip of one of the early Smile vinyl boots. That track was mesmerising… oops.

David sold me similar tapes of "Adult Child" and “Landlocked”. There were usually one or two extra tracks on there, I think…

I was told a little of the backstory a while back, which was fascinating.

Inspired by this thread I just went to my cabinet and, sure enough, there’s the Landlocked cassette lying for on top of my old Sony TCM-2 handheld cassette-recorder. Slotted the tape in, inserted new batteries (had to use AAs, as I don’t have access to HP7s) and … nothing. TCM-2 lights up, whirs but doesn’t play. Maybe later.

First Smile bootleg CD I acquired was The Smile Era Recordings, single disc “Made in Korea” “For Fans Only”, on the Quality Compact Recordings label, cat no QCP 67001. Had to buy a CD player for my stacking system before I could hear what I’d bought (probably via Record Collector magazine).

Been Way Too Long blew me away… seems my early favourite Smile tracks weren’t Smile tracks at all… not always Beach Boys tracks, even…

The first time I heard a SMiLE thing was about 25 years ago when I bought the Thirty Years of Good Vibrations box set back in 1995, I could’t believe those tracks were recorded by The Beach Boys, I was a little shocked, then I started to learn all the story and I started to love them completely.

Ignoring Good Vibrations, the first time I heard anything SMiLE-related was back around late 2017 or early 2018. I was starting to explore Spotify for more music from artists I liked. I had already heard Sgt. Peppers and Pet Sounds by this point, and I think I was reading a Wikipedia article about the latter when I saw SMiLE mentioned. I ended up checking out Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE since it was mentioned as Brian's attempt to complete the project.

So I start the album on Spotify... it opens with the somber, beautiful vocals of Our Prayer, which soon transition into the wonderfully playful Gee chant. Already I was enjoying the album, but then Heroes and Villains started. I was blown away. It was so complex, yet incredibly catchy at the same time. Unlike some songs that have really great choruses and okay verses, this song had incredible verses and incredible choruses. Everything was amazing. I was enjoying every single second of the song.

And then the big percussion of Roll Plymouth Rock starts. Wow, this song is pretty cool too... wait... is that the H&V chorus again? Now it sounds kind of spooky- woah, those vocals are cool! After the second chorus, suddenly a whole new section that also sounds cool? Neat!

Not long after, Barnyard starts, and I'm smiling because of the funny animal noises that fit in perfectly with the fun backing track, and then surprise!

The old master painter from the faraway hills... except I've never heard that song, so it's even less expected when it transitions into a sad version of the usually cheery You Are My Sunshine, and then it slides away into...

Doing, doing, wow this campfire song is really nice- WOAH that chorus! The tempo just keeps drastically changing and yet it seems to work perfectly every time. Cabin Essence ends similarly to RPR, with a completely new section that stops any chance of the song getting repetitive, and leaving me wanting more.

And then Wonderful starts, and I'm treated to a relatively straightforward little tune that still sounds great. Little did I know I was hearing the start of one of the greatest song suites I'd ever hear...

Won, won suddenly becomes one, one, and then the beat of Look kicks in unexpectedly and I'm blown away yet again. I get this feeling that it's building up to something...

The instrumental verse of Child Is Father of the Man starts, and it sounds so amazing like everything else and then CHILD CHILD CHILD, the chorus is one of the greatest pieces of music I've ever heard. It is around this point I realize that I like this album more than any album I've ever heard before.

Surf's Up plays and it's beautiful. The simpler 2nd movement seems fully intentional at the time, as do the CIFotM vocals during the coda. The album could have stopped right here and I would've been more than happy.

But it doesn't. After a brief pause of silence that seems to signal the equivalent of a part 2 to the album, the goofy lyrics of I'm in Great Shape are heard. I'm expecting more lyrics but then the track reverb just keeps increasing... wait, what's going on- *CUT* as if a record had just gotten unstuck and jumped to another track, I Wanna Be Around starts, and soon the sounds of saws and drills pop up in the background. I have no idea what could possibly come next after this.

The workshop noises transition to Vega-Tables, which turns out to be another masterpiece of a song. At this point I'm running out of things to say about how much I'm enjoying this album.

On a Holiday starts up, and manages to include a funny rap bit that actually fits right in. And soon this fun song transitions into...

Wind Chimes, which has nice soft verses followed by incredible loud choruses with cool piano and bass guitar bits in the middle. It's similar to what Cabinessence did, yet it still feels really unique.

And then the H&V/Fire intro starts, and I think, oh hey, fire truck sounds, that's cute. And then dun dun, dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, WOAH! The song actually sounds like FIRE! Somehow, despite all the previous tracks, this one still surprised me. I actually wasn't sure whether I liked it or not the first time I heard it.

The fire seems to slowly burn out as Brian starts to sing about water, and then, as if to counter the intensity of the fire that just came before, the calming beauty of In Blue Hawaii pours through my headphones (or earbuds, I'm not sure). It ends with a brief reprise of Our Prayer that seems to signal the end of the album is nearly here, and then...

IIIIiiiii... I like the colorful clothes she wears...

Good Vibrations feels right at home with all these other wonderful tracks. I notice the lyrics are a bit different, and then some unexpected vocals kick in during the interlude. Everything about this album has been fantastic, and to top it all off, the Good Vibrations fade lasts long enough for me to really enjoy it this time.

And then I get the instrumental version of H&V as a bonus treat!

So I sit back in my chair, amazed by what I had just experienced. I immediately start the album over to listen to the whole thing again. And for the next couple of weeks, I would listen to the same album at least once, maybe twice or even three times.

Not long after hearing BWPS the first time, I ended up checking out The Smile Sessions box set. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of vocals in certain parts and the muddier sound in places, but it grew on me over time until now I prefer (stereo) version of the original tracks over the BWPS versions (which I still really enjoy).

I do remember there were parts of The Smile Sessions that managed to surprise me the first time I heard them, though. When Do You Like Worms started, I thought it sounded nice, and then the chorus starts, and halfway through I suddenly hear BAH-BAH-BAH-BAH and Indian-sounding chants in the background. I hadn't really noticed these elements that much in BWPS, but here they were front and center and they sounded so cool! And then when the chorus returned later, I thought I was about to hear the same thing, but instead I get BIIIIICYCLE RIIIDER! There was so much power in the vocals! And when I listened closely, I noticed the elements from the first chorus were still there! I came to see the Bicycle Rider chorus as being one of my favorite choruses in any song from that point onward. (Right up there with the CIFotM chorus.)

The Vega-Tables fade was also a surprising bit I wasn't expecting but really enjoyed. I also noticed that Fire sounded even wilder than it had in BWPS. I then began to listen to various session excerpts and kept being surprised by just how much great material there was.

Later, I began to discover the wonderful world of SMiLE fan mixes, and I ended up listening to quite a few. I read dozens of threads on the Smiley Smile and Pet Sounds forums, and over time I managed to accumulate quite a bit of knowledge on the album history. Eventually, I started work on my own fan mix in 2019.

So that's where I'm at today. At this point I've probably heard nearly a hundred different versions of H&V, my opinion on the correct track order has changed multiple times, and The Beach Boys have become my favorite band... not just because of SMiLE, but because of all the other great music they've made that I never heard until I started down the rabbit trail a few years ago.

The first time I heard Smile was around 1978 or 1979. There was a cassette tape circulating amongst a few collectors, and I received my copy from a guy who traded with Peter Reum. The tape included the Miles Davis "Here Come De Honey Man" track, which I found out years later was Peter's clever tracking device to find out who had copies of the tape. Until then, many of us thought it was a legit Smile track! The original sources for this tape were:  

Diane Rovell -> Byron Preiss -> Jeff Deutch -> Brad Elliott -> Peter Reum.

And of course it went on from there:

endlessharmony.boards.net/thread/19/beach-boys-bootlegs-smile?page=1

Jeff Deutch recounted that Brian wanted to cut "This Could Be The Night", but that he couldn't find a copy of the record. Jeff, who along with Byron Preiss met up with a few Beach Boys and Diane in Iowa, told Diane that he had a copy, and she asked him what he wanted in return for it. He suggested a copy of the Smile tapes and she surprisingly came through by later sending a copy of it to Preiss, along with copies of demos from the California Feelin' album.

In a 1985 phone call with peter he told me he used here come de honey man not only as a tracker but he made a smile tape for himself and needed an airy track and thought honey man sounded airy so he used it.

Robert W. Morgan Special Of the Week, 3/21/78. Used to have a tape of that.

Oops again. I think I’m getting senile andrew 😊

If you need a copy of that interview let me know. One of the tapes i made a digital copy before the fire.

"Byron was given the tape by Diane Rovell, as Mikie stated: allegedly it was compiled by Dennis."

That is the way I remember Jeff recounting it too for what ever my memory is worth anymore.

Desper told me in 1985 that back in fall 1972 he & Carl auditioned all the Smile tapes they could find, with a view to putting out a version of the album the following year, as per the Reprise contract. I don't recall the exact wording but it was along the lines of "we got the tapes out, listened to them, made saftey copies... and then put them back in the vault".