SMILEY SMILE/ ENDLESS SUMMER QUARTERLY
Dear David,
I want to renew my subscription. Each year, I say that the periodical ESQ is great and here is another year of which you did a wonderful job. Congratulations!
Please see the enclosed check. After reading this last issue, I remember my first contact with SMILE.
All of the summer of 67′ I kept replaying PET SOUNDS. Each album seemed to get better and better and I was glad they moved on from cars and surf. PET SOUNDS, I thought was incredible. 1967 was my first year teaching college as a teaching assistant. I did not have much money, but spent I think about 4 dollars to buy SMILEY SMILE. The cover was awesome. I was trembling when I put the
stylus of my hi-fi on the record. At first, SMILEY was great. Then came something very uncomforting. I was stunned. After listening to it for a number of times in my apartment, I decided that I would only play the side that did not have “She’s Goin’ Bald” When WILD HONEY came out, I thought that it was a recovery Further, my Black students really like it as “wild honey” can mean a number of things. However, the Beach Boys were descending in popularity. It was not until years later that I knew about the story of the group and the terrible period of the SMILE sessions. For years, I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and tried to do another SMILEY SMILE. Now over 40 years later, I read your last issue and I tried to do something with the album again. It is enclosed. What I did was delete 3 cuts and added material that was only available at the time of the Fall of 1967. Further, I used the B sides of the single in France that came from PET SOUNDS and the B side here in the USA. Both backed GOOD VIBRATIONS the 45. I also added a song from TODAY, made some rearrangements and it all fell together. This collection could be called SMILEY SMILE (the reprise edition) further nearly all the songs had some relationship to the first SMILEY.
Is there an article there? After all these years, it seems like you or Andrew Doe could do a good job doing an album that many could create at home. Further, what would SMILEY be like if all material that has been released up to the present was added? That means from other albums too. Please recall that SMILEY was not DUMB ANGEL or SMILE or an acid album.
In other words, you have 2 albums and one article.
My versions is more mystical than acid and a lot more commercial. There is not a clunker in the bunch. At any rate, it appears the year 2012 is now the 50th anniversary so there may be some interest. Further, EMI Capitol may be interested because of the story and that all cuts are owned or leased by them so the album is inexpensive to make and may sell a considerable number. That means more profit. You and Andrew get the credit and the cover could be something new but something from the back of one’s mind. The timing may also be excellent.
At any rate, this SMILEY SMILE(REPRISED) is arranged this way.
1.GOOD VIBRATIONS (the original single)
2. HEROES AND VILLAINS (the original single)
3. VEGATABLES (same as above)
4. FALL BREAKS AND BACK TO WINGER (same)
5.WITH ME TONIGHT (same)
6. WIND CHIMES (same)
7. LET’S GO AWAY FOR AWHILE (from PET SOUNDS, B side of the French GOOD VIBRATIONS and in the first edition in the USA)
8.WONDERFUL (same)
9.WHISTLE IN (same)
10.YOU’RE WELCOME (from the B side of GOOD VIBRATIONS in the copy that I purchased here in the
States.)
11. IN THE BACK OF MY MIND (from BEACH BOYS TODAY)
12. GOOD VIBRATIONS/REPRISE (the same single that started the album)
That’s it David. I hope all else is fine.
best, JOEL CHARLES SNELL
