Description
Label Review.
Featuring producers Mark Linett and Alan Boyd’s new, first ever stereo mix of the 1967 Wild Honey album. As well as opening up the legendary band’s vault to debut 54 sought-after rarities from that year, 50 years after they were first put to tape. This collection dives into a fascinating and frenetic chapter in The Beach Boys’ long, groundbreaking creative arc, exploring the band’s dynamic year in the studio and on tour. Previously unreleased highlights include The Beach Boys’ shelved ‘live’ album, Lei’d in Hawaii, studio recordings from the Wild Honey and Smiley Smile album sessions, and live concert recordings from shows in Hawaii, Washington DC and Boston.
Our Overview.
The story of ‘Smile’, the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson’s magnum opus has been told a million times and reached some sort of closure, firstly with Brian’s 2004 re-recording of the unreleased work and then the 2011 release of the original tapes. However, the story of what happened next is less well known and now the band have delved into the archives again to make sense of what the Beach Boys got up to in 1967.
Following the cancellation of the ‘Smile’ project the band went back to the drawing board to work out what they were going to give Capitol Records to follow up ‘Pet Sounds’. During June and July they edited ‘Heroes And Villians’ from the unreleased album to be the next single and then they recorded a bunch of minimal and in some cases downright strange tracks. These were bookended with the new single and ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘Smiley Smile’ was the result. A selection of alternate mixes and outtakes from these sessions are included here.
In September, the band hit the studio again and knocked up another album which was released before the end of the year. ‘Wild Honey’ saw the band return to a more palatable concoction of rock and soul with the occasional moody piece thrown in. However, they steadfastly refused to return to the classic Beach Boys sound. For this package, a new stereo mix has been prepared along with a clutch of outtakes from the sessions.
Inbetween the two albums, the Boys planned to record a live album. To be called ‘Lei’d In Hawaii’, the album was shelved after the original concert tapes were deemed to be unsatisfactory to released. They attempted to record a live album ‘in the studio’ but this idea was abandoned after six tracks and instead they opted to record a new studio album proper; the aforementioned ‘Wild Honey’. For the first time, a completed master of the planned live album is to be released following it’s discovery the archive. Rounding out the package are other live recordings from 1967 plus a version of Brian’s classic song ‘Surf’s Up’ which was recorded in the studio during the ‘Wild Honey’ sessions, leading us to believe that it was in consideration to be included on that album.