How the hell did the Beach Boys sit on "Surf's Up" for Five Years?

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They recorded a few pretty good versions in 1966, right? Finally released in 1971. During the interim they made five albums. Whenever they sequenced a record they were like, "Forget 'Surf's Up' -- does Jardine have any new songs?" Don't get it.

This could be my favorite song ever.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 18 February 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Can't ANY Beach Boys question revolving this time frame be answered "Because Brian was cracking up"?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

Mentalists, you lot. It clearly sayeth in the title -- the surf was up!
...Well for five years, evidently.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

When i first read about the whole Smile deal i was imagining all these songs that were lost forever and they were amazing masterpieces and thinking 'gee, isnt that a crime?' Its funny now to think most of the good tracks eventually ended up on albums anyways...

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, why it took so long to come out is truly one of the great mysteries of the Beach Boys.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

it's beautiful (and one of my favorite songs as well) but frankly totally at odds with what the rest of the band thought they should be doing at the time if Wild Honey is any evidence. And don't underestimate the power of Mike Love and his distaste for Van Dyke Parks' lyrics.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

i thot it was on the lp "surf's up" not "wild honey." but i ain't no cultist.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

it is on surf's up but wild honey in the intervening four years in question; Wild Honey (good though I guess it is, I'm not really a fan of it) sounds nothing like the Smile stuff, they wanted to move away from that sound.

Though, this doesn't explain why they put out other good songs from those sessions, I guess, during these years (Cabinessence for instance)

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

what smile songs were released on other records?

― charleston charge (chaki), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Almost all of them, I think.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:58 (twenty years ago)

what smile songs were released on other records?

Not counting bootlegs:

Our Prayer
Cabinessence
Heroes & Villians
Surf's Up

― darin (darin), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

Vegetables, Wonderful and Wind Chimes on Smiley Smile

Cabinessence and Our Prayer on 20:20

Water section of Elements Suite as Cool Cool Water on Sunflower

Other bits and pieces here and there, as late as Brian Wilson's 1988 solo album.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, forgot about Smiley Smile.

― darin (darin), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:01 (twenty years ago)

I think they thought they were part of the back to basics vanguard with Wild Honey. If you read that Paul Williams/David Andrele exchange from Crawdaddy, they talk about how people like Jim Morrison were coming out saying they liked Wild Honey.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

Our Prayer/Gee Yes
Heroes and Villians Yes
Cabin Essence Yes
Wonderful Yes
Surf's Up Yes
Vega-Tables Yes
Wind Chimes Yes
Good Vibrations Yes

Actually I guess around half.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:06 (twenty years ago)

I forgot about "Cool Cool Water"

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

Actually I think two or three more songs were on the boxed set too.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

Wonderful ,Good Vibrations were on lps weren' they ?

― wrian bilson, Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

I think that wild honey was a weird direction for them to take. was that supposed to be their stab at "going more commercial, getting away from the weirdness" in 1967? let the wind blow is still one of my favorites, though.

― jinx, Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

Mentalists, you lot. It clearly sayeth in the title -- the surf was up!

Yeah, but none of them actually surfed except for Dennis.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

and look what happened to him!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 19 February 2005 00:57 (twenty years ago)

Maybe those Smile songs did have evil powers after all. It's just that Mrs. O'Leary's Cow was the wrong track to get freaked out over.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 19 February 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

Wonderful and Windchimes did appear on Smiley Smile, but those versions are pretty much abominations compared to the Smile versions.

― D. Bachyrycz, Saturday, 19 February 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

The version of Heroes & Villains on Smiley Smile is very abridged as well.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 19 February 2005 01:48 (twenty years ago)

Almost all of the Smile era songs ended up in some form, usually re-recorded, on the subsequent Beach Boys albums:

Smiley Smile (1967):
"Heroes & Villians" (edited but intact)
"Vegetables" (re-recorded except the end part)
"She's Goin Bald" (intro hootenanny music taken from "Tones")
"Good Vibrations" (intact)
"Wind Chimes" (re-recorded.. far more weirdly)
"Wonderful" (re-recorded.. again, far more weirdly)

Wild Honey (1967):
"Mama Says" (taken from bridge of "Vegetables", re-recorded a cappella)

Friends (1968):
"Diamond Head" (supposedly, ideas of this type of song floated around the Smile tapes)
..otherwise Friends is noteworthy for Gool Ol' Charlie Manson gettin' his first input via Dennis The Incubus: "Be Still"

20/20 (1969):
"Our Prayer" (intact)
"Cabinessence" (intact)
(.. and Charlie strikes again: "Never Learn Not To Love" and, I think, "Be With Me")

what would have been Landlocked:
not sure

Sunflower (1970):
"Cool, Cool Water" (re-recorded)

Surf's Up (1971)
"Surf's Up" (re-recorded)

― donut debonair (donut), Saturday, 19 February 2005 02:09 (twenty years ago)

Supposedly, a record exec required that "Surf's Up" be on the 1971 album followup to Sunflower as a trade-off for the band to have other artistic freedoms. So, it may have never been recorded back then, even, had negotations taken a different turn.

― donut debonair (donut), Saturday, 19 February 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

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