Carl Wilson with CATS!
What Rolling Stone once called "the most famous unfinished album in rock & roll history," will soon be released in a massive, deluxe box set. The never-before-released original 1966/1967 album sessions for SMiLE by the Beach Boys will be available come this November 1st, as the band readies to celebrate the big 5-0 in 2012. We're told:
With the full participation of original Beach Boys Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Brian Wilson, Capitol/EMI has, for the first time, collected and compiled the band’s legendary 1966-’67 sessions for the never-completed SMiLE album.
The much anticipated release will include "multiple physical and digital configurations... artwork and complete tracklists." The set will feature a recreation of what the album might have been, along with five additional CDs, a double vinyl of the album, two 45s, a hardcover book, and a poster—retailing at $170. The album was originally meant to follow their classic Pet Sounds, which inspired The Beatles, but the master tapes were shelved, and the band announced they would release “Vega-Tables”—recorded with the band’s own money in April of '67—on Brother Records, instead.
While we try to get unofficial Beach Boy member John Stamos on the phone (seriously Stamos, CALL US!), you can watch the band performing in Central Park in 1971:
And "Heroes & Villains," originally intended to be the centerpiece of SMiLE (currently a number of different versions exist):
