10/6/11: I’m editing the interview I did with Mark Linett, one of the co-producers of the new SMiLE Sessions box.  It should be up in the next few days.  In addition, I just had a lengthy chat with Domenic Priore, the foremost authority on everything SMiLE (he’s compiled two books on the subject).  He’s also penned an essay for the liner notes of the upcoming set.  One of the points that he maintains is that Brian was a lot closer to completing SMiLE than most people realize.  He gave me a quote from Paul Williams, editor of Crawdaddy Magazine, that appeared in an article back in 1967:

“Let’s hope that Brian will not fall into the trap of becoming so enamored of perfection, that he produces nothing rather than produce the imperfect. Even though he may be six times better now, the work he did last December is more deserving of release than 99.44 percent of what’s available by anybody else.”

And Priore continues:

“And that’s the one thing that I really didn’t agree with – with some of the talk in the (new) press kit – it alluded to the fact that Brian was a lot further from finishing the album than he really was.  And, I’ve kind of said that all along, and people have opposed that for years.  But, the fact is we had all the elements.”

Priore’s interview will be posted after I complete the one with Mark Linett.  In addition, I’m in contact with several musicians who either played on the sessions or had a chance to hear the work in progress.  I’ll keep you posted on what I come up with. — Tony