"Smile"

SMiLE
The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson
1967/2004




A little backstory.  The Beach Boys, led by Brian Wilson as writer, arranger, and producer, scored sixteen top-40 hits between 1962-1965.  Like any serious artist, he desired growth.  The record company and recalcitrant band members, notably the artistically-myopic Mike Love, want continued hits.  Period.  Gotta move units.

Brian breaks ranks and produces his first "arty" record, Pet Sounds, in May 1966.  Capitol records doesn't care for it, Mike Love doesn't care for it and the general public is lukewarm with it at best.  Within the industry however, musicians can see the work for what it is: something skillful and unique.

Capitol urinates on Pet Sounds by releasing a Greatest Hits album just two months after it hits stores.

Brain creates and the Beach Boys release "Good Vibrations" as a single in October 1966.  This time everybody is happy: the bean counters, the band members and the public.  "Good Vibrations" sounds like nothing else at the time.  With rocking cellos, a theremin and his new modular recording technique, it remains a classic single that still stands out today.  [just PLEASE try to forget that they allowed it to shill for Sunkist]

So how do you top a single that is both groundbreaking and a number one when you are at the peak of your creative powers?

That's where SMiLE comes into play.

Meant to up the creative ante of Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations," as well as "out-do" the Beatles, Brian began composing what he would refer to as his "teenage symphony to God."  Early on in the project, it was intended to be a humor album.  Despite initially being fuzzy with the concept, one thing remained clear to Brian: this was to be a spiritual record.

As the months lagged, Capitol became more eager for product and band members became more disenchanted with the project: especially Mike Love [who often exhorted Brian not to "'F' with the formula"].  A childhood filled with mental, verbal and physical abuse from his father made him especially susceptible to the the pressure, badgering, and creeping self-doubt which began to exert a toll on Brian, who, not mentally strong enough to face his problems head-on, began a slide into isolation and depression that would last decades.

In early 1967, SMiLE was scrapped and replaced by re-recorded low-key versions of most of the tracks and called Smiley Smile.  Months of hype and publicity for a project that remained unrealized proved a harbinger of the commercial downturn from which the Beach Boys would never fully recover.

So the original tapes sat, forming the legacy of one of the great unreleased albums in the history of rock.

Countless stories have been written about SMiLE by historians more learned than I.  Countless bootlegs of this amazing material still remain available and even the Beach Boys themselves released a snapshot of them on their 1993 Good Vibrations box set.

The passage of time can be a wonderful elixir.  Thirty-plus years later, Brian became a viable recording artist again, sans the Beach Boys.  After a successful run touring his Pet Sounds album, and gentle prodding from his new band, a band much more intuitive with him than "the boys" ever were, Brian set out to finally complete SMiLE and exorcise both his demons and the large monkey that has rested firmly upon his shoulders since the scrapping of the original album.

With Darian Sahanaja [of Brian's touring band and the Wondermints] acting as a musical secretary of sorts, Brian began to piece together the remnants of SMiLE, re-recording all the old parts and creating new ones.  Van Dyke Parks was brought in to reprise his role of lyricist for the project, a move that proved both appropriate and great.  Not all of the lyrics make sense, but that's to be expected: Parks typically walks a tightrope between insightful and obtuse.

The resulting album sounds amazing.  The sense of innocence apparent on the original tapes is now replaced by the pathos of a man who was lost for most of his adult life and finally found his way home.

The opening track, "Our Prayer," sounds as good as ever but his new touring band actually provide a better cross-section of voices to stack harmonies with: listen to both versions and you will hear what I mean.  This track also provides a great example of the "feeling" that music can create.  With no lyrics to support it, "Our Prayer" is nonetheless evocative, and that's truly the genius of Brian Wilson's craft: creating music that isn't necessarily dependent upon lyrics to make you think and feel.

From there, a brief snippet of the late 50's doo-wop tune "Gee," originally by The Crows, bridges perfectly into "Heroes And Villains."

It sounds different than the single originally released in 1967, but still is worthy of wonderment as a rambling travelogue of the old west, replete with a chorus of backing vocals that weave a dizzying, exhilarating spell.  The centerpiece of SMiLE, seeing this performed live was breathtaking.

I was there at the U.S. premiere of SMiLE, held at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis during the fall of 2004.  It was gorgeous.  It was triumphant and cathartic.  Several moments brought tears to my eyes, something that has never happened at any other show I have attended.  Understanding or empathizing with the tragedy of Wilson's lost years isn't required to enjoy this music, but it does indeed provide a supplement.

After years of speculating on how the puzzle pieces fit together, the 2004 release finally answered those questions.  Presented as three suites, most tracks segue directly into the next.  The first suite concludes with "Cabin-essence," the second with "Surf's Up" and naturally the third and final one concludes the album.

In the first suite, Wilson turns "You Are My Sunshine" into a melancholy bit by perverting the intent of the original with a simple turn of phrase.  No longer asking "please don't take my sunshine away," he instead sadly asks "how could you take my sunshine away?"  A simple move, but very instructive on his state of mind.

"Cabin-essence" sounds better than ever thanks in part to Darian's "doing doing"'s in the background.  The contrasting loud parts, the "iron horse," are a bit obtrusive, but mostly make more effective the quieter parts on the verses.

Opening the second suite, "Wonderful" is, well, frankly wonderful.  Ethereal, delicate and imbued with that sense of childlike melancholy that Brian does so well, this still isn't the best recording of the song.  For that, seek out the solo demo Brian did in 1966 [released on the Good Vibrations box].

"Surf's Up" contains all the grandeur first hinted at way back when.  Wilson's aged and weathered voice can no longer hit the extreme high notes of this complex track, but it matters not: his skilled band ably fill in the rough spots.  When played live, the opening notes of this legendary song elicited some of the loudest hoots of the show.  Essentially about lost innocence, the song displays the sort of cryptic Parks lyrics mentioned earlier.

To me, the third suite doesn't match the intensity of the first two, but it's certainly no slouch.

Wilson again appropriates an older song, this time a snippet of the Johnny Mercer jazz tune, "I Wanna Be Around."  The song is used to great melancholy effect on route to "Vega-tables,"  another lost song known to collectors from bootlegs and to fans from the modest version put out on Smiley Smile.

"Wind Chimes" retains much of its original charm, featuring great percussive effects and leading into "Fire," now properly renamed "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow."  One of many things that freaked Brian out during the original SMiLE sessions, a nearby building actually caught fire while working on this track.  Fearing he was channeling dark energies, he immediately dropped it.  Sounding paranoid, claustrophobic and like nothing else, the aborted track acquired mythic status.

After the paranoia of "Fire," a much needed healing salve arrives in the form of "In Blue Hawaii."  Like much of Wilson's best work, this track features great vocal harmonies and concludes with a brief reprise of "Our Prayer" before launching into the albums closing, and surprise number.

"Good Vibrations" was never intended to be a part of the SMiLE project: as it single it was released almost a half year before the scrapped album was meant to see the light of day.  It plays great here though, and is a testament to Brian's skill at thinking symphonically, beyond just a single track.  In a great unstated "F you" to Mike Love, one of the great agitators in his life, Brian uses the original lyrics to the song, lyrics that he begrudgingly changed at Love's insistence to make the track more commercial.  The song ends here not with the original fadeout, but with an uplifting vocal chorus before it.  It provides a thrilling coda to an amazing release by an amazing artist.

When i heard SMiLE was finally going to be released, I was terrified that it would never approach the original and that the luster of such mythic music would become tarnished.  Those fears were completely unfounded as this is a work truly representative of Wilson's musical genius and legacy.  Melancholy, innocence, lost youth and the beauty and wonder of life: they're all in there.

If I could only have ten albums with me on a deserted island with MaryAnn, this would be one.  Please take this sonic journey, you won't regret it.

Peace,

Reggie

P.S. learn more about Smile and Brian Wilson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(The_Beach_Boys_album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(Brian_Wilson_album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wilson