SMiLE continues to blow my mind. Does it for any of you?

I bought the "Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile!" Book by Domenic Priore for Christmas, and I loved the smile music and beach boys music in general for a long time before reading this book. But, reading these quotes from Brian and these in depth essays/pieces on the Smile music are severely opening my eyes to the spiritual depth to a lot of these songs. Reading Brian's explanations of almost every lyric in Surfs Up, (One that really knocked me out: "I Heard the word..-of God; Wonderful thing..-the joy of enlightenment of seeing god. And what is it? A childrens song!") And the authors writing on Cabinessence, talking about the "feels" brian banged out on the piano to put into the music. The feels of being in a cabin, on a railroad, and on a mystic journey to the cooley dam. I just closed my eyes and listened to Cabinessence again for the thousandth time of my life, but this time around it was different. I lived that song for its 3 minutes and 22 seconds. A borderline spiritual feeling came upon me. There is so many layers to this music weather its themes, depthy arrangements, lyrical games, (over and over....) hidden 'raps' (truck drivin' man...) or the overall purposeful spiritual aspect of all of it. To quote an interview from Brian in late 66 in this book, "I'm making spiritual music now." Some of you will undoubtedly roll your eyes, but Brian was more in touch to his cosmic musical abilities more than anyone of that time, of that decade, besides John Coltrane. I just had to make a thread to detail my on-going personal discoveries of this album's music. Absolutely amazing.

 

Does it still blow my mind? Yarp.

 

It's an amazing 'album'. It could have been huge in 1967 and possibly now be considered the greatest achievement in music history. Far ahead of its time!

 

While I love much of the individual songs, I have to admit SMiLE as a whole is an "album" that I am not as crazy about it as I once was. Heroes And Villians, Cabinessence, Surfs Up, Wind Chimes, Wonderful and Vegetables are at times some of the most gorgeous stuff Brian ever worked on. Unfortunately though, no matter how I try and slice it, SMiLE is simply half baked. I dont hold the opinion now that it is this genius work of art as a whole. I think it could have been. But its not. Too much is simply unfinished. And I think the idea of it being some three part monster that they turned it into in order to finish it for modern times is ultimately disappointing as an album.

At times its simply goofy as far as what I believe are half done pieces. I believe that given another year or two we would have had a very different SMiLE. There would have been a lot more layering and psych added to the unfinished pieces. Works, Barnyard, Child Is The Father etc simply needed more work and more denseness and substance to them. And some things probably needed to be completely scrapped.

Am I happy that so much was finished? Absolutely! And those half a dozen songs stand as beautiful pieces. But I think the long lost masterwork that blows my
mind as an album has ultimately proven to be hyped up. And, imo, "finishing" it is an impossible task that diminished its grandeur by forcing it as a finished album.

 

I have been a believer since the mid-80s. It is my favourite album of all time even though it was never really finished. The music and lyrics and arrangements and singing continue to blow my mind. I am still very much lost in the mystery.
The I'm In Great Shape acetate that emerged from Durrie Parks collection shortly after the box set was issued is probably my number one music holy grail - I wish it would "emerge". It could answer a lot of questions about the "prime-time" Smile conception of Heroes and Villains, one of a small number of areas of the project that remain a mystery to this day.
It is a big shame that Van Dyke Parks appears reluctant to open up about the remaining Smile mysteries (and Smile in general) and that he did not contribute to the Smile box set. It does appear that he fell out with persons unknown at that time for unknown reasons. I know he often downplays his musical involvement in the project but there are some aspects of Brian's musical approach during that period which make me feel that Van Dyke was critical both lyrically and musically. The idea of instruments mimicking real life sounds is something Brian had not done before and owes more to something like Charles Ives' music or Carl Stalling's than anyone else I can think of - both are the kind of artists I can well imagine Van Dyke being familiar with. The fade of Cabin Essence is a true sound painting using pure music form rather than any electronic wizardry. It's a Vincent Van Go Go !
I'll stop there. I could type pages about the brilliance and mystery of Smile. It's the Magnificent Ambersons Directors Cut of Rock. A true masterpiece and for all the criticism the rest of the band get in relation to the project, their singing (on what remains) is out of this world.

 

The real songs blows my mind. Cabinessence, Good Vibrations, Surf's Up, Heroes And Villains, Wonderful... Amazing. The album as a whole (and especially the BWPS version) is a bit too patchy for my liking - though Child Is Father Of The Man is one of the best 'bits' IMO.

 

Yes!

 

The official sequences - BW Presents and the (very similar) Beach Boys version - don't hang together, to my ears. They're too long with too many awkward elbows. But listening to a well-sequenced hypothetical single-LP is a beautiful experience. I listen to SMiLE quite often.

 

Yes, it's fantastic. The music that's there is out of this world, and never leaves my life for long. SMiLE is simply It.

I understand feeling the official release('s) don't hang together. I recall when the SMiLE Sessions box set came out, being left with the impression that it was making the most of what there was and finishing it.

That was never gonna be the same as them finishing it back in 67. I assume that album would have been a similar animal, but there's unknown elements, so part of it will forever remain in the mythos.

Out of what we have, I love BWPS, the SMiLE Sessions box set and I happily listen to fan cuts like Purple Chick's sterling effort.

In one sense, I've enjoyed more of this music than if there was simply one immutable definitive version!

 

For the less well informed among us, what specific album is being referred to? Smiley Smile, The Smile Sessions or the Brain Wilson Smile? I understand they are all fruit of the same tree so to speak but what would be the preferred version of the three?

 

I generally assume it's the concept that gets discussed

Not Smiley Smile though.

Brian Wilson Presents is probably the first version to check out, though the Beach Boys Smile Sessions is great.

 

The thing is, you've listed the album's primary ingredients, and I love the ones that you didn't list... Our Prayer, Child is Father of the Man, Worms?, Wind Chimes, Mrs. O'Leary's Cow... Good Vibrations. 25 or 30-years ago I did a C-46 with the following sequence. I've upgraded it and refined it on Minidisc and CDR with various improved releases, but I've kept that original sequence. I love, love, love it. And save for a few unfinished vocals - Child, Worms? - it has the overall density of a complete album.

Our Prayer - 1:08
Heroes And Villains, Pts. 1 & 2 - 8:27
Cabin Essence - 3:30
Child Is Father Of The Man - 2:10
Surf's Up - 4:12
Old Master Painter - 1:10

Good Vibrations - 4:13
Vega-Tables - 3:49
Wonderful - 2:04
Earth: Do You Like Worms? - 3:38
Wind: Wind Chimes - 3:06
Fire: Mrs. O'Leary's Cow - 2:35
Water: Cool, Cool Water - 2:46

I've closed with both Cool, Cool Water and Love to Say Da-Da, but these days, I prefer the more finished piece.

 

the above post highlights my thoughts - the beauty of Smile is that it IS unfinished, and so anyone can/has to make their own 'version' in order to appreciate it fully.

I go with the line that it was meant to be a historical unfolding of American history, or cetainthemes of it at least. If you take this idea and run with it, it makes for the first truly 'post modern' album becase it HAS TO include listener involvement in its creation.

I've got a definitive running order of my own, after twenty years of trying and adding new pieces as they became available. It'll probably chnage again in the future.

 

Referring more to the ORIGINAL SMiLE / sessions tracks. I love smiley smile to death but it shouldnt be compared to the sessions! BW version is pretty good, but im talking about the original recorded tapes.

 

1. Our Prayer
2. Gee
3. Heroes And Villains
4. Do You Like Worms (Roll Plymouth Rock)
5. I'm In Great Shape
6. Barnyard
7. My Only Sunshine (The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine)
8. Cabin Essence
9. Wonderful
10. Look (Song For Children)
11. Child Is Father Of The Man
12. Surf's Up
13. I Wanna Be Around / Workshop
14. Vega-Tables
15. Holidays
16. Wind Chimes
17. The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)
18. Love To Say Dada

My one cd album of Smile. What could of been. Truly Brian was a man in deep self indulgence by late 1966. What he laid out with sessions was genius at work. Brain was the brightest bulb burned out the quickest, but what bright bulb it was.
Brian throughout the 1960's laid the blueprint for a lot of rocks great albums. He was that good it's scary to think about today. Brian was burned out by keeping up with the Fabs. Brian and the Fabs were like two swordsmen battling up a spiral staircase. Smile sessions would come after this battle. There are some amazing pieces of music here on Smiley and Sessions. If Smile had been completed Brian would had that one two punch that could have been the greatest rock album ever. Love Smile Sessions and Smiley all the same.

 

I used to bemoan the fact that Smile didn't achieve fruition originally in its day, but as amazing as that album might have been, I've come around to embrace the extraordinary protracted genesis of the project. It lives in on in a way that other albums of the era do not. As Pere Ubu's David Thomas once suggested, it's the ultimate album because it exists only in our imagination. Getting into this stuff in the 90s, prior to BWPS, as the listener, I had to act as a sort of detective, putting the pieces of a puzzle together when it wasn't entirely clear what the finished picture might look like--the original do it yourself artwork. Over the years, I've pretty much nailed down my ideal sequencing of the material--which loosely follows Priore's Amerciana/Elemental schema--though I haven't quite come up with the perfect mix for "Heroes & Villains", a song which stubbornly resists completion. Even though I know the material backwards and forwards now, it remains mysterious and open ended.

BWPS was a triumph at the time, particularly as a live vehicle, but I rarely go back to the studio recording. I've really been getting into Smiley Smile more in recent years, appreciating it on its own stripped down terms. Hearing the live in the studio version of "Heroes & Villains" on disc 2 of the Sunshine Tomorrow set was a revelation, understated yet still very powerful. But there was a haunted magic about the original Smile sessions that I will always return to.

 

I love Smile, don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite records ever, and will always love it. But I think the fundamental flaw is still always there -- merging the vocals of the Beach Boys, them getting high, goofing around, partying, giggling, coming off of the tours, striped shirts, how does that merge with the ambitious and thoughtful orchestral music which, oh by the way, only exists in minute-long, 30 second fragments, or a verse here and a verse there, stitched. together.... if I'm completely honest with myself as a listener, the "comedy" or "humor" portions don't really gel with the "serious" parts, they are both excellent in their own way but they just don't connect very well to each other. Those two threads or themes are never a satisfying cohesive whole, and that's what keeps people scratching their heads.

I think Smile could be taught in detail as a lesson in business school, organizations, education, or the corporate world, or anytime when groups of people are striving together to accomplish something. The Beach Boys lost their focus, lost track of what their "purpose" in life was, there were conflicts in their mission statement. They probably needed a corporate retreat and a whiteboard session to sort it all out, but I guess whiteboards hadn't been invented yet, LOL.

 

I feel the BWP SMiLE should be called the Darian Sahanaja SMiLE. As I understand it, he did all the preliminary work and convinced Melissa to approach Brian about giving it a shot. Once Brian got involved, it was the two of them working together (with some help from VDP) that produced BWPS.

Having followed the SMiLE saga all the way from Jules Siegel's "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!" piece in his 1972 collection Record, I've heard a lot of different SMiLE assemblages. I used to have one of my own, which I'd tweak periodically. I think the Darian/Brian assemblage is brilliant, and deserves to be considered the "gold standard".

Of course BWPS would never have fit on a single LP, but think of all the wonderful bits that would have been discarded for a one-disc version! BWPS puts most of those bits together into an inspired creation, the realization of Brian's original vision of a "teenage symphony to God". It's the closest pop music has ever come to a true symphony, one that I would put on the shelf next to Charles Ives' Symphony #2.

The London debut blew away everyone in attendance. This wasn't the Beach Boys' answer to Sgt. Pepper's anymore, it was a new work of art. Timeless art.

That said, my favorite version is the DS/BW assemblage created using mostly the SMiLE Sessions tapes. That's the closest to a perfect SMiLE we'll ever get, IMO, although we should always consider it a product of 2004, not 1966-67. Thank you, Darian, for making it happen.

 

Exactly how I feel. Smile exists in its' own universe. It's misguided to compare it to Sgt. Pepper or anything else for that matter.

 

I loved the songs on the Good Vibrations box and was impressed by the Brian Wilson Smile album but could never really got into the Beach Boys Smile album as a whole.

 

I'm not as enamoured with the whole SMiLE thing as I once was, but I always enjoy listening to either the original songs, the BW version, or the version I cobbled together back in 1993, when I got immersed in the legend. Truthfully, though, Sgt. Pepper would have blown SMiLE out of the water...it's just too good.

 

Works of art.

 

This to me was the ultimate downfall of the original album; no Beach Boys album (and few albums in general at the time) breached the 40 minute mark, and Brian was probably stuck between paring down the music to its barest (and not being able to create a workable <40m sequence), or stretching to a double which would have diluted it too far. Had the CD existed then, he’d have had no problem.

The released three-sided vinyl in the box is too awkward to work properly. But as a sequence on a CD, or my iPod, it’s a wonderful listen.

 

They're still selling that book?! Wow! I've had that book for close to 30 years now, back when hearing most of the Smile tapes was still a far-off fantasy! Needless to say, that book helped to make me a rabid fan of any Smile-era tape I could get my hands on!

 

I'm still soooo glad that I got a ticket for the 2004 Smile tour - even though I had just gotten into the BB/BW. I think I only heard some bootlegs, Pet Sounds and a Greatest Hits compilation by the BB by that point.