What do you think would have have happened if the Beach Boys finished Smile?

I was very depressed when I turned 33, because 32 is the last audible year in the song's fade-out.

 

I woud probably put ABBA ahead of the Beach Boys when determining who made the finest pop music of the latter half of the 20th century...and I don't even like ABBA. But, its all subjective.

 

Nah, 30 was the year I was depressed

 

Hmmm....that means, there weren't any beaches or surfers or cars or girls in California before the Beach Boys came along? Or the people didn't notice them before the Beach Boys made them aware?
No doubt their music helped transporting a certain image about California into the world. But so did Scott McKenzie with "San Francisco".
But cultural leaders? I can't remember people trying to look like the Beach Boys or also sound like them as countless musicians did following the paths of the Beatles or the Stones.

 

As much as I love SMiLE in its various incarnations, I don't see it having had a big impact in 1967. Sure, with our 50 or so years of hindsight, we can now extol BW as an all-time great composer, arranger, visionary, musical genius, etc. and so on, but in 1967, was Brian perceived in that way by the general public? No. Did Brian have anywhere near the high public profile of the individual Beatles? No. The Beach Boys were that group that had a lot of big radio hits with catchy tunes about surfing, cars, and girls. SMiLE would have confused the public greatly. Pet Sounds had a whole lot more coherency and accessibility but as others have pointed out, it didn't become a cultural touchstone or considered a masterpiece until long after it appeared. SMiLE would not have drawn a whole lot of attention away from Pepper, which was, overnight, the cultural touchstone that PS was not and that SMiLE never would be.

With the same 50 years of hindsight, I think it's safe to say that things worked out the way they were meant to. SMiLE was a grand, unfulfilled, and ultimately failed experiment undertaken by an unappreciated and relatively anonymous (at the time) genius. That's not to say it's a bad record by any means. But in the context of 1967, I feel it would have gone down as a bust.

 

I think Brian Wilson's collapse and the back-to-basics direction were all but inevitable.

However, given that Smile was not actually finished and marketed at the time, the back-to-basics turn did not make as much sense to the public as it did in the case of the Beatles, with the Pepper's - Magical Mystery Tour - White Album progression

 

Assuming SMiLE had been released in the first half of 1967:

It would have been a minor hit, with Surf's Up, Wonderful, Heroes & villains, and Windchimes becoming radio perennials.

Brian Wilson would have made one more album, that was also a minor hit, solely on early sales due to SMiLE. It would have been much weirder.

Because his methods were "proven to work" with SMiLE, Brian would have pushed his excesses even further, and not made it past SMiLE's follow-up.

The Beach Boys would have made an album after Brian's passing, but not having Brian, no SMiLE material to pilfer, Carl & Dennis not being experienced songwriters yet, it would have bombed.

Group would have broken up.

Carl and Dennis would have formed a new group together in the early 70s, very mellow. Al would have delved fully into folk/country-rock, becoming part of the CSN/Eagles/Jackson Browne scene. Mike would have invested in gas stations, and would now be an electric/hydrogen station mogul.

 

I think they'd have all gone out for a burger.

 

I think Mike's achievements top off around here:

 

Yeah, I think ABBA were pretty good at writing songs and crafting pop music in the studio, but Girl With The Golden Hair is no Smile. But it might be better than the transistor radio mini opera on Holland.

 

Most of us know that Mike Love worked at a gas station. I had a paper route before I eventually became an electrical engineer. My daughter tossed burgers at Wendy's before she became a radiologist. None of The Beach Boys were ever any kind of professional except as musical artists. I think they did OK.

 

I think the point was, but for Brian, the ever personable Mr. Love wouldn't have a career (or defendant).

 

Probably true. There's also a definite possibility that, but for Mike, Brian Wilson wouldn't have a career.

 

I'll take that action!

 

^ Yeah, I want in too!

Maybe "mogul" means "attendant."


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I agree with this in pretty much total. Smile is assuredly what's left of a tortured genius cut down in the midst of his work by mental illness. But all the pieces are not there, and it does not hold together for me. Nor does it sound like the next step in Brian's progression. It's a work in progress that suggests brilliance, and where there are brilliant passages, but not done.

It can't be finished. I mean, we have what they call the finished Smile. And given both the fact that the extant tapes are the extant tapes and the fact that Brian's brain is a million miles from where it was when he was conceiving this, it's as good as it could be. But if what we have as Smile had been released when it was supposed to be? I think it would be considered a brilliant miss--somewhat too flabby, somewhat too disjointed. The stand alone moments of real bliss remain. Nothing could take away from Good Vibrations or Surf's Up. Heroes and Villains may not be entirely finished as Brian envisioned, but it's close enough to also be a self enclosed highlight. But for me, while there are superior passages elsewhere, it just feels like what it is, which is something else again just slightly out of reach. Brian was reaching for the stars, and he might well have heard in his head exactly what was needed to tighten up the rest. But he never got there before he collapsed.

 

Somehow I find this more intriguing than the Smile discussion. Was thinking about the song 4th of July a lot during the holiday, what a poignant little song. I love the idea of Wilson Bros album run in the 70s.

 

Yes. And thats why I dont agree with the thoughts that are along the lines of "Brian just needed a kick in the ass" or "if only he had someone to have focused his work on SMiLE"

Brian didnt need a kick in the butt to finish Good Vibrations. I dont think he needed a kick in the butt or a "Come on Brian, get this done." He needed a new nervous system by the middle of this. He knew what he wanted. Its simply that the experiment of the piecemeal modal method was extremely difficult with one song, much less twelve.

Much more layering, much more vocal work and instrumentation needed. But by the time he was almost at that point of piecemealing, he was worn out. And time had passed. He was now behind the 8 ball. And that would not be acceptable as the leader of new ideas and sounds.

No way he was nearly finished with SMiLE. Its way too boney. The haunted house of mirrors was left and the ghosts unamed.

 

I believe Carl, Dennis, Blondie and Ricky at one time actually considered forming a band.

 

Prayer
Time To Get Alone
Bicycle Rider (link)
Diamond Head
Worms
H&V
Holidays
Link
OMP / MOS
Wonderful
Link
Song For Children aka Look
Link
Child
Link
Cabinessence
Link
Wind Chimes
Fall Breaks
Vegetables
Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)
Dada / Cool Cool Water
Workshop
Surf's Up

 

Just like O.J. and Kato...

 

Even the watered-down Smiley Smile - parts of it, anyway - created an atmosphere quite unlike any other album I'd ever heard up to then. If SMiLE had been completed and released in 1967, I believe its strangeness and beauty would have had a profound effect on a great number of listeners; it may even have been the equivalent of the Velvets' first album in influencing other writers and musicians. Sadly, we'll never know.

 

A lost opportunity.

 

And likely Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson wouldn't have either.