Smiley Smile vs. Smile

I just connect with the songs on Smile more, mostly for reasons @Andreas mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

I prefer Smiley Smile. Both are good listens, but I like the cover of Smiley better, and I listen to the whole album more often. That said I do like the SMiLE version of Heroes and Villains as well as the one on Smiley, and this time of year you can't beat He Gives Speeches!

 

Nothing is real.



Rumors of unreality to the contrary, I have a boat load of stuff with a SMiLE label on it and it all sounds great.

Most music nowadays is just ones and zeros so why worry about it. The alleged unreality of SMiLE is a part of its charm.

I voted for SMiLE but I love Smiley Smile too.

 

I like both. Also love 2004's Brian Wilson presents SMiLE. But as far as individual songs, I will always prefer the "Surf's Up" album version of Surf's Up... I love the "Smiley Smile" version of "Good Vibrations" best.

 

Back in 1967, I thought Smiley Smile had a couple of good tracks in addition to the singles, but overall was a bit of a mess: the songs were really strange, and the production and arrangements were far too sparse. If the word ‘underwhelming’ had existed back then, it would have described it perfectly.

If someone had been able to play me SMiLE back then and asked me to choose between the two, I know I would have gone for SMiLE over Smiley Smile. The songs are no less strange, but the production and arrangements enhance rather than diminish them, and make for a far more satisfactory listening experience.

The two different arrangements of Wonderful exemplify this for me. The harmonies in the SMiLE version take it to heights that the Smiley Smile version - to my mind - never approaches. Until hearing the SMiLE version, it was as if I’d been listening to a demo all these years.

 

The interactive album Smile is the best, where fans can hear all of these fantastic musical ideas and put them together to create their own never-ending, never quite completed album. Giving the fans the opportunity with modern technology to be a part of the album's creation has been one of the greatest and most satisfying releases in history.

The officially released Smile album from the box set is fine, but they sorta ruined some of the previously humorous musical segments, and the sequencing isn't as fulfilling as each fan's own creation.

Smiley Smile is enjoyable weirdness.

 

Agreed. I used to dismiss Smiley Smile as the disappointing mutant afterbirth of Smile, but I've really come to enjoy the stripped down, oddball minimalism of the thing, thanks in large part to the stereo remix, which really opened the arrangements up where the old mono mix felt too muddy and claustrophobic. The low key delicacy of a track like "Little Pad", with all the little details ringing out, makes for a lovely pop art miniature. I've constructed an expanded edition of my own including some of the bonus materials from Sunshine Tomorrow, like the alternate piano version of "Surf's Up" and the groovy rehearsal take on "Heroes & Villains", which fits the Smiley vibe better than the original single mix, imo. I still prefer the sprawling ambition of the original Smile sessions overall, though I find myself reaching for Smiley more often these days.

I'd love to see them release a complete stereo version of the best of the Smile sessions, omitting some of the needless fly-ins. The stereo mixes that they did for "Vegetables" and "Wind Chimes" were outstanding. Don't be afraid to go back to the Smile well one more time, guys!

 

I found Smiley Smile in 1967 to be a real disappointment after the big build-up and the pop perfection of Good Vibrations and, to a lesser extent, Heroes and Villains. As Carl put it then, a bunt, rather than a home run. Imagine my surprise then when, after nearly 50 years of myth building and glimpses of the Smile material through official and not so legitimate releases, I got the big Capitol box and found that Smile was largely unfocused, self-involved and somewhat tedious. Like one extended stoned, inside joke. I know others love it, but I believe the Boys were right to put the brakes on it in the 60s. Like back then when something that seemed profound during a session with the benefit of organics seemed less so in the cold light of day.
YMMV, and probably does.

 

Smiley Smile, for me. My favorite version of Heroes and Villains.

 

Smiley Smile sounds so great, particularly in stereo. A weird yet wonderful album.

 

Here’s a good question: was Smiley Smile any more commercial than Smile might have been?
SS seems even more strange and hermetic than anything from the more intricate and jewelry-like Smile sessions.

 

Heretic! They used to burn people at the stake for things like that but now we live in enlightened times

 

I don't think Brian was "out of it" at that point. The beginnings of it, yes, but listening to the session material, he is still focused and coming up with ideas. I don't think Brian became totally out until 1969/70 , when Murry sold the Sea of Tunes publishing and Brian's expanding use of cocaine began to affect his musical interests and voice.

 

Smiley Smile is a real album, Smile is in my view a contrivance.

The former is an underappreciated classic.

 

Smile sounds like an unstaged Rodgers & Hammerstein musical...

 

I like them both. I prefer most of the early Smile versions though. Even though Smile is out there, I don't think it's finished. The released version just has too much information and unfinished songs within it that I still think of the album as a puzzle.

 

Smiley Smile was one of the first studio albums of the BBs I ever bought. After being knocked out by their early hits and then Pet Sounds, I was again floored by Smiley Smile. So much so that when I finally heard some of the Smile material, I never liked it as much as a whole piece of art but I did like some of the versions of the songs better.

 

While I generally prefer Smile, I do think that Smiley is an overlooked classic, and I do like the dark, creepy vibe on several of the tracks, notably "Wind Chimes" and "Wonderful."

Smiley may get more love if we never knew about Smile.

I like the OP's idea of adding tracks. I would probably add only "You're Welcome" and the Brian solo version of "Surf's Up."

 

For reference: Brian Wilson's SMiLE vs Beach Boys' 2011 SMiLE

 

I second this, third it even. It really is interesting how most of what was "known" about Smile has proven to be fundamentally incorrect in some way. If you were to look at it sans "shattered genius" mythology, it's just a year's worth of production for Smiley Smile --working out a few compositional redundancies (does every track have to be a modular smorgasbord?) and aesthetic threads that failed to develop -- plus a handful of outtakes that were released in various forms within a few years.

 

Certainly now if I play the vinyl Smile from the 'Sessions' box it works better than SS overall. I always loved SS but the problem has been to me that it's two great singles stuck onto a DIY EP, and GV and H&V, though they are what sold it in 67, stick out like the proverbial thumb. When they went fully DIY with Wild Honey it worked far better. Smile, a bit like the White Album, works by living as much in the imagination as in reality.

 

But is Smile any less "focused" or stoned sounding than Smiley Smile? I think songs like Surf's Up, Cabinessence, Wonderful, Wind Chimes and Good Vibrations give Smile a real focused sound, as opposed to Fall Breaks And Back To Winter, Little Pad, She's Goin' Bald, etc. YMMV, of course!

 

because imho SS is an embarrassment. And not from what we know it could have been but compared to their previous body of work and what their peers were releasing at that time. Don’t think I’ve listen to it since Smile box and probably never will

 

Smiley Smile did irreparable damage to the group; they never quite recovered. Smiley Smile is inferior to Smile (or the Smile Sessions) in almost every way with the possible exceptions of the "whispering winds" segment and "With Me Tonight", which I think would've fit well on Smile.

 

I read that book. Entertaining and insightful look into Brian Wilson' s state of mind and beyond.