Alan Jardine Talks About SMiLE, August 2003

[Andrew G. Doe]

The one constant in these guys' memories is that what they heard of SMiLE was just fragments. I had always assumed that Brian would play them rough mixes of stuff. For awhile now I've been thinking the exact opposite, that all the guys heard were sections. They didn't need to hear the music to do their parts because Brian was just telling them what to do and how to do it. So that sort of kills the whole 'The Boys Didn't Dig It' deal right there, because there wasn't anything to dig.

I think they didn't dig the fact that there wasn't anything to dig.  

[Cam Mott]

I think what the  Beach Boys didn't dig was being sessions musicians to music that was going to be very difficult to reproduce on stage written by the guy who wouldn't be on stage with them. That's always been my impressions anyway.

More difficult than Good Vibrations or God Only Knows or Wouldn't it Be Nice or Sloop John B or.....?

[pixletwin]

I think what the  Beach Boys didn't dig was being sessions musicians to music that was going to be very difficult to reproduce on stage written by the guy who wouldn't be on stage with them. That's always been my impressions anyway.

More difficult than Good Vibrations or God Only Knows or Wouldn't it Be Nice or Sloop John B or.....?

I am sure you have heard the early live version of those songs though, right? They sound so heavy and encumbered. Almost like they exhausted themselves to the core just to get through them.

[shelter]

Funny how 'the fans' know who/when/where more often than the people who participated in the same activity that we study the life of.

I agree. Sometimes when I read interviews I think it's just amazing how little The Beach Boys seem to know about their own career. Of course it would be weird if they would study their own career as obsessively as some of us fans do, but come on... The Beach Boys have been a HUGE part of Al's life for half a century. It was his job, his creative outlet, his career, his hobby and his social circle for decades, it's the reason why he's been rich and famous for most of his life, it's what he will be remembered for long after he's gone... And yet he hardly seems to even know what was and what wasn’t released by the band.

[bgas]

Funny how 'the fans' know who/when/where more often than the people who participated in the same activity that we study the life of.

I agree. Sometimes when I read interviews I think it's just amazing how little The Beach Boys seem to know about their own career. Of course it would be weird if they would study their own career as obsessively as some of us fans do, but come on... The Beach Boys have been a HUGE part of Al's life for half a century. It was his job, his creative outlet, his career, his hobby and his social circle for decades, it's the reason why he's been rich and famous for most of his life, it's what he will be remembered for long after he's gone... And yet he hardly seems to even know what was and what wasn’t released by the band.

It's just a job, man

[Cam Mott]

I think what the  Beach Boys didn't dig was being sessions musicians to music that was going to be very difficult to reproduce on stage written by the guy who wouldn't be on stage with them. That's always been my impressions anyway.

More difficult than Good Vibrations or God Only Knows or Wouldn't it Be Nice or Sloop John B or.....?

I am sure you have heard the early live version of those songs though, right? They sound so heavy and encumbered. Almost like they exhausted themselves to the core just to get through them.

That may or may not be, but point is they chose to do them and continue to do them so to me the idea that SMiLE songs would have been different seems like a straw man agrument. I've been wrong before however.