Van Dyke Barks

[Cam Mott]

And consider how many Beach Boys "albums" prior to 1966 were pure Mike-Brian collaborations on each track versus a combination of various collaborators, cover songs, Brian originals, Brian-Mike collaborations, and throwaway filler like Bull Session and Our Favorite Recording Sessions.

Wasn't SMiLE heading that way too: various collaborators, cover songs, Brian originals, Brian-Mike collaborations, and throwaway filler?  Not so certain on the "throwaway filler" except it might cover "Elements" or the supposed between track dialogues or some such.

[Cam Mott]

bgas, do you still have the 6-reel set of the "London Wavelength Presents The Beach Boys Story" radio special?

[drbeachboy]

"What's the matter? You made too much money, buddy?" - Murry

Eh, they had a nice run of hits. It was time to stretch out a bit. Things got stretched, they snapped, popped back into place decades later for a nice narrative happy ending. Worked out ok, really!

Did it, now?

[Douchepool]

Stretching out led to the band playing for crowds of less than two hundred people in 1968 and colleges for much of the early 1970s. Praise the studio work of the era (and it's amazing stuff), but at the end of the day, if Brian wasn't filthy rich from royalties, the Beach Boys might never have been able to carry on as long as they did with such limited commercial success.

[ontor pertawst]

Yeah that's a shame. I wonder why Mike's natural abilities to write commercial songs totally failed him during those years, sure Brian was sick and de-emphasized but Mr. Positivity should've been ready to pick up the slack with his uncanny ear for commercial hits. He really dropped the ball.

[guitarfool2002]

Was booking a tour with the Maharishi part of this "stretching out"?

[Hank Briarstem]

Oh yes, the Smile lyrics – beautiful, obscure, transcendent and… in some cases, none of the above. The lyrics to “Surf’s Up” are gorgeous and fit as well with a composition as lyrics could. Pretentious? Of course, but majestic and surprisingly accessible when sung to such a wondrous composition. The lyrics to “Cabinessence” reach for and just miss this magnitude. The lyrics to “Wonderful” are just that – wonderful, fragile, perhaps not commercial. The “Wind Chimes” lyrics resonate, but was this song going to be a hit? Were either of the latter two songs candidates to be hit singles?

Many of the remaining lyrics are a mess – puns for puns’ sake, faux poetry and/or outright silliness, which in the latter case is not altogether a bad thing. But some of the lyrics are weak enough to make one wonder whether passive aggression was involved – “Don’t like ‘columnated ruins domino’? How about ‘Out in the barnyard, the chickens do their number. Out in the barnyard, the cook is choppin’ lumber’? That straightforward enough?”

The lyrics to “Surf’s Up” are probably commercial in the same way the lyrics to “Whiter Shade of Pale” were commercial, or “Strawberry Fields Forever.” The lyrics to Cabinessence and “Heroes & Villains” work best by far in the context of the full album, though I do think the H&V lyrics lack something – heart, perhaps. I do not think the lyrics to either song work particularly well as lyrics to a hit pop song , and they lose impact when not incorporated into the whole of the album.

Not one lyric written for Smile is as commercially adept or as beautiful, in some ways, as “I love the colorful clothes she wears and the way the sunlight plays upon her hair. I hear the sound of a gentle word on the wind that lifts her perfume through the air.” We are immediately transported into the presence of a gentle, alluring woman and understand very well what the singer feels – “I’m pickin’ up good vibrations.”

Then just a bit trippier but still straightforward and relatable – “Close my eyes, she's somehow closer now. Softly smile, I know she must be kind. When I look in her eyes she goes with me to a blossom world.”

No wonder the feeling needed a Theremin (or faux Theremin) to describe. This is as close as a pop song could get to describing a first feeling of utter enchantment and inner bliss – the edge of love. And the choruses? A perfect translation of pure excitement at having met this amazing person.

This is the same girl described in “Don’t Worry Baby,” now having become a woman. This is the kind of woman to whom one would sing “God Only Knows.” Regardless of who contributed which words, Good Vibrations is blessed with beautiful lyrics, and those lyrics are extremely commercial.

This is not to suggest that Mike Love or Tony Asher could have or should have provided the lyrics to Smile. It might suggest that Brian Wilson composed music that was not broadly adaptable to commercial tastes, regardless of the accessibility of the lyrics. But VDP’s lyrics do not seem to have been written to appeal to commercial tastes, and I think are uneven, at best, even as an artistic statement.

Still, one could be supremely proud, as a lyricist, of the artistic achievement represented by Surf’s Up.

[Douchepool]

Yeah that's a shame. I wonder why Mike's natural abilities to write commercial songs totally failed him during those years, sure Brian was sick and de-emphasized but Mr. Positivity should've been ready to pick up the slack with his uncanny ear for commercial hits. He really dropped the ball.

It's a matter of nobody except the devoted buying what the Beach Boys had to sell. They could have been releasing Good Vibrations in 1970 and it probably still would have fallen on deaf ears.

[ontor pertawst]

Nah. That melody and those harmonies singing about hemorrhoids would've sold a billion medicated pads.

Next week, Carrot Top on why Pynchon is overrated.

[Hank Briarstem]

Pynchon wrote the lyrics to "Out in the Barnyard"? Good Lord, that explains everything!

[guitarfool2002]

April 1967, Inside Pop, David Oppenheim and Leonard Bernstein suggesting on national television that there are new areas and directions being explored in the area of teenage pop music that go beyond the notion of presenting a hit single that in the words of Dick Clark's Rate-A-Record "have a good beat and you can dance to it". Implying too that the two would and could coexist while pushing the entire genre into something beyond what was expected. It all coexists, yet music was being created that shattered the expectation that a new Beach Boys record was expected to sound like "Surfin Safari" any more than a new Beatles record was expected to sound like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or new Frankie Valli was expected to sound like "Big Girls Don't Cry".

The doors were open, there were a few artists who had already walked in and came back to hold them open for others, and there were those who instead chose to wait too long to the point where they got pushed into a line waiting to get to the doors without realizing they had already been shut.

[Bicyclerider]

Mike's ability to do beautiful even psychedelic lyrics that might fit some of the Smile songs is severely underestimated.  Good Vibrations is the proof, but another personal favorite of mine is She's Goin' Bald.  Trippy and humorous they are way better than He Gives Speeches!  What Mike would not have been able to do is bring that counter culture revolutionary columnated ruins domino attitude and theme.  But could he have done childhood lyrics, or pastoral lyrics for Heroes, I'm in great Shape and Cabinessence?  Sure.  Elements lyrics - Let the Wind Blow anyone?  Americana - more of a stretch but I don't think Worms is one of Van's better efforts anyway.

[drbeachboy]

Nah. That melody and those harmonies singing about hemorrhoids would've sold a billion medicated pads.

Next week, Carrot Top on why Pynchon is overrated.

Seems to be your answer to every conversation you get in on. Screw what everyone else has to say and be a smartass.

[CenturyDeprived]

April 1967, Inside Pop, David Oppenheim and Leonard Bernstein suggesting on national television that there are new areas and directions being explored in the area of teenage pop music that go beyond the notion of presenting a hit single that in the words of Dick Clark's Rate-A-Record "have a good beat and you can dance to it". Implying too that the two would and could coexist while pushing the entire genre into something beyond what was expected. It all coexists, yet music was being created that shattered the expectation that a new Beach Boys record was expected to sound like "Surfin Safari" any more than a new Beatles record was expected to sound like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or new Frankie Valli was expected to sound like "Big Girls Don't Cry".

The doors were open, there were a few artists who had already walked in and came back to hold them open for others, and there were those who instead chose to wait too long to the point where they got pushed into a line waiting to get to the doors without realizing they had already been shut.

One thing that I've never seen discussed was: what did the other BBs think of the Bernstein show? Do you think they all tuned in and watched it at their respective homes? Was there an element of jealousy since it just focused on Brian, and not the band? The Bernstein show aired only about a month before the final SMiLE session was held, which may or may not be relevant to the story in some way.

[ontor pertawst]

Nah. That melody and those harmonies singing about hemorrhoids would've sold a billion medicated pads.

Next week, Carrot Top on why Pynchon is overrated.

Seems to be your answer to every conversation you get in on. Screw what everyone else has to say and be a smartass.

Sorry, father. I'll try to be more like you and carry your weird little personal issue into every single thread. Stop being so tedious. If you're going to engage in the discussion, go right ahead. I might be snarky, but I'm talking about VDP and Good Vibrations. I disagreed with the other poster. You're just bringing personal attacks into it... why? Are you still miffed your previous snipping missed by a thousand miles?

Enough with the tedium, please. When you're elected mod you can go right ahead and lecture me. Otherwise, file under "yawn." I swear, if you break out that tired old "waaah I don't like you waaah sarcasm" song, I'm going to fall asleep. Duly noted, disinterested, and definitely not up for rehashing your boring complaints for the 808508th time. Alert the mods if you're furious, but maybe just stop interacting with me on these forums if you're so touchy. When you see the avatar, just mentally scroll down a bit further to the next comment. There. Solved!

[Cam Mott]

I assume if VDP wasn't involved he therefore wouldn't have brought his Americana and historical and other themes to the party and so those marks wouldn't have been there for someone else to try and hit. Another collaborator might have gone more in what I presume are Brian's directions of windchimes and vegetables and the Elements and humor and God etc., etc..  Something more like what Brian actually did with Smiley Smile, mostly de-VDP it and go goofier.

[drbeachboy]

Nah. That melody and those harmonies singing about hemorrhoids would've sold a billion medicated pads.

Next week, Carrot Top on why Pynchon is overrated.

Seems to be your answer to every conversation you get in on. Screw what everyone else has to say and be a smartass.

Sorry, daddy. I'll try to be more like you and carry your weird little personal issue into every single thread. Stop being so tedious. If you're going to engage in the discussion, go right ahead. I might be snarky, but I'm talking about VDP and Good Vibrations. I disagreed with the other poster. You're just bringing personal attacks into it... why? Are you still miffed your previous snipping missed by a thousand miles?

Enough with the tedium, please. When you're elected mod you can go right ahead and lecture me. Otherwise, file under "yawn."

At you? Not miffed here. You aren't worth my time to feel anything, except pity for your poor sense of humor.

[ontor pertawst]

Right, that's why you have to point it out repeatedly. Out of benevolent disinterest. Thanks for the charity, doc. Christ, all I said was that I thought the music and harmonies made Good Vibrations and the lyrics could've been about anything and probably been a hit in hypothetical bizarro world. Hardly a controversial claim or something worth your snipping.

 Yeesh! Some people. This is incredibly tedious, so feel free to have the last word and show us your comedy gifts, which I somehow never felt the need to judge repeatedly...

Back to Good Vibrations and all the Van Dyking.

[Komera]

My personal take on the whole lot of them is that at least in Van's and Brian's case, they aren't always aware of how others will take what they're saying.  That's not to say that they're never aware of how others take what they're saying, just that sometimes they actually have no idea how insulting they sound.  Not that Brian himself has a mean bone in his body, of course.  Whereas with someone like Mike, there's never the case of "wait, was that an insult?"  If Mike's got an insult going through his mind, it will come out unfiltered.

Somewhere in my ten thousand BB bookmarks is an interview with Van, where roughly paraphrased he says he went to see the boys to congratulate them on being adults.  You'd think the bookmark would be under the folder "Interviews", but I seem to have placed it elsewhere.  Anyway, in the interview, he goes on to say that the boys are acting like adults by continuing to record instead of breaking up (and at least they're not recording Manson).  But man-oh-man if anyone I knew would come visit me and actually SAY "Hey, great job acting like a grown-up!", I'd probably slam the door in their face.  Oh, I have no doubt that linking to that shred in Twitter was intentional.  But outside that it seems to me that he's swallowed so many dictionaries that he's forgotten that words have connotations.

Brian on the other hand...  I've seen quite a few places where he's described as simply having a savant-ish ability.  My own original opinion of him was "as close to a savant as you'll get without actually being a savant".  That has since been amended to "probably has a bit of Asperger syndrome".  That is, enough autism to mess up his social abilities.  One of the key signs of Asperger is a lack of empathy (in this case, meaning the ability to understand what a person is experiencing from their frame of reference).  I don't think Brian actually understands how much he hurt Mike's feelings by going with Asher and then Van for lyrics.  Another trait of Asperger is a failure to react appropriately to social interaction.  Saw that plenty from Brian in the 70s.  That old RS article, Saving Brother Brian, it mentions Landy having to teach Brian how to interact with people (again).

I don't think Asperger explains Brian's weirdness.  His weirdness I personally feel was actually an overcompensation for depression and auditory hallucinations.  Overcompensation rarely works with mental illness, and it certainly didn't work in Brian's case.

Edit: Spelling.

[Cam Mott]

Was booking a tour with the Maharishi part of this "stretching out"?

A very bold stretching out maybe.

[joshferrell]

I'm in the minority here who think that if Brian had turned to Mike Love as a collaborator for Smile, they would have succeeded a la Good Vibrations while still preserving Brian's more quirky or experimental edge. Those two, as collaborators were on a roll back then; and everything they put their hands on turned into gold. And the darned thing would probably have been completed.

You're so right. I ache to hear what the world missed out on with what could have been Mike Love-penned lyrics on Surf's Up.

Surfs up
(Lyrics by Mike Love)

The surf is way up tonight
it totally makes me feel alright
like a surfer on the Kona Coast
(My wave my wave)
Going down to kokomo
Surfing is all we really know
Get your surf boards and wax them up
(My wave my wave)

culminated title wave ohhh oh

wet water over coming me
Surfing is fun can't you see
To a tide dissolved on the beach

 
surfin is where we like to go
wax down the surf boards and let's together again
in the moonlight, come with me
 culminated surfer wave
canvas the beach for bikini babes
are you surfing? Surfer John?
seagulls flying above our head
and flew just above our tidal wave
carried our boards
to steps into the water
the laughs come hard for surfer joe
The surf was raised the moon was bright
The fullness of coke a cola, in tin can coasting
while surfing, you'll do or die
A choke when wiping out
it's beyond belief a surfer too tough to lose

Surfs up ohhh oohhh
let's surf upon a tidal wave
come and be hip ohhhh oohhh
just like the other surfer boys
I heard the wave
it's coming through


Waves are the children of the earth

[Hank Briarstem]

By crackies, you put a little finger poppin' on that,  it's gonna be a million-and-two seller.

[buddhahat]

If smile did come out way back when it probably would have been heralded as the greatest album of all time, lord knows how many millions it would have sold and what it would have done for Van's career.

Maybe as he get's older it's been bothering him more that smile got shelved and holds some resentment towards Brian for it.

I don't know, in my opinion it's the only way to explain Van's cheap shots at Brian.

It would have been a commercial disappointment -- too arty for the mainstream, too pop for the counterculture. I can see it having become a cult hit critically, though, along the lines of 'Forever Changes'.

Much better for Brian's rep that it went unreleased, so as to develop its legend as a lost masterpiece.

I'm sorry but this myth really needs to die.

Pet Sounds went top ten and its sales were underreported by Capitol so it probably did even better. They were voted the #1 group in the world. GV was #1 and their biggest hit yet. They were just as hot as they ever were. Capitol hyped up SMiLE big time. The Brian is a genius mantra was ramping up and getting people excited. SMiLE very well could have went #1 had it come out in January as planned. It probably would have went top ten as long as it came out prior to June and was at least released neck and neck with Pepper.

I'm not sure why the "Pet Sounds flopped"/"SMiLE would have flopped" talking points are so prevalent but they have no basis in fact. Sgt Pepper is pop. I'd say even outright fluff. And it went number one and for reasons I still can't figure out, got hailed as some innovative masterpiece. SMiLE is ten times are innovative. It's also more daring, in how it tackles mature themes in an unapologetic way while seamlessly merging them with the classic Beach Boys sound.

It may not have been as impactful at the time as Pepper just because the Beatles are the Beatles. But it would have been a hit. People who appreciate great music would have respected it over Pepper. And as time wore on, it's stature would grow, similar to Pet Sounds, to where it would be hailed as the best album from 1967. Of that, I'm sure.

SMiLE not coming out in 1967 isn't good. It severely damaged Brian's confidence and the band's reputation. It robbed the musical world of a masterpiece and the counterculture of a more worthy banner to rally behind.  

I don't agree at all. I'm fairly sure Smile would have been a commercial flop and think Clack is on the money with his Forever Changes comparison. Yes Pet Sounds was successful but Smile and Pet Sounds are very different. Pet Sounds has universally relatable material - anybody with a heartbeat can connect with the themes of young love and heartbreak - Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows, Sloop John B - commercial radio friendly hits then and now - I don't see any Smile song bar Good Vibrations showing up in an Adam Sandler movie any time soon. I'm convinced VDP's lyrics would have stymied any commercial potential the album had. But VDP isn't to blame. Dylan got away with obscure, arty lyrics and sold sh*t loads of records but 'hip poet' was his whole oeuvre and a very saleable image at the time. Sgt Pepper is oblique at times but somehow manages to package the LSD experience into something universal. (You consistently underestimate the quality of that album. It isn't just a case of it sounding less complex/more shallow than Smile and therefore being not as good.) VDP's lyrics were too at odds with the BBs existing image (and existing market) and I think therein lies the problem. Folks were just not ready to buy that band producing those far out sounds, however incredible the music would prove itself to be.

Also I think it's worthing raising the issue of sex appeal. Smile is not sexy music. It's cerebral, complex, genius stuff but it doesn't strike me as sexy in any way, shape or form, with the exception of, maybe, Good Vibrations. The Beatles were sexy and (if we're focusing on the Sgt Pepper album) a lot of the tracks touch on boy girl themes - the opening track has that sexy Hendrix riff, lennon's cynical, sneery psycho-sexual weirdness permeates much of his songs, plus Paul's wide-eyed cutesy stuff - It's an arguably sexy album. Dylan's sex appeal is self evident. But Smile? Roll Plymouth Rock?? Heroes and Villains??? And let's not even get into Vegatables!!

The Beach Boys could produce testosterone-fuelled, sexy records when they addressed teenage, californian themes of surfing, hot rods etc. - metaphors for sex. But Smile with its whole Amercian expansion thing ... It's more like a history lesson! I love it, but it is not sexy and as we all know - sex sells  

[GhostyTMRS]

I don't take VDP's "shred" video as anything more than his attempt at just being silly. His past tweets from earlier this year could be interpreted as more incendiary ("Free Brian Wilson" anyone?) in my opinion.  When you take them all together, however, it doesn't exactly paint a picture of a guy who's thrilled about his legacy in Beach Boydom.

And I'm not a VDP apologist. I think Pet Sounds mops the floor with SMiLE (although it was never finished so it's a bit unfair to put it up against a solid, completed album). I like a lot of VDP's lyrics for SMiLE, although a few of them read like a 22 year old kid noodling in a creative writing class....and I have a feeling even VDP would agree with me.  

[Fire Wind]

I wish he'd talk openly.  I'm interested in his and Daro's views.  Even if it's what most of us don't really want to hear and doesn't paint BW in a good light, it's an interesting perspective on the time.