My Last (?) Crack at the SMiLE Jigsaw

[Julia]

I know we have a few SMiLE threads active on the front page but I thought this one warranted its own topic due to its massive size.

When I was obsessed with this album 10-odd years ago, I was admittedly getting most of my information from second-hand sources like the Wikipedia pages, Beautiful Dreamer documentary, old SMiLE shop essays, Surfer Moon essays, the GoodHumorSmile site, whatever other websites were around at the time (like "SmileySmile is SMiLE" and some about the making of the '03 album) as well as this forum itself. I read the Peter Ames Carlin biography but there really isn't too much revelatory info in there if you don't already know the big picture; he gives a great general overview but no day-by-day hard information. I'd always intended to read LLVS but hadn't gotten around to it due to school, personal stuff, intimidation by its size, etc. I did read the most oft-cited articles within, the ones that really make you feel like you were there (Vosse Fusion & Teen Set, Anderle Crawdaddy, Siegel "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God," etc.)

Lately though, I've started going into more "hard scholarship" (IE sources with no editorializing, just reporting the facts and documenting what happened with dated citations) about this topic and it's revealed to me some things that I think get lost in the discussion of the album as a whole. Maybe Im preaching to the choir, maybe I'm debating/disproving decades old spats from the forum that aren't relevant anymore, but I'm gonna share my new insights into the project after looking at AGD's index of the recording sessions at Bellagio10452 and Keith Badman's "Beach Boys Diary." I'll include a link to the Internet Archive copy of the book so everyone can read it and make up their own mind; I'm not here to tell other people what to think, just share my own reactions. Also, if I "call out" anyone's old theories and say "this seems to disprove XYZ" I don't want to come off as snarky or like I'm trampling other people's fun, this is just in pursuit of the truth as best it can be determined. Honestly, most of the "refuted" theories I mention in this tome were ones I really liked at the time.

So, here is my "commentary track" to the Badman book's most illuminating passages, in no particular order:
https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm/page/180/mode/2up
http://www.bellagio10452.com/gigs66.html

0. This isn't really important but still. I had heard about the famous piano sandbox, living room gym, Arab tent, business meetings in the pool, purple house and proposed slide from the upstairs into a bed that was deemed impractical to build. But I never knew Brian had wanted a pet giraffe in his backyard and the city specifically told him he couldn't until I read this book. Brian really was the perfect archetype of an eccentric genius, a real-life Willy Wonka.

1. On the Name Change From "Dumb Angel" to SMiLE

This supposedly occurred sometime in early September '66. It seems to dispute a theory I'd seen floating around back in the day, that the more serious music was recorded in the "Dumb Angel phase" of the project and as the new title came about, the sessions changed to the friendlier goofy music (IE the endless H&V segments, Veggies, etc). A few people even hypothesized that a possible reason the album was scrapped was because Brian realized the melancholy music supposedly made under the Dumb Angel moniker no longer fit with where he wanted the project to go, the lighthearted SMiLE stuff. But, this date would largely dispel that notion, because the vast majority of the SMiLE sessions happened in and after September. All you get from August is Wind Chimes, I Ran, Wonderful, He Gives Speeches and GV. (Of course there are other GV dates and a single stab at Heroes before August too). Most of the core tracks of the album were written before the name change it is true, but if Brian thought SMiLE was an ill-fitting name for the likes of Cabinessence and Surf's Up, it wouldn't explain why those songs were recorded after the change, unless it took him awhile to notice the discrepancy (I'll touch on this theory in point #28). Even "Prayer," which was said to be "fitting for an album called Dumb Angel, but not for one called SMiLE" is recorded after this date. Now, personally, I prefer Dumb Angel as a title as it's more evocative, descriptive of the music and less generic, but Brian seemed to think differently.

2. Humor in and in-between Songs

There used to be (and maybe still is) a lot of pushback for including the Psychedelic Sounds on fanmixes, or doing anything more avant garde than "a simple 12-track banded album without segues or interludes" but on page 147 there's a clear direct quote from Brian saying "there's going to be a lot of humor on the album [...] a lot of talking and laughing between the cuts." The prevailing wisdom back in '15 was that anything spoken word or humorous belonged in this "separate humor album" admittedly attested to in some of the primary sources and even elsewhere in the Badman book. Regardless, it seems clear there was always a lot of bleed over between the two concepts if indeed they were even meant to be separate at all, which I think is somewhat debatable. (And certainly by Smiley at the latest the two ideas were merged entirely).

I'm NOT "hobby horsing" for my pet theory here either; personally, I've tried the "humorous quips between each song" thing with one of my fanmixes and while it was very interesting for awhile, I grew dissatisfied with the results rather quickly. That doesn't change the fact that, at least for a day, a week, a month, the rest of '66, whatever, Brian at least considered something more experimental. Ultimately, he changed his mind or realized it wouldn't work--the album was scrapped after all--but it's still something he considered doing and that needs to be part of the conversation of a "historical SMiLE." Also, I just think, to look at the Veggie Fight, George Fell, Moaning Laughing, Taxi Cabber (plus a quote I recall reading years ago but can't find again, about a barroom brawl recorded for use in Heroes) and say "nah, none of that meant anything, it's irrelevant, you're totally reaching by thinking there's a connection there" when we have a direct quote from the man himself, in 1966 no less, is just denying an inconvenient reality.

There's another quote outside the book too, also from Brian: “The album will include lots of humor - some musical and some spoken. It won’t be like a comedy LP - there won’t be any spoken tracks as such - but someone might say something in between verses,” which has at least one known actualized instance ("You're Under Arrest!" in Heroes) and one abandoned ("we're gonna have a lot of talking in the pauses" in an early Dada session) to say nothing of Smiley Smile's "good!" and laughing in Little Pad, etc. It's debatable how far Brian would've gone with this, but it's not too unreasonable to think SMiLE might've been more similar to Frank Zappa than the Beatles. I know some have claimed to speak with VDP, who has attested SMiLE was "a simple 12 track banded album" but since we have a contradictory and vintage Brian quote, I suggest this is further evidence the two were not always on the same page (see point #28). VDP also did not seem to appreciate Brian's humor or the PsychSounds aspects of the project in general, which makes me think he's downplaying their importance.

3. When Did Brian and Van Begin the Project

Searching for an answer to this question is actually how I found this book and began reading. It seems as though the first meeting with VDP in May led to H&V, Worms and CE, aka the core of the Americana suite. The rest came later, over the five months between May when the collaboration started and September when the name changed and recording picked up in earnest. The book implies that Van worked on "Wind Chimes" (which is significant because he was originally uncredited but then pressed for recognition in '03) and "I Ran" (also significant as there was a vocal session now lost to time, implying it had real lyrics not just vocalizations). Also, Brian's interest in what Badman calls "the occult" (and what I'd call Aquarian/New Age spirituality) supposedly began around the same time, May of '66, dates and sequential order of whether Brian changed before or after meeting Van are vague. But, this month is when Brian's Pet Sounds nostalgia of "In My Childhood" and processing his own youthful angst gives way to a more forward-thinking "change the world"/"grand statement on life & society"/"music people would pray to" perspective that sets SMiLE apart from anything he'd done up to this point (and arguably would ever do again).

4. The GV Tape Incident

Has it ever been explained what happened when the GV tapes went missing for two days? This seems like such a crazy anecdote and I can't find much discussion of it anywhere. Between this and the revelation that both Capitol and Murry were screwing him over, plus the weird coincidence with "Seconds" it's almost no wonder Brian got so paranoid. Also, it's a damn shame Phil Spector was such a piece of human garbage. Brian obviously needed a supportive father figure in his life and in another timeline, I think even just having Phil be nice to him might've made all the difference it took to get SMiLE out the door.

5. The Peak of the Sessions

The famous anecdotes about late night salons with cool people in LA, wanting to buy a telescope and ping pong table in the middle of the night, the hookah tent, playing acetates he recognizes by their grooves, the cutlery symphony, the "teenage symphony to God" quote, all seem to have happened in October '66. I think if you could point to one bright and shining moment where this project was at its zenith, when SMiLE seemed poised to take the world by storm, just before Icarus' wings melted, it'd be that late Oct-early Nov window. If you had a time machine and could save the project from its own creator, that's where you'd want to go back to. That said, while Fire in 11/28 was still a major turning point, it's not quite as dramatic of a drop-off as I'd previously thought. December still saw productive work on several other non-single tracks, where previously I had supposed there was a seismic refocus on Heroes immediately after.

However, the testimonies of Oppenheim and others from even this idyllic period, I think, are foreboding of Brian's tragic flaw. He didn't complete SMiLE, not just because of lack of support and logistical hurdles but: (paraphrasing) he would get seemingly random, unrelated urges in his head and want immediate satisfaction, then forget them soon after or lose interest if they couldn't be fulfilled right then and there. Essentially the whole album was a victim of this same manic, attention-deficit tendency. I think the real villain in the story isn't the oft-maligned LSD so much as chronic, years-long abuse of speed and hash, which I don't see too many people make note of. Acid exacerbated Brian's dormant schizoaffective disorder but it's also something of an overstated scapegoat (I think conservatives among us have an axe to grind against psychedelics) and in my opinion the album still happens if he just laid off the desbutol.

6. The Track You Can Definitely Skip

The "Trombone Dixie" of SMiLE is unequivocally "Holidays," a single-sessioned track, made early in the process and never touched again. While "I Ran" is sometimes held in a similar regard, at least it was revisited once, had vocals and was given a new title, which indicates a good deal more thought went into it. Even "He Gives Speeches," another early outtake, at least became "Bald" and the backing track morphed into the OMP/"Barnshine" fade. If one is going to be a stickler about "what would '66-'67 Brian do" while simultaneously making excuses to ignore the December tracklist, I think "I Ran" makes more sense as a "vanity inclusion" than Holidays. Also, I don't think Holidays was an early version of DYLW as some have suggested in the past, so much as Brian recycled parts of the melody as he was prone to do. He never wastes a good rift on an unreleased or obscure track. (I'm not trying to say "don't use Holidays, you're wrong if you put it on a mix" I'm just saying I think we can rule it out as something Brian would've done.)

7. Further Evidence "Wind Chimes" Isn't Air

Similarly, I never really gave much thought before to how Wind Chimes arguably predates the actual SMiLE sessions proper and was kind of grandfathered in because it was too good to shelve (unlike Holidays--though it's great, it wasnt "great enough" for '66 Brian's standards). Use it as "air" if you want, that retcon was even good enough for Brian in '03, but it's pretty clear looking at its early recording date as the third ever SMiLE song, besides GV (which might've been on Pet Sounds had Brian not been such a perfectionist) and a single, early, lost H&V session, that the idea of the elements hadn't even been conceived yet. "The Elements" is not listed as among the first set of songs that VDP and Brian wrote (around mid-May to mid-June, the timeline is a bit vague from what I see) and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it wasn't yet a twinkle in Brian's eye come August '66 when "WC Version 1" is recorded--especially because this oft-cited "piano piece" (the fade) wasn't even part of the original session.

Wind Chimes is just Brian writing a song about the wind chimes he bought that day, nothing more and nothing less. (This point may sound petty and pedantic, but it's a pet peeve of mine the way people in the past tried to bully me into "admitting" that WC was "clearly" air just because it has wind in the title and the non-vintage '03 tracklist used it to plug up a hole in its new third movement. Thankfully though, it seems the position that BWPS=SMiLE has fallen out of favor, both here, among insiders and elsewhere like r/BeachBoys.) In fact, along with GV it's the song that's least entwined with the themes of SMiLE. I suspect the rerecorded Version 2 sessions in October were an attempt to bring it closer to the shared instrumentation of the "Cycle of Life/Side 2" songs, with prominent pianos, harpsichords and horns, so it'd feel more connected to the rest of the album.  

8. Brian Wasted His Own Potential

I was shocked to see just how many Jasper Dailey sessions there really were, same for Tones/Tune X. I had always imagined the JD tracks were a one-off joke, a spur of the moment improv recorded in a single take, but Brian spent as many days on them as he did for some of the best SMiLE tracks. From both a business and creative standpoint it's actually kind of infuriating. I'm now much more sympathetic to Capitol Records' frustration at this goofball idiot-savant wasting everyone's time and money playing games when there's important work to be done. This is the biggest piece of evidence that Brian was no longer in control of the project by '67, was not the unquestionable, perfect genius driving towards a vision, let down by the cruel philistines as I'd once believed. He was an overgrown child (an "Adult-Child") on drugs with serious avoidance issues, like refusing to even cash checks or be mildly inconvenienced with anything he didn't want to do, in this case finishing an arduous modular album. (I love the guy, he's my hero, but let's be real here for the sake of history if nothing else.) I don't like to say this, but the sheer amount of time wasted on these dumb novelty tracks no one would ever hear does NOT put him in a good light, and he is more to blame for killing SMiLE and "missing the moment" than Mike, Daro, Murry, Spector, Capitol or any other oft-cited antagonists in the Beach Boy saga.

9. The True Nature of I'm in Great Shape

The Badman book specifically mentions that the "IWBA--Friday Night" pairing was titled "Im in Great Shape" which helps explain why the original "eggs and grits" segment got spliced onto it in '03. I had always assumed that was a later innovation, but this implies a deeper connection. Badman makes it sound as though IIGS, which seemingly started as a Heroes fragment (or part of the Barnyard suite and THEN a Heroes fragment) had now become the "rebuilding after the fire." Also, I recall other vintage sources from LLVS describing Workshop as "building the Barnyard" so that's another connection. This, to me, is a revelation because it means the IIGS listing on the Dec tracklist was probably a three or four part medley of "eggs and grits"/IWBA/Workshop/Barnyard in some kind of order as opposed to an extremely mysterious lost song I used to imagine comprising the IIGS segments as verses with "Do a Lot" as choruses and "Barnyard" as a fade. Now it makes so much more sense to me why IIGS would be on the tracklist and that it is truly a worthy inclusion there. Elsewhere in the book, when talking about the "Barnyard Suite" separately from the IWBA/FN session, Badman also mentioned "hammers and saws" on that track. So, for me, that's one big SMiLE mystery solved. Barnyard suite, renamed IIGS, comprised these four pieces rather than the oft-speculated IIGS/Barnyard/OMP/YAMS configuration--that would also explain why OMP remains a separate song from IIGS on the tracklist and session tapes.

10. The True Lost Masterpiece

(This is the big one for me!) Apparently there are Psychedelic Sounds tracks we've never heard--at least theyre left off the bootleg for some reason, though Badman implies they were on "the same tape" as the tracks found on Disc 2, recorded Nov 4. He refers to these as: "Chewing Terrys" (dogs chewing on stuff), "Kid at Fairfax" (presumably a kid talking or doing something sonically interesting), "Tea Pot" (described as "human whistling") and "Water Hose" (self-explanatory, but with traffic sounds in the background). There's also an untitled "dialogue with friends" session attested to on Oct 25. It's so typical of SMiLE research, where for every account there is a contradiction and with every mystery solved (see point #9) there is a new one to immediately take its place! Needless to say, I may be alone but as the biggest advocate for the PsychSounds in the whole fandom, I'd kill to hear these. While PS mostly serves as an invaluable insight into the non-music side of SMiLE (IE examples of the spoken word humor that Brian mentions), as well as the dynamic between him and his intelligentsia hangers-on, there are some bits I genuinely enjoy listening to. My favorites are Smog, the Veggie Fight, Taxi Cabber, Basketball Sounds and Bob Gorden's Real Trip. If these "new" recordings still exist in the vaults they ought to be released. Even if it has to be a "made-to-order" thing at a premium, I'll shell out good money for an overpriced mp3 download or CD-R in a paper sleeve through the mail. Come on guys, indulge me! "Ball and Mitt" too, while you're at it!

11. Running From His Destiny

I had always thought the famously canceled session of string players, where Brian sent these expensive musicians home at the last minute because "the vibes weren't right" occurred in Dec '66 for the second movement of Surf's Up and soon after Fire. According to Badman this was actually at the end of March '67 for Vega-Tables. I had always seen this anecdote as a reaction to Fire and the "turning point" of the project, where it only started to go off the rails. Now it seems like it was more of the crescendo of Brian's irrational behavior in the last days of the project. Also, it happened several times and not just once, which was another revelation for me. Seems like Brian just couldn't face anything related to the project anymore, though that doesn't explain why the Dada sessions seem comparatively cheerful. Maybe in his mind, "knowing" the album was dead, he could relax again with the thought "these aren't SMiLE sessions, there's no pressure to make the best record ever anymore," or something like that?

12. The (Other) Man Behind the Legend

Derek Taylor was fantastic at his job as a press agent "hype man" and I never fully appreciated that before. As far as I can tell, his "Brian's a genius" campaign and subsequent media interest (aided by David Anderle's connections) is the only reason there's so many primary sources of the project and its eccentric visionary. This is what created the SMiLE myth, fueling the hype with articles so well-written we're still talking about it even 60 years later. However, I wonder if this wasn't a doubled-edged sword in hindsight, because it caused all the hangers-on to congregate around Brian, which distracted him, spooked the Boys and inflamed tensions between the two. I also wonder if wanting to live up to the promise of this would-be masterpiece, to impress these people who were hailing him as a pop messiah, might've been at least partially responsible for the music never getting finished. I still think Brian would've gotten into "hip" sh*t like The Little Prince and Pynchon, therefore trying to make "deep music," whether the "cool" crowd was there or not, but I say the self-doubt was fueled in part by fear of releasing something that might disappoint the image other people now had of him as a revolutionary mastermind.

13. Tones was a Waste of Time Too

Have we heard all of Tune X on the TSS boxset? I now realize that two recordings survive, dated 3/3 and 3/31 and the boxset only lists the track as "3/3-3/31" so it could be either or both. All other sessions for this song have been lost. Also, maybe I'm being selfish as a fan and unfair to Carl as an artist, but I can't help but wonder if trying his hand as a producer with this song wasn't, shall we say, the best use of his efforts in early 1967. It's tough seeing so much precious studio time that could've gone to recording vocals being wasted on (in my personal and brutally honest opinion) a mediocre track that went unreleased anyway. If Mike, Al and Bruce weren't amiable to recording their vocal parts as has been theorized, it's hard not to wonder why Brian, Carl and Dennis couldn't do them during these sessions just to get something on tape. It wouldn't be perfect but it'd be something. Of course, Carl's his own man and has the right to grow as an artist too, I get it. But without further info I can't help but wish he would've used this time to take a load off Brian's shoulders by recording some of the vocal parts he knew had to be done rather than spin the wheels on a dead-end effort. Maybe Carl was trying to get to a point where he'd be able to do just that, I don't know. He seemed to remember enough about CE to get it done in '68 for example, it's hard to understand why he couldn't do that in '67 even if it meant learning as he went. (Maybe Brian wouldn't let him touch those tapes, I'm not sure.)

14. Veggies Was Definitely a Single Candidate

Badman's book makes clear what I'd assumed was always just (compelling) speculation before, that Vega-Tables briefly usurped Heroes as the potential single. Badman even suggests this was done intentionally to spite Capitol over the stolen royalties, who had spent money promoting Heroes and making sleeves that would now go to waste. That's an interesting anecdote. While in my personal opinion Surf's Up should've been the next single, even just a solo piano version as a counterpoint to GV and to "keep as much of SMiLE a secret as possible," I do think between the two that Veggies is more "commercial" than any version of Heroes I've ever heard. (Even Cabinessence would've been a better choice than the two Brian kept tinkering with.) A silly "love song to something other than a woman" would've wowed the hip crowd with its production and satisfied the normies with its charm, but Heroes I feel just has most people scratching their head going "what the hell is this, what does it mean, what's it trying to say?" Veggies would've been a big hit with small children.

15. Once Again, The Elements Debate

Badman unequivocally states several times that Veggies began as part of the elements, so fair enough, it's clear that was the plan for awhile. I'll preface the rest of this diatribe by saying, I think the constant obsession with finding the other 3 elements has always been a red herring that's led to a lot of unproductive speculation and fighting in the community. Everyone wants there to be 3 pieces we can definitively put in this "suite" and wrap it up with a neat little bow. It's less fun to admit that the concept broke apart halfway through,with the one piece that was definitely an element--Fire--and the one that probably was--Veggies--junked (unless you count the Smiley remakes) and that's it. We have to remember that whatever "elements suites" people have gotten used to over 40 years started out as arbitrary groupings from nobodies on bootlegs, who knew there was a vague "4 part elements" in the album but had no clue what it was, so they picked suitable replacements using the pieces available to them. We also have to admit, finally, after 20 years and the man's unfortunate passing (so no hurting his feelings) that '03 Brian is not '66 Brian and his mission wasn't to revive the project exactly as it would've been (he probably didn't remember anyway and the plan changed constantly) it was to present the music from the sessions in a manner suitable to a live performance. When trying to determine what, if anything, the '66 elements were, we have to look at the contemporary evidence with as little bias as possible.

I say the unexciting truth, which seems to be anathema to some people, is that a half-finished, rough draft working concept is the best we're gonna get for the other two (Undersea Chant, Breathing). Even Badman specifically connects the Psychedelic Sounds Undersea Chant with the later Water Chant, calling it "a precursor" and Vosse also mentions UC (although not by name) as a working concept for Water, so to me that's case closed for element #3. Maybe Vosse's water recordings would've been a musical accompaniment to this. (VDP's lyrics for "Blue Hawaii can't be vintage though, because he left the project before the Water Chant was made.) For Air, the only plausible candidates we have are Breathing and/or Second Day, perhaps both with the former as a rough demo of the vocal parts used with the latter's backing track. Put em all together and that's as close to a '66-'67 elements as you're gonna get with the material recorded. I'll stake my reputation now as I did in '15 that there is no argument more compelling for any other possible configuration based on the available info.

Despite being told I was "deliberately ignoring the evidence," and "intentionally muddying the waters," the more research I do, the more my original theories on this topic are strengthened rather than challenged. Some people just don't want to accept the fact we don't have a finished "water" and "air" that are up to par and never will. They want an easy, satisfying solution to every SMiLE question, damn the evidence. The obvious truth, however, is a big fat uncomfortable "we don't know what it was" and/or "it really wasn't a good idea after all, hence why Brian quickly abandoned the concept; even he made mistakes--just look at the entirety of 1967!" By all means do what you want on your fanmixes of course, but when it comes to debating the historicity of the sessions, I take issue with bad faith arguments, deliberate obtuseness and unwarranted gatekeeping. I'm not "hobby horsing" either; frankly I prefer a standalone set of 4 songs too: "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" (complete with the Heroes intro) and Veggies on the Americana side, with Wind Chimes and Dada (if included at all) on the Cycle of Life side. But that's not what '66 Brian would've done, based on the hard evidence.

16. Mike and Bruce Being Bros

The anecdote of Mike and Bruce decrying the release of the "Then I Kissed Her" single to the press is genuinely touching. The way they went to bat publicly for the cool experimental music Brian was making and calling out the record company for undermining it to the consumers with anachronistic releases is the best evidence I've seen that they did support the SMiLE music on some level. I even think Mike would've been almost totally onboard with everything if he'd just been given the opportunity to write even a song or two's worth of lyrics for the project. Really, Brian was a prodigy as a musician but a poor band leader for ignoring the human needs of his peers. On the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg you can even hear his cool arty friends complaining about not being given direction, expected to be on-call at all hours of the night, performing like puppets. VDP felt disrespected too and that's to say nothing of the egregious way Brian treated Marilyn. We all love Brian, I don't think he was malicious, just dysfunctional, terminally immature, and singularly focused on making the best music possible damn the effect on anyone else. He did treat the people around him badly, from the record company to his family and THAT is reason #1 it all fell apart; he asked too much of everyone until they refused to put up with it anymore at the crucial hour. Anyway, Im surprised these quotes aren't cited more often by Mike and his defenders as evidence he did support Brian, (just wasn't afraid to question some of the lyrics, of course).

17. Smog as a Swan Song

Another huge revelation to me is that Smog was only recorded in May of '67 as opposed to Oct-Nov '66 with the rest of the Psychedelic Sounds. This is surprising because that track has always felt like Brian at his most passionate and cognizant regarding the concepts of the SMiLE project. "In order to function, to live, be happy and be able to think clearly, you've got to have, first of all the elements, you've got to have good air to breathe" / "the way we can help is to make a record and present the facts in an interesting manner, not boring, but in some way that people can retain these facts." Since he's talking about the elements, it seemed plausible to me that same track was being formulated in his mind at the time of the Smog recording, presumably in the week leading up to the infamous 11/28 Fire session. Since Brian believes SMiLE has this all-important purpose of saving the world from mismanagement by winning hearts and minds of the people, it made sense to conclude Smog was recorded when the sessions were at their peak and he was diligently working on the album. But no, the project had already all but come apart--Badman mentions VDP left in 4/14 during a Veggies session date "after being tired of defending his lyrics and Brian dominating him." There's even a mention by Badman during the late April dates that "Brian knew on some level the album was already dead." It's so crazy to me that he's recording this monologue about how crucial the record is when he'd already given up on it and spent the last 4 months wasting time. That said, the fact that the elements is clearly on Brian's mind again for Smog to be made at all lends further credence to the theory that Veggies is earth and Dada is water or air related, considering they are the songs being recorded on at the time.

18. The Problem Wasn't Production, but Musicianship

Interestingly, reading the concert reviews included in the Badman book, it's not always the sparser arrangement that is lambasted by the press but rather the group's lack of confidence onstage, the muted "passion/fire/intensity/personality" (all those words are used at various times) by the band. It's not so much "where's the 12-piece orchestra sound?" it's "these guys' musicianship is sloppy" (paraphrased) and "the only one with any charisma, whom the crowds are howling for, is on drums unseen behind Jardine" (also paraphrased). This casts a bit of aspersion on the commonly cited fact that Brian's music was too complex to recreate live which led to the live shows getting criticized. While that's definitely true to a degree (at least one review cites difficulties with the electric theremin onstage), it also just sounds like the group weren't always the best players or showmen. If this feedback really was cited by the Boys as a reason to dumb down production of SMiLE, Brian or his people might've easily countered with "uh, maybe you guys just suck" and "perhaps yall should take some time off and practice" in defense of his vision if they'd had the wherewithal to. One quoted review (dated May 4th) even suggests that Brian moved to denser production with professional musicians in the studio BECAUSE the guys were such poor players, and encourages them to give up live performances altogether and be a purely studio band like the Beatles. Frankly, that was good advice if you ask me, at least it would've been better for all of them to take some time off and get their sh*t together, anyway.

19.Who's the Horse, Who's the Rider

It's wild to me that Derek Taylor was able to say whatever he wanted, seemingly with no clear direction from anyone in the band. From declaring all the tracks on SMiLE are done to announcing the project is dead in just one week. Badman even writes this announcement was "premature" and that "Brian had other ideas." Who did Derek even report to, anyway? Why did he suddenly decide that NOW SMiLE is dead, what was so significant to pull a 180 from such an optimistic prediction?

20. Capitol Killed the Beach Boys' Popularity?

The Badman book makes it sound like the "Then I Kissed Her" single and mixed reception UK tour had as much a hand in destroying their "cool" image as the later no-show at Monterey and release of Smiley Smile. While it was the record company's fault technically, and some may call this victim blaming, let's just say Brian was playing a dangerous game assuming he could take all year fiddling with SMiLE/Heroes plus dicking them around with the switcheroo from Heroes to Veggies without it backfiring. He started a war with the company that still had a lot of power over the band and it was foolish to think they wouldn't hit back eventually. Brian could've prevented all of that by just releasing Surf's Up or literally anything. While of course I side with the artist over the heartless corporation on principle, seeing it from Capitol's perspective with the endless sessions (some cancelled last minute, so they're paying for nothing) and 6-month missed deadlines, I don't blame them for just saying "eff these guys, we gotta put SOMETHING out!"  

21. WTF

Dated May 14, there's a reference to the band expecting SMiLE to have released when they started touring mainland Europe, unaware that its cancellation had already been announced. This is so wild to me--how could they possibly have expected the album to be done when the vocals (as far as we know) were never finished? Does this imply that vocals actually had been done, and have since been lost? Or they expected Brian to do it all himself (perhaps he threatened to if they didn't comply and they called his bluff)? Very, very confusing. I wish this crucial detail had been seized upon and asked about when more of the band was still alive and closer to events that they could remember. So much of this period in the group's history is unknown, contradictory and absolutely bonkers; even when I think I have a clear picture of what went down, details like this spring up and make me doubt everything I thought I knew.

22. Modular Recording Wasn't Worth the Trouble

In hindsight, the indecisiveness of Brian towards GV is pretty wild to read about too. I think he was just as terminally perfectionist with that track as he was with the rest of SMiLE, it just gets swept under the rug or treated as a legitimate process because the record came out and was successful. But in the Badman book it sounds like Brian wasn't really satisfied with it, he just settled on it as "the best he could do." Obviously GV is a masterpiece but I really wonder if all the endless retakes, going to different studios and driving everyone crazy was worth it. Perhaps it's blasphemy but I think there's a version of the song that's just as good, made for less than the $50k figure quoted, in half the time. It just shows that Brian's downfall started even before '67 and that, in all honesty, without someone who could benevolently reign him in a tad, the album was doomed before it even began due to his own self-doubt and obsessive drive for perfection. The modular recording technique did more harm than good and that was the principle the whole project was built on.

23. Smiley Wasn't as Chill as We Might've Thought

Badman calls the Smiley Smile sessions "strained" and quotes Carl saying that nothing was planned, there were tons of improvised ideas that they just went with. However true this is, I still consider the album a work of brilliance. If SMiLE was a celebration of the GV technique "it's never good enough," Smiley was a celebration of spontaneity and humility. This surprised me because I'd always heard of the sessions as this laid back, stoned, group therapy vibe that was a welcome reprieve from the stressful SMiLE recording process. Also, I always thought Capitol was responsible for putting GV on Smiley but according to Badman it was the rest of the band outvoting Brian.

Apparently as late as July 22 a six-minute version of H&V was circulating such that Mike Love played a copy to reporter Keith Altham. During the later Lei'd in Hawaii tour, yet another reporter suggests the Beach Boys ought to focus on recording in the studio and quit touring. Bruce tells the UK press to "expect SMiLE in the next two months" that summer, which shows that either he was blowing smoke up their ass or completely misunderstood just how much work there was still to do and/or how checked out of it Brian was. If the comment was genuine, it's an indication that even then the group thought on some level it could still happen and wanted it to.

24. Surf's Up '71 was Half-Vintage

Skipping ahead to the 1971 Surf's Up sessions, the way Badman describes it (with lots of quotes from Jack Rieley, Dennis and Carl) the "CIFOTM" vocals were from Brian, running into the studio last minute as has often been said, however the "a children's song, have you listened as they play/their song is love and the children know the way" was a new and last minute invention. This is something I've long suspected just by pure intuition; I've always felt Brian would've sung the "main melody" in his three '66-'67 renditions of the song instead of backing-vocal "aaahs" had those lyrics existed. Plus, the lines just dont read like something he or VDP would've written to me (too arty for the former, too saccharine for the latter). I'm not sure if they're a continuation of this new lyric or not, it sounds like Mike singing both, but I feel the same regarding those "na na na na" backing vocals as well--they just make the fade a bit too busy for my ears. This was really affirming to read, because I've taken a lot of heat for "criticizing" much less questioning anything about that sacrosanct '71 tag.

25. Missing Lyrics

VDP is quoted as saying that CIFOTM lyrics were absolutely written, just never recorded. Does that mean the '03 lyrics are vintage after all? Either way, unless a long lost sheet is found, they're apparently the best we got. The later 2016 psychology references and that reporter calling it as a cowboy song certainly contradict all that though. I just really hate how neglected this track is, by the band, scholars and the fans. I think if anyone had cared to ask more about it, those lyrics or a general understanding of them might've been saved. To me, it's the Cabinessence of the Life/Innocence tracks, the highlight of the second side/movement and maybe the single best song the group ever recorded.

26. Missing Vocals

There seems to be a discrepancy (the only one I noticed) between Badman and AGD's site, where the former attests to a vocal session for Fire (!) on 12/5/66 that is not mentioned by the latter. I'm not even gonna speculate on which source is accurate here, however I will say that I've heard from other people the "oooo" vocals we hear on Fire today are taken from Barnyard. So if that's true, and Badman's supposed 12/5 session really happened, that would mean we lost the original Fire vocals. (I can't imagine the boxset wouldn't use them if they existed--perhaps these are the tapes Brian claims he burned?)

27. Evolution of Heroes and Barnyard

I recall a theory being thrown around that "In the Cantina" and the "Barnshine fade" replaced the "eggs and grits" IIGS bit and Barnyard segment on Heroes, respectively, which Badman corroborates in his entry for 1/27/67. This idea has always made intuitive sense to me. However, since Badman counts "Barnyard" among the songs written by the pair prior to or in Sept '66, as well as listing a session for "the Barnyard Suite" on Oct 20, it would seem that they actually started as part of a separate track until Heroes gobbled them up (at least temporarily) by November 4 when the two are part of the H&V Humble Harv demo. But then by 11/29, at least the title (if nothing else, maybe the track) of IIGS is bestowed to the IWBA-FN pairing as previously discussed in point #9. So, it's probably safe to say the Barnyard/"eggs and grits" snippets are among the most frequently shuffled around feels in the SMiLE cannon, at least that we have evidence for. If I have the timeline right, this would make them the first casualties of Heroes as well as the first to be reborn, predating all the craziness of 1967.

28. The Failed Partnership of Brian and Van Dyke

VDP is said to have only visited the studio "infrequently" after "autumn" of '66. The Cabin Essence tag vocals were done on 12/6, which means that must've been where the standoff between Mike and Van occurred. Badman also says that VDP left again for a time on March 2 "following a disagreement, possibly about lyrics." Van would come back 29 days later (March 31) and then leave again for good on April 14 "following another argument." This on-again-off-again relationship between the collaborators was always hazy to me before. The Carlin book and a lot of popular discourse made it seem as though there was one or two climactic arguments with Mike and then he split for good. Then I'd heard about him coming back for awhile, but only once. Now it seems like VDP left multiple times, the first (after August 66) probably because he thought his work was done aka he wrote lyrics for every song presented to him. Then he gets an unexpected call to defend his lyrics, as we know, which made him feel blindsided and slighted. But why he came back after that, and left, and came back again, is mysterious. What convinced him to change his mind each time? What did he even need to be there for, if lyrics for the main songs were already written? Why has nobody pinned him and/or Brian down to a hard timeline? Also, both Badman and Anderle make it clear it was not just Mike but also tiffs with Brian himself, where he enjoyed "dominating" VDP (I suspect turning down some of his ideas, perhaps harshly, and also using him as an on-call improv guy like at the Psychedelic Sounds sessions which I've heard Van hated).

29. Was This Really the Album Brian Wanted?

It's also long been my speculation that while Brian had the original "cowboy song" concept of H&V ready to go, the idea of fleshing this out into a full-blown thematic movement of multiple tracks, a journey across America in rejection of the British invasion, was more Van's baby than Brian's. We know Van does that kinda thing in his own solo work, while Brian is more "a rough hodgepodge of wacky niche interests" ala Love You if left to his own devices. Plus, most of the real downcast concepts and music on the album come from the so-called Americana movement (particularly CE, Worms, Mrs O'Leary's Cow) which contradicts the name and stated goal of the album, to make people laugh and put them in a good mood. I can't prove it but I think VDP took Brian's one-off "western musical comedy" and ran with it in a pretentious historical-flagellation direction, with Brian realizing somewhere along the way that this was no longer the project he'd envisioned. Who knows. If we had decent interviewers who did a bit of research and asked informed questions rather than the same generic crap over and over again, but alas...

Left to his own devices, I think a purely Brian Wilson, or Brian & Mike SMiLE would've comprised of maybe a song about the old west, a song about veggies, a song about fitness, a song about laughter, a song about children, a song about astrology, one about numerology, etc. It would've been more straightforward and segmented rather than the "two movement cantata" with interweaving themes, lyrical puns and historical/literary allusions. I'm not saying it would've been better mind you, I love SMiLE as it is, unfinished though it may be. It's become fashionable in some circles to criticize VDP's work on the record but I think he did a fantastic job. Also, this speculation may seemingly contradict what I'm about to say in point #30 below, about VDP acquiesing to Brian's vision, not feeling it's his place to make any hard calls or dictate structure etc. But I'm not saying that VDP ever forced any ideas on Brian in this way, so much as he tossed out some concepts, brought his own "voice" to the collaboration, that influenced Brian to try a direction he might not have otherwise gone. It was a give-and-take, but seemingly somewhere along the way Brian realized "this isn't the vibe I was going for."

30. The Missing Ingredient

When people talk about "how would you finish SMiLE" and "what would it take to get Brian to do SMiLE" a common answer is protools and digital editing. I now wonder if that might've actually driven him even crazier with the possibilities. The same way modular editing made it easier to endlessly tinker with the music, always striving for elusive "perfection," imagine Brian noodling with every possible combination of of stats and dials in Audacity alone, to say nothing of more high-end software.

I think what he really needed was someone who stood in-between the two extremes of the disparaging bandmates and the "it's his project, not my place to call shots" VDP. Someone should've said "Brian, I believe in this project and I know you're making an all-time masterpiece here, but you're gonna miss the moment if you obsess over all the ways it could be better. Just pick one. Flip a coin if you have to. At the end of the day, if you can't settle on a version I will, and that's the end of it. I know it'll knock everyone's socks off whether you use Versions 1 or 2 of WC/CIFOTM/Wonderful. Just get it done and quit stalling." Someone needed to tell him to give up on Heroes and Veggies and just do a piano solo of Surf's Up with the throwaway Holidays as the B-side to get Capitol off his back for a minute. It's infuriating reading the Badman book with Brian wondering "gee what can the B-side be?" and supposedly having Heroes: Side1 done (at least for a hot minute) but then worrying about a useless Part 2 that wouldn't even get any airplay. Someone needed to say "Brian, who cares about the B-side? You've got at least two perfectly fine instrumentals in the can you're never gonna release otherwise--Trombone Dixie and Holidays. Use one of those."

The problem is everyone around Brian was either too acquiescent or too hostile, and the people whose opinions he respected as artists weren't in the band proper, so they didn't feel it was their place to weigh in. He needed a McCartney, a George Martin or a Brian Epstein like figure he perceived as his equal or even superior to set him straight once in awhile, without being an overbearing family-member like Murry and Mike. That's what ruined the band long-term, the dysfunctional family dynamic they were built around.

[rasmus skotte]

     JULIA ~ HAIL U, "J" !«

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

Fantastic analysis, Julia! Lots to digest and chew over. I'll be back to it.

Your last paragraph in particular really rings true, and I was thinking the same as I read David Leaf's book. "He needed a McCartney, a George Martin or a Brian Epstein like figure he perceived as his equal or even superior to set him straight once in awhile, without being an overbearing family-member like Murry and Mike." Seems like he had those supportive figures in e.g. 1999-2022 in a way that he didn't in 1966-7. That's why in his later years he was able to tour consistently and get so many finished projects out the door.

[guitarfool2002]

Your last paragraph in particular really rings true, and I was thinking the same as I read David Leaf's book. "He needed a McCartney, a George Martin or a Brian Epstein like figure he perceived as his equal or even superior to set him straight once in awhile, without being an overbearing family-member like Murry and Mike." Seems like he had those supportive figures in e.g. 1999-2022 in a way that he didn't in 1966-7. That's why in his later years he was able to tour consistently and get so many finished projects out the door.

And right there is perhaps the ultimate burden of being the person in charge who could do things that no one else could do, and also be charged with keeping the "family business" afloat and successful. Yes there is some hyperbole attached to these following notions, but the music Brian was creating - especially from the years 1963 to 1966 - was providing a group of family, friends, and associates a great income and lifestyle that few could have achieved or afforded had it not been for that music.

And it had to sting personally when those same people would pull up in their expensive cars, wearing expensive clothes, and soon to return to their expensive houses with all the trappings of 1960's SoCal wealth before they turned 24 years of age, questioning or even challenging the music which got them to that status in the first place.

Important to note that Brian was doing all of this, i.e. writing, arranging, producing, and performing on those hit records during those watershed 3-4 years while in direct competition with McCartney, Martin, Epstein, and the whole of both the Beatles-led British Invasion and the "folk rock" movement. George Martin is on the record quite a few times all but marveling at the fact that Brian was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting on this music as a one-man operation, while Martin himself was a cog in a multi-spoke wheel that was making The Beatles' music what it was.

So while it would have been nice for Brian to have had such a figure to share the burden and exert such influence in the 60's, he simply did not, and I cannot think of anyone in the band's universe who would have fit that role at that time. And if there had been, would the timeline have led to Good Vibrations being a #1 hit going into early 1967? What Brian probably needed more was validation and appreciation from those around him, and the resultant boost of confidence that he needed for his music up to his final years. It's good he finally got that in the last chapters of his life.

[Julia]

Yeah I agree Guitarfool. Theres no denying Brian was by far the most individually talented member of either bands operation. Absolutely. I criticized him a lot in my original post but the fact that he did so much for the group and they owed it to him to have faith in his muse is still dead-on accurate. Had Brian not been so sensitive and fragile, anyone else wouldve gone solo or threatened to and that wouldve shut the naysayers up real fast if they lnew what was good for them.

Ultimately though we gotta acknowledge that all Brian's partners in this era, creatively and maritally, felt disrespected by him and put off by his irresponsible behavior. Marilyn, Mike, Anderle, VDP ("victimized by [his] buffoonery") and even Asher will admit as much. I think Tony summed him up best, "amazing musician, amateur human bring" (paraphrased). Not trying to sound mean just being honest that even our hero was a shade of gray.

[BJL]

This is an extremely astute analysis, Julia! I have some thoughts which I'm going to share now, and some thoughts which I'm going to share later today or this weekend!

Lately though, I've started going into more "hard scholarship" (IE sources with no editorializing, just reporting the facts and documenting what happened with dated citations) about this topic and it's revealed to me some things that I think get lost in the discussion of the album as a whole.

I completely agree that now that we have a detailed timeline of all or at least very close to all of the sessions, and a pretty clear idea of what was recorded when, it is possible to reconstruct the recording and collapse of Smile with a clarity and precision that was just completely and utterly impossible back in the 80s and 90s when a lot of the older conventional wisdom and key sources like LLVS were put together.

On your "humor in between songs" section. We have very few vintage mixes that represented actually finished, mixed, completed songs. One of very few such mixes is the Cantina mix of Heroes and Villains, and the fact that it has a funny shouted interjection (Your Under Arrest!) strikes me as very significant. I am a very strong supported of the 12 discrete songs theory, mainly because (as I've said elsewhere), I think that Brian absolutely intended to use the track listing that Capital records *printed on thousands of record jackets*, and that encompasses the vast majority of songs Brian worked on during the period when he was actually seriously attempting to record an album (which, by March, he was, frankly, no longer doing, as you point out in your comment on Jasper Daily). But I don't see any contradiction between Smile having 12 basically discrete tracks and Smile including spoken interjections and interludes. Given that Our Prayer was intended to be unlabeled, and again the "Your Under Arrest" interjection, I think a huge variety of possible uses of that approach are easy to imagine, and would probably not have actually shown up until the end. The Rock With Me Henry version of Wonderful is also strong evidence for the seriousness of the humor concept in Brian's mind (albeit also strong evidence of an artist losing control of his creative judgement!)

Re: modular recording wasn't worth it -

I sort of maybe agree about Good Vibrations being taken to a point of overkill, but as someone else pointed out in the other long Smile thread from a few years ago (sorry, I can't remember who), for most of the recording process of Smile, before the project (in my view, at least) went off the rails in early 1967, Brian was dedicating each session to a single song, and working pretty efficiently. He was recording the different sections of the song separately, instead of running through the track from the beginning. But not to make work, but probably to save work. He obviously liked the sharp and exciting sound that resulted from tape splices. It also would have made it made it much easier to vary the instrumentation between sections. I think it's worth noting that much modern music is recorded this way and edited together, not because it's more work but because it's less work. With a song as complex as Heroes and Villains or Cabinessence, trying to record the tracks through like on Pet Sounds would have been madness! It would have taken so many takes to get the transitions. Honestly, I've heard modern musicians/producers on youtube absolutely marvel that a song like Wouldn't It Be Nice was recorded in a single take without overdubs!

Okay, I have more to say, but it will have to wait for another time because I have to get back to my actual job. But one last note before I go:

To this quote: "Also, it's a damn shame Phil Spector was such a piece of human garbage." True for so, so, so many reasons, effecting so many people across so many decades. Sometimes I think if Phil Spector had just been, you know, not even nice necessarily, but just a fine, good-enough human being, the whole history of popular music might look different. And, of course, at least one woman would be alive who isn't.

[Julia]

BJL, youre probably right about the modular recording, actually. I may have let the insane Heroes sessions (all to produce a, in my opinion, very flawed presentation of the song) cloud my judgement. I might try to go through each track and count the different sections in each (I believe Worms and CE have three each, Child had two versions but the second is 3 including the bridge I think, Surf's Up is two, etc...) Still though, even just two tracks tinkered with the the extent GV was (Heroes was more, Veggies less but put together it about equals 2 GV worth of sessions I believe) put the album back 6 months.

I agree with you that a 12 track album is preferable to a BWPS or "We're Only In It For the Money" medley too, just saying that Brian felt different at least at one point and its worth noting.

Im trying to think of other instances of humor and coming up with:

Veggies is full of it, I dont think I need to explain that one.

Worms mabe the "east or west indies we always get them confused" was meant to be funny.

CE, possibly the reconnected telephone lyrics (that Badmaneven mentions and quotes in full)

CIFOTM the "wah wah" horn is both a baby crying but from the first time I heard it, it made me think of the "something bad happened but in a funny way" sad trombone esque sound effect.

Surf had the George Fell session implying thatd be an intro too or outro from the song.

IIGS (including workshop) has the "ow!" during the hammering.

Thats all I got for now. Its not something I have evidence for but I also think itsnot out of the realm of possibility that Taxi Cabber be linked to an Americana track since its literally a funny sounding, earnestly self-important cabby giving some stoners directions (trip across America) and its about the Chicago area (link to Mrs OLearys Cow). I used to think Smog mightve been meant for the Elements but its very late recording date probably precludes that.

If you listen to the entirety of the Disc 1 Psych Sounds, which were all recorded the same night, its obvious Brian was only interested in the "falls into Instruments" and "mock argument" thing he eventually got with George Fell and the Veggie Fight. The rest is chants/vocalization experiments and some other skits he doesn't initiate and shows no interest in (Ice Cream Man) plus the last few tracks are just his friends complaining about having to be there and not knowing what this is for

[BJL]

BJL, youre probably right about the modular recording, actually. I may have let the insane Heroes sessions (all to produce a, in my opinion, very flawed presentation of the song) cloud my judgement. I might try to go through each track and count the different sections in each (I believe Worms and CE have three each, Child had two versions but the second is 3 including the bridge I think, Surf's Up is two, etc...) Still though, even just two tracks tinkered with the the extent GV was (Heroes was more, Veggies less but put together it about equals 2 GV worth of sessions I believe) put the album back 6 months. 

My opinion: Heroes and Villains and Vegetables - but really, the desire to find a follow up single to Good Vibrations out of the existing Smile material, something I'm convinced was not part of the original plan - didn't just put the album back 6 months, it put the album back forever. Which is why I think the point of no return was the decision not to put out the cantina mix in February. If that single had gone out, maybe somehow things could have worked out. Which is just one reason why I think you've absolutely hit the nail on the head with your last few paragraphs from the original post.

It's infuriating reading the Badman book with Brian wondering "gee what can the B-side be?" and supposedly having Heroes: Side1 done (at least for a hot minute) but then worrying about a useless Part 2 that wouldn't even get any airplay. Someone needed to say "Brian, who cares about the B-side? You've got at least two perfectly fine instrumentals in the can you're never gonna release otherwise--Trombone Dixie and Holidays. Use one of those."

I've had that exact same thought reading those exact some quotes (which are also in LLVS, which is where I think I first encountered them).

On a different note, I love the humor element of the album, and I really do agree with you that all the humor stuff Brian was working with was absolutely part of the plan and would have appeared in a variety of ways in a finished album, whatever it looked like. I think it would have happened at the assembly stage, both for the individual songs and the album as a whole, which is why we don't see nearly as much of it in the surviving tracks as I think there would have been in a finished Smile, though of course it's impossible to know for sure.

I agree with you that a 12 track album is preferable to a BWPS or "We're Only In It For the Money" medley too, just saying that Brian felt different at least at one point and its worth noting.

It's not that I think it's preferable, it's that I think there's a huge amount of evidence that it's what Brian was actually producing through January, though certainly various other ideas were floated now and then. I agree that it's certainly worth noting all the alternative ideas that did float around, some of which influenced proceedings in various interesting ways.

[BJL]

Yeah I agree Guitarfool. Theres no denying Brian was by far the most individually talented member of either bands operation. Absolutely. I criticized him a lot in my original post but the fact that he did so much for the group and they owed it to him to have faith in his muse is still dead-on accurate. Had Brian not been so sensitive and fragile, anyone else wouldve gone solo or threatened to and that wouldve shut the naysayers up real fast if they lnew what was good for them.

Ultimately though we gotta acknowledge that all Brian's partners in this era, creatively and maritally, felt disrespected by him and put off by his irresponsible behavior. Marilyn, Mike, Anderle, VDP ("victimized by [his] buffoonery") and even Asher will admit as much. I think Tony summed him up best, "amazing musician, amateur human bring" (paraphrased). Not trying to sound mean just being honest that even our hero was a shade of gray.

I 100% agree with this. But I also think it's worth reminding ourselves that Brian was dealing with a serious mental illness, almost certainly some kind of schizoaffective disorder (as he was officially diagnosed in the 90s), characterized by both schizophrenia symptoms including delusions and auditory hallucinations, and bipolar/mood disorder symptoms. That kind of mental illness is no joke. To be dealing with something like that without proper medical care and almost no support, no one in your life in any position to help you understand what you were experiencing or how to deal with those symptoms. I can't even imagine how terrifying and lonely that must have been. I say this not to absolve Brian of his bad behavior to the people around him (and I believe Marilyn did try to get him professional help, something he was resistant to). but I do think it's something that we need to keep in mind when we think about his behavior in this era.

[BJL]

This is a kind of weird thing to do, but I want to copy into this thread a post sloopjohnb72 made on page 12 of the other Smile thread, almost exactly three years ago. Just because I think it's incredibly relevant to this conversation, and because I never felt like it got as much purchase in that thread as I thought it deserved.

Based on the session information posted above about how done everything was, I really think that until the end of December, 1966, Brian was making an album called Smile that was pretty damn close to finished and would have gone out in the jackets Capital Records had already printed. Yea, he changed his mind, he scrapped some things and moved some things around, but creatively, the project was working.

After December, 1966, that was no longer true. And the problem, in my view, was Heroes and Villains.

This whole message is very well said, but I'm highlighting this portion, as it rings especially true.

Like you said, things were sort of beginning to fall apart by Christmas, but there was still an album that could easily have been finished at any given moment, had the Beach Boys been given one week to complete the LP. Those 12 songs could have been finished in a rush if they needed to be.

But the big switch was David Anderle informing Brian that he needed a unique A and B side single to launch Brother Records. Brian was seemingly satisfied with Good Vibrations as the sole single for the project, until his decision to launch a record label for the Boys (which had been in the plans for about a year now) sort of snuck up behind him. There's sufficient evidence in the way that this story has been told for us to believe that Heroes had already been conceived, and maybe even recorded as a song for Smile when Brian got this news. Every session up until October 20 had not produced a piece of a song, but an entire backing track that was in need only of vocal overdubbing. So far, the process was no different than Pet Sounds, beside the fact that the tracks were not performed beginning-to-end live by the ensemble, as Brian used editing to highlight big dynamic and metric contrasts between verses and choruses that couldn't be achieved as well via a continuous performance. There's no reason to believe Heroes was an exception. On October 20, Heroes had only 2 long parts - the verse (which was originally much longer, and is cut down even on The Smile Sessions disc 2), and the Barnyard section, a fadeout which, like all of Brian's Smile fades, adds in new melodies and instruments with each round, rather than starting full steam ahead. With Brian and Van Dyke's 3 verses telling a cohesive love story set in the old west, without the "side quests" that later versions of the song will include, this works perfectly as a concise 2-part album track.

But when Brian was told he needed a single, he chose to rework this song as something both commercial and exciting, and that's when it began to consume parts of other songs. First I'm in Great Shape, then Do You Like Worms, then Cabin Essence, then My Only Sunshine... songs became unusable for the next project, as they were physically disassembled, and the focus shifted entirely toward the new single. It didn't help that for the first time for The Beach Boys (this had been the case for other artists, pseudonyms, studio bands, etc), Brian needed TWO new songs. Previously, he'd relied on material from released albums to fill out the B-side, but on a new record label, he couldn't just take something off Pet Sounds, for example. The entirety of the next 5-6 months is spent trying to get a single. That's not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, it isn't productive to constantly rework one song rather than 12 at once, and it is not going to produce both a single and an album without some big changes being made.

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

Oh yep, I remember this post too and it's excellent. I loved the turn of phrase of H&V "consuming" other songs (enough so that last year I spent a good deal of time searching the forum trying to find this exact post, and finally dug it up).

[guitarfool2002]

But when Brian was told he needed a single, he chose to rework this song as something both commercial and exciting, and that's when it began to consume parts of other songs. First I'm in Great Shape, then Do You Like Worms, then Cabin Essence, then My Only Sunshine... songs became unusable for the next project, as they were physically disassembled, and the focus shifted entirely toward the new single. It didn't help that for the first time for The Beach Boys (this had been the case for other artists, pseudonyms, studio bands, etc), Brian needed TWO new songs. Previously, he'd relied on material from released albums to fill out the B-side, but on a new record label, he couldn't just take something off Pet Sounds, for example. The entirety of the next 5-6 months is spent trying to get a single. That's not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, it isn't productive to constantly rework one song rather than 12 at once, and it is not going to produce both a single and an album without some big changes being made.

There are valid points here, of course. But the last few lines which I put in bold come to a conclusion based solely on opinion, and to me it's one which also ignores completely how Good Vibrations was created and how that became a #1 single.

Trace the arc and the timeline of Good Vibrations and all the related sessions, reworkings, rerecordings, new edits, and even an abandonment by Brian of the song at one point...only to have the final edit be released and hit #1 on the charts. How long did it take that song to go from its initial writing and that initial "take 1" of the song until Brian had the edit mixed which was the one that we all know?

Was that too not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, or did the success of Good Vibrations validate his working methods which got that song to the finish line?

While I agree that Heroes overall became a bit of an anchor weighing the ship down at times, another point lost in the post above was the intended timeline of when the follow-up single to Good Vibrations was planned to be released. Good Vibrations was still hitting the Top 40 singles surveys across the country (USA) well into January 1967. Why would they want to piggyback another single that soon after a smash single release which was still on the charts? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Chuck Britz "single mix" of Heroes with Cantina made February 10 1967? That would line up with what standard practice of releasing a follow up would suggest be done: Release it as Good Vibrations finally slipped off the charts and station playlists, in other words after it had run its course. Then the new one is ready to launch.

However, apart from Brian trying to get a B-side for the single, what also happened in February '67? The lawsuit against Capitol, effectively either ending or putting a dead stop to the Beach Boys' relationship with that label, either until it got sorted out or as a final separation. Now factor that into the mix of situations surrounding the whole thing, and no one knew when or how the lawsuit would be resolved, with the "when" being the more important element. What would the band even release if they were in the middle of a lawsuit with their label where potentially they'd have a single ready but no label to issue that single and promote it, and no setup of their own yet with the proper channels and relationships to deal with marketing and distributing anything they planned to put out?

So with all this going on, the suggestion that all of the activity around "Heroes" and "Vegetables" and trying to get a workable single ready to go (mind you, temporarily without an actual label for it to go anywhere), we're supposed to believe that all of this was due to an unstable and unhealthy mind, rather than a literal shitstorm of other factors swirling around at the exact time Brian was supposed to have had a single ready? And also, should we ignore how long it took within Brian's working process the year before to get Good Vibrations from the initial session to the final released version that was still charting almost up to February in some US radio markets? That's where I'd counter those opinions and that narrative rather strongly. And we didn't even mention Carl's legal issues, the search for a new house and studio plans, etc. There is too much at play to narrow it down to the old "unstable and unhealthy mind of Brian" conclusion.

 

[guitarfool2002]

Yeah I agree Guitarfool. Theres no denying Brian was by far the most individually talented member of either bands operation. Absolutely. I criticized him a lot in my original post but the fact that he did so much for the group and they owed it to him to have faith in his muse is still dead-on accurate. Had Brian not been so sensitive and fragile, anyone else wouldve gone solo or threatened to and that wouldve shut the naysayers up real fast if they lnew what was good for them.

Ultimately though we gotta acknowledge that all Brian's partners in this era, creatively and maritally, felt disrespected by him and put off by his irresponsible behavior. Marilyn, Mike, Anderle, VDP ("victimized by [his] buffoonery") and even Asher will admit as much. I think Tony summed him up best, "amazing musician, amateur human bring" (paraphrased). Not trying to sound mean just being honest that even our hero was a shade of gray.

The lines in bold : Almost everything and everyone is a shade of grey, depending on the variables and the specifics being discussed. Much of reported history can be considered that too, where "the truth lies somewhere in the middle".

However, we don't need to acknowledge something that focuses solely on the negative elements, as is done in the lines above. I'll offer a few counterpoints to what was suggested.

Where would Van Dyke Parks have been if he had never worked with Brian Wilson? Van Dyke himself has said repeatedly that his work with Brian Wilson is what generated enough interest for him to be offered his own record label deal for an album, as well as his entry into a larger and more exclusive part of the music business, rather than being a work-for-hire piano player and arranger. It gave him clout, and he carved out a career thanks in large part to Brian Wilson asking him to work on new music with him in 1966. And that's not opinion, Van himself has said that often.

Where would Tony Asher have been if he never worked with Brian Wilson? Today he is known pretty much by every fan and even the nether regions of the fan base as the guy who collaborated with Brian on Pet Sounds and co-wrote God Only Knows, one of the most highly regarded pop songs of all time at this point. If he had never agreed to work with Brian, he would have probably done some great work in the advertising world...but would anyone in 2025 know his name if not for Brian asking him to write songs with him?

Marilyn was of course his wife, Mike was family. Different sets of parameters there to judge, different experiences. But without Brian, would anyone know her name or even Mike's name if he had not been in The Beach Boys?

David Anderle was a music business guy from the get-go, management, finance, planning, contracts, etc. He was very good at what he did, his resume and work after 1967 is respected and impressive within the music business world. Again, different parameters to judge.

The point is, yes we can cherrypick and repost lines they've spoken about Brian being "irresponsible" and "disrespecting" them. But what do you think the percentage is of those same peoples' comments where they were full of praise and positive comments for Brian and the times they spent with him? 95 to 5? 98 to 2? I don't know, take a guess I suppose.

A suggestion might be to more evenly balance it out by mentioning how the positives far outweighed the negatives in those regards. And if Brian refused to come out of his room to sign a legal document, or disrespected Van Dyke over something or another, or made Tony Asher uncomfortable...look at the results when they're all tallied up. These people owed Brian a lot of gratitude for giving them a golden ticket and holding the door open for them, and I think they realize that and always did much more than the fans.

[Zenobi]

     JULIA ~ HAIL U, "J" !«

This ia actually good!

[Zenobi]

Guitarfool is always putting things in the right perspective.
Ty Julia for starting this great thread.

[rasmus skotte]

Zenobi; 'nnuf "Funni Bonez" !«
"Funni~Bonez Zenobi" ! 'nnuf ? «

    JULIA ~ HAIL U, "J" !«

This ia actually good!

[Julia]

But when Brian was told he needed a single, he chose to rework this song as something both commercial and exciting, and that's when it began to consume parts of other songs. First I'm in Great Shape, then Do You Like Worms, then Cabin Essence, then My Only Sunshine... songs became unusable for the next project, as they were physically disassembled, and the focus shifted entirely toward the new single. It didn't help that for the first time for The Beach Boys (this had been the case for other artists, pseudonyms, studio bands, etc), Brian needed TWO new songs. Previously, he'd relied on material from released albums to fill out the B-side, but on a new record label, he couldn't just take something off Pet Sounds, for example. The entirety of the next 5-6 months is spent trying to get a single. That's not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, it isn't productive to constantly rework one song rather than 12 at once, and it is not going to produce both a single and an album without some big changes being made.

There are valid points here, of course. But the last few lines which I put in bold come to a conclusion based solely on opinion, and to me it's one which also ignores completely how Good Vibrations was created and how that became a #1 single.

Trace the arc and the timeline of Good Vibrations and all the related sessions, reworkings, rerecordings, new edits, and even an abandonment by Brian of the song at one point...only to have the final edit be released and hit #1 on the charts. How long did it take that song to go from its initial writing and that initial "take 1" of the song until Brian had the edit mixed which was the one that we all know?

Was that too not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, or did the success of Good Vibrations validate his working methods which got that song to the finish line?

While I agree that Heroes overall became a bit of an anchor weighing the ship down at times, another point lost in the post above was the intended timeline of when the follow-up single to Good Vibrations was planned to be released. Good Vibrations was still hitting the Top 40 singles surveys across the country (USA) well into January 1967. Why would they want to piggyback another single that soon after a smash single release which was still on the charts? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Chuck Britz "single mix" of Heroes with Cantina made February 10 1967? That would line up with what standard practice of releasing a follow up would suggest be done: Release it as Good Vibrations finally slipped off the charts and station playlists, in other words after it had run its course. Then the new one is ready to launch.

However, apart from Brian trying to get a B-side for the single, what also happened in February '67? The lawsuit against Capitol, effectively either ending or putting a dead stop to the Beach Boys' relationship with that label, either until it got sorted out or as a final separation. Now factor that into the mix of situations surrounding the whole thing, and no one knew when or how the lawsuit would be resolved, with the "when" being the more important element. What would the band even release if they were in the middle of a lawsuit with their label where potentially they'd have a single ready but no label to issue that single and promote it, and no setup of their own yet with the proper channels and relationships to deal with marketing and distributing anything they planned to put out?

So with all this going on, the suggestion that all of the activity around "Heroes" and "Vegetables" and trying to get a workable single ready to go (mind you, temporarily without an actual label for it to go anywhere), we're supposed to believe that all of this was due to an unstable and unhealthy mind, rather than a literal shitstorm of other factors swirling around at the exact time Brian was supposed to have had a single ready? And also, should we ignore how long it took within Brian's working process the year before to get Good Vibrations from the initial session to the final released version that was still charting almost up to February in some US radio markets? That's where I'd counter those opinions and that narrative rather strongly. And we didn't even mention Carl's legal issues, the search for a new house and studio plans, etc. There is too much at play to narrow it down to the old "unstable and unhealthy mind of Brian" conclusion.

I just wanna say first of all that I agree with what you and BJL are saying in defense of Brian. Im not here to attack him, I think he's one of the coolest and most sympathetic figures in pop music. If I come off as, let's say, focused on his shortcomings in this particular thread, it's only because I think that with our collective admiration of his talent and criticism of the other people in the story, it gets lost that Brian also rubbed people the wrong way. I tried to go to great pains to point out that I don't think it ever came from a place of maliciousness on his part, just that he's a big kid at heart, hyper-focused on following his muse without thought of "how is Mike gonna feel getting shafted" / "how is Marilyn gonna feel with my taking drugs all the time" / "how is VDP and the Posse gonna feel getting told to come to the studio/airport at midnight?" etc. I think it's important to bring up Brian's lack of consideration for others, however justified it may be considering his condition, in order to understand why everyone left and the project fell apart. Saying he was "a shade of gray" wasn't intended to be a dig, it's just a statement of fact that applies to us all, but I think Brian's shortcomings sometimes get pushed aside in the conversation because he's the genius who made this amazing music so we're all predisposed to love him, yet we weren't the ones getting treated like disposable puppets in order to make it happen. Does that make sense? In any case, I'll leave it there and people can accept where I'm coming from or not.

With regard to your quote here: I think it's both. There was a method to Brian's madness and he got results, surely...until he didn't. I maintain that Brian was too much a perfectionist for his own good. It's been awhile since I listened to Disc 5 of TSS and I did so only once, so I could be misremembering but I don't recall ever thinking "wow those early sessions were so rough but NOW he's got it!" I remember thinking how samey it all sounded, like "yep...there's that same riff again, and again, and again...for god knows how many takes in 20+ sessions over ~7 months." Far be it from me to question the one-man hit machine (NOT sarcasm) Brian's infinitely more talented than me especially musically, but so help me, I just don't hear enough of a leap in quality over all that effort to justify endlessly tinkering with the same song. I feel the same about Heroes mostly, there are some nice snippets that came after February I suppose but nothing that justified withholding the track another 5 months. When I read in the Badman book that Brian didn't even like the master of GV but reluctantly accepted it was all he could do, my first thought was "damn, he's crazy, how could you NOT be satisfied with that song as it is??" I think this is borne of his same obsessive tendency to play slightly different versions of Shortenin Bread for hours at a time in the seventies. We agree that those anecdotes, while very cute, charming "that's our Brian!" are not indicative of a particularly well or productive mind. I'd posit that GV and especially Heroes represent the first emergence of such tendencies in him.

You also hinted at something else I meant to emphasize more in my original post, and will delve into deeper in a follow-up, that the Capitol lawsuit I feel was actually the biggest reason SMiLE didn't get done. I meant to post that yesterday but my internet went down and I had some other stuff come up.

[Julia]

My opinion: Heroes and Villains and Vegetables - but really, the desire to find a follow up single to Good Vibrations out of the existing Smile material, something I'm convinced was not part of the original plan - didn't just put the album back 6 months, it put the album back forever. Which is why I think the point of no return was the decision not to put out the cantina mix in February. If that single had gone out, maybe somehow things could have worked out. Which is just one reason why I think you've absolutely hit the nail on the head with your last few paragraphs from the original post.

Yes, it put it back six months which then became forever, but point taken.   That's about as good a guess for the "point of no return" as any I'd say. Sometime between January and VDP leaving the second (?) time on March 2 feels right to me, when it becomes clear Brian can't or won't commit to anything in any kind of timely manner. Sometimes you just gotta say "it's good enough" and move on. I get the tendency to want to always make little improvements but it's like George Lucas said "art isn't finished, it's abandoned."

I've had that exact same thought reading those exact some quotes (which are also in LLVS, which is where I think I first encountered them).

On a different note, I love the humor element of the album, and I really do agree with you that all the humor stuff Brian was working with was absolutely part of the plan and would have appeared in a variety of ways in a finished album, whatever it looked like. I think it would have happened at the assembly stage, both for the individual songs and the album as a whole, which is why we don't see nearly as much of it in the surviving tracks as I think there would have been in a finished Smile, though of course it's impossible to know for sure.

Yeah, it's weird, especially since he didn't seem to care about B-sides before. Freaking GV had an old cut from Pet Sounds, but suddenly something like that was beneath Heroes' dignity. I don't get it.

You mean like when splicing the tape, you'd get more "You're Under Arrests!" between the verses? Makes sense.

It's not that I think it's preferable, it's that I think there's a huge amount of evidence that it's what Brian was actually producing through January, though certainly various other ideas were floated now and then. I agree that it's certainly worth noting all the alternative ideas that did float around, some of which influenced proceedings in various interesting ways.

Perhaps. It's not something I'm gonna quibble on because, again, I prefer a simpler structure anyway and I think debates about the specifics of SMiLE to some extent are pointless because the plans changed so much and there's so much contradictory evidence. However, just for the sake of pointing out the possibilities and encouraging readers to keep an open mind to them, could it not be said that any linking dialogues or laughs might also have been added at the assembly stage? Just food for thought  

[Julia]

I forgot to add a point or two and I have some other SMiLE-related thoughts that I don't think it's worth spamming the board with, so here's some more paragraphs! We'll just call this thread my dumping ground for SMiLE thoughts until I get it out of my system  

31. The "Real" Reason SMiLE Died

I wanted to mention before, after reading Badman's book (or the parts relevant to SMiLE anyway) I came away with the distinct impression that the drama with Capitol Records was actually one of the biggest reasons the album failed. Absolutely. I know this aspect of the troubles has been discussed, but I think it's been downplayed by the somewhat overstated boogeymen of Mike's disagreements and drug-exacerbated mental illness. Those were big factors but a recurring theme of the very late '66 through '67 sessions is Brian discovered Capitol was screwing the band out of royalties, wanted to break from the label, and went out of his way to screw them over as a result.

I think Brian started wondering "why am I making this masterpiece million-seller for a company I hate?" Switching to Veggies as the single out of spite and spinning the wheels on half a dozen Jasper Dailey sessions after discovering the stolen royalties seems to corroborate this. I could see him getting off on the thought Capitol wasted a bunch of money on sleeves that are irrelevant come the Smiley remake just as he did when Heroes got replaced with Veggies. For at least half of the '67 sessions he was goofing off, screwing Capitol out of money every way he knew how. (Perhaps it wasn't "bad vibes" that led to session cancellations either, but another opportunity to make Capitol eat it.) At the very least, the idea that his productivity would lead to passive income for the people that hurt him took a lot of motivation out of his own success.

Then, come June (after the last "Dada" session and two weeks after Derek Taylor's hasty announcement) Sgt Pepper is released on the 1st or 2nd--internet is giving me both dates--and he realizes "oh sh*t, I missed my chance. The Beatles got there first. It's over." And the resignation of "why bother, I'll just be seen as an also-ran" sets in. There's that other famous anecdote of Brian hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in the car and thinking he'd lost the race even in late February (exact date is vague but the song was released in mid-Feb and Vosse was there which means it had to be before March anyway). This might coincide with him abandoning the Cantina version of Heroes around the same time, but the dates may be slightly off so don't quote me. He just didn't seem to understand, someone needed to get it in his head "no Brian, YOU came first--with GV and Pet Sounds! They're playing catch-up to you!" But in any case, with Pepper I think whatever drive there still was to get it done vanished, like Game of Thrones overtaking the GRRM books. The timeline fits perfectly with the abrupt shift to the Smiley aesthetic. (I know there was some graduated downscaling in production before, but still, even the less complex Dada sessions sound a lot more involved than anything Smiley.)  

Also, assuming Van wrote all the lyrics as the book clearly states (and if he didn't what the hell was this guy doing for 9 months, seriously?) then the only reason I can think of for why Brian felt VDP was irreplaceable is due to his overly-sensitive need for others' approval. I don't say this to pick on Brian, I'm overly sensitive too, part of why I relate to him so much--avoidance issues as well. Brian is the kind of guy who calls everyone up in the middle of the night to go to an airport just to take a photo with him that could've been done anywhere at anytime just to prove their loyalty to him personally. The way Marilyn phrased it to get everyone to go was "Brian needs to feel he is loved." So I think Brian took VDP leaving as a personal rejection of himself and of the music, IE "even Van doesn't think this album is good enough to finish." Brian, I suspect, wanted Van to fight his battles for him, at least with the other Beach Boys; he wanted his collaborator to defend the merits of the music they were making when he was too passive to stand up for himself. When Van refused to do this, because he wasn't in the band much less family and didn't think it was his place (which is more than fair, Id have felt the same) Brian took it as a sign that the music wasn't worthy of advocacy and lost faith. When Van complained about being summoned to the studio at God knows what hour to play lifeboat or get in a pretend argument, Brian took that as him not believing in the project or not liking him as a person. Makes sense to me, anyway.

In my ideal world, if Brian were not terminally sensitive and dysfunctional as an adult, I think he and Van should've teamed up and been a songwriting/producing team, the American Lennon/McCartney. As Lennon's intellectualism and McCartney's sentimentality balanced each other perfectly while descending into mostly pretentious drivel and corniness apart (I do like some of their solo stuff though), I think Van's well-read, avant garde nature could've been a great yin to Brian's earnest sheltered Hawthorne yang. While I love a lot of what they did apart, SMiLE is head and shoulders better than anything either man did alone (except maybe Pet Sounds); Song Cycle in particular has never done anything for me--too showy and I share Van's dislike of his own voice. Then, in this dream scenario, the Beach Boys find themselves again as a Brian-less group under Carl and Dennis' leadership, which is more or less what happened from Wild Honey through Holland in our timeline anyway. Except here they keep at it and don't crash out with the dead-end Brian's Back campaign. Meanwhile, let Brian make his own series of Love You's and Mt Vernon's with VDP's wittier lyrics. Best of both worlds. Alas...  

32. Dear Ol' Dad

I was blown away to read that Murry Wilson actually went on a promotional tour for "Many Moods..." Did the record company really pay for that, and if so did they actually like the music that much or was it out of a favor or wrangling from the old man? In any case, he gives this wild quote to the press on pages 203-205 that's full of genuine compliments about his sons followed by undermining backhanded remarks at their expense. It's almost like he sincerely loves and is proud of them, but has this ingrained need to keep them from getting too big for their breeches at the same time. While Murry was certainly on the extreme end of it, I think a lot of us can see a bit of our own fathers in this dynamic--I know I can. Where my dad meant well but always went out of his way to humble me in front of people or volunteer me to go out of my way to do things for others to "teach [me] humility" and "make [me] a nicer person." I could definitely see my dad from 15-20 years ago speaking about me in this way, though he's mellowed out and even apologized for it in his old age.

Also, it's so interesting how universally the Beatles were considered untouchable as the #1 band. Even liner notes for certain albums (including Pet Sounds & Piper at the Gates of Dawn) justify themselves with anecdotes of the Beatles' approval, when they have no problem standing on their own. The foreward to a book I own about the Velvet Underground (All Yesterday's Parties) proudly calls them the second greatest band after the Fab Four, when you'd think if you're writing a book about someone, they'd be the best in your eyes. Lots of other artists, including Mike and Bruce of our fair Beach Boys, seem to consider the one time they met the Beatles (in India and demoing Pet Sounds) as the crowning achievement of their lives, despite being big stars in their own right. A Jimi Hendrix bio I read (Roomful of Mirrors) considers the time he was invited to a Beatles party and given a joint by Paul as the moment he'd truly made it. Here, the Wilsons' own dad, just flat out says "my boys will never be as big as the Beatles for the foreseeable future" and goes on about how they're all such big fans, especially Carl. When Badman mentions them winning the NME poll as top band of '66, they're flat out apologetic to have taken the top spot from their idols, and on page 186 it mentions Bruce going out of his way to tell Ringo that all the Boys felt it should've been the Fab Four that won instead! I love the Beatles, I recognize their talent and success, but it's kind of odd looking back how everyone sees them as so far above all other acts, so beyond reproach that everyone justifies their own existence in relation to them. It's honestly a little embarrassing how self-effacing everyone is to them. No other group since then has enjoyed that universal, unshakable reverence and I don't think they ever will.

Epilogue. Two (?) More Mixes

I made one more mix during the time I was away from the board. I'd grown dissatisfied with some of the decisions for the Romestamo Cut like separating OMP from the Americana tracks and putting it as the penultimate song before Surf's Up. Also, I'd always wanted to do a version of SMiLE that begins with the Heroes intro usually reserved for Fire. I thought that abrupt, frantic-yet-goofy beginning would be perfect for SMiLE rather than the much slower, arguably pace-killing Prayer opening that's been done to death. (Not trying to step on anyone's toes and I get why it's a popular opener, but I personally am so sick of SMiLE mixes beginning with Prayer). In case anyone's interested I'll share it below. I'm not the technical wizard that seltaeb and soniclovesnoise are, so it's not some high-end stereo rearrangement, more of a re-sequencing.

I call it "Voynich SMiLE" after the other famously unsolved puzzle, the Voynich Manuscript.

    Heroes and Villains [includes H&V intro segment usually paired with “Fire.”]
    The Barnyard Suite [“Old Master Painter”/”My Only Sunshine”]
    Do You Dig Worms?
    Cabin Essence
    The Elements Suite [Fire/Undersea Chant/Breathing-Moaning Laughing/]
    Vega-Tables [Earth, and this includes “Veggie Fight” skit]

    Wonderful [includes “I’m in Great Shape” segment as an intro]
    Wind Chimes [includes part of “Holidays”]
    Child is Father of the Man
    Surf’s Up [includes “George Fell Into His French Horn”]
    Good Vibrations [includes “Prayer” as an intro]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/iz06y6lklmcx5n3zh4o1h/AM8ykivvqI7Jm8da1HJ3bvw?rlkey=xqvbx3ihysfjz8g63qurt4z9t&e=1&dl=0
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1094YIfksGWt1qt6D6sIBSPmD5W_RF0im

And now, after finding myself unsatisfied again, the way I always am with one version of SMiLE after too long, I'm planning on making another attempt at a personally definitive mix--we'll see how long this one lasts. Hopefully it'll be done in the next two weeks before I go on vacation and if not then almost definitely by the end of the summer.

This time, I'm ditching the attempt at an "accurate with what we have" singular-elements track and just going with what sounds good. For me, as with most people including the man himself come '03, that means a standalone Fire, Veggies and possibly Dada if I include that one at all. They won't be a contiguous "elements suite" just separate tracks on the album.

It's still gonna be the same Side1: "Americana/Journey Across Space" -- Side2: "Life Cycle/Journey Across Time" groupings because, even trying to break out of that structure and do something wild and different for its own sake (like the whole album interspersed with segueing Heroes fragments), it really is just the format I keep coming back to. I can't claim it's what Brian would've done but I think there's at least as much or more evidence for it as anything else and it sounds right to me. In 10+ years, my muse has never compelled me to stray from it and with how much my mind changes about everything else regarding this music, I find that significant.

However, where on my previous mixes I broke up the Wonderful-IRan-CIFOTM-Surf order so as to try something different, put an alternate take out there, here I'm just going with what works. None of my attempts at making a "better" sequence for this section have topped what Brian did in '03. I'm not going to limit myself to the Dec tracklist anymore either, though Holidays is definitely out, I Ran is back and possibly Dada/CCW. (Dada, if I decide to keep it, won't come between any tracks in the BWPS part-2 grouping, where in Aquarian SMiLE it came before Surf's Up.)

Also, it's really rare to see "You're Welcome" as the opener, despite it building to a crescendo that feels weird (to me) as an ending the way it's often used (if indeed it's included at all). Since I had YW lead into Heroes in Aquarian SMiLE, this time I'll put it before Worms, which I recall Sheriff John Stone making a compelling case as the first song on the album back in the day. (First on tracklist, introduces the journey across America concept, it kinda slows the album down elsewhere, has "Once Upon a..." lyrics, etc.) This is a nice opening combo I haven't seen anyone else try, so why not be the first?

Here's my plan for each track:

1. Do You Dig Worms (better title than "like," now it's a pun) [You're Welcome/Worms Proper, a version with and without AI vocals, with the "east or west indies" somewhere, like the Hawaiian section or maybe over the fade, maybe the "Whistle In" whistling over the last "Rock Rock, Roll..." part, possibly a bit of Taxi Cabber buried low in the fade, with the "foreboding Hawaiian instrumental part*" gradually getting louder in that part of the song]
*This: https://youtu.be/p7-Nd13f0pQ?si=wZrukzEotgabyylm&t=122

2. Heroes and Villains (this one is most likely to change) [Flutter Horn as quick opening/Verse1/"Once a night Cotillion..." Verse/In the Cantina w/ "Swedish Frog" overdubbed/"My Children were Raised" Verse/"Threescore and Five"/"Lalala-stand'a'fore" Verse/"doodoodoo-dubayduwah" Verse/MAYBE"eggs and grits" tape explosion or Whistling Bridge/Prelude to Fade/Slow Verse, ending abruptly "by the Heroes and..." and using Barbershop* overdubs here/Barnyard]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCFuabFw6rc&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=32

3. Old Master Painter [Maybe AI OMP vocals/YAMS/Fade with "He Gives Speeches" vocals]

4. Cabin Essence [Maybe AI "Reconnected Telephones" lyrics in first chorus]

5. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow [Possibly with Heroes Intro/Fire/Workshop rebuilding after fire]

6. Vega-Tables [Veggie Fight over fade]

7. Second Day [Water Chant, Possibly Dada with flutes and maybe Breathing, unsure, maybe Geroge Fell here?]

8. Wind Chimes [simpler GV box version with fade, which I understand was a vintage edit unlike 2011, maybe Breathing here over fade?]

9. Wonderful [IIGS soft instrumental as opening/W proper/possibly with With Me Tonight as a fade, or a Heroes outtake like Part 1 Tage and the Wonderful Insert if it fits]

10. I Ran [Possibly AI vocals of BWPS even if it's not vintage]

11. Child is Father of the Man [Piano bridge as opening/Chorus/verse/different chorus/Version 1 verse/Version 1 chorus]

12. Surf's Up [Brian vocal for Part 1/maybe talking horns buried low and strings for Part 2/Hope if I can get isolated CIFOTM reprise vocals for fade then just them and wailing horns for that part]

13. Dumb Angel [Im gonna have Prayer at the end no matter what, but especially if this mix is on the short side or I decide against including Dada, this'll be Prayer then H&V Pickup to Third Verse or Bridge to Indians then H&V: Piano Theme* or Part 2 Master Take**]
*This:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyjp-7cLRnQ&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=21
**This:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H5blrpykA&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=27

I'll call it "Dumb Angel, Sandalphon" so the initialism is "SAD" backwards, which I feel like is so silly yet so perfect that if you showed it to '67 Brian and said "I know you're a bit put off by how sad some of this music is sounding as opposed to the happy vibe you want to put out, but look! It's sad in reverse, like a film negative, or negative theology, you need the opposite to express what's happy!" I want to believe that's all it would've taken to solve everything, like a Zen riddle as I've heard it said SMiLE was. Also, Sandalphon is said to be the angel of music and the one who gathers everyone's prayers to take to Heaven.

[BJL]

Perhaps. It's not something I'm gonna quibble on because, again, I prefer a simpler structure anyway and I think debates about the specifics of SMiLE to some extent are pointless because the plans changed so much and there's so much contradictory evidence. However, just for the sake of pointing out the possibilities and encouraging readers to keep an open mind to them, could it not be said that any linking dialogues or laughs might also have been added at the assembly stage? Just food for thought  

I haven't even read your last post yet (again, technically a work day over here!), and hope to contribute more at length this weekend, but just want to jump in to say that I think my point got lost somewhere (which was definitely my own fault). I actually agree with you! I think it is not only plausible, but maybe more likely than not, that there would have been little jokes or dialogues between the tracks on a finished Smile! What I was trying to say originally is that I don't think it's an either-or between accepting the 12 song track list and having jokes and dialogues between the songs, because I think the jokes and little spoken exclamations or chants or whatever would simply not have been listed in the track list! And exactly, I think they would have been added at the assembly stage, which of course was never reached

[Julia]

I haven't even read your last post yet (again, technically a work day over here!), and hope to contribute more at length this weekend, but just want to jump in to say that I think my point got lost somewhere (which was definitely my own fault). I actually agree with you! I think it is not only plausible, but maybe more likely than not, that there would have been little jokes or dialogues between the tracks on a finished Smile! What I was trying to say originally is that I don't think it's an either-or between accepting the 12 song track list and having jokes and dialogues between the songs, because I think the jokes and little spoken exclamations or chants or whatever would simply not have been listed in the track list! And exactly, I think they would have been added at the assembly stage, which of course was never reached Smiley

I look forward to it!

No worry about "fault," it's all good. And yeah I totally feel you on that! Even just now, revisiting Disc 2 of TSS I rediscovered another such instance as "You're Under Arrest" where Brian says "This One's For You, Punk!" that was clearly meant in the same vein. We have no clue what other kinds of jokes like that he might've done. I could see something like an annoyed wife in CIFOTM complaining about that incessant baby's cry, for example.

[BJL]

But when Brian was told he needed a single, he chose to rework this song as something both commercial and exciting, and that's when it began to consume parts of other songs. First I'm in Great Shape, then Do You Like Worms, then Cabin Essence, then My Only Sunshine... songs became unusable for the next project, as they were physically disassembled, and the focus shifted entirely toward the new single. It didn't help that for the first time for The Beach Boys (this had been the case for other artists, pseudonyms, studio bands, etc), Brian needed TWO new songs. Previously, he'd relied on material from released albums to fill out the B-side, but on a new record label, he couldn't just take something off Pet Sounds, for example. The entirety of the next 5-6 months is spent trying to get a single. That's not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, it isn't productive to constantly rework one song rather than 12 at once, and it is not going to produce both a single and an album without some big changes being made.

There are valid points here, of course. But the last few lines which I put in bold come to a conclusion based solely on opinion, and to me it's one which also ignores completely how Good Vibrations was created and how that became a #1 single.

Trace the arc and the timeline of Good Vibrations and all the related sessions, reworkings, rerecordings, new edits, and even an abandonment by Brian of the song at one point...only to have the final edit be released and hit #1 on the charts. How long did it take that song to go from its initial writing and that initial "take 1" of the song until Brian had the edit mixed which was the one that we all know?

Was that too not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, or did the success of Good Vibrations validate his working methods which got that song to the finish line?

While I agree that Heroes overall became a bit of an anchor weighing the ship down at times, another point lost in the post above was the intended timeline of when the follow-up single to Good Vibrations was planned to be released. Good Vibrations was still hitting the Top 40 singles surveys across the country (USA) well into January 1967. Why would they want to piggyback another single that soon after a smash single release which was still on the charts? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Chuck Britz "single mix" of Heroes with Cantina made February 10 1967? That would line up with what standard practice of releasing a follow up would suggest be done: Release it as Good Vibrations finally slipped off the charts and station playlists, in other words after it had run its course. Then the new one is ready to launch.

However, apart from Brian trying to get a B-side for the single, what also happened in February '67? The lawsuit against Capitol, effectively either ending or putting a dead stop to the Beach Boys' relationship with that label, either until it got sorted out or as a final separation. Now factor that into the mix of situations surrounding the whole thing, and no one knew when or how the lawsuit would be resolved, with the "when" being the more important element. What would the band even release if they were in the middle of a lawsuit with their label where potentially they'd have a single ready but no label to issue that single and promote it, and no setup of their own yet with the proper channels and relationships to deal with marketing and distributing anything they planned to put out?

So with all this going on, the suggestion that all of the activity around "Heroes" and "Vegetables" and trying to get a workable single ready to go (mind you, temporarily without an actual label for it to go anywhere), we're supposed to believe that all of this was due to an unstable and unhealthy mind, rather than a literal shitstorm of other factors swirling around at the exact time Brian was supposed to have had a single ready? And also, should we ignore how long it took within Brian's working process the year before to get Good Vibrations from the initial session to the final released version that was still charting almost up to February in some US radio markets? That's where I'd counter those opinions and that narrative rather strongly. And we didn't even mention Carl's legal issues, the search for a new house and studio plans, etc. There is too much at play to narrow it down to the old "unstable and unhealthy mind of Brian" conclusion.

I don't disagree with any of this. What happened in 1967 cannot be reduced to any one factor or narrative; a huge number of things contributed to Smile not being finished. The only explanation which I, personally, reject wholesale is that Smile wasn't finished because the project was too creatively ambitious for the recording technology of the time. I believe the evidence overwhelmingly shows that Brian Wilson was *capable* of finishing Smile. But other than that, I think every single angle is worth considering and virtually every factor in the album's failure that's ever been raised has, in fact, played some role. Choosing to highlight this or that issue in any given post should not be taken as my saying that that's the *only* factor.

I don't really know whether the way Brian approached Heroes and Villains was right or wrong, healthy or unhealthy. I agree with the sloopjohnb72 quote you pull out above, but I fully recognize that it is an opinion, my personal judgement, and in no way, shape, or form a fact.

What I think is a fact, or something very close to a fact, is that Brian's effort to finish Heroes and Villains and then Vegetables as a suitable follow up to Good Vibrations made finishing Smile impossible between January and April of 1967, because he was dedicating so many sessions to the single that he could not reasonably have resumed work on the album as a whole until he either mixed a finished single or abandoned it.

Your comment about Good Vibrations made me want to, in fact, trace the arc of the recording of Good Vibrations, and I ended up literally counting sessions. (I know, I know, obsessive behavior! What can I say, Smile is an addiction!):

Pet Sounds was recorded in 37 documented studio sessions between the first Sloop John B session in July, 1965 and the final mastering of the album on April 19, 1966. 33 of those sessions were done in three months of consistent work between January 18 and April 19, 1966.

Good Vibrations was recorded in 17 sessions between April 9 and the final mix-down at Columbia on Sept. 26.

Not counting the Good Vibrations sessions, all the songs we know as Smile were recorded in some form between the first Heroes and Villains session on May 11 and the end of the year.

In 1966, there were 40 non-GV Smile sessions, 34 of which took place in the three months between October 3, when work on the album really picked up in earnest, and December 28. Brian is working at almost the exact same pace as Pet Sounds.

Between January 3 and April 14, slightly more time than Brian had had spent on Pet Sounds between January and April and Smile between October and December, Brian held 43 sessions. He dedicated 20 sessions to Heroes and Villains (he had already worked on H&V at 9 sessions in 1966). He dedicated 11 sessions to Vegetables, 6 sessions to Dennis and Carl’s songs, and 4 sessions to Jasper Daily. In January, he also took one session to rerecord Wonderful in a notably inferior version (a track that had been mixed to mono and labeled as a master on October 6), and also held the famous January Surf’s Up session on which I need not speculate here.

That’s 43 sessions which produced 2 unfinished singles, 2 unfinished Dennis/Carl songs, whatever was recorded of the Jasper Daily album, and a crappy rerecord of Wonderful.

On May 6, Taylor made his famous “Smile has been scrapped” announcement. On May 15, Brian picked up again with Love to Say Da Da, but quickly shifted gears to Smiley Smile.

[Zenobi]

 BJL, what's about all those 1766/1767 dates? Some kind of autocorrection? It reminds me of those AI-generated graphics where everything is perfect except a person has 8 fingers on the right hand.

[Zenobi]

Just a little test...

1966

1967

Seems normal.

[BJL]

BJL, what's about all those 1766/1767 dates? Some kind of autocorrection? It reminds me of those AI-generated graphics where everything is perfect except a person has 8 fingers on the right hand.

LOL!!!! I am a colonial historian in my day job, and I am writing a book about the 18th century! So basically I type 1766 all the time and 1966 almost never  Sorry about that! My brain just did it, I didn't notice at all.....