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:
:bow 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:
Quote from: MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm on July 10, 2025, 03:42:26 PM
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.
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