My Last (?) Crack at the SMiLE Jigsaw

[Don Malcolm]

Thanks GF, thanks Will. I sense it will be always be difficult to get a perfect, detailed timeline of all the events in this period--the quotes can take us only so far.

The quotes do speak to Julia’s description of the psychological effects of the drugs Brian was using to stay amped up in the latter stages of the SMiLE sessions. In David Leaf's SMiLE book, VDP posits that the first manifestation of that was with “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” and that the nature of the project started to shift at that point.

Brian's sense of relief from paranoia is the kind of short-term turnaround that often occurs after a prolonged period of trauma, but the interesting/confounding aspect of it is that the remedy was almost immediately challenged by a significant set of traumatic incidents in the fall of 67, which seem to cascade on each other in October. (We still need a definitive date for the ear surgery--looking at Bellagio, it appears that late November into December seems to be likeliest time frame for it.) Despite what Chuck Negron described about the Heider incident, Brian stepped up and quickly wrote a batch of tunes to flesh out the WILD HONEY LP and he remained quite productive until those "Can't Wait Too Long" sessions in late July 1968.

I think we need to remember that in the backdrop of all this is a commercial crisis for the band that has only a short-term remedy with "Darlin'" adding some coattails for WILD HONEY in early ’68. The die is cast when it becomes clear in July that FRIENDS is going to be a total dud on the charts. A disparate range of tracks were recorded after FRIENDS had been mastered for release, including "Do It Again," which did better on the charts but also produced some critical backlash. Aside from "Can't Wait Too Long," however--which was being returned to after being shelved during the WILD HONEY sessions--most of these tracks proved to be lightweight (“All I Wanna Do” being the lone exception, and it required further work a year later in order to emerge as we know it now). I think we have to acknowledge that there was pressure to find a "progressive" (Will's term, possibly borrowed from Bruce) way to regain commercial footing.

It's clear that Brian had some form of elevated expectations with "Can't Wait Too Long," which is why he set it aside during the WILD HONEY sessions. By analogizing it to ''Good Vibrations" it was never meant to suggest the song was (at least originally) that ornate (but then again neither was GV at the outset: it got that way later on, of course). The shadow cast on the situation the band found itself in at that moment from that ever-more-elusive goal of returning to the top of the charts had to be on everyone's mind at that moment. The need for a different form of transcendence that could at least get close to the commercial success of GV had to be in the air, especially with the failure of FRIENDS (no matter how much it has grown in esteem over the years).

And the idea that Brian found himself back in a "Heroes & Villains" mode with that song--even for a less protracted period of time--and the fact that he threw up his hands at that point and retreated certainly seems like a culminating moment, and a capitulation to the fact that he couldn't find a way to bring a similar synergy of elements to a song that could truly captivate a mass audience. Clearly Will doesn't see the song in that light, but I'm hardly the only one who does--and what we know about Brian is that a return to a flashpoint that deposited him back in the torture chamber of the February '67 H&V marathon might well be what ignited a true emotional collapse. He found many stunning and varied ways to interpret the track during that last burst of frenzy--but he couldn't achieve closure on it. (Brian is often compared to Mozart, but "Can't Wait Too Long" is pretty much his version of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony.'')

All of this tracks with the last quote from Carl, referencing Brian’s diminished state, a situation that would ebb and flow over the next seven years before the next "intervention" (Gene Landy in 1975--who, like a variation of the locust, would intervene again seven years after that in a much more insidious way).

As for what Brian intended to do with the rest of the SMiLE tracks, I can accept the idea that Brian might have merely entertained the notion of an "orchestral SMiLE" for a bit, as a way to both establish his own "beachhead" and to placate Karl Engemann, who was trying to smooth over what had clearly become a fraught relationship. He certainly would have put it out of his mind after the Heider incident, which forced him to be front and center to his band (and his family). The fact that he reworked that unused portion of "Wind Chimes" in "Can't Wait Too Long" shortly thereafter seems to prove that if he'd ever entertained such a project between late May and mid-October 1967, he had certainly put it out of his mind by mid-November, when he did that run-through of "Surf's Up." (I still cannot see it on WILD HONEY...and if VDP was disappointed in the version of H&V that was released, just imagine what he would’ve thought about it being tossed out in a stripped-down version.)

Given that the 11/14 date for the solo "Surf's Up" is as absolutely solid as Will states, then let me suggest that he inform AGD of that fact so it can be updated at Bellagio...which should prevent anyone else from replicating my theory! 

[Julia]

Im reading the relevant sections of The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings On Rock Music Updated Edition by Nick Kent and The Beach Boys and the California Myth by David Leaf.

The former is a great summary of some of the best primary sources, but not really revelatory if you've read the most famous LLVS articles and/or hung out on the forums often enough.

The latter is by far the best recounting of Anderle's experiences with Brian, and while most of it is a rehash to me, I'd still recommend it to newbies. Id actually say it's a better peak into Anderle's perspective on SMiLE than the famous Crawdaddy articles, which mostly deal with the aftermath.

It's clear David Anderle really loved Brian and was his biggest supporter along with Vosse. Those two really "got" him, even more than VDP, the band or even his wife, I'd argue. The way Anderle describes Brian makes me think of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, where to everyone else he (Gatsby) is this ostentatious, frivolous walking-distraction, only good for the wild parties and a source of crazy stories after, but Nick alone sees the man underneath all that and admires him for his ambition, his pure dream and naive sincerity in a world of cynical weariness. Im not sure if Brian ever really understood or appreciated what a great friend he had in David.

https://archive.org/details/beachboyscalifor00leaf/page/114/mode/1up?view=theater

Some revelations from the David Leaf book include:

1. The Fabled Heroes Bar Fight

The barroom brawl for Heroes was never done, since Anderle recognized it wasn't a good idea. (Too unethical, unpredictable, probably wouldn't even sound good on tape, etc.) It's nice to find the source (?) of that factoid I'd seen occasionally popping up on the internet. I had always assumed it was either an unfounded rumor or a lost Psychedelic Sounds style recording like Vosse's water sounds.

2. Brian Kept No One in the Loop

In Anderle's estimation, Brian did not even try to get the other guys to see the genius of the new music. Rather than talk them through it, explain his inspiration, persuade them of its merits, maybe compromise a bit (let Mike write lyrics to a song or propose adjustments to lines he found objectionable) Brian would just retreat and say nothing. Or, as we know, blindside VDP to come in and defend the new stuff. [EDIT: Someone in the other ongoing SMiLE thread mentioned VDP also feeling left out as the project continuously changed, specifically the Elements turning into an instrumental unexpectedly. The Vosse Posse guys complain about the same both on tape and in various sources. If Brian had a tragic flaw that prevented the music from being finished, it was this above all else, in my opinion.]

3. Mike as a Friend to Anderle's Business, but not Brian's Creativity

Surprisingly, Anderle and Mike are said to have gotten along one-on-one because Mike, as the most business-minded of the group and oldest, best understood what Anderle was trying to do by setting up Brother Records. However, here again it is made clear that Mike was the ringleader of the opposition to VDP and SMiLE. A new anecdote I never read before mentions how he was "continually" fighting Brian and "often" Brian would storm out of the studio. (You can kind of hear the aftermath of a similar spat in the TSS Disc 2 track 7(?) for "Do a Lot" where Brian says "if there's no cooperation after this I'm splitting, I mean it" in an uncharacteristically frustrated voice.)

4. An Overlooked Point of Contention

Also, apparently Brian redoing the guys parts was a big sticking point. Frustratingly, Leaf/Anderle doesn't say what song it was, but there's a mention of Brian wanting to sing a part that had initially been promised to Mike, forcing Mike to do it over and over again for an entire week only to do it himself because Mike wasn't perfect enough. Reading things like this really goes to show that Brian's perfectionism that had begun to manifest at least with GV was a detriment, not the praiseworthy mark of an uncompromising genius. At a certain point, if you're poking the bear and making someone who's already unhappy with the project feel even more antagonized, you have to expect a blowup sooner or latter. I think, just speculation, that the Cabin Essence incident was really more Mike taking out his long-felt frustrations toward Brian on the one guy who wasn't family, and Brian similarly using VDP as a proxy to avoid conflict. They were both really unfair to poor Van there.

5. SMiLE as a Solo Album in 1966

Anderle thinks SMiLE should've been a solo album even back in '66 and told Brian as much back then. When reading about how Brian kept wiping their painstakingly recorded vocals and just doing it all himself, Im inclined to agree. We almost always talk about this project from Brian's POV but I think it must've been straight-up insulting for the Boys to work on a song for a whole week only for someone to say "nah, you suck, I'll just do it." This indicates that deep down he really just wanted to do it all himself, like he included the guys only reluctantly out of obligation. That, or it's just poor directorship on Brian's part, which I've maintained since commentating on the Psychedelic Soundss was always his problem as a bandleader. Both the Beach Boys and his stoner friends felt he was using them as props without giving clear instruction or making them feel like a valued part of the creative process. If both those camps can agree on something, I'm inclined to believe it.

6. Brian Shut Down

There's another specific anecdote about how Brian's communication had become increasingly nonverbal so the other guys couldn't understand him. And that makes me wonder if maybe Anderle or Vosse (or even VDP) should've maybe acted as a go-between, since they apparently understood both perspectives at least enough to larp as effective negotiators. But also acting as go-betweens might've upset the situation more since it could be seen as putting themselves between the group and Brian which is exactly what they feared most. Maybe that's even what happened and led the band to think this was all the Posse's idea and Brian was being pushed along in a direction he himself didn't believe in. They may have thought they were saving him from a group of manipulative hustlers--Mike at least pretends to think so based on interviews.  

7. More on the Breakup with Van Dyke

This book claims that VDP left, came back then left again (so 2 partings not 3) with only the February contract with WB listed as a time-reference. It also says lyrics were incomplete which is part of why Brian lost interest in the music since he felt he couldn't write words that'd match what VDP had done. Once again, I have to say if this is true it just raises so many questions like "what was VDP doing for 6+ months" and "was he not aware of some of the music even existing, perhaps?" and "did they agree to set lyrics aside until after the various song structures and sequence were finalized?" and "did Brian ask him to change/throw out some lyrics, not because they weren't good, but because his idea for a song changed?" (For example, CIFOTM is maybe the most opaque song lyrically among the tracklist and we have conflicting descriptions of "psychology derived lyrics" like in Brian's autobio, "a cowboy song" from Dennis showing it to a press agent and another "innocence of children" thing per BWPS and it's association with Surf's Up's climax. Maybe it oscillated between those frameworks and as many as three sets of lyrics were written at various points, especially if we include '03? Im not a trained musician but Version 1 seems like at least a slightly different melody than Version 2, right? Maybe lyrics were written for the earlier take that didn't fit its redesign?)

8. Brian Operated on Fleeting Whims

Anderle explicitly confirms what I've alluded to elsewhere, that Brian operated on whims and if he couldn't finish something immediately he'd lose interest. It was just too much work, too complex a project, to be done in a quick timeframe that'd satisfy him. He needed someone to keep him motivated, like a supportive dad telling him he's gotta finish his greatest work. (Instead he had a belligerent dad telling him he stinks.)

9. Brian's & My Take on Revolver

There's a quote from Brian I'd never seen before where he says he considers himself to have surpassed Spector (I agree entirely) and that the then-new Beatles album, which would've been Revolver in case anyone somehow doesn't know, is "religious" (I don't agree). I think Brian may be projecting his own positive aspirations onto his rivals here, and using the word "religious" as a synonym for "beautiful" or "revolutionary" perhaps. That seems like something he'd do, especially as a naive, single-minded and not verbose person.

Personally, I see Revolver as the weird, disjointed crossover between Rubber Soul's full-fledged folk rock and Sgt Pepper's singularly psychedelic rock, that lacks the focus or warmth of either. It's always struck me as a kind of foreboding, almost cynical album, at least in places. I'm talking about Taxman, I'm Only Sleeping, "making me feel like I've never been born," Tomorrow Never Knows, Eleanor Rigby, For No One's droning sound, etc. Even the explicitly cheery tunes, like And Your Bird Can Sing, Got to Get You Into My Life, Dr Robert, Good Day Sunshine...to my ears, there's something eerie about them, where the sunny lyrics feel almost like a put-on, satirical barbs at such sentiment, or like the Beatles themselves weren't actually happy while they were being recorded. Does anyone else have this reaction to Revolver? I mean, I love it, it's one of my top three of theirs along with Rubber Soul and Abbey Road, but in my mind it's "the dark one."

I guess you could say SMiLE has a lot of melancholia too but there it feels more purposeful, like there's a light at the end of the tunnel ("a children's song" and the power of laughter). It's interesting to hear Brian describe Revolver in this way and now that I think of it, it's strange he was so threatened by "Strawberry Fields Forever" but not "Tomorrow Never Knows." (Maybe he saw the latter as cheap trickery with the reversed tapes while the former's lush orchestration is what spooked him?)

10. Another Unspoken Factor

This is the first direct instance I can recall reading that cites Brian's difficulty getting choice studio hours as a factor in the album's collapse. Supposedly, he wanted early morning hours that were frequently all booked up. Also, another new tidbit for me, studio operators were supposedly giving him grief for breaking union rules by engineering his own sessions. These factors certainly put the home studio in a new light.

11. The Choice of the Single

Supposedly Heroes was picked for a single in December not because it was the best or most commercial track, just the closest to being done...though ironically once it was chosen as a single, Brian still tinkered with it for another 7 months, where he already had a solo cut of Surf in the can and could've finished a better track like CE or CIFOTM in a month tops. Anderle considers meddling in the creative side by telling Brian he had to do a single as "the hardest thing I ever had to do to him." Chuck Britz, like Bruce and others who heard the different versions of H&V, considered the final single to be vastly inferior to the original "5 or 6 minute" version they did in the professional studio. There's a line about how "some versions of the song ran as long as 12 minutes" but it's not a direct quote nor attributed to anyone in particular so I take that with a massive grain of salt. I myself made a 10+ minute cut of Heroes and that was using like every conceivable snippet from the boxset, which at that point means you lose any kind of melodic "pull" and the song becomes a meandering mess. This isn't a disco Tom Moulton mix, even with missing full-blown extra verses I have to imagine 12 minutes of Heroes would put anyone off.  

12. Aside About the Production Race

I wonder, after reading this, if the production race would've continued had SMiLE come out. Instead of feeling like "ok we've won, we can step back now and just be a regular rock band again" would the Beatles feel the need to top SMiLE? If so, would this have led to the kind of overproduced "so many instruments I can't even make out the melody" sound that (imo) plagues BW88 and similar records? Would the White Album have been all "Revolution 9" and "Goodnight" style arrangements? Would it have been public/critical backlash rather than artistic intuition that led to the "back to basics" movement? If the Beatles still went back to basics post-Pepper, would they be seen as the ones who "blinked" the way the Beach Boys were perceived with Smiley and Wild Honey? Interesting to think about.

13. Acid After SMiLE, Not Before

Leaf postulates that Brian's use of acid increased as SMiLE was collapsing as a refuge from all the pressure (which, if you know anything about psychedelics, it'll magnify what's going on in your head not mask it, so this was a fool's retreat) and blames the Beach Boys for this. I know Leaf is notorious for being the proto-Brianista but even then this is a take I never heard before so Im kinda skeptical. I'd always read about Brian's first trip with Darro before California Girls, that's well-documented. His possible second and third trips are way more vague, and I can't find a good source for the oft-cited "died in a fire and reborn" trip nor the supposed flashback in a bookstore during the conceptualizing period of the SMiLE sessions. If anyone can point me to where info on these factoids and where they originated from, I'd appreciate it.

[BJL]

I think the more nuanced picture of The Beach Boy's resistance to the project you're developing, Julia, is really interesting. I'm not at all surprised Mike's resistance was so strong, and I don't think it makes much since to play down the actually fact of that resistance. But as you've been showing, Brian's erratic behavior, not in general, but particularly with regard to how he was treating the band and how he was running sessions, really does put Mike's, and other members of the band's, resistance in a more understandable light.

Of course, Mike's frustration with some of the Pet Sounds sessions is pretty well documented, I feel. "The Stalin of the studio," I believe Mike rather famously said. I think Mike's famous comment about Brian making them keep recording Wouldn't It Be Nice over and over and over, after the blend was perfect, after the parts were perfect, looking for something beyond ordinary human hearing is telling. On Wouldn't It Be Nice, at least the band got a releasable single out of it in relatively short order. Recording Heroes and Villains over and over in that way must have been truly mentally exhausting. That doesn't change the fact that more genuine support from Mike and the rest of the band (or even just less overt hostility!) could have made all the difference.

I do think that Brian's refusal to collaborate with Mike on lyrics must have seriously rankled. This is not just a guy who doesn't like the direction the band is going in or Brian's new friends or whatever, it must have been very personal. Mike must have felt, rightly (and I believe he's said as much), that he had *proven* he could take Brian's most out-there music and write excellent lyrics that helped his songs connect with their fans. California Girls was one of the band's biggest hits, and is a perfect example of that (though Brian wrote every other line, according to him). But Good Vibrations - Mike must have been rightly proud of his contribution, and rightly felt that he'd *proven* his ability to work with Brian on his new music in a way that connected with fans. To be completely sidelined in favor of a kind of lyric he could never have written and didn't understand and didn't like must have just felt so, so hard, truly. I know I would have been seriously hurt if I put myself in his position.

All of which is to say perhaps the obvious, which is that there were hurt feelings at play here in a deep way; it was about the relationships within the band, not the music.

Re: your comment on Revolver, I agree that it's a bit of a darker record, certainly compared to Pepper. Although Rubber Soul is *also* a dark, even sinister, record in a lot of ways (Run for You Life, I'm Looking Through You, Girl...). Revolver maybe combines, as you say, being even more chipper on one level with being much darker on another, which is sort of where Brian was going to. Of course, it wasn't just Brian and the Beatles, all of popular music was moving in that direction in the mid-60s, songs about sunshine with an edge, I mean, listen to Van Dyke Park's Come to the Sunshine, recorded in March and released Sept. of 1966. So bright and happy but there's an edge to it, somehow.

But re: the Production Race, as much as the Beatles were inspired by the Beach Boys (an influence obvious in their harmonies and compositions in the mid-60s), the truth is, this was a one-sided race. Brian thought of himself as in competition with the Beatles, with Phil Spector. It came from how he was raised and his position within the band and the Beach Boys position in American Culture. Phil Spector never thought of himself as being in competition with anyone (except his business associates, I suppose). The Beatles were not running a race. They weren't trying to beat the Beach Boys to a new sound! They were making music, chasing new sounds, taking on new influences, doing what they wanted to do. If Smile had come out, it would almost certainly have influenced the Beatles on some level, because they would have heard a bunch of cool, weird music that they didn't in fact hear. But they would never in a million years have felt like they *lost*. Actually, that competitive way of thinking about music production is pretty bizarre and unusual, and although it spurred Brian on some level, it probably didn't really help him in the end, compared to an attitude of mutual respect and exploration. Personally, I think if Smile had come out, it, and not Sgt. Pepper, would be considered the pinnacle of 60s psychedelia. But I doubt it would have changed the overall arc of music history much. What Brian was doing was basically inimitable. And the Beatles would not have felt threatened; I doubt Pepper would sound different. It would probably be a party game to this day which album was better.

[Julia]

I think the more nuanced picture of The Beach Boy's resistance to the project you're developing, Julia, is really interesting. I'm not at all surprised Mike's resistance was so strong, and I don't think it makes much since to play down the actually fact of that resistance. But as you've been showing, Brian's erratic behavior, not in general, but particularly with regard to how he was treating the band and how he was running sessions, really does put Mike's, and other members of the band's, resistance in a more understandable light.

I appreciate that, in general Im of the opinion that it's important to be as unbiased as possible when discussing history or anything regarding human relationships. Plus, I'm just a big believer in giving people their due. Hitler was evil but the best public speaker of the 20th century if not all time. The guy who went to jail for murder smiled at me anytime we passed and carried my groceries to the door once. Mike Love didn't encourage Brian's creative development as an artist but he wrote great hooks, went toe to toe with Tony Asher on "Im Waiting for the Day" and GV, plus he stepped in as front man when no one else would. (Not saying Mike's faults are anywhere near those other two examples  ) Similarly, I love Brian but I think to pretend he was totally perfect and blameless is a blur on the historical record. Ive always had a soft spot for Princess Di but she used her first born son as a confidante, putting a ton of emotional baggage on the poor kid. You get the point; people are complicated. I think a lot of us want to categorize others as good or bad and that nuance is missed. Plus, even (or especially) bad people can be talented in a certain area whether or not if they use their gift for evil.  

Of course, Mike's frustration with some of the Pet Sounds sessions is pretty well documented, I feel. "The Stalin of the studio," I believe Mike rather famously said. I think Mike's famous comment about Brian making them keep recording Wouldn't It Be Nice over and over and over, after the blend was perfect, after the parts were perfect, looking for something beyond ordinary human hearing is telling. On Wouldn't It Be Nice, at least the band got a releasable single out of it in relatively short order. Recording Heroes and Villains over and over in that way must have been truly mentally exhausting. That doesn't change the fact that more genuine support from Mike and the rest of the band (or even just less overt hostility!) could have made all the difference.

Wow, did Mike really say that? Damn. It's interesting "dont f*** with the formula" and "the ears of a dog" are always used to crucify him when that and "this music disgusts me" are far more damning.

I don't know if we just haven't heard any of it from SMiLE or if they cut the recording off during any spicy bits, but the most hostile I've heard Mike on tape is in the I Know Theres an Answer sessions. He doesn't say anything particularly egregious on its own or written down but you can hear the frustration in the air. There's a palpable disdain he has for the material and Brian making him run through it two dozen times just stirs the pot without realizing it. I felt uncomfortable listening to it, like you can just tell that wasn't a pleasant place to be, so I can only imagine what SMiLE must've been like. When TSS came out the narrative was shifting to "all I hear is Mike singing his heart out on those recordings!" but at what cost? Clearly, whether there's unreleased or lost clips on the tapes (or it happened off the air) that same hostile vibe was going on unless literally all the primary sources are lying.

I do think that Brian's refusal to collaborate with Mike on lyrics must have seriously rankled. This is not just a guy who doesn't like the direction the band is going in or Brian's new friends or whatever, it must have been very personal. Mike must have felt, rightly (and I believe he's said as much), that he had *proven* he could take Brian's most out-there music and write excellent lyrics that helped his songs connect with their fans. California Girls was one of the band's biggest hits, and is a perfect example of that (though Brian wrote every other line, according to him). But Good Vibrations - Mike must have been rightly proud of his contribution, and rightly felt that he'd *proven* his ability to work with Brian on his new music in a way that connected with fans. To be completely sidelined in favor of a kind of lyric he could never have written and didn't understand and didn't like must have just felt so, so hard, truly. I know I would have been seriously hurt if I put myself in his position.

I wonder if Brian just didn't like Mike that much--loved him of course, but clashing personalities I mean--for him to be so desperate to pass up a willing and talented collaborator. Mike wrote some cheesy lyrics I don't like: think Be True to You School, California Girls (the worst lyrics ever to a great melody in pop music that I can recall), Student Demonstration Time, anything TM-related, etc. But he also wrote some of the best lyrics in the whole canon, particularly: Help Me Rhonda, Please Let Me Wonder, She Knows Me Too Well, She's Not the Little Girl I Once Knew (officially uncredited), Warmth of the Sun, and the aforementioned two. (I firmly believe that if GV had come out with Asher's lyrics, it would have been only a minor hit--it's almost cruel irony that for all the months of Brian's tinkering, probably the best thing that happened to that song was Mike's practically improvised line "Im picking up good vi-bra-tions, she's givin me ex-ci-ta-tions.") I honestly think Mike could've written lyrics for Pet Sounds that were just as well as what we got, or only a notch lower, no disrespect to Tony Asher, but who knows.

Sometimes with Mike lyrics though, there'll be like one line that's off and it doesn't ruin the song but it nags me everytime I listen. As an example, When I Grow Up to Be a Man "when they're out having fun will I still wanna have my share" it's one syllable too many and there was such an easy fix "will I still want my own share" that I came up with off the top of my head hearing the song at like 11 years old. Things that just make you go "come on, Mike, you're a pro! Work it out!" like he just went with the first draft. So it's not as though he were flawless either and I get why Brian sought someone more sophisticated on some level. Probably having an outsider like Asher also afforded Brian more control, someone he could say no to without risking the family dynamic, just having a new face around boosted creativity etc.

Mike could not have written lyrics for SMiLE...probably...but since he's upset anyway, why not give him the chance? "Alright Mike, you think of a better line than 'over and over...'" I guess that's what they ultimately did with some of Smiley--like Shes Goin Bald. However, I notice this is only the unambiguously junked HGS getting a Mike do-over, while Whistle In, cribbed from Worms, is credited solely to Brian. It's almost like even in death, Brian refused to compromise his SMiLE vision anymore than he had to. (Or Mike didn't care enough about this song to mention it in his lawsuit, who knows?) And in any case, during the SMiLE sessions proper, allowing Mike a crack at it would've upset VDP, though that happened anyway. When VDP left the logical solution seemed to be letting Mike fill in the gaps at least but perhaps Brian didn't want to reward "bad" behavior or else he just really didn't like Mike or strongly believed Mike was not "spiritual" or "hip" or "psychedelic" enough to "get" SMiLE. (To be fair I'd say that's true, I think even now, Mike doesn't get it.)

Regardless, Mike needed to be told he was lucky to be where he is at all, or else placated in some way and Brian wasn't able to do it until the joint Brian & Mike credit on Gettin Hungry. Still though, as a human being who has also been excluded by people I thought I was closer to, I have gotten more sympathetic to Mike's position over the years though he also was far from perfect. Had they not been a family it's practically a given the band would've split up around this point and certainly in 1977, which I think the other Beach Boys were deathly afraid of, knowing they were riding Brian's coattails as a songwriter. It's just sad that both cousins couldn't give each other a little more grace. Giving Mike one song I think might've made all the difference, or just easing up on the number of takes.

All of which is to say perhaps the obvious, which is that there were hurt feelings at play here in a deep way; it was about the relationships within the band, not the music.

Re: your comment on Revolver, I agree that it's a bit of a darker record, certainly compared to Pepper. Although Rubber Soul is *also* a dark, even sinister, record in a lot of ways (Run for You Life, I'm Looking Through You, Girl...). Revolver maybe combines, as you say, being even more chipper on one level with being much darker on another, which is sort of where Brian was going to. Of course, it wasn't just Brian and the Beatles, all of popular music was moving in that direction in the mid-60s, songs about sunshine with an edge, I mean, listen to Van Dyke Park's Come to the Sunshine, recorded in March and released Sept. of 1966. So bright and happy but there's an edge to it, somehow.

Yeah that's definitely true. It's like the happy naive optimism of the 50s and early 60s is still there but fractured with the death of JFK or something. I think a big part of it is Paul's pseudo-musical "story songs" that would bring so much levity to later Beatles albums (Sgt Pepper the song/concept itself, Magical Mystery Tour song/concept, Rocky Raccoon + Back in the USSR, Maxwell's Silver Hammer) was used instead to make Eleanor Rigby, maybe the most overtly disturbing Beatles song. That and Yellow Submarine, which should be cheery given the premise but something about the way it's sung just makes it off-putting, like it's a metaphor for isolation or driving yourself nuts imagining a perfect scenario that could never be, or remembering happier times long gone.

But re: the Production Race, as much as the Beatles were inspired by the Beach Boys (an influence obvious in their harmonies and compositions in the mid-60s), the truth is, this was a one-sided race. Brian thought of himself as in competition with the Beatles, with Phil Spector. It came from how he was raised and his position within the band and the Beach Boys position in American Culture. Phil Spector never thought of himself as being in competition with anyone (except his business associates, I suppose). The Beatles were not running a race. They weren't trying to beat the Beach Boys to a new sound! They were making music, chasing new sounds, taking on new influences, doing what they wanted to do. If Smile had come out, it would almost certainly have influenced the Beatles on some level, because they would have heard a bunch of cool, weird music that they didn't in fact hear. But they would never in a million years have felt like they *lost*. Actually, that competitive way of thinking about music production is pretty bizarre and unusual, and although it spurred Brian on some level, it probably didn't really help him in the end, compared to an attitude of mutual respect and exploration. Personally, I think if Smile had come out, it, and not Sgt. Pepper, would be considered the pinnacle of 60s psychedelia. But I doubt it would have changed the overall arc of music history much. What Brian was doing was basically inimitable. And the Beatles would not have felt threatened; I doubt Pepper would sound different. It would probably be a party game to this day which album was better.

Ah. I sort of thought that, how Rubber Soul influenced Pet Sounds which influenced Sgt Pepper (as even the liner notes quote by George Martin admits) indicated as much but perhaps not. Certainly the Beatles had nothing to fear in terms of sales.

Just to clarify, I dont think SMiLE would've changed Pepper any. The Pepper sessions were already underway even if Brian met the January 15th deadline and by then the Beatles made Strawberry Fields which is at least as "out there" as anything Brian was doing, production-wise. (Maybe I just answered my own question.) I thought maybe it would've influenced the White Album. Perhaps not even in terms of denser arrangements but like "Brian just made a great existential statement on the profundity of living, calling society to a higher standard! What are we doing, a goofy fake band concept abandoned after 3 tracks and a stupid TV movie where nothing happens?! We gotta *say* something with the next album!"

I definitely think Brian drove himself nuts trying to top the Fab Four when he was already making music that was at least as good/advanced and arguably better. Especially when you consider he was his own George Martin. I'd say if anything, Pepper was the Beatles proving they were on Brian's level at all, much less topping him. And even then, where I preferred Pepper at first as a kid, the older I get the more I recognize Pet Sounds as the far superior work. There's no duds on PS where SP has the underproduced WI64 and cacophonous, lyrically pointless GMGM along with the "been there, done that" reprise of the title track, and ill fitting WYWY, to say nothing of how much more emotionally resonant PS' subject matter is. (I think it's fitting that Rolling Stone magazine, when updating their top 500 albums list, kept PS at #2 while pushing Pepper way back from #1 to #24. Even the top Beatles album, now Abbey Road, is "only" #5.)

[BJL]

Sometimes with Mike lyrics though, there'll be like one line that's off and it doesn't ruin the song but it nags me everytime I listen. As an example, When I Grow Up to Be a Man "when they're out having fun will I still wanna have my share" it's one syllable too many and there was such an easy fix "will I still want my own share" that I came up with off the top of my head hearing the song at like 11 years old. Things that just make you go "come on, Mike, you're a pro! Work it out!" like he just went with the first draft. So it's not as though he were flawless either and I get why Brian sought someone more sophisticated on some level. Probably having an outsider like Asher also afforded Brian more control, someone he could say no to without risking the family dynamic, just having a new face around boosted creativity etc.

Mike could not have written lyrics for SMiLE...probably...but since he's upset anyway, why not give him the chance? "Alright Mike, you think of a better line than 'over and over...'" I guess that's what they ultimately did with some of Smiley--like Shes Goin Bald. However, I notice this is only the unambiguously junked HGS getting a Mike do-over, while Whistle In, cribbed from Worms, is credited solely to Brian. It's almost like even in death, Brian refused to compromise his SMiLE vision anymore than he had to. (Or Mike didn't care enough about this song to mention it in his lawsuit, who knows?) And in any case, during the SMiLE sessions proper, allowing Mike a crack at it would've upset VDP, though that happened anyway. When VDP left the logical solution seemed to be letting Mike fill in the gaps at least but perhaps Brian didn't want to reward "bad" behavior or else he just really didn't like Mike or strongly believed Mike was not "spiritual" or "hip" or "psychedelic" enough to "get" SMiLE. (To be fair I'd say that's true, I think even now, Mike doesn't get it.)

Regardless, Mike needed to be told he was lucky to be where he is at all, or else placated in some way and Brian wasn't able to do it until the joint Brian & Mike credit on Gettin Hungry. Still though, as a human being who has also been excluded by people I thought I was closer to, I have gotten more sympathetic to Mike's position over the years though he also was far from perfect. Had they not been a family it's practically a given the band would've split up around this point and certainly in 1977, which I think the other Beach Boys were deathly afraid of, knowing they were riding Brian's coattails as a songwriter. It's just sad that both cousins couldn't give each other a little more grace. Giving Mike one song I think might've made all the difference, or just easing up on the number of takes.

Yea, honestly, for me it's one of those situations where I completely understand why Brian didn't want to work with Mike on these songs, and I just as completely understand why that would have been pretty hard for him. Just part of a family and band dynamic slowly starting to go sour... I do think you're on to something with the line of thought that giving a song to Mike was a risk, because it would have been substantial harder, I imagine, to say after a lyric was written that Brian didn't want to use it or it wasn't right. Then again, I think the main thing was that Brian just wanted a different trip than Mike was capable of. And Mike wanted a different Smile, a Smile with a few more Good Vibrations and a few less Cabinessences, at the very least...

Ah. I sort of thought that, how Rubber Soul influenced Pet Sounds which influenced Sgt Pepper (as even the liner notes quote by George Martin admits) indicated as much but perhaps not. Certainly the Beatles had nothing to fear in terms of sales.

Just to clarify, I dont think SMiLE would've changed Pepper any. The Pepper sessions were already underway even if Brian met the January 15th deadline and by then the Beatles made Strawberry Fields which is at least as "out there" as anything Brian was doing, production-wise. (Maybe I just answered my own question.) I thought maybe it would've influenced the White Album. Perhaps not even in terms of denser arrangements but like "Brian just made a great existential statement on the profundity of living, calling society to a higher standard! What are we doing, a goofy fake band concept abandoned after 3 tracks and a stupid TV movie where nothing happens?! We gotta *say* something with the next album!"

I definitely think Brian drove himself nuts trying to top the Fab Four when he was already making music that was at least as good/advanced and arguably better. Especially when you consider he was his own George Martin. I'd say if anything, Pepper was the Beatles proving they were on Brian's level at all, much less topping him. And even then, where I preferred Pepper at first as a kid, the older I get the more I recognize Pet Sounds as the far superior work. There's no duds on PS where SP has the underproduced WI64 and cacophonous, lyrically pointless GMGM along with the "been there, done that" reprise of the title track, and ill fitting WYWY, to say nothing of how much more emotionally resonant PS' subject matter is. (I think it's fitting that Rolling Stone magazine, when updating their top 500 albums list, kept PS at #2 while pushing Pepper way back from #1 to #24. Even the top Beatles album, now Abbey Road, is "only" #5.)

I definitely think Pet Sounds did influence Sgt. Pepper on some level. Paul has talked about really changing how he thought about bass lines, which is no small thing, really. And certainly George Martin is to be believed. But my sense has always been that this competition idea is really only something that Beach Boys people ever talk about, and that Beatles fans don't think of the period that way at all... and that that reflects a certain reality about how the bands themselves were thinking, on a basic level. I could be wrong though, I'm far from a Beatles expert...

I will say, more than Revolver and Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper suffered as an album from the separate singles model. Great as Day Tripper or Paperback Writer are, they're not album-defining achievements. Throw Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Pepper and cut When I'm Sixty Four and you're looking at a hell of a record.

As I said, my Beatles timeline is a little shaky, but wouldn't the sessions-to-be-influenced in 1967 have been the Magical Mystery project? I know it didn't end up being a whole album... But maybe if Smile had come out, that project - which has a lot in common with Smile in some ways, given the sense of humor in the movie - would have been taken a little more seriously or given a little more thought and concentration? It's an interesting thought, anyway! Maybe there could have even been a pasta song

[Julia]

Yea, honestly, for me it's one of those situations where I completely understand why Brian didn't want to work with Mike on these songs, and I just as completely understand why that would have been pretty hard for him. Just part of a family and band dynamic slowly starting to go sour... I do think you're on to something with the line of thought that giving a song to Mike was a risk, because it would have been substantial harder, I imagine, to say after a lyric was written that Brian didn't want to use it or it wasn't right. Then again, I think the main thing was that Brian just wanted a different trip than Mike was capable of. And Mike wanted a different Smile, a Smile with a few more Good Vibrations and a few less Cabinessences, at the very least...

The two biggest problems with the Beach Boys are that they were a family and Brian was the only one who could write music at least at first. This meant that Brian couldn't ditch them as he outgrew their public persona without damning his loved ones to failure. Perhaps they should've been content to transition into a cover band for awhile until they got their chops, but try telling them that as an extremely sensitive guy with mental health issues. Mike could write great hooks for a melody but I don't think he ever had anything really worth saying to get an outside party interested in penning music to his latest opus. Not saying that dismissively, just being truthful. Brian could attract outside collaborators because he had a unique "voice" as a musician that could get somebody excited, even honored, to be his cowriter. With Mike it's like "uhh, those are nice words but I could get about a hundred guys off the street that could write the same thing." I mean, that's literally what Brian did with Asher. 

Then, unfortunately, by the time Dennis and to a lesser extent Carl were able to step up and write songs, Brian was so unbalanced he couldn't take advantage "great, you guys got on your feet, I'll be leaving now" as it seems he was want to do from '66 through '68 and again in '77. They just couldn't get the timing right where he could walk away without feeling bad. And frankly, the other guys were being really entitled and ungrateful not to realize "we are only here because of Brian; we owe it to him to trust his instincts and nurture his vision." I guess though, they were all very young and obscene fame changes people.

I give Mike leeway for not handling SMiLE as well as he could've but also I think it's pretty damning that he's never shown any regret, self-reflection or attempts at atonement through the decades, even post "enlightenment" after he discovered TM. (Why is Mike's new direction in life ok but Brian's isn't? Why isn't the Maharishi an intrusive outside presence taking advantage of the band?) All the same, it's pretty damning Brian never set the record straight on songwriting credits until Mike literally had to drag him to court. I do think Mike's public perception as an influential figure in the golden age of rock has been irreparably damaged by that.

I will say, more than Revolver and Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper suffered as an album from the separate singles model. Great as Day Tripper or Paperback Writer are, they're not album-defining achievements. Throw Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Pepper and cut When I'm Sixty Four and you're looking at a hell of a record.

As I said, my Beatles timeline is a little shaky, but wouldn't the sessions-to-be-influenced in 1967 have been the Magical Mystery project? I know it didn't end up being a whole album... But maybe if Smile had come out, that project - which has a lot in common with Smile in some ways, given the sense of humor in the movie - would have been taken a little more seriously or given a little more thought and concentration? It's an interesting thought, anyway! Maybe there could have even been a pasta song

Day Tripper may be my fave Beatles song ever, so I think it would've improved RS by being included, but it also works perfectly as a standalone single. Paperback Writer is a good song but honestly is weaker than anything on Revolver except Yellow Submarine for me. Meanwhile SFF and even PL just don't sound like singles to my ears, they sound like deep cuts--kinda like CE and CIFOTM where they may be the best tracks on the album but not what you'd expect to be a commercialized single for AM radio audiences.

I remember back in the days of the Pet Sounds forum there was a thread about whether or not SFF/PL should've been kept for the album and if so, what the alt tracklist should be. I recall proposing something like this, where the first side would roughly introduce the idea of overcoming adversity (Friends) then demonstrate the idea more thoroughly with a further song cycle expressing heartbreak, gradual improvements and then end with new love. It's not a perfectly coherent narrative of course but then neither is Pet Sounds or SMiLE. At least it's more of a concept than what we got on our Pepper.

Anyway, then the second side would follow every weird psychedelic freakout track (ugh, and WI64 I guess) and also work as a cycle of life thing. Start with a child imagining his old age, enjoying whimsical childhood fantasies (LSD was based on a kid's drawing, going to the circus), into reminiscing about one's childhood from an adult perspective and then the dreary humdrum of daily adult life. Boom. I just turned a good but overrated album into one that's legitimately worthy of the title "best LP ever (and not just because of boomer nostalgia for when it came out)." A true contender for SMiLE's high concept brilliance and I suspect, closer to Paul's high minded aspirations for the project that were ultimately compromised ("sod it, let's just do tracks"). Somebody give me a cookie.

Sgt Pepper
With a Little Help From My Friends
She's Leaving Home
Fixing a Hole
Getting Better
Lovely Rita

When Im 64 (though Im open to leaving this off and keeping the reprise)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
(You can stick the reprise here if you want)
A Day in the Life

GMGM wouldnt be the best single ever, but it'd wow the public with its effects, it's catchy, honestly better than a lot of their others from the mid 60s. (The Beatles are unusual among bands in that their albums are always fantastic but their singles often lackluster in comparison, where usually it's the opposite.) Then WYWY can be the B-side. Sorry George, but man if I don't always hit the skip button when that song comes on. Love his other sitar songs though. With all respect, I recognize it's very impressive musicianship, I just think it doesn't fit the vibe of the rest of the record, and it kills the momentum dead.

[Julia]

Now Im getting through the relevant sections of Brian's first, disowned autobiography.

https://archive.org/details/wouldntitbenicem00wils/page/172/mode/1up?view=theater
Here's what I took away from it:

1. The Infamous Bookstore Incident

So, is this the originating source of Brian's supposed second acid trip, where he imagined himself dying in a fire, growing backwards into a baby then an egg then nothing? Is this also the original source of the Pickwick books incident, where he has an acid flashback trying to read and becomes obsessed with zen riddles? Because this is the first "major" book on Brian that I've seen mention either. Carlin's bio, Badman's anthology, Leaf, Kent...none of them so much as mention this anecdote, despite how cool it is. This makes me wonder, was this story made up for shock value by Landy's ghostwriter and it just became a (lesser known) part of the SMiLE Lore? That'd be disappointing but if no other source goes into it, all I can assume is fakery. Also, the book places the incident as pre-Pet Sounds, therefore not explicitly SMiLE related.

Most unexpectedly of all, the book ties this in with Brian's supposed first meeting with Genevelyn, his astrologer (the one who told him when to release H&V). She interprets this zen riddle to mean that, since Brian couldn't read the books in the store (due to the flashback) he must look inward for spiritual enlightenment.

2. The Zen Connection

Is the acid flashback in the bookstore the only time zen riddles are ever mentioned in association with SMiLE--by Brian or any other primary source? (Been awhile since I read LLVS, will reacquaint myself later this year). Because now that I think of it, where subud, I ching, astrology, numerology, The Little Prince are all referenced as influences, I don't think I've seen zen in the same context. In fact, I did a quick ctrl+f on the wikipedia page just now and the only hit was cited to this interview from 2004 (http://earcandymag.com/brianwilson-2004.htm) where Brian explicitly denies a connection.

Incidentally, in the same interview here, he mentions SMiLE was originally supposed to be "a two-movement rock opera" and that in BWPS they "touched up the first two movements and added a third." He also says the 2004 is "much, much different" to the '66 album. So take that for what it's worth coming from an older Brian. I'll admit he does read as pretty evasive, like he's just saying whatever will end the interview fastest. (For example, the question about "what prompted the name change from Dumb Angel to SMiLE, was it VDP" prompts a quick "yeah, it was VDP's idea" which doesn't ring true for me at all; I bet had the interviewer not asked the leading second question we would've heard a different albeit equally brief answer.)

3. Writing Style

One thing that makes the book seem at least semi-plausible is how there's no attempt at flowery prose. It's simply written, and Brian for all his musical talents is a very plain spoken man. However, what makes me raise an eyebrow are what I feel "cute" little references other songs. "I wasn't sick but I wasn't well" / "turning, turning, turning" / "psychedelicate" etc. There's a supposed Brian-Asher conversation that manages to work in lyrics from WIBN and GV too. Feels like the ghostwriter trying to be clever or something. Also, he quotes Al as saying "Holy Tomatoes" when he hears Sloop John B for the first time, which...I don't know enough about Al's speaking patterns to know if it's legit or not but that was funny.

Where it really shines are some of the dialogue segments, especially the supposed interactions between Brian and Tony. Like, Brian expecting him to start right away and Tony says "Im on my lunch break, Im expected back at the office in 45 minutes!" or Brian telling Tony to arrive promptly at 11:00 AM only to keep him waiting 2 hours ("although I apologized, he seemed a little wary") and eating a massive breakfast in front of him. If these passages were invented, they perfectly capture the dynamic Tony himself describes without worry of putting Brian in a bad light. However, it soon goes back to blandly summarizing what everyone already knows ("I told him how much I like Diane" / "he thought I was an amateur human being") without any unique insight or previously unspoken personal memory you'd want from a biography, meaning either it's badly ghostwritten or too authentically Brian for its own good. There's nothing here you wouldn't get from any other generic source.

4. Marketing Stuff

This is the first I've heard that hiring Derek Taylor as publicist was Bruce Johnston's idea. I always assumed it was Brian. There's a throwaway line where Brian mentions weak cover art as a hindrance to the group getting taken seriously, which I've mentioned before too. With the possible exception of Help!, every single Beatles album cover is a work of art you could proudly hang on your wall. Even when it's "just" a simple black and white portrait like With The Beatles, it's done so well and the subtle but brilliant touch of lowering Ringo's head makes the composition way more interesting than it has a right to be. Sgt Pepper's cover is the best to ever grace an LP, hands down, even as someone who thinks the album itself is somewhat overrated.

Meanwhile, the Beach Boys have maybe 5 good covers (Surfin Safari, SMiLE, Smiley, Wild Honey, Holland) and it feels like only the middle three were purposefully chosen by the band. If Brian had the presence of mind to consider this in '66, it also begs the question how he'd let the terrible Pet Sounds cover out the door. (Im sorry if anyone's grown attached to it, but objectively it's terrible. Anytime I try to turn people onto the LP who don't know its reputation, they take one look at these dopey choir boys feeding goats and refuse to listen or laugh at how lame it looks. An album cover should have the opposite effect.) Even just the giraffe photo from the same shoot would've been so much better. Love You and Today are my second and third favorite Beach Boy albums but their covers are similarly terrible--so much brown, then preppy sweaters or a kitschy grid quilt pattern. Even Al has publicly mocked LY's cover art. Sorry for the tangent.

5. The Third Trip

This is supposedly the good one, the one that was wholly positive for Brian, but it's not described at all except as "4 hours of enlightenment and spirituality" which rings a bit false to me. Acid trips usually last 8-12 hours and while I dont have a whole lot of experience personally, that's how it was for me. I can't imagine a four hour trip with the good stuff available to a rock star in 1967. Seems like the ghostwriter got confused with shrooms. I really wanted more intimate knowledge of Brian's trips, I had heard this book was good for that if nothing else, but it's just not. Why WOULDN'T they tell us about this third, supposedly wonderful experience unless it was fake and/or Brian refused to say more but "I saw God." I wanna know the trip that supposedly inspired SMiLE, goshdarn it.  

Is there another source for Brian begging Al to do acid? Younger me would've said the straight-laced Boys would've benefited immensely from taking LSD, especially Mike, but with experience I can now say I don't think it would've changed them much if they weren't open to it. I've seen plenty of guys treat psychedelics as just "a way to get f***ed up" rather than a tool for self-examination and spiritual enlightenment. They see their pretty visuals, enjoy the euphoria for a few hours, then go right back to throwing trash on the street and demeaning other people like before. That's why flower power failed; acid is a tool, not a panacea. I've even had people get mad at me when I tell them they're using it wrong (by doing it every other weekend at parties or whatever instead of 2-3 times a year tops in nature).  

6. Regarding VDP

This book makes it out like Van introduced Brian to amphetemines (unless you include the desbutal he was taking before). Also this is the first Ive read of Van's life outside of SMiLE, where supposedly he resided in a one-room apartment above a garage with a large aquarium. Brian is said to have brought him 40 mice as a present "since he lived like one and seemed lonely." That sounds pretty damn weird even for Brian and I'd expect VDP to mention something like that if true (maybe he does in David Leaf's new book, I don't know yet). It goes beyond cute (one mouse is cute) into "you know I have to get rid of these animals and they're all gonna die, right?" territory. Amusingly, VDP insists on writing "the two of us, in a room" the way Mike always says in real life. VDP is also said to hate the hangers-on/Posse in this telling of the story, considering them a distraction to the writing process.

According to this book, the switch to VDP as lyricist "disappointed Asher" where by the guy's own account he was happy to get away from the madness. While Im inclined to side against WIBN where it disagrees with other sources, here I'm of two minds. It would make sense for Asher to soothe his own ego by pretending he had no interest in further collaboration, but his descriptions of Brian's tomfoolery absolutely ring true and really, any well-adjusted adult with a steady gig would be smart not to get too involved. So, I think this could go either way. I'm only ever reading Asher's words, not hearing his voice or seeing his vibe, but even though he says unkind things about Brian in interviews to me they read as brutal honesty without malice, rather than jilted revenge. I lean towards believing he wanted out.

Even the ultra-hip Jules Siegal doesn't "get" Surfs Up and asks what it means. (I guess this is meant to be a setup for Brian explaining the song in GSHG?) The author seemed really proud of this thing where he reads off Surf's Up's lyrics then commentates on them, because it happens like two other times in the book. Brian wants to burn the Surf's Up tape, not fire.

The Mike-Van standoff happens at a Heroes session in February, not a CE session in December though the same lyrics are cited as the point of contention. Instead of just "I don't know what it means, I was high," / "there is no literal interpretation of my work, I have no excuse sir," VDP first says "I think it's great poetry is what it is." Mike is slightly more hostile in this account too: "It doesn't mean sh*t if you ask me, it's gibberish," then he turns to the guys "he has no idea what these lyrics mean and we're expected to sing them? Brian, are you trying to destroy the Beach Boys?" Brian is said to have immediately walked out of the studio. This account admits that Brian wanted VDP to be his diplomat, use his verbosity to say what Brian couldn't. However Van just didn't think it was his place to come between family and both collaborators know right then the album is doomed. VDP even says "the only thing left to do is drag out the carcass" which contradicts his words in interviews that he still thought SMiLE would come out. This just doesn't ring true as something he would say.

Here there are two separate partings with VDP but they occur in February, a return in early March and final parting at the end of that month.  

7. Drugs

According to the book, Brian bought enough hash to be high constantly as he considered this a more spiritual and creative state of mind, so he'd remain in the headspace needed to complete a symphony to God. Also, he's said to have done speed every single night with VDP which boosted his confidence in the face of endless pushback from Capitol and the band. Supposedly after the drugs wore off they'd listen to the music and wonder if it was even good or not. It's said that speed made Brian's attention span so shot he couldn't focus long enough to finish a song anymore.

8. Indulgences

I'd never heard of Brian installing a portable sauna in his bedroom before. In addition to the telescope store with Oppenheim, now it's also an all-night clothing store with Darro. This has Brian explaining to bewildered guests at the premiere of a Heroes acetate mix "it's going to have a lot of talking between the cuts." Same quote as elsewhere, different context. Supposedly, the cutlery symphony participants were willing to return the next night as asked, called Marilyn to see if they should, but Brian blew them off. Brian is said to have expected his entourage to go into a bar and start a fight (that same Heroes barroom brawl I've mentioned) but no one was willing to risk their safety--they all thought it'd be great if someone else did though. This and Leaf's book mention driving around a police station in a car with tinted windows to tempt fate. Another new anecdote: there was supposedly a playhouse installed in the front of the house people would have to crawl through to get in.

VDP is said to have found the famous sandbox "disgusting, irresponsible, juvenile, sickening." There's a throwaway line about Brian and Hal playing pool with celery stalks as cues hitting grape tomatoes and radishes as balls during the Veggies sessions.

9. Live Performances

Where other sources talk about the Boys getting heat for their inability to reproduce Brian's sounds, which then fueled the group's misgivings towards SMiLE, no one ever talks about how Brian felt about the live shows. WIBN though, asserts that Brian himself agonized over the thought of his masterpiece butchered by mediocre performance, making people think his song itself must not be that good. It'd be interesting to consider if that were an unspoken cause of the album's demise, that Brian didn't want it presented in an unflattering context.

10. Taxi Cabber

The TC recording is mentioned, but without Vosse. We are made to believe Brian had the guy drive around for an hour while talking about rock n roll in addition to the highways near Chicago, all of which was caught on tape. IF this is true, which I'm doubtful, why was the bootleg limited to 5 minutes and can we get the rest? Since 22 minutes of Hal Blaine Veggie Fights were included but not this, Im skeptical.

11. The Airport Photo

Brian's line to Marilyn "I don't know if I should say hello to everyone or goodbye" reads as fake. It's something that would only make sense to say/write if the author knows how the story ends. Just way too prescient when the real Brian in that moment almost certainly didn't think it would all come apart like that. (Look at the big dumb lovable grin on his face in the shot.) It only works as a dramatic line in fiction.

12. Fire Session

According to the book, Van was there at the Fire session but blew up at Brian when he waited in the car 2 hours before going in. This session is said to be the first cancelled for bad vibes. Fake. Fake, fake fake. For one, it says this was the second week of November not 11/28, to say nothing of the fact that the Fire session wasn't canceled and VDP wasn't there. The ghostwriter does mention that another Fire session happened two weeks later though but still the earlier incident is completely unaccounted for anywhere else including AGD's carefully documented sessionography. Apparently Brian forced some poor janitor named "Brother Julius" to light the trash fire, which if true is really horrible--that poor guy could've lost his job.

13. My Diane

Brian is said to have made a move on Diane in December '66, using her as a positive physical outlet for his anxiety regarding everything. A throwaway line states her bedroom was "next to Marilyn's and [Brian's]" implying she slept at their house regularly?

14. Little Discrepancy

The conversation about the movie Seconds happens almost word for word as quoted elsewhere but now instead of "the new Beatles album" Brian says "Rubber Soul" despite Revolver being out for three months by this point. (He was such a fan and competitive there's no way he didn't seek it out in all that time, come on.) I think the ghostwriter made a mistake and went with RS knowing its personal significance to Brian.

15. The Author Doesn't Know the SMiLE Music

Look and I Ran are listed as separate tracks Brian was working on, as are OMP and My Only Sunshine. She's Goin Bald is listed among the songs on the docket in December '66 (even if it's editorializing by referring to HGS as what it ultimately became, that's clearly a throwaway piece Brian thought nothing of as soon as it was done, until he desperately had to dig up material for Smiley). I Dont Know is listed as though it were another Brian-led production and/or seriously considered for the album. (I doubt Brian even knew or care IDK existed even as Dennis made it--which was months after Dec in any case). Been Away Too Long [sic] is listed as a song being worked on in Dec '66 as well, side by side with the Wind Chimes it replaced. It's crystal clear the person writing this has no idea what any of these tracks are, much less the concepts or history of the SMiLE project. They're just listing every name they've ever seen on a SMiLE bootleg tracklist. Im surprised they don't have "Three Blind Mice," "Untitled Instrumental" and "My Little Red Book" for good measure.

16. The Paul Meeting

I was reminded of an unflattering Brian moment I guess my brain had shut out over the years--where poor Al wasn't invited to come back into the studio console to listen to music with Brian and Paul McCartney at the veggie session. That one scene, maybe more than anything, breaks my heart and Id say encapsulates the way the band must've felt at this time. Like Brian's puppets: "you're not my equal, I get to talk to Paul and you don't, you're just an instrument--stay in the background until I have use for you." Anyone saying they wouldn't feel resentment there is full of it. Also, anyone saying "well Al could've just come in himself" doesn't get hierarchy dynamics. If you've seen Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, it's like the famous scene where Strauss didn't think it was his place to join these two titans of science, Opp and Einstein, unless they made it clear they wanted him there. How embarrassing would it be if he went out on a limb and came back only to hear "uhh Al, what're you doing, we were about to call another take" or just went on ignoring him entirely. It's a case where a little consideration for someone on the outside goes a long way, and since I've frequently been in Al's shoes here, I can't help but empathize. But everything else I read about Brian seems to confirm he was a very inconsiderate guy, probably his biggest personal foible. And it's not like Paul was above treating George Harrison as less-than either, so between that and feeling "this is Brian's gig/band, not my place to call the singer off for a break" it sounds like something he'd do.

Derek Taylor comes off as more than a little douchey during the section about Brian and Paul's meeting. He goads Paul into playing SLH, backhand-compliments Brian as "the tormented artist, king of second thoughts and third thoughts," and adds "but it doesn't affect my job, his unreleased material still gets publicity!" Feels almost like he was trying to slightly humiliate Brian here if any of that's true, all with the veneer of plausible deniability the way some jerks are. Paul's little "hurry up, Sgt Pepper is coming out!" now reads like a twist of the knife where in more objective sources I took it as gentlemanly consideration of both band's sales window.

17. Collapse

This book reinforces the notion that Anderle wanted Brian to do SMiLE solo.

Capitol is said to have cancelled SMiLE, not Brian nor Mike, after getting sick of the delays.

Once again, the Smiley sessions are treated as a shameful afterthought, full of inaccuracies (recorded in two weeks? more like two months). There's not a single memory or specific anecdote about that whole album besides a two-sentence summary we already know. Very lame. It's probably the most mysterious chapter in their history and with all the Wilsons dead it'll probably never be revealed what actually happened that confusing, demoralized summer.

Even little things like the supposed debut of H&V on the radio, where a firsthand account could fill in so many gaps and make the story come alive, just get brushed over with the same "blah" summaries we've seen a million times. (The guard stopped us, but we talked our way through--HOW? WHO SAID WHAT?)

They didn't play Monterey because "Mike wanted to get paid." (Though to be fair it later adds: "all the other guys agreed it was shady [that nobody could say where ticket money went] and decided to bow out,"). I just think it's funny this book never misses an opportunity to make Mike look bad in particular.

18. Is This an Accurate Source?

No, I don't think so. It reads like someone following the other, better sources but changing just enough of the wording, embellishing just slightly to add spin where it's needed to push a narrative, so it reads like new. But Im shocked how little is revealed here. There's no mention of the Inside Pop filming, Psychedelic Sounds, any private conversations with VDP that influenced the direction of the project, who the lesser known Vosse Posse members were and why they were "friends," what they were like, what they all talked about, amusing stories...no deeper insight whatsoever. I was hoping there'd be some wild scandalous tales that, while probably exagerrated or faked, at least rounded out the myth in an interesting way but it's just boring. It's more boring to hear "Brian" tell the story than Anderle, Vosse or Siegal. (I have yet to give Mike's account a shot.) I guess that's not definitive proof Brian couldn't have been involved in the writing process in some way; Grace Slick's autobiography is terrible and insultingly lacking too (literally two pages each for Monterey, Woodstock and Altamont--come the f*** on, woman!). But it still sucks. I sort of went to bat for this book because the pre-Pet Sounds chapters seemed somewhat believable but then it all just descends to an inaccurate summary of better sources.

[BJL]

That write up of the autobiography is pretty fascinating, albeit not exactly surprising.

There's an interesting interview with Todd Gold in Back to the Beach (you can read it here: https://archive.org/details/backtobeachbrian0000unse/page/210/mode/2up?q=Todd+Gold) where he talks about his working method. That if he just asked questions Brian wouldn't answer, but that if he brought in anecdotes from his research, Brian would elaborate on them. That interview also includes some very, very sad anecdotes re: Gold's observations of Brian's relationship with the other Beach Boys ca. 1990.

My sense has always been that Todd Gold didn't have a horse in this race, other than getting the job done and getting paid. I see no reason whatsoever why he would have made anything up in like a "I'll just make this up" way. The way a book like this would usually be written is that the author would do research, then a ton of taped interviews with the subject, then more research, then shape the interviews into a book and the subject would read it and make corrections. That's basically how all celebrity autobiographies happen, I'm sure that's how Brian's (excellent) second autobiography happened, and that's how this book seems to have happened. I don't see any reason why Todd Gold would make anything up. The problem is that Gold was picking up all kinds of weird anecdotes from all kinds of sources and interviews, but he obviously never really got a grip on how to pull a coherent perspective from it all, and so it's all garbled, which is how it reads to me, at least. And he was relying on Brian to confirm or deny things, but Brian will famously confirm or deny just about anything depending on how the mood strikes him.

But I sort of doubt there's anything in there that's an outright fabrication on Gold's part, as opposed to just a very garbled regurgitation of a ton of semi-reliable sources, with the source that's being taken as the ultimate arbitrator, Brian himself, being completely unreliable, at least in this context.

[Julia]

I thought I'd note for the record I tried to find a digital copy of the Byron Preiss book but it's out of my hands right now. Maybe soon I'll try to get one through the library. I'm not paying $30 or whatever the Amazon price is just to read the SMiLE chapter, especially when realistically there's probably nothing new there anyway.

For those who maybe think Im a little overbearing in my tendency to post frequently and at length in the threads I participate in, you'll have a nice reprieve of at least two weeks where I'll be on vacation and then Im gonna hunker down and read Priore's 2005 book for the first time, reread LLVS, plus the SMiLE chapters in a few other books and once I get a copy finally enjoy Leaf's SMiLE tome. (I'm going to skip the 33^1/3 book because I've heard it sucks.)

Then, I'll finish my new and possible final fanmix, and my obsession with this album can come to an end after ~15 years and the death of its creator, knowing I've read all the sources and internet discussions! And I can go back to studying other stuff again and get a life.  

Before I go though, Im reading the relevant parts of Steve Gaines book, Heroes and Villains as well as Mike Love's autobiography. I'll focus on Mike first and do the former tomorrow.

With regard to Mike, there's not too much new information on the sessions considering he wasn't there. I will give him credit for his candidness in general, including: how he started balding, he doesn't deny criticizing the lyrics, gives a fair portrait of his "rivals" (Asher, VDP, other bands), acknowledges the legacy of Pet Sounds, plus he admits to saying "Stalin of the Studio." Im inclined to believe Mike then, when he explains himself on some other widely circulated slander--namely that "who's gonna hear this sh*t the ears of a dog?" quote which is always framed as though Mike were implying PS is unfit for human ears or something. In actuality, he was talking about the oh-so-subtle differences in vocal takes that Brian heard but seemingly no one else could, and while I dont doubt (nor does Mike necessarily deny) that such a remark was said in anger after dozens of tedious vocal takes, he does acknowledge Brian's amazing perception as a positive after the fact. Frankly, Mike's explanation of that quote makes a hell of a lot more sense than the less forgiving interpretations his haters have implied, and considering how unrelenting Brian could be in the studio, I'm sure a little venting was justified. (We might've heard more from the Wrecking Crew if they weren't worried about burning professional bridges, while to Mike, Brian's only family and fair game to get mad at on occasion.)

I do sort of get Mike's hesitancy towards SMiLE considering Ive had trouble turning people on to it myself, but also I think he doesn't give listeners enough credit. A lot of people like having some ambiguity to chew on after a piece of media is first consumed, and to most people literal lyrics are far less important than a great sound. (Look at the doo-wop scat vocalizations the group first took inspiration from!) In fact, a lot of straightforward stories that end on a happy note tend to go unsung before long, while the sad/mysterious stories leave you wanting closure and therefore discussing them more. I highly doubt as many people have talked about Pepper through the years as SMiLE, for example, and if they do it's only to singularly praise it or argue if it's overrated. You don't see people debate the meaning of ADITL because even the song's biggest advocates just say "it's great" and that's it. (I guess it's about the existential questioning and unresolved grief we all feel even as we go on with our monotonous daily lives, only reading about problems we can never solve, but much as I like it, ADITL feels sort of empty and pretentious compared to SU's purposeful poetry.) People consume fluff and forget about it, while a little melancholy helps art stick with you, which is why I think the BB music (infused with much of Brian's angst and eeriness) survives as knockoffs like the Sunrays are a footnote at best. (Anecdotally, a lot of the same people I know who've given me grief coming out of the theater for criticizing Marvel movies never even remember what happened in them just a years or so late; it's all just disposable time-wasters to them even if they emotionally lash out against dissenting opinions in the moment.)

That all said, I do feel a lot of reverence come through in Mike's description of Brian's achievement with the music of the sessions. His regaling of the Inside Pop special and the wider recognition of Brian as a genius felt sincere. He doesn't lay it on thick either though; it doesn't come off as flattery to hide his misgivings for its lyrics and commercial viability. Later, Mike even admits that pop culture was turning psychedelic in '67 and more or less implies that Brian was on the right track all along, that they missed the bandwagon by not finishing SMiLE. He quotes Brian's many interviews over the years about how drugs, specifically weed and LSD, helped him (Brian) be a better songwriter and doesn't fully dispute them, which was surprising. Mike's account of the SMiLE period is brief but he wasn't there and is writing 50 years later, where we tend to remember only the big picture stuff, not intimate day by day trivialities. It'd be nice to read a recounting of the kind of conversations the band must've had behind Brian's back or maybe to him, but I get that most people aren't gonna remember details like that so long afterward. They're going to remember what everyone's general vibe and big actions were, which he does.

There's some new anecdotes I hadn't heard before: 1) Not only did Brian cancel sessions outright, but at least once he assembled "an entire orchestra" only to do one take and immediately send them home. 2) With the lawsuit, there was a fear that Capitol might not release any new album at all--Im not a lawyer so I don't know if that was in their power, but the point is the band thought as much. This would tie in with my earlier supposition that the lawsuit was perhaps THE primary factor for the album's demise, and Brian lost motivation because he didn't want to make money for Capitol. That hypothesis would be even more true if Brian thought all his efforts might be in service of a doomed project anyway, and again once Sgt Pepper came out, I think the biggest hangup was that he'd "missed the moment." 3) Mike makes a point of separating Brian's entourage into two camps, the "hip intelligentsia" which includes Anderle, Oppenheim and Siegle as well as "the hipsters" which includes Vosse and the nameless rabble. It seems at first that Mike respects the people in the former group as professionals doing a real job but not the latter. However, while Mike does seem to acknowledge Anderle had a legitimate purpose hanging around Brian, he's not spared of some vitriol later when Mike criticizes the way he (Anderle) has talked about him over the years. 4) Mike doesn't outright say it or cast blame but I get the impression he thinks the "Brian is a genius" campaign was a bad idea--not out of jealousy but because it created an expectation Brian couldn't live up to that drove him mad. This rings true and I cited it as a double-edged sword in my first post on this thread.

Unfortunately, some unanswered questions remain: 1) Mike doesn't elaborate on who gave Taylor the go-ahead to make SMiLE's cancellation announcement or what Taylor's motivation was or the immediate reaction from anyone in the band when they saw. It's just taken as a given Taylor had the free reign to issue a sweeping judgement call that helped ruin their reputations and that's that. I'm guessing they just told the guy he could do whatever he wanted as press agent since that's the clear vibe I'm getting, but it's a really stupid-ass arrangement if you ask me. 2) Smiley is once again just the sad unwanted stepchild living in its older sibling's shadow that no one cares to acknowledge in any way. Mike doesn't say anything we haven't heard before except "some of those songs couldn't even be called songs" and "I don't think Brian wanted to be associated with it either [hence the production credit to the group]." These are some of the most damning remarks about Smiley from any member of the band, and while I personally love it, I recognize why Mike feels this way and don't blame him. 3) The famous VDP confrontation and telling the Posse to "take a hike" are never referenced (directly at least) which is disappointing because I wanted to get Mike's perspective on this. With the CE incident, I'd have loved to hear Mike tell us if he were actually asking in good faith or using the moment as an excuse to dress down the interloper (as is often portrayed and I strongly suspect), if he was yelling, his perception of Brian's non-reaction to watching his collaborator humiliated, what happened afterward and why he sang it despite his misgivings.

The biggest omission I felt bothered by was, what did Mike do while SMiLE collapsed anyway, sit by passively? Did he or the others even try to save it as it was, or did Brian just have that much pull? (Or were they happy to cast it aside and move on, and just ashamed to admit so now when it's become clear that was the wrong call?) What were the meetings like where the band almost broke up over SU, and who went to bat for that song's release? How did the idea of redoing everything from scratch come about, what were those conversations like, was there any enthusiasm for that new project? How come Mike seemingly didn't offer to step in to help as a collaborator when VDP left (which Mike says was Feb '67 by the way), or did he and that's what led to Smiley? I feel Mike's ghostwriter ought to have prodded him for an explanation of these major "plot holes" and the fact he didn't is almost journalistic malpractice. Seems the ghostwriter wasn't a Beach Boys fan with the same burning curiosity we all have, just a hired gun with no emotional stakes in the subject matter. What a shame.

Overall despite those frustrating omissions, I like what I've seen of this book's PS/SMiLE segments enough that I want to read the rest someday soon. Mike strikes me as a mostly fair source, though perhaps he may be selectively withholding information like the CE standoff and Smiley transition. I felt a lot of warmth for his bandmates even in just the section I read and he never hesitates to give other people their due, like Carl or Brian. Best example, he credits Carl for his bravery facing the threat of jailtime as a conscientious objector, while admitting he himself would've just fled the country. He mentions some unflattering stuff about everyone including himself but when he does it about the others it doesn't seem malicious so much as in the interest of full disclosure. (Bruce dressing like a queer to get out of the draft was funny and not relayed in a character-assassinating way.) It's a better read than either of Brian's biographies based on what I've seen so far. And Mike is a lot nicer to his bandmates on the page than "Brian" was with WIBN. (Meanwhile, I just couldn't get into I Am Brian Wilson, at least not right now for the purposes of this SMiLE deep dive anyway. Way too confused and "unedited" for me.)  

That all said, once Mike launches into a screed against David Leaf and Brian's friends (who've testified that Mike killed SMiLE), I admit a portion of my goodwill for him and the book went away. To some extent I get the need to defend oneself for posterity but on the other hand, it does feel defensive and bitter. Mike makes a strong case by using half a dozen or so Brian quotes blaming drugs for the album collapsing, but a little humility and acknowledgement of fault goes a long way. He doesn't have to take responsibility for Brian's meltdown of course, but a little "maybe I could've been more openly supportive" / "maybe I ought to've kept my criticisms constructive" would help his image with fans. I think Brian's lucky, where "his" side of the story, or the narrative painting him in the best light, is fed to us by proxies so he gets to keep his hands clean while Mike has to constantly give his own side or nobody else will. This makes him appear petty, image-obsessed and as if he's rehashing old drama for its own sake when to observers it's like "dude, your cuz has been through hell, give it a rest and quit picking on him for doing drugs 50 years ago." It's not like Brian orchestrated it this way, but the SMiLE music is so good, its collapse such a tragedy and the need for an easy bad guy so ingrained in human nature, that's just the way it goes. It doesn't help that Mike is a corny square with a domineering personality most associate with bullying while Brian is the cool eccentric genius with perhaps the meekest, gentlest disposition I've ever seen. That doesn't mean Brian's not seriously flawed and Mike's side isn't perhaps the more correct one, but it's public relations 101.

[Don Malcolm]

Julia, I doubt anyone here is at all perturbed by your energetic return to SMiLE. Certain of my books remain frustratingly elusive on the subject and we would all be well-served if those monolithic researchers can go AGD one better and give us an annotated SMiLE sessions chronology which captures all of the anarchy in the process. Until then I don't know if we'd have enough to go beyond the basic arc that still has several contested interpretations (broadly speaking, the "Smiley Smile is SMiLE' and "SMiLE was ready in 1967' opposition). A 'snapshot" of SMiLE prior to the "Heroes & Villains marathon" is probably the best that can be done...

One of the books that did surface is Priess's...and you will find when you read it that the chronology is jumbled and flawed, in part because the tape of SMiLE music that was supplied to Priess (and later leaked into the hands of collectors, initiating the cottage industry of SMiLE bootlegs and fan mixes) contained "Can't Wait Too Long," which was erroneously incorporated into the 1967 portion of the SMiLE sessions. As you'd expect from an "authorized" biography, it's more cleaned up--Mike's negative comments are briefer and far less pungent than elsewhere. (Keep in mind that Priess's book was in large part a reaction to Mike's intense dislike for the strong "Brianista" elements that permeated the first edition of David Leaf's book. By the way it is not the source of the distorted "SMiLE's collapse sent Brian to bed for ten years" myth--not sure who should take the blame for that...)

Given all that went down during that time frame, however, it's actually a miracle that Brian didn't have a ten-year collapse...he soldiered on despite an oscillating series of events that veered serially between family solidarity and internecine betrayal. When the post-SMiLE efforts he shepherded did not result in a commercial recovery for the group, he did collapse for awhile, after which he slowly but progressively descended through a number of "emotional circles of hell" that led to dangerous self-medication and the genuinely scary 1974-75 period where it seemed increasingly possible that he wouldn't survive his psychological spiral. (A situation that would be repeated in 1982-83, followed by that nine-year sentence in "Landy State Penitentiary.")

I will look forward to what you decide on as your "final" mix, which I hope you will annotate in a fashion similar to how you've approached your responses to what you've been reading. I think you'll probably give us a fascinatingly heterodox version of the material that will comprise one of the most intriguing returns to the "two-part" approach. Given your willingness to wade into the deep end of the pool, I hope you'll see fit to provide commentary on some of the "competing" interpretations and elaborate further on what prompted you to make your alterations...

I know that I speak for many more than just myself in saying that we are reading your posts with great interest!

[Julia]

Ive been browsing the old Smile Shop through the Wayback Machine but it's been a pretty bittersweet experience. Lot of dead links, lot of outdated info, lot of mythologizing which is cool but no longer what I'm really interested in personally.

I was hoping to print some of these essays out and take them with me as a bit of light reading material. In any case, I found a transcription of the Smog tape that seemed too useful to let it rot on some tenuously preserved Internet Archive capture.

Smog

   The bulk and essence of the people-- that live in Los Angeles...are fully aware of the
dangers of air pollution. Air pollution is something that has...become...increasingly more of a
threat to all of us over the last ten years... especially in the last five years since the
growing industry demands, the growing automobiles, the population...these are hazards that...have
become a monster and gotten out of control.
   Air in Los Angeles...oh, maybe fifty years ago, was really perfectly clear.
You could see the mountains, you could see...you'd look out your window and let's say you lived
on a hill... you could see for miles---...because basically it was a clear city that did not
really have air pollution or anything to clutter up the, uhh...the molecules and to give us
poison to breathe.
   Uhh, this poison that we breathe...has...such an effect on our overall body and mind
that it's... it's hard to say, uhh...ex--medically, exactly what happens. W--we do know this,
that smog...uhh, in sufficient doses, can kill a person.
   Smog...is something that we have...not really been aware of because it's a subliminal
problem for most people.
        Uhh, it doesn't really reach their consciousness. It bothers them, but they don't really
know what's bothering them.
   For this reason, each individual will really k--uhhhh...can't stay on this problem to
tackle it because, I'll tell you one thing, smog will come in, let's say in summer...summer and
fall.
   Okay. So there's a couple bad days of smog. Fine. Everybody does their best to cope. A
few people reach a senator or two, maybe pol--...the politicians are in there pitching.
   But the s--smog subsides and therefore because it's not a continual problem, we all
forget about it. But look, you can't forget about a problem that's, in time, going to be a
absolute killer.
   And, uhh, if...if it gets too heavy and too serious, you--everyone that's listening--is
gonna [garbled] suffering just like I am.
   I can't even keep my eyes open. I opened up my bathroom window today and I almost choked
to death...because I looked out and I saw smog hovering in between the trees, and that's not a
nice sight to see.
   So...we can laugh about it, we can cry about it. I...I...you choose to do what you want.
I say this: let's try to achieve that...air pollution...goal.
   Let's try to get air clean again, just like it was maybe fifty years ago when the people
here, at least living in Los Angeles, breathed good air...and I'm SURE, because of that their
whole systems were cleaner and...and their frames of mind better and their whole life had a
better thing, a better flow to it.
   Now, okay, there's a lot of people out there that may put me down for what I'm gonna say.
   But if you don't have the responsibility now to tackle this problem, you're gonna suffer
later. Thank you.
     [long pause]
   I'd like to add something to what I just said. I talked a lot about seeing. I didn't
mention much about the breathing problem...Now there are asthmatics. I've known like two
asthmatics in my life...people who have asthma. And I know...what the problem is.
   I've seen them suffer, and this...I'm sure smog...when we had that terrible, terrible
smog problem in the early '50's, I saw a couple of my friends almost die from not being able to
breathe...and I'll never forget what I saw...and I'm gonna say...that there are many people who
suffer from different respiratory illnesses, and smog doesn't make it easier--it makes it much
tougher on a person like that to breathe, and...and people...let's say, that have a very normal,
well-functioning respiratory system. Their lungs are in fine shape...smog even...it doesn't
matter if you're sick, well or not, smog is a hazard to all of us. And...in order to...in order
to function...let's say in order to live and be happy and to be able to...to think clearly,
you've got to have, first of all, the elements.
   You've gotta have good air to breathe. If you go out to Palm Springs...you go up to
Santa Barbara, get away from the city for a few days, you'll realize...you wake up in the
morning fresh, everything's groovy.
   You come back in Los Angeles, boom! there you go with another smog problem. Zap! You're
on your butt, you don't wanna do anything...uhh, it's...it's--I'll tell you...I've...I've been
so dragged by it and so depressed, that I've...I've actually slugged walls and thrown things
around the house...and I know that, uhh...that's...it's no way to conduct your...let's say that
it's no way to act, okay? Well, I can't help it, but smog drives me to do these things.
   Smog has actually been called a potential homicide...effect. It can make people actually
wanna go out and kill other people.
   Now this is an extreme effect, but this is the potential of smog...
[whistles]...Boy, and when I hear things like that it makes me wanna get involved in this thing
in some way--do my best. Okay. We...the way we can help is to make a record...and more or less,
present the facts in some interesting manner, not boring, but in some way that people
can...retain these facts...and to sort of set up in their minds, a goal to get rid of this s**t,
because I'll tell you something. If it doesn't subside, I'm gonna call the cops!
   Uhh, let's play that back.

END

^Im putting certain segments in bold that I'd like to use for my next mix, edited into a series of overlapping rants played alongside the Breathing skit. So, the first of these might start with the more general smog info, like it's gotten worse and hard to see out the window, that fades out as another one starts up about needing the elements and making a record to help and gradually fades, then a third rant starts about killing people and throwing things around the house. (Maybe reverse the second and third for a more uplifting order, we'll see) so it's like an anxiety inducing track replicating the compounding negative thoughts induced by smog as the breathing gets more and more labored. This will bookend my version of Second Day, which begins with the Water Chant (possibly including Undersea Chant buried low in the mix). So, as the second day divided the waters of the oceans and atmosphere, its namesake track literally separates the unambiguous water and air segments on the album. (Fire and Earth will be represented in their own Fire/Workshop medley leading into Veggies--I might put Taxi Cabber highlights over Workshop if they don't fit in the outro of Worms, it's a work in progress).

Also, minor change since I posted the rough outline before. Last track, post-SU, if I even do it, will be called "(Smile) And Then We'll Have World Peace" to avoid redundancy as the album itself will be called Dumb Angel. Plus, Ive learned through all this research that ever since the Pet Sounds sessions Brian really wanted to call a track "And Then We'll Have World Peace" and put it on an album, so why not here? Really, this was the MO of the entire project, that humor and its spiritual qualities would bring us all together in enlightened understanding.

[Julia]

Just some odds and ends here after searching through the remains of Smile Shop on the Internet Archive.

First, I found this additional interview with Jack Reilly where he says again, unambiguously that he wrote the new "their song is love have you listened as they play/yadda yadda and the children know the way" lyrics over the fade of Surf's Up, while the reprise of CIFOTM was pure Brian. This was a bit of a sticking point between me and some other people back in the day who insisted both parts were vintage, so I can't help but point out evidence that confirms my position when I find it.

I really wish I could take that couplet out without losing the Child backing vocals but I can't find them in isolation. Very very frustrating. If anyone could help with this, Id be eternally grateful.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100402070143/http://www.thesmileshop.net/index.php/Jack_Rieley_Speaks_Part_2

Because navigating a dead site on the Wayback Machine's clunky interface is a huge pain in the ass, I just copy-and-pasted all the articles I could find into a word document. This was admittedly a crude effort, I wasn't originally intending to share, so some of the article titles got left off and I gave up tediously checking every "capture" off the site map after a it seemed like nothing was changing. When doing a quick cursory proofread, I found I'd copied some of the same essays multiple times, so those got deleted and I only hope nothing else got caught in the crossfire there. After awhile I thought, eff it, I'll share my "work" here while Im at it so no one else ever has to deal with this bullshit. Some of the Smile Shope pages which had more involved formatting that wouldn't transfer well to a word document were printed to pdf and included separately. You're welcome.

Overall it's about ~250 pages all inclusive, comparable in length with Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! and of a similar yet distinct purpose. Where that book was about preserving the many articles contemporaneous to SMiLE's inception, this tome chronicles all essays pertaining to the album's legacy and resurrection. In a sense, this is the "New Testament" to LLVS's "Old Testament," documenting how SMiLE continued to entice, inspire and inquisite the fans for decades until we finally brought it out of the shadows through sheer force of will. (Really Brian/VDP/Darian and, to a lesser extent, Mark & Alan did the actual work, but we the fans perpetuated demand!)

I'm calling this collection Deaf Daimon / Dumb Angel which follows a similar naming convention as LLVS but for the album's provisional title. "Daimon" in this context refers to the ancient Greek concept of a guiding personal spirit (or maybe roughly a guardian angel,) an inner muse, synonymous with the Roman "genius" and here it refers to Brian. (I go back and forth on whether to call it "Deaf Genius / Dumb Angel" or not, because the Daimon-Angel apparent-antonym connection works but Brian was also called a "genius" in the modern sense of the word so you get a nice double entendre there that contrasts the other meaning of the word "dumb." Feel free to call it either one, I don't care.)

Im almost certainly not the one to do it, I don't know if I even could publish something like this considering the gray area of collecting $$$ off of other people's words--in fact, how Priore got away with that is beyond me. Hell, I'm not sure if there'd even be an audience to purchase something like this, considering so much info is obsolete and it's already free online, but I think this ought to be a real book if even self-published among the fans. I say this because the Smile Shop essays are part of the album's story, they kept the SMiLE myth alive and ultimately helped influence how the various boots, mixes and even BWPS itself turned out.

If such a thing were to happen, a physical made-to-order publication, collective authorship ought to be credited to "Smile Scholars Around the World" (or "Through the Years") as I've seen John Lane and Jon Hunt say they prefer that term for the fans. Proceeds from sale would only cover expenses and, if there's any profit, send it to a mental health charity, Indian reservation, orphanage or psychedelic research--those seem fitting causes. Otherwise, maybe the digital documents could be held in an ongoing state of shared upkeep, like a group Google Docs project, where people can edit mistakes, pretty-up the formatting and make adjustments. (Like, say, including annotations where new info has solved a mystery or rendered previously believed "fact" obsolete, maybe add new essays for those of us not able to contribute to the Smile Shop, etc.) Eh, it's a nice thought.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0d409niazc0gygoqpsg47/AA4YPMjsPXrBqrKXZFOAZgk?rlkey=w17al1i7li6dyaps2ut8x7f40&st=sevmh1vk&dl=0

You know what really sucks though? The message boards were not saved except for the first page of on-topic threads for like 3 random days, all leading to nothing but dead links EXCEPT a "Revolver vs Rubber Soul" contest of all things. (I saved that, it's included in the package.) That's a massive bummer. A further irony is that there was a thread I couldn't click asking the forum "what do you think will be the last thread ever on the Smile Shop?" and now we have the official answer. For the record, I vote Rubber Soul.

[WillJC]

Just some odds and ends here after searching through the remains of Smile Shop on the Internet Archive.

First, I found this additional interview with Jack Reilly where he says again, unambiguously that he wrote the new "their song is love have you listened as they play/yadda yadda and the children know the way" lyrics over the fade of Surf's Up, while the reprise of CIFOTM was pure Brian. This was a bit of a sticking point between me and some other people back in the day who insisted both parts were vintage, so I can't help but point out evidence that confirms my position when I find it.

Won't pretend to understand his reasons, but Jack lied. Those additional lyrics were written by Van Dyke Parks in June 1971. They're in Van Dyke's handwriting and I clarified the issue with him directly.

[Julia]

Just some odds and ends here after searching through the remains of Smile Shop on the Internet Archive.

First, I found this additional interview with Jack Reilly where he says again, unambiguously that he wrote the new "their song is love have you listened as they play/yadda yadda and the children know the way" lyrics over the fade of Surf's Up, while the reprise of CIFOTM was pure Brian. This was a bit of a sticking point between me and some other people back in the day who insisted both parts were vintage, so I can't help but point out evidence that confirms my position when I find it.

Won't pretend to understand his reasons, but Jack lied. Those additional lyrics were written by Van Dyke Parks in June 1971. They're in Van Dyke's handwriting and I clarified the issue with him directly.

Huh, so theyre vintage in the sense of coming from one of the collaborators but not circa 66 or 67? Either way I personally dont care for them. With what Id like to do with the fade especially (Talking Horns "wailing" part) I think they  sound too busy. The Child lyrics there are great tho.

EDIT: As always, thanks for clarifying i appreciate the truth

[mike s]

Just some odds and ends here after searching through the remains of Smile Shop on the Internet Archive.

First, I found this additional interview with Jack Reilly where he says again, unambiguously that he wrote the new "their song is love have you listened as they play/yadda yadda and the children know the way" lyrics over the fade of Surf's Up, while the reprise of CIFOTM was pure Brian. This was a bit of a sticking point between me and some other people back in the day who insisted both parts were vintage, so I can't help but point out evidence that confirms my position when I find it.

Won't pretend to understand his reasons, but Jack lied. Those additional lyrics were written by Van Dyke Parks in June 1971. They're in Van Dyke's handwriting and I clarified the issue with him directly.

Huh, so theyre vintage in the sense of coming from one of the collaborators but not circa 66 or 67? Either way I personally dont care for them. With what Id like to do with the fade especially (Talking Horns "wailing" part) I think they  sound too busy. The Child lyrics there are great tho.

EDIT: As always, thanks for clarifying i appreciate the truth

Thats interesting - I think the melody for that part fits over the verse of the first go at CIFOTM (might be slightly different chords in one or 2 spots..?) so I guess that means VDP prob never wrote verse lyrics for it in '66..?

[Julia]

Just some odds and ends here after searching through the remains of Smile Shop on the Internet Archive.

First, I found this additional interview with Jack Reilly where he says again, unambiguously that he wrote the new "their song is love have you listened as they play/yadda yadda and the children know the way" lyrics over the fade of Surf's Up, while the reprise of CIFOTM was pure Brian. This was a bit of a sticking point between me and some other people back in the day who insisted both parts were vintage, so I can't help but point out evidence that confirms my position when I find it.

Won't pretend to understand his reasons, but Jack lied. Those additional lyrics were written by Van Dyke Parks in June 1971. They're in Van Dyke's handwriting and I clarified the issue with him directly.

Huh, so theyre vintage in the sense of coming from one of the collaborators but not circa 66 or 67? Either way I personally dont care for them. With what Id like to do with the fade especially (Talking Horns "wailing" part) I think they  sound too busy. The Child lyrics there are great tho.

EDIT: As always, thanks for clarifying i appreciate the truth

Thats interesting - I think the melody for that part fits over the verse of the first go at CIFOTM (might be slightly different chords in one or 2 spots..?) so I guess that means VDP prob never wrote verse lyrics for it in '66..?

No one seems able to give a straight answer to that question. Various sources Ive read outright say the work was done or it wasnt. Some sources imply lyrics without outright listing them, like Brians second autobiography  and Dennis playing an acetate to a reporter. I think they mustve been in flux.

[Julia]

So, the last thing Im gonna do for awhile is post a reaction to the relevant passages from Steve Gaines' Heroes and Villains. I probably won't make another significant contribution to this thread for another month.

1. The House of Smile & Sorrow

First of all, he provides the most complete description of Brian and Marilyn's house on Laurel Way I've ever seen. Almost every single detail here is something I've seen written elsewhere, but this is the best book to get it all in one place. I'll post the whole passage in Italics: While Brian busied himself composing new Beach Boys material, Marilyn set about fixing up the house with the help of decorator Lee Polk (wife of director Martin Polk) -and Brian's overriding advice. The master bedroom had flocked red wallpaper. A huge four-poster bed, with a headboard of carved angels, was blanketed in a leopardprint spread. In the bathroom hung a plastic picture of Jesus, whose eyes opened and closed when you moved. In the shag-carpeted living room several "Lava Lamps" slowly undulated, while nearby, inexplicably, was a display rack of children's dolls in their plastic shipping tubes. On the walls were Kean prints of dark-eyed children, along with cheap prints of the Mona Lisa and Blueboy. The large dining room was furnished with an immense, Spanishstyle table covered in a dark blue cloth and· surrounded by high-backed chairs. The kitchen had black-and-white houndstooth-check wallpaper and striped window shades, like an "Op-art painting," according to one visitor. The den was a small room prepared in a bright orange, blue, yellow, and red wall fabric, with a jukebox loaded with Beach Boys singles and Phil Spector tunes. A pair of mechanical parrots, dyed fluorescent colors, sat in a huge cage. Two dogs, Louie (named after Brian's pal, Lou Adler), a dark brown Weimaraner, and Banana, a beagle, completed the scene. Later, this book confirms the "new" detail I found in WIBN, that Brian has a playset installed in the front of the house so you had to crawl through to get inside.  

^Reading all this, I think the place ought to have been preserved as a walk-in museum, similar to the "A Christmas Story" house. I understand the reverence for Belagio 10452 with its private studio and all, but for me 1448 Laurel Way is the true Abode of Wilson's Muse, where his best work was done, the House Surfing Built (and SMiLE destroyed).

2. Pet Sounds Tidbits

Similarly, this book has the most in-depth recounting of Asher and Brian's time together. More or less everything you've heard elsewhere is here but then it goes more in-depth with things like making hash brownies for a whole paragraph rather than a quick aside.  

I was shocked to hear Asher only earned $60,000 for his work on the album. I'm guessing that figure hasn't been updated since 1986 and now Pet Sounds has been rereleased so many times since then it must be a lot more, right? At least six figures? If not, that's insane.

3. The LA Scene

Something Gaines notes that gets lost in the conversation is that the other guys didn't "get" SMiLE or sense the change in the winds because they weren't in LA while the new counterculture was developing. It's not (just) that they were squares, they just missed out on the seismic shift in what was considered "cool" and didn't get the memo until the Beatles and Monterey brought Flower Power to the mainstream outside Hollywood, San Francisco and swinging London. Some of the things going on that influenced the hippies, like a 10 PM curfew, were news to me.

4. SMiLE Conception

This is the first I've ever heard of VDP even being aware of Tony Asher's existence, because as far as every other source is concerned, the two never interacted or influenced each other. Here, VDP is keenly aware of Asher's less-than-ideal experience with Brian Wilson and this makes him hesitant to sign on as collaborator.

Something that raises an eyebrow is the depiction of their first meeting, where Brian has already conceived Dumb Angel as the epic teenage symphony to God, with "threads of music entwined from song to song in a vast tapestry." I was under the impression that specific description came later, like Badman puts it at October (the issues with that book aside) but it's certainly not impossible. The entwined music may not be so far off from "a lot of talking and laughing between cuts" that's a verified, vintage quote but also could be the later mythology seeping into the historical record as well. It's not something where I can say definitively which is right or wrong, but it's a notable difference. My theory? Gaines is just trying to get the SMiLE exposition out of the way by putting it all in the first meeting rather than drip-feeding it over time, as I expect is probably closer to the truth. We all know Brian's mind changed a lot and I think the scope and specifics of SMiLE snowballed over those 7 months between May and Dec of '66.

It's like how the popular perception used to be that SMiLE would have all these repeated leitmotifs until more people realized the sessions were a chaotic mess and those repeats only happened because Heroes cannibalized the rest of the music. Unfortunately, Gaines repeats that misconception elsewhere in the book, saying the songs "had passages which repeated and echoed each other." I know this predates most bootlegs and info on the unreleased SMiLE tracks but it shows.

6. Brian and Van's Relationship

I remember in my earliest exposure to SMiLE, imagining VDP and Brian as two peas in a pod, eccentric cool genius buddies who saw eye to eye on everything and big bad Mike Love ruined it. Then slowly but surely I find that Van hated the Fire sessions, had some bad blood with Brian ("victimized by [his] buffoonery"), hated the Psychedelic Sounds, fought with Brian often enough that Anderle talks about it at length, disagreed with the choice of Veggies as a single and now I find out he hated the tent & sandbox from the first. (I assumed the WIBN quote was fake or in reference to seeing dog sh*t in it, not his "Calvinist frugal" reaction to such wasteful opulence.) I sort of understand VDP's mindset (although at least Brian's indulgences sound cool, not like other rich people dabbling in politics and buying every business and sh*t) but I find it a tad hypocritical how these misgivings about extravagant wealth went out the window once they were used to benefit him personally. I'm referring to both the car payment and purchase of literally thousands of dollars worth of hash. Still, the quote "There were no stipulations about what the five thousand dollars represented, but what it meant was my undying loyalty to Brian Wilson," is pretty touching all the same. VDP never forgot that kindness and mentioned it in his memorial to BDW.

With all this in mind, Van doesn't seem the type not to mention getting 40 mice from a guy he already thought was a weirdo too loose with money others'd kill for, so I think we can safely write off that anecdote in WIBN as bullshit.

7. SMiLE Tidbits

According to this book, Brian and Van wrote "about half the album" in one go, laying on their backs because they were too stoned to stand, microphone hovering about a foot off the ground, only stopping when they got sleepy.

There's a VDP quote I'd never seen before: "we were trying to write a song that would end on a freeze frame of the Union Pacific Railroad-the guys come together and they turn around to have their picture taken."

^This sounds more like Cabinessence than anything but it's listed separately as "yet another song" when Gaines easily could've made the connection. I'm going to say it morphed into CE and Gaines or VDP didn't specify, or this idea was abandoned. How do you end a song on a "freeze frame?"

Brian is said to have taken "occasional psychedelics" but "never in the presence of Anderle or VDP." Anderle is said to have taken "up to 5 desbutols a day" along with Brian, though.

8. The "Humor Album" and "Sound FX Album"

I still maintain there was a ton of bleedover between SMiLE and the supposedly separate humor album and "sound effects album," for the following reasons: 1) that aforementioned quote "a lot of talking and laughing between cuts," 2) the name of the album and its ethos of exploring the spiritual power of laughter, 3) the fact the two biggest skits were done with Wrecking Crew musicians explicitly tied to SMiLE songs in theme (Veggie Fight) or during the same session where music was recorded (George Fell), 4) that Brian included humorous skits on Beach Boy albums before and 5) Smiley explicitly combined the two as any honest listener would admit and Anderle testifies in Crawdaddy. The "sound effects album" is a somewhat less commonly known tangent but I feel more or less the same--there must've been a ton of bleedover between it and SMiLE if nothing else, considering Smiley has water pouring and other musique veritae kind of effects on it. Anyway, long buildup to say, Gaines makes it sound like Vosse's water recordings were meant for this separate project instead of the Water element but I don't think there was such a hard boundary in Brian's mind. Vosse is also said to have recorded "chewing and swallowing" sounds, fountains/hoses, crunching gravel, and animals which seems to me like descriptions of the "lost Psychedelic Sounds" mentioned in Badman's book.

Gaines writes about this supposedly separate humor album in confusing terms: "There was also an entire album devoted to humor, which Brian actually recorded with photographer Jasper Dailey, and which was rejected by A&M Records."

^This implies Brian actually made an LP's worth of material with Jasper instead of three separate tracks, and even then it's my understanding that wasn't "the humor album" but a one-off gag and excuse to procrastinate. This description implies the Jasper Dailey tracks were a sincere offering to A&M rather than a put on at their expense (and at the cost of weeks' worth of work, dammit Brian!). Gaines implies that this apparently finished humor album made with Jasper getting rejected by A&M and Capitol is what led to Brother Records. I'm sure the ability to make whatever he wanted was the genesis but I think Gaines is connecting the wrong dots, or the right dots in the wrong context, to get to the correct conclusion if you get me.

9. Brother Records

This source confirms Anderle's recollection that Mike was most receptive to him (Anderle) and the Brother Records endeavor. It's explicitly stated "[Mike's] support for Anderle, whom he respected him as a businessman, lent the idea weight." This sort of kills the idea that Mike hated all of Brian's new connections, or that there is one singular "Vosse Posse" (while a cool name, it really should be called the "Anderle Assembly" or something because he was the "mayor of hip" who brought Hutton, Vosse, VDP and so many others into Brian's orbit). Really, Brian's circle of new "friends" during the SMiLE Era are varied people with their own agendas and obligations. I like Mike's classification of a "hip intelligentsia" who were there to do a job (though I'd include Vosse in that class, along with Anderle, Taylor and maybe Siegal on a good day) and "hipsters" who just sort of got in the way whether their intentions were good or not. (I regret being so harsh towards Daro for how I spoke to him over things he did 50 years previous, but I still include him in this category along with Danny Hutton, Mark Volman and Stanley Shapiro. It's not that this makes them bad guys, just that they had no legit reason for being there.)

The other guys are said to have been excited to use Brother Records as a means to work with other acts and get out from under Brian's shadow.

Small point of difference too, where other sources say Nick Grillo looked at the books and discovered irregularities, here it's said he hired Abe Somers who found them.

10. Brian's Deterioration

I'd never heard this before, but in Gaines' book it mentions that anytime Murry was set to visit, Brian would "vomit in fear."

I either never read or forgot (it may be in Fusion, been awhile since I read it) that Brian hired a team to debug his car: "Magically," said Michael Vosse, "they found a bug in Brian's car. To this day I think they brought it with them to get the job."

I really like this Anderle quote: "Thinking back," Anderle said, "there was so much weirdness going on that was whimsical and humorous, those signs certainly didn't alarm me. Brian wasn't the only one. We were all strange, doing strange things."

Is there another source to the Carol Mountain story with Stanley Shapiro? It's not an anecdote you see in most sources and I've heard Shapiro's reputation as an honest source is spotty. Certainly this is among the most embarrassing, erratic, concerning examples of Brian coming undone. It's not an experience I'd imagine you forget yet it isn't in WIBN. Shapiro certainly doesn't sound like a real friend, just one of those people using someone else for a laugh, a story and probably free hash. He reminds me of that episode of Parks and Recreation "he takes vacations in other people's lives." I may be reading too much into one story but anyone with an ounce of common sense would say it isn't a good idea to call up your old unrequited high school crush while married, and it sounds like it must've been a humiliating heartbreak for Brian both times, not something to laugh at. Maybe I'm too sensitive, I don't know.

The Seconds anecdote is relayed again with slight differences. Another source (admittedly I forget which off the top of my head now but I believe Leaf) mentioned Anderle was upset at Brian's "Jewish conspiracy" but the way I read that, it sounded more like hurt and sadness. When Gaines tells the story, "veins throbbing in his forehead" it sounds more like anger. Small but noted difference. And here Brian says "did you hear the Beatles album?" not "the new Beatles album" nor "Rubber Soul." This could go either way; is it "the" as in "the newest" or "the" as in best, which would imply RS since that seems Brian's favorite and certainly the most impactful on him.

11. Inside Pop

I love this Oppenheim quote and I'm surprised I never saw it before in any other major source: Oppenheim set off for Los Angeles, and soon after arriving drove up the hill to the house on Laurel Way. He1 just walked in and said who he was. "It was a kind of informal drop-in place," Oppenheim said. "There were always people around. . . . Brian at the time had his piano put in the sand, and in the back there was a tent. I was invited into the tent. I went in once or twice but never understood what it was about. Brian was looking at the TV set with the volume off and just the color, detuned, and lots of vegetables around. Marilyn was nice, receptive and warm, and made sure I had a drink. I never understood Brian and her together. It was a strange, insulated household, insulated from the world by money . . . . A playpen of irresponsible people. If they'd had to feel the road and the gravel under their feet, they would have had to behave in a very different way, but this wasn't necessary.

^The scene this sets almost feels like a sort of crack den in my eyes, a perpetual party house of hangers-on wanting a glimpse at the rockstar, Brian half-aware of their presence on a good day. I'm wondering how much stuff must've been stolen in all the unchecked comings and goings: like loose jewelry, drugs and most insidiously, those precious acetates containing missing SMiLE sections we'd all kill to hear, lost puzzle pieces that would rewrite our entire understanding of the album. In another thread, I compared Brian to Jay Gatsby but this "insulated by money" description is more befitting the Buchanans and it just goes to show money doesn't buy happiness. Even Oppenheim could tell Brian and Marilyn weren't really in love.

"A film crew and I went to Columbia Records's studios with Brian and his friends, and they were doing tiny little pieces that made no sense in and of themselves . . . just a few notes . . . also the sessions didn't inake a scene that was at all interesting. . . . I had hoped to get Brian_ masterminding a recording session, but instead it was terribly spread out . . . . Brian was a little spacy, but he didn't seem drugged. We filmed a piece called 'Surf's Up,' and he accompanied himself at the piano. After that we tried to talk with him but didn't get much out of him. Some guy said, 'He's not verbal.' He was odd and he seemed odder. I had heard the stories before we got there about how crazy he was. Van Dyke seemed brilliant, intelligent, off-the-wall, and smashed."

^It's strange how everyone assumed the filmed sessions that "went very badly" represented a band fight when this book, published almost 40 years ago, makes it clear they just didn't look interesting on camera. I think this shows the power of film over print in an age where few bother to read anymore, and in this case specifically the power of Leaf's film "Beautiful Dreamer" that undoubtedly shaped a certain narrative for years afterward. Only in the last 10 years and very slowly has the pendulum swung back to something more reasonable and evidentiary rather than "literary." In short, while it may be annoying listening to him bitch about it, Mike has reason to be pissed at how he's been portrayed. The primary sources still attest to certain blow ups but it was definitely overemphasized in the immediate aftermath of BWPS if not before.

The "he's not verbal" ties in with Anderle's quote in the Leaf book, so much that I wonder if he's the one who said that to Oppenheim here. If Oppenheim really wept and said "it's the best song I've ever heard" (paraphrased) like some sources posit, he doesn't admit so here. He seems more perplexed and put-off than overawed. (Which makes sense and rings truer to me anyway.)

12. Taxis, Planes (and Bicycle Riders?)

Gaines confirms Brian was worried about how GV would sound live. The more I think about it, combined with the relative lack of quotes criticizing how the BBs recreated the new stuff live in Badman's book, I'm wondering if this "SMiLE was too complex to take on the road" thing might've been another of Brian's paranoid anxieties. Not that there wasn't some talk PS/GV not sounding as good live among critics and possibly Badman's quotes are cherry-picked but still. Was it really expected a band sound EXACTLY the same out of the studio? I'm wondering if it wasn't a case of Brian holding the material in such high reverence that he would not hear of any compromises to its presentation. This is the guy who demanded such perfection in the studio, it's not unreasonable to think he'd never be satisfied with any live arrangement; he'd want perfection every time for fear any mistake or limitation reflected badly on him as a songwriter. I wonder if this same guy who was so afraid: of Murry, of Spector, of a painting, of a woman (ESP witch), of the Monterey hippies...wasn't just inventing another thing to get antsy about in his head. Point is, I think it may've actually been Brian using that "it won't play well live" angle as an excuse to quit this increasingly burdensome project rather than an attack levied by the Beach Boys themselves. (Or maybe they did that and he was all too happy to use it as an excuse to give up a project that'd become an albatross around his neck, either way the point is he wouldn't have needed much convincing on this front.)

Gaines also mentions that the Taxi Cabber recording lasted an entire hour, talking about rock n roll and the youth (no mention of directions as we hear on the actual bootleg). I'm now inclined to believe this is true, but then where's the rest of it? Was the bootleg release edited due to limited space? Does that imply we may have gotten a truncated Smog, Lifeboat Party, Bob Gorden's Real Trip, Basketball Sounds and Veggie Fight too? LP and VF do kind of begin and end abruptly while BGRT and BS are so abstract they could be a small snippet out of an hour for all we know. I'd love it if someone here could answer--is there more of this stuff in the vault? (And can you give me access or a copy? I'll literally sell you my soul to hear it, I'm that obsessed!)

No other source I'd ever read says that Brian ordered all the entries on the first class plane back to LA where the famous photo was taken.

13. Mrs O'Leary's Fire

The Gaines book repeats (originates?) the same story about a mid-November session of Fire where Brian sent everyone home because of bad vibrations, VDP is there and mortified which is why he didn't go to the 11/28 session, "Brother Julius" is pressured to light the trashcan on fire. I mean...am I crazy...did this happen? I trust AGD completely and it isn't on Belagio10452, even though he lists canceled sessions too. If Gaines is lying, it's such a weird thing to make up. In the same way I suspected Gaines of taking a bit of editorial liberty by condensing the "SMiLE exposition" all into the first meeting with Van Dyke, could he be doing that here? Combining the infamous canceled sessions "bad vibes" with the general fire-witchcraft "bad vibes" into one, more-exciting anecdote? Bad journalism in any case.

At least with regard to the "Brother Julius" part of the story, it seems to be corroborated by an actual Brian quote: "I walked in [to the studios], and there was a janitor named Brother Julius who lived in a little bungalow in the backyard. Before I walked in, I said, 'Brother Julius, could you start a little fire in the bucket and bring it in the studio?' Well, he hit the ceiling. He said, 'What do you want me to do that for?' I said, 'I want these guys to smell smoke.' You see, I was flipping. I wanted to smell smoke. "So there were the musicians smelling smoke with fire hats on. They were all firemen. Rooooar, rooar. The violins were screeching up, reaching upward, rolling down . . . Whoooorrr . . . "

14. The Beach Boy Battle

Gaines makes it clear that, while the group initially trusted Anderle, they "came to resent him" when coming back in December, both for bringing all his weird hipster friends around (most of the "Posse" were really connected to him, primarily) and for encouraging Brian to go solo.

This is the sole source I've seen that cites any lyric in the VDP-Mike standoff other than CE's fade. Here it's actually "columnated ruins domino" as the primary sticking point, even though it's not even something Mike would've sung. Gaines also makes a point to say that VDP's "I don't know what it means, I have no excuse sir" was a defensive, sarcastic quip rather than a genuine admission of nonsense. This went without saying to me, but I've run into people here who use that line as reason to discount ANY deeper meaning or thought in VDP's lyrics at all, so I guess I'm glad at least one source spells it out that he wasn't serious. It's not that Van didn't make a sincere effort at writing thoughtful lyrics guys, it's that he was caught offguard, felt insulted and played along with the image Mike clearly had of him because he knew it wasn't a question being asked in good faith. (Really, is it that hard to understand "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield?" Those might be the most straightforward lyrics in the whole album, ironically enough!)

Still, Gaines quotes VDP saying he thought SMiLE would still come out even if he wouldn't be asked back in stark contrast to the way this scene is presented in WIBN, which almost certainly used this book as a source.

15. Coming Undone

This version of Anderle's painting includes a quote from Brian about how "It's like the American Indians who have their soul captured." Was there any rational reason for him to say this, or is it just another weird thing Brian said that didn't mean anything?

This book has the best, most heartbreaking depiction of the final meeting Brian had with Anderle: A final incident involving Brian and Anderle took place several days later. The lawsuit Anderle had helped implement against Capitol Records was coming to a headdepositions were being taken and it was a time of serious tension. "I brought an attorney up to Brian's house," Anderle said, "and Brian would not come out of the bedroom." Anderle tried to get Marilyn to bring him down, but he would not come. Anderle told Marilyn, "I will not do business this way. I will not be one of those guys in Brian's life who is treated this way." But Marilyn was helpless, and eventually Anderle went up to the bedroom door himself and knocked. "Brian?'' he called out. "Listen, Brian, if you don't come out of this room, I'm gone. This isn't kid time anymore. Do you hear me, Brian?'' But there was no answer. Anderle never saw Brian again on a professional level. The painting of Brian to this day hangs in Anderle's living toom, but he has never painted again.

^A man so broken by drugs and abuse, so sheltered by money and fame, now having to face adult responsibilities besides just recording music for its own sake. And the man who's been feeding his indulgences, fostering his creativity, wanting to shield him as much as possible yet put in the position of having to be the "bad guy" for the first time. I wonder what it must've been like for Anderle driving home after that, or Marilyn realizing her husband was so dysfunctional he just drove away probably the best friend he'd ever have. (How embarrassed she must've been here!) I wonder if Brian knew the true significance of that moment as it was happening or, like so much else, thought he could carry on as an "Adult/Child" and everything would just continue to work out for him because he's rich.

Gaines says of the album's demise: Many things dealt the final blow to Smile-Brian's inability to finish the album, the drugs, the lyrics, the family squabbles-and finally, the release of two new Beatles singles, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields," so wondrous and differentsounding that Brian was crushed.

^I'd say it was probably due to the following, in order of significance: 1) the lawsuit, including fear of Capitol mishandling SMiLE in retribution plus resentment at letting them profit off his masterpiece, 2) dopamine crash, depressive withdrawal and personality collapse from chronic drug overdose--not just hallucinogens but speed and hash, 3) creeping insecurity in the music due to his own terminal perfectionism, stepping out of his comfort zone conceptually and the group's reaction, 4) procrastination and dread at the process of putting it together, 5) uncertainty of what the project even was anymore since his mind kept changing, endless possibilities with modular editing, VDP left and as I've said I suspect it grew in a direction he hadn't first intended, 6) post-SFF and certainly post-Pepper, fear of being seen as copying the Beatles rather than forging his own unique path.

There's an absolutely insane anecdote in this book I'd never seen before: Brian's final decision not to show up at Monterey may have been made one night about two weeks before the festival, at Alan Pariser's house. Vosse had brought Brian there to meet Pariser for the first time, and Brian seemed distant and uncomfortable from the start. After some small talk, Pariser said casually to Brian, "I don't even know what you guys are doing. I haven't beard from you in a while."

"Brian's mouth flew open," Mike Vosse said. "He was so insulted. Just at the climax of all this tension, the door flew open and in came . . . a guy who was a chiropractor ... a pushy hippie-type. He took one look at Brian and said, 'Terrible back, we're going to have to do something about that.' Before Brian knew it, be was on the floor on his stomach, screaming in agony as the chiropractor worked him over.

"He was absolutely terrified," Vosse said, "but too scared to tell him not to do it. . . . He was totally humiliated and in pain."

When Brian left that night, Pariser said, "If I don't see you before then, I'll see you at Monterey."

And Brian said, "I doubt it."

^Brian was flat out assaulted by a psychotic chiropractor.

16. From Gatsby to Kane

The house boasted a large living room, a formal den with a fireplace, and a hidden study that could be entered through a secret door behind a bookcase. There was a fountain in the inner courtyard and a spiral staircase in the entrance foyer. Marilyn and Brian had some minimal construction done-they removed the old flagstone from arouncfthe swimming pool, replacing it with mosaic tiles, and built a tall brick wall around the perimeter of the acre-and-a-half grounds. The psychedelic and hippie paraphernalia from Laurel Way was thrown out, and Marilyn decorated the new house in tasteful pastels and with fashionable furniture. All that remained from before was the grand piano on which Brian had composed Pet Sounds, and the four-poster bed with its headboard of carved angels. To keep strangers away, a new electric gate was installed with an intercom and a sign that read STAND BACK-SPEAK NORMALLY. At first Brian wanted to repaint the house a bright magenta; the painting was only half finished when the Bel Air Residents Tenants Committee started a suit to stop him. The house was painted a simple beige.

^No one could accuse Gaines of being a bad writer. He has a great way of using seemingly innocuous descriptions to set a mood, like here where just the recounting of Brian's move to Bellagio makes me feel the death of creativity. That "STAND BACK-SPEAK NORMALLY" reminds me of the "NO TRESPASSING" sign that bookends Citizen Kane, from ostentatious parties to oppressive palace. That detail of not even getting to paint his house the color he wanted feels like a final slap in the face on top of all the other humiliations suffered by Brian that year. 1967 may be the best year for pop music but the man who arguably did most to set it all in motion was having the worst time of his life.

Gaines calls Smiley "a throwaway" and says "the only song on it Brian cared about was H&V" and he explicitly connects Veggies as the Earth element here, for some reason. (Previously, he implied that Brian and Paul "co-produced it" on the spot in April.)

Genevelyn the astrologer has been mentioned in almost every major source on SMiLE but here she is said to have visited Brian's house "frequently." She strikes me as a pretty weird, almost shady character and I wish more was known about her.

[BJL]

No one seems able to give a straight answer to that question. Various sources Ive read outright say the work was done or it wasnt. Some sources imply lyrics without outright listing them, like Brians second autobiography  and Dennis playing an acetate to a reporter. I think they mustve been in flux.

I think the lyrics must have been in flux or rejected or unfinished, or maybe they just talked about what they would be but didn't write them. The song is such a major composition, that got so much studio time dedicated to it, that I just can't imagine that if it had been fully finished with verses, then someone, actually probably a number of people, would have remembered that at some point and said so in a non-cagey way. But I've never seen any remotely direct reference in any kind of primary source.

Someone else pointed out on this board years ago, in response to a very excited post of my own about how the Dennis comment implied cowboy lyrics, that Dennis was reportedly playing this live on the piano, and that the verse of Child has a sort of loping, cowboy-song quality which would be easy to accentuate in the left hand if you were playing it as a solo piano piece without words. Given that there has never been any other reference to a western theme connected to the song, that seemed like the most plausible explanation to me the moment I first heard it...