One thing that has always interested me about Brian Wilson was how curious he was about metaphysical things. I'm sure most of you have read the Esoteric Smile articles and the "Zen Interpretation of Smile" pages, which I have to admit are always interesting but perhaps a bit over-analytical (not to mention a bit over-reliant on his disowned "autobiography")
It's so bittersweet combing through the forum's SMiLE threads and seeing people saying the same conclusions I would come to, but sadly before I'd come to the forum. I feel like if I could've been aware of this 20 years ago, I might've had fun talking to some of yall, but it's nice to find a shared take as I leave my words for posterity.
but there's no doubt that Brian at one time was quite interested in and drew inspiration from that whole "let me use music as a medium for spiritual enlightenment" -thing. There's stories of him planning the release date of Heroes and Villains based on astrology and going to see mystics for guidance and such. Then there's the whole bookstore episode during his first acid trip that was vividly detailed in his autobiography, the intense experience he supposedly had while composing "Old Master Painter" where "God revealed Himself to him as a children's song." All of it is a whole side of Brian rarely discussed.
Let me say that I take a lot of it with a grain of salt. It seems when he was a young man he was really tripping out for a while on these things, and then more or less abandoned them--perhaps retaining what works and ditching the rest. "That stuff went out a long time ago." He's usually quite dismissive of that whole scene.
Anyone else find it interesting speculation?
Absolutely. I think the Art of Creation from Koestler and its bisociative/pictorial strategy for expression is the key to understanding the album's conceptual purpose and Brian's artistic vision, more than anything else.
I do think it's absolutely wild that there's at least one grouping where all the songs' numerological values match up, and the songs fit in other ways too, implying it isn't just a coincidence: Good Vibrations, The Elements [Fire/Water Chant/Workshop/Breathing], Wind Chimes, Wonderful, Child is Father of the Man, Surf’s Up
///&/// Do You Dig Worms? I’m in Great Shape, Vega-Tables, Heroes and Villains, Cabin Essence, My Only Sunshine. I've wondered if perhaps the number of beats in a song might have meaning too, but somehow I doubt Brian would've constrained the music like that. If there were numerological requirements in the lyrics of songs ("Hey Van, make sure all the words in Surf's Up equal 22! It's very important!") neither Brian nor Van ever let on.
I also think it's not outside the realm of possibility that one of the themes of the album was the end of one era, the Piscean Age, the sins of our past & now the coming of a new era, the Aquarian Age, where "we" will take the reins and make a better world going forward. Surf's Up, with art toppling hierarchical institutions, is a very Aquarian track while Old Master Painter foresaking/losing his "sunshine" (source of clarity and purpose) I feel as like the curtain coming down on the (orthodox/conservative) Christian epoch. Vega in Vega-Tables is a reference to the brightest star in the lyra constellation--celestial music, the instrument of heaven, symphony to God. I've wondered if each of the twelve tracks didn't have a direct astrological equivalent--in a previous essay I made compelling cases that at least two-thirds could've but after that admittedly it gets a bit arbitrary.
The I ching is a lot harder. I think it's not unreasonable you might group the songs so each pairing across the sides (A1 & B1, A2 & B2, etc) has the smaller numerology total subtracted from the higher, with say evens as feminine and odds masculine (or reverse) and this informs if the first through sixth lines are broken (feminine) or unbroken (masculine) and that determines the hexagram. Or perhaps there's two hexagrams--each side's six tracks and their zodiac equivalent, with male and female signs becoming (un)broken lines in a sequence. But really, this is just fun arbitrary games and "bonus points" to justify a preferred sequence. There's almost certainly no way Brian was thinking THAT deeply about something no one but us would ever discover much less care about. I think the astrology connection is all but certain, the numerology possible if unlikely (it'd explain why the songs have such weird titles and idiosyncratic spellings compared to any other pop album though) and the I Ching all but impossible.
I hear a lot about Subud but I don't see how that could shed clues or a fun game for establishing any new sequences or song interpretations either. I guess you could say music is "what arises from within" in Brian's mind, so by making the album he was expressing the practice of subud itself. The sandbox and Arab and bodyheat temperature pool were probably Brian trying to find his latihan to be at peace with God.
I've only ever seen two sources claim Brian was specifically into Buddhism--one of them is the Tobelman site which I share your strong skepticism of. (In fact, it's like most of these mysticist ideologies themselves to be frank--interesting nonsense, impressively thoughtful gibberish, a fun curiosity but nothing remotely close to authoritative.) The other just makes a throwaway reference to Tantric Buddhism. In any case, besides a possible but unlikely justification for the name (that buddhist parable about laughing at a flower) of the album, I can't really find anyway it would help with sequencing or reveal any specific hidden meaning in the songs.
That bookstore incident, which is admitedly cool but ultimately owes itself to the thoroughly debunked WIBN bio, is the only "source" of the Zen thing. Tobelman picked this up and ran with it. There's ZERO credible evidence I've found that Brian was into it at the time. The wiki has no references except to a 2004 interview where Brian explicitly denies a connection. I haven't seen any talk of it and I'm down to like three books left to read on SMiLE. THAT SAID, ultimately that's exactly what the album became, an impossible riddle that has so many layers a person could contemplate it for hours or years and still remain unsure if they really "get" it. So that's a funny irony.
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