Stories of Smile obsession (and BBs Obsession in general), I want to hear them.

[The Song Of The Grange]

A response to my last post by buddhahat (about his Smile obsession getting a bit out of control) made we want to hear other fan's tales of Smile obsession, and any other BBs related obsessions.  I am currently writing an extended essay on Smile (and why I have been so fixated on it for so many years), and it dawned on me that it would be really great to add in some testimonials. So if anyone would like to share their story, please do share it. And if you don't want me to use it in my essay, that is cool, but it would still be fun to hear your tale.

This is what buddhahat said (which I found very entertaining):
"I remember a time when I actually began to get quite concerned that I was too obsessed with Smile, to the point that it was all I would listen to for months on end, just again, and again, and again. It used to drive my partner insane, and even now I find myself nervously switching the stereo off if she comes in the room and I'm listening to Smile songs - how sad is that!? For what it's worth, it did pass, although I still get back into it pretty intensely every now and then!"

As for me:
1
Once last year I went for 3 months straight listening to nothing but Smile sessions 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at my job. After awhile I started lying to co-workers when they asked me what I was listening too, because they all started to think I was a little crazy!
2
I also once made a statistical chart calculating the probability of Smile track order, starting with "Prayer" which got a 100% opening track rating (because Brian said so). I calculated the probabilities of each title in each potential playing order slot using this convoluted points system I invented, which was based on evidence from things like interviews, the 2004 Smile, and Smiley Smile.  
3
I got the Beach Boys banned from being played on the stereo at work and my wife banned them from play on our living room stereo, in both cases because I "over played" Pet Sounds and Smile tracks (is if that was actually possible!).
4
I made an iTunes play list with a track given to every SECTION of every song, so I could listen to every possible combination. For example, the Iron Horse section of Cabinessence got its own track twice, Grand Coulee Dam got one track etc etc. I thought that once I found the perfect playing order the heavens would open up and I would know the meaning of the universe--or something like that.
5
For a highschool art class back in 1994 I drew a recreation of the Smile cover art. I guess that isn't so weird.

Anyway, I'd love to hear anyone else's stories of Beach Boys and Smile obsessions. I figure if you are a big enough fan to read this great message board, you may have had a similar experience.

[runnersdialzero]

The "listening to Smile and almost exclusively Smile over and over for months on end" happened to me, too. Sessions (no matter how tedious some of them are - I loved every minute of it), completed tracks, BWPS, anything - throw Smiley Smile in there, too. If it wasn't listening to it, it was reading about it, watching videos about it, talking about it online with other people, etc. etc. etc.

[hypehat]

5
For a highschool art class back in 1994 I drew a recreation of the Smile cover art. I guess that isn't so weird.

Anyway, I'd love to hear anyone else's stories of Beach Boys and Smile obsessions. I figure if you are a big enough fan to read this great message board, you may have had a similar experience.

Winner

[The Shift]

I guess plenty of us have been through the "endless listening" phase. I listened to little else but SMiLE for a few years and would buy repeat copies of various boots to tide me over until the next new underground release.

Even now I occasionally have the music playing in my head, on the skull stereo, and suddenly realise that two tracks will segue together seamlessly;  I have to make a written note, even if I'm driving, or I get my partner to do it (though she doesn't appreciate that "it can't wait 'til later", cos by then I'll have forgotten, and the realisation will be lost forever).

I have made many of these notes and, collectively, they will sole the mystery of the piecing together of Smile. Without doubt.  'Xcept I can't find any of them.

In recent years my musical tastes have expanded way, way beyond SMiLE -  I listened to POB/Bambu for many months, and TLOS, for example.  I have long indulgences in Neil Young, John Martyn, the Wombles, and many others, but it always comes back to SMiLE.

SMiLE became a way of life in 2004, when I attended all the first six RFH gigs and four others on that tour. Shortly after I left the UK to hike across the USA for six months (which meant I missed the second UK tour), and the SMiLE music played on my skull stereo for long periods during that hike.  And joy of joys, on the very day I reached Canada, September 28, 2004, Brian Wilson released his new interpretation of SMiLE.

Incidentally the first CD I ever owned was a very early SMiLE boot CD. I had it for a few months before I saved enough to buy a CD player to actually listen to it.

Funnily enough when I reached Canada in 2004 and bought the SMiLE CD (I bought five copies, for family and friends), I had to go buy another CD player to listen to it, as my own were all in storage in the UK.

Sorry I'm rambling  -  just finished a long project and letting off some steam.  But while we're on the SMiLE obsession theme, has anyone ever asked their partner to dress like the lady looking out of the SMiLE shop window in the Frank Holmes drawing?  Just wondered...

[Don_Zabu]

How obsessed am I over Smile? I made a YouTube channel for it.

[Mahalo]

I "over played" Pet Sounds and Smile tracks (is if that was actually possible!).

Amen, preach on...just the other day at work I was playing Surf's Up at work on my car keys, (you know the keys part), and when asked what I was doing my co- workers all rolled their eyes at my response because they know how much I love the BB's. I got a really bad vibe from them actually. When I tried to explain I realized it would be futile to express how great their music is to these people...

I really listen to nothing else on a regular basis...I have my own stories to tell, but I can't really top yours, I don't think, except I've also listened for the amount of time listening to their music...

[Dunderhead]

I don't know if Smile has ever ruined anyone's life. You always hear about people who forget to feed their kids because they were playing WoW, so I wonder if anyone has ever lost their job or wife because of Beach Boys obsession.
The worst moment for me was when I upset a girl I was seeing when I told her I'd save Brian Wilson's life before hers. She got pretty offended, but eventually laughed it off.

[Jason]

Great thread, although I don't have much to add except for one thing.

I have mild OCD (obsessive/compulsive disorder), and, naturally, being a Beach Boys fan, beyond the official releases, everything out there that can be heard is spread out over any number of bootlegs, with the same stuff in many cases being spread out over ten different bootlegs, each with different sound quality. In 2002 I began collecting bootlegs. Whatever I could find, I grabbed. As my collection increased I wanted to put the studio material in a cohesive, listenable order and properly archive the hundreds of live tapes, interviews, and all manner of curiosities that I have found. This has been an ongoing process, and it's something that might very well never be finished, if not for my relentless amount of tinkering, then for the fact that some people have stuff that they don't see any value in circulating, which, to me anyway, is a shame. Anything that's documented, in any form, is of at least historical interest, if not personal enjoyment.

This project has been a true labor of love for the seven years I've worked on it. I've been asked why I haven't told more folks, including many of our Honored Guests, about the project, and there are several reasons.

1. The people in high places would find it inconsequential. They have the studio-quality reels to work from. I'm a fan working with stuff that's been dubbed from any number of sources any number of times. I don't even think they'd be interested in picking my brain for pointers.

2. The fans by and large wouldn't be interested in a good 70% of it; that 70% being the hours and hours of live tapes, interview clips, the Flames material from 1963-68 before they signed with Brother, the eight million or so tracks Bruce guested on, Michael's solo stuff, Blondie's solo stuff.

It's something I've been happy to just sit back with sometimes and tinker with for all these years. I suppose I want to mostly keep it to myself. I know it's not MY music but the project by all means is my brain child.

[Andrew G. Doe]

BB-ness in general:

1 - http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/ (I should stop here, shouldn't I ? But no...)...

2 - several trips to LA expressly to meet/interview people, ranging from the hugely productive (1985) to those which were a waste of time & money (people changed their minds)...

3 - Going to see Almost Summer, not once but twice (firstly to make notes, secondly wired for sound)...

4 - using a clippings agency to start my BB articles collection back in 1975. The postman didn't like me very much for a long time. Nor did my bank manager...

5 - having standing Google alerts...

6 - going into my local record store and ordering a Julio Iglesias single. When the staff had done crying with laughter, one told me I had to do something about this BB obsession...

[Andrew G. Doe]

I don't know if Smile has ever ruined anyone's life.

There's a man at the door called Brian Wilson would like a word with you... 

[Andrew G. Doe]

2
I also once made a statistical chart calculating the probability of Smile track order, starting with "Prayer" which got a 100% opening track rating (because Brian said so). I calculated the probabilities of each title in each potential playing order slot using this convoluted points system I invented, which was based on evidence from things like interviews, the 2004 Smile, and Smiley Smile.  

Is it in any way scary that I want to see, really, really want to see this chart ?

[matt-zeus]

3 - Going to see Almost Summer, not once but twice (firstly to make notes, secondly wired for sound)...

Is that worth seeing?!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Nope. Put it this way... when was the last time you saw it for sale on video or DVD ?   

[metal flake paint]

Only today I ordered speech to text software which I will primarily use to dictate my entire Beach Boys' clippings collection onto my hard drive for easy reference.

Here is some of my obsessive behaviour through the years:

Photocopying a page from a lettering book containing letters in Old English font, then cutting and pasting them onto a piece of backing to form the word CABINESSENCE. I proudly displayed this on my bedroom wall for many years much to my parents and friends bewilderment. As I look through said book, I did the same with the Peoria font to spell out Heroes and Villains which I then transferred onto a white t-shirt which I usually wore at record fairs.

Covering the dashboard of my first car with various Beach Boys clippings/photos (the more obscure, the better). Most of my passengers had the same “Eh?” response.

Carrying around and constantly swigging from a plastic bottle of apple cider, much like Mike did in the mid-60’s, with disastrous consequences halfway through a cinema screening of “A Clockwork Orange”. I also had a fascination with a tobacco pipe which I constantly puffed at (again a reference to Mike).

When I purchased my first laptop, I changed the default sound scheme for snippets of Beach Boys’ music.

When I received my first Smile cassette in 1988 I was mesmerised for months, playing it in the car, at home or on my Walkman. Despite the tapes’ lo-fi quality, the music always shone through. I especially enjoyed listening to Smile alone at night, parked by the ocean, watching the waves crash upon the shore. None of my friends understood my fascination and couldn’t reconcile this music with The Beach Boys; they thought it was some kind of a put-on. But at that stage, no other music or group mattered to me. I knew I was going to be a fan for life.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I quit my job and moved to LA, for several reasons but mostly because it is Beach Boys land.  I seemed obsessed enough that Alan Boyd (who might just win the obsession award... .) let me work with him for a little while on Beach Boys related projects.  Whenever passing 6000 Sunset, what used to be Western Recorders, I have a small paroxysm.  Likewise, I have driven by, intentionally, most of the old houses of the musicians that played on Beach Boys records.  Including Chuck Britz' which involved some very steep hills...  My one and only iPod is loaded with 6 straight days of Beach Boys--and nothing else, though I suspect my obsession is less impressive on that level than some others'.

[buddhahat]

2
I also once made a statistical chart calculating the probability of Smile track order, starting with "Prayer" which got a 100% opening track rating (because Brian said so). I calculated the probabilities of each title in each potential playing order slot using this convoluted points system I invented, which was based on evidence from things like interviews, the 2004 Smile, and Smiley Smile.  

Is it in any way scary that I want to see, really, really want to see this chart ?

Ditto!!

[A Million Units In Jan!]

When I first got into SMiLE, there was just something about it, something that I can't figure out even to this day. It's just....everything IMO is perfect about it. Maybe the way the songs flow, maybe because it was a guy at the absolute peak of his brilliance and he was laying down tracks that really sounded like nothing that had been done before.  Whatever the case, it blew me away, and I became obsessed. As in, that's all I would listen to. At home, in the car, over and over, never getting sick of it. I had my girlfriend (wife now) keep a copy  in her car. I can remember getting LLVS! in the mail, and reading it to her in the car  like it was a novel. I would look at when movies were made, or other albums were made, or books were written, and if they were written in 1966 I would find out when exactly, and compare it to what was going on at that time; 'Oh, this movie was released in October 1966. Brian was working on Do You Like Worms then'. It was nuts, I admit. I would hear snippets of music in video games, and think 'If this tune was done by the Wrecking Crew, it would fit quite nicely on SMiLE'.
And I think a big part of the excitement abut it  was the difficulty in finding out anything more about the album than the little that was already known. It wasn't like now where you can go to somebody's site and download 10 different SMiLE mixes in mp3. It was difficult to really get anything new on the subject.  And the SMiLE shop went up, and that really fanned the flames, with 'insiders' posting cryptic posts, and alluding to clips of music that still haven't been heard to this day.
After a few years, and many more bits that have come out and of course BWPS, the obsession sort of waned. I still consider it  the greatest music I've ever heard-the original stuff, that is. The original's just have this certain sound that you can't put your finger on. Maybe it's just the sound that Columbia and Western and Goldstar studios had. Or maybe because you close your eyes and think of Prime Time Brian Wilson on a creative roll, with a definitive idea of what he wanted and where he was going.  Or the sounds of '60s era instruments being played by the coolest cats in town. Whatever the case, SMiLE is, was, and always will be THE sound to my ears.

[Mahalo]

I'm feeling a lot of love in this forum...like an AA meeting for Beach Boys fanatics.

Is it my own bias or is their music so much superior to others in so many ways? Be truthful to me...I know when they suck- they REALLY suck, but when they are on- they are the BEST. I just can't get enough of it.

P.S.... Love You rules.

[Myk Luhv]

Love You is second only to Pet Sounds as far as Beach Boys albums is concerned.

[Mr. Cohen]

Is it my own bias or is their music so much superior to others in so many ways?

I've always thought that. As far as a pop/rock outfit goes, they can't be beat. To combine such sophisticated chords, with such intricate harmonies (combining things that would seem dissonant  at first glance with consonant elements to create ethereal harmonies) on top, and to make the melodies so catchy at the same time is unbelievable. People take Brian for granted, I think. When you really look at songs that are considered more throwaway efforts, like "Funky Pretty", parts of it seem like a miracle. In a sense, the piano playing is almost rubato at parts, and while the chord changes aren't anything extraordinary, to combine those strange synth lines (which are playing a counter-melody, which the bass plays along with at points in the song without detracting from the main vocal melody) with all of those different vocal melodies in the outro at the end and make it sound good and catchy takes inspired genius. You have complex polyphony and harmony at the same time in that song, and in many other Brian songs, and yet it still comes across as an easily approachable pop song. That's mastery.

The Beatles never even got that sophisticated (though they're still a great band, of course - ), and this is just a Brian 'throwaway' we're talking about.

[Dove Nested Towers]

My obsession was very, very deep indeed. The Smile music sustained me through many difficult years. There is a mysterious, indefinable quality to it that is obviously quite unique. I identify with it completely. I'll never forget the 1st time I heard each "new" piece of music (look forward faithfully amd idealistically to hearing more someday when all sources and collections are plumbed for a possible box set). It's like a potent, exhilarating drug, pure creativity and originality distilled into one ambitious and ultimately evocative musical suite. I dream often about hearing extremely complex new sections and songs which are just beyond reach somehow, either don't hear the whole thing, it's not booted (or the boot is unavailable) nor are copies owned except to the ultimate insiders (who can't or won't share it) hear it faintly from a distance, etc. Once dreamed that I was at Brian's house and he allowed me to make a copy of his personal unreleased Smile material. I was shaking with excitement as it was dubbing (from and onto cassette) and woke up crestfallen that it had only been a dream. I'm quite sure you all know what I'm talking about.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I dream often about hearing extremely complex new sections and songs which are just beyond reach somehow, either don't hear the whole thing, it's not booted (or the boot is unavailable)

Not now, but yeah, back in the day, I'd hear whole new songs in my dreams, really good ones, any period.. but when I woke up, the recollection would be gone within seconds. 

But damn, they were good.

[rasmus skotte]

I've made a whole online essay about my SMiLE obsession where I admit to being a "Hawthorne Bunthorne" which I guess most of us who are coming clean here can qualify as (a SMilE bunthorne must be like a pain in the backside, right?):
http://www.earcandymag.com/radiantraydiodish.htm

I mean plucking away like for that for 10 years and getting little more than the cold shoulder treatment from fellow fans, you'd have to be fanatic!

[The Shift]

I dream often about hearing extremely complex new sections and songs which are just beyond reach somehow, either don't hear the whole thing, it's not booted (or the boot is unavailable)

Not now, but yeah, back in the day, I'd hear whole new songs in my dreams, really good ones, any period.. but when I woke up, the recollection would be gone within seconds. 

But damn, they were good.

I've had dreams where I've gone into a secondhand music store (the kind that measure your feet) and found racks and racks of unreleased BBs albums, and released albums I didn't know existed. Money hasn't been an object and I've laden my arms with goodies (I mean CDs, not Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie) and gone to the counter and ... woken up...

[The Song Of The Grange]

2
I also once made a statistical chart calculating the probability of Smile track order, starting with "Prayer" which got a 100% opening track rating (because Brian said so). I calculated the probabilities of each title in each potential playing order slot using this convoluted points system I invented, which was based on evidence from things like interviews, the 2004 Smile, and Smiley Smile.  

Is it in any way scary that I want to see, really, really want to see this chart ?

Ditto!!

The playing order chart is an Excel spread sheet. If it wasn't for that I would post it. A work of complete madness.


Point system was as follows:
(I am not sure now how I decided to weigh the points the way I did.)

First hand evidence: 10 points
Circumstantial evidence in 1966: 3 points (interviews etc)
Smiley Smile playing order: 3 points
BWPS 2004: 3 points (I really went back and forth on how many points to award this evidence)
Proximity of sessions to other tracks: 2 points
Music/lyrical link: 2 points
Number of sessions: 1 point
General thematic link: 1 point.

For each song or fragment I added up the total points and then divided it by the number possible and got a percentage. Our Prayer was automatically given a 100% opening track rating.