The Smiley Smile Message Board

I don't know about you guys, but there are certain moments in BB songs that produce a high for me that is up there with what drugs or meditation could achieve, a feeling of being in the presence of the divine.  I can't think of another musician that does that for me.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling. What specific moments help you achieve this?

For me-

The chorus of 'Little Girl I Once Knew'

Tag of 'You Still Believe in Me'

Second verse of 'Wouldn't it Be Nice' when when the harmonies come in

Bridge (Sometimes I feel very sad) of 'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times'

Vocal-only section of 'Heroes and Villains' (before the cantina section)

ooh ooh........ good topic!

I love the part mostly in surfs up from......'surfs up mmm, for the tidal wave'..... until the fade, that's magic....

the tag of 'til I die' ......

the tag of 'melt away' from BW88

'don't worry baby' from start to finish hehe

I love the second verse of 'time to get alone' ...'the pine scented air smells so good in the snow, in our toboggan we'll go....
streamin down the mountain si-yide'

brains falsetto on ANYTHING...... like 'she knows me too well', 'DWB', the 'oooh oooh' mid section of 'this whole world'

so many 'horny' moments in BB/BW songs hehehe

Rickb

anything from smile, specifically dylw.

The Who Ran The Iron Horse and Grand Coulee Dam sections of Cabin Essence.

All of Our Prayer.

All of Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring/A Young Man Is Gone.

The second bridge part (?) of Wouldn't It Be Nice ('you know it seems the more we talk about it...').

Columnated ruins domino parts and tag from Surf's Up. Actually scratch that, the entire song.

The flute on the tag to 4th Of July.

The alternate a capella ending of God Only Knows.

Forgot to add the Don't Talk vocal snippet from the PS box set where Brian sings the string harmonies. That one might be tops for me.

The intro to Warmth of the Sun.  The entire song is 'heavenly', 'magical', or whatever you want to call it, but that intro is almost beyond description!

As others have mentioned: The entirety of Don't Worry Baby, Brian's vocal snippet from Don't Talk, Boys and Girls from H&V.

- The coda to ADITLOAT - probably nothing more sad/beautiful in the entire BB catalogue
- the first "collunated ruins domino" in the '67 version of Surf's Up
- the coda to the Stack-O-Tracks version of California Girls - one of the most spiritual pieces of music I've ever heard.
- the coda to the Lei'd in Hawaii rehearsal of California Girls
- the coda to Holy Man (either version)
- the entirety of Pacific Coast Highway
- the coda to When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) - both the backing track and the album version.
- Still I Dream Of It (demo)
- And Your Dreams Come True

... Noel, Noel, Noel, NOELLLLLL!!!!!

That note, it gets to me every time ...

I have always felt that many of the Beach Boys songs are prayers, in a sense. Often, it is in the bridge.

So many moments to choose from. However, the moments that get me every time, no matter how often I hear 'em....

The Little Girl I Once Knew - after the mid-song section with the laa-doo-day's, when the chorus kicks back in with those incredible harmonies. Wow!

Lady - the fade, with the strings and the 'love, in love, in love' reframe.

This Whole World - that fade.

Trader - the moog bass coupled with the harmonies that kick in with the second verse.

Cuddle Up - the 'ooh's' that precede the second chorus.

Where I Belong - all of it.

my divine moments from the BBS, DW and Spring,

Brian voice on Dont worry baby, she knows me too well, let him run wild....
Help me ronda (stereo version with those Ronda sung by Brian with his falsetto at his best; should have been the definite version on Today and  it s  better than the single!)
California Girls intro
the stack o tracks sloop john b
God only Knows coda
Good Vibrations (nearly all the song!)
the full coda from cabinessence
the backing track of Child is father to the Man
the Backing tack of Do You Dig Worms
Time to get alone (Carl is at his best)
Stephen Desper mix of Till I Die (The ILog Intro)
Sweet Mountain by Spring (the french lyrics are beautiful done)
River song backing track
Friday night intro from POB
Summer's Gone

Friday Night intro from POB - YES!! How could I have forgotten that? What an amazing piece of music that is. I listen to it and just think THIS is what the band should've - and could've - sounded like in the late seventies! If only...

i forgot.......Wonderful all versions (vocals and backing tracks) Brian at his best perhaps?

Spirit of America. "They set a new record on that warm August morn". This whole song is my personal fave. If you read the lyrics, they might seem a bit dumb, but the way Brian sings them elevates them into a joyous celebration of daring young man's heroic deeds!

Country Air. Carl's intro humming and "come on" are just rapturous.

Surf's Up. The song is a religious experience.

Don't Go Near The Water: That mandolin/vocal tag at the end is wonderful.

Wind Chimes (Smiley Smile): The a capella section towards the end is great.

I'm So Young: Probably my most favorite cover in their whole catalogue.

Surfer Girl (Early Version): This may be the Candix version (If there is such a thing), but with its echo drenched vocals and slower, more mellow feel, it's almost better than the officially released take.

Break Away: The final tag, starting with the "oh boy, you'll jump for joy..." is fantastic. The a capella bit online is even better.

Time To Get Alone: The version on "Hawthorne" with the a capella tag. The original is great as well.

Really, anytime there's an a capella bit in a Beach Boys song, you know it's gonna be awesome.

The vocals after "Two brothers took the radio and turned it on...." on Mt. Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale). Pure magic.

The spiritual quality infusing Brian Wilson's music has certainly been noted by a number of observers over the years, not least himself. I say spirituality rather than divinity, there being a distinction...or maybe not.

Anyway, I would identify that spirit as early as Lonely Sea - transient love emerging from and enfolded back into the eternally restless oceanic.

That bit quite near the start of Cool Cool Water when the riff fades out and you get sucked up into a cloud where the Boys acapella voices are doing some really strange chanting and sighing, before descending back to planet Earth where the song cuts back in again.

I think if we are talking about the appeal of the music especially the music they produced in the sixties, I think even though there is a very spiritual element to the music I think perhaps Carl Wilson put it best when he stated that the music of The Beach Boys celebrated the joys of life in a very simple way.  I think the songs that Brian Wilson wrote are less general perhaps than anything else in the history of rock music.  His lyrics are so specific to the message he's trying to get across in the song and at the same time very much a shared experience by the vast majority of those who listen to those records.

David Marks once said in regards to some of the early Beach Boys records that "It wasn't like Brian was trying to put something over.  He wasn't saying is this commercial?  How are we going to trick these turkeys into buying this?  There was no formulating, no plotting or planning.  He was just doing what he loved.  He told me he wrote about things that turned him on like girls, cars and high school.  It's hard to believe that anyone could be that naive and honest but he was.  That's what made those records so successful."

Essentially I think that is a huge component as to the appeal of The Beach Boys and the timeless quality of the music.  Some of it actually is so self conscious that at times for me at least it's almost like you are eavesdropping on someone.  Brian Wilson was able to communicate events that happen in everyone's life that in the grand scheme of things are probably somewhat trivial but in these songs he paid a tremendous amount of respect to a lot of emotions and experiences that particularly most guys have at one point or another in their life but most of them due to how society dictates masculine behavior to be will never admit.

Some of his songs seem to be so trivial on the surface like "Cuckoo Clock" or "Drive In" but then when you start to think about it you realize that "damn someone along that way, if not many people probably had that experience".  Other songs like "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)", "Please Let Me Wonder", "She Knows Me Too Well" or "We'll Run Away" are just heartbreakers in the emotion they are communicating.  You find yourself thinking "yeah I've been there" or someone I know has been there or given the era when these songs were written, my parents were probably going through a lot of the stuff those songs were commenting on at the time they were being written and issued.  So the music from that aspect has the ability to cross space, time and generations which in enough of itself could speak to somewhat of the spiritual quality of The Beach Boys' music that many people reference.

So by the time Brian got to "Pet Sounds" I believe he had had enough experience translating all of these various experiences and the emotions that went along with them that whether he was conscious of it or not, "Pet Sounds" really became one of the authorities on what people go through as they emotionally mature and are able to make emotional connections on many different levels.  It still works today, it might not definitively answer any question you might have about every specific scenario that can come up in a relationship but that record addresses a lot of that and gives you a lot more to think about to boot if you choose to take it in that way.  Of course it also works extremely well as pop music record which obviously is the other side of the coin of The Beach Boys' appeal and that is quite simply they just made some damn good records.

Time to Get Alone - the whole damn thing, especially "DEEP AND WIDE!" and the chorus.
Kiss Me Baby - Mike's "whoa baby, kiss a little bit and fight a little bit..."
Wouldn't it be Nice - the whole thing, but especially the second verse when the harmonies kick in, and the "ron-ron-ree-ooo" tag.
God Only Knows - that freakin' tag...
In The Parkin' Lot - the beginning and end are straight from the heavens.
The Trader - the second half.
The whole California Saga, especially Big Sur and the "da-da-daaaa-daa"s on Beaks of Eagles.
Little Miss America - pre-Kennedy assassination innocence at its finest.
Our Prayer/Gee - pure sonic beauty.
Cabinessence - "Who ran the iron horse" and the infamous crow line with those wonderfully spastic harmonies behind it.
Darlin' - "OH-hoh darlin'!"
Country Air - "Get a breath of that country air..."
All I Wanna Do - the intro.
Our Sweet Love - screw it, the whole damn tune.
Feel Flows - that backwards echo throughout the song.
'Til I Die - "These things I'll be un-til I die"

Honorable mention to the sheer awe and happiness of hearing Do It Again live on the C50 tour.

At My Window

The harmonies in 'He came to my window'...so beautiful. One of the best harmonies the boys ever did. A very underrated song.

Pitter Patter

I just love the 'Listen to the rain' part with Mike doing the bass vocals.

Honkin' Down The Highway

Al's lead is one of the best he ever did. The synth bass combined with the subtle guitar work is brilliant as well. Great backing track overall.



 

The Surf's Up fade - of course!

Not a favourite of everyone's I know, but all those interlocking melodic threads on the fade of Funky Pretty really get me. Absolute magic!

And someone mentioned Spirit Of America - again, agreed! Brian's vocal elevates that song. Heavenly.

Oh, how could I forget: DEEP AND WIDE.

Deidre - The opening, as well as the "I love your red hair" bridge. Fantastic vocal arrangements. And then turned into a satanic trip in Earthbound.

That's Not Me - "I could try to be big in the eyes of the world, but what matters to me is what I can be to just one girl"

All I Wanna Do - The part where Mike almost goes into falsetto.

Friends - "Tim-tim balee tim-tim ba-li tim-te i ohhhhhhh"

Their Hearts Were Full of Spring - The footage from that French concert in '70 (or '69??) with Mike, Bruce, Carl, and Al huddled around a microphone, crowd silent, far away from the camera, but their harmonies come in loud and clear.

Melt Away - The tag.

Any part of Pet Sounds or Smile where you listen into the music and hear something new in the intricate arrangement. There is so much going on, and discovering any one new detail that would make an ordinary song great is an enlightening experience.



 

I'm reading thru all the responses here, agreeing with just about every one of them, and then I realize that practically every BBs song has some divine moment in it, especially from the 60s!  Even if they are relatively short moments, like the bridge in Do it Again, the middle part to We're Together Again, and even though it's just a tad on the rough side the group vocals on Lonely Sea right after Brian's spoken part, right on into the fade.  WOW!  :angel:   

Maybe calling this divine is pushing it a bit, but I really like the 2012 arrangement of Do It Again - music stops for a second and the voices go "coooome on babe". It kinda picks you up - yeah, let's come on!

All I Wanna Do. All of it.

now we're talking.

Nice to have a thread that's positive for a change - sometimes it's easy to forget this is a site for people who like the Beach Boys...

The chorus of Good Timin'.

The fade to Celebrate The News.

In The Parkin' Lot: 'She's turning on the radio dial, we could and listen for a while'.

Oh man. Carl's falsetto during the beginning of the 2nd chorus, specifically. That sh*t brings on teh tinglys and teh special feelins. It's a shame he never did more of that stuff because I'd say it even rivals Brian in his prime. That part alone makes me scratch my head when I hear people calling the song boring or too middle-of-the-road.

Most recently I combined a 10 minute piece for a slideshow I'm working on. I started it with some sound effects of the waves hitting the beach... slowly fades into OUR PRAYER..... and once that ends I started the long version of COOL, COOL WATER and that faded into the fade out of WIND CHIMES, and that ended with a return to the beach with the waves hitting the beach. It came out amazing once it was all finished. If any of you'd like to hear I'll gladly email it to you so you can judge for yourself.


Ted

Some more I left out:

River Song - too many to name... mainly that first "Oooh", "Oh I wanna cry", and "Got to run away".
Friday Night - the intro, and "What's that feeling down inside of me? Rock 'n roll, food for the soul".
Rainbows - the first verse and the drums leading into it.
Tug of Love - the whole tune, especially the intro, and the background vocals behind "Feel the puuuull".
Holy Man - the transition from the somber piano intro into the whiny (and wonderfully '70s) synth line and the bass coming in, also those heavy cymbal chokes.
Let's Go Away for a While - beautifully written piece that (unintentionally?) manages to paint a sonic picture of an acid trip beginning to kick in.
That's Not Me - "I'm a little bit scared 'cause I haven't been home in a long time" --> 12-string ditty.
Let Us Go On This Way - Mike's extra-sensory perception bridge.
Mona - "Listen to Be My Baby, I know you're gonna love Phil Spector".
The Night Was So Young - "Waaake up, call me baby call me, te-ell me what's on your mah-ah-ind!"
Airplane - In general, the play between Mike's sweet vocal and Brian's shaky falsetto.
Baby Blue - "Late at night when the whole world's sleeping... I dream of you".

Seriously though, all these moments are forever engraved in my head and never fail to hit me when I listen to them.

For me, this is the ultimate:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1rd9I_Wk6I

My. God. And that is why the Beach Boys are the greatest band of all time.

Warmth of The Sun breaks my soul in half. Still I Dream Of It is another one. Young and beautiful like a tree that's just been planted I found life today.

Moonshine, in particular the fade. Known to make grown men weep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtJVZ5RSW4

I don't know if this has ever been linked or posted, but seems appropriate here:

http://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page205.htm


Lo And Behold!
The Out-Of-Sight! SMiLE Site
Sighting and citing the words of Brian Wilson to come up with the most Out-Of-Sight explanation of SMiLE ever!


Brian Wilson explains what's behind his musical new direction to journalist Tom Nolan sometime around November, 1966.

"About a year ago I had what I consider to be a very religious experience. I took LSD, a full dose of LSD, and later, another time, I took a smaller dose. And I learned a lot of things, like patience, understanding. I can't teach you, or tell you what I learned from taking it. But I consider it a very religious experience."
If one tries to locate the two LSD trips that Brian refers to in the above quote, using his biography as a guide (as it is the sole source available for this type of thing), one finds that Brian's first LSD trip had to take place prior to April 6, 1965 (the first recording date for "California Girls"). This locates Brian's first LSD trip well over a year and a half prior to Brian's quote to Nolan and therefore not likely one of the LSD trips that influenced Brian's spiritual musical direction (note that David Leaf's SMiLE DVD Beautiful Dreamer completely misses the boat by solely referencing the first trip).

Brian's biography places his second LSD trip as having taken place months prior to the end of the year. This would likely place the second trip somewhere around October, 1965, about a year prior to Nolan's interview with Wilson. The biography notes that the acid for this trip was "Strong stuff....which I understood to be an extremely potent dose." This description jibes with the "full dose of LSD" Wilson described for Tom Nolan making Brian's second LSD trip an important SMiLE related event.

The biography describes Brian's third, and final, LSD trip as "four hours of enlightenment and spirituality" which would indeed indicate that a "smaller dose" of acid was ingested this time around. Wilson's third LSD trip, then, is another important SMiLE related event; most likely the event from which Brian Wilson "learned a lot of things, like patience, understanding."

Keeping the above in mind here's a time line of SMiLE that explains things logically. This time line shows SMiLE to be a totally consistent and focused piece of art. There are no contradictions! We start with Brian's second LSD trip.

Months before late December 1965 Brian Wilson takes acid for the second time, an "extremely potent dose."

This LSD trip serves up a "horror movie" that begins with the sound of sirens from nearby fire trucks. Brian imagines being consumed by flames and dying. "...I was bathed in flames, dying, dying, and then the screen inside my brain went blank. I visualized myself drifting back in time. Getting smaller and younger." Brian relives arguments he'd had with his father. He continues to drift back in time. "I continued getting smaller. I was a baby. An infant. Then I was inside the womb. An egg. And then, finally, I was gone. I didn't exist."

Did Brian Wilson lose his ego during this experience? Was this ego-death? Only Brian knows for sure. But in any case it seems likely that such questions must have entered Brian's mind at this point.

When asked about the Pet Sounds song "Hang On To Your Ego" and "ego" Brian responded, "Yeah. I had taken a few drugs, and I had gotten into that kind of thing. I guess it just came up naturally."

Brian may have "gotten into that kind of thing" by reading books. Brian appears to have been interested in subjects like psychology, philosophy, religion, and the psychedelic experience. Books on Eastern philosophy and the psychedelic experience, in particular, often point to the loss of ego, or ego-death, as the key to a better way of living.

"Studying metaphysics was also crucial, but Koestler's book really was the big one for me."
~Brain Wilson
November 1, 1965

Recording "Trombone Dixie." At this session Brian also records "In My Childhood," which will eventually be re-titled "You Still Believe In Me." The title "In My Childhood" may be related to Brian "drifting back in time" to his childhood during his second LSD trip.

December 20, 1965
"Barbara Ann" single is released.
Several days before Christmas 1965 Brian suffers what he considers an acid flashback in the Pickwick Bookstore. It is a totally unexpected experience.

"I couldn't even remember why I'd gone to the store. It was spooky. I walked into the store anyway. The clerk, who knew me, said hello and mentioned that he was crazy about "Barbara Ann," which was all over the radio."

[Similarly, Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE begins with "Gee," another doo wop classic, coming over the radio.]

"Moving slowly into the aisles, I concentrated on reading the book titles and their authors....I paged through books..."

[Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE offers up the musical equivalent of this by presenting snippets of various songs by various composers.]

"I stared at the pages, tried to read, but the letters all vibrated on the pages and I couldn't make sense of anything."

[The sound effects that precede "I Wanna Be Around" on Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE may be a musical depiction of this sort of thing.]

"Then I saw the books melting down the shelves, dripping like wax down the side of a candle."

[The ending of "You Are My Sunshine" may be a musical depiction of this visual.]

"The room began to spin. I was in the center of a giant spinning top. Turning, turning, turning. The moment was completely surreal."

[The opening section from "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" seems like a musical representation of this.]

"As the buzz subsided into a manageable burned-out sensation, I remembered Loren once explaining that hallucinations were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning. What had mine meant? I had driven to the bookstore, looking for what? Inspiration? Instead, I'd seen books melting, unable to grasp the knowledge contained in them.

If that was a riddle, I wanted to know the solution."

January 1966
Brian seeks guidance from his astrologer regarding the direction for his next album. Brian tells her "about the hallucination I'd had in the bookstore last December, presenting it as a riddle." The astrologer gives advice that resonates well with Wilson. "If I wasn't able to find inspiration for songs outside myself, as in books, then I had to look someplace else. I had to look inward. I had to write about the spirituality I felt in my heart."

We can infer from the above that Brian was looking to books for inspiration and thinking in terms of albums and riddles.

The song "In My Childhood" effectively becomes "You Still Believe In Me" at this point as Brian now knows the musical direction he'll take for his next LP, Pet Sounds.

January 7, 1966
The Beach Boys begin a tour that takes them to Japan and will end in Hawaii on January 29th.

January 10, 1966
The photos of the Beach Boys in Samurai outfits are taken at Samurai Studios in Kyoto, Japan. Some of these pictures will eventually adorn the back cover of Pet Sounds. Perhaps the Samurai's connection to Zen and its riddles played some part in the decision to use the pictures.

February 1966
Sometime during this month, Brian meets Van Dyke Parks at a party held at Terry Melcher's house.
Brian notes in his biography that Parks "...spoke in funny, poetic, often beguiling torrents." And one wonders if Wilson, already thinking in terms of albums and riddles (see January 1966), had Parks pegged as a potential lyricist for this sort of thing right from the start.

February 7, 1966
Recording sessions are held for "Let Go Of Your Ego" AKA "Hang On To Your Ego." The ego-loss idea is related to LSD but it is also a major component of Eastern philosophies. Brian also noticed the relationship between ego and humor.
"It explains that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else."
~Brian Wilson on THE ACT OF CREATION

During the recording session for "Ego" Brian mentions the comedy album How To Speak Hip. The album includes the following:

'"Like in Zen...the Zen Buddhists have these koans, you know, they're riddles that you meditate on. And the whole purpose of the riddles is to hang you up, like, "We know the sound of two hands but what is the sound of one hand?" Now that's had Buddhist monks hung up for years."'

This passage would have registered with Brian given his bookstore flashback riddle experience in late December.
The title and lyrics of "Hang On To Your Ego" were eventually changed. The resulting song, "I Know There's An Answer," contains the line, "I know there's an answer. I know now, but I have to find it by myself."
Wilson will indeed find the answer to his flashback riddle in late April.

February 17, 1966
The first sessions for "Good Vibrations" are held.

April 9, 1966
Brian records "Good Vibrations" (session 5) in the same fashion as he has recorded the songs for Pet Sounds. The track is given a master number (#55949) indicating that it is a recording potentially worthy of release.

April 25, 1966
Pet Sounds promo film shot in the mountainous areas above Lake Arrowhead, California. This completes the group's work for Pet Sounds.

April 26 or 27, 1966
This webpage contends that Brian Wilson drops acid for the third time on the beach located in Lake Arrowhead, California. Brian contemplates the riddle and finds the answer to the riddle he was presented with in December. It is the ultimate religious experience ("...this trip was the ultimate in LSD joyrides--everything it was supposed to be, four hours of enlightenment and spirituality") from which a new "reborn" Brian Wilson emerges. Part of the enlightening spiritual experience is the conceiving of the Beach Boys' next album and single.

Brian's biography describes Brian dropping Al Jardine off at the William Morris Agency (the group's booking agency) the day after Brian's third LSD trip. Wilson is telling Jardine about the great trip he'd just had the previous day--trying to convince Jardine to drop acid. Since the Beach Boys started another tour on April 28th it is likely that Brian dropped Al off on either the 27th or 28th.

The biography also makes mention that it is during Brian's third LSD trip that Wilson envisions the "grand Spectorlike production" that was to eventually become "Good Vibrations." And it should be noted that weeks after this acid trip Brian returned to the studio to work on "Good Vibrations" and began to record the song using new methods and techniques. Brian would use these same new techniques (recording in sections, using various studios, recording the same section of music in different ways, seeking perfection) for SMiLE.

Some SMiLE books point to Big Sur as the likely location for much of SMiLE's inspiration. This is based upon a quote from David Anderle. It is important to note that the Lake Arrowhead region features many of the same features that Anderle attributed to Big Sur while discussing "The Elements" with CRAWDADDY! editor Paul Williams. The Lake Arrowhead region has mountains, snow, beach, pools, and water fountains. When Anderle said that Brian "ran up to Big Sur for a week" he may have, for whatever reason, gotten the location and duration of Brian's adventure wrong (many years ago a noted Brian Wilson authority told me that the Pet Sounds promo film locale was "Big Sur." In other words, when David Anderle noted Brian's trip to Big Sur, he was actually noting Brian's trip to the mountains above Lake Arrowhead).
There is a good chance that rain may have fallen at some point during this LSD trip as there are repeated references to rain in mountainous Brian Wilson songs ("Sweet Mountain,""Diamond Head") as well as visual references in Frank Holmes' SMiLE drawings. The Wordsworth poem containing the "The Child is father of the Man" line is based upon the sight of a rainbow; which also implies rain. The idea of rain, snow, the lake, pool, water fountains, and as David Anderle put it "a lot of water" implies that Brian's third LSD trip was water to his second trips' fire.

Anderle observed that "the whole thing was this fantastic amount of awareness of his surroundings" and much of SMiLE supports this statement. SMiLE honors the site of Brian Wilson's ultimate religious experience, presenting it as a riddle.

The Lake Arrowhead region was inhabited by the Native American Indians prior to the Europeans using the area for logging. In the 1800s Chinese workers were used to blast tunnels through the San Bernardino mountains bringing the railroad to Lake Arrowhead. The Arrowhead Reservoir Company began dam construction in 1901 but work was eventually halted when a group of united landowners won a court case against the company. Today, there are still some old cabins in the Lake Arrowhead area that date back to the 1900s.

The Lake Arrowhead influence upon SMiLE can be seen primarily in the project's earliest compositions, the sandbox songs; "Heroes And Villains," "Surf's Up," and "Cabin Essence." After Brian and Van Dyke had "canvas(ed) the town" they decided to "brush the backdrop" stretching things from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii. Their purpose remained the same; to document and share the religious experience.

In Jules Siegel's famous Goodbye Surfing Hello God! article Brian appears to link the beach experience to a spiritual "death and rebirth" when he speaks about the movie Seconds. Brian explains that, "the whole thing was there. I mean my whole life. Birth and death and rebirth. The whole thing. Even the beach was in it, a whole thing about the beach."

This likely places Brian's religious experience "on the beach" (the sandbox that Brian composed from was an attempt to recreate the feel of the beach in order to put the ultimate religious experience into the music) and the Out-Of-Sight! SMiLE Site places the beach at Lake Arrowhead. Ego loss, or ego-death, is very likely part of this beach experience.

"That which is called ego-death is coming to you.

Remember:
This is now the hour of death and rebirth;
Take advantage of this temporary death to obtain the perfect state-
Enlightenment.
Concentrate on the unity of all living beings.
Hold onto the Clear Light.
Use it to attain understanding and love."
~Leary, Metzner, and Alpert, The Psychedelic Experience

This experience was described in Brian's bio as "four hours of enlightenment and spirituality" and it led to Brian's learning "a lot of things, like patience, understanding" as he explained to Tom Nolan. All of these little clues (ego-death, rebirth, enlightenment, understanding) fit together to form the classic religious psychedelic experience. As is often the case with such experiences there concurrently emerges a strong desire to help others achieve a similar level of spiritual success. This is what SMiLE documents.

In late December, 1965 after his acid flashback in Pickwick Books Brian remembered "Loren once explaining that hallucinations were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning." And, true to form, SMiLE songs actually are "mysteries full of meaning," so much so that when anyone attempts to explain them they are automatically at fault for not addressing the multiple meanings that each track appears to have.
"...the listener has to work out by himself what is implied by the laconic hint;
he has to make an imaginative effort to solve the riddle."
~Arthur Koestler, THE ACT OF CREATION

Brian could not find inspiration outside himelf for Pet Sounds, but a book did provide inspiration for the riddle, for SMiLE.
"...it turned me on to some very special things."
~Brain Wilson on THE ACT OF CREATION

Arthur Koestler's THE ACT OF CREATION: A Study Of The Conscious And Unconscious Process In Humor, Scientific Discovery And Art (1964) served as an instuctional guide for the creators of the SMiLE album. The book laid out how a hidden layer of meaning could trigger laughter and the spiritual experience. The three quotes below indicate that Brian believed that laughter could help someone let go of their ego.
"The book's about the logic of laughter."
~Brian Wilson

"It explains that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else."
~Brian Wilson

"He (Brian) felt that the moment somebody laughed, that while they're laughing,
that all control was gone. They cannot control themselves.
And at that moment they can have a spiritual experience."
~Michael Vosse

"I have explained earlier on that the term 'self-transcending' or 'participatory' tendencies is meant to refer to those emotional states where the need is felt to behave as a part of some real or imaginary entity which transcends the boundaries of the individual self (whereas when governed by the self-assertive class of emotion, the ego is experienced as a self-contained whole and the ultimate value)."
~Arthur Koestler, THE ACT OF CREATION

Early May 1966
David Anderle enters the picture. Brian immediately begins working in his new spiritual direction with Van Dyke Parks. Wilson asks Parks to write lyrics for "Good Vibrations." Parks declines but begins working with Wilson on "Heroes And Villains" and SMiLE.

May 4, 1966
Brian re-records the opening section of "Good Vibrations." He is apparently dissatisfied and decides to rethink things. He doesn't revisit "Good Vibrations" for three weeks and when he finally does, he begins recording the track in sections.

May 11, 1966
Excited by his new direction and his work with Van Dyke Parks Brian holds a recording session for "Heroes And Villains."

May 16, 1966
Pet Sounds is released.

May 24, 1966
Brian returns to "Good Vibrations" and begins employing his new recording methods. Producing an acceptable version of "Good Vibrations" will be a difficult task as Brian is attempting to realize the perfection of his vision for "Good Vibrations," a vision which originated during Wilson's ultimate religious experience.

August 3, 1966
The SMiLE sessions commence with the instrumental tracking for "Wind Chimes." The SMiLE sessions will be recorded using the same techniques as "Good Vibrations" and Brian will have the same problems with the SMiLE sessions that he has with "Good Vibrations." As with "Good Vibrations," Wilson will seek perfection for his spiritually inspired music, his teenage symphony to God.

September 21, 1966
Brian holds the final session for "Good Vibrations."

October 10, 1966
The "Good Vibrations" single is released.

November 28, 1966
Session for "The Elements (Fire)." This scary track, at least partly based upon Brian Wilson's bad second LSD trip, marks the beginning of the downfall of SMiLE, and it is this observer's opinion that Brian's reaction to the track marked the beginning of his questioning the appropriateness of SMiLE and the idea of mystically bringing (via the riddle) the spiritual LSD experience to the general public. The negativity that begins at this point eventually will lead Wilson (a decade after SMiLE's demise) to claim "It was destroying me! I was being destroyed thinking about it!" and "We were doing witchcraft, trying to make witchcraft music." Wilson would continue to claim that the music is "inappropriate" into the next century.

This is where the Out-Of-Site! SMiLE Site ends its time line. SMiLE was meant to do good things and bring wisdom, health, and happiness to people and in that positive spirit we'd like to stay. The story of SMiLE's undoing can be found elsewhere

This was the very first version I ever heard as it seemed to be released on a lot of cheap compilation LPs back in the early 80's over here in the UK. And you're right, there's something about this record that is special and I feel is better than the later released version. It's spine-tingling and haunting, love it.

:) Mark

Thank you!!! I have never heard this session before. I have always been very fond of this song....incredible beauty

I don't recall having heard this tracking session where can it be acquired?

Why do Fools Fall in Love for the singing

Pretty much all of Smile, but especially Cabin Essence (for the singing, the words and the music!)

I'll Bet He's Nice for the yearning

Pacific Coast Highway, for the last drinks

You guys are going to think I am kidding...

Lady Lynda. The a cappella part towards the end.

 :o

No way, great choice! The Knebworth live version really makes your spirit soar above the cliffs of Big Sur.

‍

The released version - no. However, there's a bootleg version where the group sing the 'ooh lady wont you lie lady' reframe repeatedly while Al's 'ooh's' over the top, and then it fades out (no classical intro/outro here) - and it's brilliant! That is a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment.

No, not the L.A. version. I was thinking specifically the Knebworth version. I haven't heard the booted version you are referencing.

When I hear Beach Boys material it sucks me into a musical/experience realm outside of the universe of all my other musical encounters. Their stuff, especially the sensitive stuff, is different. Sometimes I don't want to get into them but very often I can't help myself. It's like a dysfunctional girlfriend who's not good for you but you can't help being attracted or something like that.

As far as a divinity thing goes I used to figure that if I listened to The Beach Boys then I didn't need to go to church. It likely has a lot to do with Brian Wilson's songwriting method & what he channels during that process.

"All This is That". All of it.