The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know there's been a lot of debate over what the motivations behind Smiley Smile were, but here's what I think. The album itself was a joke. Tired of the pressures of fame and greed (unsupportive band and record company), Brian took recordings that cost thousands upon thousands of dollars to make, cast them aside, got himself and his "square" bandmates stoned completely out of their minds, and then recorded the results and presented it to the record company as one big joke. I imagine it went something like this: "Haha, I'll show everybody. I'll throw away all those expensive tracks and record some stoned demos in my lo-fi home studio and give it to the record company and the band as my next BIG album that everyone has been waiting for. It'll be hilarious." It just really sounds like something a stoner would do. I think it was that simple.

And then you have the music itself. It's like a tortured artist took a beautiful mosaic that was almost finished and scratched most of the tiles off and splattered paint all over it and the presented it to the public as avant garde. There are some bits and pieces of the original masterpiece still left, but most of it is covered in organ drone and deep bass. Take Smiley Smile's "Wonderful". It seems like some of the original beauty of the SMiLE version tries to creep out more and more out of the haze as the song progresses, until we basically get the original melody untarnished at the end. I think it was very intentional. All of which is intriguing in its own way,

It's just something I wanted to say. It could all be wrong.

This is an excellent point.

I don't know if the album is entirely a joke -- but that kind of put-on humor is certainly a component of Smiley, and part of what makes it so difficult to figure out.

The other part of it, to me, is those peaceful chants -- things like "With Me Tonight" -- those don't quite seem like jokes -- more like Brian reaching toward a kind of blissed-out reverie in music to escape the stresses of the outside world. You see this reach a high point a year or so later with the "Can't Wait Too Long" sessions.

I feel like he was really into the performances and songs on Smiley Smile as well. But to make a finished album in that slapdash manner was, I feel, definitely an intentional joke from the start. I think Wild Honey was then only recorded in Brian's lo-fi home studio because he was too uncomfortable with a professional studio environment at that point. The home studio was the only way you'd get music out of Brian by then. And then we see a more serious production effort on Friends, albeit still in the home studio.

Allow me to disagree completely, and with all due respect. I came to SS unawares of what SMiLE should and could have been. Neither did I know of what was at that time already available in almost true form (Cabinessence, Our Prayer). I loved Pet Sounds when I was around 15 and wanted to know more (it was 1974). I read in my music mag then that Heroes And Villains did have the same sense of adventure in it as did Good Vibrations (which, of course, was known the world over). So the next logical step in my quest was browsing the BBs rack at my retailer's and see if I could locate H&V. Hey, although there were only 6 or so LPs in there, there was an album with a very weird cover, and yes, H&V was on it.
I took it home and loved if from the word go. I did not see any joke. It was just weird, in a mesmerizing way. I went through about the same experience I went through with Van Dyke Parks' 'Song Cycle'. I loved to play the cassette tape I made from it in our backyard, on summer evenings, and enjoy the moods in there - a deep sense of isolation, being adrift, having lost something without knowing what that something was. Wind chimes. Wonderful. Woody. From a barbershop to Hawaii and back. Truly, truly amazing stuff, totally sui generis. I am thankful that the prosaic part of my brain did not have any info on SMiLE's intentions, so I could encounter SS unbiased. A blessing.
In short: I can only take SS totally on its own terms, not in any sense as a wilfully distorted and disfigured SMiLE.
Let me conclude with what is my conjecture here: Brian is simply unable to plot and scheme his way through things. He's not the type to reason: So You Guys Refused To Accept My Grand Vision? I'll Give You My Grand Vision - Shattered And Torn Into Shreds!
I even doubt whether he's the type of artist that thinks consciously of realizing a Grand Vision at all. He's a quite humble man, who, I'd say, just wanted to give his best to the people at any given time in his career, and I do like Van Dyke Parks' description a lot: 'SMiLE comes across as a collection of small, beautiful stamps'. That's how it works for me anyway: no attempt at rivalling James Joyce, but more trying to evoke the beauty of Little Nemo In Slumberland. Which is more than I could ever expect from an artist.

PS: my current favourite SMiLE-line is that 'easy my child' stuff, from CITFOM. Spiritually uplifting.

I think he thinks more about things like "a grand vision" then he lets on. Remember, he was going on and on about creating a teenage symphony to God at the time.

In the bridge to Wonderful, "come on man, just be a cool guy...don't think your God." 
Brian clearly had lost confidence in his own abilities.  I don't think it was a joke, I think it was a cop-out. 
I do love the record tho...Brian just couldn't help being a genius, no matter how hard he tried.

I don't think it was joke or a cop-out. I think that it was the best that a guy who was having very disturbing paranoid auditory hallucinations  and delusions could do.

I never considered it to be a joke album, as in Brian was playing a joke on everybody. I think it's a joke album in the sense that it has the humor element that was important to him at the time. I think that it's pretty clear that Brian was having difficulty realizing the vision he had for SMiLE-it's sort of like his quote at the time of 'I'm workng harder than ever and getting less and less satisfaction out of it'.  I think he was never able, despite the efforts of the talented wrecking-crew, to get the sounds on tape that he had in his head. So once it was obvious that SMiLE wasn't going to happen ( and whether the reasons for that are the other BB's, the lawsuit, his mental state, the drugs, etc.)  he decided to strip it all down and make it much easier on himself and the other guys. That's not to say that Brian didn't care about the original SMiLE recordings, I think that it's non-realization  hurt him much more than he ever let on ( at the time). I mean, it isn't a coincidence that from the time SMiLE didn't come out, Brian was in a slow, downward spiral. But I think that for his own mental health, and the health of his band, he cooled out.

'Smiley Smile' is an avant garde masterpiece,

Brian was not trying to be funny, the drugs were making him basically insane, and that's exactly what the album is

Also the album has aged wonderfully

Agreed 100%.

I think the Smiley versions are much better than the originals.  Humor is a big part of the album but that doesn't make it a joke.  None of the beauty was lost in the transition.  It's my favorite album of all time.

Check out my Smiley tattoo:

(http://a450.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/103/l_6640a8ef653d60691e67ff8cb2d35989.jpg)

It is what it was for the time being. It's still a weird ass album but at times, I can really dig it.

I always thought Smiley Smile was a business decision. It had been almost/over a year since Pet Sounds, and I think Brian felt pressure, maybe not all from the record company, but some self-imposed, to get a new album out. Brian was becoming ill, but I still think he felt some responsibility to the record company and the band. He could've gone right to a Wild Honey, which I wish he would've done, but he chose the easier route. He "dumb downed" the SMiLE tracks into a compact musically-coordinated album. That took the immediate pressure off so he could chill for a little bit.

I'm also not sure that Brian wasn't saving the SMiLE tracks for a later release. That memo from Capitol Records in Dominic Priore's book about Brian finishing SMiLE (it also discusses the booklet) is very interesting. I don't think Brian was pulling Capitol's leg, although some do...

Smiley Smile seems pretty straight forward to me. After a year of working on a specific concept (SMiLE), BW was running out of energy, and one must assume interest in the Ten or so songs for that album. As far as he was concerned they were done. And likely those songs fealt like a pain in the ass, not exactly the ideal environment for art.  Many things kept them from being released in the original form, Brian being the number 1 reason. So he scrapped that idea. Maybe he didn't want the pressure anymore. Maybe having the studio at home made it easier for him to hand off the responsibility of a growing business with more and more people counting on the group for an income. Smiley Smile was a deep breath, for BW and for the group. And maybe just a little F you to the tower. Great record though.

I don't think, to use SJS's term, that Smiley Smile is "dumbed down"; I think it's just a whole different thing. No, it isn't as complex, but the term dumbed down to me brings images of just strumming the guitar (or in Brian's case, pounding out the chords on piano) rather than having them performed in the intricate arrangements of the original Smile stuff. Smiley Smile isn't that. It's just different. An altogether different thing, confusing the issue by using some of the same songs. I think it was intentionally weird, intentionally different and maybe a little bit intentionally self-destructive (career-wise). Maybe a bit of a joke. But also serious (meaning real, legitimate) work.

Isn't that what Brian did on Smiley Smile, strummed the guitar and played some chords (granted on the organ, not the piano)? On songs like "She's Goin' Bald" and "Little Pad", I hear a simple backing track consisting of a guitar being strummed. On songs like "With Me Tonight" and "Wonderful", I hear a simple backing track consisting of an organ. On songs like "Vegetables" and "Whistle In", I hear only a bass.

Now take those amazingly complex and intricate SMiLE tracks, and compare them to Smiley Smile. Maybe "dumbed down" isn't the perfect term (are we arguing semantics?), maybe stripping them and simplifying is?

"Watered down" would be my term, personally. These are very simple, somtimes jokey, versions of once heartbreakingly beautiful songs. SS is an album of fragments, really, highly entertaining fragments, but fragments. Doodles.

Well, you know I love arguing semantics... But it's not just different arrangements--not a "Wonderful: Made Easy!" It's a different Wonderful. Simpler, yes, but not just simpler. It is a different thing. It isn't simplifying, it is simpler but different.

Interesting debate here.  People seem to either love SS or hate it.  Ok, maybe hate is a bit of a strong word.

The first time I heard SS was when I first brought home the cd twofer.  About midway thru, I had this sick feeling like I'd been had.  I'd already gotten past the fact that this cd was not in stereo, as I could have sworn I saw a stereo banner on the cover (I know the story behind this, but I didn't at the time).  The songs seemed to get weirder as I went along, and just when I thought I had had enough, Wild Honey came on and saved the day!

So my first impression was that this had to be some sort of joke on the group's part.  Maybe this was Brian giving the finger to Capitol, especially after snubbing PET SOUNDS.

In the years since, I've entertained the idea that maybe it wasn't intended as a joke, but that maybe they were really trying to do something "far out" and it just didn't quite gel the way they intended.  Remember the movie "Plan 9 from Outer Space"?  Ed Wood genuinely thought he was creating a masterpiece and somewhere in production, the whole thing ended up being a farce.  And now it's a cult classic.

If I may be contradictory (as usual), I am actually pretty middle-of-the-road about it. It really would be around the median of my BBs albums. Below PS, Smile, Love You, Sunflower, Surfs Up, Friends, Holland, Today, SDSN; around Wild Honey; better than most of the rest. While the content itself is far from "normal" it falls in almost entirely average territory for me.

Who knows, sounds like they were all stoned and just enjoying this cool, peaceful, trippy music. Be it a big joke on Capitol and the public's expectations, a humour album, trying to be hip or just making music that sounded good at the time. I get the feeling that they found a sound that they really enjoyed making for a few months there. Listen to the 1967 Hawaii rehearsals, it sounds like whispery Smiley Smile versions of Beach Boys classics.

I love Smiley Smile. I think it is an amazing album. There was a Carl Wilson quote about it being played to people in mental institutes or drug rehab clinics to help them through their ordeal. I like it.

The only thing I don't like about Smiley Smile is that H&V and GV are on it. Where the hell do they fit in the new Smiley Smile aesthetic? They don't.

A joke? I don't think so. Unless he's been joking for 41 years. It takes a lot of effort.  ;)

I think it was a dark little joke indeed. I think it was a willful act of destruction and Brian flipping the bird to his hipster friends, the record company, his own ego, the Beatles and their "competition" and everything. It's a creepy angry album. Yet beautiful.

I literally hate the album. Complete garbage to me. Maybe it is for what might have been.....but I really think it is because the other members won out and Brian lost (by his own means), and that was the beginning of the end, no matter how much us lifers think of some of the music that came later.

Are you applying for a ban, pal?  :police:

How you mean? Because I don't like the album? I can't stand it.

Gonna ban me for that? From what I have read, I like TLOS much more than you. Should you be banned for that? I don't think so, but maybe you don't want Brian Wilson fans with a different opinion than yours on here. Such a shame. This is a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson board. -- not a heartical "don" board.  The BB's are my favorite band. Brian is my musical idol. If you think that means I don't deserve to tip a glass with you, then do what you will with me.

I have been disrespectful of nobody, and Brian himself has spoken badly against that album.

In the end I guess, is this a private clubhouse, or is it a place for true fans? Guess I will soon find out.

Maybe this will make better sense to you. I already had all of the Smile boots before I bought Smiley Smile. Strange timeline perhaps, but that was how it happened. How could anyone not be disappointed and majorly P-O'd after that?

Nah, nobody will ever be able to convince me that was a great album. I don't think that I have ever been let down more in my entire life. Brian gave up that year. Sure, he made appearances and ocassionally blew our minds, but the dream was over.

Dear Beach Bum -

I was joking! Heaven forbid that this would turn into a 'Don'-board... my respect for other posters is way too high for that! Let's shake hands and have a virtual Bud now...

.....which makes what he has accomplished in the last 8 years, all that more amazing.

I measure my life in greatest hits. One might be my marriage or the birth of a child. The rebirth of Brian Wilson is something I consider one of my lifes greatest hits.

Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Done, sir! Sorry for not getting the joke. It is late (an excuse). I probably can't listen to Smiley without a bias. I just went thru too many years dreaming of the imaginary legend of "Smile."

Sorry for taking things so serious. Hey....how about That Lucky Old Sun? ;)

TLOS--not a joke. Or at least not intentionally.

 SS--a joke. But only funny to the perpetrator--Brian Wilson. And not a very light-hearted joke.

 But immensely interesting--and in a way, beautiful-- for many of us(not you, obviously.)

DADA LOBS CAT INTO FLOCK OF PIGEONS

enjoying this (although preferring the debate to the 'i like it' v 'i don't like it' nonsense).

smiley smile is a mystery, to be sure.  two things strike me.

(1) there's a radio phoner on a boot somewhere in which brian is promoting ss.  far from sounding incoherent or at all doinked, he sounds monumentally bored.  (he's also more cogent and verbose than he is today, even, which suggests that the real headf***ing he administered himself came later.)

(2) he gave up.  he gave up the songwriting ('whistle in' must have taken all of ten seconds), gave up the arranging, gave up the studio, gave up the struggles with the sequencing and the other bbs and the record company, switched off the lights and turned his ambition in on the way out.  burned out?  probably, after all that effort and nervous energy.  joking?  tricky.  it's not all that funny, if it is a joke.  (mind you, he probably wasn't in a funny-ha-ha mood at the time.)

my twopennyworth: part f***-you-all, part this-is-all-i-can-be-bothered-with.

Gee, Smiley really burned you bad, huh? A personal insult from your old friend Brian Wilson...

Its a weird album, I agree, but its also a crazy, eccentric little gem. There's nothing like it in the rest of the BB canon (its better than Love You, I think, which is the other weird album) and not much else like it in the whole of pop. For me its a conceptual whole, and everything that Smile wanted to but wasn't, or couldn't be. 

I don't think its a joke, it is, as suggested above, just the result of a pretty burned out guy. I wonder if the fact that BW didn't take the production of it too seriously mean that he could afford to relax a little and allow himself surreality and avant-gardism that his natural, white bread conservatism wouldn't have allowed him otherwise. Its still an occasionally very beautiful album.

I like it alot, though the 1990 remaster makes it sound painfully flat. The 2001 remaster is better, as is the booted stereo version.

If Smiley Smile was a joke, which I don't think it was in any way, then Brian should've put his name on it - Produced By Brian Wilson.

Also, when people do something, anything, out of the ordinary in life, they like to talk about it. If Brian was "giving the finger" to Capitol Record, he would've talked to someone, anyone, about it. Word would've gotten back to the record company and the album would've been rejected.

I heard SS before I knew a thing about SMiLE or Brian's mental illness.
Though it's plenty weird, I really enjoyed it....and still do, except for the jarring parts of Wonderful and Wind Chimes.

It's the product of a man whose mind was at war with itself.
A man in the throse of schizoaffective disorder, no longer able to control his mind or produce standard quantities of objective reason at times.
He probably had periods of great lucidity and control in which he could get things done, but his world view was forever altered and his abiltiy to plan and carry out projects seriously diminished.

I don't understand why some seem not to take his mental illness into account in analysing the creation and release of this album.  Perhaps I just have a different perspective since I've seen friends and others on the descent into madness that comes with these diseases. Maybe until you've seen someone literally lose their mind, it's just not "real" or comprehensible.

I'm not saying it was the only thing going on in BW World back then, just that it was very likely much more important than how it's being underplayed above.

That sounds like you are trying to make excuses for your hero's bizzare behavior.  That the great Brian Wilson couldn't produce something as odd as Smiley Smile unless it was a joke..

It's a most enjoyable thread so far. Thanks to all, myself included.

An interesting observation: 'what is avant-garde'? I'd say something out of the ordinary and beyond that which can be reasonably expected, not familiar nor soothing, perhaps unsettling; but beauty can very well be a constituent part.

Now there's Smiley Smile for you.

But where a lot of 'avant-garde' eventually loses its charm, becomes overfamiliar, gets included in the mainstream (e.g. printed on a shopping bag or used in a L'Oréal ad campaign) and thus all bled dry, Smiley Smile is pretty invincible. I mean: were I to play it to friends who never heard it, they would be flabbergasted even in 2008 A.D. and would not be able to date it within any statistically significant boundaries.

I like it with gut feelings. And I like it all the more for all the above rationalizations too.

I love it.

Liike Don, I heard Smiley Smile not long after it came out.  Knowing nothing about it and having read no press concerning it, I just assumed they meant to make what they made and dug it on that basis.  Its weirdness and surprises (Little Pad intro, Wind Chimes harmonium blast)  were, I thought then, all part of the plan.  Some of the German "krautrock" that followed a couple of years later had a lot of those elements in it.

Indeed it is a little less mysterious to hear it now, knowing what we know of its genesis, and hearing the hand-made-ness of it, the deliberately strange tape splices, the musical clams, the living-room soundscape.

Smiley Smile was an artistic peak for the beach boys. Don't allow humor to mislead you into calling the whole thing a joke.

Random thoughts on Smiley:
1. I like it a lot.
2. There may have indeed been an element of 'giving Capitol the finger' in putting together the album so quickly. Remember the album Marvin Gaye did because he was contractually obligated in a divorce settlement to give all royalties from this album to his ex-wife? He produced a tossed-off piece of nothing and even called it "Here, My Dear."
3. The simplicity of the album may also have something to do with being owner of the studio for the first time. Listen to 'Abbey Road' and then to McCartney's first solo record. Seems a big step backwards, but Paul was obviously having fun with being able to overdub himself on his own time and own terms.
4. Though quirky, there are some amazing things on Smiley Smile. Example: human voices have never ever sounded like some of the vocals on 'Wind Chimes'. I still prefer the SS version to the Smile version for that reason.

Exactly.  I think viewing it as a joke is a bit of a cop out, honestly.  Brian may have been losing his mind, but he was still a man who did what he wanted musically. 

I've always viewed Smiley as a very deliberate artistic statement from an increasingly disturbed mind.  The album has a sort of chaotic focus to it, as opposed to a sloppy (lets just get it done) approach.  The fact that it was recorded so quickly is a bit of a red herring, in my opinion.

I think shadownoze made a good point in the post above mine about Brian owning his own studio for the first time and the effects that can have.  Even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have brought in the Wrecking Crew to do some new tracks.  He worked with what he had there.  He was obsessed with his Baldwin organ (thus why it appears on almost every track), tack pianos and hash.  Like he said in the "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" doc, 20 seconds of music feels like 2 hours when you're stoned.  He and the boys were really stoned, thus you get the little exercises like "Whistle In".  Couldn't have taken more than 5 minutes to come up with, but there's still something oddly special about it. 

Smiley Smile is probably my second favorite Beach Boys album, behind Pet Sounds.  As much as I love the Smile material, I almost like some of its songs better as they were presented on Smiley: dark, quirky unpretentious and beautiful.

shadownoze wrote:

2. There may have indeed been an element of 'giving Capitol the finger' in putting together the album so quickly. Remember the album Marvin Gaye did because he was contractually obligated in a divorce settlement to give all royalties from this album to his ex-wife? He produced a tossed-off piece of nothing and even called it "Here, My Dear."

Allow me to disagree firmly here. I have 'Here My Dear', and would like to give my opinion:

1. Its genesis is indeed quite murky, shady.
2. Its cover is atrocious, and probably cost the Gaye/Gordy estates many, many potential buyers.
3. The music is great, but like with Mayfield's 'Superfly', you have to make an effort. Good starting point: listen ten times to 'I Met A Little Girl', and think of Gaye's doo-wop roots, together with Harvey Fuqua, in the Moonglows. Then: enjoy the rest, track by track. Learn to love it.

I will take Here, My Dear over Midnight Love anytime. Now there's an one-hit stinker if there ever was one.

Sorry to ramble a bit OT here, but as a discerning gentlemen, I thought it my duty to defend the Aristotelian and Platonic Good.

Here's something that makes me a bit undecided on the "joke vs. really gave it an honest try" argument: according to history (or legend, as it may be), Brian had a difficult time getting the Boys on board with the SMiLE material (especially Mike, who wanted to keep the old hit formula).  So, what made them so cooperative on Smiley?  I mean, they do seem to be enjoying themselves on that one; what changed their minds?

Maybe history or legend is wrong.

If I had to guess, I'd say the hash and the change of location to Brian's home studio.  They didn't feel like "outsiders" anymore, as they probably often did during Smile.  Brian's entourage was mostly gone, and it was just like the old days...a bunch of guys just sitting around making some music. 

Smiley Smile is an interesting album, and probably the best album the band did during the 1960s in my opinion. It's like the evil twin of Smile. A calming yet incredibly perverted and eerie listen. Only the Beach Boys under Brian's leadership could have come up with an album this confounding, and I'm a HUGE Love You fan (second most confounding).

And for Beach Bum - listen to the session tapes for the album before you say the others "won out". Brian is CLEARLY in control of the proceedings.

In closing, Smiley Smile is like Love You. Y'get it or y'don't. That's what separates the true fans from those in the private clubhouse. :)

Tantalizing question.

Perhaps the group was under the impression that the Smiley material never was meant to be officially released and thus benevolently gave in to a whim of Brian's, in the hope that after this minor and rather quick ordeal Brian would return to the old home turf. Sort of a trade-off, if you will. Could be that the other band members thought: hey, if we make this effort, we'll forever be freed from the shackles of that still-born monster. Mike might have thought: 'we'll make a sh*t album - so the outside world will finally realize that Brian is not the genius that he's cracked up to be.'

What I heard of Smiley Smile sessions didn't have much Beach Boys fooling around or chatting. So, I think it takes some creativity to figure if the other five were relaxed / pissed off / cooperative / relieved / hateful / loving every minute of it.

About the 'good old days'.... Brian was probably overdubbing almost everything by himself and the band showed up to add the vocals. It was nothing like 62/64. Just like bringin' back the wrecking crew for some 15 Good Ones sessions didn't exactly turn back the clock.

Is that right? Is that on some stone tablet somewhere? Just because you like it does not make it the yardstick by which to measure fans by. You
probably like Cap'n Crunch cereal too. Me, I hate it. :p

PS....there is nothing to "get"....except it is an embarrassment at a time when Brian Wilson and the Boys were considered cutting edge pop. I am
glad that you like it....I don't. Neither opinion forms the basis of either "true" or "private clubhouse" fans.

Peace!

Sorry, I should have clarified...by "good old days", I didn't mean 62-64.  I was referring to Brian's high school days, with everyone singing at family gatherings and such.  No pressure, just a bunch of guys singing. 

Must've been the hash then because I really can't see some of those weird vocals from Wind Chimes being casually sung at some family gathering.  I think Murray would've beaten all of them for getting into the booze!  ;)

this may be the single most intriguing bb question ever asked.

do we have any experts in the shadows that might lend a synapse?  is agd on the bush telegraph?

For me, Smiley Smile was an artistic step forward (although in an unforseen direction), and was an interesting comprimise from Capitol advertising songs with 'the good vibrations sound', and Brian's personal leanings.

As a producer, I can tell the methods that Brian was using in making the SS were in many ways similar to the work he did on Good Vibrations. Listen again to all of the different 'sections' of an individual song; that's modular recording at work. I think Brian was in full control of the sessions; the key difference between SMiLE and SS was that Smiley Smile was a 'band' album.

I love this record, but the biggest problem I find with it is it's Mono presentation, which hides many of the complex technique used within.

It's a fun album, too me it sounds like the guys blowing off some steam after all the Smile bullshit. I had one of the guys from my band over last week and he asked to hear it. We paticularly enjoyed it after a little  :smokin

this may be the single most intriguing bb question ever asked.[/quote]

I have a question or two for you (and/or others) based on the above questions.

What made them so cooperative on Smiley Smile? Were they UNCOOPERATIVE on the SMiLE sessions? I thought the guys did a tremendous job on their vocals.

What changed their minds? Why do you assume their minds were changed? SPECIFICALLY, what SMiLE songs do you think the guys didn't like that they had to have their minds changed? Mike admitted to not liking SOME of Van Dyke Parks' lyrics, but why do you think there was a change in attitude from May 1967 to June 1967?

Maybe they were desperate for product and income and went along with whatever Brian wanted to do.

They were always desperate for income and they always went along with whatever Brian wanted to do, until after The Beach Boys Love You. That was the album/straw that broke the camel's back...

I don't know, but whatever it was also caused them to giggle uncontrollably throughout the sessions and lie around on the floor.

I have a question or two for you (and/or others) based on the above questions.

What made them so cooperative on Smiley Smile? Were they UNCOOPERATIVE on the SMiLE sessions? I thought the guys did a tremendous job on their vocals.

What changed their minds? Why do you assume their minds were changed? SPECIFICALLY, what SMiLE songs do you think the guys didn't like that they had to have their minds changed? Mike admitted to not liking SOME of Van Dyke Parks' lyrics, but why do you think there was a change in attitude from May 1967 to June 1967?
[/quote]

I'm glad you asked.  This is making for some very good discussion.

The "cooperative" aspect on the part of the band is, of course, an assumption on my part.  Listen to Mike's part in "She's Going Bald".  It's hard for me to believe that just a few months before, he had a hissy fit over those legendary "Cabinessence" lyrics.   

These are all great points and great reading. I think there was more of an effort made this time around, because there was a lot of fear at the time I believe. This was an in-between time for the band. That is, after the non-stop success that Brian had led them to (which was essentially, gone forever by then -- even if they didn't yet know it) and prior to the other individuals in the band blossoming into writers/producers and taking charge of the band at various points.

I think they knew that Brian was in trouble. And if Brian was in trouble, they probably thought they were all in trouble. The music on the radio had changed, and it was essentially outside of their realm. As everyone knows, I am not a fan of the album (although I respect those who are), and I think that it was a desperate attempt to capitalize on the success of Good Vibrations.

Just my .02....

Two words for you: Swedish Frog. Smile era.

Straining my memory here- is that not one of the specific sessions that was supposed to have pissed the band off- animal noises, etc.?

Also, I think it's been pretty well put to bed that the Beach Boys did not actually refuse cooperation during the SMiLE sessions, other than (at most) a couple of lyric blow-ups from Mike, so we're only talking about enthusiasm level, as far as I can follow. My understanding has always been that the environment was a great deal different for Smiley.

The Sea Of Tunes 18 bootleg shows Smiley Smiley in a very different light.  The piano arrangements and vocals are as beautiful as anything on Smile when they're allowed to breath in stereo and not smothered in that cloying organ sound.  "Evil twin" is exactly the relationship between the bubbly Smile arrangement of Wind Chimes and the forlorn cannabis psychosis atmosphere of its Smiley counterpart.  It perfectly captures the feeling of early autumn when the nights are getting cold, the wasps are feeding on the fallen apples and you're wondering where the time went.  If there was an act of sabotage it was in the final mono mix.

It pissed Alan Jardine off, we don't know about the others.


I guess Brian set the pace for the proceedings, everyone went along with the plan and it was done. Quickly. "Let's move on". But how do we know if the environment was different than for the last 5 or 10 months? We don't.

I'll be fair and conced that Mike had more (lyrical and maybe musical) imput in two tracks (SGB and GH) than he had in anything released by the band since 1965. But do we know if he was glad about how the album was produced? How it sounded in the end? And does it affect whatever insatisfaction Carl may have had about Smile? The understanding that the band was in any way more comfortable about Smiley Smile than Smile came from ancient beliefs that they 'took over' after the demise of Smile. Thank God for the SOTs.  :)

Smiley Smile wasn't a joke, although it was purposely "jokey" and druggy humor was a part of the humor incorporated into the album.  Smiley was a quicky stopgap album to give Brian breathing room to contemplate his next step/project, simple as that.  Look at Brian's past record - when the record company was breathing down his neck, he would turn to either a live album (Concert, then the unreleased Chicago, Michigan, and Le'd in Hawaii albums) OR something else he could churn out quick to give him time to work on songs and production for his next magnum opus.  Smiley Smile is essentially "Beach Boys Party" in the home studio - just the boys in the studio, laughing and joking, banging out minimalist productions.  Some songs are serious, some are humorous.  Concert and Beach Boys Party were amongst the biggest selling albums the Beach Boys produced, so you can see why Brian would think Capitol would be pleased with something similar and it would satisfy Mike and the suits so Brian could continue to pursue his muse.  Of course the singles, which don't really fit the vibe of the rest of the album, had to be included, which made the album more confusing - but think if the Lei'd in Hawaii versions of Heroes and Vibrations were on there instead of the single versions, the album would have been more coherent and the intent more obvious.

As we all know, there was serious consideration that after Smiley was released as a stopgap, Smile would still be released as a ten track album - again showing that Smiley was just buying time to finish the next "real album."  Unfortunately Brian could not face going back to Smile, and so he continued to buy time with the "chill out" Wild Honey and attempted a live album as well.  He did get back on track with Friends, but after the 68 nervous breakdown never really "took charge" of an album after that.

To me all of the session tapes we have heard where unfiltered interaction between the band is captured during the SMiLE/Smiley period the band is very loose and fun and cooperative, the only uptightness comes from Brian about whether the results are good enough.  The Boys seem to keep their mouths shut and do as told [with a little back talk from Carl seldom].

The question that's always intrigued me about this album is this: Capitol were hurting real bad for a new album... but were they hurting so bad that they were able to listen to Smiley Smile and say "yeah, OK, we'll release that". Oh to be a fly on Voyle Gilmore's wall - that must have been one of the biggest WTF moments of all time.

I think Capitol must have viewed Smiley as an album cash in on the success of Good Vibrations and Heroes (or what they hoped would be the success of Heroes) - a throwback to the days when two hit singles would be on an album, and the rest filler.  They figured GV and Heroes would sell the album - but too much time had passed since GV was a hit (6 months) and Heroes never took off the way they hoped.

I can only imagine what the suits were thinking listenng to Vegetables!

They probably liked it more than Wonderful and Wind Chimes. At least Vegetables was singable, had a nice rhythm and seemed like silly fun. Wonderful and Wind Chimes just must have creeped them out.

I was gonna say most of what Bicyclerider and Luther said....Not only was Smiley Smile home for the two singles, "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes And Villains", but also "Gettin' Hungry", and possibly, if needed, a "Vegetables" single. Capitol probably viewed the "weird" tracks as newer versions of "I'm Bugged At My Old Man" or "Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson".

Wasn't the Best Of The Beach Boys out around that time also, so they could "cash in" on that. I don't think Capitol was as bold or involved in Brian's day to day progress as much as Reprise later was, who was rejecting Beach Boys' albums left and right. Capitol probably didn't have a Walter Yetnikoff-type character to present a "I think I've been fu--ed" moment. Capitol Records just took a deep breath, ate the album, and waited (not too long) for Wild Honey.
 

Do we know if they attempted any songs other than what made the LP during the Smiley sessions?

Isn't there something they made called "Untitled song #1" during that period? I thought I saw something like that in Keith Badman's book.

Also, isn't "The Letter" from that period or is that Wild Honey?

There were a few...one called "Good News" (I don't believe that one has ever surfaced) and another, the title of which escapes me, that eventually became "Little Pad".

bit of a timeline for Smiley Smile.  useful for unreleased songs, and slams home what a tossed off rush it was.  (info from LLVS.)

[Fri June 2 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released in US]
Sat June 3 - Vegetables (Los Angeles Sound Recorders)
Mon June 5 - Vegetables (Western)
Tue June 6 - Vegetables (Western)
Wed June 7 - Vegetables (Western)
Sun June 11 - Good News (Brian's home studio hereafter)
Mon June 12 - H&V
Tue June 13 - H&V
Wed June 14 - H&V
Thu June 15 - Vegetables
Mon June 19 - Hawaiian Song
Tue June 20 - Hawaiian Song
Wed June 21 - Hawaiian Song
Sun June 25 - Good Time Mama
Mon June 26 - Good Time Mama
Wed June 28 - Little Pad
Thu June 29 - Fall Breaks And Back To Winter
Fri June 30 - With Me Tonight
Wed July 5 - She's Goin' Bald
Thu July 6 - Untitled (track only)
Mon July 10 - Wind Chimes
Tue July 11 - Wind Chimes
Wed July 12 - Wonderful
Thu July 13 - Whistle In
Fri July 14 - Gettin' Hungry

Tue July 18 [approx] - Capitol settles with Beach Boys

Mon 24 July 1967 - H&V/You're Welcome (not mentioned in the recording dates...) released

Tue July 25 - memo from Karl Engemann: "The second album [i.e. SMiLE, after Smiley Smile] which would be packaged with the [Frank Holmes] booklet would not include the selections HEROES AND VILLAINS and VEGETABLES..."

and, the punchline

Mon 31 July 1967 - Best Of The Beach Boys, Vol.II released

(wonderful and wind chimes: last minute additions?)

So, are SOT and Unsurpassed Masters the same thing?

Yes.

I still argue that we have been given the wrong impression and Smiley was anything but thrown together.

Using AGD's sessionography, I count 27 sessions for Pet Sounds.

Using the above list for Smiley I count 24 sessions and that isn't counting any Smiley vocal sessions [for which there is no documentation] or the SMiLE era sessions for H&V used in the construction of Smiley's H&V or the April session for Vegatables used in the construction of Smiley's Vegatables.

It would be interesting to add up the studio hours for the albums or compare to other albums like Summer Days etc..

I've never heard any of the SOT's, but any evidence of that "Spanish Guitar" segment being recorded during the Smiley Smile sessions? I'm trying to find a home for it...

Also, wasn't "You're Welcome" recorded during the SMiLE sessions?

Spanish guitar piece is supposedly dated to the Smile era by those who originally leaked it - I don't know what the evidence is though.  It certainly sounds more home studio-ish with the organ and arrangement - could it be the untitled instrumental track recorded during Smiley?

An early version of Cool Cool Water was recorded June 3rd - it has yet to surface, the version on the GV box was from the Wild Honey sessions.

Good News could be the gospel song Brian taped on his early home tapes released on "In the Beginning - the Garage Tapes."

Good Time Mama - could that be the ending of She's Goin' Bald ("too late mama" there) - like Hawaiian Song was apparently a section of Little Pad?

Hey, how about a part of "Gettin' Hungry"? No?

I believe so. December 1966 if I remember correctly.

I think all the vox are Brian too. One of those "wall of Brian" recordings  :lol

Wrightfan, I always wanted to ask you, but, unfortunately, now I feel I have to....Are you a fan of Rick Wright?

Just like the old days, you say - Smiley Smile has a vibe that makes me think of a family gathering around ... the family organ and just make some music for fun. That's like the *real* old days, the childhood days. That's what Brian *may* have had in mind. Another thing he *may* have had in mind is this: On SMiLE he tried hard and did not achieve the results he desired. On Smiley, as a change, he decided for a more loose approach,  ZEn-like, not really trying, not-doing. No more Mr. control freak.

And as far as I'm concerned, he did succeed at least partially. Vegetables with the dumb-dumb-dumb-bass is much funnier than the odd-rhythmed Vega-Tables, and the eerie Wind Chimes is far more interesting to listen to than the comparatively flat-arranged marimba version. In fact, the 2 Wind Chimes are two different songs sharing the same lyrics. Look for the chord changes! I also like the mood of Fall Breaks, Little Pad and With Me Tonight.

I'm not that happy with Wonderful and Getting Hungry, the latter yearning for an R'n'B arrangement in the chorus. And Good Vibrations of course just doesn't belong on that record. The HV chorus is as Smiley as can be, but I don't like it. If someone does not like Smiley Smile as a whole, that's ok, there's thousands of other albums you can like.

I recommend listening to Smiley on a silent night at Christmas, that fits the mood perfectly.

joy...

at the risk of running into the guff territory of 'i like it v i don't like it' i have to yell that i find it really VERY HARD to find any true joy lurking below the surface of Smiley Smile.  i can hear giggles - i.e. puff - but otherwise, i hear sandpaper dry production (novel, even radical perhaps, but lacking joy and depth and finessing), sod all effort (never mind the shitty melodica playing on wind chimes, it'll do) and absolutely no joy.

Exactly. At that point, Brian seemed to take ultimate joy in crafting exquisite, almost "perfect" pop. He was ultra competitive and wanted to be recognized for his talents. It was an obsession. For him to make Smiley Smile really means something had gone quite awry. I don't think Smiley Smiley was the final distillation of what he sought to achieve after "Good Vibrations" by any means. He was cracking, peeling away. Yes, the songs have nice touches and interesting performances. All the work he put into SMiLE honed his abilities to such a point that he couldn't help but make impressive songs unless he just closed his eyes and just hit the keys at random, and then we'd still probably get something like "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" out of it. On Smiley Smile, I see at as Brian being stoned and not caring. He didn't care if the performances were right. He didn't care if performing so stoned led to the material being too esoteric for the general public. And like I said, that means a lot coming from someone like Brian. Before the Smiley Smile debacle, he was conducting vocal sessions that had over 100 takes, and the final product was only 5 or 10 seconds long! Remember, he wasn't much like you or I. I think he was burned out from reaching out for the heavens and never quite grasping them, at least in his opinion. He felt inadequate. Smiley Smile was a big put=on by a man too tired to chase perfection and too tired to tell people no. "I'll just get stoned, do whatever, and give it to the label and the band so they'll get off my back." I still feel like that was how it went, but there is no way for me to prove it.

david anderle said

"You can always tell how effective a relationship is in the fact that Brian will try to show you he's ignoring something that has happened.  If somebody says something that you know has hurt Brian, his immediate reaction will be to slough it off.  'It doesn't bother me.'  And you really think that it doesn't bother him, but then you'll notice that for three days he hasn't been in the studio, or for two days he hasn't smiled - you'll start noticing there are certain things about him that aren't happening.  If he were having trouble with a musical idea in his head and he got in a fight with Marilyn, thw two of 'em would, it would be like a volcano.  It was always that his probledms with hims music were one part of a combustible formula for an explsion, and anything that would happen around that would be the oxygen, let's says, and his was the fuel, and it would explode.  And it would generally explode in the manner that he would be useless in terms of musical effectiveness, he would be totally useless for a great period of time.  NEW PAR  Brian cannot go into a session with something happening in the back of his head and put that back there and hold it there and do his work.  His life is his work and if he has an argument with his father at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, and it's sufficient enough argument to cause him to worry or to grieve, he's not going to be able to cut at twelve o'clock midnight.  He's not going to be able to do anything effective on an artistic level until he gets that problem resolved in his head or his heart, wherever it has truck him.  And the same thing with the boys, with the brothers and Mike Love, or stranger, me Michael Vosse, whoever.  Whoever would come around... a writer would come up, say something wrong, strike him wrogn; he'd be upset for a copule of days.  Those two days were lost.  He would try, he would try almost heroically to get something done, but he couldn't.  It would just be terror, it would be a lot of wasted  time running around doing this, running around doing that, let's start working on the comedy album, let's go out and record water fountains, let's go out and, for instance, one night he wanted us to go into a bar and start a fight.  So he could record it.  And that's really carrying something pretty far."

so, if that's how brian could react to a wrong word or a musical issue, what would his reaction be to:

• his co-writer walking out for the second time
• his getting into legal wrangles over $225,000 of unpaid royalties
• his having to put out a single to get past the legal issues with capitol
• his fellow bbs having issues with the material he'd been sweating over for months? 
• while a bit doinked on puff

perhaps his reaction would be to up sticks, go home and do as little as possible for several months.  or 'smiley smile,' as we call it.

In this case, Brian reacted by coming up with what most respondents on this board regard as a beautiful, strange, enigmatic, darkly humorous, and above all, unique album.

I do detect some "joy" in Little Pad, and She's Goin Bald.  Vegetables is funny in concept and to a certain extent in execution (the munching veggies, the "jump up and down" bass jump) but the group vocals are flat and a little creepy IMO.  For an album supposed to be "light" and "humorous" it's surprisingly dark and eerie, the vocals lack energy (drugs likely), Fall Breaks, Whistle In, Gettin' Hungry, even the "on and on she goes dum de doo dah" seems like something out of a bad trip.  Or the kind of music you'd make on your way down from a bad trip.

But these same qualities are what make the album interesting and multi-dimensional.

Well said. Dark and eerie are my perceptions too. If it was meant to be jocular, then it's funny in the kind of way a clown can be funny... i.e. unsettling, giving the feeling that there are things behind the façade you'd rather not see. As I am writing this I am thinking of Alex Chilton; a man who, if you will, can be seen as one of the greats in powerpop, but not in any 'funny' way. He's capable of gorgeous melodic hooks; but when he's hooked you into his world, you suddenly get that chill and realize that not all is well in Chiltonland.
(I know that Chilton's music and Brian's are not alike in a technical way, but to this listener, there's a spiritual correspondence - perhaps Chilton touched 'Smiley Smile' best when he made the third Big Star album, which appeared much later in numerous constellations. I have the 'Sister Lovers' one on vinyl (the Dojo-label).)