The Smiley Smile Message Board

So if we have the choice, what's better to have, a boring life, or boring music? Or are the two linked together? Dennis had lots of drama in his life and his music; Carl had a comparatively calm life, and (in the opinion of many) comparatively dull music. Would Carl's music have been more interesting if he had been more of a womanizer and drug abuser? Would Dennis' music have bored us to death if he'd been a real stable, non confrontational kind of guy? Mike's personal life seems a bit on the rocky side, many marriages, but it didn't make his songwriting any better. And then there's Al....took him, what, 40 years to get a solo album together?

A very good point. You also forgot to mention Brian - nervous breakdowns and drugs led directly to Pet Sounds and Smile. Even when at some of his subsequent bleakest periods (1972, say) he produced great works (Mt Vernon, Funky Pretty). When he subsequently got better in the 80's and, post Landy, into a content, comfortable homelife in the 90's, his music was nowhere near as interesting. Now this could of course be put down to talent receeding as a person gets older, which happens to many musicans, but I don't think there's any doubt the Brian's earlier manic lifestyle worked in favour of his creativity for a time.

(To counter any critism before it is written, I'm not saying i'm not incredibly happy Brian has finally found some level of peace in his life, I'm just making an observation)

Although I see your point, I'm not sure I agree.  It has always seemed to me like Brian's talent was something elemental, a force more or less detached from the details of his life - all it took for Brian was dedication and energy, which he had in spades pre-Smile, and then which slowly tapered off as his problems got worse.  And I think Brian's solo career demonstrates this pretty well; you can pretty well tell when Brian is and isn't interested, and when he's engaged he can still do incredible things - the Gershwin album comes to mind - and when he's not engaged, he'll let Joe Thomas do the backing tracks or phone in a lead vocal. Brian was not an eccentric whose mental illness led him to do spectacularly original things, although that is one way of looking at his career, I think of him more as a massively talented musician who, had he been healthy, could have given us incredible works non stop his entire life, growing musically right to the end, more in the vein of classical composers than rock stars.  As it was, his career was cut tragically short before he could even finish his most important work to date.  Nothing to celebrate there, except the fact that he overcame it, and that I'm going to see him with THE BEACH BOYS in CONCERT in just a few short months in 2012, which is unbelievable!!!!!!!!

A good songwriter will be a good songwriter. Being a womanizer and a drug abuser doesn't make you a good songwriter.

A friend of mine was saying back in '98 that Brian's music wasn't edgy anymore, based on what he heard of Imagination and Orange Crate Art. I pointed out that, for possibly the first time in his life, Brian had a happy home life. A happy home life is not going to produce edgy music. And given the choice, i don't think any of us would choose edgy music over a happy home life.

Since you're kinda all over the place, maybe they're not correlated?  :)

Yes.

I hate the tough life equals brilliance bullshit. It leads a lot of would-be artists to destroy themselves for no reason at all. Have cool experiences and a broad-ranging life, sure. But smother your talent with drugs, excess and lousy choices? No thanks.

I don't think people purposefully f*** up their life trying to be a better artist, I think some people just f*** up their lives for the same stupid reason people f*** up their lives, and then they try to excuse it by saying they're an artist.

A good songwriter is a good songwriter, I agree.  I think if you honestly look at the group of artists you find subjectively 'great', you'll find that far more of them led reasonably normal lives than those that were tortured.  For every John Morrison who drank himself to death there's a Paul McCartney who got old, or a John Lennon who died through no fault of his own, or an Al Green who had a career that shrank over time, or whatever.

The whole 'tortured artist' thing is a myth, just like everybody knows somebody in their family who has issues, there's always some artists who end up with issues as well. 

I probably have the most issues of anyone in my family, maybe not coincidentally I've also written the most songs. and when I was on antidepressants I couldn't write at all, there was no music at all flowing through my brain.

As a 15 year old writer, I find that my life is generally lonely, secluded, and controlled. And I write a good song a day, sometimes two.

You'll feel better when you're about 25.

Mike Love had a wild life and produced mostly dull songs! :)

Sensitivity is the biggest factor in both creative ability and inner turmoil. Brian and Dennis have/had it in spades.