The Smiley Smile Message Board

When 20/20 came out, did the fans/general public think or know Our Prayer and Cabinessence were originally planned to belong on SMiLE??

This is something i've always wondered too. After all, while hardly a success, 20/20 certainly charted a hell of a lot higher than Friends and Sunflower (it reached 3 in the UK). Now was this down to the inclusion of several recent successful singles or was it the SMiLE tracks, or both? I suppose Our Prayer and Cabinessence didn't have the same familiarity with the public as Surf's Up so it could entirely be down to the singles. But as you say, even when they heard the album, did the public know that the closing tracks were from SMiLE? Did the Beach Boys ever acknowledge the origin of these tracks publicly at the time? 

As someone who bought 20/20 when it was first released, I didn't have a clue that Our Prayer or Cabinessence had been intended for Smile.  When I looked at the writers credits for Cabinessence, my thought was, "Oh, cool, Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks recently got together again and wrote another song."

this is very interesting imo. What did you think of  Cabinessence when you first heard it? Did it not strike you as being very different from the rest of the 20/20 material? could you please share any thoughts you can recall on the matter?

I bought it in 1969 because I wanted to hear "Do It Again" in stereo.  Boy was I disappointed! I too did not have a Smile consciousness then-  the hype didn't start unit "Surf's Up".  "Cabinessence" was interesting and progressive, but I liked "I Went To Sleep" and "Time To Get Alone" just as much.

Bought it knowing that Cabin was indeed a product of Smile but did not have an inkling that OP was from the sessions. Info in those days was few and far between as was finding that info. Cabin was an incredibly fascinating deep track that left me wanting more.

I gave 20/20 a full listen again yesterday and the thought stayed with me all day. It blows my mind how I've never heard anything about this but I'm sure Dennis probably smoked a few joints and told some insiders  ;D

Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends.  People must have thought the Beach Boys had been taken over, supplanted by imposters.

This was the "Paul is dead" time. 

I've always wondered what people thought at that time.  Wild Honey is an extremely arty album.  Did it get noticed as "art?"  It sure as f-ck wasn't pop.

Not sure I would ever have considered Wild Honey to be art rock. R&B yes. Art rock?  :-\

I really got into Wild Honey when I was studying art/painting and it fit perfectly.  It was "love just once to see you."  The idea that a song could be about nothing.  Moods and shading.  "...you bake me a pie."  It was very profound in an artistic way.  Still life.  That was my reaction.

But just as well -- the production was an artistic statement.  Minimalist.  Very colored.  It was now apparent that it was all deliberate -- the simplicity and all.  R&B "tempo" was just the vehicle.  To me, Wild Honey was a very deliberate artistic statement.  I think it would have been profound in 1967.


Smiley just seemed more like a mental, mind-fck or prank gone awry.  Kids on dope.  But...of course very, daring and interesting to me.  Gosh...extremely daring!

Actually, WH and Darlin' must have had some commercial appeal b/c they both got airplay as singles with Darlin' getting alot more than WH. Of course we all had  mild trepidation after the SS debacle-who wouldn't? Got over it quickly and bought WH-all was forgiven by me that is. SS surely put a large dent in the group's rep.

"Melt Away", could you please rename the thread so as to reflect its content?
Thank you.

Pete Townshend, Robbie Robertson and Steven Tyler? And many, many others?

Rolling Stone's review of 20/20, by Arthur Schmidt, printed April 19, 1969 has a few interesting points to consider. Without having the time to transcribe the whole thing...

Schmidt says of Cabinessence: "Cabinessence, the last cut on the second side, is one of the finest things Brian has ever done, a product of the Smiley Smile collaboration with Parks, whose extraordinary gift is to make a cliche grow into a world...The totally orchestrated cacophony was an innovation when they used it in Smiley Smile, and is still done here better than anywhere else.

Schmidt says of "Our Prayer": "Our Prayer is a nice prayer, but undemanding."

(Personal view: Outside of a Smile context, I think he's right - it's a nice vocal track but totally devoid of context on 20/20. The context of Smile adds an incredible amount to the experience of hearing Our Prayer)

Notice he speaks of the Wilson-Parks collaboration in terms of Smiley Smile: as of April 1969, in the eyes of the public, that was the only product to be released from the collaboration. Interesting, because Paul Williams, Jules Siegel, Anderle, Vosse, and others had been quoted and/or had written specifically about Smile by 1969, yet the only concrete, finished products to read "Wilson Parks" were on Smiley Smile, so that's how it was described here by the writer.

I saw no mention of Smile in this review, although it does offer some pretty high praise for the other songs on the album, contrary to what many have thought about Rolling Stone's negative take on the Beach Boys in the late 60's.

Can I be annoying for a moment and suggest that people put the actual substance of their post in the thread title?  There is no way I would have clicked on something so vague, but I saw that my eminent colleague Guitarfool had posted, and it turns out it's not such an uninteresting topic.

Perhaps something like "Did people realize there were Smile songs on 20/20?" or such like?


IN response to the substance, it is hard to get a feel for the context of the times.  At that time, nobody really knew, in the general public, what the Beach Boys were in essence sitting upon, and that these snippets that showed up on 20/20 were just the tip of the iceberg.  If you believe in the grand unification theory of Smile, taking things out of context would be a bit of a sacrilege.  I agree that Prayer on 20/20 does almost nothing for me.  Doesn't make sense on there.  Cabinessence barely does.  Of course, I'm glad that people at the time got to hear it sooner rather than later, and that we've been able to live with it for a lot longer than most other Smile songs. 

Not as bad as putting Look on 15 Big Ones, I guess.   

Nice mention of a review I have always liked. Despite what many people think, the magazine gave solid reviews to the band in this era, starting with Wild Honey (praised by Jann Wenner, no less).

Fascinating going back and considering how these works were appreciated back in the day.

In college I used to visit the music school's library which had a collection of Stereo Review(s) going back to the 50's. Read an amusing comparison between two new releases by the Beatles and the Stones - White Album vs. Beggars Banquet. The review slammed the White Album for being unfocused, self indulgent and unimpressive, while Banquet was a concise, fully realized rock statement. Funny that...the White Album is appreciated because it's a rambling mess o ' sound. Wonder how Stereo Review woulda received Exile...

I first heard 20/20 via the Warner yellow double sets in the 70's. Had no idea about the Smile connection, but Cabi and Our Prayer sure made an impression upon me. In fact those two Warner double sets completely refocused my appreciation of the band.

 Hey this is driving me crazy trying to think when I was first aware about tracks that would have been on Smile.
 Although I was already aware that GV and H&V would have been on it. I do know that when I bought 20/20
 in '69 the two ( Smile) tracks blew me away completely, and still do.

So did I, but I believe the liner notes in the Warner reissue alluded to "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence" as being from SMiLE...or perhaps I deduced this after reading the SMILEY SMILE liner notes that discussed SMiLE. Either way, 20/20 felt like the Beach Boys' WHITE ALBUM in that it contained songs that appeared to originate with individual members with little to no thematic or sonic flow ("All I Want To Do" into "The Nearest Faraway Place" represents the most jarring change of tone I've ever heard). Since everything appears out of place on the album, the inclusion of the SMiLE tracks is less distracting than it might have been on the previous two albums.

Said it before. Will say it again. Those who don't like Smiley Smile don't get it, are not real fans, and can't hang.

You know, the liners on the 1974 two-fers are among the best I've ever read about the Beach Boys.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. That was the album that got me into the group, and I'd already heard Pet Sounds many times.

Thirty years later, the author of those liners, Gene Sculatti, wrote the BWPS preview for ICE magazine which helped make the whole SMiLE story come full circle for me.

His background shows that he was the right man for the job...
http://www.genesculatti.com/bio.asp

I come back to it more than any other Beach Boys album save Sunflower.

The Summer of '69 would not nearly have been as memorable without 20/20. Easy call. SMiLE connection knowledge or not.

My recollection is that I thought Cabinessence was an incredibly complex and unique recording.  Like Mike Love I didn't have a clue what a lot of the lyrics meant, but unlike Mike Love I didn't care, because in the context of the song they just seemed to work.

I remember especially enjoying Cabinessence while laying down and listening thru headphones.  For sure the song was nowhere near as instantly accessible as Do it Again or I Can Hear Music, but after a few listenings it was obvious this was a great piece of music with (as is the case with much of the best BB music) opportunities for a multi-layered listening experience.  

Do It Again was one of my favorite songs from the summer of '68, and when the 20/20 album came out almost 7 months later I was surprised to hear the addition of the workshop sounds at the end of the song.  In fact I still have a huge preference for the single version without the workshop tag.  At the time I also had no clue that the workshop tag was a Smile remnant.  In trying to make sense of the addition of that tag I figured the BBs must have added it, with the sounds-like-someone-hit-their-finger-with-a-hammer "Ow!" at the end, to signify that the BBs had been burned by people who thought they weren't cool enough, especially when they had released such a retro sounding song, so they went ahead and recorded an "Ow!" to represent their reaction to those who considered them to be unhip.  

Just got out my original copy of the album, and when opening the foldover Unipak cover (which was rather new and popular at the time) I see that gave letter grades in faint pencil to 8 of the 12 songs, but Cabinessence isn't one of them, presumably because I must have felt I needed further listening to determine a grade.  Of the songs I did give grades to, my favorite was I Can Hear Music, which received an A+++.

And for anyone who's a glutton for punishment for more details, specifically the US LP releases of the album, I think 20/20 went out of print when the BBs went to Warner Bros about a year later.  Although it was rereleased in July 74 as part of a Warner Bros  twofer LP along with Wild Honey, just a few weeks after the appearance of Endless Summer, I don't think it reappeared with the original cover until the 1981 Capitol green label release, but unfortunately that release lacked the fold over over with Brian in the center holding a eye chart with song listings.  In 1994, when we were well into the CD era, it was again released as an LP by Capitol, but this time with the original rainbow label and a fold over cover (though not actually a Unipak, as those hadn't been made anywhere for many years) with BW and the eye chart inside.

So true.

I personally really dig Smiley Smile, but to say that those who don't get it aren't real fans is kinda ridiculous. Some people prefer different things about the group. I don't care all that much for Friends, does that mean I'm not a real Beach Boys fan?

So arrogant and biased, ::)

Didn't you buy sunflower the day it came out?

I don't mean to speak for The Real Beach Boy, but I think I understand where he's coming from...those of you "youngsters" here simply cannot believe what it was like in 1968-71 for those of us who were fans of the band in terms of the "peer pressure." It was tantamount to being excommunicated or being sent to the gulag. I kid you not! It all pivoted around Smiley Smile. That album just polarized things in ways that defy description. You would be openly shunned if you mentioned that you liked the Boys!!

I remember talking to one of my BB fan friends when CSNY's "Carry On" became a big hit, and he said, "See? You can still have a Beach Boys record on the charts, but you can't actually be the Beach Boys!!"

Interestingly, after Jann Wenner buried the Boys with his scathing review of Wild Honey, Rolliing Stone was much more positive about their next four LPs. Schmidt and Jim Miller were perceptive writers and made good points in their reviews. But the damage had already been done.

The BBs relationship with Capitol had deteriorated so much by the release of  20/20 that there was little or no fanfare in America about the LP or the presence of the two Smile tracks. Given what seemed to be going on at the time, a lot of fans simply thought that 20/20 signified a continuing element of chaos in the band's career. Today it's a fascinating artifact of a band in transition, and its "all over the map" approach is no longer an issue.

For those who clung to the promise of Smile against all evidence to the contrary, "Cabinessence" was an indecipherable clue that dropped the fan into a labyrinth, each of us a Theseus forced to wander without Ariadne's thread. Tracking from it back to the Smiley Smile tracks that were made over only deepened that mystery and blew out the flickering candle that had been tenuously lighting the path in the labyrinth. In that darkness, the emotional strangeness in those tracks--"She's Goin' Bald," "Wind Chimes," "Wonderful"--became a rallying point for a small coterie of fans who rightly sensed the artistry in what were still clearly the ruins of something special that seemed lost forever. They may well touch a reservoir of memory and emotion for some of us that may be more intense for what was lived through in those very strange days, and continue to resonate even with the passage of so much time.

Well, pot meet kettle.

Absolutely! 

Summer of '69!

Do it Again on the LP

I Can Hear Music

Bluebirds

Cottonfields

And the famous eye-chart!  :lol

I was clueless that those were SMiLE tracks!  ;)

He reviewed that record positively. He didn't like Smiley Smile.

As usual, trbb misses the point of the thread-we're talking albums and music just incase you noticed. The fact that I think Myke Luhv is a corny has been is yet another story that I'm sure you will take pride in  dialing in your ever valued opinion of. Kettle? Yeah you love to stir it as much as anyone.

Or close to it. Was wandering up and down aisles of a record shop and finally worked my way to their section and saw something called Sunflower but was kinda looking for Add Some Music which was the original title. But there it was in all it's glory.I remember being a bit concerned that Myke Luhv was in white flowing robes but yes, Jim Miller, it could stand with Pet Sounds. It was an awakening of a band that you know could really put it all to bed. The icing on the cake was that it got some decent airplay for a band that was all but washed up.

Right, my bad. But there's still a strong sense of "damning with faint praise" in that review as I go back and re-read it. For example:

"Through most of the album the approach is a simple one: add the Beach Boy harmony and vocal style to pre-existing ideas and idioms. Of course, the approach is still unsatisfactory compared to the time when the Beach Boys were making their own idiom."

"Country Air" is the most relaxed and naturally achieved synthesis of innocence and sophistication that the Beach Boys are aiming for. Whether or not they recognize the success of this inconspicuously placed song, hugely successful in terms of what they have so obviously been aiming for, is doubtful."

"It's kind of amusing that the Beach Boys are suddenly re-discovering rhythm and blues five years after the Beatles and Stones had brought it all back home, but it is probably indicative of the transmogrification of the blues that is making R&B currently so popular with the public at large."

It was not a good time to be a BB fan, regardless of how we parse Wenner's review.

All nicely put, but really, age has nothing whatsoever to do with how one does or does not enjoy Smiley Smile. I'm in my late twenties and it is, and always has been, one of my very favourite Beach Boys albums. I leanerned all about SMiLE after i had got into Smiley Smile, but that doesn't mean i don't appreciate Smiley as much as someone who knew the history when they first listened to it, whether on it's original release or subsequently. In fact, it could easily be argued that the opposite is the case, but that's not an argument i'm going to make...

Such snarkiness from Jann Wenner, thinking british groups run R&B and brought it home. It never left america in the first place with motown.

Remember the first time I heard Cabinessence: it was on BBC 2 on a sunday just before the weekly charts. it sounded like a symphony and was mysterious.
Got 20/20 after that (should be the only french guy to buy BB stuff at the time!) and was delighted by Our Prayer and Cabinessence.
But also by time to get alone, Never learn not to love, I went to sleep and Be with me.
Did not know they came from Smile sessions! the only time I heard of Smile was in the spring of 67 before it came out under Smiley smile!
Was ignorant of the drama of early 67. I did not have access to Fusion or Cheetah magazines at the time.
The Smile story became a subject after Cool Cool Water and those important Richard Williams articles (for me the best ever stuff on BW) in the Melody Maker.
Then you got Rolling Stone, Creem.....

That was my situation in 69 years before internet!

It is pretty amazing how both context and the passage of time can change the impact of certain styles, sounds, and entire genres of music. To flip through some of Rolling Stone magazine's other reviews from the time 67-69, quite a few bands have all but dropped off the face of the earth, if not disappeared from the public eye or pop culture radar. And some acts and albums obviously deserve to drift away, while others need a serious revisiting and a fresh look at the music.

And I have noticed something which wasn't as notable in, say, the 80's...that a lot of the 60's "British Blues" movement has not fared very well at all in terms of being put on as high of a pedestal as it may have been at least before the internet and access to various reissues and previously obscure blues collections was much more of a challenge.

Meaning the British blues players and singers were copying if not doing smoothed-out versions of records that were, simply put, not easy to find and not widely heard, and I think as soon as more folks heard where they were getting all that blues mojo from, the influence went down considerably in favor of the original acts.

In that way, I think a 1967 review of Wild Honey which suggests the Stones and Beatles were doing something along the lines of "bringing it back home" or whatever Wenner wrote about those bands playing R&B sounds naive at best...when compared to some of the heaps of praise being given certain British blues acts who sound limp and carbon-copy when heard in 2012.

And Wild Honey...damn if it doesn't sound less like the Beach Boys doing R&B and more like a good 1967 Beach Boys album!

Disney Boy - I have to agree 1000% with Don as far as the prevailing attitude of the time.  I suppose that releasing certain tracks a little at a time, subversively got the SMiLE tracks out there, spoon-feeding, as it were to the faithful listeners.  After all, they had nothing to lose at that point. There were "singles" like Do It Again, that were getting radio time, and, yet, I think the band was struggling, as a result of paid editorialists, who can often have a personal agenda with a review, or being paid to slam a record from some other source.  

Reviews often interfere with a personal viewers points of view by the mere power of suggestion. Making one's own mind up, is superior in my view.  I don't think Don is slamming any newer fan's opinion, as much as trying to explain the context and circumstance of the era. It was bad.  Really bad. And Don and I (and the faithful rest) are having the "last laugh" at this juncture, but, it was rough among our peers at the time.  

We weren't "musically correct!"  ;)

I agree, in hindsight, and according to the praise the album deserved. But still, it is a positive review overall from the editor of the "hippest" rock magazine of the era, and they followed it up with stronger reviews of the group's succeeding releases. I don't think RS should get the blame for the band's lack of popularity, simply because one editorial stated that the "Brian Wilson Is A Genius" thing was a hype (which it was, cooked up by Derek Taylor to change the group's image).

I think you may be joking, but even Dennis said the album "was a bunt instead of a grand slam". No, I don't much care for Smiley Smile in comparison with other BBs albums of the 60s.

When the bases aren't loaded, sometimes a bunt is exactly what's needed.

wow, this is a great post! one of the most insightful I've ever seen on here.

Exactly.  It's cool how hip Smiley was.  All dry, trippy and Ultra-LoFi.  And I love how un-hip and dorky it ultimately was!  Especially in light of how crazy the SMiLE frenzy was.

The world watching.  Teeth mashed.  Bearing down!!  Ready...ready...ready!

*poop* out popped Smiley Smile.

 :wave

Very well put, filledeplage! And yes, my intention was exactly as you state. Sorry if anyone was confused about that. It would be very nice to jettison the memories that surround those times, as they created a level of confused disconnection which others, coming to the band's music later on, are fortunate to be able to bypass. We've also been lucky as time has passed, for we've been able to discern the exact nature of the band's "institutional anarchy" and come to terms with it in one way or another. And we've been lucky to have access to a wealth of unreleased material (including session tapes) that have helped us to create a more encompassing context for the music and the events surrounding it.

Smiley Smile is arguably the most fascinating Beach Boys album ever, for so many reasons. I think that's true whether one overlays the historical context or not. No other band has an album that so totally occupies such a nether region. So much strangeness (and beauty) to wallow about in!

totally right on post man !

i think they call it 'dad rock' these days (a friend of mine calls what it's morphed into 'budweiser blues') ... it's funny how Jann Wenner and his whole Rolling Stone/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/Springsteen/McCartney/Woodstock/Led Zeppelin/GuitarGods Baby Boomer culture has sort of set the standard for 'Classic Rock', but in reality the much hipper/unappreciated bands of the era seem to hold more relevance to music that is being made today. Specifically, I'm thinking of people like Nick Drake, 13th Floor Elevators, etc. I think the Rolling Stone people think kids are just getting to the bottom of the barrel, but in reality there is something much more exciting about putting on some long-lost Pearls Before Swine record than the latest reissue of 'Exile on Main Street' or whatever. I feel like some of that stuff just isn't aging well lately. And I for one believe that the Beach Boys recordings will ultimately hold up better than the Beatles stuff ... long time from now.

Thanks, Don, we are in accord.  It is delightful to see so many new and ardent fans join and embrace this music.  The teacher in me wants them to really understand the era.  Otherwise it reminds me of a turn-of-the century film done, with a computer on the dining room table or Prius in the barn, next to the horses.  It should make one feel old to even make that description but it doesn't feel that way, to me.  Often, if my kids have some assignment or I see one of their "history of rock and roll" books, I dive to see if the Boys were properly treated retrospectively, because they certainly weren't well- treated in the States.  Thankfully, not so, in Europe and elsewhere.

And, it may sound obnoxious, (I don't care  :lol) but, with those lifer fans, I collide with at these shows, whether it is a Brian, Al or Touring Band show, I keep hearing the same things;  that the critics had this wrong, that there was no "long-view" of the impact, and, mostly, once the political and social storms would clear, that the music would endure.  The newer fans, have the luxury of having all the music in their laps at the same time, via discrete and convenient technology, whereas, we lugged around LP's,  exposing our controversial and often disrespected (in the States) tastes in music.  

The challenge for the new fans, as I see it is that the absolute volume of music to digest and embrace staggering, and, our advantage is that those old LP's were spaced-out (not the pejorative context!) with months in between so we could digest it, alongside other great music that was released.  We had it spoon-fed.  And those social catalysts, such as the Vietnam War, college protests, racial issues, women's rights had an impact.  I think we can proudly say that our activist tendencies during those times, (those of us who were inclined in that direction) help build the foundation to resolve some of those issues.  I would not trade a gray hair, to give up that LP era, and experience the whole sphere surrounding this music.  And, now, we can see some of the obstacles which faced the Band, with record company bias, as well as the same real-life challenges we face.

That said, I delight in seeing young people at the shows.  Even if, was the oft-reviled Kokomo that opened the door, to this corpus.  However they get here, welcome aboard, and savor the voyage!  But, from time to time, kick down a door or two and look behind them to see the contemporaneous stuff.  I think it is what makes it all so great!  Their voyage is so interesting, with all the ups and downs, not unlike our own adventures.  The bottom line, is that all the nonsense was sent to the back burner and the unfakable and unshakable music, pulled them aboard for this reunion.  And wordlessly, that video wall at the reunion, tells their journey, better than any movie or interview.  And it tells ours, as well.   ;)

They may have lost a few battles along the way, but they certainly won the war!  :love

Absolutely...no other band encompasses so much of that journey you reference. The fact that so much has managed to remain intact, even with warts for all to see, one part lunacy and two parts litigious overkill, is a testament to the healing power of that music, whether it be "Cabinessence" or "Barbara Ann," "Our Prayer" or "You Need A Mess of Help to Stand Alone." Thank goodness that there is still some traveling room left on that "Long Promised Road"--such an unexpected turn of events is nothing more or less than a miracle. Let's all "Celebrate the News"!!

 :h5  :grouphug

Absolutely...no other band encompasses so much of that journey you reference. The fact that so much has managed to remain intact, even with warts for all to see, one part lunacy and two parts litigious overkill, is a testament to the healing power of that music, whether it be "Cabinessence" or "Barbara Ann," "Our Prayer" or "You Need A Mess of Help to Stand Alone." Thank goodness that there is still some traveling room left on that "Long Promised Road"--such an unexpected turn of events is nothing more or less than a miracle. Let's all "Celebrate the News"!!

 :h5  :grouphug


Don, just...no.

Which war?

Just a metaphor!  

The difference between a sprint (battle) and a marathon (war)  :woot

The 50 year mark!

But, not the actual finish line.

They're still a work-in-progress!  ;)

As someone who bought 20/20 the week it came out, I had no idea Prayer and Cabinessence were Smile relics, but they both blew my mind on first hearing them, and the Van credit on Cab clearly linked the song in my mind to Smiley and Heroes, Wonderful, Vegetables and She's Goin Bald.  I loved Smiley and assumed this was a new recording of either a new collaboration with Van or an older song that Brian left to record later.  It was a welcome return to the strangeness of Smiley after the normality of the more mainstream Wild Honey and Friends (although Diamond Head seemed to fit the Smiley model).

Speaking of 20/20, the hell is with that scream on Be With Me?

NUFFIN' I DINNINT POST NUFFIN' MOVE ALONG NOW

To get your attention. There's something happenin' here.