The Smiley Smile Message Board

These seem to be widely considered Brian's two masterworks. But which do you personally prefer? For myself, I like 'Smile' much MUCH better than 'Pet Sounds'.
You?

SMiLE is better music, Pet Sounds is a better album.

What a fascinating take on things.

The way I look at it, nobody has ever or will ever hear Smile.  It simply was not completed in its original form.  Sure, BW/VDP, etc made a complete album in 2004, but that is not The Beach Boys.

That being said, The Smile Sessions is fantastic.  One of the most interesting things about the Smile phenomenon is how, due to the modular nature of the music and the incompleteness of the album, the listener can customize their Smile experience without really compromising "Brian's original version" - he never really decided on how he wanted to piece the snippets together (except for completed songs like Vegetables, Cabinessence, Cool, Cool Water and Surf's Up), and TSS simply followed the template of the 2004 release!

That's why I have gotten enormous satisfaction out of making my own "what-if" version of Smile with pieces and full songs the high-quality 2011 mixes.  But does it top Pet Sounds?  YES

Smile is a jigsaw and as a result can be reinvented again and again, it really is quite special in the musical world. On the other hand Pet Sounds contain some of the greatest individual pop songs of all time, most notably I Just Wasn't Made For These Times and Don't Talk, there is just so much emotion both in the music and in the great lyrics Tony and Brian co-wrote, magical! This is a hard draw, but I would consider them top tier by such a margin that ranking them further serves little purpose. The mood might affect the choice.

For me, it's Pet Sounds by a very narrow margin.

I feel like we've had this thread, but...Pet Sounds.

Oh here we go again. Kirk vs. Picard (Kirk!) Coke vs. Pepsi (Coke!) Baseball vs. Football (Baseball!)...

and Pet Sounds vs. SMiLE. For me it will always be Pet Sounds. PS is very close to me personally, emotionally. Discovering PS in 1999 made me a fan and pretty much changed my life and the music that I primarily listened to before it. Finally, PS is home to my #1 favorite song, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'.
I LOVE the SMiLE music. I really do. It's a continuation of Brian at his peak, which really hit the summit with Pet Sounds. Still, until I die, PS will be a kind of obsession for me. I wouldn't want it any other way.

How's this for reasoning:

Smile is a gift, Pet Sounds is a blessing.

You can do so much with Smile!  You can switch it around every which way and it's arty yet fun, understated yet ambitious.  It's like somebody gave you an interactive book/video game/record album/photo album that you want to spend forever getting to know the ins and outs. 

Pet Sounds is more of a spiritual feeling of empathy (though IJWMFTT decries a lack of empathy on the part of everybody else), letting us know that having feelings of longing, and feeling out of place, and that there's something missing from adult life that we had as children, is okay.  That is the blessing of Pet Sounds.

So it was the world that had Asperger's, not Brian.
OMGGGGGG

Wow. 3 for 3.

Great responses, everyone. I have really enjoyed reading this!
I agree - part of the joy of 'SMiLE' is being able to create your own and imagine what might have been. I have personally created 7 different versions and treasure them all.

Pet Sounds came from within Brian. I feel Smile came from around him. I'd have to say Pet Sounds though based solely on the really personal lyrics him and Mike wrote.

Except Tony Asher wrote the lyrics.

Smiley Smile.

 ;D

Sorry.
HELPED write.
Interpretation is completely different than doing it all himself. Mike helped write at least three songs. Tony definitely deserves praise for what he did though.

And for me it would be:
Kirk vs. Picard (The Second Doctor!)
Coke vs. Pepsi (Sprite!)
Baseball vs. Football (Yeah, Baseball for sure!)
Pet Sounds vs. Smile: No straight answer.

I have 1,000 times more love, affection, and fascination for Smile than I do for Pet Sounds.
I am 100 times more overjoyed, swept away, and awed by Smile than I am by Pet Sounds.
Smile is more fun. It’s more stimulating, it’s richer, grander, more adventurous, further, higher, and far, far beyond.

This very month, after years of tinkering, I have finally made for myself a personal Smile that I find fully satisfying and whole. So far, it’s held up after 3 weeks of listening (knock on wood), and I never thought that was possible.

But that’s my Smile. Doubtless you have your own. There’s a case to be made (and many have made it) that the ambiguity and open-ended-ness of Smile adds to its greatness. I tend to think the opposite: because there is no, and never will be a 1967 Brian Wilson definition of Smile, it is also impossible to make a definitive evaluation of the work against Brian’s other completed works.

As a whole, and as a singular work, Pet Sounds is, objectively, better. It also features what I believe is Brian’s greatest song, “God Only Knows.”

I'm more of the hopeless romantic type, so I vote for Pet Sounds. Smile is more for the head than the heart. Nothing wrong with that; it's kept my head enterttained for many many hours. But- Pet Sounds is IT for me.

Speak fer yerself. I hear great emotion in these songs and lyrics, even if none of them have a plainly-stated chorus of, "Sometimes I feel very sad," or anything

Considers the source- then moves on...

Cruel :'(

what happened to Newguy? I really digged his enthusiasm for this board along with numerous topics (many of which were already done before, but many were still great) Haven't seen him posting here recently.

Should the Smiley Smile board do an IAMA request on reddit for Newguy?

For me it's Kirk, Pepsi, Football.  Though I don't watch Star Trek, don't really drink Pepsi at all, and I don't really watch sports much anymore!

SMiLE and Pet Sounds = both.  I listen to whichever I'm in the mood for, they are both so great and unique.  Not unlike comparing Revolver and Sgt Pepper.

Apples & oranges.

Agree completely.  PS is all about visceral beauty, the other-wordly type sounds that only a few musicians in history have the ability to hear and write down.  I would give anything to be in the studio when those tracks were being recorded.

Smile is more intellectual and imo interesting, but musically isn't as pristine.  It's a trip, in more than one sense of the world, through the consciousness of classic Americana.  Each song (and parts with songs) are almost like paintings or snapshots of a story.  I think VDP's lyrics are really impressive as well.

So in short, what Mikie said.  For me, PS is about pure beauty in sound and Smile is more about an interesting story.  

I like apples more than I like oranges. Just because two things are totally different doesn't mean you can't compare and contrast.

I think I'd go with Pet Sounds, slightly. If Smile was fully completed and realized and sat right after Pet Sounds in their discography, I'd probably go with Smile, but again, it's hard to say because it wasn't fully realized at the time. I LOVE TSS and can't stop listening to it, but I also can't stop listening to Pet Sounds. I find joy and newness each time I listen to both of them.

Smiley Smile  ;D

First off, its spelled SMiLE! :)   But I would go with SMiLE by a mile personally. Even in its unfinished state it is fantastic.

It isn't nice to lie ;(

The truth? Yeah, I was terrified for my brother.

SMILE  is an experience.  Pet Sounds is for the heart.  At least it was for me in 1966 and thereafter.

well, if Smile had not been scrapped, there would be no Smiley Smile or Wild Honey for sure. So I'd prefer it like it is today rather than just having a Smile. Stories that are too blissful dont attract me anyway ;]

If I had to choose between any other two Beach Boys' albums - any other two - I could do it fairly easily. But, I just can't do it with Pet Sounds and SMiLE. It's like choosing your favorite kid; you can't do it.

Very apt description of the way I feel.

This is quite literally the hardest decision I could ever make..

It really depends on my mood. At the moment I would choose "Pet Sounds", I've been listening to it a lot lately

I prefer Smile, for its playfulness.

 8)

Trim the fat off Smile a little and given a tighter edit, it could have bettered Pet Sounds. Maybe. As it stands Pet Sounds is the better record.

Pet Sounds easily, because no Smile album exists.

Wow, really great contributions by everyone on this thread...

it's true, it depends on the day, the mood, etc. but at the end of the day, I find that the more i try to analyze it and decide which one is the best, the less i enjoy the experience.




time to listen to Pet Sounds! (2006 Mono!)

'Atta boy.

Pet Sounds is my favourite album ever, SMiLE is my favourite piece of music in that it can take many different forms. :)

Exactly!  What I love about "Pet Sounds" is the emotional beauty of it.  The emotions and experiences that Brian & Tony Asher set to some of Brian's most incredible music are emotions and experiences that so many of us can relate to on such a personal level.  It's about growing up and being unsure of yourself...or your place in the world.  It's the hopes and fears of growing up...sort of like an extended "(When I Grow Up) To Be a Man".  It starts with the hopefulness of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and ends with the emotional devastation of "Caroline, No".  It's perfect from start to finish.  I love the MUSIC of "SMiLE" so much...but it lacks that "complete package" that "Pet Sounds" has.  As the quote above says...it's a piece of music...a collection of different bits and pieces that can take many different forms...and that is completely fascinating.  That said....consider where Brian Wilson was at this point..."Pet Sounds" to "Good Vibrations" to "SMiLE".  Wow.

Definitely, the level of the body of work that Brian was creating in 66/67 alone is incredible, with the exception of The Beatles in their prime around the same time I don't think any other music artist/group has reached those peaks that they did at the top, and The Beatles had three brilliant songwriters to help each other out whereas Brian was for the most part leading the Beach Boys during their prime. God Only Knows, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Good Vibrations, Surf's Up, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Wonderful, Wind Chimes, Caroline No etc. Astonishing. :)

What does Pink Floyd have to do with it?

Well..."Apples & Oranges" was composed by Syd Barrett and Syd's life in some ways paralleled Brian's.   ;)

Pet Sounds, by a (S)MiLE) - SMiLE is a voyage; Pet Sounds is home.

Pet Sounds is the chicken; SMiLE is the egg.

The Pet Sounds Sessions CD is for me! Trombone Dixie and all the little pieces!  ;)

Many really good comments and perspectives in this thread.

Both albums provide many great songs, taken individually. As far as listening to the entire album (well, perhaps TSS for SMILE), for me it just depends on the day.

Choosing 1 over the other is almost impossible but if I was ever forced to do so, it would probably be ... Pet Sounds ... by the slightest of margins.

But...but...the egg came first!

Smile is Humpty Dumpty.

And we're all the king's horses and all the king's men.

Exactly.

Unless Pet Sounds is the Goose that laid the Golden Egg (SMiLE)

Do we really know that the egg came first?

The obvious metaphor being creationism vs. evolution? 

And, I did not anticipate Old Humpty (ISpaceman!) but that might fit as well. 

Very clever analogy!  ;)

I thought the chicken vs. egg argument was more a philosophical one.

Darwin and Big Bang.

I think we're pretty sure, yes.

I prefer the fruit of an apple and the juice of an orange.

Very true! In fact, sources told me in a dream that Brian and Syd actually collaborated. And the results were in the form of Daniel Johnston compositions.

Making a choice like this should only be made with a gun to one's head. Given that, however, I'll go with Pet Sounds for its consistent level of quality. The Smile music often reaches greater heights ("Cabinessence," "Surf's Up") but it was abandoned in part because the LP as a whole was not jelling.

"Apples and Oranges"--a very manic-depressive song, would have fit in nicely on Smiley Smile.

Neither.


I'll go with Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl, and Little Deuce Coupe. DAVE MARKS GUITAR, BABY!!!!  :thewilsons :thewilsons :thewilsons :thewilsons :thewilsons