The Smiley Smile Message Board

I think the 33 1/3 book draws parallels between the BBs Xmas album and Smile and it made me try to visualise the bb's magnum opus as a psychedelic riposte to Spector's A Christmas Gift For You.

Listening in the car today it was easy to reimagine it as a Xmas album with all the bells and whistles, toy sounds, angelic harmonies etc. Replace the Heroes and Villains refrain with 'Christmas is coming' or something similarly festive and you're all set up.

If the coda to Cabinessence isn't the most perfect snowfall theme, I don't know what is. Anyone else ever imagine smile this way? After all, the project did seem to peak in that most festive of months - December - and was sure to sell a million units shortly thereafter ...

I like this topic.

I do save it for every Xmas, honestly.  ;D

For me personally, actually Smile Smile has a very christmasey feel. Its vibe (not including H&V and GV) evokes in me the image of sitting in a warm room looking through the window watching falling snow outside. But that's only me, I'm sure! :-D

The one SMiLE piece that did invoke a christmasey image in me is Holidays before I knew it's really about Hawaii. I misinterpreted "Holidays" as "Christmas Holidays" and imagined children getting out of bed on Christmas morning starting to play with their new toys.

I bought about 10 copies of BWPS to give to a bunch of people I knew for Christmas 10 uears ago.  Close enough?  ;)

Wow... yes!  I actually do.

I think I got the Good Vibes Box and/or my first SMiLE tape (or both) around the holidays.  There's also a special excitement about SMiLE-music that pairs well with the feeling of heading into the autumn/winter/Christmas season.

I have a lot of memories of listening to this music driving around on snowy streets and Christmas lights, etc.  Very wintery.  Every now and then I'll be playing something like Barnyard and it takes me back to hearing this for the first time during some long ago Christmas.

Great stuff Bean Bag. It never really occurred to me until recently, but now playing it as I drive around with all the xmas lights on the houses, and the kids' excitement surrounding xmas, the music sounds so festive. It's a perfect fit.


What a great idea! I might even consider doing this myself. I do tend to overplay Smile throughout the year so can see the benefits of storing it up until December ...

I have a fear of overplaying my favourites, so I usually put them off for about half a year or so. Last time I tried it with Smile it hit me almost as hard as the first time I heard it.  :-D

I love it when that happens. There's something about smile that it has that capacity to still sound fresh and surprising after infinite plays.

About to play my smile LP to try this out! ;D

That would be my choice-----not TSS. BWPS has a Christmassy warmth to it that TSS lacks. In my opinion.

I've always thought that 'Look!' sounded like Christmas music.

Me too. And I would chuck in 'Our Prayer', 'Holidays' and 'You're Welcome'.

"Our Prayer" does seem to have a Thanksgiving/Christmas feeling, and I've always imagined kids running downstairs and excitedly opening presents whenever I've heard "Look".

SMiLE would have been more Christmasey if they had kept the original title "Dumb Angel". The track "Our Prayer" fits that album title 100 times more than "SMiLE"

1. Our Carol
2. Naughty or Nice
3. Do You Like Candy Canes?
5. Old Master Santa/You Are My Christmas
6. Figgy Pudding Essence
7. Wonder Snow
8. Child of the Winter Wonderland
9. Carols for Children
10. Lights Up (xmas lights)
11. Festa-table
12. Santa's Workshop
13. Holiday
14. Bell Chimes
15. Mrs Santas Reindeer
16. I Love the Baby Jesus the Best, You Hear Me?!
17. Good Christmas Stations

Fantastic! Have also been hearing elves in the Workshop!

A lot of Spector's productions have a Christmas feel to them. Christmas is very spiritual in concept, so you can derive some hymnlike coloring from its 'style'. No doubt that, that specific feeling is what BDW identifies with in the Spector Sound, and why he puts the Christmas Album on such a high pedestal (it's a good album but Spector outdid it many times in singles).

Think about the E-E7-Emaj7 vamp in the chorus of Be My Baby that's fascinated BDW for so long. Notice how little quirks like that reappear sometimes in Christmas music, namely in Chestnuts Roasting (the verse "here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane...") which BDW unsurprisingly interpolates in Child of Winter.

Very little has been written about the relationship between Christmas-feeling music, Wall of Sound, doo-wop, Christian hymns, etc., and I wish there was a book about it.

why would you even put this thought into other people's heads

have you been snorting blocks