The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know we have a few SMiLE threads active on the front page but I thought this one warranted its own topic due to its massive size.

When I was obsessed with this album 10-odd years ago, I was admittedly getting most of my information from second-hand sources like the Wikipedia pages, Beautiful Dreamer documentary, old SMiLE shop essays, Surfer Moon essays, the GoodHumorSmile site, whatever other websites were around at the time (like "SmileySmile is SMiLE" and some about the making of the '03 album) as well as this forum itself. I read the Peter Ames Carlin biography but there really isn't too much revelatory info in there if you don't already know the big picture; he gives a great general overview but no day-by-day hard information. I'd always intended to read LLVS but hadn't gotten around to it due to school, personal stuff, intimidation by its size, etc. I did read the most oft-cited articles within, the ones that really make you feel like you were there (Vosse Fusion & Teen Set, Anderle Crawdaddy, Siegel "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God," etc.)

Lately though, I've started going into more "hard scholarship" (IE sources with no editorializing, just reporting the facts and documenting what happened with dated citations) about this topic and it's revealed to me some things that I think get lost in the discussion of the album as a whole. Maybe Im preaching to the choir, maybe I'm debating/disproving decades old spats from the forum that aren't relevant anymore, but I'm gonna share my new insights into the project after looking at AGD's index of the recording sessions at Bellagio10452 and Keith Badman's "Beach Boys Diary." I'll include a link to the Internet Archive copy of the book so everyone can read it and make up their own mind; I'm not here to tell other people what to think, just share my own reactions. Also, if I "call out" anyone's old theories and say "this seems to disprove XYZ" I don't want to come off as snarky or like I'm trampling other people's fun, this is just in pursuit of the truth as best it can be determined. Honestly, most of the "refuted" theories I mention in this tome were ones I really liked at the time.

So, here is my "commentary track" to the Badman book's most illuminating passages, in no particular order:
https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm/page/180/mode/2up (https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm/page/180/mode/2up)
http://www.bellagio10452.com/gigs66.html (http://www.bellagio10452.com/gigs66.html)

0. This isn't really important but still. I had heard about the famous piano sandbox, living room gym, Arab tent, business meetings in the pool, purple house and proposed slide from the upstairs into a bed that was deemed impractical to build. But I never knew Brian had wanted a pet giraffe in his backyard and the city specifically told him he couldn't until I read this book. Brian really was the perfect archetype of an eccentric genius, a real-life Willy Wonka.


This supposedly occurred sometime in early September '66. It seems to dispute a theory I'd seen floating around back in the day, that the more serious music was recorded in the "Dumb Angel phase" of the project and as the new title came about, the sessions changed to the friendlier goofy music (IE the endless H&V segments, Veggies, etc). A few people even hypothesized that a possible reason the album was scrapped was because Brian realized the melancholy music supposedly made under the Dumb Angel moniker no longer fit with where he wanted the project to go, the lighthearted SMiLE stuff. But, this date would largely dispel that notion, because the vast majority of the SMiLE sessions happened in and after September. All you get from August is Wind Chimes, I Ran, Wonderful, He Gives Speeches and GV. (Of course there are other GV dates and a single stab at Heroes before August too). Most of the core tracks of the album were written before the name change it is true, but if Brian thought SMiLE was an ill-fitting name for the likes of Cabinessence and Surf's Up, it wouldn't explain why those songs were recorded after the change, unless it took him awhile to notice the discrepancy (I'll touch on this theory in point #28). Even "Prayer," which was said to be "fitting for an album called Dumb Angel, but not for one called SMiLE" is recorded after this date. Now, personally, I prefer Dumb Angel as a title as it's more evocative, descriptive of the music and less generic, but Brian seemed to think differently.


There used to be (and maybe still is) a lot of pushback for including the Psychedelic Sounds on fanmixes, or doing anything more avant garde than "a simple 12-track banded album without segues or interludes" but on page 147 there's a clear direct quote from Brian saying "there's going to be a lot of humor on the album [...] a lot of talking and laughing between the cuts." The prevailing wisdom back in '15 was that anything spoken word or humorous belonged in this "separate humor album" admittedly attested to in some of the primary sources and even elsewhere in the Badman book. Regardless, it seems clear there was always a lot of bleed over between the two concepts if indeed they were even meant to be separate at all, which I think is somewhat debatable. (And certainly by Smiley at the latest the two ideas were merged entirely).

I'm NOT "hobby horsing" for my pet theory here either; personally, I've tried the "humorous quips between each song" thing with one of my fanmixes and while it was very interesting for awhile, I grew dissatisfied with the results rather quickly. That doesn't change the fact that, at least for a day, a week, a month, the rest of '66, whatever, Brian at least considered something more experimental. Ultimately, he changed his mind or realized it wouldn't work--the album was scrapped after all--but it's still something he considered doing and that needs to be part of the conversation of a "historical SMiLE." Also, I just think, to look at the Veggie Fight, George Fell, Moaning Laughing, Taxi Cabber (plus a quote I recall reading years ago but can't find again, about a barroom brawl recorded for use in Heroes) and say "nah, none of that meant anything, it's irrelevant, you're totally reaching by thinking there's a connection there" when we have a direct quote from the man himself, in 1966 no less, is just denying an inconvenient reality.

There's another quote outside the book too, also from Brian: “The album will include lots of humor - some musical and some spoken. It won’t be like a comedy LP - there won’t be any spoken tracks as such - but someone might say something in between verses,” which has at least one known actualized instance ("You're Under Arrest!" in Heroes) and one abandoned ("we're gonna have a lot of talking in the pauses" in an early Dada session) to say nothing of Smiley Smile's "good!" and laughing in Little Pad, etc. It's debatable how far Brian would've gone with this, but it's not too unreasonable to think SMiLE might've been more similar to Frank Zappa than the Beatles. I know some have claimed to speak with VDP, who has attested SMiLE was "a simple 12 track banded album" but since we have a contradictory and vintage Brian quote, I suggest this is further evidence the two were not always on the same page (see point #28). VDP also did not seem to appreciate Brian's humor or the PsychSounds aspects of the project in general, which makes me think he's downplaying their importance.


Searching for an answer to this question is actually how I found this book and began reading. It seems as though the first meeting with VDP in May led to H&V, Worms and CE, aka the core of the Americana suite. The rest came later, over the five months between May when the collaboration started and September when the name changed and recording picked up in earnest. The book implies that Van worked on "Wind Chimes" (which is significant because he was originally uncredited but then pressed for recognition in '03) and "I Ran" (also significant as there was a vocal session now lost to time, implying it had real lyrics not just vocalizations). Also, Brian's interest in what Badman calls "the occult" (and what I'd call Aquarian/New Age spirituality) supposedly began around the same time, May of '66, dates and sequential order of whether Brian changed before or after meeting Van are vague. But, this month is when Brian's Pet Sounds nostalgia of "In My Childhood" and processing his own youthful angst gives way to a more forward-thinking "change the world"/"grand statement on life & society"/"music people would pray to" perspective that sets SMiLE apart from anything he'd done up to this point (and arguably would ever do again).


Has it ever been explained what happened when the GV tapes went missing for two days? This seems like such a crazy anecdote and I can't find much discussion of it anywhere. Between this and the revelation that both Capitol and Murry were screwing him over, plus the weird coincidence with "Seconds" it's almost no wonder Brian got so paranoid. Also, it's a damn shame Phil Spector was such a piece of human garbage. Brian obviously needed a supportive father figure in his life and in another timeline, I think even just having Phil be nice to him might've made all the difference it took to get SMiLE out the door.


The famous anecdotes about late night salons with cool people in LA, wanting to buy a telescope and ping pong table in the middle of the night, the hookah tent, playing acetates he recognizes by their grooves, the cutlery symphony, the "teenage symphony to God" quote, all seem to have happened in October '66. I think if you could point to one bright and shining moment where this project was at its zenith, when SMiLE seemed poised to take the world by storm, just before Icarus' wings melted, it'd be that late Oct-early Nov window. If you had a time machine and could save the project from its own creator, that's where you'd want to go back to. That said, while Fire in 11/28 was still a major turning point, it's not quite as dramatic of a drop-off as I'd previously thought. December still saw productive work on several other non-single tracks, where previously I had supposed there was a seismic refocus on Heroes immediately after.

However, the testimonies of Oppenheim and others from even this idyllic period, I think, are foreboding of Brian's tragic flaw. He didn't complete SMiLE, not just because of lack of support and logistical hurdles but: (paraphrasing) he would get seemingly random, unrelated urges in his head and want immediate satisfaction, then forget them soon after or lose interest if they couldn't be fulfilled right then and there. Essentially the whole album was a victim of this same manic, attention-deficit tendency. I think the real villain in the story isn't the oft-maligned LSD so much as chronic, years-long abuse of speed and hash, which I don't see too many people make note of. Acid exacerbated Brian's dormant schizoaffective disorder but it's also something of an overstated scapegoat (I think conservatives among us have an axe to grind against psychedelics) and in my opinion the album still happens if he just laid off the desbutol.


The "Trombone Dixie" of SMiLE is unequivocally "Holidays," a single-sessioned track, made early in the process and never touched again. While "I Ran" is sometimes held in a similar regard, at least it was revisited once, had vocals and was given a new title, which indicates a good deal more thought went into it. Even "He Gives Speeches," another early outtake, at least became "Bald" and the backing track morphed into the OMP/"Barnshine" fade. If one is going to be a stickler about "what would '66-'67 Brian do" while simultaneously making excuses to ignore the December tracklist, I think "I Ran" makes more sense as a "vanity inclusion" than Holidays. Also, I don't think Holidays was an early version of DYLW as some have suggested in the past, so much as Brian recycled parts of the melody as he was prone to do. He never wastes a good rift on an unreleased or obscure track. (I'm not trying to say "don't use Holidays, you're wrong if you put it on a mix" I'm just saying I think we can rule it out as something Brian would've done.)


Similarly, I never really gave much thought before to how Wind Chimes arguably predates the actual SMiLE sessions proper and was kind of grandfathered in because it was too good to shelve (unlike Holidays--though it's great, it wasnt "great enough" for '66 Brian's standards). Use it as "air" if you want, that retcon was even good enough for Brian in '03, but it's pretty clear looking at its early recording date as the third ever SMiLE song, besides GV (which might've been on Pet Sounds had Brian not been such a perfectionist) and a single, early, lost H&V session, that the idea of the elements hadn't even been conceived yet. "The Elements" is not listed as among the first set of songs that VDP and Brian wrote (around mid-May to mid-June, the timeline is a bit vague from what I see) and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it wasn't yet a twinkle in Brian's eye come August '66 when "WC Version 1" is recorded--especially because this oft-cited "piano piece" (the fade) wasn't even part of the original session.

Wind Chimes is just Brian writing a song about the wind chimes he bought that day, nothing more and nothing less. (This point may sound petty and pedantic, but it's a pet peeve of mine the way people in the past tried to bully me into "admitting" that WC was "clearly" air just because it has wind in the title and the non-vintage '03 tracklist used it to plug up a hole in its new third movement. Thankfully though, it seems the position that BWPS=SMiLE has fallen out of favor, both here, among insiders and elsewhere like r/BeachBoys.) In fact, along with GV it's the song that's least entwined with the themes of SMiLE. I suspect the rerecorded Version 2 sessions in October were an attempt to bring it closer to the shared instrumentation of the "Cycle of Life/Side 2" songs, with prominent pianos, harpsichords and horns, so it'd feel more connected to the rest of the album.  


I was shocked to see just how many Jasper Dailey sessions there really were, same for Tones/Tune X. I had always imagined the JD tracks were a one-off joke, a spur of the moment improv recorded in a single take, but Brian spent as many days on them as he did for some of the best SMiLE tracks. From both a business and creative standpoint it's actually kind of infuriating. I'm now much more sympathetic to Capitol Records' frustration at this goofball idiot-savant wasting everyone's time and money playing games when there's important work to be done. This is the biggest piece of evidence that Brian was no longer in control of the project by '67, was not the unquestionable, perfect genius driving towards a vision, let down by the cruel philistines as I'd once believed. He was an overgrown child (an "Adult-Child") on drugs with serious avoidance issues, like refusing to even cash checks or be mildly inconvenienced with anything he didn't want to do, in this case finishing an arduous modular album. (I love the guy, he's my hero, but let's be real here for the sake of history if nothing else.) I don't like to say this, but the sheer amount of time wasted on these dumb novelty tracks no one would ever hear does NOT put him in a good light, and he is more to blame for killing SMiLE and "missing the moment" than Mike, Daro, Murry, Spector, Capitol or any other oft-cited antagonists in the Beach Boy saga.


The Badman book specifically mentions that the "IWBA--Friday Night" pairing was titled "Im in Great Shape" which helps explain why the original "eggs and grits" segment got spliced onto it in '03. I had always assumed that was a later innovation, but this implies a deeper connection. Badman makes it sound as though IIGS, which seemingly started as a Heroes fragment (or part of the Barnyard suite and THEN a Heroes fragment) had now become the "rebuilding after the fire." Also, I recall other vintage sources from LLVS describing Workshop as "building the Barnyard" so that's another connection. This, to me, is a revelation because it means the IIGS listing on the Dec tracklist was probably a three or four part medley of "eggs and grits"/IWBA/Workshop/Barnyard in some kind of order as opposed to an extremely mysterious lost song I used to imagine comprising the IIGS segments as verses with "Do a Lot" as choruses and "Barnyard" as a fade. Now it makes so much more sense to me why IIGS would be on the tracklist and that it is truly a worthy inclusion there. Elsewhere in the book, when talking about the "Barnyard Suite" separately from the IWBA/FN session, Badman also mentioned "hammers and saws" on that track. So, for me, that's one big SMiLE mystery solved. Barnyard suite, renamed IIGS, comprised these four pieces rather than the oft-speculated IIGS/Barnyard/OMP/YAMS configuration--that would also explain why OMP remains a separate song from IIGS on the tracklist and session tapes.


(This is the big one for me!) Apparently there are Psychedelic Sounds tracks we've never heard--at least theyre left off the bootleg for some reason, though Badman implies they were on "the same tape" as the tracks found on Disc 2, recorded Nov 4. He refers to these as: "Chewing Terrys" (dogs chewing on stuff), "Kid at Fairfax" (presumably a kid talking or doing something sonically interesting), "Tea Pot" (described as "human whistling") and "Water Hose" (self-explanatory, but with traffic sounds in the background). There's also an untitled "dialogue with friends" session attested to on Oct 25. It's so typical of SMiLE research, where for every account there is a contradiction and with every mystery solved (see point #9) there is a new one to immediately take its place! Needless to say, I may be alone but as the biggest advocate for the PsychSounds in the whole fandom, I'd kill to hear these. While PS mostly serves as an invaluable insight into the non-music side of SMiLE (IE examples of the spoken word humor that Brian mentions), as well as the dynamic between him and his intelligentsia hangers-on, there are some bits I genuinely enjoy listening to. My favorites are Smog, the Veggie Fight, Taxi Cabber, Basketball Sounds and Bob Gorden's Real Trip. If these "new" recordings still exist in the vaults they ought to be released. Even if it has to be a "made-to-order" thing at a premium, I'll shell out good money for an overpriced mp3 download or CD-R in a paper sleeve through the mail. Come on guys, indulge me! "Ball and Mitt" too, while you're at it!


I had always thought the famously canceled session of string players, where Brian sent these expensive musicians home at the last minute because "the vibes weren't right" occurred in Dec '66 for the second movement of Surf's Up and soon after Fire. According to Badman this was actually at the end of March '67 for Vega-Tables. I had always seen this anecdote as a reaction to Fire and the "turning point" of the project, where it only started to go off the rails. Now it seems like it was more of the crescendo of Brian's irrational behavior in the last days of the project. Also, it happened several times and not just once, which was another revelation for me. Seems like Brian just couldn't face anything related to the project anymore, though that doesn't explain why the Dada sessions seem comparatively cheerful. Maybe in his mind, "knowing" the album was dead, he could relax again with the thought "these aren't SMiLE sessions, there's no pressure to make the best record ever anymore," or something like that?


Derek Taylor was fantastic at his job as a press agent "hype man" and I never fully appreciated that before. As far as I can tell, his "Brian's a genius" campaign and subsequent media interest (aided by David Anderle's connections) is the only reason there's so many primary sources of the project and its eccentric visionary. This is what created the SMiLE myth, fueling the hype with articles so well-written we're still talking about it even 60 years later. However, I wonder if this wasn't a doubled-edged sword in hindsight, because it caused all the hangers-on to congregate around Brian, which distracted him, spooked the Boys and inflamed tensions between the two. I also wonder if wanting to live up to the promise of this would-be masterpiece, to impress these people who were hailing him as a pop messiah, might've been at least partially responsible for the music never getting finished. I still think Brian would've gotten into "hip" sh*t like The Little Prince and Pynchon, therefore trying to make "deep music," whether the "cool" crowd was there or not, but I say the self-doubt was fueled in part by fear of releasing something that might disappoint the image other people now had of him as a revolutionary mastermind.


Have we heard all of Tune X on the TSS boxset? I now realize that two recordings survive, dated 3/3 and 3/31 and the boxset only lists the track as "3/3-3/31" so it could be either or both. All other sessions for this song have been lost. Also, maybe I'm being selfish as a fan and unfair to Carl as an artist, but I can't help but wonder if trying his hand as a producer with this song wasn't, shall we say, the best use of his efforts in early 1967. It's tough seeing so much precious studio time that could've gone to recording vocals being wasted on (in my personal and brutally honest opinion) a mediocre track that went unreleased anyway. If Mike, Al and Bruce weren't amiable to recording their vocal parts as has been theorized, it's hard not to wonder why Brian, Carl and Dennis couldn't do them during these sessions just to get something on tape. It wouldn't be perfect but it'd be something. Of course, Carl's his own man and has the right to grow as an artist too, I get it. But without further info I can't help but wish he would've used this time to take a load off Brian's shoulders by recording some of the vocal parts he knew had to be done rather than spin the wheels on a dead-end effort. Maybe Carl was trying to get to a point where he'd be able to do just that, I don't know. He seemed to remember enough about CE to get it done in '68 for example, it's hard to understand why he couldn't do that in '67 even if it meant learning as he went. (Maybe Brian wouldn't let him touch those tapes, I'm not sure.)


Badman's book makes clear what I'd assumed was always just (compelling) speculation before, that Vega-Tables briefly usurped Heroes as the potential single. Badman even suggests this was done intentionally to spite Capitol over the stolen royalties, who had spent money promoting Heroes and making sleeves that would now go to waste. That's an interesting anecdote. While in my personal opinion Surf's Up should've been the next single, even just a solo piano version as a counterpoint to GV and to "keep as much of SMiLE a secret as possible," I do think between the two that Veggies is more "commercial" than any version of Heroes I've ever heard. (Even Cabinessence would've been a better choice than the two Brian kept tinkering with.) A silly "love song to something other than a woman" would've wowed the hip crowd with its production and satisfied the normies with its charm, but Heroes I feel just has most people scratching their head going "what the hell is this, what does it mean, what's it trying to say?" Veggies would've been a big hit with small children.


Badman unequivocally states several times that Veggies began as part of the elements, so fair enough, it's clear that was the plan for awhile. I'll preface the rest of this diatribe by saying, I think the constant obsession with finding the other 3 elements has always been a red herring that's led to a lot of unproductive speculation and fighting in the community. Everyone wants there to be 3 pieces we can definitively put in this "suite" and wrap it up with a neat little bow. It's less fun to admit that the concept broke apart halfway through,with the one piece that was definitely an element--Fire--and the one that probably was--Veggies--junked (unless you count the Smiley remakes) and that's it. We have to remember that whatever "elements suites" people have gotten used to over 40 years started out as arbitrary groupings from nobodies on bootlegs, who knew there was a vague "4 part elements" in the album but had no clue what it was, so they picked suitable replacements using the pieces available to them. We also have to admit, finally, after 20 years and the man's unfortunate passing (so no hurting his feelings) that '03 Brian is not '66 Brian and his mission wasn't to revive the project exactly as it would've been (he probably didn't remember anyway and the plan changed constantly) it was to present the music from the sessions in a manner suitable to a live performance. When trying to determine what, if anything, the '66 elements were, we have to look at the contemporary evidence with as little bias as possible.

I say the unexciting truth, which seems to be anathema to some people, is that a half-finished, rough draft working concept is the best we're gonna get for the other two (Undersea Chant, Breathing). Even Badman specifically connects the Psychedelic Sounds Undersea Chant with the later Water Chant, calling it "a precursor" and Vosse also mentions UC (although not by name) as a working concept for Water, so to me that's case closed for element #3. Maybe Vosse's water recordings would've been a musical accompaniment to this. (VDP's lyrics for "Blue Hawaii can't be vintage though, because he left the project before the Water Chant was made.) For Air, the only plausible candidates we have are Breathing and/or Second Day, perhaps both with the former as a rough demo of the vocal parts used with the latter's backing track. Put em all together and that's as close to a '66-'67 elements as you're gonna get with the material recorded. I'll stake my reputation now as I did in '15 that there is no argument more compelling for any other possible configuration based on the available info.

Despite being told I was "deliberately ignoring the evidence," and "intentionally muddying the waters," the more research I do, the more my original theories on this topic are strengthened rather than challenged. Some people just don't want to accept the fact we don't have a finished "water" and "air" that are up to par and never will. They want an easy, satisfying solution to every SMiLE question, damn the evidence. The obvious truth, however, is a big fat uncomfortable "we don't know what it was" and/or "it really wasn't a good idea after all, hence why Brian quickly abandoned the concept; even he made mistakes--just look at the entirety of 1967!" By all means do what you want on your fanmixes of course, but when it comes to debating the historicity of the sessions, I take issue with bad faith arguments, deliberate obtuseness and unwarranted gatekeeping. I'm not "hobby horsing" either; frankly I prefer a standalone set of 4 songs too: "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" (complete with the Heroes intro) and Veggies on the Americana side, with Wind Chimes and Dada (if included at all) on the Cycle of Life side. But that's not what '66 Brian would've done, based on the hard evidence.


The anecdote of Mike and Bruce decrying the release of the "Then I Kissed Her" single to the press is genuinely touching. The way they went to bat publicly for the cool experimental music Brian was making and calling out the record company for undermining it to the consumers with anachronistic releases is the best evidence I've seen that they did support the SMiLE music on some level. I even think Mike would've been almost totally onboard with everything if he'd just been given the opportunity to write even a song or two's worth of lyrics for the project. Really, Brian was a prodigy as a musician but a poor band leader for ignoring the human needs of his peers. On the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg you can even hear his cool arty friends complaining about not being given direction, expected to be on-call at all hours of the night, performing like puppets. VDP felt disrespected too and that's to say nothing of the egregious way Brian treated Marilyn. We all love Brian, I don't think he was malicious, just dysfunctional, terminally immature, and singularly focused on making the best music possible damn the effect on anyone else. He did treat the people around him badly, from the record company to his family and THAT is reason #1 it all fell apart; he asked too much of everyone until they refused to put up with it anymore at the crucial hour. Anyway, Im surprised these quotes aren't cited more often by Mike and his defenders as evidence he did support Brian, (just wasn't afraid to question some of the lyrics, of course).


Another huge revelation to me is that Smog was only recorded in May of '67 as opposed to Oct-Nov '66 with the rest of the Psychedelic Sounds. This is surprising because that track has always felt like Brian at his most passionate and cognizant regarding the concepts of the SMiLE project. "In order to function, to live, be happy and be able to think clearly, you've got to have, first of all the elements, you've got to have good air to breathe" / "the way we can help is to make a record and present the facts in an interesting manner, not boring, but in some way that people can retain these facts." Since he's talking about the elements, it seemed plausible to me that same track was being formulated in his mind at the time of the Smog recording, presumably in the week leading up to the infamous 11/28 Fire session. Since Brian believes SMiLE has this all-important purpose of saving the world from mismanagement by winning hearts and minds of the people, it made sense to conclude Smog was recorded when the sessions were at their peak and he was diligently working on the album. But no, the project had already all but come apart--Badman mentions VDP left in 4/14 during a Veggies session date "after being tired of defending his lyrics and Brian dominating him." There's even a mention by Badman during the late April dates that "Brian knew on some level the album was already dead." It's so crazy to me that he's recording this monologue about how crucial the record is when he'd already given up on it and spent the last 4 months wasting time. That said, the fact that the elements is clearly on Brian's mind again for Smog to be made at all lends further credence to the theory that Veggies is earth and Dada is water or air related, considering they are the songs being recorded on at the time.


Interestingly, reading the concert reviews included in the Badman book, it's not always the sparser arrangement that is lambasted by the press but rather the group's lack of confidence onstage, the muted "passion/fire/intensity/personality" (all those words are used at various times) by the band. It's not so much "where's the 12-piece orchestra sound?" it's "these guys' musicianship is sloppy" (paraphrased) and "the only one with any charisma, whom the crowds are howling for, is on drums unseen behind Jardine" (also paraphrased). This casts a bit of aspersion on the commonly cited fact that Brian's music was too complex to recreate live which led to the live shows getting criticized. While that's definitely true to a degree (at least one review cites difficulties with the electric theremin onstage), it also just sounds like the group weren't always the best players or showmen. If this feedback really was cited by the Boys as a reason to dumb down production of SMiLE, Brian or his people might've easily countered with "uh, maybe you guys just suck" and "perhaps yall should take some time off and practice" in defense of his vision if they'd had the wherewithal to. One quoted review (dated May 4th) even suggests that Brian moved to denser production with professional musicians in the studio BECAUSE the guys were such poor players, and encourages them to give up live performances altogether and be a purely studio band like the Beatles. Frankly, that was good advice if you ask me, at least it would've been better for all of them to take some time off and get their sh*t together, anyway.


It's wild to me that Derek Taylor was able to say whatever he wanted, seemingly with no clear direction from anyone in the band. From declaring all the tracks on SMiLE are done to announcing the project is dead in just one week. Badman even writes this announcement was "premature" and that "Brian had other ideas." Who did Derek even report to, anyway? Why did he suddenly decide that NOW SMiLE is dead, what was so significant to pull a 180 from such an optimistic prediction?


The Badman book makes it sound like the "Then I Kissed Her" single and mixed reception UK tour had as much a hand in destroying their "cool" image as the later no-show at Monterey and release of Smiley Smile. While it was the record company's fault technically, and some may call this victim blaming, let's just say Brian was playing a dangerous game assuming he could take all year fiddling with SMiLE/Heroes plus dicking them around with the switcheroo from Heroes to Veggies without it backfiring. He started a war with the company that still had a lot of power over the band and it was foolish to think they wouldn't hit back eventually. Brian could've prevented all of that by just releasing Surf's Up or literally anything. While of course I side with the artist over the heartless corporation on principle, seeing it from Capitol's perspective with the endless sessions (some cancelled last minute, so they're paying for nothing) and 6-month missed deadlines, I don't blame them for just saying "eff these guys, we gotta put SOMETHING out!"  


Dated May 14, there's a reference to the band expecting SMiLE to have released when they started touring mainland Europe, unaware that its cancellation had already been announced. This is so wild to me--how could they possibly have expected the album to be done when the vocals (as far as we know) were never finished? Does this imply that vocals actually had been done, and have since been lost? Or they expected Brian to do it all himself (perhaps he threatened to if they didn't comply and they called his bluff)? Very, very confusing. I wish this crucial detail had been seized upon and asked about when more of the band was still alive and closer to events that they could remember. So much of this period in the group's history is unknown, contradictory and absolutely bonkers; even when I think I have a clear picture of what went down, details like this spring up and make me doubt everything I thought I knew.


In hindsight, the indecisiveness of Brian towards GV is pretty wild to read about too. I think he was just as terminally perfectionist with that track as he was with the rest of SMiLE, it just gets swept under the rug or treated as a legitimate process because the record came out and was successful. But in the Badman book it sounds like Brian wasn't really satisfied with it, he just settled on it as "the best he could do." Obviously GV is a masterpiece but I really wonder if all the endless retakes, going to different studios and driving everyone crazy was worth it. Perhaps it's blasphemy but I think there's a version of the song that's just as good, made for less than the $50k figure quoted, in half the time. It just shows that Brian's downfall started even before '67 and that, in all honesty, without someone who could benevolently reign him in a tad, the album was doomed before it even began due to his own self-doubt and obsessive drive for perfection. The modular recording technique did more harm than good and that was the principle the whole project was built on.


Badman calls the Smiley Smile sessions "strained" and quotes Carl saying that nothing was planned, there were tons of improvised ideas that they just went with. However true this is, I still consider the album a work of brilliance. If SMiLE was a celebration of the GV technique "it's never good enough," Smiley was a celebration of spontaneity and humility. This surprised me because I'd always heard of the sessions as this laid back, stoned, group therapy vibe that was a welcome reprieve from the stressful SMiLE recording process. Also, I always thought Capitol was responsible for putting GV on Smiley but according to Badman it was the rest of the band outvoting Brian.

Apparently as late as July 22 a six-minute version of H&V was circulating such that Mike Love played a copy to reporter Keith Altham. During the later Lei'd in Hawaii tour, yet another reporter suggests the Beach Boys ought to focus on recording in the studio and quit touring. Bruce tells the UK press to "expect SMiLE in the next two months" that summer, which shows that either he was blowing smoke up their ass or completely misunderstood just how much work there was still to do and/or how checked out of it Brian was. If the comment was genuine, it's an indication that even then the group thought on some level it could still happen and wanted it to.


Skipping ahead to the 1971 Surf's Up sessions, the way Badman describes it (with lots of quotes from Jack Rieley, Dennis and Carl) the "CIFOTM" vocals were from Brian, running into the studio last minute as has often been said, however the "a children's song, have you listened as they play/their song is love and the children know the way" was a new and last minute invention. This is something I've long suspected just by pure intuition; I've always felt Brian would've sung the "main melody" in his three '66-'67 renditions of the song instead of backing-vocal "aaahs" had those lyrics existed. Plus, the lines just dont read like something he or VDP would've written to me (too arty for the former, too saccharine for the latter). I'm not sure if they're a continuation of this new lyric or not, it sounds like Mike singing both, but I feel the same regarding those "na na na na" backing vocals as well--they just make the fade a bit too busy for my ears. This was really affirming to read, because I've taken a lot of heat for "criticizing" much less questioning anything about that sacrosanct '71 tag.


VDP is quoted as saying that CIFOTM lyrics were absolutely written, just never recorded. Does that mean the '03 lyrics are vintage after all? Either way, unless a long lost sheet is found, they're apparently the best we got. The later 2016 psychology references and that reporter calling it as a cowboy song certainly contradict all that though. I just really hate how neglected this track is, by the band, scholars and the fans. I think if anyone had cared to ask more about it, those lyrics or a general understanding of them might've been saved. To me, it's the Cabinessence of the Life/Innocence tracks, the highlight of the second side/movement and maybe the single best song the group ever recorded.


There seems to be a discrepancy (the only one I noticed) between Badman and AGD's site, where the former attests to a vocal session for Fire (!) on 12/5/66 that is not mentioned by the latter. I'm not even gonna speculate on which source is accurate here, however I will say that I've heard from other people the "oooo" vocals we hear on Fire today are taken from Barnyard. So if that's true, and Badman's supposed 12/5 session really happened, that would mean we lost the original Fire vocals. (I can't imagine the boxset wouldn't use them if they existed--perhaps these are the tapes Brian claims he burned?)


I recall a theory being thrown around that "In the Cantina" and the "Barnshine fade" replaced the "eggs and grits" IIGS bit and Barnyard segment on Heroes, respectively, which Badman corroborates in his entry for 1/27/67. This idea has always made intuitive sense to me. However, since Badman counts "Barnyard" among the songs written by the pair prior to or in Sept '66, as well as listing a session for "the Barnyard Suite" on Oct 20, it would seem that they actually started as part of a separate track until Heroes gobbled them up (at least temporarily) by November 4 when the two are part of the H&V Humble Harv demo. But then by 11/29, at least the title (if nothing else, maybe the track) of IIGS is bestowed to the IWBA-FN pairing as previously discussed in point #9. So, it's probably safe to say the Barnyard/"eggs and grits" snippets are among the most frequently shuffled around feels in the SMiLE cannon, at least that we have evidence for. If I have the timeline right, this would make them the first casualties of Heroes as well as the first to be reborn, predating all the craziness of 1967.


VDP is said to have only visited the studio "infrequently" after "autumn" of '66. The Cabin Essence tag vocals were done on 12/6, which means that must've been where the standoff between Mike and Van occurred. Badman also says that VDP left again for a time on March 2 "following a disagreement, possibly about lyrics." Van would come back 29 days later (March 31) and then leave again for good on April 14 "following another argument." This on-again-off-again relationship between the collaborators was always hazy to me before. The Carlin book and a lot of popular discourse made it seem as though there was one or two climactic arguments with Mike and then he split for good. Then I'd heard about him coming back for awhile, but only once. Now it seems like VDP left multiple times, the first (after August 66) probably because he thought his work was done aka he wrote lyrics for every song presented to him. Then he gets an unexpected call to defend his lyrics, as we know, which made him feel blindsided and slighted. But why he came back after that, and left, and came back again, is mysterious. What convinced him to change his mind each time? What did he even need to be there for, if lyrics for the main songs were already written? Why has nobody pinned him and/or Brian down to a hard timeline? Also, both Badman and Anderle make it clear it was not just Mike but also tiffs with Brian himself, where he enjoyed "dominating" VDP (I suspect turning down some of his ideas, perhaps harshly, and also using him as an on-call improv guy like at the Psychedelic Sounds sessions which I've heard Van hated).


It's also long been my speculation that while Brian had the original "cowboy song" concept of H&V ready to go, the idea of fleshing this out into a full-blown thematic movement of multiple tracks, a journey across America in rejection of the British invasion, was more Van's baby than Brian's. We know Van does that kinda thing in his own solo work, while Brian is more "a rough hodgepodge of wacky niche interests" ala Love You if left to his own devices. Plus, most of the real downcast concepts and music on the album come from the so-called Americana movement (particularly CE, Worms, Mrs O'Leary's Cow) which contradicts the name and stated goal of the album, to make people laugh and put them in a good mood. I can't prove it but I think VDP took Brian's one-off "western musical comedy" and ran with it in a pretentious historical-flagellation direction, with Brian realizing somewhere along the way that this was no longer the project he'd envisioned. Who knows. If we had decent interviewers who did a bit of research and asked informed questions rather than the same generic crap over and over again, but alas...

Left to his own devices, I think a purely Brian Wilson, or Brian & Mike SMiLE would've comprised of maybe a song about the old west, a song about veggies, a song about fitness, a song about laughter, a song about children, a song about astrology, one about numerology, etc. It would've been more straightforward and segmented rather than the "two movement cantata" with interweaving themes, lyrical puns and historical/literary allusions. I'm not saying it would've been better mind you, I love SMiLE as it is, unfinished though it may be. It's become fashionable in some circles to criticize VDP's work on the record but I think he did a fantastic job. Also, this speculation may seemingly contradict what I'm about to say in point #30 below, about VDP acquiesing to Brian's vision, not feeling it's his place to make any hard calls or dictate structure etc. But I'm not saying that VDP ever forced any ideas on Brian in this way, so much as he tossed out some concepts, brought his own "voice" to the collaboration, that influenced Brian to try a direction he might not have otherwise gone. It was a give-and-take, but seemingly somewhere along the way Brian realized "this isn't the vibe I was going for."


When people talk about "how would you finish SMiLE" and "what would it take to get Brian to do SMiLE" a common answer is protools and digital editing. I now wonder if that might've actually driven him even crazier with the possibilities. The same way modular editing made it easier to endlessly tinker with the music, always striving for elusive "perfection," imagine Brian noodling with every possible combination of of stats and dials in Audacity alone, to say nothing of more high-end software.

I think what he really needed was someone who stood in-between the two extremes of the disparaging bandmates and the "it's his project, not my place to call shots" VDP. Someone should've said "Brian, I believe in this project and I know you're making an all-time masterpiece here, but you're gonna miss the moment if you obsess over all the ways it could be better. Just pick one. Flip a coin if you have to. At the end of the day, if you can't settle on a version I will, and that's the end of it. I know it'll knock everyone's socks off whether you use Versions 1 or 2 of WC/CIFOTM/Wonderful. Just get it done and quit stalling." Someone needed to tell him to give up on Heroes and Veggies and just do a piano solo of Surf's Up with the throwaway Holidays as the B-side to get Capitol off his back for a minute. It's infuriating reading the Badman book with Brian wondering "gee what can the B-side be?" and supposedly having Heroes: Side1 done (at least for a hot minute) but then worrying about a useless Part 2 that wouldn't even get any airplay. Someone needed to say "Brian, who cares about the B-side? You've got at least two perfectly fine instrumentals in the can you're never gonna release otherwise--Trombone Dixie and Holidays. Use one of those."

The problem is everyone around Brian was either too acquiescent or too hostile, and the people whose opinions he respected as artists weren't in the band proper, so they didn't feel it was their place to weigh in. He needed a McCartney, a George Martin or a Brian Epstein like figure he perceived as his equal or even superior to set him straight once in awhile, without being an overbearing family-member like Murry and Mike. That's what ruined the band long-term, the dysfunctional family dynamic they were built around.

  :bow   JULIA ~ HAIL U, "J" !«

Fantastic analysis, Julia! Lots to digest and chew over. I'll be back to it.

Your last paragraph in particular really rings true, and I was thinking the same as I read David Leaf's book. "He needed a McCartney, a George Martin or a Brian Epstein like figure he perceived as his equal or even superior to set him straight once in awhile, without being an overbearing family-member like Murry and Mike." Seems like he had those supportive figures in e.g. 1999-2022 in a way that he didn't in 1966-7. That's why in his later years he was able to tour consistently and get so many finished projects out the door.

And right there is perhaps the ultimate burden of being the person in charge who could do things that no one else could do, and also be charged with keeping the "family business" afloat and successful. Yes there is some hyperbole attached to these following notions, but the music Brian was creating - especially from the years 1963 to 1966 - was providing a group of family, friends, and associates a great income and lifestyle that few could have achieved or afforded had it not been for that music.

And it had to sting personally when those same people would pull up in their expensive cars, wearing expensive clothes, and soon to return to their expensive houses with all the trappings of 1960's SoCal wealth before they turned 24 years of age, questioning or even challenging the music which got them to that status in the first place.

Important to note that Brian was doing all of this, i.e. writing, arranging, producing, and performing on those hit records during those watershed 3-4 years while in direct competition with McCartney, Martin, Epstein, and the whole of both the Beatles-led British Invasion and the "folk rock" movement. George Martin is on the record quite a few times all but marveling at the fact that Brian was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting on this music as a one-man operation, while Martin himself was a cog in a multi-spoke wheel that was making The Beatles' music what it was.

So while it would have been nice for Brian to have had such a figure to share the burden and exert such influence in the 60's, he simply did not, and I cannot think of anyone in the band's universe who would have fit that role at that time. And if there had been, would the timeline have led to Good Vibrations being a #1 hit going into early 1967? What Brian probably needed more was validation and appreciation from those around him, and the resultant boost of confidence that he needed for his music up to his final years. It's good he finally got that in the last chapters of his life.

Yeah I agree Guitarfool. Theres no denying Brian was by far the most individually talented member of either bands operation. Absolutely. I criticized him a lot in my original post but the fact that he did so much for the group and they owed it to him to have faith in his muse is still dead-on accurate. Had Brian not been so sensitive and fragile, anyone else wouldve gone solo or threatened to and that wouldve shut the naysayers up real fast if they lnew what was good for them.

Ultimately though we gotta acknowledge that all Brian's partners in this era, creatively and maritally, felt disrespected by him and put off by his irresponsible behavior. Marilyn, Mike, Anderle, VDP ("victimized by [his] buffoonery") and even Asher will admit as much. I think Tony summed him up best, "amazing musician, amateur human bring" (paraphrased). Not trying to sound mean just being honest that even our hero was a shade of gray.

This is an extremely astute analysis, Julia! I have some thoughts which I'm going to share now, and some thoughts which I'm going to share later today or this weekend!


I completely agree that now that we have a detailed timeline of all or at least very close to all of the sessions, and a pretty clear idea of what was recorded when, it is possible to reconstruct the recording and collapse of Smile with a clarity and precision that was just completely and utterly impossible back in the 80s and 90s when a lot of the older conventional wisdom and key sources like LLVS were put together.

On your "humor in between songs" section. We have very few vintage mixes that represented actually finished, mixed, completed songs. One of very few such mixes is the Cantina mix of Heroes and Villains, and the fact that it has a funny shouted interjection (Your Under Arrest!) strikes me as very significant. I am a very strong supported of the 12 discrete songs theory, mainly because (as I've said elsewhere), I think that Brian absolutely intended to use the track listing that Capital records *printed on thousands of record jackets*, and that encompasses the vast majority of songs Brian worked on during the period when he was actually seriously attempting to record an album (which, by March, he was, frankly, no longer doing, as you point out in your comment on Jasper Daily). But I don't see any contradiction between Smile having 12 basically discrete tracks and Smile including spoken interjections and interludes. Given that Our Prayer was intended to be unlabeled, and again the "Your Under Arrest" interjection, I think a huge variety of possible uses of that approach are easy to imagine, and would probably not have actually shown up until the end. The Rock With Me Henry version of Wonderful is also strong evidence for the seriousness of the humor concept in Brian's mind (albeit also strong evidence of an artist losing control of his creative judgement!)

Re: modular recording wasn't worth it -

I sort of maybe agree about Good Vibrations being taken to a point of overkill, but as someone else pointed out in the other long Smile thread from a few years ago (sorry, I can't remember who), for most of the recording process of Smile, before the project (in my view, at least) went off the rails in early 1967, Brian was dedicating each session to a single song, and working pretty efficiently. He was recording the different sections of the song separately, instead of running through the track from the beginning. But not to make work, but probably to save work. He obviously liked the sharp and exciting sound that resulted from tape splices. It also would have made it made it much easier to vary the instrumentation between sections. I think it's worth noting that much modern music is recorded this way and edited together, not because it's more work but because it's less work. With a song as complex as Heroes and Villains or Cabinessence, trying to record the tracks through like on Pet Sounds would have been madness! It would have taken so many takes to get the transitions. Honestly, I've heard modern musicians/producers on youtube absolutely marvel that a song like Wouldn't It Be Nice was recorded in a single take without overdubs!

Okay, I have more to say, but it will have to wait for another time because I have to get back to my actual job. But one last note before I go:

To this quote: "Also, it's a damn shame Phil Spector was such a piece of human garbage." True for so, so, so many reasons, effecting so many people across so many decades. Sometimes I think if Phil Spector had just been, you know, not even nice necessarily, but just a fine, good-enough human being, the whole history of popular music might look different. And, of course, at least one woman would be alive who isn't.

BJL, youre probably right about the modular recording, actually. I may have let the insane Heroes sessions (all to produce a, in my opinion, very flawed presentation of the song) cloud my judgement. I might try to go through each track and count the different sections in each (I believe Worms and CE have three each, Child had two versions but the second is 3 including the bridge I think, Surf's Up is two, etc...) Still though, even just two tracks tinkered with the the extent GV was (Heroes was more, Veggies less but put together it about equals 2 GV worth of sessions I believe) put the album back 6 months.

I agree with you that a 12 track album is preferable to a BWPS or "We're Only In It For the Money" medley too, just saying that Brian felt different at least at one point and its worth noting.

Im trying to think of other instances of humor and coming up with:

Veggies is full of it, I dont think I need to explain that one.

Worms mabe the "east or west indies we always get them confused" was meant to be funny.

CE, possibly the reconnected telephone lyrics (that Badmaneven mentions and quotes in full)

CIFOTM the "wah wah" horn is both a baby crying but from the first time I heard it, it made me think of the "something bad happened but in a funny way" sad trombone esque sound effect.

Surf had the George Fell session implying thatd be an intro too or outro from the song.

IIGS (including workshop) has the "ow!" during the hammering.

Thats all I got for now. Its not something I have evidence for but I also think itsnot out of the realm of possibility that Taxi Cabber be linked to an Americana track since its literally a funny sounding, earnestly self-important cabby giving some stoners directions (trip across America) and its about the Chicago area (link to Mrs OLearys Cow). I used to think Smog mightve been meant for the Elements but its very late recording date probably precludes that.

If you listen to the entirety of the Disc 1 Psych Sounds, which were all recorded the same night, its obvious Brian was only interested in the "falls into Instruments" and "mock argument" thing he eventually got with George Fell and the Veggie Fight. The rest is chants/vocalization experiments and some other skits he doesn't initiate and shows no interest in (Ice Cream Man) plus the last few tracks are just his friends complaining about having to be there and not knowing what this is for

My opinion: Heroes and Villains and Vegetables - but really, the desire to find a follow up single to Good Vibrations out of the existing Smile material, something I'm convinced was not part of the original plan - didn't just put the album back 6 months, it put the album back forever. Which is why I think the point of no return was the decision not to put out the cantina mix in February. If that single had gone out, maybe somehow things could have worked out. Which is just one reason why I think you've absolutely hit the nail on the head with your last few paragraphs from the original post.


I've had that exact same thought reading those exact some quotes (which are also in LLVS, which is where I think I first encountered them).

On a different note, I love the humor element of the album, and I really do agree with you that all the humor stuff Brian was working with was absolutely part of the plan and would have appeared in a variety of ways in a finished album, whatever it looked like. I think it would have happened at the assembly stage, both for the individual songs and the album as a whole, which is why we don't see nearly as much of it in the surviving tracks as I think there would have been in a finished Smile, though of course it's impossible to know for sure.


It's not that I think it's preferable, it's that I think there's a huge amount of evidence that it's what Brian was actually producing through January, though certainly various other ideas were floated now and then. I agree that it's certainly worth noting all the alternative ideas that did float around, some of which influenced proceedings in various interesting ways.

I 100% agree with this. But I also think it's worth reminding ourselves that Brian was dealing with a serious mental illness, almost certainly some kind of schizoaffective disorder (as he was officially diagnosed in the 90s), characterized by both schizophrenia symptoms including delusions and auditory hallucinations, and bipolar/mood disorder symptoms. That kind of mental illness is no joke. To be dealing with something like that without proper medical care and almost no support, no one in your life in any position to help you understand what you were experiencing or how to deal with those symptoms. I can't even imagine how terrifying and lonely that must have been. I say this not to absolve Brian of his bad behavior to the people around him (and I believe Marilyn did try to get him professional help, something he was resistant to). but I do think it's something that we need to keep in mind when we think about his behavior in this era.

This is a kind of weird thing to do, but I want to copy into this thread a post sloopjohnb72 made on page 12 of the other Smile thread, almost exactly three years ago. Just because I think it's incredibly relevant to this conversation, and because I never felt like it got as much purchase in that thread as I thought it deserved.

Oh yep, I remember this post too and it's excellent. I loved the turn of phrase of H&V "consuming" other songs (enough so that last year I spent a good deal of time searching the forum trying to find this exact post, and finally dug it up).

There are valid points here, of course. But the last few lines which I put in bold come to a conclusion based solely on opinion, and to me it's one which also ignores completely how Good Vibrations was created and how that became a #1 single.

Trace the arc and the timeline of Good Vibrations and all the related sessions, reworkings, rerecordings, new edits, and even an abandonment by Brian of the song at one point...only to have the final edit be released and hit #1 on the charts. How long did it take that song to go from its initial writing and that initial "take 1" of the song until Brian had the edit mixed which was the one that we all know?

Was that too not a sign of a stable and healthy mind, or did the success of Good Vibrations validate his working methods which got that song to the finish line?

While I agree that Heroes overall became a bit of an anchor weighing the ship down at times, another point lost in the post above was the intended timeline of when the follow-up single to Good Vibrations was planned to be released. Good Vibrations was still hitting the Top 40 singles surveys across the country (USA) well into January 1967. Why would they want to piggyback another single that soon after a smash single release which was still on the charts? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Chuck Britz "single mix" of Heroes with Cantina made February 10 1967? That would line up with what standard practice of releasing a follow up would suggest be done: Release it as Good Vibrations finally slipped off the charts and station playlists, in other words after it had run its course. Then the new one is ready to launch.

However, apart from Brian trying to get a B-side for the single, what also happened in February '67? The lawsuit against Capitol, effectively either ending or putting a dead stop to the Beach Boys' relationship with that label, either until it got sorted out or as a final separation. Now factor that into the mix of situations surrounding the whole thing, and no one knew when or how the lawsuit would be resolved, with the "when" being the more important element. What would the band even release if they were in the middle of a lawsuit with their label where potentially they'd have a single ready but no label to issue that single and promote it, and no setup of their own yet with the proper channels and relationships to deal with marketing and distributing anything they planned to put out?

So with all this going on, the suggestion that all of the activity around "Heroes" and "Vegetables" and trying to get a workable single ready to go (mind you, temporarily without an actual label for it to go anywhere), we're supposed to believe that all of this was due to an unstable and unhealthy mind, rather than a literal shitstorm of other factors swirling around at the exact time Brian was supposed to have had a single ready? And also, should we ignore how long it took within Brian's working process the year before to get Good Vibrations from the initial session to the final released version that was still charting almost up to February in some US radio markets? That's where I'd counter those opinions and that narrative rather strongly. And we didn't even mention Carl's legal issues, the search for a new house and studio plans, etc. There is too much at play to narrow it down to the old "unstable and unhealthy mind of Brian" conclusion.

 

The lines in bold : Almost everything and everyone is a shade of grey, depending on the variables and the specifics being discussed. Much of reported history can be considered that too, where "the truth lies somewhere in the middle".

However, we don't need to acknowledge something that focuses solely on the negative elements, as is done in the lines above. I'll offer a few counterpoints to what was suggested.

Where would Van Dyke Parks have been if he had never worked with Brian Wilson? Van Dyke himself has said repeatedly that his work with Brian Wilson is what generated enough interest for him to be offered his own record label deal for an album, as well as his entry into a larger and more exclusive part of the music business, rather than being a work-for-hire piano player and arranger. It gave him clout, and he carved out a career thanks in large part to Brian Wilson asking him to work on new music with him in 1966. And that's not opinion, Van himself has said that often.

Where would Tony Asher have been if he never worked with Brian Wilson? Today he is known pretty much by every fan and even the nether regions of the fan base as the guy who collaborated with Brian on Pet Sounds and co-wrote God Only Knows, one of the most highly regarded pop songs of all time at this point. If he had never agreed to work with Brian, he would have probably done some great work in the advertising world...but would anyone in 2025 know his name if not for Brian asking him to write songs with him?

Marilyn was of course his wife, Mike was family. Different sets of parameters there to judge, different experiences. But without Brian, would anyone know her name or even Mike's name if he had not been in The Beach Boys?

David Anderle was a music business guy from the get-go, management, finance, planning, contracts, etc. He was very good at what he did, his resume and work after 1967 is respected and impressive within the music business world. Again, different parameters to judge.

The point is, yes we can cherrypick and repost lines they've spoken about Brian being "irresponsible" and "disrespecting" them. But what do you think the percentage is of those same peoples' comments where they were full of praise and positive comments for Brian and the times they spent with him? 95 to 5? 98 to 2? I don't know, take a guess I suppose.

A suggestion might be to more evenly balance it out by mentioning how the positives far outweighed the negatives in those regards. And if Brian refused to come out of his room to sign a legal document, or disrespected Van Dyke over something or another, or made Tony Asher uncomfortable...look at the results when they're all tallied up. These people owed Brian a lot of gratitude for giving them a golden ticket and holding the door open for them, and I think they realize that and always did much more than the fans.

This ia actually good!

Guitarfool is always putting things in the right perspective.
Ty Julia for starting this great thread.

Zenobi; 'nnuf "Funni Bonez" !«
"Funni~Bonez Zenobi" ! 'nnuf ? «

I just wanna say first of all that I agree with what you and BJL are saying in defense of Brian. Im not here to attack him, I think he's one of the coolest and most sympathetic figures in pop music. If I come off as, let's say, focused on his shortcomings in this particular thread, it's only because I think that with our collective admiration of his talent and criticism of the other people in the story, it gets lost that Brian also rubbed people the wrong way. I tried to go to great pains to point out that I don't think it ever came from a place of maliciousness on his part, just that he's a big kid at heart, hyper-focused on following his muse without thought of "how is Mike gonna feel getting shafted" / "how is Marilyn gonna feel with my taking drugs all the time" / "how is VDP and the Posse gonna feel getting told to come to the studio/airport at midnight?" etc. I think it's important to bring up Brian's lack of consideration for others, however justified it may be considering his condition, in order to understand why everyone left and the project fell apart. Saying he was "a shade of gray" wasn't intended to be a dig, it's just a statement of fact that applies to us all, but I think Brian's shortcomings sometimes get pushed aside in the conversation because he's the genius who made this amazing music so we're all predisposed to love him, yet we weren't the ones getting treated like disposable puppets in order to make it happen. Does that make sense? In any case, I'll leave it there and people can accept where I'm coming from or not.

With regard to your quote here: I think it's both. There was a method to Brian's madness and he got results, surely...until he didn't. I maintain that Brian was too much a perfectionist for his own good. It's been awhile since I listened to Disc 5 of TSS and I did so only once, so I could be misremembering but I don't recall ever thinking "wow those early sessions were so rough but NOW he's got it!" I remember thinking how samey it all sounded, like "yep...there's that same riff again, and again, and again...for god knows how many takes in 20+ sessions over ~7 months." Far be it from me to question the one-man hit machine (NOT sarcasm) Brian's infinitely more talented than me especially musically, but so help me, I just don't hear enough of a leap in quality over all that effort to justify endlessly tinkering with the same song. I feel the same about Heroes mostly, there are some nice snippets that came after February I suppose but nothing that justified withholding the track another 5 months. When I read in the Badman book that Brian didn't even like the master of GV but reluctantly accepted it was all he could do, my first thought was "damn, he's crazy, how could you NOT be satisfied with that song as it is??" I think this is borne of his same obsessive tendency to play slightly different versions of Shortenin Bread for hours at a time in the seventies. We agree that those anecdotes, while very cute, charming "that's our Brian!" are not indicative of a particularly well or productive mind. I'd posit that GV and especially Heroes represent the first emergence of such tendencies in him.

You also hinted at something else I meant to emphasize more in my original post, and will delve into deeper in a follow-up, that the Capitol lawsuit I feel was actually the biggest reason SMiLE didn't get done. I meant to post that yesterday but my internet went down and I had some other stuff come up.

Yes, it put it back six months which then became forever, but point taken.  ;D That's about as good a guess for the "point of no return" as any I'd say. Sometime between January and VDP leaving the second (?) time on March 2 feels right to me, when it becomes clear Brian can't or won't commit to anything in any kind of timely manner. Sometimes you just gotta say "it's good enough" and move on. I get the tendency to want to always make little improvements but it's like George Lucas said "art isn't finished, it's abandoned."


Yeah, it's weird, especially since he didn't seem to care about B-sides before. Freaking GV had an old cut from Pet Sounds, but suddenly something like that was beneath Heroes' dignity. I don't get it.

You mean like when splicing the tape, you'd get more "You're Under Arrests!" between the verses? Makes sense.


Perhaps. It's not something I'm gonna quibble on because, again, I prefer a simpler structure anyway and I think debates about the specifics of SMiLE to some extent are pointless because the plans changed so much and there's so much contradictory evidence. However, just for the sake of pointing out the possibilities and encouraging readers to keep an open mind to them, could it not be said that any linking dialogues or laughs might also have been added at the assembly stage? Just food for thought  :)

I forgot to add a point or two and I have some other SMiLE-related thoughts that I don't think it's worth spamming the board with, so here's some more paragraphs! We'll just call this thread my dumping ground for SMiLE thoughts until I get it out of my system  :P


I wanted to mention before, after reading Badman's book (or the parts relevant to SMiLE anyway) I came away with the distinct impression that the drama with Capitol Records was actually one of the biggest reasons the album failed. Absolutely. I know this aspect of the troubles has been discussed, but I think it's been downplayed by the somewhat overstated boogeymen of Mike's disagreements and drug-exacerbated mental illness. Those were big factors but a recurring theme of the very late '66 through '67 sessions is Brian discovered Capitol was screwing the band out of royalties, wanted to break from the label, and went out of his way to screw them over as a result.

I think Brian started wondering "why am I making this masterpiece million-seller for a company I hate?" Switching to Veggies as the single out of spite and spinning the wheels on half a dozen Jasper Dailey sessions after discovering the stolen royalties seems to corroborate this. I could see him getting off on the thought Capitol wasted a bunch of money on sleeves that are irrelevant come the Smiley remake just as he did when Heroes got replaced with Veggies. For at least half of the '67 sessions he was goofing off, screwing Capitol out of money every way he knew how. (Perhaps it wasn't "bad vibes" that led to session cancellations either, but another opportunity to make Capitol eat it.) At the very least, the idea that his productivity would lead to passive income for the people that hurt him took a lot of motivation out of his own success.

Then, come June (after the last "Dada" session and two weeks after Derek Taylor's hasty announcement) Sgt Pepper is released on the 1st or 2nd--internet is giving me both dates--and he realizes "oh sh*t, I missed my chance. The Beatles got there first. It's over." And the resignation of "why bother, I'll just be seen as an also-ran" sets in. There's that other famous anecdote of Brian hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in the car and thinking he'd lost the race even in late February (exact date is vague but the song was released in mid-Feb and Vosse was there which means it had to be before March anyway). This might coincide with him abandoning the Cantina version of Heroes around the same time, but the dates may be slightly off so don't quote me. He just didn't seem to understand, someone needed to get it in his head "no Brian, YOU came first--with GV and Pet Sounds! They're playing catch-up to you!" But in any case, with Pepper I think whatever drive there still was to get it done vanished, like Game of Thrones overtaking the GRRM books. The timeline fits perfectly with the abrupt shift to the Smiley aesthetic. (I know there was some graduated downscaling in production before, but still, even the less complex Dada sessions sound a lot more involved than anything Smiley.)  

Also, assuming Van wrote all the lyrics as the book clearly states (and if he didn't what the hell was this guy doing for 9 months, seriously?) then the only reason I can think of for why Brian felt VDP was irreplaceable is due to his overly-sensitive need for others' approval. I don't say this to pick on Brian, I'm overly sensitive too, part of why I relate to him so much--avoidance issues as well. Brian is the kind of guy who calls everyone up in the middle of the night to go to an airport just to take a photo with him that could've been done anywhere at anytime just to prove their loyalty to him personally. The way Marilyn phrased it to get everyone to go was "Brian needs to feel he is loved." So I think Brian took VDP leaving as a personal rejection of himself and of the music, IE "even Van doesn't think this album is good enough to finish." Brian, I suspect, wanted Van to fight his battles for him, at least with the other Beach Boys; he wanted his collaborator to defend the merits of the music they were making when he was too passive to stand up for himself. When Van refused to do this, because he wasn't in the band much less family and didn't think it was his place (which is more than fair, Id have felt the same) Brian took it as a sign that the music wasn't worthy of advocacy and lost faith. When Van complained about being summoned to the studio at God knows what hour to play lifeboat or get in a pretend argument, Brian took that as him not believing in the project or not liking him as a person. Makes sense to me, anyway.

In my ideal world, if Brian were not terminally sensitive and dysfunctional as an adult, I think he and Van should've teamed up and been a songwriting/producing team, the American Lennon/McCartney. As Lennon's intellectualism and McCartney's sentimentality balanced each other perfectly while descending into mostly pretentious drivel and corniness apart (I do like some of their solo stuff though), I think Van's well-read, avant garde nature could've been a great yin to Brian's earnest sheltered Hawthorne yang. While I love a lot of what they did apart, SMiLE is head and shoulders better than anything either man did alone (except maybe Pet Sounds); Song Cycle in particular has never done anything for me--too showy and I share Van's dislike of his own voice. Then, in this dream scenario, the Beach Boys find themselves again as a Brian-less group under Carl and Dennis' leadership, which is more or less what happened from Wild Honey through Holland in our timeline anyway. Except here they keep at it and don't crash out with the dead-end Brian's Back campaign. Meanwhile, let Brian make his own series of Love You's and Mt Vernon's with VDP's wittier lyrics. Best of both worlds. Alas...  


I was blown away to read that Murry Wilson actually went on a promotional tour for "Many Moods..." Did the record company really pay for that, and if so did they actually like the music that much or was it out of a favor or wrangling from the old man? In any case, he gives this wild quote to the press on pages 203-205 that's full of genuine compliments about his sons followed by undermining backhanded remarks at their expense. It's almost like he sincerely loves and is proud of them, but has this ingrained need to keep them from getting too big for their breeches at the same time. While Murry was certainly on the extreme end of it, I think a lot of us can see a bit of our own fathers in this dynamic--I know I can. Where my dad meant well but always went out of his way to humble me in front of people or volunteer me to go out of my way to do things for others to "teach [me] humility" and "make [me] a nicer person." I could definitely see my dad from 15-20 years ago speaking about me in this way, though he's mellowed out and even apologized for it in his old age.

Also, it's so interesting how universally the Beatles were considered untouchable as the #1 band. Even liner notes for certain albums (including Pet Sounds & Piper at the Gates of Dawn) justify themselves with anecdotes of the Beatles' approval, when they have no problem standing on their own. The foreward to a book I own about the Velvet Underground (All Yesterday's Parties) proudly calls them the second greatest band after the Fab Four, when you'd think if you're writing a book about someone, they'd be the best in your eyes. Lots of other artists, including Mike and Bruce of our fair Beach Boys, seem to consider the one time they met the Beatles (in India and demoing Pet Sounds) as the crowning achievement of their lives, despite being big stars in their own right. A Jimi Hendrix bio I read (Roomful of Mirrors) considers the time he was invited to a Beatles party and given a joint by Paul as the moment he'd truly made it. Here, the Wilsons' own dad, just flat out says "my boys will never be as big as the Beatles for the foreseeable future" and goes on about how they're all such big fans, especially Carl. When Badman mentions them winning the NME poll as top band of '66, they're flat out apologetic to have taken the top spot from their idols, and on page 186 it mentions Bruce going out of his way to tell Ringo that all the Boys felt it should've been the Fab Four that won instead! I love the Beatles, I recognize their talent and success, but it's kind of odd looking back how everyone sees them as so far above all other acts, so beyond reproach that everyone justifies their own existence in relation to them. It's honestly a little embarrassing how self-effacing everyone is to them. No other group since then has enjoyed that universal, unshakable reverence and I don't think they ever will.


I made one more mix during the time I was away from the board. I'd grown dissatisfied with some of the decisions for the Romestamo Cut like separating OMP from the Americana tracks and putting it as the penultimate song before Surf's Up. Also, I'd always wanted to do a version of SMiLE that begins with the Heroes intro usually reserved for Fire. I thought that abrupt, frantic-yet-goofy beginning would be perfect for SMiLE rather than the much slower, arguably pace-killing Prayer opening that's been done to death. (Not trying to step on anyone's toes and I get why it's a popular opener, but I personally am so sick of SMiLE mixes beginning with Prayer). In case anyone's interested I'll share it below. I'm not the technical wizard that seltaeb and soniclovesnoise are, so it's not some high-end stereo rearrangement, more of a re-sequencing.

I call it "Voynich SMiLE" after the other famously unsolved puzzle, the Voynich Manuscript.

    Heroes and Villains [includes H&V intro segment usually paired with “Fire.”]
    The Barnyard Suite [“Old Master Painter”/”My Only Sunshine”]
    Do You Dig Worms?
    Cabin Essence
    The Elements Suite [Fire/Undersea Chant/Breathing-Moaning Laughing/]
    Vega-Tables [Earth, and this includes “Veggie Fight” skit]

    Wonderful [includes “I’m in Great Shape” segment as an intro]
    Wind Chimes [includes part of “Holidays”]
    Child is Father of the Man
    Surf’s Up [includes “George Fell Into His French Horn”]
    Good Vibrations [includes “Prayer” as an intro]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/iz06y6lklmcx5n3zh4o1h/AM8ykivvqI7Jm8da1HJ3bvw?rlkey=xqvbx3ihysfjz8g63qurt4z9t&e=1&dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/iz06y6lklmcx5n3zh4o1h/AM8ykivvqI7Jm8da1HJ3bvw?rlkey=xqvbx3ihysfjz8g63qurt4z9t&e=1&dl=0)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1094YIfksGWt1qt6D6sIBSPmD5W_RF0im (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1094YIfksGWt1qt6D6sIBSPmD5W_RF0im)

And now, after finding myself unsatisfied again, the way I always am with one version of SMiLE after too long, I'm planning on making another attempt at a personally definitive mix--we'll see how long this one lasts. Hopefully it'll be done in the next two weeks before I go on vacation and if not then almost definitely by the end of the summer.

This time, I'm ditching the attempt at an "accurate with what we have" singular-elements track and just going with what sounds good. For me, as with most people including the man himself come '03, that means a standalone Fire, Veggies and possibly Dada if I include that one at all. They won't be a contiguous "elements suite" just separate tracks on the album.

It's still gonna be the same Side1: "Americana/Journey Across Space" -- Side2: "Life Cycle/Journey Across Time" groupings because, even trying to break out of that structure and do something wild and different for its own sake (like the whole album interspersed with segueing Heroes fragments), it really is just the format I keep coming back to. I can't claim it's what Brian would've done but I think there's at least as much or more evidence for it as anything else and it sounds right to me. In 10+ years, my muse has never compelled me to stray from it and with how much my mind changes about everything else regarding this music, I find that significant.

However, where on my previous mixes I broke up the Wonderful-IRan-CIFOTM-Surf order so as to try something different, put an alternate take out there, here I'm just going with what works. None of my attempts at making a "better" sequence for this section have topped what Brian did in '03. I'm not going to limit myself to the Dec tracklist anymore either, though Holidays is definitely out, I Ran is back and possibly Dada/CCW. (Dada, if I decide to keep it, won't come between any tracks in the BWPS part-2 grouping, where in Aquarian SMiLE it came before Surf's Up.)

Also, it's really rare to see "You're Welcome" as the opener, despite it building to a crescendo that feels weird (to me) as an ending the way it's often used (if indeed it's included at all). Since I had YW lead into Heroes in Aquarian SMiLE, this time I'll put it before Worms, which I recall Sheriff John Stone making a compelling case as the first song on the album back in the day. (First on tracklist, introduces the journey across America concept, it kinda slows the album down elsewhere, has "Once Upon a..." lyrics, etc.) This is a nice opening combo I haven't seen anyone else try, so why not be the first?

Here's my plan for each track:

1. Do You Dig Worms (better title than "like," now it's a pun) [You're Welcome/Worms Proper, a version with and without AI vocals, with the "east or west indies" somewhere, like the Hawaiian section or maybe over the fade, maybe the "Whistle In" whistling over the last "Rock Rock, Roll..." part, possibly a bit of Taxi Cabber buried low in the fade, with the "foreboding Hawaiian instrumental part*" gradually getting louder in that part of the song]
*This: https://youtu.be/p7-Nd13f0pQ?si=wZrukzEotgabyylm&t=122 (https://youtu.be/p7-Nd13f0pQ?si=wZrukzEotgabyylm&t=122)

2. Heroes and Villains (this one is most likely to change) [Flutter Horn as quick opening/Verse1/"Once a night Cotillion..." Verse/In the Cantina w/ "Swedish Frog" overdubbed/"My Children were Raised" Verse/"Threescore and Five"/"Lalala-stand'a'fore" Verse/"doodoodoo-dubayduwah" Verse/MAYBE"eggs and grits" tape explosion or Whistling Bridge/Prelude to Fade/Slow Verse, ending abruptly "by the Heroes and..." and using Barbershop* overdubs here/Barnyard]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCFuabFw6rc&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=32 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCFuabFw6rc&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=32)

3. Old Master Painter [Maybe AI OMP vocals/YAMS/Fade with "He Gives Speeches" vocals]

4. Cabin Essence [Maybe AI "Reconnected Telephones" lyrics in first chorus]

5. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow [Possibly with Heroes Intro/Fire/Workshop rebuilding after fire]

6. Vega-Tables [Veggie Fight over fade]

7. Second Day [Water Chant, Possibly Dada with flutes and maybe Breathing, unsure, maybe Geroge Fell here?]

8. Wind Chimes [simpler GV box version with fade, which I understand was a vintage edit unlike 2011, maybe Breathing here over fade?]

9. Wonderful [IIGS soft instrumental as opening/W proper/possibly with With Me Tonight as a fade, or a Heroes outtake like Part 1 Tage and the Wonderful Insert if it fits]

10. I Ran [Possibly AI vocals of BWPS even if it's not vintage]

11. Child is Father of the Man [Piano bridge as opening/Chorus/verse/different chorus/Version 1 verse/Version 1 chorus]

12. Surf's Up [Brian vocal for Part 1/maybe talking horns buried low and strings for Part 2/Hope if I can get isolated CIFOTM reprise vocals for fade then just them and wailing horns for that part]

13. Dumb Angel [Im gonna have Prayer at the end no matter what, but especially if this mix is on the short side or I decide against including Dada, this'll be Prayer then H&V Pickup to Third Verse or Bridge to Indians then H&V: Piano Theme* or Part 2 Master Take**]
*This:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyjp-7cLRnQ&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=21 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyjp-7cLRnQ&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=21)
**This:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H5blrpykA&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=27 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H5blrpykA&list=PL4jIq7wqF8Qe9-mMfvmSCloXvhSw1l67S&index=27)

I'll call it "Dumb Angel, Sandalphon" so the initialism is "SAD" backwards, which I feel like is so silly yet so perfect that if you showed it to '67 Brian and said "I know you're a bit put off by how sad some of this music is sounding as opposed to the happy vibe you want to put out, but look! It's sad in reverse, like a film negative, or negative theology, you need the opposite to express what's happy!" I want to believe that's all it would've taken to solve everything, like a Zen riddle as I've heard it said SMiLE was. Also, Sandalphon is said to be the angel of music and the one who gathers everyone's prayers to take to Heaven.

I haven't even read your last post yet (again, technically a work day over here!), and hope to contribute more at length this weekend, but just want to jump in to say that I think my point got lost somewhere (which was definitely my own fault). I actually agree with you! I think it is not only plausible, but maybe more likely than not, that there would have been little jokes or dialogues between the tracks on a finished Smile! What I was trying to say originally is that I don't think it's an either-or between accepting the 12 song track list and having jokes and dialogues between the songs, because I think the jokes and little spoken exclamations or chants or whatever would simply not have been listed in the track list! And exactly, I think they would have been added at the assembly stage, which of course was never reached :)

I look forward to it!

No worry about "fault," it's all good. And yeah I totally feel you on that! Even just now, revisiting Disc 2 of TSS I rediscovered another such instance as "You're Under Arrest" where Brian says "This One's For You, Punk!" that was clearly meant in the same vein. We have no clue what other kinds of jokes like that he might've done. I could see something like an annoyed wife in CIFOTM complaining about that incessant baby's cry, for example.

I don't disagree with any of this. What happened in 1967 cannot be reduced to any one factor or narrative; a huge number of things contributed to Smile not being finished. The only explanation which I, personally, reject wholesale is that Smile wasn't finished because the project was too creatively ambitious for the recording technology of the time. I believe the evidence overwhelmingly shows that Brian Wilson was *capable* of finishing Smile. But other than that, I think every single angle is worth considering and virtually every factor in the album's failure that's ever been raised has, in fact, played some role. Choosing to highlight this or that issue in any given post should not be taken as my saying that that's the *only* factor.

I don't really know whether the way Brian approached Heroes and Villains was right or wrong, healthy or unhealthy. I agree with the sloopjohnb72 quote you pull out above, but I fully recognize that it is an opinion, my personal judgement, and in no way, shape, or form a fact.

What I think is a fact, or something very close to a fact, is that Brian's effort to finish Heroes and Villains and then Vegetables as a suitable follow up to Good Vibrations made finishing Smile impossible between January and April of 1967, because he was dedicating so many sessions to the single that he could not reasonably have resumed work on the album as a whole until he either mixed a finished single or abandoned it.

Your comment about Good Vibrations made me want to, in fact, trace the arc of the recording of Good Vibrations, and I ended up literally counting sessions. (I know, I know, obsessive behavior! What can I say, Smile is an addiction!):

Pet Sounds was recorded in 37 documented studio sessions between the first Sloop John B session in July, 1965 and the final mastering of the album on April 19, 1966. 33 of those sessions were done in three months of consistent work between January 18 and April 19, 1966.

Good Vibrations was recorded in 17 sessions between April 9 and the final mix-down at Columbia on Sept. 26.

Not counting the Good Vibrations sessions, all the songs we know as Smile were recorded in some form between the first Heroes and Villains session on May 11 and the end of the year.

In 1966, there were 40 non-GV Smile sessions, 34 of which took place in the three months between October 3, when work on the album really picked up in earnest, and December 28. Brian is working at almost the exact same pace as Pet Sounds.

Between January 3 and April 14, slightly more time than Brian had had spent on Pet Sounds between January and April and Smile between October and December, Brian held 43 sessions. He dedicated 20 sessions to Heroes and Villains (he had already worked on H&V at 9 sessions in 1966). He dedicated 11 sessions to Vegetables, 6 sessions to Dennis and Carl’s songs, and 4 sessions to Jasper Daily. In January, he also took one session to rerecord Wonderful in a notably inferior version (a track that had been mixed to mono and labeled as a master on October 6), and also held the famous January Surf’s Up session on which I need not speculate here.

That’s 43 sessions which produced 2 unfinished singles, 2 unfinished Dennis/Carl songs, whatever was recorded of the Jasper Daily album, and a crappy rerecord of Wonderful.

On May 6, Taylor made his famous “Smile has been scrapped” announcement. On May 15, Brian picked up again with Love to Say Da Da, but quickly shifted gears to Smiley Smile.

 BJL, what's about all those 1766/1767 dates? Some kind of autocorrection? It reminds me of those AI-generated graphics where everything is perfect except a person has 8 fingers on the right hand.

Just a little test...

1966

1967

Seems normal.

LOL!!!! I am a colonial historian in my day job, and I am writing a book about the 18th century! So basically I type 1766 all the time and 1966 almost never  :lol Sorry about that! My brain just did it, I didn't notice at all.....

I edited the post :) Still laughing about this in my head, though!

Ty for the explanation, and the editing! I was really curious, and the explanation is really interesting. So it was the historian in you doing the autocorrection. :)

Excellent thread, thanks to all but especially Julia for bringing together so many of the key elements involved in what happened to SMiLE in the crucial first five months of 1967. I'm also glad to see efforts continuing to provide us with alternatives for the version completed by Brian & Van Dyke (with the stalwart assistance of Darian Sahanaja); those speculative reconstructions are part of what keeps SMiLE unique amongst popular music masterpieces.

As I see it, though, there are some loose threads that tend to get swept under the rug when it comes to the events that triggered the SMiLE to Smiley shift, and I think those should be "read into the record" in order to see how SMiLE and Brian's attempt to guide the band into a different working dynamic was ultimately unable to materialize over the year following the decision to leave the "orchestral SMiLE" under wraps and press forward with a fledgling form of creative democracy. I think Julia's notion that Brian abandoned his central role in creating music in the June 1967-June 1968 period is inaccurate based on what we know now about the WILD HONEY and FRIENDS sessions; this doesn't occur until there is a return of the career crisis that those two LPs were supposed to address.

Certainly SMiLE foundered for all the reasons mentioned, including the legal and logistical aspects that GF laid out for us. But we have to careful not to conflate the stories we've heard into a scenario that suggests Brian was suffering from "clinical" issues in the April-May 1967 timeframe. He was just buffeted by a series of events that led him inexorably to shelve his production approach for the SMiLE material. A great deal of it was reworked into the more lo-fi variants that form the bulk of Smiley (leaving out "With Me Tonight," "Little Pad," and "Gettin' Hungry").

As has been discussed in the earlier mega-thread, a meeting in late May 1967 must have occurred to determine what was going to happen in order to regain forward momentum (though we have little to no concrete evidence of it). I suspect that the band discussed several key items at that time, including but not limited to: 1) how Brian could bring the rest of the band into the songwriting/production process; 2) what opportunities would accompany a pending new relationship with Capitol; 3) a road map for getting an LP done ASAP; 4) a full-blown plan to create a home studio at Bellagio; and 5) an understanding that Brian would be able to pursue outside productions (along with the rest of the band) and that he would quite likely return to the "orchestral SMiLE" in some way .

5) remains highly speculative, and it's certainly possible that Brian didn't get as explicit about this shifting arrangement as he needed to be (which would explain why and how the Wally Heider/Redwood incident occurred in October 1967). But GF's discovery of Brian's comments to the Honolulu press in August 1967 clearly points to the idea that he was envisioning a less central role in the band to be a likely outcome in the not-too-distant future. (This all fits in with Julia and BDL's rather poignant commentaries on Brian's tragic fragility, something that would manifest itself in a series of stages beginning with the Wally Heider incident and his subsequent efforts on WILD HONEY and FRIENDS that extended into mid-1968. That summer was the actual flashpoint for Brian's mental health issues, the cumulative effect of an unsuccessful attempt to chart a path back to commercial prominence that left him creatively incapacitated for months and thrust Carl & Dennis into the breach (so to speak).

I'm still of the opinion that Brian did have plans for an "orchestral SMilLE," and that this was at least part of what he was alluding to in the Honolulu interviews. And my guess is that the early October 1967 run-through of "Surf's Up" was a prelude to figuring out how he'd start to put that together. Other speculators (including some who frequent that other not-faraway-enough place...) speculate that Brian never quite figured out how to orchestrate the song; this session, with its key change alteration, might have been an experiment to assist him in doing so. In any case it appears that the Wally Heider incident had the effect of subverting any plans he might have had (as well as scuttling his plans for Redwood)--it became clear that a more urgent songwriting/production cycle was mandated by the need for the Beach Boys to quickly counter the bewilderment that had greeted SMILEY.

David Leaf summarizes this situation in his most recent book: "...the message from the Beach Boys to Brian seems clear. Work with us. Or don't work at all."
I'd guess that this was a slowly tightening straitjacket for Brian, which he countered with a quirky, all-over-the-map LP (FRIENDS) that bombed commercially. As with "Heroes & Villains" previously, Brian couldn't find the handle on "Can't Wait Too Long," which might have been a terrible deja vu moment for him. (See the notion of "flashpoint" above. This was followed by Carl & Dennis appropriating "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence" for 20/20, which likely created a sufficient level of desolation in Brian that he had to simply put SMiLE out of his mind at that point. He would have to relive this several times in the next few years, most prominently when Carl & Jack Rieley decided that in order to leapfrog over the commercial abyss that had cruelly followed the release of SUNFLOWER, they had to resurrect "Surf's Up."

With all of that, it's no wonder Brian circled the wagons for so long regarding SMiLE. But doing so created a much more powerful myth that fascinated and motivated many over the following three decades, which resulted in the triumphant emergence of BWPS (in a form that was perhaps more reminiscent of fan-based speculation than the sidetracked original vision for SMiLE) and the incredible range of fan mixes we've encountered. I think Julia's ideas are refreshingly different and I look forward to hearing the "DAS mix" in the near future. (Someone should ask David whether or not he ever broached the subject of SMiLE fan mixes with Brian--I'd be interested to see how Brian felt about all that--flattered, insulted, etc. Did bringing it to a resolution close a door on it all for him, or could he appreciate the zealous fascination that the SMiLE saga had spawned?)

That's so sad to consider, that even Brian never knew what the orchestration was. Do you have a theory for the missing tape of string players from Surf's Up, or what Talking Horns was all about? For the latter, just a series of experiments that didn't work out?

Personally, my image of Brian as this untouchable genius is such that the idea even he couldn't crack a song's code is almost unfathomable. The only track I ever considered this may've happened with is the Elements, and even then I assumed his hangup was "how do I make this work as a 4-part instrumental" not necessarily "how do I make compelling melodies that embody the elements?"


Yeah. I think there is still legitimate reason to criticize the other guys for being unsupportive of Brian, even if the "Mike killed SMiLE" narrative is somewhat overstated. As the appologists have said, the other bandmates had every right and reason to be skeptical of this work and Brian's behavior. I even come around to that line of thinking the more I read about the sessions and Brian's behavior. However, what really ticks me off on his behalf is their sense of ownership over this grown man's creative output, ESPECIALLY when combined with the constant criticism and disappointment with it, going all the way to Adult/Child. If you don't like where the man's muse is taking him, let him work with others that believe in it. If you realize you'd be nothing without him, shut up and bring his vision to life and be grateful for it. But one or the other. You don't get to say "Brian, keep making music! [...] No, not like that!" Or "this new music disgusts me" (which Mike is quoted as saying, and arguably more hurtful than 'don't f with the formula') only to pilfer it when it suits you, out of context and without permission. 


Thank you, and I agree! I wish Brian wasn't so closed-off about these things, though I completely understand why he was. I'd give anything to hear his thoughts on fanmixes and the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg.

Another fantastic and thoughtful post for this increasingly wonderful thread!!

I want to just clarify that I don't mean to argue that Brian's mental illness or instability significantly worsened in early 1967 and this is a fundamental reason Smile didn't happen. I don't actually think that. So far as I can tell, the two main flash points happened in the 64-65 era, when Brian first started dealing with various symptoms of mental illness (obviously wrapped up in the immense pressure he was under professionally and personally), and the 68 moment you point to. I think you can begin to see some of those struggles manifesting in Brian's approach to making music in 1967, but I'm not really sure how important a factor it was in Smile's non-appearance. Despite my relative sympathy to Mike Love's position in this era, I do think resistance from the band (and lack of the kind of supportive, independent external voice of reason that Julia bemoaned in her first post), as well as all the bullshit with Capital Records were really key.

I agree with you about the themes you outline as central concerns in the moment of Smile's transition to Smiley, but I do wonder about how abrupt this turning point was. (I do recognize that this was a major point of contention in that last thread, so sorry if I'm opening a can of worms). Obviously a meeting or series of meetings must have been held at this moment, but whether things were really fully talked through, or talked around, or left frustratingly unsaid... I dunno. Also, I think it's pretty significant that EITHER Brian was trying to get Carl and Dennis both in the studio practicing production and orchestration OR Carl and Dennis were taking initiative to work on those skills earlier in 1967 seems pretty significant. As, frankly, do the Jasper Daily sessions, as (maybe) a way to keep working without working on Smile? And then, the Rock With Me Henry version of Wonderful from January 9th is at least a big step towards the Smiley aesthetic. I'm not saying that that big meeting didn't happen, just adding that its seeds had been percolating for a long time...

I agree with you about the plausibility of Brian thinking about returning to the Smile material in fall, 1967, and I think the idea that that piano run through was a way of Brian thinking through how to orchestrate the song is also plausible. I also agree with you that the Beach Boys commercial problems clearly derailed Brian in this moment, although how anyone who heard Smiley Smile could possibly have imagined a different reception is pretty inconceivable to me, so on some level there shouldn't have been a surprise there? Or did the "squares" around the group and at the record label really have so little understanding of where pop music was going that Smiley seemed like a plausible direction for a successful record?

But I cannot resist beating my favorite dead horse, and saying that, while I recognize that this kind of speculation is both fun and more or less necessary to making sense of Smile's story, I also really don't think there's much evidence that Brian didn't know how to finish Surf's Up, or, for that matter, The Elements. Did Brian stop work on Surf's Up because he didn't know how to orchestrate the second half? Or because that January session went so badly? But given that he was back in the studio doing intensive work on Heroes and Villains 4 days later, I think it's just as likely that he was just focused on finishing Heroes and Villains first. (Notable, too, that the run of sessions immediately following the last mysterious Surf's Up session was notably productive, leading around Feb 10th to an actually finished A Side that Brian was ready to release, although, alas, he changed his mind soon after.


I think this is all well put. I don't think I knew or had remembered that Dennis and Carl had insisted on Cabinessence and Our Prayer going on 20/20 over Brian's objections? Although I guess even if Brian had been enthused by the idea on some level, or some part of him, that wouldn't mean that it might not also have led to deeply conflicted or difficult feelings. I will say that I just really wish they had taken Do You Dig Worms too, because in '68 it would probably have been just as easy to finish as Cabinessence. And now it will never be finished...

OMG I'd forgotten all about that weird slide guitar solo! It's so cool!


I really love this idea. I think it's a beautiful description of why, for me at least, even the darkest aspects of the Smile music have never felt like they don't belong under that name.

All I would offer hopefully without detailing the enthusiasm is that Keith Badman's book isn't a reliable resource for anything, really. Just about everything from him in the original post can be thrown out. Making it up and getting the real information backwards is kinda that book's whole thing.

On 20/20: Brian oversaw the overdubs on Our Prayer, not a case of the group working without him. Carl produced the mixdown. Cabin Essence was finished with Brian's consent and guidance but not his hands-on participation. It was again Carl specifically who produced the final additions and mixing.

On Psychodelic Sounds: Brian gave his thoughts in 2011 when he called that stuff the biggest load of junk he'd ever heard and kept wanting to skip past it. Really interesting window into his creative process for us, but not something Brian remembered or cared for beyond the hour-and-a-half-ish it took him and his friends to fill a few reels one night in a cloud of smoke.

On fall '67 Surf's Up: Brian briefly thought about putting it on Wild Honey. It was to be heard as it was played, not a demo or sketch for some future idea. The plan probably dissolved five minutes after listening to the playback.

I knew there were mistakes but didn't know it was that bad?! What a shame, really. I do think much of what Julia deduced from Badman in the first post is also supported by Bellagio and various primary sources! With some exceptions I'm afraid...


That is more what I thought... I do wonder to what extent this felt like a moment when Smile was being given up on, somehow... or if it was just an opportunity to get some cool music out into the world... It would be great to know how Brian felt about it. Almost certainly unknowable, I imagine.


Just out of curiosity, how do you know this? (I am not challenging you!) Is it something Brian or someone else remembered when the tape was found? Or is there some kind of evidence about it being intended for Wild Honey in the surviving documentation accompanying the tape?

I wonder what the world would have made of that version of Surf's Up on Wild Honey. It would have fit, in a weird way, I think. But then, in another way obviously not at all. I do think it's really interesting that Brian twice seems to have considered that Surf's Up was best treated as a solo piano piece. I personally think the arrangement he did for the first movement is one of his most beautiful, so it's always seemed a shame to me that he never worked up an equivalent arrangement for the rest. And clearly, he intended a kind of choral finale... But there is a way in which the song really unfurls its secrets so effectively in the piano-vocal mode. I guess there's nothing original in that thought... But what a gift that 1967 version is, in any case!

I tried a ctrl+F "Badman" and it was basically: made up from the ether, conjecture, badly out of context, made up, out of context again, whackily misinterpreted, made up, conjecture, etc. Not the fault of anyone reading it, obviously. You just usually can't go a couple of paragraphs in that book without something being wrong.

"Is it something Brian or someone else remembered when the tape was found?"

Exactly that, Brian was in good form and talkative when hearing it again for the first time. He actually did remember the recording, and when asked if he was planning to put it on Wild Honey, he answered that yeah, he was thinking about it. It took about ten minutes to do, he didn't splice any of the takes together, and then it was straight onto cutting the basic track for Country Air with Carl.

Nah, by all means speak your piece. You're not derailing anything. But I will ask you to defend your assertion if you don't mind. How do we know Badman's book is phony and/or what assertions did I make from the book that are disputed by other, better sources? I ask this in search of the truth, I have no personal stake in Badman's book being seen as a legit source or not. I obviously assumed it was and based on what I read from the Pet Sounds through SMiLE, Surf's Up and 15BO/LY Eras I saw nothing that jumped out at me as obviously phony. His timelines and descriptions of the SMiLE sessions seemed to corroborate what I remember reading from Vosse, for example.

The ~2 things that I'd be most "willing" to accept as falsehoods are the discrepancy with Bellagio on a later Fire session with vocals as well as the Beach Boys expecting SMiLE to be released concurrent with their tour of mainland Europe in late Spring of '67. And that's because I trust AGD personally and as a source plus the latter assertion just defies common sense unless there's more info we don't know. (I speculated maybe the group refused to do more vocal sessions with VDP's lyrics and Brian might've said "if you won't do it, I'll do em myself and you won't even be on the record!" and they must've said "fine, you won't have the guts!" and obviously he didn't. That's the only scenario I can think of that'd make them think SMiLE might've been ready in that timeframe if they hadn't recorded vocals for most tracks, at least as far as we know.)

I don't see any obvious agenda being pushed at least during the sections of the book I read. Mike Love is not framed as some nefarious source, nor is VDP and the Posse, nor even Brian though it doesn't shy away from his flaws. (Nor should it, frankly I'm a little tired of the superfans pretending his behavior somehow wouldn't be totally alienating to others--there's a reason literally everyone got sick of him by the end of the SMiLE sessions...) I'm open to being enlightened on this matter though.


Fair. I skipped over the WH through Sunflower and then Holland sections of the book because I'm not interested in the "Carl-led years" at this point in time.

If you're referring to the comments I made about those songs being pilfered without his permission, I mostly stand by my assertion. While Brian may have offered his blessing and oversaw aspects of the production, I've always interpreted it as a very reluctant gesture, putting the good of the band before his artistic integrity. That may be bias, may be putting the SMiLE material on a pedestal (it must be whole or it's been defiled) but it's the impression I had from the other sources I've read and fits with the way Brian is passive to a fault, letting the other guys push him around. For me, the Redwood incident and arguably the breakup of SMiLE itself (depending on how much blame you assign to the group's lukewarm-to-hostile reactions depending on the source) fits this pattern of behavior. I know including SU on the album of the same name was far from a pleasant agreeable process either. While Brian did rush in to teach them the Child coda, it was last minute after a ton of agonizing (my reading of the anecdote from several sources anyway) and I recall from I believe the Carlin bio (it's been 15 years, forgive me if I'm wrong on this) there was a scene where Brian sat on a swing-set crying as Carl told him they were gonna use SU on the next album whether he liked it or not. If I'm wrong, I take my words back if you could provide a better source, please.


I don't doubt this but could you share a link or citation please? It does ring true; I think older Brian was pretty disgusted or embarrassed by a lot of the "out there" parts of the SMiLE canon, especially by the 2000s. I just mean, I wish we had definitive confirmation of what the plan was for those "falling in an instrument" and "mock fights" scenes but especially by 2011 Brian's so different and more well-adjusted he probably dismisses it as hippie stoner nonsense too. It's like the stereotype of film executives on cocaine thinking their every inane idea is totally brilliant. And I admit I've been high and thought I was writing/experiencing something super profound but then looked at my notes later and realized it was either dumb or gibberish. I'm willing to accept that's how Brian views the more avant garde aspects of SMiLE now, and while I would like to talk to '66 Brian to get in his head, that guy's long gone and was even when the man was still alive. Ah well.


I'm somewhat glad he didn't; I don't think SU works on Wild Honey or even Smiley Smile. The tracks on Smiley, it seems to me, were carefully chosen as those that could exist outside the SMiLE context (Wonderful could just be female teen angst/growing pains and Wind Chimes are already the least SMiLE-song in terms of subject matter, etc) or reworked versions of other tracks from the '66 sessions to be as removed from it as possible (Whistle In is from Worms but now without the Americana or historical white guilt, etc) Anything that was too "deep," too innately serious or entwined in the SMiLE DNA was left off, especially SU as that was supposed to be the crown jewel. It wouldn't really work in the goofy Smiley aesthetic with weird singing intonations and glasses pouring and laughing. But it also wouldn't work with WH and the R&B vibe that had, nor the Friends aesthetic either. It might've been on 20/20 like the other 2 but I suspect that song in particular was always special to Brian and he didn't want it used in the wrong context.

This seems to be a hot take but I don't think it works even in '71. It always feels like whiplash to me on that album, though at least it's in better company rubbing elbows with "Til I Die" and even "A Day in the Life of a Tree" than it would've been on an album of scraps.

Maybe I was a little harsh by saying 'anything', but that's been the rep in Beach Boys circles since the thing came out. Badman wasn't guilty of pushing agendas, or something like that - the problem is that he compiled swathes of information and knocked out the text in a hurry without properly researching the material on his hands. Quite regularly, you'll find one of the entrenched anecdotes from an interview or article arbitrarily assigned to one of the dates on his calender, just dropped there innocuously as fact. This isn't a Smile exclusive problem, it's recurrent throughout the whole book. There's also a lot of information from primary sources that's misinterpreted in a weird way without clarifying how he got to that conclusion, and a LOT of making things up from thin in air. I mean, a lot. Pet Sounds is especially egregious for a whole load of session dates he just... invented. Out of nothing. God knows why it's like that. On the live show side, Ian Rusten's beachboysgigs.com site is pulling the long haul to correct all of the problems it has with those.

I'll just pull out a few at random so you get the idea - in no way meant to put a downer on your post (but you know that already).


So, this one comes from the title on the AFM contract reading "FRIDAY NIGHT (I'm in great shape)." This isn't repeated on the tracksheet or slated on tape, where the only titles are set down clearly as "I Wanna Be Around" and "Friday Night." May not be nothing, but it also isn't uncommon for title mistakes and oddities to turn up on an AFM sheet, which were primarily a means to an end to get people paid (E.G., one of the "Child is Father of the Man" sessions was accidentally written as "Cabin Essence"). Badman ignores any grey area and runs with it. His description of what happened at the October 17 session logged in Capitol's files as "I'm in Great Shape" is also total fabrication.


Total conjecture, adding 2 plus 2 to get 6. A couple of booked sessions at the end of March were cancelled. They didn't have titles and they didn't involve string players.


That's a loose quote from Jules Siegal assigned to a date at random. The last time Van Dyke Parks can actually be confirmed attending a session is March 1.


These are also just him... making stuff up.


You already guessed, but this date for a session and the very idea of a Fire vocal session is spun into existence from nothing, for some reason.




All of Brian's comments while listening to a draft assembly of the Smile Sessions box in 2011 were recorded for posterity.

Yeah no worries, I dont take any of this as a put down. If you don't mind though, I'd love a recommendation for a better source that has the same breadth when it comes to the SMiLE sessions and maybe Surfs Up. I notice the wikipedia page for SMiLE has vastly improved over the last 15 years since I first read it. Where before it seemed like Beautiful Dreamer and the David Leaf "Brian and the 5 Assholes" narrative was dominant now it seems more even-handed and cross-indexed, with every song having its own detailed article to boot! I pulled up the few other books cited as references which are available on the Internet Archive to skim through; I was gonna make a follow-up in that vein for this thread, and keep a list of the sources I could not immediately read as well. Maybe you might tell me which of them are worthiest of the time to read?

Besides the two questionable anecdotes I mentioned in my first reply to you, the other thing I notice is those lost Psychedelic Sounds tracks don't seem to be referenced anywhere else and if they really were on the "same tape" as the others from November it just doesn't make sense why they'd be left off. Were they so boring that even the person who released Psychedelic Sounds said "nah, nobody needs to hear this" or was there some cussing or hidden homophobic rant that would've hurt the band's image? Just doesn't jive with me, but also it'd be such a ridiculous thing for Badman to make up out of nowhere.


I see. That's disappointing because to me that tied up a rather annoying SMiLE mystery; the true identity of IIGS as listed on the tracklist. I refuse to think Brian would've included the brief snippet we know, or even the almost-equally brief instrumental segment dated 10/27/66 on the TSS boxset as a singular track. It couldve meant to be another name for the Barnyard suite but it's difficult to imagine how the two would go together well musically, and with the quote of BYS having "saws and hammering" it seemed to tie the two together in a way that fits and just makes everything make sense. But it's like getting definitive answers with this stuff is as tricky as pegging down quantum gravity and the true nature of dark matter.  :P

Even if it's "wrong" though, do you think this mistake might've influenced IIGS' "eggs and grits" verse's place on BWPS as an intro to IWBA? Seems to fit the pattern of bootlegs, fan mixes and misdirection bleeding into the final product that we see in a lot of that project's tracklist anyway.


For this, I'm going to require a bit more from you. Because it isn't just Badman listing sessions as cancelled under specific track names but also AGD's Bellagio site.
http://www.bellagio10452.com/gigs67.html (http://www.bellagio10452.com/gigs67.html) With two, let's call them "semi-reliable" sources at the very least, testifying to the same thing, I'd need to see something hefty in order to discount them both.


Again, I'm willing to believe you over the book and certainly VDP's coming and going back and forth doesn't make much intuitive sense to me, but I would like to know how you're so sure if you don't mind. Even just a half-remembered "pretty sure I read this in X book" would be very appreciated so I could weigh sources, please.


That would make sense since Badman's take on Smiley seemingly contradicts what I recall reading elsewhere. If you could recommend a good read on this very murky period in the group's history I've always wanted to know more.


For this one, I'll just take your word on it because I trust AGD. He's always been kind to me across the forums and I think the "worst" thing anyone could say about him is he doesn't suffer fools lightly. He's staked his reputation on being the guy with the documentation and if his research was built on falsehood Im sure he'd have been called out by now and the people he's rubbed the wrong way would never let us forget it. So, point taken, I believe Badman is off on this one.

I don't doubt it but where, on YouTube? Was it in the booklet that comes with TSS? (I own a copy but haven't read it in a long time--I'll be sure to soon though, since my interest in SMiLE has been reignited!)

Don - Without restating a lot of points we both have previously discussed here, I want to point to yet another reported news item related to Hawaii in the summer of '67, and that is the report where Dennis Wilson traveled to Hawaii in late July 1967 prior to the concerts and said he was shopping for a house in Hawaii and was considering a move. This was reported in the Hawaii press as I outlined here with the timeline:



And the entire thread which eventually turned into similar issues as we've discussed concerning this time period can be found here:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,27692.msg671292.html#msg671292 (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,27692.msg671292.html#msg671292)


So it adds yet another layer to these topics: Not only was Brian telling the press in Hawaii what he told them when he was there for the concerts about his future role with The Beach Boys, but also Dennis was in Hawaii weeks before on his own announcing he was looking for a house there, possibly to set up a "headquarters" there, and saying "maybe we'll build a recording studio here." Does that sound like a group that was sure about their future, or does it suggest more was at play and at stake in that Summer of '67 than perhaps many would think was the case, or from the history told by or taken from recording dates and session sheets? At that time, late July and August '67, there was Brian saying he wasn't sure about the future with the Beach Boys, you have Dennis saying he wants to move to Hawaii, and you have Carl having just been acquitted by a district court on draft evasion charges and still facing more issues related to his case about the draft. Not exactly a group on solid footing with the 3 Wilson brothers in those situations.

And I will - despite telling Don otherwise just a few minutes ago - rehash one point which I've already beaten into the ground many times through the years but which I think is another crucial one to consider. There is actual audio proof which we can all hear on our own now of where The Beach Boys' "sound" was at during the "Smiley Smile era", i.e. Summer 1967. The Hawaii concerts and the subsequent Heider re-recording sessions feature the band - as a self-contained unit - playing both their hits and their new material in a style that sounds very much like Smiley Smile sounds on record. And spending a relative boatload of money to record the results for a possible future live album. Tell me that's just a coincidence...

Will, what is the time frame in 1968 when Brian was hospitalized due to emotional issues? My recollection is that it happened at the tail end of the year, not so shortly after the work done on the two SMiLE tracks that wound up on 20/20. The combination of heightened consternation about the band's fortunes from the rest of the BBs, combined with an elevated level of remorse on Brian's part when he could not rise to the occasion and turn "Can't Wait Too Long" into a single capable of reversing the band's commercial slide, and the presence of the band in close proximity at the home studio would seem to be a rather devastating 1-2-3 punch for Brian, leading into a period where he was a "shadow songwriter" for the group, with decreasing deference from the rest of the band (i.e. the consternation about the "Til I Die" lyrics) and a return to his pattern of seeking collaborators from outside the band (Tandyn Almer, Don Goldberg).

It still had to be painful to see the bones of SMiLE being picked, regardless of whether Brian participated in preparing them or not. Only he knew how to complete those tracks, of course, so he was pretty much forced to be involved once that territory was invaded. While we can't suggest it was the main reason for the depressive downturn that manifested itself (and would persist and grow more pronounced over time), it couldn't have helped the situation. As was likewise the long-term case with the resurrection of "Surf's Up" a couple of years later.

With respect to "Cabinessence," it seems that despite the discussion indicating that the "Who Ran The Iron Horse" segment was involved in some of the early '67 tinkering, it appears that the track was still intact when Carl and Dennis conducted their audit in the fall of '68. Or was there a need to "re-splice" that section back into the order that we hear it (in bootlegs that appear to date from late '66)? The Bellagio reference for this session only specify additional vocals, and since it's stated that Brian didn't directly participate in the session, it seems to indicate that the backing track (including the backing vocals recorded in late '66) was basically intact at that time.

I think these details help to explain the barriers that grew so precipitous regarding SMiLE in the years that followed, and kept them stubbornly intact until David Leaf was able to crack the door open by getting portions of SMiLE onto the 1993 box set.

I think it might have, yeah. Those connections were being made among fans long before all of the tapes were heard. That definitely influenced Frank Holmes' artwork for the title in the 90s.


The sources of those cancelled 3/28 and 3/30 dates are a couple of AFM contracts submitted to pay the musicians because the bookings were called off without a 7 day notice period. Neither have a title - that's just an assumption about what Brian might've planned to do because he was back in the studio a week later recording Vegetables. Both sessions would've employed Hal Blaine, Gene Estes, Carol Kaye, Bill Pitman, and Lyle Ritz.


March 1 is the last time Van Dyke was paid for a session and the last time he's heard on tape. Not to say that he couldn't have been hanging around socially in April, but there's a lot of candid material on those tapes and he isn't heard anywhere, or mentioned by participants in the many colourful Vegetables anecdotes set at Sound Recorders. The only credible evidence that Van Dyke was around for Vegetables comes from him telling Domenic Priore, "I recall being at the instrumental recording of it, but I don’t recall being in the vocal." At best that's quite ambiguous, given that the song was both recorded in fall '66 and spring '67. Or he could've been a one-off silent visitor watching Brian cut the tag at Gold Star. There's nothing solid, basically. Any author putting a definitive date on a exit for him is just fishing for a neat and tidy answer that doesn't exist.


Nothing in the public sphere I'm afraid.


There were four 1/4" reels recorded November 4, 1966 following the Surf's Up session.
1. Dialogue
2. More dialogue
3. The "Psychodelic Sounds" skits and chants, Heroes and Villains played for Harvey Miller.
4. Sound effects copied over from Vosse's NAGRA reels. These include the Chicago cab driver, hosepipe sounds, basketball game, etc.

No idea, honestly. If it's true, and I don't doubt it, could've been any time in the latter half of '68. Your guess is as good as mine.

Yeah, I know one of the primary sources (I believe it was Anderle in Crawdaddy, can double check if asked) said "once they built the home studio it was all over" or words to that effect. I can see the hoped-for benefits of it: instead of late-night calls to come to a pro studio you can just do it at your convenience, etc. But the unspoken implication is: you better record your every passing thought on-command, we are entitled to your every creative urge, we are gonna be up in your house forcing you to be productive, there is no escape from your obligations to the band. Whether they realized how that looked and didn't care or what it's difficult to say. It's easy for us to say they should've left Brian alone for a year or two to get his bearings when it's not ours and our families' livelihoods on the line, but also the fact that they belittled a lot of his contributions (including desecrating his self-described symphony for scrap, I would argue) is mixed messaging to the extreme and would make anyone feel bitter or checked-out. It's a complicated and tragic situation with no real winners.

While the acid didn't help, I think Brian's biggest unspoken problem was a form of what they call "meth psychosis" from all the uppers he took, combined with paranoia after years of chronic hashish use. Hash is like weed x10 and already I know a lot of people who claim just regular weed use makes them paranoid as hell. All the delusions of Phil Spector spying on him--acid doesn't cause delirious thought patterns like that, especially not after its effects have worn off. The people blaming acid for these thought patterns have never done it and have an axe to grind against "scary big bad LSD" because "muh flashbacks (which are a myth in my experience)." It is likely that acid brought on the schizoaffective symptoms but they would have started appearing anyway if he had the genes for it and I would argue the other psychoactive substances he was consuming regularly had as much or more to do with exacerbating it than 1-3 trips (still can't get a straight answer on how many). Remember, the first one he did was right before California Girls and his breakdown did not occur for another year after that, while in the meantime he produced what is universally considered his best work. Anyway, the euphoric high followed by the crushing lows of speed-abuse explains why he was convinced SMiLE was the best music ever one month and then hated it just 4~5 months later, to say nothing of dreading the arduous task of assembling it and wrangling the guys to sing lyrics they didn't care for. (Mike didn't kill SMiLE but there's more than enough evidence the guys gave him a hard time consistently--the Badman book and new Wiki article mentions several spats at least and a quote from Mike that's even worse than "dont eff with the formula" when he said "this music disgusts me.")


Yeah, this is my take as well. There's a subsection in the new wiki page about possible tape leaks, where subordinates may have sent out demos of the SMiLE music to competitors like the Beatles. (I recall a thread on this forum determining the timeline was impossible at least when it came to the Beatles hearing it to influence Pepper and I believe it; especially after Revolver it's not like they couldn't have figured out how to produce Mr Kite on their own.) But the point is Brian thought that happened and described the feeling as being "raped." So for the band to first reject SMiLE and then sell it piecemeal for scrap had to be at least some degree of a negative stimuli, either akin to a rape at the extreme or at least some form of betrayal. It's like if your friend dumps you for a "cooler" group and then realizes "actually, you're the best I can do." You feel like "oh, NOW I'm good enough, huh?"


I'm curious about this, and why the Reconnected Telephone lyrics were seemingly abandoned, and if not in the first chorus as I suspect if they went somewhere else originally

Again, I'm willing to believe you, pretty much everything you say makes intuitive sense to me, but I'd just appreciate a definitive source is all. I don't know the names of all the band's various partners, friends and confidants through the decades as many other posters do (terrible with names and I admit my focus is more limited to SMiLE than most), so if you are an insider who's seen this evidence for yourself firsthand, just say the word and I'll take your testimony at face value. Otherwise, I'd just appreciate something I can point to if I ever parrot this info in the future beyond "someone on a forum told me..."

I do appreciate it and your contributions in any case  :)

Yes, I've either seen/heard this material firsthand or know those who do have direct access to it and can describe it in detail, haha. I don't mean to come across as ambiguous!

Thanks, GF, for revisiting some of that "interregnum" between the completion of Smiley Smile and its release. There was a lot of dust tossed up in the air in those two months--as noted elsewhere, a more protracted span than usual for bringing out an LP (especially one that was so long in coming: remember, Pet Sounds was released in May 1966). I will toss up some more with additional details/speculation about this period and the tumultuous period that resulted in two LP ideas being dropped and a total change in direction in terms of art and commerce.

I'll start by backtracking to the early summer to note something that no one seems to have noticed: namely, that Carl's characterization of Smiley Smile as an exceptionally fast project ("three weeks at Brian's house, tops...") isn't supported by the session data at Bellagio--those sessions actually took closer to six weeks (June 3-July 14). There are indications (and some audio evidence on the Smiley SOT tapes) that it was not quite as blissful a process as Brian would later recollect it to be. However, it was a step forward, even if it was also a side-step.

Back to the lag time between mastering of Smiley (July) and its release (September 18): apparently extra time was needed to put some of the "new record label" structure into place, and some of the maneuvering about a 10-track version of SMiLE could have been Capitol looking for a workaround for what they sensed might be a shaky commercial prospect for the Smiley LP (which proved to be the case). The Honolulu shows probably came about as a kind of Hail Mary idea to create more product to guard against such an outcome--a live LP with more familiar hits on it had the potential to "stop the bleeding."

After the Honolulu shows the band returned to the studio only to discover that the tapes were problematic. Meanwhile, “Heroes & Villains,” released in late July, was peaking at #12 and about to make a sudden descent off the charts, removing any possible coattails for Smiley, which hit with a thud. Brian and Mike conjured up “Wild Honey” and recorded it a week after Smiley’s release, putting it in the pipeline for a rapid workaround for the LP with no other viable singles. They cemented the band’s R&B direction a few days later with another new track, “Aren’t You Glad.”
After one more abortive attempt to salvage the “Lei’d in Hawaii” tapes, the band went on a short tour in the Midwest while Brian prepared for his sessions with Redwood. (We’re of course familiar with the two tunes Brian brought to Wally Heider’s for those sessions: “Darlin’” and “Time to Get Alone.”) On October 15, certain of the Beach Boys staged an “intervention” at Wally Heider’s. Ten days later, recording of subsequent tracks for the Wild Honey LP began in earnest after what must have been a whirlwind writing session…over the next three weeks, 16 tracks were worked on—ten of these joined “Wild Honey” on the LP in December.

The key tracks that didn’t make it onto WILD HONEY are “Surf’s Up,” “Cool Cool Water” (the two holdovers/reworkings from SMiLE); cover songs “Game of Love” and “The Letter”; and the still-incomplete “Lonely Days” and “Can’t Wait Too Long.” Will’s comment suggests that “Surf’s Up” was looked at for possible inclusion on the LP, but what becomes crucial for verifyig that is the timing of the session (there is no confirmed date listed at Bellagio). Will seems to tie it to a mid-November time frame adjacent to “Country Air” (toward the end of the LP sessions) but other sources suggest that it was cut earlier than that, quite possibly before the “Wally Heider intervention.”

That date is crucial for understanding what Brian’s intentions were for the song. It seems rather incongruous that “Surf’s Up” would fit in on WILD HONEY, and it seems even more implausible to think that with most of the R&B-oriented tracks recorded by mid-November, Brian would seriously consider it for the LP.

My hunch is that this is/was some kind of cover story created after the fact to deflect inquiry about the internecine “after-struggle” between Brian and the rest of the band regarding his creative priorities. The tape of the solo piano version of "Surf's Up" that I've heard doesn't indicate that Carl was present when Brian recorded it, but if there is some more solid evidence proving that, then my speculation about the reasons for its brief revival will have to be abandoned. However it just makes more sense (given the July Engemann memo) that this was an early October tape where Brian was reacquainting himself with the song after it being mothballed for ten months. (The "intervention" at Wally Heider's on 10/15 could have stopped two projects from going forward: the Redwood LP and whatever Brian might have had in mind for an "orchestral Smile.")

“Brother 9002” could either have been a “10-track” orchestral SMiLE, or it could have been the “Lei’d in Hawaii” live LP. Ultimately, as we know, it proved to be neither. And at some point in November 1967, a decision was made to mothball Brother Records as the imprimatur for the band’s releases.

My best guess is that when Brian decided to appropriate the portion of “Wind Chimes” that was set aside to make the Smiley version and make it the basis for “Can’t Wait Too Long,” that was the moment in which he set aside any ideas for a “solo” orchestral version of SMiLE. That would likely have come to pass in the two weeks between the time of the “Wally Heider intervention” (October 15) and the first session where “Can’t Wait Too Long” is first worked on (October 28).

As for the onset of Brian’s psychological issues, the igniting incident was clearly seeded from the cumulative set of events that consumed him in the latter stages of the SMiLE sessions, but it appears that the full breakdown occurred after the unsuccessful attempt to finish “Can’t Wait Too Long” in late July 1968. This is a case where Brian never did figure out how to turn the song into something analogous to “Good Vibrations” (in the sense of it being a grand, superseding “comeback” effort that could scale the charts in a similar fashion).

From this point on until his efforts with “Break Away” in April 1969, Brian is virtually absent from the studio. His efforts on the two SMiLE cuts seem more the minimum going through the motions to capture some details that had been left incomplete due to how the SMiLE sessions had played out. There are reports that Brian was hospitalized for several weeks in late December 1968 shortly after work on songs for a Honeys single due to severe emotional distress. (This situation appears to have persisted well into the first part of 1969 and is possibly what Dennis was referring to in several of his interviews; Steve Desper also wrote about the initial presentation of "Break Away" to the band in March 1969, describing it as a milestone moment due to Brian's incapacitation to emotional troubles.)

It's possible that, aside from the cash considerations, Murry Wilson’s decision to cash in Sea of Tunes stemmed from a sense that Brian’s downtown was severe enough that he might never recover his ability to be fully creative again. (This is ironic, however, considering that Murry is the co-writer of “Break Away,” which became the band’s last single for Capitol in July 1969. I’m not certain of the date for the Sea of Tunes sale, so it’s hard to put this instance of the strange Wilson family dynamic into context.)

That brings us into the "reclusive" period for Brian, where he worked with fits and starts on songs but mostly deferred to Carl, who would soon form a bond with Jack Rieley--which would lead back to "Surf's Up" and the first elusive/abortive attempt to bring a complete version of SMiLE to the public. We get a sense of this time frame in Don Goldberg's memoir THE LOST SONG, and there are of course other reports about Brian's contemporaneous health issues (a series of problems with his ear are alluded to by various insiders/family members). After the trip to Holland, things deteriorated further, as luridly documented by (the cheeky) Nick Kent, and the subsequent story from here on out is so well-known that it needs no further elaboration.

Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to tie together some things that might provide a better sense of how the events in the fall of 1967 set the stage for how things played out. It also serves to reveal the cumulative damage/trauma endured by Brian with respect to how the SMiLE material was handled. I await any amplifications, corrections, or rebuttals! (And sorry, Julia, for steering the thread away from its main thrust--this is a parallel puzzle that is intertwined with the puzzle of SMiLE itself...)

Definitely, without question recorded the same day as Country Air, which was November 14. The timing suggests that it might have been done to fill out the one extra song quota that Mama Says handled instead. Carl was present and helped produce.



My read on Been 'Way Too Long (as it was called at the time because they couldn't decide on the title) isn't at all that Brian set out to make another Good Vibrations. I think it's the other way around, that maybe Brian got scared and jumped ship because he'd wanted to do something simple and realised he was turning it into Heroes and Villains writ small. A pull quote from Bruce that July frames it as the progressive response to Do It Again, at least in the eyes of Bruce. For Brian, I don't know how much he was weighing on this song because nobody's ever talked about it, but you can hear a fusion of a lot of what had worked for him in the past year - the Beach Boy R&B of Wild Honey, the instrumentation of Friends, the darker moods he was getting into in the summer of '68, the Do It Again delay module, etc. But it wasn't a complicated song. They only worked on it for a week, and in that time Brian kept rearranging and reworking parts at manic pace until interrupted by another tour. The group became unavailable to work on it, then Brian's interest and enthusiasm waned. His mental state was already low at that time; I don't think he approached it as the massive comeback window or spiralled into a breakdown over a recording project.

Don - adding to your timeline, I wanted to offer a few additional points and events to consider in your analysis of that time period post-Smile. I'll quote previous posts from here to show either the primary sources or clippings from interviews or various papers.

Consider these events with Brian:
- Brian appearing as a solo performer on "Inside Pop" playing Surf's Up, first aired late April 1967 and repeated on US television that summer
- The birth of his first child Carnie, April 29, 1968.
- His surgery to correct his bad ear, now pegged to sometime in Fall or late '67
- His quotes about the band "nearly breaking up for good" during this time (exact quotes below)
- His hospitalization, as you referenced...has a definite time for this been nailed down and do you have any of the articles mentioning this?
- Dennis considering leaving LA for Hawaii, July 67
- His quotes about dropping out of the production race, seen below, and the reasons why

Just food for thought:




Jamake Highwater interview, 1968: We pulled out of that production pace merely because I was about ready to die. You know, I was trying so hard. All of a sudden, I decided not to try anymore. You know, I decided not to try to do such great things, such big musical things.

Interview from 1968: Early 1967, I had planned to make an album entitled SMILE.  I was working with a guy named Van Dyke Parks, who was collaborating with me on some of the tunes, and in the process, we came up with a song called "Surf's Up," and I performed that with just a piano on a documentary show made on rock music.  The song "Surf's Up" that I sang on that documentary never came out on an album, and it was supposed to come out on the SMILE album, and that and a couple of other songs were junked...because...I don't know why...for some reason didn't want to put them on the album.  And the group nearly broke up, actually broke up for good after that.

The full versions of those two 1968 quotes have more insight.

Brian for Rock and Other Four Letter Words, interviewed January 11, 1968: “Well, we pulled out of that production pace merely because I was about ready to die, you know? I was trying so hard. And then so all of a sudden I just decided not to try anymore, and not try to do such great things, and such big musical things, and all of a sudden… And we had so much fun. The Smiley Smile area, or era, was so great. It was unbelievable – personally, spiritually, everything. It was great. I didn’t have any paranoiac feelings. Yeah, no paranoia.”

Brian on KHJ's History of Rock and Roll, interviewed December 1968: “Early 1967, I had planned to make an album and title it Smile. I was working with a guy named Van Dyke Parks, who was collaborating with me on the tunes, and in the process we came up with a song called ‘Surf’s Up,’ and I performed that with just a piano on a documentary show made on rock music. The song ‘Surf’s Up’ that I sang for that documentary never came out on an album, and it was supposed to come out on the Smile album, and that and a couple of other songs were junked, because I didn't feel that they... Well, I don't know why. I just didn't, for some reason, didn't want to put them on the album. And the group nearly broke up, actually split up for good over that… that one… the decision of mine not to put a lot of the things that we'd cut for the album Smiley Smile in the album. And so for like almost a year, we're just now kind of getting back together... Because I didn't think that the songs really were right for the public at the time, and I didn't have a feeling, a commercial feeling, about some of these songs that we've never released. And maybe some people like to hang onto certain things, just as their own little songs that they've written almost for themselves. And a lot of times, you know, a person will write, and will realize later that they're not... it's not commercial, you know? That what they've written is nice, for them, but a lot of people just don't like it.”

To clarify this from the Don Was documentary - "I had a great big, a great problem with the Beach Boys. And I wanted to do my kind of music and they wanted to do their kind of music. So it was a tug of war, I felt like I was getting pulled to pieces. Like two...inner turmoil that's struggling, with the see-saw, kind of teeter totter kind of thing, you know? Where I was being pulled all around, you know? And I just about, I fell to pieces." - in context of the full interview, outside of the edit, Brian framed this very specifically as being about the late 1970s. He wasn't discussing the same time period as Marilyn.

Carl's 1983 interview with Geoffrey Himes is always a tentpole when talking about this sort of thing. What he said about Smile: "To get that album out, someone would have had to have the willingness and perseverance to corral all of us and keep Brian to the task of completing the work. But the group didn’t really have any management at the time. The record company was giving us a hard time. It takes a lot of concentration to stay on top of a project like that, and everybody was so loaded on pot and has all the time, that it’s no wonder it didn’t get done. He was getting fragmented; he was starting to have difficulty completing things. And it was also a thing of, what if it didn’t turn out to be great, what if it had totally flopped? That would have completely destroyed him. We would have lost him forever in terms of having any communication with him. Still I’d be very surprised if Smile never came out; that’s what you make music for – so people can hear it. Except we didn’t complete it, so what do you do? Brian might be able to heal a lot of stuff within himself by doing that, by moving through it in spite of the pain. Or maybe it’ll be the field for some other guy. Maybe some very gifted person will hear it and it’ll push them to finish it. But I think it’s going to surface somehow, someday.
   "In the middle of all this, Brian just said, ‘I can’t do this. We’re going to make a homespun version of it instead. We’re just going to take it easy. I’ll get in the pool and sing. Or let’s go in the gym and do our parts.’ That was Smiley Smile. It was a real dip-out album. I’ve always said Smiley Smile was the bunt, and Smile was the home run. A lot of the same songs were on Smiley Smile but they didn’t sound the same at all. The melodies were similar, but the versions were more laid back. Maybe we’d do the melody, but nothing would be there of the original production. Brian just wanted to lighten up a bit, so he did Smiley Smile instead. He was trying to get away from the pretence of making a heavy art album. He had given up on it and didn’t want to know about it. So we just had fun.
   "I felt a little funny about Smiley Smile, because I felt we were dicking off, smoking too much pot and just laughing our asses off. After all this hype for Smile, Smiley Smile was such a dirty trick. And yet it was so great to see Brian having fun after he had been through so much. It was kind of a devilish thing to do, you know, hee-hee, making this silly little record out of this grand and beautiful project."

Another relevant bit from Carl: "Brian was really encouraging us to write more. His actions were telling us, ‘Why don’t you go ahead and write; come forward now.’ Just before 20/20, Brian told me, ‘Please, you got to take over and help me out; this is obviously not the thing I want to do now.’"

Thanks GF, thanks Will. I sense it will be always be difficult to get a perfect, detailed timeline of all the events in this period--the quotes can take us only so far.

The quotes do speak to Julia’s description of the psychological effects of the drugs Brian was using to stay amped up in the latter stages of the SMiLE sessions. In David Leaf's SMiLE book, VDP posits that the first manifestation of that was with “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” and that the nature of the project started to shift at that point.

Brian's sense of relief from paranoia is the kind of short-term turnaround that often occurs after a prolonged period of trauma, but the interesting/confounding aspect of it is that the remedy was almost immediately challenged by a significant set of traumatic incidents in the fall of 67, which seem to cascade on each other in October. (We still need a definitive date for the ear surgery--looking at Bellagio, it appears that late November into December seems to be likeliest time frame for it.) Despite what Chuck Negron described about the Heider incident, Brian stepped up and quickly wrote a batch of tunes to flesh out the WILD HONEY LP and he remained quite productive until those "Can't Wait Too Long" sessions in late July 1968.

I think we need to remember that in the backdrop of all this is a commercial crisis for the band that has only a short-term remedy with "Darlin'" adding some coattails for WILD HONEY in early ’68. The die is cast when it becomes clear in July that FRIENDS is going to be a total dud on the charts. A disparate range of tracks were recorded after FRIENDS had been mastered for release, including "Do It Again," which did better on the charts but also produced some critical backlash. Aside from "Can't Wait Too Long," however--which was being returned to after being shelved during the WILD HONEY sessions--most of these tracks proved to be lightweight (“All I Wanna Do” being the lone exception, and it required further work a year later in order to emerge as we know it now). I think we have to acknowledge that there was pressure to find a "progressive" (Will's term, possibly borrowed from Bruce) way to regain commercial footing.

It's clear that Brian had some form of elevated expectations with "Can't Wait Too Long," which is why he set it aside during the WILD HONEY sessions. By analogizing it to ''Good Vibrations" it was never meant to suggest the song was (at least originally) that ornate (but then again neither was GV at the outset: it got that way later on, of course). The shadow cast on the situation the band found itself in at that moment from that ever-more-elusive goal of returning to the top of the charts had to be on everyone's mind at that moment. The need for a different form of transcendence that could at least get close to the commercial success of GV had to be in the air, especially with the failure of FRIENDS (no matter how much it has grown in esteem over the years).

And the idea that Brian found himself back in a "Heroes & Villains" mode with that song--even for a less protracted period of time--and the fact that he threw up his hands at that point and retreated certainly seems like a culminating moment, and a capitulation to the fact that he couldn't find a way to bring a similar synergy of elements to a song that could truly captivate a mass audience. Clearly Will doesn't see the song in that light, but I'm hardly the only one who does--and what we know about Brian is that a return to a flashpoint that deposited him back in the torture chamber of the February '67 H&V marathon might well be what ignited a true emotional collapse. He found many stunning and varied ways to interpret the track during that last burst of frenzy--but he couldn't achieve closure on it. (Brian is often compared to Mozart, but "Can't Wait Too Long" is pretty much his version of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony.'')

All of this tracks with the last quote from Carl, referencing Brian’s diminished state, a situation that would ebb and flow over the next seven years before the next "intervention" (Gene Landy in 1975--who, like a variation of the locust, would intervene again seven years after that in a much more insidious way).

As for what Brian intended to do with the rest of the SMiLE tracks, I can accept the idea that Brian might have merely entertained the notion of an "orchestral SMiLE" for a bit, as a way to both establish his own "beachhead" and to placate Karl Engemann, who was trying to smooth over what had clearly become a fraught relationship. He certainly would have put it out of his mind after the Heider incident, which forced him to be front and center to his band (and his family). The fact that he reworked that unused portion of "Wind Chimes" in "Can't Wait Too Long" shortly thereafter seems to prove that if he'd ever entertained such a project between late May and mid-October 1967, he had certainly put it out of his mind by mid-November, when he did that run-through of "Surf's Up." (I still cannot see it on WILD HONEY...and if VDP was disappointed in the version of H&V that was released, just imagine what he would’ve thought about it being tossed out in a stripped-down version.)

Given that the 11/14 date for the solo "Surf's Up" is as absolutely solid as Will states, then let me suggest that he inform AGD of that fact so it can be updated at Bellagio...which should prevent anyone else from replicating my theory!  :smokin

Im reading the relevant sections of The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings On Rock Music Updated Edition by Nick Kent and The Beach Boys and the California Myth by David Leaf.

The former is a great summary of some of the best primary sources, but not really revelatory if you've read the most famous LLVS articles and/or hung out on the forums often enough.

The latter is by far the best recounting of Anderle's experiences with Brian, and while most of it is a rehash to me, I'd still recommend it to newbies. Id actually say it's a better peak into Anderle's perspective on SMiLE than the famous Crawdaddy articles, which mostly deal with the aftermath.

It's clear David Anderle really loved Brian and was his biggest supporter along with Vosse. Those two really "got" him, even more than VDP, the band or even his wife, I'd argue. The way Anderle describes Brian makes me think of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, where to everyone else he (Gatsby) is this ostentatious, frivolous walking-distraction, only good for the wild parties and a source of crazy stories after, but Nick alone sees the man underneath all that and admires him for his ambition, his pure dream and naive sincerity in a world of cynical weariness. Im not sure if Brian ever really understood or appreciated what a great friend he had in David.

https://archive.org/details/beachboyscalifor00leaf/page/114/mode/1up?view=theater (https://archive.org/details/beachboyscalifor00leaf/page/114/mode/1up?view=theater)

Some revelations from the David Leaf book include:


The barroom brawl for Heroes was never done, since Anderle recognized it wasn't a good idea. (Too unethical, unpredictable, probably wouldn't even sound good on tape, etc.) It's nice to find the source (?) of that factoid I'd seen occasionally popping up on the internet. I had always assumed it was either an unfounded rumor or a lost Psychedelic Sounds style recording like Vosse's water sounds.


In Anderle's estimation, Brian did not even try to get the other guys to see the genius of the new music. Rather than talk them through it, explain his inspiration, persuade them of its merits, maybe compromise a bit (let Mike write lyrics to a song or propose adjustments to lines he found objectionable) Brian would just retreat and say nothing. Or, as we know, blindside VDP to come in and defend the new stuff. [EDIT: Someone in the other ongoing SMiLE thread mentioned VDP also feeling left out as the project continuously changed, specifically the Elements turning into an instrumental unexpectedly. The Vosse Posse guys complain about the same both on tape and in various sources. If Brian had a tragic flaw that prevented the music from being finished, it was this above all else, in my opinion.]


Surprisingly, Anderle and Mike are said to have gotten along one-on-one because Mike, as the most business-minded of the group and oldest, best understood what Anderle was trying to do by setting up Brother Records. However, here again it is made clear that Mike was the ringleader of the opposition to VDP and SMiLE. A new anecdote I never read before mentions how he was "continually" fighting Brian and "often" Brian would storm out of the studio. (You can kind of hear the aftermath of a similar spat in the TSS Disc 2 track 7(?) for "Do a Lot" where Brian says "if there's no cooperation after this I'm splitting, I mean it" in an uncharacteristically frustrated voice.)


Also, apparently Brian redoing the guys parts was a big sticking point. Frustratingly, Leaf/Anderle doesn't say what song it was, but there's a mention of Brian wanting to sing a part that had initially been promised to Mike, forcing Mike to do it over and over again for an entire week only to do it himself because Mike wasn't perfect enough. Reading things like this really goes to show that Brian's perfectionism that had begun to manifest at least with GV was a detriment, not the praiseworthy mark of an uncompromising genius. At a certain point, if you're poking the bear and making someone who's already unhappy with the project feel even more antagonized, you have to expect a blowup sooner or latter. I think, just speculation, that the Cabin Essence incident was really more Mike taking out his long-felt frustrations toward Brian on the one guy who wasn't family, and Brian similarly using VDP as a proxy to avoid conflict. They were both really unfair to poor Van there.


Anderle thinks SMiLE should've been a solo album even back in '66 and told Brian as much back then. When reading about how Brian kept wiping their painstakingly recorded vocals and just doing it all himself, Im inclined to agree. We almost always talk about this project from Brian's POV but I think it must've been straight-up insulting for the Boys to work on a song for a whole week only for someone to say "nah, you suck, I'll just do it." This indicates that deep down he really just wanted to do it all himself, like he included the guys only reluctantly out of obligation. That, or it's just poor directorship on Brian's part, which I've maintained since commentating on the Psychedelic Soundss was always his problem as a bandleader. Both the Beach Boys and his stoner friends felt he was using them as props without giving clear instruction or making them feel like a valued part of the creative process. If both those camps can agree on something, I'm inclined to believe it.


There's another specific anecdote about how Brian's communication had become increasingly nonverbal so the other guys couldn't understand him. And that makes me wonder if maybe Anderle or Vosse (or even VDP) should've maybe acted as a go-between, since they apparently understood both perspectives at least enough to larp as effective negotiators. But also acting as go-betweens might've upset the situation more since it could be seen as putting themselves between the group and Brian which is exactly what they feared most. Maybe that's even what happened and led the band to think this was all the Posse's idea and Brian was being pushed along in a direction he himself didn't believe in. They may have thought they were saving him from a group of manipulative hustlers--Mike at least pretends to think so based on interviews.  


This book claims that VDP left, came back then left again (so 2 partings not 3) with only the February contract with WB listed as a time-reference. It also says lyrics were incomplete which is part of why Brian lost interest in the music since he felt he couldn't write words that'd match what VDP had done. Once again, I have to say if this is true it just raises so many questions like "what was VDP doing for 6+ months" and "was he not aware of some of the music even existing, perhaps?" and "did they agree to set lyrics aside until after the various song structures and sequence were finalized?" and "did Brian ask him to change/throw out some lyrics, not because they weren't good, but because his idea for a song changed?" (For example, CIFOTM is maybe the most opaque song lyrically among the tracklist and we have conflicting descriptions of "psychology derived lyrics" like in Brian's autobio, "a cowboy song" from Dennis showing it to a press agent and another "innocence of children" thing per BWPS and it's association with Surf's Up's climax. Maybe it oscillated between those frameworks and as many as three sets of lyrics were written at various points, especially if we include '03? Im not a trained musician but Version 1 seems like at least a slightly different melody than Version 2, right? Maybe lyrics were written for the earlier take that didn't fit its redesign?)


Anderle explicitly confirms what I've alluded to elsewhere, that Brian operated on whims and if he couldn't finish something immediately he'd lose interest. It was just too much work, too complex a project, to be done in a quick timeframe that'd satisfy him. He needed someone to keep him motivated, like a supportive dad telling him he's gotta finish his greatest work. (Instead he had a belligerent dad telling him he stinks.)


There's a quote from Brian I'd never seen before where he says he considers himself to have surpassed Spector (I agree entirely) and that the then-new Beatles album, which would've been Revolver in case anyone somehow doesn't know, is "religious" (I don't agree). I think Brian may be projecting his own positive aspirations onto his rivals here, and using the word "religious" as a synonym for "beautiful" or "revolutionary" perhaps. That seems like something he'd do, especially as a naive, single-minded and not verbose person.

Personally, I see Revolver as the weird, disjointed crossover between Rubber Soul's full-fledged folk rock and Sgt Pepper's singularly psychedelic rock, that lacks the focus or warmth of either. It's always struck me as a kind of foreboding, almost cynical album, at least in places. I'm talking about Taxman, I'm Only Sleeping, "making me feel like I've never been born," Tomorrow Never Knows, Eleanor Rigby, For No One's droning sound, etc. Even the explicitly cheery tunes, like And Your Bird Can Sing, Got to Get You Into My Life, Dr Robert, Good Day Sunshine...to my ears, there's something eerie about them, where the sunny lyrics feel almost like a put-on, satirical barbs at such sentiment, or like the Beatles themselves weren't actually happy while they were being recorded. Does anyone else have this reaction to Revolver? I mean, I love it, it's one of my top three of theirs along with Rubber Soul and Abbey Road, but in my mind it's "the dark one."

I guess you could say SMiLE has a lot of melancholia too but there it feels more purposeful, like there's a light at the end of the tunnel ("a children's song" and the power of laughter). It's interesting to hear Brian describe Revolver in this way and now that I think of it, it's strange he was so threatened by "Strawberry Fields Forever" but not "Tomorrow Never Knows." (Maybe he saw the latter as cheap trickery with the reversed tapes while the former's lush orchestration is what spooked him?)


This is the first direct instance I can recall reading that cites Brian's difficulty getting choice studio hours as a factor in the album's collapse. Supposedly, he wanted early morning hours that were frequently all booked up. Also, another new tidbit for me, studio operators were supposedly giving him grief for breaking union rules by engineering his own sessions. These factors certainly put the home studio in a new light.


Supposedly Heroes was picked for a single in December not because it was the best or most commercial track, just the closest to being done...though ironically once it was chosen as a single, Brian still tinkered with it for another 7 months, where he already had a solo cut of Surf in the can and could've finished a better track like CE or CIFOTM in a month tops. Anderle considers meddling in the creative side by telling Brian he had to do a single as "the hardest thing I ever had to do to him." Chuck Britz, like Bruce and others who heard the different versions of H&V, considered the final single to be vastly inferior to the original "5 or 6 minute" version they did in the professional studio. There's a line about how "some versions of the song ran as long as 12 minutes" but it's not a direct quote nor attributed to anyone in particular so I take that with a massive grain of salt. I myself made a 10+ minute cut of Heroes and that was using like every conceivable snippet from the boxset, which at that point means you lose any kind of melodic "pull" and the song becomes a meandering mess. This isn't a disco Tom Moulton mix, even with missing full-blown extra verses I have to imagine 12 minutes of Heroes would put anyone off.  


I wonder, after reading this, if the production race would've continued had SMiLE come out. Instead of feeling like "ok we've won, we can step back now and just be a regular rock band again" would the Beatles feel the need to top SMiLE? If so, would this have led to the kind of overproduced "so many instruments I can't even make out the melody" sound that (imo) plagues BW88 and similar records? Would the White Album have been all "Revolution 9" and "Goodnight" style arrangements? Would it have been public/critical backlash rather than artistic intuition that led to the "back to basics" movement? If the Beatles still went back to basics post-Pepper, would they be seen as the ones who "blinked" the way the Beach Boys were perceived with Smiley and Wild Honey? Interesting to think about.


Leaf postulates that Brian's use of acid increased as SMiLE was collapsing as a refuge from all the pressure (which, if you know anything about psychedelics, it'll magnify what's going on in your head not mask it, so this was a fool's retreat) and blames the Beach Boys for this. I know Leaf is notorious for being the proto-Brianista but even then this is a take I never heard before so Im kinda skeptical. I'd always read about Brian's first trip with Darro before California Girls, that's well-documented. His possible second and third trips are way more vague, and I can't find a good source for the oft-cited "died in a fire and reborn" trip nor the supposed flashback in a bookstore during the conceptualizing period of the SMiLE sessions. If anyone can point me to where info on these factoids and where they originated from, I'd appreciate it.

I think the more nuanced picture of The Beach Boy's resistance to the project you're developing, Julia, is really interesting. I'm not at all surprised Mike's resistance was so strong, and I don't think it makes much since to play down the actually fact of that resistance. But as you've been showing, Brian's erratic behavior, not in general, but particularly with regard to how he was treating the band and how he was running sessions, really does put Mike's, and other members of the band's, resistance in a more understandable light.

Of course, Mike's frustration with some of the Pet Sounds sessions is pretty well documented, I feel. "The Stalin of the studio," I believe Mike rather famously said. I think Mike's famous comment about Brian making them keep recording Wouldn't It Be Nice over and over and over, after the blend was perfect, after the parts were perfect, looking for something beyond ordinary human hearing is telling. On Wouldn't It Be Nice, at least the band got a releasable single out of it in relatively short order. Recording Heroes and Villains over and over in that way must have been truly mentally exhausting. That doesn't change the fact that more genuine support from Mike and the rest of the band (or even just less overt hostility!) could have made all the difference.

I do think that Brian's refusal to collaborate with Mike on lyrics must have seriously rankled. This is not just a guy who doesn't like the direction the band is going in or Brian's new friends or whatever, it must have been very personal. Mike must have felt, rightly (and I believe he's said as much), that he had *proven* he could take Brian's most out-there music and write excellent lyrics that helped his songs connect with their fans. California Girls was one of the band's biggest hits, and is a perfect example of that (though Brian wrote every other line, according to him). But Good Vibrations - Mike must have been rightly proud of his contribution, and rightly felt that he'd *proven* his ability to work with Brian on his new music in a way that connected with fans. To be completely sidelined in favor of a kind of lyric he could never have written and didn't understand and didn't like must have just felt so, so hard, truly. I know I would have been seriously hurt if I put myself in his position.

All of which is to say perhaps the obvious, which is that there were hurt feelings at play here in a deep way; it was about the relationships within the band, not the music.

Re: your comment on Revolver, I agree that it's a bit of a darker record, certainly compared to Pepper. Although Rubber Soul is *also* a dark, even sinister, record in a lot of ways (Run for You Life, I'm Looking Through You, Girl...). Revolver maybe combines, as you say, being even more chipper on one level with being much darker on another, which is sort of where Brian was going to. Of course, it wasn't just Brian and the Beatles, all of popular music was moving in that direction in the mid-60s, songs about sunshine with an edge, I mean, listen to Van Dyke Park's Come to the Sunshine, recorded in March and released Sept. of 1966. So bright and happy but there's an edge to it, somehow.

But re: the Production Race, as much as the Beatles were inspired by the Beach Boys (an influence obvious in their harmonies and compositions in the mid-60s), the truth is, this was a one-sided race. Brian thought of himself as in competition with the Beatles, with Phil Spector. It came from how he was raised and his position within the band and the Beach Boys position in American Culture. Phil Spector never thought of himself as being in competition with anyone (except his business associates, I suppose). The Beatles were not running a race. They weren't trying to beat the Beach Boys to a new sound! They were making music, chasing new sounds, taking on new influences, doing what they wanted to do. If Smile had come out, it would almost certainly have influenced the Beatles on some level, because they would have heard a bunch of cool, weird music that they didn't in fact hear. But they would never in a million years have felt like they *lost*. Actually, that competitive way of thinking about music production is pretty bizarre and unusual, and although it spurred Brian on some level, it probably didn't really help him in the end, compared to an attitude of mutual respect and exploration. Personally, I think if Smile had come out, it, and not Sgt. Pepper, would be considered the pinnacle of 60s psychedelia. But I doubt it would have changed the overall arc of music history much. What Brian was doing was basically inimitable. And the Beatles would not have felt threatened; I doubt Pepper would sound different. It would probably be a party game to this day which album was better.

I appreciate that, in general Im of the opinion that it's important to be as unbiased as possible when discussing history or anything regarding human relationships. Plus, I'm just a big believer in giving people their due. Hitler was evil but the best public speaker of the 20th century if not all time. The guy who went to jail for murder smiled at me anytime we passed and carried my groceries to the door once. Mike Love didn't encourage Brian's creative development as an artist but he wrote great hooks, went toe to toe with Tony Asher on "Im Waiting for the Day" and GV, plus he stepped in as front man when no one else would. (Not saying Mike's faults are anywhere near those other two examples  :3d) Similarly, I love Brian but I think to pretend he was totally perfect and blameless is a blur on the historical record. Ive always had a soft spot for Princess Di but she used her first born son as a confidante, putting a ton of emotional baggage on the poor kid. You get the point; people are complicated. I think a lot of us want to categorize others as good or bad and that nuance is missed. Plus, even (or especially) bad people can be talented in a certain area whether or not if they use their gift for evil.  


Wow, did Mike really say that? Damn. It's interesting "dont f*** with the formula" and "the ears of a dog" are always used to crucify him when that and "this music disgusts me" are far more damning.

I don't know if we just haven't heard any of it from SMiLE or if they cut the recording off during any spicy bits, but the most hostile I've heard Mike on tape is in the I Know Theres an Answer sessions. He doesn't say anything particularly egregious on its own or written down but you can hear the frustration in the air. There's a palpable disdain he has for the material and Brian making him run through it two dozen times just stirs the pot without realizing it. I felt uncomfortable listening to it, like you can just tell that wasn't a pleasant place to be, so I can only imagine what SMiLE must've been like. When TSS came out the narrative was shifting to "all I hear is Mike singing his heart out on those recordings!" but at what cost? Clearly, whether there's unreleased or lost clips on the tapes (or it happened off the air) that same hostile vibe was going on unless literally all the primary sources are lying.


I wonder if Brian just didn't like Mike that much--loved him of course, but clashing personalities I mean--for him to be so desperate to pass up a willing and talented collaborator. Mike wrote some cheesy lyrics I don't like: think Be True to You School, California Girls (the worst lyrics ever to a great melody in pop music that I can recall), Student Demonstration Time, anything TM-related, etc. But he also wrote some of the best lyrics in the whole canon, particularly: Help Me Rhonda, Please Let Me Wonder, She Knows Me Too Well, She's Not the Little Girl I Once Knew (officially uncredited), Warmth of the Sun, and the aforementioned two. (I firmly believe that if GV had come out with Asher's lyrics, it would have been only a minor hit--it's almost cruel irony that for all the months of Brian's tinkering, probably the best thing that happened to that song was Mike's practically improvised line "Im picking up good vi-bra-tions, she's givin me ex-ci-ta-tions.") I honestly think Mike could've written lyrics for Pet Sounds that were just as well as what we got, or only a notch lower, no disrespect to Tony Asher, but who knows.

Sometimes with Mike lyrics though, there'll be like one line that's off and it doesn't ruin the song but it nags me everytime I listen. As an example, When I Grow Up to Be a Man "when they're out having fun will I still wanna have my share" it's one syllable too many and there was such an easy fix "will I still want my own share" that I came up with off the top of my head hearing the song at like 11 years old. Things that just make you go "come on, Mike, you're a pro! Work it out!" like he just went with the first draft. So it's not as though he were flawless either and I get why Brian sought someone more sophisticated on some level. Probably having an outsider like Asher also afforded Brian more control, someone he could say no to without risking the family dynamic, just having a new face around boosted creativity etc.

Mike could not have written lyrics for SMiLE...probably...but since he's upset anyway, why not give him the chance? "Alright Mike, you think of a better line than 'over and over...'" I guess that's what they ultimately did with some of Smiley--like Shes Goin Bald. However, I notice this is only the unambiguously junked HGS getting a Mike do-over, while Whistle In, cribbed from Worms, is credited solely to Brian. It's almost like even in death, Brian refused to compromise his SMiLE vision anymore than he had to. (Or Mike didn't care enough about this song to mention it in his lawsuit, who knows?) And in any case, during the SMiLE sessions proper, allowing Mike a crack at it would've upset VDP, though that happened anyway. When VDP left the logical solution seemed to be letting Mike fill in the gaps at least but perhaps Brian didn't want to reward "bad" behavior or else he just really didn't like Mike or strongly believed Mike was not "spiritual" or "hip" or "psychedelic" enough to "get" SMiLE. (To be fair I'd say that's true, I think even now, Mike doesn't get it.)

Regardless, Mike needed to be told he was lucky to be where he is at all, or else placated in some way and Brian wasn't able to do it until the joint Brian & Mike credit on Gettin Hungry. Still though, as a human being who has also been excluded by people I thought I was closer to, I have gotten more sympathetic to Mike's position over the years though he also was far from perfect. Had they not been a family it's practically a given the band would've split up around this point and certainly in 1977, which I think the other Beach Boys were deathly afraid of, knowing they were riding Brian's coattails as a songwriter. It's just sad that both cousins couldn't give each other a little more grace. Giving Mike one song I think might've made all the difference, or just easing up on the number of takes.


Yeah that's definitely true. It's like the happy naive optimism of the 50s and early 60s is still there but fractured with the death of JFK or something. I think a big part of it is Paul's pseudo-musical "story songs" that would bring so much levity to later Beatles albums (Sgt Pepper the song/concept itself, Magical Mystery Tour song/concept, Rocky Raccoon + Back in the USSR, Maxwell's Silver Hammer) was used instead to make Eleanor Rigby, maybe the most overtly disturbing Beatles song. That and Yellow Submarine, which should be cheery given the premise but something about the way it's sung just makes it off-putting, like it's a metaphor for isolation or driving yourself nuts imagining a perfect scenario that could never be, or remembering happier times long gone.


Ah. I sort of thought that, how Rubber Soul influenced Pet Sounds which influenced Sgt Pepper (as even the liner notes quote by George Martin admits) indicated as much but perhaps not. Certainly the Beatles had nothing to fear in terms of sales.

Just to clarify, I dont think SMiLE would've changed Pepper any. The Pepper sessions were already underway even if Brian met the January 15th deadline and by then the Beatles made Strawberry Fields which is at least as "out there" as anything Brian was doing, production-wise. (Maybe I just answered my own question.) I thought maybe it would've influenced the White Album. Perhaps not even in terms of denser arrangements but like "Brian just made a great existential statement on the profundity of living, calling society to a higher standard! What are we doing, a goofy fake band concept abandoned after 3 tracks and a stupid TV movie where nothing happens?! We gotta *say* something with the next album!"

I definitely think Brian drove himself nuts trying to top the Fab Four when he was already making music that was at least as good/advanced and arguably better. Especially when you consider he was his own George Martin. I'd say if anything, Pepper was the Beatles proving they were on Brian's level at all, much less topping him. And even then, where I preferred Pepper at first as a kid, the older I get the more I recognize Pet Sounds as the far superior work. There's no duds on PS where SP has the underproduced WI64 and cacophonous, lyrically pointless GMGM along with the "been there, done that" reprise of the title track, and ill fitting WYWY, to say nothing of how much more emotionally resonant PS' subject matter is. (I think it's fitting that Rolling Stone magazine, when updating their top 500 albums list, kept PS at #2 while pushing Pepper way back from #1 to #24. Even the top Beatles album, now Abbey Road, is "only" #5.)

Yea, honestly, for me it's one of those situations where I completely understand why Brian didn't want to work with Mike on these songs, and I just as completely understand why that would have been pretty hard for him. Just part of a family and band dynamic slowly starting to go sour... I do think you're on to something with the line of thought that giving a song to Mike was a risk, because it would have been substantial harder, I imagine, to say after a lyric was written that Brian didn't want to use it or it wasn't right. Then again, I think the main thing was that Brian just wanted a different trip than Mike was capable of. And Mike wanted a different Smile, a Smile with a few more Good Vibrations and a few less Cabinessences, at the very least...


I definitely think Pet Sounds did influence Sgt. Pepper on some level. Paul has talked about really changing how he thought about bass lines, which is no small thing, really. And certainly George Martin is to be believed. But my sense has always been that this competition idea is really only something that Beach Boys people ever talk about, and that Beatles fans don't think of the period that way at all... and that that reflects a certain reality about how the bands themselves were thinking, on a basic level. I could be wrong though, I'm far from a Beatles expert...

I will say, more than Revolver and Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper suffered as an album from the separate singles model. Great as Day Tripper or Paperback Writer are, they're not album-defining achievements. Throw Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Pepper and cut When I'm Sixty Four and you're looking at a hell of a record.

As I said, my Beatles timeline is a little shaky, but wouldn't the sessions-to-be-influenced in 1967 have been the Magical Mystery project? I know it didn't end up being a whole album... But maybe if Smile had come out, that project - which has a lot in common with Smile in some ways, given the sense of humor in the movie - would have been taken a little more seriously or given a little more thought and concentration? It's an interesting thought, anyway! Maybe there could have even been a pasta song :)

The two biggest problems with the Beach Boys are that they were a family and Brian was the only one who could write music at least at first. This meant that Brian couldn't ditch them as he outgrew their public persona without damning his loved ones to failure. Perhaps they should've been content to transition into a cover band for awhile until they got their chops, but try telling them that as an extremely sensitive guy with mental health issues. Mike could write great hooks for a melody but I don't think he ever had anything really worth saying to get an outside party interested in penning music to his latest opus. Not saying that dismissively, just being truthful. Brian could attract outside collaborators because he had a unique "voice" as a musician that could get somebody excited, even honored, to be his cowriter. With Mike it's like "uhh, those are nice words but I could get about a hundred guys off the street that could write the same thing." I mean, that's literally what Brian did with Asher. 

Then, unfortunately, by the time Dennis and to a lesser extent Carl were able to step up and write songs, Brian was so unbalanced he couldn't take advantage "great, you guys got on your feet, I'll be leaving now" as it seems he was want to do from '66 through '68 and again in '77. They just couldn't get the timing right where he could walk away without feeling bad. And frankly, the other guys were being really entitled and ungrateful not to realize "we are only here because of Brian; we owe it to him to trust his instincts and nurture his vision." I guess though, they were all very young and obscene fame changes people.

I give Mike leeway for not handling SMiLE as well as he could've but also I think it's pretty damning that he's never shown any regret, self-reflection or attempts at atonement through the decades, even post "enlightenment" after he discovered TM. (Why is Mike's new direction in life ok but Brian's isn't? Why isn't the Maharishi an intrusive outside presence taking advantage of the band?) All the same, it's pretty damning Brian never set the record straight on songwriting credits until Mike literally had to drag him to court. I do think Mike's public perception as an influential figure in the golden age of rock has been irreparably damaged by that.


Day Tripper may be my fave Beatles song ever, so I think it would've improved RS by being included, but it also works perfectly as a standalone single. Paperback Writer is a good song but honestly is weaker than anything on Revolver except Yellow Submarine for me. Meanwhile SFF and even PL just don't sound like singles to my ears, they sound like deep cuts--kinda like CE and CIFOTM where they may be the best tracks on the album but not what you'd expect to be a commercialized single for AM radio audiences.

I remember back in the days of the Pet Sounds forum there was a thread about whether or not SFF/PL should've been kept for the album and if so, what the alt tracklist should be. I recall proposing something like this, where the first side would roughly introduce the idea of overcoming adversity (Friends) then demonstrate the idea more thoroughly with a further song cycle expressing heartbreak, gradual improvements and then end with new love. It's not a perfectly coherent narrative of course but then neither is Pet Sounds or SMiLE. At least it's more of a concept than what we got on our Pepper.

Anyway, then the second side would follow every weird psychedelic freakout track (ugh, and WI64 I guess) and also work as a cycle of life thing. Start with a child imagining his old age, enjoying whimsical childhood fantasies (LSD was based on a kid's drawing, going to the circus), into reminiscing about one's childhood from an adult perspective and then the dreary humdrum of daily adult life. Boom. I just turned a good but overrated album into one that's legitimately worthy of the title "best LP ever (and not just because of boomer nostalgia for when it came out)." A true contender for SMiLE's high concept brilliance and I suspect, closer to Paul's high minded aspirations for the project that were ultimately compromised ("sod it, let's just do tracks"). Somebody give me a cookie.

Sgt Pepper
With a Little Help From My Friends
She's Leaving Home
Fixing a Hole
Getting Better
Lovely Rita

When Im 64 (though Im open to leaving this off and keeping the reprise)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
(You can stick the reprise here if you want)
A Day in the Life

GMGM wouldnt be the best single ever, but it'd wow the public with its effects, it's catchy, honestly better than a lot of their others from the mid 60s. (The Beatles are unusual among bands in that their albums are always fantastic but their singles often lackluster in comparison, where usually it's the opposite.) Then WYWY can be the B-side. Sorry George, but man if I don't always hit the skip button when that song comes on. Love his other sitar songs though. With all respect, I recognize it's very impressive musicianship, I just think it doesn't fit the vibe of the rest of the record, and it kills the momentum dead.

Now Im getting through the relevant sections of Brian's first, disowned autobiography.

https://archive.org/details/wouldntitbenicem00wils/page/172/mode/1up?view=theater (https://archive.org/details/wouldntitbenicem00wils/page/172/mode/1up?view=theater)
Here's what I took away from it:


So, is this the originating source of Brian's supposed second acid trip, where he imagined himself dying in a fire, growing backwards into a baby then an egg then nothing? Is this also the original source of the Pickwick books incident, where he has an acid flashback trying to read and becomes obsessed with zen riddles? Because this is the first "major" book on Brian that I've seen mention either. Carlin's bio, Badman's anthology, Leaf, Kent...none of them so much as mention this anecdote, despite how cool it is. This makes me wonder, was this story made up for shock value by Landy's ghostwriter and it just became a (lesser known) part of the SMiLE Lore? That'd be disappointing but if no other source goes into it, all I can assume is fakery. Also, the book places the incident as pre-Pet Sounds, therefore not explicitly SMiLE related.

Most unexpectedly of all, the book ties this in with Brian's supposed first meeting with Genevelyn, his astrologer (the one who told him when to release H&V). She interprets this zen riddle to mean that, since Brian couldn't read the books in the store (due to the flashback) he must look inward for spiritual enlightenment.


Is the acid flashback in the bookstore the only time zen riddles are ever mentioned in association with SMiLE--by Brian or any other primary source? (Been awhile since I read LLVS, will reacquaint myself later this year). Because now that I think of it, where subud, I ching, astrology, numerology, The Little Prince are all referenced as influences, I don't think I've seen zen in the same context. In fact, I did a quick ctrl+f on the wikipedia page just now and the only hit was cited to this interview from 2004 (http://earcandymag.com/brianwilson-2004.htm (http://earcandymag.com/brianwilson-2004.htm)) where Brian explicitly denies a connection.

Incidentally, in the same interview here, he mentions SMiLE was originally supposed to be "a two-movement rock opera" and that in BWPS they "touched up the first two movements and added a third." He also says the 2004 is "much, much different" to the '66 album. So take that for what it's worth coming from an older Brian. I'll admit he does read as pretty evasive, like he's just saying whatever will end the interview fastest. (For example, the question about "what prompted the name change from Dumb Angel to SMiLE, was it VDP" prompts a quick "yeah, it was VDP's idea" which doesn't ring true for me at all; I bet had the interviewer not asked the leading second question we would've heard a different albeit equally brief answer.)



One thing that makes the book seem at least semi-plausible is how there's no attempt at flowery prose. It's simply written, and Brian for all his musical talents is a very plain spoken man. However, what makes me raise an eyebrow are what I feel "cute" little references other songs. "I wasn't sick but I wasn't well" / "turning, turning, turning" / "psychedelicate" etc. There's a supposed Brian-Asher conversation that manages to work in lyrics from WIBN and GV too. Feels like the ghostwriter trying to be clever or something. Also, he quotes Al as saying "Holy Tomatoes" when he hears Sloop John B for the first time, which...I don't know enough about Al's speaking patterns to know if it's legit or not but that was funny.

Where it really shines are some of the dialogue segments, especially the supposed interactions between Brian and Tony. Like, Brian expecting him to start right away and Tony says "Im on my lunch break, Im expected back at the office in 45 minutes!" or Brian telling Tony to arrive promptly at 11:00 AM only to keep him waiting 2 hours ("although I apologized, he seemed a little wary") and eating a massive breakfast in front of him. If these passages were invented, they perfectly capture the dynamic Tony himself describes without worry of putting Brian in a bad light. However, it soon goes back to blandly summarizing what everyone already knows ("I told him how much I like Diane" / "he thought I was an amateur human being") without any unique insight or previously unspoken personal memory you'd want from a biography, meaning either it's badly ghostwritten or too authentically Brian for its own good. There's nothing here you wouldn't get from any other generic source.


This is the first I've heard that hiring Derek Taylor as publicist was Bruce Johnston's idea. I always assumed it was Brian. There's a throwaway line where Brian mentions weak cover art as a hindrance to the group getting taken seriously, which I've mentioned before too. With the possible exception of Help!, every single Beatles album cover is a work of art you could proudly hang on your wall. Even when it's "just" a simple black and white portrait like With The Beatles, it's done so well and the subtle but brilliant touch of lowering Ringo's head makes the composition way more interesting than it has a right to be. Sgt Pepper's cover is the best to ever grace an LP, hands down, even as someone who thinks the album itself is somewhat overrated.

Meanwhile, the Beach Boys have maybe 5 good covers (Surfin Safari, SMiLE, Smiley, Wild Honey, Holland) and it feels like only the middle three were purposefully chosen by the band. If Brian had the presence of mind to consider this in '66, it also begs the question how he'd let the terrible Pet Sounds cover out the door. (Im sorry if anyone's grown attached to it, but objectively it's terrible. Anytime I try to turn people onto the LP who don't know its reputation, they take one look at these dopey choir boys feeding goats and refuse to listen or laugh at how lame it looks. An album cover should have the opposite effect.) Even just the giraffe photo from the same shoot would've been so much better. Love You and Today are my second and third favorite Beach Boy albums but their covers are similarly terrible--so much brown, then preppy sweaters or a kitschy grid quilt pattern. Even Al has publicly mocked LY's cover art. Sorry for the tangent.


This is supposedly the good one, the one that was wholly positive for Brian, but it's not described at all except as "4 hours of enlightenment and spirituality" which rings a bit false to me. Acid trips usually last 8-12 hours and while I dont have a whole lot of experience personally, that's how it was for me. I can't imagine a four hour trip with the good stuff available to a rock star in 1967. Seems like the ghostwriter got confused with shrooms. I really wanted more intimate knowledge of Brian's trips, I had heard this book was good for that if nothing else, but it's just not. Why WOULDN'T they tell us about this third, supposedly wonderful experience unless it was fake and/or Brian refused to say more but "I saw God." I wanna know the trip that supposedly inspired SMiLE, goshdarn it.  

Is there another source for Brian begging Al to do acid? Younger me would've said the straight-laced Boys would've benefited immensely from taking LSD, especially Mike, but with experience I can now say I don't think it would've changed them much if they weren't open to it. I've seen plenty of guys treat psychedelics as just "a way to get f***ed up" rather than a tool for self-examination and spiritual enlightenment. They see their pretty visuals, enjoy the euphoria for a few hours, then go right back to throwing trash on the street and demeaning other people like before. That's why flower power failed; acid is a tool, not a panacea. I've even had people get mad at me when I tell them they're using it wrong (by doing it every other weekend at parties or whatever instead of 2-3 times a year tops in nature).  


This book makes it out like Van introduced Brian to amphetemines (unless you include the desbutal he was taking before). Also this is the first Ive read of Van's life outside of SMiLE, where supposedly he resided in a one-room apartment above a garage with a large aquarium. Brian is said to have brought him 40 mice as a present "since he lived like one and seemed lonely." That sounds pretty damn weird even for Brian and I'd expect VDP to mention something like that if true (maybe he does in David Leaf's new book, I don't know yet). It goes beyond cute (one mouse is cute) into "you know I have to get rid of these animals and they're all gonna die, right?" territory. Amusingly, VDP insists on writing "the two of us, in a room" the way Mike always says in real life. VDP is also said to hate the hangers-on/Posse in this telling of the story, considering them a distraction to the writing process.

According to this book, the switch to VDP as lyricist "disappointed Asher" where by the guy's own account he was happy to get away from the madness. While Im inclined to side against WIBN where it disagrees with other sources, here I'm of two minds. It would make sense for Asher to soothe his own ego by pretending he had no interest in further collaboration, but his descriptions of Brian's tomfoolery absolutely ring true and really, any well-adjusted adult with a steady gig would be smart not to get too involved. So, I think this could go either way. I'm only ever reading Asher's words, not hearing his voice or seeing his vibe, but even though he says unkind things about Brian in interviews to me they read as brutal honesty without malice, rather than jilted revenge. I lean towards believing he wanted out.

Even the ultra-hip Jules Siegal doesn't "get" Surfs Up and asks what it means. (I guess this is meant to be a setup for Brian explaining the song in GSHG?) The author seemed really proud of this thing where he reads off Surf's Up's lyrics then commentates on them, because it happens like two other times in the book. Brian wants to burn the Surf's Up tape, not fire.

The Mike-Van standoff happens at a Heroes session in February, not a CE session in December though the same lyrics are cited as the point of contention. Instead of just "I don't know what it means, I was high," / "there is no literal interpretation of my work, I have no excuse sir," VDP first says "I think it's great poetry is what it is." Mike is slightly more hostile in this account too: "It doesn't mean sh*t if you ask me, it's gibberish," then he turns to the guys "he has no idea what these lyrics mean and we're expected to sing them? Brian, are you trying to destroy the Beach Boys?" Brian is said to have immediately walked out of the studio. This account admits that Brian wanted VDP to be his diplomat, use his verbosity to say what Brian couldn't. However Van just didn't think it was his place to come between family and both collaborators know right then the album is doomed. VDP even says "the only thing left to do is drag out the carcass" which contradicts his words in interviews that he still thought SMiLE would come out. This just doesn't ring true as something he would say.

Here there are two separate partings with VDP but they occur in February, a return in early March and final parting at the end of that month.  


According to the book, Brian bought enough hash to be high constantly as he considered this a more spiritual and creative state of mind, so he'd remain in the headspace needed to complete a symphony to God. Also, he's said to have done speed every single night with VDP which boosted his confidence in the face of endless pushback from Capitol and the band. Supposedly after the drugs wore off they'd listen to the music and wonder if it was even good or not. It's said that speed made Brian's attention span so shot he couldn't focus long enough to finish a song anymore.


I'd never heard of Brian installing a portable sauna in his bedroom before. In addition to the telescope store with Oppenheim, now it's also an all-night clothing store with Darro. This has Brian explaining to bewildered guests at the premiere of a Heroes acetate mix "it's going to have a lot of talking between the cuts." Same quote as elsewhere, different context. Supposedly, the cutlery symphony participants were willing to return the next night as asked, called Marilyn to see if they should, but Brian blew them off. Brian is said to have expected his entourage to go into a bar and start a fight (that same Heroes barroom brawl I've mentioned) but no one was willing to risk their safety--they all thought it'd be great if someone else did though. This and Leaf's book mention driving around a police station in a car with tinted windows to tempt fate. Another new anecdote: there was supposedly a playhouse installed in the front of the house people would have to crawl through to get in.

VDP is said to have found the famous sandbox "disgusting, irresponsible, juvenile, sickening." There's a throwaway line about Brian and Hal playing pool with celery stalks as cues hitting grape tomatoes and radishes as balls during the Veggies sessions.


Where other sources talk about the Boys getting heat for their inability to reproduce Brian's sounds, which then fueled the group's misgivings towards SMiLE, no one ever talks about how Brian felt about the live shows. WIBN though, asserts that Brian himself agonized over the thought of his masterpiece butchered by mediocre performance, making people think his song itself must not be that good. It'd be interesting to consider if that were an unspoken cause of the album's demise, that Brian didn't want it presented in an unflattering context.


The TC recording is mentioned, but without Vosse. We are made to believe Brian had the guy drive around for an hour while talking about rock n roll in addition to the highways near Chicago, all of which was caught on tape. IF this is true, which I'm doubtful, why was the bootleg limited to 5 minutes and can we get the rest? Since 22 minutes of Hal Blaine Veggie Fights were included but not this, Im skeptical.


Brian's line to Marilyn "I don't know if I should say hello to everyone or goodbye" reads as fake. It's something that would only make sense to say/write if the author knows how the story ends. Just way too prescient when the real Brian in that moment almost certainly didn't think it would all come apart like that. (Look at the big dumb lovable grin on his face in the shot.) It only works as a dramatic line in fiction.


According to the book, Van was there at the Fire session but blew up at Brian when he waited in the car 2 hours before going in. This session is said to be the first cancelled for bad vibes. Fake. Fake, fake fake. For one, it says this was the second week of November not 11/28, to say nothing of the fact that the Fire session wasn't canceled and VDP wasn't there. The ghostwriter does mention that another Fire session happened two weeks later though but still the earlier incident is completely unaccounted for anywhere else including AGD's carefully documented sessionography. Apparently Brian forced some poor janitor named "Brother Julius" to light the trash fire, which if true is really horrible--that poor guy could've lost his job.


Brian is said to have made a move on Diane in December '66, using her as a positive physical outlet for his anxiety regarding everything. A throwaway line states her bedroom was "next to Marilyn's and [Brian's]" implying she slept at their house regularly?


The conversation about the movie Seconds happens almost word for word as quoted elsewhere but now instead of "the new Beatles album" Brian says "Rubber Soul" despite Revolver being out for three months by this point. (He was such a fan and competitive there's no way he didn't seek it out in all that time, come on.) I think the ghostwriter made a mistake and went with RS knowing its personal significance to Brian.


Look and I Ran are listed as separate tracks Brian was working on, as are OMP and My Only Sunshine. She's Goin Bald is listed among the songs on the docket in December '66 (even if it's editorializing by referring to HGS as what it ultimately became, that's clearly a throwaway piece Brian thought nothing of as soon as it was done, until he desperately had to dig up material for Smiley). I Dont Know is listed as though it were another Brian-led production and/or seriously considered for the album. (I doubt Brian even knew or care IDK existed even as Dennis made it--which was months after Dec in any case). Been Away Too Long [sic] is listed as a song being worked on in Dec '66 as well, side by side with the Wind Chimes it replaced. It's crystal clear the person writing this has no idea what any of these tracks are, much less the concepts or history of the SMiLE project. They're just listing every name they've ever seen on a SMiLE bootleg tracklist. Im surprised they don't have "Three Blind Mice," "Untitled Instrumental" and "My Little Red Book" for good measure.


I was reminded of an unflattering Brian moment I guess my brain had shut out over the years--where poor Al wasn't invited to come back into the studio console to listen to music with Brian and Paul McCartney at the veggie session. That one scene, maybe more than anything, breaks my heart and Id say encapsulates the way the band must've felt at this time. Like Brian's puppets: "you're not my equal, I get to talk to Paul and you don't, you're just an instrument--stay in the background until I have use for you." Anyone saying they wouldn't feel resentment there is full of it. Also, anyone saying "well Al could've just come in himself" doesn't get hierarchy dynamics. If you've seen Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, it's like the famous scene where Strauss didn't think it was his place to join these two titans of science, Opp and Einstein, unless they made it clear they wanted him there. How embarrassing would it be if he went out on a limb and came back only to hear "uhh Al, what're you doing, we were about to call another take" or just went on ignoring him entirely. It's a case where a little consideration for someone on the outside goes a long way, and since I've frequently been in Al's shoes here, I can't help but empathize. But everything else I read about Brian seems to confirm he was a very inconsiderate guy, probably his biggest personal foible. And it's not like Paul was above treating George Harrison as less-than either, so between that and feeling "this is Brian's gig/band, not my place to call the singer off for a break" it sounds like something he'd do.

Derek Taylor comes off as more than a little douchey during the section about Brian and Paul's meeting. He goads Paul into playing SLH, backhand-compliments Brian as "the tormented artist, king of second thoughts and third thoughts," and adds "but it doesn't affect my job, his unreleased material still gets publicity!" Feels almost like he was trying to slightly humiliate Brian here if any of that's true, all with the veneer of plausible deniability the way some jerks are. Paul's little "hurry up, Sgt Pepper is coming out!" now reads like a twist of the knife where in more objective sources I took it as gentlemanly consideration of both band's sales window.


This book reinforces the notion that Anderle wanted Brian to do SMiLE solo.

Capitol is said to have cancelled SMiLE, not Brian nor Mike, after getting sick of the delays.

Once again, the Smiley sessions are treated as a shameful afterthought, full of inaccuracies (recorded in two weeks? more like two months). There's not a single memory or specific anecdote about that whole album besides a two-sentence summary we already know. Very lame. It's probably the most mysterious chapter in their history and with all the Wilsons dead it'll probably never be revealed what actually happened that confusing, demoralized summer.

Even little things like the supposed debut of H&V on the radio, where a firsthand account could fill in so many gaps and make the story come alive, just get brushed over with the same "blah" summaries we've seen a million times. (The guard stopped us, but we talked our way through--HOW? WHO SAID WHAT?)

They didn't play Monterey because "Mike wanted to get paid." (Though to be fair it later adds: "all the other guys agreed it was shady [that nobody could say where ticket money went] and decided to bow out,"). I just think it's funny this book never misses an opportunity to make Mike look bad in particular.


No, I don't think so. It reads like someone following the other, better sources but changing just enough of the wording, embellishing just slightly to add spin where it's needed to push a narrative, so it reads like new. But Im shocked how little is revealed here. There's no mention of the Inside Pop filming, Psychedelic Sounds, any private conversations with VDP that influenced the direction of the project, who the lesser known Vosse Posse members were and why they were "friends," what they were like, what they all talked about, amusing stories...no deeper insight whatsoever. I was hoping there'd be some wild scandalous tales that, while probably exagerrated or faked, at least rounded out the myth in an interesting way but it's just boring. It's more boring to hear "Brian" tell the story than Anderle, Vosse or Siegal. (I have yet to give Mike's account a shot.) I guess that's not definitive proof Brian couldn't have been involved in the writing process in some way; Grace Slick's autobiography is terrible and insultingly lacking too (literally two pages each for Monterey, Woodstock and Altamont--come the f*** on, woman!). But it still sucks. I sort of went to bat for this book because the pre-Pet Sounds chapters seemed somewhat believable but then it all just descends to an inaccurate summary of better sources.

That write up of the autobiography is pretty fascinating, albeit not exactly surprising.

There's an interesting interview with Todd Gold in Back to the Beach (you can read it here: https://archive.org/details/backtobeachbrian0000unse/page/210/mode/2up?q=Todd+Gold) where he talks about his working method. That if he just asked questions Brian wouldn't answer, but that if he brought in anecdotes from his research, Brian would elaborate on them. That interview also includes some very, very sad anecdotes re: Gold's observations of Brian's relationship with the other Beach Boys ca. 1990.

My sense has always been that Todd Gold didn't have a horse in this race, other than getting the job done and getting paid. I see no reason whatsoever why he would have made anything up in like a "I'll just make this up" way. The way a book like this would usually be written is that the author would do research, then a ton of taped interviews with the subject, then more research, then shape the interviews into a book and the subject would read it and make corrections. That's basically how all celebrity autobiographies happen, I'm sure that's how Brian's (excellent) second autobiography happened, and that's how this book seems to have happened. I don't see any reason why Todd Gold would make anything up. The problem is that Gold was picking up all kinds of weird anecdotes from all kinds of sources and interviews, but he obviously never really got a grip on how to pull a coherent perspective from it all, and so it's all garbled, which is how it reads to me, at least. And he was relying on Brian to confirm or deny things, but Brian will famously confirm or deny just about anything depending on how the mood strikes him.

But I sort of doubt there's anything in there that's an outright fabrication on Gold's part, as opposed to just a very garbled regurgitation of a ton of semi-reliable sources, with the source that's being taken as the ultimate arbitrator, Brian himself, being completely unreliable, at least in this context.

I thought I'd note for the record I tried to find a digital copy of the Byron Preiss book but it's out of my hands right now. Maybe soon I'll try to get one through the library. I'm not paying $30 or whatever the Amazon price is just to read the SMiLE chapter, especially when realistically there's probably nothing new there anyway.

For those who maybe think Im a little overbearing in my tendency to post frequently and at length in the threads I participate in, you'll have a nice reprieve of at least two weeks where I'll be on vacation and then Im gonna hunker down and read Priore's 2005 book for the first time, reread LLVS, plus the SMiLE chapters in a few other books and once I get a copy finally enjoy Leaf's SMiLE tome. (I'm going to skip the 33^1/3 book because I've heard it sucks.)

Then, I'll finish my new and possible final fanmix, and my obsession with this album can come to an end after ~15 years and the death of its creator, knowing I've read all the sources and internet discussions! And I can go back to studying other stuff again and get a life.  :banana

Before I go though, Im reading the relevant parts of Steve Gaines book, Heroes and Villains as well as Mike Love's autobiography. I'll focus on Mike first and do the former tomorrow.

With regard to Mike, there's not too much new information on the sessions considering he wasn't there. I will give him credit for his candidness in general, including: how he started balding, he doesn't deny criticizing the lyrics, gives a fair portrait of his "rivals" (Asher, VDP, other bands), acknowledges the legacy of Pet Sounds, plus he admits to saying "Stalin of the Studio." Im inclined to believe Mike then, when he explains himself on some other widely circulated slander--namely that "who's gonna hear this sh*t the ears of a dog?" quote which is always framed as though Mike were implying PS is unfit for human ears or something. In actuality, he was talking about the oh-so-subtle differences in vocal takes that Brian heard but seemingly no one else could, and while I dont doubt (nor does Mike necessarily deny) that such a remark was said in anger after dozens of tedious vocal takes, he does acknowledge Brian's amazing perception as a positive after the fact. Frankly, Mike's explanation of that quote makes a hell of a lot more sense than the less forgiving interpretations his haters have implied, and considering how unrelenting Brian could be in the studio, I'm sure a little venting was justified. (We might've heard more from the Wrecking Crew if they weren't worried about burning professional bridges, while to Mike, Brian's only family and fair game to get mad at on occasion.)

I do sort of get Mike's hesitancy towards SMiLE considering Ive had trouble turning people on to it myself, but also I think he doesn't give listeners enough credit. A lot of people like having some ambiguity to chew on after a piece of media is first consumed, and to most people literal lyrics are far less important than a great sound. (Look at the doo-wop scat vocalizations the group first took inspiration from!) In fact, a lot of straightforward stories that end on a happy note tend to go unsung before long, while the sad/mysterious stories leave you wanting closure and therefore discussing them more. I highly doubt as many people have talked about Pepper through the years as SMiLE, for example, and if they do it's only to singularly praise it or argue if it's overrated. You don't see people debate the meaning of ADITL because even the song's biggest advocates just say "it's great" and that's it. (I guess it's about the existential questioning and unresolved grief we all feel even as we go on with our monotonous daily lives, only reading about problems we can never solve, but much as I like it, ADITL feels sort of empty and pretentious compared to SU's purposeful poetry.) People consume fluff and forget about it, while a little melancholy helps art stick with you, which is why I think the BB music (infused with much of Brian's angst and eeriness) survives as knockoffs like the Sunrays are a footnote at best. (Anecdotally, a lot of the same people I know who've given me grief coming out of the theater for criticizing Marvel movies never even remember what happened in them just a years or so late; it's all just disposable time-wasters to them even if they emotionally lash out against dissenting opinions in the moment.)

That all said, I do feel a lot of reverence come through in Mike's description of Brian's achievement with the music of the sessions. His regaling of the Inside Pop special and the wider recognition of Brian as a genius felt sincere. He doesn't lay it on thick either though; it doesn't come off as flattery to hide his misgivings for its lyrics and commercial viability. Later, Mike even admits that pop culture was turning psychedelic in '67 and more or less implies that Brian was on the right track all along, that they missed the bandwagon by not finishing SMiLE. He quotes Brian's many interviews over the years about how drugs, specifically weed and LSD, helped him (Brian) be a better songwriter and doesn't fully dispute them, which was surprising. Mike's account of the SMiLE period is brief but he wasn't there and is writing 50 years later, where we tend to remember only the big picture stuff, not intimate day by day trivialities. It'd be nice to read a recounting of the kind of conversations the band must've had behind Brian's back or maybe to him, but I get that most people aren't gonna remember details like that so long afterward. They're going to remember what everyone's general vibe and big actions were, which he does.

There's some new anecdotes I hadn't heard before: 1) Not only did Brian cancel sessions outright, but at least once he assembled "an entire orchestra" only to do one take and immediately send them home. 2) With the lawsuit, there was a fear that Capitol might not release any new album at all--Im not a lawyer so I don't know if that was in their power, but the point is the band thought as much. This would tie in with my earlier supposition that the lawsuit was perhaps THE primary factor for the album's demise, and Brian lost motivation because he didn't want to make money for Capitol. That hypothesis would be even more true if Brian thought all his efforts might be in service of a doomed project anyway, and again once Sgt Pepper came out, I think the biggest hangup was that he'd "missed the moment." 3) Mike makes a point of separating Brian's entourage into two camps, the "hip intelligentsia" which includes Anderle, Oppenheim and Siegle as well as "the hipsters" which includes Vosse and the nameless rabble. It seems at first that Mike respects the people in the former group as professionals doing a real job but not the latter. However, while Mike does seem to acknowledge Anderle had a legitimate purpose hanging around Brian, he's not spared of some vitriol later when Mike criticizes the way he (Anderle) has talked about him over the years. 4) Mike doesn't outright say it or cast blame but I get the impression he thinks the "Brian is a genius" campaign was a bad idea--not out of jealousy but because it created an expectation Brian couldn't live up to that drove him mad. This rings true and I cited it as a double-edged sword in my first post on this thread.

Unfortunately, some unanswered questions remain: 1) Mike doesn't elaborate on who gave Taylor the go-ahead to make SMiLE's cancellation announcement or what Taylor's motivation was or the immediate reaction from anyone in the band when they saw. It's just taken as a given Taylor had the free reign to issue a sweeping judgement call that helped ruin their reputations and that's that. I'm guessing they just told the guy he could do whatever he wanted as press agent since that's the clear vibe I'm getting, but it's a really stupid-ass arrangement if you ask me. 2) Smiley is once again just the sad unwanted stepchild living in its older sibling's shadow that no one cares to acknowledge in any way. Mike doesn't say anything we haven't heard before except "some of those songs couldn't even be called songs" and "I don't think Brian wanted to be associated with it either [hence the production credit to the group]." These are some of the most damning remarks about Smiley from any member of the band, and while I personally love it, I recognize why Mike feels this way and don't blame him. 3) The famous VDP confrontation and telling the Posse to "take a hike" are never referenced (directly at least) which is disappointing because I wanted to get Mike's perspective on this. With the CE incident, I'd have loved to hear Mike tell us if he were actually asking in good faith or using the moment as an excuse to dress down the interloper (as is often portrayed and I strongly suspect), if he was yelling, his perception of Brian's non-reaction to watching his collaborator humiliated, what happened afterward and why he sang it despite his misgivings.

The biggest omission I felt bothered by was, what did Mike do while SMiLE collapsed anyway, sit by passively? Did he or the others even try to save it as it was, or did Brian just have that much pull? (Or were they happy to cast it aside and move on, and just ashamed to admit so now when it's become clear that was the wrong call?) What were the meetings like where the band almost broke up over SU, and who went to bat for that song's release? How did the idea of redoing everything from scratch come about, what were those conversations like, was there any enthusiasm for that new project? How come Mike seemingly didn't offer to step in to help as a collaborator when VDP left (which Mike says was Feb '67 by the way), or did he and that's what led to Smiley? I feel Mike's ghostwriter ought to have prodded him for an explanation of these major "plot holes" and the fact he didn't is almost journalistic malpractice. Seems the ghostwriter wasn't a Beach Boys fan with the same burning curiosity we all have, just a hired gun with no emotional stakes in the subject matter. What a shame.

Overall despite those frustrating omissions, I like what I've seen of this book's PS/SMiLE segments enough that I want to read the rest someday soon. Mike strikes me as a mostly fair source, though perhaps he may be selectively withholding information like the CE standoff and Smiley transition. I felt a lot of warmth for his bandmates even in just the section I read and he never hesitates to give other people their due, like Carl or Brian. Best example, he credits Carl for his bravery facing the threat of jailtime as a conscientious objector, while admitting he himself would've just fled the country. He mentions some unflattering stuff about everyone including himself but when he does it about the others it doesn't seem malicious so much as in the interest of full disclosure. (Bruce dressing like a queer to get out of the draft was funny and not relayed in a character-assassinating way.) It's a better read than either of Brian's biographies based on what I've seen so far. And Mike is a lot nicer to his bandmates on the page than "Brian" was with WIBN. (Meanwhile, I just couldn't get into I Am Brian Wilson, at least not right now for the purposes of this SMiLE deep dive anyway. Way too confused and "unedited" for me.)  

That all said, once Mike launches into a screed against David Leaf and Brian's friends (who've testified that Mike killed SMiLE), I admit a portion of my goodwill for him and the book went away. To some extent I get the need to defend oneself for posterity but on the other hand, it does feel defensive and bitter. Mike makes a strong case by using half a dozen or so Brian quotes blaming drugs for the album collapsing, but a little humility and acknowledgement of fault goes a long way. He doesn't have to take responsibility for Brian's meltdown of course, but a little "maybe I could've been more openly supportive" / "maybe I ought to've kept my criticisms constructive" would help his image with fans. I think Brian's lucky, where "his" side of the story, or the narrative painting him in the best light, is fed to us by proxies so he gets to keep his hands clean while Mike has to constantly give his own side or nobody else will. This makes him appear petty, image-obsessed and as if he's rehashing old drama for its own sake when to observers it's like "dude, your cuz has been through hell, give it a rest and quit picking on him for doing drugs 50 years ago." It's not like Brian orchestrated it this way, but the SMiLE music is so good, its collapse such a tragedy and the need for an easy bad guy so ingrained in human nature, that's just the way it goes. It doesn't help that Mike is a corny square with a domineering personality most associate with bullying while Brian is the cool eccentric genius with perhaps the meekest, gentlest disposition I've ever seen. That doesn't mean Brian's not seriously flawed and Mike's side isn't perhaps the more correct one, but it's public relations 101.

Julia, I doubt anyone here is at all perturbed by your energetic return to SMiLE. Certain of my books remain frustratingly elusive on the subject and we would all be well-served if those monolithic researchers can go AGD one better and give us an annotated SMiLE sessions chronology which captures all of the anarchy in the process. Until then I don't know if we'd have enough to go beyond the basic arc that still has several contested interpretations (broadly speaking, the "Smiley Smile is SMiLE' and "SMiLE was ready in 1967' opposition). A 'snapshot" of SMiLE prior to the "Heroes & Villains marathon" is probably the best that can be done...

One of the books that did surface is Priess's...and you will find when you read it that the chronology is jumbled and flawed, in part because the tape of SMiLE music that was supplied to Priess (and later leaked into the hands of collectors, initiating the cottage industry of SMiLE bootlegs and fan mixes) contained "Can't Wait Too Long," which was erroneously incorporated into the 1967 portion of the SMiLE sessions. As you'd expect from an "authorized" biography, it's more cleaned up--Mike's negative comments are briefer and far less pungent than elsewhere. (Keep in mind that Priess's book was in large part a reaction to Mike's intense dislike for the strong "Brianista" elements that permeated the first edition of David Leaf's book. By the way it is not the source of the distorted "SMiLE's collapse sent Brian to bed for ten years" myth--not sure who should take the blame for that...)

Given all that went down during that time frame, however, it's actually a miracle that Brian didn't have a ten-year collapse...he soldiered on despite an oscillating series of events that veered serially between family solidarity and internecine betrayal. When the post-SMiLE efforts he shepherded did not result in a commercial recovery for the group, he did collapse for awhile, after which he slowly but progressively descended through a number of "emotional circles of hell" that led to dangerous self-medication and the genuinely scary 1974-75 period where it seemed increasingly possible that he wouldn't survive his psychological spiral. (A situation that would be repeated in 1982-83, followed by that nine-year sentence in "Landy State Penitentiary.")

I will look forward to what you decide on as your "final" mix, which I hope you will annotate in a fashion similar to how you've approached your responses to what you've been reading. I think you'll probably give us a fascinatingly heterodox version of the material that will comprise one of the most intriguing returns to the "two-part" approach. Given your willingness to wade into the deep end of the pool, I hope you'll see fit to provide commentary on some of the "competing" interpretations and elaborate further on what prompted you to make your alterations...

I know that I speak for many more than just myself in saying that we are reading your posts with great interest!

Ive been browsing the old Smile Shop through the Wayback Machine but it's been a pretty bittersweet experience. Lot of dead links, lot of outdated info, lot of mythologizing which is cool but no longer what I'm really interested in personally.

I was hoping to print some of these essays out and take them with me as a bit of light reading material. In any case, I found a transcription of the Smog tape that seemed too useful to let it rot on some tenuously preserved Internet Archive capture.


   The bulk and essence of the people-- that live in Los Angeles...are fully aware of the
dangers of air pollution. Air pollution is something that has...become...increasingly more of a
threat to all of us over the last ten years... especially in the last five years since the
growing industry demands, the growing automobiles, the population...these are hazards that...have
become a monster and gotten out of control.
   Air in Los Angeles...oh, maybe fifty years ago, was really perfectly clear.
You could see the mountains, you could see...you'd look out your window and let's say you lived
on a hill... you could see for miles---...because basically it was a clear city that did not
really have air pollution or anything to clutter up the, uhh...the molecules and to give us
poison to breathe.
   Uhh, this poison that we breathe...has...such an effect on our overall body and mind
that it's... it's hard to say, uhh...ex--medically, exactly what happens. W--we do know this,
that smog...uhh, in sufficient doses, can kill a person.
   Smog...is something that we have...not really been aware of because it's a subliminal
problem for most people.
        Uhh, it doesn't really reach their consciousness. It bothers them, but they don't really
know what's bothering them.
   For this reason, each individual will really k--uhhhh...can't stay on this problem to
tackle it because, I'll tell you one thing, smog will come in, let's say in summer...summer and
fall.
   Okay. So there's a couple bad days of smog. Fine. Everybody does their best to cope. A
few people reach a senator or two, maybe pol--...the politicians are in there pitching.
   But the s--smog subsides and therefore because it's not a continual problem, we all
forget about it. But look, you can't forget about a problem that's, in time, going to be a
absolute killer.
   And, uhh, if...if it gets too heavy and too serious, you--everyone that's listening--is
gonna [garbled] suffering just like I am.
   I can't even keep my eyes open. I opened up my bathroom window today and I almost choked
to death...because I looked out and I saw smog hovering in between the trees, and that's not a
nice sight to see.
   So...we can laugh about it, we can cry about it. I...I...you choose to do what you want.
I say this: let's try to achieve that...air pollution...goal.
   Let's try to get air clean again, just like it was maybe fifty years ago when the people
here, at least living in Los Angeles, breathed good air...and I'm SURE, because of that their
whole systems were cleaner and...and their frames of mind better and their whole life had a
better thing, a better flow to it.
   Now, okay, there's a lot of people out there that may put me down for what I'm gonna say.
   But if you don't have the responsibility now to tackle this problem, you're gonna suffer
later. Thank you.
     [long pause]
   I'd like to add something to what I just said. I talked a lot about seeing. I didn't
mention much about the breathing problem...Now there are asthmatics. I've known like two
asthmatics in my life...people who have asthma. And I know...what the problem is.
   I've seen them suffer, and this...I'm sure smog...when we had that terrible, terrible
smog problem in the early '50's, I saw a couple of my friends almost die from not being able to
breathe...and I'll never forget what I saw...and I'm gonna say...that there are many people who
suffer from different respiratory illnesses, and smog doesn't make it easier--it makes it much
tougher on a person like that to breathe, and...and people...let's say, that have a very normal,
well-functioning respiratory system. Their lungs are in fine shape...smog even...it doesn't
matter if you're sick, well or not, smog is a hazard to all of us. And...in order to...in order
to function...let's say in order to live and be happy and to be able to...to think clearly,
you've got to have, first of all, the elements.
   You've gotta have good air to breathe. If you go out to Palm Springs...you go up to
Santa Barbara, get away from the city for a few days, you'll realize...you wake up in the
morning fresh, everything's groovy.
   You come back in Los Angeles, boom! there you go with another smog problem. Zap! You're
on your butt, you don't wanna do anything...uhh, it's...it's--I'll tell you...I've...I've been
so dragged by it and so depressed, that I've...I've actually slugged walls and thrown things
around the house...and I know that, uhh...that's...it's no way to conduct your...let's say that
it's no way to act, okay? Well, I can't help it, but smog drives me to do these things.
   Smog has actually been called a potential homicide...effect. It can make people actually
wanna go out and kill other people.
   Now this is an extreme effect, but this is the potential of smog...
[whistles]...Boy, and when I hear things like that it makes me wanna get involved in this thing
in some way--do my best. Okay. We...the way we can help is to make a record...and more or less,
present the facts in some interesting manner, not boring, but in some way that people
can...retain these facts...and to sort of set up in their minds, a goal to get rid of this s**t,
because I'll tell you something. If it doesn't subside, I'm gonna call the cops!
   Uhh, let's play that back.


^Im putting certain segments in bold that I'd like to use for my next mix, edited into a series of overlapping rants played alongside the Breathing skit. So, the first of these might start with the more general smog info, like it's gotten worse and hard to see out the window, that fades out as another one starts up about needing the elements and making a record to help and gradually fades, then a third rant starts about killing people and throwing things around the house. (Maybe reverse the second and third for a more uplifting order, we'll see) so it's like an anxiety inducing track replicating the compounding negative thoughts induced by smog as the breathing gets more and more labored. This will bookend my version of Second Day, which begins with the Water Chant (possibly including Undersea Chant buried low in the mix). So, as the second day divided the waters of the oceans and atmosphere, its namesake track literally separates the unambiguous water and air segments on the album. (Fire and Earth will be represented in their own Fire/Workshop medley leading into Veggies--I might put Taxi Cabber highlights over Workshop if they don't fit in the outro of Worms, it's a work in progress).

Also, minor change since I posted the rough outline before. Last track, post-SU, if I even do it, will be called "(Smile) And Then We'll Have World Peace" to avoid redundancy as the album itself will be called Dumb Angel. Plus, Ive learned through all this research that ever since the Pet Sounds sessions Brian really wanted to call a track "And Then We'll Have World Peace" and put it on an album, so why not here? Really, this was the MO of the entire project, that humor and its spiritual qualities would bring us all together in enlightened understanding.

Just some odds and ends here after searching through the remains of Smile Shop on the Internet Archive.

First, I found this additional interview with Jack Reilly where he says again, unambiguously that he wrote the new "their song is love have you listened as they play/yadda yadda and the children know the way" lyrics over the fade of Surf's Up, while the reprise of CIFOTM was pure Brian. This was a bit of a sticking point between me and some other people back in the day who insisted both parts were vintage, so I can't help but point out evidence that confirms my position when I find it.

I really wish I could take that couplet out without losing the Child backing vocals but I can't find them in isolation. Very very frustrating. If anyone could help with this, Id be eternally grateful.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100402070143/http://www.thesmileshop.net/index.php/Jack_Rieley_Speaks_Part_2 (http://web.archive.org/web/20100402070143/http://www.thesmileshop.net/index.php/Jack_Rieley_Speaks_Part_2)

Because navigating a dead site on the Wayback Machine's clunky interface is a huge pain in the ass, I just copy-and-pasted all the articles I could find into a word document. This was admittedly a crude effort, I wasn't originally intending to share, so some of the article titles got left off and I gave up tediously checking every "capture" off the site map after a it seemed like nothing was changing. When doing a quick cursory proofread, I found I'd copied some of the same essays multiple times, so those got deleted and I only hope nothing else got caught in the crossfire there. After awhile I thought, eff it, I'll share my "work" here while Im at it so no one else ever has to deal with this bullshit. Some of the Smile Shope pages which had more involved formatting that wouldn't transfer well to a word document were printed to pdf and included separately. You're welcome.

Overall it's about ~250 pages all inclusive, comparable in length with Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! and of a similar yet distinct purpose. Where that book was about preserving the many articles contemporaneous to SMiLE's inception, this tome chronicles all essays pertaining to the album's legacy and resurrection. In a sense, this is the "New Testament" to LLVS's "Old Testament," documenting how SMiLE continued to entice, inspire and inquisite the fans for decades until we finally brought it out of the shadows through sheer force of will. (Really Brian/VDP/Darian and, to a lesser extent, Mark & Alan did the actual work, but we the fans perpetuated demand!)

I'm calling this collection Deaf Daimon / Dumb Angel which follows a similar naming convention as LLVS but for the album's provisional title. "Daimon" in this context refers to the ancient Greek concept of a guiding personal spirit (or maybe roughly a guardian angel,) an inner muse, synonymous with the Roman "genius" and here it refers to Brian. (I go back and forth on whether to call it "Deaf Genius / Dumb Angel" or not, because the Daimon-Angel apparent-antonym connection works but Brian was also called a "genius" in the modern sense of the word so you get a nice double entendre there that contrasts the other meaning of the word "dumb." Feel free to call it either one, I don't care.)

Im almost certainly not the one to do it, I don't know if I even could publish something like this considering the gray area of collecting $$$ off of other people's words--in fact, how Priore got away with that is beyond me. Hell, I'm not sure if there'd even be an audience to purchase something like this, considering so much info is obsolete and it's already free online, but I think this ought to be a real book if even self-published among the fans. I say this because the Smile Shop essays are part of the album's story, they kept the SMiLE myth alive and ultimately helped influence how the various boots, mixes and even BWPS itself turned out.

If such a thing were to happen, a physical made-to-order publication, collective authorship ought to be credited to "Smile Scholars Around the World" (or "Through the Years") as I've seen John Lane and Jon Hunt say they prefer that term for the fans. Proceeds from sale would only cover expenses and, if there's any profit, send it to a mental health charity, Indian reservation, orphanage or psychedelic research--those seem fitting causes. Otherwise, maybe the digital documents could be held in an ongoing state of shared upkeep, like a group Google Docs project, where people can edit mistakes, pretty-up the formatting and make adjustments. (Like, say, including annotations where new info has solved a mystery or rendered previously believed "fact" obsolete, maybe add new essays for those of us not able to contribute to the Smile Shop, etc.) Eh, it's a nice thought.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0d409niazc0gygoqpsg47/AA4YPMjsPXrBqrKXZFOAZgk?rlkey=w17al1i7li6dyaps2ut8x7f40&st=sevmh1vk&dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0d409niazc0gygoqpsg47/AA4YPMjsPXrBqrKXZFOAZgk?rlkey=w17al1i7li6dyaps2ut8x7f40&st=sevmh1vk&dl=0)

You know what really sucks though? The message boards were not saved except for the first page of on-topic threads for like 3 random days, all leading to nothing but dead links EXCEPT a "Revolver vs Rubber Soul" contest of all things. (I saved that, it's included in the package.) That's a massive bummer. A further irony is that there was a thread I couldn't click asking the forum "what do you think will be the last thread ever on the Smile Shop?" and now we have the official answer. For the record, I vote Rubber Soul.

Won't pretend to understand his reasons, but Jack lied. Those additional lyrics were written by Van Dyke Parks in June 1971. They're in Van Dyke's handwriting and I clarified the issue with him directly.

Huh, so theyre vintage in the sense of coming from one of the collaborators but not circa 66 or 67? Either way I personally dont care for them. With what Id like to do with the fade especially (Talking Horns "wailing" part) I think they  sound too busy. The Child lyrics there are great tho.

EDIT: As always, thanks for clarifying i appreciate the truth

Thats interesting - I think the melody for that part fits over the verse of the first go at CIFOTM (might be slightly different chords in one or 2 spots..?) so I guess that means VDP prob never wrote verse lyrics for it in '66..?

No one seems able to give a straight answer to that question. Various sources Ive read outright say the work was done or it wasnt. Some sources imply lyrics without outright listing them, like Brians second autobiography  and Dennis playing an acetate to a reporter. I think they mustve been in flux.

So, the last thing Im gonna do for awhile is post a reaction to the relevant passages from Steve Gaines' Heroes and Villains. I probably won't make another significant contribution to this thread for another month.


First of all, he provides the most complete description of Brian and Marilyn's house on Laurel Way I've ever seen. Almost every single detail here is something I've seen written elsewhere, but this is the best book to get it all in one place. I'll post the whole passage in Italics: While Brian busied himself composing new Beach Boys material, Marilyn set about fixing up the house with the help of decorator Lee Polk (wife of director Martin Polk) -and Brian's overriding advice. The master bedroom had flocked red wallpaper. A huge four-poster bed, with a headboard of carved angels, was blanketed in a leopardprint spread. In the bathroom hung a plastic picture of Jesus, whose eyes opened and closed when you moved. In the shag-carpeted living room several "Lava Lamps" slowly undulated, while nearby, inexplicably, was a display rack of children's dolls in their plastic shipping tubes. On the walls were Kean prints of dark-eyed children, along with cheap prints of the Mona Lisa and Blueboy. The large dining room was furnished with an immense, Spanishstyle table covered in a dark blue cloth and· surrounded by high-backed chairs. The kitchen had black-and-white houndstooth-check wallpaper and striped window shades, like an "Op-art painting," according to one visitor. The den was a small room prepared in a bright orange, blue, yellow, and red wall fabric, with a jukebox loaded with Beach Boys singles and Phil Spector tunes. A pair of mechanical parrots, dyed fluorescent colors, sat in a huge cage. Two dogs, Louie (named after Brian's pal, Lou Adler), a dark brown Weimaraner, and Banana, a beagle, completed the scene. Later, this book confirms the "new" detail I found in WIBN, that Brian has a playset installed in the front of the house so you had to crawl through to get inside.  

^Reading all this, I think the place ought to have been preserved as a walk-in museum, similar to the "A Christmas Story" house. I understand the reverence for Belagio 10452 with its private studio and all, but for me 1448 Laurel Way is the true Abode of Wilson's Muse, where his best work was done, the House Surfing Built (and SMiLE destroyed).


Similarly, this book has the most in-depth recounting of Asher and Brian's time together. More or less everything you've heard elsewhere is here but then it goes more in-depth with things like making hash brownies for a whole paragraph rather than a quick aside.  

I was shocked to hear Asher only earned $60,000 for his work on the album. I'm guessing that figure hasn't been updated since 1986 and now Pet Sounds has been rereleased so many times since then it must be a lot more, right? At least six figures? If not, that's insane.


Something Gaines notes that gets lost in the conversation is that the other guys didn't "get" SMiLE or sense the change in the winds because they weren't in LA while the new counterculture was developing. It's not (just) that they were squares, they just missed out on the seismic shift in what was considered "cool" and didn't get the memo until the Beatles and Monterey brought Flower Power to the mainstream outside Hollywood, San Francisco and swinging London. Some of the things going on that influenced the hippies, like a 10 PM curfew, were news to me.


This is the first I've ever heard of VDP even being aware of Tony Asher's existence, because as far as every other source is concerned, the two never interacted or influenced each other. Here, VDP is keenly aware of Asher's less-than-ideal experience with Brian Wilson and this makes him hesitant to sign on as collaborator.

Something that raises an eyebrow is the depiction of their first meeting, where Brian has already conceived Dumb Angel as the epic teenage symphony to God, with "threads of music entwined from song to song in a vast tapestry." I was under the impression that specific description came later, like Badman puts it at October (the issues with that book aside) but it's certainly not impossible. The entwined music may not be so far off from "a lot of talking and laughing between cuts" that's a verified, vintage quote but also could be the later mythology seeping into the historical record as well. It's not something where I can say definitively which is right or wrong, but it's a notable difference. My theory? Gaines is just trying to get the SMiLE exposition out of the way by putting it all in the first meeting rather than drip-feeding it over time, as I expect is probably closer to the truth. We all know Brian's mind changed a lot and I think the scope and specifics of SMiLE snowballed over those 7 months between May and Dec of '66.

It's like how the popular perception used to be that SMiLE would have all these repeated leitmotifs until more people realized the sessions were a chaotic mess and those repeats only happened because Heroes cannibalized the rest of the music. Unfortunately, Gaines repeats that misconception elsewhere in the book, saying the songs "had passages which repeated and echoed each other." I know this predates most bootlegs and info on the unreleased SMiLE tracks but it shows.


I remember in my earliest exposure to SMiLE, imagining VDP and Brian as two peas in a pod, eccentric cool genius buddies who saw eye to eye on everything and big bad Mike Love ruined it. Then slowly but surely I find that Van hated the Fire sessions, had some bad blood with Brian ("victimized by [his] buffoonery"), hated the Psychedelic Sounds, fought with Brian often enough that Anderle talks about it at length, disagreed with the choice of Veggies as a single and now I find out he hated the tent & sandbox from the first. (I assumed the WIBN quote was fake or in reference to seeing dog sh*t in it, not his "Calvinist frugal" reaction to such wasteful opulence.) I sort of understand VDP's mindset (although at least Brian's indulgences sound cool, not like other rich people dabbling in politics and buying every business and sh*t) but I find it a tad hypocritical how these misgivings about extravagant wealth went out the window once they were used to benefit him personally. I'm referring to both the car payment and purchase of literally thousands of dollars worth of hash. Still, the quote "There were no stipulations about what the five thousand dollars represented, but what it meant was my undying loyalty to Brian Wilson," is pretty touching all the same. VDP never forgot that kindness and mentioned it in his memorial to BDW.

With all this in mind, Van doesn't seem the type not to mention getting 40 mice from a guy he already thought was a weirdo too loose with money others'd kill for, so I think we can safely write off that anecdote in WIBN as bullshit.


According to this book, Brian and Van wrote "about half the album" in one go, laying on their backs because they were too stoned to stand, microphone hovering about a foot off the ground, only stopping when they got sleepy.

There's a VDP quote I'd never seen before: "we were trying to write a song that would end on a freeze frame of the Union Pacific Railroad-the guys come together and they turn around to have their picture taken."

^This sounds more like Cabinessence than anything but it's listed separately as "yet another song" when Gaines easily could've made the connection. I'm going to say it morphed into CE and Gaines or VDP didn't specify, or this idea was abandoned. How do you end a song on a "freeze frame?"

Brian is said to have taken "occasional psychedelics" but "never in the presence of Anderle or VDP." Anderle is said to have taken "up to 5 desbutols a day" along with Brian, though.


I still maintain there was a ton of bleedover between SMiLE and the supposedly separate humor album and "sound effects album," for the following reasons: 1) that aforementioned quote "a lot of talking and laughing between cuts," 2) the name of the album and its ethos of exploring the spiritual power of laughter, 3) the fact the two biggest skits were done with Wrecking Crew musicians explicitly tied to SMiLE songs in theme (Veggie Fight) or during the same session where music was recorded (George Fell), 4) that Brian included humorous skits on Beach Boy albums before and 5) Smiley explicitly combined the two as any honest listener would admit and Anderle testifies in Crawdaddy. The "sound effects album" is a somewhat less commonly known tangent but I feel more or less the same--there must've been a ton of bleedover between it and SMiLE if nothing else, considering Smiley has water pouring and other musique veritae kind of effects on it. Anyway, long buildup to say, Gaines makes it sound like Vosse's water recordings were meant for this separate project instead of the Water element but I don't think there was such a hard boundary in Brian's mind. Vosse is also said to have recorded "chewing and swallowing" sounds, fountains/hoses, crunching gravel, and animals which seems to me like descriptions of the "lost Psychedelic Sounds" mentioned in Badman's book.

Gaines writes about this supposedly separate humor album in confusing terms: "There was also an entire album devoted to humor, which Brian actually recorded with photographer Jasper Dailey, and which was rejected by A&M Records."

^This implies Brian actually made an LP's worth of material with Jasper instead of three separate tracks, and even then it's my understanding that wasn't "the humor album" but a one-off gag and excuse to procrastinate. This description implies the Jasper Dailey tracks were a sincere offering to A&M rather than a put on at their expense (and at the cost of weeks' worth of work, dammit Brian!). Gaines implies that this apparently finished humor album made with Jasper getting rejected by A&M and Capitol is what led to Brother Records. I'm sure the ability to make whatever he wanted was the genesis but I think Gaines is connecting the wrong dots, or the right dots in the wrong context, to get to the correct conclusion if you get me.


This source confirms Anderle's recollection that Mike was most receptive to him (Anderle) and the Brother Records endeavor. It's explicitly stated "[Mike's] support for Anderle, whom he respected him as a businessman, lent the idea weight." This sort of kills the idea that Mike hated all of Brian's new connections, or that there is one singular "Vosse Posse" (while a cool name, it really should be called the "Anderle Assembly" or something because he was the "mayor of hip" who brought Hutton, Vosse, VDP and so many others into Brian's orbit). Really, Brian's circle of new "friends" during the SMiLE Era are varied people with their own agendas and obligations. I like Mike's classification of a "hip intelligentsia" who were there to do a job (though I'd include Vosse in that class, along with Anderle, Taylor and maybe Siegal on a good day) and "hipsters" who just sort of got in the way whether their intentions were good or not. (I regret being so harsh towards Daro for how I spoke to him over things he did 50 years previous, but I still include him in this category along with Danny Hutton, Mark Volman and Stanley Shapiro. It's not that this makes them bad guys, just that they had no legit reason for being there.)

The other guys are said to have been excited to use Brother Records as a means to work with other acts and get out from under Brian's shadow.

Small point of difference too, where other sources say Nick Grillo looked at the books and discovered irregularities, here it's said he hired Abe Somers who found them.


I'd never heard this before, but in Gaines' book it mentions that anytime Murry was set to visit, Brian would "vomit in fear."

I either never read or forgot (it may be in Fusion, been awhile since I read it) that Brian hired a team to debug his car: "Magically," said Michael Vosse, "they found a bug in Brian's car. To this day I think they brought it with them to get the job."

I really like this Anderle quote: "Thinking back," Anderle said, "there was so much weirdness going on that was whimsical and humorous, those signs certainly didn't alarm me. Brian wasn't the only one. We were all strange, doing strange things."

Is there another source to the Carol Mountain story with Stanley Shapiro? It's not an anecdote you see in most sources and I've heard Shapiro's reputation as an honest source is spotty. Certainly this is among the most embarrassing, erratic, concerning examples of Brian coming undone. It's not an experience I'd imagine you forget yet it isn't in WIBN. Shapiro certainly doesn't sound like a real friend, just one of those people using someone else for a laugh, a story and probably free hash. He reminds me of that episode of Parks and Recreation "he takes vacations in other people's lives." I may be reading too much into one story but anyone with an ounce of common sense would say it isn't a good idea to call up your old unrequited high school crush while married, and it sounds like it must've been a humiliating heartbreak for Brian both times, not something to laugh at. Maybe I'm too sensitive, I don't know.

The Seconds anecdote is relayed again with slight differences. Another source (admittedly I forget which off the top of my head now but I believe Leaf) mentioned Anderle was upset at Brian's "Jewish conspiracy" but the way I read that, it sounded more like hurt and sadness. When Gaines tells the story, "veins throbbing in his forehead" it sounds more like anger. Small but noted difference. And here Brian says "did you hear the Beatles album?" not "the new Beatles album" nor "Rubber Soul." This could go either way; is it "the" as in "the newest" or "the" as in best, which would imply RS since that seems Brian's favorite and certainly the most impactful on him.


I love this Oppenheim quote and I'm surprised I never saw it before in any other major source: Oppenheim set off for Los Angeles, and soon after arriving drove up the hill to the house on Laurel Way. He1 just walked in and said who he was. "It was a kind of informal drop-in place," Oppenheim said. "There were always people around. . . . Brian at the time had his piano put in the sand, and in the back there was a tent. I was invited into the tent. I went in once or twice but never understood what it was about. Brian was looking at the TV set with the volume off and just the color, detuned, and lots of vegetables around. Marilyn was nice, receptive and warm, and made sure I had a drink. I never understood Brian and her together. It was a strange, insulated household, insulated from the world by money . . . . A playpen of irresponsible people. If they'd had to feel the road and the gravel under their feet, they would have had to behave in a very different way, but this wasn't necessary.

^The scene this sets almost feels like a sort of crack den in my eyes, a perpetual party house of hangers-on wanting a glimpse at the rockstar, Brian half-aware of their presence on a good day. I'm wondering how much stuff must've been stolen in all the unchecked comings and goings: like loose jewelry, drugs and most insidiously, those precious acetates containing missing SMiLE sections we'd all kill to hear, lost puzzle pieces that would rewrite our entire understanding of the album. In another thread, I compared Brian to Jay Gatsby but this "insulated by money" description is more befitting the Buchanans and it just goes to show money doesn't buy happiness. Even Oppenheim could tell Brian and Marilyn weren't really in love.

"A film crew and I went to Columbia Records's studios with Brian and his friends, and they were doing tiny little pieces that made no sense in and of themselves . . . just a few notes . . . also the sessions didn't inake a scene that was at all interesting. . . . I had hoped to get Brian_ masterminding a recording session, but instead it was terribly spread out . . . . Brian was a little spacy, but he didn't seem drugged. We filmed a piece called 'Surf's Up,' and he accompanied himself at the piano. After that we tried to talk with him but didn't get much out of him. Some guy said, 'He's not verbal.' He was odd and he seemed odder. I had heard the stories before we got there about how crazy he was. Van Dyke seemed brilliant, intelligent, off-the-wall, and smashed."

^It's strange how everyone assumed the filmed sessions that "went very badly" represented a band fight when this book, published almost 40 years ago, makes it clear they just didn't look interesting on camera. I think this shows the power of film over print in an age where few bother to read anymore, and in this case specifically the power of Leaf's film "Beautiful Dreamer" that undoubtedly shaped a certain narrative for years afterward. Only in the last 10 years and very slowly has the pendulum swung back to something more reasonable and evidentiary rather than "literary." In short, while it may be annoying listening to him bitch about it, Mike has reason to be pissed at how he's been portrayed. The primary sources still attest to certain blow ups but it was definitely overemphasized in the immediate aftermath of BWPS if not before.

The "he's not verbal" ties in with Anderle's quote in the Leaf book, so much that I wonder if he's the one who said that to Oppenheim here. If Oppenheim really wept and said "it's the best song I've ever heard" (paraphrased) like some sources posit, he doesn't admit so here. He seems more perplexed and put-off than overawed. (Which makes sense and rings truer to me anyway.)


Gaines confirms Brian was worried about how GV would sound live. The more I think about it, combined with the relative lack of quotes criticizing how the BBs recreated the new stuff live in Badman's book, I'm wondering if this "SMiLE was too complex to take on the road" thing might've been another of Brian's paranoid anxieties. Not that there wasn't some talk PS/GV not sounding as good live among critics and possibly Badman's quotes are cherry-picked but still. Was it really expected a band sound EXACTLY the same out of the studio? I'm wondering if it wasn't a case of Brian holding the material in such high reverence that he would not hear of any compromises to its presentation. This is the guy who demanded such perfection in the studio, it's not unreasonable to think he'd never be satisfied with any live arrangement; he'd want perfection every time for fear any mistake or limitation reflected badly on him as a songwriter. I wonder if this same guy who was so afraid: of Murry, of Spector, of a painting, of a woman (ESP witch), of the Monterey hippies...wasn't just inventing another thing to get antsy about in his head. Point is, I think it may've actually been Brian using that "it won't play well live" angle as an excuse to quit this increasingly burdensome project rather than an attack levied by the Beach Boys themselves. (Or maybe they did that and he was all too happy to use it as an excuse to give up a project that'd become an albatross around his neck, either way the point is he wouldn't have needed much convincing on this front.)

Gaines also mentions that the Taxi Cabber recording lasted an entire hour, talking about rock n roll and the youth (no mention of directions as we hear on the actual bootleg). I'm now inclined to believe this is true, but then where's the rest of it? Was the bootleg release edited due to limited space? Does that imply we may have gotten a truncated Smog, Lifeboat Party, Bob Gorden's Real Trip, Basketball Sounds and Veggie Fight too? LP and VF do kind of begin and end abruptly while BGRT and BS are so abstract they could be a small snippet out of an hour for all we know. I'd love it if someone here could answer--is there more of this stuff in the vault? (And can you give me access or a copy? I'll literally sell you my soul to hear it, I'm that obsessed!)

No other source I'd ever read says that Brian ordered all the entries on the first class plane back to LA where the famous photo was taken.


The Gaines book repeats (originates?) the same story about a mid-November session of Fire where Brian sent everyone home because of bad vibrations, VDP is there and mortified which is why he didn't go to the 11/28 session, "Brother Julius" is pressured to light the trashcan on fire. I mean...am I crazy...did this happen? I trust AGD completely and it isn't on Belagio10452, even though he lists canceled sessions too. If Gaines is lying, it's such a weird thing to make up. In the same way I suspected Gaines of taking a bit of editorial liberty by condensing the "SMiLE exposition" all into the first meeting with Van Dyke, could he be doing that here? Combining the infamous canceled sessions "bad vibes" with the general fire-witchcraft "bad vibes" into one, more-exciting anecdote? Bad journalism in any case.

At least with regard to the "Brother Julius" part of the story, it seems to be corroborated by an actual Brian quote: "I walked in [to the studios], and there was a janitor named Brother Julius who lived in a little bungalow in the backyard. Before I walked in, I said, 'Brother Julius, could you start a little fire in the bucket and bring it in the studio?' Well, he hit the ceiling. He said, 'What do you want me to do that for?' I said, 'I want these guys to smell smoke.' You see, I was flipping. I wanted to smell smoke. "So there were the musicians smelling smoke with fire hats on. They were all firemen. Rooooar, rooar. The violins were screeching up, reaching upward, rolling down . . . Whoooorrr . . . "


Gaines makes it clear that, while the group initially trusted Anderle, they "came to resent him" when coming back in December, both for bringing all his weird hipster friends around (most of the "Posse" were really connected to him, primarily) and for encouraging Brian to go solo.

This is the sole source I've seen that cites any lyric in the VDP-Mike standoff other than CE's fade. Here it's actually "columnated ruins domino" as the primary sticking point, even though it's not even something Mike would've sung. Gaines also makes a point to say that VDP's "I don't know what it means, I have no excuse sir" was a defensive, sarcastic quip rather than a genuine admission of nonsense. This went without saying to me, but I've run into people here who use that line as reason to discount ANY deeper meaning or thought in VDP's lyrics at all, so I guess I'm glad at least one source spells it out that he wasn't serious. It's not that Van didn't make a sincere effort at writing thoughtful lyrics guys, it's that he was caught offguard, felt insulted and played along with the image Mike clearly had of him because he knew it wasn't a question being asked in good faith. (Really, is it that hard to understand "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield?" Those might be the most straightforward lyrics in the whole album, ironically enough!)

Still, Gaines quotes VDP saying he thought SMiLE would still come out even if he wouldn't be asked back in stark contrast to the way this scene is presented in WIBN, which almost certainly used this book as a source.


This version of Anderle's painting includes a quote from Brian about how "It's like the American Indians who have their soul captured." Was there any rational reason for him to say this, or is it just another weird thing Brian said that didn't mean anything?

This book has the best, most heartbreaking depiction of the final meeting Brian had with Anderle: A final incident involving Brian and Anderle took place several days later. The lawsuit Anderle had helped implement against Capitol Records was coming to a headdepositions were being taken and it was a time of serious tension. "I brought an attorney up to Brian's house," Anderle said, "and Brian would not come out of the bedroom." Anderle tried to get Marilyn to bring him down, but he would not come. Anderle told Marilyn, "I will not do business this way. I will not be one of those guys in Brian's life who is treated this way." But Marilyn was helpless, and eventually Anderle went up to the bedroom door himself and knocked. "Brian?'' he called out. "Listen, Brian, if you don't come out of this room, I'm gone. This isn't kid time anymore. Do you hear me, Brian?'' But there was no answer. Anderle never saw Brian again on a professional level. The painting of Brian to this day hangs in Anderle's living toom, but he has never painted again.

^A man so broken by drugs and abuse, so sheltered by money and fame, now having to face adult responsibilities besides just recording music for its own sake. And the man who's been feeding his indulgences, fostering his creativity, wanting to shield him as much as possible yet put in the position of having to be the "bad guy" for the first time. I wonder what it must've been like for Anderle driving home after that, or Marilyn realizing her husband was so dysfunctional he just drove away probably the best friend he'd ever have. (How embarrassed she must've been here!) I wonder if Brian knew the true significance of that moment as it was happening or, like so much else, thought he could carry on as an "Adult/Child" and everything would just continue to work out for him because he's rich.

Gaines says of the album's demise: Many things dealt the final blow to Smile-Brian's inability to finish the album, the drugs, the lyrics, the family squabbles-and finally, the release of two new Beatles singles, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields," so wondrous and differentsounding that Brian was crushed.

^I'd say it was probably due to the following, in order of significance: 1) the lawsuit, including fear of Capitol mishandling SMiLE in retribution plus resentment at letting them profit off his masterpiece, 2) dopamine crash, depressive withdrawal and personality collapse from chronic drug overdose--not just hallucinogens but speed and hash, 3) creeping insecurity in the music due to his own terminal perfectionism, stepping out of his comfort zone conceptually and the group's reaction, 4) procrastination and dread at the process of putting it together, 5) uncertainty of what the project even was anymore since his mind kept changing, endless possibilities with modular editing, VDP left and as I've said I suspect it grew in a direction he hadn't first intended, 6) post-SFF and certainly post-Pepper, fear of being seen as copying the Beatles rather than forging his own unique path.

There's an absolutely insane anecdote in this book I'd never seen before: Brian's final decision not to show up at Monterey may have been made one night about two weeks before the festival, at Alan Pariser's house. Vosse had brought Brian there to meet Pariser for the first time, and Brian seemed distant and uncomfortable from the start. After some small talk, Pariser said casually to Brian, "I don't even know what you guys are doing. I haven't beard from you in a while."

"Brian's mouth flew open," Mike Vosse said. "He was so insulted. Just at the climax of all this tension, the door flew open and in came . . . a guy who was a chiropractor ... a pushy hippie-type. He took one look at Brian and said, 'Terrible back, we're going to have to do something about that.' Before Brian knew it, be was on the floor on his stomach, screaming in agony as the chiropractor worked him over.

"He was absolutely terrified," Vosse said, "but too scared to tell him not to do it. . . . He was totally humiliated and in pain."

When Brian left that night, Pariser said, "If I don't see you before then, I'll see you at Monterey."

And Brian said, "I doubt it."

^Brian was flat out assaulted by a psychotic chiropractor.


The house boasted a large living room, a formal den with a fireplace, and a hidden study that could be entered through a secret door behind a bookcase. There was a fountain in the inner courtyard and a spiral staircase in the entrance foyer. Marilyn and Brian had some minimal construction done-they removed the old flagstone from arouncfthe swimming pool, replacing it with mosaic tiles, and built a tall brick wall around the perimeter of the acre-and-a-half grounds. The psychedelic and hippie paraphernalia from Laurel Way was thrown out, and Marilyn decorated the new house in tasteful pastels and with fashionable furniture. All that remained from before was the grand piano on which Brian had composed Pet Sounds, and the four-poster bed with its headboard of carved angels. To keep strangers away, a new electric gate was installed with an intercom and a sign that read STAND BACK-SPEAK NORMALLY. At first Brian wanted to repaint the house a bright magenta; the painting was only half finished when the Bel Air Residents Tenants Committee started a suit to stop him. The house was painted a simple beige.

^No one could accuse Gaines of being a bad writer. He has a great way of using seemingly innocuous descriptions to set a mood, like here where just the recounting of Brian's move to Bellagio makes me feel the death of creativity. That "STAND BACK-SPEAK NORMALLY" reminds me of the "NO TRESPASSING" sign that bookends Citizen Kane, from ostentatious parties to oppressive palace. That detail of not even getting to paint his house the color he wanted feels like a final slap in the face on top of all the other humiliations suffered by Brian that year. 1967 may be the best year for pop music but the man who arguably did most to set it all in motion was having the worst time of his life.

Gaines calls Smiley "a throwaway" and says "the only song on it Brian cared about was H&V" and he explicitly connects Veggies as the Earth element here, for some reason. (Previously, he implied that Brian and Paul "co-produced it" on the spot in April.)

Genevelyn the astrologer has been mentioned in almost every major source on SMiLE but here she is said to have visited Brian's house "frequently." She strikes me as a pretty weird, almost shady character and I wish more was known about her.

I think the lyrics must have been in flux or rejected or unfinished, or maybe they just talked about what they would be but didn't write them. The song is such a major composition, that got so much studio time dedicated to it, that I just can't imagine that if it had been fully finished with verses, then someone, actually probably a number of people, would have remembered that at some point and said so in a non-cagey way. But I've never seen any remotely direct reference in any kind of primary source.

Someone else pointed out on this board years ago, in response to a very excited post of my own about how the Dennis comment implied cowboy lyrics, that Dennis was reportedly playing this live on the piano, and that the verse of Child has a sort of loping, cowboy-song quality which would be easy to accentuate in the left hand if you were playing it as a solo piano piece without words. Given that there has never been any other reference to a western theme connected to the song, that seemed like the most plausible explanation to me the moment I first heard it...

I'd like to think if they still existed, or ever did, we'd have seen them by now same as other rejected outtakes like Reconnected Telephones. Certainly when VDP came in to help with BWPS (and if there's any doubt, I don't buy those as vintage for one second--too generic and obvious for Van). They either weren't finished or were rejected and forgotten, which still begs the question why Van took his sweet time over several months if you ask me. I'd really love an explanation of why he couldn't sit down and do his job in all that time.

Anyway, as I recall, the "psychiatrist" lyrics Brian mentioned were in connection to the idea your childhood shapes your adulthood, which reminded Van of the Wordsworth poem. Your explanation for where the "cowboy song" description comes from makes intuitive sense to me; I'm willing to say that's a red herring and the lyrics really were just about childhood experiences rippling through ones life. The music, with the adult singing and "baby" crying, united by those magnificent bass notes which to me always sounded like a heartbeat, seems to signify that while some aspects of our bodies and expression change, the inner "metronome" stays the same. It really is a brilliant track that deserves so much more love than it gets.

Where I think BWPS's version and even the far-superior Project SMiLE lyrics fall short are in their one-dimensional reading of the subject matter; they settle on "oh it's got 'child' in the title, just do a song about childhood innocence," but SMiLE is nothing if not full of double meanings. Even the straightforward Veggies lyrics have lots of puns or unexpected connections in the arrangement (the "row row row your boat" vocalizations, Veggie Fight, etc).

The "make sure the childhood is positive so the man will grow up well" theme would be a nice tie-in with Surf's Up's revelation that children's songs will save the world. Wonderful and Surf have the most dense, poetic, thought-provoking lyrics on the whole album and there's little doubt in my mind CIFOTM would've been in between them in the tracklist and of a similar style. I think we'd have seen lots of psychology babble or references to seemingly mundane childhood disappointments/hurts that spiral into maladaptive behaviors and trauma in adulthood. In the same way Wonderful uses childish imagery ("golden locket"), references to fairy tale cliches ("gather the forest" like a princess with her woodland animal friends) and nursery rhymes ("all fall down" from ring-a-round the rosie) to get its point across, and Surf's Up uses childish songs ("are you sleeping brother john") and references to childrens' toys ("columnated ruins domino"). I think we'd have seen more of that in CIFOTM's verse lyrics, some way of blending childlike words with psychology terms. Maybe that was the idea but even Van couldn't pull it off.

I don't know if you've tried to look up "Genevelyn" and struggled to find anything, but if so, it's because her name was actually spelled "J'Nevelyn".

Her name was J'Nevelyn Terrell (original name seems to be Ara Nevelyn Williamson) and she was a psychic, astrologer and friend of Audree Wilson. That's presumably how Brian connected with her first. I know this because Billy Hinsche's home videos mention and even briefly show her - she was on the trip to Hawaii in 1967 as Audree's travelling companion.

I managed to find a couple of mentions of her in publications related to workshops or things she'd written (see attached).

From what I can see she died in 1989.

There's also a photo of her on Getty Images from 1952 at the following link:
https://www.gettyimages.dk/detail/news-photo/college-play-rehearsal-at-pepperdine-college-23-january-news-photo/1048202056

This is me revisiting the Bill Tobelman "Good Humor Smile" site for old times' sake, as I haven't been there in about 15 years. I'll begin by saying I have nothing but respect and goodwill towards this website going in, as I find its scattershot organization, with hidden links, no overarching directory, embedded books/videos and interwoven psychedelic/mystical references as the perfect representation of the "SMiLE SPiRiT" in online form. The webpage is a work of art in its own way, and surely one of the beacons that kept the fire alive in the 90s, along with the legendary SMiLE Shop forum and Surfer Moon/Angel Fire essays. It's one of the first sources I ever encountered about the album and helped ignite my obsession.

That all said, while I'm about to strongly disagree with a lot of its methodology and some of its theses, keep in mind I still have a soft spot for the place all the same, this isn't meant to be a put down. https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/ (https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/)

Here are my scattered takeaways, organized by Page #, as seen in the URLs:


I could swear that the version of the site I saw years ago argued in favor of a Zen interpretation of SMiLE, though now it is claimed the album is best understood as a "dream-escape" chiefly influenced by Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation. [EDIT: As we go, later webpages still adhere to the Zen argument, and it's clear with his various asides that Tobelman has edited some pages over the years while leaving others in their previous states. This contributes to the (slightly frustrating) schizophrenic layout of the site, mirroring perhaps Brian's confused headspace in a work of abstract "web art" though lessening its value as a serious source. This tracks with my own recent research, where the only mention of "Zen" comes from the WIBN bio, in an anecdote I can't find corroborated anywhere, and is explicitly denied by Brian in Ear Candy albeit decades later. (I take all of Brian's SMiLE interviews post-67 with a massive grain of salt, with my skepticism rising for every year removed from the event.)  

However, while it may not have been a deliberate influence, I see a lot more "Zen koan" in the SMiLE mystery than I do I Ching, Numerology or Subud, the more deliberate ingredients in Brian's mind circa '66. Every song is a riddle without any direct apparent meaning, unlike the band's earlier work, and reminds me of the weird sayings in the Gospel of Thomas. It's meant to force the listener to either dig deep and search for clues through involved analysis or "zone out" and just accept the general vibe they get from various non-literal impressionistic lyrics and the image-evocative music ("now it sounds like jewelry," / "that sounds more like a baby" / raw veggie chewing as percussion and Fire recreating sirens, etc). That's to say nothing about how these seemingly disparate songs/themes fit together in a cohesive whole, or the meta-context of the sessions and Brian's mindset. People have written books, spent years debating and finding unintended spiritual inspiration in search of the truth with regard to these sessions and their output. (I count myself as one of them, for I was an atheist in 2011 and SMiLE showed me you could be religious and have an epiphany without organized dogma. I'm now an "Aquarian Gnostic" who studies theology for fun!) Whether it was Brian's explicit intent or not, a Zen koan is exactly the niche SMiLE evolved to fill, much like the BWPS tracklist certainly wasn't vintage and yet it became official over time.

All that said, since it wasn't a contemporary muse of Brian's in '66 by all evidence, I started to wonder where the WIBN bio might've gotten the idea to emphasize Zen as an ingredient in the SMiLE foundation. The best explanation I can find so far is right here in the quotes haphazardly strewn around the GHS site, where Zen is described as "the only religion or teaching that finds room for laughter" (D.T.Suzuki, Sengai: The Zen Of Ink And Paper(pg.11)). I could see some ghostwriter being informed of Brian's eastern inspirations without much detail, coming upon Zen (maybe he read GSHG by Siegal, which seems the only '66 quote of Brian mentioning it?) and thinking "sure, I'll use that, whatever, close enough."


The best part of this intro page comes in the lower "dark background/green & gold text" portion, when the quotes suddenly focus on The Art of Creation and its influence on Brian, particularly his exaltation of humor. This is because it's a real source, relevant to the historical SMiLE, rather than what Tobelman wants it to be. There's a genuine interplay of "[quote from TAOC] then [Brian or Anderle or someone] parroting a similar concept to show how it influenced his thought process during the sessions" that feels like compelling evidence. I prefer this rather than the very strained, borderline obnoxious jockeying we'll see in almost every other page of the site, in service of the "SMiLE is a koan about Brian's second and third trips" theory.

I haven't read TAOC myself but the idea of breaking the mind into 3 processes (humor, science, art) makes some intuitive sense to me. Perhaps I'd phrase it as "people, when discovering a new stimuli, are apt to engage with it first by humor (either dismissively or dissectively), then by science (to classify what it is and how it works), then by art (expressing how it makes us feel and changes our perspective). The first step is reflexive among nearly all observers, the second is a universal discipline that anyone can partake in but comparatively few bother to do, the third is a special, deeply personal process that is both rare and completely unique to the artist." I've seen it said that laughter probably evolved to signal the absence of danger and alternatively that all humor is at least somewhat hierarchical (guy slips on a banana peel, you think "glad that wasn't me" or you hear a witty line and signal "I'm smart enough to get that pun" with a chuckle) which coincides with Brian's quote about people's egos being attached to their sense of humor.

A lot of times, at gatherings (especially if the vibe is good and/or people are buzzed) any new person or topic will illicit at least one quick harmless joke from someone, as if our first instinct with any new thing is to test if it's a threat or assert ourselves above it in a way that is not violent and therefore safe / plausibly deniable. This has been my experience at least, so these TAOC hypotheses ring true to me on some level. It makes sense to me that, if you want to corral people to a higher standard or call out society's flaws, doing it in a humorous manner is the way to ensure you don't rub your audience the wrong way. People don't like to feel nagged, as with a lecture on healthy eating or white guilt, but you put those ideas in some funny lyrics or captivating melodies and you can really leave an impact. Brian says as much in the Smog tape. This is also why some comedians consider their craft so important, they can start a conversation about things in ways others can't--like a court jester being the only one who can call out the king, or Bill Cosby getting brought down by a stand up routine.

Perhaps the single most illuminating quote in the entire site is this: "Manifest Destiny, Plymouth Rock, etc. were the last things on his mind when he (Brian Wilson) asked me to take a free hand in the lyrics and the album's thematic direction," -Van Dyke Parks. I'd long suspected that the Americana/white guilt/journey from Plymouth Rock to Diamond Head thing was more VDP's idea than Brian's and this quote, if real and accurate, all but confirms it. Really, it's just so obvious when looking at the work both men did separately; VDP can't write about anything except America while Brian has never been historical nor political before or since, and on his own he never described SMiLE in a US-centric context, at least not nearly as much as he talks about humor, psychedelics and alternate spirituality.

Two other interesting VDP quotes: "Brian made it clear to me that he wanted to do something without restraint, or apology, or explanation to the rest of the group," & "I thought see...that one of the failures of the 'Smile' period---our working together---was the fact that the words were maybe too important or something. Or were given unnecessary importance." These are very ironic, considering how things ultimately turned out (regarding the former) and how the lyricist is downplaying his own role (the latter). It seems Brian did want to do his own thing and tell the group they could go with it or else, but then lost his nerve for various reasons. It must've been really frustrating being VDP, promised a blank check creatively, and then suddenly having to be the "bad guy" to the band, made to justify the new direction when Brian chickened out. I sense an unwarranted guilt or responsibility in that second quote, as if he thinks his lyrics are responsible when really, if anyone has to take the blame, it's Brian. (I say that because he promised different things to different people and ultimately didn't stand behind his chosen partner or music.) I really wonder if anyone at any time suggested throwing the lyrics out and letting Mike take a crack at it or not, and if not would it have placated him? VDP would've at least still gotten a car and solo deal out of the gig, so it's not like he'd have been worse for the wear.


According to Tobelman, Brian could not put any explicitly psychedelic lyrics in his music like the Beatles did in Revolver; he uses the rewriting of "Hang On To Your Ego" as proof. As a result, he postulates that SMiLE took on a more indirect, plausibly deniable, Zen-koan style wordplay. He uses the H&V lyrics “…she was right in the rain of bullets that eventually brought her down. But she’s still dancing in the night unafraid...” as proof that concepts like ego death (and spiritual rebirth) were hidden in plain sight on SMiLE's lyric sheets. The "threescore and five I'm very much alive" lyric is now reinterpreted as a reference to Brian's second trip where he aged backwards in '65, rather than the speaker of the song as an old man looking back on his life as I, and probably most listeners, would assume. He then goes on to cherry pick every possible fire-related lyric in the album as proof that Brian's second acid trip was a prominent theme in the music.

I will say, most of this recontextualizing is unconvincing to me, but the connection between "Bicycle Rider" and the invention of LSD (look up Bicycle Day, April 19) is actually kind of cool. In all, I'm not opposed to the idea that SMiLE has "secret" psychedelic references ("threw away my candy bar and I ate the wrapper--wink, wink!" / Fire as a bad trip set to music / even Wonderful's "gather the forest" might refer to gathering plants & fungi rather than woodland animals as I've always postulated) but I do think a lot of Tobelman's examples are forced, particularly because he's building on the premise that the WIBN bio is a reliable source and its 3 Trips + Flashback actually happened at all, much less as described, much less that they directly inspired VDP's lyrics for EVERY SONG (all big stretches in a vacuum, virtually impossible compounded).

Then Tobelman just goes off in a really awkward rant "mysteries full of meaning" where he tries to force the phrase into every SMiLE song, usually with lame takeaways that don't impress. Like, yes, SMiLE is a "mystery full of meaning" but so what, couldn't you say that about any psychedelic music, or art, or even really anything at all. (Sounds like women to me, or life itself, or black box tech like AI and computers as just a few examples.) It's not some big revelation that there's some kinda meaning to a famously oblique set of songs.

Tobelman then acknowledges the Ear Candy interview where Brian explicitly denies a Zen connection, but painstakingly attempts to dismiss it as Brian "preserving the mystery" with a few cherry picked, out of context quotes from VDP and Anderle to back it up. (Call me crazy but I don't think "Well, the first thing Brian will come up with is a concept,
an album concept..." equals "SMiLE is a Zen riddle!" but y'know...). I may be a hypocrite here because I prioritize Anderle, Vosse and VDP as sources above Brian but I hope that when I dismiss a Brian quote in favor of theirs, my reasoning is not quite so faulty as this.

Probably the strongest GHS argument yet or for some time afterward, is Tobelman's thesis that SMiLE was Brian's attempt to bridge the young "psychedelically enlightened" generation with the older squares through his music. This will become a theme in the site, where Brian supposedly imbued the album with all these hidden meanings, plausibly deniable to those hostile to drugs, yet perceptible to the initiated and those on the fringe curious to delve into the scene for themselves. In Tobelman's opinion, Priore's "new book" (presumably that from 2005, not LLVS) doesn't do enough to capture the spiritual component of the '66 LA scene, which was Brian's chief inspiration. Tobelman argues that for Brian, a "teenage symphony to God" and "religious music" are intrinsically linked to psychedelia, meant to express those revelations in sonic form (I agree). From here, he continues to describe SMiLE as we've all heard it before: Brian wanted to make people laugh, because laughter renders one vulnerable to a spiritual experience, and pepper the album with what he considered good lessons, like health food and exercise, so you'd immediately take those concepts into account while being enlightened.    

Tobelman postulates that Brian was aware of Zen through the How to Speak Hip comedy LP he was influenced by, with a single quote from Siegal's article (comparing swimming to Zen) as further proof the concept was at least on his mind at the time. For the record I don't doubt it, though Zen never seems to come up organically anytime Brian's specific Eastern/New Age influences are referenced in almost any source, for whatever that's worth. I think he may have been vaguely aware of it, but not as well read on the subject as astrology, subud, numerology, I Ching or bisociation. I don't put much stock in the "swimming [...] very Zen" quote because this is the guy who called Revolver "religious." I think, in Brian's naive, limited vernacular, these kinds of spiritual words were more or less synonyms for "hip" and "cool" at this time.  

In Tobelman's eyes, the "compartmentalization" of SMiLE into themes (he lists "God, Americana, laughter, childhood, cycle of life, earth, air, fire, water, ecology, etc") are missing the point, because "those so-called 'themes' are all related to the spiritual experience." I have to take some issue with this. I don't see the two are fundamentally at odds with each other--why not have a "spiritual experience" LP that so-happens to cover several distinct topics under one umbrella? How else can you fit songs as seemingly disparate as VT, H&V, Fire and SU without dividing the "big picture" into chapters, each existing as a semi-complete piece yet building towards a greater whole? (Example, Heroes seems to be about how at least the children grew up and gained wisdom despite their dangerous environment, while Surf is commonly thought to be about the need to press on in a weary world for the sake of children, and use their innocence as fuel to endure another dreary day. Two very different songs, different emotional tones, in different sides/movements but with overlapping messages.) It almost seems like he'd have us dismiss any attempt to decipher the individual parables in the Gospels, sayings of the Daodejing or chapters in the Bhagavad Gita with "it's about the spiritual experience!"

Similarly, Tobelman rejects any attempt to use Brian's mental health issues to explain SMiLE, because that was not his intent. But in my opinion, that sort of misses the point. Yes, Brian did not set out to make an album exploring mental illness (unless perhaps the psychiatry lyrics of CIFOTM were that, though we'll never know) but he had it, it was a significant factor in the project spiraling out of control, it's impossible to ignore when discussing the meta context of the sessions, and therefore it's a piece of the puzzle like it or not. That said, I do agree with him that Brian's struggles sometimes overshadow more direct dissections of the project on its own terms. I got frustrated in 2015 trying to talk about what a '66 SMiLE would be only to get shouted down with "the plan changed every day so who cares! Brian was ill, his thoughts aren't worth analyzing! Stop trying to find what isn't there and accept BWPS as the definitive!" I choose the middle path interpretation, where Brian was like Icarus and ascended to a brilliant height (Vosse and Anderle talking about the album existing as a fully conceptualized whole in Oct-Nov '66) before falling back to Earth with Fire, the CE incident, VDP leaving, tinkering with the single, etc. I think that bright shining moment where SMiLE was just a few sessions away, before Heroes cannibalized it all from within, is real and worth striving towards.

Where this page totally goes off the rails for me, and what will become an ongoing annoyance in later pages, is Tobelman's insistence on tying everything to "the bookstore incident" that I can only find in WIBN and, even if we accept that it did happen, doesn't seem to have been anywhere near as important as he makes it out to be. The only reason why everything must tie into this one anecdote, why every SMiLE song must be laboriously recontextualized as a reference to it, is due to the fact that "Brian" talked about this memory in terms of a Zen riddle in "his" disowned, widely denounced biography, and Tobelman has decided SMiLE is Zen, so this is the only "evidence" he's got. It's a really strained exercise that I think even the most diehard SMiLE mythologizers ought to find embarrassing nowadays, the kind of obsolete, ostentatious fan-theory that might've seemed "deep" in the early days of SMiLE archaeology but doesn't hold up to scrutiny.  


On page 1, there is an interesting story about Buddha silently contemplating a flower, his chief monk Mahakasyapa smiling, and "this smile was handed down by 28 successive Patriarchs" which is supposedly reflected in the album's original title (Dumb Angel, named for Buddha in this narrative, though of course SMiLE fits too for obvious reasons) and according to Tobelman, there are 28 smiles on the cover to represent these patriarchs. While it's a fun connection and I hate to be the thought-policing "your SMiLE theory is wrong" police, I don't count 28 smiles on the cover. There are 7 in the top banner, which seems significant in any case as one of the most common mythological numbers. Then 2 in picture frames on either side of the door. (9 total so far.) The left-hand display under the male figure has 4 obvious ones with red lips, same as the previous 9 (that's 13) but also 4 in circles that are so small they're easy to miss (17 now) and 4 more that are just black, with no red lips (we're at 21). Then I count 11 in the right-hand display under the woman (32 total) though admittedly the leftmost smile in one of the triangular displays is hard to see. I'm sure some selective methodology like "the ones without red lips don't count" might get you to 28 but it's forcing the evidence into a preset conclusion for sure. Swing and a miss, it's not like this wasn't an easy thing to check (though maybe there weren't any high quality scans of the cover online in the late 90s to be fair).


I have nothing to say on page 01, it's just a series of contemporary quotes, either from musicians, music critics or spiritualists. Same with Page 02.

Also, these pages suddenly have a directory on the left side, but following the links down the line, it skips right from Page 02 to Page 07. On said page (07), the Zen lens is applied retroactively to Pet Sounds too, where apparently everything from the "samurai warriors" pic on the back cover to the scrapped title "In My Childhood" are taken as evidence of Zen influence in Brian's work. While I will always appreciate this site as an iconic piece of early SMiLE analysis, I admit my patience began wearing thin at this point. It's clear Tobelman is grasping at straws trying to make his "cool" interpretation work, but it's such an unintuitive take you can't help but roll your eyes.  

Page 04 starts off pretty cool in comparison; the Buddhist quotes about "a solid, fluid, heating and vibrating" element are an interesting alt take on the classical 4, even if there's no direct proof Brian was into Buddhism at this time. The quotes about how "it is only the elements that make up the body, ego is a mirage" are thought provoking too, and I like the idea of ego-death as part of The Elements track, but just throwing some random Eastern mysticist and Psychedelic quotes around does not make a compelling case that this was specifically Brian's intent. This isn't me poking holes to prop up my own competing theory either--I want what Tobelman says here to be true, same as how I subscribe to SMiLE as being more Zen than Ching, but I'd be embarrassed to introduce a skeptic to these "arguments." Then Tobelman says the shapes of a Circle, Triangle & Square "represent the universe" according to Sangai and uses the fact that they appear on the SMiLE cover as proof Brian/Holmes were paying homage, when really they're just the most basic shapes and bound to appear anyway. Plus, he advocates for my loathed "Veggies/Chimes/Cow/Dada" elements suite, which has me groaning--especially coming after his "no themes, just the big picture" argument from earlier. (Why is it that the most put-on authoritative voices regarding SMiLE always have the lamest, basic bitch takes? I wish we could peak into the alt timeline where BWPS has the elements as Barnyard/Second Day/Cabin Essence/Undersea Chant to see if these supposed deep thinking, objective analysts still stand by their oh-so-original opinions on this matter or just so happen to follow the crowd yet again.)

Pages 05, 06, 03 are pretty much the same, just a jumble of out of context quotes, mostly from the useless WIBN book, trying to tie the SMiLE songs to the tenuous concept of Zen and possibly-fictitious Pickwick story. There's a LOT of repetition in this site--seems like it would've been better served as a single, comprehensive essay than the series of adhoc Web 1.0 pages that were seemingly churned out at random with little regard of how it'd all fit together in a cohesive argument.

In Page 03, Tobelman undercuts his earlier "no themes" argument yet again by discussing BWPS' three movement structure in confusing terms. Like, apparently Side 1 is "Brian's negative trip experience" (so, trip #2) despite an earlier aside where he tied this to Fire, which supposedly embodies Brian's past compared to Water as the present (hence the "now now" vocalizations in the Water chant, you see), while Side 2 is aging forwards (Wonderful) and backwards (Surf) to find God, while Side 3 is Brian post-enlightenment. There's a bunch of forced "opposites" from the obvious ("Heroes and Villains") to the coincidental ("mother and father" in Wonderful, "now and then" in Chimes) to the truly strained (Barnyard is the "meat" to VT's produce) all to emphasize the Zen, which is...above the concept of opposites altogether? If you're having trouble following this logic, so am I and I swear I'm not misframing anything, if anything I'm charitably leaving out some of the more WTF lines (like "The fire trucks are the iron horse. The iron horse is the fire trucks,") it's just very obvious the author already had a conclusion in mind and forced the sparse evidence to fit his predetermined narrative. He thinks repeating the same talking points over and over again slightly differently makes them better or something.


The division of these pages in a separate section of my commentary is artificial; they're still part of the leftward directory that adorns some pages but not others (despite the pages not being numbered chronologically in concert with their order in the listing...but I suppose this site's nonsensical organization is part of it's charm, genuinely).

In any case, Page 19 (eGO) is one of the better entries in Tobelman's multipart essay, essentially a series of quotes about the nature of ego and how to temporarily dissolve it through psychedelics. The insipid Pickwick story doesn't even appear until like 2/3--3/4 of the way down the page, a welcome first, where it feels like genuine information is being conveyed instead of the same belabored talking points reiterated slightly differently again and again.

The same forced Zen connection is applied to Revolver on page 08. Meh. With the exception of SSSS and TNK, I always thought the lyrics on Revolver were pretty straightforward and not even particularly spiritual. Plus, I'm not sure what Revolver has to do with Brian's process, I don't recall ever reading he was particularly influenced by it nor do I hear anything like it on SMiLE.  

In Page 09, there's more of the same jumbled Zen quotes now somewhat tied in with Indian lore. By far the most thought-provoking piece is when Tobelman connects the David Leaf quote "As 1966 ended...Smile began to turn into a frown. It might have been at this point- when he tried to 'explain' Smile to the Beach Boys- that Brian slowly started to lose his confidence and creative momentum," with another quote about the impossibility of explaining enlightenment (Zen specifically, but I find this true of psychedelia too) to those who've never partaken without sounding dumb: "Those who have experienced it (satori) are always at a loss to explain it coherently or logically....The satori experience is thus always characterized by irrationality, inexplicability, and incommunicability."~The Zen Koan as a means of Attaining Enlightenment (pgs. 24-25).

At this point, the limited nature of Tobelman's sources is beginning to grate on me. I love the IDEA of this site, the seemingly random mishmash of quotes about topics adjacent to SMiLE as well as those about the album itself, mirroring the modular recording style and "non-linear/non-literal" lyrics of the project itself, that somehow just works and comes together in an unexpectedly genius way. But goshdarn, it'd come off a lot better if only he knew about other New Age philosophies besides Zen, or read any other psychonaut besides Alan Watts, or tied in any other Brian anecdotes besides that stupid bookstore flashback that probably didn't even happen. It's just really tiring after ten-odd pages of the same old sh*t, again. It doesn't work as a coherent, serious essay you could show to someone ("if you want a new perspective on SMiLE, check this out!") nor does it work as a fun, fascinating post-modern piece of web art that's fun to flip through, because if you've read one page you've seen all. Tying an out of context Alan Watts quote about "the universe is like water..." that Brian never read with his own quote from 30 years earlier "swimming [...] really Zen, right?" like it's some profound connection gets old after the 30th time. Or the idea that the "wa wa ho wa" chant in Dada is actually Japanese and Chinese words for harmony rather than, y'know, vaguely water-sounding vocal scat.

Page 10 is a sea of dead links, including one to this very forum and its illustrious predecessor, as well as everything tangentially related (the Byrds, the Ronettes) and some that he doesn't even try to justify (Adam West Batman & "Rat Fink" cars--sure, why not?)


We're officially in unlisted territory now. There are some (?) pages of the site not included in the directory that adorns its more visible entries--they must be found through links on the other pages, or just type in a new number in the URL and hope for the best. (A real trickster might've hidden some jumpscares or truly WTF pages in there for kicks!)

Page 11 is a plug for Endless Summer Quarterly, mostly, then more of the same out-of-context LLVS highlights peppered with Zen/Buddhist quotes. The most interesting piece of information here is the list of 28 patriarchs of Zen. The story of the origin of Zen is relayed again, where Sakyamuni (another name for Buddha) held a bouquet of flowers, which caused one of his chief disciples (Mahakasyapa) to smile, and this is anachronistically tied to the Flower Power of the '60s. Supposedly, the "open" sign on the Smile Shop cover is meant as an invitation to Zen, which exists beyond the Opposites (embodied in the male and female shopkeepers) and it is an interesting interpretation but...y'know.

Page 12 is the Bibliography, and therefore probably the most useful page on the whole site. (I disagree with a lot of Tobelman's arguments and wish he'd expand his reading list outside Watts, but still I'm glad to have a master list of where all these quotes came from so I can read the books for myself.)

Page 13 is a static image showing opposite words.

Page 14 is about the song H&V, with a directory on the left again, this time listing "Previous" and "Next" but they both go to the same page (06). The central argument of the page is that we must move beyond oppositional thinking and polarized ethics in order to achieve true freedom, and understanding of things. As a philosophy, I do not disagree, and even with relation to the song I think this is a valid interpretation. The speaker of H&V doesn't join either side, he's just lamenting the senseless loss of his woman in the struggle (especially in the Smiley chorus, blaming them both "see what you've done") and trying to raise his kids to be "healthy wealthy and wise" amidst the chaos. It's all about trying to carve out your own path of peace when there's always warring sides (left/right, Christian/"heathen," North/South, black/white, (post-feminism) male/female) creating mostly-needless divisions and resentments.  

Page 15 is about Thien, Vietnamese Buddhism. Alrighty.

Page 16 is an explanation of Sengai's The Universe illustration which depicts a square, triangle and circle. Since these three shapes happen to appear on the Holmes' cover art...clearly there's a connection because nothing can be coincidence if it suits my theory, damnit.

Page 17 and we're back to endless WIBN quotes, now in the context of tying Love to Say Dada with Brian's third trip. Apparently Watts used "it" as the word to describe the "ultimate religious experience" so even the conveniently ignored letters in Dada's initialism also have psychedelic meaning if you squint hard enough! The second trip, Fire, the past, was bad but the third trip, water, the present, is good. That's the crux of Tobelman's argument here.

Page 18 and we are back to Heroes and Villains, now in the context of those in the Beach Boy saga...and then more of this now-insufferable "let's take SMiLE lyrics and force them to conform with WIBN anecdotes that Brian didn't write and may not have even happened" style that's a self parody at this point.

Page 20 does the same thing to The Elements: really just Fire and Water, for reasons, because the other two don't neatly fit into the "Brian's scary second trip and pristine third trip" framework that Tobelman is obsessed with. The idea seems to have influenced a nameless poster in another thread about SMiLE recently, where they were convinced of this "Fire is Brian's second trip, aging backwards that leads into 'Dada,' a baby's first words!" theory, which was then rightly dismissed as baseless, wishful thinking by actual archivists, who were then accused of bullying for "spoiling the fun." (In my experience, any speculative theory that stems from the beloved 90s era fan discussions gets a pass, no matter how much they stretch credibility, especially if it's about twisting certain songs into an Elements context; meanwhile, newer more informed perspectives that focus on hard evidence are often seen as rocking the boat and dismissed for not being "exciting" enough). This actually makes me a little annoyed at people like Tobelman for spreading extremely improbable, I-wish-this-were-true-so-I'm-gonna-retrofit-everything-to-make-it-so theories like this, backed only by religions Brian wasn't interested in (Buddhism and Zen are never mentioned among his many New Age interests), authors he never read (unless there's another source citing Watts as an inspiration) and a bio he didn't write. Come on, now. How does anyone put all this together and NOT think "hey, maybe my case is a bit too dependent on some questionable logic, hmm."



With Page 21 is a deeper dive into TAOC, thankfully. It's my strong opinion that this site is at its best when focusing on this over the more tenuous Zen and Pickwick theories. I find the concept of bisociation an elegant description of what "creativity" is, the unexpected connection between two disparate ideas or disciplines.

Bisociation with regard to the SMiLE tracks: 1 ) H&V--American history & moving past dualistic thinking, using the "black hat vs white hat" logic of old westerns as a metaphor for the warring factions trying to suck us into their conflict with often dangerous consequences. 2 ) Worms--spatial trip across America & historical trip back to the tragedies that won us this land, remembering the destroyed culture that fertilized the one we now enjoy. 3 ) CE--Westward expansion & the paradox of ruining the land's pristine beauty in pursuit of it. 4 ) OMP--American culture with old time standards & the loss of faith in God ("you were my sunshine" directed at, or in lament of, the titular OMP who is understood as a metaphor for the Divine Creator). 5 ) VT--The austere farm life that makes harvesting possible ("run a lot, do a lot, never be lazy...") and the double entendres of drugs ("threw away my candy bar and I ate the wrapper" / "stripped the stalk green"). 6 ) Elements--the well-being of the individual and the environment they inhabit. 7 ) Wonderful--a straightforward story of the loss of innocence, with a possibly metaphorical interpretation as the damage done to Mother Nature/the Indians. 8 ) HGS--a Mark Twain-like narration of a pompous writer/speaking seducing a woman or a humorously misleading description of a baby crying. 9 ) SU--a train of thought of a man listening to music (opera) while tripping and just hyper-analyzing everything related to that, I struggle to ascertain the first meaning let alone a bisociated one. 10 ) WC--enjoying a quiet day in with the simple things, then I've always seen it as slipping into death, both because of the Chimes being used to symbolize death in China and the "dust in the wind" idiom. It's like life passing you by slowly then all at once, at least that's how I interpret it. 11 ) GV--falling in love, but then just the knowledge of an unearthly power beyond direct comprehension is kind of freaky (hence the slightly unnerving theremin sound). 12 ) CIFOTM--childhood experiences influencing how we turn out, maybe also how we could stand to learn something from children instead of dominating them as adults? It's hard to say without lyrics.    

There's also a contradictory VDP quote: "He wanted to make the American saga a legitimate currency in this new global music market that had just defined itself since 1964. It was his game."- Van Dyke Parks that goes against the "manifest destiny & Plymouth Rock were the last things on his mind" spiel from earlier. I'm not sure what to make of this, except maybe Brian's "American Saga" might've been more of a musical pastiche of earlier American composers (IE the 12th Street Rag in I Ran, OMP/YAMS, IWBA as well as taking cues from Gershwin and others) and VDP brought in the manifest destiny themes, as well as historical nods ("healthy wealthy and wise" / "ribbon of concrete"). But it's confusing, and goes to show how hard it is to try to pin down any one interpretation of what went down in the sessions.

Then Tobelman insists on reimagining Barnyard as a series of references to Brian's acid trips (because, of course) where "two and a half" somehow references how many trips he took (one was a small dose, so half, get it) and the pig pen is the sandbox. Sure, why not. Somewhat more interesting is the theory that Brian was using the sandbox to direct his unconscious mind to childhood whimsy, as Koestler suggests bisocciation can/does occur when a useful unconscious thought is paired with a conscious one.  

My fave quote from Koestler is probably on this page: "Art, like religion, is a school of self-transcendence; it expands individual awareness into cosmic awareness..."

Page 22 focuses on the psychedelic experience and contains a quote from LSD Spirituality And The Creative Process which I can attest to: "When people leave this state, they do not perceive it as having been an illusion, hallucination, or delusion. Rather, they see it as the fundamental reality that underlies all reality." Beyond that, this page mostly ties acid's powers of perception-bending with Koestler's bisociation, implying that the former can be used to assist the latter. (I absolutely agree.) At this point, I don't have much to say considering these ideas have been brought up ad nauseum over the many pages of the site, but I will say I think they are best presented here. If you read no other page of the GHS site, read this one (https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page22.htm (https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page22.htm)). Still, while it's the best individual essay in the collection, I have some issues with the reasoning. Tobelman makes the argument that the "all American good boy" image did the band a lot of damage in their "coolness factor" so the "American Gothic trip" doesn't make sense...unless it's all secretly a metaphor for Brian's acid trips! (Are you getting sick of this yet?) I think Tobelman either doesn't understand, or is being obtuse in service of his pet theory, that there's a difference between "All-American good boy" and "American Gothic Trip;" IE it's not American history or culture that isn't cool, it's the "American as apple pie/a boy you could take home to Mama" vibe that "All-American good boy" implies. I agree the lyrics of SMiLE are bisociative, paradoxical, full of puns and double-meanings, but "everything traces back to that (goshdarn) bookstore" is not the logical takeaway from that, like at all.

Page 23 is Tobelman's SMiLE fanmix, which is basically just BWPS smushed into 2 Sides, an "everything and the kitchen sink" mix, 21 tracks, H&V part 2 comes before part 1. Not my cup of tea, but it's not my mix (though I do like to see variety so it's disappointing in that regard). Because he just can't help himself, Tobelman even ties the chants of H&V2 with the stupid bookstore incident (dude, let it go already), which in his mind must've been the single most important moment in Brian's entire life for all the times that one stupid anecdote gets shoehorned into everything.

Pages 24 and 25 appear to be oblique references I don't understand.


[NOTE: I wrote this section early in the construction of this commentary, like right after the section about the homepage, but then I realized the pages are numbered and it made more sense to go numerically. Still, I didn't want to rewrite or restructure what I'd written, so I left it intact. Some of what I'm going to say below makes more sense in this context.]

A big flaw in Tobelman's entire thesis/evidence is his reliance on WIBN, a source I was even willing to give the benefit of the doubt (see my initial defense of its early chapters in the review thread) until the very unreliable SMiLE chapters put me off (see my revised take in that same thread, as well as my takeaways here). According to Tobelman, SMiLE's Zen-esque lyrics and presentation were a way to make a psychedelic album without being explicit about it. IE, no obvious drug references like the original "Hang On To Your Ego" or what some of his contemporaries were doing around '66-'67. It's an interesting premise, but I don't know if Brian was really trying to hide his acid-influence when considering his blunt interviews that are even quoted in GHS, much less the LSD initialism of "Dada" and "Cabin Essence" sounded like a garbled "Cannabis". I think Brian was more trying to take the lessons he learned from "seeing God" and present them musically, as he admits in Smog to "present the facts in some interesting manner." I mean, it'd be a boring album if every song was just "drop acid! smoke weed! turn on, tune in, drop out!"

GHS is full of quotes and book-plugs from Alan Watts, but here on Page 26 Tobelman suggests openly that Brian read The Joyous Cosmology. Was that corroborated anywhere else, because I can't find any direct evidence of Brian reading any of the big pro-psychedelic authors (Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Tim Leary, Ken Kesey, Terence McKenna) so much as just doing the drug and applying his new lysergic perspective to other sources of inspiration. None of the sources I see that describe Brian's experiences or begging Loren for a connection go into what made him interested in acid to begin with. I think, as far as Brian was concerned, it was just the cool new drug/fad that all the most happening people were into, so he wanted to try it as well if for no other reason than "up" his cred and hopefully boost himself to their level. (I'd love to be wrong about this, and Brian does seem to have been searching for an alternate, post-modern religion but I'm not sure it was academic research or just secondhand buzz that convinced him LSD was the way to go.)

The Melody Maker interview clipping on this page doesn't really prove the author's thesis in my opinion. It sounds like Brian was just sick of romance songs, "oh how I love this girl" and wanted to be more Dylan-esque, like the Beatles themselves starting with Rubber Soul (though that had a lot of love songs too) and especially into Revolver, Pepper and the White Album. Dylan seems to get most if not all the credit from his contemporaries for showing that pop music need not be one-dimensional boy-girl longing, but philosophical musings or social commentary, and this as much as the production race is what led to that glorious late 60s counterculture music. This is why Brian wanted a more avant garde lyricist with an impressionistic style: rather than it being a Trojan Horse to trick squares into going psychedelic, he wanted to impress other "hip" people and assert the Beach Boys' rep as serious artists, not tweeny bopper fodder. (I'm sure he wanted to enlighten people too, but he didn't seem to be coy about that.)


[NOTE: I wrote this section early in the construction of this commentary, like right after the section about the homepage and Page 26, but then I realized the pages are numbered and it made more sense to go numerically. Still, I didn't want to rewrite or restructure what I'd written, so I left it intact. Some of what I'm going to say below makes more sense in this context.]

I agree with Tobelman that Dumb Angel was a great title, where it could either refer to the artist ironically (since Brian's presenting his message in a purely auditory form, obviously with lots of sung lyrics) or his muse, be it the "angels" Brian saw bringing music down to him (as in Carlin's book) or LSD itself, which has convinced people they've seen God, though obviously the substance itself cannot speak. If Brian really did study Buddhism, the "Noble Silence" quality attributed to Buddha might've influenced the title. It could even be a reference to Socrates, arguably the grandfather of all Western/European philosophy, whose worthiness was proven by admitting he knows nothing (dumb in the other sense of the word). Dumb Angel was a very thought provoking name, better than SMiLE, and especially coming from a band whose albums usually had poor titles (and cover art for that matter--they never did themselves any favors with presentation).

This page gives an extended commentary on the Pickwick Books acid flashback (which I can only find so far in the WIBN bio), even suggesting the Frank Holmes cover art was meant as a callback to the bookstore itself. (This has been denied by Holmes, who based it on another storefront he'd seen firsthand and also I'm skeptical this Pickwick incident even happened.)

The page then goes on to walk us through the BWPS tracklist, as though this sequence was a carefully planned out tour of Brian's psychedelic-spiritual experiences. The "you guys feel the acid yet?" during the Prayer session is made out to be significant to the end listener despite it being studio chatter from the original album (so, not BWPS) and remaining on the cutting room floor. "Gee" is now a reference to how "Barbara Ann" was allegedly playing on the radio at Pickwick when Brian showed up, it goes on like that. I don't buy any of it, I'd even say this is perhaps the weakest justification I've ever seen for a SMiLE sequence. Without even getting into the old argument of whether BWPS' sequence is vintage or more Priore/Darian's influence, the connections are so strained that it's impossible for the seasoned SMiLE-phile not to roll their eyes at this retrofitted theory. It's like a self-parody, where VDP (who by all accounts wrote the first verse on the spot) apparently sequenced his lyrics for H&V to coincide with Brian's acid-flashback that's only referenced in a very controversial, disowned autobiography. Even defenders of the '03 track order ought to be embarrassed to use this essay as a defense for their preferred take on SMiLE. It's disingenuous fallacy.

I certainly admire the effort, the creativity, the search for connections in this extremely dense musical tome, but to me this page is like those Bible-commentators (both modern and ancient) who tried SO HARD to find hidden meaning in the good book that it became ridiculous. I'm talking the "if you take every capital letter, looked through a mirror upside down, there's a prophecy of who wins in 2004!" and "the 5 books of the Torah represent the major organs as well as the 5 elements (w/ Aether) and senses!" types. It's just searching so desperately for meaning that isn't there. It's not even worth disputing in-depth because to anyone not emotionally invested in these forced connections, they're so obviously bullshit, and anyone convinced by them is not operating logically.



Page 28 promises a video that doesn't load. Oh well. Beyond that, I tried plugging in some more numbers, some two digits, some three, but nothing came up. I may have missed some pages perhaps but I'm not gonna sit here forever trying every single possible combo of three numbers.

As best I can determine, after meticulously combing the site for links and plugging in new unused #s in the URL, there's nothing between 28 and 205 but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Page 205 starts off with Brian's quote to Tom Nolan about LSD then goes into yet another diatribe about the damn Pickwick books thing and then a brief timeline of events with dates before the background color changes and we're back in scattershot quotes land. The GHS site, and this page in particular, just feels like the embodiment of schizophrenia to me, coming up on the end of my voyage here. I've never seen anyone make so much out of so little (I used to think the bookstore incident sounded cool when I first found the site 15 odd years ago, now, seeing it stretched to justify so much nonsense and knowing the only source of it even happening is WIBN, I just find it kind of annoying) and say the same thing like 30 times without really saying anything of substance. This site is like the well-meaning ravings of a guy coming off a heroic dose of acid, convinced that he has all the answers while to passerby it just sounds like a garbled loon going "naw man, the trees dude...it's like I saw angels in the trees! The flowers are the key to God man, just listen to the flowers!" (Not dismissing psychedelic experiences, I've had them and they're very profound, but as this site itself tells us--over and over again--you really can't explain it without sounding silly or crazy to the uninitiated.)



I really hate to say it, but this site isn't nearly as cool as I remember it being from 2011. It's just too confusing to navigate and so limited in scope, I've never seen something be this all over the place while barely conveying any new information after the first five minutes. At the time, GHS' dizzying arrangement, with all these "deep" quotes, pictures of cool psychedelic books (before I tripped but when I was just getting curious about it), references to "important" Brian lore (the bookstore thing seemed so intriguing then)...it made the site feel a lot more interesting than it really is when you actually sit down and try to make sense of it. I think a lot of the reverence for the site comes from its age, for Tobelman himself and ESQ as well as the different priorities of 80s-90s era SMiLE fans. (In my estimation, these are people who, in the absence of better sources and fuller access to the vaults, prioritized a good story and fun speculation over a more coherent, provable thesis on what happened and why. Then there was a period where BWPS was held up as the final word and to suggest otherwise was seen as a waste or even disrespectful, now I think we're getting to a more evidence-based, scholarly approach which I'm all here for, even if some of the answers aren't as "fun" as the oft-repeated fan theories.)

Anyway, I like what the GHS site is going for, presenting an unapologetically jumbled mess of stuff that the reader has to carefully parse through to make sense of (like the SMiLE music & mythos itself). My beef is that the author doesn't go far enough with it; he beats that stupid Pickwick story to death a dozen times over while leaving so many other interesting Brian/SMiLE anecdotes off the table. He quotes from the same three Alan Watts books a million times when there's so many other psychonautic gurus who would at least make visiters feel like there's a point in reading every individual page. As is, I think if you've seen one page you've seen them all and to go on is just a boring exercise of "oh, there's that same quote again for the hundredth time, gee I wonder if he'll bring up Pickwick yet again...of course he did." Half the time, the quotes are hardly related to each other, or enmeshed in a really forced series of connections (making the SMiLE tracklist, or the lyrics of individual songs, fit with a sentence-by-sentence account of the bookstore flashback for the umpteenth time) so I just end up skimming through and get bored. If he worked the other famous SMiLE anecdotes into his analysis, or Tim Leary, Terrence McKenna and Daoism perhaps...this could've been so much more thought provoking.

As far as the actual content goes, not just the presentation, I think Tobelman is largely seeing what he wants to see. He got the idea in his head, from one or two cherry picked quotes (and possibly an outside interest in the topic,) that SMiLE was a Zen koan and ran with it. He's clearly a psychedelic enthusiast, so he prioritizes acid as the creative catalyst ahead of anything else--cowboy shows, astrology, numerology, I Ching, The Little Prince, Beatles, political turmoil, etc. He's the kind of fan who has a preset idea of what SMiLE was/is, maybe ties it to some cool topics he discovered around the same time, and won't let that connection die even in the face of other evidence or criticisms of his own shaky logic. I myself am more of a "let's prioritize what's on tape, then the primary sources, then intuition/common sense based on that, then secondary sources..." kind of guy, not the "let's prioritize the oral tradition that's been brewing since the '80s bootlegs & Priore book, with now-sacrosanct fan speculation from the 90s retroactively justified by BWPS" type of fan. What bugs me is when the latter type of fan acts as though they're the ones being "objective" or have some kind of monopoly on the truth because their theories are popularly accepted after decades of inbred online discussion. Just because these theories propagated in a time of sparse scholarship, and had years to fester in the popular imagination where people were highly curious yet starved for info, that doesn't make them real--it may be a long-running "tradition" but it's a foundation of sand. Something like the GHS site isn't evidence, it's one man's extremely warped perspective developed in a pre-TSS, pre-Psychedelic Sounds, pre-vault archivist environment, carried on by reverent nostalgia for the site and respect for the editor of ESQ.

Overall, despite my misgivings, I do give credit to Tobelman for his passion--god knows I've made my share of borderline indecipherable SMiLE rants over the years--and for preserving a beautiful example of the old internet into the post-Facebook, post-AWS, post-Crypto and now even post-AI Eras as an ongoing piece of web history. The site was a big factor in igniting my own obsession so it definitely accomplished something on that front. I don't think Brian consciously set out to create a Zen album but it certainly became one to the fans, far more than it is a testament to any of the philosophies he was actually consuming when it was made. I am skeptical that the Pickwick story even happened, and regardless I highly doubt it was the end all be all of his creative muse, but it is an interesting story in the greater SMiLE legend and I'm surprised more people don't talk about it. Tobelman's also maybe the only fan I've seen break down what TAOC is saying and applying it to Brian's process, which is another overlooked area of study in the SMiLE story. In the spectrum of SMiLE fans, he's on one end, thinking there was this great unshakeable master plan from the beginning, that literally everything has a carefully thought out double meaning, while the "there was no plan! / just enjoy the music! / Brian was so far gone he didn't know what he was doing half the time!" people represent the other side.

Thanks! And here I imagined an ancient Gypsy woman perpetually dressed in beads and sequins, secretly sabotaging Brian under the guise of friendship because he'd angered the God Ihy by being too talented or something. :shrug Seeing her as just some boring looking middle aged white lady who was probably a well-meaning quack kinda surprises me :p

This is me making a few last tangential asides related to the GHS site.


In my opinion, you can roughly divide SMiLE Theorists into 3 sets of overlapping axes, almost like political ideologies and Christologies. There's the "oral traditionists" who value the popularly accepted stories that developed organically among fans during the bootleg and early internet eras of the '80s and '90s versus the "written word" hardliners who prioritize more tangible evidence. Then there's the "grand master plan" camp who believe every single detail and idiosyncrasy represents a carefully laid out vision by Brian contrasted with the "manic unraveling madman" (exaggerated phrasing maybe) camp who thinks Brian was so far gone, the project so in flux, it's not worth trying to recreate the '66 album. Finally you have the "BWPS/TSS order is canon" people against the "I think there's a better way" fanmixers who dare to take their own crack at it. So, you can classify someone as a fan by asking: is there a better sequence than what older Brian came up with, is there a blueprint for the '66 SMiLE at all (let alone one worth aiming for) and finally, what do you think that would've been?

Obviously I like to make my own fanmixes even if I can't radically change the arrangement like some, and I prioritize a grounded take based on hard evidence* over runaway fan speculation. As for my thoughts on whether Brian had a "master plan" (as Tobelman believes) in '66 or was so frazzled and paralyzed with second-guessing that he didn't, I fall somewhere in the middle...

*ASIDE: In fact, if there are 6 "Pramanas of SMiLE," I place them in the following hierarchy: 1) What's recorded on tape, 2) What's written on tape boxes, session logs, other official documentation including sleeve/booklet mockups, 3) What do the primary sources say, on video, in writing, on the record in some way, 4) What do the reputed, officially published or widely vouched for secondary sources say, 5) Compelling fan theory that makes intuitive or logical sense, 6) Strained fan theory that's popular but requires significant coincidences, faulty logic or leaps of faith. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramana (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramana). At least in theory, one should try explain the album and justify their interpretation using as much of the "higher order" pramanas as possible, ideally 1 & 2 for everything. Where these "first-priority" sources fail us, by not addressing an issue or contradicting each other, we must descend the ladder and seek answers among the lower orders, but one step at a time and as little as possible. In my personal opinion, there are valid instances of going as low as step 5, but never step 6, though the cutoff is open to interpretation. GHS is mostly useless to me as a source because I think it relies far too much on level 6 pramana. [/ASIDE]

Anyway, I certainly believe Brian wanted to make a spiritual record from the get-go, which for him meant humor and transcribing at least some of the lessons he learned taking drugs and reading about cool new ideologies. That's the blueprint of SMiLE in one sentence, what inspired the album's conception and the byline that carried over into Smiley. I have reason to believe that VDP brought his "Americana legendarium standing against the British Invasion" agenda into the mix, and while this exciting new perspective genuinely enticed Brian enough to roll with it for a time, eventually the album got too cluttered and confused as a result of too many cooks in the kitchen. Brian and VDP were both ambitious artists with separate agendas, where Tony Asher was a simpler guy with no inclinations towards becoming a musical artist in his own right. I think that's a big factor in why the Wilson/Asher collab succeeded where Wilson/Parks failed.

For awhile Brian thought he could make it all work, a simultaneous humor-history-spirituality-innocence-elements trip, there was a two-to-six month stretch (certainly Oct-Nov, beyond that in either direction it gets hazier when SMiLE truly began/died) where he had all the concepts locked down, enough "feels" to make an album, but couldn't decide on how or if he could tie it all together satisfactorily, then lost his confidence for all the reasons we know and gave up. I don't think Brian ever thought "I need the songs to express my acid flashback" at all, even for a moment, nor that Prayer represented saying prayers before bedtime and then the rest of the album is a Koestler-bisocciative dream or any grandiose layout like that. I don't think the lyrics are oblique to serve as a koan and hide the lysergic inspiration from Mike--I think Brian's candid interviews about tripping and "you guys feeling the acid yet" prove he wasn't exactly denying his muse. However, I do think he had a solid 3-4 overlapping themes in ~35 minutes worth of music going through his head by Oct-Nov '66, and just because he couldn't settle on an exact order for them doesn't mean SMiLE never existed or can't be (mostly) reconstructed.

I reiterate that my opinion is VDP's wordplay and impressionism are brilliant, exactly fitting the modular process and bisocciative style, however the more I dig into things, the stronger I feel he brought a certain thematic drive to the project that Brian hadn't envisioned, and wasn't reconcilable with the humor MO (you can jokingly tell people to eat their veggies, but how do you talk about exploited Coolies or displaced Indians in a comical manner without being insensitive?) and this is an overlooked reason for the album's collapse. The more you read, the less the two collaborators really seemed to be on the same page about what kind of album they were making, right down to the Brian quote about "talking or laughing" between tracks and VDP's "a simple banded twelve track album with no crossfades except one song (presumably Elements)" as well as their disagreement on Veggies as a single. VDP never really talks about laughter as part of SMiLE and seems disdainful of its manifestations like the Psychedelic Sounds, fire hats and sandbox. Meanwhile, Brian hardly talks about anything else in contemporary interviews that I've seen quoted in these sources, except maybe psychedelics. I propose the key inflection point was H&V itself, their first collab, where American history and joviality combined, and then Brian wanted to build on the latter aspect of it while VDP focused on the former. (I'm not saying anybody was right or wrong here either, nor do I necessarily prefer one man's vision for SMiLE against the other; I think they brought out the absolute best in each other creatively, but it's undeniable they weren't seeing eye to eye even before Mike started kicking up a fuss--all the sources comment on it, including the GHS site.)


I may have misunderstood the concept of "reverse-bisociating" the SMiLE tracks to guess at the combo of two competing thoughts. I gave two competing yet valid interpretations of all the major songs with lyrics; I did not try to guess what dual ideas inspired them.

I think it'd be fair to say Brian's primary motivator was "make revolutionary music that conveys the psychedelic experience/lessons and puts people in a happy, humorous mood." Would anyone argue that was the conscious goal of the project from Brian's point of view, based on a preponderance of the evidence, with the order of the pramanas upheld? I wouldn't. So then, what train of thought, what obvious inspiration, separates each song from the other? I have a few ideas:

During this exercise, I noticed the following (H&V, CE, Worms, OMP, CIFOTM, Elements) could be seen as condemnations or lamentations of different subjects, namely: society (particularly its constant polarization and fighting), infrastructure (how it destroys natural beauty), our history (how this country was built on a genocide), religion (you WERE my sunshine, mr painter), the way children are raised (even well meaning parents screw up their kids somehow) & nature (take it for granted, it destroys you) in order.

Meanwhile the other songs (WC, Wonderful, CIFOTM, Surf's Up, VT, IIGS/BY, Elements, GV) might be understood as odes to, or studies of, various subjects like: a beautiful object, a girl (or the loss of innocence as a concept itself), a child or childhood itself, the power of music, good food or the ecology that provides it, a pastoral lifestyle, and nature, & falling in love, in that order. Of course, I included CIFOTM & Elements in both camps because without lyrics or the other 3 parts it's unclear what "vibe" they would've had.

Taken another way, exploring the "opposites" theme Tobelman put in my head, I tried to pair the tracks up with some kind of common ground:


^One could perhaps use this perspective to make two 6-song sides for a single LP length mix, where the exact groupings and order are up for grabs as long as only one track per pairing is in each group. I personally recommend something like: H&V/BYS/DYLW/CE/OMP/*GV* & *VT*/WC/Won/CIFOTM/TE/SU where paired tracks are on opposite sides of the album, it begins and ends with prioritizing the well-being and well-raising of children in a weary world. If you call the Barnyard Suite "IIGS" the track names for both sides are even numerologically balanced too. I put GV and VT in italics because I could go either way on their placement, side wise. GV closing the Americana movement keeps with the Pet Sounds layout, where the previous single closed the first side while the new double A-Side single leads off both cuts, though I think GV works better as a side-opener and VT fits more naturally with Americana than the second movement tracks. Also, as I've said in previous essays, I find SU and VT to have the more obvious astrological connections (Piscean Age ending, reference to Vega the brightest star in Lyra, a celestial instrument) and comedy skits explicitly associated with them (Veggie Fight & George Fell, which was done at a Surf session) so I find it fitting to use them as dual closers. Honestly, if you're going for plausibly accurate for a '66 SMiLE, this framework is about as good as it gets, obeying industry conventions (just keep it under 40 minutes) and good taste while finding a way to suitably pay homage to Brian's offbeat obsessions. (The I Ching is the book of change, and you could read side 1 as the ills of the past and side 2 as the uncertain future, so it sort of works that in too.)

I may even include a demo for this layout when I work on Dumb Angel, Sandalphon -- I could call it Bisociative SMiLE or Dumb Angel, Metatron perhaps. Sandalphon would be my new "this is what sounds best to me" mix while Metatron would be my new "this is what I think is most accurate to Nov '66 Brian's intent" mix.


Something really cool I learned from the GHS is that Brian actually wrote a short story during the SMiLE sessions that was published in KRLA Beat, apparently a newspaper aimed at teens, at least mostly about musical acts. I may have tangentially heard of it before, but this is the first time I actually read it, "Vibrations--Brian Wilson Style" with Mike Spinach (nee Vosse), David Carrot (nee Anderle), Brian Gemini (nee Wilson) and "Brian's cousin Barry." Right from the get-go, it reads like a greatest hits of the Psychedelic Sounds, with a goofball stoner wandering through "the vegetable forest," choking breaths inhibiting his ability to enjoy nature and then falling into an object (a tomato instead of an instrument).

Beyond that this story is more interesting for the fact that it actually exists than having any real merit as a story. It reads like some happy stoner guy writing the first things that come to mind when thinking about personified vegetables. You see the confluence of some of Brian's other favorite subjects like astrology (hence his name) and nature (hence the setting), as well as his really goofy, borderline autistic sense of humor. It feels like a mad libs of the Psychedelic Sounds topics, which lends further credence to their importance and possibly offers insight into what kind of "humorous talking" may've been used on SMiLE. (Or, if you insist, perhaps on the "separate" humor album.) It's very unlikely to me that there's any kind of deeper hidden meaning here than that. Also, since random things just sort of happen and then it putters out with an unwritten "Part III," there's nothing to judge as a story. I'm glad I read it though--it's cute and very much of Brian's mind, for better and worse.

You're welcome! Yeah she's somewhat less mysterious when you realise she was basically just a friend of Brian's mother . I've never heard of her connected to the Beach Boys outside of that period in 1967, so I guess she just happened to be someone close to the family who could advise Brian during the short time he was interested in astrology and fortune-telling etc. I'd also wondered for a while who she was, and then just the other day happened across that Billy Hinsche stuff on YouTube and realised she was actually spotlighted and named pretty clearly.

Interesting to see the phrase "in the pink" in the story, as that was later used in BWPS's "Blue Hawaii" lyrics.

This is me checking in with an update on my longterm plans for the thread/my second "SMiLE Thesis."


In the near-ish future I want to reread LLVS, Priore's 2005 book, the new David Leaf book as well as the 2011 booklet and relevant sections of the Byron Preiss book. Then, unless anyone can fill me in on anything substantial I'm missing, I can say I've read all the major sources covering this topic and my fandom level will be over 9000. I might even try to make a "Gospel Harmony" of the story pieced from these sources, giving priority to the details that show up most frequently or something, but this isn't a top priority for me. I'd also like to maybe assemble a "SMiLE BiBLE" of the best 66-67 contemporary articles/accounts, the best Smile Shop essays, etc along with the best comprehensive secondary sources and/or my "Harmonized narrative" to make an unofficial reference book for people in the future. This would be that "Deaf Genius/Dumb Angel" thing I mentioned in a previous post. We'll see how far I get.

In addition to the Dumb Angel, Sandalphon & Dumb Angel, Metatron mix outlines I've mentioned earlier, last night I got another cool idea idea for at least part of a new sequence. Has anybody every done a version of SMiLE where Fire ends Side 1 and Side 2 begins with Workshop? That just struck me as such an awesome idea but I'm not sure what other new sequence ideas I like enough to justify a third simultaneous crack at it. Maybe this could be the "everything is H&V" framework I've always wanted to try but never got inspiration for, and we could call it "Smile/Frown" in the tradition of opposites like H&V itself or Adult/Child. We'll see...


It occurred to me upon further reflection that there is one other axis of "SMiLE theory" I overlooked. I mentioned Grand Plan/Disjointed Burnout, BWPS/"Original Vision," and "Oral Tradition"/"Hard Evidence." I think also, you might group us into the "regular banded album" camp who sees a 66-67 SMiLE as more similar to Pet Sounds and Sgt Pepper, with straightforward, separate tracks versus the "experimental song cycle" camp who gives more credence to quotes like "talking between cuts and verses" and thinks it would've been more similar to Smiley Smile & We're Only In It For The Money. (Less definitive breaks between tracks, audio collages, spoken word humor bits, "mistakes" or jarring cuts left it, things like that.) I personally think SMiLE started off more as the former but gradually became more of the latter, hence its final form being Smiley. I think come October or even September that's what Brian's ambition wanted to do, but he just couldn't get there for all the reasons we already know. I think, where Pet Sounds abandoned the spoken word "filler" of previous albums, SMiLE was an attempt to integrate it into the good stuff, make it an inseparable part of the message rather than something you skip like in Today!.

Ive been lurking in the forbidden zone lately to see how the SMiLE conversation has developed over there and one talking point I've been seeing more of is this need to knock SMiLE down a peg by telling people that Pet Sounds was actually far more advanced in its arrangements and chord progressions. Im not a trained musician so I can't comment on that, but I recall it being a thesis of the "Smiley Smile IS Smile" essay that was floating around 10-15 odd years ago as well, that the sessions were gradually getting simpler anyway rather than a clean, dramatic break. I say if this is true, and I have no reason to doubt it or care (doesn't change my high opinion of the music) perhaps Brian realized Pet Sounds was the peak of Wall of Sound and the next step in innovation was the modular editing and possible Zappa-esque "sound collage" idea. So the "wow, he went to the next level" factor here isn't "he used more instruments" so much as "he took all these disparate pieces of totally different songs, audio verite recordings, spoken word snippets and tied them together in a way that lifts them all above the sum of their parts." I think that was the goal, that's what was supposed to make SMiLE groundbreaking even if the individual pieces arent any more complex than "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations." Honestly, that the arrangements are supposedly sparser yet few people noticed without being told implies Brian was after-all still developing as a producer, learning how to get more out of less. (That's far more impressive than, say BW88, where he throws a cacophony's worth of instrumental layers at each track just to prove he can.)

One of my favorite comments I saw there was to the effect of "Pet Sounds is the same idea told 13 different ways, it all fits together implicitly. SMiLE isn't a step up from that so much as a right turn. It's more far reaching in subject matter and so picturesque in execution you can practically smell the lamp oil in CE and feel the train thundering by. Its priority isn't in its deeply layered sound but rather how each instrument is carefully chosen to evoke a sound and its resultant visual association." (I'm highly paraphrasing but then they went on to quote the same bits of studio chatter I often do, where Brian wanted an instrument to sound like something else: jewelry, a fire engine siren, vocals imitating a banjo twang in CE, actual veggie crunching in VT, or a baby crying for example. I've also always felt Wonderful Version 1's backing track sounds just like a music box & at least some versions of Bicycle Rider sound like spokes of a bike wheel turning, but I don't know if I've ever mentioned that before.) Where Pet Sounds songs' arrangements are mostly interchangeable in their "sound texture" (part of what makes them all work together so perfectly), SMiLE was pushing boundaries by even attempting to put VT, GV, CIFOTM and Workshop together on the same LP, these wildly different tracks with their own unique sonic identity.

This coincides with Koestler's The Art of Creation and its influence on Brian's creative process. Specifically, the theory of pictorial thinking as a more accessible thought process as well as the use "bisociation:" how Brian might've been matching subconscious scenes in his mind with conscious instrumentation choices. SMiLE's strength was supposed to be its ability to take you to so many different places and do it seamlessly, just with some short fragments of music as well as non-literal puns and references. The humor and impressionist style was meant to open the listener's subconscious mind, while the modular pieces (accentuated by VDP's non-linear lyrics and Frank Holmes' jigsaw puzzle style of illustration) walked us towards enlightenment, one small step at a time. Of course, this defense of SMiLE's would-be grandiosity is undercut by the fact that Brian couldn't ultimately finish it, but I'm saying I think that was his magnificent intent, that's what was supposed to be impressive about it, if the chords aren't as unexpected. (And even if the endeavor failed, like Gatsby, the beautiful dream and its naive pursuit against impossible odds is worth admiration in its own right.)



I've often wondered if Darian and the others showed Brian any of the ancillary SMiLE material during the planning stages for the '03 shows. Was he re-exposed to this, Psychedelic Sounds, old interviews/articles or the same book sources I've been reading? Did they comb through what was in the vaults or just stick to Darian's collection of boots and the GV boxset?

I wish I had the time this week to respond to your comments at more length, because I always have all kinds of thoughts when I read them! But I want to jump in here to say: I really think the idea that greater complexity is a hallmark of development is really a huge misunderstanding of how art and music work. *Ambition*, I think, is a hallmark of a lot of great art. But complexity for complexities sake tends to go with the territory of mediocrity, if anything. That said, I think asking whether Smile or Pet Sounds is more "advanced" is kind of silly... Smile represents the next step in Brian's evolution as an artist. Just as Smiley Smile represents a further step, and then Wild Honey, and then Friends. (Artists can only go one direction, just like all the rest of us. Try to live your life from three years ago tomorrow and see how that goes for you!) Brian's greatest magic trick was always to make the dizzingly complex sound simple. Just pointing out the complexity of Wouldn't it Be Nice to casual fans makes a fun parlor game (The fact that the song is entirely driven by accordions and yet no one ever notices them really sums things up).

But all that said, this does sort of fit with a longtime pet theory of mine, which I've said before, I'm sure, which is that Pet Sounds evolved out of Today, but Smile evolved out of Summer Days. It wasn't a neat line forward, but rather an album that was more intimate, personal, and orchestral, followed by an album that was brighter, with arrangements that sound simpler but actually aren't, conceptual lyrics (Salt Lake City!), less unified but with greater range. Then another album of personal, intimate, orchestral music. And then another album of conceptual lyrics paired with brighter, bouncier arrangements, simpler in one sense, but more complex in another, again with less cohesion and more range.

I think with Pet Sounds Brian's goal was "an album of all good stuff" and that was it--Im gonna put 13 single-worthy tracks on one LP. It's a concept album in the sense they're all about young angst, but that wasn't an explicit goal, just where Brian's head was at. With SMiLE it became more "but what else can you put on vinyl beyond good songs--can you put chanting, can you put subliminal messaging? What if the album was a unified piece of art that communicated a deep spiritual message?" It was intended as a concept LP from the beginning, about making the listener a better person for having heard it, getting important lessons in their head with the effectiveness of a good melodic hook or earworm jingle. That's the evolution of the artist there, Brian was thinking beyond songs and was becoming an "album artist" in the truest sense of the word. (He'd never really think in terms of albums again in my estimation, though obviously some great LPs still came from his music, like Love You.)

What elevates SMiLE above its chief immediate competition (Revolver and Pepper) is that same thematic mission--enlightenment etched in vinyl, weaving non-musical audio into songs which straddle the line between pop/rock and classical/baroque, using Koestler's method of embedding complex lessons into the beholder's subconscious mind through careful use of humor and bisociation. Ultimately it was too much to juggle for one troubled young man whose vision pushed analog editing tech to its limits, and is maybe just a lot of high-minded hippie bullshit anyway. (The SMiLE naysayers think so; even VDP and Asher seem to have thought a lot of Brian's neo-spiritual ideas were "dopey.") But so help me God, I think that sounds fucking awesome, I've heard roughly contemporary albums* that prove something at least of similar ambition was possible and I can only say for myself SMiLE brought me back from atheism. (Now Im a pseudo-pantheist, trending Daoist-Gnostic.) Like Anderle and Vosse, I believe in what Brian was trying to do. I feel strongly that this album could've made the world a better place had it been exposed to the wider public all at once in '67 rather than a small group of elite disciples slowly over decades. The world was primed and willing to hear that message in '67, when the Beach Boys were popular enough to be heard by all and the Summer of Love was right around the corner. By '03, much less '11, the moment had long-since passed, people are more divided and cynical than they were in the Free Love Era, plus the only Beach Boy listeners left are comparatively few and already-converted.  

Anyway, I also think it's significant that all three "successor" albums to SMiLE* followed the "experimental song cycle" formula, VDP with Song Cycle and Brian's two attempts to adapt the music, Smiley and BWPS. With SC and SS especially, I believe both artists made the album they wanted the original SMiLE to be: VDP with the American Gothic journey and "more sophisticated" arrangements (Anderle says in Crawdaddy that a big sticking point between them was VDP wanting "more sophisticated" arrangements and Brian wanting to simplify). Meanwhile, Brian added more overt humor, chanting, plus audio verite like the cork popping, "Good!" and water pouring. SS was Brian giving up on modular editing, the burden of using professional studios with their schedules and union rules and VDP's manifest destiny framing device. But he stayed true to the original conception of the project: a lighthearted humor album (eeriness aside, I think that's just his depression and bitterness seeping in) with non-musical flourishes. It's just a much less grandiose, almost intentionally half-assed execution of it, done in a pinch with less precision and no Wrecking Crew. Smiley may also still be considered "bisociative" by trying to incorporate a "happier," more unified group effort vibe into the art. ("If we're having fun on tape, it will rub off on the audience!") Then BWPS/TSS abandoned the fades, bisociative programming, audio verite, modular studio editing, overt humor (minus the then-iconic "you're under arrest" and the baked-in silliness of VT) as well as any sense of pacing or momentum, but they got those songs to flow together in a "three movement" rock opera.

I say SMiLE was always supposed to be more than just another collection of 12 banded tracks, but it was evolving the formula in too many incompatible directions at once, so the resulting "animal" had too much fat, or some awkward third arm that made it unviable. In order to keep the project alive something had to give, but its creators disagreed on what was expendable or essential, until BWPS, when the priority shifted from "artistic vision" to "just get this material out to the fans already." As I alluded to previously, you can have a funny album with offbeat "talking/laughing between cuts" or you can have music about the tragedy of American expansionism, but you can't have both simultaneously unless you want a mess. BWPS preserved the recorded musical pieces over the integrity of Brian's original concept, where Smiley did the opposite. I think part of what separates the "BWPS is SMiLE" vs the "Smiley is SMiLE" camps is in what they prioritize--the music/tracks or the message/album. Either way, what's undeniable is they're both conceptually innovative song cycles in their own right. I think the conservatives arguing against any kind of structural inventiveness in SMiLE are using faulty logic ("nobody had really done a medley in rock 'n' roll before" > Brian innovated so much else in his career up to that point, why not this?) or not putting two and two together ("Brian never tried a flowing concept album before or after" > Because he didn't think of it before '66 and after SMiLE failed, he was scared of ever trying again--except the two times he "completed" that particular album, then when he finally felt he could move beyond it, w/ TLOS).

*[ASIDE:] This is NOT viable evidence, but I also can't help but find additional "assurance" in the fact that the other artist-producers whom I consider to be on Brian's level at this time were going in a similar direction, almost like "great minds think alike" and every composer worth their salt was taking the album to its creative limit: 1) Frank Zappa's WOIIFTM represents the very extreme of the concepts Brian was toying with. Would SMiLE have been so "involved" as this, probably not, but the interconnected themes/melodies between tracks, audio verite and spoken word comedy ingredients were there in the SMiLE a year prior and that's impressive. 2) Joseph Byrd of the USA would also take the same modular editing technique, copy+pasted sections repeating in different tracks and repurposing old standards in a psychedelic context like SMiLE in the group's self-titled masterpiece. 3) The Beatles, first with Pepper, intended to make a full-fledged concept album where each song would flow into the next as the titular track does to WALHFMF, carrying on the "fake band playing a live concert" framing device until that got too obnoxious and they abandoned it. (Even Paul admits "it worked [the concept] because we said it did.") With the White Album they kind of did an anti-concept album where the tracks flow into each other despite having no thematic or musical connection. Then they finally perfected the execution with the second half of Abbey Road.[/ASIDE]

I think Brian intended Pet Sounds to have a certain unity of tone or theme. Not a concept album, but very much the album as a single coherent work of art. But I agree totally with what you say about Smile, here. I guess I think it may have been something like: Okay, if an album can function as a single coherent expression... what can you do with that? What possibilities does that open up? I do agree that Brian never really tried to think in terms of albums in that sense again.


Completely agree (except that I think Brian was working well within the limits of the tech he had available). I absolutely think the spiritual / humor aspect of Smile you point to was not a lark or hippy bullshit but a serious objective - and very much within reach.


This is really helpful for me in terms of my own thinking, because I've always struggled a little to explain what I believe Smile would have been. Personally, (and this is sort of just my own instincts, I guess, based on years of reading and listening), I believe that Smile would have been 12 distinct songs following the track list printed on the jackets, many of which (but probably not all) would have had fades. But I *also* think it would have had spoken exclamations, jokes, unlisted hidden songs (some silly and some serious!) and even linking tracks! But that none of that implies it would have had *movements* or been like a rock opera type of thing (other than in the sense, maybe, of thematically connected songs being clustered together, but that's not really the same thing!)

However, I think I disagree with this statement: "As I alluded to previously, you can have a funny album with offbeat "talking/laughing between cuts" or you can have music about the tragedy of American expansionism, but you can't have both simultaneously unless you want a mess."

I believe enough of the album Brian was recording in 1966-7 was finished to make sense of what he was doing, and I've never believed that the music contains the seeds of the albums demise in this way. Of course it wouldn't have been a unified statement, but it was an album that was *conceived from the beginning* to be both an Americana trip about the history of the West, a coming of age story, and a paen to, for lack of a better term, hippie spirituality (I don't mean to be disparaging by calling it that!). But the humor and the seriousness runs through all of it, and neither was ever segregated out into one part of the project. Barnyard and Heroes and Villains are silly, Cabinessence is somehow extremely silly (boing, boing boing!), very ominous, and not particularly poignant. Bicycle Rider is ominous, the Hawaiian chants are light, and the versus and title of Do You Like Worms are funny. Wonderful is beautiful but also very light. The tonal range within 75% of the songs worked on in 1966 is wider than the tonal range on all of Pet Sounds! That was a huge part of the point. (Also Song Cycle is not exactly a somber record, it's very light in its way, and full of musical humor from Vine Street on, something Van Dyke Parks very much appreciated in his work and Brian's, in my opinion, whatever frustrations he might have had with Brian's working methods at the time Smile was being recorded).

Yes, and I want to make it clear none of this is a knock against Pet Sounds--in fact, as an older person out of my 20s now, I more often wonder if PS isn't the superior work these days. There's just something nice about its simplicity, where I can pull up the record on any device in a pinch and the songs are all accessible in their best possible version, no assembly required, no finagling my non-offical digital copy to get it to play on a new device (or the different speakers suddenly revealing noticeable changes in quality from where I had to sample outside TSS sources). If I'm listening with someone, there's no worry if they'll "get" something like Fire/Workshop, or find it strange listening to songs with chorus vocals but not verses, or if they're looking to dance and "who ran the iron horse" is both too unmelodic... SMiLE is more "fun" in how it invites active participation, the mysteries make it infinitely open to discussion, but it's still totally exhausting sometimes. Forget when your fanmix audio file won't work because the stereo doesn't recognize the specific codec and you're stuck listening to a low quality boot or that janky TSS Disc 1 assembly (which I find more frustrating to sit through than ethereal as SMiLE should be).

I'll always respect what SMiLE was trying to do and wish more people saw the beauty of Brian's madcap vision, but it feels like such a niche topic to anyone outside BB circles and even within them, there are detractors of the SMiLE Era. The seemingly disjointed nature is a put-off for some, the optimistic "LSD will change the world" philosophy drives away others. It seems like 1967, what was once considered the peak of pop music, is slowly being reevaluated by a more jaded public as we move away from that "sunshine utopia, make love not war, wear flowers in your hair" cultural moment. I submit as additional evidence the growing sentiment that Pepper is overrated (from #1 to #24 in Rolling Stone, plus more lists and average joes would tell you Revolver or Abbey Road are superior now) which, even suggesting that would've gotten you lynched ten years ago in most music spaces. You're also not gonna meet too many Jefferson Airplane diehards like you will for Elvis, Billy Joel, MJ, or even Jimmy Buffet in my experience. Outside some of the Doors, none of the 27 Club seem to get airplay on the radio outside "All Along the Watchtower." Even as a psychonaut myself, whose top 3 time travel bucket list items includes a trip to the Monterey Pop Festival, it feels like the tie-die aesthetic is as dated and silly to people now as Disco (visiting Studio 54 is on that list too, just saying).

Sorry for the tangent, more to come in the rest of the reply, I was high when I responded and couldn't help myself  :thewilsons


Glad to meet a fellow believer. I'm not sure why so many opt for a conservative interpretation of probably the least conservative project ever,* or assume anything coming on the heels of GV and the NME poll would "flop" (and, even if true, somehow that justifies SMiLE's abandonment) but those are opinions I see a lot of, even in fan circles. I consider this something of a lack of imagination or "willingness to upset the established pantheon" perhaps. The Beatles won, they survived the '66 transition from oldies soft rock to psychedelic prog rock--so, their legacy as #1 is set in stone in the popular imagination. The Beach Boys failed to clear that hurdle, which only Brian saw coming, and have been uncool pretty much ever since. These fans let their knowledge of the band's fortunes in our SMiLE-less future muddy the waters of that album's prospects in its moment, one of much-hyped anticipation and maximum cultural relevance, mind you. So, because that's the score now in our timeline, it somehow proves the public would've favored Sgt Pepper no matter what but never SMiLE--even if it came first and hot on the heels of their biggest hit EVER, which was giving them hip cred as well as glowing coverage in TV documentaries.

It's like how the myth of PS flopping refuses to die even though it hit the top 10 and it's been proven Capitol under-reported sales--BB fans are just weird, pessimistic masochists or something if you ask me. The Beatles were publicly praising their rivals' newest album and rival producers were taking out ad space to celebrate it. I don't buy this "it'd flop" theory, which seems based solely on Smiley's performance despite the obvious details separating it from what SMiLE's impact pre-June would've almost certainly been. Whether later albums, like a post-SMiLE Wild Honey would've still underperformed, is irrelevant--though for the record I think it was the reputational damage of not living up to Derek Taylor's hype and the cowardly no-show at Monterey that music buyers were punishing them for in our timeline, not a disinterest in the music of WH & Friends necessarily. Before all that happened, before Pepper could swoop in to steal the thunder, I think SMiLE had as much of a shot at #1 as any album ever would in the history of pop music, and a top ten spot was all but guaranteed even post-Pepper if the hipsters and critics praised it. What makes the whole thing so tragic, such an obsessive "what if" for believers, that it was so close to happening in theory, all it would've taken was a month or two of dedicated work, willingness to just release an "imperfect" single (just say "good enough" to any version of H&V or pick another song for God's sake) and then we'd have world peace...

*[ASIDE:]Are you the one who said to me "just because Brian didn't doesn't mean he couldn't" or words to that effect? I'd agree and add "just because he didn't OR couldn't, doesn't mean he wasn't thinking about it." Somehow, it's not enough that this would-be revolutionary album wasn't completed, people seem want to pretend it wouldn't have been so great, or wasn't even envisioned as a ground-breaking innovation for the medium, in spite of all the evidence. It's like there's this need to retroactively justify the band's reputation as squares, eternally playing catch-up to the Beatles, only doing simple lo-fi straight-forwards albums, for reasons I don't understand. Does Brian's inability to deliver mean he wasn't at least shooting for the stars--if so, then why couldn't the album just come out sans Fire or with CIFOTM as an instrumental then? Why couldn't Brian put that out as Smiley, to salvage some of the band's reputation, if the goal was only 12 tracks, nothing more ambitious than "another Pet Sounds"? As even these fans like to admit, Smiley is far more "out there" than SMiLE, and inarguably killed their public standing at least until they got a second chance in '74, if not forever, so why would Brian allow that if not for the fact that the only way his vision could be saved was by rebuilding from scratch?

The obvious explanation is SMiLE was indeed supposed to be a "next level" endeavor: a unified statement whose message of love was so important he'd never compromise it, a musical house of cards so delicate one lost piece, or poor editing choice, could destroy its intricate beauty. To do it justice was such an arduous task Brian couldn't even begin to start, lest he make the tiniest mistake and betray his perfect vision, much less mentally commit to the months of fine-point splicing across hours of analog tape recordings. But at the same time, he didn't want to let go of that dream, didn't want his world-shattering magnum opus released in a "compromised" state and erroneously remembered as "just another pop album" forever. This seems like such a fair reading of what went down, but people want to deny Brian even the sanctity of his own vision, for no reason beyond their own dislike of the music or skepticism of its message, which is just bad historical analysis whether you like the project or not. These are the kind of people who let everything influence their opinion--namely, the group's comparatively rudimentary pre and post SMiLE output--except the primary sources themselves. There's a reason Brian is so proud to be able to call BWPS "a rock opera" as if that justifies it as something more than an average album. There's a reason he was upset at Surf's Up being recycled outside its intended context.[/ASIDE]


Debating SMiLE's structure is a very complex topic with a trove of contradictions: some in the legit sources, most invented by haphazard bootleg releases and their effect on subsequent, flawed guesswork. Over decades of parroting online, with warm nostalgic memories of those surely-pleasant conversations, that all morphed into a zealously upheld oral tradition that makes it hard for real archivalist scholarship to break through. It doesn't help that a lot of people have serious emotional attachments to their fave theory, plus there are those who just like to shut down SMiLE conversations either to troll, uphold BWPS as the sacred final word, or even get a kick out of obfuscating the narrative because they find the "impossible mystery we'll never solve / endless Zen koan where the confusion is the point" thing compelling in its own right. So there are a lot of people online not actually invested in a productive investigation, or at least there used to be, and they don't make it any easier when you don't phrase things 100% perfectly 100% of the time. I'm gonna rant about some examples of this, if you'll pardon me...  

It's indeed hard to claim "I don't like how BWPS excised the fades" while also saying "I take vintage '66 Brian at his word with the laughing/talking between cuts." I think a lot of "traditionalists" rightly consider PS' excision of the spoken word bits from other BB albums as a step in the right direction, and don't see too many other bands incorporating such weirdness in their own successful albums. With that in mind, it's fair for them to be dubious when I "pollute" the beauty of SU with Talking Horns, or undercut the ambiance of Worms with Taxi Cabber fly-ins. (I can't necessarily blame them, I sometimes think there's a reason Brian dropped these ideas and recreating his every passing whim of "what if?" / "why not?" / "this could even be on the album!" is a fool's errand.) But what can I say? I think Brian's quotes from '66, the very existence of audio verite and comedy skits in the tape vaults, as well as his finished output (Smiley) in '67, prove this kind of modular audio collage was a vintage, seriously considered idea in the halcyon Oct-Dec period, and therefore worth at least trying out. Some results are better than others, and I can't help but notice at least a few of these ideas have been getting popular in other mixes. It bugs me how Brian being this forward thinking prodigy who beat almost everyone to the punch in the production race, invented new chord progressions in pop music and heard impossibly complex harmonies in his head is taken as a given...until it comes to using audio verite collages a year before anyone else. Apparently Brian would've been incapable of song-mashups or something like Revolution 9 without seeing another group do it first ("Row row row your boat," what's that?)

I find the whole "movements" verbiage of BWPS very pretentious and unhelpful...but how can I say that when I subscribe to the "teenage symphony to God" that'd change the world with its sheer awesomeness? How can I champion the "it was originally two movements" quote if I still want at least semi-distinct tracks that fade? I mostly look to even Brian's prior work like Today! with the rockers on Side 1, ballads on Side 2 for a guide, with what I consider obvious context clues like shared "sound texture," emotional vibe and thematic overlap to determine the groupings on each side of vinyl. So, not "movements" like in Beethoven's Fifth so much as "playlists" of interrelated but distinct songs, like most concept albums--especially early ones. Wonderful by itself is about a girl losing her innocence, Surf's Up is about finding meaning in the madness because of children. CIFOTM is presumably about the way our childhood experiences (probably focusing on traumas and parental mistakes) ripple across our lives into recursive adult patterns or outright dysfunction, depending on how positive or negative they would've interpreted the concept. Each expresses a complete, independent thought but combined they become a song cycle built around a shared theme of life's minor tragedies compounding into a bittersweet human experience. As if that's not compelling enough, they have congruent arrangements (particularly the prominent keyboard and horn instrumental parts in each) with consistent emotional vibe (somber, reflective, evoking regret for past mistakes perhaps) and even shared numerology values. I think, as far as it goes, the first two "movements" of BWPS are vintage like the man said, with the multi-song Elements suite an ad-hoc invention borne out of bootleg-Smile Shop tradition retroactively justified by BWPS (despite Brian's explicit admission to its newness). Most songs in each "playlist/suite" would fade, some would carry right into something else (as Version 1 Wonderful seems want to do, or some versions of OMP and IIGS/BY) and some would have intros or outros of very brief comedy skits, particularly the Veggie Fight and SU Talking Horns. I say a Sixties SMiLE would've been roughly 33% Pet Sounds (in terms of arrangement), 33% Smiley (in terms of vibe & inventiveness), 1/6 Zappa's WOIIFTM (spliced audio collage w/ comedy bits), 1/6 Sweet Smoke's Just a Poke (distinct sides of interrelated music).

It's also not that I enjoy killing Elements speculation by reminding people of the (admittedly far less exciting) Psychedelic Sounds demos that all but prove what was in '66 Brian's head on the matter.* Just because accepting where the tapes lead us isn't as much fun as reiterating the "airy piano piece" quote from a decade later, or rediscovering and re-rejecting Veggies and Dada's claims for the umpteenth time, that doesn't stop the "higher order pramana" from taking precedence. Just because it sucks that the best we have for unambiguously vintage water and air are rough demos by not-BB vocalists, that doesn't mean some brilliant Wrecking Crew melody no one ever documented is going to appear in the vaults. Just because the dream of a symphonic elements that knocks everyone away and converts us to subud on the spot is more enticing, doesn't make it real. I'm not arguing all this from a place of aesthetic preference (I wish we had a Vosse water sounds based track too, believe me). I'm arguing from a sense of academic integrity, because respecting a consistently applied method is how we keep "fun" speculation from clouding the truth. Without a logical, common sense hierarchy of evidence, which we follow even if we don't always like the answers it leads to, there's no standards. That means efforts at further research get distorted, with the same tired, baseless fan-theories dominating the conversation ad nauseum because there's no agreed upon, objective means to come to a conclusion. But people making flippant jokes about "oh so you'd rather hear wheezing in a mic than Holidays" don't seem to get that. You can still opt to make an "element suite" on your fanmix with WC/Barnyard/CCW or Country Air/Workshop/Dada, especially since SMiLE changed so much. It's totally possible there was a cooler "4-song '67 Elements" in Brian's head soon after, but we don't have explicit proof of that on tape the way we do the PS' vintage-'66 rough cut demos*, which is why they must take precedent or at least be included in the conversation when it comes to the Elements "mystery."  

And that leads to another possible contradiction that makes it hard for me to explain the intricacies of my opinion. If I say SMiLE is so great, how can it have flaws like a comparatively unimpressive Elements? The answer might be that Brian changed his mind, which he did often, so a surely cacophonous 4-part medley was quickly scrapped in favor of "spiritual successors" like a standalone Veggies, CCW & Second Day (which I believe by '67 was Air if it was anything, though I maintain in '66 it was just another uncertain "feel"). But then someone deliberately misses the nuance and asks how I can say that if I just claimed the PS elements were Brian's (original) plan and we go 'round again. Or they want to die on the hill that Wind Chimes and Surf's Up were specifically intended air and water from the start, I guess since they have one word in their respective titles vaguely element-adjacent if you squint. If not that, then they cite how it was said on a forum 30 years ago, after being labeled as such on a bootleg in the '80s, and plus it was good enough for BWPS... So, they think that's all a solid argument because it's backed up by "3 sources" that were actually built on a shared foundation of baseless, inbred-ouroboros conjecture. (Like, it may be your aesthetic preference, more power to ya, but it's not historically accurate in any way we can prove which is my whole point.)

Another answer to the naysayers might be "youre right, the PS Element demos* suck, maybe Talking Horns as part of SU proper IS a bad idea, perhaps that's why Brian started second-guessing his muse and the album was scrapped?" but then how can I sing the praises of an album so apparently flawed? Or, they hate PsychSounds so much they don't want to concede those recordings have any connection to SMiLE whatsoever even as the poison pill that started its unraveling. To even suggest that the man over here constantly bringing up humor and "talking in the pauses" might've sourced something from his many contemporaneous recordings of humorous talking is somehow an insult to SMiLE's majesty. It's weird to me how hostile a lot of people were (are?) to acknowledging these ~6 particular sessions (Oct 25 Lifeboat, Nov 4 PS, Nov 7 George, Nov 16 Argument, plus whenever Taxi Cabber, Smog and the rest of PS Disc 2 were done), more than was held for any non-single track, are actually part of the project, even as proof of how disjointed things were getting before the collapse. Every attempt to navigate this straight of Messina leads to a genuine contradiction and convenient "gotcha!" for those allergic to nuance (or just intolerant of the non-melodic, "weird" aspects of SMiLE). Deliberately obtuse yoyos pretend not to understand the concept of a rough demo* when they say "durr, so you think Brian would've used these janky Vosse Posse vocals on the album?!?"

*[ASIDE:]And yes, I do believe the Nov 4 recordings (Disc 1 of PS boot) are demos, however much we may not like them, whether they were abandoned soon after or evolved to be nearly unrecognizable (UC into the Water Chant & Brian Falls Into a Piano/Mic into George Fell), they are demos by definition. The evidence is right there: 1) Brian couldn't wait to try some ideas first thing in the middle of the night, which all the sources cite as his usual operating procedure. 2) The Beach Boys weren't around, so he used his posse of hipsters--they can even be heard complaining about the late hour and being ordered around as if they have nothing better to do. 3) Brian clearly has concepts for skits he wants to try out without directly telling everyone what to say, only giving them a vague scenario and see how it plays out organically. You can hear this for yourself or read my commentaries about the PS boot (not in this thread), even though the others sans Vosse (ever the loyal disciple) often ignore these setups and goof off in the interim (Mary Poppins, Ice Cream Man). 4) This was all professionally recorded, catalogued and filed with the rest of the SMiLE tapes, implying somewhat more importance than "goofball stoners absent-mindedly killing time because haha drugs." 5) Finally, the two main comedy skits Brian explicitly tried to direct the group towards were more professionally recorded with Wrecking Crew members within 3 days (George Fell) & 2 weeks (Veggie Argument). If this were anything except spoken word comedy, which a lot of people seem to have a visceral disdain for, it would be an open-and-shut case they're demos, but no one wants to legitimize this part of SMiLE. At least the concept of chanting was recorded a month later with the lone You're Welcome session, then several times more in the spring (including CCW) plus the Water Chant a little less than a year later. (Anyone pretending they can't see at least the conceptual carryover between UC & CCW/WC is absolutely full of sh*t and pushing an agenda--I die on this hill.)  [/ASIDE]


Well, I'm sort of two minds about this myself. First of all, I love SMiLE as-is (obviously) weird tonal shifts and all, but I still recognize it as an untenable mess of one-too-many ideas if that makes sense. It's like the Beatles White Album, where "its beauty is in its mess" but here, instead of 4 budding solo artists competing for space on the record, it's one guy's speed-addled, fraying mind trying to cram every cool sonic idea, every deep philosophical lesson, into less than 45 minutes. It's sort of rough around the edges and conceptually bloated, I think it's fair to say. It works brilliantly even in its fractured state, my fanmixes of "what might've been" blow me away on a good day, but sometimes I can't help but notice more of the cracks and think "Pet Sounds is actually better because it's so much more tight and cohesive."

Some of my misgivings maybe stem from my desire for uniformity and balance--VT and SU clearly had orbiting comedy skits, I have no doubt of that--but while the Veggie Fight fits like a glove, I must admit even I struggle to justify including George Fell sometimes. I used to like tacking it on at the end ala Her Majesty or Pepper's inner grove, but that does diminish the sincere profundity of SU's statement I think. At least it borderline does. I've seen other mixers start to use this idea like DAE LIMS which I find flattering (not sure if they were inspired by my efforts directly, but even if they weren't it legitimizes the choice, knowing a more famous mixer felt the same way independently) however, hearing someone else's version, which I now have no personal stake in, made me think "oh man, that's too much, you ruined the moment." My last mix (Voynich SMiLE) moved George Fell to an intro for SU, but here too you break the melodic momentum of CIFOTM (or whatever else) leading into Surf if you do that. So, I sort of unintentionally recreated what happened to Brian in '66 I feel, where he wanted an avant garde comedy + sound effects collage but (probably) realized the music he was making was too serious, too sad and reflective to work tonally with these left-turn jokes breaking up the flow. But for me, to have a skit in Veggies on Side 1 but no comparative moment on Side 2 also feels wrong somehow, like in my mind (and for no good reason) I want two mirror-like symphonic playlists, one reflecting on American history and society, the other on individual relationships and life cycles, and I want them as balanced as possible.

Someone might come in and say "you're too hung up on thinking Veggies was Americana, put it back on Side 2 like most people and then you've restored balance with two overtly silly tracks--Heroes and Veggies--on each playlist!" They may be more right than we know, because if SMiLE followed Pet Sounds singles releases, the kick-off single should be at the end of side 1, not the beginning of side 2 where the third or double A-side second single should be (which is Veggies). But, for me, that creates its own problems. As I've said, I don't believe in an "Elements Side" as the popular, long-handed down oral tradition from the '80s bootlegs would have us do. Even if I did, every version of such an endeavor sounds like a disjointed free for all to my ears, BWPS included. I say to split up the "BWPS second movement" tracks is an absolute crime, considering that segment is everybody's favorite, it intuitively works so well musically and conceptually, and (yet again) Brian said the first two groupings were vintage, Americana and Cycle of Life. So, rather than throw ALL that away because Priore said so, or your first bootleg did it, I say use the main tracks of the first two movements as the foundations for both sides of a Sixties-style album. Ok, that means dividing the "Elements tracks" up and we just established H&V should be separate from VT. See the issue? Either track would just sound so wrong rubbing elbows with the likes of Won/CIFOTM/SU(& WC). It just forces a tonally discordant left turn where there doesn't need to be one. GV isn't so bad with the Side 2 tracks, but it sounds absolutely lost next to Heroes or CE.

You may say I'm boxing myself in and creating arbitrary problems for myself, but that's what SMiLE does to you. You get a theory that sounds right until another contrary piece of evidence (often pedantically thrown in your face by a dissenter) pokes a hole in it, which is all any bystanders notice. ("Oh their explanation isn't perfect so they're wrong, even though literally no attempt to make sense of this mess has ever been without its inconvenient contradictions.") You explain how it's like a real life DBQ (document based question) in an AP class, where you're given a bunch of primary accounts and must carefully choose those which seem to paint a consistent picture while ignoring those that are antithetical, because not every observer will agree on what happened or may even be lying, but the existence of one alternate take doesn't/shouldn't necessarily silence a more compelling majority. But then you're accused of hobby-horsing and "misleading" people. More importantly, you get an idea for sequencing most of the tracks that seems great, but I'll bet if the rest of you are anything like me, there's always that one song that won't neatly fit. You either ran out of room on one side, forcing its inclusion with the other concept-playlist it isn't naturally a part of, or it could go either way (the singular Elements track) or something else. Anytime I've made a SMiLE mix, there's always some kind of compromise like that, where one thing isn't how I'd like but it's the only way the rest of it fits together. That, or I had to ignore evidence and do things I'm much less certain Brian would've (like using the Heroes intro for a standalone Fire, Dada as a standalone track, using I Ran instead of IIGS/BYS, etc) for the sake of making it sound better. That's why every time, as soon as I'm done a mix, I almost immediately think "wait, this could be better."

And that's not even touching what I consider the inappropriate undercutting of racial injustice with some silly jokes if you apply Brian's "talking between cuts" to the unambiguously Americana songs. How do you put a joke or laughing after CE's magnificent fade, or "fall into a microphone" during Fire? What comedy skit works with the genocide of the Indians? Maybe I'm being too literal here, or assuming there'd be comedy skits ala Fight & Fell between almost every track when it would've been applied more sparingly. (This is how my application evolved across two previous mixes, where "Olorin Edition" used PsychSounds clips between every track but that got obnoxious on repeat listens, so I scaled back with "Romestamo Cut" to just one or two per side.) It's all about how much you think Brian would've done, how seriously you take him in those interviews and if maybe he was only considering something like Heroes when he said that and I'm just assuming it'd apply to the whole album. We can't really know, but to me, the added problem of juggling such disparate pieces with (seemingly) discordant vibes must've surely been a factor in the collapse. At least, that makes intuitive sense to me, anyway, because I've experienced it firsthand working with this material.

And yet, and yet, all that said, I do still agree with a lot of what you're saying here. The melancholy and joviality does run through a lot of it. Worms has the goofy title and flippant "East or West Indies, we always get them confused" that most AI fanmixers frustratingly leave off. Surf's Up has the "horn laughing" sound even in the first movement (another reason I think Brian had a plan for the "horn droning" and "horn wailing" sounds from the same session). Heroes has the bouncy melody but tragic lyrics. I get it. And not all, perhaps not even most, albums are like PS and the USA with their uniform "sound textures" and interrelated subject matter. Thriller, Revolver and Abbey Road are all over the place (most forgettable albums I've heard are too). Even one of my top favorites, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, has that weird annoying detour in the middle where there's like 3 proto-prog freak out jam sessions in between 8 shorter, fun, whimsical-psychedelic ditties. (Tangent: I always thought "Take Thy Stethoscope" should've been replaced with "See Emily Play" at the very least.)  So just because everything wasn't perfectly aligned doesn't mean it was unreleasable or even unusual against its peers. But we're talking about Brian Wilson here, the man who was so obsessed with perfection he hosted 30+ Heroes sessions only to not use most of what he'd recorded anyway. The guy who wasn't satisfied even with the final cut of GV, only reluctantly letting go when he realized it was the best he could do, who considered giving the song away. The guy who set out to make "music people would pray to" and wouldn't settle for any less than the best. That's why I think these..."imperfections" or "rough edges" which might've been fine for another artist must've been unacceptable for him. He was in a manic state in Oct-Nov, wanting to put everything from dinner plates to a random Cabbie on the album. When the speed crash happened, the euphoric high giving way to depressive funk, suddenly he realized "I recorded a lot of 'junk' that's gonna take weeks to sequence properly, probably won't even sound all that good together anyway, the band already doesn't like it and if I change my mind I have to resplice this delicate tape until it physically falls apart."

I just think, knowing what we know about Brian's perfectionism, he would have had a lot of the same frustrations and second-guessing of the material as someone like me does trying to make sense of everything in the vault, but even more so because he made it, it's his would-be masterpiece, he has to live with its reception forever not me. Brian pre-Smiley was not one to make compromises on his important work. (Yes, he made filler albums on command, but he wouldn't cut the intro to California Girls, change Pet Sounds, nor would he trim GV down despite significant pressure to do so.) Surely it was a factor in any case. As far as my theory the two partners weren't seeing eye-to-eye, again I just base that on Anderle's (and I believe Vosse's) accounts as well as what Brian chooses to focus on in interviews (ALWAYS humor) compared to VDP, as well as their usual styles. Im not sure if we can totally say "SMiLE was conceived as an American gothic trip from the beginning" or at least I don't think we can definitively say it was Brian's idea or a 50-50 idea with what we know. Im guessing Brian had a silly cowboy song and things grew from there in competing directions, but that's just speculation based on a preponderance of the evidence as I like to say.


Sorry for all the long-winded tangents.  :afro

Just me talking to myself again, and the realization of that coupled with rereading the book full of tangents I just wrote, I wonder if maybe Im not going crazy and that can be part of the legend, that it became to a fan what shortenin bread was to Brian or something. Anyway...


I watched a bunch of random VDP interviews on YouTube lately, mostly not dealing with SMiLE, or just reiterating the basics. But one stood out to me for a few reasons, which I'm gonna commentate on  :-D. This is a 2011 Casey Radio in Melbourne, Australia. You get a bit of insight into SMiLE about ~22 minutes in (https://youtu.be/mXZeKCUjwGU (https://youtu.be/mXZeKCUjwGU)):

1) VDP says he felt like he was taking someone else's job and, upon realizing this, felt embarrassed like he'd been put in an antagonistic "odd one out" role he wasn't set up for. Listening to this, it only suddenly occurred to me that without Mike officially being credited on songs, and Van probably never realized there was a sidelined lyricst whom his presence was insulting. This is the perfect example of the compounding recursive ways that injustice screwed Mike over, as it sounds like VDP wouldn't have accepted had he known, or certainly he may've been more sensitive about it. Asher was probably set up to fail in that way as well. This is an overlooked detail I think we take for granted sometimes--nobody knew they were stepping on Mike's toes going in.

2) VDP says the new 2000s SMiLE is not much different than the Sixties because "it's not about the particular brushstrokes" but "about having the same attitude & expressing what it set out to do" (words to that effect). It sounds to me like either he didn't want to upset fans by implying there's still a lost work out there, or imply that Brian/Mark/Alan didn't do a good job "resurrecting the album," in addition to his clear lack of the same obsessive pedanticism which drives uber-fans of this material. Perhaps also, Van didn't want to get bogged down explaining minute specific differences nobody but us cares about, because at this point they don't matter to him, he forgot, or maybe he was never privy to them in the first place. Either way, we're not getting some secret vintage tracklist, lost sheet music or description of a missing vocal part from him.

3) VDP claims he had "5 sessions" with Brian, (though it's hard to make out and I turned CC on) "each one hour long" and for a hot minute I was reeling at the implications of this, that the writing for SMiLE had all been accomplished in such limited bursts...but then Van clarified later he was talking about BWPS. That's still kind of interesting, and he confirms the Holidays pirate thing was new (I recall there was debate on if those lyrics were vintage, well case closed). At this point, VDP seems to want to downplay this topic and move on, "it really isn't that interesting/it really isn't demanding work/im glad it got done but [...]it didn't make me a millionaire/did I tell you about my new CD?"  


This one's with BBC radio 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6G00Y22qA0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6G00Y22qA0)

1) What's interesting here is, according to VDP, there was no overarching plan, at least not at first, except to assert their American-ness against the British Invasion. There was still a sense of calling the country out for its flaws (Vietnam, race riots, loss of American dream) but no particular "purpose" to the album except "to be Americans and comment on America without shame." There's a quote about how Brian could "translate the American vernacular into music."

^If Brian was immediately taken with humor going in, or bisociative song-writing, or secret messages about his acid trips (as Tobelman insists) he apparently did not share any of this with Van. That could imply the humor and music concrete ideas Brian discusses in vintage interviews came a little later, or he didn't think it was important to bring up with the lyricist. (Also, it's possible Van's misremembering, but I choose to take him at his word here.) It's possible Brian thought of the religious angle later and told VDP after their first meet in May but before September. However, I would think Van might've mentioned something like that, because it's a big omission. This is another case where an uber-fan with obsessive knowledge would've asked for clarification but alas... As is, I submit this anecdote as further proof the two were focused on different components of the music, VDP always as the American politics & history guy, Brian as the spiritual comedian. I think it's likely there was a "meeting of the minds" here in May, but then Brian kept changing what the album was, the same way he kept changing what each song was, and Van was struggling to keep up. That's why, when asked "what is SMiLE," Van defers to this memory, where they were on the same page and before it got so confused.

[ASIDE:]Since the earliest recorded (non-single) SMiLE songs in August and September are WC, I Ran, Wonderful & HGS, Prayer and Holidays I almost have some doubts of this "America first" origin of the project. They're all arguably the least overtly Americana AND least explicitly humorous songs on the whole album. Indeed, the most viscerally jolly of the tracks here (Holidays) was almost certainly cut from the final tracklist! This early date for Prayer also implies the spiritual angle was present close to the beginning: if not in May during the first brainstorm with Van, then at least before the recording sessions really got underway. (Even these particular versions of WC & Wonderful which predate it were ultimately redone, I Ran & HGS likely scrapped too, so in effect Prayer is the second completed SMiLE song after GV, a few stray 20/20 overdubs aside.) I now consider WC to be like GV, in that they were conceived outside of the SMiLE conceptual umbrella but grandfathered into the tracklist anyway. (People obsessively try to make WC fit better by insisting it was the Air element, when really Brian just spur-of-the-moment wrote about something he bought at the store that day.) In fact, I'm wondering if you couldn't call everything pre-Oct or pre-Prayer (9-19-66) as a bit of a false start to the SMiLE sessions now, where non-Americana / non-New Age music, with a carryover from Pet Sounds' "sonic texture" and its "adolescent yearning themes" were still working their way out of Brian's system, before he hunkered down and focused on the bulk of the tracks--especially those more closely tied to SMiLE's major ideas.[/ASIDE]

2) VDP downplays the idea that he was a co-writer or co-producer of the music without even being asked, emphasizing that Brian's arrangements already knocked him out. VDP makes a point to say "I never asked Brian to change a note." He also claims he would've preferred if Brian had just given him simple 2:30 length tracks and said "here's the song, give me lyrics for it." Instead, Brian would feed him 8-bars at a time. It seems the SMiLE modular free form style was more of a burden to Van than anything. "[SMiLE] got a mind of its own." Van says towards the end he doesn't like the BWPS "pop symphony" / "movements" or even the vintage "symphony to God" framing of SMiLE, it made him uncomfortable. To Van, it seems, SMiLE was just an album or perhaps should've stayed just an album.

^This is interesting because it's going to contradict what Brian says in another interview at the end of this post. It seems like nobody wants to take credit for the modular style, probably for good reason as it was a not-insignificant factor in the collapse of the project. For what it's worth, if we have to take one collaborator's side over the other in this, I choose to believe Van Dyke when he says he wanted a more straightforward approach. Unless I'm very wrong, I believe Brian was already going modular with GV when he brought Van onboard. All the same, I've seen it said on these forums (forget who, forget which thread) that Van misinterpreted what Brian needed from him with SMiLE. I get the impression Van saw his role as limited, just the lyricist, while Brian was looking for someone he perceived as "on his level" to help tell him how to assemble the pieces. Van didn't want there to be pieces, didn't have the whole scope of the project in mind (my interpretation), he thought, or wanted, SMiLE to be a simple 12-track banded album with no crossfades except in one song (presumably Elements). Brian was too paralyzed by indecision to settle on a structure, he wanted his collaborator to take a firmer hand and cast the vote, yet paradoxically seems to have held him at arms length on the big picture. It's a weird, confusing dynamic we can never totally be sure of, but that's my best estimation based on all these confusing quotes. This is why I think Darian was essential to BWPS for playing some of his fanmixes for Brian to give him ideas (the Look after Wonderful "eureka!" moment.)  

3) VDP acknowledges SMiLE was not commercial and implies that was more Brian's idea. Van emphasizes he was not misled by Brian's desire to take music in a more abstract place, that he knew they were doing something radical from the jump. VDP also shares the anecdote of watching GV played on Dick Clark, where the teens stopped dancing in the quiet parts, as an early warning sign this might not sell. The way he tells it you can take away "and Brian proved the conventional wisdom wrong" or "and that was a sign of what was to come." Brian was thinking beyond songs, so much so that Van says he couldn't tell you how many "songs" he wrote for on the album.

^This seemingly contradicts the way I'd always framed their dynamic in my head. VDP is anti-commercial whether he means it or not; he's "the cult artists' cult artist" as I've heard it said. Meanwhile Brian pre-SMiLE was the one-man hit machine, has been called "the biggest star in the American recording industry" at that time. I always assumed it was Van pushing Brian to step outside the boy-girl, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-fade structure. Anderle says Van wanted SMiLE to be "more sophisticated" and Brian wanted "more simplicity." It's just kind of hard to say who's right here, or if there aren't missing details. (Like, perhaps Van was initially hesitant but then said "hey it's your record--but if we're pushing boundaries let's REALLY push boundaries!" though this is baseless speculation trying to connect two disparate dots.) This does also lend credence to the theory that SMiLE was morphing into something more like a music concrete audio collage than a traditional banded album though, it's just a matter of how extreme you think it would've gone. (I suggest more than Pepper, less than Zappa, probably H&V would've been something like an "Abbey Road Medley" while other tracks faded.)

4) VDP says of 2003 and presumably 2011 "there isn't anything I worked on that isn't there" which seems to imply that CIFOTM didn't have lyrics back then and if Vosse really heard WC with vocals over the fade it must've been vocalizations not "columnated ruins domino" esque true lyrics. Probably I Ran lyrics are off the table too with this quote in mind. Disappointing but not unexpected.

^I'd really love it if someone asked, not in a mean way but "so, did you ever hear the CIFOTM tapes or see the sheet music? Did Brian just never give it to you, you struggled with how to put it to words, you knew you were gonna split soon anyway and considered it a wasted effort? Why was nothing written here, for this one song out of all on the tracklist? Why, in several months, was nothing done on this track? Not saying you didn't do your job, but could you only visit Brian sporadically once a month or something and each time you were shocked by how much the project had changed since last time? And that constituted a redo or something? Work with me here, boy, because this doesn't seem normal..."


I also revisited the David Leaf Beautiful Dreamer documentary for the first time in 14 years, wondering if there would be any cool anecdotes there I overlooked/forgot since that's what first kicked off my obsession. Sadly, there wasn't much except that H&V, SU, CE & Wonderful all supposedly were written in the sandbox, as well as the BWPS stuff. It's definitely the most accessible source for the general public and the info seems basically accurate looking back as a more wizened fan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H0Orfkaqf4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H0Orfkaqf4)

1) My big sticking points are the lack of "talking head" interviews from actual Beach Boys besides Brian, as well as the over-the-top focus on Mike alone as the reason things fell apart. I'll always agree he was a factor, but I'm now convinced that the Capitol lawsuit fallout and setting up Brother Records were actually the biggest issues, with the speed crash & subsequent depressive funk as third. Then jockeying for fourth place: growing apart from VDP, lack of group enthusiasm, and procrastinating from having to sort thru then stitch together hours of analog tape. Worries about live performances, fears of commercial rejection, lingering Murry issues, worry of losing Carl and wasting their final moments together on an acrimonious endeavor must surely round out the top 10 reasons. Then anything else you can tack on were also contributing annoyances, certainly, which compounded in a mental breakdown--maybe not "locked in a room for years" as the oral tradition claims, but enough that the album was abandoned and nothing as conceptually ambitious as it was ever attempted again. (I'm choosing my words carefully here--even if "Friends is just as complex on an arrangement level," or whatever's trending on the other side of the "how serious was Brian's breakdown" pendulum, the point is Brian never attempted a "symphony to God" again, a "two movement cantata" or "rock opera," as he's called SMiLE.)

2) Besides that, it's the basic story without too much detail. A great starting point, but one should immediately pivot to a less overtly "anti-Mike" source as a pallet cleanser. Mike deserves a bit of bashing for his part in not supporting Brian's vision and taking pot-shots at his mistakes decades later. But Mike was also young, in an understandably tough spot considering the commercial risks, was both financially/professionally screwed and publicly humiliated from the lack of recognition as lyricist and being sidelined, plus Brian was legitimately going off the rails. Mike deserves some grace, and even if he hassled VDP at every session (not just one) it wouldn't have prevented SMiLE's release unless Brian wanted it to. (I think for Brian in 2004 and possibly even as early as 1967, having Mike as a proverbial bad guy in the SMiLE Saga served as a convenient excuse for his failure to deliver on the hype. Brian was never above this kind of passive aggression if you look at him honestly.)

3) For me, the fact that Brian only called VDP to "finish SMiLE" because he couldn't make out a word on a lyric sheet kinda shows that he didn't think he needed VDP to "finish" SMiLE anymore, this was more his thing than an equal co-op--he just wanted to get the music out rather than restore any kind of vintage plan. Van writing new lyrics seems to have been a happy surprise, but one wonders whose idea that was. What's more likely: Brian asking "hey, while you're here..." or Van "say, I could pitch some new words to clean up the dead spots..." I'm not trying to downplay the significance of their reunion but I wonder if Brian didn't want to embarrass VDP after getting him to come over ("well thanks for clarifying that word...bye") so he decided spur of the moment to offer him a gig for his trouble, or if maybe the indecipherable lyric story was his excuse for getting a foot in the door, rather than dropping the bomb "we're finishing SMiLE, motherfucker!" out of nowhere. It's an interesting moment to speculate on.


I remember these were released one by one over a few weeks or something in the buildup to the TSS release in 2011. Someone edited them into a 45 minute mini-documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUgFc1H34d4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUgFc1H34d4)).

1) Most of the info here is pretty basic stuff that you'd get from any other source; it is nice to finally hear interviews from the actual band members but they don't have too much to say. I'm thinking of the BBs, Dennis and certainly Carl would've been more privy to the details and I think they "got" SMiLE on some level at least. Dennis tripped and was the next best songwriter of the group. Brian says in places that Dennis was his biggest supporter and his vintage quotes back that up ("SMiLE makes Pet Sounds stink, that's how good it is" / "Brian is the Beach Boys; he's everything, we're nothing.") Carl was eager to learn production techniques and I've heard others say he was in the control booth as often as possible around this time, shadowing Brian. Carl would step in and finish several SMiLE tracks as we all know, along with spearheading the Tones sessions and is the most likely source of the Capitol tracklist along with Diane Rovell. I think the other two Wilsons could've told us a lot about SMiLE and especially Smiley Smile (which either no one remembers--too much weed--or doesn't want to talk about, since it was such a humiliating release coming in SMiLE's shadow.)

2) There is a throwaway line from Brian that seems to have massive implications, though. When recounting his early collaborations with Van Dyke, Brian makes it sound like it was Van's idea to record in "snippets." Like supposedly Brian even asked "what's that?" and Van "showed" him how to record just a piece of a song without having to worry about the parts that weren't coming right away--you can just let the creativity flow where it wants and come back to the hard stuff later. Towards the end of the doc, Brian is asked "what would you say to your younger self" (words to that effect) and he answers "if you write a song, don't crap out halfway. Write your whole song--like my father used to teach me." That feels like a heavy quote, Brian deferring to Murry's way when reflecting on his greatest professional failure.

^This all seems like a strong repudiation of modular recording (at least "modular writing") and therefore VDP's influence if Brian's other quote is accurate. I take any non-vintage Brian memory about SMiLE with a huge grain of salt, but I'm curious if anyone else believes VDP really gave birth to the modular approach or Brian is misremembering. (Maybe he got the idea independently around the same time and attributed it to VDP's influence due to it all happening simultaneously? When did GV become a truly modular recording process, can anyone answer that?) VDP never shuts up about the cello in GV, so I wonder if he really taught Brian this technique too, wouldn't he mention it more often? Or maybe VDP also recognizes it as a net negative in the long run, and doesn't want to take credit for the seed which arguably planted the album's undoing?

I just perused the relevant sections of The Nearest Faraway Place by Timothy White, but unless you're interested in the extended backstories of Warner records and VDP, or some factoids like 1966's Unsafe at Any Speed contributing to the death of early '60s hot rod culture (thereby rendering another of the BB's fad topics obsolete), there's not much uncovered there. It is, however, the first explicit mention of Brian studying a form of Buddhism (Tantric) outside the untrustworthy Tobelman site, at least that I can recall, so that's something. Not knocking it as a source by any means, just you read enough of them and they repeat the same basic info.

I also saw Van Dyke Parks: An Obsession with Music (2002) but it's apparently in Dutch for the most part, so the narrator's asides are indecipherable to me. There's English interviews with VDP, Brian, Danny Hutton and some other guy about the SMiLE sessions but it's mostly the same info you hear a million times (met at Terry Melcher's house, H&V was first & written on the spot, then SU, yadda yadda...) Danny Hutton speculates there may have been creative differences between VDP and Brian but that "it was good for the music"--no specific elaboration on what disagreements could've occurred, what songs or themes were at stake, etc. Hutton makes it sound like Van was in a position to be helping with melodies and production/arrangement ideas with this quote, similar to what Anderle has implied in some of his articles. But this is contradicted by that other radio VDP interview I shared recently and even here, VDP says Brian's "destiny" was to go solo "...and I happened to be the guy who brought in some words." (Very humble, very much not putting himself on Brian's level as SMiLE's co-creator, just a hired hand with a specific role to fulfill.)

^At this point I've listened to a bunch of VDP interviews and honestly my takeaway is Van would absolutely talk it up if he did more for SMiLE production-wise than "just" the GV cello suggestion which he never misses an opportunity to brag about. If he'd recommended another instrument for, say, the Veggies chorus or something, it seems he'd constantly brag about it too. So, the fact he doesn't do that AND insists he was purely a lyricist, means I'm inclined to believe him. But then, I'm not sure why Brian apparently felt he needed VDP around to finish the album (just cut CIFOTM from the tracklist, tragic as that'd be, or hire another guy to do that one song), nor why Anderle and Hutton seem to think the melodies or arrangements were a give-and-take between the two. I'd love to see someone offer a theory connecting these disparate testimonies, or weigh in on who's wrong if they can't be reconciled.  

Another "new" piece of info is the effect of the collapse on Van, which was "devastating" and humiliating. He'd given his best and was made to feel like it wasn't good enough, treated by Mike as if he were "a bad influence." Van doesn't mince words either, with some of the harshest, most pointed criticisms of Mike I've seen: "Mike Love destroyed the enthusiasm of the project. It was a very stupid thing for him to do. And I have forgiven him completely." (Somehow I doubt Mike ever sought forgiveness, which I'm sure Van is not-so-subtly calling attention to, and neither his voice nor expression indicate anything but disdain in my estimation.) These are DIRECT QUOTES. I still think Mike's hostility was a lesser factor overall (perhaps "the 5 lb weight that broke the camel's back" let's say), but what's important is Van clearly thinks his actions were a big deal and is saying so outside of David Leaf's influence. Van either really blames Mike, or finds him a convenient scapegoat for the unfavorable outcome of this confusing, tumultuous situation (as I suspect is at least partly Brian's MO when blaming Mike in the Leaf film). I lean towards the former scenario in Van's case, but I'm not sure how cognizant Van was/is about the other factors--did Brian ever confide his worries for how the music would sound live, for example? Was Van aware of the lawsuit at the time, did he have the wherewithal to perceive Brian's speed crash or mental illness as they were unfolding?  

^Without direct quotes or specific anecdotes outside the CE session incident, I personally just don't feel comfortable leveling quite so much blame at Mike's feet. I think he was certainly a negative presence and complained a good deal, but not in any kind of way that would've held up someone who was 100% (or even let's say 75+%) certain of their vision and/or not already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Mike's harsh criticisms ("this music disgusts me") probably delivered the final push, and Van saw cause and effect without directly witnessing the cracks that had been forming for years from Brian's compounding problems and undiagnosed condition. That's my theory. I still say without the endless possibilities (plus immense, delicate work) of modular editing and constant legal distractions as well as the weird dynamic of enriching your "enemies" by giving them your masterpiece to profit off of, SMiLE still gets done whether Mike likes it or not. But I can see why Van and Brian latch onto Mike as the embodiment of all the antagonisms they were facing, like "you know I/Brian am going through all this other sh*t right now, you're family, I/Brian got you where you are, and you can't just give me/him a break for once?" That's a very human reaction, certainly. If Mike were just a bandmate and not family, I think VDP or Anderle might've even straight up said that to him on Brian's behalf, but as-is it was perceived as a family matter and neither thought it was their place to get too directly involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TynLkl3PdY8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TynLkl3PdY8) <Here's the link. Anyone who knows Dutch and can confirm if the narrator says anything revelatory, let me know.

Just writing to say I, at least, am reading everything you post with great care! But mostly not letting myself reply, because I will easily lose hours in these conversations and at this precise moment I don't have the hours to lose... (Especially since writing mini-essays on Smile uses up the exact same kind of energy I'm supposed to be using on the research and writing
I actually get paid for...)

This is me commentating on Domenic Priore's second, far less famous, SMiLE book from 2005. https://archive.org/details/smilestoryofbria0000prio/page/9/mode/1up?view=theater (https://archive.org/details/smilestoryofbria0000prio/page/9/mode/1up?view=theater) I'm gonna go chapter by chapter and share my thoughts on SMiLE stuff.

Key Takeaways:


It's really wild to hear Brian describe "[the time of composing] the music of SMiLE [as] a very special and energetic and upbeat time in my career and life." He also calls it "a very uplifting, jovial album." I think certainly the 2003-04 version is more jolly and triumphant than its inspiration, but those original sessions I find straight up haunting and bittersweet at best. It makes me think of the tremendous regret in our past and little tragedies going on everyday (Wonderful, the uncertain future of CIFOTM) with only the faintest promise of a better tomorrow at the very end to leave the listener with just enough hope to carry on. As I've frequently stated, the only two tracks that seem "jovial" to me are Veggies and H&V to a noticeably lesser extent (the lyrics betray the upbeat melody). It is great that's Brian so positive about it now, of course.

The rest of what Brian says isn't particularly insightful, which is disappointing but not unsurprising. ("Pay attention to the words in the chorus: Heroes and Villains, just see what you've done..." uhh, thanks Bri, will do.) He just says the most basic possible description of each song ("[regarding YAMS] listen to how unhappy the lyrics are and how sad it is for the guy to lose the person he loved, his sunshine," as if that isn't the first thing anyone would notice). He's just not a verbose guy, nor one to reveal his secrets. That's why, despite being the epicenter of the whole thing, I find him one of the worst sources for information about SMiLE.

One illuminating factoid is that, supposedly, they only recorded "the cello part" of OMP because Brian couldn't remember the whole song when it was originally recorded. Another interesting tidbit is how he refers to SMiLE as "teenage rock opera to God" rather than "symphony" mirroring what he said in Ear Candy ("we added a third movement, now it's a rock opera") implying that wasn't a throwaway comment but what he thinks SMiLE ultimately is now.


I notice he can't help but milk that "GV cello" anecdote for everything its worth, calling it "the signature shot of the piece" like the ruby slippers in Oz. He even takes a quick drive-by swipe at Mike, implying there may've still been hurt feelings twenty years ago (or even to the present day). I'd say the theremin is the "ruby slippers" of GV if any one piece is, or even Mike's hook in stark irony to all the obsessive tinkering Brian did over 7 months of work, but let Van have his moment, I guess. It was genuinely a good idea.

Beyond that, frustratingly, VDP has little else to say of the album as a whole, of its genesis or what he feels of the work then and now. I understand that Brian is Brian, but I can't help but be a little annoyed when VDP continuously gives us the slip. I feel like he could say so much more than he does but then he chooses to focus on the same "I came up with the cellos in GV" anecdote, or pass on writing an essay for the 2011 booklet. (Yeah he was sticking up for Frank Holmes, but it still screwed over the consumer.) Tell us at least what working concepts you had in mind for CIFOTM man, or if you wrote anything for I Ran (as opposed to the vocal sessions comprising of vocalizations and scat).


I admit I'm mostly skimming the pre-SMiLE chapters (my area of interest is hyper-focused and I have a lot of other writing projects that Brian's unexpected passing has been distracting me from, so cut me a bit of slack on this, please).

Probably the biggest revelation here is that the Beach Boys were in talks to make a film with "American International Pictures" called Beach Boys Hawaiian Style. I'd like to read more about this rabbit hole later, but offhand I'm skeptical it would've been as good as the Beatles' movies. Even just going by the prospective title, it feels like the band was too shoehorned by their name to make anything more interesting than "isn't the beach fun?!" and when I read that AIP wanted the music rights... call me crazy but I'm on Murry's side. Doesn't sound like a very good deal to me. I don't know if any of the guys sans Brian and Dennis would've had the same charisma or witticisms that the Beatles did in A Hard Days Night.

The paragraphs about the Byrds' influence to the Beatles (and therefore, everyone else, Brian included) were pretty illuminating. Most histories of the '64-'66 years play up the friendly rivalry between the BBs and Moptops in a vacuum, maybe with Bob Dylan thrown in there somewhere, while the rest of the emerging counter-culture scene are often overlooked until Monterey. (And then it's just about how Hendrix said "you'll never hear surf music again" and that's it.)

The impressive list of BB songs that have been used to close movies is something I never thought about before. The only one of these I was familiar with was American Graffiti.

The Pet Sounds section isn't particularly impressive, especially coming off the other sources I've seen recently (plus the Charles Granata book about 14 years ago). It feels a bit like going through the motions, but the main point Priore drills into the reader's head is that Brian did almost everything, save singing 8 vocal parts. This was Brian's ride.


I think Priore's opening line here ("[...] Brian Wilson finally met a collaborator who gave back to his music as much as Brian himself was putting out") may be doing Tony Asher and perhaps even Mike Love dirty. Assuming no harm was intended, I think a more accurate way to put it is "finally Brian had met a cowriter as well-versed in music composition as himself, with as much of an artistic ambition and knowledge of the hip scene." It's not that Asher & Love couldn't or didn't pitch musical ideas, much less give their blood, sweat and tears to see Brian's vision realized, just that VDP was an independent recording artist, and therefore Brian's equal in a way the other two were not.

Van says the words "...that's what I was [a lyrical assistant], as far as I was concerned; I assisted him in what he chose to do." That feels pretty significant to defining their collaborative dynamic.

Van says: "[H&V was] the first one we finished," and "we did that in one day. The next thing we worked on was 'SU, and then came 'Wonderful' , 'CE' and the rest." These four, the ones Brian would recall specifically writing in the sandbox in Beautiful Dreamer, feel like the core of SMiLE in hindsight, especially if we expand "Heroes" to mean "every snippet that was ever part of that song." I don't think either man has talked about when or how they wrote any other specific track (except Wind Chimes, but I believe it was Marilyn who described the shopping trip inspiration). Also, if Heroes was "finished" that implies what, the regular verses and maybe some kinda chorus (early BR, which it's now understood started here, went to Worms then came back to Heroes), and the disconnected IIGS verse? This is before it mutated into whatever random cowboy skit or half-realized western themes Brian could come up with for the next year. I'd give anything to hear that first session for the song, but sadly it's lost media.

Van also says it was a GV session he attended first, and here he suggests the cello triplets--he makes it sound like this came after their first writing session(s). In Van's telling, the cello suggestion is when he really "proved" himself to Brian, when they realized they were on each other's level musically, that they both understood production.

I'm very appreciative of the fact that Priore spends so much time on providing context of the music scene as it was progressing rapidly, connecting how all these acts (the Byrds, Bob Dylan, Curt Boettcher, Love, the Rat Pack, even one I never heard of called "The Seeds,") either artistically influenced each other, or impacted the music industry so they had to adapt to the changes in each other's wakes. It's good we have at least one major piece of SMiLE analysis that zooms out the lens beyond the immediate players.


This is the most any book-level source I've read has gotten out of Tony Asher regarding GV. I'm now inclined to believe that he's the reason it was called "Vibrations" and not "Vibes." It'd be an interesting butterfly effect alt reality--what if the same melody had been built around the shorter word? Alternatively, what if the Asher version of GV had been included on Pet Sounds? I don't think it would've fit and without Mike's hook it wouldn't have been quite as big of a hit for sure, but maybe it would've boosted sales of PS?

There's a throwaway line from Danny Hutton that could have profound significance to the Tobelman School of Smilogy! On page 48, Mr. Hutton recalls the conversation where Brian played the demo for GV, and says "I think he'd dropped acid the night before he did that demo session." Now, according to Melinda and the WIBN bio, Brian did acid three times. If we assume for the sake of argument this is true, and assume further that trip #2 happened as described in that disowned biography, that means Brian's Tobelman-hyped third experience, where he "saw God," was here. (It's extremely vague in WIBN when/where this last trip was or what "seeing God" means exactly, to my immense displeasure, so there's nothing to rule out there, nor does Melinda go into any further detail.) That means the GV demo was made in the afterglow of Brian's supposedly enlightening, totally positive last trip, which is a nice thought I'd like to believe in, anyway. The GHS builds the entire SMiLE mythology around the dualism between Trip #2 (Hell) with Trip #3 (Heaven), so if you put stock in his theories, this is important stuff. To most other curious fans, it's at least an interesting anecdote providing a bit more insight in Brian's psychedelic intake. (For the record, Trip #1 with Loren Daro which inspired California Girls, is pretty well accounted for across sources and I accept it as established fact.)

Paul Williams is mentioned as another member of the so-called "Vosse Posse" group of hangers-on, though he was writing (or commissioning) articles in Crawdaddy so something productive was coming from his presence. His name doesn't pop up very often compared to the others, so I feel this is worth bringing up for the record. He claims his first time ever smoking weed was in the Arab "meditation tent." In the next chapter, Priore will name-drop another lesser known member of the "SMiLE clique:" Paul Jay Robbins, writer for the Los Angeles Free Press.

Mike's missing song credits are known in fan circles, and I think it's at least part of the reason he was such a grouch, but Priore is one of few to focus on this as a factor in the soon-to-be SMiLE impasse. This is the first book I've seen that claims Mike confronted Brian about the slight numerous times and wouldn't believe Brian when he pleaded innocence to any part in the credits snub. Priore describes Brian bursting into tears over it and retreating whenever possible. "Year in and year out, this became a vicious circle of abuse [...] his dictatorial attitude towards Wilson evolved into habit." (That is a direct quote.) This is a significant missing piece I think doesn't get included often enough in the SMiLE narrative, probably because most of the seminal books were published before the '94 lawsuit (when the issue became widely known and Mike's grievance was legitimized) plus a lot of the sources are hostile to Mike and disinclined to give him any kind of sympathetic backstory.

Priore also expands on the narrative thread of Capitol sabotaging Pet Sounds. Not only did they under-report sales, rush out a "Best of" comp, withhold promotion, but they refused to restock stores who'd sold out of PS copies unless the retailers called the Hollywood office directly, and even then gave them hard time about it. ("Why would you want that?") The "public's rejection" of Pet Sounds is an obnoxious rumor that refuses to die, used by SMiLE detractors as proof that "it would've flopped anyway, so who cares" without acknowledging that even if true, it still would've influenced other artists in the meantime, would've been critically reevaluated like PS has been in our timeline, etc. (Not to mention the success of the GV, WIBN/GOK and SJB singles casts serious doubt it would've undersold in the first place anyway). I hate this talking point, it's in bad faith, overly-selective and deliberately obtuse in the face of so much evidence the "fans" ought to know by now.



Take these quotes with a grain of salt or not at all, but Priore claims H&V started off as a standalone song that "led to the creation of more Western-themed music for the SMiLE album..." elsewhere he says it "rolled out into its own cinematic tale beyond the song itself, straight into music that would fill the remainder of SMiLE's first movement." I see that as proof of a "song cycle structure" for the album, personally, but that's just me.

Also, both Brian and Van credit each other for the track name. Between the two, I believe Van when he says Brian wrote it--I think later-era Brian is a little too eager to over-credit Van with SMiLE stuff for some reason, like he's still alienated from it for some reason. Maybe he feels bad about leaving Van out to dry early in his career and thinks it's a way of making amends? Or his memory is just scrambled so he's want to credit things to others that he can't specifically remember doing himself.

Van confirms the IIGS lyrics we know (eggs and grits and lickety-split...) were originally part of Heroes proper but Brian "put them in another place later." Also, all his lyrics were "visual efforts" which coincides with Koestler's TAOC bisociative process and some of the less ridiculous theories in the Tobelman site. The lyrics of SMiLE, like the instrumentation choices, were meant to evoke visual associations and put the listener in a place. Unlike Pet Sounds, where the lyrics were more to communicate emotional catharses and the instruments chosen purely by "what sounds good," here there was more of a deliberate, sensory-association component. I say again, even if it's true PS was more "complex" in arrangement and chords, SMiLE had more thought put into what instruments should be used on which track and their effect on the listener's imagination.    

"One composition rolled into the next and a general subject matter began to emerge [...] Van Dyke recalled 'that was the genesis to start this infatuation with the American dream, to try to write something for the American century. This is about Plymouth Rock, which is where we thought this all started." The vibe I get from these and previous quotes is they started writing for Heroes, thinking what other disparate sections could be put in it, not necessarily worried about how they'd all connect in the moment. (How do you fit lyrics about breakfast and the great shape of agriculture in a song about a guy raising his children after his bar-maid wife gets shot?) Then, somewhere along the way, they realized "we have enough Americana-themed material here for several songs, let's make that a conceptual focus of the album!" In this way, the invention of modular recording meant that every stray idea could be recorded and "we'll find some way to work it in later" which organically led to the concept of interrelated song cycles or thematic suites with possibly repeated leitmotifs. One innovation made the other inevitable, see? Then the many ways the material could be put together drove Brian mad (among all the various pressures) but the music was too good to cull the garden he'd let grow out of control. This is why he ultimately chose to abandon the entire harvest (sans the singles) and start fresh--the SMiLE material was just too entangled to even begin to sift through in his mind.


I know Brian has credited the title DYLW to VDP elsewhere, but here Van says it could've been an engineer, Brian or even Mike Love (!) who thought of it. I'm noticing a weird pattern, where no one can recall or wants to take credit for, almost anything in SMiLE (except the unambiguously popular stuff--everyone has a story of how they improved GV). For what it's worth, I always liked SMiLE's idiosyncratic song titles like Worms, Dada and Cow. Even the more straightforward titles like CE & SU are only referenced once in single-use verse lyrics, where conventionally pop songs are named for their choruses. (So, in any other album, CE would be "Who Ran the Iron Horse" and SU would be "Bygones" or "Are You Sleeping?"). It's just a cool thing that helps set the album apart from its peers, and makes you wonder "why did they choose that name then?" But it all makes sense: 1) Worms is about the underbelly of decay and a cute childish joke question on a childlike album, 2) Dada's initialism is a reference to LSD and the album itself is a work of dada art, 3) CE is a play on the word "cannabis" according to Frank Holmes, 4) Cow is an obscure US history reference, 5) Surfs Up is a an ironic reference to the group's roots, 6) the weird spelling of "Vega-Tables" a reference to the star Vega, part of the constellation Lyra, aka celestial music. It all works better than generic titles like "Roll Plymouth Rock" and "In Blue Hawaii" in my opinion.

When describing Worms as a song, Van explains that "Mahalo lu lei" is a Hawaiian prayer of thanksgiving, which I consider more evidence that if you use Prayer as an intro to the album (rather than a coda) it makes the most sense to pair it with Worms as the first main song. This way, the track begins and ends with a prayer, one from the European invaders, the next from the native inhabitants. We're expressing the same thought in different ways, and that wasn't good enough for the settlers to recognize their hypocrisy denying the same religious freedom to others which they themselves sought by coming to the new world. (AKA the original sin of America's founding, the lie every other flaw we have was built on.) It just makes a lot more sense than Prayer going into Heroes in my personal opinion. (The other piece that works as an unlisted intro, You're Welcome, works well going into either Worms or Heroes.)


Van doesn't take credit for changing YAMS lyrics to the past tense. "That was a shock for me, from out of the blue." The way Priore recounts it, Brian got the idea of singing the song with mournful chord progressions and changed the lyrics so that would make sense.


On the subject of Wonderful, Van says "musically, it's entirely different from anything else" and "I thought it was [...] an opportunity for a love song." But Brian seemingly wanted to explore "the relationship between the mother and the father and the child." Van even says straight up he wanted to do a traditional love song for SMiLE and thought it was sure to happen, but "I never found an opportunity to pursue that with the music I was given." This does tie in with that other VDP interview I shared where he wanted to make something more conventional but Brian didn't, despite what most would assume looking at each man's resumes. Van goes even further, to say SMiLE was not meant to be an "ivory tower" endeavor (IE overly academic, not relatable to the common man) and "I wanted to meet more chicks; that's why I was working for Brian Wilson." Reading this, it almost feels like both men were using the other to get into different scenes than they felt they were stuck in. Brian wanted to use Byrds-adjacent VDP for hip cred, Van wanted to use Brian to be around the screaming girls and mainstream limelight. Kinda funny to imagine.

[ASIDE:]Anyway, I don't see Wonderful as a love song at all, especially not romantic. I could be talked into seeing it as the song of a parent's love for the child and the bittersweet experience of letting her go, knowing she's going to get her heart broken at least once but it has to happen. I don't see romance with the boy at all; he's barely mentioned and only exists to "bump into" her, presumably knock her down a notch in some way ("all fall down") and take something from her, which I always assumed was her virginity ("and lost in the mystery, lost it all to a non-believer, and all that's left is a girl"). With the "non-believer" lyrics, it could almost be a very metaphorical retelling of Pocahontas or something, but it's not romantic so much as tragic to my ears. Wonderful as Pocahontas would tie it in with the first permanent settlement down south, Jamestown, and cover another geographical region like how Heroes is based in the southwest, Worms is in Massachusetts & Hawaii, CE is the golden spike point in Utah, Veggies the Mid-West breadbasket and Cow, obviously, Chicago Illinois. If we say WC is Brian's house in LA & SU an opera house on Broadway or something, that feels like most major regions covered outside Alaska. [/ASIDE]


Of CIFOTM, Van says "it was an instrumental piece until Brian asked me to put some words on it in 11/03." Pivotal quote that shows once and for all no vintage '66 lyrics are coming. However, Van has to be mistaken here. I'm not saying he's lying, I'm saying he forgot or Brian kept him in the dark. That test edit proves it couldn't have been an instrumental with the chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure. It doesn't work as an instrumental, it's too repetitive. Also, why would an instrumental have chorus vocals? It just doesn't make intuitive sense, what he's saying here.

In any case, the other big reveal for Child is it represented Van offering Brian a new turn of phrase to express his anxiety about growing up, to get the "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" & PS themes out of his system. There's no mention of any kind of Americana interpretation of this, I Ran nor Wonderful from Van or Brian. The way this book is written, I'll admit it feels like these are just the songs made outside of the Heroes/America kick the two were on, rather than any kind of deliberate vision for a vintage second movement. It seems the "Cycle of Life" suite as we now call it, grew organically from anything not explicitly of the "Side 1 Americana" feels. So, probably if you want to be 100% accurate in a mix, the go-to structure is "Americana Side" with H&V as the center of gravity and as many of its pieces-turned-tracks as reasonable, then Side 2 is "everything that wasn't conceived of as a Heroes-feel, or was but had to be placed here for the sake of balance" (because you can't have a 30 minute side 1 and 15 minute side 2 on vinyl).

In a different passage, Van acknowledges Brian's spiritual bent working on SMiLE (so he was aware of that at least at some point) and ties it into Child, for whatever that's worth. On page 77 Van fully reveals his own spiritual bent, how Brian wore religion on his sleeve (which Van is usually uncomfortable with) and how these associations influenced the work overall. There's no explanation of how, or which religions/spiritual concepts influenced any particular songs, just "we hit upon some of the big questions, the unanswered questions, about the nature of belief and how important it might be." So there was some shared understanding that spirituality would be a part of the album at least at some point, but the specifics are vague. Van doesn't mention humor as part of this mission, (he doesn't mention humor at all, really), when discussing SMiLE--despite the two being closely linked in Brian's mind.



The way Priore decribes Brian's summer '66 trip to Big Sur implies Brian wrote Holidays, WC, Dada and Cow there explicitly as Elements. I'm not gonna weigh in on why I think that's BS, but that's what's written.

However, a few pages on in the chapter, Van says "Truly, I would have been quite aware of Brian's interest in doing something about the elements, but that wasn't from the beginning; it was later on." Which totally contradicts what Priore said before. Van's particular phrasing implies Brian had only an interest in "doing something" elemental, not that it was ever done at all, plus he rules out an early date explicitly. I think it's noteworthy Van doesn't bother to name drop anything they recorded as part of that "something" either, which you'd think he would if he could, if for no other reason than to give Priore something to write about AND put the whole blasted matter to bed. (Van must surely know about all the back and forth fan speculation on this.) The clear implication is Brian got the idea of doing an elements track "later on" (IE probably on or just before Nov 4 with those very rough demos I've mentioned) which precludes WC from being intended for Air when it was recorded since that was so early in the sessions. VDP doesn't seem to take the idea too seriously and acts as though it were just an unrealized goal rather than a carefully orchestrated theme running through the officially recorded tracks. The concept almost certainly never got very far anyway, at least not in its original intent as a 4-part instrumental track. (The truth is Brian almost certainly only wrote/recorded Fire--y'know, the only song directly referred to as an element on tape or in the studio chatter. This isn't nearly as complicated as some people make it out to be, but no one wants to admit that we'll never know what the other 3 would be, if Brian ever knew himself, because that's not as much fun.)

Priore mentions a "piano demo" of the Elements "recorded Nov 4" but all that's listed that day is SU 1st movement track, H&V barnyard demo and...oh look at this...Psychedelic Sounds, the thing I've always said was a demo of the missing elements (and 2 comedy skits, admittedly with some nonsense in between). Can anyone tell me what Priore's referring to here if not this recording? Otherwise, how is this not the silver bullet I've been looking for? Why has this all-important quote been conveniently ignored by the so-called experts who told me I shouldn't be allowed to comment on SMiLE ten years ago for being "so clearly wrong" in my (disappointing but accurate) interpretation of the elements?

Despite finding compelling evidence for my own interpretation in his words, Priore unambiguously insists on the BWPS elements suite here, implying that was always the intent without any proof or quotes (vintage or otherwise). He just takes it as a given because "hey that's how BWPS did it, so clearly it must've always been his intent, right? People don't change their minds in 40 years after tons of drugs and trauma and being at a different place in their careers." And yet I saw that interviews with him posted on this forum from a recent podcast claiming BWPS was "never meant to be taken as the historical, definitive SMiLE tracklist."

So, did Priore change his mind on things like this since 2005? I guess back then he was still wowed by getting an official SMiLE and unwilling to acknowledge anything that could be perceived as poking holes in the officially-sanctioned happy ending. (That was the dominant attitude until fairly recently I'd say; to question BWPS' tracklist or legitimacy as the final word was seen as an insult to Brian himself.) Or maybe cooperation from Brian for this book was contingent on playing along with the revisionist history, same as how TSS was made to use BWPS as a template despite the '66 songs clearly suffering for it. Either way, this is one of my biggest pet peeves of SMiLE discussion--the way BWPS retroactively colors many people's understanding of the original sessions, and how challenging this faulty reasoning warrants an earful about how "disrespectful" you are for "questioning the word of (a much older, forgetful, fundamentally different) Brian Wilson." It's become an exercise in dogmatic virtue signalling instead of objective, investigative journalism, which doesn't interest me.


Dumb Angel is said to have been replaced as a title "as recordings moved into autumn" which seems to track with other sources and the "proper start" to the sessions I mentioned in a previous post (the 9-19 Prayer recording date or certainly October, the high mater mark of the sessions). Prayer was not "a great opener for an album titled Dumb Angel but not for one called SMiLE" as I've heard it said, because the changeover was neck and neck. I don't think Brian saw SMiLE as any less a religious-oriented title than DA, especially with how entwined humor and spirituality were to him.

Van once again affirms he had no hand in production or arrangement. His quote on page 78, totally in awe of Brian's abilities, is fantastic. Never let it be said Van did not admire the hell out of Brian as an artist. (And then on page 83: "Everything in the music, that's Brian [...] I wrote words I thought he meant, although he didn't say those words [...] he communicates well on a non-verbal basis and certainly through the music.")

Van distances himself from Brian's particular New Age ethoses ("I've always been more dependent on astronomy than astrology") but asserts he didn't let ideological disagreements interfere with his task as Brian's interpreter ("we may have had some overriding theories [...] we just went trench by trench. He would show me a certain number, he would sing a phrase, and I would provide that phrase, and then he'd move on.") So in other words, the album's themes beyond Americana, Brian's "growing pains" and vague general spirituality are all solely Brian's influence--at least that's what I'm getting here. The unspoken implication seems to be Van thought Brian's mysticist bent was dopey, (same as Tony Asher did,) but he's too polite to say it directly then or now.  


Priore cites a previously unknown (to me) quote from Brian circa 1988 to Andy Paley confirming that Workshop was supposed to come after Fire. To me, this sequence has always just made intuitive sense if nothing else. Where do you put an instrumental of people building things out of wood? Probably either right before or right after things get audibly burned down, right? Or else, certainly they'd be linked together in some other straightforward thematic way. For example, I could see a world where Fire opens a side (damn, imagine that!) then a bunch of mostly downer music/lyrics showing the whole system was built on an uncertain, if not full-on rotten, foundation (depending on how harsh Bri & Van intended to be in their reflections on America) and culminating in Workshop at the end, demonstrating our ability (nay, responsibility) to rebuild from the ground up and do it better this time, after taking a long hard look at ourselves as a country. That'd work.

Despite how much intuitive sense this makes, how much you'd have to bend common sense associations for the sake of an alternate theory, I have seen clowns arguing there's no connection between the two because it'd mess up their elements dream sequence or whatever. Admittedly there is the Vosse quote implying Workshop was meant to represent "building the farm" in the early barnyard suite, but why not link the two in sequence or admit the plan changed? Maybe Workshop (which is labelled "Friday Night (IIGS) on tape) was to come after a track called "Mrs OLeary's Cow," as Brian had renamed Fire later the same day it was recorded as per Siegal? I think the Elements track was dead more or less the same day it was recorded and MOLC was bound for the Americana side based on its name alone. Perhaps a Fire/IWBA/Workshop/Barnyard medley could serve as another call for a more austere, pastoral lifestyle like Veggies--tear down the city, move out to the country and live as one with nature? Maybe the lyrics for IWBA reveal the fire was a metaphor for heartbreak and workshop is putting them together with new love--love of Mother Earth and her bounties? There's lots of ways to justify it, tie them in with other themes or songs, but the only thing that makes logical sense is for the construction sounds to come after the inferno. To deny the obvious connection between a song of buildings getting destroyed and one of them being rebuilt is to travel from Philly to San Fran by flying across Eurasia and the entire Pacific--it's quite the stretch.


This account of the song's writing is more detailed than any I've heard, with a few significant differences. In practically every version of SU's genesis I've seen, it's presented as if Dennis walked in, complained about the crowds' reactions to the BB striped shirts and this inspired the two collaborators to make a brilliant song no one could laugh at and call it Surf's Up. I always got the impression the name came before the song, that they went into the brainstorming process thinking "we're gonna write a song unlike any we've done before, so brilliant it's undeniably hip, but we're gonna be ironic by calling attention to our surfing roots!" Here, Brian and Van already had the melody and "all but the six syllables which included what became the title words" when Dennis walks in. Dennis doesn't just whine about the audience's reactions, he weeps and it's unclear if from humiliation or the beauty of the song he's hearing. Dennis asks "what's that called" and Van says "Surf's Up" in defiant reaction to Dennis' ordeal. IE, in some versions the title precedes the song, with the implication they then set out to write the most profound song they could while always intending to pay homage to their now-uncool roots from the outset. In this version, that deep, amazing song was already written and only lacked a name.

If we believe Priore's version, I think it's important to ask then: if Surf's Up wasn't written from the ground up as a self-conscious challenge to the band's popular perception as I'd always assumed, what actually inspired its content? I propose it was probably a song about Koestler's bisociative artistic process itself. The lyrics are popularly interpreted to be: 1) a man at the opera, his mind wandering to class divide, 2) then pondering the music he's hearing, 3) considering the state of the world and if others are perceiving what he does ("are you sleeping?"), 4) then contemplating the performer's role and relationship with the art they're making as well as with the audience, 5) then it's a series of images and emotions which art can conceptualize for us, 6) he comprehends the passage of time and the beauty of a children's song (expressions of the innocent). The song ends with a reprise of CIFOTM except now the phrase means "we can stand to learn something from the kids every now and then" as opposed to "your past (trauma) shapes your future" as I suspect it would've meant in the song proper. What is this but the bisociative power of artistry in action, self consciously informing the audience of the ability of music to paint images in our mind (OMP throwback, "canvas the town and brush the backdrop") and wake people up to certain new perspectives ("are you sleeping, brother john") through subliminal programming. In this context, Brian would be celebrating the application he'd been using on us for ~35 minutes prior, revealing his hand and his biggest call to arms at the same time. Had the song's name not become a subversive meta-commentary on how far the BBs had come as artists, I believe it may've been called "And Then We'll Have World Peace," which is a title Brian always wanted to end an album with.

Final note, I always thought the children referenced in the song meant actual 12-and-under year old literal children, not "the youth counterculture" of pop music, IE Brian and Van themselves. That definitely changes things. Notice how Van credits the youth counterculture with ending Vietnam...yeah, like 6 years later. Brian never mentions Vietnam or current events once in connection with SMiLE that I've seen.  

Priore repeats the notion that the Oppenheim recording session involved a fight over lyrics. As I understand it, we've since found the "margin notes" or "metadata" you might say of these recordings and "went very badly" was clarified to mean "nothing was recorded that would look good on TV" (Brian was just having the guys sing vocalization snippets, not exciting lyrics or anything instrumental.) Brian agreed to meet later and give them a singing-piano demo that would film better. So this is a case where Priore's repeating inaccurate "oral tradition" info. If there'd been a fight on camera, you can bet the news would've aired it (assuming they didn't care if it made Brian look bad) or that we'd have heard more details by now. I'm sure the film crew would've spread some gossip around their journalist peers, been called for an interview with Rolling Stone. Brian or the other BBs would've mentioned something as dramatic as Mike throwing a tantrum specifically on camera in all the decades since. This is just another persistent SMiLE myth that won't die because it makes for a more interesting narrative than "the footage was too boring to use." Every story needs a bad guy.

Derek Taylor claims VDP left of his own volition "as soon as he had been given a taste of the other guys' asinine resolve to thwart the project, and, balking at the vision of his pawn potential--some hapless entity there to be fought for--he immediately distanced himself from the project by getting involved in other work simultaneously." That sounds fairly harsh to both camps, but importantly it seems even Taylor interprets the BB actions to be hostile and uncompromising. In another quote he says "a key factor in the breakdown had to be the Beach Boys themselves, whose stubbornsess by this time had seemingly twisted itself into a grim determination to undermine the very foundations of this new music in order to get back to the old accepted, dumb formulas." But I detect a little bit of mockery for Van here as well, as if he was such a self-important artiste that the very idea someone didn't "get" his genius work so offended him he couldn't handle it. I may be reaching but Derek makes Van sound like a bit of a prima donna to my eyes.


Priore covers both his bases when explicitly discussing the Psychedelic Sounds: he refers to them as "segments of musical comedy" for various spoken word albums, but later admits "some of the comic and health-food ideas wound up as being part of SMiLE, so the sense of experimentation was essential to the creative process." IE, not necessarily the seeds of a WOIIFTM/USA type music concrete audio collage free form neo-album, but neither are they the worthless efforts of a bunch of braindrained stoners goofing off. Fair enough.

I do happen to agree with Priore when he says "so many project ideas began to give the precious SMiLE era a lack of focus and discipline." If Brian wasn't subsequently ashamed of all that time wasted on a lame joke at A&M's expense with Jasper Dailey, he should've been. And even as a defender of the PsychSounds to an extent, I'd rather he just spent that time on something more productive. A precursor to WOIIFTM with the music concrete audio collages would've been fantastic, but not at the expense of the actual songs remaining unfinished--I'd gladly take a straightforward 12 track banded album over nothing in '67.

Vosse recounts a story where Brian consulted the I Ching "one night" and it told him that everyone in the room (not clear who or how many besides Brian and Vosse) were ultimately meant to go on their own way. Brian took this seriously, or used it as a convenient "out" to break up a scene he was losing faith in, or to avoid having to come up short if SMiLE didn't live up to the hype. Same as if you think he really believed Siegal's girlfriend had ESP or if he really thought Anderle had numerologically captured his soul in the painting. (It's like each of Brian's adopted creeds demanded a sacrifice, or every new idea he tried to incorporate meant kicking a prior muse out of the ring to make room.)

This is the only source that provides a timeline on when Frank Holmes was involved. He met with the other two in June, finished his work by October. "It was kind of sporadic: I'd get a little piece of it here and there, and I submitted the cover," which implies Van gave him some lyric sheets as he finished them, and since Van never finished all the lyrics neither did Frank have complete lyrics either. Whatever the last song was Van passed along to Frank by October is anyone's guess (Veggies as a proto-element?). Frank was able to talk himself into the job as well as including the booklet by the sounds of it, so good for him. If hired in June, that means his storefront idea was part of an album called Dumb Angel as well, which I think is worth mentioning. (It used to be popular to imagine this dramatic shift in line with the name change, that the more "serious" or religious songs (IE prayer) were done under the DA banner, then with the new title suddenly sillier songs and the happy storefront drawing came to be. That doesn't seem to have been the case, it feels like DA into SMiLE was incidental to the album's overall identity and direction.)

According to Van, Frank Holmes was given no direct instructions but intuitively understood what Brian wanted through "[his] powers of suggestion" and Holmes' work defined the image Brian and Van understood the music by going forward, where they started "thinking of it in cartoon terms [...] to me, it was a music cartoon and Frank showed that without being told anything." It's weird though, because Brian scrapped every non-GV & non-Prayer session pre-October (redoing WC and Wonderful with different arrangements, others never touching again) around when he would've gotten the final booklet, perhaps implying that what he'd recorded before didn't fit the new established visual aesthetic...however those early SMiLE recordings fit the happy Smile Shop perfectly while the more melancholy CIFOTM & CE & Worms he moved onto immediately post-cover seem like such a contrast! Was Brian being deliberately subversive or just producing what came naturally without regard to "matching" the cover? In any case, I get the impression Van was more inspired by Frank's work than Brian--afterall, Van had known him before the project and introduced both men.

One of the abandoned Brother Records projects is said to have been an animated movie using Frank Holmes' SMiLE illustrations as inspiration, essentially Yellow Submarine for the Beach Boys, probably coming out around the same time or slightly before its rival. If that wouldn't have been the coolest thing ever... How did the Beach Boys blow it THAT bad to miss such a cool opporunity? They really could've had it all and been what the Beatles are if they didn't screw this up...


If Chuck Britz' description of the two-sided Heroes single is right (and the tape/track labels on TSS back it up) this would've been a very disappointing mix at least as far as Side 2 goes. I don't think too many people would ever be turning over the vinyl to hear three annoying, slightly different "Heroes" chants. (It does prove Brian's fascination with the concept of chanting though, along with the Nov 4 experiments, "You're Welcome," "Do a Lot" and then the Smiley "With Me Tonight" & "Whistle In" tracks.) I remember when posters in the early 2010s had the opinion that 2-sided Heroes would've been a "SMiLE sampler pack" with pieces from most of the other major songs recontextualized as part of Heroes. (So the BR chorus, false barnyard fade, new CIFOTM chorus vocal, & IIGS-style tape explosion across a 6~12 minute mix of the song.) That is admittedly a much cooler idea, but it's contradicted by this and a Brian quote where he frets about the B-side because he doesn't want to reveal too much of SMiLE at once--the opposite of what you'd think if you're releasing a sampler.


No real comment on this except Priore doesn't really go into how the legal situation almost certainly interfered with the music until the next chapter's shenanigans with the single and subsequent ill will from Capitol. This chapter is just the bare facts and seems underwhelming on first pass, but in the next section Priore quotes Paul Williams saying "Ironically, the independence that forming Brother Records was supposed to bring [...] knocked SMiLE -- and the Beach Boys -- out of the water. [...] Anderle's initial idea [...] was sound, but the time it takes to put this type of thing through the courts was not conducive to the production race that was important during this period of radical change in pop." Damn. Poor Anderle loved Brian and the project so much, it's sad to think that by trying to help he arguably did as much as anyone to hurt the album.

Besides the legal red tape, I think Anderle having to constantly press for signatures and try to get Brian to understand what had to happen legalistically/financially probably soured the mood for a guy who couldn't even bother to cash checks to himself. I know Anderle was as delicate as possible, his job was to take as much of this stress away from Brian so the maestro could focus on the music, but there's still anecdotes of David needing Brian to sign something or attend a meeting and it'd be like pulling teeth. There was still the need for Brother to have a single ASAP, requiring Anderle to press for Brian to focus on Heroes, which is as much of a turning point in SMiLE's fortunes as Fire and the CE incident--Anderle regrets it immensely in Leaf's first book. Similarly, the fact that Capitol was now a bitter legal enemy but would profit from, or have the power to bury, his magnum opus is such a confounding situation for Brian to be in, and no source but the Badman book really delves into that.


Priore calls Veggies "the last composition to reach tape" which is objectively untrue (that's Elements going by Dec tracklist-officials, or else Dada & IWBA/Workshop going by anything officially unlisted that likely became a track later. Even if Priore isn't including them due to lack of lyrics, Worms, Sunshine & SU still post-date the Veggie demo). I'm not trying to be persnickety but if he gets easily-checked things like this wrong for, what, the sake of dramatic emphasis (?), that's at least a yellow-flag for other info in the book.

We get another contradiction here when Van says "I was out of the loop by then, in a place where there were no lyrics intended when he went into the studio, when he made up music independent of any plan to use lyrics [...] it was my memory that I was fired because it was already decided by Mike Love, as well as the least-known band members, that I'd written some indecipherable and unnecessary words." I have several problems with this, so I'm going to list them:

1) This is in contrast to other sources, like Derek Taylor, saying Van quit. Other sources also say he quit and Van has given this impression elsewhere. The Taylor quote, reading between the lines, seems to imply Van was a bit melodramatic and hasty in his reaction to criticism and I'm somewhat inclined to agree. I think some of VDP's issue with the project, the cagey-ness, conflicting statements and bitterness, maybe stems from shame at how he overreacted rather than stand his ground or try to compromise and work with Mike. But that's just my intuition.

2) This statement implies Brian was recording music without a plan for lyrics, which I don't think flies considering he was working on songs with lyrics already written if we're talking about the singles. (Van's quote only makes sense if Brian were working on the Elements, Dada or the supposedly lyricless CIFOTM. I guess there were lyric-less sections of Heroes like the Organ Waltz/Intro to be fair.) Maybe Van means he was out of the loop come the Fire session (other quotes imply the same) so he either wasn't told or had no interest in coming back to refine Heroes or Veggies when it came time to give them more involved single-cuts. It seems like he's taking it personally here that Brian dared make some music without lyrics as well, like god forbid Heroes have an instrumental intro, if that's what he's referring to. You want lyrics to work on? How about take a crack at CIFOTM after 4 freaking months, dude.

3) It implies the other band members had the power to fire VDP or Brian was persuaded to go along with it, (because so much is made of GV on Smiley as the inflection point where Brian was out-voted for the first time, so if Van was fired that implies Brian didn't fight for him, which is a tough line to swallow). But so many other sources imply Brian was blindsided and lost when Van left. I think VDP is just being overdramatic and a bit of a self-pitying spoil sport here if I may say so. He got pushback on some words, took it extremely personally and pulled a "oh, guess you hate me, I'm taking my ball and going home" at the first sign of disagreement. Then he tells people he got fired so he can claim victimhood instead of answering the question "why didn't you stand up for your work, or tailor it to the client, or ask Brian point-blank to pick a side?" I think Van and Brian sometimes like to have their cake and eat it too when blaming it all on Mike. Nobody else, not even Mike himself, claims he had that much power in '66.

4) The "least known band members" crack is very petty. I'm guessing that's Al and Bruce, but if you're gonna throw blame around on the record, give names and specific instances of hostile treatment. This feels like weasel words with the added benefit of a plausibly deniable insult. The more sources I read, the more frustrated I get at everyone saying Mike was such an asshole, that the BBs were "so determined to thwart the project" but no one can give specifics except "Mike rudely asked about the lyrics that one time...and then sang them anyway."

Moving on...

Priore expands on a point made in the Badman book, that Veggies was suddenly announced as the new single largely as a move against Capitol. This is another reason I think the lawsuit was a major factor--twice now it forced Brian to suddenly switch gears before properly finishing a project, first the album proper then the Heroes single. It meant business and legalistic spite were interfering in the creative process in a way that hadn't been so for Today and PS. (Almost like he could fend off Mike or Capitol but not both full-force at the same time AND have way more work to do in the studio suddenly editing disparate pieces of tape.) The way Priore tells it, the whole switcheroo was a rouse to get Capitol to give them a good distribution deal for a Brother Records release of Heroes, but I imagine all these left-turns and "extra work" on arguably SMiLE's weakest major song couldn't have been good for Brian's artistic focus on the big picture. Truly a pyrrhic victory.  

Van did not support Veggies as a single release and felt the "tactical decision" to switch focus on it over Heroes was "tremendously ill advised" and "lent to the distractions that drove Brian nuts." I'm inclined to agree. Van says he left this second time because the business/legal decisions like "what single will be best for BR" was affecting the creative process. "There were too many cooks in the kitchen. The project lost its intimacy, its focus, and we had [...] nowhere to find a way to get the job done without the social pressures, which were enormous [...] and I finally left." In early-period SMiLE discussions, the factions drawn were always "Vosse Posse" vs Mike & the other Beach Boys (maybe sans Dennis). Closer examination reveals there was no "Vosse Posse" it was more like "the Anderle Assembly" as he was the one introducing almost all the non-collaborators to the scene, along with Derek Taylor. And not all of the "Anderle Assembly" were of one mind--nobody liked Siegal from what I recall, Van & Vosse were there to help Brian make great art, Anderle himself was the businessman (though he loved the music and Brian), Hutton & Volman were just along for the ride, Williams & Robbins were there for a good story to tell, Darro presumably supplied the drugs, Taylor had to pretend everything happening was "genius," Marilyn was trying to keep a lid on the madness, etc. They were not necessarily friends, they each had their own agendas and sometimes (maybe all the time) they got in each others' way and prevented the others from doing their jobs properly. I think this important nuance often gets lost in the shuffle--these people were not of one mind, united in the cause of hip psychedelia against philistine Mike.

That all said, Priore makes the bold assertion--that I've not seen corroborated anywhere else--that Mike Love started giving Derek Taylor marching orders and this is what led to the premature cancellation announcement. Without evidence or repetition in another independently researched book I'm skeptical as hell. If, if this is true, however, I take back any defense I've ever leveled on Mike Love's behalf. IF he did such a thing, he's as big an asshole as his harshest detractors say, unworthy of any benefit of the doubt and officially the man who killed SMiLE afterall. But that's a BIG "IF." I want to see corroborating statements from Taylor, or receipts of some kind. You can't just throw out an accusation like this without proof--and in case there's any doubt, I don't even like Mike.  

Another highly unlikely claim is that SMiLE was actually almost finished "all the pieces were there" and the final cancelled session was for a mixdown of the whole album. Yeah, and that's why CIFOTM lyrics were never written, lead vocals for most tracks never recorded, a suitable replacement for the seemingly scrapped Elements undecided upon... This is absolute "hopium" bullshit and it casts doubt on every other questionable or unique claim in the entire book, I'm sad to say. (If he'd lie about this, or get this wrong, what else is he feeding us...) Priore is a good writer who obviously has a lot of passion for the subject matter and did a lot of research, talked to the principles... It's a shame he lets his weird fan theories and obsessive need to tie everything up in a neat little bow ("no we didn't miss out on anything--SMiLE was all done, they just needed to do a final mixdown! We always had the elements and that wasn't a dropped concept at all, the lack of vocals or BW signature counter-melodies was all intentional!") ruin his credibility for no reason. Stuff like this just pisses me off because, to the well-researched, it's so blatantly untrue but then other less discerning fans take this at face value and repeat it as gospel, muddying the waters on having a productive discourse for all time. I've had people tell me I'm not allowed to comment on SMiLE threads until I read Priore and then I do and get this nonsense.

Van accuses Taylor of being a scout for the Beatles, directly stating "I think [he] facilitated the Beatles listening to SMiLE before the advent of Sgt Pepper [...] Brian was very sad. He felt violated, raped." There absolutely was something kooky going on with the tapes around this time, like the GV masters going missing for days and I recall hearing that some tapes like I Ran went missing early. However, I believe sleuths on these and other fan forums have matched up the timelines and determined the Beatles couldn't have heard SMiLE or at least not in a time-frame that would've made a difference in their own creative process. (After Revolver and "Strawberry Fields," they didn't need help making something like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," let's be real.) I get the vibe from their quotes about each other that VDP and Taylor didn't particularly get along, which is where this accusation may be coming from. Also, while the Beatles may not have been exposed to illicit SMiLE tapes, there's no reason to think other people in the industry couldn't have sneaked a peak--in note #14 Priore references a Crawdaddy article pointing the finger at Gary Usher, a previous BB lyricist. In any case, what's important is Brian believed this could've happened and it made him feel paranoid and betrayed.


VDP says he stopped working with Brian the same month he (Brian) moved to Bellagio. That makes for a pretty solid cutoff point because Brian has said he wrote CCW almost immediately after the move, and the first recording date for that song almost perfectly coincides with the "official" changeover from SMiLE to Smiley in the sessionography.

Brian moved into the home studio to keep his music safe, to be able to record whenever, to avoid catching flak from console operators' unions, but according to Hal Blaine, he then got "distracted" by the constant presence of the BBs themselves. Supposedly, without "the discipline of the clock" and having to pay overtime, or clear out before the rented time expired, the group was more prone to procrastinate, to "throw their weight around" and argue. I had never heard this before, but also they took equipment with them on tour so Brian could never surprise them with a purely independent masterpiece again. They'd have more leverage in the decision making process going forward.

Once again, specific anecdotes about Smiley--what a typical session might've been like, the decision-making process to go in that direction and change the name, these supposed fights about SU that almost broke up the band--are sorely lacking. No one remembers and no one wants to talk about it. I wish, assuming Priore had the gumption to probe and Brian rebuffed him, that the author would share what he asked, how, and Brian's response (or lack thereof) even if it was vague and unhelpful. ("I asked when the official change from SMiLE to Smiley occurred and why, if it was his or Mike's decision and the group's reactions, but Brian stopped responding verbally and zoned out" <something like this would at least let us know Priore tried and cared to delve as deep as possible. As is, it just feels like Smiley and its overlooked relationship to SMiLE proper, the possibly smooth transition at Brian's behest, doesn't fit his agenda so he didn't even ask or something.)

This book has the most involved description of the Redwood sessions I've seen as well. The quotes about how "the vibes changed immediately" and "a black cloud had suddenly surrounded Brian" whenever Mike entered the room are powerful. "Mike can be pretty forceful, so I guess Brian just bailed out." I defend Mike against accusations of killing SMiLE but he is still a huge asshole a lot of the time, even giving him every benefit of the doubt he always digs his hole deeper or refuses to apologize for anything he's done wrong. He did absolutely kill Brian's solo artist/produc

(CONTINUED)
He did absolutely kill Brian's solo artist/producer ambitions and that's a really lousy thing to do. He was not entitled to leech off Brian's success and have first pick of his cousin's talents forever just because they're related and had been in the same band. The people who let him off the hook for everything he's done take it too far in the other direction, and of course I'm the first to say Brian and VDP aren't perfect either.


After this, Priore feels the need to continue on with the '70 through '73 years for some reason. I skimmed these chapters but they're not of particular interest to this project so I'm not gonna comment chapter-by-chapter anymore.

I appreciate Priore's history of Smilephiles pre-internet in Chapter 15. Even though I don't like a lot of the "traditionalist" views they propagate about the album, I still respect the passion and results these guys brought to the table, keeping the legend alive at its darkest hour. It's kind of a relief to know Priore was dealing with the same factionalism, naysaying and "condescension" that I and so many other posters feel when they expose themselves to the wider fandom. There are so many schools of thought about what SMiLE was itself, let alone if it's even a worthy subject to devote so much attention to. (I remember when discussing this period in the band's history was considered a nuisance by a lot of people now running a certain "Smile Shop" in the eighth circle.) I guess it's just a universal experience for us passionate theorists and archivists, which further feeds the weird pessimistic-masochsit vibe I mentioned in a previous post. (We experience negativity and rejection for being BB fans so we always assume the music would've been rejected or convince ourselves some of it actually wasn't so good afterall.)

There's absolutely no doubt: even Priore admits the third movement, the 4-part Element suite, was comprised of all that was "left over" when the more natural first two groupings had been established. This occurs in the later BWPS chapter. "A lot of the Western expansion songs fell together, not so much because of the lyrics but because that's what Brian felt held together well, musically." / "Those [SU, Wonderful, Look, Child] were the ones that we naturally gravitated towards grouping together." / "The Elements ended up being all the songs that were left over after we grouped the Americana stuff together and then all the life-cycle songs together." This is all page 168, and I say case closed once and for all. Frustratingly though, Priore confuses the record by writing the prior chapters as though this, what became an ad hoc elements suite by his own admission, had always been the intent in 1966. But if you read to the BWPS chapter, finally he admits it was a happy accident where they had 4 vaguely element-related songs left at the end when the more "natural" groupings (that I'd argue were always vintage) fell into place. I'm surprised when we were going through this decades ago, more fans who supposedly read this book never felt the need to bring up the fact that Darian's testimony (and Brian's) puts the matter to bed in no uncertain terms. (But then we couldn't drag out the stupid Preiss quote for the umpteenth time and have yet another oh-so-ingenuous fan remind us "WC has a piano piece!" as if no one's ever thought of that before...)

The story of Look going after Wonderful is slightly different from what I'd heard before. Instead of passively listening to Darian's boot/mix (playlist of some origin) and having a lightbulb "that's how we'll do it" moment, Brian proactively puts them together and says "that's how it goes!" which implies more strongly a recalled vintage connection. (I used to be more inclined to stick with the Dec tracklist songs alone, but I've softened on that lately and plus Wonderful's abrupt ending always implied a missing "second movement" that I think may've been Look in '66, then "A Wonderful Insert" and god knows what else in '67 after the switch to Version 2 instrumentation.) Look and Wonderful were, at one point, a single song in two pieces meant to be spliced together, I'm throwing that theory out there.

I've been critical of some of Melinda's influence on Brian's career in the past, so I think it's only fair to acknowledge that Priore gives a compelling case here that she, more than anyone else, is responsible for Brian overcoming his fear of SMiLE. We definitely owe her bigtime for that.

The Epilogue and Afterword are cute looks at the artwork by Mark London and then Frank Holmes. Not much to comment on, but the info is appreciated. I prefer Frank's work in the visual aspect of SMiLE but I'm glad in hindsight it wasn't used at the time. This provided a cleaner break between the historical album and the rearranged solo project. I'm of the opinion they're different pieces of art and should be thought of as closely-related yet distinct--like SMiLE and Smiley, or Pet Sounds the studio album and Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds. (Why has no one else ever made that particular connection/argument before, by the way? Did Brian "finish" Pet Sounds by changing it into a live presentation? Are they the same album and the newer supersedes the other? Of course not, right--so why is that the case for BWPS?)


It's a great read, I couldn't put it down. There's a lot of seemingly great info here and many frustrating holes never filled in, which seems to be the case for every book at this subject. Without reading the new David Leaf book just yet, this is the definitive book on the subject pretty much by default but it's ruined by some blatantly untrue (or certainly unproven) accusations and Priore's incessant hobby horsing. Priore just has a certain view of what SMiLE should be and won't let facts get in the way of the narrative he's chosen. Even with Brian and Darian telling him in no uncertain terms "the third movement is NOT vintage" and a quote from VDP "the elements? oh yeah, I know he wanted to do something with that, that idea came later" he still can't help himself from pretending it was all part of some master plan in summer '66. That's right folks, this famously fluid, unfinished album was actually carefully planned out from the first step and totally ready to be finished--all they needed was a final mixdown! But big bad Mike Love canceled that session and told Taylor to announce SMiLE was dead--what a meanie!

It's hard to give a full-on recommendation for that reason, but there are still some good illuminating quotes from the principles. Speaking of which, Van vouches that all the info in the book is accurate in his foreword so for better or worse he's accusing Mike and Taylor of these things directly or by proxy.

Fascinating. Great writing, Julia! 👏

One last quick thought on Priore's 2005 book, specifically regarding Frank Holmes' work: Im wondering now if the name change from Dumb Angel to SMiLE hadn't perhaps been influenced by the delivery of the cover art directly, in October '66 as you'll recall. Maybe Frank made the cover at least partially upon hearing Brian talk about how important humor was to the whole project, happiness, and this rather than angels is what inspired Holmes visually. Then when Brian saw the store selling smiles he thought "smile! that's a good name!" Just a theory, I wonder if anyone else could corroborate if it fits.

Now here's my thoughts on the relevant sections of Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys: How Deep is the Ocean by Paul Williams https://archive.org/details/brianwilsonbeach0000will/page/37/mode/1up?view=theater (https://archive.org/details/brianwilsonbeach0000will/page/37/mode/1up?view=theater) I didn't have as much to say because most of the chapters are about other aspects of Brian's career and the original 3-part Anderle Crawdaddy interview is something I've commentated on elsewhere (and if I revisit it will be when I reread LLVS soon).


The way Paul Williams describes his first meeting with Brian, smoking hash (his first time getting high) in the Arab tent, talking about the history of bicycles, sounds so freaking cool. I'd give anything to have been a nameless hanger-on in one of those stoned out meetings. Williams makes it sound like the SMiLE sessions and hangouts were as freeform as the music itself, people constantly coming and going (a cousin comes over to hook up a new videotape recorder, then Marilyn leaves, then Jules Siegal and his girlfriend pop over)  trying to be around this exciting man in case they miss him doing something particularly cool. It must have been fun but also very chaotic, and I really believe a lot of acetates and other goodies must've gotten lost in the shuffle as people came and went without schedules. Paul even describes being allowed to sleep in the tent that night, then getting whisked away to lunch the next day in a limo and swept up in a session recording, on his back vocalizing at Brian's command. It just seems like Brian made use of anyone who was around to record any feel that crossed his mind (another reason those Psychedelic Sounds shouldn't be counted out).


Paul Williams claims that "if SMiLE could've been kidnapped in January '67" implying that was the last period in which the album was still a thing. Also he makes the claim that there was a version of Heroes with "dogs barking" in one section (Swedish Frog? Animals/Barnyard?) that got cut after Brian heard Sgt Pepper's "Good Morning Good Morning."


You get Anderle and Paul Williams on tape having a chill conversation about how Brian's doing, the personal progress he's made, the state of the industry and plight of being even a successful artist before they get into SMiLE. This is all recorded in 1997 and I think the funniest thing looking back is these guys assuring themselves that working with Joe Thomas was going to be good for Brian's output as an artist. (Good ol' hindsight am I right?)

Regarding SMiLE, their attitude is, it's done. Even pre-BWPS, their position is "it's recorded, everyone's got it in some form, it's as good as it's gonna get, Brian doesn't want to do it so stop badgering him, let it be a formless kaleidoscope, to force it into standard song form (as in Smiley) is to diminish its possibilities and therefore its grandeur. I don't necessarily disagree. I do think locking down SMiLE to any one state is kind of forcing some pieces into a lesser-quality permutation in order to raise others to their full potential. For example, my favorite form of Bicycle Rider is probably the "Piano Theme" version (track 20 of TSS Disc 2) or H&V Part 2 Master Take (track 27) but that doesn't really work as a chorus in Heroes or Worms and if you include them all in an album it either gets too bloated or you have to cut some other great music to hyper-focus on this theme. So those bits never really make the cut, despite being some of my favorite parts of the entire SMiLE canon, in service of the H&V/DYLW tracks. Same with Look, especially if you're trying to be "tracklist accurate" it's harder to justify than some other tracks but it's one of my favorite pieces. That's the enticing conundrum of SMiLE, why it can never truly be finished by anyone without someone (including the compiler themselves) thinking "what, how could you not include this? / Why didn't you sequence these parts together?!" But if you include too much, the album becomes less than the sum of its parts overall.

I used to think Brian had a secret unwritten sequence in his head circa Oct-Nov and it could be reverse engineered through research and intuitive understanding of the music or his mysticist-New Age ideas. (IE, maybe there's clues in interviews how it'd go, or maybe all the Side 1 songs are in the same key, or if you count how many notes are in each song and order them numerologically it'd be a brilliant track order!) Now I'm convinced Brian never had a plan beyond "make Heroes an insane multi-part musical comedy and everything not used for that can go somewhere else. Eventually." An accurate mix would probably be something between Thick as a Brick or the "Abbey Road medley" for whatever side Heroes is on, with these half-finished riffs and segments flowing into each other, or separated by spoken word comedy and laughter. Heroes might not take up a whole side, but I don't think a 6-12 minute cut for the album is off the table, with the rest of the side comprising the other Americana themed tracks that grew out of its inception. Then the non-Heroes side would have more traditional, individualist songs still created from spliced segments (SU and now I'm guessing Wonderful had two movements each, WC & CIFOTM have 3 distinct pieces that'd be edited into some kinda v-c-v-c-f structure) but not as free form and with less overt comedy. Beyond that, it's pure guesswork to say what exact songs would make the cut, or where exactly they'd fall in the order. The whole Element-medley thing is, was and always will be a complete red herring in my opinion, at least with what we have in the vaults. Even indulgences I like to include, such as the comedy skits were almost certainly a passing thought that may well have been scrapped soon after hitting the tape.

Without tying it specifically to SMiLE stuff, David and Paul discuss how a myth, once out in the public, gets set in stone and it's hard to change perspectives. They use this in the context of "Brian spent ten years in bed" and "SMiLE broke Brian's brain" kind of popularly-accepted talking points. Obviously I spend a lot of time decrying and trying to disprove many "SMiLE myths" I take issue with, like the vintage Elements-themed side of vinyl and "Mike singularly, willfully, maliciously killed the project." But it's true, once a compelling narrative takes hold, people don't want to let it go if the truth sounds more boring. Hence the power of propaganda, the power of storytelling as an art form (every plot is contrived or even full of holes, but we brush over it "so the story can happen" and that's not a bad thing), as well as the need for a legendarium in people.

At first David and Paul give Derek Taylor credit for "having the balls to say" Brian's a genius, though they acknowledge from the beginning it did at least as much harm as good. But then they speculate it was McCartney's praise of Brian that gave him that angle. They start talking about how Jules Siegal used the genius line to give his own career a boost. Supposedly, Siegal did things like that so everytime he wrote about Brian he'd feel more important, like "I've got an interview with the great genius." Without getting into specifics, Anderle mentions another vague time when Jules wanted to write something about him but Anderle said no because it wouldn't be true and Jules supposedly said "yeah but no one needs to know that." Anderle straight up says Siegal was "a shithead." I'd heard nobody really liked Jules Siegal and this all but confirms it. Also, on the other board I know the posters there have been going through certain details (the fire next door to the studio being a big one) and proving that Jules did indeed stretch the truth in GSHG. This means his seminal article, the very bedrock of the entire SMiLE myth, was notably exaggerated. It's what makes SMiLE so frustrating to parse out factually nowadays, how the contemporaneous myth of Siegal and ongoing legends of the bootleg/internet "Oral Tradition" (retroactively justified by BWPS) have buried inconvenient, less exciting truths under decades-worth of compounding tall tales.  

The Anderle painting story is relayed again but this time David speculates that what scared Brian was that he saw something in himself he didn't like. Looking back, David can admit that he captured the "madness" of Brian a little too well, and seeing how he appeared in other people's eyes must've spooked Brian. The numerology thing was either just a coincidence or an excuse for Brian to express his discomfort without admitting that out loud. Anderle even says "I'm surprised he didn't shoot me" and admits it is a freaky looking painting--which he still had as of '97 (wonder where it is now? That's gotta be as much of a holy grail collector's item as any lost tape/acetate or original SMiLE cover/booklet at least). Anyway, I think this is a plausible interpretation, same as how I think "your girlfriend's a witch" was probably a convenient excuse to get rid of Siegal and the I Ching story was probably a way to blame "fate" for the project's disintegration rather than admit "I just dont want to do this anymore." That all sounds like something Brian would do.

These are my thoughts on the BWPS liner notes and TSS booklet. (Plus some other random things that popped up in my sleuthing.)


Once again, H&V, Wonderful, CE & SU (that order listed) are given as the first tracks. This comes up so often I think we can establish it as a fact. It's interesting too how this included arguably the two best tracks in each of the two vintage movements, as well as their respective endpoints.

"It wasn't going to be like any other Beach Boys album anybody had ever heard," can be read into to mean a different structure, or you could say this is just referring to the material's quality.

Bob Dylan is listed twice as an inspiration, along with the Beatles. I think he wanted poetic Dylan lyrics, same as the Beatles did with Rubber Soul (particularly Norwegian Wood).

"Trying to make [working on the album] as much fun as I could" (in regards to the tent, sandbox, exercise equipment, fire hats). Same as with Smiley, I think Brian was a believer in the vibes of the artist(s) bleeding over to the sound of the art. That's probably a not insignificant reason it fell apart, he wasn't having fun anymore so he didn't think it would sound fun--which for an album called "SMiLE" is probably not good.

"The music was very serious" but "the goal was to make the world smile."

In order, Brian lists "the resistance I was feeling to my vision" then "all the things going on inside my head" then "the challenge of competing with the Beatles" then "pressure from the record company" in order as reasons he decided to cancel it. So take that for what it's worth--he seemingly reaffirms here what he said in Beautiful Dreamer that the first reason is the Beach Boys not trusting his vision.


In lieu of a VDP essay proper, we get Tom Nolan writing about Van's history and MO in absentia. The top quote, about Van's lyrics as meant to exist on a deeper meaning, seems another reference to the bisociative method. (Or just the concept of abstract impressionist style in general).

The anecdote about how the worst thing you can ask a poet is what their poem means feels like a not so subtle dig at Mike. Not totally unjustified either. (Not everything has to mean something, at least literally. Ask what the words makes you feel, what they make you think of. Has no one ever read poetry?)

I appreciate Tom explaining the concept of "death of the artist" to the reader, though he doesn't use that exact terminology. Art is subjective, it's going to make different people think of different things. Once it's out there, it belongs to the public in terms of "what does this mean?" People on this forum now seem cool but back in the day, the types who'd get bent out of shape if I offered an interpretation of a song without a source "justifying" it could've stood to read this and take it to heart. It's not "distorting the historical record" to speculate on CIFOTM's would-be lyrics as long as I don't make up evidence to justify it. (We'll get into that when I talk about Priore.)


Al's description of doing endless takes that already sounded perfect to everyone but Brian gently illustrates, I think, the main problem the guys had with Brian in this era. I think if Brian didn't run the guys quite so hard, there's a chance they'd have been more forgiving of the "far out" lyrics, but after 20+ takes, hours of singing your heart out, there comes a point when you reflexively clap back "what the hell are we even singing anyway, Brian?" It's interesting that Brian apparently didn't write sheet music for the guys, if Al's recounting is believed. I've read that he DID present sheet music to the Wrecking Crew, so it's not like he didn't have any for them to reference if they needed it.

Mike can't help but want to correct the record against perceived slights--in this case, Rolling Stone magazine's 500 best albums (back when Sgt Pepper was still #1). I like how he's willing to admit "excitations" is barely a word (my spell correct doesn't recognize it) but it rhymes so he went with it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, if people can intuit what you mean and the meter fits, go for it. VDP did the same kinda thing--a freaking President (Warren G Harding) is credited with coining the word "normalcy" instead of using "normality" (and why not, it's a better way to say the same thing and everyone knows it!). I appreciate how Mike can acknowledge that Tony Asher did a great job, but the fact he doesn't say the same about VDP on a release of material Van wrote on, feels like a deliberate omission. Mike even challenges Brian's own essay within the very same booklet, affirming he loved the music but not the lyrics or drugs. I appreciate he owns up to the "acid alliteration" put down (and this makes me inclined to believe him when he disowns the "don't f*** with the formula" quote). Mike lists "drugs, industry pressures and Brian's over-the-top commitment to perfection" as the culprits of SMiLE's demise.  

I really wish we could have a proper essay from Dennis and Carl. I think they'd have had some nice insights. It's interesting how Dennis downplays that "pop symphony" marketing hype himself in one of the provided quotes, even relaying a memory of Brian calling himself "a musical midget" next to Beethoven. The Carl quote about God as a universal consciousness I think is very important to understanding the spirituality of SMiLE. It's not a Christian conservative or European Yahweh kind of "God" that they were honoring, or invoking, with this music. It was something far more profound and pantheistic I believe, the kind of "God" you feel intuitively on a large dose of psychedelics, the oneness of everything.  

It's nice to get Bruce as a counterpoint to that same Dennis quote, where he asserts Brian's music was indeed good enough for the classical label. (I find some of the marketing buzz-phrases pretentious but I do think SMiLE is the "missing link" along the chain of pop music's development, somewhere between Mozart and your average 70s prog rock album.) Bruce, I think, understood that SMiLE was really a solo album based on this essay, as Anderle and some of the Posse have affirmed. I'm inclined to think that way too, as it represents a cohesive body of work from a singular visionary rather than a truly collaborative endeavor with the group. Of all the BBs I think he's the only one who wouldn't have minded if Brian went solo (he'd been in the industry outside the group, he'd find his way). Like, I'm sure he'd be disappointed to lose a great gig and be part of what the mastermind was doing next, but he wouldn't begrudge that master his muse. I wonder if Bruce said these things to Brian in '66; if he didn't, it might've made all the difference if he had...


SMiLE's raison d'etre was "to express the wonder Brian felt from the spirituality he had experienced through the process of making music." Brian "felt that a creative window to heaven had opened to him during PS."

Among Brian's reading list, sources of inspiration, we can include "books about Native American cultures and their love of Earth," (inspiration for Worms of course, maybe CE too) & "how people's spirituality was expressed through creativity" (is that TAOC you think, or something else?), & "psychology and family dynamics" (that's CIFOTM's genesis surely, perhaps Wonderful's too).

"Humor was especially important to Brian [...] he was intensely interested in the spiritual power of laughter and how it might heal the pain that people feel." Brian "hoped [SMiLE] would bring a new spirituality to pop music." I think he succeeded, or would have, but these are such tough expectations to set for oneself. I don't think SMiLE is funny except for Heroes and Veggies, but maybe he meant for one to go on each side and they be the cathartic-springboard to hear the tough lessons and bittersweet emotions of the following tracks in both movements? The idea being laughter can't happen all the time, life's full of troubles, but it's relative rarity makes it sweeter?

"The modules he was creating would be inspired by all of the things he read, saw and felt while spending time with his new circle of friends." The "embarrassing" (to some people) aspects of SMiLE, with the new age books and "evil stoner" social circle are an integral part of SMiLE's identity. This too is partly why I'm inclined to defend and use the Psychedelic Sounds, or speculate on hidden astrological/numerological meanings in the music.


**I'm not gonna deep-dive this info just yet. I might come back to it to see if things like, "what songs all use a french horn" or "what happens when you order songs chronologically" yield any interesting results.**

I will say quickly though, looking at this, it seems our biggest "missing pieces" in terms of lost tapes are:

1) a May 11 '66 H&V take that came in at 2:45 (taped over). Plus the missing 12/19 & 1/20 sessions with the Wrecking crew as well as 12/13, 12/22, 12/27, 12/28, 1/20, 1/31, 2/3, 2/24 & 2/26 BB vocal sessions. As far as I can tell, AGD doesn't list the 12/22, 12/27, 1/20, 1/31, 2/3, 2/24 or 2/26 dates as missing material. I'm not sure how to account for these discrepancies--maybe TSS is tracking overdubs and AGD isnt, or AGD updates the site often and they've since found these tapes? The TSS sessionography does include a disclaimer that the 1967 tapes may be overdubs on previously recorded masters--I'm inclined to think that's it if no one corrects me.

2) the Oct 17 IIGS vocal session with all six BBs, but "there's a chance the Veggie Cornucopia demo MAY have been recorded at that session." I never knew about this before, because AGD's "Bellagio10452" site only lists the Veggie Demo on Oct 17, no IIGS for Oct 16. He also has it as missing.

3) the I Ran vocal session on Oct 13 (of 3:50 length) is missing on both sessionographies.  

4) the Surf's Up BB vocals session on Dec 15 & instrumental Jan 23 "sweetening session" for PART ONE are missing on both as well.

5) the March 13 vocal session for Tones, either the tape was wiped or misplaced. March 15, April 11 instrumental sessions as well. (AGD doesn't mention the April session but does the other two.)


This telling of the tale pegs the official change of Dumb Angel to SMiLE at October, which tracks with Frank Holmes sending over the cover. EXCEPT, oh no, fly in the soup, Priore lists October as the month Brian MET Frank, not when Frank turned in his work as per Priore's own book if you'll recall. Well shoot, you'd think Priore would remember that research from 2005, wouldn't ya? So, which month was it, Mr. Ultimate SMiLE Historian? Because that's kind of an important detail methinks. And if he's going to supersede the word of one of our primary sources (Holmes), whom he interviewed, what changed Priore's mind on this? What's more compelling than a firsthand account? Did Brian say it was October and VDP backed him up? Was there hard evidence like dated contractual paperwork that appeared from the ether since '05? sh*t like this happens all the time in SMiLE research and it's so frustrating, especially when you'd think these guys would care about pegging down specifics and keeping the record consistent...

A lot of SMiLE songs went through a metamorphosis. Heroes had at least 3 mixed down variations we can attest to (lost May 66 version with OMP, Feb which may've included a Part 2, then the Smiley single), CIFOTM & WC had 2 each (not counting Smiley WC), Dada had at least 2 as well (All Day/Da Da & Second Day), Veggies also had 2 (demo & single). The reasons for this are numerous--the structure changed when it became a single (H&V, VT), the arrangement changed as it was repurposed to plug up conceptual holes (Dada from a Heroes piece to pseudo-element), or perhaps failed to meat the bisociative standards Brian was setting for himself (CIFOTM, WC). The one that never quite made sense to me though, is Wonderful which has 4 versions including Smiley. The conceptual, bisociative aspects were dead-on accurate in Version 1 and to almost everyone's ears, Version 2 is noticeably inferior while V3 is beautiful but surely less visually evocative (plus it's unfinished). So why change it? Well, somehow seeing Wonderful in this form it clicked--I think it was always Brian's go-to B-side regardless of the single BUT he wanted it to fit with each candidate conceptually or in matching arrangement. Why bother with this uniformity no one would care about? Because SMiLE Era Brian does everything next level. I think V2 Wonderful was an attempt to make what started as a parent's lament into a romantic nightclub tease, so that it would serve as a representation of the kinda music "Margarita" would be dancing to in a seedy saloon. Possibly it'd even be included as such in the 2-part H&V single cut. Then V3 copies the piano from Veggies.

Priore has February as the month the Beach Boys file their lawsuit. I'd never had an exact date in mind that I recall from any of these sources, but like a lot of key events I just assumed Dec or Jan.

Priore has March as the month VDP "leaves temporarily." No such mention of such an occurrence in Dec right after the CE incident. He comes back immediately in April but then leaves permanently to record his solo album. This seems a bit off, especially because it opens up several more months where VDP would've been involved but seemingly not doing anything. (I really want to go back in time to find out how and why CIFOTM lyrics were never even attempted according to him, much less finished, in like 10 months time! This timeline drives me nuts the more I think of it--how long does it take to write a song and is this perhaps an underrated aspect of it's demise if Brian was waiting around for weeks at least waiting for Van to finish or what?)

Also looking at all this now, it occurs to me--You're Welcome, if you think it wouldn't have been another junked feel akin to He Gives Speeches, Holidays and possibly I Ran, is almost certainly the new intro to the album considering it's a fade-in, unambiguously inviting us to come along (presumably on a journey...across America...to wherever the sounds may take us). Considering Vosse describes Prayer as a coda I'm inclined to believe Brian's plans changed despite that "intro to the album" quote in the studio chatter three months earlier. I think this is why You're Welcome became the B-side as well when it's otherwise such a weird choice in that context. They needed to get product out the door ASAP and went with YW (over Holidays, I Ran, HGS or even just any old SMiLE "feel" now indefinitely on ice, like Dada) because it was already associated with Heroes in Brian's mind. It was meant to be an intro tied with Heroes (remember Prayer by itself doesn't lead into Heroes naturally, different keys and tone) and since Heroes wasn't going to be on SMiLE post-Smiley (the 10 track version promised by Capitol) might as well get SOME use out of that segment which wouldn't have reason to exist on the belated version of SMiLE proper. To me this seems intuitive. The Dec recording date could coincide with Anderle telling Brian he'd need to put out a single ASAP for BRI (which they chose Heroes "because it was the closest to being finished" not necessarily because Brian had always intended it that way) so now he knows Heroes would have to go first, as opposed to something else like perhaps Worms (hence why it's first on the tracklist--Diane or Carl didn't get the memo by the time Capitol asked for a list). It's perhaps a bit complicated of a theory but everything fits and sounds plausible. This is why I vote YW as the "true" intro and Prayer the coda after SU.

[ASIDE:]Especially if we believe this history of SMiLE, where VDP leaves only in March and then again in April (rather than first in Dec or Jan then again in April,) I think the true inflection point was Anderle asking for a BRI single. It wasn't Mike and the CE incident, though that certainly didn't help. Mike makes for a convenient, dramatic, narratively satisfying villain and I'm sure he did, in fact "kill the enthusiasm for the project" with his complaining. But when Anderle forced Brian to begin to untangle the H&V knot, that's when it all came undone because suddenly, Brian went from thinking in terms of side-long modular pieces, to making "the best record ever" in only 3:30 time, where Heroes would have to make sense and melt faces all on its own, without all these other epic pieces to back it up. I think that started a negative thought loop of "how do I take 45 minutes of music and find the best 4 minute cut?" and "is SMiLE even good if no individual piece can stand as a single?" I think before that, Brian could always brush off worries of his indecision with "just record every stray riff, I can make sense of it later--it'll all tie into Heroes somehow, eventually..." Now he had to confront the issue of "what even IS Heroes anymore? Do I even know? Has the initial concept actually gotten lost in all these disparate pieces I've been distracting myself with?"[/ASIDE]


Reading Holmes' essay, the biggest takeaway for me is that this guy really got what the project was about, whether Brian discussed TAOC with him or Holmes just had a similar understanding of the artistic process. The way Frank perfectly captured the album's vibe by drawing VDP's lyrics exactly (as in showing "see how ridiculous this is, they're not meant to be literal") which often required melding different objects together like mismatched puzzle pieces (illustrating the abstract freedom of Brian's modular technique as well as the bisociative "everything is on two levels/everything is pictorial and related" art philosophy) is a stroke of genius and/or luck. Pepper may be a better cover, but the overall SMiLE presentation is leagues better. (I'll take the original SMiLE booklet planned for '67 over the dumb Pepper mustaches and cutouts any day, thanks.)

This is as good of a place to mention--I don't like how comparatively overlooked Guy Webster is in all this. There's always talk about "the three artists" who made SMiLE but he was a creative person making great art in a unique field whose work was going to help define the project too. I had completely forgotten the name of the photographer who took the original booklet pictures until going back down the SMiLE rabbit hole this summer. Was he not asked to send an essay--he only just died in 2019. Did he have any unique philosophy of his craft during the SMiLE gig, was he made aware of the project's aims and perhaps little factoids (maybe Brian secretly told the photographer what the second movement of Surf's Up was gonna be!)? I guess we'll never know, and that's a shame.


The fact that Marilyn admits she couldn't understand VDP's words either is pretty significant without trying to be, I think. It implies that, in Brian's world, there wasn't just ornery Beach Boys asking "what does this mean" or not being able to answer if Brian asked them what they think it means, to see if they "got" what he was doing. She does say it doesn't matter, the music was incredible, but I have to think her not getting it may've influenced Brian's decision that this music wasn't palatable to his old audience. Not blaming Marilyn--hey I don't fully get Van's lyrics either and my opinion of him as a collaborator goes back and forth--but yeah, if your wife can't follow your muse that's gotta create some doubt if you're really doing the right thing.

Marilyn claims "the laughing" is Bobi, Diane, "Ralph the engineer," Brian and her. Is this "moaning laughter" she's referring to, like the second half of Breathing on PS? Because that's certainly news to me. (Was Breathing/Torture aka Moaning Laughter a separate recording on the same tape? I thought everything on PS Disc 1/Nov 4 tape was all one mostly continuous session?)

Marilyn attests that Paul McCartney ate celery at the veggies session but not necessarily that it was recorded for the track. (I don't think it was.)

I kinda wish Marilyn would tell us who she considers "the users" but I get why she wouldn't. Perhaps if she'd mentioned a few whom she genuinely liked and let us fill in the blanks that would've been nice, but ah well. I just assume Anderle and Vosse were cool. Hutton seems like a good guy who really loved Brian too. Daro is controversial and obviously hated by Marilyn, Siegal seems like a decent next candidate for a "less-wanted" member of the Posse, beyond that it's really a shot in the dark whom she thought had ill-intent.

Marilyn is a saint the way she sings Brian's praises here for posterity after everything he put her through. She clearly loved him a lot. He was a lucky man, even if he didn't get his dream girl in Diane...


Diane's job sounds exhausting, being awoken at 4:30 AM and told you need to assemble a bunch of musicians and get into the studio THE VERY NEXT DAY. It's surprising she was able to pull it off so often, and that she doesn't resent Brian for things like that looking back. I wondered if maybe that's the real answer to the number of cancelled sessions, she booked the studio but couldn't get everyone together in time perhaps, so they canceled. That seemed a more plausible explanation instead of "bad vibes." But then later she says she never had a problem getting the musicians willing to entertain Brian's whims, which feels like something she wouldn't say if she'd had to cancel.

She refers to The Elements as being Fire, Water, Air & Earth in that order. I wonder if there's any significance to that, she says of Fire "it's what he called The Elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth" written just like that. It's at least the best clue we'll ever get into what order they came in, and something like Fire(+Workshop?)/Second Day(+Water Chant opening, like our Dada has)/Vega-Tables isn't a bad 3-part medley if you're into that sorta thing. Works a hell of a lot better than the BWPS third movement, I'd say. Or I could imagine something like Fire, put out by the Vosse music concrete water sounds, flowing into Breathing-like vocalizations (with a flighty piano) for Air. Then Veggies would come in as Earth. It's maybe a bit rough, I'm just speculating, and ultimately I think the chaotic-sounding results of these element collages are a huge reason the track was abandoned.

Diane has Paul eating carrots, still no mention it was recorded for the track though.

Diane goes out of her way to point out that the '03 album is different than the original '60s conception. "...until it was revised in 2004. Yes, revised - not the real, original version. It's OK, that is how it had to be." This is arguably the person who was as close to the project as Brian and VDP--arguably closer than Van or her sister, Bri's wife, considering she organized (and presumably sat in on) all the sessions. I take that as a significant statement, that she didn't have to make unless it means something. I think she hears a difference in tone, not to mention sequence, not to mention philosophy, in BWPS that compels her to correct the record. (BWPS doesn't have those haunting fades, nor the off-putting Psychedelic Sounds, nor the creepier sessions like Talking Horns, nor the weirdest "far out" compositions like CIFOTM version 1).

She quotes Brian lamenting to her at the time: "Dee, I am sad and confused about this music, and the reaction from the Boys."


It's a cute story, not much else to say. I imagine this is the kind of fun goofy shenanigans going on between sessions in Brian's life at that time. Go to the studio, make the greatest music ever recorded, then play basketball or smoke weed and chill in a pool with friends. I kept waiting for Torrence to mention that this game was recorded so I'd finally get an origin story for the Basketball Sounds (one of the more mysterious PS snippets, along with Bob Gorden's Real Trip) but he never does. Still, it's possible, and even if not this specific game, I think we can ascertain that BS was recorded in similar circumstances. (Otherwise it'd have to be, what, a local high school or college game Brian attended? Anyone got receipts on something like that--on such and such date he was known to be at XYZ State college?)


He describes beginning to hang out with Brian "around the time of [his] wedding in January '67." I'm gonna assume that means "within a few months range" and he was there Oct or at least Nov '66 when all the fun stuff was really happening. Volman describes himself as part of a trusted "inner sanctuary of friends." Supposedly they'd get together "each night" and listen to acetates with their own sets of headphones simultaneously at the dinner table while Brian watched everyone's reactions. The other Beach Boys were never around--presumably not just because of touring, I choose to believe this means even when they could be there, they made a point not to. Volman specifically mentions the other BBs were not supportive except Dennis, which is why the Posse tried to supplement that positive energy themselves, and put up with coming to the airport on command.

There's an offhand mention of Brian "not feeling 100%" and lying in bed one night when he demoed SU for this group of friends. It's unclear if Brian just had like a cold or stomach bug or if this was the beginnings of a depressive funk (the timeline matches up).


This is a great conversation but I don't have much to react to since a lot of it isn't new info for me at this point. One interesting takeaway is Vosse saying he witnessed "tense discussions" between Brian and Mike but he stresses they were not arguments and further emphasizes the group was "very supportive and grateful for Brian's presence." Anderle also expresses empathy for where the Boys were coming from. I really think if Mike killed SMiLE it was just in the sense that Brian was SO sensitive, that everything else was so much to handle, that he was hanging on by a thread and any negativity from within the group itself was enough to break what was left of his drive. Because the only particular grievance ever leveled at Mike is the CE incident and even that is vague and within Mike's right to ask, plus he ultimately sang it anyway. Unless anything egregiously antagonistic was strictly said between Mike and Brian off-mic, and Brian isn't one to spill the beans (except say emphatically that Mike "hating" SMiLE was the biggest factor on at least a few occasions) it just leaves me asking "well, what did Mike DO exactly" anytime I read these accounts.

Vosse mentions "conversations" of Brian realizing he needed "a lot more time [...] it wasn't even a matter of picking a period, like a year. [...] it was his growing realization that he had begun the creation of something quite large in scope and something that he cared about so much more than he had probably cared about any particular album." For me, this means more than a simple 12 track banded pop album. Because even a lot of the sources I've been reading emphasize if that were the case, he only needed a few days to record vocals--plus maybe some odds and ends like the second movement of SU. BUT if SMiLE was something more than that, if the fanciful audio collages of music concrete pieces and linking skits or overdubbed talking between cuts wasn't just hot air for the press, I could see that astronomically increasing the length of time to put it all together. It'd certainly feel like a great deal more work because there's no precedent for it, as opposed to "recording a track takes a day" or whatever. That goes from "schedule a few dates and bump off this clearly defined work" to "I don't even know where to begin with this, I have to sit through hours of footage finding the best spoken word or sentence to tediously splice in the exact right second, I'm not sure if or when I'd have all the raw materials needed, this could go on indefinitely" the way Vosse describes.


Something that kinda bugs me about SMiLE discussions, even from some of the experts with hands-on knowledge and experience, is in how...literal...(I'm trying not to use the word obtuse) they take everything sometimes. This whole talking point "Brian recorded enough material for a double album" for example. Like, umm, yeah if you ignore that a lot of it was for obsolete alt versions of the songs as previously mentioned. Or for "feels" that almost certainly wouldn't have made the final cut, abandoned songs, B-sides, etc. In 1967, Brian didn't have to include every discretely labelled piece just because they've all since become iconic as was the case in '03. Nor would he have done so by any stretch of the imagination. GV isn't 5 hours long, Pet Sounds shed Trombone Dixie and excluded Little Girl I Once Knew as well as "version 1" takes of IKTAA (aka "Hang Onto Your Ego"), YSBIM (aka "In My Childhood") and GOK with the sax solo. It feels like with SMiLE, these guys forget that the concept of "leaving things on the cutting room floor" exists for some reason. Brian wasn't sitting around waiting until CDs changed the accepted album length so he could include "nearly all of the songs" and he almost certainly would've culled it down to less than 40 minutes because most BB albums are short and he valued quality over quantity. Honestly is SMiLE even that unusual in the "minutes recorded vs would-be minutes released" ratio? Why do people act flummoxed by this?

Similarly, I think the arduousness of editing analog tape contributed significantly to the mental block which killed Brian's enthusiasm for the project, but it wasn't physically impossible the way Linnett likes to imply sometimes. Frank Zappa did it. Joseph Byrd. Countless others too, albeit less extensively. A modular audio collage was definitely possible, you just had to put in the time and know what you wanted going in (this was Brian's problem). Ironically, by BWPS when "the technology caught up with him," Brian's artistic ambition was comparatively zapped from '66 and he wasn't thinking of crazy audio collages with music concrete anymore to need it. By then, a freeform SMiLE somewhere along the spectrum between "Abbey Road Medley" and "WOIIFTM" was the last thing on Brian's mind, except for the need to keep the momentum going for a live presentation.

Alan Boyd's essay describes exactly how and why the oral tradition I'm so critical of developed in the first place. With the slow drip feed of pieces coming out over two decades, people desperately tried to figure out how it all made sense without having the context of the whole work to keep perspective. They had read about an Elements thing and that became the most exciting, easily accessible lens to try to understand things. ("Ooh, they say "wa wa" in this section so this could be Water, hmm this piece sounds Earth-y to me, oh it's got "wind" in the title, it must be air!") Whereas if you've got the complete sessionography and breadth of music at your disposal, one naturally notices groupings that don't require a proscribed context going in to make intuitive sense. (Like "hey, WC/Won/Look/CIFOTM/SU all clearly sound alike, with similar instrumentation and themes--they must be related, especially since they don't neatly fit into the American manifest destiny bent of these other tracks!")

This is partly why I don't think it's a good thing SMiLE happened as it did, why I don't see the ouroboros "fan speculation influenced BWPS so it all came full circle!" as cute, or a "better story" as I've seen it said. This is a tragedy that led to the album being denied its opportunity to shock the world at large, all in favor of comparatively few disciples having to seek it out instead. This circumstance also led to everybody's mostly baseless theories having time to marinate and develop emotional attachments, so when there was more to work with, new light shown on the subject, nobody wanted to reexamine what they thought they knew. (Not to say my mix ideas are perfect or the only way it should be done, but it's not even like most of the alts I see are all that creative either. It's almost always "Americana tracks on side 1, so-called Elements tracks on side 2, with the so-obviously cohesive Life tracks awkwardly split up, W&Child on s1 while WC&SU are s2. Why and how anyone came to believe BWPS' movement 3 was vintage over the far more cohesive movement 2 I'll NEVER understand.)


His background info on where SMiLE was coming from as part of the rock revolution, the counterculture, is great but mostly a rehash from his 2005 book if you've read it. What kinda bugs me is his going song by song and telling us the obvious interpretation, justifying this flawed sequence. This could've been cut for space--maybe reprintings of some of the best articles in LLVS (Vosse in Fusion especially) or something else. It just feels a little patronizing both to Brian and the reader. I explain the connections track-by-track in my fanmixes because they're unofficial releases and I feel the need to justify why I'm saying "I have a better way to sequence SMiLE than 03-11 era Brian Wilson." The fact that Brian's team themselves feel the need to justify their choices, pretend the flawed 3-movement structure is somehow a narratively coherent journey, is a mark of weakness in my eyes. Like Sgt Pepper "it's a concept album because we say it is, deal with it," except there actually is a far better concept album hiding in plain sight but most people won't buck the established traditions (of an album whose primary purpose was to do just that)...


I know I must sound snarky or pompous but I don't care, I'm gonna say it. Back in 2014, I was giving my opinion on why BWPS should NOT be considered exactly the same project as SMiLE '66-'67. I said they're separate albeit related recordings, made with different societal blueprints in mind, by an artist warped by 35 years (most of them tinged by pharmaceutical and neurological abuse). These two separate artists, the same man in two wildly different contexts, with different career ambitions and artistic vantage points, used fundamentally irreconcilable methods of achieving sound. One used analog instruments, the other MIDI harpsichords, with different recording equipment--analog 3/4 track machines or digital software. That's enough to ensure a different sonic texture, in a different sequence, played with different emotions, trying to illicit different reactions from the listener and no one can deny it. Anyway, THE LINER NOTES OF BWPS OPENLY ADMIT THIS AND DON'T TRY TO REFUTE THAT IT'S DIFFERENT THAN smIle '67. And, petty spite that I am, I can't help but feel a bit miffed by that, because the way some people reacted back then, you'd think I'd slapped Brian in the face. They're just different works--same sheet music perhaps (minus the missing fades) but different means of bringing it to life, and some fans don't believe the old should be eclipsed by the new on people's shelves, as part of the conversation, or as a series of clues and raw material for alternate versions of SMiLE. (Because the BWPS template is seriously flawed, clearly not a resurrected vintage plan and I wish we could stop pretending otherwise.)    

Beyond that, it's just a very basic retelling of the SMiLE myth plus lyric sheets with weird circus artwork--cribbing from Mr Kite? I say it's leaning too hard into the 1-dimension "youthful frolic" element of SMiLE at the expense of its psychedelia, "music cartoon" (as per VDP's interpretation) and bisociative aspects. Which just illustrates my point further--the Sixties version had an ominousness to it, a sense of the unknown and indescribable, all aimed at young adults looking for the answer, while BWPS is a fluffy excursion for literal kids.


https://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/domenic-priore-one-on-one.html (https://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/domenic-priore-one-on-one.html)

This guy is such a phony-bologna Im surprised he's taken seriously as a source. He's a curator of SMiLE articles and a fine enough writer of prose. But then he's always forcing his narrative of what he wants SMiLE to be at every opportunity and it's just insufferable to me sometimes. I'm sure someone's gonna say "oh like you do too" but the difference is my theories are more well-founded and I'm not posing as an objective arbiter of the story to others while clearly having an agenda of what I want SMiLE to be. Like here, he literally makes up some almost-certainly bullshit story of interviewing Brian, who refuses to talk unless they're off the record, but only then reveals WC was air. "Oh yeah guys Brian confirmed that my SMiLE theory is accurate! Uhh, we weren't recording it conveniently but trust me ok? I know it contradicts Brian, VDP AND Darian's accounts in my book as well as objective common sense but my Americana/Elements structure has been sanctified, pinky swear!" It's even worse considering that all the big SMiLE archivists and documentarians clearly know each other and offer self-reinforcing platforms, like Priore getting essays in the TSS liner notes.

Obviously he or anyone else can do a four-part elements thing, do your own SMiLE or adopt the BWPS sequence, but I just dislike how that's held up as "the most likely" by manufactured popular acclaim or even "one step away from a final mixdown" (as Priore himself claims) when the only proof is recursive speculation he keeps fanning without any real hard evidence. Mr. Priore, I'm calling you a liar, sir. I don't believe Brian said that to you "off the record." I think if he said any such thing he must've done so after significant badgering, in his usual people pleasing manner. ("Yeah, sure, you cracked the code--WC is air. Can we talk about something else now? Like, literally anything else?") And you go around saying this knowing Brian wouldn't have been the type to call someone out publicly on their BS--much less undercut a talking point that legitimizes his solo effort. But I just wonder why no one else notices this obvious BS and isn't willing to ask for real proof. Even if anyone disagrees with my takes, I don't fabricate evidence to legitimize my point--I think the evidence I've gathered, and the smoother flow of my sequences, speak for themselves. Priore would too if his Americana/Elements thing wasn't disjointed as hell.  

Melinda went to Brian and asked him to go with me into his office, and there we could continue in a more private setting.  He became lucid and forward with answering questions at that point, but he just didn't want that kind of stuff to go on tape.  So I had to turn off the tape deck when I asked him things about "Wind Chimes" being part of the "Air" in the Elements suite... things like that... that it had been described by Brian previously as a "lovely piano instrumental, we never finished that."  

Those kind of things, I could ask Brian, but not for publication, it seems.  Things I wanted clarified about the sequence of "Smile."  Of course, we never knew until 2004 that "Surf's Up" actually went in the middle of the album, not the end, so there were still things Brian knew that we didn't, even if we did figure out most of the sequence pretty much correctly.  For the most part, that's how you hear it on The Beach Boys "Smile Sessions" box set.

^You can decide for yourself if you believe that or not. I don't and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it either. His 2005 book was full of other bald-faced lies that NO other source claims, with NO proof either. Priore is a liar and despite the good he's done for SMiLE with LLVS and popularizing the myth to a new generation, he's done great harm at efforts to ascertain a most likely structure and sequence from the primary sources. I don't mind being the one to say it and hopefully usher in a "third wave" of SMiLE fans with a new, more accurate, understanding.



While reviewing the various essays for the TSS booklet, I was wondering if anyone had been left off besides Guy Webster. The name that seemed a most obvious omission was Jules Siegal. I know he's a bit controversial among the other primary sources and uber-fans have revealed some "creative use of facts" but the man was there and he wrote the article that started the myth. If Priore and Leaf get prominent essays, (despite being flawed accounts with obvious agendas,) presumably for their past literary efforts to elevate the stature of this project, it seems only fair Siegal get one too. I couldn't tell if he wasn't asked at all, or was but declined, nor why either should happen, but in my efforts I found these rebuttals he apparently wrote to Paul Williams against Anderle's "libel" which occurred in that same "SMiLE is Done" chapter of the Williams book I commentated on previously. I'm not gonna weigh in on this personal feud, but these are the correspondences I saw in chronological order for readers to make up their own mind. I dont know or care enough to side with either man, but I hope Siegal was at least offered a spot in the book.

As far as I can tell this is the first time these have been referenced on the forum.

https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27654& (https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27654&)
https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27727&sort=date (https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27727&sort=date)
https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27742&sort=date (https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27742&sort=date)
https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27749&sort=date (https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9806&msg=27749&sort=date)


Whether I like it or not, get it or not, here again Brian cites the group's lack of enthusiasm as the main reason for SMiLE's undoing. It seems like an overstated problem or forced narrative sometimes, and there's so little real concrete anecdotes to go by beyond the CE thing, but maybe it's the blow that cut deepest. Maybe, after decades when all the trivialities of BRI positioning itself against Capitol, the depressive drug effects have worn off, the feelings toward VDP made positive again with the Warner deal & Orange Crate Art, that's the one unprocessed trauma that's visceral enough to still feel raw. ("I poured my heart out to the guys I thought I was closest to and they didn't like it--they made fun of it, said it disgusted them, said it was unreleasable.") I could see that kind of thought process internalizing itself in a way that "I have to cut tape and sign documents" maybe doesn't. It begs the questions why not soldier on anyway like with Pet Sounds and why are there no specific stories of Mike sabotaging it then? I think the answers must be because Brian already had some doubts (Marilyn doesn't get it either), is so sensitive that any blowback makes him retreat and he wasn't the type to air specific dirty laundry in public if it'd hurt someone. This is the man who still sings Spector's praises after getting humiliated by him. I have to assume Mike said some nasty things (the wikipedia quotes both Jardine and Brian saying Mike called the lyrics "disgusting") behind closed doors and that's what convinced Brian it wasn't worth it dealing with all the other stuff.

This is the first time I've seen the "Brian is a genius" campaign not only making Brian doubt himself, if he could live up to that expectation, but also driving a wedge between Brian and the others. Now he felt guilty about getting all the credit. Also, we get Carl's perspective which is incredibly rare. Carl blames the drugs primarily, which I'm noticing is a theme (the band blames drugs, everyone else blames them including Brian).

The VDP interview says SMiLE was to explore "modular recording, the innocence of youth--maybe the innocence America had lost." He even comes back and references that again "Brian wanted to explore the innocence of childhood." I find this such an important quote because notice he emphasizes and repeats the innocence of childhood as the only theme. VDP doesn't even mention Americana here (usually the first, or even only, thematic bent discussed if themes are brought up at all) let alone some silly elements thing. It's youth and innocence--he then immediately talks about Wonderful (one of the four first songs, plus SU ending on children's songs) in this context.

Guys...guys...can we just admit I was right all along by championing an Americana/Childhood Innocence (or Cycle of Life as BWPS & TSS call it) structure and be done with it already? I was bullied off the board, told I had no right to discuss these things if I didn't read all the books, that if I just shut up and looked at the facts, the standard Americana/Elements foundation would make sense to me...well, I've looked at all the info there is (Priess, the new Leaf and LLVS pending) and it all seems to point in the direction I was able to intuit just listening to the music unbiased, with no baked-in, decades-repeated agendas clouding my thinking. If anyone has a stronger argument in the other direction, or would accuse me of selectively quoting to unnaturally strengthen my case, I invite you to follow the links I've provided at every turn and prove me wrong with better quotes in the other direction. I don't care if I'm convincing anyone along the way or not but I'm enjoying my deep dive into my favorite media subject and it's giving me piece of mind for sure. That said, to the detractors who still remain (and actually read all this sh*t) what else would it take to convince you at this point?

I agree with the Americana/Childhood structure. Imho the Elements 3rd suite is a 2003/2004 artifact: it's perfectly legit (for 2004) as it was sanctioned by the authors, and I like it a lot, but no way it would have been part, in that shape, of a completed 1967 SMiLE.

This is me talking about the SMiLE sections in the BB documentaries I was able to find easily online. I don't have access to the Long Promised Road or 2024 doc right now, but if I do I'll post about them too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoqf3NFuvro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoqf3NFuvro)

I always thought the VDP interviews from this were funny, but I never knew their origin before (maybe I still don't but if not for this, when was the asphalt interview taken?). Why is Van dressed like a lavender twink, looking vaguely uncomfortable, talking in a parking lot in the middle of the day, while wearing a cowboy hat? It's such a perfect image, in stark contrast to his well-dressed appearances in the SMiLE photos, IJWMFTT documentary or other publicity photos I've seen. It feels like they tracked him down against his will and threw a bunch of cameras in his face while he was coming out of the laundromat or something.

Anyway, it's interesting to note that here at one of his first interviews about the subject (that I can tell, unless VDP was in Preiss or some other early magazine tell-all I haven't seen) Van calls SMiLE "an unexplained event--I still don't understand it." That's kinda the perfect description, and you can read into that in several ways, like: dismissiveness, derisiveness, and/or defensiveness. There was a lot of weird stuff going on, and if you believe his interviews I've cited, Van actually expected a more traditional album of love songs that'd play well on Ed Sullivan and get him laid. Imagine genuinely thinking you're gonna write another Today or Pet Sounds only to be met with bisociation, sand boxes, Psychedelic Sounds and Fire. Guy probably had significant whiplash and buyer's remorse by the time he walked away--it clearly wasn't what he was expecting.

[ASIDE:]I'm really thinking, the more I read about it, that Brian and Van were not on the same page at all about what this album was or if it was right for the Beach Boys. But rather than Van dragging Brian "off-course" as I'd speculated earlier, influencing the Americana direction and pushing for more avant garde arrangements, I'm now of the opinion Van was just as much along for the ride as anyone else in Brian's orbit. He was doing his best to translate Brian's words to poetry but always several steps behind, desperate to keep up as Brian kept changing his mind and re-recording everything (even pre-January, several songs were redone completely) or adding new concepts like the elements that didn't neatly fit with what had come before. Van was doubtful of the album's commercial appeal from the start if you believe his interviews and argued against the choice of Veggies as a single before quitting. The two were not of one mind, at least beyond that mythical first meeting in May when the 4 core tracks were conceived--that's why it's all Van ever talks about, he never NEVER elaborates on any additional writing sessions for any of the other songs. (It's kinda maddening for me as a researcher, but I suspect it's because by then Van had no clue what was going on either so it's hard to talk about at all and impossible to do so in a way that doesn't feel like picking on a mentally unwell young man from 50 years ago.) Mike was able to split the dyad because both Brian and Van had some doubts about each other and/or the project as a hole. Put succinctly: Mike was the storm, but the house was built on a shaky foundation to start with. [/ASIDE]

Van incorrectly cites SMiLE as "just after" the Beach Boys were in litigation with Capitol, when actually it was during (with the high point of the sessions happening before). It's up to you as a reader whether he's talking about Smiley Smile as the culmination of SMiLE, which was released after...or he's misremembering. I sorta lean towards the latter--Van seems vaguely off in this entire interview and the weird location makes me think they really did put him on the spot in some way, or he was in a hurry or something.

Here, SU is now called "the first" song they wrote together, as opposed to H&V which is near universally given that distinction in the sources. (SU is usually #2 though, or one of the first four along with CE and Wonderful). However you choose to rectify the incongruencies of this interview is your own business. Regardless, I think we have to accept that that first brainstorming session must've been pretty fluid, with a lot left undone. Probably Brian going "hey I got this upbeat chord progression" (H&V) and then maybe 5 or 10 or 15 minutes later (remember Van says that first verse was spontaneous) Brian says "and I got this sad chord progression" (which would later morph into SU, probably at a later date when Dennis comes by). I think they mostly finished Heroes on that first date, hence the recording session for the track later that month, while SU and the other two had work done on them but were not completed until months later. SU didn't get its name until later when Dennis came in--I don't think that happened the same night the two first started working together. If my attempt to reconcile this discrepency is accurate, that supports Priore's 2005 book version of SU's naming, where the title comes last not first. Maybe other sources to SU's writing process simplified the story for the sake of brevity and clarity (a "flaw" I definitely see in the Gaines book specifically).

The Brian interview is recycled from BBC's Bob Harris in 1976 and is more myth than fact. Brian's description of an LSD trip and ego death are pretty apt in my experience--you see everything you could be, you'll never be, your place against the rest of creation, and accept it.

The Carl interview is pretty standard "SMiLE myth" territory too. "Brian withdrew from public life post-SMiLE" kinda stuff. A Bruce interview follows, both sounding awkward and rehearsed. It sounds like by this time the group had their talking points all worked out, an "official" narrative in place. That lines up with some of Priore's accusations against their PR machine in his 2005 book.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqyvIn3V6g (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqyvIn3V6g)

I was on the fence whether or not I believed the WIBN bio story about Brian driving Al around the block a bunch of times talking up the benefits of acid. Here Al himself confirms it. That's gotta be one of the great understated "roads not taken" for the band, what if Al had tripped. Would he have suddenly "got" SMiLE and defended it to Mike, tipping the scales? Probably not, but it's fun to imagine.

Terry Melcher weighs in, calling Brian the most talented and unpredictable person he worked with in the rock and roll business. I feel like Melcher isn't often interviewed in these things.

Bruce calls SMiLE "brilliant little music bites" that Brian "never connected together."

VDP's little "flash cards" interview is pretty adorable. If you notice, the only two tracks he specifically names are "H&V" and "SU." Considering those tracks are ALWAYS brought up, while none of the others are as often as not, I wonder if these are the only two Van was able to add words to on the first day. I think CE and Wonderful, if they were really written at the same May session, were mostly chord progression ideas Van heard but had to add his contributions at a later date. That's why those last two don't have stories attached to them, at least any that get repeated, the way Heroes and Surf do. (It is bothering me though, how much less often any other track is ever discussed in terms of their writing process and inspiration. I wish any of these interviewers through the years would've said "yeah, we know about Heroes, tell us about how you wrote CE and Wonderful for a change.")

Honestly, the footage of the band singing Heroes live is probably the single best argument against SMiLE's viability I've ever seen. I love SMiLE (if you couldn't tell) as much as anyone ever has, I think I've earned the right to say that now, and even I say they look pretty ridiculous singing it on stage. How could you not, with these half-nonsensical "doo-wop scat with a southwestern dialect" vocals? Al looks like a scarecrow smirking at how silly these words are, Mike's clearly thinking "what am I even saying" while chanting "a-Heroes, a-Heroes, a-Heroes and Villains..." while Carl soldiers on as best he can. It made me think of Harrison Ford's line to George Lucas about the corny dialogue in Star Wars: "you can write this sh*t, George, but you can't say it." What I mean is, these vocalizations are fine for a studio album but singing them live looking girls dead in the eye, I think most people would start fretting "do I even come off as a sexy crooner/rock star anymore? Cuz I feel kinda silly right now..." The crowd does applaud after, but it sounds sort of subdued (it cuts out early so it's hard to tell) and when the camera cuts to the crowd mid-performance at times, most of them just stand there looking kinda bored or slightly put-off to my eyes. It's obvious why it wasn't a big hit at the time.

I appreciate that Mike is at least honest about his thoughts on SMiLE to the last here. You could argue it's in bad taste and all this time later, it wouldn't have hurt to at least find something nice to say about this very sensitive period in his cousin's life, but all the same I give props that he's consistent for the historical record. Mike didn't like it, he didn't get it and he's not gonna lie about that--fair enough. The drive-by swipe "under the influence of various...substances" is perhaps not the kindest thing to say, but it's not inaccurate and it is admittedly a valid reason to think things are going in a bad place. Mike admits he associates too much of the music with his cousin's downfall to where it's impossible to feign enthusiasm about it. I can understand that. Then he gives a sales pitch for transcendental meditation and recounts his glory days hanging out with the Beatles, pitching suggestions for "Back in the USSR" and it feels like he ought to be more sympathetic. But that's Mike--even handling him with kid gloves, trying to give him an "out," interpreting his abrasiveness in the gentlest way possible, he still pushes one step too far (at least) and leaves me thinking "what an insensitive jerk!"

Brian says "I junked it [...] it was inappropriate music for us to make." This is when he was still down on SMiLE, and himself. People like Mike constantly talking up how it was so "impossible to understand" surely didn't help. It's wild how few people in the BB world seemed to understand that some of the best poetry is that which requires multiple readings, or careful line-by-line readings, to fully understand. Is what Van Dyke wrote really THAT different from some of the weirder Beatles tracks? Did anybody really understand "She Said, She Said" / "Tomorrow Never Knows" / "A Day in the Life" / "Within You, Without You" / "I am the Walrus" / "Bluejay Way" / "Dig a Pony" / "Revolution 9" or a dozen others I could name? Could anyone give a literal, line by line recap of even "Fixing a Hole" beyond the general vibe of the song? ("Well, a guy's fixing a problem in his life, filling a void...") So why do the Beatles, Byrds, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Syd Barrett and so many others get a free pass on this but not Brian and Van Dyke? Never made any sense to me.

They brush over the subject of SMiLE quickly. Later in the doc, Bruce says "we forced [Brian] to stay [in the Beach Boys] longer than he wanted to stay." I think that's the real tragedy more than just a lost album. The reason Brian's creativity dried up more or less from '70 to '75, a few wonders aside (and even they're cries for help like 'Til I Die or arguably self-sabotage like Mt Vernon) is because his true calling was to be a great producer of multiple acts rather than a rock star band leader. His muse wasn't with the Beach Boys anymore, he didn't want to be shackled to that sound/brand, didn't want to work with those personalities anymore. But, he was being forced to, with the home studio and "we're your family, you're our meal ticket!" guilt-trips, chasing away Redwood, etc. Brian was withdrawing if not actively self-sabotaging to get away from the band without having to actually assert his desire to go. The Boys weren't just thrown by the lyrics but by the talk of Brian possibly going solo--coming from Anderle and the Caroline No single release, plus BRI opening up the possibility of Brian producing other acts.

I appreciate hearing that, thanks!

Also I wanted to throw out a quick theory. I mentioned earlier that I think Prayer got replaced by "You're Welcome" as the unlisted "intro to the album." My theory is that originally the album opened with Prayer-into-Worms, hence DYLW appearing first on the Capitol tracklist. Then, when Brian was told by Anderle he needed to produce a single (where previously, he'd intended for there to be none except GV off SMiLE) he went with Heroes because "it was the most finished" NOT because he'd been grooming it for a single-release all along, as I'd previously thought. So, when Heroes becomes the single, that means it gets "single placement" as the first song of its respective side and now Worms gets bumped down to at least track #2. I think the "Bridge to Indians" section of Heroes, recorded January '67, was an attempt to preserve the "heavenly choir" like intro to Worms without stalling momentum, as the minute-long Prayer would surely have done coming between the two. Bridge to Indians, in my opinion, would've ended Heroes and ushered in Worms on the album. (And served as a segue into side B of the two-sided single).

More stuff to commentate on.

I can't find a copy of Brian Wilson: On Tour (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,698.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,698.0.html)) or Beach Boys: Back to the Beach http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,705.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,705.0.html) right now. If anyone knows where to watch them online, or if they're even worth the effort to seek out, let me know. I'm assuming probably not.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGei5ObvADM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGei5ObvADM)

"Marilyn Wonderful" according to her, that's "how he always did it [addressed her in letters]." She reads one that's clearly from their old age, but does this mean it was a thing he called her since the 60s? Is this perhaps an indication that Wonderful was about Marilyn, or that the word was his favorite pet name for girls he liked and that's why Wonderful is called as such?

I've seen An American Family and thought that "Samuel" was a funny if over the top caricature of VDP. When we see him in the pool and he says "the Beach Boys are this pan-patriotic, trans-presidential vibe" I thought that was taking VDP's flowery, self-important descriptions of SMiLE and the band to a ridiculous extreme. But then, in this documentary, VDP uses those exact same words believe it or not! So, in effect, Van is kind of a walking caricature of himself--the pretentious long-winded artiste throwing out nonsense five dollar words to seem smart. (I don't actively dislike VDP or what he was going for, but my impression after this deep dive is that the dude's a little too pompous for his own good.) Anyway though, while "trans-presidential" is a nonsense phrase, at least in this context, I don't disagree that the BBs had a unique "all American good boy" image at the time and therefore would be the perfect band to call out our country's flaws while still asserting loyalty to its spirit. This is in contrast to the Rolling Stones, a British bad boy group, catching some flack for stomping on a star-spangled Uncle Sam hat onstage during their 1969 tour. Like, it's ok if we as Americans criticize ourselves for going into Vietnam but who is this Limey to do it?

"He was trying to take Mark Twain into rock and roll" this isn't a VDP quote but it's part of what "Samuel" says in AAF. It seems whoever wrote that script must've seen this film or it's a crazy coincidence. For what it's worth too, I always thought of Mark Twain or some turn of the century President like Chester Arthur and William McKinley every time I hear He Gives Speeches. Something about the lyric feels very Twain-like.

We get Anderle on tape describing Brian's plan for recording a bar fight, so that's additional confirmation that this particular anecdote is legit.

Brian says point blank "[SMiLE will] never come out, the tapes have been destroyed" despite the fact that the doc has been playing samples from it during this segment. Oh, Brian...

We get the first and only on-screen interview of Diane Rovell in this doc, though she doesn't say much. First of David Leaf too, so now I know what he looks like. Also, the first images I've ever seen of the home studio (at least I assume that's what I'm looking at with the colorful rectangles plastered to the wall?) and I've gotta say it's pretty gorgeous.

I know the Beautiful Dreamer documentary touched on this too, but it's sad thinking of all the songs Brian probably worked on but never recorded, much less released. The way Bruce talks about walking in on Brian playing these amazing new songs he refused to develop further is so frustrating as a fan. (Not that Brian existed purely for our entertainment, he can do what he wants with his gift, but c'mon, you know you want to hear his forgotten gems as much as I do, right?)

Otherwise, there's really no new info here. It's just the same basic retelling of the myth.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-YetomVNKM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-YetomVNKM)

Beautiful Dreamer is apparently Brian's favorite song and the short clip of him playing it his favorite part of the movie that bears its name.

Even here, once again, H&V and SU are singled out. In this case, as the songs the audience supposedly connected to the most. If any SMiLE songs are ever mentioned specifically, it's ALWAYS these two.

I think Leaf's insistence on "purging the demons" and "chasing out the ghosts" by revisiting SMiLE is a little dogmatic and forced here. He keeps bringing it up and wanting to frame BWPS as this big healing moment for Brian, when I get the impression (at least from how he's acting in this interview) that in Brian's mind it's more like "hey, let's just finish up this thing I never released years ago." I find Leaf's persistence on this point a little annoying, to be honest. It's a bit of a shame how agenda-driven some of the most prominent SMiLE historians are, perhaps myself included (though I'll let you all be the judge of that). When Leaf presses Brian on bad memories associated with SMiLE, he answers with "only the bad drugs we were taking," when I think Leaf was fishing for stories of Mike being a jerk.

Brian says straight up "I knew my band could do it better than the Beach Boys, my band is superior to the BBs, very superior people" and I get the impression that was a dig specifically because of how badly they'd hurt him over the years. I adore the Wondermints for their valiant work on BWPS, but there's no topping the BBs at their peak. I think deep down, Brian must know that too, but "better" in this context means "they could do it without giving me any hassle."

I get the impression Leaf wants SMiLE to be the end all be all catalyst of Wilson's decline around the 5 minute mark, while Brian casually says he "dismissed it from [his] mind long ago." Leaf follows up "was it hard to dismiss it?" and Brian answers "no, not at all," as if the whole thing wasn't really a big deal to him. But then later, same interview, Brian says seeing BWPS in a store for the first time meant "[his] nervous breakdown was over." So, really, this is just the ultimate proof of why later-era Brian is not a reliable witness even about his own thoughts and career. He just kinda says whatever he wants to say in that moment, either to end the interview ASAP, intentionally throw people for a loop, play into his own myth or whatever else I don't know.

According to Brian, when they made Fire in '66, "that's when [he] and Van Dyke realized [they] were getting too ahead of [their] time and shelved [the album.]" This contradicts so much of what we know about the sessions, if taken at face value, given how long VDP stuck around after, how Van thought the album would still come out, and it comes from later-age Brian. So we have to take this with a grain of salt. I think what he means is, Van always felt the album was pushing too many boundaries to be commercial from the get go, and from what I can tell, never really liked the Elements thing anyway. After Fire, I suspect, Brian began to agree with him that maybe this whole thing was getting too weird and potentially off-putting to listeners. That, the CE incident and the difficulty in finding/making a suitable single among the feels (a one-two-three punch all in December) is when Brian started losing faith in the project. This is all but certain.  

Later in the interview, Leaf asks what Brian thinks about each song, one by one, and it goes about as well as you'd expect if you've seen even one interview from him. We do learn that Barnyard was "Van Dyke's idea" but "he'll probably tell ya it was my idea." Of the CE Truck Driving Man lyrics, Brian says he doesn't know where that came from and what he (Dennis) was even singing. On Fire, Brian emphasizes that he now understands they didn't start the fire across the street just by recording that song. Brian also claims that his new version of GV is much better than the Beach Boys version. (He even goes one further and says Asher's lyrics are better than Mike's which is objectively false but I strongly suspect his words here are fueled by bitterness towards the band for all the dysfunction and lawsuits over the years.) Overall though, it's like his foreword in the 2005 Priore book--he just says the most simplistic, straightforward thing he could possibly say about each song, offering no deeper insight or anecdote about their conception. You could ask anyone who's heard the songs about them and they'd say the same things.

Brian calls Paul McCartney his favorite "music maker."

It's not a very good interview, no offense to David or Brian. But there's only so many ways you can say "BWPS got all these accolades, how did that make you feel?" and "did you expunge all the negative associations of SMiLE with BWPS?" and "how did you feel about XYZ associated with the project?" It's like when newscasters interview Olympians after a gold medal performance "how does it make you feel?" / "your teammates were cheering, what does that say to you?" Just dumb questions where the answer is obvious, the interviewee is being polite but clearly has nothing to say, the whole thing's more of a perfunctory exercise than a revelatory insight.


I found this other printed interview with Brian online, that was posted in three parts.

In the extended intro to the interview itself, the author quotes Guy Webster (finally!) which I'll post here in its entirety for posterity: In 2011, I asked Guy Webster, the 1966-67 SMiLE sessions photographer to reflect on the musical and recording world of Brian Wilson he observed. Webster and I are both acknowledged in the credits for “The SMiLE Sessions” packages.

“I love Brian. Child-like innocence and he was playful. And I believe in that. One of the things about studying Buddhism all my life is getting that playful side, exposing it and don’t be afraid of it and let it out. Everything Brian did I loved. Even the silly songs like ‘Surfer Girl’ I thought were brilliant.

"Well, the first time I walked into the living room at Laurel Way, it was this giant Moroccan tent was in the middle of the room, and there was sand on the floor by the piano, and I just went nuts because they could live the way they wanted to. Because they were rock n roll and then, I had to go home to a straight house with you know, no tents in my living room... My wife wouldn’t’ve allowed it, but it really worked. The group would gather in the tent and it was such an intimate experience. I used to sit in there with the guys and we’d talk and hang out and it was such a beautiful light that came in the tent through this wonderful amber, rose and red sheeting. And I enjoyed it. I thought it was a lot of fun. It made the house unique and different."

For “TREATS!” Magazine in the September 2011 issue, Webster further elaborated to me on SMiLE.

"I saw Brian take pop music into a new direction. I feel it an honor that I was at the recording session for the vocals of ‘Good Vibrations.’ Oh my God. I had chills up and down my arms and back the whole time. I had never seen anything like it and to be in that recording session and to see them practice in the halls getting their harmonies. Holy sh*t. That was a real treat. It's one of the highlights of my musical life. And now later this year Capitol Records is releasing the SMiLEbox set with the original 1966 and '67 sessions for that album, including ‘Good Vibrations.’ I took photos and I'm involved in the new book for the package. And Van Dyke Parks is the lyricist with Brian on SMiLE. And he's brilliant. I did the cover of his Song Cycle album." Why wasn't any of this included in the TSS booklet? Did Capitol just not want to pay Webster for his contribution--similar to what almost happened with Frank Holmes? So ridiculous, and now it's too late because he's dead.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/brian-wilson-and-long-journey-smile-part-1-0 (https://www.analogplanet.com/content/brian-wilson-and-long-journey-smile-part-1-0)

When asked what the difference is between working with Tony Asher and VDP, Brian says Van worked faster. That's so wild to me, considering Tony finished his work (8 songs) in what, two months? (Timeline's a bit tricky to pin down.) Meanwhile VDP never finished his contribution by almost all accounts--CIFOTM says hi--and therefore wrote about ~8 songs worth of lyrics (CIFOTM wasn't done, Dada has no lyrics just vocal scat, OMP was two old standards, MOLC was an instrumental, GV was Mike, plus he denies writing anything for that I Ran vocal session or Holidays until 2003) in 6-8 months depending on which date of his first departure you believe. So, objectively, Asher was faster...unless Van wrote all his lyrics much earlier in the SMiLE sessions but then that brings us back to, what I think is the key question of their partnership, what the hell was he doing the rest of the time? Why did he need to stick around for half a year, never touching at least one of the major songs, and why was his departure considered such a crippling blow?

Brian credits VDP with the name "SMiLE." Huh, that's news. I notice Brian consistently likes to pawn off a lot of SMiLE onto Van Dyke, and vice versa. It's really weird. In fact, later in the interview, Brian claims the "nature" (specifically "fire/water," ie elements) aspect of SMiLE was all VDP's idea. That contradicts EVERYTHING and I don't buy it. Listen to that Nov 4 tape, or Smog, and tell me it wasn't Brian who was enamored with this concept. This wasn't just a one-off comment either, because Brian doubles down on it in answering a different question: "When we started SMiLE, Van Dyke told me that there were going to be nature elements like fire and water. He told me that. I didn’t know." As if VDP was in a position, or of the type, to dictate what would be in SMiLE to Brian fucking Wilson.

Dumb Angel was a title Brian came up with when he was stoned and thinking of "far out titles."

Brian didn't intend for any specific guy to sing any specific part. "I wrote it for myself." Seems like SMiLE really was, and should've officially been, a solo album.

When asked about the modular recording, he says: "I liked writing in pieces. That was easier for us. And I was tired of the pop song structure. I wanted it to be different and a departure. I would say when it was time to write a section, 'Hey, here’s a rhythm pattern.' Overall we coldn’t get through a whole song." That seems more plausible than "VDP taught me to do that."

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/brian-wilson-and-long-journey-smile-part-2-0 (https://www.analogplanet.com/content/brian-wilson-and-long-journey-smile-part-2-0)

This is maybe Brian at his most humble and honest I've seen. He flat out admits that some of his engineers like Chuck Britz technically deserved producer's credits for some of their suggestions. He also flat out admits that some of his production advances came from asking Larry Levine how Phil Spector achieved a specific sound and copying it. So, not every good idea Brian had was the mystical intuition of a genius, not to take anything away from him as a musician. (You have to learn from somewhere, right? The point is he implemented the tricks of the trade and built upon them.) Similarly, when asked what his favorite part of GV is, Brian answers: "Mike’s bass part was the one. Mike’s voice on it was the thing that sold me on it. Mike’s singing got us famous. Because his voice has a quality to it that goes hand and hand with the song. He was the appropriate singer for the song." Note how wildly different Brian's opinion is of Mike and the BB version of GV in this interview compared to the other one from 2005 with David Leaf. Literally the exact opposite--more proof Brian isn't a reliable source despite being the man behind it all, which is vexing at times. I suspect the hurt of the BWPS lawsuit had worn off by now and he was in a more generous mood.

Brian says of GV as a live performance: "I knew it could work on stage. I never thought 'How is this gonna work live?'" Admittedly this contradicts some of my speculation from earlier, where I thought maybe it was Brian worrying about how the SMiLE music would sound live, not wanting his magnum opus to be presented in a compromised state. This would suggest it wasn't an issue, though it's later-era Brian so take it with a grain of salt. Plus, it's possible the same was not true for the rest of the SMiLE stuff.

This is the first time I've seen Brian describe in detail why he felt he had to record different parts of songs at different studios: I like the bass sound of Western. And I like the echo at Gold Star. I like the tack piano at Sunset Sound and I like the vocal sound at Columbia. Each studio has its own kind of thing.For “Good Vibrations” we started at Gold Star studio with the verses. Then we went to Western studio and did the chorus background. Then we went to Sunset Sound to get the bridges, and then we went back to Western to get the second half of the bridge and over to Columbia on Sunset where they had an 8- track machine for the vocals. And that’s we went there because we heard they had an 8-track machine.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/brian-wilson-and-long-journey-smile-part-3-0 (https://www.analogplanet.com/content/brian-wilson-and-long-journey-smile-part-3-0)

I love where he says Smiley is a good album because it has GV on it, even though he fought against that song's inclusion. Also, it's vague and open to interpretation but the way Brian describes the group's resistance here, it could be interpreted that they did eventually go along with SMiLE, just not at first.

Brian lists the main reason SMiLE didn't come out as "we didn't finish any of the songs, just snippets." He says he released SMiLE songs on later albums because "[they] kept sticking with me." He also says he knows the material was good enough to be released at the time, particularly SU and Heroes, and that he considers Van a great collaborator. He also says he has "no regrets" about SMiLE. That's another unexpected quote--no regrets about how he didn't finish songs before moving on, none about how he treated people, none about the drugs, none about focusing too much on the single? Ok then.

Probably the most interesting part of the interview is Brian describing how they wrote SU, which admittedly discounts the theory I just threw out in my previous post: "Van Dyke and I wrote that at my house. It was about 11:00 in the morning, and we had a sand box with a piano in it and it took us 30 minutes to write it. Maybe an hour and a half. We just wrote it really spontaneously. We title songs after the lyrics. I never wrote a song on guitar or bass. We were trying to get across the feeling of children. How much their love means to people. Van Dyke Parks is the greatest lyricist I’ve ever heard. His lyric writing is poetic."


https://members.tripod.com/earcandy_mag/1priore.htm (https://members.tripod.com/earcandy_mag/1priore.htm)

In my sleuthing, I found another interview with Priore, predating BWPS, in Ear Candy. Here, once again, he claims to have had an unrecorded conversation with Brian where Priore asked about how SMiLE should be sequenced and Brian "confirmed" everything that he had already claimed in LLVS. (IE, that Wind Chimes is air, there was a four-part element suite, etc.) Gee, how convenient, right? Wow, Priore must be a magic man or something to have intuitively worked out the exact sequence from at least 479,001,600 possible permutations (that's 12 factorial, assuming Brian even stuck with a 12-track album) when, by all other accounts--including Brian when speaking on the record--a definitive sequence was never finalized until BWPS. (And even then, it's very debatable how much of that was Brian and how much was Darian--to say nothing of the fact that both they, VDP, Diane Rovell and the album's own liner notes state unambiguously that BWPS' structure is NOT vintage. Also, notice how BWPS is different from Priore's sequence.) I think Priore, worthy curator and hype-man though he may be, is absolutely full of sh*t on this and several other key points too. (That SMiLE was only one final mixdown from completion, Mike deliberately sabotaging the album, telling Derek Taylor to announce its cancellation, etc.)

Just look at this nonsense quote, which I'll repost in full, where he's asked a simple question and responds with a ridiculous rambling 19 (!) paragraph blob of nothing. He "can't cite exact quotes" because Brian wouldn't talk on the record. Ok, but can you paraphrase, summarize, editorialize what he said to the best of your memory? Apparently not. Can you clarify exactly what you asked at least? No. This is just classic gish-gallop and distraction. Priore spends so much time setting the scene of the interview, going off on these tangents along the way, but then doesn't say anything we would actually want to hear if Brian really did "spill the beans." And why should this random guy who "wrote" a book 20 years after the fact be so lucky to get the final answer from Brian, when apparently Marilyn (his wife), VDP (his collaborator), the BBs (his family), Diane (his secretary and dream girl), Anderle (his biggest supporter), Danny Hutton & Loren Daro (his best friends), Vosse (his personal assistant), David Leaf (his biggest fanboy who actually wrote a book), Mark Linnett & Alan Boyd (his archivists), Darian (his secretary in the 2000s), Frank Holmes & Guy Webster (his visual artists), nor any of the other reporters, friends and interested parties throughout the decades were ever deemed worthy of that crucial information? It doesn't add up.

Why do people take this self-important huckster at his word over all the other evidence (or lack thereof) I've meticulously poured over during this past month? Why has no one else dared to call Priore a liar yet--just because he wrote some books and helped keep the legend alive in the '80s? That's admittedly nice and all but it doesn't mean we shouldn't challenge this guy's fantastical claim to the secret blueprint for an album that BY EVERYONE ELSE'S ACCOUNT was never more than a disorganized series of semi-related modular pieces even Brian couldn't make complete sense of. If Priore's not inventing the interaction out of whole cloth, the most obvious explanation is Brian was just telling him what he wanted to hear (as Brian has been known to do to get people off his back his entire life) rather than revealing anything genuine. Priore just wants to feel special and force his shitty Americana/Element structure on the rest of us; he wants to be the guy who solved the puzzle and got Brian's approval, even if it means lying or (at best) taking a polite rebuff as gospel truth. Well, it may've worked for people in the 80s and 90s when we didn't have the big picture: the full sessionography, the lion's share of music, plus the internet to make independent research of ALL the other accounts so easy. But it's 2025 (almost the 60 year anniversary) and I say SMiLE is long overdue for a critical reexamination from a new, unbiased generation of fans. Priore's monopoly on the conversation is over.

But hey, I'm just one observer in all this, albeit a particularly dedicated and garrulous one. So here's the quote in full and you can decide for yourselves whether you believe his story or not. The reasons I don't include the following: 1) there's not enough detail to what's actually important but FAR TOO MUCH with these obnoxious asides, basically running out the clock of the listener's patience so they're less inclined to notice how sparse his account of the actual conversation is, 2) it contradicts so much information that I've uncovered, including testimonies in his own book that are so inconvenient he brushes them over as much as possible, 3) it's way too convenient that he just so happened to intuit the exact sequence down to the last half-song feel's placement, 4) giving a straight answer on this subject doesn't sound like ANYTHING Brian would ever say/do, because he hasn't before or since in 60 years.

E.C.: Via e-mail, we've privately discussed the people out there who try to discredit you and dismiss information that you got directly from the source. When I say 'source', I'm talking about Stephen J. Desper, Mark Linnett and Chuck Britz, the main engineers who worked on the Smile tapes. You've talked personally with Van Dyke Parks. You've been behind closed doors with Brian Wilson, in his personal, home office, talking about Smile without anyone else around to inhibit him. You had access to Andy Paley when he and Brian were collaborating. I think the main problem that I see is that you don't elaborate on who said what? Can you paraphrase what some of these major players in the Smile scenario said that verified some of your assertions?

---I mean, what did you get from the engineers? What did you get from Van? What did you get from Andy Paley? I'm not asking you to phrase it exactly, just point me in a direction. What pieces of the puzzle did these people give you, individually? Who was it that gave you clues about "the grand concept"? Who pointed you towards the clues about "link tracks"?

---In your half-hour private talk with Brian, what light did he shed? You mentioned that he got excited talking about Smile and that he actually opened up to me about things in his most innocent way. Also, that from Brian you got some "of the most important, missing info about Smile"! I'm sorry if I sound pushy, but I'm excited just hearing about it!

---And what insight into Smile did you get from Andy Paley?

Domenic: Primarily, I asked Brian about "Air" first. Who wouldn't? You have to keep in mind that musically speaking, you're talking to a really, really advanced individual in Brian Wilson. I saw him working on "Rio Grande" in the studio, and believe me, this guy, when he's in the studio, he is talking another language than you and I... He's so lost in various music terminoligies, from speaking in specifics about string gauge, to quarter-tones, to notations, to harmonic references and ideas that come so fast that it's a struggle for even the top professionals in the music business today to keep up with him. I mean, here's Lenny Waronker in the studio with him, a guy I really respect, his dad produced Martin Denny fer chrissakes.... he produced some great records of his own, my personal favorites being Harper's Bizzare, Rickee Lee Jones and Randy Newman stuff... all that aside, Lenny's one of the most important cats in the music business at that time, and he's taking time out of an unfathomably busy schedule to work with someone who was a major influence on him, Brian Wilson (and you can check that first Harper's Bizzare album for how obvious that is.)

Now here's Lenny, here's Mark Linnett, and here's Brian, acting real mellow, letting everyone do all the work for him in a sense, and they're all asking him what to do, like a greek god. All Brian has to do, in his own shy manner, is lay out a sentence or two of suggestion, and the whole room is scrambling to conceptualize what he's talking about and get it into the mix.... it was kind of bizzare to see this, when in the public eye Brian Wilson is depicted as incapable... especially in the period before that solo album came out, when all we ever really got to see was Brian as carnival bear on the Beach Boys traveling circus... and musically, he really wasn't giving the Beach Boys anything. I mean, somewhere inside, people like myself and David Leaf and several others knew Brian had it in him but was repressing it.

O.k. so by now he's really proved it, right? That album was pretty good despite all the weird politics that surrounded it, concerning Landy pressures and concerning the typical corporate rock environment these days... and last year, maddone, watching Brian sing the entire Pet Sounds album as well as he did, with an orchestra and the purist '60s sound that the Wondermints provided... I mean, it's all been about Brian coming out of his shell, and man, its still happening today... it's like he's peeling away years of repression little by little. Thankfully, time has been on his side, I mean, we're all lucky the guy is still with us after what he's been through.

Now, juxtapose that against what the typical reporter that Brian encounters brings to the table. I mean, he's interviewed by lame rock mag and newspaper/major mag & TV airheads all the time, who are really sensationalists for the most part... the majority of the press that Brian meets aren't sensitive to the concepts in this guy's head when it comes to the things he cares about in notation, harmonics and spiritual recompense in his music.

Then, you have to add Brian's sense of production, and his sense of knowing that millions of people will be hearing something he says on tape or in the media, be it on a record or in a newspaper. When I was privleged enough to have a private audience with Brian, to discuss Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art and Smile for one of the two top alternative Weeklies in the America, you can bet I wasn't gonna be wasting the rare opportunity. However, Brian, by the time I got to him, had been on too many interviews and really wasn't giving it up when I spoke to him in the living room. So after some discussion about this with his friends at the house, it was arranged that we go into his office, a smaller, more intimate room, and outside of anyone else's possible ability to overhear what we were talking about... very personal, very private.... but Brian sees a tape recorder, and immediately, well, who better knows the properties of tape than Brian Wilson... understand? So with the tape deck on, he clams up. As sharp as he is, I turn the tape deck off immediately because really, I don't want to hear Brian hedging, given this rare opportunity for him to open up about things like Van Dyke Parks and Smile. Frankly, I'd already gotten enough in the living room about Orange Crate Art for the story I was writing... but this story was about the Van Dyke Parks/Brian Wilson collaborative process, and I just kind of had to insist that he discuss the other one, professionally speaking.

So, here I am with that greek god of music, in his home office, and as soon as I press the stop button on the tape deck, you can just see the relief in his eyes.... instant relief. So here's Brian now, and whatever I ask, he's talking so fast, like an excited little kid, and man, I'm wishing I had this on the tape... but then again, he wouldn't have felt comfortable. So I beg him, after the difficulties in the living room, I say "Brian, this is just so great, please, would you mind if I turned the tape deck on?" And he says "Sure" but in his eyes, there it is again, that sense of fear.... and of course, once it's on, the taboo enters the conversation. I just said to him, "Brian, f*** this tape deck, we do better without it" and he relaxed again and opened up. So, at this point, I'm sorry, I can't give you or anyone verbatim quotes... but understand, this was Brian Wilson, talkin' all excited about Smile... something that he usually represses.

In some ways, I'd say that Brian is at his best when he feels he is getting away with something... and that was the vibe in the room when the tape deck was off. During all those years with Landy, you have to understand, that as soon as the bodyguards and the ambient videocams and microphones were out of sight, Andy Paley told me that Brian would get this way with him too...free... and that's when they were able to come up with musical ideas and all the fun stuff you can hear in the music. There's the absurd story of how "Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight" was mixed with headphones, because they didn't want Landy's "Surf Nazi" bodyguard Kevin to know what they were working on... because it was a song that Landy didn't approve of, or would have stole writing credits on... Brian and Andy brought the finished tune to Landy as a "surprise," and boy was Landy pissed off... Brian pulled that one off like a big game, and he got the last laugh. Landy didn't even want it to be on the album, he was so pissed off, but Seymour Stein came to the rescue and insisted that it be on there. But really, this was one of the ways that Brian could just do a song without the lameass Landy interfereing with his creative process. Hilarious story. So you see, Brian has to work very hard sometimes just to get into that free space, where he can be himself. That has gotten a lot easier for him, the more years he distances himself from the repressive attitudes of people like Mike Love and Eugene "E." Landy.

Now, once Brian realized that I was a person who really cared about what I was asking, concerning the music itself, and once I convinced him that I was speaking from the point of view of an alternative audience, for a top alternative mag (L.A. Weekly) that would cover things in an intelligent manner, he let down his guard. Mostly, I had to ask him about various sequencing things, especially about the Elemental Suite. I was able to ask him questions about things he said over the studio talk box in 1966, things that are now bootlegged... I was privy to hearing all that stuff as soon as it was dragged out of the vaults, so Brian knew at some point in the conversation that I was basing my questions on his own studio chatter from 1966.... and, that I had been made privy to hearing these tapes via people he trusted, so he couldn't bullshit me. Remember, he was still telling the press that he had "burned the tapes" back then.

There was a point in the conversation when he knew, man to man, that I wasn't buying the repressive stuff, and that I was a real cool head, as such... So he let fly, and all I can tell you is that somewhere, Brian has a passion for Smile that he rarely lets anyone see. He was looking through my book on Smile, it was right there on the desk when we were talking about all this stuff, and he especially loved the photo of himself sitting in the round chair, the one with the caption "Brian in the Round." Readers of this article should go back to their Smile books, page 53 (damn! sounding like a pastor here) and take a good look at Brian's eyes in that picture, he really loved that one, almost ripped it out of the book he was so excited...

So this conversation about Smile that I had with Brian in his office, it was specific enough for me to confirm a lot of the things that I had studied for years. He was able to shed light on what his concepts were, beyond the 1966 studio chatter, but man, we all wish that conversation was on tape. In 1966, he was able to do this kind of thing, and that's why the Smile book is filled with old articles. Brian opened up to Hit Parader magazine, in that article by Derek Taylor that starts off with "Brian Wilson is a genius, I think"... that's one of the best ones where you can read Brian talking about the notation of each voice in the Beach Boys, that's really what Brian Wilson is like when he's talking about music. Then there is really good stuff in the Cheetah article Goodbye Surfing, Hello God by Jules Siegel... again, Brian goes word for word on "Surf's Up" in there. In a sense, we all know this, it's in those old articles... Brian did this many years ago. Any active artist, uh, wants to move on, right?

But my belief, I strongly believe this, is that an artist should wisely choose the curator of his art. The artist is not the same person when he's in his 50s or 60s as he was when he was in his teens or 20s... I mean, take a look at your own self. Are you any different than you were 10, 20, 30, 35 years ago? For those of us who are old enough, think for a second how really different you were as a person in 1966. I was in the first grade, and all I cared about was watching shows like Hollywood a Go Go and Shindig!... and studying... I was a real bookworm, and the top student in my grade. I loved the process of learning. But then again, I was not an athlete.... yet... I didn't take on sports until I came to New York in the summer of 1971 and saw how much fun the fans in this city were... Knicks fans, Mets fans, they were a lot more fun than L.A. fans, I'll tell you that. Just last year, I played in a fast pitch, hardball over-30 baseball leauge, and batted an even .300.

So, we take on all kinds of things with us as the years go on, good things, baggage, everything. We all know Brian Wilson's biography by now... David Leaf wrote the only good one, but a lot of things have come out since then, and we generally know what Brian's been through of late. And he's gone through a jillion things since 1966. Los Angeles doesn't even resemble the place it was in 1966, and I miss it so much that I haven't lived there in over 10 years.... I'm in exile, I just have a hard time living in an L.A. that doesn't have a Pacific Ocean Park in Venice or a Tiny Naylor's on Sunset... or a new Subway that doesn't go through the entire west side of town because of the segragationist practices of the absolutely racist homeowner's associations that want to keep the 55% Mexican and 28% of Blacks who use public transportation in L.A. far away from their white-only world. Yet when I ride the Subway from Downtown to Hollywood, the intergration this Subway is bringing about is obvious. Who wouldn't want to make a 45 minute traffic jam into a 5 minute ride with someone else driving? Los Angeles used to be hooked up, a lot more like New York, when they had the old Pacific Electric "Red Cars." In 5 years, L.A. will have 50% of what it had when the Red Cars were happening, but the West L.A. homeowners have been a big problem, and it all boils down to segragationist practices that should have been abolished long ago by our Constitution.

Remember, historically L.A. politicians wanted the South to win the Civil War, and both Nixon and Reagan were L.A. creeps too. So you see, the same kind of repression that goes on with this kind of thing also infects the movie business, the TV business, the record business and other business, politics and life in Los Angeles these days as a whole. Some times people there don't want to see it, they lift their heads into an idyllic cloud. I guess when I was really little I didn't realize some of this subtle racism going on, but Mike Davis exposed some of it in his great book City of Quartz. I was aware of the Watts Riots in '65 and the Riot on Sunset Strip in '66, and especially the Chicano Moratorium in 1970, which happened in my neighborhood. Mexican Americans from all over the country came and slept the night before the Moratorium in the park directly across the street from my house... in this same park, I also saw Dick Dale & his Del-Tones, the Beach Boys and 4 years later Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin) performing at a Love In there, Barnes Park, inbetween sessions for their Cheap Thrills album. This Love In coincidentally happened on May 19, 1968, a year to the date that Brian passed on that last Smile session.

So as a child, I wasn't sheltered in L.A., plus my traditional New York/Italian parents didn't shelter as much as the white-bred parents of other kids I knew, so its differrent growing up. You get a head start. I gravitated my friendships to another Italian Amerian family, the Sabadins, and Jewish kids... Pasternaks, Gersteins etc. Then in '69 I formed a band with two Mexican kids and a guy named Beckner, who's dad was a doctor, a total swinger, and who wrote my brother out of having to go to 'Nam. And my father was born in Harlem, so we were punished if we ever brought any racist lingo into the home from the other kids. He fought in World War II against the facists, and in a way, I'd like to carry that torch by delving into the media and sticking up for these values which I learned from my parents, and which were advanced by my interest in what happened in L.A. youth culture during the '60s.

Today, the freeways are obsolete, so what can you do but live right in the center of Hollywood? You can't "get around" in that place anymore, and because of the subtle racism of L.A. business, crime is worse than ever there... My expatriate L.A. friends here in New York all feel safer here on New York streets than anywhere in L.A. these days... (but then again, none of us live in the Bronx.) Anyway, that's a total flip flop from when the Helms Bakery Trucks could be counted on to come into your neighborhood.

The point is, you and I are in a totally different space than 1966... and so is Brian Wilson. That's why this thing we're talking about, Smile, has to be approached strictly as art from another time and place. Brian Wilson may still live in Los Angeles, but we have to remember that Sandy Koufax lost something off his fastball a long, long time ago.

Ya know, I thought I made these references to Desper and Britz pretty clear in the notes to the book. Britz shed all the light on part one and part two of the "Heroes & Villains" 45. Desper explained very carefully how he put together "Surf's Up." Linnett played tapes, Paley played tapes, we can all hear Brian's instructions on the master tapes with our own ears. "This is a little intro" etc. I think that if you really look in the Smile book, the references are noted. I must not have done it well enough, but then again, my editors told me that "only the most anal people will even question that," but I kinda knew there would be people who would go batty anyway. And, this is before the internet existed, on the first edition anyway. The second edition, I really tried to footnote these references. What more could I do?

But I'll tell you, a lot of these people who sit around trying to discredit me also totally ridiculed me when I said that Brian's 1995 tapes recorded with Andy Paley sound like a cross between Elvis Costello's Get Happy LP and the Archies. As if the Archies are not "real music" or something. Well, Nick Lowe is one of the great modern producers who can get into a Spectoresque groove and still have it sound clear like Brian, as he did on Get Happy or the Pretenders "Stop You're Sobbing." But people really got mad when I equated Brian Wilson with the Archies. This kind of thing is just dense... if these people knew anything about Brian Wilson, they would know that "Be My Baby" is his favorite record, and I'll be damned if Jeff Barry didn't write both "Be My Baby" and "Sugar Sugar." Remember, the Archies sunshine pop is Barry's adaptation of a Beach Boys pop sound... Barry told me this at a Rhino party on the Santa Monica pier, next to the carousel, what could be more evocative. I can't wait until Kim Cooper & David Smay's book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth comes out this year (on Feral House), because maybe some of these crackpots will reassess their jaded opinion of something as cool as the Archies. They've definitely been influenced by Greil Marcus far more than Lester Bangs on that one. The '95 Brian Wilson tapes are just happy. Do we have a problem with this? He did these on his own, out of his own pocket with no corporate intervention. Personally, I prefer that stuff to all the other recordings he's done in the '90s. Without prodding from anyone, Brian Wilson managed to be hip on the '95 tapes in a way that his younger fan base deams of hearing him. It's a real shame that stuff is on the shelf.

My conversation with Brian, he just pretty much confirmed what we already know, or, what's already in the book. You know, people want the mystery to go on forever. But we have so many clues by now, I mean, yeah, there could be a new surprise every so often, but the bulk of discovery has already taken place. Lots of lyrics and sounds were tossed... that falls onto the "fascinating" disc, if you ask me.

^^^
^Emphasis mine. Just look at that nonsense. 19 paragraphs of misdirection just to get a little drive-by "oh yeah, he told me everything I think about SMiLE is right" comment in there. It's like he can't give a detailed memory of what they talked about because it didn't happen, but he knows if he only said what's in that last, short paragraph and nothing else people wouldn't buy it. There'd be so many follow up questions wanting details that his fiction would fall apart. So instead, he tries to lend his tall tale a sense of purpose and gravitas with all these belabored left-turns and contextual asides, overwhelming the interviewer so they think they heard an in-depth answer when really they didn't, and they're so exhausted after that text-dump they just want to move on. I don't believe a word of it. I did not go into this deep dive with the intention of becoming MORE antagonistic to Priore, in fact if you look at my comment on the thread discussing his interview with a podcast recently (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,28148.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,28148.0.html)) I was even giving him a lot of credit. In my first bout on the board a decade ago, I frequently bemoaned the unearned influence of the Priore Americana/Elements theory of SMiLE it's true, but I was hoping that I might gain more insight into why that was so popular if I sifted through all the data. Instead, I ended up confirming my initial misgivings towards him and his SMiLE sequence--in fact, he's worse than I ever thought possible. It's time people knew the truth, so I'm calling him out on this. Domenic Priore, you are a liar and your SMiLE mix is not only worse in terms of flow and thematic coherence, it's also much less likely to be historically accurate than the Americana/Innocence structure I've long since intuited to be true.