The Smiley Smile Message Board

I pick David Anderle's "SMiLE was the summation of Brian's intellectual preoccupations" or whatever it is.
It's not what I'd say (Anderle doesn't know that those preoccupations have a single source & purpose), but that's about as close as any explanations from people close to the events 66-67 get, IMHO.

Van Dyke Parks said that BW wanted to present something without explanation (see the Leaf DVD) and this
sure seems to hold true to this very day.

Anybody else have a summation that sums it up for them?

sort of a pan-patriotic, trans-presidential, american gothic kinda trip

 ;D

Paraphrasing here -- but, something like "wanting to do a whole album like, or in the manner of Good Vibrations."

I think Brian said that or was it Carl?  Who cares...that always summed it up for me.  Pretty open ended in terms of musical content -- and in terms of musical content, there is no one genre or purpose that could sum up Smile's music.  It was just that--"like Good Vibrations."  Fragments.  Whatever inspired him.  His love of music.  Connecting it all was loose and part of the game for him!

So, with that, I do think a lot of it was Brian's head music...or an intellectual pursuit.  Whereas Pet Sounds was him exploring the emotional and feeling side of being human.  Smile was Brian's time to explore things that interested him.

Our Prayer, while brilliant, always struck me as an intellectual exercise.  Aware of its own brilliance.  Although, I did listen to a clip on You Tube of someone playing Our Prayer on piano.  There's such a deep, beautiful emotion there that I forgot about.

The music of smile (not always the lyrics) are utterly and unstoppable-y brilliant.  Some of the lyrics are interesting, goofy, over-the-top.  But the musical score, its melodies and arrangements and composition are among the greatest music ever composed.  Ellington, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart.  It's only understood on that level. 

Well said.

I agree that it's symphonic notion... or rock concept album notion... comes together only in that it's such a wide variety of topics pulled in by the brilliance of the arrangements. The topics are all over the map. But, then again, so were the minds of teenagers and young people in 1966. Heady and tumultuous times... not unlike today.

Although, I think that Van Dyke's lyrics are superior to Mike's, I have wondered what might have happened if Brian allowed Mike to be the lyrisist for Smile. I really don't think that Mike was going to write about surfing and cars at this point. But considering what he did for GV, which were both poetic and commercial, he probably would have continued in that vain.

Not only that, but I guarantee that Mike would have put support behind Smile, if he were the lyrisist. With the BBs supporting him, perhaps Brian would've had the confidence to finish and release it!

But then it wouldn't have been as cryptic and cool. The always loved the voice that sang "Don't Worry Baby." Finding out that that voice sang lyrics that were as dense and strange as those written by Van Dyke... well it was a dream come true for me.

SMiLE?


Damn fine piece of hippie music.    We used to have favorite pieces of music to listen to when in certain alternative states  (other than the 50 known states, you understand).  Too bad this wasn't available at the time.  This would have fit in nicely along with a couple of classic moody blues  albums.

Wouldn't you agree?

By the time I came around to mind alteration, and it's soundtrack music... well, "Smile" was already bootlegged to the umpth degree, so it WAS a part of my acid music listening experience, right alongside all the late '60s classics.

For me the best summation of SMiLE is found on page 68 of Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!.... Vibrations - Brian Wilson Style from The Beat's Dec. 17th 1966 issue. Straight from the horses mouth...

And yeah, Smile has been a part of my soundtrack too...it sure is a grand slam, I'll tell you what. Ha, but I don't mind the bunt either.

"Smiley Smile" is one bunt I'd not want to be without, and for that reason alone, I'm glad "Smile" was abandoned. Now we get both versions.

Van Dyke's  "pan-patriotic" quote serves the Americana front well but fails to address Brian's stated direction for SMiLE (that being the religious & spiritual VIA LSD). What a distraction.

Brian's article for THE BEAT is a terrific SMiLE era piece & has some clues as to the spiritual/religious & vegetable nature of SMiLE. Not exactly a summation but a great slice of life from the "SMiLE is happening" period.

Here's the thing....

Does the lack of suitable explanations for SMiLE indicate that there is something else at work here?

Could it be that Brain Wilson & Van Dyke Parks are preserving a MYSTERY???

I'm gonna go in a completely different direction, and I apologize in advance for the possible over-simplification.

I don't think there is any message or mystery to SMiLE. I think Brian, in 1966, was in an ongoing battle with The Beatles, other "hip" groups, and himself, to produce something special, or something that was better than the current standard; one upsmanship if you will. Brian was still very competitive and ambitious at that time. And I believe Brian employed Van Dyke Parks to do just that. Brian wanted to do something cool and hip, and he found his man in Van Dyke. He needed Van Dyke.

I think they worked fast, I don't know how much thinking and plotting went on. They recorded a lot of music in a very short period of time. I believe that Van Dyke laid his lyrics/ideas on Brian, and Brian responded with his musical ideas. SMiLE is all over the place to have a unifying theme, mystery, or message. There's wind chimes and vegetables and trains and children and fires and cabins and vibrations and woodshops and....You can organize them into suites - I don't believe Brian and Van Dyke did in 1966 - but it appears to me that they were recording anything that was coming to mind, and a lot was coming to mind. Van Dyke has said that he didn't write any of the music, and I seriously doubt that Brian contributed much to the lyrics. So that's another reason I don't see a "message"; I think the two guys were more reacting to each others contributions. That's just my opinion...

I don't think you can under estimate the influence of drugs on the SMiLE music. I'm not going to detract from the lyrics and music, but I think some of it can be explained by the effects of substances. And the "trippy" vibe you get from some of the music could lead some to interpret it as spiritual. I mean, some of the music SOUNDS spiritual, but is it coming from Brian's spiritual side, or is it coming from the mellowing effects of the drugs? Maybe a little of both?

I'm not downplaying the depth of the music, or simply chalking it up to druggy music. I think the SMiLE era of 1966-67 produced possibly the greatest collection of music in the rock era. I have nothing but praise for it. I have listened to that stuff probably more than any other era, and I still don't get tired of it...

My summation of Smile is that it would have been a great pop album in the 60s, and eventually became a really, really good pop album in the 00s. Neither of those is an understatement: they're great compliments. But I see no reason to repeat press release blurbs or documentary quotes about it. It is what it is.

Oh, you're no fun. :police:

I don't know: I have a great time with me.

SMiLE's original illustrator, Frank Holmes, purposely infused meaning into his SMiLE contributions (he stated as much in an article for Open Sky).

Holmes was brought onboard the good ship SMiLE by Van Dyke Parks. Parks thought Holmes was the right man for the SMiLE job (and even mentionned Holmes in his original intro piece for the SMiLE tour program a few years ago).

If Frank Holmes was working in the proper spirit of things, then SMiLE is purposely infused with meaning.

Meaning or meanings? Is it possible, Bill, that the individual songs had meanings (of course), but didn't necessarily lead to a unified, purposeful meaning as a whole? I have a feeling I already know your answer....

Smile was just another pop album being made in 1966-67. Nothing more, nothing less. While it's become commonplace to glorify the LP as some kind of cryptic thing with an incredible reputation, it's not always such.

I do believe, however, that Brian, like Beethoven in his late years of true creativity, was going into deeply disturbing, fractured frames of mind musically. Some of the musical passages on Smile are among some of the most frightening I've ever heard. That muted trumpet in Child Is Father Of The Man, an eerie piano motif for the same track with the band chirping the chorus....wow. Parts of Heroes and Villains with the piano figures...and of course Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. Surf's Up as well....an apocalypse-themed lyric set to a beautiful melody. This stuff is so far out that I doubt it would have been received openly if it came out then. Truly scary stuff.

And it was the most bitter of ironies that this album came to be called Smile.

I agree, but at the same time, it is obviously a psychedelic trip ("anything that is happening right now is psychedelic", "psychedelicate", etc...) with a lot of subtle, beautiful things happening beneath the surface. I think there is more to Smile than the average 66-67 pop album, and yeah, it gets dark....but if it wasn't cryptic, why was Mike Love freaking out about things like over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfields? Bottom line for me is I do believe there is an underlying spiritual intent, albeit one delivered through a foggy paisley lens

Hey, maybe it's just me but I've always thought of Smile as, oh, a teenage symphony to God.  ::)

Touche'

The H&V stuff, is of course very ironic...obviously.  And it's Villianuous episodes, especially the instrumental "segment" that appeared on the GV Box---that is the most panicked, and freight-filled musical creation I've ever heard.  Man is that deeply spooky.

The title "Smile," in that context, is very ironic.  But I don't think its irony plays out to the close--Smile, ends with the belief that it's all going to be okay.  The "mmmmm" chord at the closing of Prayer, for example, it says "Smile!"  There are other ironies, as you have pointed out, but that's just good drama.

But I've never understood the "teenage symphony to God" thing.  A teenage symphony it is.  But "...to God?"  It's all-encompassing, I'll give you that...and there's the prayer that bookends it...but it's really more of a "teenage symphony about life and art.'"

 :smokin

"Smile" is like a piece of assemblage art. Between sound and vision, it's right out of the playbook of L.A.'s most famous movement of the '50s and early '60s.

Okay, so AGD said;

"Hey, maybe it's just me but I've always thought of Smile as, oh, a teenage symphony to God."

Good. So, for most fans we're back at the beginning. Aren't you tired of such games? Ho hum.

Look, there seems to be two themes that the major SMiLE composers seem to plug for the most part. Brian is the spiritual/religious guy and Van Dyke Parks is the Americana guy. At least this seems to fit Brian's original vision and Van Dyke's post SMiLE explanations.

Since Brian wasn't touring with the group during the Pet Sounds/SMiLE era he was pretty much USA bound. So if Brian was gonna take in a spiritual LSD experience it was going to happen in the USA.

If, as we're told, such an experience actually occurred, then perhaps such a setting (in the USA) played an integral part in the experience. Brian's experience would have been very place specific. It may be very likely that this is the "Big Sur" thing that David Anderle lays out for Paul Williams (except that Big Sur isn't likely to have snow during that time of year...especially THAT year with the temps being so hot).  Anderle said that Brian was "very aware of his surroundings" and that makes it likely that SMiLE encompasses this.

Van Dyke's suggestion that the SMiLE vision be expanded (as they had to come up with a whole album) to include the whole USA (very Beach Boys & anti-British Invasion) was okayed by Brian. So what we get is Brian's LSD trips infused (or is it confused?) with Americana.

The whole intended effect was to spur the listener's interest VIA the mystery & enable them to access a similar experience.

Juxtapose a man & and a mystery.

The result is the spiritual/religious experience...at least that was the result in BW's case.

Brian's experience would have been very place specific.

Yeah, the caverns of his mind.

Great post

I can't agree that Mike should have written ALL the lyrics, but if he'd been invited to contribute in a substantial way, yes, the thing would have most likely been completed.

I've said it a million times, Brian skewering the band into .... (other people's words) Brian the genius and those other untalented hacks" really f***ed up the band for good in so many ways.

I think of it (lovingly) as a Teenage Symphony to Odd.


This reflects both Brian's grandiose intent as well as the mental travails he went thru at the time.

Fragments about history, society  life.  :-D

Re: "Teenage Symphony to God"....  It's not the God part that trips me up.  If Brian said that is who it's to, well that's good enough for me. 

But since we're all getting technical, let's talk about "symphony".  From "The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary":  sym-pho-ny n 2: a large and complex composition for a full orchestra.

Just thought I'd throw that in there.  :)

Right-O! "Teenage symphony" is the operative term, since it's obvious it's not a "symphony"

You get the "symphony" thing cuz Brian's hero & imagined competitor, Phil Spector AKA "the tycoon of teen," was doing "little symphonies for kids" and Brian was working in the age when LSD was making it big & so Brian combined all of these competitive elements and came up with a "teenage symphony to God."

The "God" part of the equation is cuz the LSD experience was on that level every once in a while & Brian must have taken a direct hit.

Are you talking about H&V Intro? Does anyone have any thoughts about how this would fit with the rest of the song? I presume it would just go before the "I've been in this town .." start but it never really sounds right if you butt it up before the beginning of H&V. The only thing that does suggest these two 'songs' (one's an instrumental I know) belong together is the presence of whistles every now and then during H&V.

I suppose the other possibility was that it was the intro to H&V pt. 2?

Any thoughts on how the 'intro' would have segued into the main song then? Most people assume a finished Smile in 67 would have started with Our Prayer, followed by H&V, but if the freaky intro was added, Our Prayer into Heroes just doesn't work at all.

Edit: maybe the scary intro would have preceded H&V AND replaced Our Prayer as the intro to the album. Can you imagine how ironic a start to an album titled 'Smile' that scary intro would have been?! It actually seems more appropriate a kick off to Smile than Our Prayer in this context, imo - the sort of mischeivous joke that BW would have played at the time. I've always found the solemn Our Prayer followed by the comedic H&V a bit of an awkward transition personally.

If I recall correctly, the H&V Intro on the boxset is mislabeled. It wasn't meant to actually be an introduction to Heroes and Villains.

Right?

Delusions of grandeur can come from LSD or from psychosis or both.
If he was serious about a "teenage symphony to God" it was pretty darn grandiose. If he was pulling the interviewer's leg, it's pretty funny.

I never assumed that "Our Prayer" would've opened SMiLE. I know a stoned Brian suggested it during a recording session, and obviously it opened BWPS, but, as you suggested buddhahat, the solemn "Our Prayer" followed by the comedic "H & V" is a bit awkward. I actually like "Our Prayer" near the end of SMiLE, like it is on BWPS, but in its entirety.

Also, I don't know if the "H & V Intro" was mislabelled on the boxed set, but I really like it before "Heroes And Villains", even though I use it as an intro to 'Fire". Gee, it's nice to talk about SMiLE music again!

"Teenage symphony to God" is a great catch-phrase but clearly Smile is not that.  Brian has called it a "rock opera" but it clearly is not that either, there is no dramatic story.  As a concert work (which is how it was debuted upon completion) it would more properly be labeled a cantata (which can be secular or religious).  Possibly you could also call it an oratorio, insofar as it does have a spiritual evocation in it but no dramatic arc, akin to pieces like the "Messiah". 

I was slammed for using these high-falutin' labels in another thread - "why call it anything?" I was asked.   And no doubt when it was conceived it was only as a pop album to rival what the Beatles were doing in 1966.  On reflection, Iwould say the label does matter, since, as a live concert piece, Smile could someday be seen as a significant addition to the American music canon -  much like another famous composition, "Rhapsody In Blue", which we know to be one of Brian's favorite pieces of music.

I tend to put it at the beginning, but in mood it feels more akin to Surf's Up. The Vosse article where he describes Surf's Up closing the album followed by a short choral piece excited me as I thought he was describing Our Prayer, but as another board member pointed out, Vosse mentions 20/20 in the article and so surely if the choral piece he refers to was Our Prayer, he would have called it by it's name, or at least mentioned that it was on 20/20, along with Cabinessence. However, there are no other choral pieces in the Smile sessions so what piece was Vosse talking about?  Jules Siegel also describes a choral style piece. It was the last acetate that Brian played him when showcasing the music he'd recorded so far. The way Siegel describes it has to be Our Prayer, or a truncated version of it, and its placement at the end of Brian playing the Smile acetates seems siginificant - it seems like a logical closer to Smile. Anyway personally I think there's strong evidence that Our Prayer or a version of it was, after Surf's Up, to close Smile. 

As far as I know the title of Heroes and Villains intro on the GV boxset is the correct name for the piece and its association with Mrs Oleary's Cow is an assumption made by fans.

There is another choral piece: "You're Welcome".

Yes, Siegel described that last acetate Brian played him in October as a 30 seconds choral amen without words. "Our Prayer" was recorded in early October, "You're Welcome" in December, so OP makes sense, but who knows, perhaps it was something else?

I was disappointed that "You're Welcome" didn't make the cut for BWPS. I think it's the perfect opener.

I always fancied "You're Welcome",  at the end.

For those who are into meanings of SMiLE era songs, please help me out on this one.

"Well, you're welcome to come"..... Where? Anywhere? How about "You're welcome to come...on the SMiLE trip." Yes? No? Was it just a throwaway B-side?

In Brian's "auto-bio" there's a story about Brian Driving Al Jardine to the William Morris Agency the day after Brian had his enlightening LSD trip. Brian circles the block about 20 times telling Al about his great trip (trying to get Al to try it).

This story works well with "You're Welcome." The repetition of the song is like circling the four sides of the block repeatedly & the "well you're welcome to come" line is the invitation to join in the fun.

When I think of the wordplay, albeit minor, going on with "Well, you're well..., you're welcome. Well, you're welcome to come", I wonder if Van Dyke Parks had an uncredited hand in writing the chant?

Yes, exactly!  It will be.  It's hard to see it now, since it largely seems like it slipped right by our Miley Cyrus pop-focused-media...but you have to think about distant, distant generations rummaging through our cultural garbage.  They'll be looking for unique things with a solid base and a firm foundation to build on and study.  The things that are worthy of that degree don't always sit proudly and openly apparent to our, shall we say CNN viewing audience.

Brian Wilson himself is already emerging (in his own lifetime!) as one of "those composers."  That's pretty amazing given much of his life has been tabloid fodder and much of his music being famously "teen rock."  Those are immense barriers, but greatness knows no bounds.  The "CNN viewing audience" will perish, largely unaware of the greatness that they witness...or didn't.  :-\   :lol

I can't believe that folks believe this "Rhapsody In Blue" & SMiLE stuff. Apparently David Leaf's, Peter Reum's, and Brian's & Van Dyke's spin on things worked.

It would far more more realistic to situate SMiLE atop a list that would include the likes of The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators, The Fifth Dimension (the Byrds LP), Forever Changes, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and Sgt. Pepper's....

The fact That Leaf & Reum don't understand SMiLE doesn't make the work equatable to their fancified dreams.

And the SMiLE people who believe this stuff aren't all that different from the CNN crowd.

Well, fans (and that includes Leaf, Reum, etc.) would prefer to elevate SMiLE to a higher station instead of simply throwing it in with the rest of the mid-60s psychedlic pop albums. What complicates the matter is that the finished album was completed and released in 2004 so it was being presented out of its time period and a long way from the things that originally inspired the material.

Personally, I don't have any problem if someone thinks SMiLE is the next best thing to Gershwin's most recognized work. I also don't have a problem with it being evaluated alongside the best psychedelic pop music of the 60s. All of it is pretty good stuff!

My biggest problem with the linking of Rhapsody In Blue to SMiLE is not that the comparison is a poor one (and it is a poor one), but what really gets me is that the comparison advances an innacurate picture of SMiLE.

By comparing SMiLE to Rhapsody---SMiLE ends up being framed as a great composer's intentionally American masterpiece presented, for the first time, to a concert audience... & the rest is history.

Sounds nice but doesn't really work out because...

Gershwin's piece was meant to showcase new American music. That was its original purpose & its raison d'etre.

Not so with SMiLE which was meant to showcase Brian Wilson's new LSD inspired spiritual music (key word being "spiritual").

And SMiLE was meant for a vinyl debut. Live performances would likely not have been possible in '67.

And then there are other things;

Rhapsody was done in a hurry and premiered a few weeks after George started it!!! SMiLE took over 30 years to premiere.

Rhapsody was originally performed stateside, not abroad as in the case of SMiLE.

Uhh....okay.  I don't think I or anyone is comparing it literally to Rhapsody in Blue, in all the circumstances in which Rhapsody in Blue was created, presented, Brian had brown hair when he wrote Smile, Gershwin had blah-ditty-blah blah.

Smile is just a great work of American music.  It's an amazing composition.  It's Ellington.  It's Beethoven, Bach, Mozart.  Etc, etc.  It really is.  I don't think that's a stupid comparison.  I can't speak for the intentions of David Leaf's film and point...but yeah...I think it would be sophistry to NOT evaluate the best music that was created by Brian Wilson with the best music created throughout history.

Add to that the fact that he wrote, performed and produced these "works of art" in the same manner than Picasso performed and produced his own work.  The same way Sinatra performed and arranged his best concept albums.  That adds another level altogether.

Museum quality  s h i t  man.  That's where I am at.


Not important.   :lol

Not so with SMiLE which was meant to showcase Brian Wilson's new LSD inspired spiritual music (key word being "spiritual").

All due respect, Bill... you've zero'd in on that notion as being the underlying motivation of Brian Wilson. But the lyrics of Van Dyke Parks point to something that is uniquely American, and that will continue to be one of Smile's great attributes.

Let's face it, no one's comparing Smile to Rhapsody in Blue but Beach Boys fans. Sure, you're free to elevate it to the pantheon of greatest musical works of the XXth Century. It's all good. Me, I think Smile is a good pop album written by Brian Wilson, with some fantastic material and some that sounds underdeveloped. Not in my Beach Boys / Brian Wilson top 3. Just my opinion.

To me, "Smile" took things outside of Brian's writing being more incidental, and into real reflective territory. Maybe that was largely the influence of Van Dyke, but it makes it stand out all the more.

As far as "Smile" being compared to "Rhapsody in Blue" only by Beach Boys fans... I don't know. Classical fans have not looked into the merits of rock that often anyway. That said, Philip Glass has gone on record praising "Pet Sounds" as a unique piece of music, influencing and transcending its genre. Also, no one disputes that "Sgt. Pepper" will likely be in the league of "Rhapsody in Blue" a hundred years from now. And I think "Smile" is better that "Pepper."

Let's be fair, pop music fans don't often go beyond the "that Bach dude is cool" level either.


Yeah, the Time-Life History of Music. Don't forget to include "Never Mind the Bullocks" and "What's Going On" in the basket. But I suspect that when someone compares Smile to RiB, it's a uncompromising way to imply that Smile is above "pop music". But I've been wrong before.

What people do not see is that Van Dyke Parks' lyrics ARE part of Brian's spiritual SMiLE plan.

If you read Brian's interpretive explanation of VDP's "Surf's Up" lyrics (in Jules Siegel's article) you'll find that the explanation ends with enlightenment, God, and a children's song, the song of the universe. Sound's like "Surf's Up" has something to do with some spiritual matters.

"Vegetables" was written because Brian wanted people to get into such things because they are "an important ingrediant in spiritual enlightenment." Sounds like a spiritual goal here. And what's so American about "Vegetables" or "Wind Chimes" (which VDP has also taken some writing credit for)???

Brian had his "fire" and "fighting" LSD trip (#2 in his bio) which figures to be influential as an inspiration for SMiLE via the "bio" as well as Brian's comments to journalist Tom Nolan in which Brian noted what's behind his new spiritual music direction.

So in "H & V" we get the fighting bit (Brian even wanted to record a live barroom fight) as well as some laughter (which Brian felt could prompt a spiritual experience---see Vosse in the SMiLE DVD) as well as some fire ("fanned the flame of the dance") as well as some very spiritual "death and rebirth" (as in ego-death and being spiritually reborn...as a 'child') which comes through in VDP's lyrics "the rain of bullets that...brought her down...but she's still dancing."

Also Brian's #2 LSD trip happened in 1965 (see bio) and he had the ego death thing happen. So VDP's line about "at 3 score and 5 I'm very much alive" one can see how this applies to Brian, 1965, his spiritual LSD trip, as well as his "ego-death" but not actual physical death.

All of this stuff is spiritual in Brian's eyes. It's brought forward by Van Dyke Parks' lyrics, and it's misunderstood by the public because it's intentionally presented as a mystery/riddle.

Let's be fair, pop music fans don't often go beyond the "that Bach dude is cool" level either.

No doubt. But there are always exceptions to every rule.

Yeah, the Time-Life History of Music. Don't forget to include "Never Mind the Bullocks" and "What's Going On" in the basket. But I suspect that when someone compares Smile to RiB, it's a uncompromising way to imply that Smile is above "pop music". But I've been wrong before.

I think you are right... that's exactly what they are trying to say, and I think "they" are correct. It's one of those rare examples that DOES transcend the genre. Sort of like Myazaki with anime or Neil Gaiman with comic books.

And what's so American about "Vegetables" or "Wind Chimes" (which VDP has also taken some writing credit for)

Fair enough, Bill. But how could you gloss over the astute American references in "Heroes & Villains" along the way to your zen-conclusions? Are we supposed to ignore the lyrics in "Do You Like Worms" and "Cabinessence"? Or the campire Americana of "My Only Sunshine"? Or even the notion that VDP himself has put forth that it was directly American -- historical as well as contemporary?

It's great that you are trying to document Brian's LSD trips and his travels to Big Sur and Lake Arrowhead in 1966, but in doing so, you've weaved a tale connecting the music to Brian's real life that is so far removed from hard evidence that at times it directly condradicts what the creators of that music themselves have said.

Brian & Van Dyke aren't going to admit to what they were up to!!! That's not what SMiLE was about...you don't present the purposely unexplained mystery (in much the same fashion as the unexplained mystery was personally presented to BW in late 66) and then explain it. Brian didn't explain it to the Beach Boys, Anderle or any of the Vosse posse, or to his wife, or to the press, or in liner notes, or to Todd Gold. That's why nobody can tell you what SMiLE is about. They can't explain it even though they were closest to it (and that's the ultimate point of the original post of this thread).

Glad you mentioned "Cabinessence." Once again we have the "fire" stuff from Brian's #2 trip with the "fire mellow" and "light the camp." But this time instead of the fire engines from #2 trip were get the "Iron Horse" (since we're at Lake Arrowhead were, in the vast past, the train helped build the dam). Maybe the train is as red as a fire engine a la the train Brian & the Beach Boys posed on with BW dressed in psychedelic red (seen on the "Sloop John B" sheet music (I seem to recall).

The "timely hello" line matches the description of his first trip as in his bio. Brian mentions there being something sacred about the "hello" that greets one prior to dropping acid.

So the train in "Cabinessence" is also a metaphor for the fire engines of trip #2. The "who ran the iron?" backing lyric heard on some bootlegs implies "heat" as does "home on the range" as in stove. Actually you can see this in Frank Holmes' depiction for "Cabinessence." There's a big "range" in the picture.

Phillip Lambert, in his book on Bri's music, musically links the "home on the range music" and "Mrs' O'Leary's Cow"(which is yet another fire reference).

So as you can see by this post & my prior one that I'm linking both "Heroes & Villains" and "Cabinessence" as well as "Mrs.O'Leary's Cow" to Brian's second trip. It is, at this point, interesting to note Steven Desper's claim that "'Heroes & Villains' and 'Fire' are mystically related in Brian's mind" (this claim can be found  VIA Priore in the revised LLVS).

Here's another one.....Dennis Wilson was present at the writing of "Surf's Up" (see "bio" and/or talk to Mr. Stebbins about this) and Dennis further inspires the rivalry between the BB camp & the British Invasion. So I think that the epic warlike images in "Surf's Up" have, on some level, something to do with this.

Also Dennis' presence may have inspired the "hand in hand line" as Brian & the BBs join forces, "some drummed along" is a 'drummer' reference, and "to a handsome man & baton" is Dennis (the sex symbol of the group) with his drumstick!!!

"Are you sleeping Brother John?" is the "I'm Only Sleeping" Lennon being asked if he's going to be caught sleeping, as the BBs have a proper answer for this Invasion stuff!!! Also of course "I'm Only Sleeping" is a cool LSD song. Folks typically only tend to pick up on the "Frere Jacques" reference.

Forgot to mention that at the end of Brian's trip #2 he somehow manages to get in his car & drive.

This works well disguised as the "truck driving man" in the "vast past" (as Brian went back in time in trip #2), "the last gasp" (as Brian ego-died in trip #2), "catchin' onto the truth" (via LSD),"catch as catch can" (as Brian drove to Marilyn's house & tried to embrace her sister).

When listening to Beethoven's 9th -- do people truly need to know he was deaf at the time?  No.  It doesn't matter.  Great things rise above their circumstances.

As time rolls on, hundreds of years from now, Smile will be discovered and rediscovered by people interested in great music.  They will find it.  If it is truly great music -- it will survive and rise above its time and creation. 

All those circumstances will be inconsequential to its inclusion in the pantheon of great music.  We're not privileged to know what music will survive, but even in Smile's unreleased form...it survived.   ;)

Yeah this one's an odd one for me too.  It's one of the few Smile bits that actually got released.  To me, it does sound like a tossed-off throwawy.  Was it the "you're welcome" for getting Brian to actually "finish" and release H&V?  Was it even a true "smile song?"

I'd picked "Rhapsody In Blue" as a comparison point for Smile for two reasons: (1) musically, it blew the roof off in its day and (2) it is a favorite piece of Brian's.  I'm not saying it IS "Rhapsody in Blue" or that Gershwin (or Ellington or Copland) are eclipsed or inferior.  Did Smile blow the roof off in 2004?  Maybe in time it will be seen as such, that is my hypothesis.  Certainly most any major composer or music historian working today (Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams) will tip their hat to it and to Brian's talents for orchestration and counterpoint.

Nice to see everyone finding all that deep "spiritual" stuff in the lyrics too!  All this doesn't make Smile better than everything else, it's just that I think using classical music terminology to describe it is justified here, more so than most "important sixties albums".

P.S.: prior to the 2004 debut, an English chuch choir had adapted "Our Prayer" to be sung to the liturgical invocation "Kyrie Eleison".  So when Brian said he'd write songs people would pray to, turns out he was right, crazy as it (and he) sounded at the time.

You want to use some other cultural icon song as a comparison point?  "Satanic Majesties"? "Mairzy Doats", maybe?  Fine with me.

I did my label-placing on the basis of Smile's 2004 debut as a finished concert work.  The 1966-67 snippets are NOT the finished concert work.  They are a fascinating listen and a must-hear for any student of BW, though.

Prefer using other pop albums (Sgt. Pepper)  or songs (What's Going On, Rocket 88) as high-point cultural references?  Sure, I guess, but I wasn't talking about Smile to the exclusion of such other items.  Not my yob.

Now to muddy things further: no doubt you've heard of bands like the Fab Faux doing note-for-note concert performances of Sgt. Pepper and the White Album?  As if they were already part of the classical music canon, played on "period" instruments?  (In this case, instruments that replicate the sounds of the original recording "period").   And then there's Philip Glass's "Low Symphony" based on the David Bowie/Brian Eno LP.  So what's classical music now?  

Classical music WAS the popular music of its day, and has become the catch-all moniker for orchestral or concierto music. If you are talking about the second half of the 20th Century, in terms of classical, I'd say that avant-garde was the classical of its day, inlcuding minimalism, musique conrete and other sub-genres (the heavy-hitters being John Cage, Lamont Young, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Terry Riley, et al). After the '60s, I have no idea where classical music has really gone, other than Philip Glass's extremely popular expansion/continuation of minimalism. But that's me not really knowing.

It DOES seem that some artists in the pop/rock idiom have crossed over into that level of appreciation, but maybe that's just me being a rock fan and wishing it so. I don't think so, though. My hunch is that, a hundred years from now, composers like Lennon/McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, Ray Davies, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell will be remembered as pop classicists, capturing a time and place as good as anyone working in any idiom.

Has Steve Reich ever commented on Brian's work?

By all means, muddy away!  The unique thing about the last hundred years is that we have more than just manuscripts and sheet music.  We have more than the surviving recordings using those period instruments.  We actually have the "piece" -- the performance.  The Monet on the wall.  The recorded work produced by Brian Wilson, Pet Sounds. 

Smile is even further unique in its pop-incarnation because it's the "sgt pepper" that doesn't have its single monumental performance on wax.  It somewhat side-stepped its time already by being a "work" BEFORE it became a "performance."  So...it should make a b-line to the pantheon of great music, by avoiding that "perfect singular state" issue.

Oh, things do happen for a reason.

I love having the '66-67 Smile sessions on LP, having Smiley Smile and having the 2004 album. All are unique. It's amazing how this album has been a part of Brian's life process. Also, all the stuff that ended up on various albums through the years. The music he thought ruined his life ended up being sort of his life-story. The music and lyrics are about a journey, and what a journey that man has been through.

I listen to pop music from 100 years ago. I just think of it as "pop music from 100 years ago".

Me too.  And the big pop stars of 100 years ago; Billy Murray, Henry Burr, etc...were freak machines (seriously).  Duplicating a single performance - 100s of times, as you probably know.

It all changed when Louis Armstrong (etc...) created Jazz.  Then it became more about the performance that got waxed.  That's when the performance became a "work" just as valid and important as the composed "work."  And independent of the composition, which often served merely as the launching pad, or canvas, if you will.

Things changed again thanks to guys like Brian who just weren't creating compositions, then performing and taping performances.  They were actively making the finished recording a sonic painting.  The whole being several layers deeper than "pop music of 100 years ago."  So it's not the same thing as that old music at all.

That old stuff has its own unique vintage that can never be duplicated.  Like an old photograph.  But there was rarely anything "artistic" in the recording.  The performance, perhaps...but not the recording.

The things we talk about and debate now will be talked about and debated a hundred years hence. There will ALWAYS be this Beach Boys/Beatles comparison. There will ALWAYS be the questions of what SMiLE "could have been" and the debate on whether BWPS is definitive or not. Love You will ALWAYS be controversial and brilliant.

Yes.  It's hard......impossible to know...and fun to imagine... 100years from today exactly how thing will be sorted out.


As for what will remain controversial....  170 years ago... slavery was controversial.... so too was abolishing it ....But now, slavery.... easily more controversial. 

so.....those things might get sorted out too.  For now... we have the luxury of scoffing at our ancestor's ignorance....


...so too we have the luxury of choosing which side we'll be on for today's controversy...  a stance few will remember... so enjoy!


 :smokin

I listen to pop music from the tin pan alley period, especially after having a few. Songs by Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Warren, and Arlen really have the care & attention that the listeners of musical compositions deserve.

Geez guys, my last batch of SMiLE posts prompted no responses. But that isn't going to stop this SMiLER. Only the truth shut me up.

You like to separate yourselves from the CNN crowd only to totally buy the truth as presented by the mass media. What radicals. Okay, back to the follow-up to PET SOUNDS.

If SMiLE was to be just as much a jump above PET SOUNDS as that record was above SUMMER DAYS.......

PET SOUNDS was lyrically a single melody. It was very direct. The backing tracks had melody placed upon melody placed upon melody. It was multi-layered in its complexity as far as the backing instrumental & vocal parts were concerned.

One way that Brian could trump this musical triumph (PET SOUNDS) was to add a similar depth to his lyrical component. This was the one aspect of his art that could be expanded upon.

"Vegetables" could become "Vega" and "Tables" thus adding layers of meaning to his lyrical voice. Cannabis could be "Cabin Essence." Such an approach lyrically would infuse layers of meaning atop his multi-layered musical backgrounds.

In this way SMiLE would be yet another step forward adding a complexity to the lyrical that was previously applied to the musical.

Plus you have to also add in all of my usual "far-out" theories.

This all adds up to make SMiLE the artistic jump that Brian claimed it was back in the day.

If Pet Sounds was about the spirituality Brian felt in his heart, then SMiLE was about the spirituality Brian felt in his mind.

FANTASTIC statement Bill. I really agree with that!

That Smile lyrical concerns were more intellectual than the emotional concerns of Pet Sounds is pretty obvious - it's Van Dyke's approach vs. Asher/Wilson's.

While I appreciate Bill's LSD interpretation of Smile, it's way too reductive - everything in it doesn't need to refer to a trip or enlightenment on acid.  Smile is more multi faceted than that.  It is very consciously American in subject matter and in musical reference - which to me does give the piece similarities to Rhapsody in Blue.  But I don't like that ini order to make a pop music piece more "important" critics and boosters like Leaf have to try and compare it to classical music.  Putting Smile up there with the best and most ambition pop music ever created (Sgt Pepper, Forever Changes, Blonde on Blonde, Tommy) is more than adequate praise.

I don't think all of Smile being representative or referential to LSD was Brian or Van Dyke's intention, even though connections can be made and are fascinating to note.  And the elitist notion that LSD enlightenment is the "secret key" to Smile and anyone who doesn't get "the truth" is a CNN person or simpleton is just obnoxious.  Just because you think Smile means one thing, Bill, doesn't mean other interpretations can't be valid.  The idea that Brian and Van Dyke have been keeping the "truth" of Smile secret and hidden smacks of conspiracy theory paranoia - maybe Brian and Van Dyke were kidnapped by aliens and through a "mind meld" they both achieved enlightenment, but they disguised this enlightenment as being "LSD" - I mean this isn't far off from what Bill's proposing.  I just don't think the meanings are that secret - other than the fact that Van Dyke's mind works in what to others may seem obscure ways, but are obvious to him (the bicycle rider motif for example).

Maybe I'm way off base here, but I always considered it a sexual invitation.

"If Pet Sounds was about the spirituality Brian felt in his heart, then SMiLE was about the spirituality Brian felt in his mind."

I believe you are probably spot on, William my man. I'll bet a donut that's the problem Brian had with it, in the end it didn't have enough "heart" for the ol' b-dubster.

Say hi to Margaret.

 :o I've thought about "You're Welcome", oh, about a hundred times in the last twenty years. I've never associated it with that! But, who knows, you may be right. I still think "You're Welcome" is the perfect SMiLE opener.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought of that...I don't think that's the case, but it has crossed my (apparently dirty) mind.

OK, now I'm re-sequencing Side B of Smiley Smile into Sexy Smile:

1. Gettin' Hungry
2. Good Vibrators
3. Well, You're Welcome To Come
4. She's Going Bald
5. Wind Chimes
6. Whistle In
 :3d 

Dear BR,

Thanks for your post.

I have say that I totally respect where you are coming from, and I totally respect you as well, and that you are completely correct in what I assert. You are spot on.

When SMiLE was created, at that time, you do have to admit that in order for Brian Wilson to be atop the pop world & keep pace with the Beatles, Brian would have to present the world with a largely LSD based LP. Don't you think that that was what "the moment" demanded?

I mean. If all the Brian Wilson hype is to be believed then Brian was truly ahead of the Fab 4 & SMiLE was to beat them to "the moment" which turned out to be the release of Sgt. Pepper's & the "summer of love." If that moment could have instead been about SMiLE, then SMiLE (if we're to believe the hype) was equally, if not more, suited to be the LSD album for the generation.

From all the readings I've done on LSD & the sixties there is no finer experience than the religious LSD experience. It seems a likely probable scenario that Wilson had such an experience. Such an experience fits with his claims from that period.

The Americana stuff which is a glorified aspect of SMilE, may actually be due to a common LSD experience--that being the "going back in time " bit. If Brain were to combine the location of his LSD experience with this "going back in time" thing, the result could indeed be SMiLE's Americana styled lyrics and musical mood. Clever as well as multi-layered, meaningful, and deep, such lyrics and music would be the source of constant debate as to its true meaning.

True, other interpretations are likely valid in the minds of those who present them (this includes me) but Brian Wilson knows what SMiLE is about (he has never stated differently. Note that such a statement of SMiLE cluelessness would have been a convenient "out" of his persistent being questioned about SMiLE nightmare).

I honestly think that Brian had an LSD trip where he contemplated a "riddle" (a common sixties practice) and had a religious experience. SMiLE is essentially that experience in riddle form (thus capable of inspiring a similar experience).

As far as Brian & Van Dyke keeping this all a secret, they've done a great job, don't you agree?

Let me ask you this. Where did Brian's religious LSD experience take place?

Here's a clue...not even his closest friends know. Why not? What's the problem? Heck, the SMiLE era "best friends" don't know what's up. Why not? Van Dyke will fill us in right?

I mean, if you had the greatest experience of your life at some place you'd let folks in on it wouldn't you????

Okay, so where did Brian Wilson have his super duper great religious, spiritual LSD trip? Check all of your sources and let me know. I'm waiting.

I'm not sure the place where Brian had his religious LSD experience is all that important - the LSD experience transcends place (and time) - whether it was at a friend's house or his apartment or at Big Sur or wherever.  LSD is about the internal, not the external.  I wouldn't extrapolate from that that the place was a big secret that Brian doesn't want to talk about - again, a little too much conspiracy theory angle for my taste.  If Brian remembers, I'm sure all someone would have to do is ask him - I feel Brian is mostly without guile and is if anything brutally honest in interviews.

I don't think the moment demanded Brian's LP be about anything specific other than being groundbreaking and progressive, just as Pet Sounds had been.  Brian was interested in pop art, mysticism (there's an interview when he talks about Sufism, isn't there?), films, avant garde music, Dylan, the Beatles, and other cultural innovations at the time.  LSD was just one part of the scene.  There's a difference between being inspired by LSD (and let's not forget Brian's use of marijuana and amphetamines) to make an album that's concerned with spirituality (which is a far more inclusive subject than just LSD) and trying to write an album specifically about LSD and your own LSD experiences.
 

It has been pointed out that David Anderle's discussion of The Elements was essentially a description of Brian Wilson's spiritual LSD trip. Anderle summed it up as, "...the whole thing was this fantastic amount of awareness of his surroundings. So the obvious thing was to do something that would cover the physical surroundings."

So then The Elements, according to Anderle, were to "cover the physical surroundings" from what is assumed to be Brian's spiritual LSD trip because Brian had this, "fantastic amount of awareness of his surroundings."

This would seem to indicate that the location of Brian's great LSD trip may indeed have had a significant effect upon SMiLE.

Years ago Bob Hanes told me that folks have detailed just about every move that Brian made during the SMiLE era. He also told me that the Pet Sounds promo film was "Big Sur." In other words, when Anderle spoke of Big Sur it actually wasn't Big Sur but rather "the mountainous region above Lake Arrowhead" as Derek Taylor pointed out in his book.

So if you put this info all together you get the idea that the location IS important and that the location was likely NOT Big Sur.

Wow! Your post now adds a new dimension to the meaning of the title She's Going Bald - The Beach Boys were so far ahead of their time that this 1967 title was an ode to what was to become modern female grooming in the 2000's.  She's Going Bald song credits go to Brian, Mike, and VDP, but I think it's fair to blame this connotation on Mike, with publicity for the title in the 2000's provided by a few well known "overexposed" female celebrities.