The Smiley Smile Message Board

Has anyone ever wrote about how listening to the Beach Boys (certain albums/songs) can have such an interpretation/inspiration while under the influence?

Obviously, the Smile tunes have their moments   ;D

*or more so, does anyone have expierences they'd like to share?!!?   :o

Never experienced the BeachBoys this way.   Although I think some of the more mellow songs of the Wild Honey /Friends era would have been nice on the downhill side of the lysergic. ;)

A source very, very close to me says that albums like Sunflower and Holland actually sound better on acid than the Smile stuff.  That's not surprising.  Smile was dark and ambitious :brian

I believe there is a whole thread dedicated to it here somewhere. I have vague recollections of the early days of this version of this board. But I could be wrong. I drink a lot and don't pay much attention.

awesome!


yeah, pretty much Pet Sounds - Smile - Smiley - Wild Honey - Friends are vibes

Friends is so mellow, i love it

The Beach Boys became an obsession after I stopped doing drugs....been about 3 and a half years now...don't need any vices to enhance this beautiful, comforting, and intelligent music... :3d

Me too, I haven't done drugs for years on end(other than alcohol, which I do with ritualistic regularity) but I have to admit, the thought of  listening to Sunflower or Friends stoned  on acid and pot does sound...appealing.

Since my drug use was limited to pot and just one weekend no I haven't heard the Beach Boys stoned. I can't remember because it was too long ago really, but I do remember the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows seeming to go on forever.

Sometimes the most delicate music can best enhance an altered state...be it chemical or simply a meditative state....
One should stroke the senses rather than assault them....IMHO.

That is why I would choose Friends...Even some of Pink Floyd's music was delicate and went down well on those occasions.  I'm thinking of "If" from Atom Heart Mother, Grantchester Meadows from Ummagumma and so on...

And a couple of the earlier Moody Blues albums were light as a breeze and soft as a pillow.

You sound like me. Pot makes 'Tomorrow Never Knows' go on for eternity! And for me, that was a good thing.

I've only smoked pot a few times, and unfortunately, the Boys weren't playing in the background. Would have made it more interesting, though.

You know what I may have played Smiley but I just cannot remember now. Really it's the Beach Boys that kept me from getting into drugs. Seeing Brian and Dennis in the sixties and then watching them in the eighties was enough to freak me out!

You would think SMiLE would be the best to listen to stoned. Actually, I find Friends & Sunflower to be the best in that situation, personally, esp. "Passing By".

Same here, that's a much better 'anti-drug' message than anything I ever learned back in school...

Yeah, Brian is why I will never try acid.

My experience is that with the right amount of alcohol, Summer In Paradise is a true pop classic. Moreover, M.I.U. is better than SMiLE in that state, and so is L.A.
Looking Back With Love requires about 1 litre of pure unadulterated Vodka. But then, it's a true corker, much better than anything by Sinatra, for instance. Yes, with Vodka, LBWL is the finest singer-songwriter confessional literary masterwork ever made. Blows James Taylor and Neil Young to pieces.
So, all in all I am not sad. Even the lowest points in the BBs canon can be raised to 9/10 stars level with booze.

i agree, alcohol makes those albums better, like Carl singing drunk in concert sounds better drunk   ;)

Great album to be drunk to: 'Psychocandy'. Honest.

I can't really speak about listening to BB music in a chemical state but the meditative one I can.  I teach Pilates classes and obviously the music is pretty Beach Boys heavy, either in the mixes I make specifically for class or if I am lazy that week and just listen to an album.  The best is Sunflower.  When you are doing all that deep breathing and have the body awareness then All I Wanna Do comes on it absolutely takes you to another place.

I totally believe that in All I wanna Do....there's some deep vibe comming from it, it can only be found within yourself, I found it!  ;D

I doubt you'd get the same experience when doing pilates to "All I Want To Do".

 :lol That's for private lessons only

Where do I sign up?! :lol :lol :lol
Just kidding!!

I take Sunflower and Surf's Up on my MP3 player when I go for a walk...it is very relaxing and just walking while looking at the sky and nature while listening to Feel Flows is wonderful......

i can imagine Feel Flows and it's magic with the sky....especially at night...

i have an Adult Child mix that's fun to listen to while jogging....of course some of those songs are so 'healthy'


im gonna make a playlist of BW health songs, good stuff to run to

This is really weird, but I used to get high everyday and, well, M.I.U. was my favorite Beach Boys album for awhile. I can't explain it, I really can't, and I never really listen to it now. Actually, thinking about it more now, I made a mix of the best Brian Wilson songs from M.I.U. and Keepin' the Summer Alive, and that's what I listened to morte. "Hey Little Tomboy", "Santa Ana Winds", and "When Girls Get Together" were probably my biggest stoned guilty pleasures. "My Diane" and "Goin' On" were didn't make me feel quite as guilty (those rising harmonies in "Goin' On" when you're high... wow). Smoking weed actually convinced me that some of the M.I.U. songs would be absolute classics had they been mixed properly. For example, "Pitter Patter" has some really interesting elements to it that you can barely hear. It's all drowned out by the vocals and that driving bass sound the Beach Boys fell in love with in the late 70s (listen to "Pitter Patter", "It's a Beautiful Day", and "Almost Summer" as a trio - it's a three piece pocket symphony, all connected by the bass playing, kind of like the "Song for Children" -> "Child is Father..." -> "Surf's Up" bit on SMiLE, but better?). "Little Pad" is great high, another one of my favorites. A 60s version of "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" that used to be on youtube was magical. That's about all I remember though.

Would've probably killed me, too.

I have never done drugs, but am wondering if anyone has heard Our Prayer while high? Surely that would sound pretty good compared to some of the M.I.U. tracks etc..?

Well, it's been years......but I would imagine Our Prayer as well as Feel Flows, Surf's Up while high would be interesting....in a state of "enlightenment" I would guess the music would be huge, engulfing, wrapping the mind in its aura...wow...I did say it's been years?  I feel like I just had a flashback  :hat :happydance

Well, I think songs like "Our Prayer" are too eerie when I'm high. A lot of SMiLE is spiritual in the sense church is (specifically "Our Prayer", "Surf's Up", "Child is the Father..." and etc.). Beautiful, grand, but with those same eerie undertones. I do really like "Vegetables" & "Wind Chimes" when I'm high, especially the original piano ending to "Wind Chimes". "Heroes & Villains" is fun too, there's just so much going on harmonically. The "Cabinessence" chorus is miraculous, definitely something to close your eyes to.

Actually, one of my favorite things to listen to high is "Donovan's Colours" off the closely related Song Cycle.

I 2nd the piano ending to Wind Chimes while high...it seems like it could go on for days.

Generally I listen to music while stoned. (If I can help it). It genuinely does enhance the experience having those extra cannabinoid neurotransmitters firing.  Not enhanced sound just your appreciation of it. With the exception of Smiley Smile (Little Pad and Wind Chimes especially)  though I have never thought that any BBs music sounded like it was produced with the medicated listener in mind.

Listen to Pet Sounds while high I tend to skip Wouldn't it Be Nice. (That snare hit at the end of the intro can disccombobulate the unperpared listener). Lets Go Away For A While is an absolute dream.

MDMA is unpredictable but I have had some pleasant nights listening to Please Let Me Wonder on repeat. Honestly

Surely being from Cumbernauld, its more like a bottle of buckfast, 20 regal and a copy of 20 Golden Greats

No.

I was more of a Electric White kind of fellow. And I don't smoke cigarettes. It's a disgusting habit.  :lol

Yeah, I was just listening to "Little Pad" again high and, it's crazy, the humming part almost sounds like a string section. That song is just ridiculous. If you could actually hear the instruments (they sound like they were wrapped in a thick layer of gauze) during the humming part it would be a thing of untold beauty. That, and the arrangement for the "sure would like a  little pad..." part always struck me as a little lazy. I always liked the sound of Smiley Smile, kind of more than Smile in some ways, but Brian needed to put a little more work into it. Some of the arrangements could've been a little better with some effort, and as we all know it could have been mixed a lot better.

You can thank Brian's purchase of $2K of hashish for that.  ^-^

Smiley Smile is great stoned.

That droning organ bass on the chorus to H&V seems infinite and resonates through the whole body (if played loud). It's like the purity of certain tones. That was a big part of Brian's approach, I think.

Vegetables' bass sounds great too. Just bouncin' along happily. And the bottle whistle. And water pouring. God. It's just a great place to be, mentally. It's pure. The munchin' and crunchin', so good. The end is so beautiful with the keyboard part and all the harmonies.

Good Vibrations is like a trip out of the Earth's atmosphere for an Age or two and then back down for With Me Tonight.

Friends is another great album to listen to high. It has a hazy, lazy quality - just comes, takes you to a nice place, then leaves.

I haven't used any plants or chemicals in quite a few months, though. I miss it for the music aspect. Easy to become totally engrossed in sound when you're high. But where I'm at right now is a different sort of spiritual trip. Not as enjoyable on a sensual level but filled with a greater presence of understanding.

I'd love to appreciate the BBoys stoned in a group of friends but no one that I know likes them. :-(

Edit:

I forgot to mention that a lot of SMiLE sounds great too stoned. Who would've known?  :-D

The "waa, waa" instrument on the chorus of CIFOTM (what is that instrument - a muted trumpet?) always comes to life for me. It sounds like those SMiLE album cover grins slowly melting and then forming again only to melt once more. This is the sort of thing that makes me disagree with one of the above posters who felt that none of Brian's music was made with stoned listeners in mind.