The Smiley Smile Message Board

I Seem To Be So Into It, maybe Because of the Cover, the Strange music On the album,or because It Was The First Album released after they aborted smile.....It Is Considered The Aborted Baby Of Smile.
What Are Your Feelings About This Album? Does It Draw You In?

Not the best songs or production, but I love the vibe. Definitely one of my favorite BB albums.

the SS-version of Wind chimes is interesting, With me tonight is fun, Vegetables is acceptable....wonderful is a slaughter. So no there's not much I like about it other than that it collects GV and H&V.

I Like The Creepyness Of The Songs :). It Has An On Vibe & Feel To The Whole Album.
Plus It Has An Awesome Cover.. If You Listen To It In The Dark You'll Be Spooked Out Lol

It's truly unique!

It's in my top 5, as you can see in my sig. It's a fascinating, unique album in the BB catalog. I hope that it will be appreciated more on its own terms now that Smile has been officially released. In addition, two of the "remakes" are superior to the Smile versions (in my opinion): Wind Chimes and Fall Breaks and Back to Winter.

Smiley Smile is one of the best "f*** yous" in rock music. Brian Wilson, renowned genius of the Beach Boys, works on what would have been his other magnum opus in Smile, only to have a few naysayers question him. In response, he abandons Smile and makes an even more f***ed up album as a response. The fact that Smiley Smile is among their top five best records only helps its cause. I think the album's reputation will improve since the release of the Smile box set.

Smiley Smile is the 2nd Beach Boys album I'd listened to (1st of course was Pet Sounds). And at first I found it crap esp after PS I thought "What a backwards leap that was", Then about a week later I listened to it again and I found I wanted to hear it again as soon as it finished but I still felt it very badly lacking!!.
 While listening to it the 3rd time, I was drawn into reading the booklet and read stories about the missing link of PS & SS which was Smile and how their was versions of the same songs from SS originally recorded during late 66 to early 67.
And on the 4th listen with some background info in my mind I began to love Smiley Smile very much.
This was the album that got me deeping into The Beach Boys music more so than Pet Sounds which got my heart, but Smiley Smile got my mind onto a massive head trip.
I've got a special place for Smiley Smile which I think is one of the bravest things musically that Brian has ever done!!. 

It took some time for me to warm up to Smiley, but once I did, it became a staple among my favorite Beach Boys albums.  I've never heard a record like it in my life, and it amazes me how Brian was able to accomplish so much using so little.  Those who think it sounds lazy aren't hearing what I'm hearing - the inventive modular recording is still there, just with a lot less instrumentation and no reverb.  Smiley has never sounded half-assed to me; rather, it's the pinnacle of minimalist recording.

This may be sacrilegious, but I always play the album without "Heroes" and "Good Vibrations" - neither of them fit at all.  That leaves me with just under 20 minutes of pure Brian Wilson magic, and makes for quite the (brief) musical trip.

You have described, in precise terms, exactly my experience with SS.  ;D

Not a weird fascination for me.  It's their best album, along with Love You.  The songs are well-written and played appropriately, just like any other good album.  I also think those albums, perhaps along with Pet Sounds and Smile, are the closest things they did to music Brian would make just for himself.  It feels less like he's speaking to an audience, which gives Smiley the same intoxicating fervor you find in the Residents, McCartney and McCartney II, The Madcap Laughs, or even Head (speaking to an audience, but eschewing their given audience).

Any Pere Ubu fans probably get it.  It's music for your mind, totally divorced from being in the moment or being fashionable, which is what so much music is concerned with.  It's no coincidence that some of the first albums Dave Thomas had were Smiley Smile, Beefheart, and Zappa.  I think resistance to Smiley is weirder, and comes from the fact that it's not fashionable or classifiable, unlike Pet Sounds.  You have to engage with albums like Smiley Smile.  It's not a soundtrack for your lifestyle, which is what makes it less popular than a lot of other music.  It is Brian's ego music, not yours.  And people hate that.

To be honest, I think the fascination with it is it's a much more intimate album than the things they had done before.  You can hear some pretty stripped down songs, and it almost sounds like you're in the room with the beach boys.  People like it because they connect with the guys on that album better than the performances on the earlier albums.  It's a completely different sound.

BTW, exact same reason people liked Friends and some of the other albums to come. 

Very persuasively argued.  I've always has a special love for Introverted Music as you describe it, love Ubu/Residents etc...but I've always had a bad relationship with Smiley Smile.   My perspective on the BBs may have always been messed up given that the Vigotone Smile boot was the 2nd album of theirs I bought and loved after Pet Sounds, long before I'd heard Smiley or Surf's Up 1971 or anything else.  So Smiley Smile always sounded like damaged goods to me.  I had no such problems with Wild Honey or anything later, but with Smiley it was impossible to hear the music as a full statement with its own merit, rather than a half-realized stand-in for something I liked a lot better.  And the bonus tracks on the 1990 twofer did it no favors - "Can't Wait Too Long" - it's like, 'what happened to that album, why can't I have more stuff that sounds like that?'

But anyway I've been trying to work on my relationship to Smiley Smile lately, trying to come to terms with it as a lovely and unique and fully expressed album in its own right.  Your post kind of underlines the necessity of this for me.

I like Smiley Smile. It was actually the first BB album I ever bought, mainly because I dug the songs I had heard from Smile. Not crazy about the H&V mix, but I like most of the rest of it, love the big chunky organ on Gettin' Hungry and the tape manipulation on She's Going Bald, actually like the Smiley version of Vegetables quite a lot, it's nicely minimalist. It's the BBs album that I would make, I think.

With Me Tonight is so amazing that I cannot begin to describe how much spiritual strength it exudes into my innermost existence. Smiley Smile rules!

I have a great Smiley SMiLE Story,

About 3 Years Ago, My Family won a fully paid vacation in Saratoga Springs, one of the nicest places in my area, which I love to visit in the summer.

It was around this time actually, and we decided to go in the winter since we'd never do that unless it was free!

I wasn't too excited, so the day before we left I one-day ordered The SMiLE DVD.

I watched it on the short drive to Saratoga, where we decided to walk around town, I stumbled upon a record store.

I went in and found some incredible deals, a 2nd pressing White Album for $6, Wild Honey for $3 and SMILEY SMILE for $1!!!

I Grabbed them all and flew to the register, and quickly went to the hotel to assess my find.

It ended out being a first pressing and I was so excited! I wasn't expecting much because I knew the story of the album, but still! (Actually, I was more excited by Wild Honey :P)

Anyway, we were getting ready to leave the next day, and I was watching the SMiLE DVD, looking at Smiley, and waiting for my parents to pack.

THE SECOND "Mrs. O' Learys Cow" STARTED UP, IT STARTED POURING SNOW, AND WE WERE STUCK IN THE HOTEL! :P

I looked at the vinyl, "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter" And Laughed, "Maybe Brian Wanted This To Be A Winter Song Instead After All!" Haha!

I love Smiley Smile because it is a deconstruction of music by an extremely popular band.

Bought it when it was released with a whole bag full of higher expectations based on what they had recently accomplished. I felt pillaged and burned-smoked to be more accurate. I just sat there in a pool of total disbelief of what I had just heard. As bad as it was with GV and HAV backed out of it, I think there was more of a pending feel of doom for the future of the group. The lp quickly went to the back of the stack with very little rotation. Bought the two-fer just to own it and SOT but never play it. I still feel a bit duped due to  the uphill battle it helped create in being a fan back then.  :-[

>: (

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with Smiley. Sometimes when listening to it I can't help but think what on earth were they thinking?

Thank all of you for sharing your experiences and what you like about the album. :]
Seems like i can relate to all of you, i guess the day i really got into "smiley smile" i was really high and i listening to the whole album and it took me on a dark and eerie trip. See the album cover? Well i felt like i was walking through those plants trying 2 make it to that house where the lips are. Every song has it's place on that album even the stripped down "Wonderful""Wind Chimes""Vegetables." :]
"Smile" Isn't the only album that will have a legacy, one day "Smiley Smile" will to.
Well they both share the same legacy i guess.

Smiley Smile is brilliant and great in a way that Smile doesn't even begin to be. The opposite is true, too. Just wish both had been completed.

When I was about 7 years old my friend's dad had a little portable record player and the two records me and my friend found to play on it were Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin and Smiley Smile. I loved it then and I love it now. I still think I prefer 'Fall Breaks And Back To Winter' to 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow', it has a quality that I've rarely found in any other piece of music. I love the organ sounds, I love the intro to 'Getting Hungry', I love 'She's Going Bald' and I adore 'Little Pad'. It's a fantasic album.

The only song I couldnt feel was "She's going bald" the middle part was ughhhhh.

Hearing Brian describe the sessions in glowing terms in a 1968 interview with J. Marks and hearing the session tapes really made me like this album far more. It's weird for sure, but there are great vocals throughout and some really neat ideas. They had a great time making the record you can tell. That's why I like their 1967-71 records so much. Brian told me that was really a great time for them working together and that the friendships were strong than. He was emphatic about it. Smiley is not in my top five or perhaps even top ten Beach Boys albums, but it is a sleeper that has a charm of its own.

+1

...

truly an anti-commercial album, and the boldest statement Brian or the Beach Boys ever made.  puzzling, weird, natural, perfect and completely unpredictable (musically and historically).  Smiley Smile is one of the chief reasons that I know the Beach Boys are a genius group.  completely original and authentic.

let's just take it out of context for a moment: if this album were the only thing the Beach Boys ever released, it would be the undisputed champion of cult classic records.  The record must stand on its own.

what is it from this album that made you realize the beach boys were a genius group?

the bold originality combined with musical brilliance.

what part of the album was brilliance? there was parts of it that seemed like a musical disaster that i enjoyed :)

I adore the Smiley Smile version of "Wind Chimes"....even more than the SMiLE version.

There.  I said it.

wow that was brave of u :) lol..why though?

When I first got Smiley Smile I hated it with a passion. I had been listening to the Smile part of the Good Vibrations box set for years, and was in love with Do You Like Worms and the Heroes and Villains outtakes. When I bought Smiley Smile, all I expected to get the best of the Smile "left overs". I wasn't as big of a fan as I am now, and didn't know much about the background of Smile and Smiley Smile. Over the next year or two I let the cd gather dust. Then for some reason I decided to break it out, and listen to this weird Frankenstein's monster of an album all the way through. I'm glad I did, because I now love it, and rate it as one of their best albums ever released.

Smiley Smile is one of the strangest, creepiest, most beautiful albums ever recorded. The beautifully creepy Fall Breaks And Back To Winter. The wonderfully weird version of Wonderful, with the weird organ(or was it piano?), and the almost whispered vocal. The rather off key female voices.  ;D The majestic "nah nah nah" interludes The strange laughing in Little Pad, and the seemingly random hawaiian section. The weird tape streching and sped up voices in Little Pad. The downright evil, sinister sounding Wind Chimes. My all time favorite part of the album is With Me Tonight. Carl's vocal is one of the most beautiful vocals of his career. The "good!" from the control booth is both hilarious and scary at the same time. The quiet section leading to the "ahhh" group vocal that raises and lowers is magical. Smiley Smile is one of the stranges things I've ever heard. The edits are sloppy as hell, and the music at times randomly changes direction. The group seems at times uninterested, and the whole thing sounds like a parody of what an album should sound like. I wouldn't have it any other way.  :)

Good review Jay :). I have to say I didn't find the album creepy (which says a lot about where I was during the 90's out of sorts) Wonderful was to my ears still amazing but I found Carls "loud but soft" vocals off putting.
The oddest track for me was Getting Hungry.
I hated it and if I'm honest still do to me that track is more scary than anything else on that album!!! Where's the emotional depth of Pet Sounds gone??. The edits was sloppy as ever (you can hear bad edits on other past BB albums) but it's even more so on SS.
But looking back at Brian's timeline he was very burned out and had enough of it all he put all his heart and soul into both Pet Souns & Smile and it was both a failure move (Or so it seemed) to the general public. 

I've always been a bit disappointed with the Smile version of "Wind Chimes".  I think the bombastic part is too jarring.  I like the stoned approach on Smiley Smile.  There are at least real wind chimes on it.

Based on this thread, I bet if we took a poll, the Smiley version of Wind Chimes would give the Smile version a run for its money. I think a lot of people prefer Fall Breaks to Mrs. O'Leary's Cow too. I know I do.

I agree!, It's haunting and creepy, I liken it to a musical equivalent to the old "Nosferatu" film, not particularly scary but it has a very eerie vibe to it.

I never really  "got" Smiley Smile until I had it playing once and I started to fall asleep (as a result of being tired, not due to the album!), the way this album sounds in that stage between being awake and being asleep is fantastic, difficult to explain, maybe the part of my brain which was saying "yeah.. this is odd.. put something else on" was already asleep but the part which perceives how music sounds was still active and I heard it with no preconceptions about how I expected it to sound or something, I really don't know, but I recommend putting this album on when you are going to bed to try it out though!

I wonder if it would've been regarded so badly if some of the band hadn't been so harsh on it.

I Love The Creepy Dark Versions Of "Wind Chimes" & "Wonderful"..It's Like The "Smile" Versions Are A Trip Through Heaven and "Smiley Smile" Version Is a Trip Through Hell. Brian Must've Realized While Making It He Was Gonna Trip Out The Fans and Critics but Seemed Like He Didnt Give a F*** ..Almost like he was Being Passive Agressive Like "Fine You Guys Don't Support Smile Here You Have Smiley Smile." Have Fun . Lol.

After a huge indulgence in The Smile Sessions I actually went back to 'Smiley Smile' again last week and listened to it for the first time in about 20 years.

If there ever was a more disappointing (and indeed strange) 26 minute record released as the follow up to a stone classic I don't know what it is.

If you take the 45's off it (Good Vibrations and H&V) there's almost nothing there. 'Little Pad' has beautiful vocals, and the version of 'Wind Chimes' is eerie, but really apart from that it is indeed a stoned bunt instead of a grand slam.

Excellent thread, NewGuy!

I love Smiley Smile, but didn't warm to it till years later.  Smiley Smile is equivalent to Neil Young's Tonight's the Night, something of an F/U to the critics!

I've never experienced such a song to put me in a freaked out, eerie and spooky mood than what "Wind Chimes" does to me--every time.   The water chant in the middle of "Cool Cool Water" (Love to Say Da Da) does it to me for a second.  But the entire "Wind Chimes" is twisted and dark.  When I heard the SMiLE version on BWPS....I immediately rejected it .  Nothing compared to the Smiley Smile version.

Thank You :) ...I've never heard that neil young album but i'm definately going to check it out. i know prince released a big "F*** You Album" to Warner Bros. Lol It's called "come".

I've tried a few times to listen to this one over the past 40-some years and I simply can't do it.  Other than the two obvious songs, for me it's just not listenable, but then again i was never into that whole slice of the music scene.  Unlike a lot of my fellow surf-and-hot rod diehards, I loved Pet Sounds from the first instant of the first note of the first song because the songs were great and wholly accessible, but this one, yikes.

I felt the same way as you when i first heard it i thought it was absolutely horrid. Once i got high relaxed and turned off the lights and listened to the whole album it took me to a strange place, and i love the creepy feel of the whole album.

also worth noting that the chord sequence on the Smiley Wind Chimes is completely different. And much more beautiful, really. The Smile version does have the funk, though, and I guess atm I'm in the mood for the funk.  :smokin

well i love the "bwps" version of it but it has a totally different feel to it. I have 3 versions of "wind chimes" the smile sessions one,the bpws one and the smiley smile one. I like them all but the strangest one is smiley smile its so f***in weird that i find myself listening to that one the most.

I keep seeing descriptions of Smiley using terms like "beautiful", "brilliant", etc.  I don't hear ANYTHING on Smiley that fits either description (with the exception of GV and H&V, of course), and I have tried for many years to like this album.  I don't understand how anyone can say that the Smiley versions of Wind Chimes or Wonderful are better than the SMiLE versions.  They are not even in the same league!  The SMiLE versions are perfection, while the SMiLEY versions are a product of a burned out band.  Fortunately they snapped out of it by the time they recorded Wild Honey and the next few albums.

I think the cover should have been a close up photo of someone "flipping the bird".  That would at least have warned people what kind of vibe this album has.

It was never a favorite of mine but I liked Smiley Smile more before I discovered Smile through the GV box. Now I never listen to Smiley Smile. It sounds  like they aren't  even trying. The lack of reverb is suffocating at times. Some people like that I guess.

Though recorded in hot California summer, Smiley Smile has an absolutely winterish feeling to me. I like to listen to it late at night when there's snow outside and especially on Christmas. I always skip GV, that doesn't really belong on there.

When I first listened to the 93 box SMiLE track versions, I was pretty disappointed with the comparatively uninteresting chord sequence and structure of Wind Chimes and the weird rhythm pattern of Vega-Tables. I still prefer the Smiley versions of those two, though I must admit that the TSS version of Wind Chimes is WAY better than the 93 box one. The harpsichord Wonderful is much more appealing to me than its Smiley counterpart, but wouldn't fit the feel of Smiley Smile, so it's good it isn't on there.

It DOES HAVE A WINTER VIBE TO IT :)

I love Smiley Smile so much!!

of the Smile tracks:

Heroes and Villains: This actually might be my favorite version of this song because it's totally insane.  The organ during the chorus is utterly bizzare and the transitions are so wonderfully jarring.  I heard the Sounds of Summer Stereo version of this before the Smiley one, and was only somewhat fond of it.  Without the discordant transitions I definitely prefer the cantina version (up to the tape explosion) or the TSS version, however the odd transitions on the Smiley version makes it perfect and actually really funny.  I laugh every time "sunny down stuff I'm alright with the heroes and..." goes instantly back into the chorus.  This version actually has the humor that SMiLE was supposed to have

Vegetables: Holy sh*t the harmonies on this are unbelievable!!  Love the key change at the end.  I think I prefer this one, but it's close.


Fall Breaks: Instead of being scary like fire, it's subdued and creepy.  They're equally great in my book.

Good Vibrations: It's the completed song

Wind Chimes: I LOVE this version.  It's so disturbing and then it resolves into some of the most beautiful vocals the Beach Boys ever recorded.  Even though I also love the TSS version of Wind Chimes, this might gets the edge.

Wonderful: The SMiLE harpsichord version is far superior to this, but this version is still great.  Love the Na Na Nas and the sped up vocals.

The Non-SMiLE tracks rock as well.

She's goin' bald is both hilarious and creepy as anything.

Little Pad is just unbelievably gorgeous

With Me Tonight: Ok this one is kind of a SMiLE track, but I love the subdued take here.  The Beach Boys just sound incredible when they harmonize softly together.  Carl is just unreal on this.

Gettin' Hungry is just a great soul parody!  Really humorous vocals, especially the second "Oh come the night time"

Whistle In: Another Soul influenced one with great harmonies.

Seriously I can understand how this album might be offputting at first but understand it's a humorous album that doesn't take itself too seriously.  And plus, by stripping back a lot of the instrumentation, the Beach Boys' vocals just shine on this one. 

What's not to love!

Saratoga's quite an expensive city from what I've heard. I've gone by that town many times on I-87 on the way to Albany, downstate, etc., but have never actually been in downtown Saratoga. Nice to see another NYer on the board, BTW.


And to bring it back OT, Little Pad rocks!!!!

Looking at Smiley Smile in retrospect (how ELSE can you look at it), to me, with songs like Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains, it should have been a smash #1 hit, riding the charts for weeks.

The problem with not with the album, but the Luddites back then who FAILED to appreciate it.

I Have Spoken!