Im not quite as protective of Brian as some fans are--I'm not above calling him on his irresponsible or unhelpful behavior towards others, nor criticizing Melinda's role as his manager. I would not be opposed to a compelling argument that VDP was the true genius behind SMiLE, elevating the "Hawthorne Hick who wrote dumb surfing ditties" to a higher strata if there were one to be made. But there isn't. By VDP's own admission, he wasn't a (near) co-producer as I and others sometimes assumed (and Anderle implies in Crawdaddy to my recollection). He was just the lyricist. And my increasingly-strongly held opinion is he wasn't even a very good one at that, considering he never finished his job in like 6 months by even the most conservative of estimates of his tenure. No CIFOTM in six months, no I Ran? I just keep coming back to the question--if you weren't coming up with arrangement ideas as well, all you had to do was write the words, what the hell were you doing the whole time that you couldn't finish CIFOTM? Nobody, not even VDP claims he finished and some songs were lost. He just never finished and walked away after some never-defined negativity from Mike.

I dont dislike VDP and Im sympathetic to the uncomfortable situation he was thrown into, but don't imply you're the genius of SMiLE and Brian owes you royalties over it, dude. C'mon.

It just seems to be a mystery, there are only a couple of books we know for sure that Brian read. The two Andrew posted were new to me, but I'm absolutely not surprised that Brian liked The Little Prince. I think there was something in the box liner notes of one of his friends recalling he read a lot, but it's something interviewers never really bother to ask him.

I guess that's how music is a lot of the time, Roger Mcguinn seemingly really liked science fiction but I haven't read anything about what books he actually read. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress? Philip K Dick? Any clue as to what Arthur Lee was reading? He mention anything in his biography?

I don't know the specific numerology, astrology, I Ching, or Subud books Brian was supposedly reading at the time, just that he was interested in them. TAOC like Tobelman said, the Little Prince and Hesse are some of the few specifics I hear in conjunction with SMiLE Era Brian.

Your barb about journalists never bothering to answer important specific questions is well-founded. I think, taking a huge interest in a specific niche topic like this really reveals how surface level and irresponsible "professional" journalists actually are. They're just looking for an eye-catching headline, a juicy scandal, or (mostly in this case) some nice, "kinda vaguely interesting" fluff they can fill some columns with. They're not interested in a deep dive, in doing prior research to find what questions have never been asked, what the fans are speculating on, what holes have yet to be filled from previous volumes of books and interviews. They just send some hack to go in, ask the most basic questions available for the umpteenth time ("so how'd you get into music"/"who are your influences/fave artists?"/"what was SMiLE all about?"/"Why didn't you finish it?") instead of taking the conversation further. It's really annoying and it extends to book authors too. If I'd been born 20+ years earlier, we'd have answers for every conceivable question, I assure you.

As for specifics artists paired with specific books, I know authors have determined beyond almost all doubt what I Ching book Syd Barrett read when writing "Chapter 24" because he quotes from it directly. That's about all I can remember and I've read biographies about most of the big Psychedelic Rock figures.

Thanks for bumping this thread! I started it to try and inject some life into this forum... and, boy, was it a success! Some really great posts there. 

SMiLE will always be what people come back to. Notice how even in the other forum the Smile Shop recent addition is what's keeping the place rolling primarily.

I dislike the way people who talk about it are sometimes seen as "lesser fans" because "oh why dont you talk about the rest of their discography?" The answer is because there's nothing to say. We all know Pet Sounds is perfect, so besides the little questions (should SJB even be on it, should GV, should LGIOK?) there's nothing else to be said. I suppose we could trace his growth over the early albums but I wouldn't even know where to start--I'll contribute if anyone else has some cool insight that tickles my imagination.

Beyond that, SMiLE's where the big black hole of infinite sequences, what ifs, whys, hows, and speculative alt histories originates from. It's by far the most interesting anecdote in their history and no one could honestly say otherwise.

I agree, the people who don't like SMiLE are so far removed from what I like about this band it's hard to imagine us as part of the same fandom.

Brian's bogus bio has that sentence that appeals to me as it includes, "...hallucinations are comparable to Zen riddles....".

In Arthur Koestler's The Act Of Creation there is a footnote that actually infers that there is truth to be had from the above quoted phrase. The footnote reference cites an earlier Koestler title, 1960's The Lotus And The Robot. In short, The Lotus And The Robot moves from India & Yoga to Japan & Zen.

When checking out the Zen part of the book some of Brian's dealings with Derek Taylor during the SMiLE period came to mind.

If you recall one episode Brian is eating a burger while espousing the virtues of health. Koestler might point to such deliberate irrationality as being much like Zen's koans.

Another Derek Taylor memory from the time has something to do with Brian saying "have some tea, there isn't any tea" which Taylor compares to a Mad Hatter's tea party. Koestler cites a Zen master's quote, "my tea is no tea" which is similar to Taylor's in meaning & subject matter. Koestler also compares Zen to Alice In Wonderland just as Derek Taylor compared Brian's tea comments to the Lewis Carroll's work.

Here's a Koestler passage: "...but his (Christmas Humphreys') greatest satori (enlightenment) he had in a Turkish bath - which conjures up the image of Archimedes jumping out of the tub to shout Eureka."

This passage reminds one of The Act Of Creation which traces the creative act across the spectrum of humour, science ("discovery") and art. The passage is comparing Zen's satori to science's 'eureka moment' ---and those familiar with The Act Of Creation will know that such 'eureka moments' very often occur with the aid of the unconscious (dreams, hallucinations, psychoses).

Frank Holes' essay in the SMiLE box's book brings up the similarities and intersection of art & science & Mr. Holmes sometimes references 'enlightenment' in his SMiLE work (see the "Surf's Up" article in Goldmine). The key to everything during SMiLE for Brian Wilson (according to David Anderle) was 'humour' and Arthur Koestler's The Act Of Creation & The Lotus And The Robot help merge these topics together and make all about the same phenomenon.

"He (Brian) felt that the moment somebody laughed, that while they're laughing, that all control was gone. They cannot control themselves. And at that moment they can have a spiritual experience." - Michael Vosse

I know Im replying to a decade+ old comment but I think this is an interesting connection. I guess there's no way to know if Brian read Koestler's other book you mention but it's possible he naturally inferred it or his mind connected the dots naturally (as in "great minds think alike" or it's just an intuitive connection).

In case you still browse this site I'll say for the record, I think a lot of the Zen and acip-trip-reference theories on your site are too much of a stretch for me to follow. HOWEVER, you more than any other source did a great job breaking down the key concepts of Koestler's book and its influence on the project. I really appreciate that aspect of your SMiLE studies. I now believe fully that TAOC is the "cipher" to crack the SMiLE code--to know what Brian was trying to do with his music at this point in time.

I voted a 5, thinking of it now that may've been too high, but it's partly influenced by this album's place in the entire cannon as well. Here we have Brian singing deep cuts--freaking Wonderful before BWPS--without autotune or that sterilized Joe Thomas production as a solo artist. For that alone, it's a highlight of the post Love You output.

Some songs are enjoyable different in their arrangement, some maybe less so, but it all flows well and feels like Brian's having fun. Like the movie, it's kinda "homegrown" feeling, that "small scale, stripped down indie production" aesthetic. I'll take that over the cacophonous BW88 or digitized-to-hell Imagination anyday.

I like to imagine the Paley sessions, if finished, would've been like this but with BB vocals. I probably won't listen to this too often, but it doesn't make me question my fandom like a lot of the solo stuff does.

I think that what you said is very near the crux of this matter.
As somebody may remember, I am a big fan of Mike's (and of all the Beach Boys) and am annoyed by "Mike bashing". That does not make me a Mike apologist who thinks that he can never do anything wrong.
I think that the "pushback" from the "other Beach Boys", and probably particularly by Mike, WAS one of the reasons Brian ended scrapping SMiLE.
And... know what? I don't think Mike or any other Boy should be ashamed of that. Questioning some of Brian's artistic choices was well among their rights.
In fact, Brian was right and should have perseverated and completed SMiLE anyway, but sadly he was not in a mental state to do that. But this is not a murder case: nobody murdered anything. Searching for explanations of what happened is NOT the same as searching for one or more "murderers".
And that's the problem with a sizable section of the Beach Boys fandom, historians etc.: they are so keen on acquitting Mike, and any band member EXCEPT Brian, from that bogus accuse of "murdering" SMiLE, that they go to the deep end and PILE every and all responsabilities on Brian, Van Dyke and SMiLE itself.
And they end saying far worse than Mike, or anybody at the moment, probably said: i.e., the SMiLE project was deeply flawed anyway, Brian was deeply flawed himself (and in any case out of touch with the "public") and as for Van Dyke... just a self-important wannabe.

In a nutshell: there is something deeply flawed in this matter. But it's not Brian, nor Van Dyke, nor SMiLE, and no... not Mike either, nor any other Beach Boy.

Ive just been using the board's search function to go back on some SMiLE related conversations as a final pass-thru and felt the need to weigh in on this.

I started as a one-dimensional "Mike killed SMiLE, he's the uncultured jerk who ruined a masterpiece" type of fan after first getting invested in this topic. Then talking to some of the other fans here, listening to the arguments in favor of Mike's skepticism and jadedness (including stolen song credits) made me soften my opinion. Not nearly enough for some of the "Kokomoist" faction, but much more than the staunchest "Brianistas."

I've since gotten reinvested in this subject after a long hiatus, compelled to comb over every reputable source and finally put the matter to bed. I went into this endeavor with my more "nuanced" take of Mike. And for the record, I still think it's a bit fishy that no one can cite specific anecdotes or tell us a compelling story they remember, about nasty things Mike supposedly said. (Priore claims Mike commandeered Derek Taylor's efforts and through him announced the cancellation but I don't buy it without a corroborating source. Priore also claims Mike staged a fight for the cameras when Oppenheim was filming for Inside Pop, but this has been disproven. He lies or intentionally misleads elsewhere in the book too.)

Despite my willingness, even bias, to give Mike as much BOTD as possible, he's always the most frequently cited factor for why it all came apart. Whether you want to say Mike was "just" the straw that broke the camel's back against all the other factors, or some kind of malevolent unyielding force who schemed behind the scenes to throw wrenches wherever possible, he's always the #1 and sometimes only factor cited. Not just by Brian and VDP, but practically everyone except the Beach Boys themselves (who blame drugs primarily--certainly a legit factor). It's actually kind of insane how much less frequently the other compounding issues are cited, across the vast majority of books and films that've touched on this.

In short, no one can deny Mike was a significant contributing factor in SMiLE's demise who is arguing in good faith. The real question is if he was the #1 factor or lower on the list, and even then I think, looking back, his "disgust" (actual quote, cited twice in the wiki by different sources) hurt Brian more than anything else. That's the real wound in Brian's soul, the muzzle on his muse--that he was afraid to go "too far" again after that and reigned himself in. I think some elements of the fandom want to live in a fantasy where there was never any drama within the core group, that everything happened for the best and everyone was happy with how it all turns out, no regrets or grudges. (That, and they lean towards Mike's political bent, not just current but since the '80s when the band aligned themselves to Reagan and their "all-American good boy" image against the psychedelic counterculture which SMiLE represents. Priore was absolutely correct in his assessment of the band's public disdain for SMiLE until at least the GV boxset if not after.)

[1. Brian's Essay (TSS)]

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

1. Brian's Essay (TSS)

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.

2. Tom Nolan's Essay (TSS)

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.)

3. Thoughts on the Beach Boys' Essays (TSS)

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...

4. Thoughts on Peter Reum's Essay (TSS)

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.

5. Thoughts on the Sessionography (TSS)

**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.)

6. Thoughts on "SMiLE: A History" (TSS)

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]

7. Thoughts on Frank Holmes' Essay (TSS)

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.

8. Thoughts on Marilyn's Essay (TSS)

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...

9. Thoughts on Diane Rovell's Essay (TSS)

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."

10. Thoughts on Dean Torrence's Essay (TSS)

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?)

11.  Thoughts on Mark Volman's Essay (TSS)

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).

12. Thoughts on Michael Vosse - David Anderle - Danny Hutton (TSS)

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.

13. Thoughts on Producers' Notes (TSS)

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.)

14. Thoughts on Priore's Essay (TSS)

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)...

15. Thoughts on BWPS Liner Notes

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.

16. Thoughts on a Random Domenic Priore Interview

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.

17. Thoughts on Jules Siegal's Rebuttal

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=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=27749&sort=date

18. Thoughts on the I Just Wasn't Made For These Times Documentary

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?

Finally seeing this now and I vote 5

Getting an illuminating Brian interview is like pulling teeth most of the time. You either get defensive one word answers, lying (I burned the tapes), saying whatever will make the interview over with faster, avoiding questions to just talk about or play what he wants (that funny Shortenin' Bread clip that's become something of a meme) or what seem like revelations that you find out he's contradicted later (still can't prove if he "canonically" listened to POB or not). So anyway, that all said, this documentary is kind of a miracle. It came out at the perfect time too, when Brian was free of Landy but the Melinda PR machine hadn't been established yet. This feels like honest, unfiltered Brian speaking his truth. He even references the Arthur Koestler Art of Creation stuff albeit briefly which has mostly seemed a forgotten facet to his ethos in the post-SMiLE press stuff.

I love the black and white film, giving this an "Indie Movie" vibe akin to Clerks. It's like one of the coolest art-world developments of the 90s (the Indie film scene) talking about its 60s equivalent (the folk/psychedelic rock-prophets). Very cool meeting of two of my favorite trends in media. I vastly prefer this presentation to the more "manufactured" David Leaf film, where (among other misgivings) he's got everyone talking in front of these obnoxious SMiLE promo materials, the camera never moving nor the subjects. This is much more visually appealing camerawork and blocking--something you'd watch even if you didn't already have a baked-in interest in Brian. The film itself is a work of art, not just a conduit for information.

I'd heard a lot of this info before but this is probably the definitive presentation of these stories. The way Brian describes Mike calling him up asking if he wanted to write a song about JFK together was adorable. As a bona fide Smile-fanatic first and foremost, when I read about Mike it's almost always in the context of his flaws and antagonism; sometimes it's nice to remember that at the end of the day these guys were family and expressed their grief together creatively that night.

It's great for what it is. If you like lounge-y covers of BW's best songs without lyrics, this is the go-to I'd say.

5

According to a poster in the EH board it's a health thing with Mike which needs some time to heal, but not catastrophic.

Guys in his mid-80s. I'm certainly not implying I want anything but the best for him but nobody can keep this up forever. Touring is tough even on young men.

I wasn't impressed. Just inferior clones of the originals with not enough differences in production to stand out.

2

It's alright. None of the remixed versions stood out to me as particularly amazing, I doubt any will enter my regular rotation. But they're not bad either, and different enough in arrangement that I'm not left wondering "why did you even bother, what was the point?" Worth checking out and I seem to be the harshest here, so you might even end up liking it better than I did.

3

[A Clue in Psychedelic Sounds]

I've recently been thinking that maybe Look/I Ran had a better chance of being on SMiLE then I'd wanted to give it credit for in the past, when I was of the "Dec Tracklist as template" opinion. I've wondered if it may have even been intended as a "second movement" to Wonderful all along, similar to Surf's Up having a two-part structure with separate sessions. (And later replaced by the "wonderful insert" in the switch to version 2 of the song, then replaced again by the Smiley bridge.)

Assuming I'm right, for the sake of argument, that opens the question to what lyrics for I Ran would've been. It doesn't sound like an instrumental and with the missing vocal session I think it's safe to assume Brian would've done something with it. The new title for the second recording date, "I Ran," implies some thought went into this track, its concept had been decided upon, while Look was just a placeholder name. (Like California Girls called "you are grass and Im a lawnmower" in studio chatter.)

A Clue in Psychedelic Sounds

I was listening to the Psychedelic Sounds again (as I do every Wednesday) and noticed the Ice Cream Man skit seems to be the only comedy-improv scenario that gets brought up here but was never followed up on with the Wrecking Crew. Previously, I'd assumed this is because it was not a concept Brian had in mind, just his friends taking some initiative ("hey, Brian's goading us to participate in these goofy scenarios like falling into an instrument, someones playing a riff that sounds like an ice cream truck on the piano and Im stoned...uhh...let's pretend to chase down the ice cream truck and order something!")

Now Im wondering if it wasn't Brian playing that riff on piano in the first place and/or if he isn't the one who calls out "maybe it's the ice cream man!" (timestamp: https://youtu.be/SgXhAom7zqE?t=1541 :is that Brian's voice or not?) to guide the Posse into an improv scene. That would imply Brian had some kinda plan for this skit that would've eventually been rerecorded properly with the Wrecking Crew or Beach Boys at a later date. (Of course, he never got the chance or thought better of it.)

Unfortunately, the skit doesn't really go anywhere because Van Dyke Parks takes it in a weird direction, pretending to be a "concern troll" WASP who doesn't want to buy from a black ice cream dealer. He stutters and drags out the lame joke until someone calls him on it "carrying it a little too far" and then the vibe is dead. Admittedly, almost immediately after, Brian directs the guys back to him having fallen into the microphone, implying he could've been setting that skit up the whole time, while the other guys were just goofing off in the interrim, going off script from the bits Brian had planned for them to do, but its hard to tell with just audio.

Anyway though, I Ran...ran for the ice cream truck? Whether the skit idea was a serious consideration or not it's as good of a subject for a song with that name, as any. In a "suite" of childlike innocence themed tracks, on an album called SMiLE that was all about humor and happiness, the innocent image of children running for their dessert fits right at home.

Using Bisociation as a Lens When Analyzing the Arrangements

Now let's consider what, in my opinion, was the most important source of inspiration to Brian when composing SMiLE: Arthur Koestler's The Art of Creation. If you're not familiar, it's all about the bisociative artistic process (where "art" is defined as essentially the creative association of two distinct things, aka bisociation). Under this operating process, the Cycle of Life tracks could be said to use classical instruments (and some scattered music concrete perhaps) to evoke the sounds of certain "musical" objects a child might have access to. Then, Van's lyrics (working with deliberately chosen instruments in each song's arrangement) would draw the listener to make further connections they have with those same objects. Let's look at each one individually...

1) Wind Chimes has marimbas and pianos taking their turns as the titular object, and horns as the wind blowing it. Then Van's lyrics are all about the warm cozy feelings of staying in, chilling out on your porch, not having to go anywhere and admiring the cool decorations you've styled your pad with. "A little lazier if you will" says Brian in the control booth--it's a relaxed Sunday afternoon ("late afternoon") kinda vibe.

2) Wonderful, in its original form, has always sounded like a music box to my ears, the harpsichord version. This makes me feel like being in a little girl's room, and as I've said the "gather the forest" is a Disney princess' animal friends, "all fall down" is ring a round the rosy, "chalk and numbers" is hopscotch. This is a pre-adolescent girl coming of age and the tragedy of seeing an innocent thing knowing her first disappointment or even trauma at the hands of an outside entity ("the non-believer" which implies an other-ness or lack of pure intent and "good" morals.)

3) CIFOTM is a baby, turning that cacophonous wail into a horn, its heart as those glorious bass notes. This makes me think of a father and child communicating in the ways each knows how--words and wailing--but united by the metronomic beat of their hearts.

4) Surf's Up is the jewelry in percussion and children laughing in horns (tell me that isn't what Brian intended after hearing "talking horns"). The fade, I expect, would've included the disquieting last segment of "talking horns" representing an echo-y laugh trailing off or perhaps children crying out in anguish (either implying they're already suffering under the current system we all know isn't working, or they would be if we let things get worse?). So the whole song's instrumentation would've been the narrator caught between jewels=wealth, either bowing down to those who have it or letting the pursuit of it distract him. Then children's laughter, which the song's climax spells out as salvation, comes in to remind him what's really important. If there would've been strings in the second movement...maybe their bisociative anchor would've been God reaching down, like rays of light showing the way or who the hell knows. It's hard to say what they'd represent without knowing how the arrangement sounded.

5) Following the same conventions, we can take educated guesses at what Look is doing from a bisociation perspective. Each melody, or the most prominent anyway, has a visual component. With the title "I Ran" in mind, I'd interpret the "energetic" sections (the verse?) as running as fast as one can--even the rhythm of beats sounds like the pace of my sneakers hitting pavement as a kid. According to my reading of this sheet music (https://musescore.com/user/67293877/scores/15753796) this is the piano and harpsichord blended. During the "kiddie parts" (as Brian refers to in the studio chatter) with the "bouncy jingle" sound (choruses?) the piano and glockenspiel seem to both be playing the notes I always, *ALWAYS* thought of as ice cream truck sounding. (You can believe me or not, though if I were to lie in service of an argument I'd do something more compelling than fake an intuitive association that ultimately isn't evidence.) But it's the truth; long before I knew the Psychedelic Sounds existed, much less cared, I always thought of ice cream truck jingles and the joy of eating frozen sugary treats when hearing this track from the first.

I Ran, I've always felt, perfectly captured the joys and growing pains of childhood coming of age in a succinct 2 minutes. It was a tremendous sacrifice for "authenticity" when I stopped including it in my fanmixes.

Finishing the Song in This Context

So anyway, we take it as a given then that Look/I Ran is a song about a child, or even a nostalgic/whimsical adult who's longing to be a kid again, chasing down the truck. I think the ideal completion effort might use lyrics to describe the delayed gratification of exerting effort towards a cause, or the exhilaration of fitness/running, maybe the importance of having little things to look forward to, in the verses. The choruses could describe the temptation our speaker is after, the joy of "catching your own prey" so to speak, the timeless appeal of a nice earned treat. The somber sounding "intro" to the song could show the kid's feeling down or aimless, and then the sounds of the truck off in the distance cheers him up, gives him a goal to work at. I think an interesting angle might be to mirror John Cheever's "The Swimmer" (VDP was not above making such a reference) with the speaker starting out as a kid, subtly getting older each v-c go around, realizing at the end he's always chasing the ice cream truck. 

This way, where WC is about the simple pleasures at home, I Ran is about the just-out-of-reach pleasures one has to strive for outside. Where WC is about the inevitable hardships parents have to watch their kids go through, I Ran is the fun experiences in their world--the humble innocuous things that make them happy. CIFOTM is about how both Wonderful's traumas and I Ran's triumphs (he caught the truck!) can have ripple effects through a kid's psychological development, shaping their recursive life trajectory. Then SU asks us "hey, isn't this what it's all about--not slaving away for the chance at wealth, or holding up a system we all know is crumbling and flawed? Why don't we make sure our kids have good, well-nurtured lives so they can be happy, curious, confidently proactive people. (Plus demonstrating the power of music--specifically that produced by the young at heart--can wake people up and change the world!)

Taking this back to the Psychedelic Sounds...I think, if that is Brian talking on that tape, bringing up the Ice Cream Man and seeing what improv his friends would try with it...he was maybe playing around with the idea of doing a comedy skit in conjunction with this song. Something like Vosse/Brian as unself-aware stoners taking way too long to decide what they want as children behind them in line wait anxiously, or trying to order vegetables from Hal Blaine, who's playing an exasperated Ice cream man! Perhaps, more speculatively, if the opportunity had arisen, Brian would've recorded an audio verite of either some actual kid(s) ordering ice cream excitedly, or himself/Vosse exaggeratedly ordering ice cream from an actual vendor (especially if he had a distinct manner of speech). Even just the jingle of a truck passing by...

Several other dates canceled or postponed to October.

Sad to say but I think this is gonna be Mike's swan song tour. Anyone who'd be sentimental about such things ought to buy tickets to whatever shows they can--you're as likely as not to attend the very last Beach Boy touring gigs, at least while some original members are still part of the outfit. (I have no idea if BRI will keep it up after the founders are gone or unable to keep the show going, nor if there'd be any interest in "some random guys doing BB covers.") Truly the end of an era.

[1. Solar System]

With one very notable exception, I think the tracks here are all of mostly equal quality. The first tier are the ones I had no trouble arranging, the middle tier are where I had to think about it (and honestly they're kinda arbitrary) and the final tier is the one sour note on the album.

1. Solar System (my least favorite track the first listen, but it stayed with me and became my favorite soon after. Classic Brian)
2. Johnny Carson (I just love the idea of this song, writing a weird off-kilter tribute to a random celebrity, not even one you have a crush on but just enjoy their work.)
3. Let's Put Our Hearts Together (It just flows so great and the four notes accentuating each line of the verse lyrics are sublime. Marilyn singing brings it up a notch.)
4. I Wanna Pick You Up (I always imagined Brian singing this to his then-infant daughter and even if he actually had a grown woman in mind, I still think of it that way.)

5. The Night Was So Young (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
6. Good Time (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
7. I'll Bet He's Nice (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
8. Mona (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
9. Honking Down the Highway (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
10. Roller Skating Child (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
11. Let Us Go On This Way (seriously, these songs could be in any order on a given day)
12. Ding Dang (I LOVE Brian's Shortenin' Bread Saga but I really wish this was longer. Less than a minute, really?)
13. Airplane (a good song, but I always found it weaker than its peers. Not quite so weak as...)

14. Love is a Woman (Probably would've been an alright song if Brian hadn't ruined his voice. This is the equivalent of a 40 year old trying to wear their lettered jacket or low cut dress and pantyhose pretending they "still got it" while everyone snickers behind their back. It really should've been cut for some of the outtakes I've heard and as the closer it unfortunately ends the album on a bad impression. It's not terrible but it's far from "good" in any conventional sense.)

[1. GV]

Again, three tiers. Tier one is "the singles which are objectively so much better and of such different character, they throw off the whole album and shouldn't have been included at all." Tier two is the Smiley sessions proper. Tier three is "this is a Smiley song but of noticeably inferior quality."

In an ideal world, Smiley should've been single-less and featured all the major SMiLE songs or leftover feels (plus newies like WMT) in that same lovely stripped down, stoned out style. A chorus-less take on CE, some of the recycled Psychedelic Sounds chants, letting Mike write lyrics for a simplified CIFOTM melody, or Dada almost as-is from the late SMiLE sessions, would've been welcome substitutions.

1. GV (it doesn't fit on the album, but objectively its miles better than anything on it)
2. H&V (ditto)

3. Wind Chimes (probably the freakiest track on the album. The original version was so soothing and beautiful, yet with a noticeable melancholy vibe to it, like the narrator was just wasting his life away at home, retreating from the world, and this version cranks that up to 11. A great "cover" that stands alone.)
4. Wonderful (ditto. I especially love the knew bridge with Brian's self-effacing inner monolog set to music. As great as the '66 version is, I always felt there was something lacking to it, a "second movement" or bridge. In a way, this version sounds more complete.)
5. Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (The perfect track to demonstrate Smiley's sonic identity--calming yet ominous and creepy at the same time. I wish Brian did more music like this.)
6. Whistle In (a great chant, very soothing yet sad. You can almost hear the sound of Brian's heart breaking as he "hangs it up" and whistles his way home on a hard years work, knowing he failed to do what he set out to do. I only wish it was longer.)
7. Little Pad (love the laugh-singing and Hawaiian instrumental interludes--very beautiful. Probably the least overtly offputting of the non-single Smiley tracks)
8. With Me Tonight (not counting GV, this is maybe the only romantic song on the whole thing, and the most "standard Beach Boys" song)
9. Vegetables (love the water-jug blowing and glass pouring)
10. She's Goin Bald (this one ups the creepy and offputting vibes but sacrifices the chill atmosphere to do it. I remember when I heard the "chipmunk vocal" sped up section and first time and couldn't believe what I was hearing--how was this on a Beach Boy album? THIS is the followup to Pet Sounds??)

11. Gettin' Hungry (my least favorite by a substantial margin, though not bad considering it's Smiley. It doesn't really fit sonically with the core body of the album, like the singles, but it couldn't fit on any other album at the same time. The more traditional song structure v-c-v-c puts it at odds with Smiley's "stoned party just droning out some music" MO. I think the fact that this was the only Smiley song Mike wrote on--not counting GV--where he wasn't sprucing up VDP's work has something to do with why it feels different.)

I picked...

Pet Sounds
Love You
Today
Smiley Smile
All Summer Long
Holland
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)
Pacific Ocean Blue
Brian Wilson Presents Smile
Friends

...and I'd put them roughly in that order.

Poor Youngblood is the only album to get no votes (not counting two comps of scraps and unfinished rough demos).

I didn't pick any comps because I dont think it's fair to compare entire boxsets or carefully selected greatest hits packages over "normal" albums. To me that's cheating--every band has a good greatest hits package, but that doesnt really reflect the bands many distinct "artistic statements"

MIU for Hey Little Tomboy & My Diane, arguably the two most audacious songs Brian ever recorded. Guy gave no fuc|<s anymore and it showed

Tier one are on the shortlist for my all-time favorite songs. Tier two are great. Tier three is a piece of sh*t that shouldn't have been on the album. (Whose idea was that? What were they thinking? It's not even funny, or illuminating, or warm & charming. It's just a really boring lame conversation where no one even says anything. Like Im not even opposed to the idea it's just the throwaway of throwaways.)

1. please let me wonder
2. when i grow up
3. she knows me too well

4. in the back of my mind
5. dance dance dance
6. help me ronda
7.Kiss me baby
8. good to my baby
9. i'm so young
10. do you wanna dance
11. don't hurt my little sister





12. Bull Sessions

[1. Wouldnt It Be Nice]

Im also gonna split them into 3 tiers. Tier one are "this is why PS is the best album ever" and "these are the tracks I always listen to every few weeks at least to renew my faith in humanity to create beautiful things." Tier two are "these are great songs but I mostly only listen to them when Im playing the entire album (which is still a lot)." Tier three are "I dont skip any of the songs on Pet Sounds, but if I did, it'd be these," or "If Brian finished GV early and insisted on its inclusion, these are the tracks I'd recommend he sub out for it."

1. Wouldnt It Be Nice (this is the one I've probably returned to most often)
2. Caroline No (the ultimate downer "love lost" pop song for me)
3. God Only Knows (probably the "objective" best)
4. I Just Wasnt Made For These Times (I feel this so hard, as a wannabe 60s hipster stuck in this shitty millennium)
5. Here Today (Over time this one has really grown on me. It might even be my "current fave" actually because I've been listening to it nonstop. It just has an energy and flows through its sections so perfectly. I can definitely see how this one, being the last recorded, paved the way for SMiLE)

6. Im Waiting For the Day (Great song, not much to say. Probably Mike's best work as a lyricist--I didn't even recognize it wasn't Asher for years.)
7. Lets Go Away for Awhile (This, like HT, is the one whose stature has most improved over the years for me)
8. Sloop John B (I used to be kinda snobby and think maybe it didn't belong but Im over that now. Its orchestration is on the level of its peers and honestly as a kid we've all had those "I wanna be with my girl/friends but my stupid family is making me go on this trip I dont even want to be on" memories. It fits perfectly)
9. I Know There's an Answer (Some of the best instrumental moments and worst--always disliked that loud sax part or whatever that horn is. The original lyrics were also SO MUCH better. Mike kind of neutered this song, it could've been a lot higher on the list if not for those two misgivings.)
10. That's Not Me (Without a doubt the most overlooked song on the album. On the one hand, I get it because its arrangement is by far the least impressive. It wouldn't be out of place on Today just looking at that alone. HOWEVER where it makes up for it is the lyrics. Maybe in my top 3 or 4 favorite, "most relatable" sentiment on the whole album.)

11. You Still Believe in Me (I love a lot of the lyrics here but some parts bug me a bit, like the multi-syllable long "cry-i-uh-oh-ah-oh-ah-ah-oh-ah" parts always felt a bit silly to me. If I'm introducing this album to people, it's the song I always worry they're gonna get turned off by.)
12. Don't Talk (It's a great track but always felt like "the boring one" growing up and still it's the one I often zone out listening to now.)
13. Pet Sounds (It's a very good instrumental but doesn't "wow" me at all. Its "carribbean vacation" sound texture and "James Bond theme" aspirations don't really lend itself to the rest of album's thematic journey in my opinion. If you're gonna sub out a track to put on Little Girl I Once Knew or Good Vibrations, this is the one to take out.)

Just wanted to bump this to the top for reference later and also to say, for what it's worth, I think this is one of the best SmileySmile threads. Love the other sleuthing one where the Heroes premiere with the reluctant DJ and "put it on you idiot!" is more or less disproven as well. (At least its revealed to have been exaggerated, like a lot of SMiLE stories I'd say.)

In the "Tribute" section, there should be one for Pet Sounds: in the Key of Dee by The Beach Boys vs J Dilla. I thought it was fantastic

I voted LY, wish I could've cast the tying vote but alas.

I can see why someone would vote POB but the LY songs just stick with me more--it's the magic of uninhibited Brian Wilson. I come back to LY a lot, while POB is a "once every few years" listen for me. I do really like it, I like it more than Friends, WH, 20/20, Sunflower, SU, CATP and even Holland. But Smiley and LY top Dennis' best efforts. What can I say? Brian was just on another level.

Nah this aint it, chief.

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SMiLE