Recent Posts

Beach Boys Salute in L.A. Brings Three Generations of the Wilson Family Together With Friends for First Tribute Concert Since Brian’s Death

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/beach-boys-tribute-carnie-wilson-family-brian-concert-1236447640/

Great posts, Julia!

I'm a relative newbie of Smile material compared to most here, and always feel a bit lost in deep-in-the-weeds Smile discussions even as I genuinely find them fascinating. (Am finishing David Leaf's new book right now.) FWIW, what you say about the Elements suite makes a great deal of intuitive sense to me. Easy to see how a formless, unstructured suite might have overwhelmed Brian in concept and execution, versus e.g. four short punchy songs.

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

Hey, it's all good. You probably know as much as some of us here already since I think a lot of people (myself included) let their speculation and pet theories overtake hard scholarship and, in some cases, common sense. (There's nothing wrong with that to an extent and when it comes to analyzing the music as art, I wish more people around here would understand the term "death of the artist.") There's so much ambiguity and contradictory writing on this topic that in some ways the incomprehensible mess is part of its charm, I say.

I preordered a copy of Leaf's book on amazon, not sure how everyone else seems to have one already but no biggie, I'll get it when I get it. In the meantime, I've been amusing myself with the Internet Archive's copies of "WIBN: My Life as a Beach Boy" (which I know has been disowned but I suspect the pre-Landy years hold more truth than given credit for) and Keith Badman's "The Beach Boys" (https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm/page/147/mode/1up?view=theater). Someone on reddit shared pdf scans of "Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!" in case you need a copy of that too! (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pZS1VdKOBLKWUMGjCNiQ1HajSCec-Xpf). There are some in these parts who insist you read at least the Michael Vosse Fusion and Teen Set articles as well as the famous "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God" by Jules Siegal. I sometimes see David Anderle's Crawdaddy article held in the same regard, but he's a lot more general and in my personal opinion not quite as revelatory of a source. Vosse is by far the best, most comprehensive witness to what the sessions were like and how certain seemingly disparate pieces fit together (at least for a hot minute) in the crucial Nov-Dec '66 window when the album seemed its most perceptible.

GSHG: https://magazine.atavist.com/goodbye-surfing-hello-god/?no-overlay&preview






Here's some other random sources I happen to have in my collection:
https://people.carleton.edu/~aflory/Smile.pdf
https://imgur.com/7ERMbu5
https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/
https://www.angelfire.com/mn/smileshop/historylane.html
https://www.angelfire.com/mn/smileshop/historymott.html

Plus the internet archive has cached some of the legendary old Smile Shop website, this is a good starting point: http://web.archive.org/web/sitemap/http://www.thesmileshop.net//

Interview: Al Jardine of Beach Boys Talks Brian Wilson's Legacy, "Love You" Album, New EP & More


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoOWGpjMk8M

I think this title says it all: 'You need a mess of help to stand alone'. Brian was worried about his responsibility to his band who were family and friends. There was the record company. The departure of his collaborator. Difficulty in sequencing. And the knowledge that there was competition. These things all contributed.  Some have tried to play down the negative contribution of some band members. But some of that is on record.

Great post. Great stuff.

Random but sort-of-related question. Do we know anything concrete about Carl's level of support for the Smile material? (He is a pretty minimal presence in David Leaf's book, though some tensions are hinted at in the section about Brian's outside Brother Records projects.) Did he start out supportive of Brian/VDP in '66, but by '67 he was having doubts as well?

Great posts, Julia!

I'm a relative newbie of Smile material compared to most here, and always feel a bit lost in deep-in-the-weeds Smile discussions even as I genuinely find them fascinating. (Am finishing David Leaf's new book right now.) FWIW, what you say about the Elements suite makes a great deal of intuitive sense to me. Easy to see how a formless, unstructured suite might have overwhelmed Brian in concept and execution, versus e.g. four short punchy songs.

Yes, Darian is definitely a hero and a key player in Brian's saga. I've been reading David Leaf's Smile book and there are fascinating passages where Darian and Brian collaborate on the Smile arrangements.

It makes me think too, they must have gone through a similar (though obviously shorter) collaborative process to work up arrangements for the 2019 tour of Friends and 20/20 material. We think of that material as a pretty big departure from Smile, but hearing some of those songs played freshly in concert, and played by much of the actual BWPS band, I was struck how some tracks really sounded like they could have come directly from Smile.

Some great videos are popping up on youtube from Al and the band's show last night!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asfbiNuXMNw&list=RDasfbiNuXMNw&start_radio=1

She's Got Rhythm  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxXeTA2-bxs



Here's a nice interview with Al in his studio during the"Hawthorne, CA" compilation era, playing some clips from that CD (gushing over "The Lord's Prayer"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpYUko0xEDo

I always assumed the famous Honeys picture was Marilyn, Diane, and Ginger Blake, but I could be wrong.

Youre absolutely right. Ive since been privately corrected

I heard a wonderful and rather short vocals only of Child is Father of the man with the very high key baby voice.  Described as ...'spooky surf'.  Also H&V - though vocals only isn't entirely accurate. There was the sound of a bell tolling. Rather odd.

Where are these specific tracks to listen to?