A Very Simple Question: What Is It About SMiLE?

[JohnMill]

On the eve of the general public receiving the record that we've known and loved for years, I thought it would be appropriate to put this out there and ask the forum what is it about SMiLE that has kept you coming back since your first listen?

For me it's a combination of so many things.  Brilliant lyrics from Van Dyke Parks, beautiful, unique and complex arrangements from Brian Wilson, the overall "ear candy" aspect of the entire record.  However one thing that keeps me coming back is something that Brian intentionally interjected into this music and that is a pure sense of joy that seems to emanate from your speakers when you play these tracks.  The songs seem to have an amazing childlike, happy, bouncy quality to them.  I'm not only talking about the lyrics here which range from landscapes of the Wild West to Pirates and Pilgrims but the music itself seems to have this buoyancy to it which I've never been able to find anywhere else in music.  How the bass bounces along in "Love To Say Da-Da", the harpsichord on "Wonderful", how the horns laugh at you during "Surf's Up".  I mean where else in music can you find stuff like this hidden inside some of the most breathtaking music ever composed?

Your turn...

[trismegistus]

For me, it was the real bridge between pop music and experimental music, it was the first time I heard something really 'compositional' and 'difficult' attached to a pop standard and it opened me to a whole new world, ironically that world being the world of pop music. From Smile I went to Olivia Tremor Control to The Beatles and from there to everything else. Nowadays 60s pop is a huge part of my musical palette and I literally owe it all to the 'alternate mix' of Heroes and Villains.

[37!ws]

I think it's the trousers.

[monicker]

-How it's all over the place stylistically, compositionally, and thematically
-How it was too ambitious for its own good
-How it's not a uniform sound or approach at all (compare it to Pet Sounds, which has the same sound and style throughout)
-That it was like 3 or 4 different concept albums in one
-How it marries REAL experimentation and pop sensibilities
-The hard edits
-How it goes from sprawling songs chock full of changes, to songs that are a really simple two chord vamp
-As always, the arrangements and production, just that SOUND
-Harpsichords, pianos, organs, mallets, percussion, woodwinds, brass, strings, basses, guitars, bags of tricks, vocal harmonies, sound effects
-Songs with no drums or percussion, songs with loads of percussion, instrumentals, vocal driven songs
-How much Brian was relying on the Beach Boys voices during this period, and all the a cappella sections
-The fact that a song like Vega-Tables was on the same album as Surf's Up
-The darkness, the humor, the sadness, the otherworldly and sublime
-That it was an album that had song structures like Wonderful, one like Surf's Up, one like H&V, and then all these little fragments like Barnyard and IIGS
-The ambiguity of the lyrics and the pictures they paint
-The music's disregard for its audience
-That it sounds like very little else
-That it sounds mind blowing
-That after all the music i've heard over the years, from all over the world, from many different eras and styles, from the low brow to the high brow to the in between, all the weird sh*t, all the sophistication, all the inventiveness, i can still safely say that he was onto something totally singular and different

Those are just a few, i could go on all night but i need to eat.

[John Stivaktas]

It's the fact that if you have some musical ability and went to Sunset Sound, United Western Recorders, Columbia and Gold Star in the 1960's and tried to reproduce what we hear in SMiLE you couldn't....especially the vocal work. The vocal work of the Beach Boys is not credited enough for how complex the arrangements were in my opinion.

[Bill Tobelman]

It's the four geniuses at the helm.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

SMiLE is Emotion.

Everything, Surf's Up, H&V, Wonderful and ESPECIALLY CIFOTM are pure emotion.

As a younger, teenage SMiLER, I can say that when I discovered SMiLE, I had gotten in a fight, and left a girl i'd been with for 3 years,
she wanted to "go faster" then I was ready for, and when I heard the childlike innocence of SMiLE, I fell apart.

"I heard the word, wonderful thing, a children's song"

I thought, I understand now, the world is full of scary stuff, teenagers are under a lot of stress to "grow up" and "be an adult"
and I think Brian, and Myself, Weren't ready to move on, and It destroyed us.

Well, that's why I love SMiLE.

[Wirestone]

To me, it's the only time that Brian's music truly fired on all cylinders -- melody, lyrics, arranging and vocals.

Before and since it's pretty easy to find music where he lived up to two or three of those. But let's face it -- BB lyrics are generally either simplistic or outright bad. Van Dyke was the only lyricist who ever gave the band words that lived up to the adventurous spirit of the music they were creating.

For that matter, Van Dyke and Jack Reiley were the only two guys who ever forced the band to think on a grand scale conceptually. And that in and of itself makes a great deal of difference for Smile, Holland and Surf's Up.

So yeah. Funnily enough, as great as the Smile music is, I think it's the Smile concepts and lyrics that make it such a singular project for me.

[lance]

For me, it's the  joy mentioned in the OP juxtaposed with the dark undercurrents that at times threaten to swallow everything up. It's joyous and scary at the same time. That's what gets me.

 I do love the lyrics, too.

 Thematically, the thing is a goshdarn mess, though!!

[chris.metcalfe]

The fact that it was clearly expected - almost subliminally - as the major release of 1967, and then never happened. Something about recapturing lost youth.....

Still - the Beatles, Hendrix, Traffic, Syd's Floyd, Love, the Doors, the Airplane , Simon & Garf .... it kinda slipped our minds.

[Mike's Beard]

It's the sound of a genius about to short circuit. Brian made some fantastic music post-Smile but he never pushed himself to the limits of what he could achieve again. With Smile, he held a bolt of lighting in his hands and it scared him, so he threw it away.

[OneEar/OneEye]

Most of all the vocal work in combination with those psychedelic Disney-like tracks, just incredible.  Never been anything like it since, a very unique moment in musical time.   There's also something I can't quite put my finger on, something that reaches something very deep inside me.  I cannot not say what that is, or ecpress it in any verbal manner really - it connects on some strange level like few other things have. 

[hypehat]

Sheer creativity. In all aspects. Coupled with the unbridled sense of joy in sound.

[UK_Surf]

It's unfinished. And we've had to work hard to find it.

It's a collection of sporadic pop genius, but there are blank areas on the map which our own imaginations rush in to fill. It takes devotion and dedication, so it's a bit self-selecting. If you really love your music, and the BBs, then it's a beautiful, beautiful venus fly trap.

[Cam Mott]

Mystery.

[guitarfool2002]

It's fun hearing someone at their creative and artistic peak going through the nuts-and-bolts stages of what was to be their masterpiece. The fact that it remained "unfinished" makes it all the more fascinating.

[Bill Tobelman]

The four geniuses behind SMiLE  are Brian Wilson, Arthur Koestler, Van Dyke Parks, and Frank Holmes.

[Mike's Beard]

The four geniuses behind SMiLE  are Brian Wilson, Arthur Koestler, Van Dyke Parks, and Frank Holmes.

Really? I don't recall seeing Arthur Koestler's name on any of the songwriting credits. Maybe he should have taken a leaf out of Mike's book and sued Brian for royalties.

[Dunderhead]

The four geniuses behind SMiLE  are Brian Wilson, Arthur Koestler, Van Dyke Parks, and Frank Holmes.

like

[Andrew G. Doe]

"What is it about Smile ?"

Simple: what it was isn't what you thought it is, because it is what it is, because you claim so, because you confirm it, because you insist that it is what it is. And therefore, it ain't what it ain't.

Next question.

[positivemusic]

It actually occurred to me as I was listening to disc 1, that there isn't one bit of Smile that isn't interesting.

I LOVE Pet Sounds, its my favorite "emotional" album, but from time to time "That's Not Me" or "I Know There's An Answer" just don't grab as strong as the rest of the album, even though they are terrific songs.

I never have that feeling with Smile. Every last bit holds my complete attention all the way through each time.

That's what, personally, keeps me coming back.

[Austin]

Whenever I listen to Smile -- TSS or BWPS -- it's like hearing the perfect soundtrack to some kind of abstract but personal film that I'm making up in my head as I go along. Which sounds pretty weird, I guess, but the backing tracks and vocal arrangements never cease to amaze me.

I don't know if I prefer it to Pet Sounds, just because they're such different beasts, but there are few albums that bring me such a sense of joy.

[positivemusic]

Whenever I listen to Smile -- TSS or BWPS -- it's like hearing the perfect soundtrack to some kind of abstract but personal film that I'm making up in my head as I go along. Which sounds pretty weird, I guess, but the backing tracks and vocal arrangements never cease to amaze me.

I don't know if I prefer it to Pet Sounds, just because they're such different beasts, but there are few albums that bring me such a sense of joy.

I think that's part of why Smile is such a perfect follow up to Pet Sounds, its from a much different place.

The way Pet Sounds ended, with 3 of the last 4 songs being of heartache and yearning, Smile is like the thrill of living again after s bad break up. Sure you have the middle suite about the strains of growing and maturing, but that is part of life. The album as a whole, despite what went on during its making, caries a very happy, goofy vibe.

[hongkongcrowe]

perhaps it's the combination of positive and negative spaces in the music.....again brian started the painting, but left enough of the canvas blank for us, the fans to fill in.  i know this wasn't his intention when he started SMiLE but that's the way it's turned out.....i also think there's something hypnotic about the music, especially heroes & villains that permeates the album....

i mention this in my article:


http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=19084

[Newguy562]

it's the mystery. the myth. the magnum opus of brian's creativity.