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Author Topic: New SMiLE Revelation!?!?  (Read 4125 times)
Bill Tobelman
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« on: March 14, 2006, 08:13:33 PM »

I know that this is a pretty bold title for a post but hopefully what follows will make it true.

There are a number of ways to arrive at the conclusion that SMiLE is primarily based upon a single religious LSD experience. For example, in the SMiLE DVD Brian says that SMiLE is happy music. Brian's bio states that Brian only had one positive LSD trip, therefore, SMiLE has to based upon this single LSD experience. Or, if you like, you can reference the Surfing Saints article and deduce that since it's about the "ultimate" religious experience and Brian says "it only happened to me once" (speaking about the "moment of clear light") that there was a single event. There are other ways to work it out, but the main point to get across is that we're talking mainly about a single experience when we're talking about the main impulse, the driving force, behind SMiLE.

We don't know much about this religious event. But recently I've become pretty sure of a few things. By cross referencing Brian's bio with the Keith Badman book it appears that Brian's religious experience very likely occurred at the end of April, 1966. What is most interesting about this is that it also appears that Brian was likely not at Big Sur for this event.

David Anderle's quote (to Paul Williams) about Brian and his trip to Big Sur was picked up on by Domenic Priore and SMiLE fans everywhere. But given the logistics of late April, 1966 it seems far more likely that Brian was somewhere in the Lake Arrowhead area (that's where they shot the Pet Sounds promo film) for his religious experience. Like Anderle's description of Brian & Big Sur; Lake Arrowhead has the beach, mountains, snow, fountains, and pools that Brian apparently needed to "get into the elements." Perhaps Anderle simply got his facts wrong, or confused, or may he was deliberately mislead. In any case, it is important to note that Anderle ends his statement by saying "...the whole thing was this fantastic amount of awareness of his surroundings. So the obvious thing was to do something that would cover the physical surroundings." So then, maybe the Lake Arrowhead area is what is covered in SMiLE.

I got a book about Lake Arrowhead in the mail yesterday and it has some sort of SMiLE things in it like the well known dance pavilion and the unique street lamp design. These things could have inspired the dance scenario in "Heroes" or maybe the "light the lamp" thing or maybe Frank Holmes' many lamp drawings. "Two step to lamps light." I found some stuff online as well.

The Lake Arrowhead area was originally occupied by Native American Indians. Eventually the white man advanced into the region and pretty much took over in typical manifest destiny fashion. Chinese workers blasted through the San Bernardino mountains to connect the railroad to the region. Companies built dams in order to use the collected waters but farmers banded together (Grange style) to stop the company from taking their water. The main industry was logging and obviously led to many cabins being built in the area.

Nowadays the area is used primarily as a vacation spot. It's the kind of place one might seek out if they were "on a holiday." And Van Dyke Parks' co-star, Bette Davis, played tennis in Lake Arrowhead in the movie Now Voyager. Maybe her "tennie flew right off."

By far, the best stuff about Lake Arrowhead (there's a large arrowhead burned into the side of the hills) is the Indian stuff. Here are a few quotes from my book.

"According to Cahuilla Indian legend, the natural landmark of the arrowhead was created when the Good Spirit led them to new hunting grounds by sending an arrow of fire across the heavens. The arrow landed and embedded itself in the hillside, pointing down at the warm mineral springs above the fertile San Bernardino Valley. This was the Great Spirit's sign that the hot springs were to be a peaceful location for all, and that the valley below was given to them."

Besides the "fire" reference & the "fire across the heavens" bit which reminds me of the live SMiLE's light show, the reference to the "Great Spirit" is cool because it may be why Brian chose the "Appeal To The Great Spirit" statue for the Brother Records logo. But the real find is the stuff about "peace" and the "valley" which finally explains the "Heroes And Villains" lyric "I know there'll be peace in the valley."

The under the arrowhead in the hillside is where the hot springs are located. The Indians discovered them. The book continues, "When they fought, both sides would take their wounded to the sacred hot springs, as it was neutral ground."  See, peace in the valley.

Since the Lake Arrowhead area was used for logging this may be why SMiLE has the "Workshop" and the saw. But better yet is the original picture sleeve for "Heroes And Villains." The sawmill has the hero & villain and when you turn it over you get the Brother Records logo of the Indian on horseback. Lake Arrowhead explains there images well.

So lets think of SMiLE in a new way. Think of the Lake Arrowhead region and look at Frank Holmes' pictures of hillsides, trees, bodies of water, and arrows! Listen to SMiLE's "agriculture" come through in Van Dyke's lyrics. Think of Brian's "fantastic amount of awareness of his surroundings" and that when you dig SMiLE you're right THERE during Brian's religious experience. Try it out.

-Bill
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rasmus skotte
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« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2006, 04:00:11 AM »


Great findings of missing links - keep up the good work, Bill!!!
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« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2006, 05:25:27 AM »

For anyone not aware, Bill's Zen Interpretation Of Smile site is at:

http://pages.cthome.net/tobelman/page001.htm
« Last Edit: March 15, 2006, 05:45:13 AM by Charles LePage » Logged

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« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2006, 05:35:44 AM »

Very interesting connections. Nice work.
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« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2006, 06:20:10 AM »

Hey, those are some neat connections. Just another piece of the puzzle.

Did Van ever go to Lake Arrowhead too?
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« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2006, 12:00:54 PM »

Great post. Very informative. I've wondered if both Brian and Van Dyke were well aware of the history of America, or if they simply had study dates together.  :D
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Bill Tobelman
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« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2006, 06:44:41 PM »

Here are some of the sources used for my Lake Arrowhead info in case anybody wants to check them out.

http://www.lakearrowhead.net/lakearrowhead.html

http://rimoftheworldhistory.com/lakearrowhead.htm

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/lake_arrowhead/files/lakehistory.htm

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738529184/102-7569448-0659328?v=glance&n=283155
This bottom link is to Amazon.com. If you "search inside" the book you'll see some of the Indian passages I quoted from as well as some nice pictures.

-Bill

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« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2006, 04:50:45 AM »

Yeah it's interesting stuff, it could have been part of the inspiration for Brian, even though I would think that Brian and Van Dyke also had a larger perspective on things.
In keeping with some of the things, that Bill has written about Smile as a zen riddle, I was thinking about the remark that Brian comes with, when he tells the rest of the Boys to "sing that with a smile", that's almost a little zen riddle in itself, I mean how do you sing and smile at the same time, its a little like the one with the sound of one hand clapping. So maybe Brian was also trying to put them in a zen mood with the music and lyrics and little remarks like that and they declined. Just imagine they come home from a long tour and Brian goes all zenbuddhistic on their asses.
BTW the riddle about the sound of one hand clapping, I think is a sort of classic zen riddle. I was listening to a radio show about a guy who went to Japan to study zen in a monastery and that was the first riddle he was presented with. He then had a session every morning with a master, where he should try and explain what he thought the riddle meant and accordingly to how close he was to the solution, the master would ring with a little bell. Getting into zen that way seems to be a little cruel, because it seems you are giving absolutely no direction. Maybe that was also part of what Mike felt, when he was complaining about the strange lyrics. In a way you might even say that the relation that Brian and the rest of the group had, was a little like the relation of that between a zen master and his students, he seemed to constantly put them in situations, that they weren't really sure of where was going and then they had to find their own way through them and with Smile apparently it became too much.

Søren
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Bill Tobelman
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« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2006, 11:00:23 AM »

Soren, as far as Brian and Van Dyke having a larger perspective on things, you are correct. But if you'll notice, the songs that seem to have the most Lake Arrowhead influence are many of SMiLE's core numbers. SMiLE's earliest compositions. The sandbox songs; "Heroes & Villains,""Surf's Up," and "Cabin Essence." This suggests that the larger perspective may have come about after they'd been writing for a spell.

And if you consider Van Dyke Parks' comments on the "Americana" direction you'll see that they make sense given this scenario. Van Dyke said(I'm paraphrasing here), "it was decided right there in that room, by two people, that we would be American" and "we may as well be American, the Beach Boys are going to be considered American anyway."

Now, we know that when they did "Heroes & Villians" they didn't begin with this discussion. There was no prior debate. Brian simply gave Van Dyke the song's title and away they wrote. Sooooo, if they hadn't already decided to do an Americana thing then why the Old West song? The answer is that Brian had his musical direction charted by his religious/spiritual experience at Lake Arrowhead!

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« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2006, 04:11:04 PM »

Soren, as far as Brian and Van Dyke having a larger perspective on things, you are correct. But if you'll notice, the songs that seem to have the most Lake Arrowhead influence are many of SMiLE's core numbers. SMiLE's earliest compositions. The sandbox songs; "Heroes & Villains,""Surf's Up," and "Cabin Essence." This suggests that the larger perspective may have come about after they'd been writing for a spell.

And if you consider Van Dyke Parks' comments on the "Americana" direction you'll see that they make sense given this scenario. Van Dyke said(I'm paraphrasing here), "it was decided right there in that room, by two people, that we would be American" and "we may as well be American, the Beach Boys are going to be considered American anyway."

Now, we know that when they did "Heroes & Villians" they didn't begin with this discussion. There was no prior debate. Brian simply gave Van Dyke the song's title and away they wrote. Sooooo, if they hadn't already decided to do an Americana thing then why the Old West song? The answer is that Brian had his musical direction charted by his religious/spiritual experience at Lake Arrowhead!



Yeah, it could be that be that Brian had his religious experience at Lake Arrowhead and then it developed from there, it also seems to be a place full of classic americana. There also seems to have been treelogging going on there, which might explain why he picked the name Redwood for Danny Huttons group. Also "Time To Get Alone" with the references to pine trees and snow. Wonder where Hawaii came in though?

Søren
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« Reply #10 on: March 17, 2006, 02:29:00 AM »

Quote from: Bill Tobelman
Here are some of the sources used for my Lake Arrowhead info in case anybody wants to check them out.

http://www.lakearrowhead.net/lakearrowhead.html

http://rimoftheworldhistory.com/lakearrowhead.htm

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/lake_arrowhead/files/lakehistory.htm

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738529184/102-7569448-0659328?v=glance&n=283155
This bottom link is to Amazon.com. If you "search inside" the book you'll see some of the Indian passages I quoted from as well as some nice pictures.

It does ring a bell.... & some impressions:

HAVE YOU SEEN THE GRAND COOLIE WORKING ON THE RAILROAD?

An amazing picture from the second link above: (enlarge)


THE GRAND COOLIE DAM? Cabinessence...?!


From the Michael Vosse article, april 1969:
In the original, "Who Ran The Iron Horse," he had a very definite visual image in mind of a train in motion, and suddenly he stopped in the middle of the song with the "Grand Coolie" refrain. Back then, there was no voice track on it: I mean, he cut the whole instrumental track—it was mixed and done—and he brought it in and played it for me . . . and I didn't know what it was supposed to be. I definitely felt the railroad presence, I definitely felt the west present, I definitely felt the cowboy and Indian thing—but there was this strange oriental thing going on in the middle of it; and I asked him what it was . . . and he said: "Uhm . . . This song's about the railroads . . . and I wondered what the perspective was of the guy who drove the spike . . . those Chinese labormen working on the railroad . . . like they'd be hitting the thing . . . but looking off, too, and kind of noticing a crow flying overhead . . . the Oriental mind going on a different track . . .
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b.dfzo
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« Reply #11 on: March 17, 2006, 05:45:52 AM »

Never ceases to amaze. Smiley
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rasmus skotte
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« Reply #12 on: March 17, 2006, 05:46:54 AM »

This would make Lake Arrowhead, april 25th'ish 1966 the birthmark/birthday of SMiLE.
Exactly one year later on april 25th 1967 the CBS-feature 'Inside Pop' (with Brian
performing Surf's Up on national television) was aired (according to Badham's book),
which could be called both a culmination and the beginning of the end for the original project.( And  who knows when Van Dyke signed his Warner-contract?)
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