Smart Girls

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Sigh. Can't believe my first post here is going to be about "Smart Girls"...

The song is ridiculous, but somehow it's just totally Brian for me. To my mind, actually sitting down and dedicating time to recording that song is not terribly different from doing the same with "Shortenin' Bread" or "Ding Dang", or, God help us all, "Santa's Got an Airplane". It's the kind of song which works as an example no matter what your thesis about Brian's post-SMiLE work may be. If you think he lost it and that, say, Love You is absolute dreck, this song solidifies that opinion. If you think he has a very funny, very dry sense of humor, and that he was being funny all of the times when he's just sort of burst out with a non-sequitur in the middle of a concert or interview, this song works as a big put-on too. If you think Landy was responsible for every poor artistic decision he made during those years, it works for that, because his name is on there.

I do seem to remember him talking about it in that interview when he was on the cooking show. He was very animated in that interview IIRC, and he even delivered the first "My name is Brian and I'm the man" part, after which I seem to remember the crowd cheering. Which probably made Brian think "hey, yeah, they like it!" because he's Brian.

The whole set of Sweet Insanity tracks to me is pretty much required listening if you want to have a full picture of Brian as an artist. It sort of provides the context for something like TLOS being a small miracle, really.

As long as we're discussing Brian's weird outtakes, I say next up should be "Life is for the Living".  

Thank you! And welcome to the madness that is smileymsile.  

Hey don't knock Life Is For The Living - 'don't sit on your ass smoking grass' is such a great line that it just makes the entire song for me! As for Smart Girls, it's just so so breath-takingly dreadful that it's enjoyable, in much the same way as, say, a song by The Scatman or MC Hammer is. The bit when it goes 'God only knows - where I'd be without smart girls' makes me both simultaneously laugh out loud and cringe every time i hear it.

[Jason]

I find it amusing that everyone's gotta blame this one on Landy, and basically blame anything bad the guy ever did on someone else, too, as if the guy was incapable of doing wrong. When you get down to it, Brian was the one who wrote this song. The idear of "Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, write a rap song! At fifty years of age!" may have materialized in good o' Gene's head, and as scary as the guy was, I doubt it was ever a gun-to-head situation. Brian agreed and wrote it. And oh my.

+ridiculously long number that's more fun to type than "infinity"

[keysarsoze001]

Sigh. Can't believe my first post here is going to be about "Smart Girls"...

The song is ridiculous, but somehow it's just totally Brian for me. To my mind, actually sitting down and dedicating time to recording that song is not terribly different from doing the same with "Shortenin' Bread" or "Ding Dang", or, God help us all, "Santa's Got an Airplane". It's the kind of song which works as an example no matter what your thesis about Brian's post-SMiLE work may be. If you think he lost it and that, say, Love You is absolute dreck, this song solidifies that opinion. If you think he has a very funny, very dry sense of humor, and that he was being funny all of the times when he's just sort of burst out with a non-sequitur in the middle of a concert or interview, this song works as a big put-on too. If you think Landy was responsible for every poor artistic decision he made during those years, it works for that, because his name is on there.

I do seem to remember him talking about it in that interview when he was on the cooking show. He was very animated in that interview IIRC, and he even delivered the first "My name is Brian and I'm the man" part, after which I seem to remember the crowd cheering. Which probably made Brian think "hey, yeah, they like it!" because he's Brian.

The whole set of Sweet Insanity tracks to me is pretty much required listening if you want to have a full picture of Brian as an artist. It sort of provides the context for something like TLOS being a small miracle, really.

As long as we're discussing Brian's weird outtakes, I say next up should be "Life is for the Living".  

Thank you! And welcome to the madness that is smileymsile.  

Hey don't knock Life Is For The Living - 'don't sit on your ass smoking grass' is such a great line that it just makes the entire song for me! As for Smart Girls, it's just so so breath-takingly dreadful that it's enjoyable, in much the same way as, say, a song by The Scatman or MC Hammer is. The bit when it goes 'God only knows - where I'd be without smart girls' makes me both simultaneously laugh out loud and cringe every time i hear it.

No disrespect meant for "Life is for the Living". I quite enjoy all of Adult/Child. But let's face it, those big band tracks are kind of an anomaly in their catalogue, unless you count the Mantovani-sounding Side 2 of their Christmas album. I can't help but picture Carl with top hat and tails, with a really skinny microphone, playing at the Copa or something.

Do people in general feel like "Smart Girls" is sort of a blight on an otherwise middling group of songs that make up Sweet Insanity? Or is the entire album a bust for people?

[runnersdialzero]

I haven't listened to it in its entirety, but from what I've heard: maybe some good ideas, but the production may be even more ridiculous than the 88 album. I can't believe it's so bad.

Also, hating on "Ding Ding"?

[doing]

Honestly, I'm glad it exists. It's such a jarring and terrible idea that it manages to transcend simple badness and rise up to a level of purely bizarre comedy. I especially love the loud and jarring samples.

[keysarsoze001]

I haven't listened to it in its entirety, but from what I've heard: maybe some good ideas, but the production may be even more ridiculous than the 88 album. I can't believe it's so bad.

Also, hating on "Ding Ding"?

Nah, I love "Ding Dang". But I'm not sure it's a song.

As for the rest of the album, of course we've heard finalized versions of some of it on GIOMH, but there are some interesting moments on it otherwise as well. There's a track where he talks about how basically his family sucks and his dad was mean, etc., as if he's doing Plastic Ono Band or something, except it's unclear if that's Landy or not. Frankly, even if it is Landy, I'm not sure it's any worse than Scott's approach to "Midnight's Another Day" or "Southern California", with their deliberately autobiographical lyrics, at least in terms of wanting to express Brian's state of mind on his own behalf. But then you've got the very very strange experience of Brian Wilson singing about getting "hotter", which just doesn't go with his otherwise sort of arrested-development frame of reference for things. It's just weird all around. All I'm saying by mentioning those other tracks is that "weird" isn't necessarily unwelcome in the BW canon. But sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

[PhilSpectre]

Honestly, I'm glad it exists. It's such a jarring and terrible idea that it manages to transcend simple badness and rise up to a level of purely bizarre comedy. I especially love the loud and jarring samples.

Exactly. I regard this track and the whole Sweet Insanity project as a kind of Love You - 14 Years (ish) On. Eccentric, at times lacking in taste and at the same time rather touching and beautiful in places.

It might be fun to have a Jack Riely vs Landy Lyricists Smackdown thread   . I mean, both came out with some world class psycho-burble in a lot of their lyrics.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Honestly, I'm glad it exists. It's such a jarring and terrible idea that it manages to transcend simple badness and rise up to a level of purely bizarre comedy. I especially love the loud and jarring samples.

Exactly. I regard this track and the whole Sweet Insanity project as a kind of Love You - 14 Years (ish) On. Eccentric, at times lacking in taste and at the same time rather touching and beautiful in places.

It might be fun to have a Jack Riely vs Landy Lyricists Smackdown thread   . I mean, both came out with some world class psycho-burble in a lot of their lyrics.

There is no way that Rieley - who did a tremendous amount of good for the BB's both at the time of his management and for their subsequent legacy - is in any way comparable to the destructiveness of Landy.

[runnersdialzero]

It might be fun to have a Jack Riely vs Landy Lyricists Smackdown thread   . I mean, both came out with some world class psycho-burble in a lot of their lyrics.

Ouch. Even at his worst, Jack never went near the depths that Landy could. At that, I'll say Jack had a few pretty good sets of lyrics to his name during his time with the band (imoimoimoofasjkf)

[Disney Boy (1985)]

It might be fun to have a Jack Riely vs Landy Lyricists Smackdown thread   . I mean, both came out with some world class psycho-burble in a lot of their lyrics.

Ouch. Even at his worst, Jack never went near the depths that Landy could. At that, I'll say Jack had a few pretty good sets of lyrics to his name during his time with the band (imoimoimoofasjkf)

Jack co-wrote A Day In The Life..., Long Promised Road, Feel Flows, Marcella, Steamboat, Trader and Funky Pretty. It's largely thanks to him that we have Surf's Up (album and awesome 1971 version of song), as well as Holland (a stunning album) and the curates egg that is CATP. He also instigated the bands greatest period as a live performing group, as evidenced on the amazing BB In Concert album. Anyone who chooses not to appreciate this because, what, he allegedly lied to the group about his CV...? Big f**king deal! the group could really use a guy like him today that's for sure. I personally find it offensive that anyone can even mention him alongside Landy. 

[keysarsoze001]

Now, maybe if Landy sang "Day in the Life of a Tree" in a more beauteous tone than Jack did, we'd have an argument. 

[runnersdialzero]

*imagines Landy produced version of "A Day In The Life Of A Tree"*

;( fuckin hell

[willy]

With a little deuce coupe
This is the worst trip
Help me Rhonda yeah
Get her outta my heart...

Doesn't no-one else just love that bit  

[willy]

In a little deuce coupe
This is the worst trip
Help me Rhonda yeah
Get her outta my heart...

Doesn't no-one else just love that bit  

Wow this is some strong stuff...

[Landlocked]

With a little deuce coupe
This is the worst trip
Help me Rhonda yeah
Get her outta my heart...

Doesn't no-one else just love that bit  

  You're definitely not alone. That little bit of cacophony cracks me up every time. It's head and shoulders, in terms of ridiculousness, above the lyrics.

[runnersdialzero]

"Slice the mango, the drooling fool
Flare the nostril, feelin' cool
Sweating in the meadow of fame
Scratch me gently, burning flame"

Can anyone explain that part to me?

[Kamandi]

Imagine hearing Smart Girls on the radio. The first time I ever heard it was on Dr. Demento sometime in the early 90s.

Speaking of AWESOME, just think how great a mash up of Smart Girls and Summer of Love would be!

...cos its gonna beuh summa uh love
HEY NOW
well its uh LUV THANG!

My name is BRIAN and im da MAN...etc

[runnersdialzero]

Why do all rap songs by people who should never be doing rap songs start out with "My name is ____"?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Why do all rap songs by people who should never be doing rap songs start out with "My name is ____"?

Because the only thing they know about rap is ,well, absolutely nothing.

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's so bad it makes me just laugh man, chorus is catchy and love the old keyboard sound.. hahaha.

it's obvious it's ridiculous, but the only part that really got me "wtf" was the samples, so out of place.

[MBE]

Not counting the Paley/Was tracks I just hate the whole 1989-1998 period for Brian.

[JohnMill]

For what it's worth does anyone know which tracks The Traveling Wilburys performed on "Sweet Insanity".  Dylan is obviously on "The Spirit Of Rock And Roll" but Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty are apparently on the record as well.  Anyone know?

[endofposts]

I'm sure Landy wrote all or part of the lyrics to "Smart Girls" and other parts of "Sweet Insanity," and may have suggested doing a rap track with samples to begin with.  Brian has never had kind things to say about rap music when he's been asked about it. 

[Ron]

The version with the samples is kind of neat to listen to, just to hear the effort they went through to chop all that together, if I remember correctly some of it's re-recorded as well.  Just insane.  

as for the genesis of the song, not everything bad that Brian had inflicted upon him was ONLY Landy doing it.  I think both of them were thick as thieves for awhile, and while it may be true that Brian was a sick man being taken advantage of, at the time he probably felt it was a good idea to do the song, or at least try it.  


This song wasn't a bad decision: it was just a decision made during a bad time.  I'll bet Melinda could tell you stories she's heard from Brian about those years that would make your hair curl.  

[Lonely Summer]

"Smart Girls" would work well on a remastered SIP someday in the year 2525.