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Author Topic: My column on the 10-year anniversary of "Brian Wilson Presents Smile"  (Read 7767 times)
desmondo
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« Reply #25 on: September 30, 2014, 05:18:24 AM »

Loving this thread and a great piece of writing - thanks Matt too for your recollections.

I was at the second show and can remember feeling quite impatient waiting for Smile to start but feeling so nervous.

For the next 47 minutes I was spellbound and shed a few tears as tunes came and went in the three movements - the Wonderful >Surf's Up segment was particularly magical.

And then there was the standing ovation - I have never heard anything like it - before or since - as Brian took the plaudits. I just went on and on as everyone recognised what a personal and musical achievement it was.

I saw Smile again in Oxford and Bristol and each time it moved me to tears.

Thank you Brian most of all for having the guts to finish it and thanks to all those musicians involved who brought it to life.

There will never be another Smile as broad as Brian's that night in the RFH
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Richard
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« Reply #26 on: September 30, 2014, 05:51:35 AM »

Thanks for the comments, buddhahat. Yes, I have considered writing something on SMiLE, but it's just time that prevents me, really. I have a family to support and a writing business to run, which, on the whole, is about much drier, more technical stuff than pure music writing - though I do really love the latter, so it would make a nice change. It's certainly not out of the question...

I have the Pet Sounds 33 1/3 book, but I didn't know there was one for SMiLE. I'll have to check it out. Sometimes, all you need is a spur to do something, which as much as anything can be "Jeez, I know I could make a better job of this book than... this!".

And it's funny you should mention Child Is Father Of The Man, because I've always thought that's one of the most amazing SMiLE tracks too. Despite its fragmentary nature, and the difficulty (indeed, the impossibility) of assembling any kind of 'finished' version from what Brian recorded in 1966, I thought the unfinished sections were always never less than incredible, even when I first heard them in absolutely AWFUL sonic quality. I always think Jules Siegel absolutely nailed it with his fantastic line about 'sequences of extraordinary power and beauty' when remembering the bits of SMiLE that really struck me when I first heard them (Siegel was primarily talking about Heroes and Villains in that quote, although also about other unspecified parts of SMiLE that were never released at the time). For me that line is the *perfect* description of some of the SMiLE recordings: they are nothing less than sonically powerful, but they're not just wall-of-sound overwhelming - they somehow manage to show economy, restraint, and, yes, great beauty through their intensely complex instrumental arrangements as well. In this, I'm thinking of, say, the 'thunderous' version of the Bicycle Rider chorus, with the mournful, distant minor-key piano, the deep, deep bass, and the clanging percussion accompaniment. Or the Fade To Vega-Tables, with all of it's intense instrumental and percussive complexity, and the vocal acrobatics on top, all without a word of lyrics being spoken. Or the 'thresher and hover' tag to Cabin Essence. This stuff can shake you to the core, it's that powerful, but not in an obliterative, take-your-head-off, destructive, full-on-heavy-rock kind of way — it *moves* you as you listen, as well as deeply impressing you. The other touchstone quote about the best bits of SMiLE, for me, is Van Dyke's comment about how Brian used to 'saturate the tape with music'. The best parts really do sound like that!

And (to return to what you said), for me, parts of Child Is Father Of The Man are in that club. In particular, the bit with the 'liquid guitar' and the muted trumpet that ended up with the 'Easy, My Child' lyrics over it in 2004, and the wordless instrumental version of that section which opens the track on the 2004 recording (I hesitate to call it the 'verse', because I'm not sure that the pieces were ever that well-defined...! I guess you could say it's the 'verse' in the 2004 version... that's about as far as I would take it).

Incidentally, in my opinion (and I know a lot of people can't get on board with this, but here goes), I think the 2004 live performances and studio recording provide the best versions of that particular composition. Not just because there are lyrics and singing at last over the formerly instrumental-only sections (although personally I do really rate VDP's contributions there, and the cascading 2004 vocal performances over that part); more simply, I think it's just the only version that really hangs together. And of course, it's a complete version that's available in the form of a high-quality recording, which absolutely wasn't true of any of the other versions in 2004, at least. The other thing about the 2004 version is that it's integrated beautifully into the second movement, which is probably my favourite of the three suites in terms of how well it fits together. Like I suspect quite a few people, I think some of the SMiLE sections suffer from what I call 'the Abbey Road' problem. They're great, or even incredibly amazing, little musical moments (didn't Bruce call them 'incredible little musical bites', or something on Endless Harmony?), but they don't make songs on their own, in the same way that Mean Mr Mustard or Golden Slumbers can't really work on their own outside the Medley. With SMiLE, I think the sections are much more impressive than the parts in the Abbey Road medley, but still they needed to be part of a larger whole to really make them work, and unlike with the music on Abbey Road, until 2004 we never had that framework around the parts of SMiLE that made them add up to something bigger and better. Whether the 2004 'frame' did and does justice to the sections on SMiLE is a debate that will never, ever end, but in my opinion, the most satisfying of them all was the one around the second movement. As a complete whole, I still find it hard to beat. For me, the structure of the movement magnifies and enhances the already incredibly interesting and satisfying brilliance of the pieces in Song For Children, CIFOTM, and Surf's Up, and takes them to an even higher level.

Anyway, I'm not sure if you were talking about the effect that the same section of Child Is Father Of The Man had on you, but I certainly feel the power in that part. The guitar playing arpeggios, with the slight triplet delay, has always sounded like the forerunner to sequenced electronic music from 20+ years later to me. The first time I heard it, that was a part where I honestly thought 'Wow, this guy really was ahead of his time'. People say that all of the time, and it's become a cliché, but I really did think that about that part of CIFOTM - like it really was a recording from the 90s that had been recorded in the 60s. In fact, I had that feeling from all sorts of parts of SMiLE, and the more sections I heard, the more I just couldn't believe what Brian had created, usually in quite small rooms in Hollywood in 1966-7. Someone (was it Tom Petty?) said in the 1995 Was documentary that he thought the best of the music Brian had made was "about as good a music as you can make", and the music recorded during the SMiLE Sessions absolutely fits that bill, for me.

Wandering off topic again, I'm afraid. I seem to have turned this post into 'what it is about SMiLE that I love', which wasn't really the original idea. And I still haven't directly thanked luckyoldsmile for kicking this discussion off, or for his great article, which inspired me to write more words on this subject than I have for years...! So, er... thanks!
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« Reply #27 on: September 30, 2014, 06:33:04 AM »

Great stuff Matt. It's lovely to read such passionate posts about Smile again. We spend a lot of time here posting about 'what Brian might have intended' but not nearly as much about how the Smile stuff makes us feel on a human, emotional level.

Yes, I was talking about the same Child section. Of all the Smile fragments I think it's the most impressive in terms of sheer mood, atmosphere and its ability to transport the listener. I like your description of 'liquid guitar'. For me it's the aural equivalent of heat haze and conjures up images of awesome, arid, shimmering wild-west vistas, underpinned by a queasy sensation of psychedelic excess. Strawberry Fields Forever has this same acid queasiness to it - the summer of love beginning to spoil.

I can honestly say I've never been so moved by another single piece of music. The only thing that's come close is hearing certain Bach pieces for the first time. I don't mean that to sound pretentious (I'm no classical expert) and I am not trying to draw comparisons between the two composers - just that Bach is the only music that has come close to moving me in the same way as that Child section, make of that what you will!
« Last Edit: September 30, 2014, 06:34:58 AM by buddhahat » Logged

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Jonathan Blum
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« Reply #28 on: September 30, 2014, 07:08:01 AM »

Matt, your posts are a thing of beauty.  And if you ever do pull that article together, I will *so* be there for it.

Cheers,
Jon Blum
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« Reply #29 on: September 30, 2014, 09:08:12 AM »

Smile continues to inspire, through the music and the ways in which it all became possible as of 2004 for us to actually hold a ticket in our hands and say "I'm going to see Smile performed live by Brian Wilson".

I can't help but to point out again that as late as 2002 and perhaps going into 2003, this notion would have been considered pure fantasy if not an impossibility.

What is amazing but not surprising is how *vivid* our memories can be regarding this stuff. Factor in everything that has happened in the past 10 years, every minute, hour, or day lost to time and faded memories, yet we can still remember specific details about where we were, what we were doing, etc. related to Smile concerts, the album, even discussions from afar on the internet. It's pretty amazing, really. I remember these details almost to what chair I was sitting in when that first RFH CDR went into the CD player and the music started to play. The live show...Boston, October 14th...I need to write about that too, with ten years coming up it's the right time.

Life is too short not to share and enjoy the common experiences. Smile, however it manages to do this, continues to inspire people as evidenced by this thread.

Thanks to everyone so far who has shared and has written very personal words and thoughts to share with all of us.

And as I said earlier, it is a reality, Brian did do it...I agree it will be tough to match in any way the effect that all of this had on those of us who followed the saga for years with that lingering sense that we'd never get to hear more than the various pieces and fragments scattered around bootlegs and other sources, and we were half a step away from declaring "that's all we're going to get". Then, that sliver of hope, that "what if..." sense of optimism led up to 2004, and it was a triumph. It actually happened, and as several have said, consider us fortunate to have been able to see it unfold right in front of us. Not to mention the ultimate positive in the whole story, which is Brian getting work underway with Darian, then being able to call Van Dyke on a whim asking about an obscure lyric, which led to "let's finish this".

Question: Who at any of the live shows did not choke back some tears if not let them openly run down our faces at various points during the shows?

Damn. I'm sentimental in my old(er) age, but this thread and reading all the experiences combined with reflecting over ten years plus...that gets me where it counts, you know?  Smiley

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« Reply #30 on: September 30, 2014, 09:43:20 AM »

Lovely call, Guitarfool -

I recall when the first announcements about SMiLE going to be presented in its entirety live on stage did the rounds. For me it was Melinda on the Blueboard. And I remember my mind buzzing, spinning about that... competing thoughts: how on earth will he be able to pull that off? Must get ticket, must get ticket, must get ticket ad infinitum and ad nauseam... 'this can't be true, it's a joke by a troll', whatever...

...and boy, did it all turn out all right to the power of 10.
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« Reply #31 on: September 30, 2014, 12:32:50 PM »

I remember when I'd heard that "SMiLE" was going to be performed live. I was in my second-to-last semester of college. I was working for the Columbia Missourian, as a nation/world editor and as a design paginator, so I was in front of a computer a lot. (Nothing much has changed. Heh.)

There are Google alerts now, but I don't recall there being much in the way of Google alerts then. So I don't think I'd gotten any kind of notice particularly timely about it. I don't think I knew the first day of the announcement it was happening. But I remember I was at work, sitting at my desk near the photo office, and reading the words and saying, "Oh my God!" I remember the person next to me looking alarmed and asking, "What's wrong?!" Heh. Ooops. Wink

Never once did I think, "Wow, will they pull this off?" Or, "Boy, I bet that's gonna stink." Or even, "Well, I hope they do it OK." I try not to think of myself as a cynic ... I try to think of myself as a realist, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, expecting something in-between. But with the announcement, I was totally just upbeat. I was like, "I can't believe it. I can't believe it!"

I'd been enough of a fan for long enough at that point to know that "SMiLE" had been promised many times in the past. But as has been pointed out here, even as recently as 2000-2002, Brian didn't even want to talk about it. And when he did, he was curt and dismissive.

The all-star tribute to Brian, when he pulled out "Heroes and Villains," THAT was pretty magical. I mean, even when I watch it now, and hear how it hadn't really all been worked out yet, it still FEELS kinda magical. I've seen him do it live a few times and it's a lot smoother and more natural than it was in the tribute show, but the tribute show performance was ... well, not raw, but it was so electric. I felt sparks. I'm a fanboy. Wink

I give a lot of credit to that performance (and to the fan reaction to it and to "Surf's Up"), I give a lot of credit to BW's band, I give a lot of credit to Melinda for asking, "So why ISN'T this music out there?" I mean, talk about all things aligning just right. Stars, moons, planets, whatever. It all worked out, to our advantage.

Thanks everyone for the really kind words. Thank you very much for reading mine.

When I was a younger fan, I missed out a lot on being able to talk about this stuff with people when it was fresh. And when I was getting into things, a lot of people had started to get out of them. They'd lived with stuff, there was a lot of "been there, done that." I'm loving the give-and-take sharing on the thread. Thank you.

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« Reply #32 on: September 30, 2014, 08:25:18 PM »

Thank you to Matt for his coverage back then, and Chris for his article with today's perspective. There are some talented writers that are members here, and these guys are two of them!
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« Reply #33 on: September 30, 2014, 11:06:19 PM »

I saw Brian at the Puyallup Fair outside of Seattle on Sept. 21st in 2000 (Pet Sounds tour).

After the show, I encountered two hyper high school kids who were hoping for an autograph from Brian. We were talking all things Brian/Beach Boys when I asked them, 'what'll you think he'll do for a follow up to the Pet Sounds tour?' They excitedly told me that in speaking with someone from the crew they were informed Brian plans to tour Smile.

I just grinned and thought, oh righhhhty then. That'll happen!

I have no idea whether this grand idea truly had its genesis as far back as 2000, but I know what they told me at the time. And just like the record store experience a few years later, I was thinking 'wow, these kids are in high school and they're totally into Smile!'
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« Reply #34 on: October 01, 2014, 12:58:36 PM »

I too would love to see from Matt any fresh writings about Smile based on his interviews of 2011.  Funnily enough, when the Smile Sessions came out, I submitted a request for an article about the release to Sound on Sound's online suggestion box  Smiley

I also thoroughly enjoyed his SOS article about BWPS.
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« Reply #35 on: October 01, 2014, 01:33:33 PM »

Thank you to Matt for his coverage back then, and Chris for his article with today's perspective. There are some talented writers that are members here, and these guys are two of them!


Thank you very much, sir. That's high praise, indeed. Wow! Smiley
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« Reply #36 on: October 01, 2014, 01:34:38 PM »

And I agree, Matt has such a great way with words, conjures memories and brings the emotions out.

A pleasure to read. Smiley


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« Reply #37 on: October 05, 2014, 03:15:40 PM »

I was reminiscing and took the time to listen to the boot from the first show. As I did when I first listened to it that night in 2004, I started from the beginning. What a great show. What a moving performance. Just a thrill, even now. Smiley

Might listen to the second night sometime in the next couple days.

My thanks to the members of the Beach Boys / Brian Wilson fan community, past and present, who shared this music (and other music), which did so much for drawing me further into the band. I've enjoyed the thoughts, the writings (be it from published authors or forum posts), the perspectives, the rants, the raves. All of it.

It's been a wonderful journey so far, and I look forward to it continuing.

Thank you again!



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« Reply #38 on: September 28, 2015, 03:54:56 PM »

Happy SMiLE Day, everyone.

11 years ago today, BWPS was released.

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