Good Vibrations Success and Smile's Demise

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Ah, so its like the clarinet in Look, then. We NEED someone who's a wizard with this kinda thing to try to isolate that vocal or listen and try to write down the words they can make out! Ive been dying to know what the lyrics were for CIFOTM. I think for me, this and the Look lyrics are the holy grail of SMiLE--even moreso than SU part 2.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Here's more from the original source:

As well as assembling existing material in a coherent order, Darian and Brian did their best to use all the available sources from the period. A poor-quality 1966 tape of Brian playing an early version of 'Heroes And Villains' supplied lyrics for two numbers, 'I'm In Great Shape' and 'Barnyard'. And while listening to the multitracks for the song 'Child Is Father Of The Man', Darian soloed a chorus lead vocal by Brian's late brother Carl and made discoveries which were later incorporated into the finished arrangements. Mark Linett explains: "When he's not singing, you can hear faint background vocal parts that no longer exist on the multitrack. They must have been in his headphones, and were picked up by the vocal mic. It could be that Brian decided he didn't need them, or that he was going to re-record them, but never did. You hear this sort of stuff throughout the tapes."

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/smile.htm

Keep in mind this was within a larger discussion about BWPS. And what I get here is that whatever Darian picked up was a background vocal (not a lead) that was put into the BWPS version so if we have BWPS it shouldn't be anything we haven't heard before.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

is that the main lyric they got or just backing vocals? Just my intuition but I never believed those lyrics were vintage. While the project Smile ones arent either, I find them far superior. Very in keeping with the spirit of the project, especially the part where the vocalist makes baby noises over the piano part like the trumpet had during the choruses. This, to me, is like the vocalized doings in CE and the yodeling which matches the trumpets in Wonderful. That idea of vocals mirroring an instrument seemed to be a motif in SMiLE and its cool they kept it up.

[Paul J B]

Mujan...to clarify...right, Holy Bee even called his thread his latest crackpot theory so I'm not saying its totally correct. It was a good place to start though because of the way he detailed the sessions for specific tracks. I do think it shows very strongly that most of the key tracks, that were finished, had been recorded with a lot more focus to ( getting any said track in the can ) than a clear modular approach such as Brian just laying down all of his feels with the intent on putting them all together later. MUCH of the reading I do here or elsewhere concerning Smile seems to imply that it's a given Brian intended it to be that way. I'm not seeing that anymore.

I also agree with you in part that GV success has been accepted by many as a reason that negatively affected Smile, but rather than just the more common "Brian felt pressure to have another hit measuring up to GV" I think for a variety of reasons it was much more than that. I'm thinking it was as big or bigger factor than anything. Again...just my opinion right now.

I'm glad you and everyone else jumped in here. I know Smile has been discussed to death but it's good to get back to it now and then.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Mujan...to clarify...right, Holy Bee even called his thread his latest crackpot theory so I'm not saying its totally correct. It was a good place to start though because of the way he detailed the sessions for specific tracks. I do think it shows very strongly that most of the key tracks, that were finished, had been recorded with a lot more focus to ( getting any said track in the can ) than a clear modular approach such as Brian just laying down all of his feels with the intent on putting them all together later. MUCH of the reading I do here or elsewhere concerning Smile seems to imply that it's a given Brian intended it to be that way. I'm not seeing that anymore.

I also agree with you in part that GV success has been accepted by many as a reason that negatively affected Smile, but rather than just the more common "Brian felt pressure to have another hit measuring up to GV" I think for a variety of reasons it was much more than that. I'm thinking it was as big or bigger factor than anything. Again...just my opinion right now.

I'm glad you and everyone else jumped in here. I know Smile has been discussed to death but it's good to get back to it now and then.

Fair enough, and just so its clear, I think hes right about a lot of stuff too. Its just the way you phrased it before it came off like his word was final on the subject but maybe I was reading too much into it.

I think its pretty well understood by those familiar with the sessionography that the 66 months were pretty focused and the chaotic "recording every random feel willy nilly" didnt start until '67. I recall someone here linking it to his use of certain recreational drugs--no, not LSD as commonly blamed for his downfall, but something else. I dont wanna say what because I dont remember what they said and I dont wanna slander the B-man accusing him of doing something he didnt do. But even with that said, there WAS a clear modular approach taken as evidenced by the Fusion and Crawdaddy articles which most here--including HolyBee himself--acknowledge are probably the best insights into the album and its conception that we have. Vosse in the Fusion article mentions how three working songs--Grand Coulee Dam, Home on the Range and Who Ran the Iron Horse--came together to make Cabin Essence. And how CE and Worms juggled sections between them a few times until the structures we know now formed. How Heroes and Villains lead into Barnyard and then My Only Sunshine at one point. So, while I definitely think we would get 12 clear tracks on the album, there was definitely a modular component to those tracks even back in the earliest days.

Yeah, I think you added more to the theory with the idea that the biggest hit WITH MIKE LOVE LYRICS must surely have cast doubt on using VDP. This then explains why he called him in to answer Mike's "questions" about CE without warning him what was coming. It wasnt poor sweet naive Brian unaware what he was getting VDP into, he probably wanted an answer as much as Mike, and wanted to see the two argue the merits of their approach so he himself could decide which way was best. At least, thats the way I see it now. And again, those same articles mention the two collaborators not getting along, with Brian constantly asserting dominance over VDP. Its implied the other Boys only felt comfortable speaking out against him because Brian himself seemed to do so.

I think, even if it has been discussed to death, its better than the usual Mike v Brian banter that comes up here. Its also a fascinating subject with a lot of room for analysis and speculation. I learn something new every time its brought up.

EDIT: Some people bring up Holidays and Look as evidence of not having a clear plan or being unfocused early on in the sessions. I dont really buy this. In the first place, PS and other sessions for the BB and even other bands have extra material that gets recorded and not used. Thats not evidence of recording every little feel so much as having some extra songs you like but dont think are quite as good as the rest and would rather leave off. Like with movies too--no matter how good the script and how focused the director--there's always a lot of extra footage shot and scenes cut out because they just dont fit. Id say this was just a natural part of the creative process and not evidence the album was already in trouble pre-67

[Chocolate Shake Man]

is that the main lyric they got or just backing vocals? Just my intuition but I never believed those lyrics were vintage.

Me neither. My hunch is that they were describing the backing vocals and even then it seems like they had somewhat limited access to them via headphone bleed.

[Andrew G. Doe]

My hunch is Mark was talking about background vocals too. Mainly because he said "background vocals".

[The Old Master Painter]

My hunch is Mark was talking about background vocals too. Mainly because he said "background vocals".

Well that settles that, I guess... 

[The_Holy_Bee]

Hey, just lurked in after a couple months away and saw this thread - not sure I have much to add to what I've written previously, but it's gratifying to see that thread I started in 2012 being referenced here. As Mujan correctly notes, I'm no authority - most of what I've said which is pretty much just supposition - but I'm always interested in any further discussion and debate on what SMiLE could have been, and why it (for a long time) wasn't.

As AGD remarks near the top of this thread, I don't believe the dates stack up to support the success of GV being a major contributing factor to the demise of SMiLE. On the other hand, one of my theses - which the rough edits and acetates seem to bear out - is that at least until December the majority of songs, while being recorded in a 'modular' fashion, seem to have had fairly definite and standard pop structures. So I'm not sure I buy the 'it was trying to do a whole album in the mix-and-match style of GV that proved too much' notion particularly either.

EDIT: At least not during what I think of as 'SMiLE Phase A' (August-Dec '66) - but perhaps in '67 and the concentration on the H&V single, with its multiple variations and stand-alone sections? Could the success of that approach in GV become more of a factor then, when the original conception for the album was being challenged and increasingly lost?

[Cam Mott]

It has always been clearly documented on the slates and tapebox notes and sessions sheets that Brian knew what he was doing for what part of what song each time he went into the studio, that is even clearer now thanks to c-man and TSS. So not knowing what he was doing or why was not the issue and recording bits with no purpose hoping to eventually find a place for them in some song didn't really ever happen in my opinion.

What Brian chucked would be the best indication of what his issue with SMiLE was I'm thinking. To me it looks like Brian's problem was mainly with the sort of political/historical/lecture-y songs which my guess is did not fit well with his publicly stated goals of religion/spiritual and humor. We tend to assign a lot of drama to it but to me it seems like Brian probably just made a very straight forward and deliberate edit and cut what didn't suit his intentions. 

[John Stivaktas]

I think there are some valid points here many of you, and I greatly enjoy reading your contributions, despite the fact that I don't post much. Mujan, I love your passion and deeply reflective thoughts on the whole SMiLE era, and Micha, how I wish we had the time to discuss these things further when we met up in Australia!

What I find interesting about SMiLE's demise is Brian's current take on it as sourced from his bio on his webpage...

http://www.brianwilson.com/brian/

Notice how the incredible success the Beach Boys had from 1962 to 1966 is summed up in one paragraph, then how much of the 1966 era recordings (Pet Sounds/Good Vibrations/SMiLE) is mentioned thereafter. I also find it telling that there's a photo of his family, with his children, and not one but two video links to Surf's Up.

If I may quote the following from 'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times'

Every time I get the inspiration
To go change things around
No one wants to help me look for places
Where new things might be found

Where can I turn when my fair weather friends cop out
What's it all about

I can't help but feel how important Surf's Up was to the whole theme of SMiLE, both musically, lyrically and thematically. Brian's feelings of discontentment at the lack of support from many quarters must have been building up incrementally throughout late 1965 and throughout 1966, so that when your own family doesn't want to follow your vision on 'Manifest Destiny' (as summed up in Surf's Up), it surely must have been the 'final straw' so to speak.

[Micha]

It has always been clearly documented on the slates and tapebox notes and sessions sheets that Brian knew what he was doing

Or at least that he thought he knew what he was doing when he was recording.

recording bits with no purpose hoping to eventually find a place for them in some song didn't really ever happen in my opinion.

No, you're right, Brian did have a spot in mind for every bit he was recording... but obviously it just didn't work when he edited the bits together - maybe realizing he had not been knowing what he was doing after all.

Micha, how I wish we had the time to discuss these things further when we met up in Australia!

Hopefully we will get another chance in the future! I'm looking forward to that!

[Cam Mott]

No, you're right, Brian did have a spot in mind for every bit he was recording... but obviously it just didn't work when he edited the bits together - maybe realizing he had not been knowing what he was doing after all.

Except old friend, the tracks that he tinkered and revised and fussed over were finished which would seem to show he wasn't in fact intimidated or stymied or lost in their creation but the opposite imo; he stuck to it and doggedly and methodical got them where he wanted them, just as he had GV.  To finish GV and H&V and Vt and even WC and Wonderful, he did extensive revision of tracks and lyrics, to me it shows a lot of commitment with everything in fact on the table subject to his vision (contrary to some of our theories).

The tracks he dumped weren't really fussed over and tinkered and revised as far as I remember. I think that is because, as he spelled out at the time, he scrapped them because he had various issues with them and wanted a different mood and approach.

[Micha]

Old friend, if you have that gorgeous first version of "Wonderful" in the can, and you go and record the Rock me Henry version, you just don't know what you're doing IMHO. So we will have to agree to disagree, if you're OK with that.

[Cam Mott]

Old friend, if you have that gorgeous first version of "Wonderful" in the can, and you go and record the Rock me Henry version, you just don't know what you're doing IMHO. So we will have to agree to disagree, if you're OK with that.

Or we just don't know what he was doing. Even then he didn't land on that version and saw it through to a finished version.

As always, we will cordially agree to disagree. Happy New Year.

[Paul J B]

Hey, just lurked in after a couple months away and saw this thread - not sure I have much to add to what I've written previously, but it's gratifying to see that thread I started in 2012 being referenced here. As Mujan correctly notes, I'm no authority - most of what I've said which is pretty much just supposition - but I'm always interested in any further discussion and debate on what SMiLE could have been, and why it (for a long time) wasn't.

As AGD remarks near the top of this thread, I don't believe the dates stack up to support the success of GV being a major contributing factor to the demise of SMiLE. On the other hand, one of my theses - which the rough edits and acetates seem to bear out - is that at least until December the majority of songs, while being recorded in a 'modular' fashion, seem to have had fairly definite and standard pop structures. So I'm not sure I buy the 'it was trying to do a whole album in the mix-and-match style of GV that proved too much' notion particularly either.

EDIT: At least not during what I think of as 'SMiLE Phase A' (August-Dec '66) - but perhaps in '67 and the concentration on the H&V single, with its multiple variations and stand-alone sections? Could the success of that approach in GV become more of a factor then, when the original conception for the album was being challenged and increasingly lost?

I liked that thread of yours, hence the reason for referencing it. Things REALLY changed after December when GV hit number one. I'm really believing it was a huge factor. It could even be as simple as Brian feeling vindicated that he still had it, by scoring a huge number one, that he then did not care if .....

The album was behind schedule
Parks wanted to be more involved
He spent a crazy amount of time and money producing GV
Parks wants this...Mike wants that...the label wants this... the Guys want that.....I know what I'm doing and if I have to re-tinker and rethink this whole Smile album.... so be it.

I can see a lot of the '67 stuff falling into place very clearly when GV is factored into the Smile collapse.

[TV Forces]

Great discussion, guys.  Really enjoying this read.

[filledeplage]

When I think of that era, I think of the academic year from Fall of 1966 to the Spring/Summer of 1967, and what happened each week and month in a timeline.

In the Fall of 1967, GV was released and week-by-week, I watched it climb the charts to #1 and people fully expected it to be the Number One of 1966.  Enter the winner Winchester Cathedral. Go figure.  

At the same time, in December of '66, Brian is taping Surf's Up for Leonard Bernstein's Inside Pop.  Fans expected that to be the next single.  In January of 1967, Carl gets a draft notice.  He is arrested around the airing time (if not within a day of) Inside Pop, (in late April) which had a huge impact, as Bernstein is translating to the parents of America, just what rock music was, and how is was constructed.  Bernstein had the cred of parents, the parents of the boomers.  

In the Spring of '67, Carl is arrested, arraigned, and meets the band in the UK, finding alongside the rest of the band, that they were billed, as a surf band, and not the band who were post Pet Sounds.  This was sabotage, in a continuum and had to be a huge disruptor of any creative process, universally.

And, I have always felt, notwithstanding whatever else went on in their personal lives, that there was a sort of "evil spell" cast upon the whole BB sphere, which became their ultimate and universal challenge to meet, and ultimately saved them all on many levels.  The CO issue turned them into activists.  The rejection challenged them to take the music to the masses, in ways that other bands never would and certainly never did and find ways to reinvent themselves in order to do that, including creating the Brother Records company, where they could self-determine and neither be hostages to their former image, nor be hemmed into whatever the record company had predetermined (or thought) that they would be exploited and marketed as a "surf band" in 1967, as offensive as that was at that time.            

But, I think that that academic year running from Fall to Spring - 1966-67, needs to be taken "as a whole" to review all the events, personal and professional, before a concept of "demise" (which I absolutely disagree with.) is employed.  It was less a calendar year, and more of an overlap, from '66 to '67 when music moved at warp speed, and they, as a whole, needed to find where they would ultimately fit as they moved forward.      
 

[filledeplage]

double post - sorry 

[Paul J B]

When I think of that era, I think of the academic year from Fall of 1966 to the Spring/Summer of 1967, and what happened each week and month in a timeline.

In the Fall of 1967, GV was released and week-by-week, I watched it climb the charts to #1 and people fully expected it to be the Number One of 1966.  Enter the winner Winchester Cathedral. Go figure.  

At the same time, in December of '66, Brian is taping Surf's Up for Leonard Bernstein's Inside Pop.  Fans expected that to be the next single.  In January of 1967, Carl gets a draft notice.  He is arrested around the airing time (if not within a day of) Inside Pop, (in late April) which had a huge impact, as Bernstein is translating to the parents of America, just what rock music was, and how is was constructed.  Bernstein had the cred of parents, the parents of the boomers.  

In the Spring of '67, Carl is arrested, arraigned, and meets the band in the UK, finding alongside the rest of the band, that they were billed, as a surf band, and not the band who were post Pet Sounds.  This was sabotage, in a continuum and had to be a huge disruptor of any creative process, universally.

And, I have always felt, notwithstanding whatever else went on in their personal lives, that there was a sort of "evil spell" cast upon the whole BB sphere, which became their ultimate and universal challenge to meet, and ultimately saved them all on many levels.  The CO issue turned them into activists.  The rejection challenged them to take the music to the masses, in ways that other bands never would and certainly never did and find ways to reinvent themselves in order to do that, including creating the Brother Records company, where they could self-determine and neither be hostages to their former image, nor be hemmed into whatever the record company had predetermined (or thought) that they would be exploited and marketed as a "surf band" in 1967, as offensive as that was at that time.            

But, I think that that academic year running from Fall to Spring - 1966-67, needs to be taken "as a whole" to review all the events, personal and professional, before a concept of "demise" (which I absolutely disagree with.) is employed.  It was less a calendar year, and more of an overlap, from '66 to '67 when music moved at warp speed, and they, as a whole, needed to find where they would ultimately fit as they moved forward.      
 

I don't see how much of that has anything to do with the fact that Brian's planned masterpiece album was shelved. Spring of '67 was months past the January date Smile was intended to be released. Much of what Brian was doing in '67 was obsessing over H & V. Seems to me he started doing to H & V in '67 what he had done to GV in '66. The fact I'm basing this threads speculation on is that MOST of the tracks intended to be part of a 12 track 30 plus minute album, were already done or nearly done (minus some vocals) by December '66. I also hope I'm not being misread here as though I'm saying the fact that GV was a monster hit alone screwed up Brian's intended album. I just think it was a factor and a much bigger factor than most people ever seem to consider....for reasons I have already laid out. In any case  Brian went off in a different direction in '67 than most of the work he had done for Smile in '66. I don't see how things like Carl being arrested would change Brian's direction of an album he had worked on for months.

We've had pages upon pages on this site about Mike and Parks...and Mike and his reservations about Brian working with Asher on Pet Sounds. Well, between the completion of Smile (or lack there of ) and Pet Sounds, Brian obsesses over what would become GV with lyrics by Mike. Bingo...the biggest hit for them ever.  Then January hits and there is NO sense of urgency from Brian.  Seems very odd to me. Brian's mental health at this point undoubtedly was also playing into things.

Another thing I have neglected to mention concerning GV is that it could have fit well in a twelve track record but never seemed right tacked on the end of BWPS. I know I'm not alone in that camp.

[filledeplage]

When I think of that era, I think of the academic year from Fall of 1966 to the Spring/Summer of 1967, and what happened each week and month in a timeline.

In the Fall of 1967, GV was released and week-by-week, I watched it climb the charts to #1 and people fully expected it to be the Number One of 1966.  Enter the winner Winchester Cathedral. Go figure.  

At the same time, in December of '66, Brian is taping Surf's Up for Leonard Bernstein's Inside Pop.  Fans expected that to be the next single.  In January of 1967, Carl gets a draft notice.  He is arrested around the airing time (if not within a day of) Inside Pop, (in late April) which had a huge impact, as Bernstein is translating to the parents of America, just what rock music was, and how is was constructed.  Bernstein had the cred of parents, the parents of the boomers.  

In the Spring of '67, Carl is arrested, arraigned, and meets the band in the UK, finding alongside the rest of the band, that they were billed, as a surf band, and not the band who were post Pet Sounds.  This was sabotage, in a continuum and had to be a huge disruptor of any creative process, universally.

And, I have always felt, notwithstanding whatever else went on in their personal lives, that there was a sort of "evil spell" cast upon the whole BB sphere, which became their ultimate and universal challenge to meet, and ultimately saved them all on many levels.  The CO issue turned them into activists.  The rejection challenged them to take the music to the masses, in ways that other bands never would and certainly never did and find ways to reinvent themselves in order to do that, including creating the Brother Records company, where they could self-determine and neither be hostages to their former image, nor be hemmed into whatever the record company had predetermined (or thought) that they would be exploited and marketed as a "surf band" in 1967, as offensive as that was at that time.            

But, I think that that academic year running from Fall to Spring - 1966-67, needs to be taken "as a whole" to review all the events, personal and professional, before a concept of "demise" (which I absolutely disagree with.) is employed.  It was less a calendar year, and more of an overlap, from '66 to '67 when music moved at warp speed, and they, as a whole, needed to find where they would ultimately fit as they moved forward.      
 

I don't see how much of that has anything to do with the fact that Brian's planned masterpiece album was shelved. Spring of '67 was months past the January date Smile was intended to be released. Much of what Brian was doing in '67 was obsessing over H & V. Seems to me he started doing to H & V in '67 what he had done to GV in '66. The fact I'm basing this threads speculation on is that MOST of the tracks intended to be part of a 12 track 30 plus minute album, were already done or nearly done (minus some vocals) by December '66. I also hope I'm not being misread here as though I'm saying the fact that GV was a monster hit alone screwed up Brian's intended album. I just think it was a factor and a much bigger factor than most people ever seem to consider....for reasons I have already laid out. In any case  Brian went off in a different direction in '67 than most of the work he had done for Smile in '66. I don't see how things like Carl being arrested would change Brian's direction of an album he had worked on for months.

We've had pages upon pages on this site about Mike and Parks...and Mike and his reservations about Brian working with Asher on Pet Sounds. Well, between the completion of Smile (or lack there of ) and Pet Sounds, Brian obsesses over what would become GV with lyrics by Mike. Bingo...the biggest hit for them ever.  Then January hits and there is NO sense of urgency from Brian.  Seems very odd to me. Brian's mental health at this point undoubtedly was also playing into things.

Another thing I have neglected to mention concerning GV is that it could have fit well in a twelve track record but never seemed right tacked on the end of BWPS. I know I'm not alone in that camp.

Paul JB - This is just how I see it.  Looking back, once it was started, it took on a life of it's own.  And circumstances, all the way around, and I would not minimize Carl's impending draft to Vietnam, one it's effect on the band.  After Pet Sounds they broke, for the most part from about the biggest, if not the biggest record company in the world.  They were in their twenties.  That took guts.  If they got no back up from Capitol on Pet Sounds, which had a lot of concrete imagery, what would happen to Smile?   

We don't know if Smile would have been the biggest hit.  People speculate in 2015 as to what would have happened in 1966.  It could have fallen between the cracks.  If the promotion was as non-existent as it was for Pet Sounds, guess what?  I think they were becoming blackballed in the industry.  Or at least sabotaged.  JMHO.  I don't know how that is surmountable for musicians. 

Hindsight might like to put it in a category of a great blockbuster hit, but the reality was that there were lots of avant grade performers and composers coming out of the woodwork, even with one hit, in 1966-7.  Winchester Cathedral, number one in 1966.  Lots of musicians who had a couple of hits, competing for AM airplay. 

People might not have taken the time to truly listen to Smile because of the "noise" from everything else on the transistor radio.  Smile was not largely made for AM radio, and FM radio was just coming to the fore, as an alternative place for those who wanted not just a 3 minute song, but an LP, that told a story, with a beginning, middle and an end.  Smile told a story.   So, I think that the totality of those circumstances led to Brian "shelving" the work. 

Brian said this himself in an interview, saying he got "so close to it that he had to chuck it for a while." And it had, in my opinion nothing to do with internal division, or lyrics.  It was too far ahead of it's time for 1966 or 1967.  Once people got a taste of Surf's Up on Bernstein's Inside Pop, they got fixated on it, knowing there was a Smile project.  And when Smiley came out, the big question was what the heck happened to Surf's Up.

What do I know?  I guess just looking for it at the local record store every week.               

[Cam Mott]

I think Pet Sounds was probably well promoted.  It had 4 singles from it on the radio for one thing.  There were full page ads to the trade including a 4 page fold out ad.  Anybody seen an ad even close to that for any album or group of the time?

[Emily]

I think Pet Sounds was probably well promoted.  It had 4 singles from it on the radio for thing.  There were full page ads to the trade including a 4 page fold out ad.  Anybody seen an ad even close to that for any album or group of the time?

Do you know if there's an image of that ad online? It would be cool to see.

[filledeplage]

I think Pet Sounds was probably well promoted.  It had 4 singles from it on the radio for thing.  There were full page ads to the trade including a 4 page fold out ad.  Anybody seen an ad even close to that for any album or group of the time?

Cam - I disagree. They got 4 singles, but that doesn't really relate to how as a whole themed body of work it was promoted.  The put GOK on the B side.  And then released Best of Vol. I, about 8 weeks later.   The singles got AM airplay and kept them on the charts, bridging the time till the release of GV but as far as a big promo push, I don't think so.  It never got the hype of Rubber Soul, and from the same company, coming out about six months prior to Pet Sounds, or Revolver afterwards.  Just saying'.  

  

[Cam Mott]

I think Pet Sounds was probably well promoted.  It had 4 singles from it on the radio for thing.  There were full page ads to the trade including a 4 page fold out ad.  Anybody seen an ad even close to that for any album or group of the time?

Cam - I disagree. They got 4 singles, but that doesn't really relate to how as a whole themed body of work it was promoted.  The put GOK on the B side.  And then released Best of Vol. I, about 8 weeks later.   The singles got AM airplay and kept them on the charts, bridging the time till the release of GV but as far as a big promo push, I don't think so.  It never got the hype of Rubber Soul, and from the same company, coming out about six months prior to Pet Sounds, or Revolver afterwards.  Just saying'.  
  

The singles were on the album and got a lot of airplay, I guess I don't see how they could not promote the album.  I know the album itself was featured across the country from May through October on several radio stations as their "Album of the Week" pick.   As I remember there was also promotion in the teen mags (and there also was some complaining in the magazines about the change in style). I just think the idea that its reception was down to lack of promotion does not seem to be well supported by the actuality.  I'm thinking there probably weren't many albums that were being/had been promoted nearly as well as Pet Sounds.