Alternate SMiLE History Attempt

[guitarfool2002]

But…if you are going to attack the BBs for their behavior…they have said (and it is unarguable) that whatever their personal feelings about Smile and what was going on…they were good soldiers and participated in all the sessions they were asked to by Brian. Now maybe they made it clear they didn’t like that material (a very very contentious discussion) or maybe they didn’t.

I have a few angles to consider on that train of thought. First, Vosse says he would start seeing two "camps" within the band go into separate corners which he saw as a sign that things were fractured inside the core band. I always assumed who those "camps" were based on subsequent comments and observations, but Vosse unfortunately didn't name names. He did specifically call out Murry as someone trying to sow seeds of discontent within those around Brian regarding Good Vibrations, and how Brian's experimenting with the music would lose their fans. That clearly was not the case, as it became a worldwide #1 smash single, but again it suggests there were factions actively working against the new sounds Brian was recording.

As far as them recording the vocals they possibly didn't like, my offer there is what choice did they have? No one else was writing music for the band at that time which would have been usable for an album. I can see Mike being upset again that he wasn't chosen as the lyricist except on the single Good Vibrations, we have Al on the record saying he objected to things like doing the animal sounds in the studio (yet he actively participated in Brian's BWPS tour years later doing the same thing, and his own "Take A Load Off.." track had quite a few obvious nods to Smile's experimentation, not to mention the band went on David Frost's show handing out vegetables to the studio audience and having them wave veggies around during their performance of the song...so how bizarre was all of this if they later participated in the same things?). Carl and Dennis were being mentored by Brian in the studio to take up more of the production duties and ended up recording practice runs that sounded...like Smile! So I don't think the Wilson brothers objected to the music as much, unless or until it started possibly affecting their ability to play it live. I think Carl and Dennis always loved the music, at least based on their comments through the years. I think the "Love And Mercy" movie shows where the rest of the band was at with Smile in the well-crafted swimming pool scene. You can see each member in a little more shallow part of the pool with Brian, in the water up to his neck, and Van Dyke outside the pool watching from the edge. It's a pretty good allegory of where the band members were at, and who was in deeper with Brian and Smile than the others.

We know they sang the lyrics and cut the tracks with Brian when asked, but what does that mean other than they were following the same pattern they had followed for the past 2 years after Brian quit the road? And my thought is, they really didn't have a choice as no one else was writing material suitable for the band except Brian at that time. The only non-Brian composition the band offered throughout 1967 was "How She Boogalooed It", which to some is a good rocker and to others is painfully weak as a song and an album cut. 

[thelonleyc]

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[Ian]

Yeah…obviously Brian was the man in 1967 that they were depending on-hence their anxiety when he began to retreat a bit from the band in the autumn. Obviously a big point of contention is the three dog night episode-if it did happen the way it was alleged-it’s understandable that the band would react that way-as they we’re still really dependent on Brian. 1968 was really the year when they began to take greater interest in songwriting and production but in 67 it was totally understandable if they were very jealous of his relationship with Danny Hutton and his group

[guitarfool2002]

Yeah…obviously Brian was the man in 1967 that they were depending on-hence their anxiety when he began to retreat a bit from the band in the autumn. Obviously a big point of contention is the three dog night episode-if it did happen the way it was alleged-it’s understandable that the band would react that way-as they we’re still really dependent on Brian. 1968 was really the year when they began to take greater interest in songwriting and production but in 67 it was totally understandable if they were very jealous of his relationship with Danny Hutton and his group

I don't know how understandable it was - according to the version of events that happened at Heider's - for a few Beach Boys to break up a session at an outside studio because they were jealous or were demanding Brian produce them. At the least, it was unprofessional. But that's a separate point, the underlying notion is that Brian had been working with outside artists since 1963 or even '62 if we consider the Bob Norberg/Bob & Sheri tracks (and other related). Whether any of them were chart hits is beside the point, but consider Brian had been doing this fairly regularly even during the peak of the Beach Boys' success, and he wanted to emulate Spector by writing and producing other artists. The most prominent criticism or pushback I can think of came from Murry, especially after Brian "gave away" Surf City to Jan & Dean instead of keeping it for the "family".

But was there this jealousy among the band members over things like writing and producing "Guess I'm Dumb" for Glen, or any of the Honeys records, or Sharon Marie, or fill-in-the-blank-artist leading up to 1967? They seemed pretty happy as long as the money was rolling in, except Murry who seemed to be the voice of discontent trying to pull Brian back into the family and family only after Surf City became a hit.

And I know I've harped on this point before, but Brother was set up to allow Brian and the band members to bring in and work with outside artists, yet when he did just that in Fall '67 and had a group with some potential to make money for the new business venture, they shut him down, literally during a recording session. And the irony there is Brian had already cut a new single, Wild Honey, with the band's "new sound", and it was set for release in October '67.

So yes perhaps the band members were jealous of Redwood, but Brian had been doing this same kind of work for the previous 5 years with artists other than the Beach Boys, and they had a new single in the pipeline ready for release when Brian was cutting with Redwood...so I don't see the justification for breaking up a session in front of other musicians and putting the kibosh on what was happening. And to bring up the earlier point, Brian was essentially handing them the opportunity to do the same things and start writing and producing whatever they wanted through Brother either for the band or with a proposed stable of Brother label artists, and none of them stepped up and did it. Criticizing and browbeating someone for not doing something while not doing something in return smacks of hypocrisy, or on a lesser scale a contradiction. And who's to say Brian's plan all along was to make records with Redwood and also produce the Beach Boys' forthcoming album to follow the Wild Honey single which was already set for release? He'd been juggling the two interests for the past 5 years and still making a lot of money for the Boys.

[Ian]

Well I suppose it’s possible that the band felt he was giving away two very commercial tunes when they were desperate for a hit. In 1965 they were riding high and had no reason to feel threatened by his outside pursuits. Mike has stated that Heroes and Villains was the last bit of “super dynamism” by Brian but was Brian’s decision to “stop competing” only in relation to the BBs-maybe they felt that he was laying back with them but still going like gangbusters with Redwood?

[HeyJude]

I don’t think it’s difficult, knowing the band politics of that era, to understand functionally why Brian was cornered and essentially ordered to stop working with Redwood. It doesn’t make it any less ugly or tragic. Not Mike (or Dennis or Carl’s) best moment in the saga. But just functionally, logistically, knowing how things were back then and how they handled “outsiders” (both handing songs off, and outsiders trying to give songs *to* the band) both then and later on in such a kind of grubby fashion, it’s not surprising the Redwood thing wasn’t going to fly with the other guys.

[guitarfool2002]

I think there is more than one conundrum in all of this with Redwood, consider the "what if" around the change in the band's sound being something which was agreed upon in the group. That leaves Brian as the producer and main writer now having to focus his writing in that direction, which was not where he was at while making Smile. We have reports of Carl, for one, loving the R&B sound and you can hear it in his vocals on Wild Honey. Again, they had a new single ready to release when Brian was recording with Redwood with this new sound that was nothing like the Smile material in sound or construction. All of their new efforts including the "live" Hawaii tapes which were still I believe set to be a part of the Wild Honey album in the Fall up to a certain point had that more stripped down, group-band kind of vibe. Not a lot of strings, less thick backgrounds, not as many experimental transitions and sections after the Smiley album, etc.

So Brian takes that production style and mindset, which he obviously still wanted to pursue in Fall 67, to his work with Redwood. You can hear it in the tracks. Darlin was an old rewrite from 4 years ago or whatever that had sat on the shelf until Brian got inspired by Danny Hutton's regular use of the word "darlin" in conversations, and dusted off an old BB's reject (ironically from another side project) to rewrite for Danny and Redwood to sing. And his other song was in the style the band, perhaps, agreed not to use anymore in favor of the leaner R&B sounds and style, hoping to get a hit with a new sound after they felt Heroes and Smiley under-performed on the charts.

Taken in that way, it's hard to rectify why the band would be jealous of the music Brian was making with Redwood when they already had a new single to herald their new sound, they were probably already in talks to plan out everything else needed to fill in the album around the single, and the sounds Brian was doing with Redwood including a rewrite of a thrown out song from years prior which they didn't record originally and a song which had the more overblown production style Brian was using on Smile and which they perhaps said they didn't want to do, or agreed with Brian in the change in direction, or however else that point can be spun.

If they already had their gameplan in place with the new R&B direction having already recorded a new single and more work on an album to follow, and Brian was doing what Brother was set up to do and which he had been doing for 5 years in producing and writing for other artists, it's tough to justify what went down unless it also included a heap of personal issues that had more to do with personalities than the business of the band. What exactly was the tipping point to lead the band members to halt Brian's work with Redwood as swiftly as they did? Were the songs that good? Maybe in the case of Darlin, yes, but Time To Get Alone wasn't anything close to the sound they would be changing to that Fall, and its production was closer to the larger-scale Smile productions which Brian must have felt the band wasn't as receptive to earlier that year, and which it seems they were trying to get away from if their official releases in the latter half of 67 are any indication.

[Ian]

I am not sure that the BBs lost interest in that Smile style...they were apparently pretty hot on Can't Wait Too Long in 1968 and Bruce stated in an interview that summer that it would be their next single-chances are that it was Brian who nixed it....seemed like he was losing interest finishing things in that period. 

[JakeH]

In 1965 they were riding high and had no reason to feel threatened by his outside pursuits.

But that's a separate point, the underlying notion is that Brian had been working with outside artists since 1963 or even '62 if we consider the Bob Norberg/Bob & Sheri tracks (and other related). Whether any of them were chart hits is beside the point, but consider Brian had been doing this fairly regularly even during the peak of the Beach Boys' success [***].

[***]

So yes perhaps the band members were jealous of Redwood, but Brian had been doing this same kind of work for the previous 5 years with artists other than the Beach Boys [***] He'd been juggling the two interests for the past 5 years and still making a lot of money for the Boys.

Brian had all but stopped working on outside projects in the middle of 1964 - the point at which he begins his effort to steer the group in a different direction. In 1965, you have the production of "Guess I'm Dumb" (which is not something the other BBs would have been concerned about because, yes, they were "riding high," but also because that tune was, by the standards of the era, very weird and utterly uncommercial - who would want to sing that?).  And also  in 1965 there is - according to researchers, I believe, like Jim Murphy and Andrew Doe - something Brian worked on by an act called "Bob & Bobby." And that's it. And then after 1965, you have 1966 and 1967, and so on.

The point is that Brian working with Redwood is not business as usual. It's "business as it used to be." At least it hadn't been business as usual for the last couple of years. What happened was that Brian had his breakdown in December 1964.  This occurred for many reasons, but one of the more immediate causes was that the nature of his career at that time was making less and less sense. The direction the Beach Boys were going in was, for Brian, wrong and anti-musical. And therefore, in his case, extremely unhealthy.  You can hear it in what's going on in the music during the second half of 1964. So then, the breakdown, and Brian comes off the road, and things start to change. Because Brian - the sole creator of the group's music - is now a studio-only composer-musician, he naturally begins to treat the Beach Boys themselves as his studio instrument. A crude way to put it is that the Beach Boys are gradually becoming Brian's "Ronettes." There is no longer any need for Brian to search for outsiders to work with. He can now do what he wants with the Beach Boys themselves. Which, from a strictly musical and artistic perspective (not the business perspective or family perspective) is the correct outcome; that's how things should be for this particular group.  "Puppets" is not a nice term, and not quite accurate, but that's the direction it's going in, and it becomes that during the Pet Sounds and Smile-era. Remember, Carl and Mike hated that "puppets" thing that was out there during that era. "Genius" and "puppets" really pissed them off.

Smile falls apart, the group is stripped bare in 1967, without releasable music at a time when lack of constant presence on the radio and in the stores means you're finished. In the mind of the family, Brian's problem is drugs and nefarious outsiders.  As has been discussed here many, many times (including by Guitarfool and myself) after Smile is over, the rest of 1967 marks a time when the non-Brian Beach Boys (aka the Wilson family) takes the reins and basically takes over. What they do (as evidenced by many things that occur in 1967) is revert to the band model of 1963-1964. It will become a  "band," a "group" a "family" rather than a Phil Spector + progressive music deal.  The band gets the production credit as a matter of principle, even though anybody with ears knows who produced Wild Honey and Friends. (And what about those songwriting credits on Friends? Really?) Brian is squirreled away in Bellagio and the wall goes up.  Sorry everbody, but this is what happened.

It's not a coincidence that Brian suddenly (it seems) reverts back to the outside-project model of production during 1967.  And that this "Redwood incident" (which did happen as Hutton and especially Negron have described in detail - let's just accept that as a given) occurs in an outside studio, not Bellagio. (This is why Hutton, specifically, has called into question the installation of the studio in the house) Brian's actions with Redwood speak for themselves. What they say is, "okay everybody, if this is how it is now, if I am (a) unable  to use the group in the way I want, or (b) not allowed to do that anymore, or (c) too mentally unstable, for some mysterious reason, to fulfill my duties as hitmaker, then I want to go back to the way it was, when we were a more unified band doing car-surf-high school and I did outside stuff."  This is what Brian's actions are saying - whether he could consciously think this, or articulate it verbally is another question.

And the answer to Brian's implicit proposal is no. At which point Brian is faced with a life choice. He didn't have to capitulate, but he did.  And so then, the real issue is why did he capitulate.

Taken in that way, it's hard to rectify why the band would be jealous of the music Brian was making with Redwood when they already had a new single to herald their new sound, they were probably already in talks to plan out everything else needed to fill in the album around the single, and the sounds Brian was doing with Redwood including a rewrite of a thrown out song from years prior which they didn't record originally and a song which had the more overblown production style Brian was using on Smile and which they perhaps said they didn't want to do, or agreed with Brian in the change in direction, or however else that point can be spun.

Right - they were not "jealous." What was going on was something beyond mere jealousy (they had no reason to be jealous of a scuffling no-name vocal group). It was something more serious. They believed that they held first priority claim to Brian's creativity, and I believe they wanted to protect that creativity from being poached by outsiders.  And so with the Redwood thing they were exercising their rights. And they weren't wrong to do it. If Brian didn't like it, he could leave the group. That was the unstated, underlying challenge being made. Just as Brian's actions can communicate a certain implicit message, so can the Beach Boys'.  At that point, Brian could either leave the Beach Boys or do what he did. 20/20 hindsight of course.

I don't think any of the Beach Boys - Brian included - would ever agree to this reading, but I think this is what was going on. It's really tragic, if you see it from the perspective of Brian Wilson. If you are a Beach Boys person and want the group to stay together, you should celebrate the Redwood incident.

[JakeH]

As we both said, the real truth sits somewhere in the middle of all this stuff. And ultimately what happened with Smile cannot be reduced to a few sentences in conclusion. And thank you again for pointing out one of the factors that has the Smile narrative trying to be bent and shaped in recent years.

I  think official narratives - for businesses, or institutions - have their purpose, and I don't think I'd be interested in trying to change the official story (to the extent there is one), which would be impossible anyway.  However, it might be possible to offer informed, well-reasoned (or well thought-out) analysis for its own sake, to a tiny readership or interested and open-minded fans. Let's see what happens.

I'm resurrecting this comment from last year just for the purpose of following up on what I said above about the possibility of providing new, well-reasoned analysis for its own sake.  

I've been trying to do precisely this, actually, for the past few months - since September 2023, I think (?) - on a site called "A Book of Brian". It consists of detailed commentary on the life and career of Brian Wilson, as founded on the information that has so far been made public over the decades as well as my own take on it.

I've been using the Substack platform as a convenient means to get the writing up on the internet. Here is the link:

https://bookofbrian.substack.com

If you don't want to click on it, type: bookofbrian [dot] substack [dot] com into your browser address bar.

Although the Substack site is designed for paid subscriptions, I have things set up so that all the material is FREE for anybody to read.

I'll start a new thread shortly to offer a few more comments about this project. Thanks

[Bill Tobelman]

Tried to do a few off the cuff videos recently just to maybe add some different SMiLE conversation to the fan videos out there. Yeah, I'm embarrassing and old these days. Sorry about that.

Here are the links if anyone is interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlHuEGzthy0&t=143s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDkeJncZkos

Haven't seen these kind of ideas elsewhere other than my old tired website.

[Bill Tobelman]

Think this is likely my last SMiLE page ever. 34 years in the making.
https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page27.htm

[Don Malcolm]

Thanks, Bill--a great deal of inventive, imaginative points of connection there. Many will dispute and nitpick, but there are many, many kernels that ring true and lead to a broader understanding of just what the impetus for Dumb Angel/SMiLE was and why it was so "morphable." We're all better off for your efforts to track the strands of that epic, tragic, lyric experiment that was lost and found where it still remained and was brought to us in a plausible facsimile of what would have been--your work will give others clues to continue with such explorations, and make versions of the "lost" SMiLE that will access a more complete set of possibilities for doing so...