SMiLE book by David Leaf

[Angela Jones]

Quote from Don Malcom:
'I think it's clear that LSD unleashed things in Brian that accelerated his creativity. Without it we would most likely not have Pet Sounds or SMiLE. (Of course so many things had to align in order to bring SMiLE back to us, which is something that we can credit to David's steadfast friendship with Brian, which clearly assisted Brian to make the wrenching decision to rescue the whole of the project from its strange "meta-oblivion." All the other drugs that Brian used for self-medication, and the ones callously imposed upon him by Gene Landy, were far more destructive than his LSD use.
[/quote]

I completely agree. And surely finding people like David, whom Brian could trust, made it possible for SMiLE to be rescued.  It's often easy to describe SMiLE in terms of fairy tales and mythology.  Sleeping Beauty fits in too. The music nearly died but was cast into a magic slumber for many years.  It was kissed awake by Brian, his band, David, other dear friends and of course the audiences, who love it.

BTW, David wrote on Facebook 'Just heard from Omnibus Books in London that they've gone into a second printing on SMiLE: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson.
'It's so thrilling to know that SMiLE fans are buying it!.
'The books are actually printed in the Czech Republic.  Yes, you read that right.  So you might want to get yours now, so you don't get delayed in a supply chain slow down.'

[guitarfool2002]

This is a great discussion and has the potential for even more great conversations, cheers and kudos to all involved! I have not yet received the book, so I just wanted to focus on and add to a few topics already on the table here. And no worries here that your opinions and character will be targeted and smeared if it disagrees with whatever other hive mind, groupthink, or narrative might exist elsewhere.

I would encourage anyone interested in a clinical and historical look at the use of LSD, specific in a few citations to the artistic and creative-minded, to read this article named "The Trip", published by LA Weekly:

https://www.laweekly.com/the-trip/


It centers around the LSD studies conducted by Dr. Arthur Janiger in the 1950's and 60's, in California, using volunteers from all walks of life including celebrities, artists, musicians, students, and regular citizens. The estimate is roughly 900 volunteers participated in these studies, cutting a wide swath of controls and parameters to weigh the results. The LSD itself was pure Sandoz labs LSD when it was 100% legal, and given in controlled doses with subjects having a "guide" and relaxed natural environments versus clinical labs or medical facilities.

Dr. Janiger was first provided the Sandoz LSD by Parry Bivins in the early 50's, who simply ordered it from Sandoz. Parry Bivins later became Dr. Parry Bivins, who also went on to help invent and innovate within the world of deep sea diving. Along with his wife, Zale Parry, they helped invent and market the first hyperbaric chamber for the civilian dive community, this is the device which helps cure "the bends" among deep sea divers. Zale Parry is one of the most renowned and accomplished female divers in history, and both Zale and Parry Bivins worked on the TV show Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges, with Zale doing stunts and acting on the show, and Parry doing stunt and technical work as well.

Dr. Janiger funded the studies himself, and personally rented the house in which he conducted them. Sandoz labs provided the LSD to Janiger for free in return for his research and reports on the substance and its effects during the controlled studies. He received no outside funding other than what he charged the participants and volunteers as an "entrance fee". Unlike other "studies" happening at the same time, no government, CIA, or military interests were involved.

Among Dr. Janiger's other notable participants were Cary Grant, James Coburn, Rita Moreno, Andre Previn, Jack Nicholson, husband-and-wife Dr. Bivins and Zale Parry, and a host of others in and around Los Angeles, including the UCLA campus. When word began to spread about the studies taking place, interest skyrocketed among the artistic, intellectual, and academic communities in and around LA. By late 1966 the government outlawed LSD under LBJ's sweeping "Narcotic Control Act" which led to independent, underground chemists, most famous of which was "Bear" Owsley and his partner Melissa Cargill, to manufacture their own controlled doses of LSD and compound it into pill varieties which would be nicknamed "blue cheer" and "yellow sunshine" and fueled the underground market in the late 60's as an alternative to the pure liquid versions being dosed onto sugar cubes and eventually stamp-like "blotter" papers.

That's just a surface scratch of the history - Again I would encourage anyone interested to please read the article and maybe follow up on the individual threads within that history, such as the Bivins/Parry history and the experiences of Cary Grant to gain a wider perspective.

One quote from the article which I wanted to emphasize is this from classical musician Andre Previn:


[The doctor] had suggested that I listen to some music while the drug was still effective. I am a composer and pianist, and I have never before or since been so strongly affected by music. I listened to recordings of some Brahms, Mozart and Walton, and was moved to tears almost immediately . . . I then played the piano for approximately 40 minutes. I felt that I played extremely well and possibly with more musical insight than before. I played among other things a Chopin Fantasia which I had not looked at since my student days, and remembered it perfectly and without flaws. A few days after the experiment I again attempted to play this piece and found that I had retained it completely. I would sometime be interested in repeating the experiment and recording some improvisations while under the influence of the pills.


To tie it together briefly, the story of LSD and its use and effects goes far beyond a simple "drugs bad!" narrative, and any positive uses as a psychological or therapeutic drug were the subject of an overt effort by various elements of the US federal government including the CIA and possibly (carefully used term) the larger pharmaceutical industry monolith to both criminalize and taint the positive uses of the drug with a fear-based, near psy-op campaign to eliminate the drug entirely, even in clinical and controlled medical use.  That is subject alone for a massive rabbit hole dive and discussion.

But when it comes to Smile and Brian's experiences with the drug, I'll say again as I've been saying for decades now, if there is an effort to boil everything down to a narrative which suggests Smile and Brian were victims of a drug and the effects of a drug which turned him into a zonked-out stoned musician who couldn't make decisions and was too out of it to make the kind of music he should have been making...well, it's a really simplistic, narrow-minded, and ignorant summary of all that was happening in 1966 and 1967, and seems to cherry-pick one possible factor among at least a dozen other factors which led to the events surrounding Smile. And if somewhere, somehow, an "official history" is told that pinpoints a "drugs bad! drugs killed Smile!" narrative as a main if not the main factor in the story...you're being gaslighted if not overtly lied to with that history.

And on a more base-level look at things like factual release dates and products of that era: Brian's first musical creation under the influence of LSD on his first experience was "California Girls"...soon followed by "The Little Girl I Once Knew", "Pet Sounds", "Good Vibrations", and what became Smile. That is arguably one of the finest sets of original and groundbreaking popular music from any artist in the 20th century, music which is still being celebrated in the 21st century as among the most innovative and "best" music of the last 75 years. And when you read what Andre Previn said about his own LSD experience related to music, and also compare that to the output from The Beatles in 1966-67 and the radical shift in art, music, media, and culture going into the late 60's, the official narratives fall woefully short of showing the bigger picture.

[Angela Jones]

Thanks so much Guitarfool. Absolutely fascinating information

[Dan Lega]

Here's something that all you folks who say they cannot connect with the SMiLE lyrics should find VERY interesting and enlightening!


I found it on a podcast where David Leaf is the guest talking about his new book.   I believe the podcast was just released today.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtkTDgthhs4


This tidbit is something don't remember EVER reading, especially in this new book!  But please correct me if I'm wrong.  You can find it at 12:14.


David says Brian chose Van Dyke to write the lyrics to SMiLE "because Pet Sounds was too close to the bone. It was too emotional, it was too real.  And he wanted to do something that wasn't as emotional for him.  Now, as a composer of the music, his emotions come through the music.  But the lyrics that Van Dyke wrote, some of them abstract, some of the hard to grasp were perfect for the music because it made you have to listen over and over again to get what he was saying -- if you could ever get what he was saying.  These ideas that Van Dyke and Brian were talking about were American ideas that weren't easily grasped; in the same way the songs, the music of SMiLE, it wasn't top 40 radio music at that time."


There may be more, but that's all I'll transcribe for now.


Again, I love the lyrics of SMiLE.  They mean a lot to me.  If you don't get them, hey, that's fine.


But those lyrics are exactly what Brian wanted!  Brian and Van Dyke were on the exact same page!  If Brian thought some people might not get the lyrics he was willing to take that chance, because he loved them, and thought they fit his melodies perfectly.  He didn't want to write about relationships.  He wanted to write about America, and deeper thoughts, like "child is father of the man," and less deeper thoughts like vegetables and wind chimes. 

I know this won't change their mindset on the other board, where they're all dug in and totally unwilling to change, but sensible people would totally realize that this puts the lie to the notion that Brian didn't like his music or Van Dyke's lyrics, and that Van Dyke didn't like his lyrics, either!


Love and merci,
Dan Lega

[guitarfool2002]

Nice find, Dan - Of course Brian liked the music he created for Smile, and Van Dyke was proud of his lyrics too, and vice versa. To suggest otherwise sounds like more gaslighting and revisionism. One of the more prominent things Brian has said about Smile is along the lines of "it wasn't appropriate music for the Beach Boys", NOT that he didn't like it or that he didn't think it was good, or that he wasn't proud of it...just that it wasn't appropriate for The Beach Boys. Read into that anyway which fits, and forget the revisionism that he didn't like the music he and Van Dyke created.

[Angela Jones]

''To present the Zen riddle Brian would create an entire album in the form of an hallucination.
'The more mixed up and confused the better. The modular form of composition would be employed throughout. Sections could be moved about and rearranged at anytime. New ideas could be added anytime. Nothing would be "too far out" or beyond consideration for inclusion.
'A booklet of picture hallucinations (provided by Frank Holmes) would add the proper visual effect.
'Lyrics would be written more for effect than meaning (and therefore difficult to "explain").
'"'I was there to support his 'dream-escape.'"~Van Dyke Parks
'Parks was the perfect choice to write lyrics for SMiLE in the style of Brian's bookstore riddle/hallucination.
'"In Zen a koan is a formulation, in baffling language, pointing to ultimate Truth. Koans cannot be solved by recourse to a logical reasoning but only awakening a deeper level of the mind beyond the discursive intellect."

https://www.goodhumorsmile.com/page01.htm?fbclid=IwY2xjawJsQ2NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjHzeTf7rB1XjDNbNzXmZET0V-BRt4_5IDUCnM2jEpKxYdAheDQMnt_QfoDE_aem_SxkGqAhtl1Pw3yVNEIrWhw

[The Shift]

Here's something that all you folks who say they cannot connect with the SMiLE lyrics should find VERY interesting and enlightening!


I found it on a podcast where David Leaf is the guest talking about his new book.   I believe the podcast was just released today.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtkTDgthhs4


This tidbit is something don't remember EVER reading, especially in this new book!  But please correct me if I'm wrong.  You can find it at 12:14.


David says Brian chose Van Dyke to write the lyrics to SMiLE "because Pet Sounds was too close to the bone. It was too emotional, it was too real.  And he wanted to do something that wasn't as emotional for him.  Now, as a composer of the music, his emotions come through the music.  But the lyrics that Van Dyke wrote, some of them abstract, some of the hard to grasp were perfect for the music because it made you have to listen over and over again to get what he was saying -- if you could ever get what he was saying.  These ideas that Van Dyke and Brian were talking about were American ideas that weren't easily grasped; in the same way the songs, the music of SMiLE, it wasn't top 40 radio music at that time."


There may be more, but that's all I'll transcribe for now.


Again, I love the lyrics of SMiLE.  They mean a lot to me.  If you don't get them, hey, that's fine.


But those lyrics are exactly what Brian wanted!  Brian and Van Dyke were on the exact same page!  If Brian thought some people might not get the lyrics he was willing to take that chance, because he loved them, and thought they fit his melodies perfectly.  He didn't want to write about relationships.  He wanted to write about America, and deeper thoughts, like "child is father of the man," and less deeper thoughts like vegetables and wind chimes. 

I know this won't change their mindset on the other board, where they're all dug in and totally unwilling to change, but sensible people would totally realize that this puts the lie to the notion that Brian didn't like his music or Van Dyke's lyrics, and that Van Dyke didn't like his lyrics, either!


Love and merci,
Dan Lega

Sweeping statement, that. “All”?

[Dan Lega]

I know this won't change their mindset on the other board, where they're all dug in and totally unwilling to change, but sensible people would totally realize that this puts the lie to the notion that Brian didn't like his music or Van Dyke's lyrics, and that Van Dyke didn't like his lyrics, either!


Love and merci,
Dan Lega

Sweeping statement, that. “All”?

Well, "all" the ones who are dug in to their beliefs that Brian didn't like his music or Van Dyke's lyrics, and Van Dyke didn't like his lyrics or Brian's music, and the Beach Boys did absolutely everything in their power to finish SMiLE, and their slight misgivings had absolutely no effect on Brian's decision NOT to finish SMiLE.

And that seems to be about 98% of the people over there.  I only see one, maybe two, folks who don't cowtow to their pervading bias over there.  Cam recently said something that essentially meant 'the lone hold-outs to our theory are few and far between and are going the way of the dinosaur.'


GuitarFool, thanks for that info on LSD.  AMAZING!

And Angela, thanks for reposting the Zen theory, as I especially liked Van Dyke's quote "I was there to support his dream-scape." 

[Dan Lega]

Angela, I went to Bill Tobelman's GoodHumor website and found two more quotes to go with the Van Dyke quote you posted...




"I was there to support his dream-scape." -- Van Dyke Parks


"But I think it was such a personal vision of Brian's that I don't think anyone should have been allowed to mess with it....It was very personal." -- David Anderle


"Psychedelic music will cover the face of the world and color the whole popular music scene. Anybody happening is psychedelic." -- Brian Wilson



I chose these to again point out that Brian had a strong idea of what he wanted SMiLE to be and that Van Dyke fit into that perfectly, and that Brian felt extremely strongly about what they were doing.

Heck, it even sounds like the lyrics for SMiLE, which he wanted to be different from Pet Sounds because that was too close to the bone, ended up being even more personal to him!

[Angela Jones]

Thanks Dan.

From another rather interesting website I found this Carl quote: 'In 1973 Beach Boy Carl Wilson discussed the combinatorial quality of SMiLE‘s modular process: “We did things in sections. There might just be a few bars of music, or a verse, or a particular groove, or vamp… They would all fit. You could put them one in front of the other, or arrange it in any way you wanted. It was sort of like making films I think”''

Carl is confirming here what Van Dyke Parks, Brian and others have written about the modular nature of SMiLE. Van Dyke said that with The SMiLE Sessions, this enabled people to make their own assemblages - SMiLE had become an interactive album. It had been for years of course. When we didn't have it, many did their own versions. Here's a link: https://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/smile-brian-wilson’s-musical-mosaic/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJtlHJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHsS-HSUnv2jCv3vbIl77kpEPwGY31pUbblbUlWQZynqfbRHuV3SOn2vmhcAf_aem_nW9oHzaHJVNWnhH3gX_2lw

Re that other MB - there are some people with whom I agree. I think the problem is that there are some who are so authoritative that others are scared to express their views for fear of being shot down.  I noticed that after you defended your argument, when there was no real answer they just as you put it 'dug in'. And we've  all heard the one about how when you're in a hole stop digging. Someone gave them a rope by suggesting that the board was big enough to accept more than one opinion. A nice little get out clause!

Unfortunately, I think that SOME original Beach Boys fans are unhappy to accept anything that criticises the unity of the group as a whole and so they prefer to blame the drugs for what went wrong. Maybe they had a part of it but there were other parts too. Surely, we can all be honest about that.  

There was some discussion about lyrics. What is not clear about this? 'So hard to answer future's riddle
When ahead is seeming so far behind'. That makes total sense to me but perhaps I just wasn't made for these times lol!

[Don Malcolm]

That "supply-chain" thing that many of us in the USA are dreading thanks to you-know-who seemed to take hold in several arrival delays for my copy of David Leaf's magnum opus on SMiLE. Thankfully it finally arrived and I've spent a couple of passes with it with increasing admiration for his achievement. His job of stitching quotes together is a modular miracle in its own write (misspelling intentional...), and especially appropriate for the musical work that is at the center of his epic saga.

The book covers almost all of the ground any just short of 'round the bend SMiLE fanatic could ask for (I'll return to my own particular obsession briefly below...) but what stands out in the weave are the testimonies of Van Dyke Parks and Darian Sahanaja (along with the comments from other musicians in describing how the performance version of BWPS came together). Amidst all the detailed session notes that now exist (which often have been used to "prove" points about the fraught dynamics in the mid-to-latter stages of the original abandoned project) we are blessed with some uncharacteristically direct statements from VDP about his sense of how SMiLE shifted in mid-creation around the time of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" and how that made him feel as though he was on the outside looking in. Add in the accelerating concerns of at least a portion of the band members, the deteriorating relationship with Capitol, and Brian's increasing indecision about how to proceed (the stalemate at the end of the marathon sessions for "Heroes & Villains") and we can understand much more clearly just how alone he felt in the spring of 1967.

And Darian provides a heartwarming look at the Brian-VDP reunion in 2003, which led to a most satisfying synthesis of the original work and the various adjustments that were made to give us a fully-fledged work of art--an "oratorio" (as termed by esteemed musical "egghead" Daniel Harrison) that encompassed both the weight and the whimsy that such an extended work can contain beyond the limits of the standard song.

I don't think we can ask for anything more about the story arc of SMiLE than what David has collected here (with one or two exceptions--which might just be my own ultra-obsessiveness manifesting itself). It's time for the finger-pointing about all of the events from mid-1966 to the scrapping of SMiLE in May 1967 to sink to the ocean floor and take the place where SMiLE had been relegated as a unified work through a series of circumstances that are much clearer to us (but still somewhat incomplete) as a result of David's efforts in support of Brian over the years and his synthesis of what could have been a highly disjointed narrative. Thank goodness he did it--no one else could, and all Brian Wilson fans are better off for it.

All that said, I still hanker to know exactly what was agreed to at the band meeting in late May '67 when the path was set to create Smiley Smile. Brian must have presented some kind of plan that included much of what eventually appeared on that LP, pieced together with reworked SMiLE songs and other snippets, plus a few brand-new tunes. That Capitol memo discussing how to use the subsequently destroyed SMiLE booklets in a (phantom?) 10-track version of SMiLE--is it a hoax, or did Brian obliquely refer to that scenario in the articles GF unearthed from August '67 when he suggested that he might not be "Beach-Boying" much longer? Did the rest of the band agree to let him transition them into being an entity with even less connection to the band than the working arrangement that had developed in '65-'66? Was that a stipulation in the transition between SMiLE and Smiley Smile? And was it undone in the fall when Smiley's release created so much confusion, bringing on the band's "panic attack" at Wally Heider during the Redwood sessions?

Something along those lines would explain why Brian recorded his piano version of "Surf's Up" in and around the Wild Honey sessions: he had some plans to pull together some version of SMiLE. (At Bellagio, that session doesn't have a definitive date.) The Capitol memo suggested that Wild Honey would be Brother 9003, with a "ten-track SMiLE" as 9002. Of course, only Wild Honey materialized, but it was released on Capitol. (I have never seen an explanation for this.) Over the next three weeks after the interruption of Brian's producing gig with Redwood, he has cranked out six or seven new tracks for Wild Honey and the LP is rushed out in mid-December. It seems that the the concern over the band's marketplace status became so pronounced that Brian was forced to shift gears after having produced the "Wild Honey" single and complete the whole LP ASAP...which would have put any plans to rework SMiLE further on the back burner--if not on the shelf entirely, given the apparent deactivation of the Brother Records label.

For the sake of the overarching, multi-decade story arc of SMiLE, of course, such details are not really necessary. It's not a topic that David Leaf--treading carefully around these subjects with Brian prior to SMiLE's resurrection--would probably want to focus upon. But Brian remained a key agent in the generation/production of material for the Friends LP, and it wasn't until around August that serious psychological issues became prominent. The summer of '68 seems to be the turning point, and the appropriation of SMiLE tracks by Carl and Dennis for 20/20 seem to cast in stone an approach to SMiLE that presumed Brian was no longer interested or capable of engaging with the material. (Of course, it proved quite useful in perpetuating a myth that lived on for many decades.)

As should be obvious, this mystery continues to fascinate me, even in the wake of a completed SMiLE--a miracle that is wonderfully documented in David's new book. He's also strong on the build-up to SMiLE and Brian's introduction to the "fast crowd" in Hollywood--the portion of the story that has provided so much heartburn for the twin terrors of the "too-near faraway place." It must be galling for AGD to see so many quotes from Lorren Daro in David's book, even as he appears in the back pages (with a rather lightweight essay). He has rationalized his terrible behavior here and continues to project it upon the now-deceased Daro, and is abetted by the capricious legalisms of his "beach girl" sidekick, who seemingly wants to exhume Daro's body and ship it to El Salvador. David speaks quite fondly of AGD in the book, BTW, calling him his "old compadre" and is apparently willing to overlook much of the indefatigable one's dark side. Such odd dynamics are, I suppose, only to be expected within a world dealing with the fraught associations and fame-driven frenzy surrounding our favorite group and their musical mastermind.

At any rate, kudos to David for a job well done. And thanks to Brian for finding a way through the accumulated traumas to "raise the Titanic" with SMiLE and give the world the type of happy ending that is all too rare...

[Dan Lega]

My God, Don!  That was the most intelligent post I've read on SMiLE in years!  Great speculation into things I never speculated about, and... probably didn't even know to speculate about!


As for David Leaf and AGD, I don't think David reads the message boards.  I was told by Sean Courtney that when he did he and his wife's podcast with David Leaf as guest, and David brought up that the "Inside Pop" tapes exist, Sean had a follow-up question.  He asked David if he knew about the notes for the "Inside Pop" tapes that I copied from the archive in the library I worked in at the time, and was lucky enough to post to this board WAY BACK WHEN!

And they've been re-posted many times. 

However, David answered that he did not know about them.  (This part of the conversation was left on the cutting room floor of the final podcast.)

So this probably means that David has absolutely nothing to do with any of the boards, and thus probably doesn't know the 'dark' side of AGD, but only knows the 'fact collector' side of him.

[juggler]

I'm surprised, Dan, that David Leaf professes ignorance of your Inside Pop cataloguing.  I remember when you posted that info decades ago.
I finally got my library copy of DL's book.  It's okay, but is anyone else of the opinion that Frank Holmes gets short-shrift in this tome?  Yeah, Frank is mentioned here and there, but how do you do a book like this and not give the Smile shop artwork and booklet pride of place?  I mean, it's ICONIC.   For a long time, the cover and the booklet were the most "real" thing about Smile.

On a positive note, I think the color photo of Brian at the piano in the sandbox (near p. 100) is possibly the only one I've ever seen of the legendary sand box.

[Angela Jones]

Just want to add my thanks to Dan Lega's for Don Malcolm's brilliant message.   SO insightful.

Re Juggler's comments about Frank Holmes, of course  his artwork was such an important part of the project. I bought several pieces and they take as much deciphering as the music and lyrics themselves. When Frank Holmes appeared at a UK convention, Van Dyke Parks sent a message - hope I'm remembering it correctly - that Brian, Van Dyke Parks and Frank Holmes were a triumvirate in freeform expression. It would have taken me a paragraph to get the same message into words!

[guitarfool2002]

I just wanted to add this, specifically to Dan Lega and to anyone else who didn't see it: This is the last extensive Smile discussion I was involved in, and perhaps will be the last one I'll ever take part in. All 21 pages of it where similar issues as are seen here are raised and discussed...

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,28152.0.html

I put as much information and archival sources and quotes as I could find which were relevant in those pages, ultimately coming together to show the hill I'm willing to (symbolically of course) die on: That perhaps the most crucial moments in the timeline of Smile collapsing happened in May and June 1967 after the band returned from a European tour, and the decisions and changes that were made specifically at that time and which defined much of the remainder of 1967 for the band and Brian's activities and working methods. It's the same topic Don Malcolm touches on in his posts, and here anyone can see the archival clippings and quotes to help form their own opinion. Here you'll also see some of the reasons why I do not post about Smile as much as I had previously (or post in general), and the issues I have with what is being either touted as or labeled as "official" attempts to write the history of Smile for future generations of fans and readers.  There is a limit to how many times the same points, facts, and archival items can be put on the table, and for me that limit was reached in 2022. How much new can be said about the same set of facts and archival clippings, short of rebuking attempts to distort or dismiss those same points and facts to the detriment of telling the whole story for future readers.

As far as other non-Smile points Don and others have raised...people knew what was going on and what was being said and written about them, and who was doing it. Of that I am 100% sure. If some want to ignore or outright dismiss those things that were said and done, that's their prerogative. But I'll say again, people knew what was happening and who was doing it.

[Angela Jones]

Thanks guitarfool!

I participated in that thread to which you gave the link but I'd forgotten so much of it. I'd written things then that I've written more recently but without remembering when I'd expressed the same thoughts before! How embarrassing.

It's just reading that book that made me reivist the subject at such length.

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

I love that 2022 Smile thread. So many interesting insights and perspectives. I actually return to reread it every once in a blue moon.

[Zenobi]

I know this is heresy... but imho any one of SMiLE's greater songs is worth more than the whole Sgt. Pepper.

[Zenobi]

I have to say a thing about this Smiley forum. It often seems to fall fast asleep, and nothing significant happens for days, or even weeks. But then it suddenly awakes and serves us golden threads like this current one.
Yes, this forum counts fewer posts, but also way less smoke, mirrors and sundry background noise.

[Dan Lega]

I'm surprised, Dan, that David Leaf professes ignorance of your Inside Pop cataloguing.  I remember when you posted that info decades ago.
I finally got my library copy of DL's book.  It's okay, but is anyone else of the opinion that Frank Holmes gets short-shrift in this tome?  Yeah, Frank is mentioned here and there, but how do you do a book like this and not give the Smile shop artwork and booklet pride of place?  I mean, it's ICONIC.   For a long time, the cover and the booklet were the most "real" thing about Smile.

On a positive note, I think the color photo of Brian at the piano in the sandbox (near p. 100) is possibly the only one I've ever seen of the legendary sand box.

Well, silly me, I didn't notice that.  And shame on me, because I love Frank's work so much!  But I quickly have a theory about why Frank Holmes was left out of David Leaf's new book.  David did practically every interview for the book in 2004.  (Except for recent interviews asking said participants to look back and remember 2004.)  So... remember what happened when SMiLE was revived in 2004?  Frank Holmes artwork was NOT used for Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE!  So, perhaps because of that Frank refused to give David an interview in 2004, or was not asked because of that happenstance.  And if he was asked for a new recent interview, as was Van Dyke, perhaps he, too, deigned not to give an interview.

[Angela Jones]

This is from 2005 but quite interesting. https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/He-caught-a-wave-but-it-crashed-years-later-2569539.php

I thought that Brian wasn't allowed to use the original SMiLE cover for BWPS but I don't remember the details.

'The exhibition in the restaurant is the first major showing of Holmes' "Smile" drawings. The 12 recent additional drawings have never really been seen before and the other drawings from the original "Smile" album cover and booklet have only been reproduced from copies. The original drawings disappeared from Capitol Records long ago.
"I made up a new original," said Holmes. "I am an artist."'

[Don Malcolm]

I finally got my library copy of DL's book.  It's okay, but is anyone else of the opinion that Frank Holmes gets short-shrift in this tome?  Yeah, Frank is mentioned here and there, but how do you do a book like this and not give the Smile shop artwork and booklet pride of place?  I mean, it's ICONIC.   For a long time, the cover and the booklet were the most "real" thing about Smile.

As iconic as Frank's work is, it is still a long step removed from the music itself, given that the artwork is geared around VDP's lyrics. It seems that Omnibus Press was rather parsimonious in terms of providing space for pictures in both of David's books, especially in comparison with what we saw in the earlier editions of "the Myth" (as David has taken to calling his 1978/1985 book). The dimensions for those earlier versions were more conducive to illustrations, and IIRC some of Frank's work appeared there (and in the Priess "commissioned bio" in 1979).

The major reference in David's SMiLE to Frank's work can be found on page 61, where it's characterized (accurately) as "imaginative."

The best pride of place for Frank's work, aside from the original booklet, of course, has got to be the pages in the SMiLE SESSIONS box set where a great deal of his work is reproduced (some of it in color), along with his own commentaries.

As for it being the only "real thing about SMiLE" for many years, I think that's a bit overstated. Many parts of the "real" SMiLE have been available to us since 1969, when it was decided to feed the myth by releasing "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence," followed by the chant in "Cool, Cool Water" and, most important of all, "Surf's Up" in 1971. While we didn't have a completed version of SMiLE for another thirty-odd years, we have long had access to tangible proof of the greatness of the SMiLE music.

This is from 2005 but quite interesting. https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/He-caught-a-wave-but-it-crashed-years-later-2569539.php

I thought that Brian wasn't allowed to use the original SMiLE cover for BWPS but I don't remember the details.

'The exhibition in the restaurant is the first major showing of Holmes' "Smile" drawings. The 12 recent additional drawings have never really been seen before and the other drawings from the original "Smile" album cover and booklet have only been reproduced from copies. The original drawings disappeared from Capitol Records long ago.
"I made up a new original," said Holmes. "I am an artist."'

A great find, Angela--thanks so much for that. I am surprised that there hasn't been a fuller treatment of Frank's work beyond what appeared in the SMiLE sessions box: I do think that there are many, many folks out there who would buy such a book devoted to it, particularly if Brian and Van Dyke were to contribute essays..

[Bill Tobelman]

I think that Frank Holmes' involvement with SMiLE is underrated.

An issue of Endless Summer Quarterly first introduced me to the artist. When Frank stated, "The SMiLE Shop is a paradox. The drawing is a surrealist idea; a visual that is not accessible in conscious reality" I got the feeling that out of the 3 creators behind SMiLE, Frank was the most forthcoming.

True to form it's Frank Holmes who has mentioned "enlightenment" the most often (in mags like Open Sky & ESQ). Brian mentioned enlightenment in the Todd Gold bio and in his "Surf's Up" lyric explanation in the Jules Siegel Cheetah article but Mr. Holmes has brought it up at least a half a dozen times. He has revealed that some of his SMiLE images represent enlightenment, or at least a step in that direction.

To me, Holmes' essay in the SMiLE Sessions is the finest piece ever written on SMiLE.

Keep in mind Frank was chosen by VDP, met Brian & discussed stuff, and did the LP cover & sketchbook art. It certainly seems to me that the SMiLE Shop LP cover has a lot to do with the Pickwick Bookstore incident outlined in the Todd Gold bio.

When one searches for Holmes' artwork online you find that his SMiLE pieces are unlike his other works. His style for SMiLE remains consistent, 1966 to 1996 to whenever. This suggests that SMiLE was/is a unique and consistent project. While some maintain that the SMiLE era was a catch-all for all of Brian's obsessions the 'modular' musical form suggests a consistent musical pattern.....as consistent as Holmes' art. While SMiLE's subject matter seems all over the place there is an underlying consistency.

Dreams can include many variables & they're open to multiple interpretations, but they're still basically dreams. SMiLE is like that, it's basically consistent.

The reason folks find SMiLE a catch-all work is, IMHO, due to the literal focus given the images presented.

Think that SMiLE's method of creation is mentioned by Brian in his lyric explanation for "Surf's Up." Brian said,"He's off in his vision, on a trip. Reality is gone; he's creating it like a dream." Hey, that sounds a little like Frank Holmes; "The drawing is a surrealist idea; a visual that is not accessible in conscious reality"

[Angela Jones]

I was lucky to actually meet Frank Holmes at a fan convention in the UK. I asked him about the SMiLE Shop and the yellow pathway into it, questioning whether it had some railway relevance. He said 'You're on the right track' which I take it was another clue.  The music, the artwork, the lyrics all contain riddles IMO. It reminds me of the Seal lyric:
 'Why must we dream in metaphors?
Try to hold on to something we couldn't understand.'

[Bill Tobelman]

Got the Leaf book yesterday & quickly looked over the treatment of the 66-67 SMiLE era. One thing stood out to me, the lack of important LSD related content.

LSD was pretty much talked about on just two pages, 13 & 14. The famous Brian quote to Tom Nolan about LSD was there, but missing was its connection to the then titled Dumb Angel album. Brian told Nolan, "I think pop music is going to be spiritual....that's the direction I want to go." And Brian's LSD comment explained what had inspired his new spiritual direction.

IMHO SMiLE's raison d'etre isn't given nearly enough attention.

Leaf asks, "How much LSD did Brian take in his life?" No answer is given. But there is an answer and it was given during a Larry King interview with Brian and Melinda. Melinda is talking about Brian & conversations with his doctor and drug use in the Sixties & Melinda states Brian went on 3 trips. Coincidently the Todd Gold bio mentions only 3 trips. The bio also details what occurred during the trips.

Leaf notes Brian's contradictory statements regarding the effect LSD had on him. But if the Gold bio was consulted one would know that Brian had two bad trips & one phenomenal trip. Brian's responses reflect the variety of his experiences.

One thing I learned & liked from the book was that Van Dyke mentioned Brian's sense of farce. Parks was talking about "Heroes And Villains" and states, "And I didn't mind as we got into it his sense of farce, because...anything that Brian was interested in, even farce, was great."