Smiley Smile was a joke.

[The Heartical Don]

The Sea Of Tunes 18 bootleg shows Smiley Smiley in a very different light.

So, are SOT and Unsurpassed Masters the same thing?

Yes.

[Cam Mott]

I still argue that we have been given the wrong impression and Smiley was anything but thrown together.

Using AGD's sessionography, I count 27 sessions for Pet Sounds.

Using the above list for Smiley I count 24 sessions and that isn't counting any Smiley vocal sessions [for which there is no documentation] or the SMiLE era sessions for H&V used in the construction of Smiley's H&V or the April session for Vegatables used in the construction of Smiley's Vegatables.

It would be interesting to add up the studio hours for the albums or compare to other albums like Summer Days etc..

[Sheriff John Stone]

I've never heard any of the SOT's, but any evidence of that "Spanish Guitar" segment being recorded during the Smiley Smile sessions? I'm trying to find a home for it...

Also, wasn't "You're Welcome" recorded during the SMiLE sessions?

[Bicyclerider]

Spanish guitar piece is supposedly dated to the Smile era by those who originally leaked it - I don't know what the evidence is though.  It certainly sounds more home studio-ish with the organ and arrangement - could it be the untitled instrumental track recorded during Smiley?

An early version of Cool Cool Water was recorded June 3rd - it has yet to surface, the version on the GV box was from the Wild Honey sessions.

Good News could be the gospel song Brian taped on his early home tapes released on "In the Beginning - the Garage Tapes."

Good Time Mama - could that be the ending of She's Goin' Bald ("too late mama" there) - like Hawaiian Song was apparently a section of Little Pad?

[Sheriff John Stone]

Spanish guitar piece is supposedly dated to the Smile era by those who originally leaked it - I don't know what the evidence is though.  It certainly sounds more home studio-ish with the organ and arrangement - could it be the untitled instrumental track recorded during Smiley?

Hey, how about a part of "Gettin' Hungry"? No?

[Wrightfan]

Also, wasn't "You're Welcome" recorded during the SMiLE sessions?

I believe so. December 1966 if I remember correctly.

I think all the vox are Brian too. One of those "wall of Brian" recordings 

[Sheriff John Stone]

Also, wasn't "You're Welcome" recorded during the SMiLE sessions?

I believe so. December 1966 if I remember correctly.

I think all the vox are Brian too. One of those "wall of Brian" recordings 

Wrightfan, I always wanted to ask you, but, unfortunately, now I feel I have to....Are you a fan of Rick Wright?

[Micha]

Here's something that makes me a bit undecided on the "joke vs. really gave it an honest try" argument: according to history (or legend, as it may be), Brian had a difficult time getting the Boys on board with the SMiLE material (especially Mike, who wanted to keep the old hit formula).  So, what made them so cooperative on Smiley?  I mean, they do seem to be enjoying themselves on that one; what changed their minds?

If I had to guess, I'd say the hash and the change of location to Brian's home studio.  They didn't feel like "outsiders" anymore, as they probably often did during Smile.  Brian's entourage was mostly gone, and it was just like the old days...a bunch of guys just sitting around making some music. 

Just like the old days, you say - Smiley Smile has a vibe that makes me think of a family gathering around ... the family organ and just make some music for fun. That's like the *real* old days, the childhood days. That's what Brian *may* have had in mind. Another thing he *may* have had in mind is this: On SMiLE he tried hard and did not achieve the results he desired. On Smiley, as a change, he decided for a more loose approach,  ZEn-like, not really trying, not-doing. No more Mr. control freak.

And as far as I'm concerned, he did succeed at least partially. Vegetables with the dumb-dumb-dumb-bass is much funnier than the odd-rhythmed Vega-Tables, and the eerie Wind Chimes is far more interesting to listen to than the comparatively flat-arranged marimba version. In fact, the 2 Wind Chimes are two different songs sharing the same lyrics. Look for the chord changes! I also like the mood of Fall Breaks, Little Pad and With Me Tonight.

I'm not that happy with Wonderful and Getting Hungry, the latter yearning for an R'n'B arrangement in the chorus. And Good Vibrations of course just doesn't belong on that record. The HV chorus is as Smiley as can be, but I don't like it. If someone does not like Smiley Smile as a whole, that's ok, there's thousands of other albums you can like.

I recommend listening to Smiley on a silent night at Christmas, that fits the mood perfectly.

[Boiled Egg]

joy...

at the risk of running into the guff territory of 'i like it v i don't like it' i have to yell that i find it really VERY HARD to find any true joy lurking below the surface of Smiley Smile.  i can hear giggles - i.e. puff - but otherwise, i hear sandpaper dry production (novel, even radical perhaps, but lacking joy and depth and finessing), sod all effort (never mind the shitty melodica playing on wind chimes, it'll do) and absolutely no joy.

[Mr. Cohen]

Exactly. At that point, Brian seemed to take ultimate joy in crafting exquisite, almost "perfect" pop. He was ultra competitive and wanted to be recognized for his talents. It was an obsession. For him to make Smiley Smile really means something had gone quite awry. I don't think Smiley Smiley was the final distillation of what he sought to achieve after "Good Vibrations" by any means. He was cracking, peeling away. Yes, the songs have nice touches and interesting performances. All the work he put into SMiLE honed his abilities to such a point that he couldn't help but make impressive songs unless he just closed his eyes and just hit the keys at random, and then we'd still probably get something like "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" out of it. On Smiley Smile, I see at as Brian being stoned and not caring. He didn't care if the performances were right. He didn't care if performing so stoned led to the material being too esoteric for the general public. And like I said, that means a lot coming from someone like Brian. Before the Smiley Smile debacle, he was conducting vocal sessions that had over 100 takes, and the final product was only 5 or 10 seconds long! Remember, he wasn't much like you or I. I think he was burned out from reaching out for the heavens and never quite grasping them, at least in his opinion. He felt inadequate. Smiley Smile was a big put=on by a man too tired to chase perfection and too tired to tell people no. "I'll just get stoned, do whatever, and give it to the label and the band so they'll get off my back." I still feel like that was how it went, but there is no way for me to prove it.

[Boiled Egg]

david anderle said

"You can always tell how effective a relationship is in the fact that Brian will try to show you he's ignoring something that has happened.  If somebody says something that you know has hurt Brian, his immediate reaction will be to slough it off.  'It doesn't bother me.'  And you really think that it doesn't bother him, but then you'll notice that for three days he hasn't been in the studio, or for two days he hasn't smiled - you'll start noticing there are certain things about him that aren't happening.  If he were having trouble with a musical idea in his head and he got in a fight with Marilyn, thw two of 'em would, it would be like a volcano.  It was always that his probledms with hims music were one part of a combustible formula for an explsion, and anything that would happen around that would be the oxygen, let's says, and his was the fuel, and it would explode.  And it would generally explode in the manner that he would be useless in terms of musical effectiveness, he would be totally useless for a great period of time.  NEW PAR  Brian cannot go into a session with something happening in the back of his head and put that back there and hold it there and do his work.  His life is his work and if he has an argument with his father at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, and it's sufficient enough argument to cause him to worry or to grieve, he's not going to be able to cut at twelve o'clock midnight.  He's not going to be able to do anything effective on an artistic level until he gets that problem resolved in his head or his heart, wherever it has truck him.  And the same thing with the boys, with the brothers and Mike Love, or stranger, me Michael Vosse, whoever.  Whoever would come around... a writer would come up, say something wrong, strike him wrogn; he'd be upset for a copule of days.  Those two days were lost.  He would try, he would try almost heroically to get something done, but he couldn't.  It would just be terror, it would be a lot of wasted  time running around doing this, running around doing that, let's start working on the comedy album, let's go out and record water fountains, let's go out and, for instance, one night he wanted us to go into a bar and start a fight.  So he could record it.  And that's really carrying something pretty far."

so, if that's how brian could react to a wrong word or a musical issue, what would his reaction be to:

• his co-writer walking out for the second time
• his getting into legal wrangles over $225,000 of unpaid royalties
• his having to put out a single to get past the legal issues with capitol
• his fellow bbs having issues with the material he'd been sweating over for months? 
• while a bit doinked on puff

perhaps his reaction would be to up sticks, go home and do as little as possible for several months.  or 'smiley smile,' as we call it.

[James Hughes-Clarke]

so, if that's how brian could react to a wrong word or a musical issue, what would his reaction be to:

• his co-writer walking out for the second time
• his getting into legal wrangles over $225,000 of unpaid royalties
• his having to put out a single to get past the legal issues with capitol
• his fellow bbs having issues with the material he'd been sweating over for months? 
• while a bit doinked on puff

perhaps his reaction would be to up sticks, go home and do as little as possible for several months.  or 'smiley smile,' as we call it.

In this case, Brian reacted by coming up with what most respondents on this board regard as a beautiful, strange, enigmatic, darkly humorous, and above all, unique album.

[Bicyclerider]

I do detect some "joy" in Little Pad, and She's Goin Bald.  Vegetables is funny in concept and to a certain extent in execution (the munching veggies, the "jump up and down" bass jump) but the group vocals are flat and a little creepy IMO.  For an album supposed to be "light" and "humorous" it's surprisingly dark and eerie, the vocals lack energy (drugs likely), Fall Breaks, Whistle In, Gettin' Hungry, even the "on and on she goes dum de doo dah" seems like something out of a bad trip.  Or the kind of music you'd make on your way down from a bad trip.

But these same qualities are what make the album interesting and multi-dimensional.

[The Heartical Don]

I do detect some "joy" in Little Pad, and She's Goin Bald.  Vegetables is funny in concept and to a certain extent in execution (the munching veggies, the "jump up and down" bass jump) but the group vocals are flat and a little creepy IMO.  For an album supposed to be "light" and "humorous" it's surprisingly dark and eerie, the vocals lack energy (drugs likely), Fall Breaks, Whistle In, Gettin' Hungry, even the "on and on she goes dum de doo dah" seems like something out of a bad trip.  Or the kind of music you'd make on your way down from a bad trip.

But these same qualities are what make the album interesting and multi-dimensional.

Well said. Dark and eerie are my perceptions too. If it was meant to be jocular, then it's funny in the kind of way a clown can be funny... i.e. unsettling, giving the feeling that there are things behind the façade you'd rather not see. As I am writing this I am thinking of Alex Chilton; a man who, if you will, can be seen as one of the greats in powerpop, but not in any 'funny' way. He's capable of gorgeous melodic hooks; but when he's hooked you into his world, you suddenly get that chill and realize that not all is well in Chiltonland.
(I know that Chilton's music and Brian's are not alike in a technical way, but to this listener, there's a spiritual correspondence - perhaps Chilton touched 'Smiley Smile' best when he made the third Big Star album, which appeared much later in numerous constellations. I have the 'Sister Lovers' one on vinyl (the Dojo-label).)