My Smile Essay

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othereric:
Posted about this awhile back. Thanks to everyone here who helped me out with info. It's not as great as it could be because I wrote it the night before it was due. I got a B+

Themes of Nature and Americana in Brian Wilson’s Smile

It has come to my attention that you are unaware of the genius of Brian Wilson. Please be advised that this is unacceptable, and that you are responsible for correcting this matter yourself.  However, I suggest you look into the Smile album for further assistance. In this album you will find some of the most sophisticated pop music ever created, but perhaps more exciting than the album itself are the myths and legends that grew around it. Upon review, I trust you will find Smile to be the greatest unreleased album of all time.

In this paper I intend to show how and why the album Smile which was intended for release by the Beach Boys in 1967 should be added to the cannon of culturally significant works of art in American history. Furthermore, that the album’s themes of Americana, romanticism, transcendentalism, Dadaism, and all-around musical innovation set it apart from any of its contemporaries in terms of sophistication and intelligence and warrants a great amount of attention from the art and music community. Also that the album was a more intelligent statement of the counter culture of the sixties than anything else that surfaced out of that particular scene.

In order to understand the concepts and themes at work in Smile it is important to take a discerning look at the meaning behind each of the songs, or sections of songs. At first glance the lyrics may seem obtuse, and the music discombobulating. However, this is intentional on the part of the composer and lyricist. The cut-and-paste method employed in the making of this music reflects the sentiments of the Dadaist movement. (Schemool) In the same way the Dadaists made collages out of random objects and imagery, Brian Wilson does the same here with different genres of music. He draws from many American elements such as Jazz, country, folk, rag time, blues, classical and of course rock ‘n’ roll but he also employs eastern influences which reflect in the instrumentation on songs such as Cabin Essence.

The music on Smile is split up into three sections in no particular order. There is a section dealing with the themes of innocence and experience, another section concerning Americana and manifest destiny, and another dealing with the elements. The section on innocence and experience derives a lot of its themes from 19th century British Romanticism, as well as American Transcendentalism. The message conveyed in this section is that children share a closer bond with nature than adults who have been corrupted by time and who have lost their sense of wonder. The lyrics in this section make a cry for a return to nature and simplicity, the simplicity of a “children’s song.” A recurring lyric in this section is derived from the poem My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth as well as from his collection Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. (Priore)

In the same way that those of the counterculture movement of the 1960’s cried out for a return to nature and an awakening of consciousness on Smile the message takes on a much more sophisticated, philosophical tone. While the lyrics embrace the sentiments of that counterculture they also look to the past to justify those beliefs and to show that these beliefs aren’t anything new. While the counterculture during this progressive era might have written off the past in hopes of creating a better tomorrow. In Smile the creators make it a point to set themselves apart from this sort of thinking, embracing themes that have been passed down through generations.
The first song in this section is entitled Wonderful and it is in this song that the clash of innocence and experience is most apparent. The lyrics tell the story of a girl, a “believer” who is uncorrupted by the world. Then one day she loses her innocence to the non-believer but still returns “in love with her liberty

In the songs that follow Song for Children and Child is Father of the Man, the Wordsworth poem is a main source of inspiration. It is in that poem My Heart Leaps Up where Wordsworth declares “Child is Father of the Man.” Another reference in this section in Song for Children is the inclusion of the Twelfth Street Rag, one of the most popular Rags from the 1900’s. (Priore) The section ends with Surf’s Up where the lyrics describe a man coming to the realization that civilization must be torn down to reveal spiritual truth, and the emptiness of adult society. Brian Wilson described the meaning of the song in the Jules Siegel Article, Goodbye Surfing Hello God, he explains the intention and meaning meant to be evoked was to “go back to the kids, to the beach, to childhood,” in order to get more in touch with nature and spirituality and the idyllic state of wonder encapsulated by children. (Priore)

The outro of this song was described by Wilson in the same Siegel article as mimicking the sound of “the universe rising and falling in wave after wave.” This is important because it is one of the central themes of Smile, this bouncing back and forth between construction and destruction. There are many moments in the album lyrically and musically that describe the ascent of one thing and the destruction of another; The rise of Westward expansion, the fall of the church of the American Indian, the loss of innocence and continuing corruption of the modern world. Basically it all boils down to the theme of heroes and villains. The song ends with the declaration “I heard the word…a children’s song…their song is love and the children know the way.” The children’s song of course is the song of God, the song of Nature.

Humor plays a large role in Smile. Wilson was described as having a “preoccupation with the need for humor…he felt laughter as one of the highest forms of divinity---and when someone was laughing, their connection with the thing that was making them laugh made them more open.” (Priore) Using this logic Wilson hoped that by utilizing humor throughout the album he would be able to open up his audience to some of the more spiritually enlightening purposes behind the album. The humor element also harkens back to the theme of childhood innocence. The sort of “dumb” humor found in Smile could be called childish.

Carl Wilson, member of the band and Brian’s brother described Brian’s sense of humor as the “juxtaposition of the dumb and the brilliant.” (Priore) This juxtaposition is prevalent throughout Smile, and in fact the original title of the album, “Dumb Angel” echoed this sentiment perfectly. The humor element of the album is also very reflective of the Dadaist art movement in the way it pokes fun at sincerity. So although the album has moments of seriousness and deep philosophical reflections this is juxtaposed with the use of humor. This is useful because it keeps the work from becoming pretentious or overtly serious, and also lures the listener in for the more spiritual messages contained in Smile.

The section of the album which is most heavily rooted in themes of Americana is the Heroes and Villains section. This was described by lyricist Van Dyke Parks as a response to the British invasion. They were trying to be counter hip according to Parks and decided to embrace and celebrate American themes. This section is perhaps the most obvious in terms of the theme of fall and ascent. In this section there are many references to people that French Romantic philosopher Rousseau would have described as “noble savages.” Early frontier settlers, farmers, Indians, Hawaiians, coulee’s working on the railroad. On the other end of this is the inevitable progress of technology and city life encroaching nature and the noble savage. This is the conflict of new vs. old.
One of the most poignant songs of this section is Cabin Essence. In this song the theme of new vs. old is most prevalent. In this song the Iron Horse paves the way for new cities, bringing corruption, encroaching upon the farmers private Home on the Range, and upon nature which is represented by the crow who “cries uncover the cornfield.” The crow bemoans the loss of undefiled nature. The lyrics are rich enough to warrant taking a serious look.

Light the lamp and fire mellow cabin essence;
Timely hello welcomes the time for a change.
Lost and found, you still remain there.
You’ll find a meadow filled with rain there.
I’ll give you a home on the range.
Who ran the iron horse?
Who ran the iron horse?
I want to watch you, windblown, facing waves of wheat
For your embracing. Folks sing a song of the grange.
Nestle in a kiss below there, the constellations ebb
And flow there and witness our home on the range.
Who ran the iron horse?
Who ran the iron horse?
Have you seen the Grand Coulee workin’ on the railroad?
Over and over, the crow cries uncover the cornfield.
Over and over, the thresher and hover the wheat field.

There are several allusions to Americana in this song which are worth noting. First, there is the obvious reference to the classic American tune “Home on the Range.” Secondly, there is the reference to the Grand Coulee working on the railroad. There are several references here: coulee, a term for Chinese immigrants who were often hired as railroad laborers; The Grand Coulee Dam commissioned by President Roosevelt; and of course to the classic American song “working on the railroad.”

Throughout the album there are several variations on musical themes which reoccur from time to time. One of these reprises is the Bicycle Rider melody and imagery.  In Do You Dig Worms the following lyric is sung over the top of the melody, “Bicycle rider, just see what you’ve done---done to the church of the American Indian!” The image of the bicycle rider derives from Bicycle rider playing cards which were widely used in the latter part of the 19th Century in America. The church of the American Indian refers of course to the land which we now inhabit, which was taken from a group of people who had no concept of property. The lyric “Ribbon of Highway” in Do You Dig Worms is an allusion to the Woody Guthrie song Pastures of Plenty which was in turn an ode to the song Pretty Polly, an Appalachian folk song. (Priore) The ribbon of concrete refers again to the progress of technology trumping over the ways of the past. The ideas in this song and section are very much rooted in the idea of Manifest Destiny and overall westward expansion. Taking a closer look at the lyrics you can see several allusions to this: Indians, Hawaiian chants, the Sandwich Isles etc.

Waving from the ocean liners,
Beaded cheering Indians behind them.

Rock, rock, roll Plymouth Rock roll over
Ribbon of concrete---just see what you done---
Done to the church of the American Indian!

Once upon the Sandwich Isles,
The social structure steamed upon Hawaii.

Rock, rock, roll Plymouth Rock roll over.
Bicycle rider---just see what you’ve done---
Done to the church of the American Indian!

Rock, rock, roll Plymouth Rock, roll over.
Mahalo lu le
Mahalo lu la
Keeni waka pula
Rock, rock, roll Plymouth Rock roll over.

The final section of Smile is dubbed The Elements. The other sections alluded to the theme that a return to nature is a return to a spiritual state. So it’s only natural there should be a section devoted entirely to nature. The idea of this section was to capture the essence of natural objects and sounds much like program music of the 19th century, symphonic tone poems with pictorial associations designed to create specific moods. Program music for orchestra was influences by Rousseau’s “return to nature” movement that helped give rise to Romanticism. The music of this section was also similar to what was dubbed Musique Concrete by Edgard Varese, music that adds to the listener’s experience of nature by using non-musical, natural sounds to create the sensations of nature. (Priore)

In the same way the Dada movement expressed disapproval of current aesthetic and social values by using deliberately incomprehensible artistic methods, Wilson employs the same style in this album. Considering this it almost makes more sense that the album was never released. Listening to the original demos, there is a disjointed, chaotic feeling about them. Except that when you dig deeper you find that one can ascribe a great deal of meaning to the words and the music of Smile. And because the music recycles themes and variations the listener can piece together the demos into whichever track order they want, giving the album new dimensions and meaning depending upon who is listening and how they sequenced it. This creates a truly interactive, Dada-esque musical piece that works on many different layers. (Scehmool)

In many ways Smile was a reaction against the mainstream culture of the time. It emphasized the spirituality of nature in the same way that the 60’s counterculture did but it they weren’t willing to cast aside every part of the past, hence the themes and celebrations of Americana. Smile is really the quintessential American album for managing to cram into one hour long album a magnitude of American cultural and musical allusions.

Outie 315:
OE - Nice paper but me thinks Smile was 90% Van's and 10% Brian's.
Also the two smoked lots of that wacky weed~ puf,puff,puff!!!!

Magic Transistor Radio:
Very nice essay. I once did an 8 page paper of the history of the BBs. I got a rare A!

Musically, I have not reason not to believe it is 90% Brian. I mean Van Dyke wasn't even around when he recorded Mrs O'Leary's Cow! Production wise, I am sure it is 100% Brian.

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