Does Smile tell a story?

[Jason]

I'm having a rather deep discussion with Katie about this, she seems to think Smile tells a story. I vehemently disagree. Am I alone here?

[I. Spaceman]

It tells three stories, that add up to a greater tapestry of American history told through song.

[Jason]

I don't see the connection, man. I believe Smile is thematic, it has the three distinct ideas. But I don't think ideas imply a story. Americana, Cycle of Life, and Elements. I don't think there's anything that even resembles a story in the Elements section. The Cycle of Life piece, that just seems like four of Brian's most beautiful songs put together in the same movement. Americana is the easiest one to consider as a story, but it jumps all over the place.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

It reads more like the index of a book.

You open the book and find several sections which you automatically assume all relate to each other and possible link up toward the end.

Chapter 1 - America, into the Old West

Chapter 2 - The Cycle Of Life 

Chapter 3 - The Elements

When I listen to the album I always have a distinct small town, 1800's image in mind. Where some topics may be universal (Wonderful etc) I attatch the theme to my own image of this little town. Perhaps that's not how the album was intended, or how you guys interpret it, but that's how I view it.

[I. Spaceman]

I don't see the connection, man. I believe Smile is thematic, it has the three distinct ideas. But I don't think ideas imply a story. Americana, Cycle of Life, and Elements. I don't think there's anything that even resembles a story in the Elements section. The Cycle of Life piece, that just seems like four of Brian's most beautiful songs put together in the same movement. Americana is the easiest one to consider as a story, but it jumps all over the place.

So do Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Robert Altman's films.
Yotta think outside the box of linear storytelling. Stop thinking so literally.

[Jason]

So do uentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Robert Altman's films.
Yotta think outside the box of linear storytelling. Stop thinking so literally.

You know, when you put it that way, I agree.

[Sheriff John Stone]

The way Darian and Jeff, and, oh yeah, Brian, pieced it together, I suppose it could tell the story of the Bicycle Rider, who on his journey from Plymouth Rock to Blue Hawaii, faces the various heroes, villains, and elements.

[I. Spaceman]

They straightened out a story that already existed and was intuitively created by Brian and Van DYke.

[Sheriff John Stone]

They straightened out a story that already existed and was intuitively created by Brian and Van DYke.

That's a good way of putting it, yes...

[Dr. Tim]

In all the discussions about the "story" there's one little detail I've not seen mentioned anywhere: to the extent one thinks of the piece as a "journey", the "bicycle rider" never actually reaches Blue Hawaii.  He wants to.  But as the journey ends the next-to-last line is "so far away from Blue Hawaii."   Maybe he vibrates his way there.  BTW, while I go along with the "journey" idea as an organizing principle, there's no "plot" in the linear sense as there is in, say, Tommy, Quadrophenia, Arthur (the Kinks, not the Dudley Moore movie) or S.F. Sorrow (to use other rock examples).

[Jeff Mason]

http://www.smileysmile.net/jeffmason.html

Just be gentle -- that was an ordinary few posts that got compiled and stored on the site by Charles and is not my best writing.  It could use a lot of editing.  But that is my take on what Smile is all about.

[runalot]

If SMiLE "tells" a story, then so does Abbey Road.

A story? No way.  Not to me. I guess it depends. I look at it as a pack of great songs created by a great musician.

[I. Spaceman]

then so does Abbey Road.

What are the recurring themes in that album?
Then I'll tell you the recurring themes in SMiLE.

[jabba2]

The instruments on Smile were all supposed to older kinds that would have been available in the old west, like Surf's Up with the pearls or whatever that jingle in the guys hand. Electric guitars and organs like on Smiley would not have been used in the original version.

[JRauch]

Jeff´s essay pretty much nails it for me.

I like to watch at the movements as three (almost) seperate dreams. They don´t tell a specific story, but they cycle around a certain theme, the first one of course about America and so on. Kind of a "stream of consciousness"-thing, like what James Joyce tried to do with "Finnegans Wake".

[Old Rake]

It strikes me constantly that the whole damn record is an americana trip and has a very STRONG thread throughy all the songs. Hell, think about it, even Mrs. O'Leary's Cow has an americana vibe, even Vega-Tables, every song basically hearkens back to an America of yore.

[buddhahat]

Maybe a dumb question but is there evidence that 66 Smile was going to have 3 themes? I thought maybe the cycle of Life was a BWPS creation. Surely, Child was going to be a cowboy song so could have been part of Americana?

[I. Spaceman]

I thought maybe the cycle of Life was a BWPS creation.

It was assembled in that form for BWPS, sure.
But those tracks have musical and thematic links that probably would have met in a 67 SMiLE, IMO, had it been properly thought out and assembled.

[Jason]

Maybe a dumb question but is there evidence that 66 Smile was going to have 3 themes? I thought maybe the cycle of Life was a BWPS creation. Surely, Child was going to be a cowboy song so could have been part of Americana?

Brian told Peter Reum in 1981 that the three movement scheme was the plan.

[I. Spaceman]

Exact quote?

[Jason]

I don't have his exact quote, but Peter has posted about this here on several occasions.

[I. Spaceman]

Peter??? Could you help with this?

[Jason]

If the old board was still around I could've dug up Peter's post.

[Jeff Mason]

I'll vouch Ian.  Soon after the premiere of Smile, someone suggested revealing info that they had been sitting on for any length of time that was no longer needed to keep quiet.  Peter immediately piped up that Brian had confided in him back in 1981 that Smile was a three movement piece, along the lines of Rhapsody in Blue (though how those connected I never quite understood).  Peter DEFINITELY said that.

[Ron]

I posted this on the old board, and most sneered, lol, but I think it fits pretty well.  I don't believe that Brian necessarily intended it this way, but this is how I interpret the third movement of SMiLE.

The third movement is about the elements, but also about Brian's life, as completed in 2004.  

1. I'm In Great Shape is the first of the 'earth' songs.  It represents the element earth because it's about earthy things, our existance and health on earth.  You get thrown for a loop by the "fresh clean air" but he's talking about how beautiful the earth is.  He's healthy, etc.

Now, part 2 of that is, he's talking about the land that his ancestors settled in, namely california in the past century or whatever (I don't know how long Brian's family lived in the area)... but he's talking about his ancestors and the clean, undisturbed earth they found back when it was farmed, etc.  Keep in mind too this is the time period he was complaining about smog, so the cleaness of the earth getting destroyed was somewhere in his mind at least.

2. "I wanna Be Around" is the love story of his parents meeting.  It's also about the earthy act of love.  Notice it's stylized and sounds like a 40's crooner song... around the time his parents would have met, and this is the type of music they would have romanced to. 

3. "Workshop" is another earth song, the construction of something... and in my opinion, it also represents the conception of Brian.  LOL.  Tell me that doesn't fit.  

4. "Vega-Tables" represents the earth, and the vegatables in it, and also... represents Brian's childhood.  It's the most childish song on the album, and Brian gets the biggest kick out of performing it because it truly represents him as a child.  He's talking about his parents raising him, etc. Eat a lot, sleep a lot, brush 'em like crazy.

5. "On A Holiday" is the one song in the progression that doesn't fit as neatly as the others, but in my opinion, it's the beginning of the air element.  It also represents Brian's career starting (which it of course did shortly after his childhood, represented by Vega-tables).  The woodwinds in the background clearly start the 'air' element, and the song is about a pirate, talks about the sea, hawaii, etc. it represents the birth of the Beach Boys, and their early surfing songs, and love songs represented on the first few albums.

At the end of "On a Holiday" Brian has added (in '04) the lyrics "Long ago, long long ago" or something similar.  Everything slows down, and you go into "Windchimes".  Notice how incredibly, undeniably beautiful everything gets.  I believe this represents Brian's mindframe and creativity around the time he matured as a songwriter, which we all know co-incided with all of the traumatic incidents that started overtaking his life (his exposure to drugs, his attempts to leave the record company, his father, his new marriage having trouble, his mental illness, his struggle with his weight, etc. etc. ).  

So, I think by saying "long ago" and having everything slow down, Brian is essentially saying "o.k., lets go talk about this album"... basically, he's approaching the trouble, what has caused him so much grief for 40 years, and the "long ago" is an acknowledgement that this next segment of the album is deeply personal.

6. Windchimes.  This song unfolds as a nearly perfect recording of a nearly perfect Brian Wilson vocal at 63.  He is purposefully in my opinion trying to recreate the beauty of the original recording, and also harken back to the days  in 1965, and 1966 when he was recording things like 'let him run wild' and 'pet sounds'.  His vocal is beautiful, and the mood of the entire song.  This song, not only represents of course a continuation of the wind element, but it also represents the next section of Brian's life... if "On A Holiday" represents the dawn of the Beach Boys, this song, Windchimes, certainly represents Brian's period of maturation, and like I said, the great music he made on albums like Pet Sounds.  The song is very introspective, and the songs had turned very introspective shortly after the Beach Boys began their great career.

7. Windchimes of course falls into "Ms. O'Leary's Cow".  Ms. O'Leary's Cow obviously represents the fire element, but it also represents the next stage of Brian's life.  We have the dawn of the beach boys, then the songs become more introspective with windchimes, and now here we are at the turmoil.  You have a vastly different song, you can hear insanity and chaos in the music, and you can hear dispair in the vocals (from fall breaks).  You can hear hell almost.  When I hear this song, I see a burning building with people leaning out of the windows screaming for help.  This song represents what it must have been like to be inside the head of Brian Wilson as he basically lost his grip on reality and spiraled into a sickness that would eventually keep him in bed hiding for the world for months at a time.

At the end of "Ms. O' Leary's Cow" you hear the famous "Is it hot as hell in here, or is it me? It really is a mystery.  If I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take my misery" This is of course about the trouble Brian's been through in his life, the "is it me" line is genius (thanks Van Dyke!) and I think accurately describes what Brian's lonlieness must have felt like.  It's so quiet, too, it sounds like Brian is in space by himself.  Isolation.  I think this represents Brian eventually coming to terms with his illness, and trying to get his life back together.

"feel like I was really in the pink!"

This (and I'm not trying to be sick here) represents Brian meeting his wife, Melinda.  Brian gives Melinda a ton of credit, and I think anybody can see from the outside that she was the beginning of his life turning around as it has in these last few years.  When the music changes so dramatically on the "pink" it represents Brian's drastic improvement, and how it's night and day from the despair that he felt in the past.  I'm not saying he's all better, I'm just saying he clearly can cope better than he used to.

8. "Blue Hawaii" - This song of course represents the water element.  It also represents Brian's new life with Melinda and his children, and his renewed career.  The song is about Hawaii, what Brian's music has been about since he was 19.  "Hawaii lay beyond the sea" is an acknowledgement that as Brian looks back at his early life, when he was 19, 20, 21 starting the Beach Boys... it's beyond a sea.  He's not there, he's not what he once was... he's scarred and older from all the years of madness he's suffered through... but here he is, still looking at Hawaii.... he can still see himself, he can still see that great guy he was destined to be when he was sitting on top of the world playing bass and singing with his brothers.  Note as well that out of everything on the album, this song sounds the most like a "Beach Boys" song, and it's very much a throwback to the early music.  This song represents how Brian feels his career is right now... similar to what he was in the early 60's, but different and many miles removed, over the sea.

At the end of the song, you're greeted by Angels whisking Brian away at the end of his life to whatever lies beyond.  Try listening to that next time without crying.

9.  In the end, you're left with "Good Vibrations".  This is the creme de la creme.  This is the "oh merda" moment of the whole album.  Not only does this fit the element theme, it caps Brian's life.  Philosophers long ago came up with a 5th element, the Ether... which is defined as either space, or the electromagnetic waves between objects.  So "Good Vibrations" perfectly represents the ether element, and it also represents Brian's career after his death (symbolized by the choir of angels at the end of the previous song).  What do we have? A somehow eerier version of GV Brian pulled off in 04... his voice sounds incredible on it, he hits strangeeee falsetto notes "it's weeeeeiiiiiiiirrrrrdddd" and has the original, trippy esp lyrics.  that fits the ether element part, but the song also sounds like a voice from the past, he sounds younger and it just sounds strange, like a dead man singing might.  The "Hum de dum" that has been reinserted in the 'vibrations with her" fade out honestly sounds to me like Brian singing from beyond the grave or something, it's spooky and has a very atmospheric sound to it.  I think it represents Brian's career continuing on after his death, and represents what we'll remember of him: the brilliant genius who recorded the greatest single of all time: Good Vibrations.

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Again: I don't think they necessarily meant it to fit like that, but I do think that sometimes people do things for reasons they don't totally understand.  Divine Inspiration?