Smiley Smile

[Mitchell]

I picture the cabin as being the Smile Shop from Frank Holmes' art, which I also completely adore. I just love the idea that the beauty of the original SMiLE music is within the twisted, creepy jungle of Smiley Smile.

[punkinhead]

i enjoy the album cover a whole lot. it's like the animals that the BB were visiting in pet sounds came out to see Brian and cheer him up 

[Daniel S.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=%22henri+rousseau%22+&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images


The Smiley Smile album cover is a knock off/rip off of a French artist named Henri Rousseau. The only major difference is they (or whoever painted the album cover) inserted the Smile Shop, from Frank Holmes original cover, into the jungle.

Here are a few pics of Rousseau's jungle paintings

[I. Spaceman]

GREAT post.

[Daniel S.]

thank you.

[Burnley Vest]

"Whistle In" sounds like an attempt to ape a McCartney-march like "Penny Lane", but without mustering McCartneys melodic inventiveness.

"Whistle In" is indeed a fragment, and BW is aping someone, but it ain't McCartney. Both Wilson and McCartney are superb melodicists, and "Whistle In" obviously isn't an attempt at a great melody line, but McCartney's bouncing marches owe a lot to his love of Pet Sounds, nay? And if you try singing the"Gotta keep those..." melody from "GV's" over "Whistle In", you'll find that it's very easy...same bass line, similar if not same chords (I haven't studied this), although in a different key.

Brian is aping himself here, and rehashing a fragment from the same side of the L.P. to boot!

As to the larger question, I also gave Smiley 3 stars. I LOVE weirdness; "Diamond Head" and "Transcendental Meditation", for instance, are two of my absolute fav BB tracks. But this one doesn't have the care evident in the better "Produced by the Beach Boys" works, and it's just too much of a sorry substitute for "SMiLE".

[Burnley Vest]

-- The critical question:  Who was for or against releasing it?  If Brian wanted it released, who could stop him?  (I realize I'm drifting into "the thread" territory-- sorry!)

What is this "the thread" of which you speak. I've seen this repeatedly mentioned on the board, and would like to be enlightened (or disturbed, or entertained, or disgusted or....)

[jazzfascist]

"Whistle In" sounds like an attempt to ape a McCartney-march like "Penny Lane", but without mustering McCartneys melodic inventiveness.

"Whistle In" is indeed a fragment, and BW is aping someone, but it ain't McCartney. Both Wilson and McCartney are superb melodicists, and "Whistle In" obviously isn't an attempt at a great melody line, but McCartney's bouncing marches owe a lot to his love of Pet Sounds, nay?

I think McCartney was more influenced by ragtime/ english musichall music in his use of march rhythms. He wrote "When I'm Sixty Four" which is also a march, when he was 16 and the only march type of rhythm I can hear on PS is "God Only Knows". I think if you listen to McCartneys basslines, he very often falls into a march type of rhythm, so I think it's something very inherent in him. But yeah, Brian had been using march-type rhythms before, the chorus to "California Girls" and "The Little Girl I Once Knew" comes to mind. "Whistle In" just sounds very McCartneyish to me or maybe like Burt Bacharach.

Søren

[jazzfascist]

-- The critical question:  Who was for or against releasing it?  If Brian wanted it released, who could stop him?  (I realize I'm drifting into "the thread" territory-- sorry!)

What is this "the thread" of which you speak. I've seen this repeatedly mentioned on the board, and would like to be enlightened (or disturbed, or entertained, or disgusted or....)

I think it's a discussion concerning whether Brian abandoned "Smile" of his own free will or if he gave it up because of the resistance from the rest of the group. It also includes a discussion of whether "Smiley Smile" is really "Smile", meaning that this is what Brian really wanted to do.

Søren 

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Interesting post about the artwork. Now, who was the influence to use such work for the Smiley album cover?

[punkinhead]

i like wistle in, but everyone always says it's from heroes and villains. to me, it's totally the hawaiin chant from do you like worms

[Compost]

i like wistle in, but everyone always says it's from heroes and villains. to me, it's totally the hawaiin chant from do you like worms

I can hear it, I can hear it...

[Vega-Table Man]

Hi folks,

This is my first post on the board. I've been enjoying this Smiley Smile thread very much, reading all the different opinions (pro and con) and thoughts about it ... It's an album that seems more compelling to me all the time, and one I can't seem to stop listening to lately. There's just something about those voices. 

[Jonas]

I hated 'Goin Bald' because it wasn't true to 'He Gives Speeches' but man, the more I listen to it the more its growing on me. sonofabi...

[I. Spaceman]

I heard Bald first, so I've never been able to get used to Speeches.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I heard Bald first, so I've never been able to get used to Speeches.

He Gives Speeches baffles me sometimes. This was the same guy who made "Kiss Me Baby" or the stunning instrumental 'Pet Sounds". Now he's doing this song, and what is it really? A bit of piano, a great snare and kick sound, an almost spoken word vocal with a high whining one in the back; It's hardly as brilliant as anything he'd done before, but maybe that was its intention?

[Cam Mott]

Dude, if tapes of the sessions where Brian is in FULL CONTROL, calling every single shot on every single tape, are not evidence enough for you, then what would be? Do you think that while the tapes were rolling Brian was every bit the dictator he was during the Smile sessions, then after the machines shut off Carl was in control? Ludicrous. "Snapshots" they may be, but they're snapshots of a guy still in charge of his band.

If Keith Badman says otherwise, he's wrong. The tapes do not bear this out. Carl might have had some say, and might've indeed helped with the production of the album, but when it came time to do the nitty gritty, Brian Wilson was in charge, just like he had been. And just like he would be for another album and a half at least, including the aborted "Leid In Hawaii" sessions.

I just don't think that you can take the tapes as some final evidence, especially since you don't have tapes of every single session, that was done, you have to piecemeal your understanding of what happened together, by using the various available sources and weigh it against each other. Just because Brian doesn't cry into the microphone and it sounds like he was in control, doesn't mean he actually was in control and Carl's statements tells another story, as does the production credit. As c-man points out you can also hear the others producing in the booth. Brian was probably still the man when it was about getting things down on tape, but if you take Carls statement seriously, it also seems that now the artistic direction also came from the others in the group. Also the album doesn't sound like it was a sharply conceived minimalist album, but rather as something that doesn't go too deep and was loosely jammed together.

Not to mention that Brian played essentially every instrument on SS. Hard not to be in control when you're physically responsible for almost everything on the tape.

Well he didn't play everything and SS is also almost an acapella album, so the rest of the group was very responsible for that part, also by that logic would you say that Hal Blaine and the rest of the Wrecking Crew were in control of those albums, where they did most of the instrumental work.

Søren

Carl has said directly twice, I believe, that Brian was the producer of Smiley Smile. Once in the 80s Himes interview and once in a recorded interview from the 60s Alan Boyd discovered.  Jimmy Lockert told me that Brian was the only producer of Smiley but Peter has said that Jimmy told him something different.

What is being called producing sounds to me like no more than someone being Brian's ears in the booth when he is in the studio.  I seem to remember on previous albums the same thing done by Chuck, Jerry [an engineer at Columbia], Van Dyke, other BBs [memory vague] and even Michael Vosse.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

This is one album that desperately needs a stereo remix (and Wild Honey, too). The sound of the SOT set is freaking awesome.

[jazzfascist]

Dude, if tapes of the sessions where Brian is in FULL CONTROL, calling every single shot on every single tape, are not evidence enough for you, then what would be? Do you think that while the tapes were rolling Brian was every bit the dictator he was during the Smile sessions, then after the machines shut off Carl was in control? Ludicrous. "Snapshots" they may be, but they're snapshots of a guy still in charge of his band.

If Keith Badman says otherwise, he's wrong. The tapes do not bear this out. Carl might have had some say, and might've indeed helped with the production of the album, but when it came time to do the nitty gritty, Brian Wilson was in charge, just like he had been. And just like he would be for another album and a half at least, including the aborted "Leid In Hawaii" sessions.

I just don't think that you can take the tapes as some final evidence, especially since you don't have tapes of every single session, that was done, you have to piecemeal your understanding of what happened together, by using the various available sources and weigh it against each other. Just because Brian doesn't cry into the microphone and it sounds like he was in control, doesn't mean he actually was in control and Carl's statements tells another story, as does the production credit. As c-man points out you can also hear the others producing in the booth. Brian was probably still the man when it was about getting things down on tape, but if you take Carls statement seriously, it also seems that now the artistic direction also came from the others in the group. Also the album doesn't sound like it was a sharply conceived minimalist album, but rather as something that doesn't go too deep and was loosely jammed together.

Not to mention that Brian played essentially every instrument on SS. Hard not to be in control when you're physically responsible for almost everything on the tape.

Well he didn't play everything and SS is also almost an acapella album, so the rest of the group was very responsible for that part, also by that logic would you say that Hal Blaine and the rest of the Wrecking Crew were in control of those albums, where they did most of the instrumental work.

Søren

Carl has said directly twice, I believe, that Brian was the producer of Smiley Smile. Once in the 80s Himes interview and once in a recorded interview from the 60s Alan Boyd discovered.  Jimmy Lockert told me that Brian was the only producer of Smiley but Peter has said that Jimmy told him something different.

What is being called producing sounds to me like no more than someone being Brian's ears in the booth when he is in the studio.  I seem to remember on previous albums the same thing done by Chuck, Jerry [an engineer at Columbia], Van Dyke, other BBs [memory vague] and even Michael Vosse.

Well, why should they say it was produced by Beach Boys on the cover, if it was in fact produced by Brian Wilson alone, that would be sort of giving up a selling point. Carl has also said, that it was an album, that they jammed together. I also think that if you listen to SOT 18, you don't hear a lot of Brian, except for the instrumental tracks, which he and maybe a couple of other musicians produced. When it comes to the vocals you don't hear that much of him, it seems that everybody was involved in deciding, which was the best recording and so forth, it doesn''t sound like him guiding them, as you can hear on other bootlegs

Søren

[Jeff Mason]

Brian is definitely in charge of recording the instrumental parts if only because the tracks start with those before vocals were added.  And on vocal sessions, at least in the one Wind Chimes session, Brian is as in control as any of them would be -- considering that they are all high as kites, most obviously Mike. 

Why make that production credit?  Politics?  Group harmony?  Brian wiping his hands clean of the mess?  Any number of reasons.  In 1967 most fans weren't reading the production credits too closely, I would think, as opposed to 1976 where it WAS a selling point.

Did Brian produce it like he did the Smile sessions?  No, they weren't that professional.  But was it Brian's artistic drive behind the scope and content of the sessions (along with some input along the way)?  I think so.  Based upon subsequent albums (like, say, Love You) Smiley is clearly the voice of Brian Wilson, however and for whatever reason it was made.

[Jeff Mason]

BTW -- it is really weird to see a list of threads all started by Buckwheat....

OTay...

[jazzfascist]

Brian is definitely in charge of recording the instrumental parts if only because the tracks start with those before vocals were added.  And on vocal sessions, at least in the one Wind Chimes session, Brian is as in control as any of them would be -- considering that they are all high as kites, most obviously Mike. 

I don't know about that, they run through "Wind Chimes" a number of times, without any interference from Brian, even though they make mistakes and so forth, it doesn't particularly sound as if he's guiding them, rather it sounds more like they're making up their own performance. Brian also sounds a little tired and depressed on some of those outtakes.

Why make that production credit?  Politics?  Group harmony?  Brian wiping his hands clean of the mess?  Any number of reasons.  In 1967 most fans weren't reading the production credits too closely, I would think, as opposed to 1976 where it WAS a selling point.

Maybe the fans weren't reading the production credits too closely, however Brian was known as the mastemind and I would say that a Brian Wilson production still guaranteed a certain quality and was a selling point. I think  it was probably him wiping his hands of the mess, he didn't want to take responsibility for something he didn't feel that associated with.

But was it Brian's artistic drive behind the scope and content of the sessions (along with some input along the way)?  I think so.  Based upon subsequent albums (like, say, Love You) Smiley is clearly the voice of Brian Wilson, however and for whatever reason it was made.

I don't think you can compare those two albums, they were both strange yes, but "Smiley" was a sort of psychedelic album whereas  "Love You" was more of a punky album.

Søren

[Jeff Mason]

But was it Brian's artistic drive behind the scope and content of the sessions (along with some input along the way)?  I think so.  Based upon subsequent albums (like, say, Love You) Smiley is clearly the voice of Brian Wilson, however and for whatever reason it was made.

I don't think you can compare those two albums, they were both strange yes, but "Smiley" was a sort of psychedelic album whereas  "Love You" was more of a punky album.

Søren

Sure you can compare them.  First off, Brian plays most of the instruments on both.  Second off, look at the lyrics to "She's Going Bald."  Compare to "Solar System", "Good Time", or "Airplane".  Forget the Love or Parks credits, I would lay money on those being Brian's words largely and it clearly is the same voice.  Compositionally, both from music and lyrics, these are both albums I call "unfiltered Brian Wilson".  He wrote most of it alone, played most of it, and did it all from his own perspective.  Forget the ambiance, where one is psychedelic and one is punk basement -- these two albums bear all the same fingerprints of creation.  Perhaps Carl did help out on finalizing both of them, but I doubt he added much in the ways of inspiration, putting the finer touches on Brian's babies all the way.

[jazzfascist]

But was it Brian's artistic drive behind the scope and content of the sessions (along with some input along the way)?  I think so.  Based upon subsequent albums (like, say, Love You) Smiley is clearly the voice of Brian Wilson, however and for whatever reason it was made.

I don't think you can compare those two albums, they were both strange yes, but "Smiley" was a sort of psychedelic album whereas  "Love You" was more of a punky album.

Søren

Sure you can compare them.  First off, Brian plays most of the instruments on both.  Second off, look at the lyrics to "She's Going Bald."  Compare to "Solar System", "Good Time", or "Airplane".  Forget the Love or Parks credits, I would lay money on those being Brian's words largely and it clearly is the same voice.  Compositionally, both from music and lyrics, these are both albums I call "unfiltered Brian Wilson".  He wrote most of it alone, played most of it, and did it all from his own perspective.  Forget the ambiance, where one is psychedelic and one is punk basement -- these two albums bear all the same fingerprints of creation.  Perhaps Carl did help out on finalizing both of them, but I doubt he added much in the ways of inspiration, putting the finer touches on Brian's babies all the way.

They're two very different albums, Smiley is a minimalistic almost acapella album, whereas "Love You" has multilayered instrumental tracks and sounds very different. Compositionally Smiley is more strange with the helium voices, strange musical inserts and  so forth, whereas Love You has much more conventional song structures, the same goes for the lyrics which are almost all boy-girl lyrics. Of course both albums bears Brians imprints but of the two, "Love You" is probably the most unfiltered Brian,  together with an album like "Pet Sounds"

Søren

[Jeff Mason]

Geez, Soren, you make Love You sound so conventional!   

I see the same voice making lyrics like these:

"You're too late mama, ain't nothing upside your head!"

"When she saw her shining forehead didn't stop she swooned to the ground, laughed so hard I blew my mind."

"Well, oh my, oh gosh, oh gee, she really sends chills inside of me"

"If Mars had life on it, I might find my wife on it"

"My girlfriend Betty she's awful skinny, and so she needs her falsies on."

"Pat, pat her on her butt."

That my friends, is unfiltered Brian Wilson.  So are the quirky sounds of the Woody Woodpecker Suite and the freaky sound of, well, the whole blessed Love You album which is the second weirdest BB album ever (Smiley being the weirdest -- see any connection there?).  You focus on the sound of the album, whereas I focus on the voice.  Only on these two released albums is Brian Wilson, man-child who never grew up, with locker-room humor, on full display with no regard to chart potential.  The same voice made Adult Child as well.  If you say you love Brian Wilson, you pretty much must mean this stuff, since the rest was Brian Wilson doing what was required to make a hit.  These albums were Brian being Brian.

And I would argue that PS IS filtered Brian, since Tony Asher wrote most of the words.  Maybe they were Brian's thoughts, but Asher also molded them by his style as well.