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Author Topic: If you don't like She's Goin' Bald  (Read 13723 times)
Mr. Cohen
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« Reply #100 on: November 22, 2010, 07:09:22 PM »

Quote
If Brian was stoned all of the time, he truly may have thought that it was art, real inventio as the old Romans would have it.

Compare it to the cocaine sessions of 1980. The merest  hint of a melody made Bri scream out things like: oh my god Dennis listen to what I just came up with isn't that gorgeous???... and no doubt the coked up Brian meant what he said, the music was not ironic or aggessively directed at anyone in particular at all.

Oh, Smiley Smile is art.

Also, remember, cocaine is a much more powerful drug than marijuana. I doubt Brian - the same Brian that had been recording with the Wrecking Crew the last couple of years - failed to realize that the material was going to confuse most of the public. Even his Smile friends say that Brian wasn't stoned all the time as some believed, so I think it's safe to say that he still had some of his wits about him.

In the end, Smiley Smile was a way for Brian to release something artistic under the Beach Boys name while at the same time lowering people's expectations from him from a production standpoint.  It was a win-win for Brian at the point in his life. He was becoming reclusive, and he wanted to avoid his old scene, part of which included the big L.A. studios. That's why he had a home studio built.

I do think Brian thought Smiley Smile would be appeal to the counterculture/artsy crowd, though. Sadly, he was wrong at the time (even if Hunter Thompson dug "Wind Chimes"), and I think that's why he retreated to R'n'B material. Also, I still maintain that Smiley Smile was an indirect f*** you by Brian to the label because it completely ignored what they wanted from him in terms of an album. Sometimes, to do what you want for yourself, you have to tell people to f*** off. That's basically what Brian did there.
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Andrew G. Doe
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« Reply #101 on: November 23, 2010, 02:38:10 AM »

Small point, which is mostly forgotten: Smiley Smile wasn't released by Capitol - all they did was distribute it. That said, of course they were screaming for some kind of product from the band to justify the outrageous expense of the Smile sessions, although the chart success of the first GH compilation would have taken the edge off that somewhat (as would GH2 a little later).

Fact is, Smiley Smile was recorded in 42 almost consecutive days, with no touring interruptions: is that the sign of an artist plying his trade, or of a man who knows he's got to get something out pronto and has developed a complete aversion to the recordings he's been slaving over for the preceding year or more ?  Occam's Razor.
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« Reply #102 on: November 23, 2010, 09:26:51 AM »

First off, let me say that Smiley Smile is the album that got me hooked on the Beach Boys.  Although I was 11 years old when it originally came out, I didn't hear it until 1989.  So, while I was familiar with all of the '60s hits, I wasn't really a fan until I heard what Brian and the boys did in the summer of 1967.  That album, in turn, got me into Smile, and Pet Sounds, and...well...everything else they ever did up to (but not including) Summer In Paradise. 

My opinions about what may or may not have caused Brian to scrap Smile, and put out Smiley instead, have changed over the years.  These days I think that Brian had just had too much.  He was getting some flack for some of the lyrics, but that was just one thing out of many, and you have to admit, the boys still sang those lyrics beautifully.  The LSD, while helping him to think outside the box musically, did push him to the edge, mentally.  I think the speed probably did even more damage, though, causing his paranoia, and his inability to decide how to put all of those sections together.  Smile was not fun any more for Brian, and he decided to cool out again with his old band mates.  Screw the studio time hassles, screw the wrecking crew, screw the big productions, screw the Vosse Posse, screw the arguing, and have some fun.  Turn what had become a bummer, a frowny Smile for Brian, into a smiley Smile.  And that's what he did. 

I'm not a big fan of He Gives Speeches.  I have never included it in any Smile mixes that I've done.  I just think it sounds out of place along side such majestic recordings as the Smile version of Wonderful, or Cabinessence, or Surf's Up.  She's Going Bald, however, is lots of fun, and fits in perfectly with Brian's smiley Smile.  Smiley Smile.  I like it. 
             
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Alex
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« Reply #103 on: November 23, 2010, 12:35:12 PM »

I love Smiley Smile...but this whold Brianistas vs Mike-lovers thing Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse Dead Horse
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« Reply #104 on: November 23, 2010, 02:43:59 PM »

Small point, which is mostly forgotten: Smiley Smile wasn't released by Capitol - all they did was distribute it. That said, of course they were screaming for some kind of product from the band to justify the outrageous expense of the Smile sessions, although the chart success of the first GH compilation would have taken the edge off that somewhat (as would GH2 a little later).

Fact is, Smiley Smile was recorded in 42 almost consecutive days, with no touring interruptions: is that the sign of an artist plying his trade, or of a man who knows he's got to get something out pronto and has developed a complete aversion to the recordings he's been slaving over for the preceding year or more ?  Occam's Razor.

How much would Brian have cared about Capitol's clamoring for product? Would he have cared that he used all the studio time at Capitol's expense? 
Seems to me it wouldn't have been front and center for him.
Maybe he just had some fresh ideas that were burning holes in his britches. Tunes that just HAD to get out, and he couldn't stop til he got them done.
He's wanting to record new visions he has of the music which he couldn't realize previously. 
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Mr. Cohen
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« Reply #105 on: November 23, 2010, 03:13:55 PM »

I think he got stoned for over a month straight and just followed his muse. He wanted to put product out, probably for a myriad of reasons. If you listen to Smiley Smile, though, it's obvious that pleasing the record company was not his primary objective.
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Cam Mott
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« Reply #106 on: November 23, 2010, 05:51:06 PM »

Small point, which is mostly forgotten: Smiley Smile wasn't released by Capitol - all they did was distribute it. That said, of course they were screaming for some kind of product from the band to justify the outrageous expense of the Smile sessions, although the chart success of the first GH compilation would have taken the edge off that somewhat (as would GH2 a little later).

Fact is, Smiley Smile was recorded in 42 almost consecutive days, with no touring interruptions: is that the sign of an artist plying his trade, or of a man who knows he's got to get something out pronto and has developed a complete aversion to the recordings he's been slaving over for the preceding year or more ?  Occam's Razor.

How much would Brian have cared about Capitol's clamoring for product? Would he have cared that he used all the studio time at Capitol's expense? 
Seems to me it wouldn't have been front and center for him.
Maybe he just had some fresh ideas that were burning holes in his britches. Tunes that just HAD to get out, and he couldn't stop til he got them done.
He's wanting to record new visions he has of the music which he couldn't realize previously. 

That's what I'm thinking.

IF he was making SS as a foda off to the record company, he was fodaing off himself because the record company was his. If he was making it just to please the record company, he was doing it just to please himself because the record company was his.

Andrew may be right, GH may have already paid off the costs of SMiLE. The BBs had just won a settlement in the 100s of thousands of dollars, maybe that paid it off or maybe it was forgiven in the settlement. It would be interesting to know. As a Brothers Record product, it is hard to see how Capitol cared much about SS one way of another, how much would they really profit or lose from being just the distributor.

Nope, by the power vested in me [by me] I'm callin' it: The urban myth of SS as an F*off to the record company is dead, short live the next SS related urban myth.
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« Reply #107 on: November 23, 2010, 11:23:09 PM »

I think he got stoned for over a month straight and just followed his muse. He wanted to put product out, probably for a myriad of reasons. If you listen to Smiley Smile, though, it's obvious that pleasing the record company was not his primary objective.
In an interview with J. Marks in 1968 Brian raved about Smiley and how much he enjoyed making it. Quite different from Smile. He was just going by his instincts which really wouldn't fail him until 1976.
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