Anybody buying Brian Wilson's "Smile" cd?

[Chuck Nessa]

[JSngry]

Just had a listen, and...

Yeah.

It's no longer SMILE the unfinished album. it's now SMILE the composition.

Yeah.

Perfect? No. Do some of the individual segments come off better in earlier versions? Yes.

But it's finished, all the loose ends tied together at last, and it is quite good.

Yeah.

[wolff]

I got no dog in this fight. All I can say is I am very glad to see decent music making headlines. I do not care if it is hype.

[Stefan Wood]

Bought it. It is a very NICE cd. I don't understand why anyone is making comparisons between old and new. It is a complete work, now. BTW, I always disliked the Beach Boys, for their cheesy music and songs. I never could understand why they were placed up there with the Beatles. But then in the end, it is all pop music.

[JSngry]

Listened to it about 4 more times last night, and it got better each time. The "finished" aspect of it, the completeness of the entire thing, is VERY strong. What has heretofore existed as a collection of various pieces has been at last made whole, and without compromise either. The arrangements are demanding, and the execution superb.

I admit it - I was a little skeptical as to how this was going to come off. It would have been easy enough to put the highlights that all the fans know (as well the ones that the collectors know) together in a revue format, simplify the arrangements, put a showbiz glitz on it, and call it SMILE. That would have been cool in and of itself, actually, and frankly that's what I was expecting, at best.

But dammit, Brian (and whoever else was assiting him) went on ahead and finished the thing, actualy treated it like the long-form composition that it could have been 35+ years ago if Brian would have had the maturity, sanity, and environmental support to go ahead and think of it like that instead of trying (and being expected) to revolutionize pop music.

If this album would have been released in this form in 1966 or 1967, it WOULD have revolutionized pop music. But tealistically, this album could not have been made, much less released in this form back then. Brian had the vision, but between all the speed making him think faster than he could execute and all the familial, intraband, and corporate dysfunctionality removing what little focusing ability he had left, he just wasn't up to putting the thing totally together.

But here we are three decades later, and it seems that finally, FINALLY, he's reached the level of maturity needed to do more with all those brilliant ideas than just make a bunch of brilliant fragments. The attention to the overall design that he hadn't been able to muster has finally been paid, for whatever reason, and I'm telling you - this thing holds together as a whole in a way that I was not expecting. And truthfully, the absence of The Beach Boys works to its advantage in this way more often than not - the focus is no longer on the group, but on the composition itself, and the composition as it has been finalized DOES stand up to the scrutiny.

Sure, it's hard not to hear some of these things and not notice that Carl's not there anymore, but only for the first listen or two. And occasionally, some (but not much) of the more dazzling studio wizardry of the original versions is noticed MIA. But - it's not that big of a deal. Not when viewed in consideration of the overall piece. If you want the ultimate dazzling performance of "Surf's Up", the song, you know where to go. But I tell you - you'll not get the same impact as you will from hearing it as the climax of the 2nd movement and hearing set it up over many minutes in some truly magnificent ways. And that holds true of all the other familiar numbers too - they're now integrated parts of a single work, not isolated teasers of what might have been.

People who find the entire SMILE concept/hype/whatever ponderous in the first place should probably stay away. as should people who are going to find themselves unable to listen w/o hearing The Beach Boys. But if you can forget about all that (and I strongly think that you should), then you'll be rewarded with a dazzling performance of a work that is shaping like it might have a depth and staying power that I, a "fan" in the first place, was honestly not expecting.

In otehr words - yeah. HELL yeah.

[RDK]

I'm actually looking forward to the "finished" aspect of this. I've never been that impressed with the SMiLE boots that I have since it's always felt so fragmented - so much a work-in-progress.

Still, I can't help but think that the best way to devalue one of the "greatest unreleased albums of all time" is to finally finish it, release it, and replace its angel wings with chains binding it to the earth...

[Dave James]

I listened to the Smile "outtakes" from the Beach Boys box set a couple of nights ago and thought they were just OK. After I caved yesterday and bought the new release and listened to it last night, I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised. First of all, the band Brian has pulled together is terrific. I'm sure these folks were all hand picked in terms of their ability to conjure up a Beach Boy like sound, but I thought, if anything, they out Beach Boy-ed the Beach Boys. For sure, Brian can't hit the notes like he could 35 years ago, but he's just fine too. And I don't think you can say too much about the music and the arrangements. First cabin stuff through and through. Nice package too. My only quibble is the lyrics. I know Van Dyke Parks is/was kind of off the wall, and that Brian's goal was, according to the liner notes, to make people actually smile but wow, there's some serious non-sense going on here. Strangely enough, it doesn't detract from the aural experience; I only paid attention on my second time through when I was reading along with the lyrics. Makes me wonder what was behind the decision to bring Parks on board when it always seemed to me that Brian handled this OK.

Up over and out.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

For those who aren't aware, Darian Sahanaja is the leader of an amazing band called Wondermints. They have four or five CDs out and have been incorporated into the touring band for Brian Wilson. BW actually guests on two tracks of their most recent album (2002). If you don't know their stuff, check it out.

Personally, I think Wondermints is dealing with the rock/pop musical legacy created by people like BW better than Wilson himself. They're writing new tunes that are great, while the old fogies are rehashing their past glories and the new stuff is pretty much crap. I feel the same about David Crosby - his CPR (Crosby Pevar Raymond) band is doing great stuff while CSN is embarrassing.

Mike

[Peter Johnson]

You bastards, now I have to go buy this tonight!

At least someone could have panned it!

[doubleM]

I'm going to a listening party (of Smile)/Bbq tonight at a friends house. He has a hdcd player, tube amp., the whole audiophile's nine yards...so I'm getting ready to see what all the fuss is about!

[Big Al]

You bastards, now I have to go buy this tonight!

At least someone could have panned it!

I know it!!!

[JSngry]

For those who aren't aware, Darian Sahanaja is the leader of an amazing band called Wondermints. They have four or five CDs out and have been incorporated into the touring band for Brian Wilson. BW actually guests on two tracks of their most recent album (2002). If you don't know their stuff, check it out.

I knew none of this. Thanks.

[JSngry]

Darian Sahanaja on SMILE: http://www.musicangle.com/feat.php?id=60&page=0

Fascinating.

[Hoyt Clagwell]

The following URL has an excellent article on the recording process, or it did last time I checked. (It's a PDF file).

http://citizenkeith.com/smile/smile.pdf (458 MB)

[Hoyt Clagwell]

Got mine yesterday. After playing it twice, it will be almost impossible for me to ever again hear these pieces as disconnected fragments, removed from their new context. It flows beautifully, and the songs support each other so well. This whole IS greater than the sum of its parts, and the parts were pretty damn near perfect to begin with.

Brian is identified with "harmonies", vocal harmonies in particular, but what amazes me are his melodies. Take Cabinessence: the main melody in the verses is one gorgeous tune, the "boing-boing" background vocal are another, the banjo countermeolody is another. Tunes underneath tunes within tunes. Wonderful...I'm In Great Shape, (wish this was longer)... In Blue Hawaii...has there ever been a record more full of great tunes?

This music can stand on its own, apart from its history and the biographical details of its creators and performers. It just is, and for that I'm very thankful.

[GA Russell]

I've just learned that Wilson was scheduled to be on the Jay Leno show last night. Did anybody see him?

[JSngry]

At the risk of appearing obsessed, I'd like to say that I listened to this another times last night and twice again this morning. The more I listen to it, the more the various interconnections (musically AND lyrically) reveal themselves, and the more I marvel in/at them.

"Masterpiece" is a too-easily used word for pop records that offer deep and immediate gratification. The immediate part is what pop is supposed to do, and if it's really good, the deep part gets covered too. A real masterpiece continues to reveal itself over time and provoke/provides a variety of responses and interpretations while doing so. Although it's way to early in the game to know if SMILE will do that, the early indicators are that they will. That entire second movement alone goes to so many places (again, musically and lyrically) within itself, yet the overall theme is never lost, no matter what subthemes reveal themselves.

The whole album is like that too. I'll not (yet...) bore anybody with what I'm getting out of the lyrics, other than to say that it seems to be a tale of "heroes and villians" being the same people, an odyssey of the American spirit placed in terms of a man who is overcome by wonderlust, who "leaves a trail" along the way, and whose "trailmarks" find themselves following in their father's footsteps (and knowing Brian's history now as we do, anytime there's father imagery this strong, you gotta wonder...), whether they want to (or are even aware of it) or not. You can get into on a literal level, a spiritual level, a metaphorical level, at almost any level it seems. Or, you can maybe see it as something else entirely. Whatever. No matter. Van Dyke Parks might be "difficult" as a pop lyricist (although I personally think he just requires paying attention and an abilty to go with the flow), but he is not inconsequential.

I'm sure that there will be some who will listen to this work once or twice like they would any other pop record and shrug it off with a "ok, yeah, whatever". That would be a mistake, because this is not a record suitable for quick absorption. There's too may layers (yet again, musically and lyrically) to get with just one or two casual listenings. Maybe that means that this ain't a pop record, maybe it means that it's an art record that uses the veneer of pop as it's reference point. Whatever...

One thing's for sure - this is no longer an an artifact of the long passed past, like the various bootleg compilations were (frankly, they have no been rendered totally obsolete, afaic, as anything other than documentary curios). This is a work of NOW, a truly contemporary work that, ironically, loses in the "delay" of its completion what it gains in it's relevance to things beyond its timeframe.

It's beautiful, and it's deep (how deep remains to be seen, but it's definitely deep enough to keep the diggers busy for a while). What more can you ask for?

[medjuck]

The box set entitled "Good Vibrations contains 11 tracks from the Smile sessions. Can one make a decent version of Smile from them? Also that box set has a long track from the Good Vibrations sessions that contain different lyrics than those ultimately used. Are they by Van Dyke Parks?

To answer my own questoin (now that I have the cd and quite like it) yes these are the "original" lyrics to goodVibrations. And I guess I miseed that an earlier post pointed out that they're by Tony Asher.

[Big Al]

It's beautiful, and it's deep (how deep remains to be seen, but it's definitely deep enough to keep the diggers busy for a while). What more can you ask for?

That you wouldn't be so darned eloquent, making it harder for me to resist the urge to pick it up!!!!

Seriously, I listened to this at Barnes & Noble yesterday. What can I say? I was VERY intrigued. The Fort Worth library is getting a copy, and I'm first on the checkout list, so..... we'll see. I'll proclaim loudly if my original assessment of this was completely bass-ackwards!

[Peter Johnson]

Whoaaaaaaaaa.

This is extraordinary stuff. As one who just recently got into the BB's (Pet Sounds period onward), who didn't get a chance to experience first hand the mythology of the existence of this record, I have to say I'm blown away. It's beautiful.

I have to listen to it a few more times, but so far I agree with Sangrey's praise...it's just completely cohesive, a beautiful vision.

[Big Al]

Hey Jim, do you think that one of the main reasons why this version of SMILE is so much more successful than its original predecessor is because Wilson is now backed by a band of sympathetic players? I was thinking about the original BB version of the SMILE tracks I’ve heard, and the thing that was so off-putting about those tracks was that it was the sound of a band in turmoil. Brian was falling apart physically, emotionally, spiritually, in every way possible; and the band doesn’t even care. In fact, in some places, it sounds like they’re either trying to stifle the condescending laughter, playing as though this were just another 9-5 job that they’re trying to get through, or just trying to sabotage the whole works!

From what I’ve heard in the clips I’ve listened to, THIS band is so much more into what Brian was trying to accomplish. Now, the cynic in me says that Brian was lucky enough (or smart enough) to find a band of players who idolized him from the start, and were willing to cater to his every whim. I suppose, at first glance and based on what I’ve heard, maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

In the end, if all it does is prove Mike Love and his ilk wrong after all these years, then yes, SMILE will have been worth the wait.

[JSngry]

Hey Jim, do you think that one of the main reasons why this version of SMILE is so much more successful than its original predecessor is because Wilson is now backed by a band of sympathetic players?

Well, if by "band" you mean instrumentalists, no. The original session players were more than sympathetic to Brian (check out "George Fell Into His French Horn"). But if you mean the vocalists, well, yeah I'm sure that not having to do battle with all that mess was one less nut to crack.

But really, I think it's just that this Darian Sahanaja cat came up with the brilliant strategy of asking Brian to put the songs into suitable shape for public performance rather than to "finish SMILE", and Brian got into it from there. Then when Parks got involved, the deal was probably sealed. From what I read, everything w/Brian is a mind game. He's rudimentally sane and functional, apparently, but definitely not "easy" or "predictable".

I really don't think he could have finished this thing before now. WAAAY too much going on back then, and too much darkness since. I'd be the last person to try and figure out what mental permutaions went on inside his mind to let him allow himself to do this now. I'm just thankful that it happened.

Now, if only a joint tour of SMILE and Parks' SONG CYCLE could be put together, well, then we'd have world peace.

[Hoyt Clagwell]

I was thinking about the original BB version of the SMILE tracks I’ve heard, and the thing that was so off-putting about those tracks was that it was the sound of a band in turmoil. Brian was falling apart physically, emotionally, spiritually, in every way possible; and the band doesn’t even care. In fact, in some places, it sounds like they’re either trying to stifle the condescending laughter, playing as though this were just another 9-5 job that they’re trying to get through, or just trying to sabotage the whole works!

I've never really had that impression from listening to the '66-67 Smile tracks, only from what I've read. I think the original performances are fine. Of course the memories and vibe of the times were so disturbing to Brian that he couldn't go back there, and no Brian meant no Smile. Still, I don't hear what you're hearing.

Actually Smiley Smile sounds more to me like what you're describing- (not a slam at that album, I love most of it).

I think the success of the current Smile is in the completeness of it, the transitions between parts and the wholeness of the work. It sweeps from strength to strength. Being that so much of it is a reproduction of the earlier work, I believe that that wholeness must have been inherent in the original vision to some extent. The sympathetic band members and Van Dyke Parks allowed Brian to have faith in that vision again.

[Brandon Burke]

Now, if only a joint tour of SMILE and Parks' SONG CYCLE could be put together, well, then we'd have world peace.

Surprised that there has been so little talk about Song Cycle in this thread. Maybe I missed it earlier. I dunno.

Anyways, when I was just getting into the Wilson/Parks collabo, however many years ago, I read something about Song Cycle, perhaps in the book Clem mentioned, and subsequently picked up a used LP copy at my local shop. My girlfriend at the time--who was remarkably tolerant of my free/psychedelic leanings--was also a big fan of the Beach Boys. Especially Freinds, etc.

I remember plain as day coming home from the shop and slapping Song Cycle on the turntable. The first piece was a little folky number that made perfect sense. And then...well...it began to make considerably less sense. I loved it right away but could tell that it was one of *those* records. I wasn't going to be able to listen to it all the time.

To this day, nothing that I have ever heard--and yes I've heard quite a bit of 60's/70's psych--sounds as acid-drenched as Song Cycle. It's almost flat-out creepy in this regard. More recently, two records by some modern practitioners of this style have made comparable music--Mercury Rev's Boces from 1993 and this year's absolutely stunning Sung Tongs by the Animal Collective. The Animal Colelctive record in particular is a treat as anything approaching creepiness is eschewed in favor of a peaceful, campfire vibe. (Album of the Year in my book, for those who are counting.)

Still, Song Cycle takes the cake for sizzlingly acidic psych. I mean there's very little that even comes close.

I actually put Song Cycle on at work back when I was a bartender in Lawrence. We had a turntable behind the bar. (B-)) The reactions were ammusing to say the least. Keep in mind that this was/is a relatively hip place so folks were mostly digging on Parks but there were a few who were visibly uncomfortable. I probably took it of rather quickly and put on Jorge Ben or something like that.

Edited October 1, 2004 by Brandon Burke

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Got this as part of a big shipment last week and have spent a few days with it now. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Agree with most of what's been said already regarding the new coherence of the music. There are all these nice little hints that reward repeated listening.

There are a few places that make me wish for the original versions - Our Prayer, one of my all-time favorites, just isn't as absolutely amazing as the Beach Boys one. But I will say it is beautiful how it returns in the strings, then the voices just before the concluding piece.

Surf's Up has a couple of spots that aren't perfect - BW holds a couple of notes just a hair too long (e.g., "strike"), which in the original were very clipped, and the new execution emphasizes something about his voice - a little flat, an odd vowel sound, something. I miss the faster tempo bit too. Seems like the band was maybe trying for it but BW's vocal just dragged a little. Yeah, probably if I weren't so familiar with the old version these things wouldn't bother me. Then there's the vocal trickery to get to the high notes - using BW for the lead part and having him trade off to a different singer. The Beach Boys version is seamless. BTW, the finest performance of this I've ever heard was on the TV tribute to BW where Vince Gill sang this (along with David Crosby and Jimmy Webb). Gill's voice was astounding - he moved into the upper register with absolutely no strain and the effect gave me goosebumps.

Good Vibrations - I'll have to dig into the reasoning behind the lyric change. It's a bit disconcerting (especially because the sound is such a perfect match to the original).

Quite happy that there aren't sonic anachronisms - the weird but wonderful palette of sounds that BW created (one of his significant accomplishments in popular music) is there, without being updated (though not every instrument is "vintage"). I find this to be properly respectful. It considers the fact that this is a piece from the late 1960s, not thirty-five years later. It shouldn't sound like "now" (which usually ends up sounding "dated" pretty soon thereafter). On the other hand, what was new and different in the 1960s has become "classic" and there's no reason to have anything else. It all works great. In the end, I'm happy that the whole thing was redone, as opposed to using the original stuff. There would have been too many sacrifices that way.

Regarding the idea of a sympathetic band, I do think there is something to this. Whereas the 1960s Beach Boys weren't the main players (many many wonderful LA session musicians), here the band is the band. They play, they sing. Yes, some added folks for strings, etc. But compared to the original, this is much more of an integrated unit. (And they can do it live. When I saw the opening night of the BW Pet Sounds tour, it was clear to me that the large pick-up orchestra was 98% superfluous.)

This album is a great success and man, it's about time.

Mike