SMiLE is out today!

SMiLE coming soon

But perhaps this can be part two.

http://cheese.exo.org.uk/archives/000276.html

Too much more to say now though, it's just...ah, overwhelming. It really is as good as I ever could have hoped, and it's almost completely impossible to believe that this is the same Brian who released that awful album earlier this year. Ah, I love him.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3934970

Will today if I get the chance. i listened to a rip from the SMILE site stream all weekend. I'm very happy this record exists.

;)

Still hashing out the review, should be up soon. Suffice to say, I like it.

K, missed that. With only a few listens thus far, I'm a bit circumspect myself. Regardless, I'm a little blown away by the euphoric response that it's gotten.

VERY VERY GREAT.

this is a "reconstruction" of what the original album MIGHT have been like, with inevitably a bunch of new arrangements mixed with the old. which means that it's a fucking miracle that it's any good (presuming you guys are not all on crack*).

* how safe is this presumption?

I did — and I'm totally with Mike on the added dimension aspect of it coming out 37 years later. It's something I appreciate, but admittedly haven't spent enough time with the record to evaluate properly.

But in approaching it, I guess the questions on my mind are: how rewarding is that added dimension? And how much does it come at the expense of the innocence that embodied the original recordings? For Mike, it seems like it's become something else. But I think it's a relevant question anyway. I mean, at the end of the day, this isn't the same thing it was nearly four decades ago.

Again, these are just some thoughts I'm having. I need more time with it.

what do you mean by innocence exactly?

been to any cathedrals lately?

p.s. it is a dumb phrase

are we gonna start dancing about architecture now?

I'm shocked that it ends with Good Vibrations and not Surf's Up. That's bizarre.

x-post

have you ever heard gregg turkington and trey spruance's version of GV from that Smiling Pets comp from the 90s?

As for Gregg Turkington and Trey Spruance, that thing is FRIGHTENINGLY obsessive. I mean, they even copied the varispeed errors. But that's the boot version of GV I love, so...

PLZ!@!@!!

dude you can listen to the whole thing online! http://www.smilethealbum.com/index.php.

there are no old recordings on this album. the whole thing was performed anew.

I disagree. If that's all it was, it would have been a certain artistic failure. For me, the album works because it's a completion, as opposed to a mere reconstruction.

Also, "Good Vibrations" works much better than "Surf's Up" as the final track. SU slots in as an ideal conclusion to the more ethereal second section; GV concludes the more elemental/raucous/carnival-esque third section. You also have to contend with GV's iconic status in comparison to the rest of the album - placed halfway through, it would have cast too long a shadow. Here, it serves as the all-singing, all-dancing, all-smiling big bang finale.

Incidentally - re. the spelling of the title - the accompanying booklet reverts to "Smile" rather than "SMiLE" throughout.

???????????????????

it is a completion of the composition

Twiddling around with/attempting to build upon the original backing tracks would have been a horrible mistake - like duetting with dead people. You would have lost the spirit, the cohesion and - somewhat paradoxically - the authenticity of the new performances.

And frankly that's about the level of accomplishment I'm expecting from this record, but y'all are so damn RHAPSODIC...

Like many here, I did a 'construction' of smile from the boots. Gratified to have found that my "heroes and villains" (or villians) was exactly seven minutes long, like the original was supposed to be.

This I 'saved' onto cassette. Shall see how it compares.

The only misstep, I think, is having Good Vibrations at the end, I would rather it wasn't there at all. The perfect ending would be the small reprise of Our Prayer at the end of In Blue Hawaii.

(Might see other shops in a bit)

Bloke at the record counter was asking typically vacant-looking Woolies assistant at the till: "Have you got Brian Wilson's Smile?"

The assistant looked suitably flummoxed for a while, then ran to the shelves and proferred a copy of the Brian McFadden single - "Do you mean THIS one?"

I suspect that Smile is not going to chart particularly high on Sunday.

You're telling me they re-recorded the vocals - well fuck it then, piece of shit

It's a bit like that.

My initial feelings on hearing the new Smile are that it's a bit like the posthumous version of Mingus' Epitaph that Gunther Schuller assembled out of various bits and bobs in the early '90s. The music is all there and it's all note-perfect, and personnel-wise Schuller probably couldn't have assembled a better line-up of musicians, but...well, Dannie Richmond isn't there, nor is Dolphy, nor is Roland Kirk or Booker Ervin (nor, indeed, is Mingus) - all the not-quite-controllable but intimately known voices that made the difference in Mingus' music. Not Schuller's fault, of course, that all these voices are no longer with us, but it does end up sounding like an academic recitation; strangely sterile.

Similarly, as technically faultless as the new "Surf's Up" is, it can't compare with the instinctive emotion of Carl Wilson's original (and heroic) octave-leaping vocal. You kind of need Carl there, and Dennis to "lay back on the beat," and even, God help us, Mike Love...these are the voices for whom the songs were originally written.

It is good, but inevitably there's something missing.

It is nothing like those re-recordings cheapo efforts with tinny drums.

I was kind of dreading Brian's croaking, but it works wonderfully well. He's in good voice, I don't think it's Dario Fo. Different to the old days, but good.

The brief female vocal makes you miss Marilyn, like that duet track, whatever it's called.

I think it's quite clever how it makes you miss people.

I thought about Carl a lot at the concert.

Yeah, I think it was seven inch only. Saw quite a few in Virgin Reading. Some with yellow labels, some with blue. All on yellow vinyl. Did not get one.

Then again Brian Wilson has a proven chart record, as opposed to Nick Drake, who doesn't.

Admittedly, Nick Drake hadn't had any hits since he left Hawkwind.

30 Brian Wilson Imagination Album Jun 1998

32 Nick Drake Magic Single May 2004
27 Nick Drake Made To Love Magic Album Jun 2004

Maybe Brian should have got Steve Beresford and the London Improvisers Orchestra to do the gig instead.

I had mp3s of the Smile bootlegs for a while but it seemed too fragmented to me. I hardly ever got that feeling with this version. The second section from "Wonderful" to "Surf's Up" works particularly well.

Honestly, I really don't think this is nostalgia or a little piece of "what might have been"....I think it's just a really amazing piece of music....Also shows that of all the big 60s "concept" albums how far away what Brian was doing was from Sgt. Peppers, SF Sorrow, Village Green (even Arthur), or any of the other biggie...this is a long piece of music, not a "story" of songs held together by a conceptual hook or story.....

The Wondermints do a fantastic job on vocals, I don't really miss the beach boys at all.....

Anyway, so congrats to Brian...and (this is based more off a argument I had in band practice last nite than directed at anyone here)...I really disagree with the view I've heard some people say that's along the lines of "Man I wish he would have left it unfinished to maintain the mystique and the Smile legend blah blah blah"...Brian's music belongs to him, not us, and if he want to rerecord it and present it how he feels it should be, that's his decision and I think he was fantastically successful in doing so....I hate this attitude like "Man preserve the Smile legend" well that "legend" to Brian represents the worst period of his life and probably what he viewed as his biggest failure in life, so if he want to try to make it right in his eyes, more power to him....T/S: Triumph over Adversity vs. The Indie Cult of Ambitious Failures.....

So you're convinced it was actually Brian Wilson's idea to do this - 'cos I'm not

Yes, I think so

I hope so, I fit this description, love Endless Summer but definitely not much of a PS fan, and just got Smile. Too early to tell what I think of it.

So you're convinced it was actually Brian Wilson's idea to do this - 'cos I'm not

Why? I mean the guy's clearly been haunted by the failure of Smile for decades...wouldn't even talk about it for years....At least the impression that I got from some of the articles about the making of the new Smile was that the warm reception he'd been getting in concert for the Pet Sounds and Smile stuff had sort of given him a little bit of an emotional lift and confidence to get it done....What other motivation would there be (please don't say money because I highly doubt that this is going to be any kind of a cash cow for the record company)

xpost

you are insane

1) The Wondermints are not the Beach Boys
2) The Wondermints are not the Wrecking Crew
3) Brian can't sing the high notes anymore
4) This isn't what SMiLE would have sounded like in 1967

Of course, all of these are true and obvious, but so what? As I said above, it's completely illogical and unexpected that this is even **good**, yet alone great. But it is.

Let's be clear here -- SMiLE was never finished, and you couldn't reconstruct this composition solely from the original tapes. Accordingly, I submit SMiLE 2004 has to rise or fall on its own merits. Hard as it may be, try and listen to the damned thing without the '66-7 albatross hanging over it. It's worth it.

There are bits of the vocals that annoy me here and there (some of the "Heroes and Villains" backing vocals, the double leads on "Wonderful," and of course the "dominos" from "Surf's Up"), but beyond that it stands up. SMiLE 2004 makes *sense*. It fits together *as a whole*.

My go: No 14

but like someone else says the album really stands on it's own merits, so if it is the Wondermints dude: good job, homie!

Then keep listening to the boots from the 60s and stop picking on this version. Yeah, it's not exactly what you want it to be (which is something impossible), but who cares? What is the point of getting all conspiracy theory about the motives behind it and the truth behind it's creation? I don't get that at all. Just listen to it and SMiLE!

SMiLE is the #1 seller on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/new-for-you/top-sellers/-/music/all/ref=m_mh_mn_ct/103-0639324-9099057

If anything, I think trying to use the old tracks along with new recordings would have sounded strange....I think it would have been pretty damn hard to match the sound quality....those masters have no doubt degraded over time, plus the difference in recording technology....I'd rather have it this way where everything sounds like a piece of the whole than some kind of Natalie/NatKingCole Frankenstein experiment....

http://www.warnerreprise.com/asx/brianwilson_smile-epk_450-v.asx

Along with concert footage and testimonials from the creators and the converted, it shows clips of Brian in the studio, very much in control and obviously happy to be recording again.

but don't you see what they're doing to your mind?!?!

Wilson's voice is so effective in spots it's scary ... an old man singing young man's lyrics of hopes and fears and dreams. Gorgeous ...

Would you really rate SPLHCB as the best album of '67?

"It wasn't until we got to London [for the premiere in February] that Brian admitted to me that 'Smile' was the best stuff he ever did. Imagine having your best stuff bottled up like that for 37 years."

The most joyfully inventive use of tape splicing ever.
With In Without You

The difficult, spiritual heart of the whole album.

When I'm 64

One of the first songs Paul ever wrote. His revival of it for Sgt. Pepper is almost as touching as hearing Brian Wilson sing "I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken as lost and gone for a long, long time." almost forty years on.

Lovely Rita

Coasting maybe, but when you're coasting this high, it can only be a treat. A lovely part of the kaleidoscope.

Would you really rate SPLHCB as the best album of '67?

Yes.

Christ anything the Kinks did in this time period >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> When I'm 64

Let's not bring the Kinks into this.

I like to think I appreciate the equivalent Americocentricism of Smile too, but I am probably kidding myself. I do love the frontier country theme that puncutuates it.

Death of a Clown (What?!?! That Dave Davies classic?!?!)
Two Sisters (maybe)
No Return
Love Me Til the Sun Shines (What?!?! That Dave Davies classic?!?!)
Lazy Old Sun
Funny Face
End of the Season

Are you a Beatles fan? And you're telling me you have no affection for the beautiful bridges in that song with the backing vocals? You have no affection for George Martin's clarinet arrangement?

It won't, but you just can;t beat the oddball charm of the original. It sold a lot of Sunkist, man ...

You know, seems kinda hard to believe anyone would ever fuck up this material; perhaps it's not so much a great production job as it is a truly timeless set of songs and vocal arrangements. The one thing we can say is a definite breakthrough is the use of reprises ... very unusual, but wonderful.

I've been listening to this all day. I feel like a gleeful 7-year-old. I'm choked up ...

This could so easily have been a disaster if the influence of an outside producer had been brought in.

Listened again last night and I could better accept GV at the end but still not that enamoured of it. Maybe cause I was never a fan of the orignal 'working on my brain' lyrics.

Also one of the things I thought during my second listen was, 'you know, this isn't as good as Sgt Pepper'. So there.

I AM A TOTAL FAG.

I object to the literal illustrations in the booklet. Here's a pawn, here's a chandelier.

The special thank yous are very nice.

The normal thank yous include 'The Roger Daltrey Family'. Does this mean Roger Daltrey and family, or is it some kind of weird cult? If it is the former, did Daltrey help him with the hard bits?

I am going to London today, if anyone wants to chum up, you know my name, look up the number.

(i checked with woolworths but they weren't stocking that either)

is silly.

I might go at lunch today.

I really like it. It sounds really excited. I think the whole of Good Vibrations has a very different atmosphere to the original, it used to be blissed out to the point of near-spookiness, where here it's just a pure celebration. But I think that makes sense, given the context.

-- Marcello Carlin

Or better yet, once SMiLE hits the stores Brian is completely sane and happy again. There's your Hollywood ending.

-- Mark (r-...), September 28th, 2004 9:13 PM. (MarkR) (later)

Yes, I went to a performance in LA about 10 years ago of Smile/Pet Sounds performed by an ensemble music group including (among others) the wondermints... SHOCKAH. before the show they showed about 30 minutes of this rare film/video from the late 60s BBs.

But honestly this blew me away, I was smiling a lot yesterday, driving around in the beautiful late-summer Georgia air with a friend and finding old fashioned record boxes in thrift stores and eating ice cream. It was awesome.

It's still a bit surreal that this is an actual release now, something you can go to a store and buy right off the shelves. It's beautiful psychedelic folk, in some ways it almost reminds me of Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle". It's a bit rough around the edges but that only makes it more accessible and personable for me, it seems..

My favorite thing is the 3:13 barbershop vocal break in "Heroes and Villains", how Brian's an old man now with an older voice, and when he sings "I've been in this town so long..." it's a little bit heartbreaking, especially with those background vocals. In a way, it almost seems like the album was destined for this, that Brian was destined to come back when he was an old man and finish this work of his youth. It's a very poetic and bittersweet feeling, and it's a tremendously enjoyable album.

((aside: It's so odd we're still so interested in music from the 60s. That was 40 years ago!!! It would be like babyboomers in the 60's being obsessed with music from the 1920s....))

uh... rolling stones, yardbirds, led zeppelin, bob dylan all had more than a passing thing for 1920s music from the American south.

I am getting old, because yesterday I was saying he finished it "25 years after he started" and then did the math and realized it was close to 40. fuck!

I have it. It's on a Leonard Bernstein special for CBS "explaining" this freaky music called "rock" to all the old folks.

Because I NEEDED this the day it hit stores and I didn't feel like going far cuz I had a fever, I went down to K-MART (it was in walking distance, no record store near, I was desperate) and GASP! only one copy left. That was a pleasant surprise. And this is in a suburban town where everyone's fav artist is Bruce.

For one thing, the "symphony" thing was not meant literally. SMiLE is not a symphony. The "modular music" approach is closer to pieces like George Antheil's Ballet mecanique or Satie pieces like Parade or Entr'acte cinematographique. (SMiLE is actually far greater than those pieces.)

Also, he makes a big deal about the fact that they used ProTools to get the pitch perfect on the vocal tracks. Why shouldn't they have used it? He asks, "How much Brian is actually on the recordings?" as though Brian actually sang all his parts a half-pitch out of tune or something! Gimme a break.

And the Parks bashing is oddly anti-modernist/anti-abstraction for a guy who wrote a book on psychedelic music.

Today I am going to compare and contrast Nu-Smile with Old Skool Smile.

"'Pet Sounds' -- a much more honest, moving and emotional work that actually accomplished everything Wilson set out and failed to do with 'Smile.'"

ahem.

jim derogatis has never had any critical imagination or insight. he's a critical charlatan who's out of his depth whenever he strays from boilerplate concert reviews and publicity.

I realise this is a super-dense question, but I'm really bored of reading it now.

-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...) (webmail), September 22nd, 2004 3:10 AM. (link)

are we all different now??

X-post.

having listened to it a few more times, it's even better than i thought. i love the heavily reverbed "wake up"s on 'surf's up' and in agreement with someone upthread, the segue from 'wonderful' to 'surf's up' is one of the most extraordinary and strikingly beautiful pieces of music i've ever heard.

i had a boot of Smile on 'sea of tunes' which I didn't much like at all, which is the weird thing.

woolworths didn't have the ayler box, apparently they had overordered on grachan moncurr the week before.

Ooh, you've made me feel dirty now. I don't think that's what it is though. It's just, you know, joy. Inpired by great music. Other musics can do it too, without me knowing any background or anything. Maybe I'm just a bit soft.

After multiple listens, I'm very slowly starting to miss the original versions of Surf's Up and Good Vibrations. I'm not sure what I think about that though. If I accept that they were better, it doesn't necessarily spoil my enjoyment of this Smile, as a finished piece. And doesn't make me wish they were included here either. But it gives me a vague and hard to define feeling of regret, somehow.

I got it a few years ago from a collector friend, on VHS.

"...Up there with Big and Rich for album of the year."
- Jel, I Love Music

The BBs stuff was crazy edited, and I'm sure if they could have done it without all the obvious splices, they would have. It's not like Protool just magically "fixes" things, you still have to know what you're doing.

It's included on the ProjectSmile CD-Rom. There's a torrent out there somewhere . . . (cough)http://www.easytree.org/(cough).

i've actually always been skeptical/indifferent to the hype myself--i have a lot of critical distance from the post-1966 beach boys stuff. i just happen to think this is a really interesting and occasionally very involving album. it is pretty in some very strange and novel ways.

That DeRo review is really terrible, from the handwringing about how much of the album is "real" and how much is digital, to his description of VDP as someone who "tries much too hard to be wiggy and weird."

WIGGY?!?

also, Matos: Haha when has ILM ever MOVED ON about anything??

hahahah!

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0439/smucker.php

Also, from someone who has tapes of probably most every SMiLE fragment that's circulated, believe me, this album is better than SMiLE would have been in '67 and far better than just listening to the unfinished tapes for chrissake.

"I've always liked Paul Williams' contention that the 31 minutes' of stuff on disc two of the Good Vibrations box set--he called it "Child of Smile"--worked just fine as an alternate version, and that's probably better than this, though I haven't (yet) A-B'ed them."

Obv. sometimes Brians voice is rougher on the new one, and some parts I don't like as much as the old takes (Cabinessence for one), but overall I think what you gain in terms of context and overall polish outweighs any downside the new recordings have....

Dont blame the people for the errors of their politicians

Yes, this is a quite appalling line.

It's not that I don't like to dance (au contraire), or that I don't like dance music (although there are some species of house that have never moved me). But I think that for far too long, I considered myself more of an "indie-rocker" and thus I just wasn't keyed into the "scene."

...da fug?!!!?!

yes, brian looked EXTREMELY awkward and his pantomining of the lyrics was quite strange.

And, btw, murkiness is kind of the point of that part of the record, isn't it?

???

I'd say bucks fizz made the album 'the notorious byrd brothers' was always meant to be, minus of course the 12 string rickenbacker and the vocal-chorale stuff

More later. Or not.

A possible number one, judging by the upscaling of the presentations in HMV and FOPP (Window displays).

Hmm lets see.

New releases outselling Smile: Joss Stone, Marilyn Manson, Interpol and Groove Armada.

!

im thinking about going to see the concert tomorrow night, but the cheapest tickets are $40 or so. wonder if i should go and also id have to go all by my lonesome, and i hate going to concerts alone. ill probably end up going to see morgan geist/daniel wang and then regretting it later.

But I'm telling you.. as someone who is a hardcore Beach Boys fan up until L.A./Light Album who gave up on Brian Wilson WELL over a decade ago, it would be absolute fucking miracle if he could win me over with a comparable solid version of the completed Smile this year.

So, I'm all telling you right now, just so we're all on the same page -- as a hardcore Smile-ologist who fell off the Wilson wagon a long time ago -- that I'm a jaded fuck when it comes to any new Wilson projects.

Lo and fucking behold, that absolute fucking miracle happened.

Brian Wilson presents Smile is fucking incredible. I don't give a shit who else was involved in this record or how it was recorded. Sure, the Wondermints suck on their own, but if they were involved in the production of this record, then they realized their goal and they can now go die with a great accomplishment behind them.

It's just.. frightening -- frighteningly amazing -- how fresh but how faithful to the original fragments and compositions this album is.

I never ever ever EVER expected this to happen.

roll rock roll plymotuh rock roll over

Still waiting for that stereo version of the original "Good Vibrations" though. I mean, I have Todd Rundgren's copycat version in stereo, and I have Brian Wilsons copycat version in stereo. Now I want to hear the real thing in stereo!

we'll never know what it would have sounded like had it been finished in 1967, because it wasn't.

-- splooge (sploogeyo...) (webmail), October 3rd, 2004 8:24 PM. (thesplooge) (later) (link)

some of them even appear on smiley smile and other albums, although we have no way of knowing if they were regarded as "finished" or not in 1967.

geir, you seem to assume their is some platonic ideal of "smile" that exists--in brian wilson's imagination of 1967, i dunno. but the fact is that a complete version of smile never existed until now, even in brian's imagination. he and parks had to write new bridging material to make this a complete album.

anyway, the suite that centers around "child is father to the man" is my favorite part of this record.

Brian burning tapes was a myth that's perpetuated around the Mrs O'Leary's Cow sessions, this has turned up on boots so obv exists.

I think he was present at the Surf's Up session from what i remember reading though. How much input he had I don't know, my guess is it was mostly put together by Carl.

The Fire related track on the box set is basically just the bells and whistles intro, the track itself is unreleased although elements of it turn up on Rio Grande on the first BW solo album.

(and then was quite horrified by the result. or Eugene was anyway)

My understanding is that the new version arrangement is slightly different than that version, although I haven't A/B'd them. Supposedly Brian also turned up at the '71 sessions and they tried to get him to sing over top of his original piano demo and he either refused or wasn't able to do so.

"Well, exactly, as far as I'm aware anything in that biog is to be taken with a shovel of salt."

someone just gave this to me as a gift. what's the deal again? is it still worth reading? who is Todd Gold? (did he ghostwrite the whole thing?)

Prob not "stick "Child is Father to the Man" on top of the fade"

apparently this WAS Brian's idea; when Carl and the others were finishing the track for the Surf's Up album, Brian came in and did only that bit; they'v always used this as an example of his brilliance at arranging, it was a segue none of them had though of on their own. At least this is what the Beach Boys's have always said, I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds likely enough.

It wasn't in Tesco. Probably will be this week as it's top ten in the real chart now. Sainsb. Too.

At long last: "My wife and managers and publicity agents about nine months ago got together with me at a lunch meeting and they said, 'Brian, we think the world is finally ready for 'Smile,' " Wilson said in an interview from Los Angeles last week as he prepared to launch an American tour. "And I said, 'You know what? I agree with you. Let's teach the band and the orchestra the whole 'Smile' album. Let's create a third movement to make it a true rock opera, and let's premiere it in London, England.'
"You know what happened? At Royal Festival Hall, six nights in a row we got 10-minute standing ovations. It was a giant success!"

--cut--

Having come to terms with "Smile" and the personal difficulties the record came to represent, the 62-year-old Wilson believes the doors to new musical creativity are now open.
"I think our next big step would be to make a rock 'n' roll album inspired by Phil Spector and Paul McCartney and guys like that," Wilson said. "I would imagine we'll try to make a rock 'n' roll album that would make people want to dance."

--cut--

and this last bit is kind of amusing, esp in light of the song 'salt lake city'

Wilson: "Where are you located?"
Tribune: "Salt Lake City, Utah."
Wilson: "Salt Lake City, Utah! I've been there. I've been to the Lagoon. Do they still have the Lagoon there?
Tribune: "They sure do."
Wilson: "Do people still go to it? That was a cool amusement park. There's a lot of pretty girls in Salt Lake City."

hm?

I admire Alba's quest to get it cheap. I would offer to do him a copy, but it wouldn't be the same, even if I scribbled a chandelier on it in felt pen.

For London readers: £9.99 out of Selectadisc in Berwick Street.

I write something in 20 minutes on my blog--THAT'S BLOG ENTRY, NOT AN ACTUAL REVIEW--and it gets treated like (a) a manifesto (b) aimed at ILM! I can assure you that was the LAST thing on my mind when I wrote it. I'll also stand by it--I don't think it's the best album of the year, though lord knows it's great; I never in 100 years thought of it as "so two days ago" outside of Tim Ellison's reductionist dreams; there was nothing "somber" about anything I said--it was a playful joust in the direction of Christgau and Smucker and a few other people who'd already pronounced the thing album-of-the-year, either in print or to me personally. It's better than it has any right to be because the number of re-recorded songs that trump the originals, let alone entire albums (unfinished or not), isn't that high--as much as I enjoy "Sex Machine '75" I'm not gonna take it over the original. There is nothing unfair at all about possibly liking the box set semi-version more the finished 2004 one, though I doubt I would at this point, having spent more time with the album proper. Roy Williams' Shaggs Defense Council act is getting really old, especially when he demonstrates far more kneejerk haha "attitude" when it comes to my preferring the Avalanches to Wilson. I continue to find the 1971 "Surf's Up" murky in an unpleasurable way, one of those cultist-only kind of things, so of course I'm going to offend people who brag about the 3 1/2 hours of original Smile outtakes they've hoarded lo these many years. weh.

Play prices are postage paid, aren't they?

... on the day of the interview, he probably loves him again now

And also bits of it that sound a bit SwingleSingers - flashbacks to Saturday Night at the Mill in the late 70s.

And your spins are GOP-worthy: It wasn't a "manifesto," for chrissake, you over-reactors! It wasn't aimed at you, anyway, so why are you posting about it on here?!

My "so two days ago" comment was a JOKE about your dismissiveness, dude.

And sure as John Kerry is a flip-flopping softie, I am a bragging, anal, SMiLE tapes hoarder! Thanks!

fred solinger used to post to ilm i thought...

Also, they've got the sun in the summer, and wintertime the skiing is great. And the way the kids talk so cool is an outtasite thing.

(I've always wondered what led the BBs to pay tribute to SLC. Seems like a random place, esp. for a BB song.)

Seems to have turned into something a bit more than "inspired by", according to pf...

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/04-10/05.shtml

Um.

although writing "i won't be bothering here" doesn't really do his incipient reputation for dismissiveness and arrogance any favors.

Tim Ellison: "You're dismissive, flippant, and arrogant."

Matos: "I don't think I'll bother arguing with someone for whom anything less than gushing praise is an argument-starter."

Amateurist: "You're not doing your incipient reputation for dismissiveness or arrogance any favors."

You wrap up these thoughts about SMiLE by suggesting, two days after it was released or whenever that was, that it's time to move on! Don't linger, "you fucking over-protecting of your hero numbnuts!"

I mean, we are speaking of possibly the two greatest songwriters of the 20th century collaborating for the first time. And then, Paul McCartney is being brought in there just to sing a few lines. He contributed zero to the song itself, and he didn't contribute much to the recording either (plus his voice is currently possibly even less up to its 60s standards than Brian's is). I mean: What's the point? If those two guys do something together, at least they should also collaborate on the songwriting, as that is always what they were geniuses at back then.

round and round and round we go

for what it's worth i had two related (and minor) criticisms of matos's blog entry:

(1) that it seemed a little too focused on the vagaries of the album's critical reception rather than the album itself
(2) that he wrote "it's so not the album of the year" as though this meant something; i would make the same (mild) criticism of those who have written "it's the album of the year"--again, just a journalistic convenience that becomes rather pointless and tiresome outside the context of polls and year's-end lists

i just don't want to get sucked in to some false debate about slavish devotion to brian's legacy or something, because i've never really had any stock in that.

(A) I don't think I'll continue bothering here.
(B) I don't think I'll bother arguing with someone for whom anything less than gushing praise is an argument-starter.

have fun y'all!

Dude, miraculously, Brian Wilson rerecords SMiLE and releases it after 37 years.

Right away, we have, not a record being released, but a full-fledged miracle taking place, which would, judging from the tone you’re employing, seem to prevent us from talking about it as an earthly object to be discussed like any other record or public occasion. I love the record, too, and have loved most of the original Smile outtakes I’ve heard. I’m acutely aware of the Wilson-as-tragic-genius mythology surrounding it, which is one terrific reason to employ a skeptical tone when writing about it. So is the gushing tone you used upthread and here.

I look at your blog and the first two things you have to say about it are that it’s “so, so, SO not the album of the year” and this unexplained comment about how it’s “better than it has any right to be.”

The comment didn’t need to be explained--I figured anyone reading it would know that I was referring to “Sex Machine ’75” syndrome. Also, I’d just gotten back from NYC, where I’d already heard four or five people refer to it as “album of the year.” Also, I DON’T think it’s the best album of the year--there are at least ten others I like more, though that might change over the next couple months as I listen to it and other CDs more.

You wrap up these thoughts about SMiLE by suggesting, two days after it was released or whenever that was, that it’s time to move on!

Dude, you ought to see what I say about records I don’t like! Also, I was already anticipating precisely the kind of “miracle” talk that almost ALWAYS accompanies any shit Wilson takes in public. So that kind of preemptive-strike commentary is very useful when you’re dealing with those kind of people--the kind that act like wounded puppies anytime someone dares to hint that Brian Wilson might not be God incarnate or something.

Don’t linger, “you fucking over-protecting of your hero numbnuts!”

Yes, because my blog entry was a decree from on high and not just, you know, a blog entry. Good to know Brian Wilson fanboys haven’t lost their ability to keep things in perspective.

Amateurist:

(1) that it seemed a little too focused on the vagaries of the album’s critical reception rather than the album itself
(2) that he wrote “it’s so not the album of the year” as though this meant something; i would make the same (mild) criticism of those who have written “it’s the album of the year”--again, just a journalistic convenience that becomes rather pointless and tiresome outside the context of polls and year’s-end lists

These are fair points, and I don’t think I ever implied you had any stake in “slavish devotion to brian’s legacy” (and if I did, I apologize--I never got that impression). But, um, it is my blog, and I can make those points if I want to. They’re certainly salient to the subject, a good chunk of which is its reception and its backstory. (I guarantee you we wouldn’t be talking about it this way if some schmuck in Iowa had made the record. That’s not even a criticism, it’s a fact--people are attracted to the story behind this music as much as the music itself, and for good reason--it’s a great story, especially now that Wilson went and put it all together like this.) And it does mean something in the context I wrote it: I’m a rock critic who has a blog that’s largely read by other rock critics. If it’s a journalistic convenience (and it is), too bad I didn’t expend it on some actual journalism, right? (Or maybe it’s good that I didn’t--that would seem to be more in line w/what you’re saying.)

and, just to fill my pedantry quota, i would like to point out that the following statements are not exactly equivalent in tone:
(A) I don’t think I’ll continue bothering here.
(B) I don’t think I’ll bother arguing with someone for whom anything less than gushing praise is an argument-starter.

Considering that (A) was right after a direct response to a specific person (Tim), it doesn’t take a lot of thinking to figure it was also directed at him. So they are a lot more equivalent in tone than you’re giving them credit for.

In this case, though, it was obvioulsy just the work of a "gushing fanboy."

i don't know how i got sucked into this. i actually don't have any emotion or much thought invested in any of this at all. i guess i was bored today. or maybe it's something more sinister. i dunno. i don't even care that much about "smile." i'm going to eat some sushi now.

Fuck yeah, fuck yeah, fuck yeah!

It is 10 pounds from Mr CD on Berwick Street, just opposite Selectadisc, ideal for people who like crossing roads and don't like fiddly one pence pieces.

I now realise that Mike Love was in fact the Beach Boys' Bez.

The sad "You Are My Sunshine," of course, dates back to the original SMiLE and was intended as humor.

Part of the appeal of the original recordings is the patchwork assembly, the audible splices & surreal overdubs, the inherent studioness of the construction. I always heard Smile as a winding, intricate studio album. I know it's unfair to expect anything more from Wilson at this late point, but the new take on it as a chamber ensemble piece for live performance seems quaint. The songs are there but the depth is gone.

I do like the overall structure. That came through on february's live recording. But just going back to the original recording of 'our prayer'... I don't think I'm going to spending much time with this new version at all. Though I'm not selling it back, I'm glad it exists and I'd certainly see this live. This version was designed for live performance.

Tape hiss.

What the new Smile "lacks" is an air of strangeness. However, listening to this now, I wonder if that was ever supposed to be there in the first place.

That is so OTM. The "lost album" mystique injected something into those old recordings that may not have been there, explaining problems or deficiencies as signs of cracked genius.

search: schneider TM remix of high llama's "homerun ubershow"

Dominique's comment is dead on, the strangeness is indeed gone, probably by intention. The melancholy's been tempered. Perfect professionalism rather than obsessiveness. This has nothing to do with this being a 'lost album', what was recorded was objectively very strange.

Though I've also gone back to my own album edit this weekend, and even though the individual moments are stronger, they don't bond into a whole as this new one does. It's nearly impossible to imagine an official release of a listening version made from original tapes, there's too much and the parts don't fit.

I'm still impressed with the music, in any form it still works. I agree with the praise upthread, I'm just thinking these other things too.

There's a swanky Smile 2004 reconstruction that was posted to the Usenet a coupla days back. "Fast Eddie" must have a ridiculous collection of Smile bootleg material 'cause his mirror of Brian's structure is near complete. (Incredible to hear an 66/67 take on "Barnyard"-- with more verses than the revisited version.)

All this plus the "air of strangeness" (Dom L OTM) are proving kind of irresistible tonight.

definitely want to hear this. let me know if a torrent turns up.

Anyway, it was never supposed to be rough. Weird, yes ("Smile" is kind of weird too), but never rough. It was never the intention.

It was in the Sainsbury chart, yesterday (Marked *NEW*) at position 50. They didn't have any in, in the small one in Reading centre anyway.

also some of the freaky brass lines are mixed too far back in 2004 version.

but apart from that i'd still go for 2004. brian's old man voice adds some kind of experiental richness for me.

It was originally posted to alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.beach-boys. While unlikely that your own ISP would still have complete propagation, any decent usenet archive host (I'll shill for EasyNews, whom I've used for the past few years) will still have it.

Sure "Smiley Smile" was meant to be rough. (And even if someone meant for it to be something else, so what? It is what it is, and I'm glad it's like that.) When I listen to and enjoy "Smiley Smile," I'm responding to the album itself, not the shreds of intention behind "Smile" that you might glean from it. (Though that's interesting to listen for, too.)

There are also a few moments where "Smiley Smile" sounds like the Red Krayola, and other self-consciously arty/weird underground rock with a warped-pop sensibility, from different eras.

Question: given the months since its release, have anybody's opinions changed? Among the gushers (just about everyone), have you found that it doesn't QUITE have the legs you thought it would? And among those (few) naysayers, has it improved at all?

For now I'm filing it between "Shroud of Turin" and "Compassionate Conservatism" — under PREFERRED THE MYTH.

Clinical, dry, sterile, fussed-over, OTM. All the myth and magic and mess of the original tapes could never be recreated.

The new Smile = studio-rock rendered as chamber music. Be careful not to clap at the wrong time.

Also, given the quality of his most recent work, I suspect that an "update" might not have been aesthetically satisfying.

I don't know anything bout classical music so I shouldn't have used the term "chamber." To me, the new Smile sounds like a skilled recital while the old feels like unbridled experimentation.

Btw, "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", particularly the ending, is a mindblower. It's totally an old man singing psychedelic metal.

Does anyone have any recommendations for the new Smile session compilations? Surely by now someone must have reconstructed the new finished record from the old demos...

for some reason i like the original "cabinessence", "good vibrations" and "our prayer" better than the new one, too. but just about everything else is improved. i am especially tripping tonight on how awesome "in blue hawaii" turned out.

R.I.P. Gene Landy. You co-wrote some shitty songs on Brian's first solo album, and you saved his life by kidnapping his mind and wallet.

I've had this a week now and basically think I'd die a happy man if I ever wrote music 1/10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000th as beautiful as this....thanks to everybody's vivid descriptions in this thread, they were spot on.

how is Wilson's newest solo album? granted I figure it must be a letdown given that it wasn't a completion of a 37 year old composition, but ya know....

That Lucky Old Sun is pretty good

Capitol began production on a lavish gatefold cover with a 12-page booklet. Cover artwork was commissioned from Frank Holmes, a friend of Van Dyke Parks, and colour photographs of the group were taken by Guy Webster. 466,000 covers and 419,000 booklets were printed by early January 1967; promotional materials were sent to record distributors and dealers, and ads were placed in Billboard and teenage magazines including Teen Set.

Are these album covers and booklets around? Or were they all destroyed?

I've seen them for sale in record stores for $20. Neat artifact, but it is an empty record cover worth a $20?

Good timing for a revival, since I played this just last week for the first time in 5 years. (Bought it because of this thread of course.) I've recently made a decision to acquaint myself with '67-71 Beach Boys, about which I know far too little, and figured it to be most convenient starting point

oh dude, Myonga, get *everything* from that time period you described (if yer a vinyl guy, then get the vinyl, but if you are a CD guy, it's super easy to get those 2LPs on 1CD things that Capitol did in the mid-90s, they are such a bargain and the bonus tracks are rad as hell!)

so is Phil2 still on ILX at all? he and I saw the live show of SMiLE together in Chicago. I've lost touch with him :(

He's on twitter - MrStreetPeeper

http://streetpeeper.com/sites/default/files/phil-oh-street-peeper-1.jpg

if you are a CD guy, it's super easy to get those 2LPs on 1CD things that Capitol did in the mid-90s, they are such a bargain and the bonus tracks are rad as hell!

Seconding this recommendation. I actually broke out SMiLE last week along with the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey reissue. Excellent tunes all around.

Did anyone have the 3LP Smile bootleg, back when?

Side 6 was taken up with the Beach Boys (and whoever) in a boat (in the studio), and they had this game where they had to vote somebody out. First up the vote went against Mike Love.

The rest of the track (30 mins) was MLove outside the studio, creating and stomping, and the rest of them still in the boat, laffing.

So, basically, the Beach Boys invented the Big Brother TV prog.

That Lucky Old Sun is damn good, and I'm not sure how that happened after Gettin' in Over My Head and What I Really Want for Christmas.

Van Dyke Parks. Orange Crate Art is also way awesome.

After hearing so much praise for Smiley Smile/Wild Honey, I still think Smile and SMiLE is so much more enjoyable. I like Smiley Smile's stoner mixtape atmosphere tho (and the singles are godlike).

Orange Crate Art was soooo treacly to me. The sentiment just too heavy. I just couldn't roll with it, I really wanted to.

A friend of mine made an edit of the 60s Smile mtrl to exactly replicate the assembly BW performed live in the 00's. It makes a great listen. I gather Purple Chick or one of those types also did the same thing.

Smiley Smile's stoner mixtape atmosphere

Perfect description, and the reason it's my favourite Beach Boys.

i was a Beach Boys obsessive about ten years ago and made my own ultimate Smile out of the best versions I could hunt down online. the real SMiLE was a dream come true but I hardly ever play it because the original is so utterly amazing (the vocals, my God). i also prefer the song order, mostly the same but has Good Vibrations in the middle (beginning of Side 2) and ends with Surf's Up->You're Welcome.

Has there been a poll/thread on the best stoner mixtape albums? Like the first Macca, "The Freed Weed", "Stereopathetic Soul Manure"?

The best Smile fan mix will always be Mokomok's. Just go White Album and throw everything in there. Hell if I can choose any of it that should be cut.

Smile 2004 is utterly useless for me. I'll listen to a Wondermints record if I want to hear the Wondermints and the original session material if I want to hear Smile. Brian sounds awful and it's distracting. I'm really really glad I got to see him perform live, but hearing Jeff Foskett sing about ten times louder than him and seeing the twenty people required to put on a so-called "Brian Wilson" concert was sad in the extreme.

Yeah, I've seen that "Smiley/Honey" collection here and there, that'd definitely be the place to start. Awfully generous of Capitol to release most of the BB's catalog as twofers (and throw in bonus tracks besides!)

xxxxxxxxxxpost

oh dude, Myonga, get *everything* from that time period you described (if yer a vinyl guy, then get the vinyl, but if you are a CD guy, it's super easy to get those 2LPs on 1CD things that Capitol did in the mid-90s, they are such a bargain and the bonus tracks are rad as hell!)

^^^OTMx10000

there is a great ILM Beach Boys bootleg thread that contains a lot of great material from this era as well FYI

and yeah I prefer the OG bootlegged Smile versions (usually a combo of released and unreleased/unfinished material) to the 2004 version. I have no use for the Wondermints or Brian's fried voice.

i liked the sequencing of the 2004 smile -- it seemed like a logical way to do it, but was a little bit unpredictable too. But once I found the Purple Chick reconstruction (mentioned upthread) I didn't really have any need for the 2004 version.

I don't know, the moment I heard Brian's old fragile voice singing "I've been in this town so long, so long to the city..." in the acapella part towards the end of "Heroes & Villains" in the new one, I was in!

Smile boots rule though, except there are so many out there, so many isolated vocal takes, alternate sections, etc, the best thing is to get a bunch and just queue them up while you're doing something else. As for listening to the thing straight, yeah I like Purple Chick's but Brian's/Wondermint's is pretty rad. I mean they're no Wrecking Crew, but they can hit those harmonies dead on...

Brian sounds awful and it's distracting.

wtf, he sounded 300 times worse on "Love You"...and he's about 25 years older than he was then! y'all realize that age also impacts vocal cords to a degree too, right? I mean I ain't denying his 'lifestyle' and drugs didn't have an impact, but most agree that the voice begins to deteriorate in one's late 40s ANYWAY.

I don't think he sounded that bad...and he sounds better on That Lucky Old Sun. Not so 'mushmouthed'. Yea yea "studio technology" but whatever....

ut most agree that the voice begins to deteriorate in one's late 40s ANYWAY.

depends what yr style is, I can think of a bunch off the top of my head who's voices still sound like solid gold at 50+ (Willie Nelson, Ralph Stanley, both of the surviving Gibbs brothers, Mavis Staples, etc.)

Certainly, it's still possible to sound 'good' in later years, for sure, depending on how you maintain your voice - and no doubt Brian did plenty to speed up the deterioriation of his own voice. But even former opera and classically trained singers, which they often still sound "good" in their later years, begin to show signs of wear and decline. Decreased range, hoarseness occurs sooner....etc.

I don't have a problem with a change in tone or hoarseness, I have a problem with not even coming close to hitting the notes. Either sing in appropriate keys or just give it up. "Colonnaded ruins domino" during "Surf's Up" is Jeff Foskett, not Brian Wilson, and when he does go for the high stuff solo it's bad -- "TOUGH to cry" etc. Then add the fact that the backing tracks sound so canned and synthy. There's no comparison to in-their-prime Beach Boys vocals and the Wrecking Crew. Thank God they finished the damn thing but I don't know why you'd listen to it over the session material.

cuz it's complete?

I also dnt agree that the backing tracks sound canned or synthy at all....sound pretty authentic especially given that they were done in the 21st century, and I know Brian labored to get it to sound that way.

backing vocals sound fine to me on the 2004 version -- string arrangements are kinda synthy sounding at times though. Are they synths or is that an actual string section?

God damn them for not finding a time machine and finishing it in 1967

I don't listen to this very much despite being a big beach boys fan because....I dunno, although this would have been the best beach boys album,I don't think it contains the group's most interesting music.

I think the quality of the 2004 version is pretty impressive all things considered, though there are a few things that always bug me. they drums in the middle of 'wind chimes' at the 2 minute mark...argh.

Brian Wilson's next gig is a 2xLP about Booty Pop

oh , Bob Six -- thx for the Phil update! i am now a subscriber.

Mark G -- yah, I have that 3LP Smile thing. with the poster, which used to hang in the stairwell in our old house in Kenwood in the 90s. good memories. I never really listened to that last side more than once, I don't think! you make me wanna drag it out again though

I never heard That Lucky Old Sun, but wow I am kinda surprised at some of the Orange Crate Art love here. Believe me, I wanted to love that thing SOOOO bad! And actually, the first track -- title track -- is pretty much perfect. I just wish the rest of the album followed suit. It's kinda all downhill from there. I guess I'm with Jon Lewis on this one. Sold my copy years back, although honestly if I found the CD for a couple bucks I might pick it up again just to have the title track on file...

(totally unrelated but Stormy, I lured phil back to ilx not too long ago with memories of aged salted fatty meats: charcuterie )

If you do, Stormy, mp3 that side 6 ta!