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Bob Elliott
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4/15/2008 11:33:35 AM
Brian Wilson's "Smile" is So Brilliant...
...it almost hurts.
This release should have been a major musical event for the world, but it seems it is not really much of an event. Especially since it took thirty years and there was almost no hope of it seeing the light of day, and then it did. One of the most brilliant albums I've ever heard, really.
It's music that makes me want to get into my studio and be as creative as I can...
if only I hadn't torn the walls of my studio down to the insulation.
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Hop On Pop
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4/15/2008 11:38:00 AM
I listed it as my favorite record of that year.... what was it '05?
Yeah, it was amazing. But I also think that it fell victim to it's own legend as, no matter how magnificent it was (and it was), it could never live up to its own hype.
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Bob Elliott
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4/15/2008 11:51:37 AM
I was never much into the BEach Boys. Occasionally they'd do a song that would give some credence to the talk about what a genius he was, like "In My Room." I thought Pet Sounds was a pretty good album, but SMile knocks me out.
Really the effect it has on me is to electrify my mind toward wanting to write and record.
And my four year old just loves it.
Brian was such a mess when they recorded it. It's amazing it came out so very well.
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qelizabeth
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4/15/2008 11:54:10 AM
it inspires me too; i listen to it when i paint.
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Jeff Allen Myers
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4/15/2008 12:35:30 PM
I have been meaning to get "Smile" Thanks for the reminder :) Pet sounds is a great album, I love the back story on it. Brian Wilson heard the Beatles' Rubber soul and was blown away...it insppired him to create Pet Sounds. McCartney then heard Pet Sounds, and it inspired him to create tracks for Sgt. Peppers.
From McCartney
"It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life ... I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album ... I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century ... but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways ... I've often played Pet Sounds and cried. I played it to John [Lennon] so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence ... it was the record of the time. The thing that really made me sit up and take notice was the bass lines ... and also, putting melodies in the bass line. That I think was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Pepper, it set me off on a period I had then for a couple of years of nearly always writing quite melodic bass lines. "God Only Knows" is a big favourite of mine ... very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me, that one. On "You Still Believe in Me", I love that melody - that kills me ... that's my favourite, I think ... it's so beautiful right at the end ... comes surging back in these multi-coloured harmonies ... sends shivers up my spine"
Their is a mutual respect to this day, I was at McCartneys concert in Los Angeles in 2002 and Brian was sitting up a few rows from me...loving every song!
So Bob, Its great to be inspired by an album...both Brian And Paul were...and look what it brought out in them! Good luck...get back in the studio!!! Jeff
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Hugh Hamilton
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4/15/2008 1:23:35 PM
Cool story, Jeff...
"Smile" hasn't hit me. I got it, listened once, and it took some effort to stick with it. Seeing your assessments of it here makes me think it's worth revisiting.
I have Pet Sounds solely due to the mutual influence with the Beatles. I have a lot of respect for Brian W's music, but it just doesn't grab me the way my favorites grab me, with that "I've gotta figure THIS out" kind of obsession...though I will confess to having worked pretty hard to understand "God Only Knows" - which is indisputably a beautiful and amazing recording...and yes, that bassline is indeed wild. Far off the root. Nothing is more dull to me than the root 8th notes on bass...I give Brian and Paul a lot of credit for taking the bass way off into other realms...sweet...
So, thanks for the inspiring blog, I'll pop that album on my mp3 player and drift off to sleep tonight with it going...see if I can catch what I have hitherto missed...
H
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Larry Killip
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4/15/2008 1:27:23 PM
I saw Brian do "Smile" live in Auckland here a while back. Stunning.
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Bob Elliott
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4/15/2008 2:39:30 PM
That McCartney quote was cool.
Heroes and Villians is such a great song.
This four year old I have seems to be quite melodic (you can hear him on my page on a song called "Chord Morphing", at the bottom), and his mind is pretty well drenched in the "Smile" album. I think this will serve him well as a writer later, because I have a feeling he's going to be one.
He's also way into the greatest hits of the Beatles. "Nowhere Man" sets him off.
But his other huge influences are Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. He can't settle down when that stuff comes on.
The melodic ideas on "Smile" just melt all over your head, it's symphonic. But also the rhythm ideas are unique. The percussion and drumming is musical. Not just kick kick snare kick kick snare, but a whole host of clever thoughts.
But I can see, Hugh, how a person could not be into the album. It could easily have the effect that most Beach Boys has on me: none at all. Could sound corny.
But it doesn't do that for me. It hijacks my mind to a degree few other works ever do. Makes me feel.
And as to what Todd saying that it could never live up to its hype, I guess you're right, but the surprise for me was that it actually did.
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Holo Lukaloa
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4/15/2008 2:40:18 PM
I have Smile and enjoy it but find parts of it overdone, grandiose. Pet Sounds has far better songs on it.
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4/15/2008 2:47:45 PM
Smile is amazing. My God, if that had come out in jan. 67 as planned....
Still I think it wouldn't have been a hit at the time, it was just too far ahead of it's time, with those arrangements.
My only wish or "what if" for me when listening to Brian's 2004 version was "I wish I could have heard the beach boys singing these vocals" ... that magical blend singing those amazing tunes. (well we did in a way with the bootlegs, and subsequent BB albums, when the rest of the BBs were groping for tunes).
Case in point though.... "Wind Chimes" and the acapella gregorian chant they do. Really fantastic on the 2004 version but the "Smiley Smile" version of it is in my top 3 harmonies I've ever heard in my life (right up there with the counter point harmonies in the finale of "Surf's Up"
Just way better than his current singers. Still I love the 2004 Smile to death, and am so glad he finished it.
For anybody curious to listen to the Beach Boys, I can recommend 2 albums that aren't well known but are AMAZING...
1. Wild Honey (1967) - first album after the disaster of Smile.
2. Sunflower (1970) - Brian's last real hurrah (great effort) before he gave up and went to bed. Album flopped and yet it's (I believe) their 2nd best album.
3. Surf's Up (1971) - has "Until I Die" and the sublime "Surf's Up" on it.
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Fade to Black
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4/15/2008 2:59:37 PM
One of the beautiful voices from the Smile project is right here at IAC, Ms. Taylor Mills! She is one of Brian Wilson's all time fave female vocalists. Give her a listen and you'll see why Brian rates her at the top.
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Hugh Hamilton
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4/15/2008 3:49:00 PM
I've got my Smile CD heading onto my mp3 player right now - looking forward to my listen tonight, especially with a "local" being there...!
Nice blog, right on, go, Team!
H
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Larry Killip
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4/15/2008 4:04:01 PM
Further to my comment above, I have to say it was the live performance that really pulled me in to the CD. I liked it ok before the concert but the show raised the bar and I was thereafter hooked.
I can see how at first listen or two of the CD it might create a fairly low key impression.
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Hugh Hamilton
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4/15/2008 4:14:38 PM
I'm feeling the need to express my general admiration for the Beach Boy vocal harmonies - I never felt the need to obsess about them and figure them out...perhaps partly due to the fact that I never thought I could even COME CLOSE...lol...here I am, decades later, still trying to scream like Paul (though knowing I'll never do it) and some things I know better than to even try...but the Beach Boys definitely established a vocal ensemble sound (as did the Beatles, to me) that was unique, magnificent, instantly recognizable, and completely and utterly their own...
Thanks again for starting up this thread, Bob, I'm looking forward to my listen later...
:)
H
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Jeff Allen Myers
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4/15/2008 4:21:18 PM
Has anyone ever heard a Jan and Dean song and thought it was the Beach Boys? Did they rip them off or vice versa?
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Hugh Hamilton
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4/16/2008 12:12:23 PM
Dunno that, Jeff...
I enjoyed a couple complete listens to "SMILE" last night - and about half this morning...it's interesting, quirky, seems a bit light-hearted at times, and is full of the vocal harmonies we expect from Brian Wilson...I enjoyed listening, glad you brought it to my attention and reminded me it was just sitting there gathering dust...
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