Sinister: waste your time with a q-tip clean...

[Walkn10 at xxx.com]

In a message dated 9/11/00 6:18:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
steven.kado at utoronto.ca writes:

<< for the record smile (as i've heard it in bootlegs) is a complete and utter
 mess in a bad way. >>

I cannot let this pass without slight comment.  Me and Mr. Kado have our 
good-natured rows over Mr. Wilson and I guess this is just another chapter in 
that story.  
As his follow-up album to "Pet Sounds" (orignally entitled "Dumb Angel" and 
later changed to "Smile") Brian Wilson had envisioned a huge, sprawling album 
that would encompass the essence of "Americana" on the A side and "The 
Element Suite," containing tributes to Fire, Water, Air and Earth, on the 
reverse.  From August of 1966 to January of 1967, he did an estimated 200 
different versions of the same 20 songs, which of course means that on 
average there are 10 different takes of each song (all of which vary in 
completeness and sonic clarity, and many of which don't exist anymore at all).
Eventually he decided to can the entire thing in late January, for reasons 
which are still unknown.  Some say it was his failing mental health, some say 
his lack of confidence, some say his lawsuit against Capitol which was 
pending at that time, and Brian has said that Smile "was just too darn weird" 
(I would like to state that it had NOTHING to do with him hearing Sgt. Pepper 
and felling outclassed...that album wasn't even done being recorded when 
Brian pulled the plug).  Opinions vary widely on the material because it just 
isn't standard rock/pop fare by any stretch of the imagination.  Many of the 
tracks for the album were later re-tooled by the other Beach Boys and 
languished on their less impressive albums of the 70s ("Cabinessence" on 20/20
, "Surf's Up" on the album of the same name, etc.) 
As of right now, the only versions that exist are bootlegs, most of which are 
nth generation copies.  When Brian decided to cancel the entire project, he 
destroyed several dozen series of tapes, leaving us with only marginally 
complete versions of many of the songs.  Among the things he destroyed large 
sections of was "Heroes and Villains, Pt.2" and "Fire," both of which are 
instrumental to understanding the album as a whole.  The only thing we have 
left are small peices of a larger mosaic, the blueprint for which Brian 
Wilson always kept in his head.  Alot of people dismiss the songs as lacking 
cohesion, but what people fail to grasp is that after Pet Sounds Brian really 
felt limited by the conventions of songwriting so in many ways he pioneered 
his own method.  Many parts DO sound like an experiment thats going off the 
rails but we also have to keep in mind that when you're listening to bootlegs 
of this album you have no idea how complete that version really is.  You can 
only go on the songs that were actually completed for the album, like 'Heroes 
and Villains Pt.1", "Cabinessence", "Vegetables", "Wonderful", "Wind Chimes" 
etc, all of which I think are unbelievably brilliant, though I can see how 
some people could think they're crap.  I can't say how good the album would 
have been because it obviously never even became an album, but I'd hesitate 
to dismiss it at the same time.
If anyone's interested in obtaining a copy, the shits pretty expensive: 
Japanese import bootlegs, the best for sound quality, go for upwards of $60 a 
peice on eBay.  As Sean Lennon said "Its not something everyone has to hear, 
but if you wanna give it a chance it'll be very rewarding."
Off the soap box...

Steve C.
  


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