In a message dated 9/11/00 6:18:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, steven.kado@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. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* "Which Paul?" "BLAH!" visit http://callowkids.tripod.com or your crush will hate you forever Call WRNR 103.1 at (410) 269-1031 and request Callow's "Lessons in Shut-eye" or you will have bad luck...forever or something. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+