Beach Boys - SMiLE Sessions

[JJ88]

^I became a big fan of his around the time that documentary first aired here in the UK (2010/11 or so). An amazing talent, so much so that it's awful that he's best known for covers of two songs he didn't write.

I like most everything Harry Nilsson did. For example I remember listening to the later (1977) album 'Knnillssonn' a lot when I found that one. But yes, I agree those early albums ('Spotlight' I don't know, it was a cash-in of early, pre-RCA stuff I think) are relevant recommendations.

[Vic2012]

Listening to my SmILE bootleg again, whilst stoned. Heroes And Villians is prog. Dig that tack piano.

[bob_32_116]

Listening to my SmILE bootleg again, whilst stoned. Heroes And Villians is prog. Dig that tack piano.

And yet... the single version of Heroes and Villains got to No. 7 on our local Top 40 charts at the time. Would that happen today? What do you think?

[rcarlberg]

And yet... the single version of Heroes and Villains got to No. 7 on our local Top 40 charts at the time. Would that happen today? What do you think?

Sure - it's CATCHY as well as "prog."

That rarely happens anymore.

[progholio]

FWIW - I just saw the film Love And Mercy last night which focuses a lot on the times BW was working on the Pet Sounds and Smile projects. This could have been one of those docu-dramas made out of a wikipedia entry but not the case, a very well made film that exceeded my expectations. This is oscar worthy stuff in my opinion but probably too arty for the masses. In case anyone is wondering - having two separate actors playing BW might seem weird but it works amazingly well.

[rcarlberg]

Did it deal honestly with Brian's drug use and mental instability and the controlling nature of Mike Love and Murray Wilson?

[ThomasKDye]

Did it deal honestly with Brian's drug use and mental instability and the controlling nature of Mike Love and Murray Wilson?

Yes, yes and yes. Brian's drug use gets a lot of attention, and both Mike Love and Murry Wilson come off as assholes.

I saw it last night as well, and I agree, it's a great film. I was enraptured. Dano's really solid as the younger genius. Cusack doesn't look a lot like Wilson but he conveys his essence pretty well. Heck, they even mention the making of Beach Boys '85 -- tangentially -- which surprised me.

The best performance was by Paul Giamatti as Eugene Landy. He really conveyed his smarmy sliminess well.

[zombywoof]

Saw Love and Mercy. I liked the way it was presented with the two eras of Brian side by side - and escaping the abuse of two overbearing lunatics. Could've used a bit more humor and more SMiLE session stuff (such as Van Dyke Parks - who just appears by the side of the pool, has an argument with Mike Love, and walks out). Some parts seemed overdramatized. Cusack was brilliant.

[ThomasKDye]

such as Van Dyke Parks - who just appears by the side of the pool, has an argument with Mike Love, and walks out

He also has a bit at an early dinner scene (the one where the clacking noises get so loud that it drives Brian mad) where he explains the concept of "Smile." But yeah, not heavily represented in any case, which is understandable in such a large biopic.

[Enid]

If the vocals were replaced with instruments playing the quirky melodies instead.....it might come across more like Avant-Garde. This has mainly to do with the style of chord changes that Brian Wilson originally wrote for each of the pieces. It's fairly easy to detect. The coherent album , (which is disc 1), has an Avant-Garde vibe or Avant-Garde undertone and in that sense, it is quite separate from Sgt. Pepper. Sgt. Pepper contained bizarre melodies that were evident to people...more so..in the late 60's. No one else had quite perfected lyricism and catchy melodies to accompany strange subject matter in the 60's like The Beatles....but Smile was somehow geared to existing on it's own instrumentally if the opportunity had made itself present. Brian Wilson had written the most haunting ballads like "Wind Chimes" and "Wonderful",,which..stood on their own and were timeless, but he also wrote instrumental backing tracks that took the album to the next level. Some of these instrumental sections ..whether having additional harmony vocal or not , existed as arrangements for "Mini Rock Opera" standard and traditional writing...but as I said before ..more in the style of Avant-Garde. The drugs were an escape for the band, but the determination to experiment with music deriving from other cultures was taken very seriously as opposed to the image brought forth on lame T.V. movies about the life of Brian Wilson and the 67' Smile sessions. The chanting at the intro of "Water, Water, Water" struck me as a serious intension to expand to another area. It was a little like David Hykes and less like drug induced people making random sounds. It was almost moronic to be thinking about the difference between their vocals on "Surfin' U.S.A." and this. Smile stylistically connected itself to music of the underground and I still don't know to this day if that influence on others was intentional. I have many cd's by The Residents and similarities between pieces from Smile and pieces on Residents albums are definitely present. Smile is a strange album to think about when comparing it to what was relevant in 1967.

[Steve F.]

^^^

Well, Fall Breaks And Back To Winter, from Smiley Smile, sounds more like The Residents than anything else I have ever heard. So, yeah!

[bill g]

Sounds like I need to bone up on 'The Residents'.

[progholio]

I'm gonna derail for a moment here because I just got back from Nashville, went there for the purpose of seeing Brian Wilson. Well, he didn't play SMiLE in it's entirety but gave us some key tracks plus an ass-load of terrific BB's material and stuff from the newer BW record (which was pretty strong). His band is absolutely the most stunningly flawless group of guys to perform this stuff (Basically the Wondermints with lots of well chosen ringers). Add to that Al Jardine with his son Matt handling the high falsetto vocals (again, flawless), Blondie Chaplin and as a bonus we had Rodriguez (yes, the Sugarman) opening the show.

I got to see BW presents Smile tour ('04 I think) and while it was fantastic Brian seemed heavily medicated and pretty much like he wanted to get through the performance and get the hell out. This time around it was great to see him interacting with the crowd and band more, night and day difference. Did I mention how good the band was? They are probably a touring version of The Wrecking Crew.

[bob_32_116]

^^ I saw the "BW Presents SMiLE" concert in Perth in 2004, and while I wouldn't say there was a lot of crowd interaction, I didn't think there was anything bad about his presentation. I did think it was odd that there was a separate MC introducing Brian Wilson - I thought that kind of thing went out in the 60's. Said MC made the faux pas of saying that "Every song you will hear tonight was written by Brian". Ummm, yes... except for the one written by Carl, and the one written by Dennis.

[zombywoof]

And Van Dyke Parks! Parks claims to have come up with the cello part in "Good Vibrations", which - kind of made me sit up and say "okay maybe there's more to these guys than Surfin Safari afterall ..."

[progholio]

^^ I saw the "BW Presents SMiLE" concert in Perth in 2004, and while I wouldn't say there was a lot of crowd interaction, I didn't think there was anything bad about his presentation.

I didn't mean to give the impression there was anything bad about BW's performance in '04, in fact it was quite the opposite. It just seemed at that time he wasn't quite comfortable on stage in front of a big audience receiving the amount of attention he was getting. The present day Brian seems to be doing pretty well with it.

On another side note - here is a very good article in Rolling Stone featuring Darian Sahanaja

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/fe...anaja-20150630

[bob_32_116]

Saw Love and Mercy. I liked the way it was presented with the two eras of Brian side by side - and escaping the abuse of two overbearing lunatics. Could've used a bit more humor and more SMiLE session stuff (such as Van Dyke Parks - who just appears by the side of the pool, has an argument with Mike Love, and walks out). Some parts seemed overdramatized. Cusack was brilliant.

I just got home from seeing Love and Mercy, and enjoyed it quite a lot. So did my friend, who is not so much a music-head as I am, so that's a recommendation.
I thought the "voices in his head" was very well done. I'll never hear the song "California Girls" in quite the same way again; the film achieved the astonishing feat of making that song sound almost sinister.