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Brian Wilson

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As of 07:28, 19 August 2006
Sahafan/Sandbox/Slot2
OriginHawthorne, California
Years active1961 – Present
WebsiteBrianWilson.com

Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942, in Hawthorne, California) is an American pop musician, best known as a founding member of and the main producer, composer, and arranger for The Beach Boys. Although changing trends in music sometimes rendered Wilson's earlier work unfashionable, he is now acknowledged as one of the most significant and innovative musicians and composers of 20th century popular music.

Wilson showed an early talent for music and quickly developed into a skilled singer, songwriter, arranger, and musician despite almost total deafness in his right ear.

Early influences included The Four Freshmen and Chuck Berry, among others. Wilson admired Phil Spector, considering Spector both a mentor and rival. (The two collaborated on one song, which was never completed; the backing track was later used for a public service announcement, featuring The Blossoms. Brian released it in 1964 as "Don't Hurt My Little Sister.")

Wilson was a perfectionist in the studio, and often upset the other members of the Beach Boys with this incessant drive for perfection. Though one of the first users of an eight-channel multitrack tape recorder, he shunned stereophonic sound, preferring (as Spector did) to work in monaural — not because of his partial deafness, but because he believed stereo gave an incomplete "sound picture" if the listener wasn't directly between the speakers.

Biography

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The Beach Boys

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After forming The Beach Boys in the early 1960s with his brothers Carl and Dennis, his cousin Mike Love and schoolfriend Al Jardine, Wilson steered the group to huge success around the world, and they scored a string of international hits between 1962 and 1967, including pop classics such as "Surfin' USA," "Fun, Fun, Fun"," "I Get Around," "Help Me Rhonda," "California Girls," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Good Vibrations," and "Heroes and Villains." He also produced records for other artists, including Glen Campbell and the Honeys, but with nowhere near the success he had with the Beach Boys. He also co-wrote many of the biggest hits for Jan and Dean during this period.

Until mid-1967, the international success and popularity of the Beach Boys put them among the world's biggest acts of the time, such as the Beatles, who later cited Wilson's work as a major influence. Wilson in turn considered the Beatles his other chief rivals, though he and fellow bassist-keyboardist Paul McCartney, born only two days earlier than himself, became friends.

Wilson's creativity reached its apex during the mid-1960s with the Pet Sounds album (which, according to Paul McCartney, inspired the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). Various music polls have named Pet Sounds one of the greatest pop albums ever recorded.

This was immediately followed by their biggest chart success, the million-selling #1 hit single "Good Vibrations." Wilson then began work on a new album, originally called Dumb Angel but soon re-titled SMiLE, on which he collaborated with lyricist Van Dyke Parks. However, the combination of resistance from within the group and Wilson's own growing personal problems led to the cancellation of the project in May 1967.

Wilson also was the owner of a health food shop in Hollywood that lasted a year from its founding in the summer of 1969, the "Radiant Radish."

The Dark Ages

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Following a breakdown, Wilson descended into mental illness and drug abuse in the late Sixties and 1970s, taking less and less of a role in the Beach Boys. Withdrawing into himself, he spent long periods of time sleeping, taking drugs and overeating. In a bid to help Brian, and, as a by-product, help revive the group's ailing profile, Brian's wife and family enlisted the services of controversial therapist Dr. Eugene Landy. In 1976, Landy managed to help Brian into a more productive, social frame of mind. New albums were recorded, and, for the first time since 1964, Brian started to regularly appear live on stage with the band. This situation continued for a few years, but by 1982, his mental state had deteriorated even further; he was taking large amounts of cocaine; he weighed over 300 lbs; and was in danger of losing his life.

Eugene Landy was once more called into action, and a more radical program was undertaken to try and restore Brian to health. This involved firing him from the Beach Boys, isolating him from his family on Hawaii and being put onto a rigorous diet and health regime. This, coupled with long, extreme counselling sessions, brought Brian back to reality. He was certainly fitter, healthier and more conversant than previously, but he was also under a strict level of control by Landy. Brian's recovery continued as he joined the band onstage in Live Aid in 1985, and recorded a new eponymous album with the Beach Boys.

It was variously reported that Wilson had either schizophrenia or bipolar affective disorder. Dr. Landy's treatment regime was not a recognised treatment for either of these mental illnesses. Landy had given Wilson high doses of psychotropic drugs, which over time cause significant neurological damage. When Landy was fired again, these drugs stopped. Some years later, after his second marriage, he was diagnosed wirh Bipolar affective disorder and a schizo-affective disorder which caused him to hear outside voices like "We're coming to get you". Such ailments may be slightly more common amongst creative people and Wilson, along with others such as the artist Vincent van Gogh, and more recently Lenny Bruce or Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett can be cited as examples of this phenomenon. According to the new Peter Ames Carlin biography of Wilson, "Catch A Wave", Wilson's drug regimen has been reduced to a mild combination of antidepressants, which keep him functioning far more normally than he has in decades, enabling him to record and tour.

Solo career

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Wilson launched a career as a solo artist in 1988 with limited success. It is possible that his efforts in this regard were both encouraged and hampered by Landy's influence. Partly due to the control that Landy exercised on his life, Wilson stopped working with the Beach Boys on a regular basis after the release of The Beach Boys in 1985.

Brian released a solo album, Brian Wilson, in 1988 and a memoir, Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story, in which he spoke for the first time about his troubled relationship with his abusive father Murry and his "lost years" of mental illness. It is widely understood that although it was written following interviews with Brian and others, Landy was largely responsible for the book, in conjunction with People magazine writer Todd Gold. The book describes Landy in terms that could be called practically messianic. In a later lawsuit over the book, Wilson testified in court that he hadn't even read the final manuscript. As a result, the book was taken out of press some years later. It should also be noted that the book used parts of other Beach Boys books written by Gaines and Leaf without crediting the sources. They also altered these "borrowings" to put other people's words into Brian's mouth.

Landy's illegal use of psychotropic drugs on Wilson and his influence over Wilson's financial affairs was legally ended by Wilson's brother Carl. Brian married Melinda Ledbetter in 1995 and subsequently the couple adopted two girls, Daria and Delanie, and, in 2004, a son, Dylan. He has two daughters from his first marriage to Marilyn Rovell, Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson, who would go on to musical success of their own in the early 1990s as two-thirds of Wilson Phillips.

Also in 1995 he released two albums, albeit not containing any new original material, almost simultaneously. The first, the soundtrack to Don Was' documentary I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, consists of rerecorded versions of songs from his Beach Boys and solo catalogue produced by Was, along with a 1976-vintage demo recording. The second, Orange Crate Art, saw Wilson as lead vocalist on an album of songs produced, arranged and (mostly) written by Van Dyke Parks, and was released as a duo album under both men's names.

His final release as part of the group was on the 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, a group collaboration with select country music artists singing the lead vocals. After considerable mental recovery, he mended his relationship with his daughters Carnie and Wendy and the three of them released an album in 1997 titled "The Wilsons."

Wilson released a second solo album of (mostly) new material, Imagination, in 1998. Following this, he learned to cope with his stage fright and started to play live for the first time in decades, going on to play the whole Pet Sounds album live on his tours of the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. In 2004 Brian astounded the pop world by performing SMiLE (his legendary unreleased Beach Boys album abandoned in 1967) live, debuting at London's Royal Festival Hall, February 20. The shows were immediately hailed as amongst the best live gigs ever.

A new studio album, Gettin' in Over My Head, was released on 22 June, 2004. It featured collaborations with Elton John, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and his deceased brother Carl Wilson. Eric Clapton played on the track "City Blues." The album was almost entirely composed of re-recordings of unreleased material, and was not very well received.

SMiLE resurrected

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Hot on the heels of this new album, on 28 September 2004, a re-recorded version of his previously shelved SMiLE album was released. The album had reached mythic proportions within Beach Boys fandom, and the 1966/1967 sessions had been heavily bootlegged. The 2004 recording featured his touring band which consists of former Beach Boys guitarist Jeff Foskett and members of the Wondermints and others, including backup singer Taylor Mills, and is a Brian Wilson solo album. Notably, the song "Good Vibrations" featured Tony Asher's original, temporary lyrics instead of the more familiar ones penned by Beach Boy Mike Love from the 1966 single version of the song.

Ironically, Wilson, long known for using the human voice as an instrument (both his own, and also those of The Beach Boys), won his first Grammy award not for harmonics, but for best rock instrumental, the SMiLE track "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (Fire)." He released the award winning two-DVD "Smile" set, consisting of a documentary and a live presentation of the work. He toured the USA for the second half of 2005, as well as releasing a Christmas album for Arista Records, called What I Really Want for Christmas. The release hit 200 on the Billboard chart, a rarity for a holiday offering, though its sales were meager. Wilson's remake of the classic "Deck The Halls" became a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit.

Though no longer a part of The Beach Boys touring band, Brian Wilson remains a member of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records Incorporated.

Tributes

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Canadian rock group Barenaked Ladies paid tribute to the Beach Boy in their hit song "Brian Wilson," which makes reference to both his mental illness and Landy. In a weird twist, Brian Wilson actually covered this song for a live album. John Cale had also paid tribute to Wilson in his song "Mr. Wilson", as did Roland Orzabal in "Brian Wilson Said" from Tears for Fears' 1993 album Elemental. Long time fan Elton John mentioned Wilson in his song, "Since God Invented Girls". Jackie DeShannon not only had Brian sing with then wife Marilyn Rovell on the song "Boat to Sail", she included a tribute to him in the lyrics "...Brian Wilson songs are never left behind...." French electronica duo Daft Punk list Brian Wilson as an influence in their song "Teachers."

Recent events

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Recently, Brian Wilson cameoed in Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century as Daffy Duck's spiritual surfing advisor. He also made a musical appearance on the 2005 holiday episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, performing "Deck the Halls" for a group of children with xeroderma pigmentosum (hypersensitivity to sunlight) at Walt Disney World, which specially opened at night for these children.

He is back on the road again performing both newer material from his solo career, as well as his classic albums 'Smile' and 'Pet Sounds' with his latter-day band.

On the U.S. Summer tour of 2005, Wilson debuted a brand new song called "Walking Down the Path of Life." The harmony laden, spiritual ode was also performed at several Hurricane Katrina benefits in the fall of 2005. The song, a medley with "Love and Mercy" by himself and band-members, has also been released as a charity CD-single for victims of the hurricane.

On July 2, 2005 Wilson performed for the Live 8 concert in Berlin, Germany.

For a brief time, Wilson organized a campaign in which he promised to telephone fans who pledged more than $100 to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. He also promised to match the donations himself. ("If we get $10,000 dollars, I'll give $10,000").

In 2005, former bandmate Mike Love controversially sued Wilson over "shamelessly misappropriating... Love's songs, likeness, and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the 'Smile' album itself" in the promotion of SMiLE and an exclusive CD collection issued through a British magazine to promote the release. ([1]) Wilson's representatives have responded on the official message board that the lawsuit is "meritless" and that Brian "will vigorously defend himself" in court. ([2])

Solo discography

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See also

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--Sahafan 07:38, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

SMiLE

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As of 07:28, 19 August 2006
This page is about an unreleased Beach Boys album that was re-recorded as a Brian Wilson solo project. For other uses, see Smile (disambiguation).
Untitled
Professional ratings
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Allmusic [3]

Smile was for many years the most famous rock and roll album never officially released. The project was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow up to The Beach Boys' influential album Pet Sounds (1966), but was never completed in its original form. Since the time of its cancellation in 1967, Smile had acquired a considerable mystique, and bootlegged tracks from the never-completed album circulated widely among Beach Boys collectors. Some of the Smile tracks were later re-recorded in various guises and released on subsequent Beach Boys lps. Remarkably, the project was resurrected in 2003, and a newly recorded version was released by Beach Boys composer and leader Wilson in 2004, 37 years after the album was abandoned. The title is sometimes spelled with the idiosyncratic partial capitalization SMiLE, derived from the lettering on the original cover.

The conception of Smile

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On 17 February 1966, mid-way through the sessions for Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson started work on a new song, based on a statement by his mother, Audree Wilson, that dogs could feel "vibrations" from people. The result became the Beach Boys' biggest hit ever, the single "Good Vibrations," which went to #1 in both Britain and the USA. The most expensive and complex pop recording made up to that time, it still stands as a milestone in recording history.

In an interview, Brian Wilson dubbed the work "a teenage symphony to God." His plan was to take his work on Pet Sounds to a new level, with an album-length suite of specially-written songs that were both thematically and musically linked, and which would be recorded using the unusual sounds and innovative production techniques that had made "Good Vibrations" so successful.

Crucial to the inception of Smile was Wilson's collaboration with singer, musician, composer and lyricist Van Dyke Parks, whom Wilson invited to write lyrics for the new album in spring 1966; at that time the project was still provisionally titled Dumb Angel. The two quickly formed a close and fruitful working relationship and between April and September 1966; they co-wrote a number of major songs including "Surf's Up," "Heroes and Villains," "Wonderful," "Cabin Essence," and "Wind Chimes," all of which were written in the famous sandbox that Brian had installed in his home. Their first collaboration was "Heroes and Villains," and it is reported that when Wilson played the song's descending melody line to him, Parks devised the opening line on the spot. Their most acclaimed song, "Surf's Up," was written in a single night.

Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher wrote the original lyrics for "Good Vibrations." The hit version released in October 1966 featured a new set of lyrics co-written by Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' Mike Love. Wilson had in fact asked Parks to write new lyrics for "Good Vibrations", but Parks declined, preferring not to come in on a project that was already underway—although he did reportedly make one very significant contribution to the arrangement, suggesting the addition of the cellos in the chorus. (Other people have been credited with this suggestion, including Carl Wilson).

Although the precise nature of its original conception is still hotly debated, several key features of Smile are generally acknowledged. Both musically and lyrically, Wilson and Parks intended Smile to be explicitly American in style and subject, a direct reaction to the British dominance of popular music at the time. It was supposedly conceived as a musical journey across America from east to west, beginning at Plymouth Rock and ending in Hawaii, as well as traversing some of the great themes of American history and culture, including the impact of white settlement on native Americans, the influence of the Spanish, the Wild West, and the opening up of the country by railroad and motorway.

As the name implies, humour was a key ingredient, and the Smile songs are replete with wordplay, puns and multiple meanings. A good example is "Vega-Tables," which includes the lines "I'm gonna do well, my vegetables, cart off and sell my vegetables"— the phrase "...cart off and..." is a clever bilingual pun on the word Kartoffeln, which is German for potatoes. At one stage Wilson apparently toyed with the idea of expanding Smile to include an additional "humour" record, and a number of recordings were made in this vein, although they were apparently not successful, so the idea was dropped. One of the possible remnants of this aspect of the project is the track "She's Goin' Bald," which was recorded after the main Smile sessions and included on Smiley Smile.

Wilson is known to have been deeply influenced by the music of George Gershwin at an early age (especially "Rhapsody in Blue"), and Smile contains echoes of Gershwin's emphatic American-ness, and the episodic and programmatic characteristics of the composer's works. A short scene featuring Brian at the piano in the recent documentary on the making of Smile suggests that Brian may have directly based the main riff of "Heroes and Villains" on a variation or inversion of a fragment of "Rhapsody in Blue."

Smile also drew heavily on American popular music of the past; Wilson's innovative original compositions were interwoven with snippets of significant songs of yesteryear, including "The Old Master Painter" (made famous by Peggy Lee), the perennial "You Are My Sunshine," Johnny Mercer's jazz standard "I Wanna Be Around" (recorded by Tony Bennett) and the song "Gee" by noted '50s doo-wop group The Crows, as well as quotations from other pop-culture reference points, such as the Woody Woodpecker theme.

Smile's cut-up structure was certainly unique for its time in mainstream popular music, and it indicates that Brian was familiar with the techniques of musique concrète and the use of chance operations in making art—an approach which, according to musicologist Ian MacDonald, was also exerting a strong influence on the Beatles at this time.

Wilson's experiments with LSD were undoubtedly a significant influence on the texture and structure of the work, and one of the strongest intellectual influences on his thinking at this time was his friend Loren Schwartz, who is said to have introduced Brian to both marijuana and LSD.

Writer Bill Tobelman suggests that Smile is filled with coded references to Brian's life and his recent LSD experiences (a Lake Arrowhead, CA trip being the most notable), and that it was heavily influenced by his interest in Zen philosophy—especially the way that Zen teaching uses absurd humour and the paradoxical riddle, the koan, to liberate the mind from preconceptions—and that Smile as a whole can be interpreted as an extended Zen koan. Tobelman notes that Wilson's autobiography recounts an acid flashback which Wilson interprets as a Zen riddle, and suggests that this experience largely serves as a template for Smile.

Studio techniques

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Brian Wilson developed his "classic" production method over several years, bringing it to a high degree of perfection with the recording of Pet Sounds during 1965 and 1966. With "Good Vibrations" Wilson began to experiment with radical editing of his work. Now, instead of taping each backing track as a complete performance, as had been the case for all prior Beach Boys recordings, he began to break the arrangements into sections, recording multiple 'takes' of each section. He also recorded the same section at several different studios, to exploit the unique sonic characteristics or special effects available in each. He would then edit these different segments together to create a composite whole that combined the best features of production and performance.

Wilson extended this "modular" approach for the songs on Smile. Working mainly at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles (Phil Spector's favorite studio), Wilson began a long and complex series of sessions in late 1966 that continued until early 1967. He also frequently used Sunset Sound Studios and United Western Recorders on Sunset Boulevard, and Capitol's own renowned in-house studio.

Much of Smile was recorded in this piecemeal manner; each of the finished tracks is a heavily-edited composite recording and many of the unreleased Smile fragments are alternate versions of backing tracks, alternate sections of these tracks, or passages intended to provide transitions between tracks.

In spite of the availability of stereo recording, Wilson always made his final mixes in mono (as did rival producer Spector). He did so for several reasons—he personally felt that mono mixing provided more sonic control over what the listener heard, minimising the vagaries of speaker placement and sound system quality. It was also motivated by the knowledge that pop radio broadcast in mono, and most domestic and car radios and record players were monophonic. Another, more personal reason for Wilson's preference was that he is deaf in one ear.

The recordings

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Recording for the new LP began in August 1966 and the project had been officially named Smile. Sessions for the new album began in earnest, and continued until mid-December.

In early December Brian Wilson gave Capitol Records a handwritten list of twelve tracks planned for Smile, for use on the LP back cover. This list is obviously crucial evidence of Wilson's intentions for the piece, but, since the track listing (as printed) carried the standard advisory "see label for correct playing order", it can only be taken as confirming Brian's choice of songs at that time, and not their exact sequence.

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; promotional materials were sent to record distributors and dealers and ads were placed in Billboard and teenage magazines including Teen Set.

Some time in December, Brian informed Capitol that Smile would not be ready that month, but he advised that he would deliver it "prior to 15 January". Wilson's conception of the work evidently changed around this time, possibly as a result of pressure from within the band. Early in 1967 work was halted on all the Smile tracks except for "Heroes And Villains" and "Vega-Tables".

"Heroes and Villains"

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Main article: Heroes and Villains

Capitol records scheduled 13 January 1967 as the release date for the next single, "Heroes and Villains".

Although renowned for his efficiency in the studio, Brian clearly struggled for several months to complete "Heroes and Villains", but despite more than twenty sessions between October 1966 and March 1967, he was unable to complete it to his satisfaction.

"Heroes and Villains" was a semi-autobiographical piece couched as a Wild West fantasy and featured some of Parks's most intriguing lyrics. It is arguably the keystone for the musical structure of almost all the songs on the album, and like "Good Vibrations" it was edited together from several discrete sections.

Like most of the Smile songs, "Heroes and Villains" is based around a deceptively simple three-chord pattern. It encapsulates Wilson's musical approach for the project, which was to create songs that were (for the most part) structurally very simple but which were overlaid with extremely complex and often highly chromatic vocal and instrumental arrangements, and capped by Parks' remarkable lyrics.

The considerable time and effort that Wilson devoted to "Heroes and Villains" is indicative of its importance, both as a single and as part of Smile—sessions for the various versions and sections extended over more than a year, from May 1966 to July 1967. It now appears that the song underwent many changes during its production and that several important elements, including the so-called "Cantina scene" and the segment commonly known as "Bicycle Rider" were taken out of the finished single and album versions, although they were included in other unreleased mixes. A single version of the song was released in mid-1967, but rumours persist of a far longer edit, and it is known that several alternate versions were put together. Both Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys frequently included "Bicycle Rider" when performing the song in concert.

"Surf's Up"

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Main article: Surf's Up (song)

"Surf's Up" was written in a single night. It was certainly fully composed by November 1966, when Brian Wilson was filmed performing the song on piano for a CBS News special on popular music, hosted by Leonard Bernstein. An apparently complete backing track for the first (2:20) section was recorded and mixed in November 1966, but vocals and other overdubs were still to be added, and work on the middle and closing sections was either never undertaken, or never finished. It is notable that the flourishes played on muted trumpet in the verses of "Surf's Up" are almost identical to the familiar 'laughing' refrain of the theme for the cartoon series Woody Woodpecker. This musical reference recurs in the instrumental piece "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter" on the album Smiley Smile, (which was in fact subtitled "Woody Woodpecker Symphony").

A full-length version of "Surf's Up" was eventually assembled by Carl Wilson and released on the 1971 Surf's Up LP.

The project collapses

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According to most sources, Brian Wilson began to encounter serious problems with Smile around late November 1966. He was by then beginning to exhibit early signs of depression and paranoia and it is reported that, during the recording session for the "Fire" section of the "Elements Suite" at Gold Star Studios on 28 November, he became irrationally concerned that the music was responsible for starting several fires in the neighborhood of the studio.

For many years it was rumored that Wilson had tried to burn the tapes of this session, but this is not true, although he did abandon the "Fire" piece for good. No recording of anything but the introduction to the original "Fire" tapes has been released, nor is it likely to be. It has also been noted in several accounts that Parks deliberately stayed away from the session (during which Wilson encouraged the musicians to wear toy firemen's hats) and that he later described Wilson's behavior as "regressive".

Wilson's mental deterioration and eventual breakdown was the result of a complex web of causes. As Beach Boys chronicler Timothy White has noted, Brian Wilson came from a troubled family background; there was a family history of mental illness, including suicide. Brian's father Murry, although never formally diagnosed, showed unmistakable signs of bipolar disorder. In interviews, including one filmed for the Don Was-directed documentary, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, Brian recalls beatings by his father, suggesting also the possibility that Brian suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There had been other signs of his growing problems, but these were more or less unheeded at the time. Wilson had been forced to withdraw from touring in December 1964 after suffering a terrifying anxiety attack during an airline flight. In October 1966, after flying to Michigan to rehearse with The Beach Boys for their first stage performance of "Good Vibrations", he suffered another panic attack on the return flight and was only placated by having had the flight crew radio ahead to Los Angeles to arrange a welcoming committee.

It has been routinely suggested that Wilson aggravated his pre-existing problems by smoking large amounts of marijuana and hashish during the Smile period, as well as using amphetamines and had experimented during Summer Days' sessions with the powerful hallucinogen LSD. In the recent Smile documentary, Wilson speaks frankly about his drug use and reveals that he was also using barbiturates in addition to the other drugs he was taking. However, several of those interviewed for the documentary emphatically deny that Wilson's dope-smoking and LSD use either interfered with his work or contributed to his breakdown, and it is worth noting that the putative role of cannabis as a contributing factor to mental illness is still hotly debated.

In December, Brian was deeply troubled by a viewing of the surreal and disturbing John Frankenheimer film thriller Seconds, starring Rock Hudson. In his increasingly vulnerable and confused state, Brian convinced himself that the film's opening line "Good morning, Mr. Wilson"—and indeed in most of the film's content—somehow referred to him. He also reportedly became obsessed by the notion that his rival/mentor Phil Spector was somehow trying to control, dominate or even kill him.

While some of Brian's paranoia was internally derived, it is important to note that there were some genuine bases for his fears -- his father had hired a private detective to investigate Brian and his friends, and recent revelations about government files on music and film celebrities revealed that the Beach Boys (among many other groups) were attracting the attention of the FBI, as Frank Zappa was openly alleging at the time.

As well as Brian's mental problems, there were many other business and legal worries surrounding the Beach Boys during the recording of Smile. These included Carl Wilson's call-up notice for the draft (which he was to fight as a conscientious objector), and the group's contractual disputes with Capitol over royalty payments, as well as their attempt to terminate their contract (a legacy of Murry's management) and establish their own label, Brother Records. Although usually overlooked, another and even more personal pressure was that, in addition to his musical roles, Brian was also married and was the father of a young family.

Amidst his increasingly erratic behavior and his escalating use of drugs, Brian Wilson's condition began to become a concern for his friends, colleagues and family. Yet, although stories of his sometimes bizarre behavior have now become the stuff of legend, his session musicians have often stated that they never saw Wilson behave in the studio with anything less than total professionalism.

Creatively speaking, Wilson was in a uniquely vulnerable position compared to his major commercial rivals, and there is no doubt that he was under considerable pressure to "deliver the goods" and compete with his musical 'rivals' The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan all of whom, especially The Beatles and Dylan, were at their creative peak at the time.

The growing conflict within the Beach Boys about Smile, which reached a peak during December 1966, was arguably the single most significant reason why Smile was repeatedly postponed and finally scrapped. The 6 December 1966 session for "Cabinessence" was apparently the scene of a famous argument about the song's lyrics between Van Dyke Parks and Mike Love, and the situation evidently worsened during the 15 December vocal sessions for "Surf's Up" and "Wonderful". The band was filmed by CBS during this session which, according to Jules Siegel, went "very badly". Later the same day, Wilson recorded his now-legendary solo piano demo of "Surf's Up". Although there were more Smile sessions (on 23 December, 9 January and 23 January) work on the major tracks effectively stopped after 15 December.

In retrospect, the major source of conflict was undoubtedly the increasing antagonism between Mike Love and the Wilson/Parks partnership, although Bruce Johnston has also indicated in a web forum discussion that there was wider opposition to the project, naming both Capitol Records and Wilson's father Murry.

Love had written lyrics for many of the Beach Boys songs prior to Pet Sounds, so it is not surprising that he would have been resentful of Parks' role as Brian's new writing partner; he was probably also concerned about the consequent loss of income from royalties. He is also on record as saying that he was fearful that the band risked losing their audience if they tinkered with their proven hit formula. In a recent interview in Mojo magazine, Love stated that he was suspicious of the new friends with whom Brian was associating, and that his opposition to these people -- whom he regarded as hangers-on who were exploiting Brian and supplying him with 'hard' drugs -- was another major source of conflict. Love has suggested that some of those who have since been critical of him did so because he had told them to "take a hike". On a more practical level, it is also likely that Love had genuine reasons to worry that Wilson's new music was simply too complex for the group to be able to perform live.

In the same interview, Love denied disliking Pet Sounds and also claimed that he liked the Smile music and only disliked the lyrics. However, this is strongly contradicted by several other participants, most notably Van Dyke Parks himself. Responding to Love's claims in a letter to the Mojo editor, Parks was strongly critical of Love's comments, which he described as "revisionism", and he was unequivocal in naming Love's dislike of "Smile" as one of the major factors in the collapse of the project. On the DVD that accompanied the 2004 SMiLE release, Brian himself made it quite clear that Love's antagonism to the project was the major deciding factors in the cancellation of the album, saying: "The reasons that I didn't release SMiLE: One, Mike didn't like it..."

Wilson continued to work on "Heroes and Villains" and other cuts including "Do You Like Worms?" and "Vega-Tables", as well as taping numerous musical fragments that were probably intended to serve as links between the main songs. Through the first half of 1967 the album's release date was repeatedly postponed as Wilson tinkered with the recordings, experimenting with different takes and mixes, unable or unwilling to supply a completed version of the album.

Another significant factor, cited in the Smile documentary, was Brian's first hearing of The Beatles' new single Strawberry Fields Forever. He heard the song while driving his car and was so struck by it that he had to pull over and listen; he then commented to his companion that The Beatles had "got there first". Although he apparently then laughed about the comment, the stunning new Beatles production apparently affected him deeply. The final, irrevocable blow came in early March 1967 when, after gradually distancing himself from Wilson and the group, Van Dyke Parks finally quit the project.

Capitol evidently still hoped right up to the last that Smile might eventually appear, but on 6 May, only a few weeks before the release of The Beatles' groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beach Boys' press officer, Derek Taylor ruefully announced to the British press that the Smile project had been shelved and that the album would not be released.

From famous to infamous

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Following the stillbirth of Smile, and the release of the anti-climatic and patched-together Smiley Smile that September, Brian Wilson retreated from the public eye, increasingly hampered by drug and mental health problems, but his legend grew and the Smile period came to be seen as the pivotal episode in his decline; Wilson would become tagged as one of the classic celebrity drug casualties of the rock era.

By the beginning of the 1990s, Smile had earned its place as the most infamous unreleased album in the rock era and become a focal point for bootleg album makers and collectors. In 1993, fans were treated to a goldmine of archival Smile material included on the 5-CD boxed set Good Vibrations - 30 Years of the Beach Boys. The second disc of the set included almost thirty minutes of original SMiLE recordings including versions of "Our Prayer", "Wonderful", "Cabinessence", "Wind Chimes", "Do You Like Worms", "Vegetables", "I Love to Say Da-Da", an alternate version of "Heroes and Villains" and numerous linking segments built around the Heroes and Villians theme, and Brian's fabled demo recording of "Surf's Up", which Elvis Costello famously compared to discovering an original recording of Mozart in performance.

These recordings, sequenced by David Leaf made it clear that Smile had been much closer to completion than had previously been thought and this prompted much excitement by fans over what additional songs might exist, and debate about how the songs fitted into the Smile running order. There was hope that the box set would be followed by an official Smile release, but this didn't materialise.

Beginning in the late 1990s, various 'fan mixes' of Smile created from bootlegs and previous recordings were created, and many were posted on the internet as free downloads. Of these the most popular included Ryan's SMiLE site (downloads since removed), Anne Wallace's Web Sounds (no longer active) and The Smile Shop (site since changed). Once news of the new album arrived, these sites were contacted by the record label and asked to stop distributing these songs. Fan mixes of the 1960s material have since receded from the web.

Had Smile been released as originally conceived, it might have been a dismal failure or it might have stood alongside Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde as a landmark album that marked a turning point in rock history; but in its absence an almost magical aura grew up around the project and its legendary status was only heightened by Brian Wilson's tragic personal disintegration.

Smile Resurrected

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Professional ratings
Review scores
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Allmusic link
The Music Box link
Robert ChristgauA+ link
Rolling Stone link

On February 20, 2004, 37 years after it was conceived, a complete version of Smile was performed by Wilson along with his backing band, which includes former Beach Boys guitarist Jeff Foskett and members of The Wondermints, in a live performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London. This performance was made whole by the addition of either lost or newly-composed lyrics that filled the gaps left open by the original 1966-67 Beach Boys sessions. This show was followed by subsequent performances elsewhere in Britain.

Recording of the new version of Smile began in April 2004 with his ten-piece touring band, augmented by a ten-piece string section and an acoustic bassist. The basic tracks were taped at Sunset Sound in just four days, with overdubbing and mixing continuing through April, May, and June.

On September 28, 2004, Brian Wilson released his newly recorded studio version of the Smile album, to critical praise. For the new version, Wilson, Wondermints leader Darian Sahanaja, woodwind player/string arranger Paul Mertens, and lyricist Van Dyke Parks based their arrangements on the original, unreleased Beach Boys tapes to give Smile a coherent and fresh, updated sound.

Interestingly, although Brian was reported to have only included "Good Vibrations" in the original Smile track listing at Capitol's insistence, a new version of the song—featuring Wilson's Pet Sounds collaborator Tony Asher's original lyrics, rather than the later Mike Love lyrics—was included as the closing track of the album.

The new Smile album was followed by two U.S. tours, with its featured stop in New York's Carnegie Hall (this concert was broadcast on radio's NPR network). Wilson and company also took the show to Australia and New Zealand, as well as many countries throughout Europe.

The Showtime cable network released a documentary film about the making of Smile known as "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile." in the fall of 2004. And a DVD of a live version of the new Smile (shot in an L.A. studio) was released in May 2005, along with the Showtime/"Beautiful Dreamer" documentary.

Smile received multiple 2004 Grammy award nominations, including Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (for Mark Linett). The album won one Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow"). In 2005, Smile won graphic artist Mark London and Rhino Records the 2005 ALEX award for Best Vinyl Package.

Track listing

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Official 2004 release

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All songs by Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks, except where noted.

  1. "Our Prayer/Gee" (Brian Wilson/William Davis/Morris Levy) – 2:09
  2. "Heroes and Villains" – 4:53
  3. "Roll Plymouth Rock" – 3:48
  4. "Barnyard" – 0:58
  5. "The Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine" (Haven Gillespie/Beasley Smith) – 1:04
  6. "Cabinessence" – 3:27
  7. "Wonderful" – 2:07
  8. "Song for Children" – 2:16
  9. "Child Is Father of the Man" – 2:18
  10. "Surf's Up" – 4:07
  11. "I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop" (Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks/Johnny Mercer/Sadie Vimmerstedt) – 1:56
  12. "Vega-Tables" – 2:19
  13. "On a Holiday" – 2:36
  14. "Wind Chimes" – 2:54
  15. "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" (Brian Wilson) – 2:27
  16. "In Blue Hawaii" – 3:00
  17. "Good Vibrations" (Brian Wilson/Tony Asher/Mike Love) – 4:36

Smile (Brimel/Nonesuch 79846) hit #13 in the US during a chart stay of 17 weeks. It reached #7 in the UK.

The songs that might have been

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Based upon a handwritten note that Carl Wilson gave to Capitol Records in December 1966.

  • "Do You Like Worms"
  • "Wind Chimes"
  • "Heroes and Villains"
  • "Surf's Up"
  • "Good Vibrations"
  • "Cabin Essence"
  • "Wonderful"
  • "I'm in Great Shape"
  • "Child Is Father of the Man"
  • "The Elements"
  • "Vega-Tables"
  • "The Old Master Painter"

This is based on a note given to Capitol in order for the track titles to be included on the album cover, however, the original cover states "see record for running order". All the evidence, including interviews with Brian himself, state that a final definitive running order was never decided upon until the release of the 2004 SMiLE.

Further reading

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One of the principal sources of original information on Smile, and the basis for much of its legendary status, was Jules Siegel's article "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!" which appeared in the first issue of Cheetah Magazine in October 1967. Almost equally influential was Domenic Priore's 1987 book Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile.

In Lewis Shiner's novel Glimpses, the time-traveling protagonist meets and befriends Brian Wilson, and encourages Wilson to complete Smile over the objections of his bandmates. Glimpses won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

See also

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