Beach Boys: The Smile Sessions

Beach Boys: The Smile Sessions (2-disc Version)

2011

Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Our Prayer  2. Gee  3. Heroes and Villains  4. Do You Like Worms (Roll Plymouth Rock)  5. I'm in Great Shape  6. Barnyard  7.My Only Sunshine (The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine)  8. Cabin Essence  9. Wonderful  10. Look (Song for Children)  11. Child Is Father of the Man  12. Surf's Up  13. I Wanna Be Around/ Workshop  14. Vega-Tables  15. Holidays  16. Wind Chimes  17. The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)  18. Love to Say Dada  19. Good Vibrations 
Bonus Tracks:  20. You're Welcome  21. Heroes and Villains  22. Heroes and Villains Sections (Stereo Mix)  23. Vega-Tables demo  24. He Gives Speeches  25. Smile Backing Vocals Montage  26. Surf's Up 1967 (Solo Version)  27. Psycodelic Sounds: Brian Falls into a Piano  28. Capitol Smile Promo

Disc 2: 1. Our Prayer 'Dialog'  2. Heroes and Villains:  Part one  3. Heroes and Villains: Part two  4. Heroes and Villains: Children Were Raised  5. Heroes and Villains: Prelude to Fade  6. My Only Sunshine  7. Cabin Essence  8. Surf's Up: 1st Movement  9. Surf's Up: Piano Demo  10. Vega-Tables: Fade  11. The Elements: Fire session  12. Cool, Cool Water (Version 2)  13. Good Vibrations Session Highlights  14. Psycodelic Sounds: Brian Falls into a Microphone

The world's most famous unreleased album finally received an official release 45 years after it was recorded.

Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys started this ambitious album in 1966, with the recording of the "Good Vibrations" single, and I don't think there's anyone on planet Earth who hasn't heard this single and isn't aware of how innovative it was. It was recorded in a modular style...In small sections (or movements) that were later stitched together to deliver a mosaic pop song... Which was a lot of work...especially in the pre-Pro-Tools era when editing a song literally meant you got the scissors out...


Well, Brian had the idea to put together an entire album using this modular method, and apparently bit off more than he could chew...Mental and Logistical problems soon set in, and apparently certain band members didn't like this new approach and Brian eventually had a mental breakdown and declared the album evil and the whole project was abandoned and you couldn't even bring up the word "Smile" around Brian for 40 years...They released "Smiley Smile" and various songs from "Smile" on subsequent albums and the "Good Vibrations" box-set, which only drove fans crazier and crazier...So a lot of us grew up knowing that there was this ambitious unfinished album the Beach Boys did that was supposedly so ahead of its time that it would have changed the world if it was released...

I can recall I was working at America Online in 2004 and was sitting at my desk reading the news when I came across an article stating that Brian Wilson was re-recording the entire "Smile" album as he had originally envisioned it and also playing the album live...Woah!


 And sure enough Brian Wilson released "Smile." There is also the fantastic "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" dvd that I must have watched 10 thousand times now...I honestly thought this was the best we were going to get...Fast forward 7 years and here it is...The Beach Boys version of "Smile."

Technology has really reached a point where editing together various snippets of music is no longer a nearly impossible task...and Brian seems to have gotten past whatever problems he had with the material and now any one can go to the local record store and walk away with an official version of the album...

There's multiple configurations of this release...There's a 1 disc, 2 disc, 5 disc, etc....


I went with the two disc version...But I guess if you're really into the nuts and bolts of recording  you could opt for the 5 disc version...but speaking as someone who is into the nuts and bolts of the recording process even the two disc version is enough for me...I mean there's songs on the two disc version with titles like "Brian Falls into a Microphone..." I don't need to hear any further than that...

The album itself is Brian Wilson's ode to America, it's a musical cross-country trip across train tracks, farmland, and beaches...all inhabited by bicycle riders, Cowboys, Indians, and Farmers...A crazy-quilt of old American songs like "You Are my Sunshine" and "The Old Master Painter" intermingled with new compositions like the sorrowful epic "Surf's Up," and "Vegetables." It's ambitious but there's a distinctly child-like wonder about it...

The production doesn't seem quite as lush as "Pet Sounds" (but also keep in mind the album still isn't  "finished") but the vocals are even more inventive...Unlike anything else that had been released at the time...The singers emulate everything from wind-chimes to locomotives to that weird "Doing Doing Doing" vocal party in "Cabin Essence." I don't know for certain what the "doing" is supposed to be ...a vocal approximation of a mouth-harp? Anyway...one of the best parts of the bonus tracks is the  "Smile Backing Vocals Montage" section...You get to hear the true depth of the vocal arrangements...Sweet Lord, they're awesome...

The album also contains what is arguably the best Beach Boys song, "Surf's Up." A moody catchy number with intriguingly abstract lyrics and a killer melody...You can't go through life missing out on this...The unadorned demo with just Brian and a piano is just as great...

The whole thing really is just a straight up classic...It may be a bit bizarre for some people's tastes (I recently let a friend who loves "Pet Sounds" borrow this, and he declared it "too weird.") So I guess if you're the type of person who can find music to be "too weird" you might tread cautiously, but for the rest of us, it's just an awesome release that you can listen to endlessly and always hear new things...

P.S. does anyone else ever wonder if people really did take up Brian's suggestion to send him letters telling him the names of their favorite vegetables? And if so, does he still get letters like that?

 I'll write him one now...

"Dear Beach Boys,

My favorite vegetable is an onion.

His name is William.

Love, Jamin"


Alright, enough letter writing...Let's check out "Surf's Up" by the Beach Boys...