Smile (album)

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Smile is an unfinished album by the American rock group The Beach Boys , which was conceived and composed between 1966 and 1967 by their band leader Brian Wilson and the lyricist Van Dyke Parks . 2003 the project was revived by Wilson and Parks and it was released in 2004 a version of Smile as a solo album by Brian Wilson under the title Brian Wilson presents Smile . In 2011 the box set The Smile Sessions was released. This set contains original recordings from 1966 and 1967 as well as a reconstructed version of the Smile album.

Dumb Angel / Smile and the Beach Boys

Concept and creation

In 1966 the Beach Boys were able to achieve great success with their album Pet Sounds and the subsequent single Good Vibrations . Wilson - convinced by friends that ambition is not just madness - wanted to achieve even more. The producer Terry Melcher introduced him to the musician Van Dyke Parks . Parks had previously worked as a studio musician and lyricist. Brian Wilson was deeply impressed by Parks' eloquence and style, but he was particularly impressed by his lyrics. So Wilson signed Parks as a partner for his new album. Wilson and Parks had made the brave decision to create a "Teenage Symphony to God" . Initially, Wilson called the project "Dumb Angel", a little later he changed the title to Smile , because he wanted to show humanity the smile that he had already found thanks to mind-altering drugs .

To get new inspiration, Wilson had a sandpit built around his piano in his living room so that he could touch the sand with his feet while playing. This established his “piano in the sand box” era.

Wilson and Parks created the concept for an album that should represent a processing of the history of America. The path should lead from the Indians and Pilgrim Fathers to Hawaii . At the same time, the album was designed in three different main parts, which flowed through the album together. Wilson tried to musically represent the four elements fire , water , earth and air .

Parks took Wilson away from the usual Beach Boys themes like love and romance, to free word associations and elliptical images. The lyrics revolved around childhood and adolescence, but also the power of smiling and the desire for an uncomplicated life. The concept of the album shuttled through the most diverse musical styles and, in addition to not entirely catchy pop music, also brought influences from jazz , Bach , and Vaudeville with it. These styles were underpinned with vibraphone , theremin , party and work noises (title workshop: saws, screwdrivers, hand drills and others). The central point of this work was the title Surf's Up! . It showed the hope, the dreams, the being of the human being and had the statement: Back to childhood, back to the beach. Back on the wave until you finally hear God's word, manifested in a nursery rhyme.

Surf's Up was one of the first titles Brian Wilson and Van Dyke wrote for Smile . The other Beach Boys band members, however, had problems with the concept. Mike Love in particular criticized the text. “Explain that to me, what does that mean?” He is supposed to have asked again and again. Parks felt put on the defensive and explained to Love that the text meant nothing at all.

Many other pieces were written by Wilson and Parks. Wilson recorded the instrumental track with studio musicians, then the Beach Boys went into the studio to record the vocals. Among them was the song Heroes and Villains , which was repeatedly restructured and rewritten, so that several different unfinished versions exist.

Recordings and planned publication

In December 1966, a handwritten list of twelve songs was given to Capitol Records, which included the planned track list. These were the titles

  • 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

It is unclear who this list came from, as it is not Brian Wilson's handwriting, and when confronted in 2006 he declared that he had never seen this list. It can be assumed that an "alibi list" was created by Carl Wilson in order to gain time with the record company. Capitol began working on an album cover as well as promoting the project. Through massive advertising in print media and the presentation of the project in Leonard Bernstein's Show Inside Pop , Smile received public attention.

Problems creating

The piece Heores and Villains was about twelve minutes long in its first version and was divided into different sections. The song was recorded in December 1966 and was scheduled for release in January 1967. Wilson, however, was dissatisfied with the piece and kept changing it. Follow-up recordings continued until March 1967. Brian Wilson also had doubts about the failure of Pet Sounds and feared the audience's reaction to Smile. He also displayed strange behavior. During the recording of the element of fire , he instructed the studio musicians to wear fire helmets and to start a fire in the studio because he wanted to create the right atmosphere through the smoke. On the day the song was recorded, a fire broke out in a factory in the street where the studio was located - a few years later Wilson mentioned that he thought he was responsible for the fire through his music.

Brian Wilson's creative flow was also interrupted again and again. At first Capitol Records was not completely open to the project, after that Wilson was dissatisfied with the recordings. In 1967 the Beach Boys finally had an argument with the record company. In addition to delaying the project, it was also about the extension of the expiring record contract and royalty payments that Capitol Records still owed the Beach Boys.

In addition, there were repeated internal disputes, mainly due to criticism from Mike Love of Van Dyke Parks. During the recording of the title Cabinessence , Love started another argument with Parks, who criticized his text. Love read to him “Over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfields” . "Explain this to me, what does that mean?" After a heated argument, Parks left the recording studio. He ended his partnership with Wilson, and the two creative minds behind the project fell apart without having achieved anything.

End of the project

When Capitol Records wanted to release the album in June 1967, the Beatles had already released their Sgt.-Pepper’s album. In addition, in 1967 the music scene had changed almost overnight due to the influence of the hippies and Wilson feared that Smile could capsize and drown in the bow wave of the psychedelic movement. Since Smile also showed similarities to Sgt. Pepper’s , Brian Wilson also feared that he would be regarded by the music world as a copycat.

The finished Smile tapes disappeared. Brian Wilson claimed for many years that he had destroyed the tapes in his disappointment - with the intention of making publication impossible. Years later, however, it turned out that Wilson had not had the heart to destroy the finished recordings and that there were many finished tapes in both Brian Wilson's archives and at Van Dyke Parks.

Smile was to go down in rock history as the "greatest lost album" and thus became a myth.

Publications

Over the next few years, Smile material or fragments of it appeared repeatedly on Beach Boys albums. The titles

  • Heroes & Villains , Good Vibrations , Vegetables , Wind Chimes and Wonderful appeared on the 1967 album Smiley Smile .
  • Mama Says , originally part of Vegetables , was released in a modified form on the album Wild Honey .
  • Cabinessence and Our Prayer were released on 20/20 in 1969.
  • Cool, Cool Water , based on "I Love To Say Dada", appeared on the 1970 album Sunflower .
  • Surf's up! was released in 1971 on the album of the same name.

Brian Wilson presents Smile

Again and again in the different decades Brian Wilson announced the possibility to publish Smile after all, which was finally initiated in 2003. Wilson had the idea of performing the Smile album live as a complete symphonic work and thus starting a tour.

Wilson met up with his old friend Van Dyke Parks - they never lost contact - and they started working on Smile again. Parks completed and revised the existing texts and supported Wilson with his knowledge. So they tried to restore the original order of the songs. Furthermore, Wilson brought the young musician Darian Sahanaja into his team. Sahanaja was keyboardist in Wilson's touring band and an absolute expert on the Smile album, obviously every bootleg possessed it from Smile was. Wilson gave Sahanaja a handwritten list of the planned titles for Smile . However, some songs fell victim to Wilson's censorship because he did not want these pieces on the Smile 2004 album. The list comprised 21 of the originally over 30 songs. From this further pieces were deleted or merged. Finally, Good Vibrations was added to the program, which Wilson initially didn't want on Smile either . Wilson asked Parks to revise the Good Vibrations text again. However, he didn't think it was necessary and advised him to simply use the original text by Tony Asher, which Wilson did. As a last step, the order of the songs was changed a bit.

Brian Wilson and Darian Sahanaja arranged the album for the ten-piece band together. For the live performances they finally hired the Stockholm Strings 'n' Horns to play the elaborate arrangements. Smile premiered in February 2004 . London was chosen as the location for the premiere . Wilson wanted to do a smaller concert, so the decision was made to go to the Royal Festival Hall . The rush for tickets was so great that the band had to play six more concerts in London to meet the demand. After the successful European tour, the band gathered in the studio to record Smile as a studio album. They decided to continue to use the live arrangements - with small changes - and to record the album more or less live. For the single Good Vibrations alone , it took Wilson six months in 1966 , and the band recorded the entire Smile album in three days. Then they went on tour again and toured the USA , Australia , New Zealand and Japan .

Smile was released on September 29, 2004 . Relocated , re-recorded and HDCD- encoded, the album was 37 years "too late" on the shelves.

Brian Wilson initially had great doubts whether this album would sell at all, but which turned out to be unfounded. Just a week after publication, Smile was represented in the charts worldwide. Its biggest hits were seventh in the UK , where the album went gold , and 13th in the US. It was also in the top 30 in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands , Germany , Switzerland and many other countries.

Smile was named "Album of the Year 2004". It was also nominated for three Grammy Awards - for the categories “Best Vocal Pop Album” , “Best Instrumental Rock Performance” and “Best Studio Engineering” . Ultimately, however, Brian Wilson only got the Grammy in the category "Best Instrumental Rock Performance" for the title Mrs. O'Learys Cow . This title symbolizes the element "fire" on the Smile album. The title goes back to the fact that a certain Mrs. O'Leary's cow is said to have started the Chicago fire in 1871 by kicking a lamp .

The album was produced by Brian Wilson, with Darian Sahanaja as mixdown producer. The album was released via Nonesuch Records .

Playlist Brian Wilson presents Smile

  1. Our Prayer / Gee (Brian Wilson)
  2. Heroes and Villains (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  3. Roll Plymouth Rock (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  4. Barnyard (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  5. The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine (Davis / Gellespie / Smith)
  6. Cabinessence (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  7. Wonderful (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks) UK charts # 29
  8. Song for Children (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  9. Child Is Father of the Man (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  10. Surf's Up! (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  11. I'm in Great Shape / I Wanna Be Around / Workshop (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks / Mercer / Vimmerstadt)
  12. Vega Tables (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  13. On a Holiday (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  14. Wind Chimes (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  15. Mrs. O'Leary’s Cow (Brian Wilson)
  16. In Blue Hawaii (Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks)
  17. Good Vibrations (Brian Wilson / Tony Asher / Mike Love) UK Charts # 30

The song Good Vibrations was recorded with new lyrics for Brian Wilson presents Smile . With the exception of the first line of text and the chorus, this text comes from the original (unfinished) version that Tony Asher had written while recording Pet Sounds in February 1966. The lyrics of the single version from October 1966 were written by Mike Love. For the 2004 version, Wilson asked Van Dyke Parks to revise the text again, which he considered unnecessary.

The Smile Sessions

In 2011, more than 45 years late, the album was released as The Smile Sessions in three versions: As a single and double CD, as well as in a box containing, among other things, vinyl editions of the album and the singles Heroes and Villains and Vega-Tables . The album is based on the track list of Brian Wilson presents Smile . In 2013, the box received the Grammy in the Best Historical Album category at the 2013 Grammy Awards .

Track list of the double CD:

CD 1: Smile

  1. Our Prayer - 1:06
  2. Gee - 0:51
  3. Heroes and Villains - 4:53
  4. Do You Like Worms (Roll Plymouth Rock) - 3:36
  5. I'm in Great Shape - 0:29
  6. Barnyard - 0:48
  7. My Only Sunshine (The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine) - 1:57
  8. Cabin Essence - 3:32
  9. Wonderful - 2:04
  10. Look (Song for Children) - 2:31
  11. Child Is Father of the Man - 2:14
  12. Surf's Up - 4:12
  13. I Wanna Be Around / Workshop - 1:23
  14. Vega Tables - 3:49
  15. Holidays - 2:33
  16. Wind Chimes - 3:06
  17. The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow) - 2:35
  18. Love to Say Dada - 2:32
  19. Good Vibrations - 4:13
Bonus title
  1. You're Welcome - 1:08
  2. Heroes and Villains (Stereo Mix) - 4:53
  3. Heroes and Villains Sections (Stereo Mix) - 7:16
  4. Vega-Tables Demo - 1:46
  5. He Gives Speeches - 1:14
  6. Smile Backing Vocals Montage - 8:30
  7. Surf's Up 1967 (Solo Version) - 4:09
  8. Psycodelic Sounds: Brian Falls into a Piano - 1:30
  9. Smile Retail Promo Advertisement ( hidden track ) - 1:02

CD 2

  1. Our Prayer 'Dialog' (9/19/66) - 3:02
  2. Heroes and Villains: Part 1 - 3:08
  3. Heroes and Villains: Part 2 - 4:18
  4. Heroes and Villains: Children Were Raised (1/27/67) - 2:07
  5. Heroes and Villains: Prelude to Fade (2/15/67) - 3:42
  6. My Only Sunshine (11/14/66) - 6:52
  7. Cabin Essence (10/3/66) - 5:19
  8. Surf's Up: 1st Movement (11/4/66) - 4:55
  9. Surf's Up: Piano Demo (12/15/66) - 3:53
  10. Vega tables: Fade (4/12/67) - 5:25
  11. The Elements: Fire session (11/28/66) - 8:27
  12. Cool, Cool Water (Version 2) (10/26 / 67–10 / 29/67) - 3:32
  13. Good Vibrations Session Highlights - 8:20

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kingley Abbott: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys , Goodbye Surfin, Hello God
  2. ^ Statement by Van Dyke Parks on An American Band
  3. ^ Statement by Van Dyke Parks on An American Band
  4. ↑ Interview with Brian Wilson on An American Band
  5. ↑ Interview with Van Dyke Parks on An American Band

literature

  • Badman Keith: The Diary of Americas Greatest Band
  • Kingley Abbott: The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson
  • Andrew G. Doe: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys
  • Documentation Beautiful Dreamer , 2004
  • Documentation An American Band , 1984

Web links