A Wonderful Journey: Smile Through the Decades by Peter Reum

A Wonderful Journey: Smile Trough the Decades by Peter Reum 

Smile was born in a time of tumultuous change in the world, especially in the United States. This was often change that either threatened or thrilled American and world citizens. Today the Sixties are but a memory, a cause for nostalgia for some people, and a time of unpleasant memories for others. Many of the people who were young musicians making a new form of music called "rock" at that time honestly believed that could effect change on the broader culture. Certainly, Brian Wilson documented both the new affluence and freedom that United States middle class teenagers had as well as any of his contemporaries. Like many idealistic people from the Sixties, affluence and mobility gave Brian time to think about the broader issues people in the United States and around the world were facing.

Brian began an intellectual journey into studying a number of religions, sciences, and cultures that expanded his outlook. He has cited Arthur Koestler, Dee Brown, and Edgar Allen Poe as influences on his approach to music at the time Smile was getting off the ground. Brian's experiences in nature persuaded him that the natural world was vulnerable, fragile, and well worth preserving. His studies in indigenous cultures helped him reach the conclusion that Native Americans, and native peoples from around the world were living close to Mother Earth, and in touch with a life force that was given by the Sun, but that reflected the dependence of all life upon other life. Hence, Brian began to think about how these cultures had survived so well for so many generations. The Beach Boys' adoption of a Native American on his horse reaching out to Father Sun was an indication that The Beach Boys were establishing themselves as identifying with nature in its purest state, and with its many interdependent relationships. 

Brian and his fellow band members seemed impressed that less wealthy peoples had established a relationship with the Earth, each other, and themselves. It became apparent that Brian was turning inward more intensively than he had on Pet Sounds, or on any previous Beach Boys album. Brian was putting in motion an idea prevalent in Eastern thought through the principle of karma, that every human being's actions and thoughts have a lasting effect on themselves, families, communities, and the world at large. In Western thought, the idea was best expressed by John Donne in his Meditation XVII: No Man Is An Island: "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume, when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language, and every chapter must be translated,,,As therefore the bell that rings to a seaman, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come,so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness...No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." In realizing the interconnectedness of all mankind, the question arises, what can Brian's work with Van Dyke Parks teach us about ourselves...in realizing that change is as inevitable as death, what ca Smile teach us about living? The broad themes in Smile's music and lyrics revolve around these types of themes...how are we connected with the Earth, our families and communities, and our souls.The Sixties were on one hand concerned with rapid and irreversible change. As Smile got older, its meaning and purpose began to reveal itself. In the Sixties, Smile became a myth, a memory of something that could have been. If only....if only it had come out...if only Brian could have moved to even more amazing levels of musical creativity...if only people could have grasped it, it could have rivaled anything Brian's peers created. Smile became the "woulda, coulda, shoulda album"...the album that would have done something, anything, if only it could have been finished. But it was not to be, and authors like Paul Williams and Jules Siegel immortalized those times in landmark articles that built the myth...the "if only" myth.

Time passed on, and The Beach Boys struggled to deal with the aftermath of an album that never was, but should have been. They were peppered with questions, because people were being exposed to bits of the myth in small increments.....Our Prayer, Cabin Essence, Cool Cool Water, and perhaps one of the first "Frankenstein tracks," the title track to the Surfs Up album. The Beach Boys slowly used whatever they could from the Smile Sessions.There were dozens of hours from these sessions, which had been quite expensive in 1966 dollars. Somehow, Surfs Up, even though it was a cobbled together piece of music, still reflected the magnificence of what Smile could have been. In 1972, Smile's due date for being delivered to Reprise Records came and passed, and once again, people waited for an album that never was. As the Seventies went on, Brian became less active, yet occasionally revisited the Smile tapes, and even worked on them. For him, they were his best work ever, in his estimation, and they were languishing on shelves.His songs,his creations, were being either neglected or cannibalized. Who could blame the other Beach Boys? They had albums due, and every album was demanded to have new Brian songs on it.

But the late Seventies, Smile had been again brought to prominence in several radio and television specials which served as biographies of sorts for the band. Some Good Vibrations outtakes  were included in a show called Best Summer of Our Lives, and the amazing Good Vibrations and Smile period was again under scrutiny. It became apparent that there were many of these small songlets laying around The Beach Boys Tape Vault, and that each one was like a small and precious pearl. People began to have an appetite for these recordings. In 1978, collectors were fortunate to hear the first 25 minutes of unvarnished Smile and were amazed. What had previously been only titles in articles began to be heard, and many musicians traded cassettes, and were nspired by the sheer diversity and amazing ideas that they heard, Collectors traded cassettes, more music was circulated.

Inevitably, people who were not so discrete began to figure out that the more Smile was out circulating, the more illegal bootleg sales money could be made, Bootleggers had never particularly preyed upon The Beach Boys, there was no market....until Smile. Smile opened up the eyes and ears of those people who enjoyed the exclusivity of having on vinyl  things that other music appreciators did not have. There was a certain twisted prestige to having rarely heard recordings on vinyl by Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. But The Beach Boys?????? Not until Smile. Smile did for The Beach Boys what the Basement Tapes did for The +-Band,  or what alternate versions of Strawberry Fields or a Day in the Life did for The Beatles, or what Lifehouse did for The Who. The Beach Boys became cool, They were a band that American musicians and record collectors could point to and say that they had as deep a vault of unissued tapes as any of their European counterparts.

The Eighties became the Decade of The Discovery of Smile....Smile became the most famous unreleased album in Rock Music.It began to rival in notoriety some of the famous sessions from Thirties jazz musicians that were recorded using wire recorders, then were lost. The Beach Boys first boxed set, The Capitol Years, issued by EMI World Records in 1980, was put together by fans and collectors from around  the world. It included an album side that collected the issued songs from Smile at the time in whatever form they had been issued. Cool Cool Water and Surfs Up could not be added because they were licensed to Reprise Records. But, such great tunes as Heroes and Villains, Wind Chimes, Wonderful, Cabin Essence, Good Vibrations, and Our Prayer were assembled on an album side. As the decade passed, bootlegs began to appear as people who pressed them got their hands on tapes that were formerly only in the realm of cassette traders. Over the course of the Eighties, some half dozen variations of Smile were committed to vinyl, with various bootleggers bootlegging each others' albums.

Talk began to circulate that Eugene Landy was encouraging Brian to finish Smile. Tapes were pulled, an inventory was conducted, and Mark Linett compiled a tape for Capitol of what the highlights were. Someone circulated the tape, and the race was on. High sound quality cds, records, and cassettes of much unheard Smile music was available for the first time. This only enhanced Smile's reputation with many grass roots bands and musicians, and many bands, such as Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and Wondermints were later influenced by these recordings. It became evident that there was a lot of Smile material circulating, and new discoveries only whetted the appetites of Smile fans and other musicians.

Smile introduced two generations of young musicians to the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson. His reputation as a composer, producer,and arranger soared. As highly regarded as he was by some in the previous decades, the Nineties cemented his reputation. The 1993 Good Vibrations Boxed Set was issued, and some 45 minutes of Smile was released for the first time legitimately. Rolling Stone named it reissue of the year, and it was nominated for a Grammy. It became apparent that Brian Wilson had been working twenty to twenty five years ahead of the digital revolution, but hit the glass ceiling of what technology could accomplish in 1966 and 1967. His frustration caused him to retreat. Brian's solo career began to bloom, and he became an artist who made music outside of The Beach Boys. A flood of Beach Boy bootleg cds ended the Nineties, showing Brian at work in the studio from Surfin' USA through Friends, doing what he did best, make beautiful recordings that were immaculately performed, well produced, and innovatively arranged. The plethora of Smile material in circulation gave rise to the internet communities that grew to share their various assembled versions of Smile as they could put them together,using digital technology in their homes. Smile became the most interactive album in musical history, with Brian's short segments of music lending themselves well to being shuffled and rearranged in different sequences fitting the taste of the fan doing the shuffling. Various internet locations became outlets for sharing and critiquing each others' assembled personal Smiles. It became apparent that everyone EXCEPT Brian Wilson was working with various tapes and putting together their own "best efforts" at what they thought Brian Wilson might have intended for Smile. Some people actually believed they had initiated what Brian WOULD have done, had he finished Smile. Arguments began to rage about what Brian's intentions really were.

A Smile cd and boxed set on the bootleg market reinforced the idea that there was a commercial market for a Smile recording issued by Capitol and approved by Brian. Freed from Eugene Landy, Brian began performing with a standout band comprised of musicians from Chicago and Los Angeles. Slowly and surely, Brian gained the confidence that he needed to try performing the complex material from Smile in a live performance. Smile became, along with Pet Sounds, a vehicle for exposing casual listeners and concert goers to Brian's more complex work, such as Heroes and Villains, Cabin Essence, Surfs Up, Our Prayer, and many more. Brian was slowly desensitized by his band of Smile fans to his formerly emotionally aversive compositions. It became apparent after the Pet Sounds Tour ended that Brian and his band could perform anything from Smile that they desired to perform. How do you follow a Pet Sounds Tour in 2001 and 2002.....you announce in 2003 that the next thematic tour will be Smile.February 2004 was set to be the date for the Smile debut.

Smile in its latest 2004 incarnation took form as a live performance arrangement assembled in movements. Brian organized Smile into three logical themes stemming from the Sixties recordings. One was mankind's relationship to Mother Earth and Nature, and indigenous cultures. The second was our relationship to our families and friends, and to past and future generations. The third was our relationship to our personal spirituality, especially as related to humor. Brian, Van Dyke Parks, and Darian Sahanaja organized the material for live performance. That Smile would evolve, from a massive studio group of tapes intended to be an album into a three movement suite or cantata for live performance was not imaginable. After months of work, Brian and his band debuted his magnum opus, his masterwork, in London, and Smile, in Brian's mind was done. He went on to tour performing Smile live for 18 months worldwide, and countless thousands marveled at the wonder of Smile. Brian's success in assembling Smile gave him the confidence to compose, produce, and arrange his 2007 masterpiece, "Lucky Old Sun." It became apparent that Brian composed best for live performance, then recorded after his music was as polished as it could be, as he did for Smile when he recorded the Smile cd for Nonesuch six months after its live debut in 2004.

But what about those tapes????? Those orphaned tapes that were so meticulously recorded for an album that never was.....those magnificent tapes that sparked the imaginations of three generations of listeners, collectors, musicians, and fans....In its sixth decade of existence, The Smile Sessions have finally seen the light of day. Those hours of short snippets of music, demos, skits, vocals, and instrumental sessions have finally been culled into approximately six hours of listening. That they are available in three formats reflects Smile's age, and the diversity of the people who have come to love these incredible recordings. Vinyl lovers have records, cd lovers have cds, and downloaders have ITunes. The myth has returned. What was it about these recordings that sparked the imagination of three generations over six different decades? It seems that these recordings have taken on a life of their own after 45 years. They have developed a following that can only be described as both remarkable and inter-generational. Now in its sixth decade, The Smile Sessions have connected three generations of listeners, and established links amongst people around the world that mirrors its thematic content. Smile has connected people from most every nation, has united musically grandfathers to fathers to grandsons, and grandmothers to mothers to granddaughters. It has sparked discussion about what is the nature of our spirituality, and what our legacy should be to our descendants. Shall we use the Earth up, or shall we preserve it for our childrens' grandchildren? Shall we ignore the importance of our connection to our families and communities....or reach out in our common humanity because if one person suffers, we all suffer....Shall we pursue the rewards of this world, fast cars, endless wealth, more materialistic rewards, or shall we keep our eye on the eternal, the everlasting---the soul living within us?

All of these questions are questions that Smile asks, yet the answers are very personal, just like those little personal Smiles we all compiled trying to discern what one man's vision was intended to become. Though Smile came from Brian, it has developed a life of its own, and as are all things creative, reflects the wonder of whatever spirituality we each experience in our own way in our own lives. Smile touches us, and asks us to reach out, to forsake being islands.



copyright 2011 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved