I would place Smiley Smile as one of the most radical and influential uses of the human voice as an instrument. It has influenced numerous vocal composers and arrangers since its release. The bridge to the Smiley version of Wonderful has been lauded and copied in several choral compositions since SS came out.
Brian`s use of human voice to convey emotions was never so finely honed as on SS. In particular, his use of various vocalists became finely crafted vocal equivalents of Zen minimalist paintings, or Bonsai trees, which he was exposed to at the time.
I think of Arny Geller`s GOOD!, Mike Love`s Yogi Bear "Ting a Liiiiinnnngggg," the reversed laughs on Vegetables, the Little Pad herb vocals, and the distorted voices in Fall Breaks among others as examples. Brian`s tonal cameos on SS are the opposite of what he was trying to do with Smile `66, and in my opinion, just as creatively radical.
I happen to agree with the point that some have made that Smiley Smile is as legitimate a conclusion to Smile as Brian`s 2004 Smile. Music is there for it`s composers to work with, massage. and reinvigorate. An example is Gershwin`s Porgy and Bess, which was later reinterpreted by that composer into a performance piece for orchestra. It is little known and rarely performed compared with the opera, but it is part of the Gershwin oeurve. He did the same with I Got Rhythm, which he redid into a performance piece entitled Variations on I Got Rhythm. I hope Brian keeps reinterpreting his work. He did it with Help Me Rhonda, Let Him Run Wild, and My Solution. Go Brian!
Copyright 2013 by Peter Reum-All Rights Reserved
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