Author Topic: Video: See the recording of the most legendary unreleased album of all time...  (Read 309 times)

Trauma-san

http://www.warnerreprise.com/asx/brianwilson_smile-epk_450-v.asx

SMiLE is almost upon us.  The CD has been distributed to stores, and will be available tuesday for purchase..

Long story short, Brian Wilson founds the Beach Boys in the early 60's, and over the course of a few years, becomes one of the greatest songwriters alive, writing strings of hits with amazing harmonies and beautifully produced musical tracks, culminating with 1966's "Pet Sounds", considered by many to be the greatest album ever recorded.  Brian starts working on it's follow up, the technological marvel "Good Vibrations" is released as a single, and journalists around the world who visit the recording sessions for the intended album, "SMiLE" write about how wonderful the album is, and how it'll be the greatest album ever released, blah blah blah...

Brian basically goes crazy recording the album, scraps it, and never mentions it again. 


Flash forward 37 years, and after decades of drug abuse, depression, over-medication by pyschiatrists, living like a hermit, moving away from Californina, getting a divorce, the loss of both of his brothers he founded the Beach Boys with, the loss of his voice as a result of his drug abuse, mental problems, and basically being declared insane...

Brian finished the fucking album. 


AMAZING.  He's been slowly coming back for years, singing better, touring more, recording again... and earlier this summer, he entered the studio with his amazing band, and re-recorded the entire fucking album.  This video (Link Above) shows outtakes of the recording sessions, with Brian returning to legendary Sunset Studios, and using the original recording booth, echo chamber, and in some cases the same fucking instruments he attempted to record the album with the first time. 

It shows him instructing his band how to sing the songs, shows demos of him @ the piano, him recording lead vocals, him instructing instrumentalists how to play certain parts, it shows him basically PRODUCING, like a TRUE producer does.  No drum loops, no sampled R&B songs, just an entire album created from the ground up, straight out of Brian's memory from 1967.  He uses danelectro guitars; he uses hammond organs; he uses strange harmonies in weird keys that nobody else would even think of.  He overdubs 4 sets of background vocals, he overdubs animal sounds from a barnyard... he records vocals in the bottom of a swimming pool.  LOL The guy is a fucking GENIUS, this video is incredible.

I'll come back later this week and post reviews, such as RollingStone giving the album 5/5, NME giving the album 9/10, etc. etc.

Watch the video if you want to get turned on to some DAMN good music.  Creative as hell... it's also got live performances of a few songs from SMiLE, and some interviews and such with famous musicians who attended some of Brian's concerts and knew him in the 60's. 

Post your thoughts!
 

white Boy

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im confused
Gettin' in Over My Head ???
wasnt that released.. that was his new album.. wtf is smile.. im about to watch the video
 

Trauma-san

Yes, Gettin' In Over My Head was an album of new material.  "SMiLE" is an album of songs he was recording in 1967, at the peak of his creative output... and then he shelved it.  Over the years, it's became the most famous album never released, people have waited 37 years to hear it, because it was supposed to be better than "Pet Sounds", which many consider the greatest album ever recorded;.... which Brian Wrote, Arranged, Produced, Perform, and Sang!  So he's one hell of a heavyweight, @ one time, his songs were ABOVE the Beatles on the pop albums... and then he had a nervous breakdown from the pressure, and didn't do much @ all for the next 30 years.  Now, finally, at age 62, he's coming out of his depression, and has actually managed to finish the album that drove him nuts, and was supposed to be the greatest album of all time.  I'm not going to say it is, or it isn't, you'll have to listen and judge that, I just think it's an extremely intriguing story, we're witnessing history.  He's STILL STUCK in the 60's, his music is untouched by time.  For years he's been like a robot, everyone tells him what to do and when to do it, and he's now all the way back to arranging and producing music... and ultimately found the courage to revisit the music that drove him insane nearly 40 years ago, FINISH the album, and release the fucking thing.  40 years later.  It's an incredible testament, in my opinion, to the power of the human mind, and it reminds all of us that we're never incabable of being all we can be, at any time in our lives.  He's 62, and even though for 40 years he's had nothing but death, depression, and dark dark times in his life... ultimately... at this moment... he has overcame ALL of it, and is still everybit of everything great he once was.  He went away for 40 fucking years... and struggled, and hung on... and fought, and tried, and failed... and had loved ones die... and fucked things up... and fucked his body up, fucked his mind up... and ultimately, even after ALL of that... came right back to where he was when he was great.  There's more here than just the music he produces, there's a story, and a very, very remarkable man. 
 

white Boy

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Yes, Gettin' In Over My Head was an album of new material.  "SMiLE" is an album of songs he was recording in 1967, at the peak of his creative output... and then he shelved it.  Over the years, it's became the most famous album never released, people have waited 37 years to hear it, because it was supposed to be better than "Pet Sounds", which many consider the greatest album ever recorded;.... which Brian Wrote, Arranged, Produced, Perform, and Sang!  So he's one hell of a heavyweight, @ one time, his songs were ABOVE the Beatles on the pop albums... and then he had a nervous breakdown from the pressure, and didn't do much @ all for the next 30 years.  Now, finally, at age 62, he's coming out of his depression, and has actually managed to finish the album that drove him nuts, and was supposed to be the greatest album of all time.  I'm not going to say it is, or it isn't, you'll have to listen and judge that, I just think it's an extremely intriguing story, we're witnessing history.  He's STILL STUCK in the 60's, his music is untouched by time.  For years he's been like a robot, everyone tells him what to do and when to do it, and he's now all the way back to arranging and producing music... and ultimately found the courage to revisit the music that drove him insane nearly 40 years ago, FINISH the album, and release the fucking thing.  40 years later.  It's an incredible testament, in my opinion, to the power of the human mind, and it reminds all of us that we're never incabable of being all we can be, at any time in our lives.  He's 62, and even though for 40 years he's had nothing but death, depression, and dark dark times in his life... ultimately... at this moment... he has overcame ALL of it, and is still everybit of everything great he once was.  He went away for 40 fucking years... and struggled, and hung on... and fought, and tried, and failed... and had loved ones die... and fucked things up... and fucked his body up, fucked his mind up... and ultimately, even after ALL of that... came right back to where he was when he was great.  There's more here than just the music he produces, there's a story, and a very, very remarkable man. 
lol.. thanks for the info... if it wasnt for the cursing... u could be a comercial... ye i watched most of the video.. at the end it kept buffering and i said fuck it.. but its really intresting to see all the studio shit.. and how fuckin exact everything is.. im peepin pet sounds next week.. and i guess ill see this.. intresting he gave pet sounds a 7.. btw does he do all the main singing.. no offence.. but his voice aint THAT great...
 

white Boy

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and wen is this dropping.. isnt he already doing shows???
 

Trauma-san

He's been doing the live shows since February, when he completed the album.  He toured all the first part of the year, and then went into the studio, where this footage is from, to record the studio version of the album.

His voice I guess is an aquired taste.  In the 60's, it was one of the greatest of all time, he sings in a rare 'power' falsetto, most people have no power behind their falsetto voices, but he did... like if you think of the REALLY high parts in songs like "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations"... that's his voice.  By the mid 70's, his voice was a horrible raspy sounding voice, like Old Dirty Bastard or something.. I mean, you wouldn't even think it was the same guy.  In the 80's, he stopped doing drugs, and his voice thinned out to where he sounded like Kermit the Frog... and he's been practicing and trying and trying and trying for years now, and on the studio album, in parts he approaches the smoothness and beauty his voice once had, it's really pretty incredible in parts.  The parts on the video that he sang are some of the roughest vocals on the album... the performance of "Good Vibrations" near the end is a good idea of how his voice sounds now.

At first you think "shit, he sounds horrible" then eventually you start liking it.  I love it now, I think he sounds fucking incredible.  His voice has a lot of soul and passion in it, it's just weathered by the years, and he sounds 5 times better right now than he did 5 years ago.  I wonder how he'll sound next year? LOL
 

eS El Duque

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this is one of the most anticipated albums of the year..along with Eminem and Mos Def..msnbc believes so :D
 

PhantomChild

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Damn after reading that all I gots tah say is.........WOW!

I mean seriously after all he's been through,he's regained the passion to do what does best!

Major,Major Achievement to me 8)!

 

Trauma-san

He posted this on his message board last night:

"Everybody, I have to split. I want you all to know just how much your support means to me and my family. The lack of it nearly did me in 37 years ago. I am a really sensitive guy. I feel bad when I disappoint, but if I have disappointed anyone on this release that will have to be their problem. I am proud of it, I love the vibe that went in to making it, and there is nothing anyone can do or say to take that away from me. Let's celebrate, rock n roll and love one another. I love you all even if I disappoint you in your expectations of what I am about. I love Smile, I love my family and life is as good as it gets for me. L&M Brian"

L&M stands for Love & Mercy, one of his songs