Brian Wilson to finish "Smile"

[Trauma-san]

I know most of yall could give a FUCK about the history of music, but years ago, 30 years ago, the Beach boys and the Beatles had a little friendly rivalry going on.  The Beatles released "Revolver" which was one of the first albums to have samples, and drug inspired lyrics, etc.... Brian Wilson, the lead singer and writer of the Beach Boys, wrote "Pet Sounds" as an answer, and it was prob. a better album.  The Beatles Released "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" as THEIR answer, and it's probably the greatest album of all time.

At the time, Brian Wilson was in the studio, fucked up on drugs, producing the next Beach Boys album, "Smile".  He got so hard to work with, that basically the band quit, and he went crazy in the studio trying to finish the album.  He worked on it by himself for nearly a year, before finally retiring from music (at 25! LOL) and becoming a recluse for the rest of his life, basically.  The guy went nuts.


Well, he told people for years when they'd ask him, that he burned the "Smile" session tapes.  A few months ago, he admitted that he saved all the tapes, knows exactly where they are, and plans to finish the album soon.  Unbelievable.  That was 30 fucking years ago.  He's performing the album live as he intended it in Februrary, in England.  A few songs have popped up on bootlegs over the years, and it probably would have been the most pivotal album of all time, the guy was a full decade ahead of himself.  "Good Vibrations" was the last song he released before recording the album.  

So, anyways, just thought everybody should know.  This is a huge huge huge huge event in music.  

[Kaidy]

Whoa thats huge. I was just reading the little epilogue he wrote in the Pet Sounds album, and its obvious this is somebody who should have never left music.

Keep us updated.

[Trauma-san]

Yeah, the crazy thing is for years people have wondered what the album would have sounded like, and certain tracks like "Heroes and Villians" have leaked complete, and it's pretty amazing stuff.  They actually pre-printed the lp jackets, so everybody knows what would have been on it, it's just no finished versions have ever came out, and everybody assumed the tapes were destroyed years ago.  Then out of nowhere, he announces he's got the tapes locked in his safe.  It's like a dream come true to most fans of music. If you see Brian Wilson today, he's definately got a few nuts loose, he even slurs his speech from the effect of the drugs.  He described the album at the time as "A Teenager's symphony to God".  

[Miuzi]

Have you read his autobiography?, best book I have read this year.  I'm about to read another about the making of Pet Sounds.

not sure what to expect from Smile, he was in a different world when he made Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations.

[Trauma-san]

I've been busy downloading bootleg versions of tracks from the album.  Most of the tracks don't have final vocals, or even any vocals, so it's kind of hard to tell... but this fucker was CRAZY.  You know how the Beach Boys have a classic beautiful sound, well, imagine that over top wild lsd influenced tracks.  He's really turned around, in 1998 he gave an interview to Sean Lennon (John's son) and said that he would never release the album, because it was all crazy bullshit that he made because he was fucked up on drugs.  Now he's saying he has a "masterplan" for the album, and "In the end, I'm going to do right by SMiLE".  Now he's performing it live.  I almost think it won't happen, how the hell is he going to orchestrate all this stuff on stage.  I mean the tracks switch tempos and keys and sections and instruments right in the middle of songs.  He'd record 4 or 5 sections, then just cut them together.  I've actually seen the Beach Boys (without Brian Wilson) do "Good Vibrations" live in concert, and it worked pretty easy, and sounded great, so I guess it's possible.  He also just did "Pet Sounds" live in concert, the entire album, and it worked pretty good, so it'll be interesting to see where he goes with this.  

Another problem is a lot of the original material was sliced and diced into other songs.  They plagerized the fuck out of the "Smile" sessions to make other songs without Brian.  He completed "heroes and Villians" and released it that year, it's a great song.  They also completed "Surf's Up" and released it, but it's a hack job that Brian never finished personally.  There was even an attempt in 1988 to have an engineer mix the album together into a final version, (Like Phil Spector did with the Beatles' Let It Be after the band had broken up), but it never got released.  I think Capitol is trying to work a deal with Brian to release the album, because they were also mentioning doing a "Smile" boxset a few years ago, shortly after the "pet Sounds" box set was released.  Lots of money to be earned whenever they get their stuff together, Brian's already pre-soldout shows all over europe.