Surf's up, y'all!
Here is the first part of my track-by-track rundown of the Beach Boys 1967-'71 playlist with some brief notes on the albums and the tracks themselves, detailing why I like them, they're unusual or otherwise of historical note. In the telling of these albums and songs is the telling of the Beach Boys themselves in their attempts to wrestle with their rapidly declining fortunes, the mental decline of band leader Brian Wilson, and status as virtual pariahs to the musical press. It was a bleak time for the band that birthed the surf and sunshine of California rock'n'roll, and yet despite that they were still creating some of their most beautiful and moving work.
So without further ado, here are my selected tracks for 'Smiley Smile' ...
The Beach Boys: Turn That Frown Upside Down, 1967-71 - I. Smiley Smile
Originally a potential track for 'Pet Sounds', work on "Good Vibrations" first began in February of 1966. It was the first track in which Brian Wilson would utilize his new style of modular composition, arranging and recording a variety of fragments for each potential part of the song that could be then cut together in a variety of ways. As such, it borrows a technique essentially pioneered by composers of musique concrete, a form of composition begun in the 1940s that created sound collages by splicing different bits of audio tape together. Harmonically, "Good Vibrations" was vastly different from anything the Beach Boys had done before and the Wilson patriarch, Murry Wilson, worried that they risked alienating their audience with such a wildly different sound. However, it became a worldwide hit. Brian Wilson's reputation as a musical genius seemed certain and the song's legacy can be heard across genres from Marvin Gaye's 'What's Goin' On' to Pink Floyd's 'Money', Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and on through hip hop's cutting and sampling approach. The song itself was interpolated as recently as on Beyonce's 'Ya Ya' from her album 'Cowboy Carter' (2024).
Produced by The Beach Boys
That covers part one of The Beach Boys: Turn That Frown Upside Down, 1967-71, which will hopefully not require parts for each individual album; I simply had a lot more to write about 'Smiley Smile' and "Heroes and Villains" in particular. However, for those that are interested, covering these albums and tracks in parts will give more space and time to explore more deeply The Beach Boys story.
As a child, 'Smiley Smile' was one of two Beach Boys albums that I recall my dad having in his record collection. I asked him recently what the other was; he said it was 'Pet Sounds' but, for whatever reason, I remember the other album being 'Surf's Up'--that particular album cover is a striking one and the complete opposite in tone to the cheerful, childlike impression given by the cover of 'Smiley Smile'. (The differences between the two covers reflect the changes that occurred for the band in the intervening years.) Regardless of which the second album was, I only clearly remember listening to 'Smiley Smile' and not all of it at that. Only a handful of tracks stuck out in my memory.
I expect my dad bought 'Smiley Smile' primarily for "Good Vibrations", though if he does indeed have 'Pet Sounds', he--like many others who were impressed by that album's artistic virtues--may have bought the album in the expectation of a similarly adventurous and sophisticated collection of songs. While I haven't asked what his initial impressions of the album were, the reaction of the general public at the time was one of bafflement. Whereas 'Pet Sounds' had been meticulously written, recorded and produced by Brian Wilson with an attention to detail bordering on despotism--a level of obsessiveness that only increased to the breaking point with the abandoned 'SMiLE', 'Smiley Smile' was a deliberately underproduced and spare album with often weird and off-the-wall lyrics. It would be a safe assumption that Brian considered this an intentionally light-hearted and humorous project--in conjunction with 'SMiLE', he had made plans to produce a humor-based album and the Beach Boys had a history of including spoken-word vignettes. The album's lack of production also had some precedent in the Beach Boys' 'Party!' album (1965), which is now regarded as the first "unplugged" album though mostly composed of covers rather than original material.
On the other hand, the production of 'Smiley Smile' was also deliberately credited to the band as a whole, though Brian was still the one generally leading the sessions. Many of the sessions were held in the newly-built studio in Brian Wilson's Bel Air home; the home-spun atmosphere is evident throughout the album as is the overt inattention to perfection. But it also suggests that Brian had more or less thrown in the towel at this point; he was no longer willing to carry the burden of being the one Beach Boy solely responsible for the group's successes or failures. (It's important to note that Brian Wilson had effectively produced all of the group's albums from the beginning, though only being credited beginning with their third, 'Surfer Girl'.) The album almost comes across as a giant "F%&# YOU" to the public, the critics, and even the Beach Boys themselves. It comes across to me as his way of saying, "This is what you get when you don't appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears that I put into the Beach Boys music." For all that, it's still a fascinating album albeit one less of songs than of moods and fragments, a characterization that could be applied similarly to David Bowie's 'Low'. It's gone on to attain cult status as one of the first DIY albums and has the appreciation of artists such as Elvis Costello, Stereolab, Father John Misty, Pete Townshend, Robbie Robertson and Steven Tyler.
A side note: The 'Smiley Smile' album cover features the "Smile House" from the cover of the unreleased 'SMiLE' album. I always loved the whimsical mystery the 'Smiley Smile' cover evoked, though it was perhaps also indicative of the turmoil that surrounded the unreleased 'SMiLE'.
Work on this song spanned nearly the entirety of the 'SMiLE' sessions with thirty session dates devoted to it at an approximate cost of $40k at the time (well over a quarter of a million in today's terms). "Heroes and Villains" was far and away the most complex work Brian Wilson had up to then undertaken. According to various sources who were working directly with Brian or were Beach Boys associates, there were multiple versions of the song with one reportedly as long as 11 minutes. The chorus section of the song was recorded in numerous permutations, some of which were incorporated into other 'SMiLE' songs such as "Roll Plymouth Rock"--likewise, other sections that were originally included as part of "Heroes and Villains"--namely "I'm in Great Shape" and "Barnyard"--were later excised and arranged as separate tracks. As such, it became difficult even for Brian to know precisely where the sessions for "Heroes and Villains" ended and other songs began.
It's been written that Brian Wilson's troubles with auditory hallucinations--They began after his first and only acid trip in 1965--were becoming increasingly problematic at this time while they were also fueling some of his most fascinating vocal experimentations. (Wilson himself referred to the voices he heard as 'heroes and villains' as they could be alternately encouraging and abusive.) For some of the other Beach Boys, however, some of the experiments were described as "like being trapped inside an insane asylum" (Jardine) and "demoraliz[ing]" (Johnston). In any case, whereas the initial writing sessions with Wilson's lyrical collaborator Van Dyke Parks proved fruitful and recording sessions for the album in the latter half of 1966 began in good spirits, by the beginning of '67 tensions between Parks and Wilson and Wilson's bandmates--not too mention the increasing number of Brian's associates that he had accrued while the other Beach Boys were on tour for 'Pet Sounds'--were making successful completion of the project increasingly tenuous. With multiple factors--internal conflicts, mental health issues, and alleged drug use--contributing, Parks' departure in the spring of '67 significantly compounded Wilson's difficulty in constructing a finished product, comprised as it was of a vast assemblage of intentionally interchangeable parts that constituted the album as a whole.
By June of 1967, Brian Wilson had thrown in the towel and even the version of "Heroes and Villains" initially intended for 'SMiLE' was significantly reduced in scope with several major sections being excised from the released version. For a comparison, consider this version, which has a much more obvious Western-Cowboy vibe to it, or even this one, that is actually shorter but still significantly different. Only a portion of the backing track from October of '66 was used for the released single. The shifting tempos, "muddy" mix, and obscure lyrics all played a part in the mixed public and critical reaction to the song's release, a release for which expectations were increasingly high following the immense critical success of 'Good Vibrations' and the subsequent promotion for the unreleased 'SMiLE'. The response to "Heroes and Villains" was decidedly underwhelming and would, for several decades, be a song that Brian Wilson would refuse to discuss as it represented such a deeply personal artistic failure. It also marked the beginning of his descent into despair, increasing seclusion, and worsening mental health problems, problems which none of the people around him were prepared or adequately educated to address. In all likelihood, Brian Wilson's difficulties were only exacerbated by his inability to free himself of the Beach Boys and get the help he desperately needed.
3. Vegetables (B. Wilson/V.D. Parks) 2:08
One of the Beach Boys' songs I most clearly remember from my childhood, it should be no wonder that a song not only as silly as this one but also a beautifully done should attract the attention of a child. Originally intended for 'SMiLE', the original version also included a section later released as "Mama Says" on the album following 'Smiley Smile' released only three months later, 'Wild Honey'. Almost entirely re-recorded for 'Smiley Smile', only the ending coda is from the 'SMiLE' sessions, but even this brief segment features some of the wildest vocal techniques that Brian had been experimenting with during the 'SMiLE' sessions.
Although a far cry from the Beach Boys earlier work, I'd rate this as a personal favorite and not just out of nostalgia. The song's simple production and humor are perfectly balanced, though the original 'SMiLE' version certainly has its own charm. (I especially like the verse discarded from the released version--"I threw away my candy bar and I ate the wrapper..." and it includes an entirely different coda which also recalls "Heroes and Villains".)
4. She's Goin' Bald (B. Wilson/M. Love/V.D. Parks) 2:16
Another song I distinctly remember listening to in my childhood, "She's Goin' Bald" is even stranger than "Vegetables". Evolved from a lyrically-unrelated track from the 'SMiLE' sessions--"He Gives Speeches"--this track quickly goes into the most bizarre territory the Beach Boys had ever travelled with its vari-sped, increasingly chipmunkesque bridge (a nod to The Silhouettes "Get a Job") that passes through cartoonish, horror movie exposition and eventually ending with the "ain't nothin' upside your head" fadeout.
"She's Goin' Bald" is unquestionably a startlingly strange track from a group that had a reputation for being relatively square; it's amazing in hindsight that Capitol Records allowed the album to be released, though this may have had something to do with the band's lawsuit with Capitol Records earlier in the year over unpaid royalties. ('Smiley Smile' was jointly published under the Wilsons' own label, Brother Records, whereas future records--through '20/20'--were published solely by Capitol at which point their contract with the label expired in the midst of the group's most serious financial troubles.)
'Smiley Smile' would attain status as a cult classic, bolstered by tracks like "She's Goin' Bald", but it's still incredible to think that the song exists on an album that was released by the same group (albeit made predominantly by Brian Wilson) that released 'Pet Sounds' just the previous year.
5. Gettin' Hungry (B. Wilson/M. Love) 2:33 - released as a single 28 August 1967
Believe it or not, "Gettin' Hungry" was technically the Beach Boys' follow-up single after "Heroes and Villains" as it was released about a month later. If "Heroes and Villains" simply disappointed expectations, this one surely puzzled the public and critics alike. However, it was not credited as an official Beach Boys single but was rather credited solely to Brian Wilson and Mike Love. ("Wild Honey", the title track of the following album, released a month later, would be the band's official follow-up.) While it was Love's first official solo release, it Wilson's second, the first being "Caroline, No" which was then subsequently released as the closing track on 'Pet Sounds'. The release of that track as a solo record could be compared to the Beatles' song "Yesterday"; written and performed only by Paul McCartney without the other Beatles, there was much debate as to whether to release that song as a solo record. "Caroline, No", the recording and release of which was not welcomed by the other Beach Boys, failed to achieve much success as a solo single. Had the single succeeded, Brian vacillated on what would've happened next but suggested the possibility that 'Pet Sounds' could have been released as a Brian Wilson solo album, rather than under the Beach Boys name.
"Gettin' Hungry" is arguably not a very good song or at least a poorly produced one. All the same, it is a song I remember listening to and enjoying as a kid--it's charmingly quirky and the chorus is a catchy one. Faces (fronted by Rod Stewart) recorded a respectable version in 1974, albeit only released thirty years later on their retrospective collection 'Five Guys Walk into a Bar ...'. Mike Love recorded a new version with his late 70s side project, Celebration, that is sadly typical of what the Beach Boys had become by the end of that decade: an unadventurous, MOR, oldies retread nostalgia act. (It's not terrible by any means; it's just extremely typical of its time, so somewhat bland and unremarkable.) In hindsight, the original version was a masterpiece compared to much of what the band would release in its later years.
Until next time,
- DH
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