When Brian Wilson was convinced to recreate his legendary unfinished Beach Boys album SMiLE in 2004 using Pro Tools software, it was a major comeback for the long-troubled artist. But the boys themselves, who quashed the original project back in 1967 (thus contributing to Wilson's decline), sued, arguing that Brian had somehow cost them money on his vision. So to the vaults everyone went, and now SMiLE is back again, reconstituted from the original 45-year-old session tapes using the 2004 rethink as a guide. Even more importantly, however, the incident resulted in all the original master tapes being officially released... and the impact has created the pop treasure trove of the year, an essential part of the Beach Boys' catalog.
About this album
- Release date: November 1, 2011
- Label: Capitol
- Catalog number: 27663
- Musicians: Brian Wilson: lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar Mike Love: lead vocals, backing vocals James Burton, Bill Pitman: guitar Tommy Tedesco: guitar, bouzouki Larry Knechtel: keyboards, piano Carol Kaye: bass guitar Hal Blaine, Jim Gordon: drums, percussion Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson: backing vocals Jimmy Bond, Jr., Lyle Ritz: upright bass Jesse Ehrlich, Armand Kaproff: cellos Jay Migliori: saxophone Oliver Mitchell: trumpet Carl Fortina: accordion Tommy Morgan: harmonicas Van Dyke Parks: harmonium
- Produced, arranged, and mixed by Brian Wilson
- Reissue produced and mastered by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd
- Artwork: Frank Holmes
- Art direction: Tom Recchion
- Production design: Mikel Samson
- Liner notes: Brian Wilson, Mark Linett, Alan Boyd, Dennis Wolfe
Pros
- The hours and hours of fragments used to assemble this milestone are just as insane and breathtaking as their finished versions.
- You couldn't ask for a more thorough deconstruction of the sessions, especially in the accompanying book and photos.
- The reconstructed album itself coheres just as well as if it had been released back in '67.
Cons
- If you're one of those who think SMiLE is a frustrating and confusing mess, the picture gets no clearer here.
My review
At this point, even casual observers of pop culture and oldies music know about the Beach Boys' legendary lost masterpiece, Smile, especially since creative mastermind Brian Wilson, who spent months in various studios piecing his little symphony together to no avail, finally re-recorded the parts and released the album (as SMiLE) in 2004. Amazingly, the wait was worth it: created as a "teenage symphony to God" and the next round in the polite one-upmanship going on between the Beach Boys and the Beatles during the mid-60s, this derailed project was not only the first truly adult rock album (it would have beaten Sgt. Pepper to the racks by two months, had the band not voted it down), but a truly unique moment in all of pop music. Pepper was an incredible coalescence of optimism and vision, the soundtrack to the Summer of Love, but Smile, however you spell it, was an orchestral hymn, a pure distillation of Americana and a direct descendant of everything from Stephen Foster to George Gershwin. Phil Spector used to talk about using his oversized sense of drama to create "little symphonies for the kiddies," but Brian's brainchild was bigger than any mere trend. Small wonder that the re-imagined version wound up inspiring post-millennial rockers who dimly remembered the Beach Boys as boring old farts in Hawaiian shirts.
And yet, SMiLE was a reboot, not a rescue. The sad fact is that Brian's original vision is at least partially lost: Smile will always remain one of the great unfinished musical masterworks of its era, right up there with the Who's Lifehouse and Hendrix' First Rays of the New Rising Sun -- both of which have also been pieced together after the fact.
