let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the ping list!
Posted on 05/19/2004 10:49:55 PM PDT by weegee
Nearly four decades after it was initially slated for release on Capitol, Brian Wilson's "lost" Beach Boys masterpiece "SMiLE" will finally be heard by the record-buying public. A newly recorded version of the album is to be released Sept. 28 worldwide by Nonesuch Records.
The new "SMiLE" was produced by Wilson and features the pop icon's 10-member touring band along with the Stockholm Strings and Horns ensemble. Wilson first revisited the project in November 2003 along with lyricist Van Dyke Parks and keyboardist Darian Sahanaja, reviewing the original 37-year-old tapes with the intent to prepare a version of the album for live performance.
The material was debuted Feb. 20 live at London's Royal Festival Hall and played to audiences on a brief European tour. Following the album's release, Wilson plans to take the performance on the road in the United States this fall.
The reworked "SMiLE" features recreations of songs and musical motifs first recorded in 1966-1967, as Wilson attempted to produce a highly ambitious follow-up to the Beach Boys' orchestral pop classic "Pet Sounds." The project was famously abandoned in 1967 after it already appeared on a Capitol release schedule. Instead, the group released the patchwork album "Smiley Smile" later that year.
Parks, who collaborated with Wilson on the original "SMiLE" sessions, also co-wrote new material with Wilson to complete the album for performance and release.
As previously reported, Wilson will release a new solo studio album, "Gettin' in Over My Head," June 22 via Rhino.
Rock & Roll PING
let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the ping list!
Well, ummm, not exactly. I mean, it has it's moments, but much of it sounds like a bunch of kids high on pot messin' around in a basement studio Pet Sounds was the Beach Boys and Brian in particular at their creative peak. If you're diggin' Pet Sounds, you're diggin' their best, IMHO.
The obvious high point of Smile is Good Vibrations (of course it had a lot of production costs to get it to sound that way).
Heroes and Villians is also good. I've heard Smiley Smile and Wild Honey but find them to be mixed bags.
The Wondermints backed up Brian Wilson on his Pet Sounds live tour in 2001. I believe they backed him up for the live Smile concerts in England (I know that the drummer was the same, I ran into someone who's in another band with that drummer while I was at SXSW in Austin).
Sounds like this will be a newly recorded album (and it has been reapproached, what people have heard on countless bootlegs are scraps of songs).
I credit Brian with Pet Sounds. The rest of the group wasn't happy with the album, and most of the instrumentals were recorded by session musicians while the rest of the band was on tour.
Brian was just nice enough to let the guys sing instead of breaking up the band and going solo. He needed the rest of the band only because touring was a big part of marketing at the time.
I have "Smiley Smile" and it's very good. "Surf's Up" is really great, also.
Musket, are you sure you aren't confusing SMiLE with Smiley Smile? SMiLE was done with the same musicians that did Pet Sounds. Also, BW has been warming back up the last six years or so. Did you see his Pet Sounds tour with orchestra? Second best show of my life (behind McCartney).
This is what I consider to be the Beach Boys Smile Album because - from what I can tell, this is the actual art work that was created for the Smile release - the covers were printed - but the release never happened. I've even read stories of Brian standing over a bonfire fueled by the tapes themselves. How nuts is that?!
Anyway, some tapes were salvaged and all of the songs on the list can be found online in one state of completion or another, on various web sites(google search it) and in newsgroups such as alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.beach-boys. It's an interesting collection of songs with obvious highlights such as Heros and Villians and Good Vibrations, which were both mega-hits. And additionally, the songs Wonderful and Surf's Up are 2 of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard - bar none - they move me to tears. But really, aside from those 4 the rest is just pretty much stoner ramblings imho. But interesting none the less and they transport me back to a simpler time.
So I'm glad that Brian has come to terms with his past and is going to do Smile again. It's been a very, very long time. I hope his voice is up to the task. Smile is without a doubt the Greatest Rock Album That Never Was, and as such it is fun to research and speculate upon.
Now Brian is going to Do It Right and set the record straight once and for all. I'm shocked and amazed that Brian has lived this long and is still performing. I missed the Pet Sounds tour, but I'll drag my sorry arse to the Chicago Theater for this one.
God Bless Brian Wilson. ; )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.