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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Andrew Hickey <stealthmunchkin@gmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: smile v smiley smile v smile |
| Date | Sun, 3 Oct 2004 22:57:23 +0100 |
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On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 13:14:16 -0700, Career Records <eldeluxe@mcn.net> wrote:
> My reaction to SS after listening to the new one was: what a criminally
> underrated album. I can disagree when Carl is quoted saying "instead of
> a grand slam, we got a bunt", but jeez if this is a failure, then there
> isn't much other music of the time that could be called a success.
Absolutely. Thank God more and more people are starting to wake up to
the beauty of that album. It's not unappreciated among the band
themselves - Bruce Johnston always mentions it as a favourite, and
Brian recently said it was one of his five favourite of his own albums
(the others being PS, Summer Days, Love You and Smile - strangely not
Friends, another one he always mentions as a favourite).
More and more Smiley seems to be getting the recognition it deserves -
primarily among those who are too young to have waited for Smile.
Heard on its own terms, Smiley Smile is a breathtakingly,
extraordinarily beautiful album, and while it isn't as good as the
finished Smile, it's far better than the unfinished 66 sessions, and
there are still some things Smiley does better than Smile (I was
*mortified* when I first heard the 66 Smile recordings and heard Wind
Chimes - a song which on Smiley Smile is a thing of ethereal beauty
and emotion, but on Smile is just a not-very-good two-chord pop song).
> But these are people who still won't investigate the rest of the BB catalog.
I do think, unfortunately, that a lot of that comes down to some of
the 'Brian is a genius' camp, especially people like David Leaf. Leaf
seems very sincere in his efforts to get people to love Brian's music
(and it is Brian's music, not the Beach Boys' , that he cares about),
and on the two occasions I've met him went out of his way to be warm
and friendly, but he seems to appreciate only a minute fraction of
Brian's output - primarily Pet Sounds, Smile, and the 88 solo album.
Anything less obviously 'clever', and it seems unimportant to these
people, and that is a view that increasingly predominates in critical
circles - the Beach Boys did the one good album and that was it.
It amazes me how many of these people keep saying things like "Brian
should have left the Beach Boys and started doing film soundtracks".
Yes, because of course the one thing Brian Wilson really needed was to
be subordinate to someone else's creative vision, and have to alter
his work at the whim of a director...
The largely ridiculous 1998 profile in Uncut magazine did have one
interesting feature, although the author seemed unaware of it himself.
He interviewed three people to try and get quotes dismissing Brian's
then-collaborator Joe Thomas. The three quotes he got were (not
verbatim, but pretty close):
"Joe Thomas doesn't understand Brian's music. What Brian really needs
is to make another Beach Boys album" - Bruce Johnston of the Beach
Boys
"Joe Thomas doesn't understand Brian's music. Brian's music is rooted
in Chuck Berry and Phil Spector, and he needs to be making music like
that" - Andy Paley, former Phil Spector associate
"Joe Thomas doesn't understand Brian's music. Brian is an avant-garde
composer of instrumental music in an easy-listening tradition" - Sean
O'Hagan of... you get the point.
And *I* think the elephant looks like a wall.
The Beach Boys Love You, to me, sounds just as much like Brian Wilson
as Smile, and is almost as great an acheivement as the finished
version. Gettin' In Over My Head, Friends, Carl & The Passions, Smiley
Smile, - ALL these albums have moments of genius, you just have to
listen with your ear at the right angle.
> People here are discussing the finer points of the
> last bits of the Beach Boys, from a time when they had fully run their
> course, and are still trying to find something to salvage. I appreciate
> this chat, cause it will make me go back to LA and MIU, KTSA, and
> maybe(but most likely not) BeachBoys.
You should. MIU and KTSA are very poor albums, but both have their
moments (My Diane, on MIU, is one of the *great* late-period Beach
Boy tracks). The 85 album is horribly flawed, but even there there are
moments that shine (Carl's Where I Belong is *gorgeous*). And LA is
another overlooked gem. Not a Brian WIlson album, but still a great
Beach Boys album through and through.
--
Andrew Hickey and Trevor DeMont headline
International Pop Overthrow, the Cavern, Liverpool
Monday October 25
http://dumbangel.keenspace.com - a webcomic devoted to Smile
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