Brian Wilson and SMiLE

[whiskeytown]

I watched a special today on Brian Wilson and how he resurrected "SMiLE" from the graveyard of unreleased albums.

I think I've always just thought of the Beach Boys as this aging baby-boomer group - bad songs like Kokomo is their contribution today - no real relevance. Nothing except a few catchy tunes about surfing.

I don't think I realized the extent to which Brian Wilson was a composer and what he was trying to do with Smile - it was hated by all the other BB's - but then on the other hand, many people, including Paul McCartney, thought Pet Sounds was the ultimate album and this was to be it's followup - the American Sgt. Pepper's

It sounds like he was hearing stuff others couldn't imagine, and he could record 10 different musicians and fuse them together whereas they couldn't hear all the other parts he wanted to contribute to the tracks till it was all done, then they went "whoa..."

Think I'll go out and buy it - I know it's a different sort of trip for me....but what the hell - Brian Wilson went thru crippling depression and if he can write an album called "SMiLE" - (the irony not lost on his friends) then I can probably listen to it - esp. if it's one of the greatest albums of all time.

Anyone else taken the time to listen to it? You can pretty much sample the tracks on www.smilethealbum.com if you give them an email to register to -

I'm trapped - listening to "Good Vibrations" which is of course, re-recorded. (It was originally intended as the closer to SMiLE)

I think it's a bit easier when you realize certain songs are about fire, for example - LOL- and then you start listening to the sonic image in a different way.

RB