A new book by David Leaf on the Smile saga.

Not the band Smile, but the aborted album entitled Smile.

My eventual obsession with Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ collaborative composition began with my hearing of The Beach Boys Smiley Smile album in the Spring of 1968. There was a lot of "odd" music being made at that time, but this was the oddest of all. From The Beach Boys?! Some of the songs slated for inclusion in Smile were re-recorded (you’ll have to research Smile to find out why. It’s a story too long and complex to retell here) and put in the Smiley Smile album.

Then a book entitled Outlaw Blues found it’s way to me in 1970, and the full-on obsession began. The book was a compilation of articles Paul Williams had written for Crawdaddy Magazine, one chapter of which was about the Smile album. Don’t read that chapter if you don’t want to also become obsessed with the album.

David Leaf himself became obsessed with Smile, and has been very involved with several Brian Wilson/Beach Boys projects for many years. This is his latest, a book all about Smile. It’s due out April 15th, and I can’t wait to read it.

David and I (and Paul Williams) are not the only ones who consider the abortion of the Smile album to be the greatest musical tragedy in the entire history of Pop music. Hyperbole? I’ll leave that to you to decide.

Here’s a new interview with David about the book:

https://youtu.be/-MPRL9au2qo?si=B8kD2uFWv1k7E9ks