The Beach Boys

Rich said a lot, the most important being that if one doesn’t hear "it", then one doesn’t hear it. Two who DID hear it in the music of Brian Wilson were Paul McCartney and Leonard Bernstein. Paul proclaimed Pet Sounds the best album ever made at the time of it’s 1966 release, and was his inspiration for Rubber Soul---an album with no filler songs. If a listener doesn’t hear something very, very special in "God Only Knows"  (which I consider the "best" song I have ever heard), I am at a complete loss as to what to say to that listener. Bernstein made "Surfs Up" (a song to be included in the then-upcoming Beach Boys album Smile; the album was ultimately shelved, and remained unreleased for four and a half decades! Smile acquired legendary status over the years, and was eventually released as a 6-CD boxset. The complete album was also performed live in a single performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, people coming from all over the world to hear it. Paul was there.) the centerpiece of his 1967 television special on the then emerging newly sophisticated music from the Pop/Rock field. The special included a film of Wilson playing the song unaccompanied on the grand piano in his living room. You may want to see it, and in fact the whole special.

There is video on YouTube of a music professor sitting at a piano, breaking down "God Only Knows", explaining and demonstrating the extremely sophisticated compositional skill it’s writing required and reveals. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean the song will therefore be liked by all who hear it, but the video may help those who don’t particularly like the song (how that can possibly be the case is a complete mystery to me, but...) to understand and appreciate why others do. I truly feel sorry for anyone not utterly devastated by "God Only Knows". It’s an absolute masterpiece.

First, a correction: Pet Sounds was McCartney’s inspiration for not Rubber Soul, but Sgt. Pepper. I get them confused because Rubber Soul was Brian’s inspiration for Pet Sounds, Brian feeling RS was the first album ever with no filler.

To put things in context, when Pet Sounds was released, the Beach Boys had already had three low-selling albums in a row---Today, Summer Days (and Summer Nights), and Party. After their last hit album, 1964’s All Summer Long, Rock n’ Roll had begun turning into Rock, and had moved in a decidedly tougher, harder direction. Even more than the Popish Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Animals, The Yardbirds (featuring first Eric Clapton and then Jeff beck on guitar), and The Who were playing more "adult" music based on American Blues and R & B. Dylan's lyrics had completely transformed the nature of the music's lyrics, no longer being about romantic relationships, but about society, morality, hypocrisy, and values. The All-American, squeaky-clean, surf, cars, & girls teenage adolescent sound and image of the Beach Boys had become quite passe’, completely irrelevant to the about-to-emerge counter-culture. Pot had made it into the suburbs, and High School kids were adopting a cynical semi-adult attitude and posture. The Beach Boys were largely forgotten at the time Pet Sounds came out in ’66, already viewed as an Oldies act, as much so as 1950’s entertainers such as The Platters.

I didn’t know anyone who bought Pet Sounds when it was released. A new Beach Boys album? Who cares! A lot was happening at that time---a lot of new Groups, Bands, and records to keep up with. But then 1967 came around, and "Good Vibrations" was blasting out of every teenagers’ car radio. Considering how interesting that hit single was, the album it was on, Smiley Smile, needed to be heard. I was astonished when, on my Koss Pro 4AA headphones plugged into my Fisher X-100A integrated tube amp, I heard what was in the grooves of the LP being played by my Shure M44 cartridge mounted on my Garrard SL55 turntable. "Good Vibrations" was just the tip of a very weird iceberg!

Gone were the sun and fun of The Beach Boys I had seen live just three years earlier in 1964 (my first concert, one year before seeing The Beatles), replaced by a very dark, very odd, introverted creepiness. Hearing it in the dark made me feel like I had descended below ground (perhaps through a tree trunk, as did Peter Pan and the lost children), now being in a small earthen cave, dimly illuminated by candles, where none of the assembled persons spoke. The "songs" featured highly unusual chords and chord progressions (one subject discussed by Bernstein during the special, as well as Brian’s melodic and harmonic sophistication) played mostly by muted piano, harpsichord, bass, and snare drum. On top of that was surreal lyrics being almost whispered by strange hushed voices, very, very odd harmonies and lots of counter-point, primal chanting, and sound effects. It actually scared me, and still does. Very spooky, like walking into a Victorian mansion with a very musty smell at twilight, eerily quiet except for an old clock softly ticking off in the distance. It made the "experimental" Bands popular at the time seem very normal, very ordinary. I played the album for all my close friends (musicians, artists, intellectuals, weirdos), and Smiley Smile became the favorite album of the smartest people I knew---an elite club sharing a secret known only by it’s members. The album became a test for new friends; "get" the album and you were in.

Having heard Smiley Smile (though without yet knowing the whole Smile saga), it was only natural to go back and listen to Pet Sounds. Though not nearly as strange and interesting as SS, it too was a very welcome discovery. It’s songs are more formal, classically-structured Pop songs, and some real, real good ones. As much as I like them (especially "God Only Knows" of course!), I find Smile/Smiley Smile a more important/amazing album. Smile was never completed or released (Brian, as Icarus, flew too close to the Sun---via LSD etc. He had a complete mental/emotional/physical breakdown without completing the album, intended to be a musical representation of the American Manifest Destiny. Rather ambitious! His bother Carl patched together Smiley Smile for release in it’s place), but it’s bits and pieces were recently assembled into what it was to have been, and is available in a number of configurations. I find the 6-CD boxset a bit much for most people, and recommend the 2-CD version.

Brian is one of the Rock n' Roll acid casualties of the 60's, some others having died fairly recently---Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd and Skip Spence of Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. The effect LSD had on Brian can not be overstated; I would in fact say Smile was a result of it. Smile is more than a little strange, it is at times quite seriously frightening. I can completely understand why Mike Love couldn't understand it---it is like nothing the world had ever heard. I consider it a serious musical composition, more musically "valid" than many 20th Century Classical compositions. The audience at the premiere of The Rite of Spring was shocked and outraged? Smile is imo equally revolutionary and artistically ambitious.

Listen to "Heroes and Villains". The oddest (and thrilling) chords, harmonies, counter-point, and arrangement you have ever heard. Lyrics by Van Dyke Parks, fully Brian's equal and first true collaborator (listen to Van's album Song Cycle for another great discovery). "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)". The title alone gives you a hint. An instrumental, it will make the hairs on the back of your hands stand up. The music sounds to me written to give the listener a primal experience, to heighten one's awareness of the physical universe in which he finds himself; it does that all right. Remind you of LSD, hmm?

Smile was to have contained the "Elements Suite", the "Fire" portion of which was Brian's music, as performed by a studio filled to the brim with instruments including many strings, simulating a, yes, fire. To aid in it's recording, Brian outfitted all the studio musician's with children's plastic fireman's hats, and started a little fire in a trash container on the studio floor, just to add atmosphere. One night after a day in which a "Fire" session had taken place, a fire broke out in Los Angeles; Brian thought his music had started it, and cancelled the songs completion. The paranoia had started.

The album after Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, contains "Here Comes The Night". I don't know if the lyrics reflect the dark clouds closing in on Brian, but the music is very disturbing.

Yes, the recorded quality of both Smile/Smiley Smile and Wild Honey are very lo-fi, seriously lacking bass and treble, as well as overall clarity, inner detail, transparency, etc. Audiophile they are not! By the way, all the Beach Boys albums through Wild Honey were mixed to mono by Brian (almost deaf in one ear), the only early Beach Boys album offered in true stereo being Surfer Girl, for some reason. Capitol released the albums in both mono and Duophonic, their electronically reprocessed stereo. Avoid Capitol Duophonic LP's!     

A significant percentage of history’s greatest composers, musicians, writers, and painters had severe mental and/or emotional problems, as well as drink and drug problems. Some of them created in spite of it, some because of it. That’s not my opinion, that’s history’s. Smile is in no way worth the suffering Brian has endured (not to mention his family, friends, and The Beach Boys themselves) because of the LSD and other drugs he took to excess. But he had already had a nervous breakdown before his drug use started, on an airplane flight in late 1964. That was one reason he came off the road, and stayed home writing and recording while the others toured.

But there is nothing we can do to turn back time, to change the circumstances of Brian Wilsons decisions. Should we deprive ourselves of great art because of the price it cost it’s creator? You do what you want---I’m going to continue to listen to Smile and Brian Wilson’s other masterpieces, and to tell others who are interested all about it.

In case you want to investigate, The Beach Boys also created some great music in the 1970’s, starting with the Sunflower album. Brian wrote some of his best songs in the 70’s---"This Whole World", "Til I Die", "Marcella", and "Sail On, Sailor" being just a few. Yeah, The Beach Boys (as led by Mike Love) are a nostalgia act now, but they weren’t then. Dylan saw them and said "Hey, these guys are really good". The Grateful Dead toured with them.

Well said, everyone!

Tostadosunidos: "Kokomo"---What a piece of junk! Mike claims he was as responsible for the Beach Boys 60’s hits as was Brian. "Kokomo" is what Mike sounds like without Brian. When hearing Mike’s voice in a Beach Boys song, I often imagine what the song would sound like without it. His voice is really annoying to me. "Darlin’" is a cool little song, I played it in a Group in the early 70’s. "Surf’s Up" was to have been on Smile, but came out on the Surf’s Up album, in a new recording. Lovely song.

Jafant: McCartney always considered Brian his songwriting competition, and Brian felt the same about Paul. I had a ticket to see The Beatles at The Cow Palace in ’64, but wasn’t quite sold on them yet, still preferring my beloved Beach Boys, and my Mom went in my place. I had changed my mind by the time they returned in ’65!

Marty: Great stuff. I’m gonna have to get a copy of "Gravity’s Rainbow". I’ve read far more non-fiction than fiction, but this book sounds intriguing. Another book famously written under the influence is, of course, "Alice in Wonderland". Then there is Edgar Allen Poe, quite the cocaine (amongst other substances) lover. A lot of writers were notorious drunkards, producing a fair amount of the world’s greatest literature. If we discard works produced by drinkers and druggers, there will be a lot less to read and listen to!

Onhwy61: Not only were the other guys an essential part of The Beach Bots sound, some of them evolved into fine writers themselves, particularly Dennis. He wrote some very fine songs, and Carl, who was a fantastic singer (far better than Brian himself), did as well. Bruce Johnson wrote a couple of good ones, though perhaps a little sappy (like the Barry Manilow hit "I Write The Songs"!). I kinda like his "Disney Girls". Mike and Al, not so much, but that’s just me. And you’re right---Brian on his own is not a pretty sight. Of course, by that time he was severely damaged goods.

I too have pondered that very scenario, Marty. Of course, there WERE people who were hearing the Smile recordings as they transpired, creating an intense buzz via the underground reporting on the album (as chronicled at the time by Paul Williams in Crawdaddy Magazine (those articles later collected in his book "Outlaw Blues").

Another thing that could have happened was for TBB to appear at The Newport Pop Festival in '67 as they were originally scheduled to. Maybe that would have changed the hippies perception of them. Unfortunately they for some reason cancelled. The only time they were sort of referenced around that time was when Hendrix offhandedly said "Aw, we'll never have to listen to surf music again" during a song on his first album. He was not talking about them, but rather Dick Dale, a guitarist he actually admired and was influenced by.