A Musical and Personal Miracle (Brian Wilson's New "Smile" Album)

The impossible has become possible; what could never have conceivably happened has indeed occurred: 62-year old musical genius Brian Wilson (the leader and chief creative force of the Beach Boys) has released his "lost masterpiece": Smile, originally planned to enchant expectant music lovers way back in 1967. I just listened to it, and it was an overwhelming musical and emotional (even vaguely spiritual) experience.

Would it be for everyone? I don't know. I confess that I am a Beach Boys fanatic (they rank up with my favorite bands, alongside the Beatles, CCR, and U2 -- with honorable mention to the Stones and the Who). My history with these giants of harmony and Southern Californian pop sounds began as far back as 1963, listening to my sister's 45 rpm record of Surfin' Safari. My recollection from those days (I was born in 1958) also includes Surfer Girl, California Girls, and Help me Rhonda. After 1966 I didn't have much awareness of the Beach Boys, as my listening was mostly confined to AM radio, and that's when their hits ran out (excepting the 1968 Do it Again, which I didn't know of at the time, as far as I recall).

I knew nothing about Pet Sounds, either: the rock or pop album I now rank as the greatest ever made. I didn't even know the band was still around, till 1976, when I rediscovered them in my senior year of high school, due to the publicity surrounding Brian Wilson's return to active participation and even touring. I went to Beach Boy concerts in 1977 (with Brian) and 1978 (minus Brian). My wife Judy and I also went to a Brian Wilson solo concert in 1999, which was a thrill.

The story is now familiar to many (two movie biographies have been made): Brian was the oldest son of three; the sensitive, emotionally fragile, fun-loving, mentally-unstable, drug-using genius, who endured a severely abusive upbringing from his father Murry. This tyrant caused deafness in one of Brian's ears (eerily reminiscent of Beethoven's childhood) due to smacking him on the head (Brian also recounted in his autobiography how his father would hit his sons with a 2 by 4, and once removed his artificial eye, shocking Brian to death). Brian suffered a nervous breakdown in 1964 and decided to stop touring and to concentrate on composition and studio production (a course followed by the Beatles two years later).

Unfortunately, he was also heavily using marijuana and LSD by 1965-1966. These drugs (whatever else can be said about them: all negative) were definitely conducive to musical creativity (judging by the output of the Beatles, Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and other notoriously narcotics-influenced musicians). The album Pet Sounds was released in 1966 to mixed reviews (some common criticisms were that it was not made in stereo, and it was thought by record execs to be overly-melancholy and less "commercial"). It has since become universally-acclaimed as a masterpiece.

Good Vibrations, the group's first million-selling single, hit #1 in late 1966. The band had worked on it for a full six months (Brian's first cousin Mike Love likes to call him the "a musical Rachmaninov but the Stalin of the studio" due to his extreme perfectionism). Expectations were very high for the next Beach Boys album. Brian Wilson appeared on a television special with conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, performing his wonderfully inventive song, Surf's Up, and Bernstein raved about the musical genius of the piece. But then something went awry. The other Beach Boys, particularly Mike Love, who was often the lead singer and the most attuned to the group's audience and to commercial considerations, did not like the new Smile material very much, and apparently resented Brian's reliance on lyricist Van Dyke Parks (since he had often served in that role).

In-fighting among the Wilson family, time pressures to produce new music, long-running emotional instabilities, paranoia resulting from drug use, and finally, the release of the Beatles' masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (he was intensely competitive with the Beatles, who in turn greatly admired his music), convinced Brian to throw in the towel. And so it remained until this year: 37 years of legends, myths, tantalizing tidbits released here and there, and regretful, wistful tales of "what could have been."

Brian Wilson then went into a more than two-decade long emotional and psychological tailspin, becoming increasingly isolated, depressed, insecure, physically unhealthy and overweight, delusional and psychotic, detached from his wife and daughters, and non-creative. Those of us who were fans kept waiting for him to get back to his old glory (if indeed that was possible). Now and then he would come up with a great song, and even produce songs (a talent almost equal to his songwriting abilities). But mostly not. He produced two albums in 1976 and 1977: 15 Big Ones and Love You. These were good enough (though no more than "3 stars" at best), but there still remained the feeling of lost talent, and the sense of his music being a mere remnant of its former greatness.

Eventually the Beach Boys disintegrated. Brother Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983, and brother Carl died of brain cancer a few years back (thus both the Beatles' and Beach Boys' guitarists died young of the same thing: no doubt related to drug use). The Beach Boys' last hurrah was the catchy 1989 hit single, Kokomo. Ironically, Brian (who was still theoretically part of the band) didn't take part in the sessions (one senses that Mike Love wanted to finally have a hit all "his own").

Brian's solo record Brian Wilson was released in 1988, and was quite a respectable effort, partially self-produced. The 1998 album Imagination was also a solid three-star work, with traces of the old genius evident at various spots and trademark impeccable harmonies. Gettin' in Over My Head from earlier this year was a significant advance in both songwriting and musical invention and was again solely produced and arranged by Brian (for the first time since 1977). Especially notable were the wonderful, semi-Beatle-like Rainbow Eyes, and the retro surf-rock fun of Desert Drive.

A few months ago I heard about plans for a reinvigorated Smile album, to be completely re-recorded. I admit that I was skeptical, because I generally take a dim view of "re-makes" of old material (for the same reason I don't think much of most live albums, either). In this case, we had a true musical genius and pop giant trying to capture the "atmosphere" and zeitgeist of 1966 and 1967, when so much was happening in the pop and rock music worlds. It would be no mean feat to again reach the heights of excellence that he had in his grasp, only to be sabotaged by what must have seemed to him at the time as some sort of "conspiracy".

Through the years we Beach Boys fans were treated to various snippets of the Atlantis-like lost successor to the magnificent Pet Sounds. Here is a summary of what we knew up till now, with the tracks listed under the album where they first appeared (most of these songs were re-recorded or modified in some way, and/or not produced by Brian Wilson):

Good Vibrations single October 1966
Heroes and villains single July 1967

Smiley Smile September 1967

Vega-Tables
Wind chimes
Wonderful

20/20 January 1969

Our prayer
Cabinessence (also includes portions of Who ran the iron horse? and Have you seen the Grand Coulee Dam?)

Sunflower August 1970

Cool, cool water (middle section)

Surf's Up May 1972

Surf's up (also includes portions of Child is father of the man)

Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys (Box Set: 1993)

Original Smile-era versions of:

Our prayer
Wonderful
Wind chimes
Heroes and villains (alternate takes, including Roll Plymouth Rock)
Do you like worms
Vega-Tables
I love to say da da
Surf's up

There was still plenty of material on the new album that I was unfamiliar with, as a die-hard Beach Boys fan. So what does one say about Smile? Without getting into specific tracks (I'll let you enjoy those yourself without "benefit" of superfluous comment), my overall impression is a string of superlatives and glowing adjectives: ultra-creative, sparkling, superb harmonic and melodic "gymnastics," luminescent keyboards, impeccable production, colorful, suffused with Americana, romantic, imaginative, evocative, endlessly inventive, unpredictable, and (above all) a sheer delight for the ears.

Brian Wilson has managed what I would have thought was practically impossible: he reached back into his own past, beyond all his nightmares and demons and tragedies and disappointments of more than half-a-lifetime, and pulled off one of the most amazing musical feats of our time. The music actually sounds like it could have come from 1967. This is all the more remarkable considering the tremendous hype and mythmaking that has surrounded this album ever since its "demise" (and around Brian himself; genius often becomes a "millstone" in this way).

Brian laid it all on the line, took a tremendous personal and professional risk, and he created (or "re-created," as it were) a musical triumph: a true masterpiece. This is something to be very proud of. He could have easily rested on his laurels as a musical legend, but he chose to get "radical" and live on the edge in that exciting land of musical and artistic creativity and competitive challenge. All the best musicians have these impulses, but few allow them to last for any significant length of time.

The Who's Tommy is known as a rock opera. Smile is a sort of seamless symphony or suite, if you will. There are continual little vignettes of extraordinary melodies and harmonies, all produced with the magical Brian Wilson Spectoresque magic touch. Many of these recur or are effortlessly weaved into the background, much like musical motifs or themes in classical music. It is simultaneously humorous, romantic, Americana, and almost classically majestic in its sheer "musicality."

The ultimate tribute to the album and its creator, I think, is to state that we need not feel the slightest regret that anything was ever "lost." The album is here now, at long last, and it is a stupendous artistic feat. In its present form it may be regarded as that album which Brian conceived back in 1966, come to delightful (and pleasantly surprising) fruition. One can now say with confidence that the hype and the legends all these years surrounding this almost-mystical album were fully justified. Kudos and congratulations, Brian!