Beach Boys “Smile”

“Smile.” That one little word has a 35 year ripple effect in the storied career of the Beach Boys. While the band has a permanent place in musical history for releasing “Pet Sounds,” one of the most admired rock albums of all time, it is the follow-up album that the aficionados really remember. That album, which started life as “Dumb Angel,” would top even the remarkable “Pet Sounds,” vowed leader Brian Wilson. It was going to establish the Beach Boys as the trendsetters, above and beyond even the untouchable Beatles. Coming hot on the heels of the universally acclaimed single, “Good Vibrations,” “Smile” had the music world buzzing in anticipation in 1966, and it seemed that the Beach Boys really were going to make good on Wilson’s promise. However, slowly but surely, the train became derailed. Wilson, already emotionally fragile from a tortured childhood and from a zealous competitive spirit, had been dabblling with drugs, and was facing intense pressure to make a commerically successful album. “Pet Sounds” had sold relatively poorly, despite winning praise from the
critics, and now Wilson was making music that broke with the proven sound even more. The weight of it all finally caught up with him, and by 1967, Wilson abandoned the “Smile” project, no longer strong enough emotionally or physicially to see his vision through to completion.
 The failure to release “Smile” after all the months of build-up irreparably damaged the Beach Boys. They were seen as having lost the competitive edge, and Brian Wilson never again attempted such an ambitious project. While the band
grew less and less influential throughout the years, however, the “Smile” album refused to die. With every new album, leftovers inevitably found their way to the public, hinting at what could have been. “Smile” music slowly trickled into
the booteg market, whetting the appetites of listeners for an official release. The sounds from the unfinished album represented one of those rare cases when the music lived up to the hype, with beautiful hymnal-chants, wonderfully odd
and inspired harmonies, textured instumentation, and lyrics unlike any in popular music. The legend began to grow, as a myriad of stories built up around the recording sessions themselves--that Wilson had gone crazy, that he had burned the session tapes in a bonfire, that the band members intentionally sabotaged the album. Since the early 1970s, there have been several aborted attempts by either the Beach Boys or their label to master the album and ready it for release. The closest we have come to an official release was in 1990, when Capital included several sections of songs on the Beach Boys boxed set.
The clamor for an official release of “Smile” continues in 2002, however, and one of the people who continues to stoke the fire is Domenic Priore, a writer who has compiled a comprehensive book on the whole project which is entitled
“Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!” The book contains essays about the album written during the time of its recording, as well as in the intervening years. It includes contemporary newspaper clippings from the mid-1960s, and Priore’s
own insights into a project which has become mired in many rumors and misunderstandings. Recently revised and released, Priore’s book is an essential read for anyone who longs to understand exactly what went into the making, and
un-making, of “Smile.” The following is a truncated account of a recent interview I had with Priore, where he tried to help explain the musical landscape of that legendary album, and why it may never come out.

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