Smile

Brian Wilson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 28, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B0002LI11M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (666 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,154 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #7 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Chamber Pop

Track Listings

1. Our Prayer/Gee

2. Heroes and Villians

3. Roll Plymouth Rock

4. Barnyard

5. Old Master Painter/You are My Sunshine

6. Cabin Essence

7. Wonderful

8. Song For Children

9. Child is Father of the Man

10. Surf's Up

11. I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop

12. Vega-Tables

13. On a Holiday

14. Wind Chimes

15. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

16. In Blue Hawaii

17. Good Vibrations

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Greatest Album That Never Was finally is. The Beach Boys' uncompleted 1967 album Smile has remained the elusive touchstone of Brian Wilson's brilliant, star-crossed career for decades. Artistic Holy Grail and troubling professional Waterloo for Wilson, a tantalizing prism of unfulfilled promise to his loyal cadre of fans, its story has become pop music's Rashomon. Finally completed via spring 2004 recordings with his stellar, longtime touring band (none of the original '60s sessions were used, though they've been recreated here with often stunning authenticity), it's arguably as alien to contemporary pop as it might have seemed in its intended '67 context--even to ears freshly primed by the glories of Pet Sounds.

Collaborator Van Dyke Parks's impressionistic, often mischievous lyrics conjure a collage of arcane 19th-century Americana that's equal parts artful ellipse and aloof nostalgia. But wed to Wilson's innovative composition and recording techniques (echoing beat author William Burroughs's fabled cut 'n' paste methodology and exemplified by the modular "Good Vibrations"), the resulting semisuite confections challenge the boundaries of both song and album form, but with an insouciant charm that's as different from Pet Sounds as that landmark was from "I Get Around." Turns out those hypothetical comparisons to Sgt. Pepper's weren't so far off the mark. --Jerry McCulley

Smiling with Brian
Amazon.com Music Editor Peter Hilgendorf called Brian Wilson to congratulate him on the release of Smile, and to talk about the recording and some of the history behind this highly anticipated release. Listen now.

Catch Up with Brian Wilson and the Legend of Smile:
Here are a few lists to help unravel the stories and sounds of Smile.

• Essential Brian Wilson CDs
• Essential Brian Wilson DVDs
• Essential Brian Wilson books

Product Description

Smile is inarguably the most long-awaited album in modern pop history. It's been more than 37 years since the title first appeared on a label release schedule, intended as the January 1967 follow-up to the groundbreaking art-rock of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. But Smile never made its initial release date. Today, this album is not a mere reconstruction of past performances, but something entirely new, a serious summation of a project that has been gestating for nearly four decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Brian! An unqualified masterpiece.., October 8, 2004

By 

H. Laser (Left Coast) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smile (Audio CD)

In the "Tribute Concert to Brian Wilson" on DVD, released a couple of years ago, Sir George Martin took the stage and narrated a short film about how Brian Wilson was the biggest influence (and challenge) to The Beatles. How they were blown away when they heard "Pet Sounds." (Paul McCartney has called "God Only Knows" the greatest song ever written.. ) ..

He talked about how it took his own combined talents as their producer, the writing talents of Lennon and McCartney, and the instrumental virtuosity of all four Beatles to create their records, but Brian Wilson did ALL of that for the Beach Boys.. wrote the songs, arranged them, sang them, played instruments and ran the board during production and editing. What George Martin was saying was that it took him and all four Beatles to do what Brian could do alone.

Now who am I to argue with Sir George. As much as I love and adore The Beatles' music, he was right. I can almost picture John and Paul sitting slack jawed when they first heared "Pet Sounds." To which they answered with "Revolver" to which Brian was going to answer with "Smile" but then.. you know the rest.

The catch phrase going around about "Smile" is "Imagine if Sgt. Pepper had been shelved and released 37 years later." It is a very apt and fitting description of the feeling, the tears of joy, that any fan of Brian's will get when they play this album.

Of course, Carl and Dennis are deeply missed, and yes, Brian, now 62 years old, doesn't have that soaring falsetto he had forty years ago (on the same DVD I mentioned above, a must-buy if you are a true fan, Vince Gill performs "Warmth of the Sun" and the high falsettos in "Surf's Up" and he was chosen for that concert, specifically to sing those songs, because his crystalline pure falsetto can reach those notes that Brian can't any more..) ..

The Wondermints, Brian's new band, totally get it. I'm not sure if anyone totally gets Brian, but it's evident that he has a band of guys half his age who are totally devoted to him to the point of worship, and their goal was to do his songs justice. And that is what they've done.

Brian's wife, Melinda has described many times the inner demons that still haunt him, even on stage. The man has gone through some fundamentally sad, tragic, near-fatal periods of total suffering in his life, and for him to emerge from all that's happened to him, decide to revive "Smile" and release an album this beautiful is nothing less than unbelievable.

Sure I have various bootlegs of the 37 year old tapes. What true fan doesn't? And yes, it would be nice to have a companion piece to this new recording made from those original tapes. I wonder what the dolts at Capitol Records think of watching what might have been their album soar to #1 on a little Warners' house label like Nonesuch..

But let's not get bitter here.. the album is, afterall, "Smile" and that's what it will make you do. The music is not always easy. It might take a couple of listens, but it just goes to show again that a true artist is always ahead of his audience, not the other way around. A truly talented artist challenges his audience, whatever medium he works in. Think about it, it's 2004, and this is 1967 music that's still ahead of its audience :) ..

I can only chalk up some of the negative reviews of "Smile" found here to folks who simply are too young to know what 1967 was like. It was, IMO, simply the year of the best pop and rock music ever released. If you were there, if you were in High School or College back then and buying records, you know what I mean. One masterpiece after another came out that year. Maybe we Boomers wouldn't have understood Smile if it had been released in 1967. Sgt. Pepper's is much more accessible music. Smile pushes you to think. It's complex. Challenging. It's as revolutionarily brilliant as George Gershwin's music was in the 1920s. Eighty years later, people can still enjoy and revel in "Rhapsody in Blue" or "An American in Paris." They're still played and new recordings of them are still released.

"Smile" is like that. This is music that people will be listening to, enjoying, and talking about for many years.

Calling Brian a genius is doing him an injustice. We're plain lucky tha he's still around, and could give us "Smile".. it's joy, and leagues and light years ahead of most of what passes for music these days. If it doesn't click for you, put on some good headphones and listen to it seriously, block out distractions, and try to understand where this music came from, and who it came from.

On the last page of the booklet that accompanies the jewel case in the beautiful white textured slipcase, Brian dedicates "Smile" to all his fans who waited so many years for it.

Brian, it was worth the wait. It's beautiful. Thank you!

66 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterstroke, September 28, 2004

By 

R. S. Osborne (Gainesville, FLORIDA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smile (Audio CD)

When the original SMiLE sessions were taking place, it was whispered that the material was far too bizarre to be released. The audience just wouldn't get it. In retrospect, the album that was (and now the album that is) was light-years ahead of its time. With so many artists having been influenced by the bits and pieces of the original SMiLE that have been lovingly put back together in true humpty-dumpty fashion, it turns out that the album that never was actually was a watershed moment in music history. Just take a listen to bands such as The Fiery Furnaces, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Flaming Lips, Dungen, The Shins, All Night Radio...the list goes on. Those bits and pieces of SMiLE gestated and gave birth to these bands, and without SMiLE and its predecessor Pet Sounds, these bands would arguably not even exist.

However, The Beach Boys' SMiLE is a fragile document of what could have been. Until now. When I first heard that Brian Wilson was going to RE-RECORD the album, I almost lost it. I thought "How could he? This will be an embarrassment and will ruin what little we have of the original, sung through post-millennia filter that will cloud Brian Wilson's vision!" Boy, was I wrong. This is not a reproduction. It is a pure and unadulterated channeling of those original sessions as if they were directly tapped through some break in the space/time continuum. This is not SMiLE redux, this IS SMiLE. Arguably, Brian's Voice lost a touch or two in the intervening decades (!), but still sounds terrific. And the backup band The Wondermints recreate the sound of "what could have been" flawlessly. Although it isn't Mike Love and Carl Wilson singing harmonies, that does not matter much. This is Brian and Van Dyke's album. It always was.

So, when all is said and done, the album that could have been is the album that is. It is the album of a career, and one of the best albums of our lifetime. For this effort at least, Humpty Dumpty truly has been put back together again.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hear 'SMiLE' with an open mind and fill your heart, December 5, 2004

By 

STEVEN THORPE "new SMiLEr" (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smile (Audio CD)

Though no youngster, I've come to the music of Brian Wilson very lately; only really aware of the Beach Boys bigger hits. Word of a fabulous 'lost' album had barely filtered through other late 20th century distractions;
'Pet Sounds' (I'm ashamed to say) was one of those classic list-topping records that I still hadn't gotten round to buying. A SMiLE-addicted friend and a semi-drunken conversation ignited this latent spark, and so last Friday I bought both SMiLE and Pet Sounds, and taking advantage of an empty household over the weekend, have gorged myself on these aural banquets. I look forward to feasting on them for many years to come.
I think I have an advantage over a lot of the other reviewers here, in that both albums are brand new to me and don't come with the historical baggage that seems to mire a lot of devoted Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fans; who on reading quite a lot of the reviews here seem to have invested too much emotion and time into the SMiLE myth. I hear these songs as the simply heart-stoppingly gorgeous creations they are.
Brian's voice is still a beautiful instrument, I disagree that it has been slightly dulled by the years and the songs just make me ache. I'm going to buy all my friends SMiLE this Christmas and myself the rest of the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys back catalogue. Everybody deserves SMiLE!!