Brian Wilson's Smile...

keith allen
keith allen Posts: 734
edited January 2005 in Music & Movies
WTF is that,I got it for Christmas,I threw it in with great anticipation...and ohhh the horroh!Its awful he shoulda waited another 38 years to release it!
Post edited by keith allen on

Comments

  • Demiurge
    Demiurge Posts: 10,874
    edited December 2004
    Originally posted by keith allen
    WTF is that,I got it for Christmas,I threw it in with great anticipation...and ohhh the horroh!Its awful he shoulda waited another 38 years to release it!

    It's one of the best releases of the year, by far.
  • keith allen
    keith allen Posts: 734
    edited December 2004
    I'll play it again...I just dont get what he was trying to do here
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited December 2004
    One of my favorite albums.

    If you don't like it, then you don't like it, that's what music is all about. Give it another couple spins, and make another decision.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited December 2004
    Mark, how about explaining some of the history behind this album, and the prior - and what other bands it affected.

    The historical signifigance is HUGE. Sgt Pepper anyone?

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
  • hoosier21
    hoosier21 Posts: 4,413
    edited December 2004
    Send it my way Keith :D
    Dodd - Battery Preamp
    Monarchy Audio SE100 Delux - mono power amps
    Sony DVP-NS999ES - SACD player
    ADS 1230 - Polk SDA 2B
    DIY Stereo Subwoofer towers w/(4) 12 drivers each
    Crown K1 - Subwoofer amp
    Outlaw ICBM - crossover
    Beringher BFD - sub eq

    Where is the remote? Where is the $%#$% remote!

    "I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the most of us have...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad..."
  • Shell
    Shell Posts: 134
    edited January 2005
    Mark, how about explaining some of the history behind this album, and the prior - and what other bands it affected.

    The historical signifigance is HUGE. Sgt Pepper anyone?
    I would like to read this.
  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited January 2005
    wasn't he in one of those hoppie bands like the Beach Boys or something???:D

    Really though...

    I agree with Mark, give it another listen, a couple more maybe. I've often found that if I listen to something several times, I'll ultimately end up liking it becuase I can usually find something about most music that I like...that's typically the case.

    Having said that...I've listened to this album several times and still don't like it. This is odd for me, because I'm not much of a mainstream music person myself, and usually like stuff like this that is a bit odd...
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited January 2005
    Sorry missed the earlier comment. What's wild about the whole thing, to me at least, IS the history.

    To make a long story short.....Rubber Soul begat Pet Sounds begat Sgt. Peppers begat Smile. The album was written in the late 60's....and never completed untill the current release.

    George Martin and McCartney have stated that Sgt. Pepper's would never have been made had it not been for Pet Sounds....and Brian has said the same about Smile in relation to Sgt. Pepper's.

    If you don't "get" Smile....then you must not "get" the aforementioned albums either, and that would be a real shame musically.

    The composition and layers, of the tracks on this album are fantastic.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
  • Shell
    Shell Posts: 134
    edited January 2005
    To make a long story short.....Rubber Soul begat Pet Sounds begat Sgt. Peppers begat Smile. The album was written in the late 60's....and never completed untill the current release.
    I see. I knew about the influence that the Beatles had on Brian Wilson and to some extent Brian Wilson had on Paul McCartney (not so much on John Lennon), but what I did not know was that smile was written in the 60's. I thought it was all new material.

    To be honest I never liked surfing music all that much, so if the album is that type of music I probably would not like it. The Beatles on the other hand are still great, although Peppers has not aged musically as well as some of the other Beatles albums.
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited January 2005
    I wouldn't call it surf music, but it still has a Beach Boy's "feel" to it.

    If it HAD influenced Lennon, he would have never met Yoko Ono.....and that would have been fantastic.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited January 2005
    it's definitely not surfing music...
  • Shell
    Shell Posts: 134
    edited January 2005
    If it HAD influenced Lennon, he would have never met Yoko Ono.....and that would have been fantastic.
    True but then we would have missed out on all those wonderful songs of Ono on the double fantasy album.:rolleyes:

    I just read some history on the Smile album. Truely amazing that his fellow beach boy cronies ruined the release of the album and Brian to some extent. I think after doing some reading I will buy the cd and see what all the fuss is about.Great review
    As a whole, SMiLE evokes the structure of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and the freewheeling pop inventiveness of Sgt. Pepper’s. The Beatles’ musical masterpiece is part of what drove Brian Wilson mad: with SMiLE, he was trying not only to expand upon the sounds he’d created in Pet Sounds but also to one-up the Beatles, with whom he had a friendly rivalry.
  • Demiurge
    Demiurge Posts: 10,874
    edited January 2005
    I just read some history on the Smile album. Truely amazing that his fellow beach boy cronies ruined the release of the album and Brian to some extent. I think after doing some reading I will buy the cd and see what all the fuss is about.Great review

    Brian was ruined while he was writing SMiLE. This is coming from someone who considers Brian Wilson to be a musical hero. His voice is simply amazing and I've always loved the vocal harmonies with the Beach Boys.

    Brian Wilson is a complete nutcase now. Out of his mind. That's what drugs will do to you and they have a lot to do with what SMiLE is. I have the original copy of SMiLE (Which was finished a long time ago) if anyone wants it sometime send me an IM.
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited January 2005
    "Smiley Smile" was the early release was it not? and not the same as this album.

    Pieces of the original were in other albums, but never as a whole.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
  • Demiurge
    Demiurge Posts: 10,874
    edited January 2005
    Originally posted by dorokusai
    "Smiley Smile" was the early release was it not? and not the same as this album.

    Pieces of the original were in other albums, but never as a whole.

    Yes, it was, you're right to an extent. Brian redid everything for this release, and truthfully I liked the original more...only for the fact that his voice was so much better. That's not something I would hold against him at all because it's only the nature of things.

    You're right it wasn't 'complete' but what 'complete' is only reigns relevant in the mind of the artist.

    This album is great and it's too bad that things went down the way they did. How this could have altered or did alter music history is one of the most amazing aspects of it all.
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited January 2005
    I understand what you're saying, and I agree on your additional comments. You can hear his strange stroke/drug induced voice clearly on the newer version....and his voice on the original is very different.

    Count me in as a fan.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
  • Demiurge
    Demiurge Posts: 10,874
    edited January 2005
    :D

    Watch the Beach Boys - Endless Harmony DVD if you get the chance, it's uhhh....interesting. ;)
  • Shell
    Shell Posts: 134
    edited January 2005
    Yes, it was, you're right to an extent. Brian redid everything for this release, and truthfully I liked the original more...only for the fact that his voice was so much better. That's not something I would hold against him at all because it's only the nature of things.
    After doing some reading it appears that Carl Wilson did most of the singing on the first work.
  • Demiurge
    Demiurge Posts: 10,874
    edited January 2005
  • TroyD
    TroyD Posts: 13,077
    edited January 2005
    Originally posted by keith allen
    WTF is that,I got it for Christmas,I threw it in with great anticipation...and ohhh the horroh!Its awful he shoulda waited another 38 years to release it!

    Trade ya a copy of PF's Momentary Lapse of Reason for it ;)

    It's been on my short list of things I want, thought I'd get it for Christmas (but didn't) and every time I walk into a music store, I do a complete brain dump and forget all the ones that I keep saying I'm going to buy, like Smile.

    Agree about John not hooking up with Yoko. ****.

    BDT
    I plan for the future. - F1Nut
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited January 2005
    Troy, I already have it for you actually....it was supposed to go out before Christmas....it will go out this week.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.