Look! Listen!
Sep. 20th, 2004 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistThis afternoon, apropos of nothing, Andrew said, "If I had been told eighteen months ago that Smile was going to be released, I'd have laughed until I choked to death."
If I had been told eighteen months—or even eighteen weeks—ago that Smile was going to be released, I would've said, "What?"
I had a hard time explaining to my friends and family how excited I was to see a Brian Wilson concert in July, and how much I'd liked it. They knew I'd never talked about Brian Wilson or had much of a thing for the Beach Boys (I like Pet Sounds, but everybody likes Pet Sounds) before. I haven't found a way to explain it very well, but Andrew has.
Smile was supposed to be the Beach Boys' follow-up to Pet Sounds. But it was never finished, it just became a legendary "lost" album. Much of the music later saw release in some form, but Smile itself remained this mysterious, promising, terribly interesting thing for people to speculate, argue and fantasize about. After a couple of those Beach Boys died and the rest ceased having anything to do with each other, after Brian Wilson struggled mightily with mental problems ... thirty-seven years after Smile's inception, Brian Wilson toured the UK doing a suite based on it in February of this year (and then again this summer, when we saw him).
This really short version doesn't quite convey the reaction this got. I'm hardly able to describe it anyway. I'm a newb. I hadn't even heard of Smile until Andrew started telling me about it, a couple of months after everybody'd seen it the first time. So when he knew I was coming to the gig in July, he could (and did) tell me exactly how it would all go: what songs would be played when, how Smile sounds these days, what passes for "banter" with these people on stage ... I felt vaccinated with Smile.
It worked. Andrew was proud to notice that the songs I sang along with at the concert were not the surf-pop songs I've known from infancy, but "Vegetables" and "Wind Chimes" and the alternate-lyric version of "Good Vibrations."
I'm weird in that I don't have the long-standing relationship with this music that most of Smile's fans do. When I heard the single version of "Wonderful" I smiled a lot because it's a great song, but frowned at the end. "That song isn't supposed to end!" I couldn't help but say. Smile isn't a collection of songs, it's a piece of music. When it was scrapped that music was made into several good songs ... I just wasn't used to them. I was used to the new-and-improved Smile experience, a three-movement wonder. Every time I say something like that, Andrew reminds me "Before last February, nobody thought that"—a bit like an adult trying to get a kid to appreciate cars or TV or the Internet by saying, "Back in my day, we didn't have such things!"
The Guardian asked some famous people what they thought of Smile's release, and they mostly said things that made me want to shout at the computer. What wasn't purely negative was patronising, even less informed than I am, or complimentary in a back-handed sort of way. It's hard to find good examples—I just want to copy big paragraphs so I can throw things at them—but the general consensus seems to be that Smile might have been nice once but is tacky now, or that it should've been released as a Beach Boys thing instead of with Brian's new band, or that it's all right if you don't expect it to make sense—nothing to make a big deal of, really.
I remember Andrew talking to a friend of his about how the events of the intervening thirty-seven years make parts of Smile more meaningful, not less, because it's sung by this aged and fragile man and not the twenty-something who conceived it so long ago, and my limited experience with Brian Wilson and his music concurs with that. It's not pointless to release it now. It doesn't mean what it would've been if it'd ben finished in 1967, but that doesn't make it meaningless. The fact that I am writing this argues to the contrary. I'm very new to Smile, but I love it. I feel good listening to it; it makes me happy. I can see how the people who have debated, fantasized, and debated about it for less-than-or-equal-to 37 years might have an opinion differing from mine, and they're entitled to it, but as long as it has appeal to new fans, what's wrong with it existing as a "new" album?
It's ironic that some of these same people say Smile should have stayed a Beach Boys album. The state of the Beach Boys is not such that it'd fool anyone into thinking that this was a proper album by them, and constructing it of the existing tapes and wacky modern digital magic would surely make it the pathetic relic that these people claim it is now. Brian's current band are obviously good at what they do and just as obviously fond of this music. Darian Sanahaja (who has a cool name, cool hair, and a cool job—he's "musical secretary"; he put together the stuff the band would be playing on the Smile tour). Probyn Gregory can play anything (and does, for about half a dozen different bands). I could go on like this for a while.
The last point, a particularly annoying misrepresentation of Smile, looked like this in its original form: "It's a piece for fans, and lovers of pop who are brave enough to free up their hearts and embrace this at a purely sensory level without really wanting to make sense of it. If you can bear to drop the reins, and you must, you may be swept away." That makes Smile sound like some dopey, New-Age, stupid thing. Smile is actually about things. The first movement, I learn from something else written by Andrew, is "Americana," the second is "Childhood," and the third is "The Elements." I'm not going to bother explaining in more detail, because I've already written a lot here, and Andrew does it better anyway. But if you don't think it's about anything, you aren't listening.
Just now Andrew asked me where the Smile bootleg he'd been listening to while he takes his baths recently had disappeared to. I had it down here; I'd been listening to it this morning before he woke up. I took it upstairs and he put it in its case and said, "I'm glad to see you're getting into Smile." I smiled, but he couldn't see me. "It's a good thing to get into." He doesn't know I've been writing this all afternoon.
If I had been told eighteen months—or even eighteen weeks—ago that Smile was going to be released, I would've said, "What?"
I had a hard time explaining to my friends and family how excited I was to see a Brian Wilson concert in July, and how much I'd liked it. They knew I'd never talked about Brian Wilson or had much of a thing for the Beach Boys (I like Pet Sounds, but everybody likes Pet Sounds) before. I haven't found a way to explain it very well, but Andrew has.
Smile was supposed to be the Beach Boys' follow-up to Pet Sounds. But it was never finished, it just became a legendary "lost" album. Much of the music later saw release in some form, but Smile itself remained this mysterious, promising, terribly interesting thing for people to speculate, argue and fantasize about. After a couple of those Beach Boys died and the rest ceased having anything to do with each other, after Brian Wilson struggled mightily with mental problems ... thirty-seven years after Smile's inception, Brian Wilson toured the UK doing a suite based on it in February of this year (and then again this summer, when we saw him).
This really short version doesn't quite convey the reaction this got. I'm hardly able to describe it anyway. I'm a newb. I hadn't even heard of Smile until Andrew started telling me about it, a couple of months after everybody'd seen it the first time. So when he knew I was coming to the gig in July, he could (and did) tell me exactly how it would all go: what songs would be played when, how Smile sounds these days, what passes for "banter" with these people on stage ... I felt vaccinated with Smile.
It worked. Andrew was proud to notice that the songs I sang along with at the concert were not the surf-pop songs I've known from infancy, but "Vegetables" and "Wind Chimes" and the alternate-lyric version of "Good Vibrations."
I'm weird in that I don't have the long-standing relationship with this music that most of Smile's fans do. When I heard the single version of "Wonderful" I smiled a lot because it's a great song, but frowned at the end. "That song isn't supposed to end!" I couldn't help but say. Smile isn't a collection of songs, it's a piece of music. When it was scrapped that music was made into several good songs ... I just wasn't used to them. I was used to the new-and-improved Smile experience, a three-movement wonder. Every time I say something like that, Andrew reminds me "Before last February, nobody thought that"—a bit like an adult trying to get a kid to appreciate cars or TV or the Internet by saying, "Back in my day, we didn't have such things!"
The Guardian asked some famous people what they thought of Smile's release, and they mostly said things that made me want to shout at the computer. What wasn't purely negative was patronising, even less informed than I am, or complimentary in a back-handed sort of way. It's hard to find good examples—I just want to copy big paragraphs so I can throw things at them—but the general consensus seems to be that Smile might have been nice once but is tacky now, or that it should've been released as a Beach Boys thing instead of with Brian's new band, or that it's all right if you don't expect it to make sense—nothing to make a big deal of, really.
I remember Andrew talking to a friend of his about how the events of the intervening thirty-seven years make parts of Smile more meaningful, not less, because it's sung by this aged and fragile man and not the twenty-something who conceived it so long ago, and my limited experience with Brian Wilson and his music concurs with that. It's not pointless to release it now. It doesn't mean what it would've been if it'd ben finished in 1967, but that doesn't make it meaningless. The fact that I am writing this argues to the contrary. I'm very new to Smile, but I love it. I feel good listening to it; it makes me happy. I can see how the people who have debated, fantasized, and debated about it for less-than-or-equal-to 37 years might have an opinion differing from mine, and they're entitled to it, but as long as it has appeal to new fans, what's wrong with it existing as a "new" album?
It's ironic that some of these same people say Smile should have stayed a Beach Boys album. The state of the Beach Boys is not such that it'd fool anyone into thinking that this was a proper album by them, and constructing it of the existing tapes and wacky modern digital magic would surely make it the pathetic relic that these people claim it is now. Brian's current band are obviously good at what they do and just as obviously fond of this music. Darian Sanahaja (who has a cool name, cool hair, and a cool job—he's "musical secretary"; he put together the stuff the band would be playing on the Smile tour). Probyn Gregory can play anything (and does, for about half a dozen different bands). I could go on like this for a while.
The last point, a particularly annoying misrepresentation of Smile, looked like this in its original form: "It's a piece for fans, and lovers of pop who are brave enough to free up their hearts and embrace this at a purely sensory level without really wanting to make sense of it. If you can bear to drop the reins, and you must, you may be swept away." That makes Smile sound like some dopey, New-Age, stupid thing. Smile is actually about things. The first movement, I learn from something else written by Andrew, is "Americana," the second is "Childhood," and the third is "The Elements." I'm not going to bother explaining in more detail, because I've already written a lot here, and Andrew does it better anyway. But if you don't think it's about anything, you aren't listening.
Just now Andrew asked me where the Smile bootleg he'd been listening to while he takes his baths recently had disappeared to. I had it down here; I'd been listening to it this morning before he woke up. I took it upstairs and he put it in its case and said, "I'm glad to see you're getting into Smile." I smiled, but he couldn't see me. "It's a good thing to get into." He doesn't know I've been writing this all afternoon.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 11:46 am (UTC)My favorite track on the new Brian Wilson album (GIOMH) is the one he did with Van Dyke.......The Waltz. It's loose and fun, and has some to say (lyrically). It engages you on more than one level, which isn't really the case with most of the other songs from that album.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 12:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 01:03 pm (UTC)Where's the thousand words? You only have six hours left.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 01:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 01:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 07:50 pm (UTC)From when are you computing that time; from the time of her post, or from the time of my demand? I was computing from when I commented.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 12:40 am (UTC)By the way, I did start writing about tomatoes last night (at about eleven o'clock), but didn't get to finish because Andrew wanted to watch TV and eat and go to sleep, so we did that instead. You still want it? :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 07:27 am (UTC)You should finish.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-21 07:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 01:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 07:49 pm (UTC)No.