Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE

There is a lot of back story to this release, it was started in 1966, as a Beach Boys album follow up to the amazing Pet Sounds album,  a lot of work was done on it and it was abandoned in 1967. It's primary architect Brian Wilson then went into artistic and personal decline suffering from depression, mental illness, he went very low, but staggeringly he came back, started touring, recording and eventually completed SMiLE first for live concert and then recorded it in 2004 38 years after it was started, and recently they released the original Beach Boys session tapes.

This album is unique, it is a pop masterwork of breath taking intensity and musical richness. To me it doesn't stand as part of any genre in pop music, it has no near relatives, it is the work of an incredibly gifted artist (and his collaborators).

Brian initially described it as a "teenage symphony to God" and Humour was an important part of it. This album was to be constructed from musical snippets, like a tapestry strung together, a friend of Brian's described it "if Pet Sounds was his Blue period, then SMiLE was his cubist period". Brian wanted a creative lyricist to match his musical vision and uncannily found the perfect partner with Van Dyke Parks. They wanted the work to have a visionary/mythological character exploring the American dream which in the late 60's was beginning to unravel.

This recording groups the songs/sections into three suites.

Suite One

Our Prayer - Probably the most beautiful A cappella piece Brian ever wrote, it serves as a prayer and invocation a declaration of high artistry, this moves into

Gee - a short cover snippet announcing that there is going to be fun and silliness too, which moves into...

Heroes and Villains - This is one of the Wilson/Parks classics, ostensibly a song, but it has so many sections, variations, changes, pauses, exclamations, there are dense musical textures, single instruments or spoken voice, and even so they all flow effortlessly into one another. Van Dyke's lyrics are abstract, I don't think you should get hung up on trying to work out exactly what they mean, because I think he is trying to convey images and multiple meanings but this song is basically a western. By having the lyrics abstract they retain a musicality and can be revisited over and over again without them becoming flat or prosaic. For me Brian's aged voice, in 1966 he had the most gorgeous falsetto, adds the right ambience of age and time to convey the sense of the huge North American continent, it's battering adds a richness, pathos and maturity to the work which would have been lacking if it came out in 1966.

Then we get the timpani drums making a bridge to the next song snippet "Roll Plymouth Rock" and here we get the idea of a travelogue across USA from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii. Also worth saying here although it was obvious from the start that this is an album that makes unapologetic use of the recording studio, cuts, fades, effects, they are all part of the tapestry...

Then into "Barnyard" humour is the predominant element here with band members all making animal noises and the song a delightful twisting dance in the barnyard amongst the animals...

This goes into "Old Master Painter/You are My Sunshine" a famous cover, it lurches downward and has an unsettling sadness in it but ends with a comic trumpet, which still has something of the tears of a clown about it.

Then into the final track of the first suite "Cabin Essence" this is another major song and features the steam locomotive making its way across the vast plains, a lonely cabin and fields of corn and wheat uncovered over and over by the crow cries.

This first section has sketched out the vast spaces of the USA with a touch of nostalgia.

Suite Two

This section focuses on childhood, the growth of the individual from innocence to decadence or maturity. And opens with the aptly titled "Wonderful" this song has a fairy tale quality to it, an enchanted music box, it is another major song but it has a very small feeling about it and is full of tenderness and delicacy.

"Song for the children" and "Child is the Father of the Man" are closely connected works, there is a muted trumpet that forms a strong image in the next song...

Surfs Up, the final song in this suite and this is another great song, one of Brian's very best, the lyrics make up a gorgeous tapestry, the development of art and culture and the possibility of its collapse. This is the only song where I really miss Brian's 1966 voice, he handles it admirably with a little help from Jeffrey Foskett, luckily there there is a version with Brian and Carl singing and it can be appreciated as a stand alone song.

Suite Three

This features the elements songs for Earth, Wind, Fire and Water but it seems to me the most disparate of the suites, it is a real joy, but features no major songs as i am not counting Good Vibrations which to me doesn't seem to be part of the suite but rather a coda to the album.

I"m in Great Shape - a charming introduction that dissolves into "Workshop" which has a short romantic snippet and then sounds of building, sawing, hammering, power tools and into

Vegetables - this to me is his greatest humour song a real delightful appreciation of eating vegetables, including the sounds of celery being bitten with nice load crunching sounds. The song ends with a fabulous A Capella section and then into. This song represents the element of earth (I think)

"On a Holiday" complete with pirates playing up also includes some great tuned percussion and we get to Hawaii where their queen "Lilluola Kalani sings for us.

Wind Chimes - Which starts as a beautiful restful piece and represents the element of air. i love this song, it explodes into large vocal and instrumental patterns, then contracts, it leads us on a merry dance until...

"Mrs O'Leary's Cow", who was supposed to have started the great fire of Chicago, this is obviously the Fire element and it starts with a comic kids version with toots and whistles before it lurches into a pretty scary piece of music that won Brian his only Grammy award for best instrumental, the strings make sirens and the drumming is relentless after this we need some...

Water, this element is represented by "in Blue Hawaii" this song fabulously cools us off and really ends our journey at the outer edge of the US territory then we have a partial reprise of Our Prayer which began the album.

Then a coda which states what we need are "Good Vibrations", this song is a great variation on the song we all know so well, it reverts to earlier version of lyrics which are more zany and more interior "she's already working on my brain" and fit better with the tenor of the album that it is closing. There are also a few extra sections that you don't hear on the original single, a fitting celebration a great song to end a great album.

Have I conveyed how much I love this album? I hope so.

The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Mono)

My big three pop/rock albums are Sgt Pepper, Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE and Yes -Close to the Edge. I will write a blog on each album, so first Sgt Pepper.

My older brother had a stereo copy of this on lp and I must have been 11 or twelve when I listened to this, the Beatles had already broken up, but I entered the place this album created and saw it for the wonderland it truly is.

I love the Beatles, there is something alchemical about them, they took many influences from their time and transformed them into something new, something that the whole world fell in love with. They changed our lives, touched our hearts and took us on a breath taking journey of change. Each of the members of the band sing and each seems to add an essential element of an incredible whole. For me Sgt Pepper is the high point, everything was working together, it is positive, colourful and richly imaginative. I only want to play this album if I can sit down and give it my full attention and when i do it richly repays me.

Since getting the remastered Mono Beatles box set I only listen to the mono version of this album. The stereo version has that weird channel separation, with different instruments coming from different speakers. The mono one has it all fused together which sounds much better. The Beatles also oversaw the mix of the Mono version, they left the stereo for George Martin and one track "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is much better on the mono mix. It is criminal that you can't buy the mono version as a stand alone CD.

The album opens with the orchestra tuning up audience sounds and into the title track announcing that they ARE Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and that you have entered a bold psychedelic alternate universe that is this one transformed infused with charm character and good will. This song works as a framing device for the album, as Paul McCartney said, by being this other band they were freed to write songs that weren't their own.  It's a joyful rocker it ends with more crowd noise and the announcement of Billy Shears ...

With a Little Help From My Friends is sung by Ringo, and it is so obviously designed for him and became one of his great signature tunes. How did John and Paul do this? Write a song that so fittingly played by Ringo? By this stage they had all spent a lot of time together and were extremely close and it shows. This song is loveable, slightly downcast,  and has those mysterious killer lines "what do you see when you turn out the light...I can't tell you but i know it's mine"

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds already we're starting to appreciate something about this album, the first three songs are completely different from one another and yet there is an absolute inevitability about them, This album is chock full of colourful characters and story telling which is perfectly reflected in its iconic montage cover. Lucy starts with one of the most beautifully simple keyboard figures played and composed by Paul on a Lowrey organ that sounds like a harpishord. This is the psychedelic song par excellence and while the stereo version seemed like an almost excellent song, the mono version is THE THING. The Beatles added some phasing (a popular psychedelic recording treatment) to the chorus vocals and it just makes all the difference, the stereo version is recorded to dry for such a psychedelic song. John wrote most of the song, it's chock full of images he was inspired by a picture by his son Julian, Alice in Wonderland and surely the LCD he was taking at the time. And when he sings "picture yourself in a boat on a river..." I do, this is music to take you gently to the centre of your mind. Just fantastic!

Getting Better, a Paul song, slightly throw away but joyful, some bad stuff has happened but hey look up be optimistic its getting better.

Fixing a Hole, this is great, Paul's wandering bass, inspired by the bass lines from the Beach Boys Pet sounds, infact sonically that album had a big impact on Sgt Pepper in seeking the Beatles to extend their sonic pallet. I love this song I like the title I like him painting his room in a colourful way. Thoroughly charming.

She's Leaving home, another Paul song and one of his story songs, this album is full of these little pocket novels. This song deals with the generation gap in such a gentle way, with somewhat sentimental strings. And yes it steals my heart.

And then THE CIRCUS! Fantastic lyrics from a 19th century circus poster and John said to George Martin, I want to smell the sawdust and you can. By this time in the album my appreciation and gratitude is enormous and so ends side one of the original LP.

Within You and Without You sits in the centre of the album at the start of side two and give the album philosophy and weight, it combines calmness, seriousness & Indian and European instrumentation. "We were talking about the Love we all could share...Try to realise its all within yourself...and the people who gain the world and lose their soul" This song is the first great song by George, then to lighten the tone there is a little laughing and the music hall song

When I'm Sixty-Four, again a song spanning the generation gap. Fabulously arranged. Another song to make you Smile and another story song

And yet another Lovely Rita, people often got annoyed at these parking wardens who give them tickets, but Paul says why not love them, the lines "took her home I nearly made it, sitting on a sofa with a sister or two" are just brilliant, Paul could be a really excellent lyricist sometimes... the song ends with a strange piano vamp and ...

a cock crow "Good Morning" full of influences from John's television, this song has amazing time signatures governed by speech rhythms, I'm not sure if John was trying hard to be innovative it just seemed to come naturally to him... the song ends with a whole lot of animal noises which merge perfectly into the guitar ..

Sgt Pepper Reprise, this time sung by John and announcing that we're coming to the end. Just so clever a perfect framing device for a perfectly constructed album and onto the last song

A Day in the Life, what a way to end the album, I can't do this song justice it is a 5 minute epic with spine tingling melancholy, orchestral orgasm, a morning sequence by Paul ... and...and... what can i say? That final chord and drinking up the last bit of sound

... and the final inner groove snippet.

There you have it, every time I hear this album I'm moved. It is a cultural watershed and an artistic triumph, the Beatles at their best.

Introduction

I will use this blog to write about music that has got under my skin, that has had a profound and lasting impact upon me. I was around 9 years old when music first made an impact upon me and since that time, I have always felt a strong need to listen to music, its a compulsion, the best times for me are in the evening, I will turn out the light, put some music on and just listen. I like beauty in my music, i like light, I like music to take me to a good place, for me music should open the door of consciousness a little wider and give me that sense of innate recognition, of coming home. Music and art for me is increasingly about vision, it is life affirming, it is joy. Inspiration and imagination are spiritual qualities that help us to see.