AKA
09-04-2003, 12:44 AM
Beach Boys are all set to Smile again.
By Kathryn Spencer, Julie Carpenter and Kate Bohdanowicz
The Express
It's been the longest wait in music history but, after 35 years, the three remaining Beach Boys are finally set to release their lost masterpiece, the album Smile, which was recorded in 1967. That was at the height of the group's fame, shortly after the release of the legendary Pet Sounds album, which inspired the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Blighted by the increasing drug abuse and paranoia of the group's creative force, Brian Wilson, Smile never saw the light of day but now industry insiders say the Beach Boys' record company, Capitol, will release the album next year to coincide with Wilson performing it in its entirety for the first time.
"It's a lost masterpiece. It'll be fascinating to hear it after all this time, " says our man with the surfboard. "It's going to be one of the most exciting events since the Beatles put out their unreleased stuff a few years back."
Wilson, 61, is one of the surviving band members, along with Mike Love and Al Jardine. Brian, whose brothers Carl and Dennis have since died and whose "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls" are two of his many classic songs, had ambitious plans for Smile, declaring that it would be a "teenage symphony to God".
During its bizarre recording sessions he forced his backing orchestra to wear firemen's helmets for the track Fire and ordered the studio to be filled with sand so he would feel as if he was on a beach.
"Some say Brian heard Sgt. Pepper at the time and decided he couldn't compete with it, causing the album not to be released, " says rock biographer Keith Badman, who is writing a book about Wilson.
While Smile's nonrelease coincided with a downturn in Wilson's creative output and his descent into mental illness, drugs and junk food, recent years have seen him return to form, with critically acclaimed gigs.
A Capitol spokesman admits that the "project is still in the development stage" and Badman believes Beach Boys fans will not be disappointed.
"Smile is an unreleased classic, " he says. "Everyone will be comparing it with Pet Sounds, which is regularly voted the greatest album ever, but there are also some great songs on Smile."
Adds Beatles author Keith Badman (at Abbeyrd's Beatle News Briefs (http://www.best.com/~abbeyrd)):
There's a lot of truth to that Express story about Smile. As you know, I'm working on a book about The Beach Boys and I thought an official 40th Anniversary DVD would be great to tie in with everything. So I contacted my guy at EMI and he told me (off the record) that a Smile box set is being planned (though far from being finalised). When I was contacted by a reporter for The Express for a quote, I was told by the journalist that he had spoken to EMI and they basically confirmed to him that a release of Smile (in one version or another) will be out to coincide with Brian's tour next February.
Further to my last quote, Steve, I'd think it only fair to point out that, just like The Beatles, The Beach Boys are surrounded by politics, and, regardless of what The Express reporter told me, I feel that the release of Smile is still not guaranteed. As I said, my chap at EMI insinuated that plans for a box are "far from being finalised", which means it could fall down at any time. The promise of the legendary unreleased Beach Boys album seeing an official release has been occurring almost every five years since 1972 (five years after it was originally pencilled in for release) and still it's not here. But with Brian's Smile tour beginning next February, perhaps it will mean an official release for the album? Who knows? Stranger things have happened.
By Kathryn Spencer, Julie Carpenter and Kate Bohdanowicz
The Express
It's been the longest wait in music history but, after 35 years, the three remaining Beach Boys are finally set to release their lost masterpiece, the album Smile, which was recorded in 1967. That was at the height of the group's fame, shortly after the release of the legendary Pet Sounds album, which inspired the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Blighted by the increasing drug abuse and paranoia of the group's creative force, Brian Wilson, Smile never saw the light of day but now industry insiders say the Beach Boys' record company, Capitol, will release the album next year to coincide with Wilson performing it in its entirety for the first time.
"It's a lost masterpiece. It'll be fascinating to hear it after all this time, " says our man with the surfboard. "It's going to be one of the most exciting events since the Beatles put out their unreleased stuff a few years back."
Wilson, 61, is one of the surviving band members, along with Mike Love and Al Jardine. Brian, whose brothers Carl and Dennis have since died and whose "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls" are two of his many classic songs, had ambitious plans for Smile, declaring that it would be a "teenage symphony to God".
During its bizarre recording sessions he forced his backing orchestra to wear firemen's helmets for the track Fire and ordered the studio to be filled with sand so he would feel as if he was on a beach.
"Some say Brian heard Sgt. Pepper at the time and decided he couldn't compete with it, causing the album not to be released, " says rock biographer Keith Badman, who is writing a book about Wilson.
While Smile's nonrelease coincided with a downturn in Wilson's creative output and his descent into mental illness, drugs and junk food, recent years have seen him return to form, with critically acclaimed gigs.
A Capitol spokesman admits that the "project is still in the development stage" and Badman believes Beach Boys fans will not be disappointed.
"Smile is an unreleased classic, " he says. "Everyone will be comparing it with Pet Sounds, which is regularly voted the greatest album ever, but there are also some great songs on Smile."
Adds Beatles author Keith Badman (at Abbeyrd's Beatle News Briefs (http://www.best.com/~abbeyrd)):
There's a lot of truth to that Express story about Smile. As you know, I'm working on a book about The Beach Boys and I thought an official 40th Anniversary DVD would be great to tie in with everything. So I contacted my guy at EMI and he told me (off the record) that a Smile box set is being planned (though far from being finalised). When I was contacted by a reporter for The Express for a quote, I was told by the journalist that he had spoken to EMI and they basically confirmed to him that a release of Smile (in one version or another) will be out to coincide with Brian's tour next February.
Further to my last quote, Steve, I'd think it only fair to point out that, just like The Beatles, The Beach Boys are surrounded by politics, and, regardless of what The Express reporter told me, I feel that the release of Smile is still not guaranteed. As I said, my chap at EMI insinuated that plans for a box are "far from being finalised", which means it could fall down at any time. The promise of the legendary unreleased Beach Boys album seeing an official release has been occurring almost every five years since 1972 (five years after it was originally pencilled in for release) and still it's not here. But with Brian's Smile tour beginning next February, perhaps it will mean an official release for the album? Who knows? Stranger things have happened.