| Author | Message | ||
  douglasm (douglasm) 5-Doyen Username: douglasm Post Number: 187 Registered: 4-2004 |
Has anybody purchased it yet? Or heard the complete CD? I just listened to "Heros and Villans" courtesy NPR, and outside of the fact that Brian sounds like he could sing lead for The Lovin' Spoonful, it's very interesting. I'm asking your opinion doug | ||
Juicefree20 (juicefree20) 6-Zenith Username: juicefree20 Post Number: 2613 Registered: 4-2004 |
Hey Doug! I haven't heard it yet. What are the tracks? I have to say that I did like their harmonies a lot. | ||
douglasm (douglasm) 5-Doyen Username: douglasm Post Number: 189 Registered: 4-2004 |
Ready? Our Playwer/Gee Heros and Villans Roll Plymouth Rock Barnyard Old Man Painter/You Are My Sunshine Cabin Essense Wonderful Song For The Children Child Is The Father To The Man Surfs Up I'm In Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop Vega-Tables On A Holiday Wind Chimes Mrs. O'Leary's Cow In Blue Hawaii Good Vibrations Smile was originally released in a very abreviated form over 3 LP's, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile and Wild Honey. I understand Brian and Van Dyke Parks gathered old tapes of incomplete fragements and between them put together the LP as it should have been had Brian's brain not gone haywire. I heard Heros and Villains on National Public Radio's website... www.npr.org Look for All Songs Considered, click on it, and it will get you to the new version of the song. Also, try www.brianwilson.com I've GOT to buy this thing. | ||
john dixon (john_dixon) 4-Laureate Username: john_dixon Post Number: 96 Registered: 4-2004 |
Hey Doug, I bought "Smile" last week and absolutely love it. I understand why, throughout the years when Brian Wilson was asked about "Smile", he would brush it off, saying it was "inappropriate music". That's because it doesn't fit in with contemporary music any more today than it would have in '67. Of course I'm familiar with many of the songs like were extracted from "Smile" after it was shelved, like "Good Vibrations", "Heroes and Villains" and the sublime "Surf's Up". But placed within the context of "Smile"'s song cycle, it's like hearing them for the first time. The harmonies and melodies are one-of-a-kind gorgeous. The closest thing that I can compare "Smile" with is nothing in rock and roll or pop music at all but George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". "Smile" was worth the wait! | ||
douglasm (douglasm) 5-Doyen Username: douglasm Post Number: 197 Registered: 4-2004 |
I'm sitting here listening to an extended excerpt now, and it sounds wonderful. Thanks, John for the review, but I have one minor question... ....Do Brian's vocals deminish the overall sound?, and conversely, would it have sounded better with the '67 Beach Boys? | ||
john dixon (john_dixon) 4-Laureate Username: john_dixon Post Number: 99 Registered: 4-2004 |
Doug, I think "Smile" is in no way diminished by Brian's vocals, which are admittedly not in peak form anymore. Somehow, it seems to humanize the whole project a little more . Brian sounds just fine. I think extenuating circumstances in 1967 would have prevented "Smile" from being all it could be. Back then, although a prolific hitmaker and widely acknowledged composer and arranger from such famous peers as Paul McCartney, Brian still encountered alot of negative resistance, first, to "Pet Sounds", then even worse, to the developing "Smile" project. The resistance came from his own bandmates, especially the odious Mike Love, and Capitol Records, who wanted more surf 'n' sand radio hits, not some concept album. In the late '90's, when Brian hooked up with the Wondermints, a band of musicians that were Brian Wilson acolytes in the first place, he found the most sympathetic bandmates possible. They helped him put together the "Pet Sounds" concerts and encouraged him to complete "Smile". Their positive reinforcement during the creative process probably had a great deal to do with this project getting done so close to the way it was originally envisioned. So, no, I don't think it would have sounded better with the '67 Beach Boys because they were unsupportive of the project. I guess it all boils down to the, ahem, good vibrations... | ||
douglasm (douglasm) 5-Doyen Username: douglasm Post Number: 201 Registered: 4-2004 |
Well, I bought it, devoured it, loved it, and only have one minor (very minor) complaint, John. I didn't get this feeling on "Heroes and Villains", but the original PET SOUNDS "Good Vibrations" is so ingrained in my mind that Brian's version sounds like he's covering Todd Rundgren's cover. But if that's my only complaint...... doug |
