The Beach Boys
Smiley Smile

THE REVIEW

A brief recap of previous episodes. There was a time, around the mid-Sixties, when the rivalry was not Beatles or Rolling Stones, but rather Beatles or Beach Boys, or better yet Lennon/McCartney vs Brian Wilson.

Whatever the first ones wrote, Brian Wilson had something even more revolutionary in mind, but a few months later the Beatles would release another masterpiece, before the Beach Boys raised the bar once again. It was a constant chase, studying each other, challenging each other. After the Beatles' "Revolver," the Beach Boys released "Pet Sounds" and, damn, Wilson seemed to have done it. "Pet Sounds" is not better than "Revolver," that's not the point: "Pet Sounds" was simply a step forward in the pop concept – a big step forward, the bar was set very high. So high it seemed that only Brian Wilson himself could surpass it. He was on the verge of triumph, the leader of the Beach Boys and here, further proof of his greatness, he comes out with "Good Vibrations," a track that takes your breath away. It’s done, in short. No, not yet, the album is still missing, the one that will forever change the history of pop music. Wilson is working on it, Lennon and McCartney are working on it. The latter are moving at a brisk pace, the Beatles no longer play live, they spend their days in the studio writing, recording, cutting, mixing, experimenting: they’re in great form. Brian Wilson works hard too, he’s a perfectionist, never satisfied, makes and unmakes, throws everything out and starts over and over again: and then there’s the drugs, the paranoia, it’s tough, very tough. Everyone is waiting for "Smile," the Beach Boys’ masterpiece, but instead arrives the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band." And it’s a shock, it’s June 1, 1967 and never had anything like it been heard before. And neither had Brian Wilson ever heard anything like it, his already fragile psyche collapses, he can’t take it anymore, he destroys months of work on "Smile," enters into a crisis, it’s the end. The Beatles have won.

"Smiley/Smile" is the offspring of "Smile." It was born from those recording sessions, but rather than being animated by Brian Wilson’s genius, it is pervaded by his weaknesses and his sense of inadequacy. What was meant to be his masterpiece would be his failure. The album that was supposed to be a concept inspired by the four elements (earth, water, air, and fire) turns into a collage of less than modest tracks, nothing holds them together except the sense of defeat they inspire. Apart from "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains," the rest is confusion, melancholy, scraps, poorly or underdeveloped song ideas. "Wonderful" is chilling, with its almost lullaby rhythm, as if caressing Wilson’s mental fatigue, subjected to pressures bigger than him.

"Smile" would be heard only 37 years later, in 2004, when a reborn Brian Wilson decided to complete it: and it would be a joy for the heart and ears. But in 1967, Brian Wilson sank into the abyss just as he was about to ascend the throne, and the Beach Boys entered the tunnel of oblivion, ending up representing only the stereotype of California sun-sea-beach-surf.

Almost as a partial compensation, Paul McCartney, the mind behind "Sgt. Pepper," would admit on more than one occasion his debts to Brian Wilson and his "Pet Sounds."