Well...it's finally out, after 44 years, you can buy a legal copy of the Beach Boys performing Smile. History tells us that way back then, when Lyndon Johnson was president, The Beach Boys were neck and neck in the Greatest Album contest with The Beatles and Smile was to be their great work. Unfortunately, recording technology of the time was not up to the task of realizing Brian Wilson's fertile ideas, so he spent months and months recording snippets of sound and music that was to be edited and layered together with scissors and tape. He also drove the rest of the Boys into rebellion and himself into near madness. The project melted down when it was about 95% done.
The newly released outcome of this process is less a pop/rock album and more like a sort of Oratorio.The sound is fairly good quality mono, the music is somewhat challenging and not entirely easy to listen to, but truly amazing in the originality of it's ambition. A few years back, Brian released a re-performance of Smile with hired musicians. That one has better sound, but Brian's voice wasn't what it was in 1967. The new one has Brian hitting all the high notes and the Beach Boys in full youth and vigor. If you've ever been familiar with this strange saga, this is your chance to hear what it would have been. For the truly obsessed, there is a many-CD extended version that has many hours of studio junk, but if you are interested the 2 CD version is probably quite enough.
I've long had a special spot for Brian's amazing command of vocal harmony, that, IMO, ranks with people like Bach and Handel. This is him shooting as high as he ever did.
