THE BEACH BOYS' INDIE ERA
THE BEACH BOYS' INDIE ERA
From late 1966 to mid-1967, Smile was repeatedly delayed while the Beach Boys were subject to a considerable level of media hype that proclaimed Brian Wilson as a "genius". After settling payment disputes with Capitol Records, Smiley Smile was distributed in collaboration with Brother Records, the band's new self-owned record company. The album's production was unusually credited to "the Beach Boys", marking the point where Wilson began ceding his leadership of the group. Smile was left unfinished as the band immediately moved onto the recording of the albums Lei'd in Hawaii (unreleased) and Wild Honey (December 1967).
SMiLE was the intended follow up to The Beach Boys critically acclaimed (yet commercially unsuccessful) Pet Sounds. Capitol Records was unhappy with Brian Wilson's creative direction and with Pet Sounds flopping, they pressurred The Beach Boys to return to more simplistic themes, such as surfing, cars, girls and other novel ideas. Brian might have had to succumb to Capitol's pressure but he had an ace up his sleeve: “Good Vibrations”.
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THE FALL OF SMILE
The song recently topped the Billboard Hot 100
and became The Beach Boys most successful single
to date."Good Vibrations" was a landmark piece of
music both in content and in production.
Brian wanted to create a pop song that resembled
a symphony, by way of using unusual
instrumentation and composition techniques.
Different instruments were recorded at different
studios across Los Angeles to take advantage of
the acoustics of different rooms. The different takes
were then spliced together, a revolutionary (and at
the time extremely arduous) way of creating music.
The sessions ran into a multitude of problems. The main being
extreme reluctance from the rest of The Beach Boys, who were
unsure of the new direction and worried about Brian's mental
health. Notably, bandmate and cousin Mike Love grew
frustrated with Brian's complex recording habits and wanted
to get back to writing songs about surfing, cars and other
previously successful ventures.
Capitol Records was also growing impatient with the lack of
results and radio friendly material they were hearing, further
pressuring the boys to release something quickly. The negative
atmosphere in the studio would weigh heavily on Brian, which
in turn would begin the demise of his mental health. Not
helping matters was Brian's use of psychedelic drugs, most
notably LSD
Already dealing with schizophrenia and depression, the substance abuse combined with mounting stress would create a perfect storm for the most famous pop music meltdown of all time. Key stories from this era include the recording of the song "Fire: Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". Designed to be part of "The Elemental Suite" on the album, the song was to replicate the sounds of fire. Wilson lit fires in the studio, recording the sounds, made the studio musicians wear fire helmets, and a whole other slew of insanity. During the recording though, a fire broke out at a building across the street from the studio, completely destroying the building.
There were also reportedly a large number of fires throughout Los Angeles that day. Naturally, Brian was convinced his music was responsible for the fires. He took the master tape and attempted to burn it, only to find the tape wouldn't burn (he was convinced that tape was immune to fire, when in all actuality you can't burn analog tape). Or how when driving to the studio he heard Strawberry Fields Forever/A Day In The Life/got an advance copy of Sgt Peppers, listened to it and broke down crying because he knew he would be unable to top The Beatles. Who knows if any of these stories are true, but they are part of the legend that make up SMiLE.
To learn more about SMiLE, watch this documentary about the story of the album.
