ok, now that everyone has finished verbally jerking themselves off in the comments section of my last post, I have a surprising result to report: NO ONE CHANGED ANYONES MIND!!! what a shocker. now for the real important stuff….

Today (tuesday) was a momentous day in music history, for today marked the official release of Brian Wilson’s SMiLE, a project that took 38 years in the making. Are you as excited as I am? For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, let me explain:

Upon completion of the Beach Boys’ record Pet Sounds in 1966, Brian Wilson, the brain behind the Beach Boys, began work on an even more ambitious project. Pet Sounds had changed the face of pop-music sounding nothing like anything before it. Wilson claims he heard the Beatles’ Revolver as a direct challenge and offered Pet Sounds as a rebuttal.. Up to this point, the Beatles and Beach Boys were considered contemporaries, delivering challenging releases after enjoying enormous commercial success. Unfortunately, Brian Wilson’s mental health was unable to keep up in the race and the Beatles went on to produce Sgt. Peppers and continued topping themselves each year culminating with their final album in 1969, while the Beach Boys went on to release…well… “Kokomo”.

After releasing Pet Sounds to enormous critical but limited commercial success, Brian Wilson began work on an album entitled SMiLE, which he described as his “teenage symphony to God” (don’t get me started on which ‘god’ you bastids!) Unfortunately, pressure from bandmate/asshole Mike Love to stick to the “cars and girls” formula that had proven successful, along with Wilson’s LSD excesses, created problems for the project. Wilson lit fires in the studio and forced the crew to wear fire-helmets while recording the song “Fire.” He eventually became convinced that the song was actually causing fires in Los Angeles. Pressure mounting from his bandmates as well as record label (the album cover and artwork was already printed and ready), poor Brian Wilson did the only thing he could do: stay in bed for 3 months and gain 200+ pounds. His mental health fell to a dangerous low, he began having “auditory hallucinations.” The much-anticipated SMiLE album was scrapped and Pet Sounds remains the culmination in the Beach Boys career. The only single to be released was the brilliant “Good Vibrations” which, being as complex and beautiful as it is, offered only a tantalizing preview of what could have been.

Wilson, after a long and gradual recovery, refused to discuss the ambitious SMiLE project due to the painful memories associated with it. Through the years, bootlegs from the SMiLE sessions began to appear, assembled by fans. There eventually came to be 20+ different SMiLE bootlegs with varying versions of songs in different orders. The album grew to mythical proportions and symbolized the tragically unfulfilled potential of a band now only known for their cheesy songs about the beach and the cars that got them there. Now, 38 years later, Brian Wilson has re-recorded the album with original collaborator Van Dyke Parks and a full orchestra . Although it might disappoint fans like myself that Wilson didn’t go through the original Beach Boys tapes and edit it together (none of the Beach Boys, save Brian Wilson, appear on the new recording), it still is as official as SMiLE will ever be. So checkout your nearest record store or p2p file-sharing program, get your grubby hands on this cd, put on some headphones, sit back, and remember that there once was a time when the Beach Boys were not the cliches they’ve become, but an innovative and groundbreaking group who would change the landscape of popular music forever.