The long lost masterpiece: Brian Wilson and the relief of completing ‘Smile’
Unreleased material can be some of the most coveted aspects of a musician’s career, particularly when the artist is popular on a grand scale. It seems impossible, however, to shelve a project and witness it become a legendary entity in itself. The Beach Boys repeatedly proved their position as spearheads of rocking surf music, but they also became central to one of the greatest mysteries in music history.
In an effort to progress from the impossible-to-follow-up 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson set to work again with the sole vision of creating his magnum opus. Smile wasn’t just going to be a monumental demonstration of everything the musician was capable of; it was going to repurpose America’s history and provide insight into its storied cultural heritage with a delectable dose of humour.
Enlisting Van Dyke Parks as his right-hand man, Wilson had everything he needed to realise his dream. Selling the project to the rest of The Beach Boys was a difficult challenge because it depicted a band that felt confident in the face of experimentalism. However, several external factors would eventually lead to it being shelved altogether, much to the dismay of eager listeners.
With mental health conditions and addiction concocting up a storm, Wilson began to experience a whirlwind of schizophrenic paranoia, which not only impacted the album’s production but left Wilson in a permanent state of standoffishness, resulting in a ruptured band dynamic. “Van Dyke and I decided that we were too far into it and we didn’t write anything but snippets,” Wilson later explained, discussing the decision to call it a day.
Although Pet Sounds would end up preceding Smiley Smile instead, Wilson was determined to one day revisit the original project, a desire he quenched in 2004 with the release of Brian Wilson Presents Smile. Featuring recordings Wilson had planned for the original Smile, Presents Smile may have forced the musician to revisit a particularly challenging time in his career, but completing it felt more than worthwhile.
“It was a lot of work,” Wilson admitted during the 2021 documentary Long Promised Road. Refraining from giving too much away regarding the original recording sessions, the musician seemed eager to praise his musical partner. “Van Dyke and I were working together on it. Oh, it was a relief to get it done. People loved it. It’s very, very advanced music. Van Dyke’s music is very advanced. He was quite the great music person,” he explained.
Although many unfinished Smile tracks had already been released on several subsequent albums, including ‘Surf’s Up’ and ‘Good Vibrations’, Wilson’s 2004 tour de force re-established everything he ever believed in the project, which delivered quintessential tunes made by someone who finally had the space and time to pour his heart into it.
