Beach Boys, The – “Smile” (red LP) – Sea Of Tunes Records (PHOTO UPDATE) + Emeralds – “Magic” [Album As Art #44/Daily MP3 #108]

The Beach Boys – “You’re Welcome” LONGER VERSION MP3/download [holy GOD listen to this now!]

UPDATE: The Beach Boys – Smile [FULL ALBUM, clean, good version though not the absolute-best]

Emeralds – “Magic” from Solar Bridge MP3/download

You’ve probably read more hype-laden copy about The Beach Boys‘ Smile album — also known as Smiley Smile, which is often sold in tandem with Wild Honey — than you can stand; I’m not here to pile it on er nuthin’, but I just came across a red-vinyl copy on Sea Of Tunes Records (its first release; a nice LP to boast as any label’s debut) that I have to share with you circa the above-pics and the below-words.

I first heard Smile, after years of Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fandom, through a crappy band called Saves The Day (actually their Stay What You Are is decent emo schlock with major Weezer paw prints). Their singer said in a Rolling Stone interview that one of his favorite albums was Smile — such a classic guy-in-a-band statement; pick a super-obscure record as yr fave — and I subsequently downloaded a bootleg version of the album on AudioGalaxy, which is still second only to Oink when it comes to Gumshoe downloading love.

Instantly hooked, I began a search — in earnest — that seemed like it would never end. And NO, I don’t like the remade version of Smile Wilson made with The Wondermints and other session players in 2004; it’s a pale shadow of the original and popular sheerly by dint of the force of Wilson’s legend and the fact that no one seems willing to apply any critical pressure to what they see as a psychologically soft musician. Point taken, it’s just that … if a guy’s new material sucks someone should be willing to say it — I don’t see people giving Neil Young‘s latest ANYthing a pass, nor any other artist who has chosen to stick it out in the music industry well past the bloated stage.

Oh, and Wilson also has that talk-out-of-the-side-of-his-mouth thing … the only other writer I’ve seen mention it is Jack Rabid – he said something like, “That strange way of side-talking Wilson has that no one seems to want to talk about,” which, well, was a super-prescient thing to say and inspired me to be more straight-up honest in my writing, though Rabid would never accept my pro-bono help as a reviewer and is thus sorta douche-y — and it’s been accepted that it’s inappropriate to write about.

But why? Actor/pretty-boy Mark Ruffalo has the same side-mouth problem … I noticed, mentioned it to my wife — who is probably the only creature prettier than Ruffalo this side of the Mississippp — and she found out Ruffalo has had medical problems, including, I believe, a stroke, that contributed to half his body being somewhat paralyzed.

Hey, it’s just nice to know; why not ask questions about things such as this? I don’t get the silence-as-strategy/reverence displayed by a lot of these rock writers …

This is all, of course, besides the point; I have a killer-looking copy of Smile to review so let’s get down to brass tacks, cool?

The Sea Of Tunes Records version of this LP is not the same version of Smile I still have a bootlegged copy of on CD. It’s a lot fuller, a more fleshed-out model of an album with several doppelgangers out there. The version of “Wonderful” on this one, for example, doesn’t even sound like it’s sung by the same Beach Boy; my bootleg, I could have sworn, was sung by B. Wilson, while the vocal on this version is almost for-sure sung by Mike Love, whose pipes, to my ears, never quite hung as tough as the sugary sweet vox of the Wilson bros themselves (who have always been my favorite Vega-Tables; get it, dude?).

There’s also a lot more layering here, as mentioned, to the point where it often sounds like two songs were plopped on top of each other, especially on “Wonderful,” wherein a doo-wop vocal and additional instrumentation has been added to the original, skeletal version I had become used to.

Other tunes, like “Look,” are essentially identical to the versions I’m used to, and they sound fantastic on vinyl. The version of “Good Vibrations” that opens Side B, on the other hand, is fairly abrupt, employing an intro I’m not sure I’ve heard and a scant 3:41 running time; it’s apparently culled from a studio mix of “Take 28.” Good lord, I’d hate to think how many miles of tape this song took up from its initial infancy to its ultimate realization as perhaps the Beach Boys’ most ambitious hit.

I probably don’t need to bring up the fire-siren whistling of “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow,” nor the bippin’ and-a-boppin’ goin’ on all over Smile, do I? I’ll just continue to perform more analysis on this still-under-appreciated gem of the ’60s.

As I mentioned, there are several disappointing differences between this probably-a-bootleg LP and the definitely-a-bootleg copy I came across nearly 10 years ago, but there are also a few additions to this copy I’m finding illuminating, especially a song I hadn’t previously heard at all, in any form: “You’re Welcome.”

This cut is not only completely and totally fresh to me, but one of the strongest snatches of Wilson’s Smile period/persona I’ve been lucky enough to hear. It’s an incredibly short vocals-and-drums number that, against all odds, actually reminds me most of some of Tonstartssbandht‘s voice explorations on the incredible Dick Nights.

So brief I’ve had to re-set the stylus several times to fully take it in, “You’re Welcome” is as heavenly as it gets; I’m getting chills this very second taking in its holy vibe and sucking in its sacred flow. Tracks like this are proof the eldest Wilson was, indeed, tapping into something more when he sat at his piano and channeled his brain power to conjure the astray — but future-leaning — navigations of Smile.

This might be my favorite Smile entry, save maybe the bare, Brian Wilson-sung version of “Wonderful.”

Don’t forget “I Love to Say Da da,” either; it’s another cut-and-paste-r, rife with sudden stops, jolts and segues, and, as at least one other song on Smile, employs horse-hoof “clops” into its structure, along with a ton of vaguely Hawaiian “bop”-a-”bop”-in’ and that classic parlor piano.

Oh, also, check out this quote about the concept of Smile, which I probably had already read about but forgot and then got excited about just now: “Wilson and [Van Dyke] Parks intended Smile to be explicitly American in style and subject, a direct reaction to the British dominance of popular music at the time. It was supposedly conceived as a musical journey across America from east to west, beginning at Plymouth Rock and ending in Hawaii, as well as traversing some of the great themes of modern American history and culture, including the impact of white settlement on native Americans, the influence of the Spanish, the Wild West, and the opening up of the country by railroad and highway.“