title: Robert Kagan

text: In February 2016, Kagan publicly left the Republican party (referring to himself as a "former Republican") and endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president and argued that the Republican Party's "wild obstructionism" and an insistence that "government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves" were things meant to be "overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at" set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump. Kagan called Trump a "Frankenstein monster" and also compared him to Napoleon. In May 2016, Kagan wrote an opinion piece in "The Washington Post" regarding Trump's campaign entitled "This Is How Fascism Comes to America". Kagan has said that "all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump." In September 2021, Kagan wrote a related opinion essay published in "The Washington Post" by the title, "Our Constitutional Crisis Is Already Here".


title: Youthanasia

text: Youthanasia is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Megadeth, released on November 1, 1994, through Capitol Records. It is stylistically similar to their previous album, "Countdown to Extinction" (1992). The title is a play on words, implying that society is euthanizing its youth. The cover art features an elderly woman hanging babies by their feet on a seemingly endless clothes line, a direct reference to a line in the title track.


title: Youthanasia

text: "Youthanasia" received positive reviews upon its release. It was commercially successful, peaking at number 4 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and in 1995 was certified platinum for shipping one million copies in the United States. A remixed and remastered edition featuring several bonus tracks and detailed liner notes was reissued on July 27, 2004.


title: Youthanasia

text: Megadeth's previous studio release, "Countdown to Extinction", became the band's biggest commercial accomplishment, entering the "Billboard" 200 at number two and eventually becoming double platinum. As a result, they continually sold-out arenas across North America, in addition to developing a strong following overseas. With "Youthanasia", the band moved to a more mainstream sound.


title: Youthanasia

text: It was a time of problems and conflicts for Megadeth, that in every two weeks or so, according to frontman Dave Mustaine, there were "outrageous emotional interventions" in order to make the group a democracy. Many band meetings during this period concerned Mustaine's creative control over a "successful formula", so that the rest of the band could better exercise their creativity. Another problem was the indecision on where the recording would take place. Mustaine did not want to record in Los Angeles, so it was eventually decided to record in Phoenix, since the majority of the band resided in Arizona.


title: Youthanasia

text: The sessions for the album initially began in Phase Four Studios (Tempe) in January 1994, after a few weeks the sessions were moved to Vintage Recorders in Phoenix and continued there into May. This studio is often the location for scenes in the "Evolver" video. Producer Max Norman suggested that they build a new self-dedicated studio, in cooperation with the band, Capitol and Norman's funding a modular studio was built in a warehouse in South Phoenix. Talking about the recording process, Mustaine said that "Youthanasia" was written solely in the studio. "We weren't playing any old, cataloged material. None of the past really influenced the new record." He mentioned that he gave "more freedom" to the other members and called the album "very much a total band effort".


title: Youthanasia

text: Of interest is that this was hoped to be the first album recorded solely on hard drives, rather than magnetic tape. Both Norman and Mustaine were believers in being on the cutting edge of technology, Norman had long been using computers to sample, tune and comp tracks. Digidesign was working on expanding Pro Tools from a single track to multitracking and it was hoped that as many as 48 digital tracks could be synced and used to record. The computers used were mostly Macintosh Quadra and with a great effort by all, it was soon evident that magnetic tape would have to be used.


title: Youthanasia

text: The cover art by Hugh Syme features an elderly woman hanging babies by their feet on a seemingly endless clothesline. According to bassist David Ellefson, the artwork concept was directly inspired from a line of the title track, "We've been hung out to dry". He explained that the title track "was probably the strongest representation of how we feel about the young people who listen to our music and what their future holds for them. It's like you have a choice, you can become proactive or you can choose 'Youthanasia'." The title is a combination of the words "youth" and "euthanasia". Mustaine has stated that the idea for the title stems from hearing about Jack Kevorkian, as well as the declining state of well-being of young people, specifically referring to issues like drugs, crime and violence, and a lack of parenting.


title: Youthanasia

text: "Youthanasia" was not a large stylistic departure from the band's earlier recordings. According to "Billboard", from the drumbeat opening of "Addicted to Chaos" to the precise instrumentation of "Train of Consequences", Megadeth delivered "trademark aggressive rage 'n' roll to powerful effect". "Billboard" noted that even the slower songs such as "A Tout le Monde" were tending toward "lusty explosion". Authors Pete Prown and HP Newquist opined that lyrically, "Youthanasia" contained more thematic variations from Megadeth. They wrote that the record was musically diverse, from the "slow-tempo acoustic lines" of "A Tout le Monde" to the "breakneck riffing" of "Train of Consequences" and "Family Tree". "Q" found that Megadeth's "trademark crunchy riffs, thundering drums and bitter vocals" were still present on the album, with the lyrics being more introspective.


title: Youthanasia

text: Mike Stagno said that "Youthanasia" features "a more traditional type of metal". He explained that even though the music on a number of tracks remains quite heavy, it was obvious that the thrash metal is "very scarce" on this record. Stephen Thomas Erlewine agreed that Megadeth have abandoned some of the more experimental, progressive elements in their music. Similarly, Chris Ayers of "Exclaim!" felt that with "Youthanasia", the band "eroded their brilliant thrash to mid-paced chug". According to the band's official website, ""Youthanasia" marked the continuing evolution of Megadeth, following the footsteps of their previous album." Speaking about the stylistic direction of the album, then-guitarist Marty Friedman stated: "We pretty much stick to our guns. It's not like we're gonna change our next album to try and follow the trend. We don't really change with the times." On the album's genre, Mustaine said: "It's been called a thrash album, it's been called a rock album, and it's even been called an alternative album. To me it can only be called a Megadeth album. That should be enough."


title: Youthanasia

text: The album was released on 1 November 1994 through Capitol Records. Promotion included the first official website for a band, "Megadeth, Arizona", described by its conceiver, Robin Sloan Bechtel, as “a virtual cybertown in cyberspace" where fans gathered in an online community that among other things offered news regarding Megadeth's new album. A special promotional copy of the album was issued with an essay by suspense novelist Dean Koontz entitled "Godzilla vs. Megadeth". A remixed and remastered edition featuring several bonus tracks and detailed liner notes was reissued on July 27, 2004.


title: Youthanasia

text: Three singles were released from "Youthanasia": "Reckoning Day", "Train of Consequences" and "A Tout le Monde". The latter would later be re-recorded with Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia under the title "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)". This version was also released as a single, and included on "United Abominations" (2007).


title: Youthanasia

text: The album received positive reviews upon its release. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, reviewing the album for AllMusic, commented that, compared to "Countdown to Extinction" the album lacks focus. However, Erlewine suggested that the album's production quality made up for that. He also commented favorably on "Train of Consequences", calling out its "jackhammer riffs". Mike Stagno of Sputnikmusic reviewed the album positively. Though noting that the album, like its predecessor, was a distinct move away from the sound heard on 1990s "Rust in Peace", Stagno suggested that the lack of a fast-tempo is made up for by the catchiness of the tracks.


title: Youthanasia

text: In a contemporary review, "Q" magazine wrote that "Youthanasia" has "greater depth and breadth than its predecessors". Tom Sinclair of "Entertainment Weekly" gave a brief review of the album saying that "Youthanasia" would "impress, but not impact". Neil Arnold of "Metal Forces" named the record "the last true Megadeth opus before the mid-to-late 90s slump". He further said that the album "pales" in comparison to the previous records, but still keeps the band in their element. Paul Corio, in a retrospective review for "Rolling Stone", wrote that the album features "metal-machine music" that is "calibrated to kill". He highlighted "Elysian Fields" and "Victory" as examples of Mustaine in his prime. Despite the outcry of some fans, Pete Prown called "Youthanasia" "more than worthy follow-up" to "Countdown to Extinction". In 2014, "Guitar World" ranked "Youthanasia" at number 29 on their list of "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994".


title: Youthanasia

text: "Youthanasia" was commercially successful, debuting and peaking at number 4 on the "Billboard" 200, with 143,000 units sold in its first week. This marked the band's second top five album, slightly below the number two peak of "Countdown to Extinction" in 1992, and the band would only reach such a landmark again in 2016 with "Dystopia". Several weeks after its release, the record was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping one million copies in the United States. The album also managed to enter into the top 10 in the United Kingdom and some other European countries as well. It eventually received a platinum certification from Music Canada and a silver award from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 100,000 and 60,000 copies, respectively. The singles "Train of Consequences" and "A Tout le Monde" both charted on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.


title: Youthanasia

text: Megadeth toured heavily in support of "Youthanasia". They started the tour in November 1994, with live performances in South America. The tour continued in 1995, with a number of opening acts such as Korn, Flotsam and Jetsam and Fear Factory. During this period Megadeth also visited Europe, where they stayed for eight weeks. Ellefson shared his impressions from performing in front of European fans: "So far, the audiences have been really good and it seems to me that heavy metal and especially Megadeth are very much at the forefront of music in Europe. It seems like the attendance is better than it has ever been". The worldwide tour ended in September 1995, with the band performing at Monsters of Rock in South America with Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper as the headliners.


title: Youthanasia

text: In the middle of 1995, the band underwent changes on the business side. Manager Ron Lafitte was hired by EMI Records and essentially disbanded his management company. Megadeth later signed with ESP Management and hired Bud Prager, a previous manager of Foreigner and Bad Company, to be the band's new creative manager. As with Max Norman before him, Prager would go on to be highly influential in shaping the direction of the band. In an interview for Hard Rock Examiner, Mustaine revealed that there was a possibility of Megadeth performing the album in its entirety in 2014, honoring the 20-year anniversary of the record's release.


The 2006 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7, 2006, to elect members to the United States House of Representatives. It took place in the middle of President George W. Bush's second term in office. All 435 seats of the House were up for election. Those elected served in the 110th United States Congress from January 3, 2007, until January 3, 2009. The incumbent majority party, the Republicans, had won majorities in the House consecutively since 1994, and were defeated by the Democrats who won a majority in the chamber, ending 12 years of Republican control in the House.


title: 2006 United States House of Representatives elections

text: The Republicans had won a 232-seat majority in 2004. By the time of the 2006 election, they held 229 seats, while the Democrats held 201, plus 1 Independent who caucused with the Democrats. There were also four vacancies. Republicans held a 28-seat advantage, and Democrats needed to pick up 15 seats to take control of the House, which had had a Republican majority since January 1995. The public's perception of George W. Bush, the handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a series of political scandals involving mostly congressional Republicans took their toll on the party at the ballot box.


text: The final result was a 31-seat pickup for the Democrats, including the pickup of the Vermont at-large seat, previously held by Independent Bernie Sanders (who ran instead for U.S. Senate), who caucused with the Democrats. Democrats defeated 22 Republican incumbents and won eight open Republican-held seats. For the first time since the party's founding, Republicans won no seats previously held by Democrats and defeated no Democratic incumbents. It was the largest seat gain for the Democrats since the 1974 elections. Among the new Democrats were the first Muslim in Congress (Keith Ellison) and the first two Buddhists (Mazie Hirono and Hank Johnson). As a result of the Democratic victory, Nancy Pelosi became the first female and the first Californian House Speaker.


text: , these remain the only House elections in U.S. history where only one party flipped any seats. 2006 remains the last year in which Republicans won a house race in Connecticut and the last time the Democrats won control of the House without winning every seat in New England.


text: A number of organizations and individuals made predictions about the election, some for the House as a whole and some for both that and individual races.


text: In the election, there were 32 open seats: 28 incumbents not seeking re-election and four vacancies. Of the 28 incumbents, 18 were Republicans, 9 Democrats, and 1 an independent.


text: The four vacancies were , to be filled at the same time as the general election with the winner taking office in November immediately after the votes were certified; , with a separate special election on the same day; and and , which did not have special elections to fill the vacancies before January 2007. had been held by Democrat Bob Menendez, Texas's 22nd congressional district had been held by Republican Tom DeLay, Ohio's 18th congressional district had been held by Republican Robert Ney, and Florida's 16th congressional district had been held by Republican Mark Foley.


text: In addition to the open seats, two incumbents (Democrat Cynthia McKinney in and Republican Joe Schwarz in ), were defeated in their party's respective primaries, adding two seats to the number of races where the incumbent was not up for re-election in November.


text: The following table rates the competitiveness of selected races from around the country according to Sabato's Crystal Ball. Races not included should be considered safe for the incumbent's party. (Incumbents not running for re-election have parentheses around their name.)


text: Thirty Republican seats were picked up by Democrats, and one seat held by an independent was picked up by a Democrat. No Democratic seats were picked up by Republicans.


text: There were two special elections in 2006 to the 109th United States Congress, listed here by date and district.


text: Texas's 22nd district was held by Tom DeLay who had resigned. The Democratic Party sued to prevent the Republican Party from replacing Tom DeLay (who was determined to be the candidate in March 2006) with another candidate. The courts agreed with the Democratic Party and the Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal. On August 8, 2006, Tom DeLay officially withdrew his name as the Republican candidate. (The court decision did not allow the Republican Party from changing its candidate, however it did not prevent Tom DeLay from withdrawing altogether.)


text: Texas's 23rd district was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ordered the district re-drawn. This affected the 15th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, and 28th districts, which had a blanket primary on Election Day, followed by a runoff on December 6 in District 23, where no candidate got a majority of the vote.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Water (Hindi: जल) is a 2005 drama film written and directed by Deepa Mehta, with screenplay by Anurag Kashyap. It is set in 1938 and explores the lives of widows at an ashram in Varanasi, India. The film is also the third and final installment of Mehta's "Elements trilogy". It was preceded by "Fire" (1996) and "Earth" (1998). Author Bapsi Sidhwa wrote the 2006 novel based upon the film, "Water: A Novel", published by Milkweed Press. Sidhwa's earlier novel, "Cracking India" was the basis for "Earth", the second film in the trilogy.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: "Water" is a dark introspect into the tales of rural Indian widows in the 1940s and covers controversial and subjects such as child marriage, misogyny and ostracism. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was honoured with the Opening Night Gala, and was released across Canada in November of that year. It was first released in India on 9 March 2007.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: The film stars Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham and Sarala Kariyawasam in pivotal roles and Manorama, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Waheeda Rehman, Raghuvir Yadav and Vinay Pathak in supporting roles. Featured songs for the film were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Sukhwinder Singh and Raqeeb Alam. After Rahman quit the film following nationwide controversy, the background score was composed by Mychael Danna, although the songs which Rahman had composed before opting out were retained.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: In 2008, inspired by the film, Dilip Mehta directed a documentary, "The Forgotten Woman" about widows in India. The film was also written by Deepa Mehta.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: The film is set in 1938 when India was still under British occupation. Child marriage was common practice, and widows had a diminished position in society.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Chuyia (Sarala Kariyawasam) is an eight-year-old girl, whose husband suddenly dies. In keeping with traditions of widowhood, she is dressed in a white sari, her head is shaven and she is left in an ashram, to spend the rest of her life in renunciation. There are fourteen women who live in the dilapidated house, sent there to expiate bad karma, as well as to relieve their families of the financial and emotional burdens of caring for widows. The ashram is ruled by Madhumati (Manorama), a pompous lady in her 70s. Her only friend is the pimp, Gulabi (Raghuvir Yadav), a hijra who keeps Madhumati supplied with cannabis. The two also have a side business: Gulabi helps Madhumati prostitute Kalyani (Lisa Ray), a beautiful young widow, by ferrying her across the Ganges to customers. Kalyani was forced into prostitution as a teenager to support the ashram.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) is perhaps the most enigmatic of the women. Attractive, witty and sharp, she is also one of the few widows who can read. She exudes enough anger that even Madhumati leaves her alone. Shakuntala is caught between being a God-fearing, devout Hindu, and her hatred of being a widow. She seeks the counsel of Sadananda (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a priest, who makes her aware of her unjust and unholy situation. She becomes attached to Chuyia upon her arrival at the ashram.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Chuyia is convinced that her stay is a temporary one and that her mother will come to take her away but quickly adapts to her new life. She befriends Kalyani, and witnesses Kalyani's budding romance with Narayan (John Abraham), a charming upper-class follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Despite her initial reluctance, Kalyani eventually buys into his dream of marriage and a new life in Calcutta. She agrees to go away with him.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Her plan is disrupted when Chuyia accidentally reveals their affair to Madhumati. Enraged at losing a source of income and afraid of the social disgrace, Madhumati locks Kalyani up. Much to everyone's surprise, the God-fearing Shakuntala lets Kalyani out to go meet Narayan, who ferries her across the river to take her to his home. However, when Kalyani recognizes Narayan's bungalow, she realizes that Narayan is the son of one of the men whom she has been pimped out to. In shock, she demands that he take her back. Narayan confronts his father, learning the reason for Kalyani's actions. Disgusted, he decides to walk out on his father and join Mahatma Gandhi (Mohan Jhangiani). He arrives at the ashram to take Kalyani with him, only to find that Kalyani has drowned herself.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Madhumati sends Chuyia away to be prostituted as a replacement for Kalyani. Shakuntala finds out and tries to prevent the worst, but she is too late. When Shakuntala finds Chuyia, Chuyia is deeply traumatized and catatonic. Cradling Chuyia, Shakuntala spends the night on the shores of the river. Walking through town with Chuyia in her arms, she hears talk of Gandhi speaking at the train station, ready to leave town. She follows the crowd to receive his blessing. As the train departs, in an act of desperation Shakuntala runs alongside the train, asking people to take Chuyia with them. She spots Narayan on the train and hands Chuyia over to him. The train departs, carrying Chuyia away while leaving the teary-eyed Shakuntala behind.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: "Water" is a co-production between Canada, India and the United States. The film was shot twice with the same (bilingual) actors, once in Hindi, once in English.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: The film debuted on 8 September 2005 at the Toronto International Film Festival and opened in other theatres at the dates given below. After several controversies surrounding the film in India, the Indian censor boards cleared the film with a "U" certificate. It was released in India on 9 March 2007.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: For all her impassioned commitment as a filmmaker, Mehta never preaches but instead tells a story of intertwining strands in a wholly compelling manner. "Water," set in British occupied India of 1938, is as beautiful as it is harrowing, its idyllic setting beside the sacred Ganges River contrasting with the widows' oppressive existence as outcasts. The film seethes with anger over their plight yet never judges, and possesses a lyrical, poetical quality. Just like the Ganges, life goes on flowing, no matter what. Mehta sees her people in the round, entrapped and blinded by a cruel and outmoded custom dictated by ancient religious texts but sustained more often by a family's desire to relieve itself of the economic burden of supporting widows. As a result, she is able to inject considerable humour in her stunningly perceptive and beautifully structured narrative. "Water" emerges as a film of extraordinary richness and complexity.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Jeannette Catsoulis of "The New York Times" selected "Water" as NYT Critics' Pick, calling it "exquisite": "Serene on the surface yet roiling underneath, the film neatly parallels the plight of widows under Hindu fundamentalism to that of India under British colonialism."


title: Water (2005 film)

text: "Water" received mostly positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 90% based on reviews from 94 critics, with an average rating of 7.63 out of 10. The site's consensus is that "This compassionate work of social criticism is also luminous, due to both its lyrical imagery and cast." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 25 critics reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Roger Ebert of "Chicago Sun-Times" said "The film is lovely in the way Satyajit Ray's films are lovely and the best elements of Water involve the young girl and the experiences seen through her eyes. I would have been content if the entire film had been her story" and gave it three stars out of four. Carrie Rickey of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" also praises Mehta's work on the trilogy saying that "Profound, passionate and overflowing with incomparable beauty, Water, like the prior two films in director Deepa Mehta's "Elements" trilogy, celebrates the lives of women who resist marginalisation by Indian society."


title: Water (2005 film)

text: In December 2005, it was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual Canada's Top Ten list of the year's best Canadian films.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: Mehta had originally intended to direct "Water" in February 2000, with the actors Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and Akshay Kumar. Her earlier film, "Fire", however, had previously attracted hostility from conservative right-wing organizations, which objected to her subject matter and portrayal of conservative households in a negative light. Protestors organised protests and attacks on cinemas that screened that film. The day before filming of "Water" was due to begin, the crew was informed that there were complications with their location permits for filming. The following day, they learned that 2,000 protesters had stormed the ghats, destroying and burning the main film set and throwing the remnants into the Ganges in protest of what ultimately were revealed to be false accusations regarding the subject matter of the film. A right-wing politician Arun Pathak also organised a suicide protest to stop the film production.


title: Water (2005 film)

text: The resulting tensions and economic setbacks led to several years of struggle as Mehta was eventually forced to film "Water" in Sri Lanka, rather than in India. Finally Mehta was able to make the film, but with a new cast and under a false title ("River Moon") in 2003. The struggle to make the film was detailed by Mehta's daughter, Devyani Saltzman, in a non-fiction book, "Shooting Water: A Mother-Daughter Journey and the Making of the Film".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Smile (stylized as SMiLE) is an unfinished album by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was planned to follow their 11th studio album "Pet Sounds" (1966). It was to be a 12-track LP that drew from over 50 hours of interchangeable sound fragments, similar to the group's 1966 single "Good Vibrations". Instead, after a year of recording, the album was shelved and the group released a downscaled version, "Smiley Smile", in September 1967. Over the next four decades, few of the original "Smile" tracks were officially released, and the project came to be regarded as the most legendary unreleased album in popular music history.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The album was produced and almost entirely composed by Brian Wilson with guest lyricist and assistant arranger Van Dyke Parks, both of whom conceived the project as a riposte to the British sensibilities that had dominated popular music of the era. Wilson touted "Smile" as a "teenage symphony to God" to surpass "Pet Sounds". It was a concept album that was planned to feature word paintings, tape manipulation, elaborate vocal arrangements, experiments with musical acoustics, and comedic interludes, with influences drawn from mysticism, pre-rock and roll pop, doo-wop, jazz, ragtime, "musique concrète", classical, American history, poetry, and cartoons. The lead single would have been "Heroes and Villains", a Western musical comedy, or "Vega-Tables", a satire of physical fitness.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Numerous issues, including legal entanglements with Capitol Records, Wilson's uncompromising perfectionism and mental instabilities, as well as Parks' withdrawal from the project in early 1967, prevented the album's completion and release. Most of the backing tracks were produced between August and December 1966, but few vocals were ever recorded, and the album's structure was never finalized. Afraid of the public's reaction to his work, Wilson blocked attempts to complete "Smile" in the subsequent years. From 1968 onward, only three more tracks ("Our Prayer", "Cabinessence" and "Surf's Up") were finished by the group. As its legend grew, the project's unfulfilled potential inspired many fans and musicians, particularly those in indie rock, post-punk, and chamber pop genres. After the 1980s, bootlegged tracks circulated widely, allowing fans to assemble their own hypothetical versions of the finished album. In response, Capitol included a loose reconstruction of the album on the 1993 box set "".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Due to the wealth of fan-created mixes it has inspired, some commentators cite "Smile" as the first ever interactive album. In 2004, Wilson, Parks, and Darian Sahanaja arranged a version of "Smile" for concert performances, titled "Brian Wilson Presents Smile", which Wilson then adapted into a solo album of the same title. He stated that this version differed substantially from his original vision. The 2011 compilation "The Smile Sessions" was the first official package devoted to the original Beach Boys' recordings and included an approximation of the completed album. It received universal acclaim and won Best Historical Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In late 1964, as Brian Wilson's industry profile grew, he became acquainted with various individuals from around the Los Angeles music scene. He also took an increasing interest in recreational drugs (particularly marijuana, LSD, and Desbutal). According to his then-wife Marilyn, Wilson's new friends "had the gift of gab[...] All of a sudden [Brian] was in Hollywood—these people talk a language that was fascinating to him. Anybody that was different and talked cosmic or whatever[...] he liked it." Wilson's closest friend in this period was Loren Schwartz, an aspiring talent agent that he met at a recording studio. Schwartz introduced Wilson to marijuana and LSD, as well as a wealth of literature commonly read by college students. During his first LSD trip, Wilson had what he considered to be "a very religious experience" and claimed to have seen God.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In November 1965, early in the sessions for the Beach Boys' 11th studio LP "Pet Sounds", Wilson began experimenting with the idea of recording an album focused on humor and laughter. He was intent on making "Pet Sounds" a complete departure from previous Beach Boys releases and did not wish to work with his usual lyricist, Mike Love. Instead, he worked with jingle writer Tony Asher on most of the album's songs. On February 17, 1966, Wilson began tracking their song "Good Vibrations", which was intended for "Pet Sounds" but omitted due to Wilson's dissatisfaction with the recording. He attempted a couple different arrangements of the track from then until April.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson stated at the time that he "wanted to write [songs] with more than one level. Eventually, I would like to see longer singles—so that the song can be more meaningful. A song can, for instance, have movements—in the same way as a classical concerto—only capsulized." Starting with the fourth session held for "Good Vibrations", on May 4, he began recording the song in sections, rather than tracking the full piece all the way through, with the intention of later splicing the fragments into a composite track.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Released on May 16, "Pet Sounds" was massively influential, containing sophisticated orchestral arrangements that raised the band's prestige to the top level of rock innovators. In the US, the album confused their fans and sold worse than previous Beach Boys releases, but in the UK, the reception was highly favorable. The UK success emboldened Wilson to take greater creative risks and helped convince the band's label, Capitol Records, to fund and promote his next project, however ambitious it may be.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In 1966, Wilson attended a party held at the home of the Byrds' record producer Terry Melcher. There, he was introduced to Van Dyke Parks, a 23-year-old professional songwriter, arranger, session musician, and former child actor. Parks had moved to Los Angeles a few years earlier, hoping to compose the scores to Disney films, but instead lent his services to the Byrds and MGM pop groups the Mojo Men and Harper's Bizarre. During this meeting, Wilson noticed that Parks had an unusually articulate manner of speaking. Wilson had been searching for a new lyricist, and soon after, approached Parks with the offer to write lyrics for the Beach Boys' next album. Parks had worries, having heard that Asher had dissociated himself from Wilson and the Beach Boys, but nonetheless agreed to collaborate.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Between July and September, Wilson and Parks wrote many songs together at Wilson's Beverly Hills home for the upcoming project, tentatively called "Dumb Angel". Writing sessions may have also extended to October or November. Aside from playing on some of the "Smile" recording dates, Parks' contributions were limited to writing words to Wilson's melodies. He said: "I had no input whatsoever in the music. I was a total lyricist and sometimes an instrumentalist." Like Asher, Parks had minimal experience as a lyricist, and Wilson had little prior knowledge of his collaborator's musical background.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Parks implied in various interviews that he and Wilson shared an understanding of the album's Americana thematic, but in 2005, he wrote a response to a "New York Review of Books" article that stated otherwise ("Manifest Destiny, Plymouth Rock, etc. were the last things on his mind when he asked me to take a free hand in the lyrics and the album's thematic direction"). In a 2004 article, journalist Geoffrey Himes stated that although Parks did not write any of the music, he did collaborate with Wilson on the arrangements.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Having withdrawn from the Beach Boys' concert tours, Wilson placed distance between himself and his bandmates, and continued to involve more people in his social, business, and creative affairs. As biographer Steven Gaines wrote, his circle soon "enlarged to encompass a whole new crowd. Some of these people were 'drainers', [but others] were talented and industrious". During the "Smile" era, Wilson's coterie included:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Many of these people became mainstays at Wilson's home and during studio sessions. Various journalists were also arranged to accompany Wilson in and out of the studio. They included:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The album held a grandiose importance among those involved, as Anderle said, ""Smile" was going to be a monument. That's the way we talked about it, as a monument." Commenting on the reliability of figures such as Anderle, Siegel, and Vosse, journalist Nick Kent wrote that their claims are oftentimes "so lavish [that] one can be forgiven, if only momentarily, for believing that Brian Wilson had, at that time orbited out to the furthermost reaches of the celestial stratosphere for the duration of this starcrossed project." Gaines acknowledged that the "events surrounding the album differed so much according to each person's point of view, that no one can be certain [of the facts]." Williams acknowledged that he, Wilson, Anderle, Parks, Taylor, and other journalists were "very stoned" and that perhaps "had some effect on our assessment of what was going on."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On October 22, 1966, Wilson accompanied the touring group to Michigan to supervise their first live performance of "Good Vibrations". Upon his return to Los Angeles, he requested that his wife arrange a photo shoot and ask many of his friends and acquaintances to meet him at LAX. Approximately thirty people attended the shoot, including Hutton, Parks, Vosse, Siegel, Volman, David and Sheryl Anderle, Dean Torrence, Diane Rovell, Annie Hinsche Wilson, Dick and Carol Maider, June Fairchild, and Terry Sachen, as well as cousins and friends of the Wilson family. Guy Webster was the photographer.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The photo later became well-known among fans for its historical significance. Gaines writes, "For the next few months a giant blowup of the photograph hung on Brian's living room wall. In just as much time, all of the people in the photograph would become strangers." Biographer Peter Ames Carlin noted that the photograph took on "symbolic importance, as if it marked the point at which Brian's astonishing creative arc leveled off, nosing slowly toward a descent." Hutton recalled that Brian "never said to me why he was doing that. I didn't sense, at the time, that it was the end of anything. It was just another crazy night."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson originally planned many different projects, such as a sound effects collage, a comedy album, and a "health food" album. Capitol did not support some of these ideas, which led to the Beach Boys' desire to form their own label, Brother Records. Plans for the label began in August 1966 with Anderle at the head. In a press release, he stated that Brother Records was to give "entirely new concepts to the recording industry, and to give the Beach Boys total creative and promotional control over their product." Anderle later said that the label was for releasing projects that were "special" for Brian, and there was initially no concern over whether the label's products would be distributed by Capitol.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Anderle said that it was "really important" to make the point that "Brian was so creative at this time [that] it was impossible to try to tie things up[...] we were talking about doing humor albums[...] there was the "Smile" talk[...] there was 'The Elements' talk.[...] the humor concept was separate from "Smile", originally.[...] "Smile" was going to be the culmination of "all" of Brian's intellectual occupations." Journalist Tom Nolan later reported that Wilson's "incredible fantasies" included "an album of music built from sound effects[...] chords spliced together through a whole LP". Nolan commented that when Wilson momentarily shifted his focus to films, it had seemed to be "a step easier to capturing more. If you couldn't get a sound from a carrot, you could show a carrot. He would really liked to have made music that "was" a carrot."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Smile" was to be explicitly American in style and subject as a riposte to the British sensibilities that had dominated rock music of the era. Wilson stated that, with "Smile", he intended to "'Americanize' early America and mid-America" similar to how George Gershwin "Americanized" jazz and classical music. To Parks, Gershwin's 1924 composition "Rhapsody in Blue" represented a "musical kaleidoscope" of America, a quality that he and Wilson sought to emulate.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Parks said that they "kind of wanted to investigate [...] American images. [...] Everyone was hung up and obsessed with everything totally British. So we decided to take a gauche route that we took, which was to explore American slang, and that's what we got." Further on the subject, he explained, "Everybody else was getting their snout in the British trough. Everybody wanted to sing 'bettah<nowiki>'</nowiki>', affecting these transatlantic accents and trying to sound like the Beatles. I was with a man who couldn't do that. He just didn't have that option. He was the last man standing."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In a 2004 interview, Wilson mentioned that while the 1965 album "Rubber Soul" had inspired him to match the artistic standards of the Beatles for "Pet Sounds", ""Smile" wasn't the same kind of thing; it wasn't anything like The Beatles. It wasn't pop music; it was something more advanced." Numerous writers state that Wilson intended "Smile" as a response to the Beatles' August 1966 release "Revolver". In examining many books, documentaries, and articles about the subject, music journalist Andrew Sacher states that Wilson himself "never seems to mention "Revolver"", possibly because his "main goal in late 1966 was topping his own "Pet Sounds"". Asked in a 1969 interview about the influence of "Revolver" on Wilson, Mike Love stated that the record did not impact Wilson's music, adding that "Brian was in his own world, believe me."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Smile" was inspired by Wilson's growing fascination with matters such as astrology, numerology and the occult. Wilson described himself as an avid reader after a friend had introduced him to Pickwick Bookshop, a Hollywood bookstore. "I started reading too many books. If I'd stuck with just a few, I'd have been all right, but I read so many authors it got crazy.[...] I went through a thing of having too many paths to choose from and of wanting to do everything and not being able to do it all." According to an unnamed participant, "If you came up to the house and introduced something new to Brian's thought processes—astrology, a different way to think about the relationship of Russia to China, anything at all—if all of a sudden he was into that, it would find its way into the music. You could hear a bit and say, 'I know where that feeling came from.'"


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Many firsthand and secondary accounts support that Wilson owned books that encompassed poetry, prose, cultural criticism (Arthur Koestler's 1964-published "The Act of Creation" was often cited by Wilson), and "diverse expressions of non-Christian religions and belief systems" such as Hinduism (from the Bhagavad Gita), Confucianism (from the "I Ching" or Book of Changes), Buddhism, and Subud. Much of this counter-cultural literature promoted related practices that Wilson was further interested by, such as meditation and vegetarianism.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In a 2005 interview, Wilson stated that his studying of metaphysics was "crucial" and referenced "The Act of Creation" as "the big one for me". He said that the book "turned me on to very special things", specifically, "that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else." Anderle said that Wilson was fixated on humor and spirituality, and "had a real innate sense of spiritualism without the knowledgeable part that you learn by reading.[...] Whatever manifestation it took was whatever it was. There was numerology for a while; there was astrology for a while. Then we got into the "I Ching"." Vosse said that he was told by Wilson "that he felt laughter was one of the highest forms of divinity[...] And Brian felt that it was time to do a humor album." He opined that "Smile", had it been completed, would have been "basically a Southern California, non-country oriented, gospel album—on a very sophisticated level—because that's what he was doing, his own form of revival music".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Jules Siegel famously recalled that, during one evening in October, Wilson announced to his wife and friends that he was "writing a teenage symphony to God". According to Siegel, Wilson felt he was moving into a "white spiritual sound" that he thought represented the future of music. In November 1966, Nolan reported that Wilson's shift in artistic focus was inspired by his psychedelic experience from the year prior. Asked where he believed music would go, Wilson responded: "White spirituals, I think that's what we're going to hear. Songs of faith."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In late 1966, Wilson commented that "Dumb Angel" had been a working title for the album and explained that the name was discarded because the group wanted to go with something "more cheery". In February 1967, Carl offered that the title "Smile" was chosen because the group was focusing on spirituality and "the concept of spreading goodwill, good thoughts and happiness". Carlin wrote that the "Dumb Angel" title may have been inspired by hallucinations Wilson saw while composing late at night under the influence of Desbutals. In 2004 interviews, Wilson denied that "Smile" was influenced by LSD, Zen, or religion. Anderle also denied that drugs were an influence on Wilson's artistic pursuits. Parks said that Wilson envisioned "Smile" as experimenting with "the mind-expanding possibilities of music and the mind-expanding properties of drugs".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Although "Smile" is a concept album, the surviving recordings do not lend themselves to any formal narrative development, only to themes and experiences. According to Heiser, there is also a wealth of material that appears to have "little, if anything to do with [an] Americana theme". Other themes involved physical fitness, childhood, and the natural environment. Web journal "Freaky Trigger" states: "While the lyrics are usually pretty damned literary, at their most extreme, they're divorced from any kind of meaning in the straightforward sense." Parks rebuked the suggestion that "Smile" was planned as a concept album and said that the work was only envisioned "to use the American vernacular at a time when there was a lot of soundalike Beatle-esque music around."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: By contrast, musicologist Philip Lambert describes "Smile" as "an American history lesson seen through the eyes of a time-travelling bicycle rider on a journey from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii." Documentarian Keith Badman states that Wilson intended the album to be an American-themed exploration of the innocence of youth and childhood. Williams concluded that it was to be "perhaps the story of the unnatural love affair between one man's voice and a harpsichord". A melodic and rhythmic motif (sometimes called the "Bicycle Rider" theme) was configured into several tracks, which he said "[broke] down the walls that give songs identities without ever offering conceptual ('rock opera') explanation or resolution."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Parks' lyrics employed wordplay, allusions, and quotations. He acknowledged that there were occasional "references" to specific historical entities, however, "I don't think that I was interested in wordplay as much as I was interested in the power of words." References to American history range from the emergence of railroads and automobiles to Western colonialism and its impact on Native American tribes. Scholar Darren Reid interpreted the focus on older American themes as a self-conscious, deeper reflection on the hedonistic, modern Americana of the Beach Boys' earlier songs. He said that, despite Wilson's later claims that the album was about humor and happiness, "the resultant album does not radiate predominately happy mood.[...] Perhaps the smile Wilson refers to is an ironic one[...] Humour, sarcasm, and lonely introspection are the contrasts that hold "Smile" together."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Some songs followed themes related to God and childhood, namely "Wonderful", "Child Is Father of the Man", and "Surf's Up". Only "Wonderful" referred to God explicitly. Parks supported that his associations with the spiritual aspect of Wilson's work were "inescapable", but professed that he disliked writing lyrics that dealt with religious belief, believing it gave the appearance of "trying to be uppity". In his recollection, "There's a lot of things about belief in "Smile", and its very question of belief is what was plaguing Brian at that time. What should we keep from the structure that we had, the hard-wiring that we had with religion? He had religion beat into him, and I did in my own way, too. So there's a lot of thinking about belief."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Asked what words come to mind when listening to "Smile" in 2011, Wilson replied, "Childhood. Freedom. A rejection of adult rules and adult conformity. Our message was, 'Adults keep out. This is about the spirit of youth.'" In another interview that year, he questioned a journalist how they would categorize "Smile". They responded with "impressionistic psychedelic folk rock", and said that while most rock seems to be about adulthood, "Smile" "expresses what it's like to be a kid in an impressionistic way" and "depicts the psychedelic magic of childhood", to which Wilson replied: "I love that. You coin those just right."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Carter summarized that "Smile"s subject matter engaged with matters related to history, culture, and society while also traversing "complex landscapes of faith: from national allegiance and ideological persuasion to religious belief and spiritual devotion." He argued that ""Smile" picks up where "Pet Sounds" left off", expanding the introspective themes of "Pet Sounds" into "an exploration of the nation's historical, social, ideological, and cultural identity." In his view, the lyrics also espouse "an antiestablishment skepticism toward religious institutions", "an interest in alternative belief structures", and "exceptionalist leanings".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In the 1960s, it was common for pop music to be recorded in a single take, but the Beach Boys' approach differed. Since 1964, Wilson had performed tape splices on his recordings, usually to allow difficult vocal sections to be performed by the group. By 1966, "Good Vibrations" had established Wilson's compositional approach for "Smile". Instead of working on whole songs with "clear large-scale syntactical structures", he limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules"). Through the method of tape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence, allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time. A similar fragmentary approach is common in film editing, albeit under the term "dangling causes".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Parks said that he and Wilson were conscious of "musique concrete" and that they "were trying to make something of it". Heiser called the album's use of jumpcuts a "striking characteristic" and said that they "must be acknowledged as compositional statements in themselves, giving the music a sonic signature every bit as noticeable as the performances themselves. There was no way this music could be 'real'. Wilson was therefore echoing the techniques of "musique concrète" and seemed to be breaking the audio 'fourth wall'—if there can said to be such a thing." He interpreted the methodology of using modules as consistent with the album's conceptual thread, "a return to the pre-grammatical, non-linear and analogical (as opposed to logical) thinking of early childhood – they are artefacts of "play"." Ethnomusicologist David Toop countered that "modular" "suggests discrete components that interlock" and offered "cellular" as a possibly more accurate term.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The material was continuously revised, rewritten, and rearranged on a daily basis. Anderle recalled examples: "The beginning of 'Cabin Essence' becomes the middle of 'Vega-Tables', or the ending becomes the bridge. I would beg Brian not to change a piece of music because it was too fantastic. But when Brian did change it, I admit it was equally beautiful." Some of the songs were fully-composed with obvious verse-chorus structures (including "Heroes and Villains" and "Surf's Up") while other songs were short segments designed to illustrate a mood or a setting. Due to the fragmentary and never-finalized nature of the recordings, it is ambiguous when and where most "Smile" songs begin and end.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In the mid-1960s, trialing mixes required the physical act of cutting tape reels (with razor blades) and splicing them together. Creating an entire LP that relied on these processes proved too challenging for Wilson. Engineer Mark Linett argued that Wilson's ambitions were implausible to fulfill with pre-digital technology, especially with "the infinite number of possible ways you could assemble this puzzle." His colleague Alan Boyd shared the same view, stating that the tape editing "would have been probably an unbearably arduous, difficult and tedious task".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: About fifty hours of tape was produced from the "Smile" sessions and encompassed musical and spoken word to sound effects and role playing. Many of the modules were composed as word paintings and invoked visual concepts or physical entities. According to Toop, during the mid-1960s, Wilson's style was akin to "cartoon music and Disney influence mutating into avant-garde pop". Heiser argues that attempting to summarize the whole of "Smile" is "a pointless exercise" and that it is preferable to write of "the many musical inhabitants of this complex, nebulous macrocosm." He lists several of these through the following descriptions:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The music itself carried on the "harmonic ingenuity" of "Pet Sounds", and in the belief of academic Dave Carter, "it makes little point to distinguish between the two albums in terms of their differential impact." With "Smile", Wilson's orchestrations emphasized traditional American instruments such as banjo, steel guitar, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica, and tack piano. Other instruments included "precipitate brass like a Tibetan horn", muted (with tape) piano, baritone guitar and upright bass played in a tic-tac style, dobro, bouzouki, and bass harmonica. There was also a greater complexity to Wilson's compositions. Jardine said that the music became "more textural, more complex and it had a lot more vocal movement.[...] With ['Good Vibrations'] and other songs on "Smile", we began to get into more esoteric kind of chord changes, and mood changes and movement. You'll find "Smile" full of different movements and vignettes. Each movement had its own texture and required its own session."" As with "Pet Sounds", "Smile" featured a more unique sense of rhythm relative to the band's earlier records.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Harpsichords and tack piano (typically played in unison) feature prominently, as well as mallets and "quirky/echoey percussion". Parks said that the "first thing I can remember in the studio" with Wilson was his use of "tuneful percussion, like a piano or a Chinese gong", which reminded Parks of early 20th-century orchestrations by men such as Percy Grainger, particularly Grainger's arrangement of "Country Gardens". Priore noted that a "flair for exotica" can be heard in "Holidays", "Wind Chimes", "Love to Say Dada", and "Child Is Father of the Man". Heiser observed that "playful" and "colorful" moods – which he likens to the music of "Sesame Street" – are consistent throughout the recordings.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The vocal arrangements, according to Heiser, use "a wide range of pitch centres, antiphonal effects, rhythmic variations, juxtapositions of legato and staccato figures, rounders-like echoes, and vocal effects not usually associated with mid-sixties rock records." Academic Brian Torff commented that "Smile" contained "choral arranging" and a "rhapsodic Broadway element". Toop wrote that the "Smile" vocals "willfully regresses into baby talk". Williams suggested that, "for the most part", "Smile" "uses words the same way it uses strings and keyboards—for their sounds." "Freaky Trigger" concurred that "the line between the sung word and mere sound become criss-crossed and blurred again and again and again[...] where the word becomes subservient to sound, which is only six or so steps on the road to sound-for-the-sake-of-sound". The journal considers comparisons with the work of Sun Ra and John Cage, and concludes that this was a reconfiguration of doo-wop, a genre that the Beach Boys were rooted in.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Psychedelic musical characteristics distinguished the Beach Boys' mid-1960s work, particularly through the group's invocation of "greater fluidity, elaboration, and formal complexity", "a cultivation of sonic textures", "the introduction of new (combinations of) instruments, multiple keys, and/or floating tonal centers", and the occasional use of "slower, more hypnotic tempos". Guardian critic Alexis Petridis wrote that until the negative effects of LSD surfaced in rock music via Skip Spence's "Oar" (1969) and Syd Barrett's "The Madcap Laughs" (1970), "artists tactfully ignored the dark side of the psychedelic experience". He argued that "Smile" presented such a quality in the form of "alternately frantic and grinding mayhem" (""), "isolated, small-hours creepiness" ("Wind Chimes"), and "weird, dislocated voices" ("Love to Say Dada").


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Smile" drew from what most rock stars of the time considered to be antiquated pop culture touchstones, like doo-wop, barbershop, ragtime, exotica, pre-rock and roll pop, and cowboy films. Some of the music incorporated chanting, forays into Indian and Hawaiian music, jazz, classical tone poems, cartoon sound effects, "musique concrète", yodeling, and elements derivative of Sacred Harp, Shaker hymns, Mele, and Native American chants. Music critic Erik Davis wrote of the album's disconnect to contemporary rock music clichés, noting that ""Smile" had banjos, not sitars". Wilson said he deliberately avoided traditional rock instrumentation because he wanted to employ ideas that were more "original" for "Smile". Also recorded were renditions of older songs such as "Gee", "I Wanna Be Around", "The Old Master Painter", and "You Are My Sunshine". Priore described this action as Wilson's attempt to expose "pre-'60s songwriting[...] to the psychedelic era."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Among the many "contradictory templates" Toop felt were "buried within "Smile"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s music legacy" were Frank Sinatra, the Lettermen, the Four Freshmen, Martin Denny, Patti Page, Chuck Berry, Spike Jones, Nelson Riddle, Jackie Gleason, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Penguins, and the Mills Brothers. He wrote that collaborations between Miles Davis and Gil Evans "haunt "SMiLE" tracks like 'Look (Song for Children)' and 'Child Is Father of the Man'", and compared the project's "explorations of acoustic phenomena" to "similar tendencies by Charles Ives, Les Baxter's thematic LPs, and Richard Maxfield's electronic experiments with insect sounds or instruments played underwater". Furthermore, he wrote that the project may be regarded as tone poems "in oblique relationship to Third Stream, that rejected dream of the late 1950s best described in Charles Mingus's term 'jazzical'". In 2004, Wilson stated that "Smile" was too advanced for him to consider it pop music, and said that he admired and was influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach for his ability to construct a continuum of complex music using simple forms and simple chords.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On December 15, 1966, Wilson attempted to ease Capitol's concerns over the album's delay by delivering a handwritten note that contained an unordered, preliminary track listing. Capitol prepared record sleeves that listed these songs on the reverse side with the disclaimer "see label for correct playing order". Preliminary mixes (and in some cases many) were created for several of these tracks.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: As Wilson neared the completion of "Good Vibrations", he asked Parks to rewrite the song's lyrics, but Parks declined, as he did not wish to alienate Mike Love. The title was written several times on one of the covers prepared by Capitol in order to boost album sales.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Heroes and Villains", the first song Wilson wrote with Parks, was envisioned by Wilson as a three-minute musical comedy to surpass "Good Vibrations". He created myriad versions of the track, some of which ranged in length from six to eight minutes. Wilson came up with the title and told Parks that he thought of the Old West when he wrote the melody, which reminded Parks of the Marty Robbins song "El Paso". Parks immediately conceived the opening line: "I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long, long time."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The success of their collaboration led to them writing more songs with an Old West theme, including "Barnyard" and "I'm in Great Shape". In 1978, Wilson told biographer Byron Preiss that there was intended to be a piece called the "Barnyard Suite", which would have been "four songs in four short pieces, combined together, but we never finished that one. We got into something else."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On November 4, 1966, Brian recorded a piano demonstration of "Heroes and Villains" that included "I'm in Great Shape" and "Barnyard" as sections of the song, but on his note from December, "I'm in Great Shape" was listed as a separate track from "Heroes and Villains".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Marilyn said: "We went shopping one day and we brought home some wind chimes. We hung them outside the house and then one day, while Brian was sitting around he sort of watched them out the window and then he wrote the song ['Wind Chimes']. I think that's how it happened. Simple. He does a lot of things that way." In July 1967, the bass line was reworked into "Can't Wait Too Long".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: The title of "Wonderful" derived from a pet name Wilson had for Marilyn. Parks identified the music as "entirely different from anything else. and I thought that it was a place, an opportunity, to begin a love song.[...] Now I thought, once we had gotten 'Heroes And Villains' done, we might have seen a boy/girl song emerge, other than 'Wonderful'. Honestly, I really thought we would do it, but I never found an opportunity to pursue that with the music I was given. Between August and December 1966, Wilson recorded three arrangements of the song, all of which were unfinished.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Cabin Essence" is about railroads. Biographer Jon Stebbins deemed the song "some of the most haunting, manic, evil-sounding music the Beach Boys ever made" with its waltz chorus replete with "demonic chanting, buzzing cellos, and rail-spike pounding".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Child Is Father of the Man" features keyboard, trumpet, vocal rounds, and a droning guitar saturated with reverb. According to Parks, the lyric came from Wilson's "fervent desire to re-invent himself as an individual, not as a boy". The title was appropriated from William Wordsworth's poem "My Heart Leaps Up". Parks later said that other lyrics had been written for the song that were never recorded. In 2003, he wrote new lyrics to complete the song.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Surf's Up" is the second song Wilson and Parks started writing together. It was composed as a two-movement piece, most of it in one night while they were high on Wilson's Desbutals. Wilson commented that the song's first chord was a minor seventh, "unlike most of our songs, which open on a major – and from there it just started building and rambling[...] when we finished it, he said, 'Let's call it "Surf's Up"', which is wild because surfing isn't related to the song at all."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Oppenheim declared on his 1967 CBS documentary that "Surf's Up" was "one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future." In a self-penned 1969 article, Vosse wrote that "Surf's Up" was to be the intended ending climax of "Smile", and that it would have followed a section described as a "choral amen sort of thing."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Do You Like Worms?" is about the recolonization of the American continent. None of the lyrics mention worms. Parks later said that he did not know where the title came from and attributed it to possibly an engineer, Wilson, or Mike Love. The "bicycle rider" mentioned in the lyric is a reference to "Bicycle Rider Back" playing cards printed by the United States Playing Card Company during the 19th century. Parks commented, "A lot of people misinterpreted that, but that's OK; it's OK not to be told what to think, if you're an audience." In January 1967, the song's keyboard break melody was rerecorded as the chorus of "Heroes and Villains". In 2004, the song was retitled "Roll Plymouth Rock".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Vega-Tables", according to Wilson, came from his desire "to turn people on to vegetables, good natural food, organic food. Health is an important element in spiritual enlightenment. But I do not want to be pompous about it, so we will engage in a satirical approach." It was the last Parks co-write that was recorded for the album. A module called "Do a Lot" or "Sleep a Lot" was considered for inclusion in "Heroes and Villains". In 1967, the section spun off into a piece called "Mama Says".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Also known as "My Only Sunshine", the track is a medley of the standards "The Old Master Painter" and "You Are My Sunshine". Dennis Wilson sang the lead on "You Are My Sunshine". In 2005, Wilson wrote that the rendition of "The Old Master Painter" was brief because he could not remember the full song. In January 1967, the track's ending was repurposed as the ending of "Heroes and Villains", minus the "when skies are gray" vocals.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "The Elements" was a conceptualized four-part movement that encompassed the four classical elements: Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. According to Anderle, Wilson "was really into the elements", so much so that he "ran up to Big Sur for a week, just 'cause he wanted to get into that, up to the mountains, into the snow, down to the beach, out to the pool, out at night, running around, to water fountains, to a lot of water, the sky, the whole thing was this fantastic amount of awareness of his surroundings. So the obvious thing was to do something that would cover the physical surroundings." To assist with the recording of this piece, Wilson instructed others to travel around with a Nagra tape recorder and record the different variations of water sounds that they could find. Vosse recalled, "I'd come by to see him every day, and he'd listen to my tapes and talk about them. I was just fascinated that he would hear things every once in a while and his ears would prick up and he'd go back and listen again. And I had no idea what he was listening for!"


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "" (also known as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" and commonly referred to as "Fire"). was recorded under unusual conditions. Wilson instructed a friend to purchase several dozen fire helmets at a local toy store so that everybody in the studio could don them during its recording. Wilson also had the studio's janitor bring in a bucket with burning wood so that the studio would be filled with the smell of smoke. He subsequently recorded the crackling noises made by the burning wood and mixed them into the track.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Anderle recalled that Wilson told the group "what fire was going to be, and what water was going to be; we had some idea of air. That was where it stopped. None of us had any ideas as to how it was going to tie together, except that it appeared to us to be an opera." Parks recalled that an elemental concept did not come up until later in the project. One of the illustrations created for the album included "Vega-Tables" as part of "The Elements", but Wilson's note listed "The Elements" and "Vega-Tables" (as well as "Wind Chimes") separately. Wilson told Preiss that "Air" was an instrumental piano piece that was never finished.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Prayer" is a wordless hymn that was intended to begin the album. Lambert describes the piece as "every technique of chromatic harmony [Wilson] had ever heard or imagined." On the session tape, Wilson announces, "This is intro to the album, take one." Jardine is heard remarking to Wilson that the piece could be considered its own track, but Wilson rejects the suggestion. This information makes "Prayer" the only track that is known to have had a definitive placement on the album.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "I Ran" (also known as "Look" and originally labelled "Untitled Song #1") is a song that featured upright bass, vibraphones, keyboard, French horn, guitars, organs, trombone and woodwind. The Beach Boys recorded vocals for the track on October 3, 1966, but the tape from that session was lost. In 2004, the piece was retitled "Song for Children" and given new lyrics by Parks.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "He Gives Speeches" was recorded on September 1, 1966 at the second-to-last session for "Good Vibrations". In July 1967, the composition was reworked as the first section of "She's Goin' Bald".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Holidays" (mislabeled on bootlegs as "Tones" or "Tune X") is an exotica instrumental that ends with a marimba melody later recycled for the 1967 version of "Wind Chimes". In 2003, the piece was given new lyrics and retitled "On a Holiday".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "I Wanna Be Around" is a rendition of the Sadie Vimmerstedt and Johnny Mercer pop standard. It was recorded the day after the "Fire" session, along with a piece titled "Friday Night", which was intended to segue from "I Wanna Be Around". Halfway through the session, Wilson conceived the idea to overdub the sounds of construction noises onto the track. He then handed out various tools to his musicians for them to create the sounds of sawing, wood cutting, hammering, and drilling. In 1968, these noises (also known as "Workshop", "Woodshop", and "The Woodshop Song") were used on the fade-out of the album version of "Do It Again". In 2005, Wilson wrote that the purpose of recording "I Wanna Be Around" was "to show how I could be funny and serious at the same time". Priore claimed that Wilson later told collaborator Andy Paley that "I Wanna Be Around" and "Workshop" were meant to function as a "rebuilding after the fire".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "You're Welcome" is a vocal chant with heavy reverb that was later issued as the B-side of the 1967 "Heroes and Villains" single.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Love to Say Dada" (or "All Day") is a piece that later evolved into "Cool, Cool Water". In 2003, "Love to Say Dada" was given new lyrics by Parks and retitled "In Blue Hawaii".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson held sessions that were dedicated to capturing "humorous" situations. According to Carlin, Wilson devoted "hours [to] recording himself and friends while they chanted, played games, had pretend arguments, or just shot the breeze. It was just like the old days with his Wollensak recorder, except much, much weirder." The surviving tapes include:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In early 1967, Brian's brothers Carl and Dennis went into the studio to record pieces that they had written individually. Dennis' "I Don't Know" was recorded on January 12, and Carl's "Tune X" (later "Tones") followed on March 3 and 31. Badman speculated the recordings may have been "part of a conscious effort to make ["Smile"] more of a group effort than effective a Brian solo project, or may simply be for Carl and Dennis to test their production mettle."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Brian also recorded novelty songs with photographer Jasper Daily: "Teeter Totter Love", "Crack the Whip", and "When I Get Mad I Just Play My Drums". Love characterized "Teeter Totter Love" as "Simple but poignant." The AFM contracts for these tracks list "Brother Records" under "Employer's Name". Gaines wrote that these recordings were to have fulfilled Wilson's separate "humor album" concept. The collection was offered to A&M Records but rejected. Vosse said that when Wilson pitched "Crack the Whip" to Chuck Kaye, the head of A&M, "You could see the panic on [Kaye's] face when he heard how awful it was. This look of, 'What the "fuck" do I do?'"


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Capitol gave "Smile" the catalog number DT2580. At least two versions of the album jacket were designed, with minor differences. It was to have included cover artwork designed by graphic artist Frank Holmes, a friend of Parks, as well as a booklet containing several pen-and-ink drawings, also by Holmes. He met with Wilson and Parks circa June 1966 and was given lyric sheets of their songs, for which he based his drawings on. By Holmes' recollection, his contributions were finished by October. The pieces were titled:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Holmes based the cover on an abandoned jewelry store near his home in Pasadena. He recalled, "I thought that was a good image because of the way, any time you go into a store, you're entering something[...] This was something that would be pulling you into the world of "Smile"–the Smile Shoppe–and it had these little smiles all around." Depicted inside the shop is "a husband and wife—a kind of early-Americana, old-style, 19th-century kind of image." Wilson approved the cover and took it to Capitol. Parks later said that the illustrations heavily informed the making of "Smile" and considered them to be the album's "third equation". He felt that he and Wilson would not have continued the project the way they did without thinking of it in cartoon terms.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: According to Vosse, the smile shop derived from Wilson's humor concept. He said that "everybody who knew anything about graphics, and about art, thought that the cover was not terribly well done[...] but Brian knew better; he was right. It was exactly what he wanted, precisely what he wanted." Parks recalled: "Frank was supposed to do something 'light-hearted', but there were no specific instructions and he came up with the perfect video vessel for realizing what we were doing, something I thought was an integral part of the situation. I think that still stands; I think of "Smile" in visual terms.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In September, Capitol began production on a lavish gatefold cover with a 12-page booklet containing featuring color photographs of the group (ultimately selected from a November 7 photoshoot in Boston conducted by Guy Webster as well as Holmes' illustrations). In early 1967, they added the repeated written instances of "Good Vibrations" on the album cover, which were not featured on Holmes' original design. The back cover featured a monochrome photograph depiction of the group, without Brian, framed by astrological symbols. Capitol produced 466,000 copies of the record sleeve and 419,200 copies of the accompanying booklet. They were stored in a warehouse in Pennsylvania until the 1990s.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Smile" was shelved due to corporate pressures, technical problems, internal power struggles, legal stalling, and Wilson's deteriorating mental health. After investing several months into the project, he concluded that "Smile" was too esoteric for the public and decided to record simpler music instead. Carl stated that Brian felt he could not complete the album and was intensely afraid of an unfavorable public response. In Brian's own words, he and his band felt "we were too selfishly artistic and weren't thinking about the public enough."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Writers frequently theorize that the album was cancelled because Wilson's bandmates were unable to appreciate the music. However, Stebbins says that the conclusions those writers draw from this perspective are "overly simplistic and mostly wrong" with not enough consideration for Wilson's psychological decline. Derek Taylor remembered that although Brian exhibited "scary" mood swings, his bandmates were generally supportive of him. Taylor also remembered Wilson being terribly insecure and highly sensitive to criticism, having "never [left me] in peace" whenever he would be asked by Wilson to offer music opinions.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Carl, Dennis, and Jardine contributed instrumentally to some of the tracking sessions, and Carl participated in the sessions more than anyone else in the band with the exception of Brian, although Stebbins notes, "Even Carl was unhappy with the project". Having attended some of the sessions circa January 1967, journalist Tracy Thomas reported in the "NME" that Brian's "dedication to perfection does not always endear him to his fellow Beach Boys, nor their wives, nor their next door neighbours, with whom they were to have dinner[...] But when the finished product is 'Good Vibrations' or "Pet Sounds" or "Smile" they hold back their complaints." Tony Asher said that Brian's bandmates never "really challenged Brian" on his direction for the group because they had felt "they weren't talented enough" to make such judgments.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: It is often suggested that Mike Love, in particular, was responsible for the project's collapse. Love dismissed such claims as hyperbole and said that his vocal opposition to Wilson's drug suppliers was what spurred the accusation that he, as well as other members of the band and Wilson's family, sabotaged the project. Wilson's statements on the matter have been inconsistent; he has both supported and denied whether his confidence in the project had been undermined by Love. Parks' later accounts suggest that he was dismissed from the project at Love's behest. In his words, he disassociated himself from the Beach Boys because Love and "the least known members" had decided "that I had written some words that were indecipherable and unnecessary."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In journalist Clinton Heylin's estimation, other reports suggest that it is more likely that Wilson himself became dissatisfied with Parks' lyrics, although "Love certainly happily fed" Wilson's change of opinion. Commenting on the accusation that he contributed to the project's collapse, Love said, "Maybe I'm cast in that light, which is unfortunate but maybe deserving.[...] You do a lot of pot, LSD, cocaine, you name it, paranoia runs rampant, so, yes, Brian could have become extra-, ultrasensitive[...] But can I be responsible? Should Mike Love take a beating for Brian's paranoid schizophrenia? "


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: One of the major issues that led to project's collapse was Wilson's uncompromising perfectionism, which may have been exacerbated by his drug use at the time. In one "Smile" session tape, a horn player can be heard sarcastically remarking of the producer's repeated calls for retakes, "Perfect – just one more". At the end of another session, which had lasted until dawn, an engineer asked Wilson's wife if she thought he would be satisfied with a certain take, to which she responded, "No, when he gets home he won't be satisfied. He's never satisfied."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson was later declared to have bipolar and schizoaffective disorders, although most of the members in his coterie did not feel that he showed signs of mental illness during the early "Smile" sessions. In Vosse's recollection, Wilson was no more eccentric than "a lot of people in showbiz" and "all those things that people looked back upon later as quite alarming" had not originally appeared to be of significant concern. Anderle supported the notion: "Brian wasn't the only [strange] one. We were all strange, doing strange things." Taylor remembered struggling with Wilson's "temporary whims".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: To prepare for the album's writing and recording, Wilson had purchased about two thousand dollars' worth of marijuana and hashish (equivalent to $ in ). He erected a $30,000 ($) hotboxing tent in what was formerly his dining room, located a sandbox under the grand piano in his den, and, after developing a fixation with health and fitness, replaced his living room furniture with gym mats. In reference to the tent, Vosse said, "we were all excited about it, [and] anybody who thinks this was like Brian being wacko and everybody [else disapproving] is wrong." David Oppenheim, who briefly visited Wilson's home in late 1966, later described the scene as "a strange, insulated household, insulated from the world by money[...] A playpen of irresponsible people." The sandbox remained in Wilson's home until April 1967.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Some of his bandmates also indulged in recreational drug use. Carl recalled: "To get that album out, someone would have needed willingness and perseverance to corral all of us. Everybody was so loaded on pot and hash all of the time that it's no wonder the project didn't get done." Dennis echoed that the group became "very paranoid about the possibility of losing our public.[...] Drugs played a great role in our evolution but as a result we were frightened that people would no longer understand us, musically." Brian told an interviewer in 1976: "We were too fucking high, you know, to complete the stuff. We were stoned! You know, stoned on hash 'n' shit!"


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Brian's use of LSD was negligible compared to his use of Desbutal. Parks said that he never witnessed Wilson using psychedelics, and, in a 2004 interview, stated that "Brian was strongly against acid at that time." He said that he had not been interested in using psychedelics himself, nor "anything that would incapacitate" Wilson. Anderle also said he never saw Wilson taking psychedelics. Vosse said that Wilson "may have taken LSD once" at the time. Siegel attributed Wilson's paranoid delusions, odd behavior, and loss of artistic confidence to his abuse of Desbutal:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Vosse said that, despite the large amount of marijuana that was available, Wilson "wasn't stoned all the time[...] really, Brian had a job to do, and he was a hard workin' guy." He referred to Brian's drug use as "the biggest red herring in [his] story I've heard so far", and rebuked the accusation that Brian was "some kind of nut". Hutton disputed that the drugs "got in the way at all" and believed that Brian's use of certain substances had helped him "work longer hours." Parks said: "Don't let the marijuana confuse the issue here. If you look at the amount of work that was done in the amount of time it took to almost finish it, it's amazing. A very athletic situation, very focused."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On May 11, 1966 Wilson recorded an instrumental take of "Heroes and Villains" at Gold Star Studios. The session was conducted as an experiment and was not a full-fledged recording. On August 3, Wilson returned to the studio for the tracking of "Wind Chimes", marking the unofficial start of the album's sessions. From then, over 80 sessions were conducted for the album, spread out over the next ten months. "Good Vibrations" was completed on September 21. By then, "Dumb Angel" had been renamed to "Smile".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Smile" was one of the most-discussed albums in the rock press and was first projected for a December 1966 release date. Derek Taylor continued to write articles in the music press, sometimes anonymously, in an effort to further speculation about the album. "Good Vibrations" was released as a single and became the group's third US number-one hit, reaching the top of the "Billboard" Hot 100 in December, as well as their first number one in Britain. Wilson told "Melody Maker" that "Smile" would "be as much an improvement over "[Pet] Sounds" as that was over "Summer Days"". Dennis told "Hit Parader": "In my opinion, it makes "Pet Sounds" stink. That's how good it is." At some point, Wilson, alongside Michael Vosse, made an appearance on "The Lloyd Thaxton Show", where he spoke about the benefits of eating vegetables.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In December, Capitol ran ads for the album In "Billboard" that read: "Good Vibrations. Number One in England. Coming soon with the 'Good Vibrations' sound. "Smile". The Beach Boys." This was followed with a color ad in "TeenSet" that exclaimed "Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMILE!" The ad promised the inclusion of "Good Vibrations" as well as "other new and fantastic Beach Boys songs[...] "and"[...] an exciting full-color sketch-book look inside the world of Brian Wilson!" Cardboard displays of the album's cover artwork were displayed in record stores, and Capitol circulated a promotional ad for employees at its label, which used "Good Vibrations" as the backdrop for a voice-over saying: "With a happy album cover, the really happy sounds inside, and a happy in-store display piece, you can't miss! We're sure to sell a million units[...] in January!"


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In the UK, one headline proclaimed that the Beach Boys' British distributor EMI Records were giving the band the "biggest campaign since the Beatles". On December 10, "NME" published a reader's poll that placed Wilson as the fourth-ranked "World Music Personality"—about 1,000 votes ahead of Bob Dylan and 500 behind John Lennon. In addition, the Beach Boys were voted the top band in the world, ahead of the Beatles, the Walker Brothers, the Rolling Stones, and the Four Tops. On December 17, KRLA Beat published a nonsense article by Wilson, titled "Vibrations – Brian Wilson Style", that contained many private jokes and references.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: A "Los Angeles Times West Magazine" piece by Tom Nolan noted Wilson as "the seeming leader of a potentially-revolutionary movement in pop music". Biographer David Leaf wrote that although the success of "Good Vibrations" "bought Brian some time [and] shut up everybody who said that Brian's new ways wouldn't sell[...] his inability to "quickly" follow up [the single was what] became a snowballing problem." Sanchez writes that Wilson was "poised to take his place next to the Beatles and Bob Dylan on the board of pop music luminaries", but as time passed, the hype for "Smile" went from "expectation" to "doubt" and "bemusement".


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson started having increasing doubts about the project during the latter months of 1966. From October 25 to November 14, Wilson's bandmates embarked on a tour of Europe (which included the group's first dates in the UK), followed by their fourth annual US Thanksgiving tour from November 16 to 24. Vosse later wrote that "Smile" "was a totally conceived entity" when the group was away on their British tour, but upon their return, the project "started going nuts". In Gaines' description, Wilson's bandmates "knew nothing of Brian's strange behavior" and were "infuriated" when they returned to California; to them, Anderle now appeared as the leader of "a whole group of strangers [that] had infiltrated and taken over the Beach Boys", and which were encouraging Wilson's eccentricities. Anderle commented, "I stand guilty on those counts[...] I was an interloper and I was definitely fueling his creativity. No holds barred. No rules."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson's friends, family, and colleagues often date the project's unraveling to around the time he recorded "Fire" on November 28. Parks did not attend the session and later said that he had avoided it "like the plague" due to what he had perceived as "regressive behavior" from Wilson. Within a few days of the "Fire" session, a building across the street from the studio burned down. Wilson was frightened that the music may have caused the fire and decided to discard the track. He later said that his use of marijuana and hashish led him to believe that he was creating witchcraft music.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Tensions during the recording sessions emerged around this time, marking a contrast from the joyous atmosphere that began the project. Anderle remembered that the debacle with "The Elements" coincided with what he felt was one of the greatest factors in the project's demise: resistance Wilson began to encounter in the studio – namely with "engineers", "getting studio time", and "giv[ing] parts to one of the fellas or to a group of the fellas". He said that Wilson "would go through a tremendous paranoia before he would get into the studio, knowing he was going to have to face an argument."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: "Don't fuck with the formula" is a quote that is often attributed to Love, although Love denied saying those specific words and later argued that the Beach Boys "have no formula." The remark originates from a 1971 "Rolling Stone" magazine article, "The Beach Boys: A California Saga", written by Nolan. Unusual for rock journalism of the era, Nolan's article devoted minimal attention to the group's music, and instead focused on the band's internal dynamics and history, especially the events surrounding the "Smile" sessions. The relevant text is as follows:


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In a prior interview from 1968, Anderle said that Wilson's bandmates were first concerned about losing "what the Beach Boys are" by going too "far out" beyond a "simple dumb thing", and "wanted to stay pretty much within the form of what the Beach Boys had created — really hard[...] whatever that is, California rock or whatever." By Vosse's account, while tensions had developed during the group vocal sessions, ""older" members of the Wilson family did everything possible to destroy the relationship between Brian and Van Dyke, Brian and David Anderle, and Brian and me.[...] out of suspicion[...] that the Beach Boys would dissolve.[...] and they didn't like our appearances."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Love addressed these accusations in a 1993 interview by stating that he had been deeply concerned about Wilson's treatment of "himself", "others", and "the reputation of the band", as well as the potential destruction of "our livelihoods". In a 2015 interview, he indicated that he did not have an issue with "crazy stupid sounds", nor with accommodating Wilson's odd requests, but still desired "to make a commercially successful pop record, so I might have complained about some of the lyrics on "Smile"". According to Carl, "I know there's been a lot written, and maybe said about Michael not liking the "Smile" music. I think his main problem was [that] the lyrics were not relatable. They were so artistic, and to him, they were really airy-fairy and too abstract. Personally, I loved it."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Over the ensuing decades, "don't fuck with the formula" has been repeated in myriad books, articles, websites, and blogs. In Leaf's 1978 biography "The Beach Boys and the California Myth", Anderle is quoted saying that the line had been "taken slightly out of context", and clarified that Love had actually agreed with Anderle on "a business level.[...] Artistically, it was another matter." In a 1998 deposition related to the memoir "", Wilson testified that Love had never spoken the line to him.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In Parks' recollection, "the whole house of cards began tumbling down" when he was invited to the studio by Wilson to settle a dispute from Love over the "Cabinessence" lyric "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield". Love did not understand the lyrics and thought that the song contained possible references to drug culture, something that he did not wish to be associated with, and took to characterizing Parks' contributions as "acid alliteration". Although Parks did not offer him an explanation for the lyrics, Love sang the line despite his reservations. Vosse believed that "as schisms developed within the Beach Boys", Parks had become the "most convenient" scapegoat once the camp noticed that the songwriters "would fight every once in awhile [and] have arguments."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On December 15, Wilson informed Capitol A&R director Karl Engemann that the album and its lead single "Heroes and Villains" would probably be delivered "some time prior to January 15". In response, Capitol delayed the release date of "Smile" and "Heroes and Villains" to March 1967. Wilson had also begun to suspect that Capitol was withholding payments from the band and instructed Grillo to conduct an audit of the label's financial records. Discrepancies were soon found. Possibly due to Capitol's insistence on a ready single, Wilson returned to work on "Heroes and Villains" on December 19, 1966 after which he halted work on the album's other tracks until April 1967.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: In January, Brian missed his deadline and began working less on the album, Carl received a draft notice from the US Army, "Good Vibrations" began falling off the top 20 chart positions after spending seven weeks in the top 10, and Parks was offered a solo artist deal from Warner Bros. Vosse said that Parks eventually signed the contract, "And the day he signed he put his head back into his own music again. And was less and less available to Brian. And Brian was less and less sure of what he was doing with the album."


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On February 28, the band launched a lawsuit against Capitol that sought neglected royalty payments in the amount of $250,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Within the lawsuit, there was also an attempt to terminate their record contract prior to its November 1969 expiry. Following the suit, Wilson announced that the album's lead single would be "Vega-Tables", a song that he had yet to start recording. The "Smile" tapes were also temporarily housed at Sound Recorders, a studio belonging to engineer Armin Steiner. Anderle met with many record companies but failed to secure a distributor for Brother Records.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: After February, by Anderle's account, tensions between Parks and Wilson flared as the songwriters "started clashing" because Wilson thought Parks' "lyric was too sophisticated, and in some areas Brian's music was not sophisticated enough [for Van Dyke]." Recalling the then-projected single release of "Vega-Tables", Parks said, "I am sure I would not have wanted 'Vega-Tables' to be given too much emphasis. For "Smile", that celebrated collaboration, to be dependent on a commercial release of 'Vega-Tables' as a single, was to me tremendously ill-advised, wherever it came from." Jules Siegel said that Parks was "tired of being constantly dominated by Brian." Vosse wrote, "Van Dyke would get really mad because he hated working in a subservient position where there was someone that could say no; and Brian always maintained that. And every once in a while, he would say no just to let Van Dyke know he "could" say no: and that's what really made Van Dyke mad." Parks stated that he did not wish to keep involving himself with what he felt were family feuds unrelated to him and thought that "Smile" could have been finished without his continued participation.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: On March 2, after a session for "Heroes and Villains", Wilson and Parks ran into disagreements, possibly over lyrics, and temporarily dissolved their partnership. The event is sometimes considered the symbolic end of the "Smile" era. Heylin states that the studio logs appear to indicate March 2 as the date that "Smile" was "abandoned". In March, Wilson cancelled a session – because he decided that the "vibrations" were too hostile – at a cost of $3,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Two other dates were also cancelled. On March 18, KMEM in San Bernardino conducted a radio survey that reported that Wilson was busy preparing "Heroes and Villains" and "Smile", "and he's informed the Capitol bosses that he doesn't intend to 'hold back' on these projects." On March 30, KFXM reported that the continued litigation had held up the release of the new single.


title: Smile (The Beach Boys album)

text: Wilson's paranoid delusions intensified throughout the winter while his progressively erratic behavior started to alarm his associates. One of the well-known stories involve a portrait of Wilson that Anderle had been painting in secret for several months. When he showed the painting to Wilson, Wilson believed that the portrait had literally captured his soul. Anderle later said that he felt his relationship with Wilson was never the same afterward. On another occasion, after attending a theatrical screening for the film "Seconds", Wilson was convinced that it had coded messages about his life planted by Phil Spector and director John Frankenheimer. According to Gaines, Wilson suggested to his colleagues that Spector and Frankenheimer were working together as part of a Jewish conspiracy to "destroy Brian Wilson[...] Anderle, himself a Jew, was so insulted he couldn't speak.[...] It took him several days to forgive Brian." Taylor said that Wilson later assigned "people [to follow] Spector. Then Murry was having Brian tailed and so Brian got someone to tail Murry and it just went on and on. All of it complete insanity."