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Part 2 - The Beach Boys - Smile fallout and Wild Honey
"Most of us were upset at EMI releasing a track off the album as a single without asking us. The word got back that they thought Heroes And Villains had 'underperformed' and they wanted to put things straight by releasing something off Smile that was verse-chorus-verse, y'know? I was the one chosen to tell Brian about it and I wasn't prepared for his reaction."
- Carl Wilson
"It's like a vote of confidence. I'm happy they've found something on the album they think is worth releasing as a single. If it's a hit, you can be sure we'll come over to England and thank you all in person!"
- Brian Wilson quoted in Melody Maker, May 1967
View attachment 542495
"Thanks for making Child Is Father Of The Man our second #1 in England! Capitol over here saw what happened and it's now racing up the charts here in the USA. But I made a promise and The Beach Boys will definitely be playing some shows in Great Britain this fall and I'll be coming with them."
- Brian Wilson quoted in Melody Maker, June 1967
BEACH BOYS UNVEIL NEW SOUND AT MONTEREY
With their single and album riding high in the charts, the Beach Boys surprised everyone at the closing night of the Monterey Pop Festival by only doing two songs from Smile (Prayer and Child Is Father Of The Man). The band took the opportunity to show off a new soul music style and promised a new album in the same mode to be released at the end of this year. Keep an ear out for the songs that made the Monterey crowd dance, Wild Honey, Darling [sic] and Let The Wind Blow. Before the new album is recorded, leader Brian Wilson says he'll be visiting England for a holiday!"
(New Musical Express, June 1967)
Brian Wilson: Pet Sounds was a bigger hit over here, Smile was a hit here before it took off in the US, so I thought I'd come over and say 'hi' and 'thanks' and see what's happening here.
Simon Dee: Have you met the Beatles this time around?
Brian: Not yet, no. I'm having dinner with Brian Epstein this week. The Beach Boys are going to have their own record label. I'm hoping he's gonna teach me how to be a businessman. I'm hoping as well as a record label, we might be able to branch out into TV and films.
Dee: Where do you get all this energy from?
Brian: I'm under the care of a psychiatrist. [murmurs in the audience] I'm not ashamed of that. I have depression, I take medication.
Dee: When you say 'medication'…
Brian: Ha! No I don't mean that stuff. I'm not going to lie, I did take acid back when everyone was doing it, but my psychiatrist says that could have done me much more damage. I've been reading up on the risks. Have you ever heard of Murray Jarvik?
Dee: I can't say I have.
Brian: He's studied LSD very closely, before there were any rock stars taking it. You should have him on this show.
Dee: I wouldn't want to deprive Panorama of the pleasure."
(Dee Time, BBC1, August 17th 1967)
"It certainly showed me what was really happening in the drug culture. It wasn't what I'd thought – spiritual awakenings and being artistic – it was like alcoholism, like any addiction. The kids at Haight-Ashbury had left school and dossed out there, and instead of drinking alcohol they were on all kinds of drugs.
“That was the turning-point for me – that's when I went right off the whole drug cult and stopped taking the dreaded lysergic acid. I had some in a little bottle (it was liquid). I put it under a microscope, and it looked like bits of old rope. I thought that I couldn't put that into my brain any more.
“Not long after that Brian Wilson came out against it. He was telling me of all the mental illnesses it can bring out. I didn't go down the medical, sort of scientific route he went, but it was nice to have someone else at that level in the scene who was also done with acid. It still dominated the culture at the time, but there were a few of us who turned away from it. Brian certainly made psychiatry and therapy a bit of a fad in the British scene."
- George Harrison, Anthology, 1995
"Am I an anti-drugs crusader? What's that? I don't know what that means. I'm on drugs right now. I have a prescribed dose of Valium. If I was diabetic, I'd take insulin. I'm a depressive, I take Valium. I'm not telling the kids, 'don't do drugs'. I'm saying to everyone, look after your mind. For me, street drugs put my mind at risk, so I don't take them. That's all I'm saying. You wanna hear the scientific names for my problems? I'd rather talk about our new album."
- Brian Wilson, press conference, November 1967
"Paul McCartney once said to me that he was jealous, the Beach Boys had beaten the Beatles at going back to their roots. It sure as heck didn't feel that glorious at the time. The kind of soul music Brian had us playing wasn't our roots. But Brian was writing with Mike again, it felt more like the old days. And we were playing our own stuff again, no session guys. I was overjoyed…at first. Brian worked us like he worked that Wrecking Crew. That's why I'm the last voice on the album, shouting 'Gosh darn it I've got blisters on my fingers'. To be fair to Brian, he was just as hard on himself. Harder. He stayed in the studio, after we were gone, getting all the keyboard parts *exactly right*. That's why we could put up with it, he wasn't making us do all the work. The sales figures didn't hurt, either.
On top of all that, he managed to produce an album for someone else."
- Al Jardine
View attachment 542496
- Carl Wilson
"It's like a vote of confidence. I'm happy they've found something on the album they think is worth releasing as a single. If it's a hit, you can be sure we'll come over to England and thank you all in person!"
- Brian Wilson quoted in Melody Maker, May 1967
View attachment 542495
"Thanks for making Child Is Father Of The Man our second #1 in England! Capitol over here saw what happened and it's now racing up the charts here in the USA. But I made a promise and The Beach Boys will definitely be playing some shows in Great Britain this fall and I'll be coming with them."
- Brian Wilson quoted in Melody Maker, June 1967
BEACH BOYS UNVEIL NEW SOUND AT MONTEREY
With their single and album riding high in the charts, the Beach Boys surprised everyone at the closing night of the Monterey Pop Festival by only doing two songs from Smile (Prayer and Child Is Father Of The Man). The band took the opportunity to show off a new soul music style and promised a new album in the same mode to be released at the end of this year. Keep an ear out for the songs that made the Monterey crowd dance, Wild Honey, Darling [sic] and Let The Wind Blow. Before the new album is recorded, leader Brian Wilson says he'll be visiting England for a holiday!"
(New Musical Express, June 1967)
Brian Wilson: Pet Sounds was a bigger hit over here, Smile was a hit here before it took off in the US, so I thought I'd come over and say 'hi' and 'thanks' and see what's happening here.
Simon Dee: Have you met the Beatles this time around?
Brian: Not yet, no. I'm having dinner with Brian Epstein this week. The Beach Boys are going to have their own record label. I'm hoping he's gonna teach me how to be a businessman. I'm hoping as well as a record label, we might be able to branch out into TV and films.
Dee: Where do you get all this energy from?
Brian: I'm under the care of a psychiatrist. [murmurs in the audience] I'm not ashamed of that. I have depression, I take medication.
Dee: When you say 'medication'…
Brian: Ha! No I don't mean that stuff. I'm not going to lie, I did take acid back when everyone was doing it, but my psychiatrist says that could have done me much more damage. I've been reading up on the risks. Have you ever heard of Murray Jarvik?
Dee: I can't say I have.
Brian: He's studied LSD very closely, before there were any rock stars taking it. You should have him on this show.
Dee: I wouldn't want to deprive Panorama of the pleasure."
(Dee Time, BBC1, August 17th 1967)
"It certainly showed me what was really happening in the drug culture. It wasn't what I'd thought – spiritual awakenings and being artistic – it was like alcoholism, like any addiction. The kids at Haight-Ashbury had left school and dossed out there, and instead of drinking alcohol they were on all kinds of drugs.
“That was the turning-point for me – that's when I went right off the whole drug cult and stopped taking the dreaded lysergic acid. I had some in a little bottle (it was liquid). I put it under a microscope, and it looked like bits of old rope. I thought that I couldn't put that into my brain any more.
“Not long after that Brian Wilson came out against it. He was telling me of all the mental illnesses it can bring out. I didn't go down the medical, sort of scientific route he went, but it was nice to have someone else at that level in the scene who was also done with acid. It still dominated the culture at the time, but there were a few of us who turned away from it. Brian certainly made psychiatry and therapy a bit of a fad in the British scene."
- George Harrison, Anthology, 1995
"Am I an anti-drugs crusader? What's that? I don't know what that means. I'm on drugs right now. I have a prescribed dose of Valium. If I was diabetic, I'd take insulin. I'm a depressive, I take Valium. I'm not telling the kids, 'don't do drugs'. I'm saying to everyone, look after your mind. For me, street drugs put my mind at risk, so I don't take them. That's all I'm saying. You wanna hear the scientific names for my problems? I'd rather talk about our new album."
- Brian Wilson, press conference, November 1967
"Paul McCartney once said to me that he was jealous, the Beach Boys had beaten the Beatles at going back to their roots. It sure as heck didn't feel that glorious at the time. The kind of soul music Brian had us playing wasn't our roots. But Brian was writing with Mike again, it felt more like the old days. And we were playing our own stuff again, no session guys. I was overjoyed…at first. Brian worked us like he worked that Wrecking Crew. That's why I'm the last voice on the album, shouting 'Gosh darn it I've got blisters on my fingers'. To be fair to Brian, he was just as hard on himself. Harder. He stayed in the studio, after we were gone, getting all the keyboard parts *exactly right*. That's why we could put up with it, he wasn't making us do all the work. The sales figures didn't hurt, either.
On top of all that, he managed to produce an album for someone else."
- Al Jardine
View attachment 542496
- Guajolote
- Word Count: 1k