WI: SMiLE by The Beach Boys was released?

What POD's would be needed for this classic to have been released? Would Mike Love back down during the infamous Cabin Essence argument? Maybe Brian holds back on the LSD? Perhaps Capitol have a better reaction to 'Heroes & Villains'?

Also, how would this affect their legacy? Would their classic late 60's albums be butterflied away?

Bonus points if Surf's Up (Minus the title track but including the two Dennis Wilson songs) is still released.
 
What POD's would be needed for this classic to have been released? Would Mike Love back down during the infamous Cabin Essence argument? Maybe Brian holds back on the LSD? Perhaps Capitol have a better reaction to 'Heroes & Villains'?

Also, how would this affect their legacy? Would their classic late 60's albums be butterflied away?

Bonus points if Surf's Up (Minus the title track but including the two Dennis Wilson songs) is still released.

Well supposedly one of the other factors in Brian's breakdown was Paul McCartney visiting with a tape of 'She's Leaving Home' which Brian thought was so similar to what he was doing, his work was ruined. I don't know how true it is.

(Personally, I didn't like the SMiLE sessions, I found it excruciatingly repetitive, there are only so many times you can put up with the melody from Heroes and Villains)
 
I got into it due to the legends behind the album. My first was the Purple Chick Reconstruction.

There's gotta be more people with an opinion on this :p
 
I could see Capitol releasing the unfinished tapes as some sort of cobbled together collection in '67. Maybe after the Brian goes bonkers the remaining members could agree to finish off some of the lyrical bits that hadn't been recorded yet.

I wonder how you'd get a three sided album released in 1967. I could see Capitol maybe putting a mini greatest hits compilation on the fourth side to try and increase sales a bit if they don't just cut it down to a single LP.

If it was released though I have no doubt it would be the album that always gets the #1 spot on the critic's list. Pet Sounds in the top 5, maybe even their other albums might get a bit of a better reputation as well. I could see "Today" from 1965 getting in the lower end of the occasional top 100 list.

I'm not sure if Brian could finish it. He was such a meticulous perfectionist at the time I wonder if he'd ever consider it "finished" no matter how many bits he recorded. With less drugs he could have done it, but we'd probably have an altogether different album if he stayed sober. It's tricky.

What I always wondered is where Brian would have gone after SMiLE. Would he have been able to to do something just as good after or would the follow up have been a complete flop?
 
I'm not sure if Brian could finish it. He was such a meticulous perfectionist at the time I wonder if he'd ever consider it "finished" no matter how many bits he recorded. With less drugs he could have done it, but we'd probably have an altogether different album if he stayed sober. It's tricky.

What I always wondered is where Brian would have gone after SMiLE. Would he have been able to to do something just as good after or would the follow up have been a complete flop?

The only other guy working in a modular way in pop music was frank Zappa.. and he only managed to make it work because A) he was drug-free and B) he was a dictatorial workaholic.

If Brian had a similar measure of willpower in late 1966, we'd have a finished album in early 1967.

As for where next - I like the idea of the Beach Boys doing a select few concerts performing Smile & some of their hits in a "Stripped-down" arrangement and putting out a live album from those shows for Christmas 1967 (Think 'Smiley Smile'-meets-'Lei'ed in Hawaii') - maybe with a TV special out of it too.

Then in 1968, the next step up from Smile may be fusing guitar pop with a symphony orchestra..? Or he might revert to R'n'B as with OTL's 'Wild Honey'.
 
Wasn't most of Smile on Smliey Smile and Surfs up anyway? One of the things that did stop it was the track Fire. Brian being 'not all there' he though the recording that track lead to fires in the same parts of town and he then shut the whole thing down.
I do like Brian's version of Smile and the last Beach Boys LP was the best thing they have done since Holland, maybe even Sunflower.
 
Wasn't most of Smile on Smliey Smile and Surfs up anyway? One of the things that did stop it was the track Fire. Brian being 'not all there' he though the recording that track lead to fires in the same parts of town and he then shut the whole thing down.
I do like Brian's version of Smile and the last Beach Boys LP was the best thing they have done since Holland, maybe even Sunflower.

A few Smile songs WERE on Smiley Smile, but they were all either ones that were already released as singles (Heroes & Villans, Good Vibrations), or re-recorded "basic" versions of Smile tunes (Vegetables, Wind Chimes).

The "new" Smiley Smile songs were either recycled/rewritten pieces from Smile sections (eg With Me Tonight, Fall breaks & Back to Winter) or stoned attempts at song writing (Little Pad) or both (She's Going Bald).

I'm of a mind that Brian may have put out a live album towards the end of 1967 to buy him some time for his next big direction - similar to how "Beach Boys party!" bought him some time in late 1965 to get Pet Sounds together.
 
Would Brian have to be of a sound mind to actually release SMiLE or would the inevitable breakdown happen during its follow-up?

I don't know about sound mind, but he would have needed a greater sense of self-confidence to release SMiLE.

Listening back to the Beach Boys SMiLE sessions, and comparing them to the "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" recorded in 2004 is very interesting.

It sounds like there wasn't much left to be recorded in 1967 - just a vocal overdub here or there, maybe a small section or two. It appears that the major stumbling block was the post-production - the editing & mixing.

Maybe all Brian needed was a sane & trustworthy "right hand man" like Darian Sahanaja was during the 2004 sessions?
 
I saw a funny comment on youtube that summed him up (relating to the lyrics of Cabin Essence)

"Over and over Mike Love flies uncovered the douche bag" :D

But seriously, if Love is kicked then how does this bode for the band? If Brian does take a backseat then will Carl and Dennis have more control?

Also, relating to Cabin Essence, WHO ran the iron horse? >.<
 
Van Dyke Parks would have to remain then!

But Mike Love has to keep his mouth shut... any POD that could make that happen?

Or alternatively, Van Dyke Parks along with Carl & Dennis Wilson takes Brian aside & reassures him "You don't need this BS, we support your vision, we'll help make it happen - lets just fire him."
 
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