Good Reason To "Smile"

By Roger LeLievre

These days, life is mostly good vibrations for Brian Wilson.

The reclusive pop auteur and onetime Beach Boys leader brings songs from his near-legendary, heretofore unreleased album "Smile" to the Michigan Theater Monday night.

The disc - which was started 37 years ago but not finished until now - was officially released earlier this week. A European tour of "Smile" this summer received a welcome bordering on rapture.

In a recent phone interview with The News, Wilson - who has been candid about his struggle with mental illness over the years - sounded upbeat.

"It feels great - it feels very accomplished and very satisfying," he said of the finished version of "Smile."

"I have had many interviews over the years about it, and I always say the same thing: We shelved it because it was too ahead of its time and too advanced."

And now?

"I think the world has finally caught up with it - I think people are ready for it. Hopefully, it will sell a lot of copies."

Wilson said he is bringing along a six-piece band and will also perform songs from his solo career as well as songs from the Beach Boys era.

To borrow from another musician of the era, the "Smile" story has been a long and winding road.

The first recording effort was between 1966 and 1967. At the time, The Beach Boys and Wilson had amassed a string of Top 10 albums glorifying the California sun-surf-and-sand lifestyle. By that time, Wilson had quit touring - although the other Beach Boys continued on the road - so he could focus on writing, recording and producing his increasingly elaborate music.

Jim Leonard, an Ann Arbor music journalist and musicologist, said that, at the time, the Beach Boys and the Beatles were in a race to see which band could come up with the most progressive sound.

"Music history was rushing forward at that point. Everybody was trying to write the coolest new songs - the biggest production, the most wild instruments, the most elaborate structure, the most cosmic lyrics.

"The Beach Boys and the Beatles were clearly in the lead. (John) Lennon and (Paul) McCartney acknowledged Wilson's greatness as a composer, and McCartney still does. But he had reached a level in his music which was far beyond what the Beach Boys could understand. Not to dis The Beach Boys, but this is quite a work."

Wilson wrote the music for "Smile," while a virtually unknown songwriter, Van Dyke Parks, wrote the lyrics.

Following the triumph of the Beach Boys' landmark "Pet Sounds" album, the first release from the "Smile" sessions was "Good Vibrations," a No. 1 hit and the most complex pop song of the time.

Capitol Records clearly expected a new album that would compete with the Fab Four, who were working on the album that would soon become "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Meanwhile Wilson, whose behavior was becoming increasingly erratic, began to crack under the pressure.

It didn't help that the other Beach Boys were confused by the new music Wilson was making.

Overwhelmed, Wilson shelved the album. Depressed and sedated, he retreated from the public eye.

Still, since much of "Smile" had already been recorded, several of the songs surfaced on Beach Boys albums from the late '60s and early '70s. Wilson also released some "Smile" material on a Beach Boys' 1993 box set. But he refused to resurrect the total project.

In the early 1990s, remarried and emerging from his long funk, Wilson began recording and touring again. In 2000, he began thinking again about "Smile." Parks came back on board to polish up the lyrics. This past summer, Wilson and his group, which included members of the Los Angeles-based Wondermints, performed the music for the first time.

"I was scared to death it wouldn't go over," Wilson said. "But after I played those concerts, and I knew people loved it, we decided to record."

He said the response to "Smile" in Europe was reassuring.

"It was very positive and very, very touching for me to hear how much they really liked it. They gave me a standing ovation for six nights in a row. ... Can you imagine that? That was fantastic."

Among the circumstances that make "Smile" so unusual is that Wilson and his new band recorded the work from scratch, rather than using bits and pieces taken from the vaults.

Was the wait worth it? Leonard says absolutely.

"In my opinion, it's way better than I ever hoped it would be. My fear was it would never live up to what it was supposed to be, and it's way better. ... It truly is amazing.

"What we have here is a 48-minute symphony in three movements," he explained. "There's an opening movement, a slow movement, there's a funny scherzo and a big finale. It holds together musically, there's themes throughout the piece, key relationships that run throughout the piece. Clearly the guy thought it through."

Leonard said bits of "Smile" have tantalized music aficionados for decades.

"It was in pieces. For the past 38 years it's been a couple of tracks here and there, some stuff on bootlegs, but Wilson never put it in order at the time. It was like a jigsaw puzzle and you didn't even know if you had all the pieces. You knew you had a lot of it, but you didn't know what order it was going in or what shape it would take."

Wilson, meanwhile, said he finds it easier now to deal with expectations.

"When I was in the Beach Boys, it used to be kind of tough and hard to live up to my name. Now that I have my solo career, it's a little easier to live up to my name because I have such a great band behind me."

This is not his first performance in Ann Arbor. In 1999, he performed his solo show at the Michigan Theater.

Lee Berry, marketing director for the Michigan Theater, recalls clearly the '99 show, though Wilson doesn't.

"What made it momentous," Berry said, "was that it was opening night of his first tour as a solo artist in a non-Beach Boy show. ... I've got to say he wasn't flawless, but it was very, very strong. People loved it.

"It's kind of mushy in a way, but I remember it being a real outpouring of love - people were just beside themselves. He's not for everybody, but the people who like him really like him ... and I am one of them."

Berry said Brian Wilson's show is part of a "Legends of Rock and Roll" series he is working on with concert promoter Clear Channel Entertainment. The upcoming appearance by blues legend B.B. King at the Michigan will also be packaged under that banner, which aims to bring shows that appeal to older concertgoers to town.

Wilson has been working on other projects besides the release of the CD and the associated tour. He said participating on the Showtime special "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile," set to air the night after his Ann Arbor appearance, proved healing.

"I was interviewed for that documentary many times. It was a very cathartic experience, it was a way to express my soul."