Finally, Brian Wilson has something to "Smile" about; after 38 years, Beach Boys founder finishes his masterpiece.

By Joe Dupriest

Like a cork on the ocean, a long-lost piece of American music has floated back to shore.

Thirty-eight years ago, Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson suddenly abandoned a follow-up to "Pet Sounds," his concept album that influenced the Beatles to make "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Party hits like "Fun, Fun, Fun" flowed from the "Mozart of Rock," but he ran into trouble with the experimental "Smile," a complex work he called a "teenage symphony to God."

His record company had reservations. And so did the other Beach Boys, who worried fans wouldn't go for the impressionistic music and lyrics. Wilson halted what many expected would be his masterpiece. Over the years, he battled depression and mental illness.

Meanwhile, the legend of "Smile" grew as fragments like "Heroes and Villains" and "Surf's Up" appeared on Beach Boys albums and bootlegs.

Now Wilson is shaking up the music world again. At age 62, he's finished "Smile," a three-movement musical piece that encompasses American history from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii. The work has overtones of George Gershwin and J.S. Bach, Aaron Copland and carnival calliopes. It ends with a slightly different version of the Beach Boys' hit single from the 1960s, "Good Vibrations."

David Beard, editor of the Charlotte-based Endless Summer Quarterly, an international Brian Wilson/Beach Boys fan publication, calls "Smile" "the achievement of a lifetime."

"This is beyond 'Pet Sounds,' " Beard said. "It's the most dynamic, impressionistic, visually stimulating collection of songs I've ever experienced. It's remarkable. You can't call it one thing. It's like walking into an aural gymnasium. It's got a little bit of everything."

The latest issue of Endless Summer Quarterly is devoted to Wilson, and the "Smile" issue which comes out in October will have a long interview Beard did with the album's lyricist, Van Dyke Parks.

The newly recorded "Smile" will be released Tuesday, two days before Wilson launches a month-long concert tour. The nearest he'll come to the Carolinas is Atlanta on Oct. 16. A Showtime documentary, "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of 'Smile,' " airs Oct. 5.

"It feels pretty good to have this done," Wilson said in a recent phone interview from his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. "We set out to do something remarkable, and we did it. I've got lots to smile about."

The usually reserved Wilson was upbeat and talkative on the phone. He remembered performing in the Carolinas with the Beach Boys in the early 1960s.

"I love it down there," he said. "It's humid, isn't it?"

Wilson said he is writing new songs and plans to start what he calls a "hard rock album" in January.

"I hope Paul McCartney can help me out with it," he said. "It's time to get going."

The Beach Boys group was founded in 1961 by Wilson, his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, along with their cousin Mike Love and friend, Al Jardine. Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983, and Carl Wilson died of cancer in 1998. Love currently tours with another group under the Beach Boys name and Jardine has a touring group.

Meanwhile, Wilson is getting in shape. He gets up at 6 a.m., and heads to a deli near his home for corn flakes and an egg with no butter.

"I'm on a special diet," he said. "I'm going to lose 30 more pounds, I swear to God."

Wilson recently returned from a tour of England and Europe, where he did songs from his newly released "Gettin' In Over My Head" album and "Smile."

In the London Observer, novelist Ian Rankin wrote, "It's hard to say whether 'Smile' should have been re-recorded because it's a great lost album and some things can never be better than they are in your imagination. If someone came up with a new album of Kurt Cobain songs, I probably wouldn't buy it because it could probably dilute what there already is.

"And I feel a bit like that about 'Smile.' It's been built up through the decades, but can the reality be as good as the myth?"

Roger Daltrey of The Who wrote in The London Observer: "The album is worth the wait. It gives you musical courage. He's (Wilson) an extraordinary writer. He pushed popular music to whole new levels. I can see why the record company must have been throwing up their hands in horror at the time because it's not commercial, but that doesn't matter. It's fantastic!"

In Wilson's troubled past, his fragile feelings often surfaced in songs like "Till I Die," which began, "I'm a cork on the ocean, floating over the raging sea. How deep is the ocean? How deep is the ocean?"

Today, he's ready to let America hear what he considers his most important musical statement. The standing ovations he got for "Smile" in England "gave me a sense of purpose. And it was a source of great happiness."