The Obligatory "SMiLE Theories" Thread!
Dec 27, 2018 0:41:57 GMT -5
Do You Like Veggies?, WillJC, and 3 more like this
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2018 0:41:57 GMT -5
It had to be made eventually, and I guess it might as well be me who starts it up again.
I wrote 13 separate essays analyzing the album from all angles. I posted them on PSF and will eventually do so on my blog. However, unless there's a demand for it, I don't want to come off like I'm soapboxing, so I'll only post the links once they're up as opposed to sharing the entire tome on the forum.
In lieu of that, I'll just reiterate the basics for right now:
1) I believe in a 12 track, 2 suite album with clear breaks between each song. The tracks on each side would be linked thematically and musically. The exact track order varies from mix to mix for me, but I tend to use the December '66 list as a guide more often than not, and I always group Heroes/Worms/Cabin/Veggies and Chimes/CIFOTM/Wonderful/Surf together as the core tracks on each respective side. It's the other songs which are harder to pin down.
2) Side One would be about Americana and an extroverted look at the world at large. Most of the songs (Heroes and Villains and Vega-Tables being the best examples) would be funny on the surface but have dark undertones. The overarching theme of this side would be the dark underbelly of American history and the flaws in its institutions.
3) Side Two would be more introverted and vulnerable. It would explore different stages in a person's life and/or different perspectives of growing up. Most of the songs would be linked by references to childhood and feature pianos as well as horns prominently in the arrangement. It ends with the revelation that the innocence of children is both what makes life worth living, and what our future society should use as its foundation.
4) I believe Brian consciously worked in a deeper astrological meaning, specifically the Age of Aquarius and its heralding of individuality, creativity and technology over the old institutions of nationalism, monotheism and authority which were prominent in the old Age of Pisces. Brian was well versed in astrology and other new age ideas; it stands to reason he would have been familiar with this concept. Afterall, it was a big deal in the 60s counterculture.
5) I've believed the psychedelic sounds sessions are more important than they're given credit for since '13. See, years ago on the Smiley Smile forum I wrote an essay on astrological connections in SMiLE. (This particular essay is already on my blog if you want to read it. Chapter 36 if you scroll down.) There, I noted the importance of Vega-Tables and Surf's Up, how two of the PS skits seem intrinsically connected to those tracks in particular, and how they would probably close each side of the album. After last summer, where I analyzed the PS bootleg more thoroughly, I'm just as convinced of this theory as I ever was. If you really listen, it's clear Brian got his friends into the studio on Nov 4 to record two specific ideas: a vegetable fight (he references this exactly) and falling into an instrument. The other ideas, like veggies chants and Ice Cream Man are the other guys improvising. The Vosse Posse taps out before they can get a fight on tape, but Brian returned to both these specific concepts at later dates with Hal and the Wrecking Crew--to deny their importance is being academically dishonest. That said, my older mixes went too far; I used a lot of PS bits where Brian almost certainly would have just used those two.
6) The Elements wasn't a suite, it was a single 4-part track. It was never finished, and nothing Brian ever recorded save Mrs O'Leary's Fire and maybe possibly the Cornucopia take of Vega-Tables were ever intended to be elements. Wind Chimes and Dada are not air and water, that's an anachronism due to bootleggers trying to make something fit this concept they knew was supposed to be part of the album. Brian/Darian used the bootleg sequences that had been floating around since the '80s as a guide for their setlist. There are other examples which prove this--like the H&V intro now serving as part of Fire. Anyway, it's my belief that the Breathing skit and Undersea Chant on the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg represent rough, working concepts for this missing elements. They're not exactly what Brian would have done but they represent the closest thing we have or will ever have.
7) I believe Smiley Smile is closer to SMiLE than most fans assume. I think Brian merely abandoned the tracks that were the most unfinished and/or more VDP's brainchildren, and as a result the grandiose 2-suite format. He stopped using the Wrecking Crew or modular approach, instead opting for a laid back family recording where mistakes are left in. There's comedic stuff because by Nov '66 that was the plan for SMiLE. Basically he salvaged the aspects of the original vision that he could under the time-crunch he was under. I think SS better represents the spirit of what SMiLE '66 was supposed to be than BWPS '04 does.
But hey, these are just my opinions. What are some of yours?
I wrote 13 separate essays analyzing the album from all angles. I posted them on PSF and will eventually do so on my blog. However, unless there's a demand for it, I don't want to come off like I'm soapboxing, so I'll only post the links once they're up as opposed to sharing the entire tome on the forum.
In lieu of that, I'll just reiterate the basics for right now:
1) I believe in a 12 track, 2 suite album with clear breaks between each song. The tracks on each side would be linked thematically and musically. The exact track order varies from mix to mix for me, but I tend to use the December '66 list as a guide more often than not, and I always group Heroes/Worms/Cabin/Veggies and Chimes/CIFOTM/Wonderful/Surf together as the core tracks on each respective side. It's the other songs which are harder to pin down.
2) Side One would be about Americana and an extroverted look at the world at large. Most of the songs (Heroes and Villains and Vega-Tables being the best examples) would be funny on the surface but have dark undertones. The overarching theme of this side would be the dark underbelly of American history and the flaws in its institutions.
3) Side Two would be more introverted and vulnerable. It would explore different stages in a person's life and/or different perspectives of growing up. Most of the songs would be linked by references to childhood and feature pianos as well as horns prominently in the arrangement. It ends with the revelation that the innocence of children is both what makes life worth living, and what our future society should use as its foundation.
4) I believe Brian consciously worked in a deeper astrological meaning, specifically the Age of Aquarius and its heralding of individuality, creativity and technology over the old institutions of nationalism, monotheism and authority which were prominent in the old Age of Pisces. Brian was well versed in astrology and other new age ideas; it stands to reason he would have been familiar with this concept. Afterall, it was a big deal in the 60s counterculture.
5) I've believed the psychedelic sounds sessions are more important than they're given credit for since '13. See, years ago on the Smiley Smile forum I wrote an essay on astrological connections in SMiLE. (This particular essay is already on my blog if you want to read it. Chapter 36 if you scroll down.) There, I noted the importance of Vega-Tables and Surf's Up, how two of the PS skits seem intrinsically connected to those tracks in particular, and how they would probably close each side of the album. After last summer, where I analyzed the PS bootleg more thoroughly, I'm just as convinced of this theory as I ever was. If you really listen, it's clear Brian got his friends into the studio on Nov 4 to record two specific ideas: a vegetable fight (he references this exactly) and falling into an instrument. The other ideas, like veggies chants and Ice Cream Man are the other guys improvising. The Vosse Posse taps out before they can get a fight on tape, but Brian returned to both these specific concepts at later dates with Hal and the Wrecking Crew--to deny their importance is being academically dishonest. That said, my older mixes went too far; I used a lot of PS bits where Brian almost certainly would have just used those two.
6) The Elements wasn't a suite, it was a single 4-part track. It was never finished, and nothing Brian ever recorded save Mrs O'Leary's Fire and maybe possibly the Cornucopia take of Vega-Tables were ever intended to be elements. Wind Chimes and Dada are not air and water, that's an anachronism due to bootleggers trying to make something fit this concept they knew was supposed to be part of the album. Brian/Darian used the bootleg sequences that had been floating around since the '80s as a guide for their setlist. There are other examples which prove this--like the H&V intro now serving as part of Fire. Anyway, it's my belief that the Breathing skit and Undersea Chant on the Psychedelic Sounds bootleg represent rough, working concepts for this missing elements. They're not exactly what Brian would have done but they represent the closest thing we have or will ever have.
7) I believe Smiley Smile is closer to SMiLE than most fans assume. I think Brian merely abandoned the tracks that were the most unfinished and/or more VDP's brainchildren, and as a result the grandiose 2-suite format. He stopped using the Wrecking Crew or modular approach, instead opting for a laid back family recording where mistakes are left in. There's comedic stuff because by Nov '66 that was the plan for SMiLE. Basically he salvaged the aspects of the original vision that he could under the time-crunch he was under. I think SS better represents the spirit of what SMiLE '66 was supposed to be than BWPS '04 does.
But hey, these are just my opinions. What are some of yours?