The Beach Boys' widespread image of being just a simple fun in the sun band will never not bother me. Even my dad born in the early 60s is not convinced they're anything special, despite being a massive music fan. Pet Sounds and Smile are some of the greatest musical achievements of the 20th century.

As someone who’s listened to SMiLE close to 1000 times in the past two years, you’re absolutely right about it being alive, about how it blows the mind and touches the heart. Having listened to many fan mixes and making my own, this music can be assembled in an infinite number of ways, and it all works. Brian was so far ahead of his time with the modular song construction. I also agree that this album would have changed the face of pop music as we know it. Imagine all the great music that could have been. It is a monumental tragedy to not only us, but to The Beach Boys (especially Brian) that this album was never released.

Cabin Essence is the conclusion of the Americana movement. Other than that, great video.

This album has since become one of my favorite pieces of art that has ever been produced. Its just so effortlessly timeless. Yes, it was made during the peak of the psychedelia movement, but it's so unabashedly unique that nothing truly sounds like it. (Song Cycle by Van Dyke Parks comes close, but not to the same effect)

Great video! Most people I know do not give this project it's proper due, so it's nice too see someone champion this album. Back in the late 90's I ran in the same LA Power Pop circles as Darian Sahanaja and Nick Walusko (The Wondermints). Darian had one of the best collection of Smile bootlegs & oddball stuff around at the time. From what I recall Darian, after meeting Brian, ended up showing him his Smile collection on his computer and it blew Brian's mind. Brian could now physically SEE all of his session work at one time, in one place and on one machine. Brian became revitalized about Smile, so Darian and Nick helped him put the pieces in place to finish the album after all those lost years. I don't know any more specifics than that really. BTW, Darian also became, and still is I think, Brian's keyboardist. Cheers! New Sub!

I was stuck in a 10 hour road trip in a small car with four other people about a decade. We were riding through the Mojave desert, and both the air conditioner and the radio were on the fritz. The car was old, so we were stuck listening to listening to tapes. The guy who was driving with us had a bunch of really old antwacky tracks from people who probably died 100 years prior... and a Beach Boys compilation. We were stuck listening to that tape (which played slightly slower than it should have) for what felt like a trillion years. Any Beach Boys song is like my Manchurian Candidate code phrase now, and upon hearing any track, I feel the need to exit the room, lest I be mentally thrusted back, kicking and screaming, to a shitty Sudan in the middle of the Mojave. Despite all of this, this is a really fantastic video! I know it was a pain to make and was out of your wheelhouse, but you did a great job with it. It's probably one of your best! That last couple of minutes especially is probably your best written stuff, imho. Would love to hear you cover more music related stuff. Good job, dork!

God. You summed up my experience better than I possibly ever could. There is SO much novelty and variety in this maserpiece that it gave me a new lease on life when I discovered it a decade ago and has changed the way I've heard music ever since. Hearing Wonderful for the first time was like drinking from the purest fountain in existence. I will take this music to the grave with me xxx

I remember when you first showed us SMiLE a few years back and I was blown away by how good it was. I still listen to Surf's Up whenever I just feel like vibing out. Definitely gonna need to listen to the version done in the Super Mario 64 soundfont after this. Great job on the video! Easily one of your best to date! You should totally do more music related videos!

Fantastic video! SMiLE is my favorite album and you perfectly described what makes it so magical! There’s something so, lively in those old tape reels. It really is a once in a life time album! Also now when ever I hear the end of Heroes and Villains I will think of a very happy possum.

This is a masterpiece of a video!!! Honestly it might be one of my new favorites of yours, i love it!!! Really good work you did today, you're the first person who really made me want to listen to beach boys and my mom liked them. A LOT. great stuff here :]

brilliant video, thank you!

Love this! I hope the algorithm picks this up and people can understand Smile.

Great editing on this one.

every time i listen to a song from this album, i have to listen to the entire thing. because each song is just a part in the overall stage play that this album is. it's an experience every time, and never the same experience twice. you always notice a new detail about one of the tracks. i'll never stop listening to this album as long as i live.

this is a brilliant essay on this amazing piece of music history bravo

Brilliant summary. It truly is a crime against humanity that Brian was unable to complete and release SMiLE in 1967, and I would give anything to live in an alternate timeline where that happened. I listened to Dae Lim's SMiLE again last night and it's a truly spiritual experience. The ending of Surf's Up is truly orgasmic. The key change shifts it from being forlorn to triumphant, a complete rewriting of history, vindicating Brian and his vision. The world doesn't know what was lost when SMiLE was shelved, and that breaks my heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. And I agree with you 100%.

I downloaded Smile on a whim many years ago. No context for The Beach Boys or any past history with them, just a link and a promise that the album was really good. I listened to it, liked it, kept coming back to it over the years. Never investigated The Beach Boys any further. It's only now, watching this, that I find out about any of its history. What a surreal watch.

Great video, altough I didn't agree with everything you said, you still had alot of good points. Great script and editing, keep it up:)

You’re one of the few I’ve seen to truly understand the open source nature of this album!

You made a great point about how this was a far cry from the early surf records, but that just illustrates how quickly the culture and music progressed back then---that a song like "Surf's Up" was only THREE YEARS removed from "Little Deuce Coupe", and yet it sounds LIGHT YEARS ahead is mind blowing, only eclipsed by a song like "Long Promised Road" in 1971 being only EIGHT years removed from the same song! Compare this to our modern day---music has hardly progressed much in the last 30 years! A song from three years ago now still seems modern and could have been done yesterday

Another wrongfully forgotten album from the Beach Boys is Pacific Ocean Blue…it feels like the Beach Boys music at evening beach

I truly believe I have the best version of SMiLE on the planet. About 80% of it is from Dae Lims AI version, re-compiled to the BWPS track listing and fleshed out using about a dozen different sources. I've been listening to it daily for the past 3-4 months and I can't find a way to make it better. It's how I've always wanted to hear it.

Amazing deep dive on the greatest album never made. The smile version of good vibrations (with the hum de dah vocal tag) is always my go to version

the beach boys didnt make silly songs about cars and girls and the beach they made music that transported the listener to a mythological california where the sun always shined and the girls were always pretty and you didnt have to work and could sit on the beach all day didnt matter where you were in the world they were the only band who could do this

“Smile” is a MASTERPIECE! xoxo The Clarences

I’ve listened to countless fan made versions of smile and I have never heard one that I was 100% satisfied with. I want EVERYTHING in there… MQR’s version is the closest to what I am talking about, but it’s missing the BWPS bits that weren’t finished until 2004. Ive considered adding them in for my own personal preference.

I let it in and it took everything mentioned!!

the album is simply a perfectly calculated and crafted collage of beautiful sounds

When i first heard smile I had to Remind myself its a album from the 60s.. it sounded so contemporary and just so timeless clsssic and modern all in one. It's a magnum opus of music and its ashame our general public consciousness over looks Brian Wilson when compared to Micheal Jackson freddy mercury.

It's "rag tag" not "ragtime" 😊. Nice job. I have the same reverance for Smile, and you did a great job putting it into words.

And as good as it is and was, I got to see and experience Brian perform it live at the Jones Beach theater in NY. One of the best shows I've ever seen. (Can't say it was the best, because I also got to see Pink Floyd perform The Wall in 1980).

i would say the 5th beach boy was the wrecking crew

Good video, I agree that it is a fantastic album. It is one of my favourites. I'm doubt it would have changed the cultural landscape of the time though. The lyrics are maybe a bit oblique to capture the public imagination in the way that Sgt Pepper could. The 1960s were a rich melting pot and as the 1960s closed the music got heavier: The Who, Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Cream. It would have amazed quite a few, but I suspect the reaction would have been similar to Pet Sounds. SMiLE not coming out created an intense legend of its own. It existing as a multiplicity in a way enhances it. I would hate to be without Smiley Smile, I am very fond of the 1983 bootleg, I remember my excitement when the Good Vibrations boxset came out with significant SMiLE recordings. I was blown away by BWPS in 2004. From the SMiLE sessions I've created bizarre variations on SMiLE. The torturous journey of SMiLE has made it legendary, we do ask "what if?".

Seen Loathe in a completely unrelated video was certainly a moment

After watching this video and listening to Surfs Up a hundred times I agree it’s an epic song. While I still disagree that The Beach Boys overall compare to the Beatles l ( BB’s third member being Al Jardine or ML, neither comparable to Harrison), the argument could be made the Brian Wilson was the biggest genius of them all, including Lennon-McCartney. Why The Beach Boys never released Surfs Up or Smile is the great mystery of our time what could they possibly have been thinking

It is absolutely Wouldn't it be nice!

First time viewer,but your take on "Surf's Up" is so spot on! It is Wilson's masterpiece and,by far, one of the best songs of the 20th century. Excellent video!

I remember listening to cabin essence while walking in public and started gleefully skipping at one point

honestly think sunflower is their best

Would recommend listening on lsd

In regards to your point of it being nearly done and the sequencing being decided I've got to point out that the widely accepted tracklist was only put together in 2003 by Brian. The big problem was that assembling everything in an analogue fashion was nearly impossible in 67. It was originally only supposed to be 12 songs and Brian had no idea which bits to keep or discard

If this album released, it would have made the back half of Magical Mystery Tour look like an Ice Spice album.

My favourite album is The Soft Bulletin. It's nice to hear others opinion on the #1 though

Way deeper than surf or cars or girls. Profoundly dignified and very spiritual. Listen to the album Surf's Up. Perfection.

I agree with the other commenters. Excellent video, by somebody whose love and understanding of SMiLE is palpable. The fact that it is an alive album, is partially what makes me love it so much. I'm in my early 20s, and as a fan of this album I feel like I am part of a living community that reaches across generations. From now on this will be the video i send people to introduce them to SMiLE

Hey enjoyed the video. Understand this is purely interpreted from official releases (BWPS 2004, Sessions 2011), this isn't unfortunately how the album would ever have been produced in 1967. Cant recommend look listen vibrate smile enough if you can find a copy. For relative historical accuracy i would advise soniclovenoize's mix or dae lims. BWPS is an attempt to make sense out of the material that exists and 2011 used this to create the sessions record. The chronology of the album this essay is based on is specifically different from what would have been released. Sorry for being such a smilehead leaving this comment with so much love x

Bran Wilson’s agony became our ectacy.

Good Vibrations is the greatest pop song ever written!

Pet Sounds > Sgt Peppers and it's not close but Sgt Pepper's isn't even the best Beatles album much less the best album

Yes

Agreed.

Have you seen the grand coolie workin' on the railroad?

It’s got the greatest opener of all time I’ll give you that

I’m going to give the album another fair chance

Great video, discovered the album in College when Smile Sessions released. Upon impact one of my favourites, shared it with friends who were also blown away. While I think my tastes have developed somewhat since, I will always have a deep love for Smile, or the Smile that could have been.

The third movement is where it falls apart, even though I love nearly everything on there. What do Vega-Tables, Holidays, Fire, or Good Vibrations have to do with eachother? Americana and Childhood are coherent themes, even if the execution was a bit haphazard in spots. There's no real theme to the third movement. Is it being healthy? Is it a reprise of Americana? Is it the elements? Is it (a better version of) Good Vibrations? It doesn’t know what it wants to be. It largely feels like bonus material after the incomparable climax of Surf's Up. Like, how the hell do you follow the greatest song of all time? And it is still the greatest piece of American pop art ever, even with those shortcomings. Had Brian finished it when he was young and lucid, I'm sure it would have been much more efficient. I doubt there would even be a third movement, just for the sake of vinyl space. But as it stands, in official versions, that's where it falls apart to me

I really don't think there would ever be a possibility of The Beach Boys being in the historical place The Beatles are now, and I think it's mostly down to imo The Beatles are a lot more of a crowd pleaser. I respect the hell out of Brian Wilson, and I can't deny Pet Sound's place in musical history... but I just can't sit though that album all in one sitting. It's very lush, beautiful, and angelic, but I also find it very sterile while only teetering between feelings of joyful bliss and melancholy/somber. Compare it to a borderline bipolar album like the White Album, it's wider variety of vibes tends to come into my mind more throughout my day-to-day life. I don't think there is a single song in The Beach Boys catalog as widely accessible and timeless as Hey Jude, Yesterday, or Here Comes the Sun. I always appreciate The Beatles for being very artful and boundary pushing, but still being a band everyone could listen too, from actual babies to your 109 year old nana. And their output is a lot more tight and concise, which makes it a lot easier newer generations to get into them. All of The Beatles' albums are good and every one of them has at least one of their well known classics, where The Beach Boys have many meh-to-bad albums tied to their name. The Beach Boys are a band I am more than content with just having a greatest hits album of. I think they are very much a "you like it or you don't" kinda band, people these days seem to ether adore them for Brian Wilson's work, or not really think much of them. I do think they could get some more recognition these days regardless though.

I appreciate you not being in front of the camera for 25 minutes. This new trend of KZfaq classic-album-reviewers full-time talking heads is a disaster. How do we call this trend? I have no idea, I don't want to know. Talk about the content of your upload: pending. Thumb up, at least.

Hope for a stereo demix at some point.

i have thoroughly heard and collected thousands of albums over every year and almost ever nation and recorded culture ever. indeed, SMiLE is the greatest album of all time.

I think the 2004 live SMiLE concert is tied as the best version with the box set. I watch it all the time. Everything sounds so perfect in the live version, I don't even consider it live outside of hearing the audience react. Didn't like the production of the 2004 album because so many layers of the instruments get hidden in the mix and it sounds flat and sterile to me. Anyway, I'm a 35 year old Californian and just discovered The Beach Boys were more than simple surf songs last year! It's insane how so many people (not pretentious music dorks) are unaware that Brian Wilson and the late '60s The Beach Boys made some of the best complex and addictive pop music of all time. It's also crazy that he's still alive, wish I would've known about him earlier so I could've seen him perform but I did get to see Mike Love and Bruce perform Brian's music and I was actually shocked how good a performance they put on for being 80 years old lol.

Really enjoyed the time and effort you put in this video! Very well made. In my opinion, there wasn’t an American band that even come close to playing second fiddle to the Beatles til the 90s - sure, The Beach Boys had a few good tunes but Pet Sounds was a flash in the pan. Pet Sounds was absolutely incredible album that swam in a sea of mediocrity released by the band in the 60’s. Whereas you could put Beatle records on a dart board and blindly throw darts and find 10/10 records with every toss … doing the same for The Beach Boys, however … 😞 That being said, the love I have for the Stones’s Their Satanic Majesties Request is the same love that you have for Smile and I constantly play “what-ifs” with that record as it is near and dear my heart and absolutely my favorite record of all time. Hope you can cover that one in a video in the near future. Subbed!

I don't think Smile is THE best album of all time, but its sure up there for me, I think this is the album I'm the most nostalgic for, It's definitely the best sessions album, but I think there are a few albums better. For example: my favourite album is Tommy, by The Who.

the beatles and beach boys werent rivals they pushed each other to become more creative even before pet sounds, brian was experimenting example....the little girl i once knew, where he uses a classical music trope....the empty bars this was not done in pop music....as a result....the song didnt get a lot of airplay, because dj's and program directors thought their listeners would think the song was over and would switch stations while brian was john, paul and george all wrapped in one, he did have collaborators like tony asher and van dyke parks, who helped him expand his creativity

Queens first name for early 45 N LP N line up was The Smile inspired by that well know LP cos of smiley smile LP follow up to smile using same smile rerecorded hit LP ps Beach boys second Xmas LP 1970s not the sixties hit LP never come out till the 00 s I think you can now get it on cd with the sixties one it's a very very good winter sound great strings the record com only put out one 45 on Xmas eve in the 70 s so most had to order it so got it after Xmas N boxing day sad but true at a time when Xmas records were back in fashion even Phil specters Xmas LP was out again

Cabinessence isn’t part of movement 2, it closes movement 1

real shit

Peppers included Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever and is more experimental , versatile and has better sound color than "Smile"

Yeah, I think he could've used someone like George Martin - somebody normal and competent (NOT Phil Spector) to steer this to its destination.

No mention of Ogdens Nutgone Flake?

You forgot to mention that sgt pepper was created in an attempt to make an album that was better than pet sounds.

No friend, you are way off! It is and could have been great, but would not have sold any better than pet sounds. It's beautiful I admit, but Hendrix's second album , the Yes album and a few more were better to me!!!

“In My Car” isn’t a Beach Boys song. Did you mean “In My Room” ? Also, the impact of Beatles’ albums cannot be “overstated” not understated.

Just finished the Disney doc. Very disappointing and sadly what I expected. You watch it?

There's no Beach Boys song called "in my car", the correct song title is "in my room", totally different concept.

There is no "greatest album of all time" since art is always subjective - but it's a masterpiece nevertheless.

12:32 False. SMiLE as released in 1967 would have been a 12 track album (listed on the backcover prints).

I had the smile album on cd years ago, I was not really struck by it to be honest, I sold it out of my collection at some point, I love the beach boys but this did not resonate with me

The three movements were conceived in 2011, not in the 60s.

According to Brian, Pet Sounds was a 4/10 and Smile was going to be a 10/10.

I quite like the Beach Boys and have most of their major albums but I'd never go so far to say any of their albums inc Pet Sounds are the the 20th Centuries best albums. Smile was very disappointing when I first heard it because I'd heard all this amazing stuff about it being better than anything the Beatles put out. Just not even close. It's even a sub par Beach Boys album. Sorry. I actually prefer a lot of their 70's output.

Pet sounds is better and smile has been released and some bits on numerous albums plus the concert special

Ehh...pet sounds is better

“Love You” is better tho

I hope I will be forgiven for raining on your parade here. I collected all of the early Beach Boys albums. I was 11 years old when they started. I own a vinyl copy of SmileySmile, which I guess is close to what Smile would've been. I played it once after buying it. And I've played it a second time after listening to your video. I will not play it again. I actually find it rather embarrassing because I think its pretensions, to my ear, are a failure. (I suspect that one of the reasons it was never released is that the rest of the group felt a similar way. )To show how out of tune I am with your fans, I also felt similarly about Pet Sounds. (Where I also have a vinyl copy which I almost never play.) Apart from Sloop John B and God Only Knows, I find all the other tracks uninteresting. The slide into pretension was already audible here. What is disturbing to me was the massive contrast with the early work which was completely straightforward fun and unpretentious. I write this here not to upset anyone but just because it's so fascinating that listeners can come to such totally different conclusions about the same music. I noticed that Mike Love's group which tours (or at least toured )under the name of the Beach Boys never plays any songs from these albums. Only the early stuff. Good luck to you guys who can enjoy it, no problem about that, but I'm afraid I cannot.

Wow, you really are a Beach Boys fan😮... never in life Smile would top Revolver, Abeey Road or SPLHCB...

wtf? Bro. There isn’t a storyline in smile. That was never the intention. Van dyke pales lyrics make no sense and are literally meaningless. He’s admitted this. When alder get his lyrics meant he said “I have no idea”. You got everything so wrong here. Do more research next time.

Smile by The Beach Boys doesn't even come near to being the best album of all time. They couldn't complete it, a washed down version was released in it's place, Smiley Smile and wasn't until the early 2000's that Brian Wilson finally completed and released it, minus the rest of The Beach Boys. It sounds disjointed and doesn't hang together as Pet Sounds does. Brian Wilson aimed too high and crashed and burned.

Not even Brian Wilson would say it’s the greatest album of all time. Have you actually heard it?

Wonderful, vegetables, and good vibrations were the three great songs in there. There. The rest were just good.

Your nuts a unfinished album is not best

I disagree. There are some nice segments spread out across the SMILE material, but there's no real cohesiveness to it. Certainly not enough to earn it the honour of being the greatest album of all time. And......any album that includes the sound of carrot-chomping deserves a place in hell...

Is it possible for you to understand that most people are not moved by this album? How about that the BB were not musicians of any merit, and that never changed and is never seriously challenged? Let's not even get into their disastrous involvement with Charles Manson, Brian's instability and so on. You can like whatever you like, but there is a real world -- and this album would not have changed their miserable trajectory in the late 60's and beyond, for a while.

‘Purple Rain’? Are you fucking kidding me? You just lost all credibility… I’m out-

Apart from What’s Going On and In Rainbows, you have no idea. Pet Sounds yes. Smile is utter shit.

it was bad first time around i bought it Saw it live and still Not the greatest album of all time.

wtf? Bro. There isn’t a storyline in smile. That was never the intention. Van dyke pales lyrics make no sense and are literally meaningless. He’s admitted this. When alder get his lyrics meant he said “I have no idea”. You got everything so wrong here. Do more research next time.