My Complete “Thesis” on SMiLE

This series represents my thoughts on Brian Wilson’s unfinished SMiLE album, using as much information as possible to get a complete picture of his intentions from 1966-1967. This body of music has influenced me more than any other work of art in any other medium, and Brian’s other music has had a big impact on me as well. So, it’s a subject that’s very near and dear to my heart. I’m not trying to disrespect Brian’s later 2003-04 solo reconstruction but….weighing the evidence…I believe the original project would have taken a much different direction. Furthermore, I believe this alternate reconstruction of the work is superior and deserves wider recognition. It is my hope that this series of essays will persuade my readers to rethink this music and how best it ties together.

Part 1 | Background

Prologue: The Impact of the Beach Boys on My Life

Chapter 1: The Packaging and Auxiliary Materials

Chapter 2: The Men Behind the Music

My SMiLE mix with reversed audio to get around copyright,

Part 2 | Zen Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 3: The Album’s Structure

Chapter 4: My Fan Mixes

(Post Script): My Last Mix

Part 3 | Philharmonic Fantasia

Chapter 5: The Americana Songs

Chapter 6: The Innocence Songs

Chapter 7: The Elements & Outtakes

My SMiLE mix with reversed audio to get around copyright

Part 4 | Tragicomedy in 2 Discs

Chapter 8: Psychedelic Sounds Disc 1

Chapter 9: Psychedelic Sounds Disc 2

Part 5 | Witnesses of Wonderment

Chapter 10: The “Gospel” of Vosse

Chapter 11: The “Gospel” of Anderle

Chapter 12: The “Gospels” of Siegal & Hutton

My SMiLE mix with reversed audio to get around copyright

Part 6 | Trinity of Psychedelia

Chapter 13: Mute Muses

Chapter 14: Symphony of the Stars

Part 7 | Beyond the Music

Epilogue: Brian Wilson’s Solo Output

Appendix: Sources for Further Research

Sequel? : An Aquarian Testament

(^This was my original project, intended to be an “answer” to SMiLE the way Sgt. Pepper was an “answer” to Pet Sounds which itself was an “answer” to Rubber Soul. It was inspired by my experiences with psychedelia and what I’d read about the Age of Aquarius, a subject that came up during my research into SMiLE‘s conception.)

5 Comments

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.