After 37 years, Brian Wilson finally shows his ‘SMiLE’
By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
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Better late than never.

After nearly four decades Brian Wilson has finally released “SMiLE.”

“It was so far ahead of its time, it finally caught up with the world,” Wilson says of the album which came out Sept. 28. “I mean, the world finally caught up with ‘SMiLE’.”

Originally conceived by the Beach Boys leader and lyricist Van Dyke Parks as a “teenage symphony to God,” “SMiLE” was abandoned in 1967. Wilson's escalating drug use, failing confidence, spiraling mental health and a less than rapturous response from Beach Boy singer Mike Love — who felt that Wilson was tampering with the sure-fire surf formula that had made the group famous — led Wilson to give up on the ambitious project.
“I think it would have flopped!” Wilson states emphatically of the original album which was to have followed up the band's acknowledged masterpiece, “Pet Sounds.” “I don't think anybody would have been interested at all.”

While some of the songs intended for the abandoned “SMiLE” release, most notably Beach Boys’ classics “Good Vibrations,” “Heroes and Villains” and the magnum opus “Surf's Up,” found their way onto later albums, what became of the original “SMiLE” recordings has long been a part of pop music lore. Reports circulated that Wilson, in a haze of drug-induced paranoia, destroyed the original masters for fear that they were the cause of a rash of wildfires in Southern California.

“We were taking heavy drugs then, really heavy into it,” the composer admits.
Fast forward to the new millennium and seemingly everyone in Wilson's world — his wife Melinda, Parks, his touring band — was imploring him to finish and release the definitive version of “SMiLE.” Wilson felt that the time was finally right to give his fans what they had waited decades for.

To do so, he had to revisit one of the lowest points of his personal life. Wilson had not even listened to the original “SMiLE” recordings until last year.

“It was a devastatingly heavy experience,” he says of hearing the tapes.

If Wilson feared that “SMiLE” would have been a critical and commercial disaster in the ’60s, he should have no worries about its success today.
“SMiLE” is a veritable masterpiece. With its many lyrical movements, recurring melodic themes and musical complexities, it is, perhaps, the first rock symphony ever recorded.

The release more than justifies long-held comparisons between Wilson and composers such as Bach and George Gershwin. In an age where the term “musical genius” is tossed away on the likes of ill-fated grunge-rocker Kurt Cobain, Wilson's “SMiLE” is clearly the work of a higher visionary and only enhances his reputation as one of the greatest composing talents of all time.

It is one thing to have all the studio gizmos handy to make such a complex recording, but performing the material live, as he will Sunday night at the Dodge Theater, presented another challenge for Wilson, who for years suffered debilitating stage fright.

“I like performing now,” he says. “It's a little bit of a pressure thing, but I like it.”

It helps that he's touring in front of a band made up of younger musicians who worship his recordings and have an uncanny ability to reproduce his complex compositions and unequaled vocal harmonies in a live setting.

“My band now is twice as good as the 1967 band that recorded ‘SMiLE,’ ” Wilson says. “It's not even close. My band now is the greatest band I've ever known.”

To get his feet wet with the “SMiLE” material live, Wilson — the man synonymous with American pop music — took his band to the United Kingdom to debut the entire album in concert.

"We wanted to premier it with people who appreciate music and there is nobody better than the people of London, England,” Wilson states. “They like music more than Americans do.”

His current live show consists of more than just the album.

“We play one set of Beach Boys and Brian Wilson songs like ‘Barbara Ann’ and ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’,” Wilson says. “Then we play the ‘SMiLE’ set, and then we do some encore songs.”