Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile

This book is a pastiche of magazine articles, newspaper clippings, session sheets, essays, interviews, pictures, reviews, and other miscellany related to the beach Boys and their legendary unreleased (at the time of the book's publication) masterpiece Smile, and its modus operandi was to collect virtually all of the known writings about the album. It's not for the casual "Beach Boys' Greatest Hits" type of listener, but for hard core Beach Boys fans with a particular obsession with Smile, this book is a treasure trove. Due to the scrapbook format and frequently very small print (My 63-year-old eyes had to read much of it through my reading glasses AND a magnifying glass) with many of its 300 pages divided into 3,4, and sometimes even 5 columns, it's a daunting, but ultimately very rewarding read. Highlights include Jules Siegel's essay "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God" and a lengthy (18 pages, 3 columns per page) Crawdaddy interview with David Anderle who was there during many of the Smile sessions. There is some repetition in some of the pieces, and some of them are laid out in an overlapping fashion obscuring some of the text, and this is the reason for the less than 5-star rating. I would personally have preferred more pages and larger print. Finishing it was almost as major an accomplishment as finishing James Joyce's Ulysses, but it was ultimately well worth the effort. The book was compiled from the perspective of Smile being still unreleased, but is all the more enjoyable with the benefit of having heard the Smile Sessions (released in 2011). If you're a true fan(as in "fanatic"), I highly recommend this book.

I truly, really like this book. It collects hundreds of pieces of news items, press releases, magazine articles, reviews, interviews, and much more, all pertaining to the Beach Boys never-released legendary and apocryphal "Smile". If one has never heard "Smile" one might wonder what it is/was, and what's all the hoopla for in the first place?The BEST intro to the Smile Sessions is the fan-produced "Smile Store" Interactive CDR. Once you've played the hundreds of outtakes, and gone through the day-by-day recording chronology, THEN this book will become worth it's weight in gold. Either the Vigotone or Sea of Smiles Bootleg CDs will also serve as a worthy introduction. THEN buy this book. You'll never hear Good Vibrations the same way again! :-)

The Beach Boys in 1966 were about to experience the height of thier popularity. Pet Sounds (released May 66) didn't fare to well with the stateside record buyers, but garnered positive reception with the overseas press-particulary the London underground. When "good Vibrations" was released in October, shot to #1 by December-it was clear that Brian Wilson was headed into a new direction. What he accomplished by producing Pet Sounds, he wanted to expand with Smile. But, between his hungry chemical diet, record company mumble-jumble and the Beach Boys themselves, the album, slated for a December release, was put off, and off-and eventually shelved by May of 1967. By then completed songs and musical fragments existed-but noone heard. Brain Wilson-however, became a Legend. Wilson often declined to accept the media calling him a genius-all he wanted was to be accepted by the underground the same way the Beatles and Dylan were.Personally, I don't agree with Priore stating the album was virtually complete; if that was the case, a mixdown would have been available. The general public and today's rock theoticians aare now discovering the Smile-era music; but if it WERE released back in December of 1966, would it have the same profound impact that Sgt. Pepper had in that summer of love 1967? Priore definetly wetts the appetite of the Beach Boys enthusiast; the same way David Leaf did with his 1976 classic biography "the Beach Boys and the California Myth", (now unavialble).The Smile album (orginally Dumb-Angel)was to be a grand display complete with gatefold cover and a illustrated booklet with lyrics to some of the tracks. The music,if anyone was privileged enough to hear it, was to say the least-bizzare. Mike Love, being the most apprehensive to the "new" music constantly fought Wilson in the studio; the other Beach Boys (sans Dennis and Bruce Johnson) agreed. Brian wanted to be an artist; The Beach Boys wanted fame, money and hordes of girls. In the end, Wilson said screw it, and began the retreat that would leave him a mental cripple to this day. The Beach Boys? They could have been Rock Legends with "Cabin-Essence", "Surf's Up","The Elemental Suite" "My Vega-Tables", etc. Now, though Brian Wilson will still have Pet Sounds as his crowning acheivement, the Beach Boys have been relagated to the land of oldies radio station with thier "surfand hot-rod" hedonism.Those 10 months from July 1966 through May 1967; Wilson thought he was finally able to create his watershed effort, his "teenage symphony to God", and he wound up with paranoia, dissension and pain

This focuses exclusively on the Smile era and it's a wonderful collection of press clippings, ads, photos, etc. I bought this originally in the late 90s, before the Internet dominated the world, so this book was like the Holy Grail for Beach Boys nuts. Fast forward about 15 years and there is still much to explore and cherish here, Internet be damned!

Cet ouvrage devenu assez rare est un passage obligé pour tout fan des Beach Boys ou tout du moins de la grande période, marquée par les sessions de l'album mythique Smile. Il s'agit d'une compilation exhaustive d'articles de journaux de l'époque des enregistrements jusqu'aux années 1990. On comprend à quel point Smile est un mythe en parcourant les pages de ce livre aux allures d'immense fanzine. Détail qui peut faire sourire de nos jours : l'annonce ironique de la sortie de Smile en 2067... Heureusement qu'il y a eu les années 2004 et 2011 auparavant !!!