 by Cameron Mott It was the mid-60s, the Cold War was at its coldest, JFK, our Cold Warrior, had fallen, there was a hot war in Viet Nam, the "baby boomers" were deciding it was better to make love and not war, Owsley was homebrewing LSD and the Merry Pranksters were spreading its gospel, the British Invasion had invaded and American musicians were manning the barricades by re-inventing American popular music, Dylan had gone electric "and the times, they were a changin'". This is the story of two of those re-inventors. Around mid-February 1966, Brian Wilson was recording tracks for the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album when he was introduced to Van Dyke Parks at a party. Van Dyke was a former child actor, folk singer, keyboardist-for-hire, composer, arranger, recording artist and a "good talker". Van Dyke's clever way with words was just what Brian was wanting for his album project after Pet Sounds. Brian might have been studying Classical music recordings since the Fall of 1965 in an effort to teach himself how to arrange for an orchestra. In the Spring of 1965, Van Dyke had released a Pop-single treatment of Ode To Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Brian and Van Dyke were on the same wave-length in some ways, but their backgrounds were almost opposites. Van Dyke had had a privileged upbringing but was a poverty-stricken recording artist in his young adulthood. Brian had had a lower middle class upbringing but was a millionaire recording artist in his young adulthood. As Pet Sounds was finished and work began in earnest on the Beach Boys' next single Good Vibrations, Brian and Van Dyke started hanging out together. One night in late Spring 1966 they got together at Brian's home on Laurel Way in L.A. and wrote a song about a Wild West youth who manages to grow up into a successful 65 year old father and husband while still maintaining his grit. Brian called it Heroes and Villains. No sooner had their collaboration begun than it was put on hold so Brian could finish the Good Vibrations single which his publicist, Derek Taylor, was calling a "pocket symphony". Good Vibrations had begun as a song with lyrics by Tony Asher for the Pet Sounds album, but soon evolved into a stand-alone single which Brian would toil over in fits and starts for 7 months. It was Brian's intention for Good Vibrations to "have movements, in the same way as a classical concerto, only capsulized"; it was to be an epic Pop single. Van Dyke was invited to re-write lyrics for this epic but declined. He did however contribute a musical idea, the idea of using cello triplets. By July 1966, Brian had a version of his "pocket symphony" ready for release but changed his mind at the last minute and withdrew it. While Good Vibrations was shelved, Brian and Van Dyke resumed their songwriting for the album project Brian was calling Dumb Angel, having 5 songs written by the beginning of August. Brian would soon simultaneously take up Good Vibrations again, finally finishing it in late September for an early October 1966 release. The two caught fire writing together and toiled mightily through August on into September, when recordings began for the next album, sometimes finishing a song in a single night. By mid-September, the Dumb Angel title had been dropped in favor of SMiLE, but Brian and Van Dyke's work together on the album that Brian was describing as a "teenage symphony to God" was well under way. An art student friend of Van Dyke's, Frank Holmes, was commissioned to create original art for the front liner of the album. Frank had an idea for an album insert booklet of original drawings, which would illustrate some of the songs for the album, alternating with photos of the group. Working from lyrics and descriptions from mostly Van Dyke, Frank produced 7 finished drawings for the booklet. Around the end of September 1966, Brian began to accumulate some more new friends and wrap his creative mind around new interests. Nick Grillo, the Boys' business manager, had been working since Spring 1966 on developing a corporate organization that would allow Brian and the other Boys to produce records, films, other artists, publish music and create and control any other project they cared to pursue independent of Capitol Records. In late September/early October David Anderle, formerly a deal-maker with MGM Records and manager of Brian and Van Dyke's friend/singer Danny Hutton, was positioning himself to take over those duties from Nick. Anderle persuaded Jules Siegel, an acquaintance of his working for the Saturday Evening Post, to do a story about Brian and the Boys. Jules would cover the SMiLE story for 3 months. Brian was looking for a personal assistant and Anderle suggested a college chum of his, Michael Vosse, who was a reporter and also an acquaintance of Jules. These three would all hang with Brian through several months of the creation of SMiLE. New friends, new interests. Brian's LSD experiences in 1965 had awakened his spirituality. In Brian's LSD visions, God had taken him on a tour of his past and his future, shown him his birth and his death which had taught Brian many things he said. He described some of the SMiLE songs as "white spirituals". Prayer sessions had been held during Pet Sounds and in the Fall of 1966 Brian discussed Zen, the power of Positive Thinking, practiced meditation and tried to be diligent in the pursuit vegetarianism, swimming, exercise and humor as expressions of spirituality. On the other hand, Brian dabbled with several divination practices; Astrology, Numerology, Scrying, I Ching and Subud. Brian also was making a creatively stimulating environment for himself in his home on Laurel Way; he had earlier installed his piano in a large sandbox, he built a meditation tent in his study which was sometimes illuminated by a lamp made from a parking meter which required coins to stay lit, he is reported to have installed a jungle-gym-like contraption inside his front door and he had a pool built with a slide, uncommon in those days we're told. SMiLE wasn't Brian's only creative interest, he was reportedly toying with a humor album and an album of water sound effects though not much is known for sure about either one. Humor was also to play a part in the SMiLE album. Van Dyke's collaboration with Brian on SMiLE was similar to Tony Asher's collaboration with Brian on Pet Sounds. Like Asher, Van Dyke worked with Brian over a 3 month period using his words to lyrically illustrate Brian's ideas; unlike Asher, Van Dyke claims he made no contribution to the writing of the music [although he would have been more than capable]. Brian and Van Dyke worked on the songs and themes for the SMiLE album through August and September and by the end of October all the songs had been written. Van Dyke often sat in on SMiLE sessions as a studio musician through October but after October 1966, with his job as lyricist finished, Van Dyke would only rarely visit the studio. Van Dyke has since said that SMiLE was about the "loss of innocence"; that would turn out to be true in more ways than one. Brian toiled over the instrumental tracking for SMiLE through November while the rest of the Boys toured Europe, England and the East coast of the United States. Good Vibrations steadily climbed the charts worldwide. The Boys were being hailed as conquering Pop heroes and voted Best Vocal Group in England at the same time as they were being criticized in the British press for being Brian's puppets, frauds who didn't play their own instruments on their records. When they returned to L.A. in late November, the pressure was on to finish the vocals on the SMiLE album for a planned December 1966 release. By the end of November, when the Boys were rested up from their long tour, Brian had finished all the instrumental tracking except for 2 sessions for Surf's Up and a hand full of instrumental tracking sessions for the next single, Heroes &Villains. Michael Vosse felt that SMiLE "was a totally conceived entity" by the return of the Boys to L.A.. Brian wrote out a list, possibly in early December 1966, of the 12 songs to be on the SMiLE album. Good Vibrations hit #1 in the US. Brian had struck a deal with the Boys at the beginning of Pet Sounds to allow him to do one whole album of "Brian" music instead of "Beach Boys" music. The Boys agreed to try it on one album and Brian and Mike even shook hands to seal the deal. As had happened 10 months earlier with Pet Sounds, when the Boys returned to the studio from their overseas tour they weren't impressed with what they heard. As had also happened with Pet Sounds, they complained to Brian and the lyricist, in this case Van Dyke. Perhaps the Boys felt SMiLE was a second "Brian" album and that he had gone back on his word; maybe they were stung by the accusations regarding their lack of involvement with their musical product [the Monkees were being accused of the same thing]. Maybe something else, but as with Pet Sounds, Brian and the Boys put their acrimony aside and threw themselves tirelessly into recording the vocals for SMiLE throughout the first half of December 1966 in between receiving the Best Vocal Group honor from England's New Music Express magazine, filming for a CBS special and Brothers Records business meetings presided over by its new President David Anderle. Some felt that Brian began to lose his confidence in SMiLE and everything else in December; becoming fearful of his father's snooping, Jules Siegel's attractive girlfriend's influence on his mind, Phil Spector's industry influence and the influence SMiLE music [in particular the "scary" Fire track] was having and would have on the world. If this were true, you couldn't tell it by BrianÔs productivity of in the studio. Brian and the Boys worked furiously on the album and especially the single, Heroes & Villains, throughout December and right on through January and February. Capitol hadn't lost its confidence in Brian or SMiLE, as 400,000 booklet inserts and album jackets went into production even as Brian informed them that the album and single would be delayed until January 1967. Beginning with a new instrumental track session on December 19, Brian turned his almost full attention to Heroes and Villains with only a few of the sessions devoted to other miscellaneous tracks. Paul Williams, of Crawdaddy! music magazine, hashed, splashed and crashed with Brian around Christmas Eve 1966 and the Wilson Brothers all got together at their parent's, Murry and Audrey, home on Christmas exchanging small but expensive gifts. On New Year's Eve 1966, the Phono Log in record stores announced the eminent release of the SMiLE album on January 15, 1967. January of 1967 was sort of a good news/bad news month for Brian, Van Dyke and the Beach Boys. Van Dyke signed a contract with Warner records; Carl refused as a conscientious objector to report for induction to the draft; the SMiLE album booklets and jackets were ready; Brian was feeling the pinch of studios not being available when he wished; the formation of Brothers Records was announced; the deadline for the Heroes & Villains single and the SMiLE album passed; Dennis and Carl began trying their hand at producing tracks on their own; Good Vibrations fell from the Billboard Singles Chart; Brian had some fun recording tracks with pal Jasper Dailey, a mild-mannered restaurant supply salesmen by day and a super SMiLE and rock Ôn roll celebrity photographer/chronicler by night. At the end of the month, Brian was holding mixdown sessions. February 1967 began with Brian recording more tracks with his pal Jasper Dailey and continuing work on Heroes &Villains; producing the so-called "cantina mix" around February 10, 1967. No sooner had Brian created this mix than his Rolls Royce was burglarized while parked in the lot of a movie theater. Two "perps" were apprehended and Brian was called to the police station. This real-life heroes and villains experience supposedly caused Brian to re-think Heroes and Villains and record new instrumental and vocal tracks in the last half of February for a longer 4 to 5 minute version of the single. Sometime in February, David Anderle intended to present Brian with a portrait painting he had created, but when Brian was disturbed by the disturbing images of himself in the portrait, Anderle was crest-fallen and never gave him the painting. Anderle was too busy to dwell on it long, as president of Brothers Records he was hard at work trying to get Brothers Records off the ground and through it establish Brian and the Boys' idea of a new way of doing business in the music industry. The best way to do that might be to free themselves of the old way of doing business. Anderle felt the first thing that needed to be done was sever the Beach Boys' relationship with Capitol Records. He and Brothers Records' lawyer, Abe Somars, discovered that Capitol may have been withholding certain royalty payments due the Boys for several years. In late February the Beach Boys' filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Capitol Records to recover said unpaid royalties and to terminate their contract with Capitol. Somewhere around this time, Michael Vosse quit or was let go leaving Anderle as the last of Brian's new SMiLE friends. On the last day of February 1967, Van Dyke rejoined Brian in the studio. Since the end of October 1966, Van Dyke seems to have visited Brian in the studio only a few times. After the writing of the SMiLE songs was finished by late October 1966, Van returned to studio work as a session musician for groups such as the Mojo Men and Harper's Bizarre. He landed a contract with Warner Records in January 1967 when, according to Michael Vosse, he turned his attention to his own music in preparation for his first album, Song Cycle, which was released later that year in November. But Van Dyke and Brian were in the studio together again on February 28, probably for the last time during the sessions for the SMiLE album. In late February and early March 1967, Brian and Marilyn were planning to remodel their home on Laurel Way, Brian had decided the sand box in which his piano stood had to go. Plagued with the unavailability of studio time when he wanted it, Brian was still working on SMiLE and the Heroes & Villains single and was worrying about "The Elements" suite track in particular. Good Vibrations had been nominated for a Grammy as "Best Rock and Roll Recording of 1966", but on March 2 it lost to New Vaudeville Band's Winchester Cathedral at the ninth annual Grammy Awards. Sometime March before March 28 1967, something happened. David Anderle said Brian and Van Dyke got into a hassle, some thought the other Boys' lack of enthusiasm for another album of "Brian's music" broke Brian's will, Brian says he decided that the music he and Van Dyke had written was artistically selfish and not right for the Beach Boys. Whatever the reason, Brian, as the producer, pulled the plug on the SMiLE album. Life went on. All involved still had [and still have] the "jive to survive". Van Dyke went on to an iconoclastic and respected career in the music industry. Brian went on to become one of the world's most respected and loved Pop music composer/performers. The Beach Boys went on to become the best loved American Band. Brian and Van Dyke are still dear friends. Everyone a hero and no one a villain. Thirty years later their stillborn SMiLE project ,even though abandoned in remnants and rags, still inspires musicians and fans, young and old. Who would've thunk it? |
