Trivia / SMiLE (The Beach Boys)

• Creator Breakdown: One of the most infamous examples in rock history, with an entire article on the Other Wiki dedicated to the collapse. To make a long story short, due to a combination of overwhelming publicity, various artistic and interpersonal conflicts, and increased drug use, Brian Wilson's mental state collapsed into paranoia and restlessness that left the band unable to complete the album until it was forcibly cancelled. Unfortunately, not only did the cancellation psychologically scar Wilson, this only marked the beginning of his increasing personal troubles for the next few decades, resulting in a nearly 40-year gap before he felt he was fit enough to revisit the project again.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Years before Brian Wilson's official versions, the material from The Beach Boys was widely bootlegged.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition:
  • In addition to the "basic" 2-LP and 2-CD editions, The SMiLE Sessions was also released as a box set with 5 CDs, 2 LPs, 2 45rpm singles, a 60-page book, a poster, and a 3-D cover.
  • If you wanted something even more elaborate and had a spare $6,000 laying around, there was an extra-limited, extra-special edition of the box with a cover that lit up and an autographed surfboard.
• Saved from Development Hell: One of the most famous instances of the trope. It took 37 years for a complete version of the project to see the light of day and another 7 for the original outtakes to be released.
• Troubled Production: It is one of the greatest rock albums never released, and there are many factors as to why it was never released.
  • During the time of recording, Brian Wilson began experimenting with more potent drugs like LSD and cocaine. This took a toll on his already degrading state of mind. One famous incident led to him experiencing ego death during an acid trip, and inspired the song "The Elements: Fire".
  • As time went on, Brian's mental health further declined and grew increasingly more eccentric and erratic. He shelved "Fire", believing that it was magically lighting fires throughout the town. When he walked into a theater showing the film Seconds (1966) (which was partially financed by Brian's main inspiration, Phil Spector), a character coincidentally said, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." This convinced Brian that Spector was following him and had made a movie about him. He cut off contact with one of his friends because he was convinced that his friend's girlfriend was using ESP to stop Wilson from making the album. He suspected that his father was spying on him from behind the scenes. As the recording sessions progressed, he even began hearing voices.
  • Frustrated with their lack of creative control, the Boys decided to attempt to end their contract with Capitol Records and form their own label, Brother Records. Unfortunately, this led to a brief lawsuit between the Boys and Capitol where the band demanded unpaid royalties and termination of their contract.
  • During the formation of Brother Records, guitarist Carl Wilson was drafted into the United States Army. He refused to report for duty, and was arrested for being a conscientious objector in May 1967.
  • Brian's insistent perfectionism would prove to be his own undoing, as he would repeatedly miss release dates so he could continue to tinker with already completed songs. The way he recorded the album was that he would record each section of a song separately, and splice them together to create the final product. This modular approach to recording led to him splicing sections together in many different ways, trying to find a final product he was satisfied with, which ultimately led to nothing getting done for a good part of 1967.
  • In 1967, after missing another release date, he decided that he needed to focus on preparing the two tracks "Heroes and Villains" and "Vega-Tables" for release as potential lead singles. It was during this time that he began to doubt his own abilities, and started to fear that the public would hate the album. What didn't help was pressure from the label and Mike Love to stick to a more conventional sound over concerns that this new sound would alienate their audience of teenyboppers. Brian's fears would turn out to be justified in his mind when "Heroes and Villains", the follow-up single to "Good Vibrations" and the centerpiece to SMiLE, flopped on the charts. He took that as a sign of rejection of his growing artistic abilities from the public.
  • During the sessions for the song "Cabin Essence", Mike and Brian's lyricist Van Dyke Parks got into an argument over the lyric "Over and over, the crow cries uncover the cornfield" and its supposed meaning, to which Van Dyke argued there is none. From that point on, Van Dyke began to distance himself from the project, and he left altogether in mid-1967, close to the album's cancellation.
  • Brian basically recorded SMiLE in a race against The Beatles to beat Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to market. However, he heard rumors that the Boys' publicist, Derek Taylor (who previously worked for the Beatles), played the SMiLE tapes for the Beatles behind his back, and started doubting the people around him. When Sgt. Pepper was released first, he took it as a sign that the Beatles won, and it severely demotivated him to work on SMiLE.
  • The final straw was when Van Dyke left the project over concerns that he was causing friction between members of the band. This left Brian without a direction for the album, and was unsure how to finish it.
  • In the end, Brian broke down, and cancelled the album altogether. A stripped-down replacement called Smiley Smile was hastily recorded, and SMiLE would not see release for decades. However, material from the album would slowly trickle out as album filler. After decades of battling mental illness, Brian would pull himself together and re-record SMiLE in 2004 to critical acclaim and in the end, the original Beach Boys sessions would finally see release in 2011.

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