|
Q: How do you introduce Brian Wilson? Simply one of the greatest composers ever in popular music, the mastermind behind The Beach Boys and all-time classic albums like Pet Sounds and Smile. Brian was the man behind 28 top 40 hits. And he's in Austin, Texas, to talk about Smile at the Convention Center tomorrow at 2:00. And there will also be a screening of a new documentary called Beautiful Dreamer, Brian Wilson and The Story of Smile? Brian, welcome back to Austin.
A: Thank you.
Q: We had so much fun at the Backyard in October when you played Smile.
A: Yeah. I’m glad you liked it. I enjoyed doing it.
Q: And Rolling Stone gave that specific show five stars.
A: I know. I know. That was fantastic.
Q: When you gave Smile its name, what gave you the idea to call the album Smile?
A: Because we wanted people to be -- feel like a happy album, because it was a happy album. So we called it Smile.
Q: And you look happier than ever when you’re playing this music.
A: I feel happy when I’m playing the music. I feel very happy.
Q: It’s been said that Smile is the most -- or was the most famous unreleased album because you started working on it in the ‘60s. Now that it’s done and being received so well, is that like a burden off of you?
A: It’s like a burden, an accomplishment and a relief, both, yeah.
Q: One of the big stories about Smile is that when you were recording the song, Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow --
A: Right.
Q: And that you had some of the musicians wearing fire hats and you had a fire in a bucket and that that kind of spooked you a little bit because there was some fires...
A: Yeah, but you got the mood. It got us into the mood to do a song about fire.
Q: And then, that’s the song that wins the Grammy.
A: Right. Actually, the Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow won, yeah, for instrumental.
Q: That’s an irony there, after all these years.
A: Right.
Q: And so -- by the way, congratulations on your Grammy.
A: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that very much.
Q: Your partner in making this record, Smile, the man who wrote the words,
is Van Dyke Parks.
A: Right.
Q: How did you first meet Van Dyke Parks?
A: I met him in the ’60 -- mid ‘60s, and I talked to him. And I said, “You know, you have a good way -- a way with words. Would you like to do some lyrics with me?” And he said, “Sure.” So we wrote Heroes and Villains.
Q: Why did you think he was the one to work with you on this special album?
A: Because I just knew he had a talent. You know, I knew he was right for it.
Q: There’s an intuition at work there, it seems.
A: Right. Yeah.
Q: And Heroes and Villains was the very first song that you two did together.
A: Right, it was the first one we wrote, yeah.
Q: And after so many years of you not playing the Smile material --
A: Right.
Q: -- I was watching the documentary. You were at a party and suddenly, they said, you started playing Heroes and Villains.
A: Yeah. That’s true. That’s a true story.
Q: After all this time, why -- did it just come to you?
A: It just came to me, yeah (laughs).
Q: I think you started some people who were maybe afraid to bring up Smile or Heroes and Villains to you because it wasn’t a good subject at that time.
A: Oh, no, that’s okay. I don’t mind that (laughs). I didn’t mind that at all.
Q: And then you played it at the Radio City Music Hall show.
A: Right, we played it there. It went over fantastic. It really did.
Q: Is that when you first started thinking, I should revisit this album (Smile)?
A: Yeah, that was, yeah.
Heroes and Villains is my favorite song, incidentally.
Q: The Smile album, Brian, you started working on with the Beach Boys in the ‘60s with --
A: No, not with the Beach Boys, with Van Dyke Parks.
Q: With Van Dyke Parks.
A: Yeah.
Q: Now when the Beach Boys came back from their tour in ’66 and you wanted to add their vocals, did they do so?
A: No, I never asked them to do vocals with me. We shelved it before the Beach Boys got back (laughs heartily!)
Q: Was that because you didn’t feel any enthusiasm from them for the project?
A: Right. I didn’t feel it. They didn’t -- they didn’t like it. They heard the tapes and they did not like it. They didn’t like it at all. The record company didn’t like it, either. But we liked it.
Q: It wasn’t that much different than an album like Pet Sounds, which was also groundbreaking in its own way.
A: What’s that?
Q: Smile is not that far removed from Pet Sounds. They liked Pet Sounds.
A: Well, Smile is a more happy, uplifting album. And Pet Sounds is a more emotional album. Yeah.
Q: The idea for Smile that I understood from watching the documentary, is that it was sort of a journey through Americana, from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii?
A: Right. It was a total -- early -- it depicted the mood of early Americana, mid-Americana and Hawaii.
Q: That’s a pretty broad canvas to paint on.
A: Yes, very much so.
Q: And Van Dyke did a great job.
A: Very much so, yes.
Q: Did you and Van Dyke work together at the Steinway Grand Piano that you had in your living room with the sandbox under it?
A: No, we used a new one. I don’t even know what my piano is called (laughs). We just used my piano.
Q: But was it in the sandbox?
A: Oh, no. When we did the third movement of Smile?
Q: Yeah.
A: No, it wasn’t in the sandbox.
Q: Oh, but the original composition.
A: Right. Heroes and Villains, Surf’s Up and Cabinessence were all written in the sandbox.
Q: Did you have a special kind of sand for that box that you wanted from somewhere?
A: It was sand from the ocean, from the beach.
Q: Right there by where you live?
A: Right.
Q: On the original Smile recordings and -- I’ve never heard them. I know they’re bootlegged, but I’ve never heard them. Did you give certain directions to the musicians to help inspire them to play the music?
A: Yeah, I specifically told each musician what to play.
Q: And did you -- how -- because these guys, they’re playing -- people like Carol Kaye, they’re professionals, they go from session to session.
A: Right.
Q: Were they sparked by the spirituality of the music to bring --
A: They all loved it. They all told me they liked what we were doing. They said, “Brian, this is great. This is great.”
| 
Brian Wilson on the Smile album
