Almost forty years ago, in February 1966, The Beach Boys began work on Good Vibrations, their most famous and visionary song. It was slated to be the centrepiece of what undoubtedly would have been their greatest album, SMiLE, which would have eclipsed even Pet Sounds. But SMiLE would never be released, and its convoluted and ultimately doomed recording process has since become the stuff of legend. Over more than 50 recording sessions in at least four different studios, the Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson tried and failed to realise his vision, due to all manner of problems besetting the project. There was internal pressure from other band members, Brians spiralling drug use and mental health issues, not to mention the fact that the songs he wanted to make were so far ahead of their time. On Pet Sounds, Brian had sung I just wasnt made for these times, and with SMiLE he proved it, accelerating his own downfall in the process.
7. There Was Too Much Resistance From The Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_wBbS7I08 By the time SMiLE was being recorded, Brian Wilson had retired as a touring member of The Beach Boys. He stayed in the studio with a set of session musicians, while the other members went out and played shows. So when they returned and heard the completed instrumental songs, many for the very first time, they couldnt get their heads round them. What Brian called a teenage symphony to God, and was meant to evoke themes as diverse as the American frontier and the four natural elements, seemed totally bizarre to the rest of the band. Mike Love in particular, the serial villain of the Beach Boys story, hated it. He aggressively questioned lyric writer Van Dyke Parks about what his words meant, and in a famous, yet possibly paraphrased, quote, told Brian dont f**k with the formula! The formula was surfing, cars and girls, and SMiLE had none of the first two, and only a smattering of the latter. Love thought that omitting them would alienate many of their biggest fans. This was not the first time Love had strongly objected to what Brian wanted to make he called Pet Sounds ego music but in the past compromises had been reached. On SMiLE, Loves pressurising of Brian would eventually contribute to the collapse of the whole project.