Classic Album: The Beach Boys – Smiley Smile

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Clik here to view.(Capitol Records) A vibrating, empty Bel Air pool, celery-chewing percussion, and the remaining ruins of Smile helped turned Smiley Smile into one of the cornerstones of lo-fi music. Often underappreciated, The Beach Boys’ 1967 classic is frequently looked at through the eyes of what Smile could have been. However, the sparse tracks and low-tech recording style have had as much influence on underground music as its predecessor, Pet Sounds, did on the time’s emerging studio production scene. It’s a skeleton compared to the fleshy harmonies that would have been found on Smile, but its bare-boned nature acts as a stark contrast against the often-overwrought sounds of the time, making the album as unique as it is timeless.

In August 1966, the war between The Beatles and The Beach Boys had seemingly just begun. The boys from across the pond had recently released Revolver, positioning them as the only true competitors to Brian Wilson and company, and their Pet Sounds. Both albums innovated the record recording techniques of the time, and it was Wilson who told audiences that he believed Smile would make the same kind of leaps and bounds that Pet Sounds had, which in turn would crush the “bigger than Jesus” Beatles.

The Beach Boys’ and The Beatles’ rivalry was a friendly one, and Paul McCartney even dropped by the studio during the recording of Smile and added the celery-chewing percussion to the original version of “Vegetables.” That was until December 1966 when Brian abandoned the project due to label disputes and crippling self-doubt. The band worried that Smile might divide their fans, and chose to stop its recordings all together. However, they still owed an album to Capitol Records and nine months later out burst Smiley Smile.

Mostly recorded over three weeks at Brian Wilson’s Bel Air home, Wilson and engineer Jim Lockert used a variety of unconventional ways to create the effects heard throughout the album. While recording the vocals for “Heroes and Villains,” the band members lay down inside the home’s large swimming pool and sang so that the sounds would go down the concrete and into the microphone. Other recording techniques included tape manipulation and the use of the Electro-Theremin on “Good Vibrations.” The house lacked much of the usual equipment found inside a recording studio, but these deficiencies allowed the band to create sounds in a manner influenced by their surroundings, helping to create a sound that captured the joy of the moment.

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From Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes to Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, lo-fi music possesses an authenticity that is often lost during more high-tech productions. Whether it’s found in the audible laughs or loose song constructions, Smiley Smile encapsulates the sepia-toned memories of a 1960s California summer. Though this might have been the end of an era for The Beach Boys, the album has continued to influence bands like Real Estate, Best Coast, and Wavves to once again create sounds that emulated the band who began the surf party, fun in the sun movement. These lo-fi tracks helped build a movement still heard throughout the music world today and has shown that anyone with enough ingenuity can create anything they want.

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