Brian Wilson & David Leaf - Charlie Rose (June 2005)

discussing SMiLE and Beautiful Dreamer documentary

[@surfcollector]

Brian is in great shape mentally here. Riding high from the success of Smile.

[@jasonmorgan9239]

This was one of the best interviews of Brian.

[@ArmanBaig]

he’s much livelier and present that other interviews around this time

[@perrybarton]

@@ArmanBaig...and very focused and sharp.

[@Alligator6002]

If Smile had come out as intended at the time it was supposed to, the historical landscape would look very different today

[@ms8596]

"The world was finally ready". Agreed. Think about him creating and putting Smile together through most of '66 into '67. No one was near, as advanced, what he was doing, other than Frank Zappa. In the context of the times, he's right that average listeners weren't ready. Musicians were, which is why so many started realizing him to be a genius as early as '64.

[@bobareebop]

The audacity of Brian's decision to not just piece together what he had already recorded of SMILE,, or to just complete the missing parts and piece THAT together, but rather to go in the studio with his awesome band and re-record the entire thing from scratch, note for note. This took great courage and a lot of hard work.

[@SeahorsesJay]

Most of the tracks are timed meticulously. You can run a 2004 version against a 67 version and they remain synchronized! Crazy attention to detail. It's just a shame they abandoned the whole comedy skit concept for the rerecording

[@BillDo-gd5me]

Too bad it sounds absolutely horrible.

[@danielupsdell2697]

brian you are a sweetheart

[@DJMDHertzel]

Thank you for posting this. Brian is an international treasure

[@PedroMiguel-if3ll]

The Ear of God

[@BillDo-gd5me]

Once you take years off away from The Beach Boys world I feel like you can reassess things and realize that Smile is basically a marketing mythology. It was *just* an album in production that got shelved and the band moved on. The band lacked creative genius without Brian so used some songs to fill out later albums. I don’t think the album would have been as groundbreaking as fans seem to think. It would get lumped in with other psychedelic records of 66/67 era. It didn’t have enough good big songs to stand out much. And besides imho Brian was literally always making crazy whacky sogs like ALL SUMMER LONG sounds like Smile to me but, dare I say it, better?

[@BillDo-gd5me]

Am I the only one who thinks double tracking lead vocals is an awful and bizarre practice? It’s no surprise that Brian’s favorite albums of his own band are the realest ones without double tracking, Wild Honey and Friends. They probably feel more true to life for him. Also if you compare Beatles “If I fell” mono to stereo the mono with single tracked John lead opening vocal is vastly superior to the fudged double tracked one, in fact I never listened to that song at all till i found the mono, because that double track vocal sounded bad to me and I felt it must be a throwaway song if they didn’t care to fix it, yet the mono mix is now one of my favorite Beatles songs and I see how good it is!tell me what the heck is wrong with a single tracked John? He sounds real, authentic, cool. Double tracked just hits me weird, it’s fake, artificial, like the second pass makes it all fake. On my own recordings I gave up double tracking a long time ago and never looked back. If it’s not good single tracked, it’s just not good. Listen to Nirvana Unplugged, would it be a better album if Kurt went to a studio and double tracked all his vocals? This question shows how stupid the whole idea is in the first place, I like the sound of authenticity and realness. And I always loved Smiley smile, wild honey, and friends a lot too.