“David Leaf is quite simply the best at what he does. No one is more knowledgeable about music and pop culture. His writing, producing skills are superb.”

Ted Harbert, former Chairman NBC, President and CEO of Comcast, Chairman ABC-TV Entertainment

 

 

 

More SMiLE reviews and podcasts from August-December 2025

This is a great way to start the year…knowing that the SMiLE book has connected with one reviewer.

Cameron Crowe and I together…

January 8, 2026 by Steve Matteo

California Revisited: 2025’s Best Books on the West Coast Rock Scene

Steve Matteo surveys 2025’s best rock books on the West Coast rock scene, sharing praise for Cameron Crowe, David Leaf and Jude Warne. Click through the book titles for purchase information:

CAMERON CROWE – ‘THE UNCOOL’: One of the most engaging memoirs of 2025 is Cameron Crowe’s The Uncool (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster). Crowe is the award-winning screenwriter and director of such films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky and maybe most famously, Almost Famous. Almost Famous was a thinly veiled autobiographical coming-of-age story about an unassuming California-based, teenage rock fan who wrote for Rolling Stone magazine during their ’70s heyday.

Crowe’s memoir takes us through his life, mostly from birth to just as his movie career was taking off, with the end of the book bringing us up to today; it works as the perfect textual, non-fiction companion to Almost Famous. Fans of classic rock will thrill to Crowe’s affectionate and honest account of being at the center of the ’70s music firmament as a starry-eyed, yet surprisingly grounded kid. Crowe calls his book The Uncool, which is the only thing misleading about it. While he stresses his awkward teenage years and early 20s as a time when he was grappling with growing up and dealing with complicated family dynamics, he ends up being quite cool.

It’s his honesty and passion for rock ‘n’ roll and his connection to the exalted rock stars he wrote about, during those heady salad days of the rock scene, that forced him to grow up and face the world. He never brags about his cool times or wallows in recounting tales of dabbling in the sex-and-drugs rock star excesses of that era. Naturally, this is a very readable and engaging memoir.

Crowe walks a very fine line here between recounting his experience as a wide-eyed teen in love with rock ‘n’ roll and revealing the sometime conflicted nature of the rock gods he writes about so eloquently. His times with Gregg Allman, David Bowie, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Petty, Gram Parsons and members of the Eagles and Led Zeppelin, to name a few, are both insightful about those musicians and a snapshot of a brief time when true rock gods roamed the Earth. Cameron Crowe: very cool!

DAVID LEAF – ‘SMiLE: THE RISE, FALL AND RESURRECTION OF BRIAN WILSON’: David Leaf has become perhaps the foremost chronicler of the life and music of Brian Wilson. His newest book SMiLE: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Brian Wilson (Omnibus Press) looks at the up-and-down professional career and personal life of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ de-facto leader and visionary and one of the true geniuses in pop music history. Leaf has written eloquent and knowledgeable books on the group’s history and on Wilson’s iconic and misunderstood Smile album, as well as a definitive biography on Wilson, among many other books and projects.

What makes his new book such a welcome addition to his books and scholarship of Wilson and, ultimately, of the Beach Boys, is that this book is an oral history. Rather than re-telling the same Wilson and Beach Boys story, or hearing some critic’s opinion on the music, this book allows the people who were there and, in many cases, closest to Wilson, tell the story. Leaf allows a wide variety of voices to come through, painting a full picture of an artist who was not always as easy to nail down as some critics and historians would like to make people think.

The book is like a this-is-your-life, no-holds-barred epic tale of not only Wilson, but of the Beach Boys, as well as of the ups and downs of pop music stardom and falling and being resurrected. It also serves as a social and cultural history of a time and place and tells how the ’60s and beyond in California became a metaphor and petri dish of music, lifestyle and new ways of living. This may be Leaf’s best book yet and more of these oral histories on pop and rock music would be welcome.

There were a bunch of great interviews and podcasts in the latter half of 2025. Here are some links.

See this Instagram post by @davidhmandel: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOFx-XSDthC/?igsh=ZGUzMzM3NWJiOQ==

SMiLE podcasts Part 1 and 2

 https://youtu.be/Bau5X36LGmA?si=1zxPUqnGMfNeVuHw

 https://youtu.be/5JzvWTLYI-Q?si=zRnlGmm-U21SXsro

The Gen-X Muse https://open.spotify.com/episode/3W5LlfIif8F0sIaByGJV69

Garage to Stadiums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQM779lJy6o&feature=youtu.be

Word In Your Ear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do7_GqRadh8

Biff Bam Pop https://biffbampop.com/.../exclusive-interview-author.../...

Hold Onto the Colours  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0E53YXIiOU

Baxie’s Musical Podcast https://rock102.com/.../baxies-musical-podcast-david.../

I was asked to do a lot of podcasts for the promotion of the Live at the Roxy box set. Here’s one of the interviews.

David Leaf - Interview

  by Lisa Torem

published: 21 / 12 / 2025

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On April 7 and 8th, April 2000, Brian Wilson performed at the Roxy on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles where ‘Live at the Roxy’ was recorded. In honour of the album’s 25th anniversary. Oglio Records reissued the album on November 7th. For the 12-page booklet that accompanies the record, David Leaf wrote 2025 reflections and Brian Wilson wrote about working on the album. The songs include early hits from The Beach Boy’s discography, such as ‘California Girls’ ‘Do It Again’ and ‘Surfer Girl’ plus songs from Wilson’ solo career, such as ‘Lay Down Burden’ and ‘This Isn’t Love,’ plus bonus tracks. There are up to 40 tracks available, depending on the format. Author and documentarian, David Leaf, speaks to Lisa Torem about Brian Wilson’s magical nights at the Roxy, Brian’s songwriting, and Leaf’s new book, ‘SMILE: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson.’ PB: David, this reissue contains a rich spectrum of material. ‘This isn’t Love’ made me think about George Gershwin ballads. Brian had an incredible style of songwriting. DL: The thing about Brian Wilson, that the ‘Live at the Roxy’ album shows, and that most Beach Boys’ fans wouldn’t know, or even people that aren’t Beach Boys fans wouldn’t know, is that people think of Brian as fun in the sun and cars and girls and surfing but that was just a small part of his career, and Gershwin was beyond Brian’s hero. The very first piece of music Brian remembers hearing is ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ when he was three years old. So, imagine a little kid, barely out of diapers hearing this spectacular piece of music. Well, that’s his guardian angel of music. PB: Brian’s lyrics are so direct, so demonstrative: ‘This isn’t love, this is ecstacy. This isn’t love, this is destiny.’ He wrote sensitive songs that people will cherish forever. DL: I hope so. In his era, before ‘Live at the Roxy,’ Brian and I were hanging around a lot, and he was constantly bugging me to write songs with him. It’s not that I couldn’t have done it, but I was his friend, and one of the things, if you look at Brian’s entire career, his lyricists, essentially, become his ex-friends and I didn’t want that to happen. Brian loved to write with people. He was completely capable of writing great songs alone as he proved with ‘Surfer Girl, ‘Til I Die’ and ‘Love and Mercy,’ but he enjoyed the companionship of working with somebody. There were years, off and on throughout the 1990s, where he would say, ‘Help me write a song.’ Finally, I said, ‘Brian, who do you want me to call? Van Dyke Parks? Tony Asher?’ He said, ‘Yes. Call Tony Asher.’ The reason I wasn’t writing with him is that it wasn’t appropriate as a friend to write with him. If you look at his history, everybody who wrote with him was there for a certain period of time and then they were gone. So, it wouldn’t have been right and it wouldn’t have been good for our friendship because it probably would have put an end to our friendship. PB: Do you mean because of the pressure of the songwriting or because of the nature of the relationship? DL: Changing the nature of the relationship. PB: Regarding the Roxy on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, was it important that Brian made his comeback at the Roxy, specifically? DL: Brian had his comeback in 1999. The ‘Live at the Roxy’ show was kind of an exclamation point on his re-emergence; his renaissance, his second act, if you will, because Brian had never been a concert performer; a solo performer. So, this was just a great, great moment and The Roxy was perfect for him because it’s such an intimate club. He’d sit there at his keyboard and see these familiar, friendly faces; people who knew him, loved and cared about him and his music, and so, it was almost like a living room environment. PB: This reissue spans a spectrum of emotions. It includes light, early Beach Boys’ material, but it also includes ballads that border on depression. I believe this enabled the fans to experience many aspects of Brian’s personality. DL: The 1999 setlist was very close to what the Roxy setlist was with some additions and changes. From the very beginning, there was always a melancholy nature to Brian’s songs. The ballad, ‘In My Room’ is really where I first saw it. All of side two of ‘The Beach Boys Today,’ all of ‘Pet Sounds’ and ‘Til I Die.’ I don’t know what it says about me, but those were the songs that I loved the most, where he revealed his feelings. It struck a chord deep within me, and obviously to millions of people around the world. PB: Regarding the 2004 ‘Smile’ Concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall, can you describe the crowd reaction and the setting? DL: With the Stockholm Strings and Horns, there were about twenty people onstage. There were two different things happening: one, Brian is finally sharing this music, with the world, that he had put on the shelf in 1967. He was sharing his music with the world in a way that was unbelievable. It was as if a miracle had happened. If you would have said to anyone that had been there, one year earlier, ten years earlier, twenty years earlier, thirty years earlier, they would have said, ‘You need to have your head examined. Brian Wilson is not going to be onstage at the Royal Festival Hall presenting ‘Smile.’ It just isn’t going to happen, but it did. So, the people who were there, to use a term in British English, were gob smacked. When I made the documentary, ‘Beautiful Dreamer: The Story of Brian Wilson and Smile,’ which ends at The Royal Festival Hall shows, I interviewed fans before the show. A couple of them said things that were just heartwarming. One fan said, ‘I’m going to have my life before ‘Smile’ and after ‘Smile.’ That’s how big a deal it was. They sold out six nights. He had to come back and play more nights at the Royal Festival while he was touring the world. Brian said at the end of those nights, ‘It was the most cathartic experience of my life.’ He, and those around him, had a whole new experience, a happy Brian Wilson. When I got back from that very first tour, Brian called me. He said, ‘David, you’ve got to come over tomorrow. We have to do an interview.’ I can’t imagine there was a time in the previous thirty-five years where he’d say, ‘I want to do an interview and talk about ‘Smile.’ I got there with my camera man and asked, ‘What do you want to talk about?’ Brian said, ‘David, you’re not going to believe it, but night after night, the shows got better. The playing got better, and the singing got better. The audiences got better. It just got better every night. For the first time in my career, I can’t wait to get back on the road again.’ The concerts exceeded everybody’s expectations. Before the band went back on the road, they went back to the studio and recorded ‘Smile.’ It only took a few weeks; a piece of music that Brian had spent nearly a year on; the original ‘Smile sections.’ He was able to record it in about three weeks. I was in the control room, and they called me out to make an animal noise for the song, ‘Barnyards,’ and I tried to do a sheep, but it came out more like a goat. PB: Who would you say was most responsible for recreating ‘Smile’ for a live performance, given that there’d been no written documentation? DL: The most significant players were Darian Sahanaja and Van Dyke Parks. Van Dyke, of course, because he had originally written the songs with Brian and some of the songs needed to be finished. There were instrumental pieces that didn’t have lyrics; so he was essential. But the guy who really tapped into this ship, if you will, was Darian. Having played on tour with Brian for five years, Brian trusted him. Darian said to Brian after the announcement of what was going to happen, ‘Brian, we’re not trying to finish the album. We’re just trying to figure out how to perform it live,’ and that worked up to a point. Thanks to modern technology, Darian was able to load all these pieces of modern technology into his laptop. They were able to say, ‘What goes after this?’ You could easily move different pieces of music and Brian loved that. So, he finished it in not too long a period. Rehearsals started. It’s January and we’re going to be performing this in February. Brian was pretty upset. On the second day of rehearsal, he drove himself to the emergency room at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. The best way to put it is that they talked him down. If you don’t want to do it, now is the time to say you don’t want to do it. But Brian said, ‘I have to do it.’ He felt, as an artist, that if he didn’t do it, his career would be incomplete. PB: As Brian got into more experimental music, do you feel that he was supported by the music community at large? DL: It was years of pressure of being the guy who had to deliver the hit singles and he was a guy who loved to make music, but the problems began with ‘Pet Sounds.’ The label was not happy. They told Brian, ‘We need you to make more commercial music,’ as if they knew what commercial music was. ‘Pet Sounds’ had four Top Forty singles on it and two Top Ten singles. They gave up on ‘Pet Sounds.’ There was internal conflict within the band, too, with members who didn’t think it was the right way to go but Brian was strong enough in the winter of 1966 to push through that. He said, ‘No, we’re going to do it.’ They did it magnificently. In terms of being avant-garde, Brian, as an artist, was very clear. He did an interview in mid-1966 where he said, our next album, meaning ‘Smile’, was going to be as big an advance from ‘Pet Sounds’ as ‘Pets Sounds’ was from ‘Summer Days and Summer Nights.’ He knew that he had to advance. What’s the point of being an artist if you don’t? In 1965-1966, nobody thought of pop groups as artists. They thought of them as hitmakers, and record companies would deal with them as long as they were making hits, and at some point, the hits would stop, and they’d say, we’re done with you. They were disposable. So, Brian wasn’t interested in that. He was interested in what The Beatles were doing. He was interested in what the competition was doing. When he met Van Dyke Parks, he came to the decision that this is the guy who should write the lyrics for our next album. Then, he explained that ‘Pet Sounds’ was very, very autobiographical. I think of that album as Brian’s emotional autobiography. He expresses himself very personally on that record. With ‘Smile,’ Brian said, ‘I think, I’m going to tell some stories.’ He loved the way Van Dyke spoke and the way he wrote lyrics. They were churning out great songs in relatively short order: ‘Heroes and Villains,’ Cabinessence,’ ‘Surfs Up.’ Van Dyke’s an extraordinarily talented person. However, it wasn’t meant to be. What happened between say, February of 1966 and December of 1966 that was troubling for Brian and the group? The lack of sales for ‘Pet Sounds’ was a problem. Why did it not sell so well? Guess what? Only a few weeks after it came out, Capitol Records put out a Best-of-the Beach Boys’ album. So, if you were at a record store, and picked up The Best of The Beach Boys, and it’s got all the songs you’re familiar with; that’s how we are as people. We want something familiar and comfortable. So, you had to be cool to listen to ‘Pet Sounds’ in 1966 in America. In the UK, it was different. ‘Pet Sounds’ was celebrated. At the end of the year, either New Music Express or Melody Maker made it co-album of the year with The Beatles’ ‘Revolver.’ That’s how big of a deal it was there. Between the release of ‘Pet Sounds’ and the shelving of ‘Smile,’ Brian composed, arranged and produced ‘Good Vibrations’ which was absolutely revolutionary as a single. Everyone is saying, ‘Hey Brian, what’s taking so long and why are you spending so much money? Why are you going to so many studios?’ Brian says, ‘Hey, I know what I’m doing.’ ‘Good Vibrations’ became a worldwide number one—The Beach Boys’ first million-selling single. Brian became vindicated. That became his new direction. He said, I want to make records in a modular style in which I record pieces of songs and figure out how to sequence them. So, having spent months doing that with ‘Good Vibrations,’ he needed months to do that with ‘Smile.’ He told me, ‘I figured I needed a year and nobody would give me a year.’ PB: With your latest book, you interviewed many people and focused on Brian’s ‘Smile’ years. How did you manage to narrow down your research? DL: I started from a great place in that I had done dozens and dozens of interviews for ‘Beautiful Dreamer,’ my documentary, and only a small percentage had even made it into the movie, so I had all of this great material. Also, when I wrote my first book, ‘The Beach Boys and The California Myth,’ I interviewed people who are no longer alive, like Derek Taylor and many studio musicians. I had this mountain of stuff, if you will. I also did twenty-five new interviews for the book which were mostly relevant to the resurrection of ‘Smile.’ I interviewed all the band members who were still alive to get their reaction twenty-years later. What was it like? What does it mean to you to have been part of those sessions? Now, how do I put it all together? So, I would take each interview, open a document, and ask, what are the sound bites? What are the things here in the interviews that need to be preserved for posterity for this to be an effective oral history? I didn’t want to do the book the way it turned out, but I was glad it happened that way. I wanted to do a book of all the interviews, just the transcripts of the interviews from ‘Beautiful Dreamer’; my publisher said that interview books don’t do well for us, but as an oral history, we think that would be great. I had five seconds of despair because I knew how much work it would be. Then, I said, okay. For each person, I asked myself, what did they say that needs to be part of this book? I sequenced what they said chronologically. I’d go to the next person and I would write, in bold, here’s what they said, and move it into this master document. I would get everybody’s essential sound bite into this master document. It was like the pieces around the chessboard. This doesn’t go here; this has to go later. I’d done the least amount of writing for this book that I had ever done because my goal was to contextualize what was being said; to explain the circumstances of what was happening at that time. But I had written about ‘Smile’ in my previous books, made a movie about it and I wanted the book to be what everybody else experienced. I imagined what it would be like if the reader was sitting in the middle of the room and there were twenty-five people in a circle around him. One person would say something and somebody else would pick up the story. There were so many great things that people had said. I won’t say it was easy but the joy of not having to cut things short; because in a film, you have to keep the pace. You can’t let somebody talk for a minute. Van Dyke Parks would say these great things that might last for twelve seconds in the movie and go on for another minute; but in the book, we could hear the whole thing. There were people in the band who had passed away. They’d been in the movie once or twice, but in the book, they might have appeared twelve times, like the late Jeffrey Foskett or Nelson Bragg, the last member to join the band. The same with Nick Walusko who passed away a decade ago. The goal was to give the reader as much new material about ‘Smile’ as possible. Dominic Priore had written a lot of great books on ‘Smile.’ There was so much out there but I knew that what I had no one had heard or seen before. In a sense it was easy, because--wait until people read what Van Dyke’s first wife said to him? There were a lot of revelations like that. It fell into place, I won’t say quickly or easily, but it wasn’t torturing. PB: Terrible last question, but if you had to list five songs for a brand-new Beach Boys’ fan, what would you say? DL: ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice,’ ‘God only Knows, ‘Good Vibrations,’ ‘Don’t Worry Baby,’ ‘California Girls.’ PB: You don’t sound too traumatized, but I imagine that was tough. DL: There are songs I didn’t mention that were so important to me, but the question was to draw somebody in who’d never heard their songs before. PB: You want to save songs like, ‘Til I Die’ until they get accustomed to the early repertoire? DL: I think that’s right. PB: Thank you. Main photograph originally released on www.leafprod.com

2025 Podcasts and Reviews of SMiLE: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of BrianWilson through July, 2025

Podcasts * Events * Reviews

 

UCLA event  

https://ucla.zoom.us/.../luEcq1LL-LmboyUTH2eORGrcoo...

Passcode: Nrn=9%e*

 

Giggens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9SYKJuC6s4&t

Setlist Kitchen       https://www.setlistkitchen.com/post/really-good-vibrations-inside-brian-wilson-s-smile-with-david-leaf    or

https://www.setlistkitchen.com/.../really-good-vibrations...

 

Full interview with Jenny Jamball

https://youtu.be/DeDpvFJfXJs?si=qkBX_EqHlT45p41L

 

Beach Boys Reddit Video Teaser (excerpt of Jenny Jamball’s interview)

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/thebeachboys/comments/1jz9b65/the_rthe_beach_boys_david_leaf_interview/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

 

 

Abigail Devoe’s Vinyl Monday   https://youtu.be/vtkTDgthhs4?si=W7y-cLorVpu_BIOD

 

Jokermen Podcast   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jokermen/id1519299517?i=1000703578600

 

Good Day Austin (Short TV piece)

https://www.fox7austin.com/video/1618365?fbclid=IwY2xjawJjfDRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsTXHvUcfikrOiAsVqGawGyoZviQc-yD-I2XSZYWb2axaWtW3PG050P6TXPP_aem_1XGmh7GlxxaGeJqBBUGM_A

 

Elliot Roberts https://youtu.be/YJEZnJsvLh0?si=_Yc7fBbcDcYZKQLX

 

 

BELOW HERE ARE GOOD PODCASTS AND INTERVIEWS BUT IT CAN GET REPETITIVE AND MORE BEACH BOYS ORIENTED.

 

Beach Boys Basement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MPRL9au2qo

                                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzKl9nmRr_8

 

 

Pray For Surf   https://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/smile-in-three-words.html

 

 

TuneX https://banana-and-louie.org/2025/03/30/episode-25-farther-down-the-path-was-a-mystery/

 

Pet Reads  Part 1   https://podfollow.com/petreads/episode/8a2eb7dd4eb024c22125a504fd3faf81353fd257/view

 

Dec4 podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZFdAEq5xeg

 

ESQ (four-part podcast)   https://www.youtube.com/@esqeditor229

 

Brewster’s Musical Heroes Part 1

https://youtu.be/6X3ANbp9OdE?si=xb87UHfPJAyaTI54

 

Brewster’s Musical Heroes Part 2

https://youtu.be/QJW5B4wLYok?si=Gvu-cemp1J8ObR18

 

Brewster’s Musical Heroes Part 3

https://youtu.be/ReOgg123zZc?feature=shared

 

 

The Lives They're Living (episode about Van Dyke Parks and SMiLE) https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vLIBNb7VR6DFMfxFBaBiG

 

Plastic EP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItmGK3C0G04

 

 

 

 

Rock Talk Radio (audio review, not an interview) https://www.buzzsprout.com/2061662/episodes/17103758?fbclid=IwY2xjawKgPb1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFaOXdQNkVBbUpMdmVpdDV2AR7l5RFG6iP97HzQwLjKssxOLBWZX47VOgZONohOVkhAebQX5FZE9367HtkkYw_aem_G3FrNpxPoSX5OpOqWLCwsA

 

We Think It’s Funny https://wethinkitsfunny.com/episodes/guest-david-leaf?fbclid=IwY2xjawKgPYpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFaOXdQNkVBbUpMdmVpdDV2AR5ZeI4t7uYym1v_fbPrnBXYSucM7WM5hCLTLKOTOH2oX7KQKI_Z4VEvlcj_gQ_aem_yGFJ2sQZr0o19zThqJ1CsQ

 

Word In Your Ear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do7_GqRadh8

 

My Rock Moment: https://www.myrockmoment.com/listen

 

Biff Bam Pop

https://biffbampop.com/2025/06/04/exclusive-interview-author-david-leaf-on-smile-the-rise-fall-and-resurrection-on-brian-wilson/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKtvq5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFQa3pmM1FMN0paT2NtenBYAR6JeaFsO_Hn-8tsd3tFDT1wGjCj0mpICCEUjo00kJgla0JYbD4X8e925ORa6w_aem_91dwj18l8u-MrhDZGLcmrg

 

Hold Onto the Colours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0E53YXIiOU

 

Baxie’s Musical Podcast https://rock102.com/mornings/baxies-musical-podcast-david-leaf-smile-the-rise-fall-resurrection-of-brian-wilson/

 

 

The Gen-X Muse https://open.spotify.com/episode/3W5LlfIif8F0sIaByGJV69

 

Garage to Stadiums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQM779lJy6o&feature=youtu.be

 

Mark Dillon

 

Jeremiah Higgins:  https://apple.co/4kV5XL2

 

Chris Charlesworth

https://justbackdated.blogspot.com/2025/01/smile-rise-fall-and-resurrection-of.html

 

 

Endless Summer Quarterly review

https://esquarterly.com/2025/03/10/review-smile-the-rise-fall-resurrection-of-brian-wilson/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI9jGZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHR3R58wabsra-KY3aXOq2sUjBLMOHXm9YB83hwiQVuxxSMoPmnIOEcfaYQ_aem_kxmruNflDbeMYrk7CBECDA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Smile: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson”

Spread Love

There are very few musicians Paul McCartney would consider his equal, let alone his artistic superior, but in his heyday, Brian Wilson was one such exception. He employed all sorts of chords and creative devices to complete his art, culminating in such dazzling symphonic pop ballads as “God Only Knows” and “You Still Believe In Me.” McCartney wasn’t the only one blown away by Wilson’s abilities; Bob Dylan was another fan. “Jesus, that ear,” Dylan remarked. “He should donate it to the Smithsonian.”

All high praise indeed, and David Leaf makes no effort to suppress his inner fan regarding the songwriting bassist. Leaf’s  Smile: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson peers at the artist from all angles, and although the work stems from a place of admiration and love, the author doesn’t hold back any punches, especially in the chapters regarding mental health. Carl Wilson had to watch with sadness at his brother’s decline during the recording of Smile, describing the compromised alternative Smiley Smile as a “bunt instead of a grand slam.”

Curiously, Leaf avoids casting therapist Eugene Landy as the ogre Paul Giamatti characterised him as in 2014’s mediocre film Love & Mercy. Recognizing that it would have been “a kinder experience for Brian” had someone else led him through recovery, the writer highlights the psychologist’s ability to mend the musician to the point he could be “publicly presentable as a Beach Boy.” By returning to the spotlight, Wilson returned to his place as a popsmith of high repute; 1988’s jaunty “Rio Grande” captured the weirdness of 1967’s single “Heroes & Villains” almost perfectly.

Wilson reunited with Van Dyke Parks for the achingly beautiful Orange Crate Art, a record dotted with the singer’s spectral vocals. And despite his reticence – Wilson compared resurrecting the album to the Titanic – the composer issued Brian Wilson Presents Smile in 2004, completing a journey decades in the making. It was well received: Rolling Stone magazine listed it fourth in their year-end poll.

Occasionally, Leaf overdoes it with the superlatives (Wilson’s music is both “indescribably beautiful” and “otherworldly”), but the passion is infectious to read, as is the research. Peter Carlin points out that it is not difficult to “romanticize a record that doesn’t exist,” as it would combine all the flavors and flair of many iterations of a band. Irish guitarist Sean O’Hagan pens an affectionate story that features during the closing section of Smile: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson. Witnessing Wilson’s performance of the mythological album live on stage, O’Hagan felt transported to an ebullient place. ” I left the theatre a happier person,” O’Hagan writes, no doubt grinning as he did so.

Like he did for Landy, Leaf makes a commendable case for Mike Love, the irascible frontman disliked in some quarters of Beach Boy lore. Love resisted some of the lyrical changes Wilson presented to the band during the 1960s, which was fair considering that their oeuvre consisted of tunes about surfing and summer vibes. In 1995, guitarist Carl Wilson suggested that Love found the new work “airy-fairy” and “abstract,” but Brian Wilson fans will likely say that’s the reason why Smile, Smiley Smile, or Brian Wilson Presents Smile is such a triumph. Sadly, Love tried to bring Wilson to court in the 21st century; ultimately, this suit was dismissed in 2007 as there were “no triable issues of material fact.”

Leaf himself spends very little time or word count on the court case, encouraging readers to visit the Billboard website for more information. The work, the writer concedes, is supposed to be “joyous and celebratory.” Fundamentally, that is what united The Beatles and The Beach Boys. They were bands that knew of a world war that dominated their childhood, but both groups opted to look at the optimism in life. People should love, cheer, and clap. They should also… smile.

-Eoghan Lyng

 

See this Instagram post by @davidhmandel: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOFx-XSDthC/?igsh=ZGUzMzM3NWJiOQ==

 

Pre-Publication Interview with David Leaf

prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com

 

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Pre-publication interview for UK fans

 

Andrew: David, we’ve been hearing about this book for a while. You had two chapters in The Beach Boys and the California Myth about SMiLE. You made a film about SMiLE. You wrote, albeit briefly, about Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE in God Only Knows. What is SMiLE: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson? How is this different and was it really needed?

 

David:  Andrew, big question, lots of answers. Looking at the research and interviews that I did for Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson & The Story of SMiLE, I realized I needed a much larger canvas to take a real deep dive into the story. This book, over 300 pages, gives the reader so much information all in one place. Allows me to tell so much more of the story. And most importantly, as it’s an oral history, give so many other voices an opportunity to tell the story of and talk about SMiLE and Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE. It is, as you well know, a story without precedent, appropriate for music that was and remains groundbreaking. And I think this book is very, very different from anything anybody’s done in a rock book or even non-fiction.

 

In terms of style, it’s what would be called an “oral history,” but it’s much more. To begin with, the goal of the book was for the story to be told not by me but as much as possible, by those who lived it.  The book itself focuses on two key periods of Brian’s career:  1966/1967 and 2003/2004.  The story is told by the people closest to the music: Brian and Van Dyke Parks in the first SMiLE era and Darian Sahanaja and Brian’s entire band in the Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE era.

 

As with the documentary, I felt it was important to contextualize Brian’s place in music history, so we hear from dozens of his contemporaries as well as artists who he influenced.

 

There were entire interviews that didn’t make it into Beautiful Dreamer from people who were right there, and what they have to say is very important.

 

Andrew:  So this is very different from your last book, God Only Knows?  Which, by the way, I thought was quite an important update of “The Myth.”

 

David: Thank you. Those of us close to the saga of Brian and the Beach Boys know there are two basic Beach Boys stories: one is about a family band, their greatest hits, an amazing body of work the group recorded from 1962-1966 that made them “America’s Band.” Those records – composed, arranged and produced by Brian Wilson, featuring songs primarily written by Brian with his lyricist cousin Mike – have brought joy to the world for over six decades. That’s central to the the story of God Only Knows, especially in The Beach Boys & the California Myth part of that book.

 

This book is the other story. For Brian Wilson…for music lovers around the world…for SMiLE obsessives like me and you, my friend…this is the tale that matters most.  SMiLE is “the holy grail” of the rock era, so I think of this as almost a SMiLE bible.

 

The animating idea for the book was to celebrates the twentieth anniversary of Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, the concerts and the Grammy award–winning, critically- and fan-acclaimed best-selling record that was the most unexpected and miraculous creation of Wilson’s heartbreaking and glorious roller coaster of a career. Editing issues delayed it, but as somebody wrote on my Facebook page, that makes sense for anything to do with SMiLE.

 

Andrew:  I’m a bit confused. What is your role in the book?  It’s called an oral history, so did you write the book?

 

David: Yes and no. Think of me as the curator, organizing the storytelling and contextualizing it, too. It closely follows Brian’s artistic explosion in 1966, his annus miraculous, when he composed, arranged, and produced the Pet Sounds album and the “Good Vibrations” single, perhaps the most influential one-two punch in rock history. And he intended to follow that with a new album recorded in the modular style he had pioneered on “Good Vibrations.”  He worked on this new record, to be called SMiLE, for about nine months. Then, for a catastrophic list of reasons, he put it on the shelf.  Where it tragically remained unfinished for thirty-seven years. It became an almost paralyzing albatross around Brian’s creative neck. Then, in 2004, at the Royal Festival Hall, to the surprise of everybody – to audiences that included lifelong admirers Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Roger Daltrey, and Jeff Beck – Mr. Wilson finally presented a 21st Century version of SMiLE to a week of SRO crowds, in what was, as Brian admitted… Well, suffice it to say that his response explaining what it meant to him was to me, so stunning, it’s on the back cover of the book.

 

Andrew:  How much of this is new material and how much of it will be familiar to us SMiLE obsessives?

 

David: I did over two dozen new interviews for the book. There are generous excerpts from the extended 2004 interviews I did with Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks for Beautiful Dreamer that didn’t make the film.  As well as outtakes from other interviews I did. Lots and lots of stories and commentary that I think will be brand new even to you.

 

The central idea of the book is to tell the story of SMiLE by those who were there in 1966 and from the participants in its 2004 resurrection, including all the members of Brian Wilson’s band. It also features fan memories of what it was like to see Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE and what it meant to them. Actually, there’s an entire chapter written by those who were at Royal Festival Hall for the World Premiere and another chapter by those who saw him on another stop on the tour.

 

There’s a foreword by Brian’s recently-deceased wife Melinda. And something that I think makes the book very different - an anthology of a dozen essays from SMiLE historians, devotees, friends, musicians, and music professors, each with their unique point of view on the subject. Writers who were there like Tom Nolan. Writers who have interviewed Brian numerous times, like Sylvie Simmons.

 

Overall, because the goal was to hear from everybody else, I think I wrote maybe 25% of the book. There are certain things that had to be by me, such as my “take” on The Beach Boys SMiLE Sessions box set.

 

Andrew:  After all these years, what does SMiLE mean to you?  Why would you devote a year of your life to this book?

 

David: Because I had to. SMiLE was what brought me to California. The direction of my life was completely changed when I heard “Surf’s Up.” I was so fortunate to be the one who documented 2003/2004, who witnessed it, who was part of it in ways that I reveal in the book, I felt compelled to write this. After all, I worship in the Church of Brian Wilson. 

 

So, if it can be righteously stated that the greatest art (e.g. Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel) can be seen as a dialogue between the artist and his God, then it can be fairly suggested that in 1966, Brian Wilson had his most intense conversations with his spiritual master, resulting in a year of musical creativity that may be the peak that any composer enjoyed in the 20th Century. In 1966, Brian Wilson was the composer, arranger, and producer of Pet Sounds, “Good Vibrations,” and the songs of SMiLE.

 

For me, this book is what happened to him as he rose to eternal greatness, fell off the edge of the earth, and then came back to reclaim his place as one of the most significant artists of his time and all time. It’s a story that should mean something to anybody who loves music.  And I felt I owed it to him.

 

 

 

Publisher’s Weekly

https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781915841315

Brian Wilson Media

Brian Wilson and David Leaf on Charlie Rose to discuss Beautiful Dreamer

Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson & The Story of SMiLE

Vince Gill, David Crosby and Jimmy Webb perform “Surf’s Up” at 2001’s An All Star Tribute to Brian Wilson at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

More links to performances from this show are in the Reader’s Guide to God Only Knows.

David Leaf interviews for God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys & the California Myth.

The Viewing, Listening and Reading List for God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys & the California Myth.The links in this guide are designed help the reader easily find key songs, recordings, performances, interviews and articles specifically referenced in the text.

An Overture from Sir Paul McCartney 

“Words” By Sir Barry Gibb

Welcome

 My California Myth Begins and Is Renewed

“All I Know”: An Introduction from Jimmy Webb

The 1978 edition

Chapter 1: Rhapsody in Blue

(NOTE: Date of appearance incorrect. Their appearance on the Andy Williams Show was October 22, 1965.)

Chapter 2: Five Freshmen

Chapter 3: Let’s Go Surfin’

Chapter 4: If Everybody Had an Ocean

Chapter 5: Don’t Worry Baby

Chapter 6: Please Let Me Wonder

Chapter 7: Pet Sounds

On the 1997 box set, The Pet Sounds Sessions, you can hear the entire album in several different ways, including “vocals only” and “instrumental tracks only.”

Listen to these four “vocals only” versions of key songs from the album, and you get a sense as to the heart and feeling on the record. And why many think of this as almost a Brian Wilson solo album.

 

Chapter 8: Good Vibrations and SMiLE

This is an example of the kind of chanting that Brian loved to do with the Beach Boys or with any group he had gathered.

Chapter 9: Heroes, Villains and No Smiles

Chapter 10: Beached

Chapter 11: Surf’s Up

Murry Wilson

I'm Bugged at My Old Man   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nG5lujg3E8

Chapter 12: Endless Summer

Chapter 13: Brian Is Back

(While this song is not mentioned in the 1978 edition, it is mentioned a in the 2022 update. It’s here both as an example of Brian’s singing at the time, as well as his interest in astrology and astronomy.)

1985 update

Chapter 14: Codetta, 1977-1985

The following bootleg recording is included as it’s a tape I heard in the early 1980s and includes what, to me were/are great Brian Wilson songs as “works in progress.”

Requiem for the Beach Boy

Chapter 15: Retrospective, 1985

Shades of Grey

(Note: This isn’t exactly what the book refers to, but it is charming enough to be included on this list.)

The 2022 Edition

The Author’s Note

Chapter 16: ‘Til I DIe

Brian Wilson’s First Solo Album

CHAPTER 17/Melt Away

Chapter 18/Brian Hits The Road!?

To get a sense of what Brian’s early tours were like you can listen to his

2000 release, Live at the Roxy Theatre, which includes these two new songs.

Chapter 19/The Tribute and the Queen

Chapter 20/Beautiful Dreams and Beautiful Dreamer

  • From Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, here’s the first track from the studio recording. https://youtu.be/3wWBV3QCbGE   This will then take you through the entire album.

You can find an audio recording of the world premiere from February, 2004 on the web too, but the audio quality isn’t ideal.

Chapter 21/That Lucky Old Sun

Chapter 22/An Epilogue