Pullin’ ‘Tubes: Time To SMiLE

In the pantheon on great “lost” albums, the Beach Boys‘ Smile, may be the one that has been the most sought after by fans. The album was intended be the follow up to the band’s seminal release Pet Sounds, and was described by Brian Wilson in an October 1966 interview as “a teenage symphony to God.” Rumors have swirled for years about the recording sessions for the album, which included a lot of turmoil from within the band, a decent amount of drug use and a healthy dose of bizarre behavior from Brian Wilson, who as the story goes pulled his car over to the side of the road when he heard The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever on the radio, and commented to his friend in the passenger seat that the Fab Four had “got there first.”

All of this eventually led to the album to be officially being shelved, with songs from the sessions re-purposed and in some cases dramatically re-arranged and re-recorded for the Beach Boys‘ Smiley Smile album, which was hastily put together since they owed Capital Records an album after nearly two years in the studio that they spent recording.

After years of bootlegged versions and bits and pieces of the songs from these famed sessions making their way into fans hands via box sets and bonus tracks, the “complete” album was finally released last Tuesday as The Smile Sessions. The release features not only what the original version of SMiLE would have potentially sounded like, but also Frank Holmes’ original album artwork, as well as with a slew of alternate versions of the songs. Last week the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame act released this psychedelic animated video for the track Heroes & Villains. Let’s check it out…

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