The Beach Boys/WMG

The amount of hair each Beach Boy had is directly proportional to their artistic impulse and aptitude.
See this thread for details.

"Smile" would have been Really Dark...
So, I've been looking over their "Smile" album over and over and over again. From learning about it after getting "Pet Sounds", I was saddened to learn that "Smile" would never come out (Obviously it did, but hang on for that). However, I was enthralled when I learned Brian Wilson made it in 2004. And I love it; it is just amazing, from start to finish. Obviously, the original "Smile" would have been just as amazing. When "The Smile Sessions" came out, I learned that it was originally conceived as something Darker, but originally hearing "The Smile Sessions", I would say it was a bit cheerier in some places; the Saddening "Old Master Painter" is cheered up with the Western Style Bit at the end, and "Veggie-Tables" got one with a sort of Hawaiin Themed Tune as well. But then I started thinking; why were these things put there? How could "Smile" be dark? What about the songs that weren't included like "Three Blind Mice" and "Tune X"?

So, I started thinking, and thinking. And suddenly, I started getting this idea that "Smile" was indeed intended to be Dark, and that it actually had an additional Concept to it, lost when certain songs were stopped or removed.

Before I say what I the concept is, let me put the track listing on as what i think "Smile" would have really looked like:

Side 1:

1: Wonderful

2: Song For Children (I Ran)

3: Teeter Totter Love

4: Father Is The Child Of Man

5: With Me Tonight

6: He Gives Speeches/She's Going Bald

7: Our Prayer

8: My Only Sunshine

9: Love To Say Dada (In Blue Hawaii)

10: Roll Plymouth Rock

Side 2:

1: Tune X

2: I'm In Great Shape

3: Veggie-Tables

4: Good Vibrations

5: Gee

6: (On A) Holiday

7: I Wanna Be Around/Workshop

8: Cabin Essence

Side 3:

1: Surf's Up

2: I Don't Know

3: Barnyard

4: Wind Chimes

5: Three Blind Mice

Side 4:

1: Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (The Elements)

2: You're Welcome

3: Heroes And Villains

So, where am I going with this kind of set list? How does this make "Smile" darker? Because all the more depressing songs are on one side instead of the other side? Nope, because this set list tells a story. A story of a Man, burdened by loss and rejection, who, with his childish sense of a world of only good and evil, ends up destroying an entire city.

So, let's tell the story:

As you can see, the story itself is pretty sick and twisted; A story of. Not only that, but they treat. "Dumb Angel" (The working title for Smile) would have actually been more appropriate then "Smile", because  That could be why Mike Love would hate the album; especially since every album before hand was mostly Surfing And Sunshine, not. Sadly, when several songs were removed, there was no way the Album could take this path. As time went by, everyone else forgot about it, especially since several of the songs were removed and there are multiple ways to arrange the songs. So, in the end, Smile was indeed meant to be Darker and Edgier. It just turns out it was too Dark and too Edgy, especially for the Beach Boys themselves.

--- Dingo Walley