The Beach Boys - Smiley Smile + Wild Honey (HDCD Upgrade 2001)

SMILEY SMILE was recorded in 1967 as a quick replacement for the unreleased SMILE LP, which had been scrapped at the last minute. SMILEY SMILE contains 5 songs that were to have been included on SMILE: "Good Vibrations", "Heroes & Villains", "Vegetables", "Wonderful" and "Wind Chimes". The versions recorded for SMILEY SMILE are less experimental. Different versions of "Cabinessence" and "Our Prayer", two more songs from SMILE, were used on the album 20-20, released in 1969. Two other SMILE songs, "Cool, Cool Water" and "Surf's Up", appeared on the albums SUNFLOWER (1970) and SURF'S UP (1971).
Here are two classic Beach Boys albums from 1967 that were critically dismissed in their day but are now rightly considered to be among their best, nicely remastered and fleshed out with bonus tracks. SMILEY SMILE was originally thrown together as a quick replacement for the doomed, unreleased SMILE album, a would-be masterpiece that had been scrapped at the last minute and has since achieved legendary status, the rock equivalent of the missing footage of Von Stroheim's GREED. WILD HONEY, which is in many ways the Beach Boys' soul album, was a deliberate retrenchment, and its stripped-down production anticipated both Dylan's JOHN WESLEY HARDING and the Beatles' WHITE ALBUM. Along with the R&B-influenced title track and "Darlin'" (not to mention a great Carl Wilson-sung cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her"), highlights include the great garage rocker "How She Boogalooed It" and the wonderfully breezy and mostly acoustic "I'd Love Just Once To See You" (as in "in the nude"). Pure joy from start to finish.

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The spring 2001 version of this two-LP-on-one-CD compilation, in 24-bit sound, is the best way ever to hear either of these albums. Smiley Smile was one of the most genial and unpretentious examples of psychedelic music to emerge in 1967, although at the time it was a difficult album for many fans to appreciate. A lot of it is comprised of what amounts to languid, almost impressionist sound paintings, some of them, such as "Wonderful" and "Wind Chimes," quite stunningly beautiful, and others, such as "Vegetables," beguiling in their innocent goofiness, while still others, like "With Me Tonight," combined those attributes. The 2001 reissue finally lifts about as many layers of hiss — a result of the use of a makeshift studio, and overdubs on many of the cuts — as are ever likely to disappear, to get at the music and how it must have sounded to the group when they played it back. Thus, one can hear the action of the bass on "Vegetables" and "Heroes and Villains," and the playing and singing on "Wind Chimes" all now seem several feet closer to the microphone than on previous issues; the opening on "Gettin' Hungry" now leaps out of the extended silence off the fade from "Wind Chimes." Wild Honey was, even more than its companion album, an unfairly maligned effort in its own time — Smiley Smile had a realistically druggy ambience that was, understandably, harder to take than the highly produced psychedelic efforts of the Beatles and others; but Wild Honey was a solid, accessible, soulful rock & roll release, every song a little jewel (and a few, like the title cut and "Darlin'," quite weighty) that ought to have been on every stack of platters for any teenage dance party thrown over the next decade. The album always had a good sound, and the 2001 reissue only makes a great record even better, pushing the clarity to a higher level — the drumming on the title tune, "Aren't You Glad," or "I Was Made to Love Her" is as prominent as the vocals, which are all awesome, and it's also easier to appreciate the little details, like the exquisite bass workout in the rhythm section of "I Was Made to Love Her" — and the massed vocals on "Country Air" are so clean and radiant here that it's like hearing the song for the first time. The compilation is augmented with some fascinating early working versions of "Good Vibrations," the lost B-side "You're Welcome," an alternate take of "Heroes and Villains" from the Smile album sessions, plus a rehearsal of "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" from a 1967 concert, and the lost (and exquisite) Smile album artifact "Can't Wait Too Long" — alas, there evidently weren't any Wild Honey leftovers. Note: Capitol previously issued a version of this disc in 1990, with a duller, hissier sound; it should be replaced by the version carrying the 2001 date. ~ Bruce Eder, all media guide

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Tracklist:

01. Heroes And Villains
02. Vegetables
03. Fall Breaks And Back To Winter
04. She's Goin' Bald
05. Little Pad
06. Good Vibrations
07. With Me Tonight
08. Wind Chimes
09. Gettin' Hungry
10. Wonderful
11. Whistle In
12. Wild Honey
13. Aren't You Glad
14. I Was Made To Love Her
15. Country Air
16. A Thing Or Two
17. Darlin'
18. I'd Love Just Once To See You
19. Here Comes The Night
20. Let The Wind Blow
21. How She Boogalooed It
22. Mama Says
23. Heroes & Villains (Alternate Take) [Bonus Track]
24. Good Vibrations (Various Sessions) [Bonus Track]
25. Good Vibrations (Early Take) [Bonus Track]
26. You're Welcome [Bonus Track]
27. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring [Bonus Track]
28. Can't Wait Too Long [Bonus Track]

Reissue produced & coordinated by Mark Linett
Originally Recorded at United Western Stuidos, Goldstar Studios, CBS Studios, and Brian Wilson's Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA
Digitally Remastered by Joe Gastwirt at Oceanview Digital Mastering, Los Angeles, CA (2000)

Original Release Date: September | December 1967
Re-Release Date: April 10, 2001 (1990)
Format: Digitally remastered using HDCD technology
Label: Capitol Records
Catalog No.: 31861-2