Gary
Pig
Gold:
August, 2005

An Interview With Dominic Priore: Good Things Come To Those Who SMiLE: Gary Pig Gold climbs into the Virtual Sandbox.

As hard as it was for me to be a high school Beach Boys fan landlocked in the Toronto suburbs of the early Seventies, equally frustrating was trying to glean full, not to mention fully reliable, Brian Wilson information - that of the non-authorized, whitewashed B. Boys Inc. variety - in the lost decade following 1976's despicable "Brian Is Back" campaign. That's why books such as David Leaf's The Beach Boys and The California Myth provided absolutely essential glimpses into the unknown world of the elder brother Wilson, while his musical brethren were instead already preparing to spend their remaining endless summers way down in Kokomo.

More key to me personally however, and to countless other true believers this whole world over I would later learn, was the work - and equally importantly the spirit and especially enthusiasm - of a young Bronx family (Pasadena, CA native) expatriate named Domenic Priore. This one-man torch-carrier for all things cool, hip and melodic would employ every single medium possible (the television, the all-ages teen club, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and eventually the www) after following his elder sister's Beach Boys 45's westward at a perfectly impressionable young age. Alone but forever fearless, our hero immediately began seeking out, and then sharing with us all, the people, the places, and the paradoxes behind our favorite Fifties and Sixties sights and sounds: Was that really an aspiring Teri Garr just barely remaining upright on the back of her groovy motorbike as The Hondells lip-synced "Little Honda" on Shindig? Ask Domenic Priore. Whatever became of the mysterious eden ahbez, composer of Nat King Cole's classic "Nature Boy," and did the man really forsake most all of his royalties in order to camp out in a burnoose beneath the H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D sign, in the process inventing the very lifestyle of "hippy"? Why, Domenic not only knew, but he could likely in a minute or two dig out a cassette of an interview he'd done with the man himself just a few months ago.

But it was upon the initial late-Eighties publication of his landmark Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMiLE! scrapbook-and-Then-some that things really began to heat up for not only Domenic, but his ever-growing circle of friends and followers everywhere. Close to 300 pages chockfull of both vintage and contemporary clippings, photos, Capitol Records track sheets from original Wilson recording sessions and interviews and overviews galore, this deceptively slap 'n' dash-looking goldmine absolutely coalesced, then enflamed, an entire movement which not only studied and celebrated, but was soon calling for a proper, rightful release of all the magical, yet primarily unheard music Brian Wilson created in those critical eight months following the release of "Good Vibrations."

Well, as we all now know, SMiLE is finally not only an album, but a tour, a film, and, yes, most recently a book.

SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece is nothing less than the definitive literary companion to all those wondrous sounds of Brian's we have been chasing these past thirty-eight years, and my interview with Domenic will only begin to hint at the special nature of both the author and his subject matter. so Listen, Learn, Read On ...and Don't Forget to SMiLE.....

One fascinating subject you touch upon early in the book is how Brian Wilson, at the very beginnings of his career as a Beach Boy, was already busy writing, performing on, and/or producing sessions for many other local singers and musicians "on the side." Why do you believe these stellar recordings - many of which sport a near-Spector level of sophistication YEARS before "Pet Sounds" - were never chart successes?

Well, that statement is not really true, because he had tons of hits outside of the Beach Boys, especially five songs he wrote for Jan and Dean with Jan Berry ("Ride The Wild Surf," "Dead Man's Curve," "Drag City," "Surf City" and "The New Girl in School"). Then there was the Hondells' "My Buddy Seat," and this doesn't include things he'd recorded with the Beach Boys: "Sidewalk Surfin'" by Jan and Dean had already been "Catch a Wave," and "Little Honda" was a hit by the Hondells but was originally on the Beach Boys' All Summer Long album. Some of the Honeys stuff reached the Billboard Hot 100 and also hit in other countries: for example, "Surfin' Down the Swanee River" hit in Sweden.

I do think that some of Brian Wilson's productions outside of the Beach Boys could have done better, especially had "Wich Stand" been released, and certainly "Pamela Jean" came out like, one matrix number away from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on Capitol. Gary Usher's "Sacramento" was great and should have been a hit; same goes for Sharon Marie's "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" and Glen Campbell's "Guess I'm Dumb." I'll bet you, dollars to doughnuts, there is a story behind why each of these did not climb up the charts having to do with the usual gripes... but what usually can be filed under "circumstance." He had hits and misses outside of the Beach Boys, and most people never even get one hit.

Also, it wasn't his main focus, right? And, there may have been Murry people calling radio and blackballing Brian's outside productions; that did happen for Dave and the Marksmen: Murry set a blackballing campaign against David Marks back in the day, so who's to say he didn't blackball Brian's solo productions too? We can guess that may have happened, because Murry blew a gasket over Brian's involvement with Jan and Dean's "Surf City": a # 1 record that probably earned both Brian and Murry tons of moolah. Murry was kinda dumb, it seems.

So I've heard. Meanwhile, the first thirty pages of "SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece" contain possibly the most insightful, succinct, yet all-encompassing overview of the Beach Boys' early history ever published. But why only one passing mention in your entire book of the "Beach Boys Party!" album, which I personally consider not only one of my all-time fave BB LP's but an extremely revealing AND important record in the overall Sixties-rock scheme of things?

Well, because the album was pretty much created as something that would spell time while Brian finished Pet Sounds, and that really is just a bump in the story of SMiLE.

Praise for the Party! album comes from anyone within earshot of it, and I think it was best said by another author (not sure if it was David Leaf or the recently departed Byron Preiss), that it would be hard to imagine say, the Rolling Stones pulling off something like Recorded Live! At A Beach Boys Party.

And even if they tried, I bet they'd NEVER come up with a "Satisfaction" close to the one the Beach Boys tried at their "Party" sessions…

Brian Wilson was able to throw greatness off the back of his hand then, but the Party! album (based on that Duke Kahanamoku Presents a Beachboy Party featuring Waltah Clarke album from 1962 ...further profiled in Dumb Angel # 4: All Summer Long) had little to do with the development that led to SMiLE. Same with the Beach Boys' Michigan State University live album that didn't come out, which was supposed to bide time for the SMiLE production. Maybe the release of that would have helped the way Party! ** did for Pet Sounds. But most importantly, that was the first live performance of "Good Vibrations" and Brian flew to Michigan during the making of SMiLE to produce that performance in late 1966. These are all things spinning in the Wagner-esque sweep of the Pet Sounds and SMiLE productions, sort of like boards from the Kansas house flying in the air while Dorothy ascends in a tornado during The Wizard Of Oz. I cover it all in the book, in context with SMiLE.

"Engaging Van Dyke Parks as a collaborator might have been the most perceptive move of Brian Wilson's career," you write. Van Dyke may have considered himself simply Brian's "assistant" - interpreter, fully-fledged creative partner and fearlessly dedicated co-conspirator is perhaps a better job description, I'm sure you'd more than concur Domenic. In fact, I feel that without Van Dyke's very presence, to say nothing of his lyrics and overall day-to-day encouragement both then and now, SMiLE would NEVER have happened. Agree?

Absolutely. Brian finally was collaborating with a musician who could give back to Brian's music as much as Brian was putting into it, that's how I see it. This was collaboration on a real high level; those two guys know that from within, but also couldn't possibly imagine our amazement with their combined efforts. I hope all this SMiLE appreciation now sinks our love for this work into their collective consciousness, and makes them feel fantastic.

Danny Hutton is not only another seminal figure in the SMiLE story, but a genuinely seldom-sung hero of the Sixties and Seventies SoCal pop scene. Most pointedly, you credit Danny with being "the key player in moving Brian Wilson's creative interests away from the old-style Murry Wilson management and into the ferment of the Sunset Strip freedom movement."

First of all, it seems that Danny Hutton was kind of a ubiquitous lead off hitter and "the straw that stirred the drink" during the SMiLE period. Through Danny came Derek Taylor, Van Dyke Parks, David Anderle and other creative people who were a part of the new move in music; crucial to what SMiLE really is.

You document as well Danny's attendance at the SMiLE sessions, and also his brief time as an actual Brian Wilson-produced Brother Records recording artist. You also draw perfect parallels between the pre-Dog Night Hutton solo releases ("Funny How Love Can Be" in particular), the initial Beach Boys work on "Heroes And Villains," the NON-Beach Boy (though Brian-produced, and Hutton-featured) Redwood recording of "Time To Get Alone," and even Frank Zappa's early Mothers of Invention material.

Jules Siegel had just done his evergreen cover story on Bob Dylan for The Saturday Evening Post. SMiLE is truly part of the Protest music of the Sixties, and a lot of Beach Boys fans now, and certain Beach Boys then, were not comfortable with that. Look, it's what broke up the Beatles, too. Paul and Ringo now readily admit that they were not fully comfortable with John Lennon and George Harrison leading the Beatles into the intelligent social force they were becoming... and now, Ringo regrets siding that way, of course. I don't follow Beatle interviews that closely anymore, but I do know both Paul and Ringo have acknowledged this. "Give Peace a Chance" wound up being the song everyone sang when John Lennon was tragically killed in 1980; an event that touched society on a level that had not been seen since the Kennedy assassination in 1963. That said, SMiLE sails right past all other Beach Boys music as part of this raised level of consciousness.

I also happen to agree whole-heartedly with Danny Hutton on how moving the Beach Boys' recording sessions following SMiLE out of the regimented, union-dictated four-hour (not to mention four-track) environment of the L.A. studios and into the more lackadaisical, non-clock-watching environment in Brian's Bel Air mansion radically altered - and NOT for the better - Brian Wilson's whole production M.O. Plus, as Brian's long-time drummer of choice Hal Blaine realizes as well, relocating Beach Boy sessions to Brian's private studio meant the other band members were now free to throw their artistic weight around, as it were, and interfere with the entire creative process. "The main period of hit-making for the Beach Boys ended when they put that studio in the home," you quote Hal, "whereas before Brian was in control." How important a factor would you gauge this to be in SMiLE never being completed in the Sixties, not to mention Brian's eventual near-total disengagement from the band over the years which followed?

Other details aside, SMiLE kind of ends when they go up to that home studio; that's pretty much spelled out by Derek Taylor in both a promo blurb he wrote upon the release of Smiley Smile, and then later when he was interviewed for The New Musical Express.

I think the Friends album is in its own way as good as Pet Sounds and SMiLE; I truly mean that, because truthfully, I've listened to Friends more than SMiLE and Pet Sounds combined, out of habit. But I also feel that the Surfin' USA album is a match for those, because it has the same sense of feel; you can really listen to that a million times, and I know several people who swear by that. Brian Wilson was truly a great artist, and Surfin' USA really captures his guidance over a Rock 'n' Roll band; a straight-up, ravin' Garage group. When you get to SMiLE, it's a whole 'nuther thing.

Friends seems to be the last time Brian Wilson was really the leader of a Beach Boys album; Sunflower is the best effort of the combined "group" as songwriters and producers, with Brian involved. But after that there's this sinking feeling (despite how great the finished Surf's Up album is) and after "Sail On Sailor" and Holland, the Beach Boys is this huge pose; it ain't that Rock 'n' Roll Garage band that cut Surfin' USA and it ain't the studio mastery of SMiLE. Post- Holland, the Beach Boys becomes a product name, not a creative entity. There is no coordination in the direction of the music; it's just shards. Nice thing here, nice thing there, but no rhythm. Yes, the home studio was the beginning of the end.

Can you elaborate more fully on Armen Steiner's pioneering eight-track recording facility in Los Angeles, the Beatles' "secret" visit there (on an off-day during their 1966 American tour I'm assuming), the three-day "loss" of the "Good Vibrations" master tape, and then Beach Boys publicist Derek Taylor possibly enabling the Beatles to hear actual SMiLE recordings-in-progress WHILE "Sgt. Pepper" was still in production?

You know that Sgt. Pepper was pretty much wrapped up when Macca came to the "Vega-Tables" sessions in April, 1967, right? They would have had to have heard SMiLE, or something that inspired them, before those April '67 sessions. I'd say that Derek Taylor probably told them how amazing Brian's new music was, and I doubt he had any bad intentions.

Several of the people who were present during the SMiLE sessions were given acetates during December, 1966. I'm sure Derek Taylor was as well. I believe that Brian Wilson called Paul in the fall of 1966 and played him "Good Vibrations" over the phone. Then there are a few small clippings in Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMiLE! that refer to a trip that Harrison made to L.A., and George stopped by to see Brian Wilson. That may even have been the trip when Harrison rented a house and wrote "Blue Jay Way" (I'm not certain). He was referring to Derek Taylor in the song when he says "and my friends have lost their way"...it was a foggy night in the hills above the Sunset Strip.

We know that Pet Sounds was the inspiration for the Beatles to make
Sgt. Pepper, a really full instrumental / symphonic record with unusual (and sometimes exotic) percussion. But it's the splicing of recorded sections that I think is the big deal with the Beatles possibly hearing some SMiLE tapes. They may have just been told by Taylor or someone else that "Good Vibrations" was magnificently spliced, or that Brian Wilson was out in Hollywood splicing incongruent pieces of music together. I can't really say much more about that, because I think Sgt. Pepper has those full-sounding orchestrations inspired by Pet Sounds. Again, I think the possible SMiLE lift going on there would have to do with the splicing of elements together, like "A Day in the Life." We really don't know, unless Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr could shed some light -- I tried calling Paul through Capitol, but he didn't get back to me.

Bastard! We'll get back to the Cute Beatle later though.

The thing is, however this played out, is that Brian Wilson grew very concerned that indeed, the Beatles would knock him off the map while at the same time, cribbing from ideas (of his) that were 'way out ahead, setting the pace for the kind of advanced production that was so crucial to this ethereal recording sound that the mid-Sixties are so revered for. In those days, breaking the new Psychedelic sounds was just about everything (arrangement, based on melodic intuition, of course). So it is very important to the story that in some way, there was enough Beatle hovering around Brian Wilson's 1966 cutting edge that combined with other things. Tapes being lost at Columbia -- the 45 master for "Good Vibrations," prior to release! -- and Phil Spector being involved with the film ** Seconds, ** with its line "Good morning, Mr. Wilson" booming out just as Brian sits down in the theater to watch it.

GREAT film, isn't it? But at the very least, this would all certainly help fuel Brian's growing paranoia at the time …not to mention motivate him to begin recording instead in the comparative safety and security of his own home, where for starters his masters could be kept under much closer watch.

I really don't think this was unreasonable paranoia on Brian Wilson's behalf, no way!

Everybody reading this, I feel, would find it hard to understand his positioning at that moment, and the nature of the music business at the time. People have called Brian Wilson "crazy" because he came up with that term "mind gangsters," but there is no doubt that tons of people in the music industry were keeping tabs on what Brian Wilson was up to, and there were a lot of people trying to lift his ideas.

He WAS the Golden Boy of West Coast Pop at least at that time, certainly.

No doubt, no doubt whatsoever: he came up with the term "mind gangsters" because he knew people were out there trying to steal his ideas; that was his reality, and losing the "Good Vibrations" master at Columbia Studios was a big deal... you have to empathize with that. In the end, I mean, ask yourself this: would the Beatles not want to hear what Brian Wilson was doing in late 1966?

I can tell you, it really pisses me off when people jump to the conclusion that Brian Wilson was "crazy" because of real shit that was going down around him, at that time when he was at the top of the music industry. Sorry, no one reading this piece knows what that's like; we can only imagine. Brian was crazy -- like a fox -- because that mofo is still with us, he's still alive, he's still standing on stage and waving to audiences who are knocked out because they are hearing SMiLE and Pet Sounds performed on stage. I have to say that his sense of instinct and survival must be respected in all of this, and is very overlooked.

People who exploit the "crazy Brian" thing are really not taking a good look at what this man's realities were at the time. Remember, he didn't blow it with drugs until the Seventies: that's when the cocaine / recluse stuff sets in. This is 1966 we're talking about here, and all one has to do is listen to any SMiLE session tape to realize that Brian Wilson was a production master in 1966: very advanced, together and in control. How anyone can hear him leading those sessions the way he does on those tapes and then call him "crazy"... well, I'd have to question the credibility of anyone who suggests that, with the evidence at hand. I'll duke it out with any pompous ass about that... Brian was not "crazy" during the SMiLE recording sessions, you lazy hack writer fucks... any takers?

Well, before we get round to the main bout, let's consider first the Beach Boys canceling out on their proposed headlining performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Had they in fact played that gig, how do you think they would have been received amidst - or should I say against? - such hot new acts as Hendrix and The Who?

Here's the thing: Had they performed a set similar to what they did around the time of their Carnegie Hall gigs in 1970 or 1971 (i.e., top heavy with songs from Pet Sounds and SMiLE; about twelve songs overall), the Beach Boys would have absolutely made the transference into the Progressive Rock movement that was just emerging at the time.

One did not have to be loud like Hendrix and the Who to be cool at Monterey, who were only part of the overall vibe. "Good Vibrations" and "Surf's Up" were definitely part of that, and it would have been cool at Monterey because you'd have to imagine that most everyone there identified with the music that was presented on the Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution CBS-TV News special a couple of months previous to Monterey Pop. That would, mind you, include Brian's performance therein of "Surf's Up," which no one seemed able to forget in the second half of the decade whenever the name Beach Boys came up. That song, alone, bore the mystery of what was lost for the group, in terms of the Beach Boys no longer being cool. Everybody was askin' "wha' happened," and "Surf's Up" held the key to their personal queries.

Inside Pop laid the mystery of "Surf's Up" out there, and the lack of delivery of this song by the Beach Boys left them out of the picture. Their sales began to suck, right then and there. As I say in the book and in all interviews, this is where I differ from David Leaf and Brian Wilson's own words in the Beautiful Dreamer documentary, because I think it's pretty clear that SMiLE was absolutely the right album for the Beach Boys to release at the time; and because they didn't, they fell off the map.

Tell me, do you hear them programmed regularly like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on Classic Rock radio today? I don't think so, and this is because the Monterey Pop Festival defined what the future of Rock radio would become. Without SMiLE and "Surf's Up," the Beach Boys were on the outside looking in. Basically, whoever fought Brian Wilson about "Surf's Up" in the band during 1966/1967 was a pussy, and suffered the consequences.

Remember, at Carnegie Hall (or, during that era), the Beach Boys tried to play "catch-up" and performed "Good Vibrations," "Surf's Up," "Heroes and Villains," "Vega-Tables," "Wonderful" (Carl singing the Brian falsetto version) and "Cool, Cool Water," which of course was an expansion of the SMiLE track "Love to Say Dada": can you imagine if they'd played these songs at Monterey Pop, along with the Pet Sounds songs they'd performed during the early Seventies like "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Caroline, No," "God Only Knows," "You Still Believe in Me," "I'm Waiting For the Day" and "Sloop John B"? Just those, with no pre-1966 songs, would have blown minds at Monterey.

People also dug the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel and the Association at Monterey Pop; it wasn't just all just the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Who.

Or even Eric Burdon and the New Animals! So do you think a successful performance at Monterey would have radically altered how the Beach Boys' image and music fared, especially at home in the USA, throughout the late Sixties and into the early Seventies?

History shows us how snide people became, concerning the Beach Boys, only after their failure to appear at Monterey Pop, not before. I point that out pretty clearly on page five of the photo spread I included in SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece. Read what Derek Taylor is saying, and look at the picture of Carl Wilson sitting between others of Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol. Derek says "and the Beach Boys were born anew." That's what needed to happen, and fuck if it did.

Look, in February 1966 the Beach Boys were out on the road with the cutting edge of Garage and Psychedelic Rock 'n' Roll, playing with the Electric Prunes, ? and the Mysterians, the Left Banke and Keith on a tour. So guess what? Mike Love is a whole lot less rich today due to now allowing that momentum to move the band forward, and has had to play "the Beach Boys" live in concert thing into the ground ever since because of it. All because he couldn't go with the spirit of '76... or '66, as it were.

Allow me to play devil's advocate here for a moment, Domenic. In a simple black/white, good/evil, heroes and villains world, Mike Love has forever been characterized strictly as the latter. The man whose "don't fuck with the formula" mindset not only killed Brian's spirit many a time, but destroyed SMiLE itself in 1967 many claim. But can we agree that without Mike's (totally non-altruistic, granted) never-say-die determination the Beach Boys' career could very well have ended by 1970?

But seriously, I mean, what have the Beach Boys contributed since 1970? The Beatles broke up that year, and yet they left a legacy that looks great. Mike has dragged the Beach Boys name through the mud, and that's why it's been so hard over the years to bring the vintage Brian Wilson music of Pet Sounds and SMiLE to the respect it is now just barely beginning to receive. Still, I'll bet you a lot of baby boomers still loathe or have no respect for the Beach Boys, because all they see is the Mike Love / Miami Vice image and haven't been a part of the new appreciation of SMiLE and Pet Sounds, which is really more of a post-Punk, Alt-Rock generation thing. Brian's total brilliance will forever be overlooked by generations and generations of people who have listened to Classic Rock and prior to that, Progressive Rock radio for some 35 years now. Imagine the oblivion in that.

To answer your question, if I'd had my druthers, I'd have preferred SMiLE coming out in early 1967 to the existence of a Surf's Up album in 1971, along with Carl and the Passions, Holland, 15 Big Ones, Beach Boys Love You, M.I.U., L.A. (Light Album), Keepin' The Summer Alive, The Beach Boys (1985) and Summer In Paradise. Fuck yeh, I'd take a released 1967 SMiLE to all of those combined. And I don't think that's just me; that would be the whole real-world Rock 'n' Roll audience, except for die-hard Beach Boys fans, who often wear blinders. SMiLE trumps 'em all. It's still interesting, this "what would have happened" thing, but in the end, the Beach Boys output after 1970 could all be junked, in exchange for SMiLE, no doubt.

But even you must admit to digging the Love lyrics on "Good Vibrations" …and to bring up my beloved "Beach Boys Party" platter again, Mike absolutely COOKS vocally on "Hully Gully" and "Mountain of Love" especially. So c'mon, sir: Isn't it high time to give the man at least SOME props??

I never bagged on Mike Love pre-1967, when he assumes "leadership" of the Beach Boys direction. And I dig some of the music he did after, especially this neat version he did of "California Girls" on some television show where he's backed by Charles Lloyd and John McLaughlin of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Mike Love is at a point now where he can actually make amends, and what I mean by that is that he should be humble and admit he was wrong about "Surf's Up" and SMiLE as a whole. Or, he can stay with the Karl Rove or Right Wing talk radio mentality people: living in denial of the truth, every day. One thing I bring up in the book is that in the late Eighties, Mike Love sang with the Beach Boys on stage "I'm pickin' up Bush vibrations" at a rally for the first George Bush. There are two Americas today, and "Good Vibrations" has nothing to do with the Confederate flag. I'm sorry if this ruffles feathers, but SMiLE is not about fighting wars over oil, let alone whatever Vietnam was supposed to be about. So you see, this is the psychic split. All Mike Love has to do is come out and say, "Gee, I'm sorry, I was wrong about that music" and it can exorcise a lot of bullshit pain for everyone... including himself.

And speaking of whom, until reading your book I'd never considered that Brian's father (and original Beach Boy manager / song publisher) Murry's cheating M. Love from a "California Girls" co-writing credit was what set in motion the rabid anti-Brian behavior which sullied the remainder of the Wilson/Love relationship, again playing a large part in the disintegration of the original SMiLE. What leads you to believe that it was this particular event rather than, say, a simple case of artistic jealousy, which sparked Mike's continuing animosity, both professionally AND personally, towards his cousin Brian?

Because someone I know bugged a conversation with Brian Wilson about this very thing... I heard Brian confiding in someone about this... on tape. Brian was getting real emotional about it, and was very serious; not the guy you read in interviews.

And guess what, like Deep Throat, I do not have to reveal my source, as a journalist.

to be continued…..

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