Gary
Pig
Gold:
September, 2005
An Interview With Dominic
Priore: Part II: Good Things Come To Those Who SMiLE:
Gary Pig Gold Climbs Back into the Virtual Sandbox.
SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost
Masterpiece is, I believe, the
very best of Domenic's extensive work to date on that most
challenging of all-American subjects, Brian Wilson and the
Beach Boys. Deftly weaving the myriad elements, characters,
and events which lead to and shaped the extremely heady atmospheres
of 1966/67 (Brian's "lettuce years," as opposed
to salad daze I suppose, in the always studious words of Van
Dyke Parks), this book can stand proudly alongside Timothy
White's The Nearest Faraway Place as not only definitive
Beach Boy texts, but perfect pocket historical overviews of
California's most Golden Age itself.
Yet who else but Domenic could cite the Boys'
Surfin' USA album in the same sentence as Led
Zeppelin II and Paranoid by Black Sabbath …and
not only make it work, but make it Rock and Roll to boot?
Elsewhere, the man dedicates his words to Sandy Koufax, The
Byrds, and the Sunset Strip Freedom Movement (among others),
opens Part 3 of his tome by quoting John Belushi's Animal
House character Bluto, draws precisely the proper socio-musical
timeline between Stan Kenton, Kon Tiki and Ed "Big
Daddy" Roth, and bravely identifies the use of theremin
in "Good Vibrations" not to its Russian inventor
or even Hitchcock's Spellbound score, but to the
My Favorite Martian TV theme. That's our Domenic!
It could honestly be no one else.
Opening with illuminating Forewords from
both Messrs. Wilson and Parks, then providing a panel-by-panel,
song-by-song exploration of the original SMiLE artwork
with artist Frank Holmes himself by way of a wholly won-won-wonderful
Afterword, only two words need really apply to this quite
special book: Required Reading.
So whilst grabbing your very own copy today,
making sure to pick up en route that latest and greatest
Dumb Angel
zine-book as well, let us return to our discussion with
Domenic and the remarkable Story behind his latest Story.....
The "Underground Train" chapter of your book
states decisively the importance of tape-trading networks
and fanzine-publishing - your own "Dumb Angel" magazines,
in fact - which throughout those unplugged pre-Internet decades
kept the SMiLE music, to say nothing of its mythology, alive
and very well. The dedicated work of such "believers,"
as Brian Wilson biographer David Leaf astutely calls them,
not only helped spread and celebrate the SMiLE news throughout
the Eighties especially, but helped bring together and inspire
such young musicians as Darian Sahanaja and Nick Walusco who,
in the decade to follow, were instrumental - literally! -
in helping revive and redress Brian's career. Which raises
another what-if-the-Beach-Boys-played-Monterey-style speculation:
Had SMiLE been "officially" released as previously
promised (in 1972 and/or 1988, for example), do you think
any of the mystical attraction to, and aura around it, would
have been so blunted as to have rendered a 21st century re-recording
redundant, or even unnecessary?
Hell no, because the music is so good; it
would continue to be rediscovered. It would have been best
if it was released in 1967, but the idea behind a 1972 release,
engineered by Carl Wilson and engineer Stephen J. Desper,
would also have been perfect. In 1988, we still had to get
Pet Sounds out on CD; it was another world by then,
and the rough tapes assembled at that time were not properly
organized.
Now that Brian has recorded SMiLE
anew, the concept for the whole album is clear, and it is
the perfect opportunity to release it, in the same sequence
basically that came out on Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE
(The only gaff I really heard was the pairing of the
"Heroes and Villains" segment known as "I'm
In Great Shape" with "I Wanna Be Around" and
"Workshop," the latter two of which were originally
slated to follow the Fire music Brian just won a Grammy for).
And the current SMiLE tour?
Ah, well, the stage presentation could never
be considered "redundant" or "unnecessary."
This was one of the best concerts I'd ever attended …along
with one by the original Who with Keith Moon in the band.
Close to two decades ago Domenic, you were one of the
first believers ever to piece together from various sources
a logical, two-vinyl-LP-side sequence for the myriad finished,
unfinished, instrumental and even brief link / themes of the
original SMiLE. You note in detail in your book, however,
how the 2004 "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE" is not
exactly faithful to its original 1966/67 prototype. What are
your opinions about the differences between the two, and any
possible "compromises" made in the contemporary
version? Have you any misgivings? Disappointments even?
I like the new SMiLE recording a
whole lot, especially the excellent excavation of Sahanaja
and Brian Wilson's own melody to "Do You Like Worms"
or whatever they're calling it now. Beautiful.
The sequencing of "Wonderful,"
"Look," "Child is Father to the Man" and
"Surf's Up," that is the best part of it all for
me; I had no idea that "Look" and "Surf's Up"
came in a package with "Wonderful" and "Child
is Father to the Man," as a sequence. I mentioned the
only gaff previously, and it's kind of excusable; small fragments
that got misplaced. I like the live concert from Carnegie
Hall a lot more than the studio album, which is fine, but
a bit too trebly. Brian's music should have more bass presence...
totally nitpicking, though, in the big picture.
And strictly sonically speaking, how do you feel about
the 2004 SMiLE recordings themselves as compared and opposed
to the 66/67 ones? Of course, no one on earth can ever be
expected to duplicate, or even replicate, the magical genetic
blend of the vintage Wilson brothers' vocal interplay. But
would you also agree that another important ingredient sorrowfully
missing from the new SMiLE is Brian's brilliant recording
engineer of the Sixties, Chuck Britz? For the sake of "modernity"
or even commerciality, do you feel the original Britz approach
to the SMiLE music has in any way been cast aside?
You know, that is part of what cannot be
duplicated. But why fret, when the original tapes exist and
can come out on their own some day?
How would you characterize the contribution of Brian's
wife Melinda to not only the completion and staging of SMiLE,
but to Brian's life overall these past ten years?
I think, first of all, that she has worked
very hard, despite whatever criticisms anyone may have.
I met Melinda in 1990 when Dr. Landy was
around. She came in later and relieved the bad work of Satan
-- you have no idea; people forget what it was like to be
around Landy. That's so gone now; people take it for granted,
like, they were born yesterday. Melinda came in with little
or no experience in the music industry, and has learned something
every year, whereas Landy was a total putz.
I have one misgiving about Melinda's work:
I'm not fond of Adult Contemporary music, and I think that
is the direction Brian's new albums ( Imagination, Gettin'
In Over My Head) have taken in sound. She has a hand in
that. As a journalist, it is my responsibility to be objective,
and in a sense, I'm coming from a different generation; I
pogoed at the Masque, you know? I hate what "Classic
Rock" has become, as do most of us who embraced the crucial
change in perspective that Punk represents. To ignore that
change is to ignore the atom bomb. I feel the real cult that
has built up around Brian Wilson has been ignored to some
extent; the younger artists who love Brian's work, and their
millions of fans. They've turned people on to Brian, but the
AC albums are a disappointment to that audience. But this
is an honest, musical critique, not a personal one.
Melinda Wilson is swept up in this thing;
I mean, she's gone to lengths for Brian's music that the Beach
Boys never did. Marilyn Wilson loved Brian, and loved Brian's
music, but could not overwhelm the Beach Boys when it came
to their abuse of Brian Wilson. Melinda has had the good fortune
to be free of them and brought us these incredible Pet
Sounds and SMiLE tours. She hired the Wondermints;
that was the very thing that made it possible. She took a
kid artist off the street, Mark London, and worked with him
every day to make sure the SMiLE packaging of all
this worked (and Mark London is dedicated to Brian Wilson
-- the man, not the icon). I've seen Melinda in different
situations, and lately, all I see is her keeping the ball
rolling, and Brian Wilson needs to be working, not being lazy.
Like your wife, or your girlfriend, she is making sure Brian
is on the ball. This athlete, this music-making genius, should
not be on the dole, and Brian does like to kick back, too
much sometimes. But Melinda works real hard on all this stuff,
so Brian, a good guy in his heart, pulls his weight, and that
is the healthiest thing possible. This is not self-indulgence
we see here, and with SMiLE, it was the max... "totally
to the max, man!"
Perhaps you can shed some insight upon
something I still don't understand: Why Brian Wilson, as recently
as the 2004 recording of SMiLE, can still fret as he did circa
1966 over songs such as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" being
"too scary," "too weird," or even "inappropriate."
THIS from a man who at twenty-four years of age wrote, arranged
and produced such challenging and, yes, world-altering works
as "Good Vibrations" - and had instant, global,
multi-million-selling hits with them!
That's the Beach Boys' abuse of him, sunk
in. Next step, Brian should meditate that crap out of his
head. SMiLE kicks ass, and I think he knows that now.
He's just got to purge all the bullshit, as he likes to say.
One of the underlying themes of your book is encapsulated
in your statement that "in recent years, many Americans
have chosen to believe in The Big Lie, dismissing the social
consciousness that rose to prominence during the 1960's."
As certainly no less an authority on the subject as Paul McCartney
states in "The Beatles Anthology," all you need
is love may have been too simple a way to put it, but….
Gawd, is Paul still talking shit about John
Lennon's songs? Oh, excuse me, we're talking about social
consciousness in music…
To quote "Surf's Up" itself, "the children's
song, and the message that they play, the song is love, and
the children know the way." You also reference a vintage
Roger McGuinn observation on how barriers of all sorts were
indeed being broken - sometimes quite literally (e.g.: the
Sunset Strip "riots" of 1966). What do you think
ever became of that positive, ultra-creative, energetic and,
yes, loving atmosphere which had its roots in the mid-Sixties,
and swirled around and throughout the Los Angeles of Brian
Wilson and SMiLE in particular?
It's as old as the hills; go back to the
troubadours... or, the Troubadour, where David Crosby ran
into Van Dyke Parks and brought him up to Brian Wilson's house;
soon after, you get SMILE music.
You have to understand that Ronald Reagan's
presidency had no effect on my senses; those of us who rode
down the Sunset Strip on a weekend evening in 1966 knew better.
So I never cast doubt on music's ability to move social consciousness
to a higher level. Today, film has really caught up with what
music did during the Sixties. So yes, there's been a re-birth
in that spirit in our culture, and that's, again, the psychic
split: Fifty percent of the USA knows Bush is stupid, and
the other fifty percent have not done their homework.
You end your book - well, almost - with the bold statement,
"Brian has never been happier in his life." What's
NEXT then?
Well, Brian can still improve; we all can.
He's come a long way, but can continue to find more happiness
in his old age ...my father did the last bunch of years in
his life. I mean, I wish Brian more happiness and health;
things you have to work on every day.
We all continue to grow, hopefully, in knowledge,
in health, in mental health. Hiding out in a bedroom is defeat;
Brian works on kicking that's ass every day of his life, I'm
sure.
And finally, to recount Dennis Wilson's historic statement,
is SMiLE really so good that it makes "Pet Sounds"
stink?
I like SMiLE a lot more than Pet
Sounds. A lot more. Dennis Wilson's comment is full of
enthusiasm, and I can't knock that down... he knew.
Pet Soundsdoes not stink, however.
I prefer Revolver to Rubber Soul too. But
SMiLE is thee calliope of words and music, made in
the right place and the right time (Los Angeles, 1966). We
won't hear one like that again, and a time like that can never
be repeated... only drawn from as a positive inspiration for
the future.
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