Does he make you smile?

Famous fans, from the corridors of Whitehall to the streets of Manhattan, give their verdict on Brian Wilson's long-lost and eagerly awaited album

The Observer, September 19, 2004

Recorded in 1967, Smile's release was delayed and then abandoned due to friction
within the Beach Boys, some of whom disliked Brian Wilson's 'avant-garde shit',
record label troubles and Wilson's nervous collapse. The album, rerecorded by
Wilson and his touring band, is released on eastwest on 27 September.

Ed Harcourt, musician

I saw the Smile and Pet Sounds concerts in London. Although they were amazing musicians, I found his band a bit annoying. I got backstage and Brian walked past and looked very ashen and I just said 'That was an amazing show' and he kind of ignored me. So I was thinking, 'never meet your idols'. He's quite far gone - he just has this glazed-over expression. He's done loads of drugs, but Keith Richards did that and he doesn't just sit there. I suppose he's just very psychologically troubled.
But he is indisputably a genius and that's probably because of his arrangements. As a musician you listen to a piece of his and you think 'what the hell was that?' and he's put a flute and a mandolin doing the same part, and everything is so meticulous. You can hear he's got such a vision in his head and the fact that it's been totally realised is so rare and really exciting. He's doing everything himself and that's inspiring. His stuff's always been quite poignant and nostalgic and it can almost get too schmaltzy but at the same time there's a melancholia to it. Sad songs that make you happy.

Paul Morley, critic

Sacred or silly? Sublime or ridiculous? Disney or Zappa? Dali or Rockwell? Mozart or Mancini? If Smile had appeared when it was meant to, it would have been an LA orchestral pop masterpiece that, like the tacky English pop masterpiece Sergeant Pepper, would have been a breathtaking example of ultimately banal thinkers attempting self-consciously to make art, a square version of freaking out, musically sophisticated, aesthetically conservative. Now, it sounds like a goofy souvenir of a white, nostalgic, middle-American leisure music that burnt up in the LA sun halfway through the Vietnam war. It is a kitsch classic, both for what it is and what it yearns for. It's Wilson brainwashed by perverse musical archivist Van Dyke Parks [the album's lyricist]. It's a camp combination of the bygone, the neo, the exotic, the folksy, the showtune, the corny. It's pure artificial Hollywood in the way it patches together the inauthentic, the whitewashed, the brazenly commercial, the sentimental, the censored. It feels like drowning in the Pacific and having a sweetened history of mid-20th-century American life flash before your eyes. I needed a quick shower of Ramones, Dre and Hendrix afterwards, just to rinse away the clingy bits of fake myth.

Mary Anne Hobbs, Radio 1 DJ

Paul Morley opens his new book about the history of pop Words & Music with a quote from Willy Wonka : 'We are the music-makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.' Wonka's Chocolate Factory and Wilson's Smile have many parallels. Like Willy, Brian was reluctant to open the doors on this thing; the recording sessions, like the machinations of the Chocolate Factory, were shrouded in mystery.
In this version of Smile, a dazzling explosion of ideas and ambition awaits around each corner, much like the journey through Wonka's factory. The pathway is treacherous in places. There are moments in which you feel this complex, abstract, ideological construct sledging down a black hole. But then Wilson, as Wonka did, seizes your hand, thrusts you into a glass elevator and pushes the buttons that set you off on a trajectory right through the roof, his voice chiming like some heavenly bell.
It's a piece for fans, and lovers of pop who are brave enough to free up their hearts and embrace this at a purely sensory level without really wanting to make sense of it. If you can bear to drop the reins, and you must, you may be swept away.

Ian Rankin, novelist

It's amazing to see such a resurgence of interest in Brian. He's still got it, the voice maybe isn't what it used to be and the band he's with ain't the Beach Boys but when he sings the songs, the hairs stand up on your arms. It's almost a cliche to say it, but Bach had it and Beethoven had it - they all wrote tunes that stick in the mind and mean something. I played my 12-year-old son 'Good Vibrations' and to him it was an absolutely new sound and I think that's the secret - the incredible freshness you still get from those tunes. They're timeless. A lot of musicians nowadays owe a lot to Brian. He was one of the first musicians to actually get involved in the production process.
It's hard to say whether Smile should have been re-recorded because it's a great lost album and some things can never be better than they are in your imagination. If someone came up with a new album of Kurt Cobain songs I probably wouldn't buy it because it could only dilute what there already is. And I feel a bit like that about Smile; it's been built up through the decades but can the reality be as good as the myth? Brian is George Martin and Lennon and McCartney rolled into one - he was interested in the technology. And that's his legacy, he was a very hands-on musician. Itwasn't just about making the music, it was about the final package going out to the listener the way you want it, not the way the producer wanted it.

Geoff Travis, head of Rough Trade record label

I'm very happy to see Brian Wilson well and prospering in good health, but I think Smile is entirely pointless. This sounds to me like a very high-class counterfeit. It's interesting because it's so faithfully done but it just misses something essential. It's a brilliant fake, but it ultimately leaves me unsatisfied. 'Heroes and Villains' and 'Good Vibrations' are two of the best songs in the canon of rock'n'roll, but it still sounds like a modern orchestra reinterpreting the past. So even though those guys do a stellar job there's not the same history or chemical reaction between the way the voices blend and I think that's what's missing.
Brian deserves his place in the history books. The Beach Boys were one of the greatest groups ever full stop. And, in a way, probably under-appreciated. I really loved so many of their albums, so from that point of view, this is all a good thing, listening to it with fresh ears.

Roger Daltrey, singer

In the Sixties we all influenced each other and the Who were certainly influenced by the Beach Boys. Our drummer Keith Moon would've been in the bloody Beach Boys given half a chance. He would have left the Who even at the height of our fame to join the Beach Boys. But we loved them too - we thought they were a little wet in the image department but their harmonies were fantastic. If you listen to early Who records you can hear a lot of influences from the Beach Boys.
I was at the live show and it was just wonderful. The music is as refreshing as ever, it's a sketchpad of so many things. The album is worth the wait - it gives you musical courage. He's an extraordinary writer. He pushed popular music to whole new levels. I can see why the record company must have been throwing their hands up in horror at the time because it's not commercial, but that doesn't matter, it's fantastic!
I first met Brian last year when he inducted me into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame and the fact that he did it made it better than getting a Grammy. I hold him in such awe that I get incredibly nervous when I meet him, but he's a really warm human being. Everybody identifies with his courage. He certainly knows what it's like to suffer.

Geoff Hoon, secretary of state for defence

There's a certain sadness about Smile. It was ready in 1967 and part of me wonders what it might have been like if Brian had been able to carry on developing his music all through that period. But it's still a great piece of music. 'Heroes and Villains', 'Surf's Up' and 'Good Vibrations' are among my favourite pieces of music and seeing them in context on stage, naturally flowing from one to another, is tremendous.
I was lucky enough to see him live - I couldn't get a ticket because it had been sold out for months then at 6pm that night I heard they had some single tickets on late return so my driver rapidly took me to the Royal Festival Hall. I paid for my ticket, went to the Commons to vote at seven o'clock and went straight back across the river to the concert. My teenage children, who are not typical Beach Boys fans, are really interested in Smile and that's why I think it's such a good time for its release. A lot of the indie bands my son listens to are building on Wilson's ideas and I think that will be the real test of the album - what a new generation will think.
We all know about the troubles in his personal life but I don't feel that it affects his music. And it's to his credit that he can stand there on stage and sing 'Fun Fun Fun', which is quite something for a man who's spent 30 years in the way he has.

Peter Blake, artist

Over the years, I'd heard odd bits of Smile on various anthologies and bootlegs, but I heard it all for the first time at one of the concerts this year. It was fascinating. I treated it like one very long song. What intrigued me was that it linked American and classical composers; the whole thing was like a little concert.
The breadth of Brian's reference points is similar to the Beatles. They wrote about England and growing up in Liverpool, while he sings about 20th century Americana. They are songs of such pathos and must be among the most beautiful ever written.
During the Sixties, I was very aware of what Brian was doing. When the Beatles were recording Pepper in Abbey Road I went to the studio every day to hear what they were doing and I know they knew what the Beach Boys were up to. At the time I was living in the moment and certainly didn't think I would be talking about all this nearly 40 years later.
I'm not surprised Brian is still going. That generation was the first to play rock'n'roll and there were no rules saying you had to stop at 40. There is no reason why he can't go on for ever making great music and become a venerable composer. Now he has got his new songs and Smile out of the way, perhaps he could make another concept album. That would be great.

Fran Healy, singer

I was really impressed by this Smile . But I think they should release both versions and let the public decide which is their favourite. When I saw them play in London I thought he had brilliant musicians with him, but there's a certain groove which they had going in the Sixties that they just don't have any more.
The fact that he's still playing is brilliant, but it seems like Brian is the frontman for this machine and they're the ones who demand and want things. Along with the Beatles, he is almost like a war veteran, a bit like your grandfathers who fought in the Second World War. They're almost historical relics.