Right: Clarence Jackson today, holding his rare autographed cover slick of the original 1967 SMiLE album

When it comes to the original Beach Boys (originally) unreleased album SMiLE, legends loom large as to Brian Wilson’s often bizarre behavior. Some blamed Brian’s antics on the drugs (the official Beach Boys party line) while some at the time simply shrugged it off to “artistic temperament”. When you cast away these explanations, one thing remains – Brian was definitely trying to “set the mood” for his ambitious, new psychedelic music!

Those well-versed in Beach Boys’ lore are familiar with the “standard” stories, such as: building a sandbox under his piano; dinner parties with “symphonies” consisting of eating utensils; meetings in swimming pools; late night searches for stores that sell telescopes, etc. But probably the most famous image of Brian Wilson during the SMiLE period has to be Brian cavorting around in the recording studio wearing a fire helmet during the recording of “Fire” (“Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow”). Brian also had all the studio musicians wearing fire helmets, and even had a janitor carry around a bucket filled with burning wood so that everyone present to “feel the fire”.

However, there were many more unreported instances of Brian “setting the mood” for SMiLE songs in the studio. Clarence Jackson (a.k.a. “Brother Julius”) was the janitor at the recording studio that had the job of carrying around the burning bucket during the “Fire” session. He has recently released some of his private photo collection that he amassed during the SMiLE sessions of 1966-67. They show Brian Wilson as a man who truly wanted to “set the mood” and add a bit of humor to the proceedings while recording his ground-breaking music ("The album will include lots of humor..."-original Brian quote about SMiLE).

We recently talked to Clarence and he shared a few of his SMiLE memories:

"Man, Wilson was gettin' funky by the time he was working on 'Water'. You probably all know what went down during 'Fire' - he had everyone wearin' fire helmets and had me carry around a bucket with burning wood. Anyway, during 'Water', he had me carry around another bucket - but this one was filled with water and he had me blowing a straw in it to create water-bubbling sounds. He wanted them studio cats to 'feel' the water."

[Note: More from "Brother Julius" coming soon, including a full-length, detailed interview.]

With Jackson’s permission we are featuring some of these rare photos, along with our guess as to which song went along with which costume…