Smile-scholars can be a hard crowd to please. Not merely Beach Boys fans (the ones that focus on the surf/car/girl hits), Smile-scholars focus on what is considered the golden age of Brian Wilson's music: the Smile music. The most fervent followers have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of session dates and other Smile-related facts. And they are quick to point out any and all factual errors. So when any new book that even mentions Smile is released, it is under the microscope (as it were). Hence the problem: Smile-scholars want the "holy grail"…those much debated pieces of the Smile puzzle which helps answer the mysterious question of "what was the original Smile to be like?"

Unfortunately, this book does not do that. Rather than an in-depth analysis of Smile that many (including myself) are salivating for, SMILE: THE STORY OF BRIAN WILSON'S LOST MASTERPIECE gives a purely historical portrayal of Smile in the context of the '60s LA scene. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing - it is important to see Smile as it happened and what was happening around it - it will disappoint those Smile-scholars who are looking for any unturned stones in the archeological digs of Smile: one rock 'n roll's great mysteries. After all, the book is titled "The Story Of", not "The Analysis Of". So there is truth in advertising!

What I like about the book is that it contains mostly vintage interviews with Brian Wilson regarding Smile. This is simply because over the years, Brian's interpretation and memories of Smile has been somewhat…well, skewed and contradictory. The passage of time simply has not made Brian himself a great source of accurate information when you want to find out about Smile. Which is ironic, since he is the composer! There is a lot of Van Dyke Parks input, with the book basically being a forum for him to finally speak his mind about Smile. One of the interest sting tidbits of info that Priore tells is Capitol's sabotage when it came to the promotion & sales of PET SOUNDS. But with the success of "Good Vibrations", Capitol threw itself wholeheartedly behind the promotion of Smile.

The book is a great companion piece to the BEAUTIFUL DREAMER Smile documentary, although the two projects differ in their final analysis of Smile in 1967. BEAUTIFUL DREAMER contends that Smile was "inappropriate music for the time" (meaning 1967), while Priore states that Smile was the next logical progression in Brian's musical growth and that the non-release of Smile basically killed the relevance of the Beach Boys for the rest of the '60s (and for the first half of the '70s until the Beach Boys reemerged as an "oldies act"). But while BEAUTIFUL DREAMER leaves a huge gap between when Smile was abandoned in 1967 and its final resurrection in 2003 - Priore leaves no such gap, telling the whole, continuous story.

While I enjoyed the book on a purely rock 'n roll timeline level (Priore excels in this area), there were two points brought up in the book that didn't sit well with me. One was the claim that The Beatles snuck into the studio and listened to advance tapes of Smile, somehow influencing their own "Sgt. Pepper". The other was the vilification of Derek Taylor as a "Beatles spy". I find both of these accusations to be scandal-sheet journalism, not serious rock 'n roll journalism.

As a historical document of the Beach Boys Smile within the context of LA in 1966, SMILE: THE STORY OF BRIAN WILSON'S LOST MASTERPIECE is a fantastic and tantalizing appetizer for Domenic Priore's upcoming RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP: ROCK 'N' ROLL'S LAST STAND IN HOLLYWOOD. However, as book simply on Smile, it is a "bunt instead of a grand slam" (to use the familiar Carl Wilson phrase describing Smile).