As a proudly self-confessed music obsessive struggling through not only high school, but the very early Seventies in those Toronto suburbs, there had been intriguing clues sprinkled along the way: The absolute thrill rediscovering "Heroes and Villains" as it opened Side 2 of the first Beach Boys album I ever owned (which was, for the record, a typically quickie Capitol compilation called Good Vibrations). Then, soon afterwards, the cinematic-and-then-some sweep of the final five minutes from Sunflower, the title track of the band's next LP, then last but certainly not least the Boys' "Prayer" and even more so "Cabin Essence", which I can hear filling my pre-dawn headphones now just as it did in '74 via that enticingly packaged Wild Honey & 20/20 two-fer.

That said, outside the safe confines of my basement "listening room," it sure wasn't easy being a Beach Boys fan(atic) back then, before that Endless Summer broke over us one and all. For instance, there was the time I snuck a copy of the just-released Holland onto the turntable at a typical Friday night beer-and-weed soirée, most pleasantly surprised as the room slowly quieted to attention while "Sail On, Sailor" played...until, that is, when eventually asked who was spinning I was instantly met by a chorus of "the Beach Boys? Take that shit OFF!"

Plus, come to think of it, I'm still not absolutely sure why many to this day fail to fathom my unshakeable love of Beach Boys' Party! ...mail-ordered, at considerable expense I'll have you know, direct from the Oxford Street HMV Store in London ten years after the fact (regrettably minus the 15 Full Color Fan Photos, alas).

But! It was two extended volumes of reading that mattered - a full reprint of Tom Nolan's pioneering 1971 Rolling Stone study I uncovered in a Beach Boys songbook, followed several years later by David Leaf's landmark California Myth (now most thankfully available again, and expanded, as God Only Knows) - which not only began to put all those pieces of the SMiLE saga scattered across the above-mentioned long-players into some sort of context, but fully burst open not just my ears, but my mind to the magic, musical and otherwise, of what was, and remains, Brian Wilson.

Farther down this path was the burgeoning underground tape trading community of the 1980's. That, then a thorough scouring of Greenwich Village, ah-hem, specialty shops helped to slowly but ever surely stitch together this sonic puzzle, culminating with Domenic Priore's expert SMiLE reconstruction as broadcast over the WFMU New Jersey air circa 1996. Then, as things became "official" with actual box sets, literary studies, and the inevitable websites focused upon those critical months of Brian's, folks as diverse as Peter Buck and Linda Ronstadt were suddenly rhapsodizing over one particular hour of music and madness which never quite made it out of 1966/67 intact. Wasn't it no less than Todd Rundgren who once suggested loading each fragment into the nearest CD-ROM and having us all compile our own SMiLE's? Maybe he was on to something...though Darian Sahanaja got there first (thank heavens).

Now, those more pragmatic chart-watchers amongst us persist in debating whether, if released as scheduled, Capitol could indeed have been sure to sell a million T-2580's in a pure pop marketplace totally dominated by Monkees. Even if it did come hot upon the heels of the band's recent good, good, good global # 1. And/or if the Boys' tragic non-appearance at Monterey that summer sealed, at least for a few decades, their fate as, quote unquote, surfing Doris Days. But what can not be questioned whatsoever is that the sounds of SMiLE, unlike the vast majority of said era's most notables, seem far from haplessly trapped in vintage DayGlo amber; to wit, despite a half-century's hoopla we hear even Pepper's each and every groove continuing to scream one big loud "1967."

On much the other hand entirely, Brian Wilson's finest creations remain as timely as they are timeless.

Examples? It still warms my soul to recall the tearful standing ovation awarded Van Dyke Parks as he rose, introduced by Brian, from his seat at the 2004 Carnegie Hall SMiLE recital. Two old soldiers in heartfelt recognition and appreciation with this particular battle of theirs, against all odds, finally and indisputably won. And it still raises a grin to recall, following his intimate gathering at NYC's 92nd Street Y, Lindsey Buckingham ravenously insisting I tell him all about the big new SMiLE Sessions box I'd just that afternoon received from Amazon...much to the chagrin of his publicist who was trying in vain to get their post-show meet 'n' greet back onto track and on to some others waiting in line.

After all is said and sung however, most reaffirming and gratifying to me is the too true knowledge that, after seeking out or perhaps simply stumbling upon it, somewhere someway out there today, and I'm sure over countless days to come, someone brand new is breaking into a SMiLE for the first time and forever falling deep under its spell. Completely.

So won't you excuse me now as I join them, once again to close my eyes and lean back, listening deeply too.

The above 868 words

(with a "bonus" 152 now reinstated Pigsclusively today)

I am most proud to report
constitute three pages of David Leaf's grand new
SMiLE: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson.

The other 318 pages of which,
it hardly needs to be said,
should be considered more than worthy of your complete attention as well.

Available Today !

wherever the Happiest of books are sold.

P.S.:
meanwhile,
Here are some Waves & Words
to ride as well...