Smile: a thesis
POSTED: January 16, 2022
Smile has always intrigued me, and many other people. The abandoned masterwork always has a certain appeal to it, especially if the fragments leak out and exist for many years in forms that allow them to fit together into myriad different shapes.
I have obtained numerous bootlegs that put the fragments together in radically different ways. I have read thousands of words in discussion groups. I have also found myself agreeing with those who say that the 2004 version that Brian Wilson released had little to do with the version that almost appeared in 1968.
Recently I came across a lengthy essay by Cassandra Burke that makes a very cogent set of arguments that I mostly agree with. Her assertion that the original album would have had two sections and not three makes perfect sense. Her argument that these sections would have featured “a ‘reflections on America/society’ and a ‘reflections on life/individuality’ format. An extroverted and an introverted trip”
If any of this means anything to you then I suggest you read the whole (lengthy) essay wight here.