Naive and sentimental music

Turning to my CD collection for solace, I find that the next album in my alphabetical odyssey is The Beach Boys' Smile. Now, I'm not one for hippies - I distrust the narcissism and flakiness which betrayed the efforts of serious revolutionaries in the 1950s and 1960s - and the Beach Boys were if not hippies themselves, at least soundtracked the tamer shores of hippyness. A mantra of dope and surfing does not produce radical change.

But that's all by the by. Slip on Smile and you're transported to a different psychical world. It's part of the Beach Boys' mythos, an album Brian Wilson called his 'teenage symphony to God, the never-legally-released follow-up to Pet Sounds, which Brian Wilson composed in his inspired and desperate attempt to keep up with the Beatles, a battle which led to decades of mental health problems. A version was released in 2004 and some tracks appeared on later albums, but not Smile as it was written. Oh yes - Wilson wrote the album in a big sand box he'd had installed in his living room.

'Good Vibrations' is the most famous track - under the jauntiness of the simple melody is an incredibly complex piece of music, stitched together from 30 pieces of music. Other tracks are nursery rhymes, snatches of half-remembered hymns and children's songs, underpinned with composition techniques learned from the experimental classical music scene! What's it about? America - from the Pilgrim Fathers to Hawaii.

Sadly, Wilson's mental health problems, disagreements within the band and the Beatles' releases of 'Strawberry Fields' and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ended the album's chance of release. A lost classic.

Here's Surf's Up and Good Vibrations in the amazing stereo mix (the album was composed in mono). Great Theremin! Followed by God Only Knows, from Pet Sounds. Give them a listen - under the apparent lightheartedness, there's heartbreak, fear and terror in a shiny pop package!