'At least one Drug Treatment center played the LP for patients to relieve their use of drugs'- Wikipedia
When I first discovered The Beach Boys as an art band, in my early adulthood in the early 2000's (around the same time as a lot of other people), I loved Smiley Smile.
I very quickly mythologized SMiLE, the legendary unfinished then-unreleased masterpiece follow-up to Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations.
Fascinated by the SMiLE period and hungry for fragments, I quickly discovered the Beach Boys 2-for-one CD releases of the day, and the first one I snapped up was Smiley Smile-Wild Honey.
And for a good long time it became my all-time favorite recording.
As an Asperger, I tend to have periods where I have my nerd obsession-of-the-week. I like to think of this as one of the strengths of my creative process. And so, after a good long Beach Boys obsession, I went a fair number of years obsessed with other things musically.
When I came back to The Beach Boys, it was with increased knowledge of the Wild Honey to Holland period, and in general of what I was obsessed with in my first period of living saturated with The Beach Boys for a good long time.
I focused on the Pet Sounds-SMiLE-Today! period, the collaborative period from Wild Honey to Holland and Dennis's Pacific Ocean Blue.
I neglected Smiley Smile.
I understood why some people didn't like it- it has a kinda stoned atmosphere, and is basic and slight.
And I didn't think much about Smiley Smile again- Until Yesterday.
When I got curious as to whether the critics had come around to Wild Honey and Friends, those lofi indie masterpieces from 1967 and 1968, which started the whole Sunflower-Surf's Up-Holland- All This is that era.
And got curious as to what they thought of Smiley Smile.
And then I read that above- that not only was Smiley Smile considered a cult classic mellow ambient chillout album, but that it had proven effective in soothing people coming down from a bad acid trip- to the extent that at least one drug treatment center has used it as musical therapy to help their patients!^
Bingo!
Absolutely!
That makes so, so much sense!
That was the album that they made simply making music to soothe Brian!
Only around Brian were three other music geniuses, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, and that champion supporting player, Al Jardine- as well as classically trained pianist bruce Johnson, and all of them being grand champion vocalists!
No one knew that Dennis, Carl, and Al were budding music geniuses (and as Al's genius is mostly as a supporting player and not a leader, his genius is still unrecognized, as far as I know).
And so they succeeded in making music to soothe Brian of his mental problems!
Resulting in the next album- Wild Honey- being sheer magic!
Brian soothed and moving on, the others gaining growing confidence in talents that they had no idea that they even had!
And Smiley Smile?
It is interesting, quirky, lighthearted, fun, and intimate
And it is a wonderful soothing piece of meditation for soothing your mind!
Sounds like an artistic masterpiece to me!
The similarities of the newer, simple, lofi tracks on the album to the calming repetition of calming meditation are obvious to me!
I highly reccommend the album to anyone who is an Asperger like me! And I'm sure it will soothe almost anyone's mind significantly! We could all use a de-stress!
The two old 'SMiLE' tracks, the famous tracks 'Good Vibrations' and 'Heroes and Villains', hardly aggravate the mind, in fact I'm sure Good Vibrations has a soothing effect on the mind itself!
And the stoned feel?
For some a weakness, for some a strength. But definitely part of how it soothed the mind of a suffering drug addict like Brian.
In particular, how it mainly channels the meditative, calming aspects of being stoned, or the quirky, humorous aspects. Definitely some healing humor in this great album.
An unconventional masterpiece that has absolutely nothing in common stylistically with the Wild Honey through Holland period that followed!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
^At least one reputable website credits this to a quote that was a firsthand observation from NME (New Musical Express) as a scholarly-style reference, and I returned to listen to some of the tracks myself to see if I was remembering the album's calming effect on me correctly. I was. I only had faint hints of memory of its calming effect on my mind- that was not what I was paying attention to at the time- but the effect when I listened to it was obvious and very strong, and the similarities to the newer tracks on the album to the calming repetition of calming meditation was obvious to me as well!