Sunday Video
Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 6:14PM Cabinessence
Cabinessence is one of my favorite songs from the unreleased Beach Boys legendary, “Smile” album. I have a bootleg CD of the album and I know it would’ve propelled the Beach Boys into different waters (pun intended) than where they ended up. If you don’t know the background, here it is.
In 1966 and 1967 Brian Wilson was writing and recording songs for the follow up to their influential “Pet Sounds” album (that album pushed the Beatles to do Sgt. Pepper.) Some people in the Beach Boys camp (especially Mike Love) were leery of the direction Brian Wilson was taking the band and started second-guessing his ideas and songs. Van Dyke Parks was writing genius lyrics and when Mike Love confronted him about them he stomped out and quit the whole thing. Then Brian Wilson had a breakdown and the whole project got shelved. They ended up putting out a watered down version of it later called, “Smiley Smile,” of which Carl Wilson said, “It was a bunt as opposed to a grand slam.”
Brian Wilson re-recorded the songs a few years ago, but it just wasn’t the same without the Beach Boys harmonies. If you can get a bootleg version of the original, do so. It’s some of the most original and interesting music from that era.
Here’s one of my favorite songs from the album. It’s called, Cabinessence. Enjoy!
Reader Comments (2)
I NEED SPEAKERS!!!!
Cool, Marty...I remember hearing about this great new album back then, "Smile", that was going to be better than "Sgt Pepper"...and when my brother finally brought home "Smiley Smile", we were both disappointed. What happened to "Smile"?
Great that the bootleggers managed to get most of the "Smile" album out anyway...eventually...too bad I didn't hear it for about 20 years though!
Bought the Brian Wilson version when it came out, too.