Concert Date: October 14, 2004
Review by James Rafferty
It's hard to believe it's been over 5 years since I saw Brian and his band perform in Minneapolis, a fine concert which I recounted elsewhere on the site. This fall, we started to hear some very surprising news. After 37 years of mystery and speculation, the word was that Brian Wilson was finally going to release the album Smile. Even as I read this, I found out that Brian's band was planning to tour and play Smile live in numerous cities, including Boston. In short order, I bought tickets over the web for my wife and I. I then held off purchasing or listening to any of the new Smile content, wanting to hear it first in the concert. Of course, as a long time fan of the Beachboys and Brian, I was already quite familiar with much of the material. Back in 1972, I remember seeing the Beachboys in concert for the first time in Hartford's Dillon Stadium. This was during a time when Brian was no longer touring with the band and had even reduced his contributions to studio albums, owing to numerous personal and health issues. But that year, the band had released a double album which included a version of "Surf's Up", one of the signature tunes from the Smile sessions of 1967. When I saw the Beachboys in Hartford, Carl Wilson led the group through "Surf's Up" and I remember being amazed at how beautiful this music was. I was disappointed when a live album that was recorded from this concert and others failed to include this song.
It was a cool mid-October night as Cindy and I drove into Boston, looking for the Orpheum theater. Our directions took us past the Commons and eventually down Tremont Street, where we passed the alleyway that led to the Orpheum. About 8 blocks later, Cindy got out and set out on foot for the theater, while I continued to look for parking. Several blocks later, I found the nearest garage and frantically looked for a spot. It was already past 7:30, the scheduled starting time for the concert. I finally found one and ascended out of the concrete garage out on to the street. As I walked up Tremont, more people were around me as I approached the theater.
As I entered the theater, I could hear the band being introduced. I made my way up two stairways and then was forced to wait in a balcony foyer as the band began an acapella version of one of the early songs, most likely Surfer Girl. By the beginning of the second song, I was in my seat, next to Cindy. We were about halfway back in the balcony, but had a clear view of the stage. We had brought our binoculars, which afforded us excellent views, including a close-up of Brian, who looked good with his dark hair combed straight back, looking much like he did on the cover of his 1987 comeback album.
The first several songs were done acoustically, with a strong emphasis on vocals, accompanied by a couple of acoustic guitars. Brian sang lead vocals, as the rest of the band gathered around him in a circle, doing early songs from the Beachboys such as "In my Room" and "Wendy". The music was nice, but it was refreshing when the band pulled back a few songs later to their electric instruments and kicked off a powerful rendition of "Sloop John B". Brian's band contains an outstanding group of musicians, who double as a crack team of vocalists. Brian sang lead vocals on most of the songs, accompanied by rich, multi-textured harmonies from the band.
This set features songs from several different eras of both the Beachboy's and Brian's solo career. The band has now been together for 6 year and it shows. They are extremely tight and comfortable with the many styles of Brian's music. I particularly enjoyed several songs which they had not played in the Minneapolis concert. For example, the band kicked off a familiar rock song, which I was originally thinking was "Do it Again!", but turned out to be "Sail On Sailor". I'd originally heard this song during the period when the Beachboys had included Blondie Champlin on lead vocal and gold Les Paul guitar. Brian's vocal was solid and he clearly enjoyed singing lead on this kind of rock tune, while the other vocalists added rich colors over a rock and roll texture. They also did the best version I've heard of Marcella, another early seventies song which most Beachboy listeners associate with Mike Love. This song got the crowd on its feet. The band also did "Good Timing", another song from the later years of the Beachboys. A particularly poignant moment, was when Brian dedicated the song "Forever" to his brothers. This tune, originally penned by Dennis and sung by Carl on the Sunflower album, has a strong melody and classic harmonies, with the lead now being sung with reverence by Brian. Later, the whole audience joined in on the soaring harmonies and hand clapping of California Girls.
During the break, I looked around and found that the audience was dominated by baby boomers like myself who had grown up with this music, joined by many younger people who were exposed to it later on. There was a buzz in the crowd as we all wondered what the long awaited Smile music would sound like when played live.
About twenty minutes later, the stage darkened and the musicians took their places. The word "Smile", cast on a bed of flowers, was shown on a screen at the back of the stage. The music began with the aptly named "Prayer". This is a piece which is all vocals, with gothic textures that filled the Orpheum with harmonies. This wordless music is quite unlike anything that was being played elsewhere in 1967, signaling the beginning of a piece of music which would go to unfamiliar places. As the song drew to a close, the band broke into a "Ba-ba-ba" doo wop chorus, that transitioned into a prelude of words about heroes and villains, like, but not quite the same as the sixties pop anthem that was released by the Beachboys. Then, Brian began to sing the well known first verse of "Heroes and Villains", a song that he had abandoned for many years. His voice was a little shaky on the upper end, but got stronger as got further into the song. This was a version transformed and extended beyond the single version and included a second verse with Margarita in the cantina. The song went ahead, the familiar supplemented by various extensions, before finally coming back to the familiar coda of "Sonny, down snuff I'm all right". But, instead of fading out, there was a transition and the new lyrics eventually led into a song about Plymouth Rock, which included a string interlude version of H & V, and later moved into Hawaiian chant music. Scraps of this music had been on the Beachboys box set, but in this live music, the various different fabrics of sound were all weaved together into a continuous work, with changes signaled by transition music on vocals or strings. Incidentally, the normal Brian Wilson band is supplemented on this tour by the 8 piece Stockholm Strings and Horns, whose contribution on violins, cellos and other instruments was essential to this music. Next up, were barnyard sounds, done by all of the band with various percussion implements. After more interludes of vocals and music, the plucking of a lone banjo and a plaintive Brian vocal signaled the start of the majestic Cabinessence. Here, the band really came together as an ensemble, playing music with complex layered harmonies, underpinned by a strong cello line, as pictures of the "iron horse" flashed on the screen. This is the kind of music that none of us ever envisioned could be played live, but the group was magnificent in pulling this off. This song was followed by Wonderful, with Brian singing lead again, his mature voice showing the signs of the years, but still effectively singing this engaging music of lost innocence. It worked well here, but the definitive version is still Brian's original vocal from the Smile sessions.
The next portion of the music was the least familiar for me, as there were various themes around children and the Child as Father of the Man. Here, the group weaved densely layered harmonies and sang almost in the fashion of a round, while foreshadowing the children's themes yet to come. Yet another instrumental transition brought the band forward into the majestic theme music of Surf's Up. Rather to my amazement, Brian sang the lead with its various changes into higher registers, but was assisted by the other vocalists on the concluding portions of each verse, including the tragic "columnated ruins domino...". It was very emotional for me to hear Brian sing this music, which I had never expected to hear from him, especially in a live setting. For me, this song is the centerpiece of Smile, as the singer gets past tragedy and rescues the moment with the tranquil refrain of "Surf's Up, aboard a tidal wave". As the lyrics draw to their intricate end, the song beckons back to the simplicity of children, with its words "The Children lead the way", set up against a reprise of "Child is the Father of the Man" theme. After all of this intensity, one wants to catch a breath, which is provided by the brief "I'm in Great Shape", here for the first time with vocals and more complete words. A bizarre segue into the Sinatra anthem "I want to be around" is accompanied by vibes. Continuing to shape up, Brian begins to sing his health food theme song, the crunchy "My Vegetables". We found ourselves smiling as the band extolled the virtues of sleeping and brushing teeth with much enthusiasm and good humor. This was followed by more new music about a holiday interlude, which includes verbal reprises of some earlier themes, then leading into "Wind Chimes". Brian's vocal here was even more fragile than the original, as the delicate soaring melodies lead into swirling orchestral winds. This storm was followed by legendary music which has never been previously released, Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. Here the band recreated the sounds of a forest fire and donned red fire hats to match. Artificial cloth "fires", waving in front of fans, added to the atmosphere, as we marveled at the bursts of sirens and hard rock guitars, a fiery onslaught whose writing had preceded the somewhat similar histrionics of Hendrix's national anthem at Woodstock by 2 years. The parched climate was echoed by Brian as he sang new words about how hot it was and I assumed that he would break into "Cool Water". This music shared some of the instrumental background of that tune, but had a wholly different set of lyrics, talking about breezes on Hawaii. Once again, Smile took unexpected turns. This eased into some instrumental music, which turned into Brian's lead vocal on the Beachboy's signature song, Good Vibrations. Most of it was familiar and the audience sung along on the choruses, but the verses were stripped down simpler versions that again signaled that even the familiar was different in the context of the larger work. As the echoes of the final themes faded out to great applause, the band let it die down and then went full circle by singing a short version of Prayer, ending on a bright major key harmony of "hmmmm...". As we realized the music had stopped, we broke out into ecstatic applause., as the musicians bowed with hands clasped Broadway style, then exited the stage Smile performed live was an amazing work. The remarkable thing is that it does work as a unified piece, a culminating example of the "pocket symphonies" which Brian had envisioned and had executed in smaller form with songs such as Good Vibrations. Individual elements of Smile had emerged over the years, but the piece as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, an exploration by Brian and Van Dyke Parks of America from a very volatile period from the late 1960's. It is a work that is forever tied into that period of time, but many of its themes are timeless and have been playing regularly in my own mind since I began to hear them from the Beachboys box set in the late 90's.
At this point of the concert, we'd had a full evening, already with over two hours of music, but the band was not done yet. After only a few minutes, co-leader Jeff Foskett came out and apologized for being sick, then introduced the entire ensemble of musicians, before departing the stage for a well earned rest. Brian was the last to be introduced and then told us it was time for some rock and roll. The band gave us all of that as they proceeded to play energetic versions of songs like "Do it Again", "I Get Around" and "Help Me Ronda", with lots of help from the audience, which was on its feet and stomping. Just when it appeared to be at an end, Brian sang the words "Ba, Ba, Ba, Barbara Ann", kicking off yet another journey back into the Beachboy's early music. After this, Brian finished by quieting things down with a soulful "Love and Mercy", backed by the full force of the band. During this entire mini-set, the Stockholm strings had dropped their stringed instruments, but stayed on the stage to clap and lay on more background vocals. Finally, Brian left the stage to loud ovations, and the band finished with triumphant power chords.
As we left the building, all of the evening's amazing music still rung in our heads. I heard many people talking about the music of Smile and what might have been had it been released in 1967 as planned. This music was certainly much more of a departure from the norm than that of the usual comparison, the Beatle's Sergeant Pepper. So, we'll never know. But, the great part is that Brian found a way to reach back, overcome his fears and come to grips with this famous piece of unfinished work. Thanks also to Van Dyke Parks, co-writer of Smile, and the many musicians who have accompanied him on this journey. Even though Brian is a master of the studio, it has been very special to have him come out in public after all of these years and go through the process of reclaiming the music he has written over the years and giving great live performances. He did great work in the sixties, but as these concerts and some of his recent albums have shown, he also wrote brilliant but less familiar music during the seventies and eighties while with the Beachboys and in the time since 1987 in his own right. The contribution of his band is also not to be underestimated. They are not the Beachboys of the sixties, a group that is now gone forever with the loss of the other Wilsons, but they sing and play with inspiration. They offer Brian a canvas to allow him to express and try out new and renewed musical ideas, serving much the same function for him as Ellington's band did for Duke. Go and see Brian Wilson and his band, the master and his fellow musicians, still hard at work! This is the only place other than on the records where the full oeuvre of Brian Wilson and the Beachboys music lives on.
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