Smile!

What in Clark's CD player you asked. Well, currently I've been jamming out to Brian Wilson's masterpiece Smile. My dad introduced to the Beach Boys way back when we as a family would take vacations and my dad would turn on the oldies station. From there I familiarized myself with such greats as the Beatles, Elvis, and all those Mo-Town groups. But I loved the harmony that Brian and company sang on each song whether it was about girls or cars or that little old lady from Pasadena. In my opinion, I think Brian Wilson is a musicial genius and icon (ok so drugs may have made him crazy, but he's still one of the greatest musical composers of pop music).


This album was supposed to come out back in 1966 when Wilson said this album was going to be "a teenage symphony to God." After Rubber Soul (Beatles) came out Brian Wilson was inspired and wrote the fantastic work of Pet Sounds. So the Beatles get inspired and begin work on St. Pepper. Brian Wilson soon began to collaborate with Van Dyke Parks to make, as some would predict, "the greatest rock accomplishment ever." But it would not be. Wilson suffered from nervous breakdowns and was heavily influenced by drugs, not to mention the rest of the Beach Boys couldn't understand let alone begin to play an album as complicated as Smile. So Wilson destroyed all the Smile tapes and locked himself in his room for 2 years. Honestly Wilson thought the album would bomb. Now its almost 40 years later and I have to say this avant-garde musical piece is terrific.