The Meaning Of SMiLE
From The Smile Shop
The Meaning Of SMiLE, by Jeff Mason
An exploration of the core reality of life -- the spiritual essence -- moving from the particular to the universal, from the macro to the micro, from human reality at the level of the masses to the inside of the individual.
Smile starts with an exploration of the macro, the level of society, to try to find spiritual reality within the scope of human societal gatherings. Brian and VDP picked the American reality to do this, but it could have been any culture. Within this scope, there is room for beauty (Magarita dancing), ordinary life (Barnyard), and harm as different subgroups collide ("Bicycle Rider, See see what you've done To the church of the American Indian" as well as the coolies of Cabinessence). This level brings no ultimate satisfaction ("You WERE my sunshine"), and while full of meaning, ultimately requires more to balance reality.
Next we move to a more universal theme, the cycle of life, and the scope narrows from global-political to interpersonal. We see the spiritual side of this level immediately (God reached softly and moved her body) also confirming that there is spirit involved in the creation of new life. As the child grows up, his experiences form his adult perceptions (Child is Father to the Man) and adulthood brings a new form of sophistication (part 1 of Surf's Up) at the cost of an innocence that has significant value (I heard the word, wonderful thing, a children's song) and ties together the whole cycle. Realization is that we lose as we gain; maturity has value but also costs the innocence that sees spirit where cynicism so often loses it.
Next we penetrate even deeper, below human into the parts of the human, more universal that individual humans into the parts of them as symbolized by the ancient concept of the Four Elements that make up all existence. In turn, all four elements get their viewing. At this point, though, we find that sometimes insight has exceeded verbalization, as the lyrics chance their tone or disappear altogether. Now the music must carry the insights to the listener, as Brian and VDP are seeking truth too deep for words to express. Earth is the source of nourishment, air represents spirit, fire purity and power, and water regeneration and renewal (as in baptism). Finally, Brian breaks through to the truly transcendent universal, and loses ability to quantify with words what he sees at all. All he can do is analogize that reality as vibrations, that they are good, that he has found something of value and permanence in his search. Hawaii symbolizing paradise was a good choice here, as Brian has come to the place of his spiritual Nirvana, even if he can only use music and not words to describe it. GV is the only fade, indicating that there is no ending at this point, just perpetual continuance.
That's sort of how I have come to interpret the superstructure of Smile to this point. Feel free to call me an idiot....
As I keep thinking this over, I think that this is why Smile as envisioned and finished in 2004 is so exciting. The 1966 fragments are beautiful and mystical, but they ultimately are fragments and we have no road map to make sense of them as a whole. And while, say 1966 Cabinessence alone is a better recording than the 2004 version, and I will admit that, the advantage of the new version is that it fits into a superstructure that adds meaning and significance missing to the original. Say what you want about 2004, but it is an organic whole that demands the listener treat the whole complex as a seamless work of art. No sequencing was done at random; the knitting of segments was deliberate and full of meaning. Now Brian and VDP might not always have a conscious sense of what that meaning is, but clearly some muse intentionally or unintentionally guided them to something unique in pop music that really transcends it. To listen to 2004 Smile only in terms of comparing recordings to the old versions misses the point. the songs are bricks -- in 1967 the building wasn't built, it WAS in 2004. I don't look at a building and say, what neat bricks! That is something that the new version will always have over the old one -- a sense of structure.
©2005 Jeff Mason, all rights reserved.
