Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of 'Smile'

The idea that the Beach Boys are "overrated" is subjective. Who is doing the rating and who is doing the reading will make all the difference.

There are personal likes and dislikes that can't be judged or accounted for

completely, even by those who hold them. These basic things strike us in a

certain way, or another.

But practitioners of music, people who work in the industry won't say of the Beach Boys "overrated," for the simple reason that the catalog is so diverse, and some of the stuff is among the most innovative and "significant," to quote

Leonard Bernstein music of its time. Don't Worry Baby, Warmth of the Sun, Pet Sounds and SMiLE, for a few examples. The entire surfing and car group of Top 40 songs too, were unprecedented. To the millions who love any of these

styles, they will always be under-rated, for they have given deep emotional

solace and/or musical challenge.

Composition, arrangement, orchestration, performance and perhaps most of all, recording production boundaries have been pushed aside by Brian and some

of the others, conferring innumerable new artistic and technical satisfactions across the entire popular (and even jazz and classical) business landscapes.

So "overrated?" Not in the impartial musical sense. Only the personal.

Beautiful Dreamer is a wonderful documentary about this phenomenon.

The oft-told tale of triumph and tragedy has been around since the birth of rock-and-roll. The leader of a group concocts a sound that is like no other, catapulting them into undreamed of fame and fortune, yet when he (or she) struggles to move beyond the profitable niche into a place where they can reach for something more substantial, it just about tears the group and their music apart. Demons loom in the foreground and threaten to vanquish Our Hero, until by the grace of some extraordinary miracle, said demons are slain, creation is born out of chaos, and the light at the end of a very long tunnel brings the whole thing to a happy ending.

It's not the way things are resolved for many of music's best and brightest, but "God only knows" that if anyone deserved it, it was Beach Boys wunderkind Brian Wilson. And after nearly forty years, the complete tale is finally told about the Great White Whale of rock albums that nearly destroyed not only Brian, but the iconic concept that was the Boys themselves - the "SMILE" album.

Never a huge fan of the group, their happy, California-sunshiney pop had its place and time, I thought there was a place for their sound, when you were in the mood for that kind of music. But once I began to look beyond songs like "Surfin' Safari" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" and began to discover gems like "Sail On, Sailor", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and of course "God Only Knows," I could detect that there was something more underneath the striped shirts-and-board shorts persona. There was more to be said, things that were only being hinted at...and that's when part of the "SMILE" story came to light for me.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER finally fills in the gaps, revealing all the triumph, tragedy and ultimate renewal of Brian Wilson as an artist, a composer and a man. You always get the juicy and convenient sound bites these days about any group's good times and bad times, about the influence their work has on other musicians and writers and all the behind-the-scenes squabbles, in-fighting and machinations.

But you will probably never again hear it told as vividly or engagingly by friends, admirers and some of the people who were actually there when it happened.

And then there is the man himself...Having gone from enormous success, to the deepest depression and obsession leading to a downward spiral into madness, rising like a phoenix once again to solve the conundrum of the project that consumed and nearly destroyed his life, only to give it back to him again...

What a story, and what an album. For music lovers, for fans and non-fans alike of Mr. Wilson and his brothers and compatriots, this is an essential, spellbinding viewing experience.

I can happily speak from experience, that there is nothing like seeing this music performed live...but BEAUTIFUL DREAMER comes awfully close to equaling the joy and wonderment of the experience, if it can't duplicate it outright.

This film could be re-made as dramatization and if made by the right people it would be in contention for an Academy Award for best picture. I am not sure that you could fictionalize a story as engrossing as this one.

First, lets get this out of the way...Brian Wilson is a genius! Sir George Martin (the Beatles producer, who worked with Lennon and McCartney for 7 years), said that if he had to name a living genius of pop, it would be Brian Wilson. If you still have doubts get the Pet Sound Sessions box set, listen to the music and read the making of Pet Sounds book that comes with it. Make sure you read the comments of the Studio musicians who worked with him...Case Closed!

What is really amazing is that Brian Wilson seems genuinely to be sweet heart of a guy! How many extremely talented people are also nice people? It seems to be a small club.

I have listened to the finished SMILE album many times since its release and I think that it is brilliant!

"Beautiful Dreamer" is a lovingly produced account of the rise and tragic fall of Brian Wilson and his subsequent musical and spiritual rebirth, centered around the piece of music that was both his undoing and his salvation--the legendary pop symphony "SMiLE." Using straightforward narrative and extensive interviews from friends, collaborators and "witnesses," David Leaf's film follows Brian from his creative zenith with the Beach Boys, 1966's incomparable "Pet Sounds," through his creation with lyricist Van Dyke Parks of an even more ambitious follow-up, 1967's ultimately-aborted "Smile" project. Participants as diverse as Sir George Martin, Paul McCartney, Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night, Elvis Costello, Leonard Bernstein (in archival footage) and many others recall how Wilson inspired them to create some of their best work, not least of which was the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album.

The documentary clearly puts the blame for Brian's collapse (and "Smile"'s failure) at the feet of the other Beach Boys and especially Mike Love, who envisioned the group as a "cash cow" as long as nobody messed with the cars/surf/girls "formula". Interviewees (Wilson's closest friends among them) debunk longstanding urban legends about Brian's alleged drug use and its supposed blame for his collapse, and the film offers glimpses inside Brian's paranoia--notably how he came to believe his composition "fire" was actually causing buildings to burn.

Most inspiring, the documentary shows how Wilson's backup band, the amazing alt-pop group the Wondermints, helped him to revisit the original compositions and augment and arrange the surviving segments into a cohesive score. It's truly inspiring to see Wilson's transformation from the throes of depression and mental illness to joyous, unencumbered musical genius as the completed "SMiLE" debuts to a sellout crowd in London.

Rich with rare archival footage and revealing interviews, "Beautiful Dreamer" handles its subject with care, giving both longtime Wilson fans and newcomers plenty to "smile" about.

In my opinion, The Beach Boys are possibly the most overrated 'pop' band in history. Striped shirts, falsetto vocals, Mike Love, and not an ounce of grit or sweat between them. Well, maybe Dennis had an ounce or two. That said, whilst I remain a committed nonbeliever in the genius of the film's subject, Beautiful Dreamer is undeniably a moving experience. Brian Wilson's continuing battle to overcome mental illness is a truly heroic one, and even though the man can't sing anymore, he still puts his heart and soul into everything he does. The music may be overproduced slush, but Wilson believes in it heart and soul, and for that he must be commended. Fans of the band will be extremely happy with this overly respectful but solid documentary tribute to a man and his art.