'Our influences are of a religious nature': the Beach Boys on Smile

For the Beach Boys, '67 should be the year of new sounds.

In '66 they toppled the Beatles in a popularity poll. They swept back into favour with a succession of hits, proving that the record is the thing – God Only Knows and Good Vibrations were the culmination of weeks of hard work in the recording studios using the most up-to-date techniques and the brilliant imagination of Brian Wilson. When the Beach Boys left Britain earlier this year they left behind them the confirmation that they are not purely figments of Brian's mind, and proved to audiences that as a beat-close-harmony group they are without equal. They also left us with a few words about the shapes of things to come.

TV film
Al Jardine is the man described by publicist Derek Taylor as "a lovely man – absolutely no trouble". He is the man who I offered small consolation to over his thinning hair by saying, "that all intelligent men went bald," and got the snappy reply, "I'd rather stay stupid, have hair and make money!"

Al gave me some news about a TV film we are yet to see.

"Brian has always had this big thing about fire-engines so it was inevitable we'd wind up in a fire station. The film shows us all asleep as firemen in the station. The alarm goes and there's a great shot of Brian sliding up the pole! Then we pursue the engine along the street in various stages of undress and the fun really starts."

Religious influence
Carl is the benign Beach Boy with the soft smile and deceptively slow speech which belies the whirling mind behind the face.

"At present our influences are of a religious nature," he said. "Not any specific religion but an idea based upon that of Universal Consciousness. The concept of spreading goodwill, good thoughts and happiness is nothing new. It is an idea which religious teachers and philosophers have been handing down for centuries, but it is also our hope. The ideas are there in God Only Knows, Good Vibrations, Heroes and Villains and it is why the new LP is called Smile.

"The spiritual concept of happiness and doing good to others is extremely important to the lyric of our songs, and the religious element of some of the better church music is also contained within some of our new work."

Freak-out scene
Mike Love is the Beach man with the deep brown voice and the rusty beard – not so much a lead singer, more an entertainer, and he sees his own future and that of the group developing into much wider appeal.

"We originally intended to bring an orchestra with us on the visit in '66, but when we heard that the concerts were sold out in three days we figured the screamers had moved in and that meant no one wanted to listen. We know now that we were wrong, and next time we hope to bring the strings and brass.

"The introduction of some girl singers has been discussed and the possibility of doing comedy routines is not as remote as you might think.

"As far as lyrics are concerned you can put me down as saying I'm a stickler for words. More seriously you might say that we like to communicate. This incomprehensible freak-out scene is not for me. Brian went to a session in the States with this guy called Van Dyke Parks and he claimed his ears were still ringing after seven days!"

Close to brother
Dennis Wilson is the extraordinary combination of a man who hates to be hurried anywhere and refuses to sit still for five minutes at a time. In addition to carrying the "screamage" potential in the group, he is also the closest to brother Brian's own musical ideals and in addition to playing drums composes his own numbers on the piano. He always emphasises the fusion, in their work, of pop and classical music.

Friends
Bruce Johnston made friends with English pop star Graham Bonney while on tour together in Germany and that is why Bruce wrote and helped arrange Thank You Baby for him.

"I think Graham is a very underrated artist," said Bruce. "I've seen him work in Germany where he is very big, and he handles his success well. There is no conceit about him."

The Beach Boys hope to return to Britain in May, and we can be certain of one thing when they do – they'll bring all that's futuristic in pop music '67. For progress and sincerity are their two catchwords.

© Mike Grant, 1967

This interview can also be found in the archive of Rock's Backpages, the world's leading collection of vintage music journalism.