Is the Beach Boys' "Smile" (2011) eligible for AM?

[Daniel]

Critics are praising The Beach Boys' 2011 release of their long-shelved album Smile, and Rolling Stone magazine even recently included it in their revised edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

What I'm wondering is...Is Smile eligible for Acclaimed Music's list since it was recorded over 40 years earlier?

I would hope so, considering Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 - Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (released in 1998) is included on Acclaimed Music.

[Harold]

Critics are praising The Beach Boys' 2011 release of their long-shelved album Smile, and Rolling Stone magazine even recently included it in their revised edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

What I'm wondering is...Is Smile eligible for Acclaimed Music's list since it was recorded over 40 years earlier?

I would hope so, considering Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 - Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (released in 1998) is included on Acclaimed Music.

I think this question has been dealt with in a prior thread, and the answer (I believe) is that since SMiLE wasn't actually released, technically, until 2011, it is indeed eligible for inclusion at AM. And it should probably be listed as a 2011 album.

Despite SMiLE's relatively weak showing on EOY lists (precisely because it was looked at more as a reissue than a "new" album - which seems strange, given that Live 1966 actually finished at #3 on Pazz & Jop in 1998), its extraordinary Metascore and 4.5-star AMG rating coupled with its placement in the RS 500 make it highly likely that the album could make it into the AM top 3000. Which would mean that the list would include, essentially, two different versions of the same album.

[Jirin]

It should definitely be eligible, but I still don't think it should be considered a 2011 album.

[irreduciblekoan]

I think 2011 would be the correct year to use. It isn't when the music was recorded, but when it is released. Dylan's Bootleg Series for example. I'm not convinced it will get into the top 3000 with just its ratings and RS listing, though. Maybe as a bubbler.

[Jirin]

My argument though would be that letting Smile compete in 2011 would be like letting Lebron James play in the NCAA. How can albums critics just heard for the first time compete against albums critics have known they've loved for decades?

It'd be one thing if Smile got recorded by some obscure band, shelved, no singles were released from it, no tracks leaked from it, and then discovered in 2011. This is an album that's been a holy grail for rock fans since before I was born. It's just not an even playing field.

[Jackson]

My argument though would be that letting Smile compete in 2011 would be like letting Lebron James play in the NCAA. How can albums critics just heard for the first time compete against albums critics have known they've loved for decades?

It'd be one thing if Smile got recorded by some obscure band, shelved, no singles were released from it, no tracks leaked from it, and then discovered in 2011. This is an album that's been a holy grail for rock fans since before I was born. It's just not an even playing field.

That's a good point. It felt weird when it placed top 5 in the Wire's poll last year (not only because it felt out of place in a list next to experimental 2011 releases, but because they also release a separate list for reissues).

I wonder how this album will feature on future all-time lists. It certainly has the quality and critical backing to be T100 (or even T25), but it would take a lot of high placements to get there.

[Honorio]

Well, the answer is not easy. If we consider the complete box set with "The Smile Sessions" almost 90% probably was previously unreleased officially. But if we consider the "Smile" album per se it's the opposite. Let's see:
- "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" were released as singles (in October 1966 and in July of 1967) and later in September 1967 as part of the album "Smiley Smile". The single version of "Heroes and Villains" is an edit of the "Smile" version but even the parts that lacked in this first released version were officially released in the 1990 CD release of "Smiley Smile" and in the 1993 box set "Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys".
- "Vegetables", "Wonderful" and "Wind Chimes" were first released as part of "Smiley Smile" but were mostly re-recorded (except some sections on "Vegetables"). But versions very close to the ones that finally appeared on "Smile" appeared on the above mentioned 1993 box set. By the way I recommend everyone to listen again to these 1967 versions, I find it quite interesting in its bizarreness, especially "Wind Chimes".
- "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence" were released as part of the 1969 album "20/20", almost identical to the "Smile" version with only some minor overdubs.
- "I Love to Say Da Da" was the basis of the song "Cool Cool Water" that closed the 1970 album "Sunflower" and later appeared partially in the 1993 box set.
- "Surf's Up" was re-recorded for the album of the same name on 1971 but (I think that) included some parts originally recorded on 1966. Anyway the version that finally appeared on "Smile Sessions" was quite similar to the 1971 version.
- "Gee", "Do You Like Worms" and even a brief fragment of "Ms. O'Leary's Cow" (credited as "Heroes or Villains (Intro)") appeared officially for the first time on the box set "Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys" on 1993.
So, what's really new on Beach Boys' "Smile"?:
- Some small fragments that we’re never used until Brian Wilson and Darian Sahanaja reordered in a collage form and re-recorded for Brian Wilson's solo "Smile" like "I'm in Great Shape", "Barnyard" or "Workshop".
- Two short covers: "My Only Sunshine" and "I Wanna Be Around".
- Three unfinished songs that never got lyrics received some lyrics penned for the occasion by Van Dyke Parks like "Song for Children", "Child Is Father to the Man" or "Holidays" ("Worms" or "I Love to Say Da Da" received more lyrics too) were recovered for the Beach Boys' "Smile" in its initial mainly instrumental form.

So, in my humble opinion, probably we should not consider "Smile”"a new release because the whole material was previously released, and most of them with the same versions (or very similar ones).

[John]

If the consensus is that this is the fully realized version of Smile, I don't see how it couldn't be eligible in 2011. That's when it was released, making the year the recording year would be silly, nobody had heard it yet then. But, I feel that it's an album pieced together with finished and unfinished songs and should be viewed with other bands albums of unfinished studio work like The Beatles Anthologies. I don't think those are eligible, or are they?

[irreduciblekoan]

After thinking on it, I'm gonna have to agree with John. I'm not so sure this would be eligible for AM because it is indeed more of a compilation or anthology than it is a unified work of art meant for front-to-end listening. It actually wouldn't be the first time Rolling Stone has placed an ineligible album in their all-time list. In their top 500 back in 2003, they placed Bob Marley's Legend in the top 100 if you remember. Just my two cents.

[musictoad]

I think not allowing the inclusion of this, the finalized version of the album (albeit late) on a mere technicality would be a shame. It's one of the greatest musical achievements ever. Let's look at the big picture here instead of clamoring over dumb technicalities. We're penalizing a legendary work of art because it may have been around in bootlegs & bits & pieces for a few decades before seeing the light of day? Doesn't seem right to me. Who cares how it got here, it's here and it's amazing and should be recognized as such.

The LeBron analogy doesn't work with me at all but maybe that's because I'm thinking in terms of all-time rather than any specific year.

[John]

It would be one thing if the album actually felt like a finished product but it doesn't.... and I don't think even Brian Wilson would claim it is if he's being honest. It would have came out when it was supposed to if it were finished. They released it to give fans an official version of how it was supposed to be so it's an anthology, not an album.