Perspective: Plenty to Smile About ; Legend 1: Andrew Cowen Looks at a Follow-Up That Arrived at Birmingham's Symphony Hall This Week 37 Years Behind Schedule

Summary

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Rock history is heavily punctuated with the word 'legendary' but as far as legends go, nothing comes closer to the true meaning of the word than Smile.

Brian Wilson's follow up to Pet Sounds occupied the Beach Boys genius for a year from 1966 to 1967 before being canned amid dark tales of madness and acrimony. It was meant to be Wilson's crowning glory, an ambitious song cycle that would change the course of popular music.

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Perspective: Plenty to Smile About ; Legend 1: Andrew Cowen Looks at a Follow-Up That Arrived at Birmingham's Symphony Hall This Week 37 Years Behind Schedule

Instead it became a by-word for acidaddled metal illness, paranoia and thwarted ambition. Last Monday, remarkably, a packed house at Birmingham's Symphony Hall, finally got to hear Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks' Smile in its finished glory, an event which must surely count as the most significant musical happening of the millennium. Forget the fevered anticipation for the new Strokes al...

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