Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece

by Domenic Priore

In 1966, Brian Wilson, hot off the success of the ground-breaking Beach Boys album Pet Sounds, embarked on a project with his new songwriting partner, Van Dyke Parks, an album he said would be 'a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082567350X
• ISBN13: 9780825673504
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Bobcat Books
• Length: 199 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Respectful And Detailed Analysis of An Important Moment In Music History.

Dominic Priore, along with David Leaf, are the primary reasons why I became so enamoured with the musical legacy of Brian Wilson. I already loved the music, but those two guys made me dig even deeper into Wilson's musical oeuvre, mainly because they were so exhaustive and passionate about revealing hidden truths about what really happened to this legend. Both men were instrumental in correcting the history books with Brian's sad, yet ultimately triumphant story. This book is a great extension of Priore's earlier Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMiLE! book from the early 90s. It's well-researched. It covers much ground, and talks to most everyone ever involved with the work that took 37 years to reach fruition. My only quibble is that the second edition I received replaces a 1967 original SMiLE-era Brian Wilson photo (in the swimming pool no less!) with a contemporary shot of Brian. One can only assume that Brian himself requested this, considering he contributes the intro to the book. Perhaps (and rightly so) he considers SMiLE a contemporary work, given that he and his associates finished it in 2004. Still, I would have loved to have had the version with the 60s cover. Oh well.