ABSTRACT
A short time after his LSD experience, Brian Wilson began work on the record that was to establish him right along with the Beatles as one of the most important innovators in modern popular music. Along with the Beatles, Wilson of the Beach Boys was one of the driving forces behind rock music’s mid-1960s transformation from a fad almost exclusively associated with teenagers into a more ambitious medium. Wilson eventually was forced to whittle away more than ninety hours of studio tape to arrive at the three-and-a-half-minute finished product, a song which he famously referred to as his “pocket symphony.” Jules Siegel’s 1967 article describes Wilson’s work on his next project, the ill-fated Smile. Among the hip people he was on trial, and the question discussed earnestly among the recognized authorities on what is and what is not hip was whether or not Brian Wilson was hip, semi-hip or square.
