Thinking of the Beach Boys as "America's premier surfing band" is like condemning The Beatles to an eternity of collarless suits and endless loops of "Please Please Me". The Fab Four's Californian competition may have ground out an apprenticeship (not to mention a 70s revival) with songs about surf boards and hot rods, but for about ten years - approximately 1965 to 1975 - this dysfunctional family band made some of the most light-years-ahead revolutionary pop music we're ever likely to hear.
Or not, as was the case with "Smile": Brian Wilson's sonic answer to "Revolver", follow-up to "Pet Sounds" and, in his own words, "teenage symphony to God". With "Good Vibrations" clearing the path, it was to be the album that vaulted the Beach Boys from the land of the square to the hallowed land of the hip.
That Wilson never finished it meant the band would never make that leap. At Monterrey - a festival the Beach Boys were initially due to headline - Jimi Hendrix would set fire to his guitar and utter the immortal pay-off line: "You'll never hear surf music again." Instead of consolidating a groovy new American audience, the Beach Boys were condemned to perpetual squareness.
It's around this background that the myth of "Smile" - the record that could have been a heavyweight contender - was written.
In truth, there's actually very little on this official version we haven't already heard, albeit with more Wilsons and no Wondermints. The singles "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes & Villains", obviously, but the other major highpoints - "Cabinessence", "Our Prayer", "Surf's Up" - all ended up on Beach Boys albums up until 1971. Seemingly limitless bootlegs followed, while a 1993 box set leaked about half-an-hours worth of sessions from the vaults.
So, it's not the contents that should probably amaze us, nor even the fact that Brian Wilson has chosen to re-record "Smile" after 37 years (that decision was probably prompted by his "musical secretary" Darian Sahanaja), but rather that the damn thing actually fits together.
For Wilson, surrounded by fragments of his masterwork, that was always the issue. Asking the 62-year old genius to catch a certain moment in time - however talented his backing band - was always an impossibility, but the fact his greatest project has finally found coherency is a real achievement.
And that that coherency is also utterly incoherent is probably the point, for "Smile" is like a hallucinogenic Disney ride through America's history - from the arrival of the Mayflower to the Age of Aquarius. Combining show tunes, folk, psychedelia, harmony and humour it's brilliant and almost beyond criticism.
Whether it would've changed the world is more debatable. It probably wouldn't. But it should've cemented Brian Wilson's reputation in the wider public consciousness - a place where he's still vastly underrated. (How many front covers does he get in, say, Uncut, compared to Lennon and McCartney?) If this new "Smile" achieves that, then it's undoubtedly been a good thing.
So, let's celebrate a wonderful achievement, both 37 years ago and now. This is a brilliant record, just as it's always been. And, while the spotlight's still shining, let's get Dennis Wilson's "Pacific Ocean Blue" out there. If there's still one truly 'lost' Beach Boys album, then that's it.
