Another way to gain insight into Brian Wilson’s talent, particularly the making of the Smile album (which was envisioned by Brian to achieve what Sgt. Pepper instead did, though Smile on a much higher musical level), is to read Paul Williams’ book Outlaw Blues. The book is a compilation of Paul’s writing in the original Crawdaddy magazine, the first magazine containing writing about Rock ’n’ Roll from an adult perspective (Rolling Stone followed it by two years).
Three chapters of the book are reprints of what Williams was writing about the making of Smile, as it was happening. The absolute best stuff ever written about Brian, and Smile, by a mile (thank you VDP ;-).
