Kudos to reader RH for his use of The Google to dig out the meaning. When Brian Wilson was writing the follow-up to “Pet Sounds” in 1966, he used the phrase to describe the music he was making - and the phrase is apt. Get a taste of it below - first in what was supposed to be/eventually was the title track to “Smile” (or SMiLE), and then second, what was to be the centerpiece of the album (the footage comes from a November 1966 CBS special on rock music hosted by Leonard Bernstein).

“Smile” is one of the great lost rock albums of all time, eventually found in 2004 when members of the Wondermints, who’d toured with Wilson, talked him into resurrecting it.

I saw him on the subsequent tour and have the disc, and it was fantastic to see the relics dusted off and given life. But I still like the original tapes - some of which were included on the Beach Boys’ box set, and which are bootlegged to high heaven - far better. Brian Wilson’s 24 frickin’ years old when he’s writing this music (with lyricist Van Dyke Parks). If his fragile mental state isn’t shattered by the rest of the Beach Boys, who don’t think it “commercial” enough - Sgt. Pepper’s impact the following year simply isn’t as great. It would have, literally, changed rock and roll history. And deservedly, too.