Rating: 
Summary: Smile was only two-thirds complete
Review:
I agree with Chris's review far below, which states that Priore was operating under a misconception. Brian Wilson has stated that the album was supposed to have three movements, and that only two movements (2/3 of the entire album!) had been completed at the time the album was scrapped. I think Priore was trying to convince himself that the Smile album wasn't actually "lost," and that whatever bootlegged versions he'd strung together at home were close to the real thing. Nice try.
Other than that, though, the book contains the most thorough collection of Smile-related essays available, so it gets three stars from this old-school Wilson fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable
Review: "Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile" is an invaluable tool for fans of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, and the legendary lost album "SMiLE." With Brian Wilson finally presenting a finished "SMiLE" on tour in 2004, this book will be a great read for those just getting into it now."LLVS" is not without its problems. It's a bit out-of-date, with references to songs that were later disproved to be SMiLE songs. Most of the book is a collection of magazine and newspaper clippings from the SMiLE time period that had something to do with the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, and/or SMiLE, and none of it is organized. No table of contents, no chapters, no index, no organization at all. As a result, when you first start reading it, you can be massively overwhelmed by it all. Keep looking through it and you'll get it, but at first it's a confusing read. The other problem is with Domenic Priore's own writings, which are interspersed throughout in various places. The problem with them is that his theories about SMiLE being some grand, flowing piece with link tracks rather than an album with twelve or so distinct songs have largely been disproven. Still, the book catalogues more SMiLE info and writings in one place than any other resource. It's really a classic work for Beach Boys fanatics, and is still an indispensible tool for those wishing to learn about SMiLE. The few problems with it aren't enough to change the fact that it's still one of the best SMiLE resources ever created. Any Beach Boys or Brian Wilson fan with any interest in SMiLE, or for that matter anybody with an interest in great music, should own this book.
Rating:
Summary: Revered, Essential, but Outdated
Review: "Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile" is the definitive work on Brian Wilson's aborted SMiLE album. This endearing, lovingly crafted scrapbook has been instrumental in turning many people on to the beauty of the music and has earned a spot in Beach Boys' history. Everyone that is into SMiLE respects Domenic Priore and this book. That said, Priore jumps to a lot of conclusions (and he does so with amusing forecefulness and candor) that are not based in historical fact. Some of the information about the music itself (theories, dates, titles, etc.) has since been disproved. Worst of all, Priore actually edited some of the essays contained in the book without the authors' permission. One of the strong points of the book is that, by using a scrapbook format, it puts SMiLE in context, giving a good sense of time and place. But Priore often fails to clearly document sources and dates, and some pages are downright confusing to the reader. If you want to get into SMiLE, I would recommend three things. First, buy the Good Vibrations box set (on amazon.com of course). Listen to Disc 2 repeatedly and learn it by heart. Second, buy this book. Read it from cover to cover and experience it. Third, empty your head of all "facts" and visit the Smile Sho... Browse through the entire site, read all the essays, print out the session logs for your files, then go to its message board. Live there silently for a month or two, and start connecting all the dots. Then join the rest of us in waiting for a new SMiLE book to be published that will pick up where Priore left off.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable
Review: "Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile" is an invaluable tool for fans of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, and the legendary lost album "SMiLE." With Brian Wilson finally presenting a finished "SMiLE" on tour in 2004, this book will be a great read for those just getting into it now. "LLVS" is not without its problems. It's a bit out-of-date, with references to songs that were later disproved to be SMiLE songs. Most of the book is a collection of magazine and newspaper clippings from the SMiLE time period that had something to do with the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, and/or SMiLE, and none of it is organized. No table of contents, no chapters, no index, no organization at all. As a result, when you first start reading it, you can be massively overwhelmed by it all. Keep looking through it and you'll get it, but at first it's a confusing read. The other problem is with Domenic Priore's own writings, which are interspersed throughout in various places. The problem with them is that his theories about SMiLE being some grand, flowing piece with link tracks rather than an album with twelve or so distinct songs have largely been disproven. Still, the book catalogues more SMiLE info and writings in one place than any other resource. It's really a classic work for Beach Boys fanatics, and is still an indispensible tool for those wishing to learn about SMiLE. The few problems with it aren't enough to change the fact that it's still one of the best SMiLE resources ever created. Any Beach Boys or Brian Wilson fan with any interest in SMiLE, or for that matter anybody with an interest in great music, should own this book.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable
Review: "Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile" is an invaluable tool for fans of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, and the legendary lost album "SMiLE." With Brian Wilson finally presenting a finished "SMiLE" on tour in 2004, this book will be a great read for those just getting into it now. "LLVS" is not without its problems. It's a bit out-of-date, with references to songs that were later disproved to be SMiLE songs. Most of the book is a collection of magazine and newspaper clippings from the SMiLE time period that had something to do with the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, and/or SMiLE, and none of it is organized. No table of contents, no chapters, no index, no organization at all. As a result, when you first start reading it, you can be massively overwhelmed by it all. Keep looking through it and you'll get it, but at first it's a confusing read. The other problem is with Domenic Priore's own writings, which are interspersed throughout in various places. The problem with them is that his theories about SMiLE being some grand, flowing piece with link tracks rather than an album with twelve or so distinct songs have largely been disproven. Still, the book catalogues more SMiLE info and writings in one place than any other resource. It's really a classic work for Beach Boys fanatics, and is still an indispensible tool for those wishing to learn about SMiLE. The few problems with it aren't enough to change the fact that it's still one of the best SMiLE resources ever created. Any Beach Boys or Brian Wilson fan with any interest in SMiLE, or for that matter anybody with an interest in great music, should own this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for die-hard fans, but casual fans be warned!
Review: As just about everyone has said, this is one fascinating book. The main drawback is that it is a very low-budget collection of thrown together newspaper, magazine, and fan club articles and gossip column tidbits dealing with the Beach Boys circa 1966-1967 during the creation of "Smile," an album that never was released. People expecting an in-depth analysis or the detailed story of "Smile" from start to finish will instead find a scrapbook of poorly reproduced articles. Some are undated. To its credit, the book is packed with information, but it is hard to find what you are looking for. Many of the articles say virtually the same thing. This may be the most redundant book I've ever read. But there are also interesting articles throughout. It was actually TIRING going through this book. Complaint: It needs to be in a better order, with better reproduction and duplicate info removed. To add to the mishmash effect, a few articles and/or photos overlap others (like a scrapbook) so that in some cases, you can't read entire articles. The story of The Beach Boys "Smile" album is heartbreaking. This book gives you an almost week-by-week account of how America and Britain were waiting with baited breath for anything the band released and the turmoil inside the recording studio as the record company kept demanding new product from the band. You also see how Capitol Records and the Beach Boys publicity machine churned out articles and quotes, and in many ways manipulated what people read in the newspapers. In "Smile," they may have created their own monster. They promising the greatest album ever made, a suitable follow-up to "Pet Sounds" and the "Good Vibrations" single, and ultimately never delivering on that promise. There are better sources of material regarding "Smile," but unfortunately, they are all out of print. David Leaf's "The Beach Boys and the California Myth" is essential reading for any hardcore Beach Boys fan. But despite my nitpicking over the production values of "Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile," this book should be on every Beach Boy fans shelf. It is a good reference, just not as neat and orderly as I would have liked. The story of the demise of Brian Wilson and the "Smile" debacle will make you frustrated, it will make you sad, and it will make you cry. Casual fans may find the production values cheesy and the organization baffling.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting browser
Review: Beach Boys-related articles from newspapers and magazines during their mid-1960s heyday. A mixed bag, but interesting browsing for fans.
Rating:
Summary: Look, Listen, Vibrate, SMILE......Now
Review: Don't despair H.E.L.P. is on the way. The MUST have chronical/scrapbook on the innner-ill fated saga from them good ol vibration/acid/hash/Smile days. 23 year old Brian Wilson on the brink of changing the musicial history of this whole world.One year ahead of The Beatle's Pepper and to put simply,if it hadnt imploded whould have changed alot-a things around here, Even you and me today. Domenic (he also knows his hot rods)pulls it all together between these pages and serves up a big helping of a little something I like to call ..PROOF.. Very hard to find this book 10 years ago and now here it is new and improverd...Buy it..
Rating:
Summary: Smile!
Review: Exhaustive reasearch done on the ill-fated Smile album. Essential for Beach Boys fans or fans of Pet Sounds. Note: a lot of the Smile music is now on the Beach Boys CD box set!
Rating: 
Summary: It Won't Make You Smile
Review: For curiosity seekers and for die-hard Beach Boys fans, this book is valuable for collecting much of what was written, at the time it was festering, about the infamous "Smile" album that collapsed in early 1967, after months of apparently more painstaking than the myth has it work between Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, and the famed Wrecking Crew musicians. The inclusion of Jules Siegel's legendary "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God" alone is worth the price of the ticket, but the rest does nothing much beyond reminding people that what began as a serious musical project ended, for numerous reasons, as coming damn close to being Brian Wilson's tombstone in more ways than one. But if you are looking to catch the missing key to "Smile," forget it. (You'll come closer, actually, if you pick up an album cut almost three decades after "Smile" collapsed: Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks's "Orange Crate Art," on which they all but switched roles and produced about California something in the neighbourhood of what "Smile," in its elliptical way, was aiming to say about old America.) The subsequent leakings-out of various critical pieces of the "Smile" puzzle, right up to those session fragments included on the "Good Vibrations" box set, will have to do until or unless Brian Wilson or someone with his authorisation consents to a finished "Smile" finally seeing the light of day - and it isn't likely to happen. As it is, what has seen light of day tells us this much: "Smile" would likely have been a stunning album. Maybe not a thorough groundbreaker (though subsequently appearing tracks like "Cabinessence" and "Surf's Up" suggest it would have been knocking at the door), but at least no disgrace upon Brian Wilson's musical legacy.
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