The "Leila Revelation"

ALL THE CONTENT OF THE FOLLOWING POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED BY Leila AT THE Hoffman Forums.

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So on Wednesday night, I finally had that listening session with my two friends that I've been promised all week. And last night we had some more wine and wrote this for you.

Some of the 60s Smile is great. I'm beginning to see why everyone who's heard parts of it goes a bit crazy for it, like Brian Wilson did! It's amazing music, and the harmonies (where there is singing, as there are _lots_ of gaps) are incredible. I always liked the version I saw live and got on CD a few years ago, but I can see what the attraction of the original recordings is now. And Brian Wilson's singing really did sound much nicer back then. Not surprising, I mean, the guys like 70 or something.

My friends don't want to be identified, but let's just say that 'Friend S' is involved a bit with the promotion of the new release. 'Friend B' is the guy who took me to see Smile live a few years ago. He's always been into this stuff, in fact he sometimes posts here (or on one of these on-line Beach Boys places, anyway). Thanks to S, who let us go crazy on his computer for a couple of hours armed with some headphones and a few glasses of wine, I got to hear the new record (it was B's second listen, which is how we knew the stuff I mentioned here the other day). There are no physical discs, or if there are, S doesn't have one, so that blew my plan to take it away on my phone! I'll just have to wait until it comes out, or take some more nice wine round to S's flat again to have another listen. It was cool listening to some of these harmonies looking out over the river.

I've got some comments and so did B. His are way more detailed than mine, though… and probably more the kind of stuff you guys want to know. He was sitting there writing stuff down with a notebook! That's how you end up if you work in politics. In fact, If I'm honest, he wrote some of the first message I put here the other day. You can tell when it's him, cos he always writes Smile as "SMiLE". He says it's like that on the original cover. He can be such a dork sometimes, but he's OK really.

So I liked the album, although some parts of it do sound unfinished compared to the Smile CD I know. The Prayer bit at the start and Heroes and Villains sound really good, but I'm not sure I'd ever get used to hearing Roll Plymouth Rock without all the words! Then there were some odd bits and pieces. B was really pissed off about the singing on two bits, the one about the Barnyard with all the animals and another bit with a sort of weird echoey bit which I don't remember on my CD. Some of that weird 60s stuff doesn't do much for me, to be honest, and I couldn't hear what they were saying on this version. I think they did that one better a few years ago. Then they did the sad version of You Are My Sunshine. It was longer than the one I know, but again there were all sorts of vocals near the end that you couldn't hear properly! I don't know why they didn't make some of these louder! B loved that bit, he was singing along and said the words were 'when skies are grey', but he must have better ears than me!

The next part was kind of a mixed bag too. I've always liked that song Wonderful about the girl, the one with all the classical instruments, and the 60s voices sound soooo good on this version. But it doesn't go into Song For Children like I wanted it too! I was singing along the first time and then I realised the track had stopped! Then you get loads more music without any words, I almost didn't realise it was Song For Children and Child Is Father Of The Man, and they're two of my favourite songs on Smile! I also missed the way all of the songs on that part of the record flowed through each other. S was only half right-there _are_ some vocals on Song For Children, but it's just like two or three voices just going "Child, Child" for about a second. On Child Is Father Of The Man, there was a bit with the Beach Boys singing and a piano which I didn't recognise after Song For Children, but it still didn't 'glue' all the songs together like it does on my Smile CD. And after that, there were no lyrics on Child Is Father Of The Man at all, apart from them singing the title in the chorus. Friend B went nuts because he said they were singing something different in that bit the second time round, but I couldn't tell the difference to be honest.

I do really like the Beach Boys version of Surf's Up. They all sound brilliant singing together at the end. Again, B went crazy because he said some of the harmonies sound different in that track, and at the end bit. I noticed that it faded out instead of just stopping, but that's cos I was looking up all the different versions the other day after posting on here.

The last part is a real mixture too. After all the tools drilling and sawing, you get that song about the vegetables which has always made me laugh. It sounds like the kind of thing I used to sing as a kid. Thats a little bit of 60s madness that I _do_ like. This version is longer than I remember it, but it was really cool. I can imagine my little cousin singing along to this one in the car.

But after that, there was another gap without any singing. The music to that holiday song is great, but it just sounds so different without the voices, and I didn't hear any this time. I found myself singing the Rock, Rock, Roll bits in the choruses, but then realised no-one was singing along!

Like S had said, the end of the holiday song "faded through" into the song about the wind chimes. That bit sounded pretty much like I remember it, with the really pretty singing about the tingling winds, and I liked it, although B was making a fuss again and saying the voices shouldn't be on that bit cos they come from the wrong album or something. I was glad they were, whatever he says! That Wind Chimes track is an odd one, some bits of it are so gentle and quiet and some bits are so loud. It reminds me a bit of my brother's old Nirvana records, you know, loud, quiet, loud, quiet.

The next song is the really loud one, the famous Fire song about the Cow that has all the mad 60s stories about it. There is something really powerful about this track, it really does sound like a fire somehow, but I'm not sure I can say I _like_ it. I usually skip it when I'm listening to the CD version. This one sounded exactly like the version I've already got, but B went really crazy about it and said it was all wrong again. For someone who says he likes this stuff, he spends enough bloody time moaning about it! He said the fast bit at the start with all the whistles shouldn't be there, cos its the intro to another song, and the vocals on the main section come from the Smily album from the 60s not Smile (isn't that the same thing?). I got fed up with him then and told him it was just like what Brian Wilson played live and released on CD a few years ago, and he just folded his arms and said 'Yeah, exactly!'. We didn't talk for a while after that.

Most of the next few tracks were the same as what I've got at home, you get the bit about being thirsty, then In Blue Hawaii, that little bit of the prayer again, and then Good Vibrations to finish. The only difference was that the bit about having a drop to drink in a swimming pool doesn't have any words again and nor does In Blue Hawaii, the one about the waterfall. There was just a deep voice going 'ho-wah' and a bit of sort of jazzy singing over the top which made B all angry again. I said "I suppose you're going to tell me this is from a totally different song again?" and he said the vocals were from a Coke commercial the Beach Boys did in the late 60s! I think he was just winding me up by then, to be honest. I much prefer In Blue Hawaii on my CD.

So in the end, I'd give it a mixed review. The songs where the Beach Boys sing sound really, really good, but the ones with no words are a bit lame. On balance, I'd probably stick with the CD I've already got, as it's complete all the way through. I would rip some of the best tracks from this version, though, like Surf's Up, the Prayer, Heroes and Villians and Wonderful. Oh, and Vegetables, I do really like that one. I'll rip that one for my little cousin.

B stayed to listen to the extra tracks and session stuff on the other disks but I soon got bored, I felt like I'd heard all that already! There were a few good bits. S had gone crazy about the track with all the backing vocals over the phone to me before. He arranges choir vocalists as a hobby, so I thought that might just be him getting all excited over nothing, but it is really amazing actually. You can hear all this extra stuff in the voices you can't hear on the first disc. The Beach Boys must have worked really hard on the singing, especially all those Heroes and Villians parts, and it sounded really great on the headphones.

There were loads of things B said he'd like to add to this message, but I feel like I've gone on enough already, so I told him to sum up his opinion in a few paragraphs. He also insisted on adding something about the new version of Surf's Up which he asked to hear again straight after the album. To me, that sounded like the piano version I listened to on YouTube the other day, the one I posted the link to here, but he said it was really different. Anyway, this is what he said. It's all gobblygook to me but I expect you'll know what he means.
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"As you can all tell, Leila's no SMiLE expert, but I actually agree with her overall impression. Those hoping for a magically completed 60s SMiLE are going to be disappointed, as of course there's lots of missing vocals. Some parts of the Disc 1 album are brilliant, but some people might even prefer the BWPS versions of some tracks.

"I don't get why fly-in vocals have been used so much on some tracks and not on others, but I suppose it's to do with what's left in the vaults and what's missing. Sometimes, the BWPS template is followed exactly, so you've got the H&V intro and the Fall Breaks vocals on Fire, and Whispering Winds on the end of Holidays (as if Brian would have crossfaded in 1966).

"I could really do without the Barnyard and Great Shape demo vocals on those tracks; I think that's my least favourite part, and I'm In Great Shape is a bit of a mess, ironically. But some of it sounds excellent: Vega-Tables, H&V, and Surf's Up — and whatever some might say, I'm glad they've used Brian's vocal and the 1971 group vocals on the tag. It's been remixed and sounds awesome! There are even some unexpected surprises, like the minimal Child vocals on Look, the extra vocals on the second chorus of Child Is Father of the Man and on the Truck Driving Man part of Cabin Essence (even if they are really low in the mix - if you don't believe me, check out the mix from the Mojo single; they are on there too). I don't know WHY they put the scatting jazz vocal from Cool, Cool Water on Love To Say Dada, though.

"The 67 version of Surf's Up is absolutely amazing. It's a bit less 'forceful' than Brian's December 66 take on it, and the rhythm is a bit more halting in parts, but it's sung really passionately. It's just a single vocal, with no harmony parts, and there's no 'bygone, bygone', 'are you sleeping' first time round, or Child Is The Father vocals on the tag; it's just the solo vocal at the end, as on the December 66 take. However, there IS a key change near the end which surprised me — the whole melody and backing go up a gear after the line 'mmm mmm mmm mmm aboard a tidal wave'.

"I only had time for a quick listen to the session stuff, so I'm not too sure about whether there's anything of note in there. I had a quick listen to the tracking dates for Holidays and Wonderful, just because I wanted to hear them in decent quality after all these years — that was predictably incredible — then S directed me straight to the Do You Like Worms session stuff for the bit about the verse melody he'd told me about. I don't know if you could really lay it over the verse; it's VERY short. Brian just sort of bumbles through some lyric in the middle of the session, with everyone talking in the background, and you can just about hear a melody and something about the Sandwich Isles. S doesn't think the melody fits the verse, either. He even tried to prove it by singing the known lyrics about the Sandwich Isles over the verse to the same melody, and sure enough, it doesn't work - you really have to stretch all the syllables out or crunch them in to make it work. It's not really clear whether it was for the verse, an overdub for the chorus, an idea which they maybe changed later to what we know on BWPS, or maybe even Brian having a crack at the melody in the session but getting it wrong. You just can't tell.

"It was really late after that, so I only had time to listen to a couple more tracks, as Leila wanted to go and I was walking her home. S directed me to what he called "the only bad track on the whole set" - Teeter Totter Love. The backing track reminds me of the Austin Powers theme tune, but the vocal is terrible, just as the guys in the know have being saying for years to anyone who'll listen. After that, there was only time to take in Tune X, I Don't Know and Three Blind Mice. I can't help wondering if these were all variations on some kind of similar basic theme; I think the first two were even in the same (or complementary) keys, and might even have been editable together. Maybe it was some sort of arranging exercise Brian did in '65, and he gave his brothers the same thing to do a couple of years later when they wanted to start arranging string ensembles…?"
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I think that's enough from B, although he's got plenty more where that came from in that notebook of his! I hope you enjoyed reading some of this stuff. I might buy Smile when it comes out, but I might just rip the tracks I want off B. He says he's buying a version with a light in it, he's welcome to that!

Leila x

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