The SMiLE Era music - an analysis

[John Stivaktas]

Friends,

Mike Love once apparently said "Don't f*** with the formula, Brian". Can you imagine what he was responding to? Over the many years that I have been researching the Pet Sounds/SMiLE era, I've come to understand that unlike what ignorant journalists have stated in the past, the music created by Brian Wilson in 1966/67 was highly formulaic, beyond your normal I-IV-V pop progression and something still simple yet sounding complex.

During the Pet Sounds era Brian was composing songs which featured descending scales, hence why many songs sounded 'sad'. On the piano the chords tended to change with small changes in the fingers on the right-hand, probably influenced by compositions from J.S Bach (Prelude in C Major for example). Pet Sounds stood out also for its use of inverted chords, chords where the bass notes do not fall on the root of the chord (e.g. D major chords normally feature a D played in the bass clef, however, many instances of D Major chords played on Pet Sounds feature bass notes played on the 5th - A, for instance).

The final track of Pet Sounds, Here Today features a composition style that defines the SMiLE era and Good Vibrations (especially the chorus), the 'two-chord' composition. Brian built songs around two chord progressions complete with inverted chords to add complexity. The only songs that don't follow the two-chord motif during the SMiLE era are Surf's Up and Wonderful. They both follow the Bach-inspired minimal chord changes, the only difference being that like the other SMiLE era compositions, they too include ascending scales.

[buddhahat]

Friends,

Mike Love once apparently said "Don't f*** with the formula, Brian". Can you imagine what he was responding to? Over the many years that I have been researching the Pet Sounds/SMiLE era, I've come to understand that unlike what ignorant journalists have stated in the past, the music created by Brian Wilson in 1966/67 was highly formulaic, beyond your normal I-IV-V pop progression and something still simple yet sounding complex.

During the Pet Sounds era Brian was composing songs which featured descending scales, hence why many songs sounded 'sad'. On the piano the chords tended to change with small changes in the fingers on the right-hand, probably influenced by compositions from J.S Bach (Prelude in C Major for example). Pet Sounds stood out also for its use of inverted chords, chords where the bass notes do not fall on the root of the chord (e.g. D major chords normally feature a D played in the bass clef, however, many instances of D Major chords played on Pet Sounds feature bass notes played on the 5th - A, for instance).

The final track of Pet Sounds, Here Today features a composition style that defines the SMiLE era and Good Vibrations (especially the chorus), the 'two-chord' composition. Brian built songs around two chord progressions complete with inverted chords to add complexity. The only songs that don't follow the two-chord motif during the SMiLE era are Surf's Up and Wonderful. They both follow the Bach-inspired minimal chord changes, the only difference being that like the other SMiLE era compositions, they too include ascending scales.

This is very interesting. There is a definite change in his writing during Smile. I guess I'd never considered that Brian shifted from the descending patterns of Pet Sounds, to songs consisting of two chord changes such as Barnyard or Holidays or the bicycle rider motif. I'm no musicologist so correct me if I'm wrong, but there also seem to be a few songs built mainly around 3 chord change sequences: Da da, the verses of Vega-Tables, Child verses. He seems to establish a two chord pattern in these songs and then resolves it with a third chord. Does this relate to Blues chord sequences at all? Dunno - out of my depth a bit here!

 I think a lot of the genius of Smile lies in the apparent simplicity of the songs. They're almost like nursery rhymes, whereas, as you point out, a few such as Wonderful hark back to bach, as it were. I'd also chuck in Friday Night as a more Pet Sounds style song. The descending changes remind me very much of Don't Talk, particularly the Don't Talk piano demo. And, come to think of it, Look - particularly that descending intro.

[Matt Bielewicz]

Hi John,

I've replied to your post in the other thread, but to add to what I said there: yes, Wonderful includes an ascending scale in the vocal melody... but the rest of the arrangement in the verse is *descending* overall at the same time. So, I'm not sure it's fair to say "Wonderful = ascending scale = happy". There's way more to the track musically (and indeed lyrically) than an ascending scale and an overall feeling of 'happy', in my opinion!

And is Surf's Up really 'happy'? I'll give you the overall rise in verse melody throughout the track, but I don't think that makes for an unequivocally happy track, even just going by the music. Personally, I think 'majestic and doomy', and 'fin-de-siècle' are more apt descriptions, but maybe that's just me. And if you factor in the lyrics as well, lines like 'columnated ruins domino' and 'a choke of grief, hard-heartened I, beyond belief, a broken man too tough to cry' don't exactly make for a 'happy happy Mission Pak singing sound'.

Just my shilling and tuppence ha'penny, mind. You can keep the spare farthing.

Matt

[buddhahat]

Somebody on the Hoffman board pointed out that Brian was into The Rolling Stones' My Obsession in 66, and the poster hears a lot of My Obsession in Fire. I think he's on the money there because I can hear it too. Hell, My Obsession sounds like a prototype Fall Breaks with that earthy organ chugging away, plus the repetitive mantra-like singing. It's not unreasonable to suppose that this song may have given birth to that two chord Fire motif that shows up in Iron Horse, Transcendental Meditation - all over the place, post Pet Sounds.

What I also find interesting listening to My Obsession is that it reminds me very much of Dada in the way the first verse ends on a sustained note, after the 3rd chord has resolved the sequence, and is then followed by a pause. Maybe My Obsession influenced a change in his writing around that time. I know it's a big maybe, but Brian did get obsessed ('scuse the pun) with certain songs. It certainly knocks me out just how Smile-like this Stones song sounds.

[The Shift]

Somebody on the Hoffman board pointed out that Brian was into The Rolling Stones' My Obsession in 66, and the poster hears a lot of My Obsession in Fire. I think he's on the money there because I can hear it too. Hell, My Obsession sounds like a prototype Fall Breaks with that earthy organ chugging away, plus the repetitive mantra-like singing. It's not unreasonable to suppose that this song may have given birth to that two chord Fire motif that shows up in Iron Horse, Transcendental Meditation - all over the place, post Pet Sounds.

What I also find interesting listening to My Obsession is that it reminds me very much of Dada in the way the first verse ends on a sustained note, after the 3rd chord has resolved the sequence, and is then followed by a pause. Maybe My Obsession influenced a change in his writing around that time. I know it's a big maybe, but Brian did get obsessed ('scuse the pun) with certain songs. It certainly knocks me out just how Smile-like this Stones song sounds.

Be interesting to hear whether there's any studio outtakes of this sessions and any BW-featuring chat they might contain, if he was genuinely there and smokin'.

[Barnshine]

I've always divided the compositions in Smile into to types: one is what BW calls "feels", and the second is what I call "flows".
A "feel" is a repetitive simple chord pattern (usually 2 chords) with a certain rhythmic feel and several layers of riffs/repetitive melodies, e.g H&V part 2 varations, Do a Lot, Child chorus, Bicycle Rider, Wind Chimes coda, Barnyard etc. A lot of Smile is all about feels - it's a very simple yet extremely innovative compositional technique, which is unique to Smile AFAIK.
A "flow" is just what I call the "standard" BW compositions - a flowing, complex chord pattern with a rolling melody on the top. Examples: Wonderful, CE verses, SU, Wind Chimes verses etc.
The power of Smile music lays in the combination of both - many songs combine both techniques and use the former for the chorus/tag and the latter for the verses, e.g Wind Chimes, CE, SU. Some songs are comprised of "feels" only: DYLW, Child, arguably Vega-Tables. And there's Wonderful which is flowing all the way, and does it beautifully.

[Barnshine]

I've always divided the compositions in Smile into to types: one is what BW calls "feels", and the second is what I call "flows".
A "feel" is a repetitive simple chord pattern (usually 2 chords: I-V or I-IV) with a certain rhythmic feel and several layers of riffs/repetitive melodies, e.g H&V part 2 varations, Do a Lot, Child chorus, Bicycle Rider, Wind Chimes coda, Barnyard etc. A lot of Smile is all about feels - it's a very simple yet extremely innovative compositional technique, which is unique to Smile AFAIK.
A "flow" is just what I call the "standard" BW compositions - a flowing, complex chord pattern with a rolling melody on the top. Examples: Wonderful, CE verses, SU, Wind Chimes verses etc.
The power of Smile music lays in the combination of both - many songs combine both techniques and use the former for the chorus/tag and the latter for the verses, e.g Wind Chimes, CE, SU. Some songs are comprised of "feels" only: DYLW, Child, arguably Vega-Tables. And there's Wonderful which is flowing all the way, and does it beautifully.

[John Stivaktas]

Hi John,

I've replied to your post in the other thread, but to add to what I said there: yes, Wonderful includes an ascending scale in the vocal melody... but the rest of the arrangement in the verse is *descending* overall at the same time. So, I'm not sure it's fair to say "Wonderful = ascending scale = happy". There's way more to the track musically (and indeed lyrically) than an ascending scale and an overall feeling of 'happy', in my opinion!

And is Surf's Up really 'happy'? I'll give you the overall rise in verse melody throughout the track, but I don't think that makes for an unequivocally happy track, even just going by the music. Personally, I think 'majestic and doomy', and 'fin-de-siècle' are more apt descriptions, but maybe that's just me. And if you factor in the lyrics as well, lines like 'columnated ruins domino' and 'a choke of grief, hard-heartened I, beyond belief, a broken man too tough to cry' don't exactly make for a 'happy happy Mission Pak singing sound'.

Just my shilling and tuppence ha'penny, mind. You can keep the spare farthing.

Matt

I agree that they aren't happy songs necessarily, that's true! I think Wonderful and Surf's Up don't follow the two-chord composition because they are part of a group of songs on SMiLE that have to do with the loss of innocence, the coda of Surf's Up, based on Child is the Father of the Man however follows buddhahat's statement of resolution involving three chords (Ab/F, Eb/F, Bb, Eb/C).  Heroes and Villains uses a similar I-IV-V model C#, D#, G#7, C# for the verses with a descending vocal line, but Heroes and Villains (and Cabin Essence and Fire) features the interesting use of ascending and descending chromatic scales for backing vocals (and bass lines in some mixes of H&V).

I agree that Here Today does have ascending bass lines too, it's just my opinion that it was the song that started a change in Brian's composition method and the bass line on Here Today had influence definitely on the melodic verse bass line of Good Vibrations.  As a musician, I can play Wonderful and Surf's Up solo on the piano, and God Only Knows and Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder) also, but those minimalistic two and three chord SMiLE compositions feature complex vocals behind them and it's frankly impossible to reproduce the feel of many songs on SMiLE with just a few instruments. I remember reading on this board someone's opinion that Brian shouldn't have chosen Good Vibrations for a solo piano comeback on a TV show in 1976 and I am inclined to agree for the reasons I've stated.