Smile Box set: Ghost melodies, clues, hints, and new mysteries

[runnersdialzero]

Not the same melody, either.

Holy f***, this version is creepy :O

[runnersdialzero]

Wait, teh hell is track 24 on here? Who's singing the Hawaiin chant section?

[NOLA SMiLE]

The conversation with regard to the "new" or "lost" melody for DYLW has been fascinating in the extreme for me. I am a newcomer to BW/BB fanhood, only having come to the music a bit less than 10 years ago. I accidentally found some internet discussion of SMiLE sometime in 2002 while surfing the net.

I have listened to the lost melody from my own Box Set. I have listened to my BWPS at the point where this new/lost melody would be/might be included (on Roll Plymouth Rock).  To my amateur ears, I conclude that the new/lost melody would have fit nicely as a counter-point melody to what's already on Roll Ply. Rock. I don't know if the lyrics could be made to fit the meter completely, but the melody fits.

Also, the upright double bass parts in that passage follow the new/lost melody.

All of this conversation reminds me that a very smart person once said that a work of art is never completed, but, merely abandoned.  SMiLE and BWPS are examples of Psychedelic Rock, and, as such, the artist has carte blanche to add layers of complexity to the music. This work is avant garde by its very nature. 

[leetwall97]

Another lost melody is the missing overdubs on Friday Night. I forget which track it is on which CD in the box set, but one of the hidden tracks is the workshop sound effects, and if you turn up the volume real loud, you can hear extra overdubs bleeding off from the headphones on the "musicians".

[The Cool One]

Where appears brian singing holidays (time mark)?

[Wrightfan]

Where appears brian singing holidays (time mark)?

1:22 to about 1:28

[Julia]

Fellas, I have 3000s words to say. Loosen up, syncopate it, Al you're flatting... "Rhonda you looks so FIIINE!"  

I think the poster(s) who said the new Worms melody was part of a "call and answer" thing are right--it's a backing vocal. That's why it doesn't fit the verse--it'd start later in the meter or something. Just speculation. But I don't like any of the reconstructions I've heard, AI or otherwise, that use this new melody as the main vocal. They always require Brian to do something that sounds off--either repeating the last word "Hawaii--Hawaii" or a weird scat "aa--uh-eeeh-aeh-ah-eah" and it sounds awkward and draws attention to itself. It isn't natural--does Help Me Rhonda "run out of words" and have Al sing a bunch of scat to fill out the meter? No. Yes, SMiLE was different but not THAT different.

I grant you there are scat verses in Heroes "doo bah doo waah" and Veggies (where he took out the cornucopia stuff--a big mistake in my opinion, probably Mike dissenting to the "tripped" pun) but then it's the ENTIRE VERSE not half of it. All these "restored DYLW" edits have me thinking "dude, just sing the words and stop being 'cute' with it, will ya?" Granted, Joshilyn's youtube link has gone dead so I can't comment on her interpretation--would love to hear a reupload if she or anyone who remembers what it was were to see this again.

I think some people were so excited by this new discovery they rushed it into production without thinking, so Im on Wirestone's side. I have misgivings about BWPS too, and I think the Worms verses there are weaker than what Brian was capable of, but that's because he'd have countermelodies not a different one altogether.

As for the posters speculating on how BWPS rediscovered the melody, what Brian said/did, it's actually kind of a perplexing story. In I believe Priore's 2005 book or some BWPS ancilary material, Darian describes how they played Worms as it existed on the boots, no lyrics, for awhile until finally he asked "hey Brian, was anything else originally supposed to go here?" And Brian said "yeah, there were lyrics" and supposedly dug out an old lyric sheet, couldn't make out the word "Indians" and called up VDP. But it begs the question, if Darian hadn't asked, would Brian have just not said anything and toured a half-instrumental Worms?? Apparently so, if this story is to be believed. And so, nobody asked him in the planning stages what was missing from SMiLE, if there were revelatory pieces unrecorded or lost, until partway into early rehearsals? Apparently so. Just makes you want to bang your head against the wall. I guess Darian didn't want to overwhelm Brian in the beginning with a bunch of questions which is understandable but it makes you wonder what else was never asked, what other secrets Brian was holding out on us...

Anyway, let that story serve as indication that just because we heard it a certain way in BWPS doesn't mean that's all there was to it. HOWEVER, Brian recalled the melody he did which means we shouldn't throw that out either. It seems a reasonable assumption he'd remember the main melody but not the 5 different counters and backings he'd have had the guys do at the top of his game in '66.


I wish it was easier to find restorations of the clarinet part from Look. It seems even a lot of these AI fanmixes where nothing is off the table forget about it for some reason. I even forgot about it until doing my deep dive these past two months because I don't listen to BWPS much at all.