Did VDP's Smile Lyrics Have Their Own Rhythm/Meter?

[harrisonjon]

For example: Cabin Essence and Wonderful. It's hard to think of those songs as having any other meter.

[SufferingFools]

In the Beautiful Dreamer film, VDP says he was very careful in the lyrics to leave the notes just as Brian wrote them and not add extra syllables.

[Bicyclerider]

Exactly, Van wrote the words to exactly fit the notes of the melody - at least that's what he says.  I find it hard to believe he didn't occasionally suggest a note or chord change, or fill in any "blanks" in the verse or chorus with his own ideas.  But clearly the overwhelming majority of the melody notes are Brian's.

[buddhahat]

Exactly, Van wrote the words to exactly fit the notes of the melody - at least that's what he says.  I find it hard to believe he didn't occasionally suggest a note or chord change, or fill in any "blanks" in the verse or chorus with his own ideas.  But clearly the overwhelming majority of the melody notes are Brian's.

The one that makes me wonder is the Cantina melody. The lyric melody doesn't seem a logical fit to the underlying waltz melody. It kind of jerks all over the place and makes me think VDP was having some fun with the words and created his own counter melody in the process, but maybe Brian did write it that way.

Thinking about the craziness of the cantina lyric melody reminds me of the newly discovered worms melody that Brian scats during the sessions. I'm not as convinced it's the main melody as some, but I have to admit it's erratic in the same way the cantina melody is.