So this isnt the "megasuite" H&V-centric SMiLE Mix I set out to make. Im working on it. A whole new template means lots of false starts, self-doubt and frustrated ideas that just dont sound as good as youd think after you spend a lot of time putting them together. I still wanna get that done sometime tho. Hopefully soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51KbIVIkEPc&feature=youtu.beIn the meantime, I think Ive finally perfected my preferred two-suite foundation and I decided to upload it today for the big guy's birthday. Aquarian was too long and not historicaly accurate in terms of which songs I used. Olorin was too reliant on Psychedelic Sounds and the track order could have used work. With this mix, which Im calling the Romestamo Cut, I think Ive reached the middle path between those two. It clocks in at 45 minutes, just on the cusp of what would have been plausible in '67. 11 tracks, all the ones on the Capitol tracklist sans Great Shape, because theres nothing to work with there and trying to recreate it was one of the biggest weaknesses of my Olorin Mix, Id say. I kept the idea of naming one side after a letter and the other a number to leave playing order open to the listener (at least in theory.)
Side 1
(Prayer)
1. Do You Dig Worms
2. Heroes and Villains
3. Cabin Essence
(Taxi Cabber)
4. The Elements
5. Vega-Tables
Side A
6. Good Vibrations
7. Wind Chimes
8. Wonderful
(Ice Cream Man)
9. Child is Father of the Man
10. My Only Sunshine
11. Surf's Up
(George Fell Into His French Horn)
The big differences in terms of individual song structure from Olorin are H&V, the Elements, Wind Chimes, and Wonderful. H&V now has Great Shape as a second interlude section and ends with the tape explosion and Fire intro because I think adding the train-whistle heavy Fire intro at the end of Heroes ties it better to Cabin, which is about trains. Heroes also begins with a vocal bit that segues into the flutter horn. The Taxi Cab skit plays over the organ part heard in the Workshop session on the boxset. The Elements is Fire, Undersea Chant with whistles from Bob Gordons Real Trip, Breathing skit with voiceover from Smog skit, then the laughing segues into the funny/pseudo-Earth element track, Veggies. The Veggie skit is overlaid on the Veggie outro. Wind Chimes now begins with the fade and ends with Holidays. Side A was a bit too short so I included about half of that track to fill out the difference. Look didnt make the cut tho. Neither did Dada as I dont consider it part of the original 1966 outline Brian was building from. Anyway, Wonderful also needed to be fleshed out, so it begins with the Basketball skit and ends with the Workshop sounds played over the Ice Cream Man skit. The wah-wah horn punctuates the "joke" there and helps transition us into CIFOTM. My Only Sunshine includes its original fade. Surf's Up still has the horn parts from the Talking Horns session overlaid on the second half, including the fade. A bit of silence and then the last skit comes on as a hidden bonus track.
Not a whole lot to say, really. All my thoughts on the greater thematic and musical significance of this type of structure have been brought up repeatedly before. One side is very bombastic yet funny while the other is more somber and sincere, one has more unusual instrumentation and whistles while the other has mostly pianos, horns and xylophones. All that good stuff. All my theories on the Psychedelic Sounds skits serving a greater purpose to SMiLE than previously thought have been posted before. I just think in hindsight I took it too far last time by having one between each track. I think there would have been a decent amount of them on the album, but probably only ~2 per side, as I did here. Taxi Cabber ties in nicely with the "roadtrip across America" theme, but puts a funny stoner twist on it. It bridges the Americana tracks with the Elements by the mentioning of Chicago--as in the great fire for which Mrs OLeary's Cow was blamed, as well as a halfway point between Plymouth Rock and Diamond Head. Veggies then comes in at the end to tie it all back together. It can stand in as an Earth element as well as a celebration of American agriculture and representation of the idea that something good can grow from the ruins of the Native American's land/culture. The stoner stumbling on some guy's garden and demanding food is a humorous and oblique reenactment of the white mans behavior upon arrival to the new world. As for Side A's skits...Ice Cream Man ties together the idea of interacting with a motor vehicle driver as well as demanding food from the two earlier skits, this time in the context of reliving carefree childhood memories, which relates to the whole life/innocence theme of Side A. George Fell, to me, is a humorous exaggeration of becoming one with the music. As if the artist became so ensconced in his form of expression that it literally consumed him. Kind of like what happened to Brian with SMiLE. And why a horn? Because thats the last instrument to be prominently featured in the album. I think the fell into a mic/piano skits were variations of the same idea. I didnt use them because theyre not as charming, would have taken up more time, and would throw off the balance. On each side, there's one conversation between session musicians and one between Brian's friends. Heroes also has a funny line thrown in and Wonderful has a vaguely foreboding intro taken from the Psych Skits. The latter I intended to represent the boy bumping into the innocent girl.
Side A is a bit less obvious in how it fits together than Side 1, but I think it works. We have a song about finding pleasure with others, pleasure with solitude and the simple things, regrets with others, regretful revelations about life that can only come from lonely self-reflection, and finally the abandonment of traditional western values/religion in favor of a new, personalized outlook. Its a bunch of semi-related songs about life and all the ways you can look at it, good and bad, self-actualizing and self-defeating. An introspective counterpoint to the more outward-looking, retrospective Side 1. Surf's Up is really the key song here that takes all these seemingly unrelated vignettes and ties them together as fuel for an intense, world-changing epiphany. At least, thats how I see it.
The biggest change sequence-wise from my last mix is that Elements and Sunshine have switched sides. This is because I had yet to see Sunshine as a personal statement about religious/ethical disillusionment when I made Olorin. I just saw it as Brian and VDP recording some old Americana standards to go with their own Americana songs. I thought it was a lame throwaway track I only begrudgingly included because it was on the original printed tracklist. Now I see it as another introspective/life track, much more at home amongst CIFOTM and Surf's Up, as well as an indispensable piece of the album's message. Elements works better in its new place too, Id say. You can read it as a metaphor for our wanton destruction of the Native community, or the idea that in spite of all the damage we inflict on her, Mother Nature can really fuc|< us up when she wants to. For all our innovation with iron horses and ocean liners and bullets, we're still helpless against natural disasters. The unsettling feeling the track gives off fits a lot better with the Americana songs (which are loud, dynamic and have very dark undertones) a lot better than the more melodic and gentle Life tracks.
So, thats about it. Let me know what you think. This may seem near-identical to my latest mix but the changes, however slight, are really important and ultimately make for a totally different listening experience. It really is the best of both Aquarian and Olorin, I think.
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