I've recently been thinking that maybe Look/I Ran had a better chance of being on SMiLE then I'd wanted to give it credit for in the past, when I was of the "Dec Tracklist as template" opinion. I've wondered if it may have even been intended as a "second movement" to Wonderful all along, similar to Surf's Up having a two-part structure with separate sessions. (And later replaced by the "wonderful insert" in the switch to version 2 of the song, then replaced again by the Smiley bridge.)
Assuming I'm right, for the sake of argument, that opens the question to what lyrics for I Ran would've been. It doesn't sound like an instrumental and with the missing vocal session I think it's safe to assume Brian would've done something with it. The new title for the second recording date, "I Ran," implies some thought went into this track, its concept had been decided upon, while Look was just a placeholder name. (Like California Girls called "you are grass and Im a lawnmower" in studio chatter.)
A Clue in Psychedelic Sounds
I was listening to the Psychedelic Sounds again (as I do every Wednesday) and noticed the Ice Cream Man skit seems to be the only comedy-improv scenario that gets brought up here but was never followed up on with the Wrecking Crew. Previously, I'd assumed this is because it was not a concept Brian had in mind, just his friends taking some initiative ("hey, Brian's goading us to participate in these goofy scenarios like falling into an instrument, someones playing a riff that sounds like an ice cream truck on the piano and Im stoned...uhh...let's pretend to chase down the ice cream truck and order something!")
Now Im wondering if it wasn't Brian playing that riff on piano in the first place and/or if he isn't the one who calls out "maybe it's the ice cream man!" (timestamp:
https://youtu.be/SgXhAom7zqE?t=1541 :
is that Brian's voice or not?) to guide the Posse into an improv scene. That would imply Brian had some kinda plan for this skit that would've eventually been rerecorded properly with the Wrecking Crew or Beach Boys at a later date. (Of course, he never got the chance or thought better of it.)
Unfortunately, the skit doesn't really go anywhere because Van Dyke Parks takes it in a weird direction, pretending to be a "concern troll" WASP who doesn't want to buy from a black ice cream dealer. He stutters and drags out the lame joke until someone calls him on it "carrying it a little too far" and then the vibe is dead. Admittedly, almost immediately after, Brian directs the guys back to him having fallen into the microphone, implying he could've been setting
that skit up the whole time, while the other guys were just goofing off in the interrim, going off script from the bits Brian had planned for them to do, but its hard to tell with just audio.
Anyway though, I Ran...ran for the ice cream truck? Whether the skit idea was a serious consideration or not it's as good of a subject for a song with that name, as any. In a "suite" of childlike innocence themed tracks, on an album called SMiLE that was all about humor and happiness, the innocent image of children running for their dessert fits right at home.
Using Bisociation as a Lens When Analyzing the Arrangements
Now let's consider what, in my opinion, was the most important source of inspiration to Brian when composing SMiLE: Arthur Koestler's
The Art of Creation. If you're not familiar, it's all about the bisociative artistic process (where "art" is defined as essentially the creative association of two distinct things, aka
bisociation). Under this operating process, the Cycle of Life tracks could be said to use classical instruments (and some scattered music concrete perhaps) to evoke the sounds of certain "musical" objects a child might have access to. Then, Van's lyrics (working with deliberately chosen instruments in each song's arrangement) would draw the listener to make further connections they have with those same objects. Let's look at each one individually...
1) Wind Chimes has marimbas and pianos taking their turns as the titular object, and horns as the wind blowing it. Then Van's lyrics are all about the warm cozy feelings of staying in, chilling out on your porch, not having to go anywhere and admiring the cool decorations you've styled your pad with. "A little lazier if you will" says Brian in the control booth--it's a relaxed Sunday afternoon ("late afternoon") kinda vibe.
2) Wonderful, in its original form, has always sounded like a music box to my ears, the harpsichord version. This makes me feel like being in a little girl's room, and as I've said the "gather the forest" is a Disney princess' animal friends, "all fall down" is ring a round the rosy, "chalk and numbers" is hopscotch. This is a pre-adolescent girl coming of age and the tragedy of seeing an innocent thing knowing her first disappointment or even trauma at the hands of an outside entity ("the non-believer" which implies an other-ness or lack of pure intent and "good" morals.)
3) CIFOTM is a baby, turning that cacophonous wail into a horn, its heart as those glorious bass notes. This makes me think of a father and child communicating in the ways each knows how--words and wailing--but united by the metronomic beat of their hearts.
4) Surf's Up is the jewelry in percussion and children laughing in horns (tell me that isn't what Brian intended after hearing "talking horns"). The fade, I expect, would've included the disquieting last segment of "talking horns" representing an echo-y laugh trailing off or perhaps children crying out in anguish (either implying they're already suffering under the current system we all know isn't working, or they would be if we let things get worse?). So the whole song's instrumentation would've been the narrator caught between jewels=wealth, either bowing down to those who have it or letting the pursuit of it distract him. Then children's laughter, which the song's climax spells out as salvation, comes in to remind him what's really important. If there would've been strings in the second movement...maybe their bisociative anchor would've been God reaching down, like rays of light showing the way or who the hell knows. It's hard to say what they'd represent without knowing how the arrangement sounded.
5) Following the same conventions, we can take educated guesses at what Look is doing from a bisociation perspective. Each melody, or the most prominent anyway, has a visual component. With the title "I Ran" in mind, I'd interpret the "energetic" sections (the verse?) as running as fast as one can--even the rhythm of beats sounds like the pace of my sneakers hitting pavement as a kid. According to my reading of this sheet music (
https://musescore.com/user/67293877/scores/15753796) this is the piano and harpsichord blended. During the "kiddie parts" (as Brian refers to in the studio chatter) with the "bouncy jingle" sound (choruses?) the piano and glockenspiel seem to both be playing the notes I always, *ALWAYS* thought of as ice cream truck sounding. (You can believe me or not, though if I were to lie in service of an argument I'd do something more compelling than fake an intuitive association that ultimately isn't evidence.) But it's the truth; long before I knew the Psychedelic Sounds existed, much less cared, I always thought of ice cream truck jingles and the joy of eating frozen sugary treats when hearing this track from the first.
I Ran, I've always felt, perfectly captured the joys and growing pains of childhood coming of age in a succinct 2 minutes. It was a tremendous sacrifice for "authenticity" when I stopped including it in my fanmixes.
Finishing the Song in This Context
So anyway, we take it as a given then that Look/I Ran is a song about a child, or even a nostalgic/whimsical adult who's longing to be a kid again, chasing down the truck. I think the ideal completion effort might use lyrics to describe the delayed gratification of exerting effort towards a cause, or the exhilaration of fitness/running, maybe the importance of having little things to look forward to, in the verses. The choruses could describe the temptation our speaker is after, the joy of "catching your own prey" so to speak, the timeless appeal of a nice earned treat. The somber sounding "intro" to the song could show the kid's feeling down or aimless, and then the sounds of the truck off in the distance cheers him up, gives him a goal to work at. I think an interesting angle might be to mirror John Cheever's "The Swimmer" (VDP was not above making such a reference) with the speaker starting out as a kid, subtly getting older each v-c go around, realizing at the end he's always chasing the ice cream truck.
This way, where WC is about the simple pleasures at home, I Ran is about the just-out-of-reach pleasures one has to strive for outside. Where WC is about the inevitable hardships parents have to watch their kids go through, I Ran is the fun experiences in their world--the humble innocuous things that make them happy. CIFOTM is about how both Wonderful's traumas and I Ran's triumphs (he caught the truck!) can have ripple effects through a kid's psychological development, shaping their recursive life trajectory. Then SU asks us "hey, isn't this what it's all about--not slaving away for the chance at wealth, or holding up a system we all know is crumbling and flawed? Why don't we make sure our kids have good, well-nurtured lives so they can be happy, curious, confidently proactive people. (Plus demonstrating the power of music--specifically that produced by the young at heart--can wake people up and change the world!)
Taking this back to the Psychedelic Sounds...I think, if that is Brian talking on that tape, bringing up the Ice Cream Man and seeing what improv his friends would try with it...he was maybe playing around with the idea of doing a comedy skit in conjunction with this song. Something like Vosse/Brian as unself-aware stoners taking way too long to decide what they want as children behind them in line wait anxiously, or trying to order vegetables from Hal Blaine, who's playing an exasperated Ice cream man! Perhaps, more speculatively, if the opportunity had arisen, Brian would've recorded an audio verite of either some actual kid(s) ordering ice cream excitedly, or himself/Vosse exaggeratedly ordering ice cream from an actual vendor (especially if he had a distinct manner of speech). Even just the jingle of a truck passing by...
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