Smile Song titles

[Winston Wrong]

Does anyone know where the Smile songtitles "I Love to say Da Da" or "Do you Dig/Like Worms" came from? I have heard session recordings for these songs and at no point does either of these titles get mentioned in-between takes.

Just curious,

[variable2]

My guess is.. Brian & Co. where baked out of their minds and they needed something to put on the tracking notes. 

[Winston Wrong]

Possibly.

Although after hearing hours of Smile sessions, I have never heard Brian sound "out of it" or not in complete control of the session.

He always seemed to be as focused as he was during the recording of Pet Sounds (unless all the weird stuff is contained on the unbooted material!)

[variable2]

Possibly.

Although after hearing hours of Smile sessions, I have never heard Brian sound "out of it" or not in complete control of the session.

He always seemed to be as focused as he was during the recording of Pet Sounds (unless all the weird stuff is contained on the unbooted material!)

Sometimes pot can make you super-focused, though. Not necessarily out of it.  I'm just saying they probably were thinking of arbitrary titles to put down on unfinished songs.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Whether or not they were conceived under the influence, they stuck. Weren't they submitted to Capitol Records on the infamous handwritten list? And, weren't they submitted to the artist for the SMiLE booklet?

JCarson wrote an excellent post (his take) about the meaning of "Do You Like Worms" on the Hawaiian Chants on Roll Plymouth Rock thread.

I'm just as curious about "Look" and "Holiday".

[The Heartical Don]

Don't know either. I would guess that 'Cabin-Essence', or 'Wonderful', or 'Wind Chimes' were conceived in a normal state. 'Do You Like Worms', on the other hand, seems to have a pretty high THC content.

[runnersdialzero]

I wish the title "Do You Like Worms?" would have survived on BWPS

[Chris Brown]

I wish the title "Do You Like Worms?" would have survived on BWPS

So do I...I've always thought that was the coolest damn song title ever.

[Fall Breaks]

How come it's both called "Like" and "Dig" Worms? Different names on different tape boxes, I assume? Is one title earlier than the other?

[c-man]

From Wikipedia:

"Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.
-Marc Lowenthal, translator's introduction to Francis Picabia's I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, And Provocation (MIT Press 2007)"

[c-man]

Van Dyke has said the title "Do You Dig Worms" was never a real title from Brian or himself, but rather something a recording engineer wrote on the tape box.  However, that doesn't explain why it's the title used on the AFM contract, or why Frank Holmes would bother to include worms in his illustration for the song.  And, it makes a certain amount of sense...if you rolled Plymouth Rock (or any other rock) over, you'd likely find some worms!

[variable2]

And, it makes a certain amount of sense...if you rolled Plymouth Rock (or any other rock) over, you'd likely find some worms!

YOU sir, just blew my mind! 

[A Million Units In Jan!]

I always thought that it made sense-Worms and rolling a rock over. Not nearly as far out as everyone seemed to think it was, or is. Then again, it is a little bit weird for a BB's song title. And I'm pretty sure that Van or Brian or both came up with it, if Frank Holmes titled it in his drawings. ILTSDD on the other hand, I have no idea where the hell that came from. And I wonder just what the point of that piece of music is. It's the last 'proper' SMiLE track he worked on. I wonder if it was an attempt at Elements, or there were some lyrics for it somewhere, although I don't think there's a vocal session for it. I know everyone calls it 'Water' but there isn't any hard proof of that.

[John]

As I've said before, I just assumed the "like" came from the play on "dig" - meaning the act of digging but also digging as in liking stuff. It's one step from here to there.

[c-man]

I always thought that it made sense-Worms and rolling a rock over. Not nearly as far out as everyone seemed to think it was, or is. Then again, it is a little bit weird for a BB's song title. And I'm pretty sure that Van or Brian or both came up with it, if Frank Holmes titled it in his drawings. ILTSDD on the other hand, I have no idea where the hell that came from. And I wonder just what the point of that piece of music is. It's the last 'proper' SMiLE track he worked on. I wonder if it was an attempt at Elements, or there were some lyrics for it somewhere, although I don't think there's a vocal session for it. I know everyone calls it 'Water' but there isn't any hard proof of that.

Byron Preiss called it "Water" back in '79...proof enough for me.
Plus, one of the sounds on the track reminds me of a a leaky faucet.

[petsite]

Brian was cutting "feels" with no idea where they would be placed in the musical whole. So "Do You Like Worms" and "Love To Say Da Da" make as much sense as "I Hate Rock And Roll (Let Him Run Wild)" or any number of others.

Bob

[Sheriff John Stone]

Brian was cutting "feels" with no idea where they would be placed in the musical whole. So "Do You Like Worms" and "Love To Say Da Da" make as much sense as "I Hate Rock And Roll (Let Him Run Wild)" or any number of others.

Bob

But, why would they take the step of commissioning an artist/illustrator using those titles? Does that make any sense?

[Chris Brown]

Brian was cutting "feels" with no idea where they would be placed in the musical whole. So "Do You Like Worms" and "Love To Say Da Da" make as much sense as "I Hate Rock And Roll (Let Him Run Wild)" or any number of others.

Bob

But, why would they take the step of commissioning an artist/illustrator using those titles? Does that make any sense?

Not to mention submitting a songlist to Capitol with those titles on it.

[Bicyclerider]

Do You Like Worms was the name submitted to Capitol and used in the back cover art mockup, as well as on the session sheets.  It must have come from Brian and Carl used it when he wrote up the December list for Capitol.  Van Dyke doesn't like it but nevertheless there it is.  I think it's incredibly cool and definitely in the "childhood" theme of Smile, even though the song is Americana in subject.

I Love to Say Dada - it was on Carl's 1972 list of tracks for the projected Smile release with Holland.  It was also the title on the session sheets, wasn't it?  I Love to Say Dada (incorporating Cool Cool water) was the actual title reported, from a press conference in England.  It was then included in the list of Smile tracks in Byron Preiss's book - that came out in 1977 or thereabouts - and it was inaccurately described as what is clearly the "water chant."  By the title I assumed the track would have all sorts of backing vocal or lead scatting vocal "da da"'s but was suprized to hear "wah wah hoo wah" instead!

[JCarson]

Whether or not they were conceived under the influence, they stuck. Weren't they submitted to Capitol Records on the infamous handwritten list? And, weren't they submitted to the artist for the SMiLE booklet?

JCarson wrote an excellent post (his take) about the meaning of "Do You Like Worms" on the Hawaiian Chants on Roll Plymouth Rock thread.

I'm just as curious about "Look" and "Holiday".

Cheers man! I've never been referenced like that before... I'm genuinely touched that you liked my post.

Does Lou Shenk post here? Are you, Lou, known as Bicycle Rider here? If so, what do you make of my take on Do You Like Worms. Have you updated that original essay (Smile: A Children's Song)? That article was the single best thing I've ever read about Smile. Is the essay hosted anywhere?

Questions, questions!
Here's another one. I love the version of Child is Father to the Man which was apparently recorded during the sessions for Vegatables. The one which is piano and vocals only. One of the boys (Brian?) sings something like  'the wood child' or ' the what child' or even (at a stretch!) "the wotcha" at the beginning of each line. Can anyone shed light on this? It's one of my favourite Smile pieces (so many pieces...). And what the heck it's doing in Vegatables I don't know. It's such a mournful little fragment.