The Handwritten Smile Song Titles Note

[Chris Brown]

Quick thing sofonanm, at the end of Heroes on the demo, Brian is saying flutter tone.  And at the end of Barnyard, I think he's saying "haven't finished this."

Haha, I just could not bring to mind what word he was saying in the first case. That, of course, makes perfect sense. Thanks.

So does the Barnyard bit - and it also brings something else to this discussion - if they hadn't finished working on a short and relatively simple song like Barnyard, then can we accurately say that any lyrics used at the time were the final, unchangeable ones? It's been mentioned in this thread that the 'original' lyrics to I'm In Great Shape were changed on BWPS - maybe so, but this snippet on the demo is all we have to go on for original lyrics, right? There's only the backing track from the sessions where Van's in the studio.

I've always taken that Barnyard quote from Brian to mean that perhaps there was another verse that was intended to follow the first, and it just hadn't been written yet.  Otherwise, it sounds pretty well finished to me, save for a lead vocal on the track we've all heard.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

... and then it goes in/into a fudder/funner tone ...

Actually I think he says 'Flutter tone'. Isn't that what the horn does, it has that little flutter that's stretched out?
 Which leads me to believe that the flutter toned horn would stretch out into the first bars of IIGS. Kind of like the weird feedback thing that is at the end of Cantina version and the IIGS sessions.

[sofonanm]

... and then it goes in/into a fudder/funner tone ...

Actually I think he says 'Flutter tone'. Isn't that what the horn does, it has that little flutter that's stretched out?
 Which leads me to believe that the flutter toned horn would stretch out into the first bars of IIGS. Kind of like the weird feedback thing that is at the end of Cantina version and the IIGS sessions.

Yes, Chris cleared that up for us.

That would be interesting - merging into IIGS at that point. When I first heard that demo I assumed that Brian was just playing bits and pieces of the songs they had been working on - not evidence of any determined structure. But now I wonder - perhaps Brian was much more ambitious with H&V (as all the sessions would suggest) and planned to use its themes throughout the entire album - not limiting it to one stand alone track (like BWPS or the 1967 single). I can't imagine H&V-IIGS-Barnyard to make a very strong single, though. And in that demo he did say "our next record's called Heroes and Villains..." Question is, which version?

[Bicyclerider]

... and then it goes in/into a fudder/funner tone ...

Actually I think he says 'Flutter tone'. Isn't that what the horn does, it has that little flutter that's stretched out?
 Which leads me to believe that the flutter toned horn would stretch out into the first bars of IIGS. Kind of like the weird feedback thing that is at the end of Cantina version and the IIGS sessions.

Yes, Chris cleared that up for us.

That would be interesting - merging into IIGS at that point. When I first heard that demo I assumed that Brian was just playing bits and pieces of the songs they had been working on - not evidence of any determined structure. But now I wonder - perhaps Brian was much more ambitious with H&V (as all the sessions would suggest) and planned to use its themes throughout the entire album - not limiting it to one stand alone track (like BWPS or the 1967 single). I can't imagine H&V-IIGS-Barnyard to make a very strong single, though. And in that demo he did say "our next record's called Heroes and Villains..." Question is, which version?

Well the version he's talking about IS Heroes verses/IIGS, and then "another section" Barnyard.  That was what he played to Humble Harv and the version Harv raved about being a hit.  I agree I don't see it as a Good vibrations followup.  Note he says "we're still working" and that Barnayrd is another section.  Based on the demo, Heroes went directly from the verses into IIGS, and then something else either went between IIGS and Barnyard - and with all the fragments like Bridge to Indians, soul Made Beautiful, etc. there's lots of candidates, or he hadn't yet written or decided on the piece inbetween.  Barnyard was recorded with a fade, so it would seem to be the end of the song, but he never says on the demo that is the ending, but he plays it like a fade, so I suspect it was at that time.

The flutter horn couldn't actually go INTO the first verse of IIGS because Brian wasn't doing cross fades, just butt end edits at this time.  But it could certainly lead into it.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

... and then it goes in/into a fudder/funner tone ...

Actually I think he says 'Flutter tone'. Isn't that what the horn does, it has that little flutter that's stretched out?
 Which leads me to believe that the flutter toned horn would stretch out into the first bars of IIGS. Kind of like the weird feedback thing that is at the end of Cantina version and the IIGS sessions.

Yes, Chris cleared that up for us.

 

My bad, I completely missed that part in Chris' post! 

[Chris Brown]

I agree with Bicyclerider...in October '66 at least, Brian conceived of Heroes as running in the order he played on the demo.  The juxtaposed sections do seem like they would sound odd together, but I can imagine Brian making it work somehow.  I can actually envision the "tape explosion" in IIGS leading (via a butt-end edit, of course) right into Barnyard, which would then fade and end the song.

Come to think of it, perhaps "false Barnyard" was meant to take the place of the real Barnyard at the conclusion of Heroes?  After deciding to spawn IIGS and Barnyard into their own songs, Brian would have needed an new ending.  Thus, he records a fade very similar to Barnyard (perhaps "in the cantina" was supposed to replace IIGS as well) and places it at the end of his February mix. 

I highly doubt I'm the first person to think of this, but it makes sense to me, assuming we are to take Brian's sequence in the demo as the real sequence at one point in time.

[The Song Of The Grange]

I agree with Bicyclerider...in October '66 at least, Brian conceived of Heroes as running in the order he played on the demo.  The juxtaposed sections do seem like they would sound odd together, but I can imagine Brian making it work somehow.  I can actually envision the "tape explosion" in IIGS leading (via a butt-end edit, of course) right into Barnyard, which would then fade and end the song.

Come to think of it, perhaps "false Barnyard" was meant to take the place of the real Barnyard at the conclusion of Heroes?  After deciding to spawn IIGS and Barnyard into their own songs, Brian would have needed an new ending.  Thus, he records a fade very similar to Barnyard (perhaps "in the cantina" was supposed to replace IIGS as well) and places it at the end of his February mix. 

I highly doubt I'm the first person to think of this, but it makes sense to me, assuming we are to take Brian's sequence in the demo as the real sequence at one point in time.

I have thought the same thing.  My mixes always have IIGS going into Barnyard.  It isn't too much of a stretch to see the last two parts of the cantina version of H&V to be some sort of mirror of this earlier version--massive tape feedback going smack into a Ab-Db chord switch.  Barnyard and Barnshine have the same 2 chord switch and a similar vocal line.  What makes it all more confusing is that Barnshine fade had those You Are My Sunshine lyrics on it.  And we know from that Al Kooper book that a very very early version of H&V sounded like "a bunch of weird versions of You Are My Sunshine."  Seems like Sunshine could have played a role in the October H&V also.

[PaulHippensteel]

Is it true that thousands of Smile slicks sat in a Capitol warehouse until the late '80s, then discarded? Anyone have an estimate as to how many slicks were saved from the landfill?

Why weren't the slicks sold as collector's items? Idiocy at Capitol isn't exactly late breaking news. It's not too hard to believe that some accountant or executive at Capitol said in the late '80s, "why are we wasting money storing those slicks? Pitch 'em"! (I have a slick for a Jerry Cole LP on Capitol, but that LP was commercially released.)

A friend of mine, Steve Kolanjian*, used to work for Capitol/EMI compiling "oldies" CD's, for the "Legendary Masters" and "Capitol Collectors" series, etc. (I helped him compile a Ventures CD). Steve tells me horror stories about the lack of respect for older artists/recordings at Capitol. He says that Capitol's tape vaults used to be well organized but recently numerous Capitol master tapes were shipped unlabeled to unorganized warehouses. Steve says other labels, like CBS, are doing the same thing. Recently someone was looking for the master of a girl group single Dolly Parton recorded for Monument (a CBS label) in the early '60s (before she was signed to RCA) but they had to "needle drop" the song from vinyl because the master couldn't be located.

At least if something has already come out on a CD, it can be copied from that CD for re-release with no loss in sound quality (Glenn Baker's Australian label Raven Records practically specializes in legit CD's mastered from other CD's!). But now if they want to release on CD something that's never been on CD it might have to come from vinyl (like the aforementioned Dolly Parton single). On a related note, a recent fire at MCA destroyed numerous master tapes in their vaults. Fortunately, the complete works of some artists, like Rick Nelson, were previously released on CD (Bear Family in Germany put out a boxed set of his entire Decca output).

*Steve told me one day he was in the elevator at the Capitol building in LA and was talking to a colleague about Eugene Landy. When the elevator stopped a woman got out screaming in disbelief "no, not my Dr. Landy"!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Is it true that thousands of Smile slicks sat in a Capitol warehouse until the late '80s, then discarded? Anyone have an estimate as to how many slicks were saved from the landfill?

I've heard both late 60s and late 70... late 60s seems most likely, as after that, the band were off Capitol, so why keep storing 400,000 sheets of paper for no good reason (same applies to about the same number of booklets). No slicks were saved from the landfill.

Why weren't the slicks sold as collector's items? Idiocy at Capitol isn't exactly late breaking news. It's not too hard to believe that some accountant or executive at Capitol said in the late '80s, "why are we wasting money storing those slicks? Pitch 'em"! (I have a slick for a Jerry Cole LP on Capitol, but that LP was commercially released.)

No-one in 1969 was thinking 'collectors items'.

[B-Rex]

I'm getting into the game a bit late here.  I've listened to the vocals repeatedly, trying to imagine it as agriculture.  It simply is not there.  I politely agree with Juggler on this point.  I've even ruled out upper but I can certainly see someone hearing upper.

For me, Barnyard, I Wanna be Around and Woodshop are all inconsequential on their own.  Throw in Barnshine and compile them into a suite and then they all make sense.   A Barnyard suite was much closer than I'd ever realised.

I separate the elements from any of these pieces.  I still feel the elements should be primarily instrumental.  Yes, Wind Chimes has extensive vocals but with a portion of Holidays tacked onto it, much like in BWPS, it does fit together nicely.   Da Da only works as a backing track.  I enjoy it as In Blue Hawai'i, but on its own it's a bit weak.  Mrs. O'Leary's Cow flows quite well into Diamond Head.  Purists don't like the use of Diamond Head but it is vastly superior to any other water tune, and is written in the same vein as the Smile material.  However, it's not completely a BW song.

The question for me is "What sounds best from the material we have?"  I try to make the most musical and amazing sounding Smile comp that I can.  If that involves extending the time frame a bit, so be it.  Where to draw the line can be a bit tricky.

[Sheriff John Stone]

The question for me is "What sounds best from the material we have?"  I try to make the most musical and amazing sounding Smile comp that I can.  If that involves extending the time frame a bit, so be it.  Where to draw the line can be a bit tricky.

I'd be interested in seeing your mix/sequencing. There is a thread on Page 3 called "Your personal SMiLE mix" if you have the time....

[B-Rex]

Sheriff,
I posted it on "Making a Smile Mix" on page 6 of the archives, page 2 of the post.  I've made a few changes since then and I'll PM you with the cnew lineup.

[tatter]

Hi all, first post so apologies if this has been suggested numerous times before.

It has always seemed right to me that Fire should come after Cabinessence, the first line of Cabinessence is 'Light the lamp and fire mellow' and the end melody of Cabinessence (the chromatic backing vocal line) is the same as the chromatic piano line in Fire. Plus obviously Miss O'Leary's cow allegedly knocked over a lamp to start the great fire. Has this been considered before or am I on completely the wrong track?

[B-Rex]

I've always put Cabin Essence at the end of a movement, even prior to BWPS I had it at the end of side one.  There certainly is a link in the lyrics but it seems a little too abrupt to me to place Mrs. O'Leary's Cow after Cabinessence.  I like to keep the elements together but your mix is up to you to figure out.  There's an infinite number of possibilities!

Are you interested in sharing the running order of your mix?  You may have a much different perspective from most SMiLaholics.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Hi all, first post so apologies if this has been suggested numerous times before.

It has always seemed right to me that Fire should come after Cabinessence, the first line of Cabinessence is 'Light the lamp and fire mellow' and the end melody of Cabinessence (the chromatic backing vocal line) is the same as the chromatic piano line in Fire. Plus obviously Miss O'Leary's cow allegedly knocked over a lamp to start the great fire. Has this been considered before or am I on completely the wrong track?

Hi tatter, welcome to the board.

While I agree with you that "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" should come after "Cabinessence", I'm not sure that I like it immediately after "Cabinessence". The following is just my opinion....

Yes, "Cabinessence" begins with the line, "Light the lamp and fire mellow....", which would indicate a night time song. And, the cow kicked over the lamp at night. But, how does "Cabinessence" end? With "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield". Doesn't that happen in the MORNING? And, we're talking about cornfields or corn - Vegetables? That's what I like to put in some proximity following "Cabinessence". First, he builds the home on the range, then, to pay for it, he carts off and sells his vegetables. That's just one man's theory, mine, so it doesn't mean much....

In keeping with the cow kicking over the lamp, and I do take that seriously in sequencing, I like to go "Barnyard" with the animal noises (including mooing cows) signifying the animals going into the barn, THEN follow it with "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". In between I put "The Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine" because I like the sound of the fading cello, signifying to me the lamp falling or TIMBER!

Like B-Rex said, we'd welcome your ideas or sequence. There are no right or wrong answers, and it's a lot of fun kicking around the ideas.

[tatter]

B-Rex - I haven't actually got a tracklisting of my own personal mix (yet ) but when i do i'll certainly share it, i wasn't even aware just how much SMiLE material existed until a few weeks ago, I must have been living under a rock.

Sheriff John Stone - That's a great answer and just illustrates the different interpretations of the songs on SMiLE and the possibilities of running order etc. I see Cabinessence as a song about a place changing from Barns and Farming to a more industrial place (who ran the iron horse etc etc near the end and a feeling of dissatisfaction with the new lifestyle) and this kind of ties in with Chicago becoming a leading industrial city before the great fire.

Like you say there's no right or wrong but it's great fun thinking about all the possibilities.

The main thing for me was the chromatic backing vocals at the end of Cabinessence and the same piano intro at the start of Fire, (maybe BW was thinking of overlapping them?) sometimes chromatic melodies can be good transitions between songs in different keys because they don't depend on a particular key to be played behind them, they work in any key.

Also just doing a bit of reading up on the fire and Chicago, there had been the construction of the Illinois-Michigan Canal (Water) leading to the introduction of railways (working on the railroad) and there were gail-force winds blowing on the day of the fire. So a logical order could also be earth, water, wind, fire?

Anyway just throwing it in the already massive pot! 

[Andrew G. Doe]

The main thing for me was the chromatic backing vocals at the end of Cabinessence and the same piano intro at the start of Fire, (maybe BW was thinking of overlapping them?)

According to someone who would know about these things, none of the tracks on Smile as originally envisaged by its creators would have been segued or cross-faded, except internally in one song. This in response to a direct question.

[The Song Of The Grange]

Hi all, first post so apologies if this has been suggested numerous times before.

It has always seemed right to me that Fire should come after Cabinessence, the first line of Cabinessence is 'Light the lamp and fire mellow' and the end melody of Cabinessence (the chromatic backing vocal line) is the same as the chromatic piano line in Fire. Plus obviously Miss O'Leary's cow allegedly knocked over a lamp to start the great fire. Has this been considered before or am I on completely the wrong track?

Welcome tatter.

It sounds like you have caught the Smile bug, better cancel your plans for the next few months!

I am glad you suggested the idea of Fire coming after Cabinessence, I too have thought that there is some relationship between the two songs.  The unanswerable question is whether this shared musical thread would have lead to the songs coming one after another, or if it would have been a reprise of the theme, and one would have come at a later part of the LP.  You can go mad thinking about these sorts of things, I think I have.  I think a good argument could be made for having the songs together.  Fire could also lead into Cabinessence, because the section called "I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night (Work Shop)" is probably meant to go at the end of Mrs O'Leary's Cow, and thus the hammering and sawing could make sense as the "(re)building of the cabin".

One thing to think about: evidence for the Mrs. O'Leary Cow intro music (as heard on the 2004 release) being the actual intro to Fire is shaky.  It could be the case that the "chimes version" or that other version floating around were recorded at an earlier date, but the version that appears on the box set as "Heroes and Villains intro" was actually recorded months after Brian canned the Fire music (I'm sure you've heard the legend).  So there is no way that music could have been the intro to Fire because it didn't exist.  I think it is David Leaf's idea that Brian picked up on when putting together the 2004 release.

[B-Rex]

Tatter, Grange is correct about freeing up your calendar for the next few months.  SMiLE may well consume you.   Check out some running orders on this post and other posts and just listen.  You may be lacking a fair amount of unofficially released material but there is plenty of released material to get you started.  As AGD stated, the original SMiLE wouldn't have had all of the segues that the 2004 version does.  Most every song has a fade.  That doesn't have to stop you from crossfading but it isn't historically accurate.  I don't mind playing with history a bit, myself.  Some connections will arise that perhaps others have not noticed.  Expect to play around with your order frequently.  One day it will seem perfect and the next you may wonder how you came up with that drivel.   Many of us have had a dozen to several dozen running orders.  As Sheriff said, there is no right or wrong, just endless possibilities.  Share it when you're ready.

[Cam Mott]

"It sounds like you have caught the Smile bug, better cancel your plans for the next few months!"

Or years.

[Cam Mott]

The main thing for me was the chromatic backing vocals at the end of Cabinessence and the same piano intro at the start of Fire, (maybe BW was thinking of overlapping them?)

According to someone who would know about these things, none of the tracks on Smile as originally envisaged by its creators would have been segued or cross-faded, except internally in one song. This in response to a direct question.

And every mention of movements by Brian back in that day, that I have seen or heard, is about movements within a song.

[Matt Bielewicz]

Mr Doe... I know that you've quite deliberately not said in your post above which song it was that was going to have the internal crossfade, so by asking 'which one?', I'm probably going somewhere you don't wish to go. But...

...which one?

(what the heck... no harm in asking... you can always ignore the question...!)

I'm guessing Good Vibrations. Because as released, it HAS a crossfade of sorts. (From 'my-my-my what elation' to 'gotta keep those lovin' good...'). Everyone always calls that a very obvious edit, whereas in fact it has to be some kind of crossfade, as you can still hear the reverb trails from the previous section after the switch to the slow organ section. And the reverb would have been cut off if it was a butt edit, right?

MattB

[Dr. Tim]

No no no - the tape edit was done first during the mixdown, then the mix was put through the reverb to (1) cover those edits a bit, and (2) be generally psychedelic and out there and with it, man.  (A real "WHOAAH!!" acid moment).  Note that other tape edits are deliberately obvious (when the coda begins, for example), also part of the overall same effect.

Otherwise I don't know the answer to your cross fade question, though the other obvious candidate would be Heroes & Villains.  Even if the alternative "single" mix (see the GV box set) is more tape edits than cross fades.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Mr Doe... I know that you've quite deliberately not said in your post above which song it was that was going to have the internal crossfade, so by asking 'which one?', I'm probably going somewhere you don't wish to go. But...

...which one?

(what the heck... no harm in asking... you can always ignore the question...!)

I'm guessing Good Vibrations. Because as released, it HAS a crossfade of sorts. (From 'my-my-my what elation' to 'gotta keep those lovin' good...'). Everyone always calls that a very obvious edit, whereas in fact it has to be some kind of crossfade, as you can still hear the reverb trails from the previous section after the switch to the slow organ section. And the reverb would have been cut off if it was a butt edit, right?

MattB

"The Elements".

[runnersdialzero]

I'm getting into the game a bit late here.  I've listened to the vocals repeatedly, trying to imagine it as agriculture.  It simply is not there.  I politely agree with Juggler on this point.  I've even ruled out upper but I can certainly see someone hearing upper.

Brian could have easily fudged the lyric or not been 100% sure on it at the time. It's just Brian around a piano showing a couple people some new ideas they were working with, I don't think it's worth getting too far into.

For all those pointing out lyrical differences, he also sings, "I've been taken as lost and gone" on the Humble Harv recording. Not quite as important as the others pointed out, but it is worth mentioning as the lyric later changed, just as "agriculture" could have been later on.