Journalist Nick Kent on Brian Wilson's voices.

[Mr. Cohen]

"[By 1967 he was hearing] these voices in his head. They weren't saying anything too distinct yet, just making this dark, ghostly murmuring sound back there in the lower recesses of his brain."

Now, here's what interests me:
"At one session for 'Heroes and Villains' he tried to capture this latest ghoulish sound taking up squatter's rights in his head.... It was the scariest sound of anything he created for Smile, but it wasn't as scary as what the voices in his head were starting to insinuate.... All the voices in his head now interrupting his thoughts... forever muttering, 'You're finished, you're washed up! You've lost the plot and you've lost your mind. You played with God and messed with forces that can only destroy you."


Does anybody know what this session might be, if it ever actually happened? Was it just a vocal session that got lost? Or does anything on the boots fit the bill? We have things like "Swedish Frog" and "Water Chant", but those are more just eerie than outright scary. Could it be that the weird section in the Smiley Smile version of "Wonderful" (you know, with the "Bicycle Rider" theme in the background) was like a 'lite' version of that idea, capturing those voices on tape? It would interesting, if anybody could capture the sounds of schizophrenia, it would've been Brian.

[Chris Brown]

I always thought that the weird interlude to "Wonderful" on Smiley was meant to capture the disturbing voices Brian was hearing, so that would be my guess, assuming that the session Kent was referring to has seen the light of day in the first place.

[Bicyclerider]

I think "Bag of Tricks" or "Intro" would fit the bill - both are pretty spooky.

[Sheriff John Stone]

"At one session for 'Heroes and Villains' he tried to capture this latest ghoulish sound taking up squatter's rights in his head....

For me, the most ghoulish section of "Heroes And Villains" would be the surrounding "Swedish Frog" section; I always found that to be eerie, if you will. Not that I expected it to be included, but that section didn't make the cut on BWPS.... 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

This is assuming Nick Kent wasn't making the whole thing up in the first place, which he had a tendency to do.

[Andrew G. Doe]

"[By 1967 he was hearing] these voices in his head. They weren't saying anything too distinct yet, just making this dark, ghostly murmuring sound back there in the lower recesses of his brain."

Now, here's what interests me:
"At one session for 'Heroes and Villains' he tried to capture this latest ghoulish sound taking up squatter's rights in his head.... It was the scariest sound of anything he created for Smile, but it wasn't as scary as what the voices in his head were starting to insinuate.... All the voices in his head now interrupting his thoughts... forever muttering, 'You're finished, you're washed up! You've lost the plot and you've lost your mind. You played with God and messed with forces that can only destroy you."


Does anybody know what this session might be, if it ever actually happened? Was it just a vocal session that got lost? Or does anything on the boots fit the bill? We have things like "Swedish Frog" and "Water Chant", but those are more just eerie than outright scary. Could it be that the weird section in the Smiley Smile version of "Wonderful" (you know, with the "Bicycle Rider" theme in the background) was like a 'lite' version of that idea, capturing those voices on tape? It would interesting, if anybody could capture the sounds of schizophrenia, it would've been Brian.

I've always taken that to be the reverb/feedback loop that's the tag of the cantina version of "H&V" (in fact, I recall reading that somewhere, and no, it wasn't something I wrote). Note, Kent doesn't say it was voices, just that it was more scary than the voices Brian was hearing.