The Smiley Smile Message Board

Until recently reading this board and the SMiLE discussions, I was totally unaware that it was actually Mike singing the "sunny down snuff" part of H&V... and this info totally blew me away, since I always thought it was Brian singing that part.

Has someone done a line-by-line breakdown of whose vocals are whose on H&V?  Where else is Mike taking lead vocals (was it only on parts from alternate versions than the Smiley Smile version?)

Goes to show how you think you know a song or a vocalist so well, but with the BBs, the voices can be very ambiguous sounding and morph into each other.

Try this link http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,5525.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,5525.0.html) and scroll down to Smily Smile.

The Definitive Vocal Credits List
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,5525.msg69379.html#msg69379

and the complete discussion that made the abovementioned list possible:
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,4120.0.html


I hope this helps a bit.

There are Smile sessions where Brian sings the first half of each verse line and Mike sings the last half.  So for the first verse it's like this:

Brian: I've been in this town so long that back in the city
Mike: I've been taken for lost and unknown for a long long time
Brian: Fell in love years ago with an innocent girl
Mike: From the Spanish and Indian home, of the heroes and villains.

I always loved that version.  Very neat idea on (presumably) Brian's part.  Mike did some great singing on that track.

Which version is this?

I only heard it a few months back for the first time (or never realized it) and I really like it. Great singing on both parts. Maybe, just maybe (and this is totally just interpreting) Brian planned two lead vocalists like in two characters; one heroe and one villain. Hope we can already get behind the "Mike is the villain"-jokes and think about the possibility of my idea

Not a "version" per se - it's on one of the boots, the name of which I can't recall at the moment.

Several of them.  Off the top of my head, I think that verse can be found on the Odeon Smile and on disc 1 of the SOT 17 set.

On Project Smile, it's in a file called "brimike verse".

I found it on SOT 17 - there are 3 attempts at it on there (labeled "mono mix attempt").

...I actually like those mixes better than ay other version. The trombone is prevalent, the snare drums is crisp, and the timbre of their voices is perfect, IMO. If I ever had the programming I would definitely use the verse form SO 17 mono mix attempt. I wish the BB's had  kept the instrumental track underneath what is the a-cappella "do-do-do...do-do-do..." part before the cantina section. All well.
Let's see what becomes of this box-set.

I like the way the backing track drops out in the a capella part, to each their own!

I've heard all those versions, as well as the version where Brian Sings:

I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken for lost and gone for
 Mike and Brian: a long long time.

But I think I have, or had, a version somewhere that sounds more like Al singing, perhaps double-tracked very well with Brian. Did that happen, or is it just Brian and some unfamiliar mix?

Mike actually kinda sounds like he's having fun singing those lines. Wouldn't have seen that coming.

Thnk you!

Doesn't really surprise me - of all the Smile songs, Mike has praised H&V more than any other.  He's said something to the effect of it being Brian's last great dynamic production.

I listened to the cited mixes and... I don't hear it as being Mike. I think something is wrong with me?

Is there anyplace online (or a thread on this site) which I'm unaware of, that has a line-by-line breakdown "Close Up" for the vocals on H&V?

(There's a brilliant "Close Up" on She's Going Bald, for example)...