The Smiley Smile Message Board

I am sure this has been asked before but was the "Hey Bop A Ruba" part on the Smiley Smile version recorded during Smile? You know like the "Rock With Me Henry" version.

Which by the way I am keeping my fingers crossed for the Rock With Me Henry mix on the Sessions Box Set. That would be worth the money alone.

Think it was after.

Am I the only one that HATES the Rock with me Henry version? For me it's the original harpsichord version or nothing.

Me too, with the caveat being that I love the Smiley version as well (although they're really almost two different songs, aren't they).  Brian had it perfect the first time - he was the right guy to sing it, and the classical-sounding arrangement is just stunning.  I'm all for things coming out of left field, but the whole "rock with me Henry" thing just doesn't work at all as far as I'm concerned. 

No. I can't stand it. It's like someone hurled a turd at a fine oil painting.

Nope, can't stand the Rock With Me Henry...destroys the beauty of the tune. Love the harpsichord version only

I've always thought that the Rock With Me Henry had a great backing track, but all the singing and talking drowns it out. I've always though it was weird that the song fades out early. Is there a longer unbooted version?

I agree the harpsichord original is far superior than the Rock with Me Henry version but if they are throwing in alternate mixes on the box set then I would love to hear a clear unbooted version.

I hope they devote as little as possible to the "Rock with me Henry" version on the box.  I'm looking forward to hearing more from the April re-record.

Hello there,

I kinda like the "Rock With Me Henry" version, but the big problem is that the lead stops at one point and the track seems to be unfinished, at least on the booted version we know. Did they complete the track later on ?

I may be in an absolute minority here but I like the Smiley Smile version just as much as the original Smile rendition I've heard.

Come on, you've got to love the "na na na na" group vocals and Carl's spooky lead singing!

Wot he said. I detest the RWMG miscreant. The singing is poor (at least on the bleg that I of course don't own). Hollow, and off-key. Strain for my ears. If its on the box, I'll start bartering with my retailer. I want 25% off, because of an attack on my quality of life.

Okay guys, everyone take a step back. According to several threads currently in vogue we don't like the RMH version of Wonderful, we prefer the Smiley version of Wind Chimes, He Gives Speeches is less of a song than She's Going Bald … does any one want the SMiLE sessions, or is we's happy wi' what we've got????

 :lol :lol :lol brilliant! Perhaps SSnet saved me some € 150 this week...

I always liked 'He Gives Speeches' better than 'She's Going Bold'. As to the 'rock with me Henry' version of Wonderful, i think it's a curiosity, and it would be great to have it on the boxset. I agree, the original harpsichord version is superior, but any version of 'Wonderful' is a plus.

I love Rock Me Henry in its own right, along with the "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" chants. My daughter loves it too – when she was just a few weeks old she really got caught by it – think it's the deep resonating bass vocals. "Rock Me" and "Harpsi" versions are complementary IMHO.







 


Please don't cancel the box…!

+1

The Mojo edition is awesome by the way. Sounds like a splice of Mark's 88 no-lead version and the "original".

I can understand not liking the concept of the "Rock With Me, Henry" version, but why would you criticize an abandoned vocal take that shows up on a bootleg? It's not like that take was ever going to be released officially back in '67. It's like saying Brian's early run-through demo vocal on "Good Vibrations" sucks because it's nowhere near as good as Carl's on the officially released track.

What the SMILEY SMILE version of "Wonderful" has going for it is the bridge. While the arrangement and performance of the original harpsichord-based version is beautiful, it really only fully works by segueing into "Song For Children" on BWPS. As a stand-alone track, it needs something more than just five straight verses with no chorus, bridge or coda. The "Hey bop-a-reba" bridge breaks up the song nicely and the "na-na-na-na-na-na" is an inspired vocal addition.

I don't know, i think the harpsichord version works fine without the Smiley Smile bridge - and especially with the extra vocals you hear on the Mojo edition. I mean, the Smiley version is cool in its own right, but i wouldn't say it's better than the 'original'. The 'Hey bop-a-reba' belongs in Heroes and Villains ;)

Actually, I agree with you. I still prefer the harpsichord version and consider it the best. It comes to full flowering by being in the context of the second movement of BWPS because it seems to need to be heard in that fashion. It does make sense, however, that Brian chose to add a bridge (and a vocal riff that could wrap everything up) to help the song work as a stand-alone track.

I think one of the great mysteries of SMiLE is what Brian was going to do with that original harpsichord version - it sounds almost fully-produced (with a good lead vocal and all) and yet it just trails off with that inconclusive bassline. There's no way Brian would have issued the song ending like that. Seems like there would have to have been a tag of sorts, although I think the known tag session is for the "Rock With Me, Henry" version, right? Do we know of any bridge or tag sessions for this earlier version?

What singing and talking? Have I heard this? The RWMH version is harpsichord, right? With brushed snares overdubbed. Fantastic. I love it. And it wasn't finished. Imagine if Carl had nailed the vocal, and it had been mixed. I'll bet you would have loved it. What is it people were always saying to Brian. "Oh, this doesn't work, this doesn't sound right". Then he'd add something else and it would all fall into place.

I'd be very sad if it wasn't on the box.

And if they've uncovered a finished version of it (which I doubt) then I hope they use it on disc 1. There, stick that up your Henry and rock with it.  :P

I'd say that considering it's a relatively well-known track in the fanbase, the "Rock With Me Henry" version wouldn't be excluded from the box set except if it couldn't be found. Alan Boyd mentioned a few years back that the tapes for that version of Wonderful were not in the band's inventory. Unless said tapes were recovered, the only way I'd see it being on the box set would be if the bootlegs were used as a source (how ironic).

Rock with Me Henry version--As others have stated, I like the instrumental backing.  It would have been cool if Brian had applied that jazzy vibe to a completely different song.  The Rock with Me chant has gotta go, though.  What were they thinking?

SS version--I have tried, but I just can't get into it.  I keep hearing descriptions like 'creepy', 'dark', etc.  That may have worked for Floyd, but not my boys!

SMiLE version--Priceless!!!!!!! 

"Creepy" and "dark" are two adjectives I associate with both Smile and Smiley Smile! Stuff like Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, Child Is Father Of The Man, the Water chant, some of the Vega-Tables bits, various Heroes and Villains chants, the April '67 Wonderful; those are very creepy in my opinion. I wrote a long expose here a while back about Brian's intent to "scare a lot of people" with the Smile music and I've never deviated from my feelings expressed there - that Smile was the expression of spirituality in his mind, and that the ensuing malevolence and, later, confused, fragmentary nature of the music was a result of his escalating personal problems. Smiley Smile was just the outcome.

It's been done for these types of things before.

The "Rock With Me Henry" version is great >: (

The Smiley Smiley version is my favorite. *dodges bricks*

I'd say you're half-right. The music does reflect the increasingly fragmentary thought-processes he was experiencing. But to say he intended to scare people is attributing a hostile nature to Brian that I just don't think fits at all.

I am confused about something. What is the April '67 version that keeps getting referenced lately? All i've ever known is the harpsichord version (from the GV box set, recent Mojo 45),  the Rock With Me Henry version, and the Smiley version.

I don't think he meant that he wanted to scare people as in, say, frightening them into a cold sweat and leading to nightmares, but I'd say he definitely wanted to challenge the status quo with regards to "popular music" based on what he was absorbing by means of literature, research, and experience. He wanted to remove people from the comfort zone; that's something that can be seen as frightening to people. So no, I don't think he was out to be the boogeyman going "boo, gotcha", but he wanted to challenge people and make them think; and everyone knows how people are so often afraid to think. Ignorance wasn't bliss for Brian Wilson in 1966.

The April '67 version is excerpted on SOT 18, the Smiley Smile disc; takes 4 and 5 and a brief attempted vocal overdub are on that disc. Why it's on there is anyone's guess, but it's from around the same time Brian worked on Vega-Tables and possibly With Me Tonight.

What does the April '67 session consist of? How does it differ from the released version of Wonderful? Not sure if I have ever heard it.

Thanks for the info.

It's a piano track in a lower key than the Smiley Smile version, played much slower. The vocal overdub is basically Michael overdubbing a melody similar to the vocal line in the October version. It was never even close to finished.

So...on Track 5 of SOT 18 is the "Hey Boppa Ruba" part also from the April '67 mix? Sorry for all the questions. :)

No.  Only tracks #2 and #3 of SOT 18 are from the April version.

For me the harpsichord version is brilliant . I remember first hearing it on the endless harmony video and I fell in love with it instantly.

Thanks for clearing that up for me,I was starting to get confused. It is strange that they would have SMiLE tracks on Smiley Sessions.

Hey, the "Jokes and Laughter" and "Psychedelic Talk" tracks on SOT 14 (the second Pet Sounds volume) are Smile recordings too. And the "Smog" rant was on Leggo My Ego, a Pet Sounds bootleg (which also had a completely unrelated 1970 Surf's Up-era outtake on it, Mr. Sandman/The Chipmunk Song/God Only Knows).

Continuity, coherence, and bootlegs are not often three phrases seen together, and if so, it's in describing the lack of the first two on the third.