The Smiley Smile Message Board

One of the most beautiful moments from the 'Smile' tapes, in my opinion, is the 'Wa-ha-la-lu-le,wa-ha-la-lu-lai,keeny-wa-ka-pu-la' section of 'Roll Plymouth Rock'.
Does anyone know what this translates to or was it just gibberish meant to sound Hawaiian?

A while back, someone sat down with an Hawaiian/English dictionary and came up with something that almost made sense... if you ignored that it could also be translated as complete gibberish by using different meanings of the same syllables. Decades ago, when the first Smile tapes leaked, I asked an Hawaiian friend of mine about it, and they told me it was, indeed, gibberish - that although it sounded like Hawaiian, it was actually made up.

Best title for a thread ever.  ;D

i never fully understood the beauty of that part until the first time i heard the Vocals-Only version.
When the harmonies build in towards the end....it's just sooooo good.

 8)

Yeah...I think one of the possible translations was something like "An era of oppression has past, a new era has dawned, we have a new leader" or something....really weird. I think the same guy came up with something for "wah wah ho wah"....

These lyrics have a hidden meaning that Brian & Van Dyke didn't want us to find. Read The Act of Creation backwards and you'll understand.

It's Hawaiian for "A wop bop a-loo bop, a wop bam boom".

Hmmmm, where might one find that vocals-only version? I've never run across it...

Or do you mean simply one channel of one of the session tapes?

i found it on a random website that posted some "vocals only" comps, so pardon me.

 :)

I'm reading Domenic Priore's book Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece, and in Ch.6, page 67, second to last pp:
"In one of SMILE'S neatest sequences, Brian sings a solemn Hawaiian chant[...]"mahalo lu lei" is a Hawaiian Thanksgiving' said Parks. " It's a prayer, and that was something Brain did absolutely of his own volition. i just brought in that Hawaiian collection of words."

I'm not sure if this answers your query but interesting insight into BW and VDP songwriting process for Smile.

Adrian

^i love tht book. Yeah, factually inaccurate in some places, but a great read nonetheless.

______

Somewhat on topic....who did the deep voice chanting (for both Heroes and Villains and Do You Dig Worms) - and where did Brian get the inspiration to do this chanting/hawaiian prayer?

Fairly brilliant idea to introduce to pop music IMO.

There's too much for me to write concisely....there's some stuff in this thread that should answer your question: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,724.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,724.0.html)

I love the book for Priore's description of the LA music scene during this period. If you know what is unfactual in the book, it is actually a really nice read. If you haven't got it yet, definitely pick up 'Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!' - also by Domenic Priore - you can usually find them cheap on ebay (that's how I found mine) and it should be a mandatory item for all SMiLE fans.

As for a vocals-only version, fairly simple...I think the SOT had the stuff in stereo, and if you OOPS it, you're left with a vocals-only DYLW. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to say for sure if this is true.

Thanks for all the great responses everyone!

Who or What makes the weird noise behind the fake hawaiian talking in this song?

It's a zen thing.