The Smiley Smile Message Board

Disc 3 has not one but THREE hidden tracks. And boy, is it good stuff! First, isolated carrot-chomping sounds from Vega-Tables - fun to have. No trace of Paul McCartney here, by the way, unless he'd taken a vow of silence that evening...!

Second - the isolated workshop power tools/sawing overdub. Again, great to hear and handy for 'rolling your own' mixes.

But the third one was not listed anywhere as far as I knew, and was therefore the most hidden of ALL the hidden tracks (well, so far, anyway). Look away now if ye fear spoilers...

It's the isolated Baldwin overdub for the chorus of Heroes And Villains, as used on the Smiley Smile/45 version of the song. WOW! I thought this was irrevocably mixed into the Smiley track, and not present on a multitrack tape on its own track! But clearly, from its inclusion here in isolation, this is not the case. Makes me wonder, too... that suggests a true stereo mix of the Smiley version, including the organ overdub, WOULD actually be possible after all (for years, I've assumed that was completely out). That means the only multitrack part missing for a true stereo Smiley-style mix is the 'Stand or fall I know there shall be peace in the valley' vocals. And Alan and Mark have already got around that problem once, back on the 'Hawthorne, California' mix...

Of all of the extras afforded by the hidden tracks, this is the greatest little bonus to have in my opinion. I feel like Mark L and Alan B have really gone out of their way to give us all of these little parts. Not only are they fascinating to hear, they'll make the whole 'rolling your own' thing a lot easier.

MattB

I thought the organ overdub was gone for good, too? Why wasn't this present anywhere in the whopping THREE remixes of the track in the last decade or so?

Three? Hasn't there only been the 'Hawthorne, California' stereo mix?

And perhaps they just *preferred* the rising bass and percussion version of the chorus for that 2001 remix...?

I can see why they didn't use the Baldwin overdub on any of the mixes on this box (apart from the isolated hidden track...). It's a Smiley-era addition, so it's out. OK, so that doesn't sit overly comfortably with the box featuring a Smiley-era Cool Cool Water version, a Smiley-era With Me Tonight session, the Whispering Winds and Fall Breaks vocals, both of which are also Smiley-era... but then I wouldn't miss any of those things, having now heard them, so I'm *not* complaining!

The Hawthorne mix and the mono and stereo mix on TSS.


Yeah, there are several post-Smile things going on here, as I said. However, its omission on the Hawthorne mix is really strange.

Maybe it hadn't been found back then when Hawthorne was put together.

Mayhaps. Still, that'd mean it was sitting on a reel by itself or something?

Right, that is a good point.


Well, no... maybe they had the mixed-down version on the single master in 2001, but only found the multitrack tape for the Smiley-era H&V chorus section (with all the chorus parts including the organ on separate tracks) subsequently? Certainly, that's what they must have now in order to have been able to run off the isolated Baldwin for this hidden SMiLE Sessions track...

MattB

At some point post-Hawthorne and post-Singles boxed set I reminded Alan that collectors' tapes going back as far as the mid-80's had two things that were purportedly missing -- the doubled lead vocal for "Do You Wanna Dance" (on the a capella mix that have been around for years), and the Baldwin overdub (on a tape I received from the late, great Bob Hanes that contained, among other things, various rejected tracks from the 1983 Beach Boys Rarities LP).  Perhaps they were able to track down the source of the latter.

Lee

:O noice, thanks for the help!

How long is the Baldwin overdub hidden track on Disc 3?

27 seconds. Thus, it's not the whole chorus, it starts at the second time they sing "Heroes and villains, just see..." It could be not the take from the chorus, but you could use it if you wanted to. (I don't.)