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"I'm In Great Shape" seems like an interesting & important part of SMiLE IMHO. It's 28 seconds which takes us from sleeping (or dreaming) to the "upper country" (especially if you doubt the official lyrics  & trust your ears).

IIGS fits best after "Gee" in my line-up. That way it follows a sort of "Heroes And Villains" intro.

Speaking of the "Heroes And Villains (intro)"...that track on the GV 40 years box set reminded me of Brian's bio's bookstore flashback scene were Brian "...was in the center of a giant spinning top. Turning, turning, turning. The moment was completely surreal."

Since Brian was in a bookstore when all this happened then perhaps the phrase "heroes and villains" has something to do with what one commonly finds in books--heroes & villains. Also note that "heroes and villains" are opposites which Arthur Koestler maintains coexist quite well in dreams & hallucinations, and since this surreal bookstore scene was a hallucination this phrase works quite well.

So perhaps all the repeated "heroes & villains" lyrics that follow "Gee" represent this dream/hallucination in the bookstore.

IIGS (as in my line-up) suggests that this was a dream from which the person wakes up.

Brian's bio has him remembering Loren saying that "hallucinations were comparable to Zen riddles" and so the IIGS lyric that I insanely imagine exists "fresh Zen air around my head" seems to work quite well.

The dream scenario then changes into the "upper country" scenario which IMHO has to do with Lake Arrowhead. Regardless, the "upper country" lyric is a great intro for "I've been in this town so long....."

The point is that "I'm In Great Shape" seems like an important transition piece taking us from one dream to another.

*giggle*

I think its a sign of how much time you've invested into this theory of yours that instead of hearing freshened air you hear fresh zen air. You want to believe it so much you're seeing links that aren't there.

Sounds like "Freshen air around my head" to me.

My guess too. It was just an informal run through, sooo...he may have flubbed it just a little.

RollPlymouthRock said:

I'm just saying that it magically works with the account in the discredited biography (Zen reference & all). And strangely enough the account in the discredited biography seems to present a way in which a record album could promote spiritual enlightenment which just happens to align with some of Brian's suggested goals for SMiLE. Pretty stupid & delusional huh?

Blame Brian.

it depends on what you listen for. But I can honestly hear both.

Sounds like Brian stumbling over the line, dicking around on a piano, not stressing too hard to get everything perfect due to being unaware that it'd end up being the only recording of the song to ever exist (sans BWPS).

It doesn't work. You're forcing it very hard to make it appear like it's working. I was considering putting together a list of logical fallacies you make in the opening post on this thread, but I think it's so self-evident that it really isn't worthwhile addressing.

So can I - I lean towards verbal fumble rather than clearly singing "fresh Zen air" but either is possible, and it's nearly impossible to tell given that it's a low-quality demo.

*giggle*


i think he probably flubbed it too, but how about "fresh air there around my head"?

I always heard it as 'Fresh Zen Air'! It never occurred to me it was anything other than that.

It's totally "fresh ZEN air", to my ears at least, never heard it as anything else.  IMO it's a way better line than "freshen air" or "freshnin' air"  or "freshman year" or whatever others are hearing it as.  The BWPS "fresh clean air" is okay, but I still prefer the zen air - I just like it. 
I also always heard the other line as "agri- CULTURE", and I'll always prefer that to "upper country."  That's just me though, you're all free to hear whatever you want and enjoy it thusly.   :)

I've always heard "Fresh Zen Air" and "Open Country", from the time it was released back in 1998.

In fact I'm not sure anyone thought any different until 2004's BWPS release… you know, the one where we were suddenly talking about a "handsome mannered baton" instead of "a handsome man and baton".

The key word being discredited


You're basing a lot of your theory on that book being accurate.

This is definitely one of the more perplexing Smile tracks and we'll probably never know precisely what Brian had in mind for it (So many of his ideas were fluid and transitional at that point.).  We know that it was an outgrowth of H&V, maybe an early interlude that was replaced by the Cantina section.  Since H&V is told as a story of an old man looking back on his life, I tend to see this as a recollection of the protagonist's youth and vitality out on the frontier.  This is why, apart from their proximity in the Humble Harve demo, it's tempting to slot it in with Barnyard, which similarly describes day to day activity on the farm (i.e. the cook is chopping lumber to make those eggs & grits). 

But what do people make of a possible IWBA/Workshop connection?  Wasn't that piece at one point labeled with Great Shape in parenthesis?  They were later grouped together on BWPS.  Could the workshop bit signify putting the pieces back together, the restoration of great shape (wholeness) after the heartbreak?  It seems like a stretch but otherwise I'm hard pressed to figure out what he would have done with IIGS as its own track as noted on the list.

Judging by the chronology, I'm totally convinced that "Do A Lot" (on disc 2) was originally conceived as a part of "Great Shape".

This seems very plausible, given the hustle and bustle described ("tumble out of bed. . . eggs & grits and lickety split. . .), that clean, active country living.

It definitely seems as if Great Shape was the repository for pieces that didn't make it into Heroes - and that Do a Lot is definitely a candidate.  But once it was in Veggies I guess all bets were off.

By the way, hearing the demo humble harv version on headphones - it's definitely "agriculture" rather than open country.  Fresh clean air is debatable the way Brian sings it.

it's definitely NOT agriculture. it amazes me that anyone hears this.

It's Open Country... not only is that what it sounds like, but the song was referred to as "open country song" before it was given the title I'm In Great Shape.

neither Fresh Zen Air or Upper Country makes any sense. Zen is a spiritual belief, not a word used to describe things like air or what have you. There is no "upper country" in the USA.


I too believe that while IIGS was originally part of H&V, it was later grouped with I Wanna Be Around/Workshop, which was meant to precede VegaTables. I think the whole reason Brian chose I Wanna Be Around is because the first line of VegaTables was "I wanna be 'round my vegetables" which got sung as "I'm gonna be 'round" by Al (or Mike on the demo)

Couldn't agree more.

+1

I think this is an assumption based on two circumstances: 1. There are many pieces that didn't make it into Heroes, and 2. IIGS is on that infamous tracklist, so there must have been more to it than that short fragment. But we cannot conclude from this that IIGS was comprised of those sections. In fact we don't even know if the piece with the lyric "I'm in the great shape of the..." was part of the IIGS from the tracklist! It could have been just I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night.

Another recent thought of mine: Did Brian keep that title "I'm In Great Shape" on the tracklist because he thought if "Fire" could cause fires then a track called "I'm In Great Shape" would cause him getting in great shape? ::)

"Few places were as important in the seventeenth-century European colonial New World as the pays d’en haut. This term means "upper country" and refers to the western Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan, and Superior) and the areas immediately north, south, and west of them. "

You were sayin' ?  ;D

"Fresh zen air" makes sense to me. I guess it's all how you interpret the lyrics. For instance, 'over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield' or 'she knew how to gather the forest' - it can all be meant in different ways - and we all perceive it in different ways. VDPs wasn't out to write literal lyrics, he was writing poetry - mixed words that would evoke emotion.

With that said:

"Fresh zen air around my head" - Zen is derived from a word that means 'meditate' - so feeling meditative around (or in) ones head makes perfect sense - especially if the person is in great shape (being in good shape is a centerpiece for being at peace with oneself).

Right - which is why I think Van Dyke would have been horrified by the line "Fresh Zen air"

ok, good points.

but we know for a fact that it was called "open country song" at one point, and it seems to be a song about fresh air and wide open spaces, rather than being about a specific region of the country like Plymouth Rock or the Grand Coolie Dam. I guarantee that most Americans have never heard of the "upper country". while Van Dyke is certainly one to use obscure references and turns of phrase, I really don't think that's the case here. not to mention it just sounds like he's saying "open" rather than "upper".


as for "zen air" ...once again, it's a song about breathing clean air and being healthy a la "Country Air", not an endorsement of a specific spiritual teaching or belief. and the phrase "fresh zen air" is just kind of awkward and improper-sounding.

This issue was settled for me when it was pointed out -- a year or so ago -- that agriculture can also be written as agri-culture, creating another Vege-Tables style pun.

Very Van Dyke, and very on point (i.e., the fact that European settlers' culture was displacing the Native American culture).

It would be very Van Dyke but that's not what Brian sings in the demo. Whether it's "open" or "upper", he uncontroversially sings the "p" in one of them. So unless there's also a word called api-culture, then we can pretty much put this one to bed.

"Fresh zen air" makes sense to me. I guess it's all how you interpret the lyrics. For instance, 'over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield' or 'she knew how to gather the forest' - it can all be meant in different ways - and we all perceive it in different ways. VDPs wasn't out to write literal lyrics, he was writing poetry - mixed words that would evoke emotion.

With that said:

"Fresh zen air around my head" - Zen is derived from a word that means 'meditate' - so feeling meditative around (or in) ones head makes perfect sense - especially if the person is in great shape (being in good shape is a centerpiece for being at peace with oneself).
[/quote]


 :thumbsup

And "agri-culture" is how i always thought it to be - though absolutely could be mistaken about that, but I still think it's a better line.   To me the pun there in was that of being in great shape of the culture of the times, the then, the youth movement of that sixties generation, the enlightenment and revolution of peace and love that a lot of young people back then (or so I have gathered) really believed to be imminent.   I have never took the old west, americana, birth of a nation, "trip across amerrican", etc as simply being purely a literal thing in these songs - it's seemed more to me that they were using that as a mirror for current times, making a statement about their generation via a surreal history lesson.  
And I'm not saying any of this was the original intention of the creators or any other such thing - because I don't know that, but just that this is how I personally take it as a listener.

Proving those lyrics were made up by Van Dyke Parks. ^-^


I don't remember where that quote comes from, but I think it was a journalist who wrote the words "open country song", and as journalists can't get everything they hear right, I doubt that we "know for a fact" that IIGS was called "open country song" at one point. Maybe Andrew can shed some light on this?

The descriptions of the Inside Pop Reels said "Open Country Song".

Which pretty much confirms it's nothing like "open country", then, given the decipherment we had to apply to those notes to extract any sense from them.  ;D

Two cents: "fresh clean air", "open country". :3d

if it were "fresh zen air" there'd be more of a pause after "fresh" because you have to articulate the z in zen coming after the "zj" in fresh (freszj).

I clearly hear an "n" after the word "fresh"..."fresh'nin'" is what I hear....

Sheesh, does every thread about this track end up stuck on those lines?   :-D

I'm still trying to figure out what Brian had in mind for IIGS.  It was included on the back cover track listing, so surely, there had to be more to it than just the short bit we've heard.  Would "eggs & grits" have recurred, possibly played against "do a lot" as a chorus?  Or would it have been part of some kind of suite with Barnyard and maybe even IWBA/WS?  Vosse mentioned hearing something like this back then in one article and even Brian referred to a 'Barnyard Suite' at one point in the 70's, didn't he?  Or is that more apocryphal? 

Who says you have to articulate that? 
To my ears I hear very clearly what I hear without any pause whatsoever and it's just fine and dandy. 
You "freshen", freshnin'" et al folks though, rock on with your own ears and just enjoy the music.   It's simply a matter of different interpretations, and somehow I don't think Van or Brian would be "horrified" by that at all.  It's Smile - it's your own trip.

That's Van Dyke Parkanese for "pubic hair". I guarantee it to the extent that I'd bet my eyeballs on it.

"Fresh zen air"? really? Not to sound like Mike, but what does that even mean? I don't know what the exact lyric is, but I don't believe for a second it's "fresh zen air" Your mind's playing tricks on you because you want to hear deeper meaning in a 30 second song about waking up, enjoying the day and having breakfast.

Not that we can trust that back cover listing at all, but here's what I'm thinking given how BWPS and TSS Disc 1 turned out:

"The Old Master Painter" track would be "You Were My Sunshine" (possibly with a vocal singing a snippet of "The Old Master Painter" over the opening cello line) plus the "My Only Sunshine" fade ("Barnshine" or whatever you want to call it).

"I'm In Great Shape" would be the 30 second snippet tape exploding into "I Wanna Be Around" (with vocal like on BWPS) leading into "Workshop" which would lead into "Barnyard" as a fade.

This way, both of these become a little more like stand-alone tracks that incorporate recordings not otherwise listed on the back cover. We know that at least one tape box (right?) listed "I'm In Great Shape" in relation to "I Wanna Be Around" and Brian agreed to join the two tracks on BWPS. Also, the "My Only Sunshine" fade is obviously linked to "You Were My Sunshine" by nature of the lyric and "The Old Master Painter" is clearly the lead-in melody line to this segment (established by Brian's direction during the recording session). As for "Barnyard": practically all of the SMiLE tracks had fades recorded or intended, so unless "Workshop" was intended to fade out, "Barnyard" would fit the bill here.

Then again, the whole "I Wanna Be Around" / "I wanna be 'round my vegetables" thing, plus the association of "sleep a lot..." with both "Vega-Tables" and, by nature of the lyric, with "I'm In Great Shape" suggests an association there. Perhaps the mythical 1966 "I'm In Great Shape" would have been just like how BWPS did it, "The Old Master Painter" would have been "You Were My Sunshine" plus the "My Only Sunshine" fade and "Barnyard" would have been the fade to "Heroes & Villains".

 :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

Some funny responses on here!

I can hear Open Country, Upper Country and Agriculture, and there are reasons why they all make sense.

I can hear Freshen Air and Fresh Zen Air, and there are reasons why they all make sense.


If there's one thing that really has come out of SMiLE, it's that it was, is, and always will be incomplete, and that because of this we are all capable of "rolling our own" versions/interpretations/meanings etc... If it works for you, then it's there. If you don't like it, you are free not to believe it. Just because one person fails to see what Fresh Zen Air even means shows more of a lack of imagination than anything to do with whether it is there or not :)

Just sayin'.

So the guy who penned those notes could not remember the title of the track and recalls only "open country". He was the only person who ever called whatever song it was (probably IIGS, yes) "Open Country Song"

I apparently posted this in the wrong thread. Derp.

while we're on the subject, here's a new mix i made which combines the demo and the track, but keeps them mostly separate. I quite prefer it this way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUeSFjzpFJ0

Nice.  I think that's the best way to approach this one.

Very nicely done, I think you've hit the mark in which way to approach IIGS, I prefer it this way too.

Yes, very nice job.

And it's "fresh clean air", and "open country". Or maybe "upper country". Not "agriculture" though. Nosirree.

defo good work, but the below has me sold and keeps in with TSS, as a brucey bonus it also neatly fits in place of TSS version

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,11714.0.html

to each their own. I'm in love with the piano demo, and I don't think vocals were meant to go on top of the studio-recorded track.

here's another version using one of the earlier takes with celeste, looping the piano (and coughing fits): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtNJvwmc0Ko

pretty trippy.

Must have been the hash joints.  I like this take on it and unlike Barnyard, I actually prefer it when they leave the piano in here. 

Thanks to all that have contributed to this thread. It's cool that folks give such thought to such nuance.

"Open country" or "upper country" interpretations seem to indicate that "agriculture" wasn't likely the original lyric.

It also would seem that most clear headed listeners would not be likely hear "fresh clean air" as the lyric on the Humble Harve demo.

That means that "I'm In Great Shape" has two lyrical passages where the official printed lyrics don't seem to match what is heard. Hmmm.

As far as the "Zen" lyric goes there are potentially 2 ties to the song's apparent meanings.

If the opening line ("fresh ____air") refers to what happened prior to waking up (morning stumble out of bed) then we can possibly relate dreaming to the air of "___ air". The bio's "hallucinations are comparable to Zen riddles" realization may refer to the dream-like state of mind (hallucinations) as being comparable to Zen in some way. The term "Zen" therefore may be tied to the idea of dreaming which is at the front of "I'm In Great Shape".

The "air around my head" idea is also cool as the bio's description of being "in the center of a giant spinning top" seems to illuminate this visual & is part of the same "hallucination" that we're talking about in the above paragraph.

Then the "look at me jump" and the physical "great shape" concept are also related to "Zen" via Brian's comments to Jules Siegel, "it's physical, really Zen right?".

So Brian's bio & the Siegel article seem to point to the lyric as being "fresh Zen air". If someone ever heard Brian using the word "freshnin" please come forward. I realize that "fresh Zen air" seems like a weird phrase but if you read about Brian's bookstore flashback you'll see a lot of weird combinations of things that don't make obvious sense. That's like SMiLE.

The next jump is to consider the album as something comparable to a Zen riddle (therefore with the ability to promote/conjure spiritual enlightenment). Then all of the wildest dreams for the project come true & Brian was working on the spiritual monument he professed & every far out claim to the greatness of SMiLE comes true.....basically all our wildest dreams come true & Brian is the musical Van Gogh-like genius of our time.

There is also the science of probability which all logicians should consider---even with Brian's bio.

1) I'm not talking about the bio as a whole, just a few passages. Am examining those few passages to see how they fit with verifiable facts to see if they're compatible with reality. That's a far cry from simply bowing down to the bio as an authoritative work. Actually if the bio was truly boss then my SMiLE viewpoint would match the general consensus---which it doesn't.

2) The probability that any given pop album's goal is to prompt a spiritual experience is extremely remote. To my knowledge SMiLE is the only pop album ever to even have a chance at such a classification. I'd cite Brian's vegetables/health comment, his "Surf's Up" lyric explanation, the article in The BEAT, and some Michael Vosse quotes to support the spiritual enlightenment contention.

3) The way to go about crafting such an album isn't common knowledge. How would, or could, YOU do it? Awareness of such knowledge is probably very remote. The chances of someone knowing how to achieve such a thing are probably very improbable. I challenge all know-it-alls to come forward and tell how they'd achieve such a thing(haven't received a single original idea yet).

4) The bookstore flashback in Brian's bio has the line "hallucinations were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning." This shows how an album could possibly be made to promote spiritual enlightenment. This is supported by Koestler's theories & observations as well as by SMiLE itself which resembles a hallucination/dream.

5) What are the odds that the bookstore flashback 'tale' was conceived by Todd Gold or someone other than Brian Wilson? I would submit that the rarity of the idea of a pop album to inspire a religious experience (there's only one IMHO) and the portrayal of how such a thing could be accomplished (there's only one IMHO) was almost like DNA evidence. The odds that the two things aren't related are staggering.

And therefore I think that "I'm In Great Shape" is a key player in SMiLE.

Van Dyke Parks would not write "fresh Zen air". It's not "Freshnin' air" as that doesn't even make any kind of sense (not that "Zen" makes much sense either aside from the explanations people come up with when trying to rationalize such a ridiculous thing).

It's not "Fresh clean air". Srsly, am I the only one who thinks Brian, who later hesitates and stumbles several times on "Barnyard", just f***ed this line up, stumbling a bit, not thinking, "Hrrm, better get this right, this is gonna be the only recording of this song to exist."

I think you may be correct because it sounds like he is saying "Fresh L'n Air around my head" and I don't think L'n is a word.

The likely possibility, however, is that Brian did sing "fresh clean air" but the tape is worn and the beginning of the word drops out. You can hear the tape glitch out at the very beginning of the word "fresh", and the volume swells after the glitch. The dynamics and volume of the word in question ("L'n") make it sound a lot like a tape problem to me.

One thing I am fairly certain of, though, is that the lyrics are not "fresh zen air," unless Van Dyke was already disgruntled with the project at that point and was trying to sabotage it.

Love the looped piano, but there's some synch problems. Love the celesta version, I used it as an intro in my version

Neither are talking about the lyrics to I'm in Great Shape, so no, neither point to that at all. You're invoking a logical fallacy by suggesting that because he used the word elsewhere, he is probably using it here. Completely unfounded.


Wouldn't matter if they did or didn't.


You might as well be saying that because Brian wore a strange tie in a picture in 1975, then that explains the strange placement of the word Zen between the words "fresh" and "air." Also, because the tie is jarring, it's like the abrupt edits in Smile.


Actually, when the first jump entails placing faith on a widely discredited text, logical fallacies, and forced connections, then you simply don't take any further jumps.

Just to convey, though, how bizarre your logic is in this "next jump", though, take this example:


The bookstore flashback has nothing to do with Smile in the way that you're suggesting. You are drawing a connection between the bookstore and the album in your first post because you say that heroes and villains can be found in books. This is such an egregious act of manipulation and crowbarring that I am actually unsure if you are serious.

Fresh clean air
open country..
Breakfast then run a round
Healthy country life.. no smog!!