The Smiley Smile Message Board

Does anyone listen to the Sessions (Discs 2-5) in chronological order? I have set it up this way on my iPod and I think it tells a different kind of story than the one that is presented on the box.

I don't have my sessionography at the mo, is there anyone willing to post the order?

Probably the easiest thing is listening to the songs and their development in the order the songs were first recorded - it becomes much more difficult to put all the sessions in order because then overdubs of a song would come after the track of another song, for example.

The order of when each song was first attempted:

Good Vibrations Feb 18
Wind Chimes Aug 3 (ignoring the wiped May Heroes)
I Ran/Look Aug 12
Wonderful Aug 25
He Gives Speeches Sept 1
Holidays Sept 8
Prayer Sept 19
Child Oct 7
Worms Oct 18
Heroes Oct 20
Great Shape/Heroes Oct 27 (ignoring the lost vocal Oct 17)
Surf's Up Nov 4
George Fell Nov 7
Old Master Painter Nov 14
Fire Nov 28
IWBA/Friday Night Nov 29
Youre Welcome Dec 15
Dada Dec 22
Wonderful 2 Jan 9
I Don't Know Jan 12
Tones March 3
Vegetables April 4 (though demo is likely around Oct 17)
Wonderful 3 April 10
With Me Tonight (Hawthorne short version) likely April

My list is actually 85 tracks long and I unfortunately don't have the time to put it up right now but I will say that I actually start with the Wind Chimes sessions. There is a bit of Good Vibrations in there though, still.

What story does it tell you?

There was a mansion on a hill. And deep in a secret kingdom where a young prince lived there were 4 sisters and 4 brothers. During the day they went to school...

It just shows how the project as a whole evolved over time rather than how a single song may have evolved over time. I'll try and get the tracklisting up soon.

also we can't forget about how peoples moods change from day to day which is kind of intersting to hear so that we can see what kind of moods influenced the songs...

I just tried doing this with some fans (I found a word doc on here, but it doesn't say who was responsible, so thanks whoever you are!) breakdown of the sessions in chronological order. Tried to put as much extraneous stuff in as I could, too, but haven't done the whole mixing boots/SS material together - just the Smile sessions clips, and project smile mostly for the psycodelic sounds tape vegetables arguments, lifeboat tape, et al. It weighs in at 148 songs and lasts almost exactly 7 hours! Blimey.

I'm trying to make a tracklist for a chronological Smile collection, including mixes and sessions. I will post the tracklist when it is complete.

I listened to it chronologically and it did present a very interesting narrative. To me what stood out relatively is Heroes and Villains role in the collapse of the project. It is only after the many heroes and villains sessions that the music really begins to change into something...going towards Smiley Smile.

Putting the 'extracurricular' bits in there adds a weird tinge to it - Having the SMiLE Party and it's amazingly awful atmosphere after the Worms sessions seem to be gaining some traction is really unnerving.

Also, Brian sounds really strange throughout - this is kind of exacerbated by having sessions mixed with the chatter, but still. Things seem to somewhat dissolve, he records about 5 songs in semi-complete fashion before the business of fragmentation really takes off with H&V , at around the same the humour skits come up.

I'm looking forward to that chronological list. I've often thought that going through these sessions as they happened would be fascinating. the switching from one song to another, coming back to a song after having finished something else...and so on.

to those able to compile this, my thanks in advance!!

It is kind of like you  hear him going a little mad. Really, right after Surf's Up is where it seems to really start.