The Smiley Smile Message Board

Why not?!

Isn't an earlier version of this song supposed to exist? I'd love to hear that. This is another song that sounds like it has its roots in the Smile period. It reminds me of Western Theme in places and seems potentially like another song that grew out of one of the strands of H&V.

This is the high point of Smiley for me just as Country Air is to WH. 

And what about the Tune X as Little Pad precursor theory?!!

inb4 Andrew Doe says that part of it derives from "Hawaiian Song".

Also, no way is it a reworking of "Tune X" or "Do You Like Worms?"

To me, this song is the highlight of Smiley Smile, and along with She's Going Bald the most perfect distillation of the Smiley Smile vibe. Smiley Smile is both peaceful and slightly disturbing. This is the peaceful highlight, SGB is the "slightly disturbing" highlight (although smiley-version of Wonderful is kind of both).

Oh man, that Little Pad humming. Gets me everytime. Never has a bunch of guys hummed more beautifully.

Wish there was a version without the stoned laughing. Not that I'd want it to replace, I'd just like to have both!

Does anyone know who do the laughing? Is it the the whole gang or just Al, Carl and Brian? Is Mike there somewhere?

does Dennis do anything on that album?

He's all over "Wind Chimes" and "She's Goin' Bald" and is certainly on "Good Vibrations". Pretty sure I can hear him on "Vegetables". What else? The better question might be, where can you hear Al and Bruce? I hear Al on exactly one line of "She's Goin' Bald" (doubling someone else) and, sans the Smile-era stuff, not much else.

The laughing is the group. Brian is certainly audible, Mike is doing the lead.

The main laughing sounds like Carl to me. Love that song. It is where most folks likely ripped Smiley off the turntable in disgust.

I really like Mike's vocals here. He sounds so sincere. He hasn't got the mellow thing down quite as well as he would later have (Meant for you, Big Sur...) but he sounds like he's singing from the heart.

A favourite of Pete Townshend:

"'Blue Red and Grey' (from The Who By Numbers, 1975) was a ukelele ditty with John Entwistle adding brass ... It was about nothing at all; it reminded me of an old "Smiley Smile" Beach Boys number."

Ah dammit!! I started another without knowing about this one... I'll add my stuff here... sorry guys...

A guy called The Zodiac (who may be posting here too... are you here?) said on another forum: "'Little Pad' is a magical pixie window into a psychedelic tropical paradise and if the door closed behind me when I was over there I wouldn't mind at all."

I could not agree more!!

I hated this song at first because I could not get past the stoned "Do it" giggly intro. And now it is perhaps in my top 3 BB's tracks. I just love the lovely lilting ukelele (if that is what it is) and Carl's yearning vocal. The melodic 'hummingbirds' humming is perfection in a sort of Walt Disney in the '40s kind of way. Clip-clops. Dry 'Baptist' organ. Everything!

And there smack dab in the middle of the Smiley Smile cover art is that Little Pad with the little Smile above the door and the rising smoke! This song along with 'Country Air', 'With Me Tonight' and SS 'Wind Chimes' makes me so glad that things took the course that they did.

Outstanding musical beauty!!

The very moment I first heard the laughing, I realized I was in it for the long haul with the Beach Boys.

If they made it past Fall Breaks, which is when most of my teenage pals would head out the door.

Great song, with each distinct section holding something different.  Love those long held organ notes.

Bought it as a vinyl twofer with Pet Sounds, but have ended up listening to Smiley way more than the big one

Oh yeah, that's another thing I've always wondered, placing that song so near the beginning. I guess it serves as "if you can take this, you can take the whole album" kind of thing, but it certainly doesn't make the album any easier to approach. Trust me, I know, with Smiley Smile being my first BB album and all.

Come to think of it, I can't help but wonder how I ever became a fan. I didn't touch their music for five years after first hearing Smiley (loving it now, of course).

Same here.

If there are actually people that dislike this song -- or anything on Smiley Smile -- I don't want to even be acquainted with them! That they all sound high as f*** during this song (well, and the rest of the album) makes every single thing about it even better, haha.

It's fine, it's cool, it's enoyable. It's a footnote.

If you obess on that mediocre track then you got some issues. Telling you.

The "mediocre" songs like this one are the songs that help make this one of my favorite albums. I usually forget "Good Vibrations" is even on the album.

Yeah, I honestly don't care one bit about "Heroes and Villains" or "Good Vibrations" in the context of Smiley Smile -- the other songs are where it's at! Though it would've been interesting if they had put the Lei'd in Hawaii studio recording of "GV" on the album instead!

There's a Lei'd in Hawaii version of Good Vibrations?

Yeah, it was officially released on the 40th anniversary single CD, track five: "Good Vibrations" [live concert rehearsal 1967-08-25]

You're crazy.

what a great song. fine, cool, enjoyable... and so much more!

Little Pad takes me away and is one of my favorite entries in the entire history of songwriting and recorded music. Interesting how it is stitched together in pieces like Good Vibrations and much of SMiLE. The humming part with steel guitar is also the same chord progression as the "hum-be-dum" section of GV. sure, I-ii-V is a common progression but still. the laughing at the start is contagious and never fails to put a smile on my face.

I'd love to hear the earlier "Hawaiian Song" version, but I suspect it's just one of the sections that became the finished piece.

as for the relationship between "Pad" and "Tones" I can't say for sure that one exists, but there are definite similarities.
HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7CW9ZzbTYE&feature=relmfu) is the mash-up i made, and HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHAf8zavRG8&feature=related) is Sean Macreavy's version.

and HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGyhIL0mRJ4) is my crossfade of Little Pad and Diamond Head, which goes near the end of my SMiLE mix.


so it was!

The Whitest Kids U Know took this for their theme song. Does anyone know if the BB's were credited?

If loving that track means I have issues, give me a lifetime subscription.

My history with this song confirms some of the observations made on this thread.

I bought the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey two-fer in the late 90s when I was a teenager. I had spent the better half of that year becoming obsessed with Pet Sounds, which I had in my possession for nearly 10 years at that point and always liked, but something had clicked that year. The obsession motivated me to get more Beach Boys. Since I was quite familiar with the hits, I was more curious about what came after Sounds since the greatest hits I had mostly kept me in the dark about that period, though I had heard Wild Honey because my dad had it on vinyl (as well as Friends but I don't have a memory of having heard it until I bought it on CD). So SS/WH it was. I bought the album in a day out with a few friends. We had all bought CDs that day but it was decided that we would listen to mine first. I popped it on and as soon as Vegetables started, I noticed a bit of resistance from the crowd. And, naturally, after listening to Pet Sounds non-stop for the last year, it was surprising to me too. As the album went on, there was a growing dissastisfaction with the choice and, yes, Little Pad was the track that broke the camel's back. We replaced Smiley Smile with something else.

Me, I was drawn to the weirdness though I wasn't quite sure yet whether it was good or not. For the next few months, I would often come home from school and listen to the album on headphones. The track that was most compelling to me, first, was Little Pad. I thought the humming section was a really fantastic melody and beautifully sung by Brian. It's always been one of my favourite tracks on Smiley Smile. I, of course, like the album now but my introduction to the album was an event.

Does anyone have an idea about which section of Little Pad was derived from "Hawaiian Song"?

has anyone HEARD "Hawaiian Song"??

Mr.Doe has. Otherwise, no.


Assholes.

Little pad is fine, love organ, laugh and stuff.

Really it took that long?  I would think She's Going Bald would've done the trick.

A few weeks ago, myself and a few others were on a trip. I turned my MP3 player on, put it on "She's Goin' Bald", and turned the FM transmitter on and set it to the station we were listening to (I wasn't driving, obviously). Everybody became confused and was wondering what in the f*** was playing on the radio, especially when the pitch shifting came up. It was amusing and very, very hard not to laugh, and it went on until well into the narrated section. After about thirty seconds of "What the f*** is wrong with the radio?" and "What the hell is this?" it was changed to satellite radio and I was sad.

I completely agree with you about "Wind Chimes."  I particularly love the Whispering Winds coda.  It's the one Smiley Smile song that, in my opinion, blows its Smile counterpart away.  (The Smiley Smile "Wonderful" is clearly the inferior version, and I'm undecided on "Vegetables"/"Vega-Tables.")

That said, I have to disagree that the BBs are good at all genres they make attempts at.  They are very clearly incapable of doing hip-hop, and their attempts at disco and reggae are disposable.

I love just about everything about this track, and agree that it is emblematic of what’s best about Smiley Smile.

Question: I wonder how rehearsed versus spontaneous the laughter at the beginning was? I have heard a spoken word recording from the Smile era in which Brian directed the participants in the style of laughter he wanted to hear. If I had to guess, I’d say the laughter was rehearsed, although it sounds genuine enough.

Another question: what IS the instrument that plays the descending melody at the end of the song, heard prominently right after the upwards slide guitar part? To me it sounds a bit like a harp, but also reminds me of glass bottles.