The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi, just wanted to share some wild ideas I acted on back in the nineties when my Smile obsession was at its height.  The ideas were:

Superimposing the "Cantina" section over what is now known as "Heroes and Villains part 3 (Animals)":
http://tinyurl.com/a6kpeua

and

Superimposing some of the sound effects from what was then known as "George Fell Into His French Horn" over part of "Surf's Up":
http://tinyurl.com/akowzbx

These were sort of the crown jewels of my DIY Smile back in the day, and I listened to it so often that I still can't hear "Cantina" or "Surf's Up" without thinking of these.  :3d 

Pretty cool stuff man! Props for doing it on a 4 track tape recorder!

Fun! I've usually mixed the "Heroes & Villains Part 3" under the final a capella "I've been in this town so long..." section which works well. It also provides an interesting counterpoint when mixed under the "Wonderful" tag ("Mamamama").

Damn, I've been pipped to the post. My Smile also uses horn SFX in Surf's Up. I put Swedish Frog over Tag to Part 1 though, right after Barnyard.

I did a similar thing with cantina and the animal noises a few years back. Sure it's not historically accurate but it does fit both time-wise and thematically- the cowboys in the bar behaving like animals while the ladies dance.
Still find it a shame that the Smile box wasn't able to clear up (m)any mysteries about the various Heroes versions due to lack of surviving tapes/acetates and input from Brian and Van Dyke Parks.
Am i right in remembering that Alan Boyd or Mark L. mentioned that a slightly longer edit of the standard 45 version had been found during research for the box ?

Thanks! ... the hardest part, as I recall, was dubbing in the George Fell bits direct from vinyl!  :thud

(double post)

I combined the animal noises with "Tag to part one" and used it as a middle eight in Wonderful. As if it was meant that way - same tempo, same key. It wasn't meant that way, of course, but works as if.

Never noticed how well Animals fits with the cantina.

I always knew those horns fit well for Surf's Up but could never figure out how. Your idea makes a lot of sense.

Great stuff!

Id seen someone else on this forum mention Swedish Frog over the cantina before which inspired me to do that in my own mixes--wonder if that was you?

Same with the SU and GF combo--it was a different poster in the TSS subforum who inspired me to try that, but they just played the track straight through over the second half of Surf so it sounded terrible--but it gave me ideas. I think your mix here is onto something with the idea too, your timing is just off and/or you took it too far.

The splicing in of the moaning horns part I think is great and I even wonder if that wasn't meant to extend through most of Part 2 albeit very low in the mix--just enough to make a slightly perceptible drone of unease, like the Speaker is overwhelmed with grief. The bits of laughter I think could come in here or there but let's remember Brian already used that in Part 1 of the sound and I dont know if he'd overdue it. Who knows. But then the wailing horns section, Ive been 100% convinced since I tried it and will defend its legitimacy to my dying day--that was absolutely Brian's intent to go over the fade. Abso-fucking-lutely. Anyone else can argue with me or say we cant prove it and they may be technically right but I say it fits WAY TOO PERFECTLY not to have been a vintage idea. I wonder if Darian even bothered to show Brian the tape of George Fell in 2003 or thought "nah, thats too weird, no way anything from that session wouldve made the cut." That's the fade to Surfs Up along with the Child backing vocals and aaahs but NOT the new Jack Reilly lyrics and when I meet Brian in the afterlife, I will tell him I solved the mystery with the clues he left behind and he shall say "youre the biggest SMiLE nerd who ever lived"

Has anyone tried putting the animal noises over Jupiter from The Planets..?

Nah, this too square a suggestion. I'd superimpose them to Neptune. :P

You can be the first! Try it and let us know how it works out :3d

Love it! That's basically what i did with my mix!  )

https://youtu.be/nwCdeF0RzSI?si=s2QwGGs4UdApVfOI

It really is trippy how well it works in the mix in the first post. And that was done on a four track tape machine, so presumably no fucking around with speed or pitch, just overdubbed. Maybe I'm losing my mind but it sounds amazing.