The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'm very excited about the upcoming box, but one track I had heard a little about and hoped would be included was an instrumental or bg vocals only version of Little Bird, one of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite BB albums. Since that sadly isn't going to happen, I decided to piece together this alternate edit of Little Bird from the available mono remix session fragments that have been "available" for a while. In my efforts to include all the little bits I like from these fragments, it's a bit of a haphazard listen, but I thought I'd post it anyway in case some others might enjoy a complete alternate version of the track.

Here you go! Any feedback is welcome.

https://soundcloud.com/chris-dvorak-3/little-bird-dvakman-edit

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That was great to hear!  Nobody does instrumentation like that anymore.  That bass....nice!

I'd love to hear an instrumental version of the entire FRIENDS album.   Vocals-only wouldn't be bad either.

Great stuff!

Man, how I love the Friends album. In terms of vocal performances it may be their best ever and the instrumentation is really something else, like a soft and breezy variation on Smile. It's the kind of "simple" music that really comes from an artist's expertise in making complex, even difficult music.

Really enjoyed your mix!

Thanks for the comments. It's kind of a Beatles Anthologyesque "Frankenmix" for lack of a better term, but considering the materials I had to work with, it ain't half bad. At least no more stops and starts.

All your general Friends comments are spot on. Deceptively simple, this album. Brian still had the goods but wasn't going out of his way to dazzle you with them anymore. Its breezy peaceful quality is the perfect companion to the emotional Pet Sounds and cerebral Smile. The three form a kind of loose trilogy for me: heart, mind and soul. Sure, I was dazzled by Pet Sounds and Smile like all of you, but when I finally discovered Friends and it "clicked", it was over. I became a fan for life.

It's not really fair of me to not mention Dennis. This is his debut composition, after all.

Truthfully, it's pretty clear that this track is at least as much Brian as it is Dennis. One thing is certain: Dennis really dug Child is the Father of the Man. Its motifs feature heavily here and later in the track Time from POB. That "cowboy song" really seemed to resonate with him.

Here is a much improved version, still a bit all over the place due to the fragments available but it flows better:

https://soundcloud.com/chris-dvorak-3/little-bird-dvakman-edit