The Smiley Smile Message Board

To people who think this music is 'overrated' or 'not that good' you're all insane. This piece is incredible. It's a fully realized version of what he was trying to accomplish in Smile and (here comes the shocker) THE SONGWRITING IS JUST AS GOOD :O

PUT ANY OF THESE SEGMENTS (songwriting, not lyrics) ON THE SMILE OUTTAKES AND NONE OF YOU WOULD BAT AN EYE.

Anyway...

This suite is spiritual, and ADULT. I emphasize the last bit because Brian actually FINISHED IT and made it work rather than getting stoned and leaving behind a glimpse of perfection requiring the listener to fill in the gaps.

HERE'S MY LISTENING EXPERIENCE WITH THE SECTIONS:

The beginning...spiritual water wanderings....the bass comes in a with heavy RUMPH on the beginning of each measure. It's the heartbeat of the river. The melody overtop is the ripples of the waves, the lillies, the birds and fish. Go for a swim! RUMPH ba ba ba, ba ba ba, RUMPH ba ba ba, ba ba ba.... stop comparing it to smile and let the bass grab your soul and drown you in his weird majestic watery sounds.

Then we go to the old west/country theme. Again, the bass sets it in motion. Recognize the rhythm of the bass? California girls. And a billion other American songs. Brian shows how certain nuances in music travel across generations.  Here was have the old frontier rhythm (which goes back to Bach as the great Brian has said).  We got a yippy yi yay cowboy thing going on. "But wait, this isn't heroes and villains' yeah NO sh*t it's not a full song it's part of a larger thematic image and guess what the songwriting is GREAT BECAUSE IT'S BRIAN WILSON. Eugene Landy couldn't possibly write sh*t like this so dont give him credit.

Cherokee- trade (TRADE!) cartoon element with the coil noise and such...classic Brian...

Then we go to first 'big river' section.

Again we have a RUMPH 'and the great big river' ....same idea...but more complete. I listened and I WAS THE LITTLE MAN, AND BOY DID I UNDERSTAND that some things in life you dont have power over. This is an adult message that makes part of the music so brilliant.

This song is incredibly trippy. There's a whole 'hero's journey' thing going on, various forces of good and evil...and when the harmonies hit you know this music was composed by a sheer genius who had special access to a realm of divine musical beauty and scope.

Rain dance good, end of rain section BEAUTIFUL SWEET GRAND BRIAN WILSON music please enjoy this people, he made it for you to enjoy! It's so majestic. The river is deep and wide. Grandiose metaphors all over. Incredible and trippy.

Night bloomin is cool and perfectly wonderful music.

The end (recall to 2nd river section) is beautiful and circular...the song doesn't really 'end' the river goes on and on and he's painted a few pictures for you to witness life along the Rio Grande.

This is a beautiful and incredible piece of music that deserves to go down as an all-time great in the Brian Wilson catalog and the cultural history of the United States.

*And don't tell me Landy had too much influence he allegedly wanted to make it a family suite. Also just LISTEN TO THE MUSIC it's Brian through and through. Don't give Landy that kind of credit.

I agree Rio Grande is hugely under-rated around here. For me, it's one of Brian's greatest moments ever. I've never touched LSD but I can relate to a lot of where you're coming from re. this track.

My guess how this thread might go is - how much of it is Brian and how much Andy Paley??  Personally, I don't care, they did a great job ;D.

I've come to associate Rio Grande with Dennis' River Song, what with both being epic productions with lyrical metaphors relating to 'great' and 'mighty' rivers 'rollin' on and on' 'endlessly'.

It's a pretty good track, but it would probably help to be using LSD if you were to think it was THAT great.  It gets to be somewhat tedious with repeated listenings.  Kind of the Abbey Road thing, string together a bunch of fragments that didn't make songs on their own....What was it that Lennon said about the second side of Abbey, that it was pretty lousy or something to that effect, bunch of incomplete tunes strung together.  I've never been much on most of the Beatles stuff past Revolver.  Just kinda weedy music, in general.

It's an A-1 Brian song.  The production on that album is sadly/badly/fadly/Egadsly dated though.  Trying to sound 'comtemporary' is like the best man and ushers wearing brown tuxes to a wedding.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  BUT...in retrospect?  OH SHYTE!!!!! :o

That stupid and short-lived crap-prod of the later 80s was just plain dorkish.

T'was like this computerized hippy/hoppy poop that's passed for hit music these past 15-20 years.  [while killing the music industry, artist careers, radio and ratings and sanity]  It'll all sound oh so dated like Dick Hyman's Electric Eclectics in years to come.   [Sorry...Hot Butter's Popcorn?  No?  Switched on Bach?]

I enjoyed it, and didn't even need to be high!

To anyone who likes this track, I would strongly advise you to get the expanded version of the album on CD with the bonus cuts.  The instrumental sections of this song are amazing to hear, and with Brian counting off the sections, it sounds like something off of the Smile sessions.

This reminds me of another brilliant first post: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9139.msg155210.html#msg155210

Nobody/Ghost: have you returned!???1!

I would've liked to have heard Landy's fabled Life Suite. wonder what that would've been like

I had the opportunity to listen to Summer in Paradise while on LSD and can I just say...

I decided against it...

  Wise choice. Great music is great, regardless of whether you or high or low or somewhere in between. As Bruce told the Obama fan in 2012, "trust me."

It's 'cherokee trail' but I agree wholeheartedly it's an amazing track. I've had the pleasure of listening in various altered states and straight. Always beautiful.

I thought it was Cherokee "train".

Who else is in for a "acid test" listening party to Rio Grande at glimpses of divinity's house?  Give us a date and time!

It shattered my mind....

What is Rio Grande please? Thank you

It's a great tune on Brian's FIRST solo lp... :hat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6N2EVifCEc

I grew up too late to try LSD legally, but I do believe it would be won-won-wonderful to listen to this track on the dreaded lysergic. I keep hoping the Wondermints will one day do this song live with Brian.

microscope... it looks like little bits of rope.

Yes! Sleep deprivation is the only drug that you need.

Heh.  I was thinking the exact same thing.  ;)

For those of us who don't like drug music, the song isn't that good. Kinda boring and odd.

That's what I thought about "Alone on Christmas Day." Maybe people bigtime into painkillers will like it, tho. Or when you're coming down a heavy Pepcid AC trip.

Sizzurp drinkers know the good jams, too. Nothing like unreleased 70's Christmas tunes and a double cup of lean to ring in the holiday festivities.

I'm not putting that in my brain anymore.

Just say no

SORRY FOR LATE REPLY BUT I JUST READ THIS AND AGREE WITH IT 100%

BRIAN DID THINGS WITH SYNTHESIZERS THAT NO ONE HAS DONE SINCE.

IF HE EVER MADE LOVE YOU 2 IT WOULD BE THE A GREAT HIT AMONG DMT ALIENS.