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Does anyone have the transcript of what exactly Dennis is saying in the background on the 2nd chorus of 'Cabinessense'? I know what it SOUNDS like he's saying, but i'm not gonna say what i think that is as i'm pretty certain i'm wrong... Would be interested to find out though!

Printed in David Leaf's book, which i don't have to hand right now.

Hey!!

I happened to see this post and thought I'd throw my hat into the ring... if I'm not mistaken, the lyrics are as follows:

Truck drivin' man
Do what you can
High tail your load off the road into night life
It's a gas, man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
I'm outta luck 'tween a buck and a booth
catchin' on to the truth in the vast past
ah, the last gasp
In land or dust, trust that you must
Catch as catch can


That's all from memory, but I'm almost positive that's correct! Hope that helps! Take care!


Kev

Impressive - from memory that's almost perfect.

Hey, that's great - and boy, am i glad i didn't write what i thought he was saying after all..

I pulled out Leaf's book. The above isn't 100% correct, but it is close.

Here is what Leaf printed:

Truck driving man do what you can
High-tail your load off the road
Out of the night-life -- it's a gas man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
In and out of luck
With a buck and a booth
Catchin' on to the truth
In the vast past, the last gasp
In the land, in the dust, trust that you must
Catch as catch can.

Well, now i know. Pity it's from that utter tossbag David Leaf's book, don't like having to turn to such a turd-faced hypocrite for info.. Does anyone else downright loath his revolting linear notes on the two-fer CDs?

I have a feeling that you don't like the man, am I right?

Worth noting that Nick Walusko didn't get the words quite right in 2004 ("I'm a gasman" being one example, conjuring up images of the Wondermints doing that Monty Python sketch with the queue of gasmen lining the street).

Who did write that chant? I guess the answer is probably Brian/VDParks but I never saw any credit for it. unfortunately the lyrics to that chant aren't printed in the BWPS-booklet

Undoubtedly Van Dyke Parks.

Do you think Brian's original idea was for the three sections of Cabinessence to go together?

Yes - that's Brian's own assembly. All that was added in 1968 was Carl's lead vocal and a few bvs, according to people who would nkow.

You're probably right, although its funny because when someone asked Brian about it around the time of BWPS, he seemed like he had no idea that it had even existed.  Something like "I had no idea what Dennis was singing".  Obviously his memory isn't very reliable these days, since he must have had a hand in writing the melody back in the day.  The part is way too cool and brilliant to be the invention of another BB at that point in time.

I remember reading somewhere that Dennis wrote it. That's probably a complete mental fabrication on my part, though.

Weren't the Truck Driving Man lyrics given to Frank Holmes by Van Dyke?  So that would certainly make Van Dyke the aurthor - besides the fact that the syntax and vocabulary is unmistakenly Van Dykian, and unlike anything Dennis would ever write.

and what about

‘Reconnected telephone direct
dialing;
Different color cords to your
Extension,
Don’t forget to mention
This is a recording.’

‘Even though the echoes through
my mind
Have filtered through the pines,
I came and found my peace,
And this is not a recording.’

“Doobie doo,
Doobie doo,
Or not doobie!’”

I imagine this has been suggested before, but could it be that Brian and Van Dyke briefly considered using the "reconnected telephone.../...echoes through my mind" lyrics underneath the first chorus in the same way that Dennis' "Truck-Driving Man" recitation appears underneath the second? Or possibly underneath the coda? Ultimately, Brian may have felt that the "Who Ran The Iron Horse?" vocal was enough for the first chorus and used only one of the recitations to give the second chorus an added dimension.

As an aside: this would not have been the only time Brian layered in unexpected vocal elements into a track. I'm thinking of the spanish vocals from IJWMFTT or the more recent example of Joe Thomas reading from "Dante's Inferno" in "Happy Days".

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but do we really know what the "spanish vocals" are?  ???

"Quando Sere. Un Dia Sere."

Right?  :lol

Dennis quote:

"On ‘Cabin-Essence’, there’s a line in there-‘truck-driving man’ which I sang. I got off so much doing that. It’s mixed way down in the track and it’s syncopated all the way through. Right there is my biggest turn-on."

Was Carl always meant to sing the lead vocal on Cabinessence, even back when it was supposed to be on the 1967 version of SMiLE?

I would guess that Carl was supposed to do that lead all along, but I really don't know.  The only other member who could have pulled it off would have been Brian, and I think that if it was originally supposed to be Brian, they boys would have tried to get him to sing it in '68 (much like they did with Surf's Up in '71).  Even so, as much as I love Brian's voice during that era, I can't really picture his voice working as well as Carl's for that one.

There's a story that Dennis was supposed to sing lead on "Cabin Essence". His voice would certainly have fit the mood of the song, I imagine better than Carl's lead.

Here is Dennis' isolated vocal on Cabinessence for the Truck Driving Man lyrics, enjoy: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=78BD5EDB6F3B8E4A

Having listened to the sound file posted by Heywood Floyd, the actual lyrics seem to be as follows:


Truck driving man do what you can
High-tail your load off the road
Out of night-life -- I'm a gas, man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
I'm out of luck
With a buck and a booth
Catchin' on to the truth
In the van, oh it's the last gasp
Land in the dust, prosper too much
Catch as catch can.


Which would mean that Nick Walusko was right in 2004 after all!

Can someone please repost this, 'cuz this link is dead.  ;D

Mike Vosse said that Dennis was supposed to sing lead on "Home on the Range."  At this point it appeared Who Ran the Iron Horse and Home on the Range were planned as separate songs (Fusion interview).

When the song was recorded all three sections were recorded at the same session (verse/Iron Horse chorus/tag).  However another session was held for Cabinessence with instruemtation that doesn't match any of the sections that were released - could be this was the reconnected telephone section.

No, because Child Is Father of the Man is what was recorded at that session and not Cabinessence! The session sheet is mislabeled.

Been Too Long

Can you repost this? I loved it and lost it. I know it's better to have loved and lost, but still...

How do we know the session was mislabelled?  Because the master number doesn't match up with the previous Home on the Range master number (the Oct 11th session is 56716, the Oct 3 Home on the Range session 56647)?  We don't have a master number for Child, do we? 

Well from the session sheet we can see that the track from October 11th matches the Brian track mono mix in length at about 2 minutes, 50 seconds. The instrumentation from that session also matches the Child track.

More specifically:
A) We know there were 2 Child sessions because we have those sessions and their results. The October 7th session produced the chorus track with those running string bass lines, the ones you can hear them practicing constantly during the session, and that short verse, the one that is called out as the “verse” in the session. This session included 2 percussionists but no trumpet. The October 11th “Cabin Essence” session includes Oliver Mitchell on trumpet and no percussion as does the results of the 2nd Child session. Those are the new verse (the one used on BWPS) with no percussion but with trumpet, the bridge also with no percussion but including trumpet, and finally the chorus overdubs of the October 7th chorus. The earlier chorus is overdubbed with extra electric bass and those trumpet parts in place of the string bass lines.
As you mentioned this October 11th session also doesn’t match anything known recorded for Cabin Essence anyways and was always a little confusing as to its purpose because of this and, we know that the entirety of the known track for Cabin was recorded on October 3rd anyways so this session doesn’t make sense in that way either.

B) Here are the personnel from the two sessions:

Child Oct. 7th                                    “Cabin” Oct. 11th
Diane Rovell                                       Diane Rovell
Chuck Britz                                         Chuck Britz
Brian Wilson                                       Brian Wilson
Carl Wilson                                         Carl Wilson
Jimmy Bond                                        Jimmy Bond
Bill Pitman                                          Bill Pitman
Carol Kaye                                         Carol Kaye
Hal Blane (Drums)                             Oliver Mitchell (Trumpet)
Frank Capp (Percussion)

You can see that it is exactly the same except for the differences that can be heard between the first version of the Child tracking and the second version of that tracking. While this is not an unusual line up for one of Brian’s sessions you can see that it is exact from one to the other and also is very different from the Oct. 3rd “Home on the Range” tracking lineup.

C) Finally, just look at the naming of the sessions. On October 3rd the track is recorded as “Home on the Range.” We know the entire track was recorded, not just the verses, so “Home on the Range” is not a section title, this was the original title of the song, later changed to “Cabinessence.” On October 11th we have the tracking session that is called “Cabin Essence” from 2pm to 6pm however that evening there is a vocal session from 8pm to 2am held under the title “Home on the Range.” We know that Cabin Essence is the later title as it is the title used on later vocal sessions (never again Home on the Range), on the track memo, and on the back cover so, if the title on the session held on the evening of the 11th was “Home on the Range” then the title “Cabin Essence” could not have been in use earlier that day and DID NOT EXIST. The only explanation for this is that the session sheet for this was filled out after the day of the session and after the title had been changed. This A) may have been the result of confusion of what was actually tracked that day at that session after the passage of time or, B) maybe it was something like Brian mentioning that the title of the song recorded on October 11th was going to be renamed “Cabin Essence” and the person working on the session sheets erroneously changing the title on the “Child is Father of the Man” tracking sheet as opposed to the title on the “Home on the Range” sheet. Either way, if that tracking session really was for Cabin it should have been title “Home on the Range” so the title is completely incorrect.

As you state the Master Numbers don’t match from the October 3rd “Home on the Range” session to the October 11th “Cabin Essence” session. While this is not proof that they can’t be for the same song, it also does nothing to tie them to each other. At the same time the “Child” session on October 7th has no Master Number so this also shows nothing in the way of connection or disconnection between the October 7th session and the October 11th session.

So basically, Cabin Essence was tracked, only and in its entirety, on October 3rd. Child is Father of the Man was first tracked on October 7th. We have no session sheet listing “Child” but there was a second tracking session. This second, unknown tracking date is really the session held on the 11th but being mis-titled as “Cabin Essence.”

Been Too Long

Makes sense to me.  Good detective work.  I'd assumed the "remake" of the Child verse/bridge may have occured  on the 12th, but the match up of the players to the track certainly suggests it was Oct 11th. 

Doesn't match mine, which times in at 3.03.

Reconnected telephone direct
dialing;
Different color cords to your
Extension,
Don’t forget to mention
This is a recording.’

‘Even though the echoes through
my mind
Have filtered through the pines,
I came and found my peace,
And this is not a recording.’

“Doobie doo,
Doobie doo,
Or not doobie!’”

were these lyrics ever recorded? Thats an interesting idea that it might come in the first who ran the iron horse section

The only session I’ve seen for October 12th 1966 is a vocal session at Columbia for Child, so I wouldn’t think so. The instrumentation seems like a little more then what they could do without extra outside musicians. The 11th does really seem to match up in instrumentation.


Right, they’re both close to three minutes in length.
Track times from these session sheets are not exactly accurate to the second. Looking at some of the other SMiLE sessions: Aug 3rd Wind Chimes is listed as 2:28 and the final take (take 5) is 3:02, Aug 12th “Look” is listed as 2:16 and the final track is 2:35, Aug 25th Wonderful is listed as 1:55 and the final track is 2:05, October 3rd “Cabin Essence” is listed as 3:20 and the final track is at least 3:30, October 18th Worms is listed at 3:05 and the final track is almost 4 minutes, and so on. This probably wasn’t the most important information on the session sheet to getting the musicians paid so it looks like they were just ballparking it most of the time. With a fade out the final track would most likely be somewhere just under three minutes anyways so 2:50 is probably a good guess on the part of the person filling out the documentation, even if they did get the track title wrong.

Been Too Long

Isolated Dennis vocal on Cabinessence: http://download.yousendit.com/B0AF91130EC69A63

Thanks very much!

As to the track times, does it refer to the piece of music done at the session, or the final edited track?  There are quite a few Smile tracks that are done as edit pieces - all of Heroes for example - and the music recorded at the session is only a small piece of the final track time.  Here we don't know if the 3:03 track edit of Child was done at the same session (do we?  Did Alan have a date on the tapebox?) as the remake of the verse/chorus, although it makes sense to do it then - it could have been done later.  My point is that the time recorded on the session sheets could refer to just what was recorded at the session, an edited version of what was recorded at the session (i.e. duplicating the verse/chorus as directed by Brian) or an edited version of what was recorded at that session AND what was recorded for the song at a previous session.

I've always thought these lyrics were not written for Cabinessence but for CITFOTM. My evidence is flimsy but I stand by it:
1) I cannot fit these lyrics anywhere into Cabinessence
2) That "Doobie doo" kinda fits into the descending bass bit of the end of the CITFOTM verses
3) The confusion of recording dates, titles etc... between the two songs
4) Don't they just fit the CITFOTM verses beautifully? "Even though the echoes through my mind have filtered through the pines" - muted trumpet plays.

I think it's safe to say that my evidence is concrete. CASE CLOSED!

Thanks for the link Haywood.

For what it's worth, we have pulled these tapes in the past, and according to the boxes, track sheets and tapes themselves:

Oct 3 - Cabinessence (all three sections)
Oct 7 - Child Is Father of the Man (first attempt)
Oct 11 - Child is Father of the Man (three sections)

Thanks Alan! 8)

Yeah, but what does it have to do with the Child is Father of the Man concept?

According to David Leaf...

Truck driving man do what you can
High-tail your load off the road
Out of the night-life -- it's a gas man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
In and out of luck
With a buck and a booth
Catchin' on to the truth
In the vast past, the last gasp
In the land, in the dust, trust that you must
Catch as catch can.


According to Glenn Greenberg...

Truck driving man do what you can
High-tail your load off the road
Out of night-life -- I'm a gas, man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
I'm out of luck
With a buck and a booth
Catchin' on to the truth
In the van, oh it's the last gasp
Land in the dust, prosper too much
Catch as catch can.



Now, according to Dan Lega...

Truck driving man do what you can
High-tail your load off the road
Out of night-life -- I'm a gas, man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
I'm out of luck
With a buck and a booth
Catchin' on to the truth
In the van, past the last gasp
Land in the dust, trust that you must
Catch as catch can.


That's what I hear.  (Though I'm not the greatest at figuring out lyrics.)  Your "prosper too much" sounded correct the first time I listened to it while looking at your lyrics, but "trust that you must" sounds better to me now.  However, I definitely go with your "I'm a gas, man" and "I'm out of luck".  I also hear "In the van", instead of "in the vast" -- but then I hear "past the last gasp" instead of "oh it's".

Love and merci,   Dan Lega

Speaking of Cabinessence, did the Beach Boys ever perform it live?  If so which years?

It's easy fitting the 'reconnected' lyrics into Cabin Essence - at least musically! Try singing them to the tune of the coda from "Have you seen" onwards...
A perfect match!

CASE NOT CLOSED...
In order to make my case I must ask you to insert a few minor extensions (echoeing through the pines) in verse II:
"This is a recording"
('- this IS a recording..... recording')
And the final Van Dyke paraphrasing invites the inevitable Hamlet riposte:
"Doobie doo, doobie doo
OR not doobie"... ('That's the question!')

Even though I'd like the reconnected lyrics to fit also with CIFOTM I cannot work it out.
So King of Anglia - if you please: would you describe to us how it's done. Like is it with recitation only or sung with the melody. Is it Song For Children AND
CIFOTM both,  or just the original recordings???
For as we all know. In SMiLE-land the one does not necessarily exclude the other. Sometimes we CAN have it both ways(?)

Thanks for posting the vocal again.

The BWPS version of  this section of Cabinessence has slightly different lyrics and doesn't have the jump in pitch in the word "catch" as the original. Guess they didn't have access to the vocal multitrack.

According to our friend Ray, the Spanish lyrics are "Estoy aqui por loco, no por pendejo!"

I find this track AMAZING + the grand Coolie part gives me chills.. Seeing it performed live was something else ..the whole floor rumbled + when they get to the coolie part it sounded like angels.. 04=05 tours

From Dan Lega:

<<<In the van, past the last gasp
Land in the dust, trust that you must>>>


I'm almost positive that it's NOT "past the last gasp."  Upon listening again, it sounds more like "OFF the last gasp."

I also don't hear "trust that you must."  To me, it still sounds like "prosper too much."