The Smiley Smile Message Board

Surprise for me was the inclusion of a few bars from a 1976 archive track that very, very few have ever heard.

and then there's I'm Goin' Home....which remembers me of demotrack I heard (80-ies or early 90-ies) called Goin' Home. Has quite some similarities.

+ that there was something else in that particular song AGD mentioned in the TLOS review-thread.


...the mama-mama-thing....can't picture the exact story on that right now...

"Clangin'" - check out the group interview part of the big article in the November 1976 issue of Rolling Stone, the one with Brian doing his 'Moses-in-a-bathrobe-with-a-surfboard' thing on the cover.

ok, thanks.... not sure if I have that mag at home. Will check that out.

OK - "California Role" started life in summer 1985 as "Wondering What You're Up To Now".

morning beat has that shortenin' bread feel to it.

where's part of rio grande?

Oh for sure - the whole decidedly exceeds the sum of the parts.

And it's nothing like GIOMH - one, it's good, and two, Brian was interested.

I think the song Southern California is prolly the most pretty song brian has written since say: Lay Down Burden, or Melt Away.

I just want to point out, in my opinion (and I could be horribly wrong), this isn't Brian just recycling stuff because he can't think of anything else.  What we're seeing here is a musical genius who has thousands of melodies floating around his head, and he frankly doesn't give a merda if he's used a melody before or not.  This isn't anything new to music or new to Brian; he recycled "Song For Children" into part of "Good Vibrations", he stole a melody he liked from Chuck Berry when he was barely an adult and made "Surfin' U.S.A.", he praises George Gershwin's famous variations on themes, he recorded a fabled 6 or 7 versions of "Shortenin' Bread" which he himself didn't write in the first place, etc. 

So while the album has snippets of old unreleased songs, it also has snippets of stuff he released, as well as snippets of stuff somebody else wrote, as well as snippets we've never heard before.  This isn't somebody with writers block.  This is somebody who doesn't restrain himself when it comes to making the music he wants to make!  While there may be an unwritten rule that it's not creative to re-use melodies and things you've already released, Brian has always been about breaking rules with his musical compositions.  I think the fact that he's recycling some melodies and stealing some melodies without concern exhibits that maybe he's finally getting his passion for music back into his compositions, and that's a great thing for him and for us. 

Yeah!  In the same vein, definately.  Gorgeous song.   I think his half-destroyed voice actually adds a little bit to it, too... you can always count on Brian to drag out the tired, weary, whispy vocals when he does a song about reflection, or bittersweet memories.  It just sends it through the roof, in my opinion.  So half of the beauty of the song to me is the performance.  Usually, his voice kind of gets in the way of some of the things he's doing, but evvvvvery once in a while, he just perfectly meshes up with something, and this is one of those songs. 

morning beat has that shortenin' bread feel to it.

Parts of Southern California have similarities to Passing By.

Also, I've read where a couple of folks think that Passing By as at the end of The Like in I love You...where at? I don't hear it?

Never really thought of it before, but yeah, I can see that....the wordless vocal part sounds similar, but not exactly.

Yeah, I heard the "Passing By" reference first time through. This was the part that confused me when early on when it was suggested erroneously that Scott Bennett had written "Southern California" entirely on his own - my first thought was, "well, he borrowed a bit of 'Passing By' for it"; it turns out, Brian himself re-purposed a bit of it instead.

Is it the section that sings: "woah woah woah it's magical...that it happen to me"?

I just want to point out, in my opinion (and I could be horribly wrong), this isn't Brian just recycling stuff because he can't think of anything else.  What we're seeing here is a musical genius who has thousands of melodies floating around his head, and he frankly doesn't give a sh*t if he's used a melody before or not.  This isn't anything new to music or new to Brian; he recycled "Song For Children" into part of "Good Vibrations", he stole a melody he liked from Chuck Berry when he was barely an adult and made "Surfin' U.S.A.", he praises George Gershwin's famous variations on themes, he recorded a fabled 6 or 7 versions of "Shortenin' Bread" which he himself didn't write in the first place, etc. 

So while the album has snippets of old unreleased songs, it also has snippets of stuff he released, as well as snippets of stuff somebody else wrote, as well as snippets we've never heard before.  This isn't somebody with writers block.  This is somebody who doesn't restrain himself when it comes to making the music he wants to make!  While there may be an unwritten rule that it's not creative to re-use melodies and things you've already released, Brian has always been about breaking rules with his musical compositions.  I think the fact that he's recycling some melodies and stealing some melodies without concern exhibits that maybe he's finally getting his passion for music back into his compositions, and that's a great thing for him and for us.