The Smiley Smile Message Board

Ah yes, yet another Smile-related mystery:  I can't shake this nagging feeling that the "Water Chant" that appears on all our Smile tapes was actually not recorded during the Smile era, but instead was possibly done during the Smiley Smile sessions or Oct/Nov 1967 or  July of 1970 when during the "Cool Cool Water" finishing sessions. 

It is plausible that the chant could have been recorded during a Smile session and no documentation was generated, much like a vocal section like "Do A Lot" or the Smile era "With Me Tonight".  So, despite the fact that there is no "official" evidence linking the "Water Chant" to Smile, that doesn't rule it out for me.  But listening to the sessions for "Water Chant" makes me think the track was recorded at Brian's home studio.  The room sound heard in the count in sounds suspiciously like similar count ins on Smiley Smile era sessions.  Plus, the organ tone that provides the single note foundation of the chant doesn't sound like anything used on Smile.  It does sound like the organ that Brian put on many tracks on Smiley Smile, and later on Wild Honey, Friends etc.  For instance, listen to the organ note backing the "sure would like to have a little pad" part of Little Pad--very similar sound. 

Granted, Carl (?) said that the "Water Chant" was from Smile, but I think he may have been referring to where the idea originated, which seems to have been one of the Smile era chants Brian recorded with his buddies (such as the "Down on the ocean floor" chant).  I also think Carl's comment could have been motivated by their struggle to get Reprise to finally accept the Sunflower album for release, especially since Lenny Waronker seemed to want the song finished (I think he actually wanted Smile finished, but that's another riff all together).  At best I think the origins of the "Water Chant" are shady.  Anyone have any insight on the topic?

I agree, definitly Smiley Smile. Mabey it was part of The Hawiian Song. :P

The main reason I don't see Water Chant being during the Smiley era is the reverb...Smiley is, for the most part, dry as a bone, and the overall sound of Water Chant is, pardon the pun, wet.  That and the fact that we know Brian was experimenting with chants a lot during Smile, and it would make sense that this chant took place around the same time and not later. 

All totally conjecture, I admit.

Strikes me as logical thinking, though I'd also agree that the chant must have been conceived in the same spirit as the weird sound recordings Brian was doing with his party chums in the BBs' absence -  the "swim swim fishy fishy swim swim" stuff we all have.

Curious, perhaps, that no recoding date has emerged for the Water Chant unless the tape was marked with another name.

Might Alan Boyd be able to shed light on this?