The Smiley Smile Message Board

Has there ever been an explanation of why there is a strange buzz on the song Country Air? Was it a deliberate sound effect? Or was it a master tape problem?

Problem with the connections in the Baldwin.

Why didn't he just do another take?

Or just leave the Baldwin out, in favor of another keyboard?

That's a think that always bothered me. How did this get over the producer's quality control? Kinda shows that someone lost interest in unsullied perfection.

There is also a very jarring, poorly done edit in " I'd Love Just Once To See You" that bugs me every time I hear it.

I've always assumed it's supposed to be there, bit like that 'edge-of-hearing' guitar on one fragment of "BWTL".

I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't sound quite so much like the sound speakers make as your phone is about to recieve a call.....

I've always loved that buzz in Country Air...it adds a little bit of a sinister vibe, a scary acid flashback overtone, amid the beauty and simplicity of the track. I know Brian left it there because he dug it at the time. The "jarring" edit in I'd Love Just Once To See You is also one of those mistakes that creates an organic hiccup that really works for me. Hard to explain but it adds rather than detracts. If either of those things were pro-tooled out of there I'd miss them for sure.

To me, Country Air is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful songs on WH (along with Let the Wind Blow), but when I hear that keyboard buzz, I have an urge to go grab a flyswatter!  Seriously, though, it's not distracting enough to ruin the song for me.

I'd Love Just Once is a different story.  I'm a mathematical kinda guy.  That edit throws me off enough to where I lose my place in the tempo.  Subconceously, I'm thinking "1-2-3-4,1-2....1....uh, no 1....where are we?"

This is a little different than the time signature changes that bands like Kansas liked to do deliberately.

it's just a bar of 2.. actually sounds quite deliberate, whether it was originally or not..

But even in his prime, Brian was prone to letting imperfections into mixes (such as Pet Sounds). He was never a perfectionist in terms of technical product.

The "Country Air" buzz reminds me of a muted trumpeter's swan, so I dig it.

Are you talking about the version on the 1990 "twofer" of Smiley/Wild Honey? Can you point me to where in the recording(how many minutes, etc...) you're talking about?

Speaking of Country Air, there is a booted "stereo" version, with even more of the buzz than the 1990 "twofer" version.

It's true stereo, prepared sometime around 2001 or so.

We're talking about the only version there is, going back to the original 1967 vinyl release... and it's clearly audible, even on a dubious UK pressing. Try listening.

It sounds great to me. I hope the rest of the album sounds that good in stereo. Although, I wasn't very impressed with the stereo version of "Let The Wind Blow"

I think he was referring to the 2fer version of BWTL as opposed to the box set version.

Thanks. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the above comment.

Apologies - I thought the track in question was "Country Air" My bad.

I think you're right, but it sounds to me like the 2 isn't even a full beat.  The splice is very abrupt.

Maybe it's the bees making that Wild Honey!

Not his Baldwin, but a Chamberlin or however you spell it.
I doubt a Baldwin would make that buzzing.

Not a Chamberlain - why would they use that on an album like Wild Honey ?

Dunno, but it doesn't sound like an organ.
Here's a link
http://www.planetmellotron.com/revb2.htm#beachboys

Interesting... but hardly convincing. For one thing, the band never owned a Chamberlain - Desper had to borrow one to construct Brian's 'water machine'.

Damn, you're right, again.

Organs can sound like an amazing range of things.  They really were designed as the first synthesizers.

 What was this "Water Machine"?

i dig that "edit" in i'd love just once to see you.  I never considered it a mistake.

Brian decided, during the Smile sessions, that he wanted a keyboard that played water sounds - drips, streams, taps, waterfalls - so Steve Desper was commissioned to do just that. He borrowed a friends Chamberlain (or however you spell it), then hiked up to the mountains for a few days recording natural water. Back in LA he further recorded taps and the like, then transferred the sounds (by then pitch-shifted) to the Chamberlain. There were something like three sets of tapes. Anyway, it's set up, Brian comes in, plays it for maybe ten minutes, says "that's nice", and never touched it again.

Steve recalled that when they were recording "Cool, Cool Water", they wanted to use those tapes again - but they'd been wiped. Enter Bernie Krause...

Nothing to do with this then:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/nov/22/fluid-piano-classical-music

I wonder what he was going to do with it.

Now this is the most interesting post I have read on here yet. Early sampling? Damn, Bri, you never stop amazing me! Except when you did those Xmas albums ('64, '77 & '05). Stop with that already!

Brian was HARDLY an innovator with the Chamberlain/Mellotron. The Chamberlain had been around since the 1950s.

Uhhthankyouverymuch suh..... ;D

the group most certainly did use a Chamberlin (later on "add some music" for instance), not 100% sure if "country air" has it or not though.  sounds like it could be a brass and/or strings tape.  the distortion sounds like the microphone was clipping, not the amp or the instrument itself.  i've noticed this happening when recording high pitched sounds (such as organ, etc) with certain old electro voice microphones.

couldn't find a chamberlin clip, but this is in the ball park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8qU3LckK7k

thanks for the website link.

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Not saying they didn't - just that they never owned one.

I dunno why that bootleg "Smiley Smile/Wild Honey" in stereo hasn't been given proper release...

The stereo mix of "I Was Made To Love Her" is MUCH better than the album version.  The 'Rarities' bit is in its proper place instead of tacked onto the end, and there's a lost intro as well.  Along with other little elements that didn't make it.

And yes, I'd also like to know where this "edge of hearing" guitar is on BWTL!

I listened to it (the 2fer version) and couldn't spot that...

Now this sounds very interesting....

Probably because an official mix of these sessions from the masters would be a hundred times better?

Not trying to sound like an ass, there, just saying - I'd much rather hear an official remix.

Well, now you do sound like an ass, because the bootleg CD was sourced from official mixes.... :-P

Nope. The CD did use what was officially released in stereo from the two albums at the time (around 2002), but the rest of the stereo mixes are either from the SOTs (meaning, basically, the most "completed" version on the set), or, in the case of several other Smiley Smile and Wild Honey songs, rechanneled to sound like stereo. Pretty much all you have there is a glorified duophonic release with a few binaural and even fewer true stereo mixes. It's a Frankenstein's monster on the level of 20/20!

And is it not worth mentioning that the official stereo mix of Heroes and Villains is technically not "true" stereo, due to missing a few overdubs here and there?

Well, okay, I'm the ass then. :-)

Don't take it personally, bud. There are far bigger culos on this forum.

But yeah, that bootleg is basically a few of the official stereo mixes (Heroes and Villains, Vegetables, Let The Wind Blow), 8 full (She's Goin' Bald, Wind Chimes, Wonderful, Wild Honey, I Was Made To Love Her, A Thing Or Two, Darlin', Here Comes The Night) and 2 partial (With Me Tonight, Gettin' Hungry) SOT-derived binaural stereo mixes, and a few other rechanneled mixes (everything else). There is an official unreleased stereo mix of Country Air, made sometime around 2002.

Besides, anyone who actually reads the slightly more scholarly posts on this forum would know that a full stereo remix of Smiley Smile is impossible due to the lack of vocal multitracks for Good Vibrations, Heroes and Villains was also missing a few overdubs in its stereo mix, and the tag to Vegetables is also missing a few overdubs in the stereo version.