The Smiley Smile Message Board

I thought I'd get this one going, since there seem to be so many!!  Fair game, I figure, are references to Beach Boys songs, but also to Gershwin songs other than the one ostensibly being played (I'm fairly sure this happens at least once).  I'll start off with one I heard about on the board, and one I found for myself:

The end of I Got Rhythm pretty clearly references Farmer's Daughter. 

The background vocals during the solo on They Can't Take That Away From Me are a pretty clear reference to the Ronettes: Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love.

What else can we find?

At the end of "Nothing But Love", the phrase "nothing but love" is sung like the "lucky old sun" phrase from Briayn's last album, which is then followed by the ascending harmonies that were used at the end of "In Blue Hawaii" on BWPS. During the beginning of the "Rhapsody in Blue' intro, the first instrument to play in the background is an accordion. Brian's first memory of music was "Rhapsody", and he took lessons for accordion when he was boy, the only time he ever took musical lessons (and it may, thus, have been the first instrument he tried to play seriously). A cute reference.

I don't think there's any musical similarity besides the fact both are played on strings, but the strings in I Got Plenty O Nuttin really remind me of Tones/Tune X.

When 'They Can't Take That Away From Me' first started up, I caught myself singing 'Little Deuce Coupe'....  :lol

Still trying to find a Shortenin' Bread riff... 

To my astonishment, there doesn't seem to be one.  :thud

Hearing something I can't put my finger on in the tag of "NBL" - thought it was "Our Prayer" at first... definitely a Smile something.

The tag of "Nuttin'" is, to me at any rate, distinctly "Three Blind Mice"-ish... but then pretty much the whole track is infused with the Pet Sounds/Smile ambience.

In I Get Plenty O Nuttin 0.54-1.05, I hear a striking similarity to Three Blind Mice, as-well as the aforementioned overall similarity to Tones. I don't think these are conscious quotations but I take them to be re-assuring evidence that Brian's very much at the controls this time (Hooray!)

Edit: Doh Doe, you pipped me to it!!

The shuffle beat in Can't Take That Away that another poster has mentioned elsewhere, reminds me of Wouldn't It Be Nice.

The ascending vocal part at the end I would say has its origins in the H&V sessions (Bridge to indians), Our Prayer and is also used in Goin On. I think this particular part was discussed a while ago on the board, and somebody suggested this ascending thing originated in All Dressed Up For School (the dit dit dits).

Great idea for a thread btw! If you do the same thing with Smile though, the whole world folds in on itself, heaving under the weight of a trillion cross-references that simultaneously move backwards and forwards through time  - "Love To say Dada definitely contains a quote from Saturday Morning in the City" etc.

Does I've Got a Crush on You incorporate something of 'Sweet Mountain' ???

Yeah, I'd say that 'Nothing But Love' bit is H&V more than anything.
No 'Shortenin' Bread'? Sacrilege! I blame Paul Mertens  :lol

'Love To Say Dada' definitely contains a quote from 'Chapel Of Love', btw :P

As for Sweet Mountain, I'd guess that's more a doo-wop similarity than any conscious referencing....

I'd say it's a dead ringer for "This Isn't Love" from the cocaine sessions!


Lol! It does contain a quote from Had To Phone Ya though!!

really?


can I have a little help identifying this?

The piano intro to "I've got a crush on you" reminds me of "I'm bugged at my ol' man"..........

All the attempts to ID the "Crush" track should bear in mind it's the standard doo-wop chord progression. Brian used a version of it in several of his songs, but it doesn't originate with him.

At the end of "I Got Rhythm" I hear the bari sax is playing the line from the sax breakdown in Salt Lake City underneath the "Farmer's Daughter" riff
Also, I got the impression of "Little Saint Nick" or "Help Me Rhonda" rhythm-wise on the backing track of "They Can't take That Away From Me"

I hear the intro to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Rhonda" on a couple of the songs. And I hear the riff to "Shortenin' Bread" on another.

The most obvious to me is the melody from Passing By in the outro to TLIILY.

All these clever quotes could all be coincidental of course - Brian and the band are both steeped BB/Wilson music, having created and recreated so much of it, so its hardly surprising that bits of instrumentation and certain riffs find their way into new material.

The best quote ever from the BB-related canon is Carl running through the melodic tag of You Still Believe in Me at the end of Mike's Brian is Back. Its a very clever and very touching way of incorporating Brian's voice into a song about him, and acknowledging his bandmates' ongoing faith in and him and affection for him.

Ok so I say quote, I kind of meant that Had To Phone Ya is very similar, rythmically, and in its use of percussion. Try singing the opening line to Phone Ya ("had to phone ya, had to phone ya just to talk to you") between 0.25 and 0.33 of Love to say Da da and you hopefully hear what I mean. This cross referencing of BB songs is pretty subjective - one person might hear the similarity between say the opening to Da da, and the wa ha la lu lay la bit of worms, or between wa ha la lu lay and whistle in and another will say it's all nonsense, and it's difficult to argue conclusively either way. Personally I think Phone Ya is son of Dada!!

Try singing 'Going, to the chapel and we're, gonna get married' along with the clarinets in Dada... It's the exact same! I'm not crazy, honest  ;)

That should be referred to as the George Harrison defense. 

where does Trombone Dixie fit in with all this?

The way Brian sings the words "the like in I love you" is the exact same melody as the "do do do, do do" part from about halfway through Midnight's Another Day.

Yes, I caved in. Sue me.  :p

Good spot!

not exactly but close...
man it would be nice to hear Passing By performed live

Close is good enough for a quote!! :) :) However I think its more likely a coincidence, or an atavism. Or a distant memory passing by.

But yes, a live version of PB would be fab. Have you hard the version by the Pizzicato 5? It rocks! I've heard a few versions of it over the years but those by P5 and the BBs are best.

the tag on "They Can't Take That Away" is reminding me of "She's Got Rhythm"

Someone To Watch Over Me has a faint tinkling of Wonderful about it...

I got plenty of nuttin' also reminds me of Al's California, in a way

that and Caroline No

and You Still Believe In Me

"The Spirit of Rock n Roll" riff on the piano at the beginning of "The Like in I Love You" sounds cool.

I was thinking the same thing!

the song Summertime from the album has some resemblance to Brian's production of the Honeys single: Summertime.  ;D ;)

Unless The Honeys did in fact record a version of this song, you must mean Sharon Marie.

oh cwap! good call.

my ipod is messed up on the pet projects album, and it says every song on that album is sung by Sharon Marie, so I assumed it wasn't her.

Touch of 'Surf City' falsetto on 'I Got Rhythm' chorus.

There's a riff in Someone to Watch Over Me that had me scratching my head for a week - couldn't place it in the BB/BW repertoire at all, and replaying the tune didn't help cos the rest of the song distracted me too much. Now I have it, and it's a not a BBs ref at all, it's from the Elton John song Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me.  It's not an actual lift, just a hint at it, an essence even.  But isn't that the Elton song that half the BBs did backing vocals for?

I believe it's just Carl and Bruce on there along with (I think) other familiar faces Toni Tennille and Billy Hinsche.

I love that George Michaels live version, where Elton comes out on stage and just completely DESTROYS the song (in a good way).  George Michaels sings the first verse, pretty good, then Elton comes out and it sounds like GOD is singing it.  I know a lot of people don't like his 'later' voice, but the thunder he's capable of is just amazing.  It sounds like the stadium is going to crumble or something, just awesome. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKqMNDoR4o

LOL great video of it.  'little trip back to 1991.  George looks like Ringo.  Elton looks like he's wearing an Osh Kosh B'Gosh jump suit. 

I like the bit best when George says 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Elton John...!'

In I Got Plenty Of Nothing there's a possible ref to Dennis's River Song in that wonderful descending riff which occurs at 0.29, 0.47 and 1.28. Tenuous but you never know...

"I got plenty of nothin'" has part of the bassline of the Beatles' "Something"


The vocals that come up in "Summertime" after the "rise up singing"-lyric remind me of "Country air" but that's probably just my imagination