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Me the last person to question a lyric by VDP but was that mmmmmmm a 'gap' that might have been filled by something else? A lyric yet at the time to to be written? Always seemed a bit awkward to me.

It's "Surf's up aboard a tidal wave". One of my favorite parts of the song. The lyrics are great! Can you imagine surfing on the top of a tidal wave? What a ride!!

Never surfed meself but the point was the mmmmmmm bit. Was it a 'filler' before an actual lyric was to be written?

i dunno.  i guess not cause he would have finished it if so

It's not like Van Dyke was hard up on lyrics during the 60's. It's a wonderful line and not a placeholder for more words, I'd say.

Maybe during the Surf's Up writing session in the sand box, Van Dyke got pissed after stepping in dog crap and he went home and they left the song unfinished like that. 

If you don't like the "Mmmmmm", just fill it in with your own lyrics.  Personally, Willy, I like the "Mmmmmm".

I've wondered the same thing since Van was never one to waste words.  For example, had he penned the words to Good Vibrations, there would have been no "oom bop, bop" or "hum-de-dum-de-dum", etc.  It just wasn't his thing.  It may have been just a temp thing for Brian at the time, but the thing of it is, it is written in stone and a permanent part of the song.  I find it to be charming; sort of a human touch in a technically mindblowing narrative.

BTW, while we're on the subject of that line, has anyone else seen a double meaning in it (or I should say, two ways to phrase the same meaning)?

"......aboard a title wave"

".......a board (as in surfboard), a title wave"

I always thought the line to be heavy on the irony, considering it was coming from a group that only very recently was primarily known for being a "surf group".

I always heard the lyric as "Surf's Up mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-board a tidal wave".

Note: Trying to write this phonetically is very difficult.  ;D

The notations that Jasper dug up from the "Inside Pop" tapes had the line "takes guts to catch a wave" inscribed.

What about 'Vega-tables'? "Da da dala da da da da" - after the "Eat a lot, sleep a lot" section. Plus, the dreadful intro of 'My Hobo Heart' ("yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, ooooohhhh, no no no no no no" - granted they are common words but they don't say much.

I don't think a little 'hmmmmmmm' would have bothered him too much.

Me too.  Like someone going "uh huh", or "surf's up, that's right".

I love that BBC interview from a few years ago in which VDP said that Brian gave him a melody and VDP would fill it with words and that Brian did not write 'Surf's Up' but wrote "da, da".

Interesting... never saw it this way. I'm an 'aboard' man myself, but your idea is valid. VDP loves ambiguity. On 'Song Cycle', he sings:

'Dreams Are Still Born In Hollywood'. For 35 years now, I took it both as a hopeful line (they're not over, they still emerge) and as a harsh judgment: stillborn, as in 'born dead' (referring to the decadence, e.g. in the Sunset Boulevard movie).

Also on Song Cycle, there's: 'I should think he'd fade away the way that Bohemians often bare the frigid air.' Strange and mystical... not 'cold air', or 'fresh air', but 'frigid air'. Like in 'frigidaire'. Frigid also is: sexually insensitive.

Well, it's poetry. Not exactly: 'Woke up this morning, mah' booze done gone. Mah' baby left me, I'm on my own'.

About the Surf's Up line: I always loved it. Never missed any words there.

Perhaps it really was meant to be: 'Surf's up, mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm I'm bored, I'm tired old Dave'?

'Surf's Up' wasn't the only part of SMiLE to have not been finished.

...And yet the line perfectly fits the accepted metaphor of the song. "Surf's up" means the tide is high and yet, this time, it's REALLY high - a tidal wave that will wipe out the past (the colonnaded ruins will fall) making way for the future - the children who will reinvent society.

There is another interpretation of the line I had never considered before reading this thread: by dropping the "a" (if it is, in fact, dropped), the lyric could be an invitation, as in "Surf's up (people)...board a tidal wave (while you can)".

Van Dyke has repeatedly said that he wrote the words even down to the syllable to order for the notes of the melody as played by or more likely sung by Brian.  So yes, I find it odd that he wouldn't have written something for that spot - Van Dyke was not a "mmmm mmmmmm" or "da da" filler writer.  Could he have written something for that spot that Brian didn't like and substituted the wordless "mmmmmmm?"  He did change the lyrics to Vegetables from the original Van Dyke version (cornucopia).

Another possibility is Brian changed how he played the line on the piano from when he and Van Dyke composed it, lengthening the line, and didn't have Van dyke write extra words and had to fill in.

Third possibility:  Brian wanted that mmmm mmmmm in the song from when they originally wrote it, for some reason.

That's "columnated" ruins... :police:

Reading you guys' Surf's Up lyric interpretations is like reading and trying to interpret the bible.

Reminds me of the Smile-o-Phile's posts on the old Smile Shop board.   Everybody has their own ideas. It can be whatever you want it to be!

The one that made me laugh above: "Tidal" and "title".  Don't know if that was intentional or a misspelling.  ;D

Title wave? Actually that misspelling creates another meaning. Now the wave can be imagined as a wave of titles, the names of authority we once held dear washing ashore.

As for the 'mmmhhhhmmmm' part, the only thing I could imagine replacing it is a quick vocal round that echoes the phrase "surf's up". There's no way you could cram new lyrics in there and have it flow.

Yeah, but was that part "mmmmmmmmmmm" or "mmmhhhhmmmm"?

Surf's up, Mike Love is scared to surf, aboard a tidal wave

This entire thread needs to get reported.

Yeah, well the official lyrics to "Cabin Essence" are "Find a meadow filled with rain there...", but that's not the way the lyric is sung, is it? I completely agree that "columnated"* looks a lot cooler on the printed page (or the computer screen) than "colonnaded", but I'm convinced the latter is what Brian sings on BWPS...and I suspect Carl sang it this way on the '71 version as well.

Now don't get me started on "I'm in the great shape of the agri-culture"! ;)

*I also understand that this is a real word with roughly the same meaning as "colonnaded".

A bit of a side bar, but I just love that on the back cover of the Surfin' USA album it says "Surf's Up!"

Despite the conflicting evidence, I tend to believe the proper lyric is "columnated," for two reasons.  First, it's clearly what Brian sang on both '66 versions, both of which I give more credence to than the '71 version or the BWPS version (sung by a Brian who doesn't enunciate too well anymore).  Second, in the Beautiful Dreamer doc, Van Dyke clearly says "columnated" when talking about the song, and he's the guy who wrote the actual words.

Wow. Just logged this. Hope you never wanted to meet the Boys.

Regarding the discussion as to the word in Surfs Up before "ruins," I have a handwritten calligraphed set of the Surfs Up lyrics in Van Dyke`s own hand. The correct word is "columnated."

Replace every single thread (and each individual post) on this topic with this reply because it owns so much. 8)

:o
AWESOME!  ;D

How fancy is his handwriting?

It is a beautiful form of writing that is similar or identical to calligraphy. A second piece was auctioned in Germany for charity that was the other one he did.

Thanks Peter, I'd say that puts the issue to bed once and for all.

As for the original topic, I used to wonder about this as well.  When I played this song for a songwriter friend of mine, he immediately said something to the effect of "he didn't know what to put there."  And if we were talking about a lesser lyricist, I might be inclined to agree, but if find it quite implausible that Van Dyke Parks, in 1966, wrote all of these amazing lyrics, yet couldn't find a few words for that particular section.  It just doesn't add up. 

My thought has always been that he wanted to give some separation to the words "surf's up" (it is the title, after all).  The "mmmmmmm" serves to allow the words "surf's up" to linger for another second, just to let them sink in.  Knowing what we know about Van Dyke, I have to believe that the phrasing there was an accident.

I didn't know the word "columnated" in "Surf's Up" was ever in question. I've only heard (and seen) that word in the song for about the last 38 years.

Having listened to the 1971 recording far more times than any sane person would do, I have concluded that Carl is saying colonnated.

i always thought columnated.  then again the 71 wasn't the first version i heard.

I've listened repeatedly to Brian's version, the '71 version, the '71 version sans backing track, and that interview with Van Dyke parks outside of tower records where he's wearing a tank top and a straw hat - and I have never heard anything but "columnated".

I have also stood for hours on end in front of rather large amplifiers on full blast, so you can take the above with as many grains of salt as you see fit.

Uh, that would be me!  Don't know what I was thinking, but when I saw it, I was too lazy to go back and edit it!  :lol

That's what I used to think as well...until I read that "colonnaded" was the somewhat more grammatically-correct term for what Parks was getting at. Listening to the recordings again with headphones convinced me that "colonnaded" was, indeed, what was being sung on the '66 track by Brian, the '71 track by Carl and on BWPS. I just don't hear an "m" sound on any of these recordings (although I can almost make out an "m" sound the first time Brian sings the word during the '66 track; this is not the case with the second time he sings the word).

Now, having said that, I'm not disputing that Parks initially wrote the word as "columnated" and believes that to be the correct lyric (obviously it is printed as such in the lyric sheets for both the SURF'S UP album and BWPS). But is it possible that during vocal tryouts, someone mentioned that "colonnaded" was the more conventional term and Brian and/or Carl thought about it and responded with "hmm, well that is easier to sing..."? I know it sounds far-fetched, but that's what I'm hearing.