The Smiley Smile Message Board

With all the other myths and studies that go on with Smile, I was wondering about what lyrics were written but not used for actual release; were they at least recorded?

lyrics such as:
Cornucopia lyrics from Vegetables
Reconnect the Phoneline lyrics from Cabinessence

anyone think of others I've missed?
 

You mean BWPS? There's the "At three score and five I'm very much alive......" which wasn't used, though it was on the alt. BB's version of 'H&V'.

And there's also the "dooby or not dooby" from "Do You Like Worms?".

That's from Cabinessence.

That's what I was thinkin'

Yeah, I think you're right...but I swear there's a couple of lines from DYLW that didn't make it onto BWPS. Or maybe I'm just going crazy.  :o :o :o :o :o

You're thinking of that whole telephone operator thing that ends with the line "...and this isn't a recording".  I don't know it all off the top of my head, but I know it's in the Priore book somewhere.

Another unused lyric is "Old Master Painter".  That's kind of an old standard.

One thing that bugs me about the BWPS version of 'Heroes and Villains' is the "In the cantina margarita keeps the spirit high" line.

I know it's more of a grammatical change, but in the alternate version from Smiley Smile the lyrics are 'In the cantina margaritas keep the spirit high"

Anyone know why the lyric change on that line?

That always bugged me too.  My best guess was that they liked the continuity of mentioning Margarita as a person twice within the bridge (not to mention establishing Margarita as the "her" in the next line), as opposed to once as a drink, once as a person.  I always thought the latter was cooler myself, but the way they did it makes more sense.

There is a missing "Worms" lyric. It goes: And as we returned to the East or West Indies/we always got them confused.

When I first heard the change I thought they changed the lyrics because of the reference to alcohol....in an age of political correctness I wouldn't be surprised. VDP has double meanings sprinkled all over the lyrics for SMiLE - and the 66/67 Cantina lyrics are a perfect example of that....so I can't imagine they would change it for grammatical reasons.

EDIT: After taking a second to think about what I wrote, I realized the 66/67 lyrics aren't a double meaning, but obviously BW was happy with the lyrics (after all he recorded them). 'Margaritas' gives the song more of a mysterious atmosphere, imo, because you don't know who the woman is...

You know I like the "margaritas" lyric, but really prefer the "Margaurita" of the BWPS version b/c it ties in with the next line "There I watched her...".

As an aside, i WISH they had recorded the phoneline lyrics to Cabinessence. I cannot picture them as anything other than Krautrockish interjections to the fade...... would Brian do that in '66? Would they be a section unto themselves?

Aye, Van Dyke. I mean, we are basically arguing about spelling here. We all get the double meaning. If it's down to brass tacks, i do believe i prefer 'Margaritas' as the booze keeping the spirit high in your crummy frontier town, watching the pretty girls whose names you don't know spin around and fan the flame of the dance. Van Dyke Parks should write a book. or three. The man is better than Dylan, in some respects - his wordplay isn't as audacious, but it is more soberly considered.

What is this "phoneline" ending y'all are speaking about?

Reconnected telephone direct
dialing
Different color cords to your
Extension
Don’t forget to mention
This is a recording

Even though the echoes through
my mind
Have filtered through the pines
I came and found my peace
And this is not a recording

Doobie doo
Doobie doo
Or not doobie

'He Gives Speeches....."

And I can't find any piece of music that those lyrics would fit over, either. There must have been an early bit of music that we've never heard or was never recorded that went along with those lyrics.

Wasn't there another lyric, not sure from what song if any, something like "Sound sound the music sound"...... it is mentioned in the Priore yellow book somewhere... or is it just a dream I had?

Couldn't it fit in place of the "Truck drivin' man" part?

Isn't there another line from the missing Worms lyrics that has the "Sandwhich isles" in it (and hence the Frank Holmes drawing)?

There was... until February 20th, 2004. ;D

They are all great and plenty meaningful - both melodically and lyrically to me. That's why I took the liberty of having them recorded for my youtube video ("Deus Pax Machina"): The cornucopia verse for the first time since that old SMiLE session and the 'Reconnected' lyrics for the first time ever - it seems (yes I found a nice fit inside Cabin Essence related to the visual contexts I put them into - now judge for yourself!).

where?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8_1i8nQglY

I forgot I had seen this a while ago. I enjoy it thoroughly....the lyrics are placed well

I think some of these lyrics take this to a totally different level..

"Barnyard Billy/loves his chicken"??

Sorry to bring that up again but it's driving me nuts. Was that an unused VDP lyric snippet for SMiLE?

Those verses about "This is not a recording" are so They Might Be Giants it's not even funny.

Why should they be funny?

Anyway... The whole reconnecting/out-of-order deal could be an apect of 'rebuilding -after-the fire' (instead of I'll Be Around/Workshop) which is why and how I placed it in the video. Or (even) more far-fetched a reference to the 'is this a track? No...' exchange from the Prayer session. That's why those lines particular ain't funny - not in my book anyway...

"It's not even funny" is English slang for saying something is so accurate/so good/so bad/so crazy, etc. that it is hard to believe it. TheLazenby simply meant that the cut "Cabin Essence" lyrics are extremely close to the kind of lyrics They Might Be Giants have written (nothing to do with whether they are humorous or not).

 I'm curious as to whether this lyric is from 1967 or 2004 -

  "Is it hot as hell in here, or is it me? It really is a mystery."

  I actually hate this lyric. It sounds so cliche and uncreative when compared to Van Dyke's other lyrics.
 As someone who also dabbled in psychedelics, I loved the chanting section by itself, and I could just picture Brian sitting cross-legged on the floor stoned out of his mind when he came up with that. It gave the song an Eastern mystical vibe.    Just my opinion though.

I don't mind the lyric, but I do prefer the chant alone.

It's a 2004 lyric.

I too prefer the chant by itself, like weehelper I don't mind the "Hot as hell" part too much. I really love the lyrics after the chant intro though.

I agree with everyone - that lyric always struck me as incredibly cliche.  If not for the documentary showing Van Dyke teaching the part to Brian, I would have guessed that Brian wrote that particular line himself.  Water Chant is one of my favorite parts of Smile.  Such a cool vibe, as Day Tripper alluded to.  The rest of the lyrics to "In Blue Hawaii" are great though, I agree.

I have a problem deciphering the lyrics after the chant, is it "I lose a dream when I don't sleep, I'm slumberin'" or "A lucid dream when I don't sleep....."?

random online lyric site obtained by putting "In Blue Hawaii" +lyrics into Google, now, how hard was that ? (http://www.metrolyrics.com/in-blue-hawaii-lyrics-brian-wilson.html)

Alternatively, try looking in the booklet (granted, some of what's printed isn't exactly what Brian sings...).

Thanks Roger for educating me in the English slang and TMBG...

There's plenty of unused ideas and themes that  Brian and Co. chose not to include in the 2004 BWPS. I reckon it to Pet Sounds when Brian opted to re-write "I know There's An Answer" and scaled down the vocal round at the end of "God Only Knows" to make it a little less 'modern'. Ultimately, I think Brian and Darian made excellent choices in terms of creating a nicely flowing piece of music.

However, I will admit I am a big fan of such things as the alternate Cornucopia lyrics of "Vega-tables" (listening to that version, one can easily picture Brian pounding it out on the sandbox piano with a big grin on his face and a stack of sandwiches beside him).

Ah come on,
it was a random lyric site that confused me in the first place, that's why I asked the place where I know I'll get the correct answer. Is it that annoying to answer a question you know the answer to?

It's whatever you want it to be!

While lucid dreaming is a big part of my sleep life, it doesn't make as much sense compared to the losing of a dream when a person doesn't sleep.

I checked four, five lyric sites, the booklet then finally listened to the song itself. Same answer each time.

Ok, I honestly thought it WAS "I Lose a dream,"

I checked the lyric website just to double check....and it's a "Lucid Dream,"

But it doesn't even sound close to "A Lucid Dream," when Brian sings it. He clearly says "I" before "Lose a dream"

So now I'm confused. And I don't own the booklet. And these lyric websites suck.

As Alex says, I suppose it's just whatever we want it to be  ;D

I'm pretty sure the BWPS booklet says "lose a dream". Stating the obvious, Parks uses a lot of puns and word-play in the SMiLE lyrics and I think he intended "lose a dream" to sound like "lucid dream" in the same way that "...hall a cost(ly)..." is meant to evoke "holocaust" in "Surf's Up".

While on the subject of In Blue Hawaii.. "feel like I was really in the pink": 'I'm wonderin' - Haven't we seen this phrase  used before in a 'SMiLE-text'? Upon reflection YES. In Brian's 'psychedelicate' tale about his Vega-Tables (LLVS, page 68): "We'll soon be in the pink". Is that 'merely happenstance'? - we can ask ourselves.
The point of this vega-tale (though released, so strangely un-used) was for Brian to create a cinematic snap-shot of  his SMiLE entourage dynamics (much like the group photo in the airport). Posse-tively
posse-ble??

Yeah, that's what I meant by the TMBG comparison.

Those lyrics sound like a song they would've written for Dial-A-Song or something. :-P

Or, we can reflect on the fact that "in the pink" is a very commonplace phrase, used by millions daily.

BTW, I don't believe Brian wrote the Beat piece any more than he wrote word one of his pseudobiography. The date's interesting, though, as by mid-December 1966, there had only been two documented quasi-"Vega Tables" sessions: the 'chants' on November 11th and the 'argument' five days later.

Oh no Doe - PLEASE... Let us keep this one - that Brian still on top of his game in 1966 could author something like that 'vege-ta(b)le' (at least until hard or at least circumstantial evidence is uncovered to prove otherwise - something that someone like yorself would be able and willing to dig up(?))

And for somebody - anybody to even suggest that Brian didn't write that other fairytale (Mt. Vernon & Fairway) would be strictly no-go! So don't go there... EVER

No sweat, I've no trouble believing Brian wrote "Mt. Vernon..." - even with Jack narrating, it still sounds like Brian. Plus, JFR told me he witnessed Brian writing it (allegedly, he did that by sticking letters in a notebook, one by one...).

The 1966 'tale', however, sounds more like Derek Taylor to me.

Firstly, apologies if anyone has already mentioned this but it is possible to hear Brian narrating the Mount Vernon fairy tale verbatim to an unnamed guest and the fact that Brian is almost word perfect does lend credence to the idea that he wrote it. It's out there. Somewhere.

Or that he's adept at memorization...