The Smiley Smile Message Board

Something's been nagging at the back of my mind for years and thought I'd open it up for discussion even though it's almost certainly hopeless. What was the note progression as originally written for the little riff that the studio musician makes the "really great mistake" on, that winds up taking its place? I think Brian probably has it stored somewhere deep in his memory, but getting him at the right time, place & mood to think about it and dredge it up would be quite difficult. I hope someone is able to before it's too late, I'd really like to know even though it's a minor afterthought in the larger scheme of things. Maybe it's notated on a PS session chart somewhere? ???

No one has a single thing to say about this? I realize it's not a ready topic for lengthy conversation, but I thought maybe someone.... I guess I'm just a true eccentric among eccentrics. :3d

I reckon it was very similar to what Brian intended.  Maybe the phrasing was slightly different.  The timing was a little off but probably essentially the same notes.

You may well be right, for some reason I hadn't considered that very logical explanation. I guess I'm kind of an all or nothing person, and when I heard "mistake" I thought as in wrong note(s) played. It's still possible that actual notes were different, but in light of your comment I think the odds are probably against it, at that. Thanks.

Excuse my ignorance but I assume you're talking about the eight-note riff on what sounds like a muted tack piano (G# a G# F#-E-B-c# e). I looked through all my PS books (Granata, Abbott, Fusilli, PSS booklet) but could find no mention of a "really great mistake".

Maybe the B and c# were originally reversed. Or, more plausibly, the player (Al de Lory?) should have played F# before the beat followed by E-C#-B-c# e, and squeezed in whatever notes he could to bring it back to e on time.    

Makes me think of another really great mistake, the one in the riff of Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric?"...

You can hear it on the Pet Sounds Sessions. The player plays the notes and Brian laughs and says, "How did you play that? That was a really great mistake." The player (Al?) says, "No kidding? I thought it felt wrong."

Thanks, Amy. I found it here (from 1:50):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sl6IG_uxx8

Maybe the sequence Al (?) plays at 2:04 is what Brian originally asked for:  | [1] G# a G# | F# E [3] B-c# | e.  That last "e" is on the one.  

It sounds to me like at 2:04 they're trying out the new notes, not what was originally intended, because they are repeating the "mistake" at Brian's request, but with different phrasing. Interestingly (to me anyway) the first time Al spontaneously plays it it flows more smoothly than it does on the master take. I wonder if Brian preferred that or if Al was just unable to replicate his lightning-in-a-bottle improvisation no matter how hard he tried?

I'm not sure. In fact I stick with what I wrote, because the guitarist, presumably Ray Pohlman, had just repeated the "mistake" for Brian's benefit (at 2:02). And the audible difference (to you anyway) between the first time and the master take is as you say: one was spontaneous and the other deliberate.   

Just my third and four eurocents.

I'm confused about the whole thing at this point. The riff in the finished song is just maybe more polished to Brian's ears, more proportional, so maybe he wanted it that way, or as I said before the smoothness of the initial inadvertent but serendipitous error was not easily recaptured, so he just decided that that was the best he was going to get. Veering off-topic, I hope your eurocents will keep their full value in the coming months, as I also hope for my pocket change.

I'll drink to that!  :beer

I've always assumed that the original riff was supposed to be what the flutes are playing at 1:50

https://youtu.be/CedoRjvfK58?t=108

Or here, as the other didn't work for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFy-j7XF0dc

Wow----that sounds extremely plausible to me. It's the same notes that Al goes through at 2:04 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sl6IG_uxx8

but the two groups of notes (G#-a-G#-F#-E and  B-c#-e) are reversed.

That's quite a revelation----thank you!

There is some similarity, but I don't see how what Al plays could accidentally deviate quite that much from this flute part in order to merit that assumption. :-\

You have a point, but I guess I'm just happy chewing the fat about one of my all-time favourite Beach Boys songs. :=)

Yeah, it's been real. BTW there's a fantastic cover of IWFTD, an older one by a Japanese singer (I think) with a colorful name that I can't remember, which you should hear if you haven't already. Cheers.

Do you mean Short Hair Front?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIwMCaxGUUA

Pretty cool!

No, that's pretty decent but the one I'm talking about really rocks, and is from the '60s I think. It may not be a Japanese singer, I only heard it once and forgot to take notes in order to remember later. It may or may not be on YouTube. Some help I am, eh? Sorry....

Haha. No problem. This one shifts along nicely...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgCD0X4W2Tk

That's the one.

Peanut was a singer produced by Mark Wirtz, the Peanuts were a Japanese female duo.