The Smiley Smile Message Board

I have heard many times, as I am sure most of you that Paul was in the sessions for Vegetables. Though, I have not heard him talking or referred to in any of the sessions for Vegetables. I know he was just chewing vegetables, but I would think that some conversation would exist in the sessions and would have been saved. But none have come out. Anyone have any information on this? I have a hard time believing if they existed in the vaults, it would have been in the Smile Sessions box, or Sunshine Tomorrow. Unless there is a legal reason they can't or the tapes were lost. Or he never talked while the tapes were rolling.

We know he was there during the April sessions and that he munched on vegetables for the song, he has said as much as have The Beach Boys.  I would think Brian would have wanted to preserve any Paul chatter during the sessions.  So a few possibilities come to mind.  The session Paul munched on wasn't preserved but was redone by the Boys.  The session chatter was not recorded or edited out and not preserved.  Or the tape is missing with the chatter.  It's hard to tell from the Smile Sessions release because it seems between take chatter is minimal compared to other eras of the band - the same for Smiley and Wild Honey.

That seems odd to me that chatter with Paul McCartney would get lost! Unless they found out that he was not the real Paul, but Bill Shephard.  ;)

Mr. Desper might know.

COMMENT to Silken:  I know nothing. Remember the Beach Boys have met with The Beatles on other occasions.  And I recall times while in London, hearing, after the fact, when some group members of the BB dinned and went clubing with some group members of TB -- all private and without any press. So a visit from McCartney to a BB session was not that unusual. Personally I would say that comments between any of the two groups were not recorded because the Paul visit was not that special given their overall relationships.

SPECULATION: You need to understand how Brian thinks. Here McCarthey happens to be in the same studio complex as Brian Wilson. Of course he's going to stop by and say hello. Any normal and polite fellow would. This is Brian's session who now has a Beatle in his studio room. Their working on a song about, of all things, vegetables. The song is already in Brian's head and much on tape. But Brian doesn't want to loose this opportunity, yet singing is really not in his plan, nor is a guitar riff. How else can he immortalize this visit? Maybe you don't know the personality of Paul McCarthey, but he's a playful guy. Brian, a person who has no problem giving highly paid studio musicians drills, hammers, and saws to make sound effects with, comes up with a snap idea of having Paul add some chewing noises to his vegetables song. This impromptu addition does not cause any legal, copyright, or ownership problems between the two stars -- but only adds to the "fun" of Vege-tables.  Undoubtedly there was a lot of laughing and fooling around that happened, but the tape doesn't roll all the time. The chewing was probably just punched into a small vacant part of the multi-track. When I've played back and mixed the Vege-tables 8-track for my own entertainment. I believe the chewing part was not on it's own track, rather just stuck in between other parts sharing the same track. So running a tape, as you envision, is not the way it works. More realistically, there happened to be a little clear spot on the 8-track and the effect, created between these two producers, was punched in.

 ~swd

Thank you mr Desper. I know the tape isn't running all the time. Though I hear joking around in other sessions with The Beach Boys, the wrecking crew and others who participate these recordings. So it's a bummer that chatter with Paul in the studio didn't get recorded or preserved. Would be a wonderful gem to have today!

:lol

I must admit that endowing Paul with the surname McCarthey has made my day. Every time I post something about Macca I have to look his name up (is it Mac or Mc? Is there an e in there somewhere?)!   

COMMENT to JK:    Didn't you know that Paul McCarthey was a member of the group The Beetles?  

I stand corrected. ~swd

 :lol

COMMENT to Magic Transistor Radio:  It depends on the format and where in the format the recording is.  Ponging 4-tracks is one thing because two machines are involved. So one machine may be able to run freely. And if tracking on one machine (like an 8-track) then the tape is freely running at first, but once the initial tracking is completed you are locked into a small section of the tape for further recording. In the case of McCartney (thanks JK), his visit was toward the middle of recording, wherein previous tracking has already locked in the freedom to freely run on the multi-track, so freely running the machine would not be possible. ~swd

Thank you for the explanation. Any recording I have done has been on laptops, so I'm not familiar with the 4 tracks/8 track, etc and how it worked.

I think I tapped out on much of any fascination about the idea that McCartney might be somewhere burping on "Vegetables", because I think the fact that he studied "Pet Sounds" in some fashion and that Brian listened to the Beatles are both facts that are far more important.

I was ready to credit Sir Paul with "veggie munching" in the 2011 SMiLE Sessions box set sessionography, but since no tapes were found with his voice or reference to him, we figured I'd better not. Too hard to say that any veggie munching on his part remained on tape through the final stages of production.

Are there isolated tapes of just munching sounds? I wonder if any slight grunts which might accompany the munching sounds might be able to be audibly forensically identifiable as Paul. Seriously!

The isolated crunching is included as a secret track on the Smile Sessions box set. None of the secret tracks have ever been on youtube though for some reason.

I wonder if SIP has a secret track of Mike flushing a toilet! >:D

Wow. I own the box set, but must confess to never having listened through to every last morsel in its entirety, and definitely wasn't looking for hidden tracks. Do you know what disc?

Didn't we do a thread here a year or two ago with an article where Macca admitted that, yes, he did go to the studio back then and chew on some veggies?

Hadn't Paul chipped a front tooth and cut his lip recently, prompting him to grow his mustache?  That might affect his munching sounds - a split second when the tooth isn't making contact and then munch would increase in intensity once the rest of the tooth bit into the veggie.  Could be used to determine if he is on there.  We need a detailed audio and spectral analysis of the munch track.

Wikipedia says it's at the end of Disc Three, along with the isolated Workshop sounds. Plus, the isolated wood burning sounds from "Fire" is hidden at the end of Disc Four, while a tape rewind of "Good Vibrations" is at the end of Disc Five. I've only ever heard the burning wood track, at one point, I even considered buying the entire set just to hear those other three!

There's no discussion about it. What the OP wants to know if there are recordings of Paul chatter during those sessions.

Good observation, Columbo!

Great article! And I have visited your website before. Very insightful. I will have to visit it again soon.

Oh I see. Duly noted.