The Smiley Smile Message Board

What the f*** is this madness? Sounds like one of the Manson tapes TBH.

Drug-addled blather in an echo chamber, circa Spring 1968.

I think The Gong was used as the intro swell to Never Learn Not to Love.

Yep, that intro backwards cymbal is definitely the one from the single version of NLNTL.

- The haircut and "pappy" dad stuff feels like a chilling drugged-out callback to I'm Bugged at My Old Man.

- Did Denny actually cut his hair short around this time, as per the spoken lyric?

- Also some of the sfx have shades of SMiLE woodshop stuff.

-  is Denny actually doing an impersonation of any celebrities of the time here and there within this track? He might just be making random voices.

What a weird track, I applaud  the powers that be for releasing this. I can easily see it languishing forever in a vault, but it is interesting and fascinating all at the same time. Experimental to say the least, and it will forever remain a mystery I suppose what the intent was for some of the stuff. Pretty cool that he at least recycled the intro in another released song.

The opening of 'The Gong' copies the reversed gong sound from the album opening of The Moody Blues' 'Days of Future Passed' (released in 1967). That can't just be a coincidence. This album does further demonstrate to me how hard the the group was trying (and failing) to fit into the changing pop music landscape of the time.

Dennis is hilarious in this. Highly amusing track.

It is quite funny at times. But also a bit disturbing, considering who may have influenced the track.

First thing that came to my mind is that it sounds like Dennis trying his hand at a Manson-monologue. Only that I can't believe that Dennis' speech would impress anyone, even if on drugs.

Curious to hear it, being Charles Manson fan (I really like his singing voice & as musician-songwriter).

Eeek.

I didn't know anybody'll get hypersensitive to simple thread reply. ::)

Fall 1968, actually.

Having heard this track once, I don't ever need to hear it again.

I feel like if Denny ever had a notion to use The Gong in a released capacity, it would only have been some little snippets here and there, either as an interstitial, or as a portion grafted onto another song (much as the intro reverse drum was in fact used that way on NLNTL).

I wonder if this was just a case of having extra time at the end of a session day that had already been paid for. And also if everything he was speaking was totally off-the-cuff and improvised, or if there was any planned script, so to speak.

This will remain an endlessly fascinating artifact, and I'm glad we have it.

Agree 100%.

No meaning behind it. He's just joking around while they test out his vocal through the echo chamber. There's a similar McCartney clip where he's testing out the tape delay for his vocal on "Oh Darling".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRzIF6xObc

Denny being Denny! ;D

We got The Gong and Oh Yeah, but not Fig Plucker? WTF?  :lol :lol :lol

Does that mean I can now record a cover of it? :lol

The "I'm broken hearted..." part reminds me of a song from the Who, but I can't think of which one.

Maybe I'm thinking about "Love Reign O'er Me"...

Does anyone know where in the timeline of Denny's relationship with Manson that The Gong was recorded? I guess the November 1968 recoding date was just before the single release of Never Learn Not to Love. Had they already fallen out?

Good ear...someone else said the same thing (offline) to me, and I didn't hear it. I'm not as familiar with the Who though