The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was listening to this song the other day, and I suddenly realised that there is a section that later turned up in Wouldn't It Be Nice. Has anybody else noticed? Am I the very last Beach Boys fan to have noticed?  ;D

Funny. I never realized. Tell me more please.

BTW, coincidence has it that I heard the song in my dreams tonight and thought: what a classic!

It's after the second verse in "Little Girl". It's the "ba ba ba ba ba ba ba-do do doob!" part in "Wouldn't It Be Nice". Man, I wish that Beach Boys vocals were easier to talk about pheonetically.  ::)

As in the part that (I think) Al sings in WIBN at the end of the bridge, after Brian sings "wouldn't it be nice"?  If that's the part you mean, I don't hear it in "Little Girl" vocally; are you talking about the organ part after the 2nd chorus, right before "la do day"?  That part does have the exact same rhythm, I never thought of it before.

Wow, you're right, these things really are difficult to describe!

Doesn't sound the same to me...

Speaking of Little Girl, am I the only who likes the Hawthorne version better? I like the a capella section near the end and Mike's delivery of "Look out babe" sounds coolier.

I think the organ and sax bit break before the "lah-doo-day" does sound a lot like the sax and accordian bit before the middle eight in Wouldn't It Be Nice.

I ALWAYS prefer the Hawthorne version over what came out. The vocals to me aren't so cut and yes I do agree Mike sounds cooler talking more than Brian on that track!

Oh! I hear it now.

Interesting.

Yes, it's that organ and sax bit right before the "la do day" vocal. It's much faster, but it's basically the same riff.

I LOVE this song! Everything about it is brilliant. In my opinion, it's Brian's pre-Pet Sounds "peak".

I love the song, too, but I wouldn't say that EVERYTHING about it is "brilliant."  The lyrics are nothing special, IMO.   Musically, though, it's fantastic.  With different lyrics, it could be a Pet Sounds or Smile song.

I know the chords and melody are totally dissimilar, but I always felt like TLGIOK's chorus was a revision of the California Girls one. Like in a formula.

A formula that should not be f****d with, I'd like to add.

Yeah, love The Little Girl I Once Knew. To me it almost seemed like a composite of some of Brians best songs to date. It has the same organ sound and rythmn as California Girls, and the same little guitar counterpoints as Let HIm Run Wild.

I guess what i'm waiting for is a real nice stereo version, but is that possible? Is this another track where the the tapes have gone walkabouts?

I'd like to add that THE moment that marks the return of the 'new' Brian for me is the joyous intro to TLGIOK. It's on the Roxy set, and was repeatedly used as some kind of 'faux' (pre-recorded?) intro during the European Pet Sounds tour. Unforgettable, those seconds with the authentic surf guitar sound.

H Don,
That Faux (prerecorded) intro to TLGIOK that they used for the early Brian live shows of the late 1990's WAS from the actual recording sessions of the mid 1960's with Brian directing the musicians of a run through of the song.  It made for a nice moment when they used to show a brief film about Brian and then you heard that old vintage snippet of Brian and the wrecking crew recording the song and then the spectacular live version kicked in!

I witnessed a few later Brian shows where he dedicated the first TWO NOTES of TLGIOK to China (the interval of those notes do sound like traditional Chinese music).  That Brian sure has a unique sense of humor...

Yeah, I always thought TLGIOK was Brian's stab at oriental surfing music. Rock music and Chinese music follow the pentatonic scale, after all. The band saw China has a huge untapped market.

"At Macau and Hong Kong
they're shooting the pier,
At Taipei they're walking the nose.
We're going on safari to China this year,
so if you're coming, get ready to go!

(Chorus)
来在婴孩，观望，是， 我采取冲浪与我的您。来在婴孩，观望，是， 我采取冲浪与我的您。让我们走现在冲浪，大家学会，怎么来在与我的一个徒步旅行队!

They're angling in Shanghai and Xiamen,
they're kicking out in Dalian too.
I tell you surfing's running wild,
it's getting bigger every day,
from China to the shores of Taiwan!"

Love the song, but I've always felt the production seemed a bit 'rushed' and there are a few production flaws that just jump out at me and annoy me (especially the intro, where the very first drum beat audible is blaringly late, and the subsequent beats get back into sync).

Sorta reminds me of how the first album Surfin' Safari had a rushed feel to it.

Of course the comparatively gargantuan production of this song is miles ahead of anything on the first album, but there's just a few too many of these similar flaws present on TLGIOK that Brian seemed to have weeded out months later by the time he recorded Pet Sounds.

Don't mean to diss the song or anything, I just wish Brian had done a few more takes to get it more perfect!

-Ben

I have an interview from 1981 where Brian talks about wanting to re-record it.

As much as I love the song, I've never really liked the recording. In fact, I prefer the Live at the Roxy version.