B-Rex - I haven't actually got a tracklisting of my own personal mix (yet ) but when i do i'll certainly share it, i wasn't even aware just how much SMiLE material existed until a few weeks ago, I must have been living under a rock.

Sheriff John Stone - That's a great answer and just illustrates the different interpretations of the songs on SMiLE and the possibilities of running order etc. I see Cabinessence as a song about a place changing from Barns and Farming to a more industrial place (who ran the iron horse etc etc near the end and a feeling of dissatisfaction with the new lifestyle) and this kind of ties in with Chicago becoming a leading industrial city before the great fire.

Like you say there's no right or wrong but it's great fun thinking about all the possibilities.

The main thing for me was the chromatic backing vocals at the end of Cabinessence and the same piano intro at the start of Fire, (maybe BW was thinking of overlapping them?) sometimes chromatic melodies can be good transitions between songs in different keys because they don't depend on a particular key to be played behind them, they work in any key.

Also just doing a bit of reading up on the fire and Chicago, there had been the construction of the Illinois-Michigan Canal (Water) leading to the introduction of railways (working on the railroad) and there were gail-force winds blowing on the day of the fire. So a logical order could also be earth, water, wind, fire?

Anyway just throwing it in the already massive pot! 

Hi all, first post so apologies if this has been suggested numerous times before.

It has always seemed right to me that Fire should come after Cabinessence, the first line of Cabinessence is 'Light the lamp and fire mellow' and the end melody of Cabinessence (the chromatic backing vocal line) is the same as the chromatic piano line in Fire. Plus obviously Miss O'Leary's cow allegedly knocked over a lamp to start the great fire. Has this been considered before or am I on completely the wrong track?