Best of the best, chef's kiss

I've had some difficulty following this thread, but I gather that there has been some dispute over what "Love to Say Da Da" is, or was, supposed to be.

It seems that Brian is working on the song in some form in late December 1966. Dates of December 22-23 have ( I thought) been out there, and sloopjohnb72 here in this thread has mentioend December 27-28.  I certainly am not one to know whether or not it was just instrumental/piano in these days, or if Brian had already come up with the wah-wah-whoa-ah vocal pattern at this point in December.

In any case, these late December days constitute the time period during which Paul Williams of Crawdaddy magazine visited Brian at his house. Williams recounted time spent in Brian's swimming pool early in the morning of Dec. 24, 1966:

“So at the end of the night we went to the pool, watched by the dogs. I kept my glasses on, because standing in that pool we could see the lights of Los Angeles (or the Valley) twinkling below us like a natural wonder. The water was warm.  Brian told me enthusiastically the it was heated to exactly 98.6, body temperature. ‘So if you get down in the water like this’ (he demonstrated) ‘and stand up, it’s like being born, like the feeling of being born.’"

This suggests that to Brian's way of thinking at the time, "water" and baby" and "rebirth" go together - each are components of one whole conceptual piece; it's not either-or.  The fact that a "baby" song could morph into a "water" song would then seem to be natural and understandable . And in Brian Wilson Presents Smile, the concept is fully realized. The idea comes to full fruition in the third movement, which in my opinion is perfect, as (among other things) it makes perfect use of the "Da Da" concept and music. In those passages, BWPS fully actualizes the idea that Brian was talking to Paul Williams about that night in the swimming pool.

For all I don't give weight to the theory that Da Da was ever a section of The Elements itself, this is a fascinating quote. It really does lend some insight into how one song concept might have morphed into another. Thanks for digging that out.

Arbitrary, but I'll clear up the date discrepancy -

The two early versions of Da Da are on an 8-track reel following the Sep 19 Prayer session and a verse of Do You Like Worms with backing vocals, with the later additions both being penned in at the same time in Jerry Hochman's handwriting (Valentin was the engineer on Prayer). There's a Capitol worksheet for a Do You Like Worms vocal session at Columbia on December 21, so it was naturally assumed that those Worms vocals and Da Da were recorded on the same date (I spoke to Craig about it whose reasoning for putting Dec 22 in the TSS book was the thought that it'd have been after midnight, not connected to the Heroes and Villains session later that day). However, after some extra digging, it seems that Worms verse was spliced out of the master of the whole song on the main 8-track Columbia reel and placed on the other tape. Brian spliced Bicycle Rider onto the Heroes and Villains verse track on December 27 when he repurposed it for that song, leading to the conclusion that he put the Worms verse elsewhere at around the same time as a way to salvage the material. We have a rough idea of what Brian recorded on Dec 27 via some mono mixes, so by elimination the most plausible explanation for what he did during the second Brian-only Columbia session on Dec 28 would be the Heroes 'Part 3' bells/celeste/piano waltz section and Da Da, both engineered by Hochman, both Brian laying down tracks without the group related to the same batch of material.

The demo tape with Rings, Walking on Water, Sweetie and Angel is from October 1986, but was assumed to be earlier because Brian also talked about Sweetie in 1981. There is a Beach Boys studio version recorded at Rumbo in March that year with the Mike, Al and Brian vocal trade off he described.

Brian had a crack at a vocal on Smokey Places during the KTSA sessions, which is supposed to not be bad for the time.

I don't think there's much mystery behind the use of Smile tracks on 20/20. And although Brian consented, he was reluctant about their inclusion and hands-off with it.

Not speculative, Dennis went on record saying that they had to go back and find things Brian had left behind because he'd stopped actively participating. The sessions for 20/20 began with a Brian-led run of sessions for almost an a full album of songs in the summer, but most of those weren't completed, and activity drifted for months between touring until the group were facing an imminent delivery deadline. In September a lengthy list of potential songs for the album was drawn up (probably by Carl and Dennis) with notes on their status - some recorded that needed work, some originals that hadn't yet been taken into the studio, some ideas for covers, and some older tracks from the vault - with almost all of Brian's tracks from the May-July '68 sessions given a look, along with Iron Horse, Surf's Up, and Cool Water.

It was probably easier, and more comfortable at this point, for the rest of the band to record newer material rather than finish off Brian's recent work on his behalf when he didn't want to go back to it, which is where I Can Hear Music, Bluebirds and most of the Dennis songs enter the picture. But the Smile tracks were a looming exception that they knew the value of and had wanted to finish, with Brian alluding to some group argument that year over his refusal to use the material while he was still taking a more active leadership role. Prayer was already effectively done and only sweetened while Cabin Essence was close enough that Carl could add the finishing touches without stepping on Brian's toes. Considering they were in the last week of a tight deadline and looking for some strong Brian contributions that could be completed without too much work, those were obvious candidates.

Other parts of Smile were still in the air in '68. David Anderle got wind that Child is Father of the Man would be on Brian's next album, which ended up happening via Little Bird. My Only Sunshine and the original version of Wonderful were reviewed with Stack-O-Tracks material in January. Workshop, Our Prayer and Cabin Essence were used on 20/20, while the original Wind Chimes was also given a safety copy and Surf's Up was evidently still hanging in the background.

Brian sounds pretty great on Stevie, for the era. Not so much on the handful of things he sang in '78 and '79. His voice wasn't as hoarse as it was in '76 but it's like he lost the ability to comfortably carry a tune. I definitely have a soft spot for his Oh Darlin' over Carl's, though.

I think the most clear and honest explanation of what happened to Smile might be what came straight from the horse's mouth when Brian talked about it in Jan '68: "We pulled out of that production pace merely because I was about ready to die. Y'know, I was trying so hard. And all of a sudden, I just decided not to try anymore, y'know, and not do such great things, and such big musical things. And we had so much fun. The Smiley Smile era was so great, it was unbelievable - personally, spiritually, everything. It was great. I didn't have any paranoiac feelings. No paranoia."

Brian's being sort of humble with the 'great things' line - we know from band members that he was still drilling them for hours on their vocal parts, producing everything at a very high level, and still creating complex, dynamic music that I wouldn't consider creatively diminished from what came before (and time has been very kind to Smiley Smile), but it's definitely a dramatic change in tone if not technical production approach, or the way he arranged things, which had been gradually brushing up to the essence of Smiley Smile over the previous months without quite making the leap to embracing that as an entire aesthetic. It's the laid-back, low-key, non-competitive thing. 'Music to cool out by'. Brian stopped chasing the charts and 'important music' acclaim from the rock press, dialled back his social circle to heal personal relationships in the family, and started making music efficiently and happily again for the first time since probably about October '66. Music that he wanted to make for himself, without the self-imposed pressure. There's another pretty enlightening quote from Brian in a magazine around March off the back of that lengthy stretch of Heroes sessions where he said he felt like he was "losing his talent", working harder than ever but getting less satisfying results. Carl also said more than once that Brian threw Smile away because he stopped getting any fulfilment out of it.

Mike has a quote in the Byron Preiss biography that I think does a really good job of understanding where he was at:

Brian took a benign, passive interest, instead of a dominating interest. At that time something had happened to his whole ego drive. It had been very powerful until the time of “Heroes and Villains’” release – he was about ready to come out with the Smile album and he was feeling very dynamic and creative and then something happened… chemically that completely shattered that – that made him the complete opposite…that made him want to withdraw… But he was always shy; he was too sensitive. There was a fine line and he went over that line… He was still creative though. Instead of Smile he did Smiley Smile. It was light, mellifluous, laid-back. It was dynamic in a passive sort of way, it was a revelation of where his psychology had gone to. It dropped out. He dropped out of that production race – the next big thing after Sgt. Pepper. Brian had lost interest in being aggressive and he went in the other direction – still creative, and different, but it wasn’t competitive.

Whew... What a whirlwind. I'd like to wheel this back to something fun/informative/interesting and run down the state of each song recorded during the Smile period and where they were left before the home studio, to the best available evidence, which BJL already excellently compiled back in the innocent days of page 1, but I have some amendments and additions to throw into the pool. That should be a relatively harmless way to set a few things on the record straight!

God I love this sh*t! It just never gets old for me! Thanks for writing all this out.

Mysterious session on Jan 23 is lost to time, but a number of things point to it more likely being a remake of the first half than anything else. I'd explain those things if I hadn't already gone on for way too long.

Not to ask you to do a ton of work or anything, but I would, personally, be very, very curious to see this explained, if you did want to!

Any time! Alright, I'll happily keep going.

The most obvious suggestion of what those Jan 23 sessions were for are the AFM contracts. The first from 3pm-6pm is titled 'SURF'S UP', and the second (a sweetening session following immediately) from 6.30pm-11.30pm was given the title 'PART ONE'. Considering Brian's working habits at the time of re-doing everything that didn't need to be re-done, and the December 15 piano/vocal recording probably supplanting the November 4 track, that just seems like the most believable thing he'd be doing.

There are some curious things about the personnel that'd support this, too. The first session would in theory be a pretty similar instrumental lineup to the November session - Hal on percussion, Carl and Bill Pitman on guitar/bass, Lyle Ritz on bass, Roy Caton on trumpet, presumably Brian on piano - but really intriguingly, there are three woodwind players. Now, Carl recorded a remake of the 1st Movement track in 1971, mostly mimicking Brian's arrangement from the November track down to the note... but for some reason, he's got three baritone saxes on there, all holding a droning bassline. Where else would he have gotten that musical idea while otherwise rote copying Brian's work on the other track? That, for me, is the strongest suggestion of what they recorded that day. It's only a little thing, but I really can't let go of it.

The sweetening session and missing status of the tape is all pretty fishy. Ten string players are compensated normally, while the AFM sheet indicates a whole horn section and harpist were paid for their services but sent home without being used, which is a total one-off. If Siegel's anecdote about a studio full of violinists being sent home because the vibrations weren't right has a ring of truth, this is the only session that'd remotely fit the bill.

Whoa! I go away for a weekend and this thread totally explodes! I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty fun to read through, even if the conversation got a little rough at spots And I hope no one minds if I jump in with a few thoughts on historiography...it's kind of my thing. Short essay incoming.....

First, I want to say that anyone who is wondering why Joshilyn Hoisington gets to tell other people they're wrong now and again, and why said people should take said corrections with grace, should spend a couple of hours listening to her work on youtube and recognize that certain kinds of incredibly intensive knowledge production and expertise deserve to be respected. I am not saying that we don't all get to have our own opinions on Smile, but when you're working off of secondary sources, many of which were written a long time ago, and other people in the thread are doing direct, primary-source research and very, very sophisticated musicological analysis, that gives them a certain authority in the conversation that, frankly, should be respected. I am a professional historian who writes about 18th-century America. I absolutely can be, have been, and will be wrong about various aspects of that history, but that doesn't change the fact that I have spent countless hours pouring over handwritten documents from the 18th century, and if someone comes along and tells me that they read a couple books on the American Revolution and that their opinion is just as valid as mine...well... I'm going to nod politely and end the conversation, what else can I say?

That said, although there is some absolutely incredible new-to-me (new-to-everyone?) information in this thread about the timeline of recording, I also think that there is an interpretive question about whether Smiley Smile was a gradual evolution of the Smile music, or whether Smiley Smile represented a profound break. And this is a very interesting question to me--and also why I brought up my day job. Because historians have been fighting for *ever* over whether the American Revolution is fundamentally a story about change, a profound break with what came before, or whether the American Revolution is actually a story of continuity, in which colonial elites used the war to preserve the world they'd already built from changes they believed the British Empire was trying to impose on them. In short, how revolutionary was the Revolution, really? As is often the case, there is some truth to both perspectives. Facts and arguments have been marshaled on both sides. New ways of thinking, new ideas, and new information uncovered from archives historians had not previously looked at can certainly change our perspective on this issue, but at the end of the day, the question seems to have proven absolutely impossible for historians to settle. There always seem to be historians ready to say that the American Revolution was fundamentally about change, and others ready to say it was fundamentally about continuity. It is a profound interpretive question that, unlike many other kinds of questions historians ask, does not seem capable of being solved simply be examining the evidence.

Part of what I see in the thread above is Joshilyn and others presenting very, very important new research and new knowledge--research and knowledge, I want to stress, that I am so, so, so excited to see and hear about and that I appreciate so, so much--and using that new research to support a particular interpretive argument: that the transition from Smile to Smiley Smile was not the profound break we thought it was, that instead that transition was characterized by a certain continuity of musical development, and that viewing that transition in this way provides us with tremendous insight into Brian Wilson's development as a musician in the 1960s.

I largely buy this argument. It is sophisticated and important. *But* Smiley Smile and Smile unquestionably *are* different. They have different titles, different qualities, and were produced under different conditions. And so, to my mind, the question of whether this transitional moment was characterized primarily by continuity, or primarily by a revolutionary change in working methods and aims, is an interpretive question that cannot be settled by evidence alone, and so any assertion that new research *proves* that Smiley Smile was an extension of Smile, and not a break with Smile, needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

I hope I haven't bored you all to tears, and one more time I want to thank everyone participating in good faith in this thread and everyone doing new research on this important moment in musical history! I would also suggest that the best history happens when people look for what is interesting and right in other people's perspectives, not when they go straight for the weakest point (which doesn't mean that factual errors shouldn't be corrected!)

Brilliant post. Worn out after the other post I just made, so I'm short on words, but couldn't agree more with you here. There are few approaching the work of the Beach Boys today as thoughtfully and intelligently as Joshilyn. And I'm very much with you on the Smile to Smiley transition! I personally wouldn't make a claim that they're one in the same. Certainly, at some point, there was a talk about (mostly) recording an album from scratch with a new approach, and it can't have been too long before Brian said, "Gee, this isn't really Smile anymore," and little Barry Turnbull said "Smiley Smile", unknowingly sparking violent confrontations on something called a 'website' with the same title in 55 years' time. The case is more that Brian's musical development can be traced logically from Pet Sounds to Smiley Smile without the shift being quite such an inexplicable or inorganic change in his methods.

Whew... What a whirlwind. I'd like to wheel this back to something fun/informative/interesting and run down the state of each song recorded during the Smile period and where they were left before the home studio, to the best available evidence, which BJL already excellently compiled back in the innocent days of page 1, but I have some amendments and additions to throw into the pool. That should be a relatively harmless way to set a few things on the record straight!

Wind Chimes - Original track recorded and edited August 3, most of a new track recorded October 5, vocals recorded October 10. Brian dubbed the new sections down prior to vocals and assembled the edit on the 4-track reel from August itself, throwing away most of the assembled master from the earlier session in the process (leaving the opening verses intact, using the first chorus, discarding the rest). According to Vosse, this was mixed and considered a tentatively finished product, although that's now missing (as are most of the original 1/4" mixdowns from the era).

Look - Track recorded August 12 (untitled on the AFM/Capitol worksheet but titled 'Look' on the tape box), with a Capitol worksheet indicating a vocal session took place on Oct 13 under the title 'I Ran' utilising the same master number, but no tape of that description has been located. There are discrepancies between the documented titles and known recorded evidence on tape for a few of the October sessions, and a Child is Father of the Man mono mix has the same date, so it's possible that Look might not have actually been worked on that day.

Wonderful - Track for first version recorded Aug 25, transferred to 8-track with group vocals likely overdubbed Oct 4, Brian's lead vocal added and mixed to mono Oct 6, at which time it was considered a finished master. The 'yodellehoo' vocals were added Dec 15 with a Capitol worksheet indicating it was also worked on in some unknown capacity by Brian on Dec 27. Brian scrapped it, recorded a new basic track Jan 5 (probably as a Heroes B-side), overdubbed additional instruments and the "rock with me Henry" vocals with an a capella tag on Jan 9, left it unfinished (wisely?) and recorded a third version in April as a B-side to Vegetables, incorporating a reworked Child is Father of the Man section as a bridge. This didn't get any further than a piano track and some scratch vocals, scrapped again.

He Gives Speeches - Track recorded Aug 25, vocals possibly following at an undated session in September, never touched again.

Holidays - Track recorded Sep 8, never touched again.

Our Prayer - Recorded Sep 19 (BOTH versions - the 'dialogue' early takes in the lower key and the final), mixed and edited Oct 4, with Brian splicing out and throwing away the penultimate section. Brian described it on tape as an unlisted intro to the album during the original session, but in 1969 Vosse recounted Brian's plan to have a 'choral amen' following Surf's Up as the closer, so he might've later changed his mind about where he wanted to use it.

Cabin Essence - Easier to do this one in a list.
Oct 3 - Track recorded (structured in the same form it came out on 20/20, titled 'Home on the Range' on the AFM and Frank Holmes' artwork, but always 'Cabin Essence' on the tape box).
Oct 11 - Transferred to 8-track, chorus and tag backing vocals, first go at the 'iron horse' chant, Mike & Brian's 'crow' lead vocals (yes, it's both of them), rough mixed to mono and edited Verse/Chorus/Tag.
Oct 12 - Revised 'iron horse' vocals, 'grand coulee' vocals, rough mixed to mono and edited Chorus/Tag.
Dec 6 - Unknown, possibly the verse 'doings', maybe more.
Dec 15 - Re-revised 'iron horse' vocals.
Dec 27 - Chorus mixed to mono, with compelling evidence that Brian was stealing it for Heroes and Villains concurrently with Bicycle Rider, which he mixed onto the same reel.
Probably on Dec 28 (by elimination on the timeline), Brian recorded a rearranged version of the music as 'Heroes and Villains Part 3'. This, some muddled comments from Vosse, and Carl's 1972 Smile lineup printed in Melody Maker give a strong impression that Brian was considering a chorus-less Cabin Essence for a stretch after making a sacrifice to the all-consuming Heroes and Villains monster. There was enough cognitive separation for Carl to years later list 'Cabin Essence (incorporating Iron Horse)'.
Lead vocals were probably not recorded until November 1968 for 20/20, although hard evidence hasn't confirmed that.

Child is Father of the Man - First go at a track recorded Oct 7, revised track recorded Oct 11, at which time Brian likely made his full mono track edit. The parts were then individually transferred to 8-track at Columbia, with a vocal session on Oct 12, and a mono mix made on Oct 13 (the supposed 'I Ran' session), edited Bridge/Verse/Chorus. More vocal sessions took place Dec 2 and 6, seemingly to re-record the chorus arrangement from scratch each time. It seems unlikely that lyrics beyond the chorus were actually written in 1966. Van Dyke claimed his only involvement was steering Brian to the Wordsworth poem that originated the phrase, as Brian thought it was something Karl Menninger had written. In April, Brian repurposed the material as a bridge to Wonderful (that's the song dead in the water), then lifted the major key 'whoa child' variant again to Love to Say Da Da, and again to an attempt at Cool Cool Water.

Vega-Tables - Original version recorded in late 1966, possibly at the Oct 17 session with 'I'm in Great Shape' as the title on Capitol documentation. 'Do a Lot' might have been recorded as a tag circa Jan 3, although the tape box notates it 'Heroes and Villains insert Do A Lot'. It is however evident that engineer Jerry Hochman wrote all the titles on the side of that particular box together at a later date than the recording itself, with at least one contradicting the slates Ralph Valentin was calling out, so its Heroes designation might not be accurate. Newly recorded in expanded and revised form as 'Vegetables' for a single in April - Brian completed and mixed all the sections to mono, then didn't edit it together.

Do You Like Worms - Track sections recorded Oct 18, dubbed down to a second generation 4-track and edited together, taken to Columbia for Brian and Carl to add the 'rock rock roll' vocals and an early unison lead on the Hawaiian bridge, after which it was mixed to mono. Group vocals in the Hawaiian bridge were recorded Dec 2 per a contemporary article. Bicycle Rider backing vocals could've been at the same session or later. Transferred to 8-track at Columbia on Dec 21 with the group overdubbing verse backing vocals. On Dec 27, Brian spliced Bicycle Rider right out of the 8-track tape and placed it in the middle of the Heroes verses, after which he added a drum, lead vocals, and mixed it to mono at the same time as the Cabin Essence chorus and Heroes opening verses alternately under the titles 'PORTION OF HEROES AND VILLAINS (BICYCLE RIDERS)' and 'PORTION OF HEROES AND VILLAINS (INDIANS)' - it received extra overdubs on Jan 5 as 'Heroes and Villains Part 2'. Likely at around the same time, a Worms verse was spliced out of the 8-track and placed on the Prayer reel, onto which Brian also recorded the early versions of Da Da, possibly intending to use them together as a new song to salvage the material in the wake of the Heroes massacre. After all, aspects of May's Da Da Part 1 are sort of a reimagining of Worms Part 1.

Heroes and Villains - Finished at least once, nearly finished in many, many forms. Exhausting. The most indecisive serial killer of a song in history.

I'm in Great Shape - There are compelling reasons to think that the twelve-song list including I'm in Great Shape may have been written as early as October before this piece's absorption into Heroes and Villains, rather than after, but either way, on Oct 27 a few track variants were recorded and it was living life as a bridge in Heroes. On Dec 19, Brian recorded a (now lost, save for acetate) new version adapting the Iron Horse cello figure, before it was seemingly replaced by Bicycle Rider and Iron Horse (and swiftly Heroes Part 3) a week later. Brian's vague mention of a 'Barnyard Suite' in four parts to Byron Preiss in the 70s could've been some concept to preserve Great Shape and Barnyard as a track after they were axed from Heroes, but it never ended up happening. The Oct 17 worksheet with 'I'm in Great Shape' as the title and the Nov 29 'Friday Night (I'm in great shape)' AFM contract don't make this any less confusing.

Surf's Up - Track for the first half recorded early November, re-recorded as a whole in a simple piano + doubled vocal form on December 15 (which, weighing everything written and said about it up, was probably not considered a demo). Mysterious session on Jan 23 is lost to time, but a number of things point to it more likely being a remake of the first half than anything else. I'd explain those things if I hadn't already gone on for way too long.

My Only Sunshine - Track recorded Nov 14, vocals recorded Nov 30, mixed to mono and probably considered finished. Then, Brian cribbed Part 2 for Heroes on Feb 10, and recorded a new arrangement on Feb 28, potentially scooping the entire thing away from the land of the living.

The Elements - See John's posts. Although, as a minor correction, the 'My vega-tables - The Elements' illustration by Frank Holmes came out of a discussion over the phone with Van Dyke about what they were trying to achieve conceptually rather than a lyric sheet. Shortly after, Vega-Tables was Vega-Tables, The Elements was The Elements (a self-contained track in four parts), and The Elements wasn't completed. Wind Chimes is Wind Chimes and Love to Say Da Da is Love to Say Da Da.

You're Welcome - Recorded and mixed December 15. And... that's it? Wow, I wish they were all like this.

Love to Say Da Da & Cool Cool Water - See John's posts 2.0.

You're With Me Tonight - First version was recorded at Sound Recorders most likely on June 3, only as a short fragment spawned out of the Vegetables bassline. Second version (fast harpsichord arrangement) recorded June 5 at United as a full-length song. Third version (slow harpsichord arrangement) recorded June 6 and 7 at Western.

When was the title Mrs O’Leary’s cow given?

The earliest use of that title I've seen is the list of Smile tracks Carl gave to Melody Maker in 1972, although I could've missed something else. Brian gave 'Mrs. O'Leary's Fire' offhand on the day of the fire session going by Siegel but I get the impression that the 'Mrs. O'Leary's Cow' title was basically always around from then on.

Christian Matijas-Mecca. The Words and Music of Brian Wilson p96

““Cool Cool Water” was back under Brian’s hands in January 1970 as a vocal chant that emerged from the May 1967 track “I Love to Say Dada.” When Brian returned to this for Sunflower, he combined the chant from “Da Da” with the core of his original version of “Cool, Cool Water” to create an entirely new work.  On the 1993 Good Vibrations boxed set we had the first official release of “I Love to Say Dada” and the original fragment of “…Water,” and I can hear the relationship of these two works.  The song, as it appears on Sunflower, is a lighthearted, finger-snapping vocal callisthenic.  Its inclusion on the album was the work of Warners A&R manager, Lenny Waronker, who referred to this as representative of the ‘kind’ of work he liked to hear from Brian.

That's just an old assumption that newer research into the tapes and sessions overturned. The "water, water, water, water" droning chant exists on tape in two places - on the reel with the Smiley Smile version of Vegetables where it's marked "FADE FOR COOL COOL WATER", and on a compilation reel of Wild Honey tracks including the main CCW verses from those sessions where it's marked "ENDING". It's not clear which is the second generation copy and which is the original, but either way, the evidence suggests that it was always intended for Cool Water and recorded either at the home studio or Wally Heider's in June or October '67. The opening verses of the Sunflower edit (based on the Da Da progression) were recorded in October '67 during the sessions for Wild Honey, and the last portion was recorded in July 1970.

Brian did say this in 1970: "In 'Cool, Cool Water' there's a chant I wish we hadn't used. It fits all right, but there's just something I don't think is quite right with it."

Vegetables differs from Vega-tables. Vegetables has different lyrics and was completely re-recorded for Smiley Smile.

'Vega-Tables' had already been renamed 'Vegetables' by the time of the April '67 version recorded as a single, which is usually what people mean when they're talking about the 'Smile version'. The original Vega-Tables through most of the lifespan of the project from 1966 is the one that's labelled 'demo' on the Smile Sessions box. Van Dyke's still asserted that all of those revised lyrics were by him.

Good Vibrations was released on 10th October 1966 at a time Smile was being made. Brian did not want Good Vibrations to be included on Smiley Smile.

The only source of that is something David Anderle said in the Crawdaddy piece with Paul Williams, where he was talking about Brian never wanting to put singles on albums but always being obligated to for business reasons. He assumed Good Vibrations appearing on Smiley must've been against Brian's wishes, but he wasn't actually around to know the ins and outs of what happened there. The Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains single masters were sent from the Capitol vault back to the Beach Boys on July 13, a couple of days before the album was finished.

Derek... worked for their Beach Boys as their publicist? Are you seriously contending that there's any possibility it didn't run through Brian, or that someone else passed the word to Derek who didn't communicate with Brian at all before writing and publishing it?

If Derek was their publicist, and had all this information about the tour, the musicians, even the airplane, then why were the Beach Boys seemingly unaware the album had been "scrapped" when interviewed shortly *after* this piece was published? Read the comment from Bruce especially, but also Mike and Dennis too, they're talking as if the album is still being worked on and will come out. That's odd considering their publicist probably would have told them at some point, right?

"If Derek was their publicist"? He... was? He was that? Yes?

It's not exactly a gigantic semantic leap from "scrapped" to "Brian doesn't want to use most of the things he's recorded over the last several months and complete the list of songs the record label are expecting", even if at the time, there was a thought that he would eventually return to the material after clearing the air.

"Not destroyed, but scrapped. For what Wilson seals in a can and destroys is scrapped."  Doesn't sound much like he thought he'd be going back to it any time.

True. For all the Engemann memo was circulating with that discussion about using the sleeves and booklets, I don't think Brian ever expressed a serious interest in returning to Smile. Others would occasionally bring it up under the assumption that they'd eventually go back to it (including Bruce in early '68 who said they had half an album in the can) but Brian made an intriguing comment that year about a big group argument over his decision to not use those songs.

Derek... worked for their Beach Boys as their publicist? Are you seriously contending that there's any possibility it didn't run through Brian, or that someone else passed the word to Derek who didn't communicate with Brian at all before writing and publishing it?

If Derek was their publicist, and had all this information about the tour, the musicians, even the airplane, then why were the Beach Boys seemingly unaware the album had been "scrapped" when interviewed shortly *after* this piece was published? Read the comment from Bruce especially, but also Mike and Dennis too, they're talking as if the album is still being worked on and will come out. That's odd considering their publicist probably would have told them at some point, right?

"If Derek was their publicist"? He... was? He was that? Yes?

It's not exactly a gigantic semantic leap from "scrapped" to "Brian doesn't want to use most of the things he's recorded over the last several months and complete the list of songs the record label are expecting".

Word is they were also working with another publicist for that leg of the tour, I'll get his name when I can. But seriously though, no one told the band that the album had been scrapped after Taylor's article appeared? They talk as if they had no idea, and that Smile would be coming out. Not that it was scrapped, shelved, put in the can, or whatever semantic would fit. 

There are two different Smile albums at play here.  There is the originally planned 12 track Smile with the associated tracks and songs Brian worked on from August 66- March 67.  This is what Derek Taylor is saying has been sealed in a can and "scrapped."  Someone - presumably Brian - informed him that he was abandoning these tracks (but not necessarily the songs, as we see with Smiley).  As has been pointed out, Dada was Brian starting something new, whether for a B side of a single or a track for an album.

Then there is Smile as the name of "the next Beach Boys album" - whatever Brian decided it would consist of.  That's what the Beach Boys are talking about.  An album was continuing to be worked on.  An album would eventually come out.  And to be fair to them, Brian probably wasn't communicating to Mike, Al, Carl et al what he was going to exclude or include on "the next album" from what he had been recording - as it turns out very little was included, only about half of Heroes and the end of Vegetables.

Exactly, thanks for succinctly putting that into words.

Derek... worked for their Beach Boys as their publicist? Are you seriously contending that there's any possibility it didn't run through Brian, or that someone else passed the word to Derek who didn't communicate with Brian at all before writing and publishing it?

If Derek was their publicist, and had all this information about the tour, the musicians, even the airplane, then why were the Beach Boys seemingly unaware the album had been "scrapped" when interviewed shortly *after* this piece was published? Read the comment from Bruce especially, but also Mike and Dennis too, they're talking as if the album is still being worked on and will come out. That's odd considering their publicist probably would have told them at some point, right?

"If Derek was their publicist"? He... was? He was that? Yes?

It's not exactly a gigantic semantic leap from "scrapped" to "Brian doesn't want to use most of the things he's recorded over the last several months and complete the list of songs the record label are expecting", even if at the time, there was a thought that he would eventually return to the material after clearing the air.

Derek... worked for their Beach Boys as their publicist? Are you honestly contending that there's any possibility it didn't run through Brian, or that someone else passed the word to Derek who didn't communicate with Brian at all before writing and publishing it in a magazine?

Any idea of when in 75 his back up vocals on Boat to Sail or Johnny Rivers’ cover of Help Me Rhonda were recorded?

Not a clue! I'd love to find out.

There's a lot going on in here and I don't want to wade into all of it, but I do want to comment on a few things.

The silly voice slating the Love to Say Da Da takes is engineer Jimmy Hilton, who sounds a lot like Brian. Brian was out on the studio floor playing on all three sessions. That has nothing to do with who ran or produced the sessions - it's just who that voice is.

Capitol didn't cancel a session on May 19th, Brian did. Capitol had nothing to do with the studio time Brian did or didn't book for himself. He cancelled a number of recording sessions over those months out of not feeling it, vibrations being off, etc.

Brian recording Love to Say Da Da at Gold Star really doesn't bring any contradiction to Taylor's press statement. Since Christmas (mysterious excursions into Surf's Up and Jasper Dailey aside), Brian's entire focus in the studio had essentially been to produce a single and its B-side, and that single would've ended up on the next Beach Boys album, which at the time was supposed to be Smile. The rest of the project was hanging on standby with Brian giving little consideration to the other songs as he deconstructed and transplanted musical ideas from various pieces into Heroes. As the months went by, Brian got stuck in a rut, wrapped up in the lawsuit, wrapped up in personal difficulties, lost the ability to judge the merits of the material after spending too long with it, lost sight of the original vision, couldn't take the pressure of expectation, became creatively dissatisfied with what he was doing, and wanted to start fresh on something new that he could enjoy making ('non-competitive' music, as Mike put it).

There's nothing evidentially tying the May Love to Say Da Da sessions to Smile. If anything, Brian doing that strongly supports that the album he was supposed to deliver had been put on the shelf - these are a run of sessions for new music not among the 12 song titles printed on the back sleeves for the first time since fall '66, besides You're Welcome and the embryonic December Da Da (neither of which were done on the books with a master number assignment). Yes, it's not really a production departure yet - but so? Taylor's piece had been published, obviously at Brian's behest, and here's Brian working on new material outside of the album he'd promised to deliver. In any case, something wasn't clicking with him, as he cancelled a session and never used the track.

When the Beach Boys returned from Europe they started working on more new material (You're With Me Tonight and Cool Cool Water, both of which were potentially B-sides for Vegetables), but they're at Western, there's a harpsichord, there's a session bassist, and the production approach isn't practically any different to most of those sessions throughout the Smile era for Wonderful, He Gives Speeches, Surf's Up, You're Welcome, all the Heroes and Vegetables sections, parts of Do You Like Worms, Wind Chimes, etc. The only thing that sets Da Da apart is it was the last ensemble Wrecking Crew track recorded at Gold Star, but those were already few and far between as '66 moved into '67. Then Brian finally gets the home studio that he’s been asking after and has a wind of inspiration to return to Heroes and Villains as the single following a rewrite, so they spend a few days finishing that off at the house and it’s… basically the same thing? He’s in a new place and has a new organ, sure, but the actual arrangement and production style doesn’t differ in any meaningful way to what he’d been doing with Heroes at Columbia months earlier. On the heels of that, the environment and available instrumentation inspires a new arrangement of Vegetables – and in my mind that’s when a new sound clicks and Smiley Smile is conceptually born. Brian had been sliding towards that type of organic-feeling minimalism for a long time. The transition up to then is natural and traceable and obvious. It’s just a kick up to the next level, really – he jumped into a new bag and got excited by it, to put it in Brian lingo.

I think to say that there’s any one single creative leap from Smile to Smiley Smile and that it can be pegged to Love to Say Da Da is an extremely reductive way to look at it all. But on a practical level, as in, “the next Beach Boys album won’t be Smile as conceived in 1966,” it’s the Taylor article.

For posterity, here’s that whole thing, Disk & Music Echo, 6th May 1967:

BEACH BOYS fly in for a hot tour - and this is why there’s no new single to launch it...

BEACH BOYS WEEK IN BRITAIN! Out of a sleek, silver jet at London Airport come Igor Horoshevsky, Frank St Peters, Jim Carther and Richard Thompson - plus the five better-known Beach Boys…
    Who, then, are Igor and Co.? A fair question. Igor is up there in huge letters on the side of the Beach Boys’ aircraft. “The Beach Boys and Igor,” says the sign, without explanation or apology.
    The answer is the fine big band the group promised last time they came to Britain.
    Frank plays saxophone, flute and clarinet; Jim plays flute and sax; Richard dabbles in flugelhorn, harpsichord, flute, organ, saxophone and clarinet.
    And who’s this Horoshevsky cat? He plays cello. And he will steer the band on a path of rich, red music across the nation and set these isles once again vibrating good and strong to the Beach Boys.
It will be fine music this tour. It wasn’t all bad last November, either, when the Beach Boys’ potential new LP “Dumb Angel” was about to become “Smile” far away in the Beverly Hills at Brian Wilson’s piano set grandly in the sandbox in the drawing room.
    So why, people may be asking, has the genius Wilson not offered us a new single since “Good Vibrations?” Where, too, is the album? It’s a long story…
    Last November, as the Beach Boys toured Britain, Wilson had NEARLY completed “Heroes And Villains,” scheduled as their follow-up single.
    The rest of the “Smile” LP songs lay in dry dock, in varying states of completion. And when Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike and Bruce - full of pubs, laden with Portobello Road, wreathed in holiday smiles and British pop-battle honours - inhaled again the sun-sealed smog of their home-Golden State, the final construction work began.
BUT ALAS…
    Brian Wilson began to stare at the glittering ships of tape and as the day of the launch became nearer than a date on the never-never calendar, he gazed at his plans and he turned his mind’s ear inwards and the longer he stared and the more he heard, the clearer it became that he was now in his jet age, building steamships.
    Which couldn’t be right.
    In truth, every beautifully designed, finely-wrought inspirationally-welded piece of music made these last months by Brian and his Beach Boy craftsmen has been SCRAPPED.
    Not destroyed, but scrapped. For what Wilson seals in a can and destroys is scrapped.
    As an average fan of the Beach Boys, I think it is bitterly disappointing. But it isn’t as if one is bereft of the group’s essential spirit - there are 14 albums, many of them incredibly pure and full of life and lovely.
    One is, however, deprived of renewal. It is like waiting for an heir when the pregnancy is total. It has to come. Has to.
    What, then? I don’t know. The Beach Boys don’t know. Brian Wilson, God grant him peace of mind … he doesn’t know.
    He is waiting with his nearest Mike and Al and Bruce and his dearest Carl and Dennis. And if it is difficult for them, it is absolutely unbearable for Brian.
    It has to come. New single, new album.
    Until it does, I trust we can all be patient and enjoy the substance of the Beach Boy family which is still young and new, and continually justifying its place in an exclusive pop hierarchy which has never admitted charlatans or pretenders.
    “THE BEACH BOYS AND IGOR” are flying.
    Switch off the lights, turn on “Pet Sounds,” and you know that there are in the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson some eclectic, elegant, ethereal elements which transcend the transitory Top 30, and which makes nonsense of “now music.”
    The Beach Boys are with you now.
    For now they are yours.
    Enjoy them.
    That is why they came.

Gotcha…yeah the layout made it look like it was part of the December sessions that didn’t have a date!

For what it’s worth,  I’d been told years ago it was likely March 1975.

Back Home had an “8” by it ; appendix said it was the version that appeared on the album. That said…Brian’s vocal line from the “live” version that was actually a studio recording…could that be from Sept 1975?

The vocal flown into the live performance on Feel Flows is an alternate take from the 15 Big Ones version's multitrack, but I think it's unlikely that there was any significant lapse in time between them. Brian sounds about the same, more exuberant in one, singing it straight in the other. There's a contemporary article on the March sessions that implies Chapel of Love was Brian's first recorded lead vocal since his return. I tend to think Back Home was revived later, around April to May, when the project took a left turn into including original songs.

I've heard a couple of instances of Brian's voice in March '75, and he was quite a way off where he's at on In the Back of My Mind. Not dissimilar to his vocals in November '74 really. My guess is it was sometime between then and Landy's hire in September/October, because Tandyn Almer's playing the piano and Brian probably wouldn't have been allowed near him and other friends in that circle once all that started.

What's the source on Back of My Mind being December? Bellagio? That's actually cordoned off below December with tracks that were recorded in the year 1975 but haven't been narrowed down to a month (source: several of those dates were supplied by me).

The Back Home track was recorded around fall '75, but the vocals probably weren't added until spring '76 during the 15 Big Ones sessions. In February, Brian sang a line to Timothy White and was still thinking of it in terms of the "neighborhood kids" lyrics/melody.

On 16, 17,18 May Brian worked on Love to Say Dada

On May 19 Capitol abandons the recordings for Smile
"Edited versions of the Love To Say Dada sessions are included in the 2011 Smile Sessions box; Brian certainly doesn’t sound like he knows that Smile is finished with. There is a playfulness to the announcement of each take, over both days of recordings. Brian affects a humorous voice, which he maintains throughout. The ‘Part Two, Second Day’ recordings (ie. 18th May 1967) also has an additional slide-whistle ‘birds singing’ development that suggests that this track is in process, with a finished version in mind.

The voice slating those takes is engineer Jimmy Hilton, and Smile had already been announced scrapped in a press release by Derek Taylor at the beginning of the month, a couple of weeks before the Da Da sessions.

I thought Bruce left after the Surfs Up album?  His vocals are on this song.  I’m not sure this was recorded during the Holland sessions?

Bruce isn't on either version.

I've been passed along some diligent research by Cam Mott on Heider's with lots of sources, dates, Dale Manquen recollections, etc. Still trying to wrap my head around everything, but the long and short of it is:

- Heider was doing remote recording for United by at least the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival

- Wally Heider Recording became a business by June 1964 in an office on Cahuengo Blvd West, and the studio at 6373 Selma Ave was open by August 1964 (there's a Cash Box ad)

- According to Dale Manquen, they used a 3M M-23 8-track prototype to record the September 16-18 1966 Monterey Jazz Fest

Info update: that Bravo magazine was published weekly, and the one Carl's reading is actually the October 10 issue, not September 24. Might've just narrowed it down.

I have to think it wasn't staged because if you watch, the meters on the 8-track machine are actually moving, and Brian is directing Chuck to stop or roll back the tape they're working on, so they are "working". And I could be mistaken, please correct if I am, but the film itself was shot by Dennis, as he did often at this time and which explains why he's not in the film. Plus if you look close, there are too many people in Western 3 (in the background) for this to have been staged, and I think it's an actual working session that Dennis just happened to film.

I don't have the info in front of me, but on October 11 '66, did they really book Western 3 AND Columbia on that same day? I realize they were close to each other, but that seems unusual to me for some reason. Any info on why that was the case and why if they had 8-track at Western they didn't just stay there and save the hassle? I agree the October 11th date could be the most plausible, but we'd also need to check what the actual release date of that German magazine was apart from the date on the issue itself, since they often didn't match and were a month or so off.

Who knows, Western was gonna be booked up? Brian preferred the sound he got from vocals at Columbia? That day he recorded the second Child track at Western from 2pm to 6pm (mistakenly titled 'Cabin Essence' on the AFM sheet), then there's a Capitol worksheet for a 'Home on the Range' vocal session from 8pm to 2am, and the first Cabin Essence mono mix is also marked with that date.

Brian did something similar on October 18 - recorded the Do You Like Worms track at Western, then took Carl to Columbia an hour and a half later to add some vocals. Those vocals were done on 4-track, so I think it may have been a matter of studio availability or sound preference over format. I remember Brian once commenting that he liked Columbia for its vocal sound.

Intriguing possibility, but there are a number of quotes from Brian and others about mixing Good Vibrations to mono at Columbia. Plus, Good Vibrations has the trademark Columbia step fade, which is a dead giveaway whenever it appears. The final mixdown box is dated September 26 which would be cutting it close for Carl to get hold of that magazine from Germany.

Two plausible sessions, as far as I can tell, are October 5 and October 11. If it's October 5, Brian had just been using that 8-track machine to record Wind Chimes with Van Dyke (who's there in some other footage). If October 11, it'd be following a Child tracking session and presumably dubbing that and/or Cabin Essence over to 8-track before taking the tape and the Boys over to Columbia to record vocals that same evening. Either way, I think this is probably sometime after the GV promo shoot where they'd used those fire hats.

Interesting. I didn't think it was *the* GV mixdown, but wanted to hear some other opinions so this is cool. Van Dyke is indeed in the film, and wearing a fire hat too! So yes it feels a little late for a GV mix session, and could very well be Wind Chimes or Cabinessence.

Obviously we can only piece together some of the threadbare evidence to try to date the film, but what strikes me is if it were one of those Smile sessions, why would all the Beach Boys be there? The firehats are pretty self explanatory, they had them around for the film and eventually the actual Fire track session, but why would all the Boys be at Western 3 if it was Brian dubbing down or mixing a track? Carl, yes, Van Dyke, yes, but what were they all doing there?

That's why Oct 11 is the one I sort of lean towards - could be they all convened to hear a playback before heading a couple of minutes down the street to Columbia. It's the only date at Western that month with a group vocal session occuring right after. Or, as Joshilyn says, could be semi-staged.