Yes, the elements are one of SMiLE's biggest mysteries.
I have never heard what Brian intended for Earth. I've heard fans argue that Vega-Tables is earth, that DYLW was supposed to bridge Americana and the Elements together and that Look was supposed to bridge Innocence with Elements, as a sort of earth instrumental. None of these ideas sounds definitive (because they almost certainly aren't). In every SMiLE related work I've ever read, there's always some speculation on what Air and Water were supposed to be, but Earth is always completely glossed over.
I've read that Brian's original intentions for Air were to be a "flighty" piano solo. The piano exit of Wind Chimes (which was omitted in TSS version) seems to fit that description, and with fans speculating that Wind Chimes itself was the air track, it kinda makes sense. You could also say Holidays is the air track (at least the second part anyway) but nothing really backs that up. Then Dada has recently been proposed as the Air track. It has woodwinds, which are an "airy" instrument, and its alternate title (Second Day) is an obscure reference to air just as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" is an obscure reference to fire.
I remember reading in the Catch a Wave biography that Brian's original idea for Water was to record different bodies of water like rivers flowing and waves breaking and edit it together into a type of track, or at the very least use it for inspiration. I've always thought Dada was water, and it seems to be the defacto water track in most fan mixes. But, assuming the "In Blue Hawaii" lyrics were written at the time, was it actually supposed to be part of Americana? Maybe it was the bride between those two suites? Then there's Cool, cool water, a song that while not recorded during the SMiLE sessions, it has its roots there. It's an entire song about water, so that makes sense as the water track. The only problem is it isn't an instrumental, but then neither are Vega-Tables and Wind Chimes and they're usually used as placeholders for Earth and Air so who knows.
Fire is Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. No argument there. But what I'm curious about is, if it turns out NONE of my suggestions were really elements, did Brian abandon the entire concept of an Element Suite after he got scared of Fire? Or was he just going to leave fire out of it? I know he rewrote fire as Fall Breaks for Smiley Smile, but if he was willing to do that why was no work done on any other element?
I really wish somebody, Brian or Van Dyke preferably, would just come forward and say "Yes, Dada was a working title that would've been changed to Second Day and stood as Air, the first element, which would lead into a Diamond Head type instrumental for Water, which would lead into Fire, then go into Look which would transition into the Innocence Suite" or something. Even just say "Fire was the only element worked on. We could never decide what to do for the others." I just want some kind of answer to this
The Elements thing has been getting to me lately too. Love to Say Dada/In Blue Hawaii is interesting - it works as Water but as well as a sort of coda for the album (going through 3 movements and ending with an "Our Prayer"-like vocal bit), and I just think the title "In Blue Hawaii" is a simple Elvis reference, just like the Plymouth Rock roll over lyric is a riff on a line from Cole Porter's "Anything Goes". I have never heard what Brian intended for Earth. I've heard fans argue that Vega-Tables is earth, that DYLW was supposed to bridge Americana and the Elements together and that Look was supposed to bridge Innocence with Elements, as a sort of earth instrumental. None of these ideas sounds definitive (because they almost certainly aren't). In every SMiLE related work I've ever read, there's always some speculation on what Air and Water were supposed to be, but Earth is always completely glossed over.
I've read that Brian's original intentions for Air were to be a "flighty" piano solo. The piano exit of Wind Chimes (which was omitted in TSS version) seems to fit that description, and with fans speculating that Wind Chimes itself was the air track, it kinda makes sense. You could also say Holidays is the air track (at least the second part anyway) but nothing really backs that up. Then Dada has recently been proposed as the Air track. It has woodwinds, which are an "airy" instrument, and its alternate title (Second Day) is an obscure reference to air just as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" is an obscure reference to fire.
I remember reading in the Catch a Wave biography that Brian's original idea for Water was to record different bodies of water like rivers flowing and waves breaking and edit it together into a type of track, or at the very least use it for inspiration. I've always thought Dada was water, and it seems to be the defacto water track in most fan mixes. But, assuming the "In Blue Hawaii" lyrics were written at the time, was it actually supposed to be part of Americana? Maybe it was the bride between those two suites? Then there's Cool, cool water, a song that while not recorded during the SMiLE sessions, it has its roots there. It's an entire song about water, so that makes sense as the water track. The only problem is it isn't an instrumental, but then neither are Vega-Tables and Wind Chimes and they're usually used as placeholders for Earth and Air so who knows.
Fire is Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. No argument there. But what I'm curious about is, if it turns out NONE of my suggestions were really elements, did Brian abandon the entire concept of an Element Suite after he got scared of Fire? Or was he just going to leave fire out of it? I know he rewrote fire as Fall Breaks for Smiley Smile, but if he was willing to do that why was no work done on any other element?
I really wish somebody, Brian or Van Dyke preferably, would just come forward and say "Yes, Dada was a working title that would've been changed to Second Day and stood as Air, the first element, which would lead into a Diamond Head type instrumental for Water, which would lead into Fire, then go into Look which would transition into the Innocence Suite" or something. Even just say "Fire was the only element worked on. We could never decide what to do for the others." I just want some kind of answer to this
Air is strange, recently I heard this thing on YouTube (I cannot find any longer) where Mrs. O'Leary's Cow was Fire, Dada was Water, and this more ambient track was Air, and the video did not include Earth and I have not been able to track down this cool Air track used, but it sounded pretty authentic.
Oh yeah and "Look" always irked me as its place among all SMiLE songs seems weak, and how it would be as a bridging track or a piece of something else feels so up in the air (hah!). It doesn't feel totally right between Wonderful and CIFotM on TSS, because the whole "Cycle of Life" suite has a metaphorical growth going on in it, which is musically represented by the trumpet in Wonderful, Child Is..., and Surf's Up. In comparison to the other tracks which are so much more full (at least Wonderful and SU) it just seems like a bridge of something, almost like another "Three Blind Mice" situation (though I don't know much about the history of that track).