He Gives Speeches

[keith]

Anyone ever hear a mix of Wonderful with He Gives Speeches?  How did it sound?  I always loved that fragment.  I've heard some say it was just a throw away fragment.  It's kind of interesting that a thow away tune would then turn up on Smiley Smile. 

[The Song Of The Grange]

I have made many fan mixes of He Gives Speeches with Wonderful.  I usually insert HGS into the spot where the party break happens on the Smiley Smile version of Wonderful.  HGS has a similar chord switch as Bicycle Rider, which is what is playing in the back ground of the party break in the SS version.  Sometimes I put Fade To Vegetables in this middle section of Wonderful because it has a similar vocal riff.  I have always found it interesting that HGS has a similar backing vocal melody as the fade to the Cantina version of H&V.  There is something going on there that we haven't figured out yet.  HGS clearly has a lyrical link with Wonderful, it seems like it is part 2 of the same story.

I think it was recast for Smiley Smile because they were digging around for acceptable material, since so many of the Smile tracks had been deemed too un-Beach Boys-like.   Same story with Fall Breaks, With Me Tonight and Whistle In (which recasts the last chant of Do You Like Worms?).  Smiley Smile is Brian making a home studio version of Smile that the group could agree upon.  It is Brian loosing ambition, trying to please everyone, and still trying to hold on to a bit of his broken concept.  That said, SS is BW production at it's most experimental, and I love it.

[Mahalo]

I love HGS- perhaps the most underrated SMiLE! outtake. I think it kills She's Going Bald.

[Bicyclerider]

She's goin Bald is fascinating because it's the most obvious example of what Mike would have done with the Smile material if he had been asked to rewrite the contentious Van Dyke lyrics.

[Chris Brown]

She's goin Bald is fascinating because it's the most obvious example of what Mike would have done with the Smile material if he had been asked to rewrite the contentious Van Dyke lyrics.

And his lyrics are almost as odd as Van Dyke's.

Actually that makes me wonder...do we know which lyrics Mike contributed to "She's Goin Bald"?  Obviously at least one of Van Dyke's lyrics survived "silken hair more silken hair fell on his (her) face and no wind was blowing," but the rest of the lyrics (before the helium interlude) seem like they could be either Van Dyke's or Brian's.  I can see Mike writing the "its too late Mama, ain't nothin' upside your head" bit, but not so much anything before that.  Anybody have any more insight on this?

[A Million Units In Jan!]

Well, I believe that Van Dyke has said that he has no recollection of writing HGS. I thought (and I could be wrong) that it was somehow determined that HGS was recorded very early on, perhaps right after a GV session. I always thought that HGS sounded like Brian trying to write like Van Dyke. Although, why would Van Dyke be given credit for it if he didn't write it? The song seems like it should somehow fit into Wonderful though, doesn't it?