SMiLE Sections - Why do I...........................................

[desmondo]

.....................always sing In the Cantina immediately after Cabinessence has finished.

Anyone else do a similar sort of thing mixing up SMiLE sections without thinking???

[SMiLE Brian]

I do the same thing with other songs on SMiLE with everything being so interchangable, heck Brian did back in the day because he couldn't figure out how to fit the pieces together.

[The Shift]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

[Matt Bielewicz]

Oh, I do this ALL THE TIME. Different parts to you, over different parts of SMiLE, but yes, I do it ALL THE TIME.

When I was at the height of my SMiLE mix-making, from about 1996 to 2002, I used to try out ideas for new blends in my head by singing vocal parts from one part of SMiLE over another. A few of these 'stuck', so to speak, and now I can't listen to those bits without thinking of those made-up superimpositions I created in my head. They were never there, vocals were never recorded like that for them, and Brian probably never EVER thought of this stuff - it was just all in MY head - but still, I often hum these parts when I give SMiLE an occasional play through.

A couple of examples, off the top of my head:

I always sing 'With Me Tonight' (the bold, fast, harpsichord version) over the first half of the chorus to Holidays. That one fits like a glove, and is hard to shake once you've done it... which is probably why I still sing it.

I often hum a fast little version of the melody from the Cantina section of H&V in Surf's Up, just after the line 'Surf's Up mmmm aboard a tidal wave'. It sort of twines and trips around the vocal lines, a bit like the fast-slow scansion of the line 'the glass was raised a fired rose the fullness of the wine a dim last toasting'.

In the BWPS version of Wind Chimes (and 'Take 5' of the first version from Summer 1966), there's that strange 'bridge' with the bouncing bass before the final chorus (the penultimate section in the song, in other words), that was not included in the Good Vibrations box set mix of Wind Chimes. I became very taken with the idea that the acapella descending-scale vocals that occupy a similar position in the *Smiley Smile* version of Wind Chimes (ie also the penultimate section; on the Smiley version, of course, the last part is the Whispering Winds tag) were meant to go over that funny bridge in the SMiLE version. I had not a scrap of proof for this, of course; it was entirely a fanciful notion of my own devising. But I still hum modulated versions of those acapella Smiley vocals over the bridge in that part of the BWPS Wind Chimes to this day...

And I'm sure there are many others...

Come on then, I've owned up some embarrassing examples of this kind of thing. I *can't* be the only one here who's done this sort of thing, surely...? Now's your chance to spill the beans!    

[desmondo]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

Ah John - I meant CE finishes normally and then into ITC so the whoo woos would be at the end

AM I BEING STUPID

[buddhahat]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

IIRC Vosse suggests that parts of Cabinessence and Worms started life within the same song but can't remember if he goes into specifics of which sections. I like to think this hybrid consisted of the Bicycle rider sections interchanging with Iron Horse and ending with the Grand Coulee fade. That would have made for one hell of a choo-choo song!

[37!ws]

I dunno about mixing up various Smile sections, but...one day my wife cued up "CIFoTM" on her iPod -- just went straight to the song, not via album or artist -- and it didn't stop after the song was over, and went to what was next alphabetically: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" -- and damned if it didn't flow! Seriously, to this day when I hear CIFOTM I still expect to hear C(BPCH) next....

[desmondo]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

IIRC Vosse suggests that parts of Cabinessence and Worms started life within the same song but can't remember if he goes into specifics of which sections. I like to think this hybrid consisted of the Bicycle rider sections interchanging with Iron Horse and ending with the Grand Coulee fade. That would have made for one hell of a choo-choo song!

Let's get out choo choo songs out there guys and girls - suggestions please

[SMiLE Brian]

I also always forget Good Vibrations is the last song on BWPS, so it startles me all the time after the emotional trip BWPS puts you through.

[The Shift]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

Ah John - I meant CE finishes normally and then into ITC so the whoo woos would be at the end

AM I BEING STUPID

Not at all… the "wooo wooo woo">Iron Horse idea has been in my head a while.; just thinking out loud -  I've never even tried synching them so don't know if it would work. Does your idea work despite the Coulee fade?

[desmondo]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

Ah John - I meant CE finishes normally and then into ITC so the whoo woos would be at the end

AM I BEING STUPID

Not at all… the "wooo wooo woo">Iron Horse idea has been in my head a while.; just thinking out loud -  I've never even tried synching them so don't know if it would work. Does your idea work despite the Coulee fade?

Works better with BWPS (strangely - haha)

[The Demon]

I like the idea of the Cantina section's "Wooo-wooo-wooo" leading straight into Iron Horse. It's a choo-choo thang.

IIRC Vosse suggests that parts of Cabinessence and Worms started life within the same song but can't remember if he goes into specifics of which sections. I like to think this hybrid consisted of the Bicycle rider sections interchanging with Iron Horse and ending with the Grand Coulee fade. That would have made for one hell of a choo-choo song!

He mentions "Bicycle Rider" in relation to "Cabin Essence."

[Micha]

Lately, after Surf's Up ending with "a childrens' song" I'm inclined to imagine Vega-Tables following it, which definitely has that childrens' song vibe.

[Jay]

Sometimes I can fit Look and CITFOTM together. I often find myself trying to fit the unused "telephone lines" lyric into Cabinessence somehow. Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night half asleep, I get these brilliant ideas of how to connect different pieces of SMiLE music together. It fits PERFECTLY in my head, and then I promptly forget everything once I fall asleep. 

[John Stivaktas]

The SMiLE era features many songs with musical themes or motifs which are in the same key. Brian composed in C#major and E major mainly (and some parts in F Major), hence their interchangeability. So for example, the "Who Ran the Iron Horse" section of Cabin Essence and the verses of Do You Like Worms are both written in F Major and feature two chords only, F and Bb . I think this musical motif is meant to signify the white man's advancement from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii and the impact of this on the Native American Indians and since SMiLE carried this theme from beginning to end, hence the similarity in many songs.

[The Shift]

Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night half asleep, I get these brilliant ideas of how to connect different pieces of SMiLE music together. It fits PERFECTLY in my head, and then I promptly forget everything once I fall asleep.  

It's okay – I have them too, usually when I'm driving and can't make notes. Or when I'm out with my girlfriend and she suddenly asks me "So, what are you thinking about?" and I have to quickly think of something else…

[desmondo]

Sometimes I can fit Look and CITFOTM together. I often find myself trying to fit the unused "telephone lines" lyric into Cabinessence somehow. Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night half asleep, I get these brilliant ideas of how to connect different pieces of SMiLE music together. It fits PERFECTLY in my head, and then I promptly forget everything once I fall asleep. 

 

[willy]

Been thinking of chopping and changing the songs and sections for years so the whole album really did have segments recurring all over the place.... gonna think about this and get back shortly!