SMiLE Shop Heroes and Villains Throwdown Part Deux: Electric Boogaloo...

[Cam Mott]

..anyone?

[Cam Mott]

No one? OK, I'll start.

Ten years ago we figured out many of the dates for the tracking to H&V [and other SMiLE sessions]. Now Craig and Alan have pulled back the veil further in the excellent TSS sessionography. To me it seems H&V followed a path pretty much like GV. I propose that like G&V, some of the song made it to the next round, some of the song got tweaked, some got dropped or replaced, in the search for the "feeling". I propose that just as Brian was proclaiming at the time how he spent much time in thinking the music out before he went to the studio the docu shows everything was thought out in advance of recording.

I propose 5 versions of H&V with a separate master for separate side of the single.

1. May 11 H&V #55999

2. Oct 17 to Dec 13 H&V #56727

3. Dec 19 to Jan 3 H&V #57020

4. Jan 20 to Feb 10 H&V #57020

5. Feb 15 to Feb 26? H&V #57020

5a. Jan 5 to Mar 2 H&V "Side 2" #57045
 

[Micha]

To be honest, Cam, I don't get what your aiming at or even what "Throwdown Part Deux: Electric Boogaloo..." means...

[Bicyclerider]

The dates don't really follow the changes in the song - for example, we know bybthe time of the Dec list that Shape and likely Barnyard were out, yet you have one "version" going through Dec 13.  I guess you need to spell out what sections are in or out of each version as it evolved through your different versions.

[Cam Mott]

The dates don't really follow the changes in the song - for example, we know bybthe time of the Dec list that Shape and likely Barnyard were out, yet you have one "version" going through Dec 13.  I guess you need to spell out what sections are in or out of each version as it evolved through your different versions.

Lou,

I guess I'm not aware of how we know IIGS and BY were out before Dec. 13. I thought the second version of H&V must have consisted of at least the first and second verse at the beginning, presumably the 3rd verse and possibly the scat verse and IIGS in the middle, with BY as the fade. I presume Dec 13 is when the vocals for BY and possibly the Brian/Mike verses were recorded.

I don't have my stuff here so maybe I'm full of baloney.

PS. the change in master number on Dec. 19 seems significant too. I know the numbers are a little wonky and not 100% reliable but I think they tell us something.

[Bicyclerider]

I don't have my primer notes with me but the list was submitted early December - Dec 6 if I remember - so great shape is it's own song by then and the Heroes structure has changed.  It could be that Brian hadn't decided on what to replace it with yet, or cantina may have Already have been written but not recorded.

[Cam Mott]

Awww. I'm sceptical of that early date associated with the "list".

Also there doesn't seem to be any evidence for replacement tracking for those parts with tracking for the second version master # 56727. I suppose it could be it was replaced with all a capella or vocals with simple piano like some other tracks. Still...I'm sceptical of that "list" date [with no proof].

[Bicyclerider]

The list was submitted Dec  9 or 10.  I'm surprised to hear about any scepticism about that date - it's been well documented, hasn't it?  According to Peter the Capitol memorandum had the following on it:

RECEIVED

Dec. 10, 1966


by Ray Polley

with his initials under the date between the date and his name on the rubber stamp.

If it reached his desk Dec 10 that means the list was submitted either Dec 9 or Dec 10.

[Cam Mott]

OK, I thought there was still some ambiguity about the CE and HOTR titles through Dec. 27 but maybe not.

So if that Dec 10 "list" date is correct, the second version would be Oct 17 through sometime after Nov 4 but before Dec 10 with IIGS but Dec 13 would be vocals for a revised second version without IIGS but still with verses and BY. That would still make sense.

Then on Dec 19 he has such a new vision for H&V he scraps the old master and starts a new master number. The third version dumps the BY fade for Part 1 tag, preserves or adds to the verses, and incorporates all the new bits comped on Jan 3. Also interesting that the "intro" was never an intro to Side 1, it falls in middle somewhere as "part 3". H&V Part/Side 2 has not yet begun.

That make sense?

[Cam Mott]

So in other words, the history of the second version of H&V as master #56727:

October 17: BB record vocals for IIGS which are logged as IIGS master # 56727 but will presumably be like the IIGS section vocals of H&V #56727 on Nov.4

October 20:  verse tracking and BY tracking as H&V master # 56727; Brian has abandoned the tracking for H&V master number #55999

October 27: IIGS tracking logged as H&V master #56738; IIGS vocal master was #56727, the AFM for the Oct 27 H&V master # 56738 was marked as payment "recv'd Nov 7" along with the Oct 18 DYLW tracking master #56729. What does it mean? Clerical error? Anyway, it is beside the point since the melody and vocals are part of H&V #56727 on Nov 4.

Nov 4: The "still working" H&V master # 56727 is demoed to Humble Harv as at least consisting of the first and second verse ending in a flutter tone, IIGS which peters out like the Oct 27 tracking master take, and BY with lyrics and nah-nahs and animal noises.

After Nov 4 and before Dec 9: IIGS may have been dropped from H&V #56727 as a "list" track of it's own.

Dec. 13: Vocals at least for verses [first and second and if the Brian/Mike verses were recorded this day then the third and "scat" also?] and BY tracking for H&V master #56727

Anybody done a pre-Dec 10 H&V master #56727 speculative mix of verses, IIGS, and BY?