Mark Linett Billboard Interview About SMiLE

[guitarfool2002]

The neat thing about Smile for years has been the way someone could interpret the lyrics and the "what if?" missing components in many different ways, attaching a certain Smile phrase to a certain hidden meaning or even an obvious reference to an established fact and basing a theory around that attachment. From alchemy, to LSD, to beatnik culture, to drug culture, to the counterculture, there has never been a shortage of theories and that is one of the aspects I really like.

In the case of vegetables as a drug reference, it has been fascinating to read the opinions so far, but in my mind and based on the evidence surrounding the multimedia aspects of Brian's "vegetables" theme, I still hold the opinion that Brian was simply talking about vegetables, and it was part of his healthy food phase.

Note:
- Several photoshoots showing Brian around vegetables, at a vegetable stand, throwing vegetables with Hal Blaine, and shooting a game of pool with vegetables. Just plain old vegetables.

- Paul McCartney visiting the studio while Vegetables was being tracked apparently saw vegetables scattered around for visual effect, not to mention actually chomping on them for sound effects for the tune. Real vegetables.

- The vegetable chants, aka where "I've got a big bag of vegetables..." came from on the Hawthorne set. They're chanting about vegetables, and making it up as they go along. Nothing about drugs, no references, nothing where Brian encourages them to say anything other than vegetable names. Innocuous stuff.

- The vegetables skit with Hal Blaine and Michael Vosse. It's a long track, sure, but listen for any drug references throughout. Like the chanting, it seems to be more about vegetables than anything. Hal steals the show. But throughout I don't hear any suggestions they add drug references to the skit.

- An early 70's television appearance had the Beach Boys holding and handing out actual vegetables to the crowd as they played the song, a visual stunt which Brian did again when he played the song live in 2004 and had band members waving vegetables in the air. Innocuous fun, again, and more silly humor which is what he was about. Is waving vegetables around a symbol for drug use?

It's not to say any opinion is wrong or one is less right than another, but I tend to believe after seeing and hearing things like this that the song was about vegetables, and that's it. Brian was obviously on a healthy eating kick at the time, and part of that health obsession was to manifest itself in Brother Records projects, including a health album according to some, and it did show up when Brian opened the "Radiant Radish" health food store.

That's just my *opinion*, and I'll say again I enjoy very much reading what others take from the lyrics.

[Bicyclerider]

All good points - but Van Dyke had a sneaky way of putting in double meanings in most of his lyrics, so it wouldn't surprise me if he intended a drug reference or two in the lyrics.  But yeah, the whole song is not referencing drugs IMO.

[pixletwin]

There are dildo references in the Vega tables skit.. hmmmmm... Perhaps we have it all wrong. 

[Rocker]

Cabin Essence
Cabinessence
Canibessence
Cannabissence
Cannabis

I think that's a stretch imo.

I agree. But thanks for explaining LostArt !

[The Heartical Don]

All good points - but Van Dyke had a sneaky way of putting in double meanings in most of his lyrics, so it wouldn't surprise me if he intended a drug reference or two in the lyrics.  But yeah, the whole song is not referencing drugs IMO.

Yes. Take 'Song Cycle', just three examples off the top of my head:

'Dreams Are Still Born (Stillborn) In Hollywood': which of the two shall it be, then?

'Frigidaire', or 'Frigid Air' (ditto)

'Toxicity' is sung as: 'Toxi-City' (L.A.?)

[Dunderhead]

I think both are true. It's an extended metaphor.
Obviously Brian couldn't hand out eighths of pot at concerts so having the vegetables metaphor allowed him to cheekily talk about vegetables without anyone being the wiser.

One good description someone used in one of these recent SMiLE threads (i'm sorry I forget who), was that Vegetables was really going to "buzz like a beehive" with all types of whistling and chatter and chomping. That seems right on as to what Brian wanted to do on that track, make it "buzz".

The laughter that he was working on for the song was good too. Ostensibly laughter has nothing to do with vegetables does it? I mean, they really aren't funny in of themselves. So I don't think you can say the song was ONLY about vegetables. I mean then there are the lines,

"I tried to kick the ball but my tenny flew right off
I'm red as a beet 'cause I'm so embarassed"
"I threw away my candy bar and I ate the wrapper,
and when they told me what I did I burst out in laughter"

Now besides the word beet, neither of those two things has anything to do with vegetables. Kicking off your shoe and eating a candy bar wrapper aren't things that vegetables make you do. Vegetables don't seem to be connected.

The song has a goofy element that's hard to place. What's making Brian so distracted that he can't eat his candy bar right, what's throwing him off base? Hm.....

The point is there are definite elements that can't be connected to vegetables. That goofy element doesn't have a logical link to health food. It's about the goofiness of getting stoned with your pals.

I still also think people are underestimating Van Dyke lyrical propensities. In that context of the 60s I think the word "trip" had a more definite link to LSD trips than just regular stumbling. We're talking about a bunch of hippies here, we're talking about a hippy that was known for his playful punfilled lyrics. So I wonder why people think that this is the one time that it wasn't a pun.

[guitarfool2002]

I'll say again just to clarify, a great thing about Smile has been the way the lyrics can be interpreted and re-interpreted several different ways in order to back up a particular theory someone may be trying to put out there about the lyrical content. There will always be a gray area in this pursuit because even when a Brian or a Van Dyke says "This is what *that* was about..." you have people still saying "No it isn't." or "He must be forgetting, he's unreliable sometimes..." etc. And even more frustrating is that Brian can contradict himself from one decade to the next, and as I say all the time Van Dyke speaks in riddles. Ask him how the weather is and he may say "grinning like the grill of a Hudson Terraplane" or something. (I exaggerate of course).

It's a delicate issue to emphatically say "Smile is this and Smile is that" when in the case of vegetables being about drugs there is only speculation and opinion, sometimes in spite of the hard evidence. I'm also thinking of the issues around the lowercase "i" in the Smile album cover, and all of the speculation behind what that meant and how it was a metaphor for this or that when in reality it came from a Capitol artist far-removed from the album who thought it looked good, simple as that and not connected to any concept or symbolism.

For all I know, Van Dyke may come forward in a week and say "vegetables was about dropping acid and smoking reefer..." and everyone will say "ohhh....".

[juggler]

I'm also thinking of the issues around the lowercase "i" in the Smile album cover, and all of the speculation behind what that meant and how it was a metaphor for this or that when in reality it came from a Capitol artist far-removed from the album who thought it looked good, simple as that and not connected to any concept or symbolism.

I don't know if the lowercase "i" had any meaning at all, and I too figured that it was just something done by a Capitol artist. 

However, it's worth noting that both Brian Wilson and Diane Rovell DID actually write in an odd mixture of uppercase consonants and lowercase vowels.  See the handwriting samples in the other thread...
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,10039.25.html

[Dunderhead]

What about Vega-Tables? Why put the title of the song like that? I was trying to see if there was some pun in it, but couldn't come up with anything.

[pixletwin]

Vega-Tables
Vega-Tablin
Vega-Teroin
Beha-Teroin
beHa-tEroin
beHeroin
Heroin.

Simples. 

[The Heartical Don]

What about Vega-Tables? Why put the title of the song like that? I was trying to see if there was some pun in it, but couldn't come up with anything.

Given Brian's interest in the sky, the stars, and astrology, I'd suggest:

Vega (α Lyr, α Lyrae, Alpha Lyrae) is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. It is a relatively close star at only 25 light-years from Earth, and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood.

 

Just check Wikipedia for 'Vega'. There is a lot.

[Chris Brown]

What about Vega-Tables? Why put the title of the song like that? I was trying to see if there was some pun in it, but couldn't come up with anything.

Dammit Don you beat me to it!  Was just about to post that I always thought that separating out "Vega" had something to do with Brian's fascination with astronomy.  Nothing else really makes any sense.

[Dunderhead]

I did check. Nothing really seemed to fit.

Vega is a spanish word that means "fertile plain"

checking a dictionary though:

Vega from Medieval Latin < Arabic واقع (wāqi‘, falling), from the expression النسر الواقع (an-nasr al-wāqi‘, falling eagle). The active participle واقع derives from the verb وقع (wáqa‘a, to fall, drop, tumble, alight, pounce).

Alright it's a stretch, but "to fall" "to drop" to "tumble"...........to "trip"?

Table from Old French table, from Latin tabula (“tablet”).
And of course table can mean to put something on hold, or a spreadsheet or database.

Vega-Tables = Trip-Tablet?
Okay I'll be the first to admit that it's less than likely. What it comes down to is where the title comes from, was this just what Brian put down as a whim on the session log? Or was that spelling what Van Dyke came up with?


But again, I think there are many elements of the song itself which can't be accounted for if we assume Vegetables was only about vegetables. The laughter, the candy bar lyric, the general goofiness...I think we have to admit that there is some meaning to the song beyond just vegetables and given Van Dykes love of puns, and the psychedelic context, it just seems to fit really cleanly.

[bossaroo]

didn't Van Dyke say that Cabin Essence = Cannabis?

[The Heartical Don]

What about Vega-Tables? Why put the title of the song like that? I was trying to see if there was some pun in it, but couldn't come up with anything.

Dammit Don you beat me to it!  Was just about to post that I always thought that separating out "Vega" had something to do with Brian's fascination with astronomy.  Nothing else really makes any sense.

Eh, Sir, there's something that still bothers me... my name's not Dan...

[hypehat]

Vega-Tables
Vega-Tablin
Vega-Teroin
Beha-Teroin
beHa-tEroin
beHeroin
Heroin.

Simples. 

Haha!

Vega-tables
VIga-tables
VIga-tObles
VIgO-tObles
VIgO-tONles
VIgO-tONles
VIgO-tONes
Vigo-tone.

So BRIAN was behind the SMiLE bootlegs! 

[The Heartical Don]

Vega-Tables
Vega-Tablin
Vega-Teroin
Beha-Teroin
beHa-tEroin
beHeroin
Heroin.

Simples. 

Haha!

Vega-tables
VIga-tables
VIga-tObles
VIgO-tObles
VIgO-tONles
VIgO-tONles
VIgO-tONes
Vigo-tone.

So BRIAN was behind the SMiLE bootlegs! 

Yeah bro', and no doubt he himself drew that cover of '21 Little Ones'. Another mystery solved then...

[Dunderhead]

Did Brian really want letters from people about their favorite vegetables?

[pixletwin]

Are you saying VDP meant the lyrics as a plea to send drugs to them via mail? 

[Chris Brown]

What about Vega-Tables? Why put the title of the song like that? I was trying to see if there was some pun in it, but couldn't come up with anything.

Dammit Don you beat me to it!  Was just about to post that I always thought that separating out "Vega" had something to do with Brian's fascination with astronomy.  Nothing else really makes any sense.

Eh, Sir, there's something that still bothers me... my name's not Dan...

Oops, messed up the quoting in my post - I plead not guilty to calling you Dan though 

[hypehat]

Did Brian really want letters from people about their favorite vegetables?

Did Brian really want letters from people about their favourite drugs?

[Dunderhead]

That lyric has always seemed weird.
The lyric appears in the Smiley Smile version of the song, did the band get any influx of fan mail about veggies?

Do you guys think it was an attempt at myth-building? An element of mystique that would stick with the album? Like that it would be one of the cool things about the album that people would remember, that the band got bags of mail about veggies (or drugs)? In short, did Brian really want people to write him letters due to that lyric?

I was trying to think if there was anything obvious about that line, do letters symbolize anything? There's the faint connection that stamps were often coated in LSD. Perhaps that's the drugs most famous form. But that doesn't really shed much light on what that lyric is about.

Why would fans "feel better" by sending a letter? Did fans really need to confess what their favorite veggie was? Was it a source of soul-crushing guilt?

It's just a weird little inclusion.

Also listening to some of the session tapes, does anyone know what instrument Brian was toying with using? It's a very crystalline, glassy, smooth sounding keyboard. It sounds almost like a steel guitar, but the way you can hear it being played makes it sound like a keyed instrument.
I just heard that for the first time, and it sounds really cool. You can hear it on the Smiley Version, during the last few seconds of the song.

[hypehat]

It's a joke! Like on kids TV or something! Why don't YOU tell Brian your favourite vegetable?

I think you are making pushing the lyrics a little too far in order to fit your theory. Like my shakespeare post way upthread, sometimes a vegetable is just a vegetable, man  

[pixletwin]

It's a joke! Like on kids TV or something! Why don't YOU tell Brian your favourite vegetable?

I think you are making pushing the lyrics a little too far in order to fit your theory. Like my shakespeare post way upthread, sometimes a vegetable is just a vegetable, man  

I think it is veering into Paul Is Dead territory.

[Dunderhead]

I'm just throwing things out there to see what will stick. I'm sure some things were just jokes. Like the title "Vega-Tables" I think was most likely just Brian encouraging people to pronounce the word in a funny way. As vega-tables and not "vech-tables" as people so often do. However, just because some things were likely just supposed to be silly, or just a result of Brian's eccentricities, I don't think we should just take everything and sweep it under the rug and say every sort of queer lyric or idea was a meaningless prank that shouldn't be dwelled on. It's worth it to throw out theories and look at different lyrics and spend a second asking what the deal was. If we don't do that, what's the point of being Beach Boys fans in the first place?

I don't think it can be denied that Vega-Tables is about things other than just ordinary every day vegetables. Brian loved health food, he had a thing for vegetables, and he also used and loved drugs and surely appreciated the standard 60s mindset that drugs were a useful tool for self discovery. I think the song is simultaneously about both of them. That's what makes the song clever, it gives it depth. Looking at it in this new way has really increased my appreciation of the song, and now I can't help but imagine the final version as sort of a Tomorrow Never Knows type production with buzzing swirling wobbling popping sound effects in an attempt to recreate the "buzz" of different drug states. Brian recorded a lot of sound effects beyond just the chomping of vegetables, if the song was only about vegetables, why would there be all those other kitchen sink type sound effects.

In fact, if you have the DJ Mic Luv version of SMiLE, check out the part starting at 1:25. Listen to all the people coughing. Now why would Brian put a backtrack in of people coughing in a song that was about vegetables? Because vegetables can magically make a room full of people start coughing? I think you have to admit that this was likely a marijuana reference.