Were the sections of The Elements ever enumerated?

[Bicyclerider]

In the Vosse interview he talks about The Elements. He says it had 4 parts,

"For example, he was doing a four part suite called "The Elements", and the fire section of its was all done with percussion instruments. It was like Stravinsky. It was beautifully done, and lasted about two minutes. You've heard all about that thing, with the tape and the fire destroying it. Well that happened, but it didn't mean anything. But at the same time he did that, he took the tail end of "Wind Chimes" - which the way it was originally recorded, was again much more beautiful than on Smiley Smile - and he had a minute and a half tag on it where he took a stand-up tack piano and a grand piano and a track at a time did little music-box overdubs; and then he went in and mixed them with different echoes on different channels into...I've never heard anything like..."

Could he be saying that part is Air? Maybe, it's not clear if he means to relate the two tracks.

That bit rang a bell - took me a while, but I found it: Teen Set 1966

"It is a balmy afternoon in Hollywood.

Brian Wilson comes into Studio 3 at Western Recorders for an overdubbing session.

In the booth his personal eight-track tape machine is ready to roll (bit of artistic license here  ).

In the studio an old, upright honky-tonk piano and Brian's beautiful black grand piano wait under the microphones (again, nonsense).

"I have an idea, I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work, but we'll try it."

Brian goes to his piano and signals Chuck, the engineer to roll the tape.  He plays a simple music box melody.  The tape is run back.  On a second track he adds some tinkles on the honky-tonk piano.

For about half an hour Wilson goes over the same piece, filling the eight tracks with counterpoints, syncopated gates and notions.

"OK, let's hear it."

Wilson in the control room close to the centre speaker, listens to the playback.  He rushes to the board and supervises the throwing of switches and turning of knobs.  More echo on the third track, a touch of reverb on the second honky-tonk overdub, this track dry and the other with more highs.  Something happens to the sounds; they change, they move around and are transformed into a work of sheer beauty.

Everyone in the booth has seen and heard the entire process."

Sounds awfully like the "Bicycle Rider" theme to me.

Sounds like the tag to the Smile Wind Chimes to me.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Just working out the rough dating... looks like late October/early November-ish.

[Roger Ryan]

Marilyn was Brian's wife at the time, not Diane.

Diane did a lot of office work for the Beach Boys, filling out session time sheets, etc. It's not a complete stretch to imagine that she might have wrote down that list based on something Brian told her.

Diane did much more than "office work" - she was the contractor for just about every Smile session we have documentation for.

"Office work" was really the wrong term to use and, looking back on it now, it sounds really sexist! I was indeed trying to relate how important Diane was to the business side of the SMiLE sessions.

[OBLiO]

Sounds awfully like the "Bicycle Rider" theme to me.

I remember reading somewhere that the Bicycle Rider theme was imagined as a Bicycle flying through the air from east to west.

[desmondo]

I am going to stick with what I said - we are in danger of over complicating simply because we don't know - the truth may be a lot simpler than many of us believe

And again, I'm confused why you think that saying that "Air" and "Earth" were never recorded is more complicated than saying that Air is Wind Chimes and Earth is Vegetables? Does the former really require that much untangling?

Like you say, "the truth may be" that WC is Air and V is Earth, but there is certainly little evidence to support that at the moment.

Its been fun - I've been waiting for a discussion like this

Happy to have a pint on it with you

Deal!

My Elements - MOC, VT, WC, ILTSD

Yours???

Well, I don't really have one. If I were to compile Smile - the last time I tried was around 2001 and I haven't listened to it in probably eight years - I would either not have a track called The Elements or The Elements would just be MOC and the Water Chant, and maybe I Wanna Be Around to close things up, not that it would really represent one of the Elements. It's just that it was recorded the day after Fire, Carol Kaye has stressed a connection, and it just reminds me of a scene from the movie Pleasantville where they put out a fire.

In my Smile mix I have stuck IWBA/FN on the end of MOC - it sounds good - but then again I've stuck IIGS/BY/YAMS/OMP all within an H&V mix.

We sure are gonna have fun when the box set hits -  I think VDP said in an article he'd seen it and it looks beautiful

[The Shift]

In the Vosse interview he talks about The Elements. He says it had 4 parts,

"For example, he was doing a four part suite called "The Elements", and the fire section of its was all done with percussion instruments.

Excuse me ? All done with percussion instruments ? I think the credibility of someone's recollection just took a big hit. 

Bells & Whistles version? Lots more off-the-wall instrumentation in there, which might be regarded as percussive even if much of it weren't…