Wonderful

[monicker]

I am confused about something. What is the April '67 version that keeps getting referenced lately? All i've ever known is the harpsichord version (from the GV box set, recent Mojo 45),  the Rock With Me Henry version, and the Smiley version.

[Jason]

I'd say you're half-right. The music does reflect the increasingly fragmentary thought-processes he was experiencing. But to say he intended to scare people is attributing a hostile nature to Brian that I just don't think fits at all.

I don't think he meant that he wanted to scare people as in, say, frightening them into a cold sweat and leading to nightmares, but I'd say he definitely wanted to challenge the status quo with regards to "popular music" based on what he was absorbing by means of literature, research, and experience. He wanted to remove people from the comfort zone; that's something that can be seen as frightening to people. So no, I don't think he was out to be the boogeyman going "boo, gotcha", but he wanted to challenge people and make them think; and everyone knows how people are so often afraid to think. Ignorance wasn't bliss for Brian Wilson in 1966.

[Jason]

I am confused about something. What is the April '67 version that keeps getting referenced lately? All i've ever known is the harpsichord version (from the GV box set, recent Mojo 45),  the Rock With Me Henry version, and the Smiley version.

The April '67 version is excerpted on SOT 18, the Smiley Smile disc; takes 4 and 5 and a brief attempted vocal overdub are on that disc. Why it's on there is anyone's guess, but it's from around the same time Brian worked on Vega-Tables and possibly With Me Tonight.

[David Kennedy]

SS version--I have tried, but I just can't get into it.  I keep hearing descriptions like 'creepy', 'dark', etc.  That may have worked for Floyd, but not my boys!

"Creepy" and "dark" are two adjectives I associate with both Smile and Smiley Smile! Stuff like Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, Child Is Father Of The Man, the Water chant, some of the Vega-Tables bits, various Heroes and Villains chants, the April '67 Wonderful; those are very creepy in my opinion. I wrote a long expose here a while back about Brian's intent to "scare a lot of people" with the Smile music and I've never deviated from my feelings expressed there - that Smile was the expression of spirituality in his mind, and that the ensuing malevolence and, later, confused, fragmentary nature of the music was a result of his escalating personal problems. Smiley Smile was just the outcome.

What does the April '67 session consist of? How does it differ from the released version of Wonderful? Not sure if I have ever heard it.

[David Kennedy]

I am confused about something. What is the April '67 version that keeps getting referenced lately? All i've ever known is the harpsichord version (from the GV box set, recent Mojo 45),  the Rock With Me Henry version, and the Smiley version.

The April '67 version is excerpted on SOT 18, the Smiley Smile disc; takes 4 and 5 and a brief attempted vocal overdub are on that disc. Why it's on there is anyone's guess, but it's from around the same time Brian worked on Vega-Tables and possibly With Me Tonight.

Thanks for the info.

[Jason]

SS version--I have tried, but I just can't get into it.  I keep hearing descriptions like 'creepy', 'dark', etc.  That may have worked for Floyd, but not my boys!

"Creepy" and "dark" are two adjectives I associate with both Smile and Smiley Smile! Stuff like Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, Child Is Father Of The Man, the Water chant, some of the Vega-Tables bits, various Heroes and Villains chants, the April '67 Wonderful; those are very creepy in my opinion. I wrote a long expose here a while back about Brian's intent to "scare a lot of people" with the Smile music and I've never deviated from my feelings expressed there - that Smile was the expression of spirituality in his mind, and that the ensuing malevolence and, later, confused, fragmentary nature of the music was a result of his escalating personal problems. Smiley Smile was just the outcome.

What does the April '67 session consist of? How does it differ from the released version of Wonderful? Not sure if I have ever heard it.

It's a piano track in a lower key than the Smiley Smile version, played much slower. The vocal overdub is basically Michael overdubbing a melody similar to the vocal line in the October version. It was never even close to finished.

[David Kennedy]

So...on Track 5 of SOT 18 is the "Hey Boppa Ruba" part also from the April '67 mix? Sorry for all the questions.

[Ebb and Flow]

No.  Only tracks #2 and #3 of SOT 18 are from the April version.

[dmcguire70]

For me the harpsichord version is brilliant . I remember first hearing it on the endless harmony video and I fell in love with it instantly.

[David Kennedy]

No.  Only tracks #2 and #3 of SOT 18 are from the April version.

Thanks for clearing that up for me,I was starting to get confused. It is strange that they would have SMiLE tracks on Smiley Sessions.

[Jason]

Hey, the "Jokes and Laughter" and "Psychedelic Talk" tracks on SOT 14 (the second Pet Sounds volume) are Smile recordings too. And the "Smog" rant was on Leggo My Ego, a Pet Sounds bootleg (which also had a completely unrelated 1970 Surf's Up-era outtake on it, Mr. Sandman/The Chipmunk Song/God Only Knows).

Continuity, coherence, and bootlegs are not often three phrases seen together, and if so, it's in describing the lack of the first two on the third.