COPIED from a post of mine on the Hoffman, itself compiled from posts made earlier today here on Smiley. This could equally fit on the "holidays" thread, but I may as well put it here:
Okay, so it may well be crazy time, but...
I'm increasingly convinced that "Holidays" is the original tracking for "Do You Like Worms". Obviously musically the entire song changed for that second version, but the lyrics remained more-or-less in tact.
A link has been suggested between them before, for various reasons, but TSS might actually give us some debatable period evidence that they're actually the same song. If you listen closely to what Brian is singing in this rehearsal for "Holidays" (the first part of the following file):
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/2/...onstration.mp3... it sounds to me like Brian begins by singing "Waving Indians behind us".
(I'm quite aware it's probably just me, but my ear's not bad. Also, when I first listened to the file it jumped out at me straight away - and before that it had never even occurred to me that Holidays and Worms might be so strongly connected. The word to listen for is "Indians" (or Iiiiindians; the first syllable is emphasised in the timing) if it helps.)
Yeah, "Waving" should be "Cheering", but it's quite possible he just confused the two similar verbs when running it through. Brian and Van had only been working on the SMiLE lyrics for a couple of weeks at this point, so who knows how long the "Worms/Holidays" lyrics had been around by then?
Indeed, though I'm probably going nuts - and making myself hear what I want to - I think I might even hearing this:
Waving Indians behind us as we
(incomprehensible) East or (incomprehensible) we
Remember those famous lyrics given to Frank Holmes that don't turn up in DYLW proper? Were the lyrics Holmes received from the unexpurgated original version of the song, ie. "Holidays"? If the "East or West Indies" lyrics and others were removed for the rewrite/remount, this would explain why he recalls them while no other participants do, and why the song as we now know it doesn't actually seem to support that section melodically.
Stretching again, there are more musical similarities between the two tracks than may at first appear. Crashing tympani on verse? Check. Vaguely Hawaiian sounding piece towards the end of the song? Check. Slowly winding down piano piece at what seems to be the conclusion of the track, only for a repetitive coda to start up? Check.
Even more subjectively, "Holidays" has a jaunty - almost naval - seafaring feel to the track (echoed out in OAH's much later lyrics) that also fits Parks' '66 lyrics for "Worms", perhaps even more so than the DYLW music we know.
And, try imagining the opening/middle vibraphone (?) sections as the original version of "Bicycle Rider". It's actually easy, and surprisingly satisfying, to fit those lyrics - or "Ribbon of Concrete, see what you've done, done, etc" - over that melody.
(On SS, it was pointed out that in the "Holidays" sessions on the Box Set Brian refers to the bit he plays in that clip as from "the second chorus" - I'd suggest that depending on how you look at it, the vibraphone/"Ribbon of Concrete" sections could be considered verses and the upbeat section a chorus, albeit one with some changing lyrics (ie. the "Once Upon" melody sections and "Rock Plymouth Roll")? Choruses with different words throughout the song weren't all that unusual even in '66, largely thanks to people like Dylan.)
So, here's how this original version might have been structured:
Bicycle Rider/Verse 1-Roll Plymouth Rock/Bicycle Rider/Verse 2-Roll Plymouth Rock/Music Box fake ending/Wahala-lu-lay (to fade)
HOLIDAYS
(Wilson/Parks)
Bicycle Rider, just see what you've done, done... to the church of the American Indian
Waving from the Ocean Liners, beaded
Cheering Indians behind them, as we
Returned to the East or West Indies - we
Always got them confused
Rock, rock, roll, Plymouth Rock
Rock, rock, roll Plymouth Rock, roll over
Ribbon of concrete, just see what you've done
Done to the Church of the American Indian
Once upon the Sandwich Isles, the
Social Structure steamed upon Hawaii - having
Returned to the East or West Indies, we
Always got them confused...
Rock, rock, roll, Plymouth Rock
Rock, rock, roll Plymouth Rock, roll over
Plymouth Rock, roll over...
Mahalo lu le, Mahalo lu la
Keeni waka pula
Mahalo lu le, Mahalo lu la
Keeni waka pula
(repeat to fade)
Circumstantial evidence:
* "Holidays" is tracked in early September, then never gets looked at again, though this is not unique for the era. (A month and a bit later, "Worms" is tracked.) *
* Darian states that Brian spontaneously recalled the "Plymouth Rock" chorus vocals when listening to "Holidays" for BWPS.
*Interestingly, but probably meaninglessly, the original back cover has "Worms" opening the record, followed by "Wind Chimes". "Holidays" is now enshrined as preceding WC, and even uses the coda for a transition between the two.
* "That's not 'Worms'" - Al Jardine hearing the "Worms" backing track decades later. Simple confusion after so many years, and so many pieces recorded for SMiLE? Maybe - and yet we know that Al was particularly fond of "Worms", as there's a vintage '66 interview in which he states a song with "a Hawaiian section" is probably "the best thing we've ever done".
* The name given on the tracking session, "Holidays", is in keeping with with the lyrics thematically: "Waving from the ocean liners" with Indians behind us ("we" are leaving America, not arriving there), "returned to East or West Indies", Hawaiian motif.
And it also reflects the album's concern with the way the casual expansionism of the white man - the Bicycle Rider with his rain of bullets and iron horse - wipes out the culture of those it comes into contact with: unwittingly exploiting, littering and destroying the places it lands... like well-meaning but oblivious tourists on a holiday.
I'm nuts, right? Yeah, I'm nuts.