So, what do we know?
Good Vibrations was recorded in sections -- and seems to have been the first of such endeavours by Brian.
Then there was Heroes And Villains, which, especiallly if you listen to the demo ('and there's there another section...') seems to have been recorded in the same way.
Were they written in the same way, I wonder? In other words, was a non-complete song (ie a series of fragments) written and later assembled?
I ask because it seems clear that, for instance, Surf's Up was not a fragmentary creative process. And it's clear, from the recording, that Holidays was a complete composition before it hit the studio, as was Our Prayer and Wonderful etc.
So, in the absence of Brian demos, just how big a part did the fragmentary process play, by comparison with the writing-it-from-start-to-finish process, do we think? (I know it's only speculation, but it'll at least be informed.) Do You Like Worms, for instance, could reasonably have been built around a finished song structure. Ditto Cabin Essence.
Discuss...
I think by and large most of it was fragmentary in nature. "
Stack-O-Tracks" recently wrote of the album: "I find this album to be listenable in almost any order. It's like a puzzle where all of the pieces are the same fit."
Essentially he is correct. The fact that the SMiLE album resembles a bit of a jigsaw is indicative of how much of this music was composed. The honest truth is that even in trying to assemble this jigsaw there is still a huge question mark that hovers over the entire puzzle as to what could be considered complete and contrastingly what isn't complete.
You look at "Surf's Up" and like many you could choose to view it in two distinct parts or sections. The first movement being what was tracked on 11-4-66 and the second movement being whatever that was supposed to be or was going to be. But given the modular approach to the album in general it's hard to say exactly how these pieces of music evolved in Brian's mind on a day to day basis. Essentially this was a huge key in the fact that the album never reached stores, it's evolution was endless and arguably maddening.
The whole thing about "Barnyard" and "I'm In Great Shape" is interesting too. I think a lot of fans feel that fully realized in 1967, these tracks would have amounted to much more than can be gleaned from the Humble Harv demos. In fact by just listening to those demos you would have no idea that "Barnyard" actually had backing vocals! That revelation was only to come from listening to the track and vocals as found on the acetate.
I think the fact that so much of this material can be broken down into sections that last between twenty seconds and a minute plus is indicative of the fact that Brian viewed a lot of these pieces of music as being different sections. Now were they composed that way? While it's an interesting thought, I'm not sure how relevant it is as far as the "finished products" go as they were obviously tracked in fragments much like "Good Vibrations" for example.
My personal feeling is that at one point Brian Wilson did have a vision for what he wanted this record to be. It may have been a bit more general than that but I think the tracks themselves seemed to have a quality to them which allowed for a great deal of integration and separation whether or not they were initially composed in that manner or not.
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