"On A Holiday" 1996 illustration

[Andrew G. Doe]

Got a reply from Frank to my question re: the 1996 sketch featuring lyrical references to the 2004 track, thus:

"It all came from the lyrics of Holiday and my own bat as you say. The Milkyway candy bar was an easy way of not dealing with the actual Milky Way (too many stars)."

So... seems that most if not all of those lyrics are vintage. 

[superunison]

whoa...

[runnersdialzero]

Erm... how do you say, holy sh*t???

[Mr. Cohen]

So... Brian Wilson invented rap?

[Dunderhead]

How can it be that this information has never come out? Why did he do the illustrations in the first place? For an aborted 90s box? It seems really weird to me that we haven't really been privy to this before.

[Curtis Leon]

So... Brian Wilson invented rap?

Nah, people were setting beat poetry to pop tunes before that.

Still... I wonder who would've sung that part in a finished '67 Holidays. Dennis?

[buddhahat]

Wow! Very cool to find that out. Thanks AGD.

Makes you wonder just how much of the original lyrics are vintage, and also how much the original melody may have been the same as the BWPS one. After all, is there anything else you can do with a line like "Juxtapose a man with a mystery" without just following the existing instrumental melody?

[?]

Thanks for the detective work Mr. Doe.  Quite a revelation!

[juggler]

Let's not jump to the conclusion, though, that all of the 2004 'Holidays' lyrics were vintage.  It's quite possible that some of it (or even most of it) was new.

Nonetheless, that at least some of it ('lazy mr moon, milky way, man with a mystery, etc.) was vintage is truly blockbuster news.

For decades, 'Holidays' was considered sort of a 2nd or 3rd tier Smile track (i.e., pleasant enough instrumental but absent from the Dec. 1966 track list, no known vocals, no known lyrics, minimal session history, etc.).   But if lyrics existed in 1966, and those lyrics were supplied to Frank for purposes of doing an illustration for possible inclusion in the Smile booklet, that would seems to suggest that 'Holidays' was considered a 'core' track at some point. 

[TheManchesterMan]

Does this news not also open up the possibility that there were other vintage lyrics given to Frank Holmes when he did his original artwork besides the ones we know of?

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Also don't jump to the conclusion that the vintage lyrics were set to the BWPS melodies.  The "Rap" setting for instance, could be vintage or not: set to a different melody, or not.

[Roger Ryan]

I tend to think the "pirate" references are 2003 creations since they seem to allude to bootleggers who trafficked in SMiLE session tapes for years.

What's odd is that the 1996 illustrations were all done as a way to represent the remaining SMiLE songs that Holmes had not done illustrations for in '66 (potentially for a proposed box set). All of them, apart from "Holidays", seem to be based on officially released lyrics and/or imagery (all of us would have understood the meaning behind "Mrs. O' Leary's Cow" or the "Truck-Driving Man" back in '96). However, "Holidays" is almost completely based on an unreleased lyric. Are we certain that this illustration was done in '96? Did anyone see this illustration prior to 2004? Did Mr. Holmes specifically state that he did the illustration in '96?

I know I'll be scouring the other '96 illustrations tonight to try and see if there are references to previously-unknown lyrics!

[JohnMill]

I tend to think the "pirate" references are 2003 creations since they seem to allude to bootleggers who trafficked in SMiLE session tapes for years.

What's odd is that the 1996 illustrations were all done as a way to represent the remaining SMiLE songs that Holmes had not done illustrations for in '66 (potentially for a proposed box set). All of them, apart from "Holidays", seem to be based on officially released lyrics and/or imagery (all of us would have understood the meaning behind "Mrs. O' Leary's Cow" or the "Truck-Driving Man" back in '96). However, "Holidays" is almost completely based on an unreleased lyric. Are we certain that this illustration was done in '96? Did anyone see this illustration prior to 2004? Did Mr. Holmes specifically state that he did the illustration in '96?

I know I'll be scouring the other '96 illustrations tonight to try and see if there are references to previously-unknown lyrics!

Holmes dated his illustrations as such.  The 96' Holmes drawing are clearly indicated as such on the artwork itself.

Another Holmes question: Next to the "Barnyard" illustration in the booklet there is an illustration including among other things what looks like brick wall tile.  What song does this illustration represent?

[adam78]

Please excuse my ignorance as the artwork is something i've actually never really researched in any detail before, yet clearly holds some of the biggest clues as to themes and lyrics we've never heard, possibly still even to this day after TSS has been released. I've been aware of it's existence regarding the extra lines for cabinessence and DYLW but nothing more in depth really.

My point, and question is if Frank Holmes was given lyrics in 96 to finish off the artwork, who gave him the lyrics then? Or were they ones he'd kept? And then I guess most of all, who possibly has them now? Was VDP involved at any stage in 96?

Sorry, so many questions. I love this because even from songs we considered to be near complete, there were additional lyrics floating about. Maybe already discarded by Brian? But when they wrote together in 66 though, wasn't it VDP putting lyrics to Brian's melodies? Which if that was the case, would that then mean that any lyric was written for a definite proposed segment of a song. Not just throw away pre-written lyrics that Brian didn't use...if you know what I mean?

[Chris Brown]

Quite the revelation, thanks AGD  

As with most things Smile, one question answered leads to several new ones.  It's almost maddening, but a new piece of info like this is what makes Smile great.  My biggest curiosity is something we probably won't ever know - was the vocal melody vintage on BWPS as well, since we know that Van Dyke wrote lyrics to music that Brian simultaneously composed?  Adam alluded to this in the post above.  Obviously the melody used on BWPS just followed an instrumental melody that was already existing, but as with "Worms" perhaps there was another melody that has been lost to time.

[hypehat]

My point, and question is if Frank Holmes was given lyrics in 96 to finish off the artwork, who gave him the lyrics then? Or were they ones he'd kept? And then I guess most of all, who possibly has them now? Was VDP involved at any stage in 96?

I believe Frank had kept some to work with in 1966, but obviously not everything, and they came back into possession of BRI or Brian in 1996 - I think the lyrics for RPR that Brian and Darian were working with came from him?

[adam78]

Thanks for that.

So are many people of the belief that there are still possible lyrics written down in someones possession that we still haven't been made aware of? Or that's it?

It just that something that seems to be such a huge revelation in the smile legacy, and massively relevant and important, only came out today.... via a fan message board.... AFTER the fact BWPS came out 7 years ago, and AFTER the now definitive beach boys TSS release. Surely all this stuff should have been covered and explained away by now, knowing how this topic has been obsessed about for sooo long. It just further fuels the fire that they'll be forever information kept out of the public domain regarding smile. Intentional or not.

Thanks again AGD.

[Wirestone]

Are we certain that this illustration was done in '96? Did anyone see this illustration prior to 2004? Did Mr. Holmes specifically state that he did the illustration in '96?

The key question. AGD?

[pixletwin]

Are we certain that this illustration was done in '96? Did anyone see this illustration prior to 2004? Did Mr. Holmes specifically state that he did the illustration in '96?

The key question. AGD?

Does the "96" on the illustration not answer this?

[Wirestone]

I can write 1886 on an illustration. Doesn't mean I made it then.

A pre-dated illustration is actually easier to believe, at least right now, than unheard or unread vintage Smile lyrics.

[hypehat]

I don't think the boxset designers would have been so dishonest as to ask Frank for another drawing, telling him to just date it 1996. Or that he would have done it, had they asked him. But then, I'm an eternal optimist  

[rab2591]

I think 'Holidays' having vintage lyrics is more believable than Frank Holmes falsifying the dates on his work.

[pixletwin]

I can write 1886 on an illustration. Doesn't mean I made it then.

A pre-dated illustration is actually easier to believe, at least right now, than unheard or unread vintage Smile lyrics.

You're joking.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I can write 1886 on an illustration. Doesn't mean I made it then.

A pre-dated illustration is actually easier to believe, at least right now, than unheard or unread vintage Smile lyrics.

I can write that you're an idiot. Doesn't mean it isn't true.

Seriously, it's dumbass responses like yours that make me give serious thought to saying "f*** it, the next time I do a bit of asking around and unearth some new info, I'm not telling anyone because some shitweasel is going to say it's nonsense". Frank did illustrations in 1966, 1996 and 2000, not in 2003. He gave back all the lyric sheets he had in 2003. Which part of this keeps bouncing off your thick skull ?

[Andrew G. Doe]

I don't think the boxset designers would have been so dishonest as to ask Frank for another drawing, telling him to just date it 1996. Or that he would have done it, had they asked him. But then, I'm an eternal optimist  

Aside from anything else, he didn't have time to suddenly rustle up a brand new sketch for the box booklet.