"'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" >>>> "The Warmth of the Sun"

[SMiLE-addict]

Has anyone had the experience of listening to "The Warmth of the Sun" both with, and then without, listening to the talking track that comes before it, and noticing that listening to the talking track beforehand seems to change the mood of TWOTS somewhat?

At first glance it seems like the talking tracks on their first albums were largely fillers, to let the listeners enjoy a bit of BB frivolity as a break from the music, but in this case I think it actually adds something to the flow of the music on that first side of the album.

If you listen to the talking track beforehand, the silliness/goofyness of the guys joking around lightens up the mood, so that when TWOTS follows it I find myself more relaxed. If I listen to TWOTS in isolation, the song seems more sad than relaxing. I don't know if it was Brian's intention to have this goofy track actually *add* to the flow of the music (I would doubt it, maybe), but at least to me, it does have that effect.

It reminds me a bit of Todd Rundgren's "Sounds of the Studio" on his Something/Anything album, where the goofy talking track is immediately followed by "Breathless" and then "Carousel" and the whole sequence actually works quite well.

Or, is it just me? 

[Iron Horse-Apples]

I just think of SSVol2 as their biggest "might have been" There are some of their greatest tracks there. Had it had a different title and lost a few of the filler tracks, this could have been one of their best albums. Maybe if they'd had a little more breathing space from Capitol. They put out 3 studio albums in this year, plus recorded a sizable portion of Today!. When you consider that, it's amazing they put out as much high quality music as they did.

[the professor]

Has anyone had the experience of listening to "The Warmth of the Sun" both with, and then without, listening to the talking track that comes before it, and noticing that listening to the talking track beforehand seems to change the mood of TWOTS somewhat?

At first glance it seems like the talking tracks on their first albums were largely fillers, to let the listeners enjoy a bit of BB frivolity as a break from the music, but in this case I think it actually adds something to the flow of the music on that first side of the album.

If you listen to the talking track beforehand, the silliness/goofyness of the guys joking around lightens up the mood, so that when TWOTS follows it I find myself more relaxed. If I listen to TWOTS in isolation, the song seems more sad than relaxing. I don't know if it was Brian's intention to have this goofy track actually *add* to the flow of the music (I would doubt it, maybe), but at least to me, it does have that effect.

It reminds me a bit of Todd Rundgren's "Sounds of the Studio" on his Something/Anything album, where the goofy talking track is immediately followed by "Breathless" and then "Carousel" and the whole sequence actually works quite well.

Or, is it just me? 

No, you are right. The contrast between kids goofing around and the most emotionally powerful song in their corpus is stark and stirring--every time.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Or, is it just me? 

With certain transitions, yeah, I hear the effect you're talking about. But, this is my take on those "fillers".

I think I have a sense of humor, and I hear the humor sometimes in Brian's music, but I don't find those filler pieces particularly funny. Maybe they were to 16 year-old girls circa 1964, I don't know...

I also think they really stand out, as, well, filler. It's like they're not even trying to hide the fact they need to fill in the space or minutes on the album.

I realize Brian was being pushed to the max in those days, but I still think they could've/should've used SONGS instead of the fillers. Through the years, we subsequently found out that there were other quality songs that could've been used. On Today, would you rather have "Bull Session With Big Daddy" or a finished BB version of "Guess I'm Dumb"?

For some reasons, and many unfair, the Beach Boys ALBUMS have not received the credit they deserved. You mostly hear about Pet Sounds (with NO fillers BTW) and that's it. And, this also ties in with the thread we had going about things the Beach Boys could've done to be more relevant. I kind of wish those fillers weren't present, replaced by another B. Wilson/M. Love song (or two), and maybe use better album titles than Shut Down Vol. 2 (I would've even taken Fun, Fun, Fun as a better title) and Little Deuce Coupe (I know some will disagree), and maybe even better album covers. I'm just sayin'.... But, they didn't and the albums were successful anyway and we love 'em all!

[Mitchell]

I've always seen the transition as a nice bit of sequencing... I assume it was intentional. It also proves that some of the "ideas" behind Smile weren't necessarily new, i.e., humour as a way to disarm people to something emotional/spiritual, as well as "uncommercial" album tracks. Jan and Dean did much of the same.

I'm a big fan of Brian's "jarring" transitions in general.

Edit: I also like the track for what it is... Brian's nasal "fun, fun, fun" gets me every time.

[Cliff1000uk]

One other example I can think of is the last piano note of Our Favourite Recording Sessions being the same first note on Don't Back Down. Maybe Brian saw it as continuation?
My intial thought about album titles/covers is that it was decided more by Capitol. Happy to be proved wrong, though. In fact looking at the titles, does Today! or Summer Days and Summer Nights sound like Brian titles? Or even Party? To me, they reek of a guy in a suit thinking they should sound like BB titles to get a young fanbase to buy them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always thought that Brian wrote, produced and delivered the tracks and went straight onto the next 'thing'
Again, I could be completely wrong

[SMiLE-addict]

^
I want one of those buttons!!!! Is that a real button, and if it is, where can I get one?? 

[sockittome]

I think I understand what you're talking about, as far as the contrast goes, especially since the very first time I heard Warmth was on the Good Morning Vietnam soundtrack.  On that album the song followed a spoken segment by Robin Williams from the movie.  It had a similar effect, IMO.

[Please delete my account]

To me it doesn't matter what song "The Warmth of the Sun" follows, be it on an LP or on the radio- it stands out and makes you listen, creates its own mood and makes you forget all about what you were listening to before.

I suppose it's possible it was sequenced this way to try to defuse TWOTS's sadness a little, but if so,it's not something I would have tried to do. It's power lies in its sadness.

[Aegir]

I like how cassius etc is Brian and Mike making fun of each other's voices and then it goes into a shining example of great singing.