Alternate history fantasy: March 1967 release of Surf's Up/Cabin Essence single

[SMiLE Brian]

Oh yeah, BTW ... that would make a great plot for a sci-fi novel.

I have this insane idea for a movie where some people in a back alley will run this underground "ROCK N ROLL TIME TRAVEL" business where for like, millions of dollars, some guy gets to go back in time to like see Hendrix at Woodstock or Elvis at the Louisiana Hayride, or The Dead in Golden Gate Park, ETC ETC. They'd be really exact and make you dress in period clothes and go through weeks of time-period training and they'd have time-chaperones follow your every move so that you could not alter the course of history in any way.... Most of these trips would be bummers and people would want their money back because they'd like, get beat up by Hells Angels at Altamont, or slipped bad acid at Woodstock and would spend the whole time naked and puking..... So, anyway: this main character, Beach Boys nerd, pays millions to see The Who at Monterrey Pop. He'd land in 1967 a day or two before the festival and would escape his chaperones and make for LA in order to convince The Beach Boys to finish Smile and play Monterrey Pop!!!!

Also hang out with Youngsurferdude 

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

YES!

OSD will make an appearance

[Chocolate Shake Man]

It's good enough.

You mean just end the song with the "brother John" line?

Not quite sure I understood you there. They used a 1966 demo Brian made for the lead vocal in the 2nd section for the 1971 release. If I'm going back in time, I could encourage him to use that for the final 2nd section, or if he wanted to, he could record a better one.

Hold on. Rather than actually encourage Brian to finish the song you would encourage him to take the "we're stuck there's nothing else we can do but use the demo" approach? Isn't the whole tragedy of Surf's Up the fact that instead of an actual 2nd section you have a demo that is completely out of sync with the entire stylistic approach Brian was using at the time?

There is no evidence. The Wiki suggests it *might* be a possibility, but no one knows.

Anything is a possibility if no one knows.

If I go back in time and discover Brian did not have that idea yet, I would *give* him the idea.

But why? As far as I'm concerned that Child is Father of the Man business is pure 1971 to me.

Because, in my opinion, a Surf's Up/Cabin Essence single would be better.

Better how? It couldn't have possibly sold better. So in what way do you mean better?

[Chocolate Shake Man]

If you think a H&V single would do better, you can always go back in time in your own alternate timeline!

I probably wouldn't do that because I'm in my early 30s and have a child.

[SMiLE-addict]

I'm not sure why I have to repeat this.

Or maybe, for all we know, he had a different idea for the coda at the time, which maybe might have been even better. I would find out all this after I go through the time machine, and go from there.

[SMiLE-addict]

If you think a H&V single would do better, you can always go back in time in your own alternate timeline!

I probably wouldn't do that because I'm in my early 30s and have a child.

You're taking this thread far too seriously.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Wait a minute. You DON'T have a time machine!!??!?

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Anyway, sorry for derailing this thread with a possible discussion about what would have made for a more commercial single - Heroes and Villains or Surf's Up, and the discussion of the possibilities of an H&V/SU single, and the information about the status of Surf's Up as a recording by 1967. Since that's clearly not what we should be doing here, how would you like me to engage with your post? Congratulate you on your time travel narrative? Well, I started with that, so I guess I should have stopped there. It was a mistake to try and actually engage with you.

[SMiLE-addict]

Last sentence of post #1.

Anyone else ever have a wild musical fantasy like that?

[SMiLE Brian]

I want to show 1967 Mike Love "SIP"

[Cabinessenceking]

yo, regarding Smile turning out to be the Beach Boys' Who's Next....it could've so easily have happened. Smile was completed enough and then there was a huge derp and then blabla.........





.....how sad.

[leggo of my ego]

Okay I read parts of Chapter 2 and all of Ch3 (Smile) and Ch4 (Brian) and found no reference to a time "machine" at all.

So how does this Ray Shackford guy travel thru time?  Or is he just losing his freaking mind? 

And how does he bring the music back with him?? (there are holes in the plot)

I really don't have the desire to read the whole tome, if you have read it all and know the "secret" please enlighten me.

I did rather like the "trip" back to 1966 with Brian and the author did a nice job and must have
done his homework on the geography and stuff. Cool.

[zachrwolfe]

‍

[SMiLE-addict]

OK, I just listened to the Surf's Up vocal demo on TSS again and it is OBVIOUS he was thinking of doing at least a semi-dramatic coda of some sort. He doubles the tempo of the piano and is singing the "Ahhhhh ..." for a long while till it fades out. That's a quarter of the bloody coda right there!

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Alright, I think we should get a rank the tracks thread going to see which song would have been better as a single.
You think that's a good idea, Stephen Newcombe?
 

[SMiLE-addict]

^
Good idea!

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

^
Good idea!

No, don't do that!
You'll feel the fire, Friend!

[SMiLE-addict]

^
I'll let someone else start it if they want.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

^
I'll let someone else start it if they want.

Good call!
 

[Chocolate Shake Man]

OK, I just listened to the Surf's Up vocal demo on TSS again and it is OBVIOUS he was thinking of doing at least a semi-dramatic coda of some sort. He doubles the tempo of the piano and is singing the "Ahhhhh ..." for a long while till it fades out. That's a quarter of the bloody coda right there!

I don't think he changes the tempo, but I agree, of course, that something was going to happen for the coda. It's pretty difficult to say at this point what it was, but I'm guessing it would have been lyric-less or else he probably would have sung the lyrics there at some point.

[SMiLE-addict]

"Tempo" wasn't the right word, but on the piano he suddenly goes from quarter notes to eighth notes, or whatever (without knowing offhand what the time signature is).

Given that he had recently written dramatic codas for God Only Knows, Wouldn't It Be Nice, California Girls and several other songs, it's pretty clear to me he's signalling he wants to do *something* dramatic there coda-wise. It might not have been the "A children's song ..." thing with the "Child is father of the man" in the background, but it would have been ... something. So it seems the 1971 song probably wasn't far from what would have resulted had they finished it in 1967.

Anyway this is off-topic. Should probably be carried on in the thread about Surf's Up in The Smile Sessions section.

[OneEar/OneEye]

Personally, I think Cabin Essence could have made a hot follow up to Good Vibrations, paired maybe with H&V, Vega-Tables, or Wonderful, Wind Chimes, or, anything really.
Surf's Up I'd rather see  remain the grand album track.