Brian's '70s fades...

[CenturyDeprived]

Completely agree about the fade to Surf's Up. Never liked it. I think it'd be better to just fade out after the verse parts are sung as well. The "Na Na" lyrics are pretty bad to my ears and I hate how they and the recycled Child vocals are all you hear for a good couple seconds. Really leaves that song on a sour note, imo.

I'll be one of the few to sorta kinda agree with you. Way back in the early days of my BB fandom, I was really, really into the fade of Surf's Up ('71 version)... but perhaps later learning that it was grafted/shoehorned on there years after the fact (even with Brian's half-involvement), it didn't quite sit right with me anymore. It felt like someone doctored with the original intention for the ending. Drew a mustache on the Mona Lisa, so to speak. Even if there are some very pretty vocal parts on there nonetheless. Maybe that's in my own mind, I don't know. But I don't quite like the fade as much as I used to.

I guess that part of Surf's Up ('71 version) is a bit how I've grown to feel about much of the "additions" to BWPS as a whole, does anyone else see it that way too? They've both grown off me some.

However, I love love love the wordless vocal fade that Brian sings on the '66 demo version. It's very She Knows Me Too Well-ending-esque. I think that relatively stripped down way is closer to what it would have been released as SU (song) it had come out in '66/'67.

I completely agree with everything you said. I won't go into detail because it's irrelevant to this topic and I've done so in-depth in the past, but that was my experience with the SU fade and with BWPS exactly.

I think the Na Nas are pointless and just make it sound busy, the CIFOTM lyrics are alright but almost certainly not the original intent, but I do like the "and the children know the way" lyrics and think they'd sound good with just the "aahs" and wailing horn section from Talking Horns.

Anyway...

I'm not as well-versed on the Boys' output in the 70s except Sunflower and Love You. None of the fades on either album stood out to me as particularly bad or good. I definitely agree though that Brian was the master of tags in the 60s. I think he reached his zenith with Cabin Essence, in that regard.

The Cabin Essence fade is so rad, it's ridiculous. With that fuzz bass. So. damn. good. That's the sound of the Beach Boys tipping their toe into the progressive fuzzed-out rock era. That's the sound that, if released in '66 and followed up with some fuzz bass at a BB Monterey Pop performance of that song, would have given them the cred they were lacking amongst the hipsters.  Brian knew what he was doing.

But the fade that sucks me in every single time is Til I Die. Also, simply ridiculous how good it is. On the various CD versions that I have with Til I Die on it (Sunflower/SU 2-fer, The Very Best of the BBs, Made in CA, etc), I recall some versions fading out a bit quicker (not ending quicker, but the volume fade starting sooner) and that really bugged me once I heard other versions that seemed to stretch that fade out as long as it could go, which is how I want to always listen to the song now. I've never done an A/B comparison, but I'm pretty certain there's been fade differences between various reissues. (Same with California Girls I think).
 

[Autotune]

Mixed feelings here regarding the Surf's Up coda. The fragment itself is beautiful, musically speaking it is a smooth departure from the rest of the song; it also incorporates the "Child" Smile idea (including arrangement ideas) into a different harmonic and rhythmical context. Lyrically, however, it clashes with the rest of the song in a way that no "mosaic" construction clashes in BW's output. Musically, the coda integrates with the rest of the song, and resolves beautifully; Brian had been equally successful at combining even more musically-contrasting fragments. In this case, however, the pamphlet-like quality of the lyrics is so distinct to the style of the rest of the song, and so thematically-departed that it's hard to stomach ("the children know the way" meh).

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Can't fathom the Surf's Up complaints. Seriously, is there a single Beach Boys song in existence that EVERYONE here would agree was perfection or are their people here who even dislike bits of, say, God Only Knows??

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Can't fathom the Surf's Up complaints. Seriously, is there a single Beach Boys song in existence that EVERYONE here would agree was perfection or are their people here who even dislike bits of, say, God Only Knows??

During the ultimate survivor bracket, at least one person said he wasn't a fan of the bridge.   

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Can't fathom the Surf's Up complaints. Seriously, is there a single Beach Boys song in existence that EVERYONE here would agree was perfection or are their people here who even dislike bits of, say, God Only Knows??

Different strokes, man.

[SMiLE-addict]

Lyrically, however, it clashes with the rest of the song in a way that no "mosaic" construction clashes in BW's output. Musically, the coda integrates with the rest of the song, and resolves beautifully; Brian had been equally successful at combining even more musically-contrasting fragments. In this case, however, the pamphlet-like quality of the lyrics is so distinct to the style of the rest of the song, and so thematically-departed that it's hard to stomach ("the children know the way" meh).

I'm not so sure about that. The theme of the main part of the song describes a decadent society starting to decay. Then the coda tells us that the children know the way. In other words, the coda tells us the answer to the problem presented in the main part of the song.

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome mannered baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumpeter swan
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne

The glass was raised, the fired-roast
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die

A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry

Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song ...

^So here we are presented the problem of a decadent society, and then in the last verse we're given an introduction to the answer ...

Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child
Child, child, child, child, child
Na na na na na na na na
Child, child, child, child, child
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child ...

^The child is the father of the man could be interpreted to mean that the children are the real leaders and we should follow them to solve the problem of the decadent and decaying society. Child-like = renewal.

Works pretty well if you ask me.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

The two songs are definitely linked. No doubt about that. Just like Heroes and Worms are linked thematically. The question is, would entire pieces of one song be reused in another like that? While that's the way it eventually happened, in '66, I don't think that was the plan.

Now, for someone who's more familiar with Brian's solo work...how do the fades hold up there?

[SMiLE-addict]

BTW, one other thing ... don't know how many people have figured this out, but here goes anyway:

Are you sleeping?
[...]
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

This is obviously a reference to Frère Jacques which in English translates

Are you sleeping, are you sleeping?
Brother John, Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing
Ding ding dong, ding ding dong.

The melody of the passage in Surf's Up is obviously the same as the lullaby.

This, of course, is a lullaby (a children's song). So we are given two clues to the resolution of the problem deep within the description of the problem itself.

Surely you don't think a stoned Van Dyke Parks couldn't fail to be so clever.

[Mr. Cohen]

Naw, the lyrics on the coda should've been:

A children's aria
The aria of Arabia
Have you eared their cornfield play
The children mute the trumpeter
Na na nation
Excitation

[SMiLE-addict]

I am soooo glad Brian did not use Mr Cohen as his lyricist.

[Mikie]

I remember a long time ago reading an interview and Carl mentioned that they were big fans of "tags". Wish I could find the article.

[clinikillz]

The fade on Forever comes a little too quickly, in my opinion. As you hear in this extended vocals-only version of the song, the harmonizing between the three Wilsons goes on for a good 20 seconds after the released version fades out. The left out harmonies, with the exception of Brian's ear-piercing shriek at the end, are fantastic and deserve to be in the song's final cut, in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvzp3rfPL4k#t=137

[CenturyDeprived]

Just had to revive this old thread to belatedly mention how amazing the fade is for "The Like In I Love You" from BWRG. When I first heard it, I had to replay the tag portion over and over again, and I still feel the same way.

I'm gonna say this is the second best tag/fade of Brian's solo career, bested only by Melt Away (original issue BW88 version).  Anyone else agree?