Don't Go Near The Water - Wild Speculation

[Boiled Egg]

i've had Surf's Up (the album) on heavy rotation lately.  by heck, it's a skyscrapingly good album.  it's got me by the balls and the heart.  i can barely get out of my chair for fear of damaging one or the other or the other.

now, this is probably going to sound daft, but bear with me.  Don't Go Near The Water is one of the most SMiLE-esque things the BBs ever recorded (SMiLE excepted, of course), and i wonder, does anyone know (or would anyone care to speculate) whether it had any provenance from 66-ish?  i'm struck by the intro, with its whack chords and rolling tack piano, the cheeky way the bvs/moog pick up their second phrase in the middle of the bar, and the coda in a different key.  it's really unusual, clever, SMiLEish writing, and i wonder - were Mike and Al genuflecting at the feet of dumb angels when they wrote it?  had it been on the shelf for a while?  it's such Brianesque writing that it's almost Carlesque.  (i warned you this was going to sound daft.)

one of you oracles will know something, if there's something there to be known, i'm sure.

[Andrew G. Doe]

"DGNTW" was written by Mike & Al, which kinda makes any connection with a certain non-existant 1966 album highly unlikely.

As for the coda - that's the work of Darryl Dragon.

Sorry.

[Jonas]

Whoa! Daryl Dragon wrote the vocal parts at the end? Whos there singing it?

I love the tag...its one of the most gorgeous vocals Ive ever listened to...

[MBE]

I think Despers book said the coda was sung by the whole group including Brian.

[Paul R.]

Whoa! Daryl Dragon wrote the vocal parts at the end? Whos there singing it?

I love the tag...its one of the most gorgeous vocals Ive ever listened to...

Truly. And it reminds me of the Hawaiian part from Little Pad somewhat, too.
Paul R.

[MBE]

Whoa! Daryl Dragon wrote the vocal parts at the end? Whos there singing it?

I love the tag...its one of the most gorgeous vocals Ive ever listened to...

Truly. And it reminds me of the Hawaiian part from Little Pad somewhat, too.
Paul R.

Good observation. Always reminded me of the harmonica on Good Vibes there too.

[the captain]

"DGNTW" was written by Mike & Al, which kinda makes any connection with a certain non-existant 1966 album highly unlikely.

As for the coda - that's the work of Darryl Dragon.

Sorry.

I don't it in any way was begun or intended for Smile. But I also think the writers have anything to do with the inspiration. With Al having said himself (and being quoted regarding) that he liked some aspects of Smile, it isn't a stretch to believe that he would write in that style. And he had plenty to do with Loop de Loop, another somewhat Smile-y song. His musical humor, if you will, was reminiscent of that. And Mike's contributions, mostly lyrical one assumes, aren't Smile-like on DGNTW. So what's the stretch? I think the band at that time would have been thrilled to relate to the Smile stuff, especially since they were doing some of that material live and WB wanted the album released. I would imagine they were reaching back to that kind of wacky creativity and musical silliness on a new song.

[BananaLouie]

The vocals during the tag are some of the sweetest sounds they made, a great song.