From Plymouth Rock to Hawaii

[Bill Tobelman]

Let's face it, there aren't many liner notes for SMiLE and/or BWPS. There just aren't many explanations of what's going on, but one thing that keeps cropping up is how SMiLE/BWPS goes from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii.

Now maybe this statements is simply a staking out of boundaries and as such the Plymouth Rock/Hawaii thing works. But it seems that the Plymouth Rock to Hawaii thing implies a general flow of things and this take on SMiLE/BWPS is incorrect.

BWPS's flow is obviously something more like California to Plymouth Rock to Hawaii to the West then maybe back to Plymouth Rock to Chicago and on to Hawaii. In "In Blue Hawaii" there's even the lyric "so far away from Blue Hawaii" which may mean that we aren't actually in Hawaii at all.

So while very little is said about SMiLE/BWPS the little there is said is flawed.

[Roger Ryan]

Well, the song "Roll Plymouth Rock" goes from Plymouth rock to Hawaii anyway, so there's the concept. Maybe we should consider the remainder of "SMiLE" to be one big American acid flashback/flashforward that takes place within the concept of that song.

[Ron]

Plymouth Rock is where the first 'americans' (ha) landed, Hawaii was the last state accepted into the union.  It's chronological, not geographical.


Also, my theory is that the third movement represents Brian's life and that "blue Hawaii" is him looking back at his beach boy days with a sad eye, but from a happy (halfway sane) place. 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Plymouth Rock is where the first 'americans' (ha) landed, Hawaii was the last state accepted into the union.  It's chronological, not geographical.

Allegedly, and ignoring the Vikings (circa 975), St. Brendan (circa 560) and of course the British colonies in Virginia in the late 1500s.

Not to mention the Chinese.

Any-hoo...  the Plymouth Rock-Hawaii journey was always confined to the song, with the other tracks detailing parts of the trip. According to one interpretation.

[Bicyclerider]

Trying to make the entire SMile album fit into a cocept of an album length "journey" of a bicycle rider or commentator from Plymouth rock to Hawaii is trying to simplify it into something an average listener can grasp, but in fact, as pointed out above, only Worms/Roll Plymouth Rock comes close to fitting into such a scheme.  The bicycle rider is actually the deck of cards, representing gambling and "civilization" as it spread Westward - not a literal bicycle rider journey at all.  The themes of Americana/Hawaii repeat throughout the different movements, so the idea of an Americana movement isn't exactly accurate either - Great Shape, Blue Hawaii, On a Holiday could just as easlily be in the Americana movement, and Holiday was in the Americana section on the early song list.

So it's never as simple as a one sentence summary of "what it's about."

[Bill Tobelman]

When Paul Williams met Brian for the first time Brian talked about the history of the bicycle (I think this was reported in an old issue of ESQ).

In the book Heroes And Villains Van Dyke outlines a song that he and Brian were considering that had to do with railroads and the workers posing for a freeze frame photo. What is interesting to note is that Brian & Van Dyke seem to be together as far as the basic thematic outline of the song. Nowadays Van Dyke gives off the impression that the words and images were all his doing (inspired by Brian's music). But this is not the picture painted in Stephan Gaines' book.

So when Brian Wilson speaks to Paul Williams about bicycles I take that as Brian very possibly having input about the whole "Bicycle Rider" thing. Van Dyke may have had been inspired by the playing card but that's not to say that that was the sole driving force behind the bicycle rider.

[Roger Ryan]

When Paul Williams met Brian for the first time Brian talked about the history of the bicycle (I think this was reported in an old issue of ESQ).

In the book Heroes And Villains Van Dyke outlines a song that he and Brian were considering that had to do with railroads and the workers posing for a freeze frame photo. What is interesting to note is that Brian & Van Dyke seem to be together as far as the basic thematic outline of the song. Nowadays Van Dyke gives off the impression that the words and images were all his doing (inspired by Brian's music). But this is not the picture painted in Stephan Gaines' book.

So when Brian Wilson speaks to Paul Williams about bicycles I take that as Brian very possibly having input about the whole "Bicycle Rider" thing. Van Dyke may have had been inspired by the playing card but that's not to say that that was the sole driving force behind the bicycle rider.

Of course, Parks lyrics can support several meanings at once (the "Bicycle Rider, see see what you have done" line is an allusion to the blues song "C.C. Rider" or "See See Rider"). Parks may have been thinking playing cards, but Brian may have envisioned the image of a literal bicycle rider and arranged his music to correspond to that image.

I would say all of the "SMiLE" songs demonstrate a strong collaboration between the two with Brian writing and arranging the music to fit Parks' lyrics and vice versa (note the coda to "Cabin Essence" with its Eastern influence representing the Chinese "coolies" building the railroad and specifically the violin representing the circling crow, as well as the hawaiian chant to go along with the theme of "Worms").

Is that Parks' quote from the "Heroes & Villains" book a vintage one (1966) or one given after the fact in the 70s? If vintage, I imagine the "railroad" song would be "Cabin Essence", of course. The "freeze frame" photo referenced would undoubtedly be the famous one taken after the completion of the transcontinental railway system showing the eastward and westward heading locomotives facing each other in Utah. Here it is:

http://ap.grolier.com/picturepopup?productid=gme&assetid=ht04&templatename=/article/picturepopup.html

[Bicyclerider]

Based on Brian and Van Dyke's recent interviews it's still not clear how collaborative the songwriting was in terms of lyrics and music.  Van Dyke has been saying that Brian wrote the music, and he listened to the music and fit words to it, not altering or writing any music himself.  Brian had  the title Heroes and Villains, and that and the music suggested the wild west theme Van Dyke based the lyrics around.  But with Cabinessence - did Brian have an image of a cabin in the woods?  Of Railroads?  And then Van Dyke wrote it around that?  Or did he just come up with the music, which suggested to Van Dyke railroads and a rural/agrarian setting for the song?

Certainly after the music (on the piano) and lyrics were written, Brian echoed the lyrical content into the arrangements - Who Ran the Iron Horse for example - but I suspect those touches were only conceived after the lyrics were written.  Really we could use more specific details on the nature of the collaboration back in 1966.  It's important because many here (Bill obviously) believe the lyrics and lyrical content reflect Brian's life and certain life experiences he had in 65/66.  But if all he did was music, and Van DYke pretty much independently created the lyrics, then it could hardly reflect Brian's experience, unless Van Dyke was trying to deliberately incorporate personal events (some of which he probably had no knowledge of) of Brian's into the lyrics.

[Bill Tobelman]

The Van Dyke quote was to Mr. Gaines obviously prior to the book coming out. The book definitely points out that it was a scrapped idea.

Another song to consider is "Wind Chimes." Marilyn stated that Brian went out, bought wind chimes, took them home & wrote "Wind Chimes." In 2004 (or thereabouts) Van Dyke mentionned to Brian & Melinda that he helped write the lyrics for "Wind Chimes." It would definitely seem that some directional discussion took place prior to those lrics being written.

Brian's explanation of "Vegetables" also suggests that Brian was in on the planning of that one as well.

Frank Holmes mentioned the "C.C. Rider" thing when talking about "Bicycle Rider."

Also, don't forget, the whole "bicycle" idea is important psychedelically because the first time Albert Hoffman deliberately ingested LSD he went for a bike ride. The use of the bicycle is a common psychedelic metaphore and dare I say, fits the SMiLE scenario perfectly.

[jazzfascist]

They wrote in the same room didn't they?  So there must have been a lot of talking back and forth, with Brian coming up with some chords and Van Dyke supplying some words and Brian adjusting to that and so forth. You get the impression that it was a colaboration pretty much based on intuition, not much planning. Brian said something like:  "We just do things."

Søren

[Bill Tobelman]

If Brian was writing stuff with Van Dyke on intuition then why did Brian take David Anderle's portrait of Brian as a piece of art full of deep meaning?  Why wasn't the portrait of Brian simply a painting of Brian?

It seems to me much more likely that Brian & Van Dyke were making music that was full of meaning--but to avoid explaining that meaning they present it as a tossed off piece of work.

Van Dyke's contention that the lyrics are his has truth to it, but the idea that they were all his doing belies the way that Brian Wilson worked with his collaborators.

Van Dyke currently handles SMiLE questions because Van Dyke can handle SMiLE questions.

[Andrew G. Doe]

If Brian was writing stuff with Van Dyke on intuition then why did Brian take David Anderle's portrait of Brian as a piece of art full of deep meaning?  Why wasn't the portrait of Brian simply a painting of Brian?

Because it was a painting of Brian. Remember, Anderle expected one reaction - "oh, that's nice" - and got something else entirely: "you've captured my soul"... and Anderle had been around Brian a lot at that point, but still didn't have much of a handle on him, apparently.

[jazzfascist]

If Brian was writing stuff with Van Dyke on intuition then why did Brian take David Anderle's portrait of Brian as a piece of art full of deep meaning?  Why wasn't the portrait of Brian simply a painting of Brian?

It seems to me much more likely that Brian & Van Dyke were making music that was full of meaning--but to avoid explaining that meaning they present it as a tossed off piece of work.

Van Dyke's contention that the lyrics are his has truth to it, but the idea that they were all his doing belies the way that Brian Wilson worked with his collaborators.

Van Dyke currently handles SMiLE questions because Van Dyke can handle SMiLE questions.

I don't see why it should be such a contradiction, just because you work intuitively, the music can still have a lot meaning. Peter Reum described Brian as one of the most intuitive people he had met. Brian was probably very influenced by his acid trips religious experiences and so forth, but he also said he wasn't able to explain them. Instead he tried to communicate what he sensed through music and he must also have been inspired by the imagery of Van Dykes lyrics. Brian also seemed very much into sensing things, running around on the beach and in the mountains, building the sandbox seems to be an attempt to bring nature into his own living room. I'd imagine it was probably a tentative process based on the newly awakening of Brian's senses and Van Dykes lyrical input and as they got more into it, the big picture started to unfold, but it was probably not very predetermined.

Søren

[Bill Tobelman]

"Vegetables" seems like one of those spur of the moment type of things. Brian wants to do the song & Van Dyke does the lyrics. It seems pretty impulsive.

But on the other hand, Brian got the idea from a radio "evangelist" (Curtis Springer?) and realized that this idea that folks who ate vegetables could accomplish anything fit into his goal of promoting spiritual enlightenment. Van Dyke was aware of this stuff as well (as his ESQ interview indicates). Then Brian deliberately decided not to take a pompous approach and made it a fun song. Brian wrote skits about vegetables & had people act them out. Maybe this is impulsive but there seems to be a lot of thought going into those impulsive things.

"Heroes & Villains" was supposidly done in no time flat. Brian gave Van Dyke the title & then it was off to the races. But Van Dyke used "El Paso" as a rough guide and once told me he was thinking along the lines of Robert Service. Maybe he was able to do all of this on the spot but it seems to me that there was a lot more thought involved than the participants are letting on.

When Brian had a flashback in the Pickwick Bookstore he remembered that Loren Schwartz told him that flashbacks were comparable to Zen riddles, mysteries full of meaning. And I think that this "full of meaning" thing is what we are presented with in SMiLE (notice also that presenting things as mysteries "full of meaning" would then, in essence, be posing something akin to Zen riddles; which would be promoting spiritual enlightenment in yet another way).

Michael Vosse said that Brian thought that laughter could trigger a spiritual experience, vegetable & health are important ingrediants in spiritual enlightenment, and "mysteries full of meaning" could also promote a spiritual experience.

[Bill Tobelman]

Here's some more internet based info on Curtis Springer and his concoction made from vegtables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Howe_Springer

From hot springs to curative povers of water to his homespun religion, there's quite a few things that Brian could have related to his own experience.