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Author Topic: SMiLE: Mark Dillon (Fifty Sides) re-reconstructs track listing  (Read 2775 times)
PrayForSurf
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« on: May 09, 2018, 10:52:19 AM »

Construction or Conjecture? "This is SMiLE? Could this have been the original track-by-track sequence of The Beach Boys' 1967 SMiLE LP?"

Podcast Interview ~ HEAR HERE >>>
https://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/this-is-smile-could-this-have-been.html

You may not agree with Mark but his reasoning compels consideration . . .

Side 1

Our Prayer

Heroes and Villains Part 1

Heroes and Villains Part 2

Barnyard

The Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine

Do You Like Worms

Cabinessence

Good Vibrations

Side 2

I'm in Great Shape

Vege-tables

Wind Chimes

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

Cool, Cool Water

Wonderful

Child Is Father of the Man

Surf's Up

You're Welcome (maybe?)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2018, 07:36:59 AM by PrayForSurf » Logged

Mark Dillon
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« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2018, 08:20:53 AM »

Hey everyone,

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has for decades been mulling over what SMiLE might have been.  I love Brian's 2004 release, but that's not what SMiLE would have been in 1967, so the guessing game continues. David Beard posted a recommended playlist on FB about a year ago and it got me thinking about it again, and I came up with a few new theories that might seem small--or quite big to SMiLE obsessives. And this prompted the podcast, in which I discuss my rationale.I would love to hear your thoughts and see your own SMiLE sequencing. 
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« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2018, 05:59:01 PM »

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Mark Dillon
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« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2018, 07:39:53 PM »

Thanks BGRT. When the intro to Mrs. O'Leary's Cow first officially appeared, it was on the 1993 boxed set and labeled as an H&V intro. I believe that was a mistake. It sounds to me like it was certainly intended for Fire--to me it evokes cartoon firemen rushing to the scene of a blaze...

I labored over I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night. But I see no hard reasons for it to be one of the short-listed tracks. Given the time restrictions, I just don't think there would have been room. I recall Carol's comments, but am clinging to the belief that as part of an Elements suite, it's water that's putting out the fire.

I have sent a note to David about  tracking down his playlist. He wasn't thinking so much about a 1967 SMiLE, but rather he was putting forward a playlist he liked. Although, as I mentioned in the podcast, he knows some stuff...
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Bicyclerider
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« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2018, 07:49:38 PM »

A nice discussion.  I agree that end of side one (or beginning of side two) makes the most sense for GV.  On Smiley he put it first on side 2, but as Mark points out previous singles often ended up at the end of side 1.  What is the 4:01 (where do you find it) version of GV?  Is it just the regular single version with the hum de doo dah's spliced in?  Isn't that just a fan mix?

Brian usually started side 2 with a single track, and I don't believe Great Shape is strong enough to start to side two unless you think it's a fragment/intro like Prayer is to side one, and really Vege-tables is the lead off side two cut.

Not sure where you get the train whistle at the end of Worms - that's not on any 66-67 recording of Worms.  The train whistle was part of Heroes Part 1 (cantina) at one point but was cut out for the master in February.  

The whole idea of movements goes back to Priore and LLVS, with an American history/Westward expansion side and an Elements side.  Brian came up with a third movement, innocence/childhood, for BWPS.  But in 66-67 there was no talk of movements, nothing in interviews at the time or in the recollection of the Beach Boys later, and Van Dyke knew nothing about movements back then - which as co-writer you would have to think he and Brian would have discussed.  Instead, I would say there were THEMES - Western imperialism/expansion/Western life, innocence and childhood, and nature (elements, vegetables, water, etc.).  Thinking about them as themes rather than movements gives you the option of not placing the songs with similar themes together - which IMO makes for a better flowing album.  Remember, Brian was having second thoughts about Van Dyke's lyrics starting in December after the Cabinessence Mike Love incident.  And the whole political/Western expansion/imperialism theme came from Van Dyke, not Brian, although he was more than willing to go along with it at first.  So I doubt he would put all of the "heavy" Van Dyke songs with the more obscure lyrics all on the same side - Worms, Cabinessence, Heroes, OMP/Sunshine.

If Smile had come out on time in April/May (after a couple of delays) Cool Cool Water of course had not yet been recorded - I think the first attempt was June.  But I'm OK with including it as I agree it was a rewrite of the Dada theme and fits in with the Elements theme.

Barnyard is too short to be a track, unless you think it would be a link track - which again was a concept not discussed with Van Dyke but certainly possible in the final editing of the album.  I usually put Barnyard after Great Shape, as it was originally ordered in Heroes and Villains (the demo version with Humble Harv Miller in attendance) which makes it more of a song and less of a fragment.  Since Worms already has a fade, having Barnyard as a short fragment with another fade after it doesn't sound right to me.

The reprise of Prayer - this is something Brian talked about in 66-67 as recounted by Mike Vosse in the Fusion article, but to follow Surf's Up, which Vosse also said was going to be the closing track.  You're Welcome could serve as a similar reprise - "come and join the young and often spring you gave" - then "you're welcome to join us" makes sense.

Child - not sure why there is controversy about this being it's own track, other than Brian castrated the song for BWPS and the live suite.  There's a 3 minute instrumental track edited by Brian in the vaults that has yet to see release but has been booted.  The original version (a different verse and chorus track) is remarkable in it's own way, I actually prefer it to the re-recorded version (it's on Sea of Tunes Unsurpassed Masters Vol 16) but it is much shorter and has no middle 8.  While the Child lyrics/melody fits perfectly over the ending of Surf's Up, and Brian may have intended that way, there is reason to doubt it - the piano demo that became the second part of Surf's Up on the album of the same name has only wordless singing at the end, and not in the melody of Child.  If he intended that in Dec 66 when he recorded the demo, wouldn't he have added that to the demo (for which he double tracked his vocal)?  It may have very well been Carl's idea to use the Child chorus over the closing of Surf's Up, and when Brian heard it he became very excited and rushed downstairs to work with Jack Reilly on the lyrics to go over the tag.


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Bicyclerider
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« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2018, 08:01:59 PM »

Thanks BGRT. When the intro to Mrs. O'Leary's Cow first officially appeared, it was on the 1993 boxed set and labeled as an H&V intro. I believe that was a mistake. It sounds to me like it was certainly intended for Fire--to me it evokes cartoon firemen rushing to the scene of a blaze...


The tape box and session documentation doesn't lie - the "intro" was indeed recorded as a Heroes and Villains intro - session was for Heroes and Villains (master # 57045) with the title Part 2 Intro.  This was recorded March 1 and 2, following a February of multiple session for only one song - Heroes, which clearly Brian was trying to finish.  Feb 28 was the rerecord of the fade to Heroes, then on March 1 and 2 the intro to Part 2.  And he recorded an earlier version of the "intro" - the chimes version - in December 66 with the title "Heroes and Villains Part 3."  The reason it is linked to Fire is because after the release of BW 88 there was talk of releasing Smile and Mark Linett put together a tape of Smile recordings, and on that tape he put the intro in front of Fire.  When that tape was booted, it became familiar to all the rabid fans and certainly fit musically there - one such fan being Darian Sahanaja.
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« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2018, 11:07:36 PM »

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Bicyclerider
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« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2018, 04:11:55 AM »

The original verse/chorus tracking of Child - you are correct, the assembly on UM 16 is the bootlegger's assembly.  It's beautiful regardless.  We have multiple Brian edits of various pieces of the final version with varying degrees of vocal overdubs and then the 3 minute instrumental version.
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Mark Dillon
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« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2018, 06:55:30 AM »

Thoughtful response, Bicycle Rider.

The longer version of "Good Vibrations" I am referring to sounds like the one you mean with the added vocal part and extended instrumental outro. It's the version that appears on the Smile Sessions box. I imagine the version that would have been on SMiLE 1967 is the 3:35 version the world all knows, but in my sequencing I had room for the longer version and thought it makes a nice fade to close side one. That time could have otherwise been taken up by some linking section or nothing at all.

Regarding side two, yes, I think "Great Shape" could have done for side two what "Prayer" did for side one. Its themes of health and agriculture make it a natural to be paired with "Vege-tables," which I see as the real full-track opener. "Great Shape" may have started as part of Heroes, but I think other ideas that ended up elsewhere did as well.

The train whistle  was placed at the end of "Worms" on the Smile Sessions. Maybe this was a modern idea. When I interviewed Mark Linett for my book, he said that the rule was that the 2004  sequencing was to be used as a template--one exception being "Great Shape" was moved closer to "Heroes and Villains," which Domenic Priore says was at his  suggestion. I can't help but feel that Linett and Boyd know more about the 1967 version than they let on, which might explain why we have H&V parts 1 and 2 on the box but not in the official sequencing. And the train whistle to me suggests a segue into the train song, "Cabinessence," even though that's not the way Brian ordered it in 2004.

What you say about sections is interesting. When I first made my SMiLE mixes in the late 80s/early 90s, I had songs belonging to these different themes scrambled all over the place, and it did sound great. I had "Cabinessence" leading into "Surf's Up" at the end, which is fantastic. But breaking out some of these songs from their thematic groupings  obscures their intended meaning. Is the Elements a suite of "Vege-tables," "Wind Chimes," "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," and "Cool, Cool Water"? That would make sense, and would show Brian was thinking of grouping songs thematically. I'm not sure the idea started with Domenic.

  
« Last Edit: May 11, 2018, 06:58:53 AM by Mark Dillon » Logged

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zosobird
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« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2018, 07:44:22 AM »

Thanks BGRT. When the intro to Mrs. O'Leary's Cow first officially appeared, it was on the 1993 boxed set and labeled as an H&V intro. I believe that was a mistake. It sounds to me like it was certainly intended for Fire--to me it evokes cartoon firemen rushing to the scene of a blaze...


The tape box and session documentation doesn't lie - the "intro" was indeed recorded as a Heroes and Villains intro - session was for Heroes and Villains (master # 57045) with the title Part 2 Intro.  This was recorded March 1 and 2, following a February of multiple session for only one song - Heroes, which clearly Brian was trying to finish.  Feb 28 was the rerecord of the fade to Heroes, then on March 1 and 2 the intro to Part 2.  And he recorded an earlier version of the "intro" - the chimes version - in December 66 with the title "Heroes and Villains Part 3."  The reason it is linked to Fire is because after the release of BW 88 there was talk of releasing Smile and Mark Linett put together a tape of Smile recordings, and on that tape he put the intro in front of Fire.  When that tape was booted, it became familiar to all the rabid fans and certainly fit musically there - one such fan being Darian Sahanaja.

Along with BicycleRider, I also believe the evidence very strong that the "fire intro" was really an unused part of Heroes and Villains and was never intended as a part of Fire (though it precedes Fire in my SMiLE mix as i think it sounds best there to me). He recorded FOUR different versions of this one section, it must have been a key musical piece for Brian for him to try it that many times on as many different dates. As such, there are four distinct variations of the Heroes and Villains Part 3 section (aka "fire" intro), which all use the same chromatic piano bass line surrounded by different "weirdness" as the basis for the track/section:

1. Heroes and Villains Part 3 (bell/chimes version). You can hear Chuck Britz clearly slate the track as "Heroes and Villains Part 3, Take 1", recorded in Dec '66 by just BW and VDP
2. Heroes and Villains: "Bag of Tricks". Alternative version of the chimes version recorded during the 1/3/67 Heroes and Villains session. Of note, this was recorded by the Beach Boys.
3. Heroes and Villains: "Organ Waltz/Intro". 3rd alternate version recorded during the 3/1/67 Heroes and Villains session (HV remake session). This is the "fire intro" we all know and love. Mark Linett did indeed label this as "fire intro" on his 1988 tape, but i believe he said this was a guess/or made in error, but i cannot find the quote and may just be speculation. I don't believe there is any evidence of such outside of Mark Linnett making a judgement call here.
4. Fall Breaks and Back to Winter. Recorded for Smiley Smile. This is the first relationship to "Fire", if any first appears.

IMO, Fall Breaks is simply a bastardization of several unused SMiLE parts/ideas:
1. The Heroes and Villains Pt 3 chromatic piano bass line is now played on the Baldwin organ, but still with the "weirdness." This track uses the HV Pt3 section as its foundation, and essentially a re-record version of it. BW obviously really liked this musical idea as this is now the 4th version.

2. Surf's Up. Fall Breaks lifts the "woody woodpecker" theme from Surf's Up (played by the horns on the Surf's Up sessions, now played by a melodica and also represented by the wood block percussion. Additionally, Fall Breaks marks the first HV Pt 3 variation where the chromatic bass line does not just run in a circle the whole time, but rather pauses, which is reminiscent of Surf's Up verse structure...and in that empty space: the Woody Woodpecker theme

3. Fire. This is a big if IMO:
a. One has to assume the wordless "fire" vocals that first appeared on Fall Breaks were originally slated to be the vocals for Fire in the first place. Otherwise the "revelation" when it first appeared in BWPS and applying to the past is revisionist history.
b. Many people cite Brian Wilson's quote found in Jules Siegal's "Goodby Surfing, Hello God" article:

“I don’t have to do a big scary fire like that,” he later said. “I can do a candle and it’s still fire. That would have been a really bad vibration to let out on the world, that Chicago fire. The next one is going to be a candle.”

I want to mention that BW does NOT say Fall Breaks is the candle/fire or even that he actually re-recorded Fire as anything else, just that there could be a "next one." Jules Siegel departed the BW inner circle prior to the sessions for Fall Breaks, but AFTER the three HV Part 3 versions were tracked. Why then would BW suggest a candle version of "Fire" was perhaps in the future, if he had already recorded three versions of it?

If Fall Breaks has any relationship to Fire whatsoever, it could only be the wordless Fire vocals, NOT the backbone of the song (chromatic bass line), which was really a discarded Heroes and Villains section. If anything, this chromatic line idea originated in Cabin Essence:

5. Cabin Essence. Lastly, one other possible link is the backing vocals during the "Iron Horse" chorus section, which are the similar, but not the same as the chromatic bassline of HV Pt3/Falls Breaks. I suppose you could say the same thing about the "Fire" strings, they're in the ballpark, but that's a stretch imo. If you say they are, then here you have the first instance of musical cannibalization of SMiLE material, happening in Nov '66, but i don't believe that is the case. We all know Cabin Essence and Fire both hit a brick wall by the end of December '66. The HV Pt3 (bells/chimes) section was recorded in Dec '66, by Brian and Van Dyke only (doing all the overdubs themselves), but the exact date is unknown.  Is it possible the Dec '66 HV Pt3 recording was THE start of Brian recycling certain musical elements? Perhaps. He DEFINATELY attempted to recycle material by January with the Bicycle Rider insert attempt into HV.

We all know he did that with countless other sections, including, but not limited to "Bicycle Rider" as the new HV Chorus, All Day/Whistling Bridge/Worms Pt 3 as "Whistle In", Holidays tag as Wind Chimes' tag, He Gives Speeches as She Goes Bald, Dada/All Day/possible Child as Cool, Cool Water, Vegetables tag/HV Pt 2 Chorus Chants as the SS Wonderful bridge, Good Shape/With Me Tonight/Do a Lot as their own songs/sections of others, etc.?
« Last Edit: May 11, 2018, 08:03:52 AM by zosobird » Logged
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