Smile Question: CITFOTM

[mistermono]

Best of my knowledge, the 3.03 mono mix hasn't been booted. No vocals whatsoever, just the track.

The 3:03 Brian edit is on Archaeology.  It appears in upgraded sound on Secret Smile as well.  I agree that it is excellent and I'd love to hear an authorized (i.e. hi-fi) version of the track.  Why they left it off of EH is beyond me.

Of all the unfinished Smile tracks that I wish had been completed this is the one I would like to have heard the most.  The 3:03 mix fits in with the assertion that a 1966/1967 Smile would have been 12 distinct tracks without crossfades.

I also don't think the 2004 "Child" lyrics are what was originally intended.  This has been discussed I'm sure.

[Daniel S.]

Yeah, I can't believe Van Dyke didn't write lyrics for CITFOTM back in '66, but I guess he didn't. I really don't like 2004 CITFOTM, I don't like the track or the new lyrics which are not true to the original intentions of the record, completely inferior to what came before, and lazy.

[martin]

secondly, was the child chant re-recorded for the SU tag or was the "cha cha...father of the man" part just mixed amongst the newly recorded stuff.

I'm obviously not AGD, but the "Child" reprise in Surf's Up must have been re-recorded for Surf's Up because the chords are different.
 

still hoping to see a better child mix leak out one day because the common booted ones are pretty dull imo.

Here here.  There's got to be a better sounding version somewhere.  I sure wish that someone would dig up a version with lead vocals, although probably unlikely.

lead vocals wont happen, if they existed on tape somewhere at this point someone would have heard it/booted it/discussed the fact that it existed. i honestly just want a better quality child chant / track and i assume under lock and key somewhere is something better than what we have.

[Bicyclerider]

vocals to Child could be on acetate somewhere (Durrie Parks . . . ).  When Jon Hunt asked Van Dyke if he'd written lyrics to Child, he answered affirmatively - However he may have just been referring to the chorus.  I realize that Brian was working in fragments, but I suspect if he asked Brian to write something, it would have been at least a verse and a chorus . . . but any original lyrics have been lost in time - Van Dyke and Brian (and Frank Holmes) don't have them, since they weren't found during the Smile 2004 sessions.

[mistermono]

Just another thought on this.

If there were in fact words written for the verses of this song circa 66/67 why wouldn't the remaining Beach Boys have resurrected CITFOTM for a later LP like they did with Cabinessence and Our Prayer on 20/20 and Surf's Up on Surf's Up?

Cabinessence was unfinished during the original Smile sessions, but the other Beach Boys knew enough of the song's mooted structure and lyrics to put a finished master together.  If there was a finished backing track for CITFOTM in the can and they knew all the words why didn't they go ahead and finish it during the period (68-72?) when they were raiding the vaults for releasable Smile-era material?

Makes me wonder if the lyrics for the verses were never written or, at the very least, never shown to the other Beach Boys.

[buddhahat]

vocals to Child could be on acetate somewhere (Durrie Parks . . . ).  When Jon Hunt asked Van Dyke if he'd written lyrics to Child, he answered affirmatively - However he may have just been referring to the chorus.  I realize that Brian was working in fragments, but I suspect if he asked Brian to write something, it would have been at least a verse and a chorus . . . but any original lyrics have been lost in time - Van Dyke and Brian (and Frank Holmes) don't have them, since they weren't found during the Smile 2004 sessions.

Isn't there a Dennis quote somewhere where he tells a journalist in 66 that he and Brian are working on a cowboy song (CIFOTM) which suggests to me that there were more lyrics at some point?

[Bicyclerider]

Dennis played the song on piano to a journalist, who described it as a cowboy song - he doesn't attribute the cowboy song remark to Dennis.  I don't think it sounds much like a cowboy song, so that makes me suspect Dennis sang or said something to give him that impression, but others disagree with me.

[buddhahat]

Dennis played the song on piano to a journalist, who described it as a cowboy song - he doesn't attribute the cowboy song remark to Dennis.  I don't think it sounds much like a cowboy song, so that makes me suspect Dennis sang or said something to give him that impression, but others disagree with me.

Yeah I remember now, thanks for clarifying. I agree with you - I remember reading this quote and thinking Dennis must have conveyed more info than we have about the song for the journo to come to that conclusion.

[Charles LePage @ ComicList]

Any speculation on how the chorus of CITFOTM became the end of "Little Bird"?

[Daniel S.]

Didn't Dennis also use a CIFOTM riff in his song 'Time' ?