The Elements

[Reverend Rock]

I haven't been on this site much, so forgive me if this is already done-to-death...

But since we're talking a bit about Friends I find it facinating to no end that "Little Bird" contains a snippet of the arrangement for "Child Is The Father Of The Man" towards the fade.  I've always loved the song anyhow, but when I discovered that, I loved it even more.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I haven't been on this site much, so forgive me if this is already done-to-death...

But since we're talking a bit about Friends I find it facinating to no end that "Little Bird" contains a snippet of the arrangement for "Child Is The Father Of The Man" towards the fade.  I've always loved the song anyhow, but when I discovered that, I loved it even more.

Reportedly, Brian gave Dennis a helping hand on "Little Bird" - probably his idea.

[buddhahat]

I haven't been on this site much, so forgive me if this is already done-to-death...

But since we're talking a bit about Friends I find it facinating to no end that "Little Bird" contains a snippet of the arrangement for "Child Is The Father Of The Man" towards the fade.  I've always loved the song anyhow, but when I discovered that, I loved it even more.

Reportedly, Brian gave Dennis a helping hand on "Little Bird" - probably his idea.

But I tell what I always find interesting about this, is that quote where Dennis has played Child on the piano to a journalist, and then says "and here's a prayer I'm working on for it". What's that all about?! Why would Dennis be writing a prayer for Child? Did Dennis have a hand in writing Child, and is that why the reference subsequently turns up in Little Bird? We'll never know but it makes me wonder if Dennis had something to do with the song in the 1t place.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

Dennis also said something along the lines of 'Listen to the jazz patterns I play on Pet Sounds'. When everybody knows it was Hal Blaine playing. Sometimes we gotta take these old interviews with a grain of salt.

[punkinhead]

No - Doves of Peace. IF it's the same piece we're talking about(?)

"Doves of Peace" = "Spanish Guitar Theme" = "New Song" (recorded 3/26/68).

Thanks so much, Andrew.  Now, one more question, if you can indulge me...

Do we know for certain that it is a Brian Wilson composition, or is it one of the others'?

Interesting question; I always assumed it was a BW composition. I'd also like to know if it's a complete song/backing track. It's only 1:25 long, but so are some of Brian's other songs, and there are some short ones on Friends, too. AGD, for you to name your source, would you be jeopardizing confidentiality? For an issue/question like this?

My source has been named here previously (not by me), so no problem - Alan Boyd.

It's just a track, on the same session tapes as "Even Steven". Who wrote it ? No idea... but have to say, doesn't sound like a BW composition.

I always thought this track was Indian Wisdom. What is Indian Wisdom then?

Indian Wisdom isn't a track. On the back of Smiley Smile there's an old indian proverb about 'the smile you send out returns to you'. That's Indian Wisdom, and sometime, probably in the late '70s 'Indian Wisdom' was a name people tossed around when talking about SMiLE tracks.

Everyone always says that, but on the SMile Project cdrom, that's what it's refered to

[All Golden 74]

Fire was two sections, though, was it not?

I know that "Fire" is called part 1 of "The Elements" on the session tape, but is there any chance that they meant part 1 of "Fire", with part 2 recorded the next day ("I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night")?
On a related note, has it been definitely settled whether Brian Wilson was responsible for the burning wood sound effects that are heard on some of the vintage "Fire" recordings?  Jules Siegel mentions them in the section he wrote about "Fire", although I don't recall if this article (Goodbye Surfing Hello God!) has ever had its facts questioned.
If you want to talk about theories of what "The Elements" would be then here's mine: 4 pieces (Earth, Air, Fire & Water)made up of music, vocals and sound effects.  The Purple Chick mix of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow(Fire)" has the "Fall Breaks..." vocals mixed in.  If this had been done to one of the "Fire" mixes with the sound effects then it would be just right (just what I'm talking about).  Both The Smile Shop and the Badman book mention a "Fire" vocal recording session on Dec. 5, 1966.
I have read (on this very board) the quote from Brian Wilson himself that the Air section would be a piano piece with NO vocals, so I guess sucks for my theory.  Still I didn't dream this up out of thin air (no pun intended).  Andrew G. Doe has mentioned a kind of connection between "Country Air" and the unfinished Air section.  The beginning of "Country Air" has music(piano), vocals(humming) and sound effects(rooster).  Also, "Cool, Cool Water" has the Water chant from SMILE as the middle section on which you again have music(organ), vocals(Water chants) and sound effects(ocean waves?).  I know I've read somewhere about Brian sending Stephen Desper "into the wild" to record water sounds during the SMILE recordings.  I know that these might have been for the sound effects record that was supposed to come out on Brother Records, but I don't know that this would rule them out of being used on SMILE.
If you follow the formula of music, vocals and sound effects then "Barnyard" would make a terrific Earth section!  I know that this ("Barnyard") was supposed to be 4 different songs mixed into a suite, but isn't THAT also what "The Elements" was supposed to be?  OK, OK that suggestion may be going TOO far, but it is funny to me that "Barnyard" was NOT on the 12 song list.  The "Barnyard" suite might have become "I'm In Great Shape" (a pretty popular theory), or maybe not, who knows.

[All Golden 74]

While I'm on the subject("The Elements") I do remember someone on Youtube commenting on a fanmix of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" saying that it sounds like Frank Zappa and the Mothers and also that Frank had recorded a song about vegetables(Call Any Vegetable maybe?).  Shortly after reading this I came across a thread on this board where Ed Roach remembered playing some FZ for Brian Wilson who tore off the headphones and screamed "Ah, devil music!!!".
This made me laugh out loud because, well, it's funny, but also because it made me remember the first time I heard "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow".  I right away thought that the sounds of the strings reminded me of some of the music on George Crumb's BLACK ANGELS, which is a kind of avant-garde string quartet piece.  The 4th section of the 1st movement is called "Devil-music", go figure!  Now, whenever I hear "Fire" I think of George Crumb's Devil-music, just like I think of Varese whenever I see Frank Zappa's name mentioned (FZ sure liked to namedrop that guy).  Anyway, it's just a goofy story because things are pretty combative tonight on this here board.

[The Shift]

Fire was two sections, though, was it not?

I know that "Fire" is called part 1 of "The Elements" on the session tape, but is there any chance that they meant part 1 of "Fire", with part 2 recorded the next day ("I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night")?

David Anderle referred to "Fire, Part 1" in his conversation with Paul Williams back in '68.  Don't have them to hand but don't the SoT session discs also have an engineer calling out the take as "The Elements, Fire, part one, take ..." or similar?

Blimey, suppose there's whole chunk of Fire missing, that we haven't heard yet?

[armona]

Fire was two sections, though, was it not?

I know that "Fire" is called part 1 of "The Elements" on the session tape, but is there any chance that they meant part 1 of "Fire", with part 2 recorded the next day ("I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night")?

David Anderle referred to "Fire, Part 1" in his conversation with Paul Williams back in '68.  Don't have them to hand but don't the SoT session discs also have an engineer calling out the take as "The Elements, Fire, part one, take ..." or similar?

Blimey, suppose there's whole chunk of Fire missing, that we haven't heard yet?

That last part where the fire is "put out" was recorded in a series separate takes IIRC, so I'd hazard a guess that would be the end part.

[Jay]

Here's an idea: What if the "water chant" IS the water part of the Elements in itself? It's really short, but what if it was meant to stand alone as it's own track? Sorry if this was already mentioned and I missed it.

[buddhahat]

Here's an idea: What if the "water chant" IS the water part of the Elements in itself? It's really short, but what if it was meant to stand alone as it's own track? Sorry if this was already mentioned and I missed it.

I've often wondered this. The problem with dada being water is it's so long. It has an intro, the main part, and then seemingly they're about to go into a coda in the sessions too. I definitely think dada was to be it's own standalone track by the time it was recorded, but who knows.