Grammar & Grampar

Some time ago, I railed against the increasingly common trend of turning nouns into verbs-- impacting, transitioning, referencing, etc.-- but that has nothing to do with grammar; it is instead a matter of usage and the unavoidable tendency of the language to change over time.  Usage is the device by which, as "educated" people, we may adhere to Standard English.  However important this may be, usage has nothing to do with one's essential meaning.  Usage is therefore meaningful only in the context of how we are judged as speakers or writers.

Grammar, on the other hand, allows speakers of a language to express thought and enables thought to be understood, by oneself as well as others.  It is absolutely essential to language as communication and hence to our existence as human beings.  We learn grammar as we learn to speak, not in a classroom.

With this distinction in mind, I wish to attack a common pedagogical assumption which has held sway in the teaching of English over at least the past thirty years, namely that the teaching of the rules of grammar, as such, is useless and even harmful to the teaching of writing.  The foremost proponent of this view in the U.S. is nothing less than the National Council of Teachers of English.*

To the NCTE, it has become almost an article of faith to leave grammar (by which, as we shall see, appears to mean both grammar and usage) out of the curriculum.  I will here present some of what professes to prove the benefits of not teaching grammar.

I strongly disagree with the NCTE position and insist that the contrary is true:  Ignorance of the rules not only impedes the teaching of writing; it also impedes the teaching of reading.

(Just a short anecdote before I proceed, from the late years of my own teaching career:  The issue of the teaching of grammar came up once in an English department meeting, and I voiced my disagreement with the NCTE prescription, to no reply.  In attendance was an assistant principal named Marty, and sure enough a fake E-1 notice, the last warning before "termination," appeared in my office mailbox. Hmmmm.)

I cannot claim to have done any original research on this subject, other than my own experience as a student and as a teacher of English for 35 years in the Chicago Public Schools, as well as some part-time experience at the college level.  I should say in advance that I'm not going to the musty stacks to prove my case; but I am willing to explore the issue as far as I can by internet links.

Here is the result of a search ("teaching grammar") on the NCTE website:

Unfortunately, one cannot gain access to these pedagogical secrets without a paid membership in the NCTE.  They seem to be the sole proprietor of everything in their private library.  Now I can see that I'm up against an industry (i.e. a vested interest) dedicated to a false claim.  There is obviously more to the proscription of grammar than what research dissertations purportedly prove.

Here's another shot in the dark from NCTE, which characterizes grammar as "the skunk at the garden party," but surprisingly does not disparage the teaching of grammar.

The good old days.  Let's make America great again!

It appears one must do a Google search to make headway online.  Here are three examples I thought looked promising:

 1.  The Atlantic, Feb. 2014:  Michelle Navarre Cleary, "The Wrong Way to Teach Grammar"

At last, I have discovered an actual text.  And incidentally I find an ad at the Atlantic site that offers a free download, Grammarly, that promises to "[make] sure your writing is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free."  Apparently, the ultimate solution of the problem of not knowing how to write is to have your computer do it for you.  The unspoken assumption of this ad is that good writing is hard, not at all a dreamy episode of letting it all hang out, as the Atlantic article proposes.  And that is the truth.

Here are the article's main assertions and their warrants:

• The author's personal teaching experience confirms that students' nervousness about writing stems from their teachers' vain attempts to instill grammar.
• "A century of research shows that traditional grammar lessons—those hours spent diagramming sentences and memorizing parts of speech—don’t help and may even hinder students’ efforts to become better writers. Yes, they need to learn grammar, but the old-fashioned way does not work."
• This finding-- confirmed in 1984, 2007, and 2012 ... is consistent among students of all ages...  [One] well regarded study followed three groups of students from 9th to 11th grade [two of which received grammar instruction and one that did not].  The result: No significant differences among the three groups-- except that both grammar groups emerged with a strong antipathy to English."
• "... [W]e need to teach students how to write grammatically by letting them write.  Once students get ideas they care about onto the page, they are ready for instruction-- including grammar instruction-- that will help communicate those ideas."

Before undertaking a rebuttal, let's explore some of the article's links.

The first link leads to a blurry view of highlighted selections from a  Handbook of Research in Teaching the English Language Arts and a c.v. of its author, but nothing else; continuing along the links, we are destined to fall into the rabbit hole of another Google search, from which we arrive at an advertisement for the book (cosponsored by the International Reading Association and-- you guessed it, the NCTE), but no substantive text.  We'll have to try again.

Ms. Cleary's 1984 link leads us to an advertisement for an issue of the American Journal of Education and a short description of its contents:  there is not a word in it referring to the teaching of grammar.

The 2007 link connects to something more substantial:  a 31-page article in the Journal of Educational Psychology by Dolores Perin, followed again by a huge bibliography.  Within the article, one finds only two explicit references to the teaching of grammar; both negatively compare it to the activity of "combining sentences."  There is, however, no explanation of how this can be done without such grammatical concepts as compound and complex sentences or an awareness of various types of phrases and subordinate clauses.  The article, moreover, is unlikely to be of use to anyone other than doctoral candidates who can navigate its nearly impenetrable mass of obscure methodologies and arcane vocabulary; it is rather like the ink the octopus excretes to obscure its position (I never did care much for most academic writing).  No one who is engaged in the process of actually teaching students to write would have any use for such a study.

Her name is Kellyanne Conway.

Wrong!

Finally, the 2011 link connects to the website of the American Psychological Association, which contains an abstract of another article (Graham, et al. "A Meta-analysis of Writing Instruction for Students in the Elementary Grades") from the Journal of Educational Psychology.  For the full text of the article, unfortunately, one must again shell out for a pdf download from the Journal.  By itself, the abstract contains no reference to the teaching of grammar.

The study link refers to an article (Elley, et al. "The Role of Grammar in a Secondary School Curriculum") posted on the ERIC website, taken from a 1979 piece published under the auspices of the NCTE.  Once more, we find ourselves reading a short abstract (the complete article will cost a few dollars).  The abstract posits that, while "a textbook based program that focussed on traditional grammar" produced a negligible effect on students' writing, "the Oregon Curriculum without the grammar thread... but with extra reading and creative writing" was "more positive."  Unfortunately, it is impossible to judge this claim knowing neither the Oregon Curriculum nor the methodology and extent of the study.

Continuing to follow the links that are not outdated, we are led to studies of varying lengths, none of which refer explicitly to the teaching of grammar.  One of them (Thomas Flynn and Mary King, eds., Dynamics of the Writing Conference, 1993) contains an article which, from the book's index, appears to investigate the subject, but is actually about usage, specifically about African American dialect and the use of verbs.  In short, none of the citations in Ms. Cleary's article support her main thesis, that the teaching of grammar is ineffective or harmful to students' writing.

One of the author's remaining claims is supported by observations taken from her own experience of eight years teaching remedial writing (or so I presume) at the college level.  The other is a sweeping generalization concerning the efficacy of teaching grammar.  Based on my experience teaching remedial writing at Purdue University Calumet, as well as a long career teaching language arts at the high school level, here are some observations of my own.

• What Ms. Cleary describes as her students' problem appears to fall into the categories of usage and punctuation, not grammar:   "In my work with adults...  I have found over and over again that they over-edit themselves from the moment they sit down to write.  They report thoughts like "Is this right?  Is that right? and "Oh my God, if I write a contraction, I'm going to flunk."  My own experience, also with adults, was in a remedial class, not exclusively of former drop-outs, but rather a larger group who were unable to pass a writing competency test, in the form of an essay responding to a particular prompt.  Most of them continued to be enrolled in other classes, but a few had taken the test every semester for four or five terms; one was a woman in her sixties, chasing a degree.  Yes, there were often usage problems, many stemming from misuse of the principal parts of verbs.  A few of them, however, were unable to differentiate a complete sentence from a fragment or a run-on.  Others wrote as fourth or fifth graders might:  short, simple sentences, producing a choppy mess that failed to achieve the minimum count of words demanded by the test.  The same students usually had trouble reading sentences longer than ten or twelve words.  I found that it was indispensable for a writer to create a subject and verb when he or she began to organize thoughts into meaningful sentences.  Likewise, it was essential that they recognize various sentence structures.  This required an understanding of the rules of grammar.  Ms. Cleary confuses the issue:  nobody maintains that a prewriting exercise of some sort should not be the very first step in creating a piece of writing, yet Ms. Cleary seems to imply that teachers wrongly force structure, usage, and style points on students before they even have their ideas down on paper in the form of diagrams, outlines, or whatever.  She seems to be attacking a straw position which no experienced writing teacher or coach would ever employ in a classroom.
• "We need to teach students how to write grammatically by letting them write," Ms. Cleary concludes, without giving an example of what she means.  On its face, it appears to be a circular argument.  She ends by slamming us damned sentence-parsers as being grounded by nostalgia (for what she doesn't say), rather than research.

2.  Valparaiso University

Here I find, to my surprise, not another proscription against the teaching of grammar, but instead a set of recommendations for various strategies for its incorporation.  Apparently, Heather Zaharias, its author, was unaware of the research proving its negative effects.  No rebuttal is necessary.

3.  Heinemann 1991 asserts:

"Research over a period of nearly 90 years has consistently shown that the teaching of school grammar has little or no effect on students."   Following this sweeping statement is a mighty-looking fortress of bibliography, all this under the heading of "Facts."  Curiously, this behemoth list of sources and perky quotations contains no references before 1959, which is hardly ninety years.  I would be willing to take aim against any of Heinemann's sources, but unfortunately there are few links, and none of them are operational.

The names on top, George Hillocks and Michael Smith. appear to be the twin gods of the dogma I have been questioning.  Attributed to various experts, here are a few of Mr. Heinmann's choices which are just plain silly:

• "Diagramming sentences...  teaches nothing beyond the ability to diagram."
• "If schools insist upon teaching...  concepts of traditional grammar (as many still do), they cannot defend it as a means of improving the quality of writing."
• "Studying formal grammar is less helpful to writers than simply discussing grammatical constructions and usage in the context of writing."
• "Teach only the grammatical concepts that are critically needed for editing writing and teach these concepts and terms mostly through mini lessons and conferences while helping students edit."  (my emphasis)

There are many similar statements I could quote, but why beat a dead horse?


Rebuttal:  I promise to keep it short.

1.  My own experience as a K-12 student and my children's affirmation, that learning to recognize sentence structures, label them, and work with them was an essential part of graduating and continuing to succeed as students at the next level and beyond.

2.  The notion that teaching grammar can be incorporated entirely into the process of editing is completely counter-intuitive.  Reading, essentially, is an analysis of the written word, while writing is a synthesis to create it.  Presumably, our aim is to add to the complexity of both at a certain point of a child's education.  One need not retain diagrams of compound-complex sentences with all the trimmings, but when reading, one needs to recognize them and differentiate between independent and subordinate clauses.

3.  Terminology is important in teaching any subject, as is precision.  Improvements in our writing do not happen overnight or by some vague method of imbibing them.  They require attention, hard work, and they happen gradually, little by little, so that at each successive grade level, students grow as writers.  This means that grammar instruction should be a steady part of a child's learning beginning in the middle grades and continue through graduation.

4.  What concerns me most is that when we are commanded not to teach grammar "in isolation,"  we are really being given an excuse not to teach grammar at all.  Chances are that at least one generation of teachers has somehow muddled through their own education without digesting English grammar.  They don't know how to teach it, because nobody bothered to teach them.


One final comment:  a political slant.  And then I'll shut up.  I take seriously George Orwell's contention that slovenly language and slovenly thought exist in a symbiotic relationship.  It is also instructive to read his forecast of the future of the English language, Newspeak, actually a parody of the abuse of language the first essay takes on.

Politics and the English Language

Principles of Newspeak

*Just dropping the name NCTE reminds me of the few years when I was a dues-paying member.  Aside from the fancy conferences they sponsor annually, with hundreds of industry vendors standing by, I remember the quarterly journal they sent to aid me as an English teacher.  In all the issues I received there was not an article even remotely related to what actually happened in classrooms at Gage Park High School.

In my rotation:  

• Duke Ellington, All American in Jazz/ Midnight in Paris (originally Columbia, 1962; Essential Jazz Classics reissue, 2013)

Until this first-ever CD release of All American, I considered it among the least compelling Ellington recordings of the '60s.  I now realize this was because I was listening to a poorly-recorded cassette copy of the late Don Miller's original LP.  Now that I can hear it properly, I am able to overlook the varying quality of the tunes (all taken from the Broadway musical of the same name), and focus instead on its ingenious arrangements, all but two of which have been confirmed as Billy Strayhorn's, for the Ellington band.

All in all, this is not a very memorable score; I vaguely remember the brief popularity of "Try to Remember," but none of the rest strikes a chord at all.

Still, I would characterize this project as the "Ellingtonization"  (actually, the "Strayhornization") of someone else's bag, much in the manner of their treatment of The Nutcracker the previous year, and future projects like Recollections of the Big Band Era.

The release also includes Midnight in Paris, not to be confused with Duke's soundtrack for Paris Blues a little earlier in the decade.  This project, too, relies on clever arrangements to give some overused Parisian themes a little goose, in the Ellington manner.  A handy little booklet includes the original liner notes for both LPs.

• Gram Parsons, GP/ Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1972, 1973)

On an earlier post I took up a two-disc compilation covering Parsons's entire, albeit short, career.  This single disc pairs his first recordings under his own name, after leaving the The Flying Burrito Brothers.*   The two LPs were released a year apart, GP in January 1972, and Angel the following January, a few months before Parsons's death.

GP was recorded at Wally Heider's Studio 4 in Hollywood.  Gram Parsons remains a top-notch lyricist, alternately sensitive and assertive.  He puts on a whole sub genre of country pop with "Kiss the Children," wherein yet another drunk, apparently still on his barstool, laments the woman gone for good with their kids:

"And the gun that's hanging on the kitchen wall, dear,
It's like a road-sign pointing straight to Satan's cage."

Emmylou Harris contributes mightily here in many duets with Parsons.

Emmylou figures large as well on Grievous Angel, which features a much larger contingent of sidemen than its predecessor.  Guest vocalists include Linda Ronstadt, singing backup on the album's closer, and Bernie Leadon.  An amusing highlight is a medley concocted in the studio, disguised as a fictitious "live" performance in Northern Quebec:  shades of The Beach Boys Party!

*not to be confused with The Traveling Wilburys.

• Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington, The Stockholm Concert, 1966 (Pablo)

The provenance of these recordings must have been unearthed fairly recently, as my sole reference, W. E. Timner's Ellingtonia: The Recorded Music of Duke Ellington and His Sidemen, does not list this concert, though it does note another appearance of Ella and Duke's in Stockholm early in the year.

Ella is at her absolute best in front of an enthusiastic audience, like the one on this recording.  One can imagine her facial expressions as she scats and growls her way through Só Danço Samba and Cotton Tail.

Most of the tracks feature Duke's orchestra with Jimmy Jones, Ella's regular accompanist, at the piano;  but as always, Ellington makes his presence felt swinging the band through "Imagine My Frustration," "Duke's Place" (wherein Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves both take solo turns), and the glorious closing "Cotton Tail," with Gonsalves returning to trade fours with Ella.

• Captain Beefheart, Mirror Man Sessions (Buddha, 1967)

I've owned the original Mirror Man LP since it first appeared, four years after it was recorded; chronologically, it would fit between the albums Safe as Milk and its follow-up, Strictly Personal.  (The original gatefold cover was cut in such a way as to present Beefheart within a broken mirror.)   

Originally there were only four tunes-- "Tarotplane," "25th Century Quaker," "Mirror Man," and "Kandy Korn," all long workouts that sounded more like demos than material for release.  The CD reissue adds five tracks, much more concise, that sound like they were meant to be heard.  These tunes all stick in my mind, especially "Gimme Dat Harp Boy" and that instrument's furious demonstration by one of its all-time masters.

OUR CAR CLUB

IN MY CAHHH 
Insurrection in the ranks:  off with their heads!
Discs that I have not played much are getting the heave-ho to make room for:  Thirty-seven promotions and demotions, in all.  

Here are a few of the new arrivals:

• Lucky Thompson, Lord, Lord, Am I Ever Gonna Know? (Candid)

• Caetano Veloso, Livro (Nonesuch, 1998)

• Dexter Gordon, Doin' Allright (Blue Note, 1961)

Next:  Latter-Day Captain Beefheart

Son of FRoWN

A SMiLE Odyssey, 1967-2011, Part Two

• Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys (Capitol, 1993)

With this release,fans were euphoric, not simply because, at five CDs, it was the most comprehensive compilation of the band's catalog yet, but especially owing to a motherlode of SMiLE material on Disc 2, ten heretofore unreleased tracks:

• "Our Prayer" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson) – 1:07
• "Heroes and Villains" [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 2:56
• "Heroes and Villains" (Sections) [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 6:40
• "Wonderful" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 2:02
• "Cabinessence" [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 3:33
• "Wind Chimes" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 2:32
• "Heroes and Villains" (Intro) [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) - 0:35
• "Do You Like Worms" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 4:00  Released with extra lyrics as "Roll Plymouth Rock" on Brian Wilson's 2004 Smile album
• "Vegetables" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 3:29
• "I Love to Say Da Da" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson) – 1:34  Released with extra lyrics as "In Blue Hawaii" on Brian Wilson's 2004 Smile album
• "Surf's Up" [*] [+] (Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks) – 3:38

None of this music had been officially released heretofore, at least not in the United States, so all of it received a great deal of attention.  The "Our Prayer" presented here is the original, before the Beach Boys added more vocals to it for release in 1968; conversely, "Cabinessence" (which here probably ought to have been titled "Cabin Essence," according to its original spelling) included the dubbed in lead-vocal, as on the 20/ 20 album.

Of particular interest were the various permutations on "Heroes and Villains."  Not only was there a never-before-heard detour in the song ("In the cantina, margaritas keep the spirits high...") but also an unexpected verse:

At threescore and five,
I'm very much alive
I still got the jive to survive
With the Heroes and Villains.

On another track there is a series of instrumental riffs on the "Bicycle Rider" chorus, followed by chants, running nearly seven minutes, which seem to ad lib on the words of the title:  "Heroes and Villains" (Sections).  The phrase is run through a series of different rhythms as the backing track changes, and then plunges into a free-fall of voices out of pitch and out of tempo and finally resolves to another series of chants on the title.  The appended tag evokes a barnyard, with a familiar vocal riff on top, going "Hmmmm  Hmmmm Hmmmm dum de de-doobie do," into the fading sunset.  In line with the intended modular construction of SMiLE, this sort of tag might have been used in other set pieces as well, reflections in a colorful musical kaleidoscope. Adding to that effect, the general sequence, which appears to be spontaneous and  random is actually a well-planned and rehearsed composition.  (Bootlegs dedicated to these sessions alone reveal that a lengthy session of vocal takes was required to achieve this apparent chaos.)



Speculation:  Might the "Sections" be the intended Part 2 flip-side to the originally-planned single release?  Many fans seem to think so, but the sequence would have had to be pared down considerably to fit on one side of a 45.

DISC 2

• Brian Wilson Presents Smile (Nonesuch, 2004)

Fast-forward eleven years.  Could the rumors be true?  Has Brian finally found the means to finish the god-damned thing at last?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, Brian Wilson and his band determined to put the available music together in a logical way, record it, and undertake a world concert tour to spread the word, some 47 years after the SMiLE project had been ditched.  Van Dyke Parks came to the rescue with lyrics, old and new, while Brian's bandmate, Darian Sahanaja, shaped the material into a three-part suite, with bridge passages added to allow the songs to flow into one another; one of the album's most successful transitions, indeed one of the best moments in the entire reconstruction, was the beautiful segue from "Wonderful" to "Song for Children" ("Look" from the original sessions).  After a month's rehearsals, the band was able to recreate the original instrumental parts better than anyone could have hoped, and Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE was off and running.

But was this really the long-awaited SMiLE album?
  

• David Hajdu, Heroes and Villains (Da Capo, 2009)

David Hajdu, Ellington specialist and critic-at large, hailed Brian Wilson's achievement in an essay titled, "Brian Wilson and the Lost Masterpiece."  He denied, however, that it signified the completion of SMiLE.  Hajdu observed that the project was intended for the Beach Boys, for whom Wilson's current group was in no way an adequate substitute.  More importantly, he wrote:

     "The work seems reverse-engineered not only to fulfill the historical promise of the original but also to satisfy the larger myth that has grown around it.  The CD is a compelling argument for Smile's singularity as a masterwork of long-form pop; but it should not be mistaken for evidence of it.

     "Unlike the early Beach Boys records that made Wilson's outsized reputation, the new version of Smile is essentially a performance piece documented on CD, rather than a work inextricable from the recording medium... The mis-en-scene of the new Smile is the concert hall, not the studio; and so the CD denies Smile the essence of Wilson's aesthetic."

There was one more release, however, that seemed to settle the issue.

And finally:

• The Smile Sessions (Capitol, 2011)

This enormous box set purports to be the Holy Grail of rock-era recordings, the aborted SMiLE project of 1966.  Had that "lost" album appeared in its own time, its potential impact has been the subject of much speculation and endless debate, but little is certain beyond the alternate, but forever unfinished, universe represented by this collection.

The collection includes five CDs (four of which explore the studio sessions for all the recordings), two LPs, and two 45-rpm singles; though there are many repetitions of the song titles, no version of any of them is repeated from elsewhere in the set.

My own listening and understanding SMiLE has been enhanced by a book by music scholar Philip Lambert, Inside the Music of Brian Wilson.  The entire book is valuable; the chapter devoted to SMiLE is full of wonderful discoveries and conclusion, beginning with the posit the much of the album consistently uses the notes of "How Dry I Am."  A good part of it also shows how the rising motif in "Heroes and Villains" is reflected in all sorts of ways in other tunes.  As I muse, I'm sure I'll steal a thought or two from this book. 

Philip Lambert

Artie Shaw and His Orchestra

DISC 1

The main attraction for most is the first CD, which again attempts to mold the pieces into a coherent whole.  What we get, however, is a Beach Boys' version of Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, created from nearly the same template that produced the 2004 CD.  Unavoidably, there are many sudden stops along the way, as there are no bridge passages to connect the pieces.  Some of the songs appear as instrumentals because no vocals were recorded at the point of origin.

The set's producers, in some instances, have included "fly-ins," electronic transfers from one recording to another:  the background vocals heard on "I Love to Say Dada," or those added to "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," for instance.   The most egregious example of this sort of electronic fig leaf is the insertion of Brian's lead vocal into "Surf's Up."  Digital technology has made such tweaking possible in a way that could not have been done before.

In following the order conceived for the new Brian Wilson & Co. version, the compilers present a forty-eight minute performance of SMiLE segments arranged in a logical order as it was originally intended, but it still could never have been the record Brian envisioned in 1967. As far as anyone knows, SMiLE was imagined as a standard-length pop LP comprising one theme on the first side, and another on the second.  Among rock musicians of the time, putting the material out on two LPs would have been almost unprecedented (shortly afterward, double-LP sets by the Mothers of Invention and Bob Dylan appeared on the market).  Even if it had been possible, the present mock-up of SMiLE presents three thematic units-- America and the Western frontier, childhood innocence, and an "elements" suite.
Accordingly, the fourth LP in the box set is occupied by different versions of certain songs, in stereo or session excerpt.

Perhaps the main obstacle to the release of SMiLE back in the day was the fact that there was too much music to include on a single LP, nor would a double LP solve the problem credibly:  three into two can't go, except as a mixed number.

I should mention that my favorite track on this disc is among the bonus cuts following the main event:  the thrilling eight-minute "Backing Vocal Montage," and by listening to this track alone one can get a general idea of what Brian Wilson was after in the studio.

   

VIDEO OF THE MILLENNIUM

At any rate, after grooving to all the session material (the first disc is too familiar already), I'm ready to comment on it, disc by disc.

DISC 2

The order of presentation of the remaining discs adheres to the pattern set forth on the first, rather than in chronological sequence.  The first two tracks, therefore, are devoted to the opening "Prayer" (or "Our Prayer" as it was titled in 1969 on 20/ 20).  Near the beginning of the session, one of the group suggests that "Prayer" could be a distinct song, Brian replies no, that it was simply the "intro to the album"; in spite of this, it became a separate track somewhere between the recording recording session and its initial release. 

A bit later in the session, it becomes obvious that Brian and other members of the group have ingested LSD ("You guys feeling the acid yet?") and are awaiting hashish joints from Dennis to enhance their experience even further.  None of this, however, seems to affect their performance of the a cappella piece as it proceeds section by section between breaths. 

The remainder of the disc focuses solely on "Heroes and Villains," again section by section, including transitions between sections, for a total of thirty-four tracks.   Some highlights and observations:

Track 29, the "Heroes and Villains" verse remake, which for a long time was thought to be "Barnyard," because of its rustic-sounding theme, uses a baritone ukulele (!) played with a stick to simulate the sound of plucked violin strings.  There are two versions of this theme, one as a straight instrumental and the other featuring a scat vocal by Carl Wilson.

Track 30, labeled "Heroes and Villains" organ waltz/ intro is used instead as part of the "Fire" segment of the "Elements Suite."  It seems to make a lot more sense that way.

Tracks 33-35 never ceases to amaze me with its dual intersection of "boys... and...girls..." among the backing vocals of the penultimate verse.

Track 36, after the proper "Heroes and Villains" segments, presents a piano and vocal performance by Brian which purports to represent the entire suite, including "I'm in Great Shape" and the real "Barnyard."  These snippets are used as "fly-ins" on the SMiLE reconstruction on Disc 1.

The last track introduces the laughter aspect of Brian's concept, a joke ending wherein Brian gets caught in the microphone.  Later on in the set there is a similar situation that has him falling into and trying to escape from the key-hammers in his piano.

"Our Prayer"

DISC 3

We actually hear Brian in sessions for the following tune naming it "Do You Like Worms?," for reasons no one involved is able to remember.  The first part, with the vocal line Rock, rock, roll, Plymouth Rock roll over," uses what I think of as the "mantra" section of "Heroes and Villains," adding the lyric "Bicycle rider, now see what you've done to the church of the American Indian."    The second, and final part repeats a Hawaiian motif which adds layers of instrumental and vocal parts with each iteration.

The instrumentation includes twelve-string electric guitar, upright piano with taped strings (played by Van Dyke Parks), harpsichord (played by Brian Wilson), upright bass, Fender bass (played by Carol Kaye), tympani, parade drum, and, late in the tune, conga drum.

"Do You Like Worms"

Following this there is a medley of an old folk tune, "The Old Master Painter," and "You Are My Sunshine" (aka "My Only Sunshine") with the lyric sung by Dennis Wilson, featuring a ten-piece orchestra augmented by four cellos.  Another version of this medley, dubbed "Barnshine" in the old bootleg days, features arco bass along with the cellos to get the rhythm and tempo right.

"Cabin Essence"

One of the most breathtaking sessions of the album are around the three-part "Cabin Essence" (aka "Cabinessence").   The first two sections, "Home on the Range" and "Iron Horse," are performed twice before the finale, "Grand Coulee Dam."

Over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield
Over and over the thresher and hovers the wheatfield

The leisurely "Home on the Range" verse features in accompaniment a homespun banjo (Carol King again) and a "doing, doing, doing" backing vocal behind Carl Wilson's lead, portraying a peaceful life on the Western prairie.  One of its pivotal moments occurs around a triangular figure with a harmonious and a harmonica playing in contrary motion, following a melodic rise that echoes the main theme .  The "Iron Horse" section declaims a stark contrast, conjuring a locomotive hurtling across the landscape, the huge chorale under the lyric"Who Ran the Iron Horse," anticipating a similar chorale behind he song's finale.  Here the imagery changes its title punning with the notion of coolie Chinese laborers building the railroad. The percussion itself suggests the laborers' driving spikes.  The backing banjo of the first section morphs into an insistent sitar on the tag, itself based on a single note.

How in hell does a rock and roll idol come up with such a brilliant composition and a stunning arrangement?  Beats me.  It's hard not to deify him.

This astonishing suite brings to a close the "Americana" part of the album, which had begun with "Heroes and Villains" and now beginning a segment about childhood innocence.  First comes "Wonderful," issued previously in a version entirely different for Smiley Smile.   The lyric relates the story of a girl's life, begins with her infancy and proceeds to  her growing up, and ending with a sigh and her devotion to her parents among the tribulations of life.

Within the sessions, there are three distinct versions of "Wonderful":  

"Wonderful"

(The version with "Walk with Me, Henry" continues to puzzle me.

*********************************************************

In my rotation:

• The Gram Parsons Anthology:  Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels (Rhino, 1967-73)

Like many others, I supposed, I first heard the voice of Gram Parsons on the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo album in 1968.  For the short time he was in the group, he exercised a profound influence on their song material and performance style, pushing them in the direction of what then was called country rock, which Parsons pioneered.  Some of the Byrds' material is included on this double-disc compilation, along with material recorded by the International Submarine Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and under Parsons's own name, wherein he recorded many delightful duets with Emmylou Harris.  I'm happy to have found this collection in the local branch of the Lake County Public Library.

• The Zombies, Odessey and Oracle (Columbia, 1967)

A long time ago, an internet friend of mine once shyly confessed that, at times, he liked this album better than Pet Sounds.  I'm not sure of that, but I do love this album (another friend of mine, Ray, hates it thoroughly).  This is the sound of English flower-pop of the '60s, which is beautiful to the ears of those who adored the so-called British Invasion.  There's only one pop hit here, "Time of the Season," but the record maintains a consistently high level of composition, performance, and production.  

• Woody Shaw, In the Beginning (aka Cassandranite) (Muse, recorded 1965; released 1983)

Joe Henderson, ts; Larry Young or Herbie Hancock, pno; Ron Carter or Paul Chambers, b; Joe Chambers, d.

I often wonder why this album, released 28 years after it was recorded, was not snapped up immediately by Alfred Lion at Blue Note Records.  The personnel here is a veritable gauntlet of Blue Note artists, and the music was at the forefront of hardbop in the mid-sixties and is even now.

Shaw and Henderson were bandmates on Horace Silver's Cape Verdean Blues, which was released shortly before this recording, and Woody would reunite a bit later with Young on the latter's Unity album.  The differences between those two albums define the changes Shaw was undergoing at the time toward a modal approach to playing.

Had it been released in a timely manner, this would have been the first album to be put out under the name of Woody Shaw, who was all of 20 years old at the time.

My own copy of the record was one of two Shaw releases paired under the title Last of the Line, referring to his trumpet predecessors Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard.  Woody deserved this appellation, but alas was afforded little of the esteem bestowed upon players who were his inferiors. 

• Captain Beefheart, The Spotlight Kid / Clear Spot (Reprise, 1971-2)

The Spotlight Kid:  Zoot Horn Rollo, gtr; Rockette Morton, b; Drumbo, d, perc; Ed Marimba, d, perc, marimba, pno, harpsichord.  Clear Spot:  same, except Morton, Drumbo out; add Roy Estrada, b; Milt Holland, perc; The Blackberries, backing vocals.

These two albums represent Captain Beefheart's desire to break into mass popularity; hence the inclusion of relatively tame, radio friendly ballad material alongside the more challenging stuff one might expect.  They may not be the "best" Beefheart, but these two albums are the ones to which I return most.  In the opinion of some, The Spotlight Kid (produced by Don Van Vliet) is inferior to Clear Spot (produced by Ted Templeman), but to me they seem to be of one piece, perhaps the result of listening to them back-to-back, as on this CD release.  I don't think I could live without "White Jam"* or "Grow Fins" from Kid, or "Low Yo Yo Stuff," "Big Eyed Beans from Venus" ("Mister  Zoot Horn Rollo, hit that long lunar note.... and let it float") or "Long-Neck Bottles" from Spot:

Woman likes long-neck bottles
And a big head on her beer.

*Yes, this title means exactly what you think it means, and the performance could be characterized as "orgasmic," especially after the jarring shift in rhythm in the middle of the song.  I can't think of a better musical example of pure joy, Beefheart's vocal, plus his mouth harp, a bottle-neck slide electric guitar, a bass guitar, a drum kit, and a percussionist in a blues-soaked tableau.

I also suspect that "Long Neck Bottles" may imply the same sort of thing.

• Various artists, The Doo-Wop Box 1, Vol. 3:  Doo-Wop's Golden Age (Rhino, 1956-59) (Amazon page)

Triplets, anyone?  To boomers of a certain age, this disc (one of four included in the box), will transport them to their childhoods.  Among its treasures:  "Maybe," by The Chantels (the only girl group represented here); "Hushabye," by The Mystics; "I'm So Young," by The Students; "Little Star," by The Elegants; "Tears on My Pillow,"by The Imperials (before Little Anthony received his own billing); "Get a Job," by The Silhouettes; "I Wonder Why," by Dion and the Belmonts; and so many more, most of them familiar to me, but some new experiences also.  It's nice to have all this stuff in one place.

I'm So Young

• Jackie McLean, Demon's Dance (Blue Note, 1967)

with Woody Shaw, tp; LaMont Johnson, p; Scotty Holt, b; Jack DeJohnette, d.
If not for the late '60s Jackie McLean records I don't own, I might have included this record in the the post I made about Jackie's mid-60s Blue Notes.  Woody Shaw is a great point of interest to me, as is Jack DeJohnette.  All of the compositions here are by either McLean or Shaw, with the exception of Cal Massey's "Toyland."

While not quite up to the standards set by his earlier records, this is a rewarding listen.

• Larry Coryell Trio, with Larry Gray, b; Paul Wertico, d.  Playing live at the Jazz Showcase, Chicago, Nov. 20, 2016.

I was fortunate to attend this performance by the guitar master and his compatriots.  All three of them get a chance to shine in solo roles, and shine they did.  As difficult to play as Monk's "Trinkle Tinkle" is, this group performed it with style.

Setlist:

Alone Together

Trinkle Tinkle

Impressions

Penultimate (L. Coryell)

Insensatez

Spaces Revisited (L. Coryell).  dialogue for guitar and drums

• The Essential Larry Coryell.  (Vanguard Records, 1967) 

I brought this compilation to the performance to have it autographed but ended up listening to it a few days later.  My favorites by far are "Stiffneck" with Elvin Jones, the passionate "Lady Coryell," and "Spaces (Infinite)," which unites Coryell with John McLaughlin.  There are a couple of clunkers here as well, but on the whole I wish all fusion were this good.

update:  Just a few months after I saw him perform, Larry died in New York of heart failure on February 19, 2017.

R.I.P,  LARRY CORYELL

IN MAH CAH!

• Brian Wilson, Odds & Ends

This is my own compilation of Brian Wilson's stuff, from 1987 until 2012, that has been issued all over the place:  bonus tracks, tribute albums, special-issue compilations, etc.  For no particular reason, I find my little project an absorbing listen and have consequently elevated it to car status, a rare privilege indeed.

If you squint a little bit, you can see my track list below:

NB:  track 24 (Paul Shaffer's "Metal Beach") could not quite fit this graphic.

Oddsly and endsly enough, there is a lot to love in this homemade comp:  the backing track to the Brian Wilson's band version of "Surf's Up"; the a cappella rendition of "Your Imagination"; "California Living Doll" (which originally was a flexidisc included with Barbie dolls); the haunting melody of "Everything I Need," with lyrics by Tony Asher and the voices of Brian's daughters singing lead.  Lotsa cool stuff.

• Abdullah Ibrahim, Water from an Ancient Well (Tiptoe, 1985)

Dick Griffin, tb; Carlos Ward, as, flute; Ricky Ford, ts; Charles Davis, bs; David Williams, b; Ben Riley, d.

On the Duke Ellington-LYM email list, someone who had been asked to name his favorite non-Ellington albums suggested this one, so I downloaded it from Amazon.  Immediately I sensed Ibrahim's debt to Duke, especially on the final cut, "Sameeda."  Three saxes and a trombone, without rhythm accompaniment, moan out a chromatic theme that chills me the same way Ellington's "The Mooche" conjures images from one's soul.  The tunes here all carry the flavor of Ibrahim's native South Africa.

The baritone saxophonist, the late Charles Davis, anchors this octet-- named Ekaya--  much in the manner of  Harry Carney in Ellington's organization.  As a soloist, however, Davis is something else again, a truly original stylist on his instrument.  There will be more of this artist in future posts.

Abdullah Ibrahim

NEXT:  My Bitch About The NCTE