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

a FRoWN upside down

A SMiLE Odyssey, 1967-2011

Part one

This is the story of the The Beach Boys' SMiLE album, as I and many others experienced it from the beginning.  After the release of "Good Vibrations" in the fall of 1966, fans were excitedly anticipating what would come next.  That record, it should be noted, was the result of six months in four different studios, with sections sequenced to produce a "pocket symphony" with a playing time of 3:35.  Producer Brian Wilson then conceived his next project as an album-length extension of the same idea, a mixing and matching of parts to form a seamless whole.

For the Beach Boys, these were uncharted waters.  "Good Vibrations" had been a worldwide smash hit; the following July, however, the group's vocal gymnastics and lyrics by Van Dyke Parks on display in "Heroes and Villains" (b/w You're Welcome) were not as well-received.  This was perhaps the final nail in the coffin of the SMiLE (such was the proposed orthography for the record's sleeve) project.

1967 single picture sleeve

Can you imagine these sides making the charts?  Dream on.

The bombshell was delivered later that year in the form of an article by Jules Siegel , "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God," which first appeared in Cheetah, one of the first of a growing number of magazines dedicated to the crazy notion that rock music was art-- or make that "Ahhht."  The article detailed the rise and fall of SMiLE and, along with a pair of 1968 interviews done by Paul Williams with David Anderle in  Crawdaddy magazine, was perhaps the beginning of the legend of what became the most famous and elusive "lost" recording in history.

This is a review of how, and when, various pieces of the SMiLE puzzle fell into place: the when and how we fans collected dribs and drabs of the music over the years.

(Please enjoy the videos here promoting the Capitol Records 2011 box set release.)

Domenic Priore's volume is a useful scrapbook for everything SMiLE, including the Siegel piece.

Paul Williams's compendium from Crawdaddy includes his interviews with Anderle.

(here and below) Brian Wilson and Van Dyke parks in the recording studio

Introduction  

Webisode 1                                                                                          

 

Webisode 2

artwork for SMiLE by Frank Holmes

• Smiley Smile, 1967 (7 tunes, either explicit or implied)

SMILEY SMILE

The release of Smiley Smile in September, 1967, came as a shock to fans who were expecting the grand studio production that "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" seemed to promise.

Instead, apart from those two tracks, , we got a laid-back, back-to-the-basics recording-- almost an "anti-Beach Boys" record.  The other songs intended for SMiLE had been completely redone in Brian's home studio and hastily prepared for release, including "Vegetables," "Wind Chimes," "Wonderful," and (outfitted with new lyrics) "She's Going' Bald."  The structure of the original's thundering instrumental, "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" aka "Fire," was turned into the gentle, whimsical "Fall Breaks (and Back to Winter)."

Coming back to Smiley Smile many years later, my opinion of the album has greatly improved.  Without comparison to SMiLE, the album stands up well on its own terms and is a pleasure to experience.  I recently listened to it once more to make a few pertinent observations.

• HEROES AND VILLAINS 

Besides this three-and-a-half minute released version, at least a dozen other recordings of varying lengths have come to light, some with new verses  (At threescore and five, I'm very much alive...), and some with a "cantina" narrative added.)  I've heard session recordings which lay bare the voices that are just at the edge of my conscious hearing.  Have you ever "felt," more than heard the voices speaking behind the last verse ahead of the tag?  Actually, there are two voices overlapping each other, both singing, "Boys... and... girls... and..., until the end of the verse.

At least six or seven different versions are contained in the 2011 SMiLE Sessions box set (as will be
 described in my next post to bloggy.).

• VEGETABLES

More than a simple remake, the Smiley Smile version is almost a deconstruction of the one on SMiLE.  Among other hallmarks, here are a cornucopia of pet sounds, including bottle-whistles, various kitchen implements (viz. Jules Siegle's article, linked above, for an account of this pan symphony may have originated),  and, of course a celery percussion section led by Paul McCartney.
The Boys were reportedly stoned for this number (I believe this), using Brian's empty swimming pool as an echo chamber.  Only a snippet of the original "Vega-Tables" was inserted as a tagline.

• FALL BREAKS AND BACK TO WINTER (W. WOODPECKER SYMPHONY

This piece relies on the contrast between vocal movement and  instrumental stasis.  A long drawn-out organ built over a moving bass line behind the vocals falls silent behind long instrumental rests.  There are yet more sound effects, including a prominent  mwa mwa mwa (by what I think is a Moog synthesizer), bells, temple blocks, etc.  A harmonica enacts the role of Woody.  This Smiley Smile selection has exactly the opposite vibe as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," whose structure it duplicates.

• SHE'S GOIN' BALD

Variant of SMiLE's "He gives speeches..."

Dennis lead ("Silken hair, more silken hair...), Mike fills; others:  backing vocal (AAH AAH DUM DOOBY DOOBY DOO) This vocal riff connects strongly to the same sort of riff in other songs here and also with several SMiLE tracks.

Sudden increase in speed, frequency of vocal, leading to dialogue narrative (Brian and Mike?), accompanied by ascending,  corny chords of foreboding, a la movie serial thrillers; she's tried everything, to no avail.

The tag:  Mike: "It's too late mama"; Group backing: "no more no more no more no more";  piano; guitar. BW:"Upside your head..."

• LITTLE PAD

This is the first of three tracks, all with lead vocals by Carl, that seem to have no direct connection to the SMiLE project, the others being "With Me Tonight" and "Whistle In."  "Little Pad" begins with a couple seconds of stoned-out laughter and a nasal self-lampoon melody line; this resolves into a section featuring the Boys accompanied by Hawaiian guitar.  In the contrasting module that follows, Carl gently scats and then sings over a bed of ukulele chords, culminated by the verse, "Sure would like to build a pad/ In Hawaii."  And then back to where it starts all over again, perhaps endlessly.  This time the sound effects include temple blocks and (I think) amplified sand paper, if such a thing could be said to exist.

• GOOD VIBRATIONS

Listed among twelve titles listed on the proposed back cover (Exhibit A) for SMiLE and on Brian's handwritten  original (Exhibit B), yet there is reason to believe "Good Vibrations" was a late addition, insisted upon by Capitol, to boost sales.  (Likewise, I think on their previous release, Pet Sounds, the hit single " Sloop John B.," certainly an odd choice for  an album so personal in nature, was added to boost sales (to little avail, apparently).    It doesn't really prove my case, but I have seen an alternate front cover without the "Good Vibrations" embroidering on the awning.  "Good Vibrations doesn't easily fit any of SMiLE's themes: America, innocence, the elements:  earth, air, fire, water.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

But all the same I wouldn't object to someone acknowledging this as the finest single to have come from rock'n'roll, perhaps for all time.

* Coincidentally, my first google result for "Good Vibrations" linked to a business of that name.

• WITH ME TONIGHT

This gentle round  begins with an a cappella verse (the line  "On and on she goes dumby doo..."  The melody comes from a time before we were born. It intimates the edges of eternity itself.  Again, Carl carries the verse against the choir of voices and a static organ chord, which rises to restart the a cappella beginning.  And so on.

The moral, of course, is "Be careful, my son, that, in pursuing thine own self, thou may'st  also consume thyself, as the mamba devours its tale."  Thus saith  the I Ching in accordance with the flip/ flop of the eternal wicket. 

(Somewhere I have an alternate version that moves a little faster and features group vocals out in front.  Perhaps it's an actual riff recorded for the original album.  I shall count it as such.)  

• WIND CHIMES

This is another radical change from the SMiLE version, which slid along gracefully with the breeze, before ending with clarion vocals.  This one is still as a moment in time, just Carl's pinched lead against that static organ chord under the verses and various chime sounds.  The organ finally disengages as the voices sing "The wind chimes tingle-ing, tingle-ing, tingle-ing."  The tag  introduces a beautiful new a cappella melody before fading away in the distance.

• GETTIN' HUNGRY

This tune was first a single (b/w "Devoted to You" from the Party!  album) by Brian and Mike, the second and last 45-rpm issued on the original Brother Records label.  It's fun to hear, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the album.

• WONDERFUL

Whereas the original version moved along with a steady harpsichord accompaniment, this one-- like so many others on Smiley Smile, slows time down to a crawl.   There is a massed vocal at the beginning, almost but not quite a Beach Boys' parody, over yet another static organ chord.  Carl's gentle vocal is accompanied by the sounds of childhood, as the young girl of the song is born, lives "through the recess,  the chalk and numbers" and eventually returns to the mystery from whence she came.

Significantly, I think, the Smiley Smile version drops the final verse of the original.  After "a boy bumped into her," etc:

All fall down and lost in the mystery

Lost it all to a nonbeliever

And all that's left is a girl

Who's loved by her mother and father.

And later in the original version she sighs as she thanks God, instead of smiling as she does here.  Does this change signify a turn toward optimism?

The Smiley Smile version of "Wonderful" uniquely interpolates what seems a party atmosphere, again like "Heroes and Villains" with some kind of subliminal speech underneath, before returning to the final verse.  Herein, Mike performs what I now know to be the tag of the 

original "Vega-Tables," another example of Brian's intended modular method of building the SMiLE album.

It needs to be said that Parks's lyrics here are among the best in the history of American verse.

• WHISTLE IN

Another round-style chorus, this time initiated by a whistle intro:

(Whistle in)
Remember the day-ay
Remember the night-night
All day long (all the day long)

Repeating forever as a prayer ring.

Carl sings a more forceful lead here, but it doesn't intrude unduly on the mantra.  About a minute long, and then Smiley Smile goes pthhhht.

Total:  9 SMiLE pieces

NB:  My listening source is the 2012 mono/ stereo reissue.  I'm sure most purchasers of this edition were already familiar with the music but were eager to hear it in stereo.  In particular, "Good Vibrations," the album's centerpiece, cried out for a full-blown stereo rendition.  This one, described in the album credits as a "stereo extraction mix by Derry Fitzgerald under the supervision of Mark Linett," is a fine example of what digital tech can achieve.  One hears it especially in the whirlwind choruses, with the theremin part clearly separate from the rest.  "Heroes and Villains," has been available in stereo since it first appeared a decade ago on the Hawthorne, CA compilation.  Some of the others ("Wonderful," "Wind Chimes," "Vegetables") do not sound much different from their mono counterparts.  I have heard better stereo mixes on amateur bootleg downloads.

Webisode 3

Webisode 4

Webisode 5

Webisode 6

Webisode 7

• Wild Honey, 1967 (1 tune)

WILD HONEY

No one knew it at the time, of course, but Wild Honey's concluding track, "Mama Says," is a reworking of a section of SMiLE's "Vega-Tables."

Total:  1 SMiLE piece

Webisode 8

• Friends, 1968.  Hidden behind Dennis's vocal on "Little Bird" is an instrumental figure that actually does suggest a bird, but in fact was cribbed from Brian's SMiLE piece, "Child Is Father of the Man."

FRIENDS

Total:  1 SMiLE piece

Webisode 9

• 20/20 from following year was to be the group's last album for Capitol.    The two SMILE tunes, here released for the first time in their original form* , were the most significant since 1967).  Not surprisingly, the record was a stimulating hodgepodge of material lately completed by the band; but to the hosannahs of SMiLE fanatics everywhere, it concluded with two never-before-heard pieces, the awe-inspiring prairie hymn, "Our Prayer," and the peaceful/ driving sweep of "Cabinessence," the story of the railroads and threshers pushing the American horizon ever westward.

There's one more thing:  at the very end of the first track, "Do It Again," there are a few seconds of the sounds of hammering.  This was extracted from the portion of SMiLE usually called "Workshop."

20/ 20

Total:  2 wonderful SMiLE pieces and a snippet

*On  "Cabinessence",  Carl Wilson added the lead vocal in 1968; likewise, on  "Our Prayer" the Beach Boys overdubbed new vocal parts.  Left over from the original sessions is Dennis's all-but-inaudible recitation behind the whirlwind of the Iron Horse:

Truck-driving man, do what you can. 
High-tail your load off the road, out of night-life. 
It's a gas, man. I don’t believe I gotta grieve.
In and out of luck with a buck and a booth.
Catching on to the truth, in the vast past, the last gasp. 
In the land, in the dust, trust that you must catch as catch can.

"Cabinessence" is also one of the best examples of the modular method of composition in SMiLE:  it consists of three separate sections that originally conceived to fit in elsewhere in the project. 

Webisode 10 

 Webisode 11

                                                                                 

                                               

• Sunflower, 1970, provided one "new" find, but it was a five-minute masterpiece they retitled "Cool, Cool Water," building upon material the band had completed for their water theme, "Love to Say Dada," for SMiLE.  Of particular note is a short section imitating the undulation of sound traveling over water.

If Brian and the Beach Boys could turn themselves into the sandy beach, even become a carrot, why not attempt to be water in all its glorious forms?

In an ocean or

 

 In a glass

Cool Water is such a gas. 

Total:  1 glorious SMiLE piece

Surf's Up from 1971 brought back a SMiLE song that had been known, but never again seen, since Leonard Bernstein touted the title song on television's Inside Pop:  The Rock Revolution in 1966.  That program included a film clip of Brian singing the soaring melody alone at the piano.  Five years later, however, the new album version of "Surf's Up" featured an overdubbed lead vocal by Carl, with the original's jangling backing track.  The second half of the released version had Brian's vocal and piano as it had been, spiffed up a little by bass and unobtrusive backing vocals.  Until very recently, technology did not permit sound engineers to synch Brian's original vocal with the instrumental track without altering its pitch; they finally succeeded in the 2011 box set, but that's the subject of my comments down the line, in this article's second installment.

SURF'S UP

Total:  1 last SMiLE piece, somewhat altered

• As of 1971 there was a grand total of sixteen SMiLE-related items in release.  Some of these have only an indirect, or even oblique relationship with the original recordings.

Webisode 12 (conclusion)

• The Beach Boys: An American Band (1985)

This film actually had a wide screening across the country (I recall Siskel and Ebert's positive reviews).  Soon after, it became available in VHS format, and eventually on DVD.

THE BEACH BOYS:  AN AMERICAN BAND

This documentary thrilled rabid SMiLE fans, because it exposed audio and video material we never knew existed.  There was first the prayer-wheel harpsichord track from "Heroes and Villains," accompanying a stop-action film of Carl Wilson standing in front of a white picket fence, his stance jerkily put into motion by the film's editing.  Shortly after this we got to hear the legendary  "Fire" music (and its accompanying firehouse film), which many of us thought had been destroyed by Brian as his paranoia dictated that the music had caused actual fires in the city of Los Angeles.

It was clear to us fans that a good deal of unreleased SMiLE material still existed, reason enough to believe, even in 1985, that a finished album could someday appear.

Total:  1 "new" SMiLE piece and one partial backing track

'

John Milward's big fan book in 1986 intimated the existence of more SMiLE material, including a session tape of Brian conducting his studio band through the first half of "Surf's Up," directing a musician to play his house keys for a percussion effect "just like diamonds."  Milward recommended that, from the bits and scraps that were then available, everyone construct his or her own version of SMiLE.  He then revealed that his scheme began with an Americana theme: "Heroes and Villains" through "Cabinessence"; and concluded with an "Elements" suite, culminating in the sweeping "Surf's Up.  Simple enough:  two themes, two LP sides.


A lot of fans seemed to take Milward's advice.  Sure enough, the late '80s and '90s were the golden age of SMiLE bootlegs (click "bootlegs" icon), which I began to hear first in the form of heavily-traded cassette tapes of the first attempts to assemble the album at last.

It's hard to describe the stunning effect the "new" material had on me when I first heard them, how utterly captivating they were to one who had heard nothing but the officially released material.  Until the mid-'90s, however, these attempts were only minimally successful and, early on, much off the mark:  some used the The Laughing Gravy's version of  "Vegetables" (see tracklist), and one even inserted a track from the Miles Davis/ Gil Evans, Porgy and Bess album, retitled "Holidays."

Eventually these shoddy discs and  tapes gave way to handsomely packaged multi-LP bootleg sets, and finally CDs that the faithful could exchange.  The bootleggers took advantage of leaks at Capitol Records that allowed them to issue more and more of the original SMiLE material.  It is worth noting that most of these would-be producers favored a track order that began with "Heroes and Villains"  and ended with "Surf's Up."


Finally, 1990 was the year Capitol Records began releasing their "twofer" series of CDs, all of which included bonus tracks.  On the re-release of Smiley Smile (paired with Wild Honey), we were treated to renditions we'd never heard before:  a thrilling alternate version of "Heroes and Villains," which included an interval beginning with the words "In the cantina..."  The disc also included a lengthy montage of various "Good Vibrations" sessions and an early version of the complete song.

And so matters stood until  the long-awaited release of a new SMiLE trove in 1993.  That event will form the beginning of my next post.

IN MY ROTATION:

• Tommy Flanagan, Thelonica (enja, 1982)

with George Mraz, b; Art Taylor, d.


My own CD copy is on the PolyGram Japan label, so the liner notes, which were probably brilliant, are just exotic wallpaper to me.  Be that as it may, here are the liner notes that don't really exist.  But I'll pretend that they do.

Thelonica, of course is Tommy's homage to Thelonious Monk.  Two versions of Flanagan's title song bookend an album of some of the great Monk originals.  Flanagan was one of the very few musicians who really had his own take on the master; his interpretations are precise and fluid in manner Monk himself never played.  This trio was a powerful unit who appear to have played with each for quite a long time.  By by the time they cut this disc, they almost knew how to read each other's minds.

I love all of these tunes.   "Off-Minor" whizzes by like a bullet on AT's ching-chinga-ching charge.  "Reflections" features a delicate duet between the pianist and bassist.  "Pannonica" grabs me in any form, and "Ugly Beauty" is no oxymoron at all.

• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (Verve, 1959)

I consider this an Ella Fitzgerald album, rather than the composer mentioned in the title's.  Nevertheless, I can't remember the last time I listened to the first two discs, featuring Ella and her small group; like a compass needle, my attention goes directly to Disc 3, where the band plays on an equal footing with the singer.  Only one Billy Strayhorn composition is featured, "Chelsea Bridge," but all six of Ella's small-group performances are here supported by new Strayhorn arrangements, all of them perfect for the occasion.

I've read some idiotic claims that Ella herself was not capable of deep emotional expression; the lie is given here by her tender performance of "I Got It Bad," which rivals the original version with Ivie Anderson.

The opening tunes then make way for a Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald,  a four part-suite.  The first three movements were composed by Billy and the last by Duke, though they switch roles as emcees introducing each part.  "Royal Ancestry, featuring Paul Gonsalves; "All Heart,"a beautiful ballad featuring a memorable solo by Shorty Baker; "Beyond Category, with solos by Jimmy Hamilton,  Clark Terry and Harry Carney;  and "Total Jazz, featuring many soloists including trombonist John Sanders and the peerless Johnny Hodges on alto sax."  The set closer, "E and D Blues," sometimes went by a more familiar title "Jam with Sam," which Ellington used frequently as an  opportunity to introduce the band:  "Here's Paul Gonsalves, from Newport Rhode Island," or ("Cat Anderson, the high C above the high in Hyannisport.")

High above Newport RI, figurative (but not literal) birthplace of Paul Gonsalves

...and in mah cah

•  Mary Lou Williams, Wiki,  Inst. of Jazz Studies, Rutgers, allmusic.com/MLW, The Zodiac Suite (Smithsonian Folkways , 1945)

 amazon link

MLW live at Montreux, 1978

This is only one of many MLW collections worthy of my car collection, but it contains a single performance, Libra, that affected me profoundly back in the day, as they say.  With this composition, I began to hear jazz harmony in an entirely new way.

There is too much to be said about this recording to recount here.  Suffice to say that MLW was a musical visionary.  It's hard to pick favorites, but other compositions that attract me include Aries, Taurus, Scorpio, and  an Aquarius that morphs into a lovely tango that only Mary could have performed.

My car copy doesn't end there, however.  It appends to the Smithsonian Folkways release the version of "Libra" that inspired me as a mere sprat.  Oddly, that version times out considerably longer and more developed than the one on the CD, although the liner notes claim its version is the master take.  I'm still trying to solve the mystery by consulting the appropriate volume of Mary's Chronogical (sic) reissue series but so far neither of its two candidates seems to match my old Folkways cut.

Stay tuned.

 After that, there is a performance of three numbers of the suite by Dizzy Gillespie's big band at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with Mary as guest soloist.  The performance is ragged, much to the chagrin of Ms. Williams, but still coherent and exciting, with "Virgo," "Libra," and "Aries" presented in turn.

(As on the foregoing selection, my copy is a needle-drop from an old (Verve) piano compilation.)

Finally, I append an Oscar Pettiford octet recording of "Scorpio." MLW's authorship of this arrangement is confirmed by its presence, in expanded form, among MSS she submitted to Duke Ellington in 1946 (viz. the performance of the score by the Dutch Jazz Orchestra).  The album's CD rerelease on the Fresh Sound label attributes the octet arrangement to Tom Whaley, Duke's copyist.

There is also a live recording of the suite from Town Hall, on VJC records.
  

 

Hear "Zodiac Suite"


Next:  SMiLE, PART TWO