The Beach Boys original SMiLE to be released on CD and vinyl LP...(dixième partie)

Any news on the smiley smile board..

Is it gone for good?

 

Poor ol' Al. Some wounds never heal.

 

Sorry to say Swedish Frog deserves the waste bin

 

Curious if the Barnyard Billy's barroom brawl and comedy skit will be included in the H&V sessions.

and what about the silk trader in Do You Like Worms....?

 

Tsk! I quite like that bit.

 

If we are going to stick with the animal theme can someone enlighten me with the skinny on "Three Blind Mice." I'm more interested in its sound and less in the date it was recorded.

 

"Three Blind Mice" was supposedly recorded on 15th October 1965, United Recorders Studio A, Hollywood. Although is is not mentioned on the AFM sheet for that day's session which was really for the reacoding of two Dick Reynolds recordings "Stella By Starlight" and "How Deep Is The Ocean" [no connection with "'Til I Die"].

It's really just a three chord sequence, repeated ad nasuseum. Interestingly augmented chords built up from a surprisingly large ensemble, which make it interesting at least.

One theory is that it was an exercise in arrangement for Brian under the guidance of Dick Reynolds.

Who knows what it was really for - maybe the box set book will reveal all...

 

For what it is worth, I just interviewed Domenic Priore for an article I am writing about Smile (slated to talk to Darian Sahanaja on Friday). This is something that won't go into my magazine article so I don't mind sharing it here, but Domenic said he was consulted in JAN of this year on research for the Smile Sessions Box and that he provided Capitol with quotes from all the Beach Boys from prior to '68 about Smile ("nothing negative" he said) He expects these may be used in the box set book or CD booklet, but he hasn't been given a guarantee from Capitol or received his box yet.

He also said for certain that the vinyl 45 of H&V in the box set includes Brian's original single mix for the A side. The B-side is a new edit of Brian's planned "part 2" of H&V. Domenic said Brian never finished an edit of Part 2, but did write detailed notes in '67 about what sections part 2 would include. Those notes were followed in detail for this mix.

I asked him if H&V Part 1 and 2 on the CD were the same as the vinyl 45, and Domenic said he did not know.

 

Yeah good one

 

So what exactly is Brian's original mix for the A side??????????????? Cantina or the SS version - the timings don't match either.

Best bit of this is the use of Brians notes - that bodes well

 

Wow, the existence of detailed notes from '67 is rather huge. Thanks much for sharing!

 

Awesome news! It sounds like they were really striving for authenticity here.

I look forward to reading your full article.

 

Thanks for the information. I'm looking forward to this set and the mysteries it will (or will not) answer.

 

With so many tapes missing I don't think we know how complete "Great Shape" was in 1966. There was a "Great Shape" vocal session at Columbia that has never turned up, IIRC 10 days prior to the session for the short 'eggs & grits' backing track takes. I think it's like the 'eggs & grits' bit would've cycled through the track as either a verse or chorus. I can't imagine the '66 Great Shape resembled what is on BWPS.

 

My gf said that I've been listening to The Beach Boys so much lately that all she can think about is brushing her teeth and eating vegetables.

 

That's definitely a good thing; healthy body and fresh breath.

 

Indeed.

Makes me wonder if notes (by Brian) for any other unfinished songs may have turned up as well.

 

Disagree - that's an assumption. We don't know. The jury's still out as to whether they were original lyrics or not.

 

Has anyone ever seen 'detailed' notes written by Brian about anything??

 

I'm with you Bro. I reckon Brian just stopped using any other song title when booking the sessions, filling out AFM sheets because the ideas were coming so thick and fast. But I'll reconsider that when the set appears.

I can't believe that I posted like 4 times in earlier threads to try to get a discussion about this Barnyard Suite and the Priess quote, but nada. Then I fall asleep and yada!

 

When and where will it be published? Looking forward to reading it. Very interested in hearing what Darian has to say about TSS.

 

Good question

 

Re: Barnyard Suite

Not sure if this has been discussed before, or if Vosse is regarded as a particularly accurate source, but in my opinion the key period document regarding SMiLE's intended form (at least, as Vosse specifies, in late '66 before the return of the Boys) is the Fusion article in which he speaks at length about the SMiLE Era.

Not only does he provide much general info about the way the modular approached worked in practical terms (and specific insights into how Cabin Essence shifted around), but there are several song-specific statements: that Surf's Up was a "kind of closer" to album, to be followed by a choral piece ("Prayer" presumably, except for its description as an "intro for the album" on the session tape, perhaps a lost/unrecorded piece or a reprise ala that which precedes GV on BWPS); effects and vocal breakdowns on Wind Chimes and others.

Most relevantly to this discussion, there is an extended anecdote about OMP/YAMS that describes Brian improvising/extending its coda into, presumably, the fade that ends the Cantina version of H&V. This, and the implication is it was largely done in a spirit of fevered creativity and exploration, then bled into a piece involving animal noises (Barnyard proper, as all of this seems to have happened before the Beach Boys returned, with Vosse, Van Dyke et al providing noises, presumably to an acetate) and - most interestingly - a piece including "sawing" and workshop noises.

Is it too much of a leap to suggest, since Workshop was subtitled "Great Shape" on the tape box (or session documentation - apologies if I have this wrong) and the "Great Shape" verse proper was overtly linked with Barnyard on the Humble Harve demo, that indeed the song listed on the Capital Memo as "I'm in Great Shape" was at one point indeed this sequence of pieces, or something like it - Cantina fade/I'm in Great Shape (harp, sax, bass)/Workshop and Barnyard... ie. the Preiss book's "Barnyard Suite" in all but name?

Would be interested to know if this has been discussed, which it presumably has, and what the consensus was?

 

I'm guessing it's the cantina mix plus the "woo woo woo" just before the under arrest part.

I don't believe for a minute Brian made and kept notes on the sequence of Part 2 - far more likely the "notes" are tape box annotations and assembled tape sequences.

 

Well Barnyard goes after after the verses and great shape, with something in-between. So we sort of know where it goes, it's pretty clear to me. I agree it's probably the fade - it certainly must have been considered as a fade before being replaced by the quite similar Barnshine - but we just have the acetate version. The actual Oct 20 th session should give us the answer - does it come to a planned cold ending, or does he cut it off at the end because he was planning to use it as a fade from the beginning. If Brian had just said on the demo "it ends like this" then there'd be no doubt. Didn't he realize Smilophiles would be dissecting his every word on this demo in order to unravel the mysteries of his epic follow to Good Vibrations?