Post by Cam Mott on Apr 23, 2019 10:53:49 GMT -5
The beginning of SMiLE: Part 2: Right Place, Right Time
In “The beginning of SMiLE: Part 1” we heard from people who were directly involved in the scene but some how those with the most specific dates were the least sure about how specific those dates were. In Part 2 we will hear from the two people directly involved in the SMiLE album writing collaboration beginning with “Heroes And Villains”. What have they told us about the timing of their first song together?
Beginning with Brian
Here is every clue and scrap of evidence I’ve found pertaining to the timing of the creation of “Heroes and Villains” according to Brian:
(crickets chirping)
Next up, Van Dyke Parks
The most and best evidence from Van Dyke, in my opinion, has been sitting on our shelves since 2005 in Domenic Priore’s “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”. I’m aware of past issues with Priore publications and am limiting use to just Van Dyke’s quotes without any authorial text or context. It is still sometimes confusing too and I’ve added some other sources and laid a scenario out as a timeline that I hope helps. Good luck. (fingers crossed)
May 11
Heroes and Villains session
A first version of “You Are My Sunshine” variations titled “Heroes and Villains” has been written and recorded without involvement of Van Dyke.
Here I would like to point out: sharing a title or track with a title or track used later during the Brian + Van Dyke collaboration does not indicate it is at this point also a Brian + Van Dyke collaboration.
“Al's (Kooper) impression that "Heroes and Villains" has any relationship to "You Are My Sunshine" is a surprize to me. They just don't sound similar. He may know something that I don't.”
Van Dyke Parks, email 5/23/99
The second thing I would like to point out: being in each other’s presence or circle doesn’t mean they were also in a songwriting collaboration at the time.
Van Dyke was meeting Brian socially at parties and Brian’s home but:
“I wasn't "hanging out" with Brian alot during that time, but I can say fairly, every time I've been with Brian, something came of it.”
Van Dyke Parks, email 5/23/99
June 2
Good Vibrations session
Van Dyke is present as an observer at a Good Vibrations session and makes a suggestion which Brian “exploits” but they are not in a songwriting collaboration. Van Dyke sees this as a demonstration of them having musical respect for each other.
“I've always been gratified he accepted my suggestion for the cello triplets on "Good Vibrations", so it can be said that I made one clear musical contribution.”
Van Dyke Parks, email 12/25/98
“It took 38 years from the page to the stage to hear Smile. The album took eight months to record, if you count from the recording date of the cello solo for the chorus of 'Good Vibrations', played by Jesse Ehrlich, who played the fundamental eighth-note-triplet boogie. Like the freeze-frame of the ruby slippers in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’, that cello riff would become the signature shot of the piece.
'Barko!' barks Brian into the control-room talk back in Western Recorders Studio 3. Chuck Britz is the engineer of this three-hour overdub session. Chuck embodies a quiet and reassuring confidence that could only come from a veteran of military service in the last just war. Chuck accomplishes missions.
‘Barko?' asks a perplexed Jesse from the studio. Jesse's not looking at any sheet music.
'Uh, that's arco, Brian - with the bow,' comes out from the corner of the control room. Things seem momentarily out of control.
'Okay, Jesse. Van Dyke sez "arco",' says a somewhat more subdued Brian.
Pure ear candy. Jesse - from an A-list of legit cellists for Hollywood's sound-stages - is himself astonished at the éclat of his own performance (though now a converted sceptic).
Non-stop four-track tape rolled in record and playback for the next two and a half hours, each phrase diligently re-executed, brought to a perfectly brittle ponticello ostinato - close-miked, hot and harder than ever. Jesse leaves his completed work, somehow transformed, vibrating at 144 beats per minute.
Brian didn't stop there. Another three meters of tape reeled by at 15 inches per second.”
“And then I suggested how good a cello would be, and he got Jesse Ehrlich – who I knew – down there to play the triplet fundamentals. By suggesting that, and having him exploit it to such a hyperbolic degree, showed that he knew that I knew what I was talking about, and he knew what he was talking about, and we knew what each other was talking about.”
Van Dyke Parks, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”
By August 2
Brian has written at least 3 more songs without Van Dyke.
"Brian Wilson … returning home within three days of leaving, to continue final preparations for the Beach Boys' follow-up album to 'Pet Sounds'. He's written five songs so far."
New Music Express, August 5, 1966
August 3
Wind Chimes session
An instrumental tracking session for the first version of Windchimes. No songwriting collaboration by Van Dyke Parks at this point and he is not credited on the first release of the song on the Smiley Smile album.
August 12
Untitled #1/Look/I Ran session
No songwriting collaboration by Van Dyke Parks at this point. Brian is interviewed - while the album title is still “Dumb Angel” - by Tom Nolan on this day in the studio and there is no mention of Van Dyke or even that there is or will be any collaborator(s)
Van Dyke may have written lyrics for the later recording of vocals for I Ran on October 13 but in “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE” VDP seems to say his lyrics associated with “Look” weren’t written until November 2003.
August 25
Wonderful session
Instrumental tracking session for first version of Wonderful; no songwriting collaboration with Van Dyke Parks at this point and he is not credited on the first release of the song on the Smiley Smile album.
Point of interest: One day after the August 24 alternate edit of a “SINGLE VERSION” of Good Vibrations, the Capitol Popular Session Work Sheet for this August 25 session and master for this version of “Wonderful” are documented as the project number B68-30 the Beach Boys’ generic designation for a single.
September 1
Good Vibrations session
He Gives Speeches session (possibly also on August 25)
Tapebox marked "She's Going Bald" / "Wonderful" / "nu tunes as of 9/1/66"
“Another tape rolls on. Brian recently told me I suggested the Hammond B3 bass pedals would make a great fundamental for the intro to the last chorus ('Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations a-happening'). That may not be true, but soon I was down on my hands and knees, with no pedal dexterity. We were now hovering at a slower 120 beats per minute. Two tempos in one song were an anomaly for the Hit Parade. Could this be a problem?”
“The first session I remember was a ‘Good Vibrations’ session. I was there on my hands and knees, playing the bass pedals of the B3 organ, which you’ll hear in the middle of ‘Good Vibrations’, before the glottal ‘ahhh’. It turns out that the bass response of the organ is much more luminous and broad than you could get from a bass guitar, and Brian liked that.”
Van Dyke Parks, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”
Van Dyke again makes a suggestion and assists as a musician but Brian and Van Dyke Parks are not yet in a songwriting collaboration for “Heroes and Villains”, although for some reason he is credited for the Smiley Smile album version of “She’s Going Bald”.
“Re. He Gives Speeches: “I don't believe "he gives speeches" was an idea of mine.”
Van Dyke Parks to Jon Hunt, email 5/16/00
“I cannot remember having written any of those words.”
Van Dyke Parks to Jon Hunt, email 11/29/01
“Those words” were the full lyrics to “He Gives Speeches” and Smiley Smile’s “She’s Going Bald” supplied to Van Dyke by Jon Hunt.
September 8
Holidays session
Van Dyke’s involvement is as a paid studio musician during the Pet Sounds album era - while it was still at #20 on Billboard - for what he understood to be “new music, an instrumental release” but he does not mention it as a songwriting collaboration and doesn’t write lyrics for the song until November 2003.
““The next thing I did, within a matter of a day or two, was to play the tack piano on the bridge – playing notes he told me to play, exactly when he told me to play.”
“By now, it was clear to me that 'arco' must have worked out OK, because Brian asked me to play some travelling sixths on the tack piano. This was new
music, an instrumental release. I played the part Brian demonstrated, and we recorded it with him in the booth. I was at the right place at the right time, I figured. They store the four-track tails-out.”
Van Dyke Parks, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”
“I worked as a studio musician for Brian Wilson during Pet Sounds, playing what he dictated on keyboards and marimba.”
Van Dyke Parks email 12/25/98
After September 8
“We spoke about what Brian was doing, because I had been with him in the studio, and he was working on this Pet Sounds thing but hadn’t had much talk…and that was the first time we had a conversation together – a real direct conversation with no bullshit, nobody hustling any business or anything – and he said he was looking for a lyricist, which surprised me. He asked me if I did that, and I lied and said, “Yes, I can be a lyricist”.
Van Dyke Parks, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”
“He called me up out of a clear blue sky and said, ‘Let’s write a tune together’.”
Van Dyke Parks, “Heroes and Villains”, p. 160
“Smile, as far as I was concerned, was the name of the project”.
Van Dyke Parks, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”'
Update: September 10 or before
Van Dyke has already written H&V with Brian or already agreed to co-write.
“…and one day Brian was there, and Van Dyke introduced me to Brian. “Hey, Brian’s doing this album and I’m going to be writing music with him”. So I said, ”Do you have a cover?” “No.” And I said, “Well, let me give you some ideas.” So I came up with that store-front idea, and they seemed to like that, and I think Brian took it to Capitol and said they wanted to have this on the cover.”
“The day I came up with the cover idea, I went home to Pasadena and just digested the idea for a little while.”
Frank Holmes, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”
Update: September 11, Sunday
Franks Holmes finds the inspiration for the SMiLE shop cover storefront on a Sunday Morning walk in Pasadena.
“Then Sunday morning came along and I took a walk on the streets, trying to get some inspiration, and I came upon this old, deserted jewelry store that was out of business. It had a wooden store front and everything was in very poor condition. It had green felt curtains behind the window, like café cutains, and they were all deteriorated. But there was little display boxes throughout, and I just stood there and looked in the window for quite a while, and took that home with me and thought, “Well, I’ll just draw this store front.”
Frank Holmes, “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE”
September 12
“I think Van Dyke had been working with Brian for a while, I don't know how long, I'm guessing not too long.”
Frank Holmes, email 2/6/01
“I was living in Pasadena till September and had been working on some of the drawings and ideas then. When I started my final year at Otis Art Institute (September 19), I moved back to Los Angeles and I began the finished work when the semester started. So you might say that part was done in Pasadena and the rest in Los Angeles.”
Frank Holmes, email 12/4/01
“Frank Holmes attended a Beach Boys vocal session at Columbia. FH remembers standing around in the hall with Dennis and Terry Melcher.”
Frank Holmes, Notes of phone conversation 8/31/98 & 9/1/98
Frank Holmes was almost certainly already at work on the SMiLE album cover and some of the booklet illustrations at a rate of an illustration a day as he received the lyric sheets and also preparing to or actually moving from Pasadena and may have attended this Beach Boys vocal session at Columbia.
September 19
Frank Holmes begins the 1966/67 Fall Semester at Otis Art Institute and both Frank and therefore VDP were already involved for some amount of time.
Conclusion:
“…and yet I had instrumental ideas that I suggested – for example – a cello for the triplets on the chorus of “Good Vibrations.” …so I insinuated myself into the music… “
Van Dyke Parks; Songs Cycled interview for Bella Union label
Recently, I came to realize that in Priore’s “The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece SMiLE” Van Dyke Parks was telling the story of how he “insinuated” himself into being a collaborator in the music of SMiLE. How he showed Brian that he knew what he and what Brian was talking about musically and could contribute to Brian’s music. How he was willing to literally get down on his hands and knees to serve Brian’s music. How he could take direction and execute exactly as a session musician. How he would end up the right guy in the right place.
Van Dyke tells the story twice of the three specific occasions that led to him being in the right place at the right time: The June 12 session for Good Vibrations, the September 1 session for Good Vibrations, and finally the September 8 session for Holidays after which he figured he was indeed in the right place at the right time and “tails out”.
His September 8 studio musician work on Holidays was in the past when Brian called Van Dyke out of the blue and said he was looking for a lyricist but how long after September 8? Frank Holmes says he - and therefore also Van Dyke - were working on SMiLE before the September 19 beginning of his Fall Semester, I’m not sure anyone knows exactly how long before anymore but I am proposing about a week before or around September 12 when Frank Holmes also may have attended the Good Vibrations session for its “final” vocals. I am 86% to 91% confident in this date range of between the evening of September 8 and September 12 and expect it will be corroborated some day.
Update: Frank says he had the commission and the smile shop concept and went home to Pasadena and then Sunday morning came along and he discovered the smile shop storefront that was the drawing's inspiration. There were only two Sundays between the September 8 Holidays session and the September 19 beginning of Frank's Fall Semester at Otis: Sunday the 11th and Sunday the 18th. I'm ruling the 18th out because Frank has said he had done some of the drawings before moving to LA and the beginning of the semester on the 19th with the smile shop cover being the first.
I believe that leaves the 11th as the day of the Sunday inspiration walk and would leave the evening of the 8th or day of the 9th or 10th as the day he met Brian and pitched the cover and from which the "Sunday morning came along". It seems it is down to a very tight time frame for when Van Dyke would have been hired before Frank became involved.
What’s that? Too cocky, Cam, you say? Pride cometh before a fall, you say?. Isn’t that just like a “boomer”, (some of) you say?
Maybe, but I’m willing to take bets and put a donut where my mouth is. (<<< Smile Shop joke, we used to wager with donuts a lot for some reason)
That said, additions and corrections always welcome.
Soon-ish: The beginning of Smile: Part 3: Dumb Angel: the prequel
