Topic: Yet More Great Shape



04/24/01 02:21:19 PM

Subject: Great Shape

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Yeah, I was thinking we might not simply have found the session info for this one. And it's more than a possibility that the vocal segment done on the 17th was a different part of the song. I have a hard time buying that was the barroom brawl though, for a coupla reasons - one being that should be logged as Heroes and Villains you'd think. The second being that I have a hard time believing we'll find paperwork for that one at all - sounds like an "extracurricular" session to me. Could very well be Do Alot on that I7th session... and wouldn't it be crazy if the Veg demo was recorded then too? Just a thought. A crazy thought, but I've read - and written - crazier.

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Or a very great possibility that whatever was tracked on Oct. 17th was a different part of the song or a different section of H&V under the section title "I'm In Great Shape," eh? Hard to say.

If there was a session musician under contract, an AFM should probably exist for him, and in this case, it probably does!

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Well, I'm thinking the real reason we think the tracking session should come after the vocal is simply because that's what we thought all along. I'm sure there's another possible sax, bass and piano session possible before the 27th.

Didn't Alan say the tape could be "experimental"? If "experimental" could be interpereted as "kinda lousy", then maybe Mike was playing the sax?!?! 'cause the harpist missing from the other takes at least indicates to me the harpist wouldn't be on any missing, or, final take. Doesn't mean it wasn't the 27th mind you, just that if that's all the evidence there is that makes it a kind of broad narrowing device, if yaknowwhatimean.

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I have the 27th in mind because the instrumentation roughly matches up -- the 27th logs a saxophonist, Van Dyke on piano, a bassist and a harpist -- the harpist being the only missing soul on this recording, but if the final take isn't on this reel, that'd explain it.

So if the instrumental was tracked on the 27th, and it wasn't taped synched up to a previous vocal or anything, which I'll assume it wasn't, then what was tracked on the 17th is a mystery.

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Nov. 29th is "Friday Night / I Wanna Be Around." That one's clear and well-documented.

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Okay, here's a question - if this session was October 27 and the vocal one was October 17, what was tracked Nov. 29th!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, is the tape box dated? It could still be the Nov 29 session, right?

I don't think the October 17 session was the skit by the way, but that's just me.

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From what I've gleaned from a smidgen of off-board grilling, it's basically just like the "eggs and grits" on the demo, with a similar piano part and the saxophone playing the melody. Three variations.

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...this is a MAJOR bit of news

my take - yeah, Great Shape is most likely the 'barnyard suite', snipped off of H&V and put into its own track - I reckon it could also have include 'Do a Lot' and 'Barnyard', maybe with H&V intro? - 'Do a Lot' appears on a H&V session don't forget...

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Jesus, didn't anyone notice the post below where Alan talks about finding an "I'm In Great Shape" tape that's 3 variations on the "eggs and grits" melody played by a saxophone, piano, and bass?

I would have thought folks'd jump all over that one! We've only been obsessing about "Shape" for, oh, 10 years or something.

Well, let me begin the jumping by saying a few things that spring to mind:

a) so -- saxophone, piano, bass -- this says to me that this might be the Oct. 27th H&V session, which features piano, saxophone, and bass, but where's the harpist? If none of the three variations have vocals, and I'll assume they don't, then the final version might've been the one to feature the harpist, and was perhaps scoped off this session tape and put onto a comp reel for vocal overdubs? I don't have my session sheets in front of me -- Cam, is there some notation about the amount of time people were at that session? I seem to remember something.

b) I was right about the "tape explosion" being featured in an early version, I just mis-guessed its location!

c) So -- if "eggs and grits" is "Great Shape," and if it was tracked on Oct. 27th as "Heroes and Villains," what in tarnation was tracked at the "Great Shape" vocal session on Oct. 17th?

d) Does anyone think it might've been the skit stuff that Bellagio Insider was on about?

e) And then what else was "I'm in Great Shape?" Surely it can't only be a 30-second fragment, that must have been only one of the consitutent parts. Was it a song, with "eggs and grits" as the verse or the chorus and something else as the verse or chorus, and maybe "barnyard" as a fade? Was it the "barnyard suite" with "eggs and grits," maybe the "barnyard billy sketch" if such a thing ever existed, and "barnyard" as a fade?

e) So -- if I was right months ago and "eggs and grits" and "barnyard" really WERE part of a barnyard suite / "I'm In Great Shape," then by the time the Smile tracklisting was compiled, it was already seperated out into its own song, and what tbe heck took its place in H&V, eh??

f) If Toby's right and "swedish frog" was tracked in December, then maybe probably one or all of the "part 2 variations" were tracked in December at the "insert" vocal sessions as a replacement for the now-removed "eggs and grits" and "barnyard"???

Thoughts? Comments? Anecdotes???



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