Adding to the weirdness is one of Brian's recent
responses to a message on his website: "it makes me
SMILE", with the caps.
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Replying to:
Actually, The Elements Part 1 - Fire *was* officially released on the Beach Boys: An American Band video (the long one). The Rolling Stone angle is a bit of a red herring, then.
But it does raise some interesting possibilities about the SOT crew. If a track that they compiled & distributed is used in this official capacity, might there be some degree of complicity (or collusion) between the tribes? The mind boggles...
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Replying to:
It's right off of SOT 16 all the way. You can still hear some of the trail from Wind Chimes on it. Still,it's pretty bizarre that this is on an official" website... I gotta wonder if Brian or anyone in the Brother camp knows about it.
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Replying to:
I haven't downloaded it yet but on the Linnett tape the H & V intro is labelled "Fire intro" and preceded Mrs O Leary's Cow - that may be the source rather than SOT.
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Just downloaded it. The way in which a split second of the first whistle is cut off would strongly suggest that this is from the SOT16 bootleg, as Wind chimes does crossfade slightly into Mrs O'Leary's Cow on the CD.
Also, I think Brian's comment is taken directly from the Wouldn't It Be Nice autobiography.
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Replying to:
This may be old news, but Rolling Stone Magazine's web site offers a free download of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow -in stereo! Go to 'RollingStone.com' and click on 'MP3 and more' on the left side. Enter "Brian Wilson" (not Beach Boys)
where indicated. The mp3 post appears to be completely legit, as the artists who upload are required to enter into an agreement authorizing the use, etc.
If you click on 'lyrics' you will find Brian's commentary on the track: "A weird crash and crackle of instruments smoldering with strange chords which are not the straight eight. This song has never been released nor will it ever be. It was scheduled for release on my SMiLE album. I've said this recording was destroyed but it is obvious it was not."
Oddly enough, the version begins w/ the H&V Intro (whistles, etc.) and then goes into the "Fire" track. It fades out and does not include the drums "putting out the fire" part at the end. Some observations/questions: -Wouldn't this be the first "official" piece of Smile released since the H &
V Demo on Endless Harmony? -Is this an acknowledgement that the H&V Intro is really part of "Fire?" -Does this mean that Brian considers the remaining pieces of Smile to be "Brian Wilson" material, and not the Beach Boys? -Wouldn't this mean that B.W. owns all the rights to the unreleased Smile tapes, and not Capitol Records?
Is making Smile available via the web part of the "master plan" for Smile? -Will Smile circa 2000/2001 be in stereo? -Wasn't Brian particularly sensitive about this track; yet he chooses to publish it, and not other, representative Smile tracks? Why would he comment that the track would never be released and then make the track instantly available to the masses?
Once again, this may be old hat to most of you, so I apologize if this horse has been flogged in the past. But it seemed pretty interesting to me!
12-15-2000