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DISC TWO
CAN'T WAIT TOO LONG (vocals section) (circa 1968)
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GOOD VIBRATIONS Sections (stereo) (various sessions, 1966)
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HEROES AND VILLAINS (stereo single version)
But while the pop world eagerly awaited this new milestone from the creators of "Good Vibrations," Brian, "Heroes and Villains," and Smile began to unravel. The story is well-documented elsewhere - suffice to say, by the late spring of 1967 the dream had died, the moment had passed.
And yet, The Beach Boys HAD to release a single. And then an album. There were serious contractual obligations to fulfill.
So Brian assembled a version of "Heroes and Villains," re-recording several sections in a makeshift studio newly installed at his home, and using just a few segments from the original Smile sessions for the new single (the verses, and the track for the chorus - logged as "Heroes and Villains Side Two" on the original tape box). The single was released in July of 1967, and the reaction was mixed, to say the least. Somehow, it just didn't live up to all of the expectations. Those who had been around during Smile noticed that incredible sections of the original song were, inexplicably, missing. Even some of The Beach Boys felt that Brian had, perhaps, unwittingly sabotaged his own creation.
And yet, the released version of "Heroes and Villains" is still an incredible piece of music in its own right, a dizzying trip through multiple musical genres that's utterly unlike anything The Beach Boys - or anybody else, for that matter - had attempted in rock and roll up to that point. The outlines of the original story are still there, and the vocals - some of the best in the group's catalog - manage to communicate a number of different moods within the record's three minutes and thirty five seconds. Perhaps it was ahead of its time. Perhaps it was just too much to digest on a car radio in the "Summer of Love."
For this compilation we've prepared a new stereo mix of the single version of "Heroes and Villains."
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VEGETABLES PROMO
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VEGETABLES (stereo extended version)
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YOU'RE WITH ME TONIGHT section (6/67)
Liner notes relating to SMiLE from the “Hawthorne, CA” CD:
Brian: Totally pure. The boys are absolute angels when they sing.
We open Disc Two with a stunning a capella fragment from one of The Beach Boys' legendary "lost" songs, a tune that they never quite finished but which they kept coming back to again and again and again. Based on a progression from the original "Smile" version of "Wind Chimes," "Can't Wait Too Long" was finally released in its unfinished state on Capitol's Smiley Smile/Wild Honey two-fer after garnering a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest unreleased tracks in the group's archive.
Dennis Introduces Carl (5/26/69)
BRUCE: Well, here's the way I see it. It's all about songs, arrangements. Brian - for my money, he wasn't burdened with technology. He had to get it on four track, he had to use the EQ and tape delay. There weren't a lot of tricks. You couldn't gate the drum, you couldn't do a billion things. You couldn't throw it off in Pro Tools and change the pitch and move it around. He had to do it the old fashioned way. He had to be an orchestral producer. So he had to write it into the arrangements.
Brian's masterpiece, Pet Sounds had alerted the world to the fact that The Beach Boys had progressed far beyond the simpler themes of girls, cars, surfin', and "Fun Fun Fun" that had put them on the map in the early 1960's. "Good Vibrations," started during the Pet Sounds sessions and released a few months later in October, 1966, startled the music industry and took the world by storm, racing up the charts all the way to number one. Complex, even avant garde, the Brian Wilson-Mike Love song nevertheless had a catchy sing-along vibe that listeners couldn't help but respond to. It didn't happen overnight, though; Brian spent a lot of time in the studio recording and re-recording the basic tracks, experimenting with different arrangements and trying a number of instrumental combinations before he was satisfied. The final version was an edit of several sections, recorded at different times and at different studios. Brian would later expand on this modular approach to recording with "Heroes and Villains" and the brilliant, unfinished Smile album.
This audio montage presents - for the first time in true stereo - several of the unused sections from the 1966 "Good Vibrations" tracking sessions.
basic track (verse) recorded 1966; basic track (chorus) recorded 2/67; lead and backing vocals (verses) recorded late 1966; vocals (chorus), "barbershop" section, and "My Children Were Raised" recorded 6/12-6/14/67
Lead: Brian
For awhile in late 1966 and early 1967, "Heroes and Villains," the musical and thematic centerpiece of the legendary lost Smile album, was the most famous, most hyped, most eagerly anticipated single in the history of rock and roll. People who had been privileged to hear the work-in-progress could barely come up with superlatives to describe what they'd heard, and the newly-emerging rock press - fueled no doubt by The Beach Boys' new PR man, Derek Taylor (one-time press officer for The Beatles and, later, Apple Corps) -made it clear that something very special and very revolutionary was on its way.
Brian (1966): Heroes and Villains [will be] a three minute musical comedy. I'm using some new production techniques that I think will surprise everyone. I can't actually describe the effect - you have to hear it.
With lyrics by Brian's new collaborator, Van Dyke Parks, the upcoming Beach Boys' single promised to be a rollicking saga of the wild west, with different "movements" that would encompass all facets of the old west experience - everything from a barroom brawl and a subplot about a saloon dancer, to a mini "Barnyard" suite complete with clucking hens and various other farm animals in the background. Most importantly, there would be humor - maybe even actual dialog - in the impressionistic tale of "the Spanish and Indian home of the Heroes and Villains."
Brian and Hal Blaine 11/16/66; Chants 11/66; "Vegetables Fade" track 4/12/67
Insert (a capella) 3/3/67; coda 4/67; main verses 6/67
Lead: The group (featuring Brian and Alan)
Brian: I wanted everyone to get healthy.
Another song intended for Smile, the Smiley Smile version of "Vegetables" is certainly one of the oddest, yet catchiest tunes ever released by The Beach Boys, and the group's vocals on this track are some of the finest they ever did. On the coda, keep this in mind: the only instruments are a piano and a bass. Everything else, including the bubbling sounds and the various "yips," are The Beach Boys. Brian had mastered the art of using his brothers, cousin, and friends as musical instruments.
BRUCE: But what I like about the Smiley Smile album is you're sitting there with Hendrix and everybody making incredible psychedelic sounds. You know, the Yardbirds and all that stuff's going on, and Brian's doing it vocally. And I don't know if he planned that, but it's a totally brilliant album, Smiley Smile.
For this compilation we've gone back to the original multi-track tapes and prepared a new stereo version of "Vegetables," including a whistling and chomping section that was edited out of the original mono master. We've also pieced together a little "promo" for "Vegetables," using some improvised dialog between Brian and Hal Blaine and chants that Brian had recorded during the Smile sessions, over a portion of the original "Vegetables Fade" track.
By the way, Brian recommends carrots for use as a percussion instrument!
Lead: Carl and Brian
An unused snippet of a tune that was first attempted during the Smile sessions, and later turned up in a radically different form on the Smiley Smile LP. This section was recorded around the same time as the Smiley Smile version of "Vegetables" - note the similarity of the backing vocal parts.