Środa 18 Mar 2009, 18:35
Heroes And Villains (The Americana Mix)
http://www.vandykeparks.com/images/BWVDP662.jpg
So I made a SMiLE mix. Based around the H&V sections of which there are many and varied, this quickly expanded to contain a wide variety of Smile - era stuff, and came to be known as The 'Americana' Mix.
First, a tracklisting (of sorts)
1. Prayer (Session)
2. Our Prayer (20-20 version)
3. Soul Made Beautiful (GV. Box, H&V sections)
4. Gee (GV. Box, H&V sections)
5. Heroes And Villains (Stereo single mix from Hawthorne, CA)
*Edited slightly to remove My Children Were Raised, replaced with Dum-Dum-Dum…. Then carries on as normal, to fade into…*
6. Barnyard (Demo) * I know SMiLE mix protocol is to do fancy trickery to sync this to the instrumental track, but i happen to like Brian shouting at Van Dyke to make chicken noises :D*
7. The Cantina (With tiny session excerpt/no 'dance' at the end, from Heroes & Vibrations boot)
YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!
8. Upbeat, cop theme-ish Heroes & Villians doo-wop (GV. Box, H&V sections)
9. My Children Were Raised (Pilfered from stereo mix)
10. SMOG!
11. At Three-score and five… (Smiley Smile cantina version)
12. Tape Explosion (as above)
13. 'tribal' H&V (GV. Box, H&V sections)
14. The Old Master Painter/ You Were My Sunshine *From some random boot. Strangely enough, i couldn't find one in my collection which mixed a clear enough vocal with the sax player getting his part right. I went for vocal)
*strings descend into Wilson's own 'oh my god, why did i record so many versions of the same thing' hell :P
15. Good Vibrations (Middle eight of rarities mix put over top of lengthened stereo section of the same bit from Hawthorne CA.) *Now this irritates me, because the vocals on the Rarities mix are epic. But the music isn't. So i thought I'd stick the Hawthorne CA. mix under it to give it 'chutzpah'. But… the rarities mix has been altered to make it go round four times, whilst the actual take is three. so i had to do some comically amateurish splicing to repeat it the extra time. but, there's something dodgy with the tape of the rarities one when the Hum-de-Hums come in, so it manages to go out, then get back in time with itself. Effin' Brilliant*
16. With Me Tonight - Fast Version (Project SMiLE!) *Sorry about the sudden drop in quality, but i really like this version….*
17. Little speech snippet from the Vegetable Arguments (which, for those haven't heard it, makes the Smog tape sound positively rational)
18. He Gives Speeches (Stereo from someone elses SMiLE mix - possibly Mok)
19. Roll Plymouth Rock (GV. Box)( Toyed about, so just the chants+Bicycle Rider)
20. AHHHH, RALPH! into…
21. Western Theme (as i think it's called) (GV. Box, H&V sections) Possibly my favourite bit of unreleased H&V. i'm serious. it's just epic. I used this over 'False barnyard' because, whilst epic in it's own sense, it's a bit too cliched wild west for me. Those harmonicas!
22. Our Prayer (reprise)
23. Session chatter from 'You're With Me Tonight', offa Hawthorne, CA. Might be Smiley sessions, cos the tape sounds like they've hotboxed the vocal booth, but it's too nice a way to end it to bother with such chronological faffery.
total: 17:19
Technical bollocks - All songs regrettably (if you care about such things) mastered from mp3s of varying quality. Most are 320kbps, so calm yourself. Done in Audacity on an old PC that didn't like it being over 12 minutes long
SMiLE theories?
None in particular - i didn't try to present any grand statement or radical interpretation of SMiLE, because i don't hold any views of such. It's just a beautiful, beautiful piece of music. The first 'mix' i heard was Wilson's own in 2004, which was the first time i heard Cabin Essence, H&V, Surfs Up, et al. I hunted down many of my first SMiLE boots from the epic http://warnakeysbeachboysblog.blogspot.com/ (he's on last.fm too, so if you download anything be sure to thank him) and got the bug.
Also be sure to check out the links section on Warnakey - other blogs host SMiLE bits that his links have expired for and other things, like the Sea of Tunes boxes on Linear Zap.
Also another thing is Project SMiLE, which you should definitely get. search your local neighbourhood torrent site for one. It's like the complete guide for SMiLE, with writings, theories, a detailed timeline, and best of all, every bit of material recorded for the sessions that has leaked. It also has every song in sections so you can make your own mixes. Be sure to hunt it down!
If you download, be sure to leave a comment/message/smoke signal of some kind telling me what you'd think, i'd like to make another one of these :)
EDIT - Stitch that, WebSheriff!
http://tinyurl.com/ce77a8
Look, Listen, Vibrate, SMiLE!
The Beach Boys Brian Wilson Dennis Wilson Van Dyke Parks SMiLE! Smiley Smile
Heroes And Villains Surfs Up Do You Like Worms? Good Vibrations
Thanks for all your kind words so far!