Cabin Essence Blog

You know this song. And indeed, I’ve already covered this song on this blog on the 40th anniversary of it’s release, which I noted then was a highpoint for the group, and unfortunately the only was down. So the question is, does it belong on SMiLE?

I believe the answer is yes -for both commercial and thematic reasons. Commercially, I believe it had to be there, just as Sloop John B had to be on Pet Sounds- a strong hook to buy the album. Brian wasn’t oblivious to commercial necessity and it was on the original SMiLE tracklist.

Thematically, I see Good Vibrations as a kind of “fifth element” -the non-visible, almost spiritual connection that one can have between people; the transcedesence that is hinted at in the fire and water segments that precede this song.

On the 2004 version of the completed SMiLE, Brian goes back to the original Tony Asher lyrics and adds the hum-de-dum sections that was not part of the original single. Some may have seen it as churlish to move away from the song that everyone knew, but this was always going to be remake, and the differences provide some good distinguishing features and it certainly rocked in live performances.

We move from the fire to the cleansing water, but the initial part of the “water” section is the atonal water chant. Then suddenly, the music changes to the elemental, healing “I love to say da da”  and we are magically transported to Hawaii and some of the most beautiful harmonies and music imaginable.

The resulting creation, In Blue Hawaii, is for my money, one of the top songs in Brian’s canon, and made SMiLE well worth almost four decades of waiting. Water is the purifying ,cleansing element, and the lyrics certainly hint at the Christian concept of washing away sin. Even outside that context, there is definite sense of escaping from the madness into some sort of paradise, and the song, presumably only finished in 2004, definitely fits in well with the overall redemption that concluded the story of SMiLE.

One of things that has struck me about SMiLE is the “elemental” nature of the music- not just the elements theme that is part of the album, but the way that much of the music has a way of sticking in your head, as if Brian has found the very element of a pure pop melody. The main refrain- known originally as I Love To Say Da Da and resurrected in Cool Cool Water- has a childlike quality to it, but once you hear it, you’ll never forget it. Just like water itself, it seems part of the very basics of music and life.

This is the one track in the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson canon that genuinely scares me, and one that I have mixed feelings about. Of course, it has a history with Brian Wilson’s own paranoia and belief that the track had some sort of power to inflict troubles, but the reality is that the track became a key part of the SMiLE  debacle that imposed huge mental chains on Brian.

Mrs O’Leary’s Cow is a track like no other in Brian’s ouevre. Forget the silly whistles that lead-in the track; the music is like a descent to hell, with a heaviness that rival’s anything that metal can bring up. It’s not necessarily an enjoyable experience, but there is a power that is overwhelming, and no amount of fireman’s hats and whistling can distract that there is something intense happening here.

Most peversely, but in line with the singularity of this piece, the song got the only proper Grammy that Brian and the Beach Boys ever got, for best instumental. This is despite the humming in the song, and even more so, despite Brian being known as the master of vocal harmony.

But in album of duality, the element fire, which this song clearly represents, has the most duality of all. Fire can detroy and kill, but at the same time, it can also renew by burning out the old to allow the new to grow. And that is the miracle of SMiLE, that the fire that almost consumed Brian eventually lead to his biggest redemption.

Windchimes have a distinctly spiritual quality and this song pays tribute to these popular household items, as well the air element. As with much of SMiLE, there is a real sense of contrast, especially between the slow, ethereal first part of the song and the quite heavy instrumental fadeout. Of course, the element air is one of contrasts- it can be the light breeze, or the raging hurricane.

This is an interesting track, a bit of a break (holiday?) from the elements theme. Instrumental sections called Holiday  were known to collectors, but on the completed 2004 album, it becomes a fully realised vocal track called On A Holiday. The “pirate” lyrics gave the track and album a certain coolness, and there was speculation whether the pirates referred back to the abovementioned collectors. Nick Walusko did his pirate rap and overall, this was one of the fun moments on SMiLE.

Things get a bit more serious at the end with the beautiful “long long ago” and the “whispering winds” section leading into the next part of the “elements”…

Generally regarded as the “earth” section of the elements, Vega-Tables focuses on the theme of healthy living, tying back to the I’m In Great Shape section of the previous track. One can see again the humor element of SMiLE coming through in the goofy instrumentation and the offbeat lyrics that turn around the traditional dislike that people, especially children, have for vegatables. However, a deeper message can be seen in the idea of looking after your body, and by implication, the earth around us. Also listen to great segue from the previous workshop sounds into this track.

The fragmentary nature of SMiLE is nowhere more noticable than here – in less than two minutes, we have three distinct and completely separate sections- a brief new song, an old standard and then the sound of workshop instruments. We are now in the final section of SMiLE,  which can be described as the “elements” and while these sections don’t seem to directly follow that theme, we get a taste of healthy living (possibly linked to the “earth” element, a broken heart and then that heart being fixed. As I have blogged before, the sound of the workshop can be quite theraputic -just think of it as your heart being repaired.