Side one of "Smile" featured many songs which dealt with imagery taken from American History, a major inspiration for Van Dyke Parks. Musically there is surprising unity. Themes from "Heroes and Villains" are re-worked and developed in the other songs, including the "Heroes and Villains" chorus (also known as "Bicycle Rider"), and a descending three-note chromatic motif.

1) Our Prayer

     "Smile" begins with this stunning bit of a cappella vocal harmony. Just over a minute long, this amazing piece of music is the absolute essence of the Beach Boys.
     There survives a tape of the first rehearsal of this track. The recording is a classic, and really gives a great feel for the spirit of those times. Brian: "Denny, do you have any of those hash joints left? You guys feeling the acid yet?" In that rehearsal tape Brian can be heard describing the piece as "just a little introduction to the album" so it seems clear it was intended as the first track. The Beach Boys recorded this version in 1966. In 1969 they added more vocals and released it on their "20/20" album, but this is how Brian originally intended it to sound.

2) Heroes and Villains

     One of the most important pieces of the puzzle, and the first major problem for our Pelican musicologists. "Heroes and Villains" was intended as the first single from the album, the followup to "Good Vibrations."  More time was spent recording this song than any other piece of "Smile." There are two "finished" versions of this song officially released, each radically different from the other. The more familiar version is the one which kicks off the "Smiley Smile" album, which was released as a single in 1967, and was a moderate hit for the band. However, this version dates from the time when "Smile" was being abandoned for "Smiley Smile," and shows many signs of having been hastily tossed together. There is an earlier version of the song which was first released on the "Smiley Smile" CD as a bonus track. This version is shorter, tighter, and includes a slow middle section ("In the cantina...."). Further complicating the picture is a series of sessions for many sections that are clearly part of this song. Much of this was released on the box set as part of the "Heroes and Villains: Sections." Some Beach Boys scholars think Brian had intended a "Heroes and Villains pt. II" which would have been the B side to the single, but not included on the album. Taken all together we have about 12-14 minutes of music, far too long for a single.

     My solution was to assume that the single version would have been a shorter version of the full album version. The version here begins with the earlier "cantina" version of the song, heard almost in its entirety. Just before the coda which begins the fade I have edited in part of the "Smiley Smile" version, beginning at the first "chorus" ("Heroes and Villains, just see what you've done done..."). Just as we reach what would be the end of that version I bring in some of the "Heroes and Villains: Sections" from the box set, then end with another a cappella bit ("My children were raised...") taken from a bootleg, and the fade from the "cantina" version. All together about 9 minutes that feels very right to me.

3) Barnyard Suite
    The Old Master Painter
      You Are My Sunshine
      Barnyard
      Bicycle Rider

     Brian: "The Barnyard Suite, that was going to be four songs- in four short pieces- combined together, but we never finished that one...." Another problem for our Pelican musicologists. "Barnyard" was another Wilson/Parks collaboration, but it was never finished. A demo tape of Brian at the piano, playing parts of unfinished songs includes a verse of it, with a lyric:

Out in the farmyard the cook is chopping lumber
Out in the barnyard the chickens do their number

     The only recorded piece we have which is definitely a piece of "Barnyard" is a backing track for the verse only available on a bootleg, with the Beach Boys making animal noises in the background. To make a complete "Barnyard Suite" our staff here looked to other "Smile" fragments and made some connections. My version begins with another bootleg track, Brian's arrangement of "You Are My Sunshine," (sung by Dennis) with an Introduction for cello ensemble . It then segues into the "Barnyard" track, and ends with the "Bicycle Rider" theme from "Heroes and Villains: Sections"  followed by a concluding vocal tag. I find that this hangs together _very_ well, and leads beautifully into the next track....

4) Wonderful

     Reconstructing this lovely song also poses some challenges. A version of this song was included on "Smiley Smile," and consists of a series of verses interrupted by a seemingly unrelated "bridge." Like all the "Smiley Smile" versions of these songs it is nothing like the "Smile" version. The version released on the box set consists of a series of verses, with no contrasting bridge section. Brian reportedly recorded an "insert" to be used as such a bridge, but no one knows what it was. My instincts point toward a fragment which begins: "He gives speeches, always reaches...." This fragment (Which was also the basis for the song "She's Goin' Bald" on "Smiley Smile") has the same sort of non-sequitur lyrics as "Wonderful," and also seems to complement it in that it is about some undefined "he," in the same way that "Wonderful" is all about some indistinct "she."
     Whatever the "insert" piece was, Brian probably would have spliced it between the verses of the song, as was done with the version on "Smiley Smile." However, the Pelican engineers couldn't bring themselves to cut into the fabric of the existing "Wonderful." Instead we decided to leave it intact, bringing in the "speeches" insert right at the fade, and creating the "insert" effect by following it with a brief snippet of the "Wonderful" backing track (from a bootleg source) which has cool "Yodelaheehoo" vocals. We think this works rather well.

5) Do You Dig Worms?

     This song, a rather bizarre collection of seemingly unrelated snippets might have been impossible to figure out, but luckily we have a "Smile"-era acetate demo of the song to show how it was to be sequenced. This demo was closely followed by the producers of the box set, and I found little reason to disagree with their reconstruction, and use it mostly intact. My only change is the ending. On the acetate demo (and therefore on the box set) the song fades out with the "Bicycle Rider" theme played on a lone keyboard. In fact nearly _all_ of the demo versions of these songs end with a fade out, and I don't think that means that the final version would necessarily have ended this way. Instead I bring back the full "Oogachowa" Indian chant from "Heroes and Villains: Sections," which leads very nicely into an orchestral restatement of the descending three-note chromatic motif, followed by the solo horn with flutter tongue... I think this sets up a perfect segue into the next song....

6) Cabin-Essence

     One of the great masterpieces of "Smile," "Cabinessence" was finished by Carl and the rest of the band in 1969 for inclusion on the "20/20" album. From all we can tell, they pretty much got it exactly right. I use the "20/20" version here with no changes. All of the song seems to have been basically finished in 1966, and acetates show it pretty much the same as this. The only 1969 addition was Carl's lead vocal on the verses. Incidentally, It was a confrontation between Mike Love and Van Dyke Parks over this song's lyrics which led to Parks leaving the project. Parks was unable or unwilling to explain to Love just what he meant by "Over and over, the crow cries uncover the cornfield......"

Side Two

   Side Two is also tightly organized, although fewer "finished" tracks exist. I find that the entire side makes a unified suite, with much thematic material shared between songs. The basic problem with this side is the suite known as "The Elements." Did Brian consider the entire second side as this suite, was it supposed to be a set of four distinct short movements, or were those movements intended to accompany the songs on this side to which they seem related? I have tried to finesse these questions by following musical logic in fitting the pieces together. Rather than worry about where one title ends and the next begins just listen...and smile.

1) Good Vibrations

     "Good Vibrations" is to "Smile" what "Sloop John B" was to "Pet Sounds:" It was completed and released as a single before the rest of the album was recorded, and served as a blueprint for the working methods used on the rest of the album. Also like "Sloop," "Good Vibrations" would have been included at the insistence of the record company. It really fits very well here, and Brian even connects one of the musical themes with a track occurring later in Side Two. "Good Vibrations" is also really useful in a "Smile" reconstruction because it is the _only_ track completed by Brian while he was at his peak. Listen to the beautiful "sheen" of this masterpiece, and imagine if every track on "Smile" had received this much attention....

2) Child is Father to the Man

    This is perhaps my greatest departure from orthodox "Smile" scholarship. Most "Smile" reconstructions put this track on Side One, sometimes pairing it with "Wonderful."  I just can't buy that- the instrumentation, featuring piano and muted trumpet, and the production clearly connect this piece with others on Side Two. Placing it here, at the beginning of the side two "suite" also makes a great deal of sense, since it is quoted again at the end of "Surf's Up." My source for this track is a bootleg, and it is perhaps the most "unfinished" sounding track on the entire album. Clearly there would have been vocals or _something_ on the verses. I have lengthened the bootleg track slightly so that instead of fading out it ends with a phrase which connects _perfectly_ to the next song......

3) Vege-Tables

    Another song which was "finished" for inclusion on "Smiley Smile," another version was assembled for release on the box set which is from the "Smile" sessions and features more sections and a fuller instrumentation. Of course, that's not saying much, since almost the _only_ instrument on the "Smiley Smile" version is a single electric bass. I have made one change, bringing in the slow "I know that you'll feel better...." section from "Smiley Smile," which I think makes the song seem more expansive and finished. The ending tag section I suspect is actually not part of this song. It sounds like it really belongs on side one.
    Some think that "Vege-Tables" is the "Earth" segment of "The Elements." Is it? I don't know, but whether it is or not I think it belongs here.

4) Look

    Another candidate for the "Earth" segment is this track, for no real reason, except that it doesn't seem to belong anywhere else. On some bootlegs it is entitled "Holidays." The piano chords on the verse, which are similar to both "Child" and "Surf's Up," and the "Good Vibrations" tag theme in the horn on the chorus clearly tie it to Side Two. Again from a bootleg source, this is a big production, but I'm sure its only a backing track lacking a vocal. In my liner notes to the CD I call this the first movement of "The Elements," but it sounds more to me like a continuation of a suite which began with "Child."

5) Wind Chimes

    Brian: "Yeah- There was a cut. a piano piece, an instrumental, no vocals- we never finished that."  What I'm calling "Wind Chimes" here is actually a combination of several tracks, which together I'm using as the "Air" segment of "The Elements." The first section, also from a bootleg, is sometimes titled "Tones" or "Tune X." The instrumentation (Xylophone, Marimba) clearly connect it with the song "Wind Chimes," as recorded for "Smile," while the tag at the end of the track is closely related to the end of the radically different "Wind Chimes" released on "Smiley Smile." I have made a tight edit of "Tones" to the "Smile" version of "Wind Chimes" which was released on the box set. This ends with a longish bit of overdubbed pianos, suggestive of Brian's description of the "Air" segment quoted earlier. I end this section with the beautiful a capella tag from the "Smiley Smile" version, just because I love that part so much.....ending with this extremely quiet, peaceful music also makes the beginning of the next track more dramatic....

6) Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

    Some of the most famous tales of Brian's erratic behavior during the "Smile" era involve the sessions for this, the "Fire" segment of "The Elements." Brian had a bucket of burning wood in the studio during some of the sessions, and had firemen's hats for the musicians. Supposedly a rash of fires in L.A. immediately afterward freaked Brian out, and he destroyed the tapes. Obviously the tapes still exist, but this is definitely some powerful, disturbing music. Brian is still sufficiently bothered by it that he refused to allow its release on the box set, although one section, retitled "Heroes and Villains (Introduction)" did appear. My version of this section begins with that "Introduction," followed by the part which freaks Brian out. This features wailing string glissandi, a pounding beat, and strange harmonies. Very out there for pop music in 1966. This section end humorously with a section called, on bootlegs, "The Woodshop Song" because it features sounds of construction. "Rebuilding after the fire..." according to Brian.....

7) I Love to Say Dada

   There is little question that this segment was intended as the "Water" segment of "The Elements." In fact the Beach Boys recycled these ideas into a longer song in 1969 called "Cool, Cool Water." For my version I have added some ocean sound effects. Although I'm sure this bothers some purists I'm certain this is what Brian intended. He spent a great deal of time recording water sounds in 1966, and even discussed making an entire record of water sounds. I have only used the sounds at the start and end of the section, but I suspect that the "pauses" in the "Dada" track would have been filled with similar sounds. However, I was unable to bring myself to intrude this much into Brian's production. Another decision of mine which may bother purists is the use of an a capella vocal section from the above mentioned "Cool, Cool Water."  I use it to make the transition from "Dada" into the next track, and to me this seems perfect. There seems to be some question as to whether this section was intended as part of "Smile," but my musical instincts tell me it belongs right here.

8) Surf's Up

   Finally, what is for me what is one of the most sublime pieces of pop music ever written. One of the first songs written by the Wilson/Parks collaboration it serves as the perfect ending to this amazing experiment in pop music. The "Smile" myth was fueled by the fact that Brian performed a solo version of this song on television in 1966. It then remained unreleased until the other Beach Boys put together a releasable version in 1970. Brian never finished producing it- he recorded a backing track for the first section in 1966, and a complete solo piano/vocal demo, but that was all. For their 1970 version, which is what I use here, The band recorded vocals for the first section using Brian's 1966 backing track. Carl's lead vocal is absolutely stunning. This then segues into a section from Brian's 1966 demo, with only a touch of bass added. They then added new vocals to the fade, borrowing from "Child is Father of the Man." Is this what Brian intended? Who knows?
    Despite the beauty of this song, it really only shows its true power when allowed to serve as the closing track to "Smile." To appreciate just how amazing it is, you must imagine that is early 1967 and you've never heard "Sgt. Pepper." In fact, I think the real reason I took the time to make my own version of "Smile" was just so I could finally hear "Surf's Up" in context. Maybe my favorite song of all time.

9) You're Welcome

   Another controversy. Was this track, originally released as the B-side of the "Heroes and Villains" single, intended  for "Smile?" Some scholars say yes, and place it here at the end. It certainly seems to fit here. Others disagree, saying that nothing should follow the perfect ending provided by "Surf's Up." I'm not sure, so I've hedged a bit. I include it, but as a "hidden" track that is preceded by 20 seconds of silence. That way _you_ can decide if you want it here, or want to end the previous cut. Well, that's it! The greatest pop album never released!