I don't know. I'm saying that the April '67 "Vegetables" is not the SMiLE "Vega-tables" in the same way the Smiley "H&V" and "Windchimes" are not the SMiLE "H&V" or "Wind Chimes". The titles are different, which people dismiss, but 400,000 album jackets can't be wrong. Brian, Van Dyke and Derek Taylor all consistently make sure the spelling and pronunciation is Vega-tables in discussion with Frank Holmes, on the booklet illustration, the album cover, in the Teen Set article and all press mentions until April '67 and then all of the sudden they consistently allow it to be mis-spelled and mispronounced (even though it is supposedly their next single) on 10 session records and in numerous press stories and even on the later Smiley album. It doesn't make sense unless Vega-tables is not the same as Vegetables. Vegetables is recorded too late for SMiLE. Vega-tables [and the rest of the SMiLE songs except GV] is a Wilson/Parks composition but the April '67 Vegetables has a Wilson/Love "mama says" composition [something like GV which was not recorded for SMiLE either]. That doesn't make sense.
Maybe the Vegetables lyrics are by Parks and maybe just some are. I bet some alternate lyrics turn up someday, the ones we know don't sound that Van-ish to me. Even if they lyrics are the same, I think everything else points to Vegetables as a non-SMiLE recording.
Re: "Vegetables" multi-track, etc.
Good points, all of them. You're dead right about B.R. and "Worms". Now what I want to know is -- who's got the full lyrics for the verses of "Worms"? Y'know - the bit that has "Once upon the Sandwich Isles, the social structure steamed across Hawaii"? Cam, does Frank still have lyrics that Van gave him?
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Re: "Vegetables" multi -track, etc.
He had them last Fall, as far as I know he still does. What I'd like to know is how does one get the lyrics Frank sighted, in ESQ May '97, to fit over the box and boot versions of DYLW? Any lyrics Frank has would have been written around the end of September '66 and as far as I know the first session for DYLW was on Oct. 18 '66. Are we to assume there was an earlier incarnation of Worms for which Frank's lyrics were written, replaced in October by the song we know as DYLW? OR are they the lyrics for an undiscovered section of DYLW or is Frank or Van Dyke or the tape box labels mistaken. Or am I wrong that they don't fit?
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The Case of the Vagrant Vega-tables
Hey, it's a SMiLathon in the Green Mansions! You know I noticed the different Vega-tables/Vegetables spelling but never though anything of it.
OK.
Last half of Sept. '66: Frank Holmes is given an explanation of how a part of "The Elements" will be about good health and good organic vegetables and he is given the phrase or title "My Vega-tables" and no other lyrics. Frank told Brad Elliott that Van always pronounced that it as vega + TABLES [and in "and chairs"].
End of Nov. '66?: Brian writes a 12 track SMiLE list with the separate titles "Vega-tables" and "The Elements".
Around the end of Dec. '67?: Michael Vosse writes an article mentioning that Brian and Van have written a song about good health and vegetables called "Vega-tables".
Between Feb. 10 and Feb. 23 '67?: Derek Taylor's article in DISC mentions "Vega-tables" as one of the album tracks and a 5 minute "Heroes and Villains" as the next single [would that 5 minutes include H&V part 2 on the B-side?]
Starting on April 4, 1967: The title is changed to "Vegetables" and is mentioned as the next single instead of the much promoted H&V [until June 21 '67]
So what does it mean? Was one-fourth of The Elements a lyricless track titled "My Vega-tables", which was expanded to a separate full track with lyrics and titled "Vega-tables" by the end of Nov. '66, which was then again retitled to a more conventional "Vegetables" and pegged as the next single over the long promoted "Heroes and Villains"? Why was "Vegetables" recorded so late in the process? Why all the title changes, was the BW/VDP "Vega-tables" never recorded? Were the lyrics to the Apr. '67 tracks we've heard re-written; they don't sound very Parksian. What did the title "Vega-tables" signify to BW/VDP that "Vegetables" didn't? What happened between titles, between mid Feb. and early Apr. '67?
One thing that happened was VDP bailed, but why that would effect anything I'm not sure because apparently all the music and lyrics for the 12 tracks including "Vega-tables" was written by the end of Nov. '66. Another thing that might have happened, in spite of what the newspapers were reporting in April and May '67, is Brian might have already decided to cancel SMiLE and begin Smiley Smile.
The hell you beller, Cam. Well, I never thought much of it, but Brian, Marilyn and Derek Taylor have associated the cancellation of SMiLE with the sale of the house at Laurel Way and the purchase of the house at Bellagio Rd. I don't know when the house at Laurel Way was put on the market, but your tireless little SMiLE snoop, me, has found out that a Joint Tenancy Grant Deed was drawn up for the Bellagio home in Brian and Marilyn's name on March 28, 1967. That coincides with the change from the SMiLE title "Vega-tables" to the Smiley Smile title "Vegetables". The deed was finalized on April 14 and recorded on April 17, 1967.
What the hell does it all mean and what difference does it makes anyway? I dunno, but it's fun.
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Posted January 04, 1999 at 04:23:34
End of Nov. '66?: Brian writes a 12 track SMiLE list with the separate titles "Vega-tables" and "The Elements".
Around the end of Dec. '66?: Michael Vosse writes an article mentioning that Brian and Van have written a song about good health and vegetables called "Vega-tables".
Between Feb 10 and Feb 23 '67?: Derek Taylor's article in DISC mentions "Vega-tables" as one of the album tracks and a 5 minute "Heroes and Villains" as the next single [would that 5 minutes include H&V part 2 on the B-side?].
Starting on Apr. 4 '67: The title is changed to "Vegetables" and is mentioned as the next single instead of the much promoted H&V [until June 21 '67].
So what does it mean? Was one-fourth of The Elements a lyricless track titled "My Vega-tables", which was expanded to a separate full track with lyrics and titled "Vega-tables" by the end of Nov '66, which was then again retitled to a more conventional "Vegetables" and pegged as the next single over the long promoted "Heroes and Villains"? Why was "Vegetables" recorded so late in the process? Why all the title changes, was the BW/VDP "Vega-tables" never recorded? Were the lyrics to the Apr '67 tracks we've heard re-written; they don't sound very Parksian. What did the title "Vega-tables" signify to BW/VDP that "Vegetables" didn't? What happened between titles, between mid Feb and early April '67?
One thing that happened was VDP bailed, but why that would effect anything I'm not sure because apparently all the music and lyrics for the 12 tracks including "Vega-tables" was written by the end of Nov. '66. Another thing that might have happened, in spite of what the newspapers were reporting in April and May '67, is Brian might have already decided to cancel SMiLE and begin Smiley Smile.
Well, I never thought much of it, but Brian, Marilyn and Derek Taylor have associated the cancellation of SMiLE with the sale of the house at Laurel Way and the purchase of the house at Bellagio Rd.. I don't know when the house at Laurel Way was put on the market, but your tireless little SMiLE snoop, me has found out that a Joint Tenancy Grant Deed was drawn up for the Bellagio home in Brian and Marilyn's name on March 28, 1967. That coincides with the change from the SMiLE title "Vega-tables" to the Smiley Smile title "Vegetables". The deed was finalized on April 14 and recorded on April 17, 1967.
What the hell does it all mean and what difference does it make anyway? I dunno, but it's fun.
VEGA-TABLES?
You know I noticed the different Vega-tables/Vegetables spelling but never thought anything of it.
OK.
Last half of Sept '66: Frank Holmes is given an explanation of how a part of "The Elements" will be about good health and good organic vegetables and he is given the phrase or title "My Vega-tables" and no other lyrics. Frank told Brad Elliott that Van always pronounced it as vega + TABLES [as in "and chairs"].
If you have any comments on this topic, psychedelismile@yahoo.com and I will try to promptly post any interesting replies.