Today’s music video is ‘Heroes And Villains’ from The Beach Boys, with this version sung by Brian Wilson.
This video was posted to You Tube by sullyrock
Of all the songs from The Beach Boys, you might think this is an odd selection, especially this version from Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys produced 28 Studio Albums, and almost the same number of Live and Compilation albums. They produced 91 singles, and of those singles, 16 of them made it into the Top Ten, and 4 of those made it to Number One. This song ‘Heroes And Villains’ was not even one of those that made it into the Top Ten, and listening to this version, you might think that it’s not even the version you remember from when it was first released in July of 1967.
It does however have history as one of the most celebrated of the Beach Boy’s songs.
Prior to this song being released, The Beach Boys were riding high following the release of their acclaimed album ‘Pet Sounds’. The album oddly did not do all that well on its original release, and although most musicians acclaimed the album as one of the greatest ever made, public acceptance came a lot later. That one album is now looked upon as one of the most influential pieces of music in the history of modern music.
Brian Wilson was the mastermind in all of this, his stupendous talent making what was a seemingly simple piece of music into something so utterly complex. Brian had withdrawn from touring, being replaced by session guitarist Glen Campbell, a famed member of the select group of session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew. Campbell played on Pet Sounds, and toured with the band while Brian stayed at home and masterminded the songs for the new album in the studio.
Following the release of Pet Sounds, Wilson started work on a new album, and teamed up with lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Wilson already had the major song ‘Good Vibrations’ completed before teaming up with Parks, and a list of new songs was started upon. That new album was to be the famed Smile album, possibly the greatest album never to be released. (TonyfromOz prefaces ….. The correct title for the album was SMiLE, but for the purposes of the text, from here I will refer to it as Smile)
The song ‘Good Vibrations’ was a technical masterpiece of music, and at the time was reputed to have cost $16,000 to get done, an amount unheard of at the time for just a Single, and vastly more costly than most of the albums coming out at the time.
Wilson and Parks worked on the song list, mostly in Brian’s legendary sandpit with his special piano in the middle, and Brian worked on the production of these songs. His production work was without doubt the best in the Country at that time, and he made innovations work that others would not even begin to consider. The problems arose with the band themselves. Wilson had the innate ability to hear what he wanted inside his own head, and he then went about trying to reproduce that sound for the songs themselves. The genesis of the problem was probably with the song ‘Good Vibrations’ itself, that song being the main one from this proposed new album Smile. Although layered with many different sounds and harmonies, the band found it almost impossible to reproduce perfectly, when live and on stage, because of the complexity of the song. That did not stop the song becoming an absolute smash hit, and now regarded as one of the greatest songs of the modern music era.
Wilson would use techniques never before attempted with songs for this proposed new album. Usually, a song was recorded in the studio, and at the time, mainly in one take, or not many more than that. Wilson would layer the sound using four track and eight track recording, layering the new tracks on top of the one already there. Wilson would then make modular recordings of different sections of the one song, doing them in numerous different studios to take effect of the sound profiles from those different studios. With all the masters, he would then ‘cut and paste’ the best ones onto a new master. Then, armed with this, he would ask the band to then layer the vocals, the complex harmonies, and different instruments onto a new master, sometimes assigning each band member one track for themselves, and then layering up each new piece onto what would hopefully become the operational master tape.
This was where the band started to have concerns, because something so complex would be almost impossible to reproduce on stage at a live concert, and this was borne out when they tried it out the first time with the already established ‘Good Vibrations’, the live version capable, but nowhere near as complex as the studio version was. The band was also averse to moving away from what was already a winning formula for them, and there were tensions with Parks and members of the band.
Wilson would be locked away for extended periods of time in his studio working on this new ‘concept’. Because it was taking so long, and that combined with the feeling of the Band, this new album, ‘Smile’ became hopelessly bogged down, and there was the added problem of the Record Company bearing down on them for a new album.
In the end, the Smile album was shelved, and then abandoned. Some of the new tracks did see the light of day on subsequent albums, mainly the first released after the abandonment, that album being ‘Smiley Smile’, which, although similar in name bore no relationship whatever to Smile, and in fact under engineered by Wilson. Perceived as being instrumental in the band’s problems, Van Dyke Parks and Wilson split up, and Smile virtually disappeared from the face of the Earth.
This song, ‘Heroes And Villains’ was the first in the Wilson/Parks collaboration. It was complex to almost an infinite degree, and instrumental in the internal bickerings within the band. Wilson laboured long and hard to get the song right, using the session musicians from The Wrecking Crew to add even more complexity to the already difficult song.
After ‘Smile’ was abandoned, the song was shortened, made less complex, and released on the ‘Smiley Smile’ album. It became a minor hit of sorts, and was resurrected in slightly different forms for further compilation albums.
In 2004, Brian Wilson again teamed up with Van Dyke Parks. The pair decided to resurrect Smile and then take it on tour.
This song, ‘Heroes And Villains’ was again worked on, and this time Wilson actually had the technology and the will to reproduce the sound inside his head and then have the ability to play that to a live audience.
As you listen to this song, keep in mind that this is the song as originally envisioned by Wilson and Parks. The second section was completely deleted from the original release of the song. You will note the hugely complex harmonies, different beats, changes in tempo, different instruments being used, and the added orchestration, in a song that is just so much better than the song in its original release form.
‘Heroes And Villains’ is one of those songs with a history, and as is mostly the case, the history is sometimes more important than what this seemingly innocuous song might actually look like at the first listening.
Brian Wilson might just be a flawed person, but the musical genius cannot be denied, especially when you learn what is behind this wonderful song.
Posted in America (USA), Music, Video Tagged: Brian Wilson, Music, Music Video, Smile, The Beach Boys, Video 
