SMiLE remembered — Part 1: Heroes and Villains
Initially teased for a January 1967 release, again in the early 1970's, the late 1980’s and mid 1990’s, SMiLE has become the Beach Boys lost, albeit unfinished, masterpiece.
Upon the completion of 2004's Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, Wilson and collaborator/lyricist Van Dyke Parks took the time to speak about some of the music and mystery behind the legendary music.
Today's focus is on "Heroes and Villains." Of the collaboration Wilson said, “I thought Van Dyke was very creative lyrically and he had very original and poetic lyrics. We implemented the American Indian religion.”
According to Parks, “‘Heroes and Villains’ began with Brian’s title. That immediately suggested a ballad of the golden West. We did that song – excepting the cantina section – in a sitting; it went very easily. We connected immediately, and that’s what sparked the enthusiasm to keep on working. It all came out quite by accident. That was the first song that we created. The other images that came beyond that simply tried to connect to that scene. ‘Bicycle Rider,’ for example, is the first playing card that was used in the rough and rowdy West when people were coming this way for fortune. That thought seemed to me to be a natural extension of an image from the cantina. That’s where people won and lost their fortunes: in a deck of cards. That was a very important ingredient in the Wild West. It’s that rough and tumble. I’m not sure what Brian’s or my intentions were, because so many years have past there’s so much nuance that’s lost. But it’s safe to say that we wanted to create an American fantasy.”
Wilson continues, “‘Heroes and Villains’ is all about the contamination of the white man in Indian society. The whole first suite is a trip to the Old West.”
End of part one.
© David M. Beard/Endless Summer Quarterly (all rights reserved)
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