I'm In Great Shape / I Wanna Be Around / Workshop

From The Smile Shop

I'm In Great Shape (also known as "I Wanna Be Around / Friday Night", "Friday Night (I'm In Great Shape)", "Barnyard Suite")

1 Sessions
2 Available Session Recordings
3 Official Releases

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Sessions

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October 17, 1966

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Shape instrumental track recorded Oct 27, 1966 with 4 musicians at Western (at a Heroes and Villains session). Vocals recorded Oct 17, 1966 with 6 Beach Boys. Barnyard instrumental track likely recorded Oct 20, 1966 at Western (see Heroes and Villains below).

One of the great mysteries of Smile was at least partially solved with the release of the Endless Harmony Heroes and Villains demo, where a section included the lyrics “eggs and grits and lickety split, I’m in the great shape of the open country” (or “agriculture” in Smile 2004) before leading into Barnyard. Brian confirmed in an interview that this was Great Shape. One vocal session is documented but the tape is missing. If Shape was part of Heroes and Villains in November, why was it recorded under a different title in October? And then in December became its’ own track? One explanation may be that it was recorded under a “subtitle” or section title, and all along was planned as part of Heroes, much as “Home on the Range” and “Who Ran the Iron Horse” (vocal session) were recorded as sections of Cabinessence. The instrumental track was discovered on a Heroes and Villains session tape from Oct 27. “Great Shape” is noted on the tapebox, and Brian and Van Dyke participate. The tape has several takes with bass, saxophone, and piano, then bass, saxophone and piano with the strings taped, with the sax playing the melody of “eggs and grits.” Unfortunately the final master take had been cut from the reel. This supports the theory that Shape was always part of Heroes until December, when Brian decided to split it off as its own song (perhaps already planning to replace the Oct./Nov. Heroes with the cantina version).

Another explanation for the Oct 17 Great Shape session is that Brian originally wrote it as a separate song, then included it in Heroes, only to break it out again in December (the “out-in-out” theory). This is also consistent with the sequence of the sessions, and with Brian’s modular working method. Great Shape may be part of the track referred to in contemporary press accounts as a “Barnyard Suite.” Besides “eggs and grits” and Barnyard, the song may have included Do A Lot. A Beach Boys insider with access to the tape library in 1988-89 examined a tape box labeled Great Shape that contained two versions of “Do a Lot” on it, the first fast, the second slow with organ and sound effects of running water and scrubbing and clanging noises (although the tape stock did not match the tape box). And a purely vocal or vocal with Brian keyboard track of Do a Lot (or “eggs and grits”) would explain the vocal session preceding the instrumental tracking for Shape. I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night may have also been part of the song (see below). The Barnyard track was recorded Oct 20, 1966 at Western; the vocal session date is not known, but may have been recorded by Brian and friends on Oct 20 or by the Beach Boys on Dec 13, 1966.

Smile 2004 combines I'm In Great Shape with I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night in the Elements movement. But an earlier set list did not have Shape in it at all, and "Workshop" was placed after Dada in the Elements movement! -- Lou Shenk, A SMiLE Primer

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October 27, 1966

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For several years, one of the great mysteries of SMILE was a selection listed on the back cover as "I'm In Great Shape." Elliot's research showed that vocals for this track were recorded on 17 October 1966, with an instrumental track added in November. However, no track that had surfaced had ever seemed to fit. For a brief period, it was assumed that the song was actually the "Eat a lot, sleep a lot..." segments of "Vega-Tables." However, very recently, it has been established that "I'm In Great Shape" is actually a track that has recently surfaced on bootlegs under the title, "Woodshop Song."

Elliot mentions that "I'm In Great Shape" was also known under the title "Friday Night." Mark Linett recently revealed that the tape box for the track listed on the Vigotone bootleg as "The Woodshop Song" was, in fact, labeled "Friday Night." (Linett also mentions that the opening music for this track is in fact an old standard called "I Want To Be Around.") -- David Prokopy, The Prokopy Notes

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November 29, 1966

Song title: Friday Night (I'm In Great Shape)
Studio:	Gold Star
Time of session:	2-6 PM
Engineer:	Larry Levine
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Musicians/vocalists:	Bill Pittman (guitar and vibes), Gene Estes (vibes and percussion), Jim Gordon (drums and sound effects), Carol Kaye (guitar), Lyle Ritz (stand up bass and drill)

Recorded Nov 29, 1966 with 6 musicians at Goldstar.

See The Elements entry above. Brian edited together take 1 of IWBA with take 11 of FN at the session and overdubbed the sound effects. While Carol Kaye considered this part of The Elements, the AFM session contract sheet lists the song as Friday Night (I’m in Great Shape), which raises the possibility that Brian had already taken Great Shape out of Heroes and Villains and recorded this piece as a fade or section of Great Shape to make it a complete song. That's how it appeared in Smile 2004 in the Elements movement, preceding Fire so it would not be about "rebuilding after the fire." -- Lou Shenk, A SMiLE Primer

As further proof that, indeed, the final missing SMILE piece has at last been unveiled, Elliot's research shows that the 29 November instrumental track was logged in at 1:38 long. "The Woodshop Song," as it appears on the Vigotone bootleg, clocks in at 1:36. The "vocal" session in October may in fact have been the group recording the sound effects loop heard during the second half of this track. (Those hammering and sawing sounds were later used during the fade-out of "Do It Again" on the 20/20 album.) Finally, recently-unearthed session records show that the "Friday Night (I'm In Great Shape)" track recorded 29 November listed some of the session musicians as playing a "drill" and a "board drop." Session bassist Carol Kaye reportedly told a fan that she remembers the session for "I'm In Great Shape" as featuring "workshop sound effects." This, of course, raises another question--if the session musicians were adding the sound effects, what exactly was the October vocal session for? -- David Prokopy, The Prokopy Notes

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