Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
From The Smile Shop
Contents |
Sessions
November 28, 1966
| Song title: The Elements (FIRE) | |
| Studio: | Gold Star |
| Time of session: | 2-5:30 PM |
| Engineer: | Larry Levine |
| Master Number: | 56891 |
| Length Of Song: | 2:50 |
| Musicians/vocalists: | Lyle Ritz (upright bass), Arnold Belnick (violin), Norman Botnick (Viola), Joseph DiTollio (cello), Jesse Erlich (cello), Gene Estes (bass), James Gordon (drums), William Green (horn), James Horn (horn), Plas Johnson (horn), Carol Kaye (bass guitar), Leonard Marsky (violin), Jay Migliori (horn), Alexander Neiman (viola), William Pitman (guitar), Sydney Sharp (strings) |
Possibly the most infamous SMILE track, much legend surrounds the "fire" segment of "The Elements." The most famous tale of this track is that, after recording it, Brian learned of a rash of fires that broke out in the Los Angeles area near the recording studio where he was working. (I've never seen evidence that there was indeed an increase in fires in the area.) Brian took this as a sign that his music was somehow giving off "bad vibes," and the fable continues that he destroyed all the existing copies of the recording. "I don't have to do a big scary fire like that," he is reported to have commented. "I can do a candle and it's still fire. That would have been a really bad vibration to let out on the world, that Chicago fire [apparently referring to the title of the song, which is named after the legendary cow that supposedly started the Great Chicago Fire around the turn of the century]. The next one is going to be a candle." Regardless, he obviously did not destroy the tapes (the true story is that Brian simply locked the tapes in a vault), or we wouldn't be listening to the song right now.
Two alternate versions (according to Siegel, Brian recorded 23 takes of this track). The first is in stereo, but is marred by a very obvious edit near the end. The second, which apparently is the only full take (without edits or fades) in circulation, features added "fire" sound effects (which may or may not have been Brian's idea--note that the "American Band" version also features these effects). -- David Prokopy, The Prokopy Notes
The engineer slates the Nov 28 session as "The Elements, Part One, Fire" so we know that Brian originally conceived Fire as the first element in this four part suite which was also to have sections representing air, earth and water. What Brian intended for the other three sections is unknown. The day after recording Fire Brian was back in the same studio with the same musicians recording I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night, complete with sound effects of hammering, drilling, and woodcutting. Carol Kaye was present at both sessions and she recalls the Nov 29 session as a continuation of the Elements session of the day before, and reports Brian saying that the music represented "rebuilding after the fire" (perhaps signifying the earth element, or part two of Fire?). -- Lou Shenk, A SMiLE Primer
I came around to that view maybe five years ago, when I asked Van Dyke how Smile would have been programmed, and he said single album, 12 songs, separate tracks, no segues or cross fades... except within one track (The Elements). -- Andrew G. Doe
Like "I'm In Great Shape," "The Elements" was conceived as a set of connected pieces arranged into a suite. As an integral component of the album's musical and thematic content, this suite would have consisted of four individual themes, each one representing a different natural element: fire, earth, air, and water. Of these, the identity of only one element is definitely known. A piece alternately known as "Fire" and "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" was to have been the first song in the suite. Recorded on November 28, 1966, the piece is a musical approximation of the great Chicago fire of 1871 (which was started by the titular bovine).
Much has been made of Brian's eccentric personality over the years, with many popular accounts likening him to such damaged geniuses as Syd Barrett or Roky Erikson. This reputation has been fueled by stories like the report of Brian wanting a sandbox brought into his home studio so he could play piano with his toes in the sand. Another major source of the mythology surrounding Brian originated with the "Fire" piece. The recording session for the song contains one of the most touchingly idiosyncratic examples of Brian’s bizarre behavior at this point: he reportedly started a small fire in the studio, then equipped all the musicians with fireman helmets and buckets of water while they played the song.
Furthermore, Brian became terrified by the song when he came to believe that recording it had unleashed a rash of fires on downtown Los Angeles that night. He later vowed to re-record the song as "a candle," not wanting such a powerful force on his positive album. Nevertheless, Brian apparently never re-made the track, and the only existing version is a rather avant-garde instrumental featuring screechy sirens, chaotic rhythms, and a generally crazed mood. Despite his seeming reluctance to work further on the song, Brian actually recorded several different sections for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," including a chaotic whistle-filled intro, the rumbling main body, and a slowed-down fade of drums for the ending. -- Ed Howard, Smile: The Definitive Lost Album
But walking into the control room with the answers to all questions such as this was Brian Wilson himself, wearing a competition-stripe surfer's T-shirt, tight white duck pants, pale green bowling shoes and a red plastic fireman's helmet.
Everybody was wearing identical red plastic toy fireman's helmets. Brian's cousin and production assistant, Steve Korthoff was wearing one; his wife, Marilyn, and her sister, Diane Rovelle—Brian's secretary—were also wearing them, and so was a once-dignified writer from The Saturday Evening Post who had been following Brian around for two months.
Out in the studio, the musicians for the session were unpacking their instruments. In sports shirts and slacks, they looked like insurance salesmen and used-car dealers, except for one blonde female percussionist who might have been stamped out by a special machine that supplied plastic mannequin housewives for detergent commercials.
Controlled, a little bored after 20 years or so of nicely paid anonymity, these were the professionals of the popular music business, hired guns who did their job expertly and efficiently and then went home to the suburbs. If you wanted swing, they gave you swing. A little movie-track lushness? Fine, here comes movie- track lushness. Now it's rock and roll? Perfect rock and roll, down the chute.
"Steve," Brian called out, "where are the rest of those fire hats? I want everybody to wear fire hats. We've really got to get into this thing." Out to the Rolls Royce went Steve and within a few minutes all of the musicians were wearing fire hats, silly grins beginning to crack their professional dignity.
"All right, let's go," said Brian. Then, using a variety of techniques ranging from vocal demonstration to actually playing the instruments, he taught each musician his part. A gigantic fire howled out of the massive studio speakers in a pounding crash of pictorial music that summoned up visions of roaring, windstorm flames, falling timbers, mournful sirens and sweating firemen, building into a peak and crackling off into fading embers as a single drum turned into a collapsing wall and the fire-engine cellos dissolved and disappeared.
"When did he write this?" asked an astonished pop music producer who had wandered into the studio. "This is really fantastic! Man, this is unbelievable! How long has he been working on it?"
"About an hour," answered one of Brian's friends.
"I don't believe it. I just can't believe what I'm hearing," said the producer and fell into a stone glazed silence as the fire music began again.
For the next three hours, Brian Wilson recorded and re-recorded, take after take, changing the sound balance, adding echo, experimenting with a sound effects track of a real fire.
"Let me hear that again." "Drums, I think you're a little slow in that last part. Let's get right on it." "That was really good. Now, one more time, the whole thing." "All right, let me hear the cellos alone." "Great. Really great. Now let's do it!"
With 23 takes on tape and the entire operation responding to his touch like the black knobs on the control board, sweat glistening down his long, reddish hair onto his freckled face, the control room a litter of dead cigarette butts, Chicken Delight boxes, crumpled napkins, Coke bottles and all the accumulated trash of the physical end of the creative process, Brian stood at the board as the four speakers blasted the music into the room.
For the 24th time, the drum crashed and the sound effects crackle faded and stopped.
"Thank you," said Brian, into the control room mike. "Let me hear that back." Feet shifting, his body still, eyes closed, head moving seal-like to his music, he stood under the speakers and listened. "Let me hear that one more time." Again the fire roared. "Everybody come out and listen to this," Brian said to the musicians. They came into the room and listened to what they had made.
"What do you think?" Brian asked.
"It's incredible, incredible," whispered one of the musicians, a man in his 50's, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and iridescent trousers and pointed black Italian shoes. "Absolutely incredible."
"Yeah," said Brian on the way home, an acetate trial copy or "dub" of the tape in his hands, the red plastic fire helmet still on his head. "Yeah, I'm going to call this 'Mrs. O'Leary's Fire' and I think it might just scare a whole lot of people." -- Jules Siegel, Goodbye Surfing Hello God! (reprinted with permission)
December 5, 1967
| Song title: The Elements -- Part 1 | |
| Studio: | Western Recorders |
| Time of session: | |
| Engineer: | |
| Master Number: | |
| Length Of Song: | |
| Musicians/vocalists: | The Beach Boys |
The basic track for 'Fire' has never been released on record, but it can be found on the home video, 'The Beach Boys: An American Band.'" The segment Leaf is referring to is a short promotional movie Brian shot for the song (along with the album, he planned on making short films for most, if not all, of the songs) which features both sections of the song. During the first section, Brian is seen in the studio, conducting the musicians. (Brian had ordered dozens of toy fireman hats for the musicians to wear, and also had a bucket of burning wood brought into the studio to add ambiance. Note also, during this segment, Mike Love's "smoking" gesture and roll of the eyes, perhaps a reference to his displeasure with Brian's apparently "drugged out" music.) As that section winds down, Brian drifts off and dreams, as the second section begins, that he and the band are firemen who are called to fight a blaze. The song and film end with the Beach Boys driving away on a fire engine. -- David Prokopy, The Prokopy Notes
The footage of Brian and the boys in the firehouse, then chasing the firetruck down the street IS a "Good Vibrations" promo film that was shot before the Beach Boys went to Britain. That film has nothing to do with "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" and in fact was filmed well before Brian recorded that song. As Cam noted in his earlier post, the film was referenced by Mike Love WHILE THE BEACH BOYS WERE IN BRITAIN -- which means that the film had to exist prior to their departure. Brian recorded "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" in late November while they were gone, in fact only a day or two before they returned.
The studio footage of Brian and the boys with fire hats was NOT part of the "GV" promo film. It's not possible at this late date to pin down the exact date of that studio footage -- it might date from a vocal session about the same time as the group filmed the "GV" film, or it might date from early December when the group resumed vocal sessions after returning from Britain. All it illustrates is that the session for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" was not the only studio session at which Brian had participants wearing fire hats. Fire hats were something that he apparently was fascinated with. There is film footage from the British tour in which Dennis finds an old fire hat in an antique shop and tells the rest of the group that they ought to send it back to Brian because "he loooves fire hats."
Malcolm Leo and company did BB fans a great disservice with the "American Band" documentary. Fans now tend to believe what they see in that film, failing to understand that Leo mixed film clips and dubbed in the wrong sound over almost everything. The "Fire" film footage is no exception. -- Brad Elliot, PSML Oct 13 1998
January 3, 1967
| Song title: Bag of Tricks | |
| Studio: | |
| Time of session: | 6 PM start |
| Engineer: | |
| Master Number: | |
| Length Of Song: | |
| Musicians/vocalists: | |
Jan 3: a comp tape of work done on this date includes Do a Lot (piano/drums version found on H & V sessions boot)/Tag to Part One, three takes/Bridge to Indians (vocal ascending “aahh aahh . . . hmmm”)/Pickup to 3rd verse (same as Bridge but without the hmmm ending)/Bag of Tricks instrumental, 2 takes (has same bassline as Smiley’s Fall Breaks, whistles similar to H & V Intro on GV box set)/All Day (see Dada) -- Lou Shenk, A SMiLE Primer
All I can say is that I asked someone who would very likely know if "Fall Breaks..." was derived from "Earth", and they smiled at me and nodded. And no, it wasn't Brian... and surely the fact that the vocal lines from "Fall Breaks..." fit so well into "Fire" counts for something. Unless he tells me so himself, i cannot believe that either Brian or Darian had that idea off the top of their head. -- Andrew G. Doe
Earth WAS Vegetables. The Frank Holmes illustration makes that clear. Brian says it was in the Preiss book (if Andrew's going to take Brian's comment about Air to make a conclusion about Country Air being part of the suite, shouldn't he take Brian's other comment at face value as well?). The only question is, would Vegetables have stayed as the earth section in late 66 into April 67, when Vegetables became a separate "track" or title on the album (the December list) and then considered for a single in April? We have no evidence Fall Breaks was considered the earth section, and we have an early version of Fall Breaks - it's called Bag of Tricks and has the same bass line as Fall Breaks. It's on that January 3rd tape with various attempts at Heroes sections, including, at the end, All Day (an early version of Dada). Could Brian have been working on Heroes AND The Elements on Jan 3rd? All Day doesn't sound very elementy or watery to me, if that had been the intended destination for the song - and neither does the title Bag of Tricks sound evocative of the earth. Personally I think he never got around to putting to tape the "Piano instrumental" Air or ever got around to replacing Vegetables as earth before SMile crashed and burned. -- Lou Shenk
March 1, 1967
| Song title: Heroes And Villains (intro) | |
| Studio: | Western Recorders |
| Time of session: | 1-6 PM |
| Engineer: | |
| Master Number: | |
| Length Of Song: | |
| Musicians/vocalists: | Eight session musicians |
The song is broken up into two sections. First is an organ and bass driven piece, on top of which are added just about every type of whistle one could imagine. Interestingly enough, this piece is included on the box set under the title "Heroes And Villains [intro]," recorded 1 March 1967. (Mark Linett says this is how the tape box was labeled--however, on his 1988 "rough mix" tape of SMILE material, Linett lists the piece, curiously, as "Fire Intro.")
To kick it off, we have a couple of versions of the "Heroes And Villians Intro," the organ and whistle segment often associated with "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow." The GOOD VIBRATIONS box set indicates that this segment was recorded 1 March 1967, which Elliot's research shows is a valid "Heroes And Villians" session date. First, we hear Brian running through the circular piano pattern (with a touch of organ thrown in). Next, we hear the completed take (first in stereo, then the mono mix heard on the box set). (Note that on some bootlegs, a clever bootlegger has spliced this segment into the "cantina" segment, right after Brian's "You're under arrest!") -- David Prokopy, The Prokopy Notes
Months later (in 1977), the scenario repeated itself. A session was booked and I was called to play. When I arrived, there was Brian's wife, Marilyn and his mother, Audree, both in the control room. The session itself went rather quickly. The song was just a two chord jam, but it was Brian's jam and I was in it! After we finished, Brian invited us into the control room for a special treat. Someone had gotten the infamous "Fire" tapes out of the vault and had put them ont the machine to play. I'd heard all the stories behing these tapes and how Brian had ordered them destroyed after a fire actually burned down a building across the street from the studio the morning after the session. In reality, Brian simply did not want Capitol records to have the tapes and he tried to burn them himself. What I heard coming from the speakers was definitely a testament to the substance abuse that had reportedly gone on within the band during these sessions. Very strange music.
After listening to the Fire tapes, Brian had Earle put up another reel of two demos that he'd done recently at his home studio. One song was called "Mary Honey", a simple little tune with just Brian singing and playing a simple piano and organ part. It was obviously just a demo, but it was pure Brian Wilson. When it was finished playing, he asked me "Do you want a copy? Earle, make a couple of copies!" I left that session with a Brian Wilson unreleased song on cassette that I treasured for years until it was stolen from my car back in Miami. -- Chuck Kirkpatrick of the band Firefall
June 29, 1967
| Song title: Fall Breaks And Back Into Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony) | |
| Studio: | Brian's Home Studio |
| Time of session: | 3-6 PM |
| Engineer: | |
| Master Number: | 57934 |
| Length Of Song: | |
| Musicians/vocalists: | Brian, Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike |
David Leaf notes in his write-up of the SMILEY SMILE song "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter (W.Woodpecker Symphony)," "The bass line for 'Fall Breaks' is similar to the bass line from the SMILE piece 'Fire.' In actuality, it's the group vocals in "Fall Breaks" that resemble the bass pattern of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow." If anything, the bass and organ from "Fall Breaks" sound suspiciously like the "Heroes and Villians (Intro)"/"Fire Intro" tape. -- David Prokopy, The Prokopy Notes
More discoveries were made as SMiLE was being assembled. When Brian's confidence was judged high enough to listen to 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow', a dischordant, frightening piece of music that had severely unnerved him even back in 1966, Darian was amazed to hear him humming along to it. And it sounded familiar... Also known as 'Fire', 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow' (named after the farmyard beast that supposedly caused the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 by kicking over a lantern) shares chordal similarities with 'Fall Breaks And Back To Winter', a recording that made it onto the later, much simplified Beach Boys album Smiley Smile. Unlike the incomplete 'Fire', though, 'Fall Breaks...' has vocals, and it was the melody line of these that Brian was singing. "It just made so much sense," says Darian. "'Fall Breaks...' is a reworking of 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow'. It's the same chords, just a different arrangement." The vocal harmonies were duly restored to the live arrangement for 'Fire'. -- Matt Bell, The Resurrection Of Brian Wilson's SMiLE
On a few songs (on BWPS), Mark (Linnett) double-tracked the strings and/or horns to more closely reflect the number of players on the original sessions. When recording 'Fire', which originally featured a large string section, the Stockholm Strings were triple-tracked. "Overdubbing is so easy in Pro Tools... we'd just arm the tracks and go. In the old days, you needed to repatch, make sure you had enough tracks, repatch the monitoring...". -- Matt Bell, The Resurrection Of Brian Wilson's SMiLE
FWIW, my idea of what comprised "The Elements" is:
Fire - "Mr's O'Leary's Fire" (obviously a given)
Water - "Love To Sa Da Da" (75% a given)
Earth - "Fall Breaks..." or an early version thereof (I asked someone who would probably know... they nodded, encouragingly)
Air - verse of "Country Air" (when asked Am I right in thinking Andrew that you once said you'd been played something (by someone who might know) akin to Country Air in the context of it having been intended as SMiLE's Air Element?, AGD responded "Something like that.")
Based on mostly intuition, gut feeling and a few questions into the right ears. -- Andrew G. Doe
The “Symphony” label again brings back Brian’s “teenage symphony to god” quote. It might also indicate a humoristic connection close to the “Silly Symphonies” cartoons. Some have said that this is a re-write of “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow" (a.k.a. “Fire”) music, especially noting the similarities between the bass lines. After the “Fire” debacle Brian said, “I don’t have to do a big scary fire like that. I can do a candle and it’s still fire. That would have been a really bad vibration to let out on the world, that Chicago fire. The next one is going to be a candle.” Could THIS be the candle? The syncopes in the percussion might also bear some resemblance to those in the Child Is Father To The Man chorus, but what “Fall Breaks...” is most related to, is “Heroes And Villains Intro”, whose sessions is often named “Bag Of Tricks”. The rising/falling scale also resembles the backing vocals of the “Who Ran The Iron Horse” section in Cabin-Essence, a song that probably was “scrapped” at that time, until it was dusted off and used some years later on the 20/20 album. Brian also talked about a Smile track called Barnyard, or “The Barnyard Suite that was going to be four songs - In four short pieces - combined together, but we never finished that one. We got into something else.” That’s the thing about these sessions – he always changed sections around, he/they always “got into something else”. Or the “suite” became as much/little a suite as Fall Breaks... is a “symphony”. -- David Liljemark & Ronnie Dannelley, Smiley Smile IS SMiLE
Available Session Recordings
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
