Look (Song for Children)

"Look" (also known as "I Ran" and "Untitled Song #1") is an instrumental composed by American musician Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys' never-finished album Smile. Wilson later completed the track as "Song for Children", with new lyrics written by Van Dyke Parks, for the 2004 album Brian Wilson Presents Smile.

"Look (Song for Children)"
Song by the Beach Boys
from the album The Smile Sessions
ReleasedOctober 31, 2011 (2011-10-31)
RecordedAugust 12, 1966 (1966-08-12)  1971
StudioWestern and Beach Boys, Los Angeles
Length2:31
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)Brian Wilson
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
Music video
"Look (Song for Children)" on YouTube
"Song for Children"
Song by Brian Wilson
from the album Brian Wilson Presents Smile
ReleasedSeptember 28, 2004 (2004-09-28)
Recorded2004
StudioSunset Sound, Hollywood
Length2:16
LabelNonesuch
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
Music video
"Song for Children" on YouTube

Background

"Look" was one of the earliest pieces recorded during the Smile sessions. Musicologist Philip Lambert speculated that some parts of the music possibly evolved from one of the riffs in "Good Vibrations".[1]

Recording

The instrumental track for "Look" was recorded on August 12, 1966 at Western studio. It was titled "Look" on the tape box, but on the AFM sheet, it was logged as "Untitled Song #1" with a runtime of 2:16. The instrumentation featured upright bass, vibraphones, keyboard, French horn, guitars, organs, trombone and woodwind. Take 20 was marked as best.[2]

Capitol Records documentation suggests that, on October 13, all six Beach Boys were involved in a vocal overdubbing session for the track, now logged as "I Ran (Formerly Untitled Song #1)" with a 3:10 runtime. Writing in The Smile Sessions liner notes, Craig Slowinski said that "a tape from that session has not turned up in a search of the Capitol and BRI vaults."[3]

In November, journalist Tom Nolan wrote about Wilson in The Los Angeles Times West:

He has this great self-taught approach to music, which Barney Kessel calls “kind of a Stone-Age-Man approach,” so that every now and then he will do something that makes these veteran guys snicker behind his back, like saying to the engineer: "That trumpet over there should be a little louder; the one with the – what is that, a mute?" Or someone will point out to him that the four bars which he thought was a traditional vamp is actually from Twelfth Street Rag, which is copyright material. "That’s all right," he’ll say, "I’ll pay for it. You know I don’t steal."[4]

Brian Wilson Presents Smile

"Look" was later rewritten as "Song for Children" during the assembly of Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004). According to Darian Sahanaja: "I was moving things around in Pro Tools, putting things together to show Brian. I dropped 'Wonderful' next to 'Look', and we listened to it. Brian's eyes lit up, and he said 'That's it! That's how we'll do it!'"[5]

Van Dyke Parks subsequently supplied lyrics to be sung in overlapping harmony vocals to further establish connections with other tracks on the album, especially those within the second movement, and it was renamed from "Look" to "Song For Children". In this version, the "Twelfth Street Rag" section is not performed. "Song for Children" served as the link between "Wonderful" and "Child Is Father of the Man", thus being the second track of the album's second movement.[1]

Personnel

Per band archivist Craig Slowinski.[3]

The Beach Boys

Session musicians (later known as "the Wrecking Crew")

  • Hal Blaine – drums
  • Jimmy Bond – upright bass
  • Frank Capp – bongos, tambourine, glockenspiel
  • Ray Caton – trumpet
  • Dick Hyde – tuba
  • George Hyde – French horn
  • Barney Kessel – 12-string electric guitar
  • Larry Knechtel – harpsichord
  • Al de Lory – grand piano
  • Jay Migliori – flute
  • Bill Pitman – Danelectro fuzz bass
  • Ray Pohlman – Fender bass

References

  1. Lambert, Philip (2007). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Continuum. p. 268. ISBN 978-0-8264-1876-0.
  2. Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio. Backbeat Books. pp. 145, 151. ISBN 978-0-87930-818-6.
  3. The Smile Sessions (deluxe box set booklet). The Beach Boys. Capitol Records. 2011.CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. Nolan, Tom (November 27, 1966). "The Frenzied Frontier of Pop Music". Los Angeles Times West.
  5. Bell, Matt (October 2004). "The Resurrection of Brian Wilson's Smile". Sound on Sound. soundonsound.com. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.