Click this dude for my solo music.  It's very Beach Boys/Flaming Lips-ish.
Now, on with the show...

MY CROOKED SMiLE

AMAZING!!!! This site is no longer needed.  BRIAN AND VAN DYKE HAVE DONE IT.  I think to continue to offer my version would be ridiculous.  This album is Brian's, not mine.  R.I.P. Crooked SMiLE.  But it's okay because a much better one -- Brian's Smile -- is on the way.  What an amazing time!!!!!!!!!  -Love, Doug

This is my personal version of the lost SMiLE album.  Please enjoy. 

WARNING: Expect the unexpected!  This is an example of what SMiLE could sound like if creatively finished TODAY with modern editing techniques, not what it would have sounded like if finished in 1967 by Brian Wilson.  In fact, it's not finished now.  It's only compiled.  It is historically inaccurate as hell.  But whenever possible, I have gone with the logical editing/sequencing  choice.  Example: the single version of "Good Vibrations" is the version included because that's Brian's baby (and the best!) and there never would have been some extended alternate version included on SMiLE, even if it was finished now.  For consistency, all songs are in mono.  I enjoy mono.  I didn't go so far as to create new stereo versions.  I like other peoples stereo mixes.  See The SMiLE Shop and Paul Carr's Page for great stereo mixes.  I just wanted to have fun arranging this album my favorite way.  Sometimes I have added to the mix as well.  Most notably, with "Worms" and "Surf's Up."   The songs I haven't tinkered too much with (other than normalization and, in some cases, connecting them to neighboring songs) have a * by them.  The others have been modified.  Almost all connect, so you'll probably want to keep this as one collection. 

The thing I like most about this collection is that it has more in it than most other SMiLEs, but it's also more concise.  I have trimmed anything I felt was not strong and added strong parts that are not usually there.  This collection uses almost all of the "Heroes and Villains Sections" without putting them all in a big eight minute jumble like what is usually heard.  This "Child" edit combines the SOT 16 version with the more common Vigotone version.  There's just not as much redundancy on this version and that really means "no clunk" to me.   

Let me explain my "Heroes" edit.  While my goal is to use modern techniques to make the most with what we have finished from SMiLE today, I chose to try to create the legendary 6  minute two-parter that may or may not have existed then (but this can't really be it, of course.  Theirs would never have started with such orgasmic vocals!!!, and I used the entire released version in mine, and some of that wasn't even recorded until SMiLE was scrapped I guess).  It's said it was to cover both sides of the 45 single.  Here's my opinion:  The "cantina" version isn't part 1, and the "sections" is not part 2.  The "cantina" version is too boring (but only compared to the rest of the parts!) to be the follow-up to Good Vibrations, and the "sections" is two long to even fit on a 45 with the "cantina" version as well.  Mine is exactly 6  minutes and 13 seconds  in total length, and the longest part, part 1, is 3 minutes 40 seconds long.  Both sides would then fit easily on each side of the 45.  My main goal was to put the parts that are on the various SMiLE bootlegs back into the released single version.  I find the released version much more adventurous than the bootleg mixes, and I think the finished version would definitely have included these same parts.  It was just a matter of putting the other parts back in correctly.  It turned out that all that was needed was to jump back and forth between the released version and the bootleg version at the proper places.  In fact, my part 2 is really, except for a brief intro, just the released single version starting at the "La La La La" part.  Each section is still in the same order it appears in its own mix.  The two mixes just intertwine now.  I also added other sections that I thought were very strong and that helped to reinforce the "bicycle rider" musical theme.  A theme further explored in the following track, "Do You Like Worms?"  I also incorporated a simple vocal ascent part in several places as a recurring theme as well.   This to reference back to "Our Prayer," the previous track.  I chose to not mess with whatever the barnyard part may have been.  I think, in the end, that section may have gotten the axe anyway.  There are so many better parts that would beat it out in the race for placement.  Cross-fades were used because it's the only damn way to make it all FLOW.  That was one of my main goals.  I wanted it to flow.  The music itself is already jarring enough!  Some will probably find it strange to hear the Heroes and Villains chorus directly after "you're under arrest!"  I love it there.  I think it works well to introduce a corrupt sheriff that has just walked into the saloon.  But he's a wimp at heart and is easily laughed off (NaNaNaNaNa).  Then everyone raises and leaves at their own pace.  It could also be the narrator speaking directly to the listener.  "You're under arrest!  This is Heroes and Villains damn it!!!"  The reason for the unresolved ending to part 1 is that "Worms" goes in between the two parts.  "Worms" resolves this hanging note.  It also would FORCE the listener to flip over the 45  to listen to part 2 in that particular case.  I think "Heroes" and "Worms" were meant to be a 3 part suite.  It's like one epic song.  My "Worms" is most definitely one-of-a-kind.   

My Elements is totally historically wrong, but no one can say for sure what The Elements were to be anyway.  Since I threw out trying to be accurate, that made it easy.  AIR and EARTH are the two elements that are mysterious.  I just chose to use the obvious "Wind Chimes" and "Vegetables"  since they could easily be elements for sure.  My transition between the two is funny.  I got an e-mail from someone informing me that my "Vegetables" could never be a single (like it was maybe going to be) because it was all hooked to the rest and would have sounded wrong on the radio.  I have two words: Single Version.  Every song Jewel released off her first album was different on the record than how it was on the radio.  You just make a radio edit.  Jeeez.  I chose to order my elements in chronological order once we get to FIRE.  First there is the intro (the firemen sliding down the pole and racing to the fire), then the fire itself.  Next we have WATER because that stops the fire.  Duh.  Then the jazzy piece is the rest of the night.  In the morning then, is the rebuilding (workshop sounds) as an outro.  I noticed while piecing this all together that "Wind Chimes," "Vegetables," "Fire Intro," and "Surf's Up" are all the same tempo.  I wonder if Brian had planned to splice them together like this.  Even though they were being considered, I don't think sound effects are needed.  It's so obvious which part is which element.  Of course, it may have been different if AIR and EARTH had been instrumentals....   And oh look!  FIRE ended up number 13!  Woooaaaaeeeekkkkk!!!  Scary. 

My "Surf's Up" is one-of-a-kind I believe.  SRL is responsible for the verses, but I added the perfect intro and the "Wind Chimes" themes.  Brian was a freaking genius.  I wonder if I'm the first to figure out how well that song fits into this one.  Now "Surf's Up" has two reprises in it.  Wow.

This "Cabin Essence" is also one-of-a-kind because I have removed the second chorus and skipped right to the coda which sounds awesome.  It sounds like the unexpected bridge in "Good Vibrations."  But here it actually becomes the climax of the song (again, unexpected).  I always felt the original editing of this song was predictable, even if Brian did approve it.  Do you really need two almost identical choruses?  I think if he had been at his best then, it may have turned out simpler and better (like this!).   This edit is more along the lines of "Wind Chimes" (with the single chorus and all).  This version also has the "train whistle" which is generally considered to be intended for H&V.  My opinion is that it works so much better as an intro to this chorus, which is even about the locomotive (Iron Horse).

The "Heroes and Villains Reprise" is a part of the sections that I thought immediately sounded like a reprise.  It ends with a vocal from the "George Fell Into His French Horn" session.  This leads very well into Good Vibrations.  If I was Brian Wilson and forced to put G.V. on the record even though I didn't want to, I'd make a joke like this.  I'd super hype up the fact that the song is on it just for fun!