Part three of this essay, considering the lyrical/musical allusions in SMiLE Movement II. For the general introduction to the essay, please see Post 4; for a discussion of Movement I, please see posts 4 & 5.
Movement II
It's interesting to reflect that Movement II of SMiLE – which is so closely identified with the themes of childhood and the cycles of human life – quotes mainly from traditional music: nursery rhymes and folk songs. This is a marked departure from the method of Movement I – concerned with the cycles of history – in which most of the musical references are freighted with specific historical detail. Movement II is more introspective and more allusive. Accordingly, it often references songs whose composers and dates of composition are unknown: songs which evoke the mysterious resonances of folk tradition rather than the clear-cut linkages of written history.
• Ring Around the Rosey
There is surprisingly little agreement about the origins of this nursery rhyme, the last line of which is quoted in "Wonderful." Here it is:
Ring around the rosey,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down
One often reads that the rhyme was inspired by the Black Death (the Bubonic Plague), which ravaged Europe during the 14th century. According to this reading, the "ring around the rosey" refers to the reddish sores on the bodies of plague victims; the "posies" refer to flowers worn to mask the smell of the sores (or to drive away "bad humors" in the air); and the word "ashes" refers to the burning of the bodies of the dead. "All fall down," unsurprisingly, is read as a death reference.
The problem with this theory is that there is no evidence of the rhyme's existence prior to the 18th century. While it is certainly possible that the rhyme was handed down through oral tradition for some four hundred years, this may be an unwarranted assumption. Equally likely is the competing theory that the rhyme describes, in its own "code," the sort of "circle game" created as a response to a Protestant ban on dancing. For young men and women, such "circle games" offered a way to experience the social interaction (and stimulation) theretofore provided by dancing…without running afoul of the ban. The "circle game" would have allowed participants to come into physical contact without engaging in prohibited activity; that fact may shed light on these lines:
A boy bumped into her one, one, wonderful
In connection with “Wonderful” – a song focused on childhood – the “circle game” explanation seems more persuasive than the “plague” theory. Clearly, the phrase "all fall down" – occurring in the context of a song at least partly about the loss of innocence – is plausibly read as a sexual reference:
All fall down and lost in the mystery.
Lost it all to a non-believer
Like the nursery rhyme itself, the phrase echoes the Biblical "fall." This theory also fits perfectly with this reference to another childhood game:
Farther down, the path was a mystery
Through the recess, the chalk and numbers
Finally, given the layered wordplay of the SMiLE lyrics generally, the notion of a secret meaning hidden in a nursery rhyme might have had a strong appeal for Wilson and Parks.
• Frère Jacques
Another "children's song," this French standard certainly predates its first printing (music only) in 1811. The first printing of words and music together took place in the mid-19th century. The French lyrics translate as follows:
Are you sleeping, are you sleeping
Brother John, Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing
Morning bells are ringing
Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong
Virtually nothing is known about the origins of this song, although it has been suggested that "Frère Jacques" refers to a monk with a tendency to oversleep. Its role in "Surf's Up," at least, is fairly straightforward:
Columnated ruins domino!
Canvas the town and brush the back-drop.
Are you sleeping? Brother John?
"Surf's Up" describes a "tidal wave" of youthful energies ("the children know the way") poised to overwhelm a world of "ruins":
Surf’s Up! Aboard a tidal wave.
Come about hard and join the young
and often spring you gave.
I heard the word. Wonderful thing! A children’s song
It is, in a metaphorical sense, a new morning ("morning bells are ringing"); and if one sleeps through it ("are you sleeping?") one will miss the chance to "come about hard and join" in it.
• The Old Lamplighter
This little song (music by Nat Simon, lyrics by Charles Tobias) has an interesting history. It was published in 1946, and by 1947 several recordings of it had taken their turn at or near the top of the best-seller charts. In 1960, some thirteen years later, it was revived by the Browns, a sort of crossover country-pop vocal group; their version was a top-ten hit on both the pop and country charts. It's safe to say, I think, that the song was "around" for a long time, and almost universally known.
The nostalgia-laden lyrics portray the bygone day of the lamplighter – the man whose job it was to light the gas-fed streetlights at nightfall:
He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago
His snowy hair was so much whiter
Beneath the candle glow
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago
You'd hear the patter of his feet
As he came toddling down the street
His smile would cheer a lonely heart you see
If there were sweethearts in the park
He'd pass a lamp and leave it dark
Remembering the days that used to be
For he recalled when things were new
He loved someone who loved him too
Who walks with him alone in memories
He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago
His snowy hair was so much whiter
Beneath the candle glow
The old lamplighter
Of long, long ago
Now if you look up in the sky
You'll understand the reason why
The little stars at night are all aglow
He turns them on when night is near
He turns them off when dawn is here
The little man we loved of long ago
He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter of long, long ago
One encounters the gleam of "lamplight" in SMiLE as well. This is the same twilit carriage-and-gaslight era less mawkishly (and more economically) evoked by this passage from "Surf's Up":
Dove nested towers –
the hour was strike the street, quicksilver moon.
Carriage across the fog-two-step to
lamplight cellar tune.
The laughs come hard
in Auld Lang Syne.
The glass was raised, the fired-roast.
The fullness of the wine.
A dim last toasting.
While at Port, adieu or die
In both instances, there is a powerfully elegiac tone: a sense of "pastness," a summoning of the memories of that which is "bygone."
The lamplight also reappears (as two separate words, and inverted) in the opening line of "Cabin Essence":
Light the lamp and fire mellow cabin essence
And finally, "The Old Lamplighter," with its repeated "long, long ago" refrain, may be an alternative (or additional) inspiration for these lines from "On a Holiday":
Long, long ago…Long ago
• Auld Lang Syne
Is "Auld Lang Syne" truly, as has been claimed, the world's best-known song? Perhaps. In any case, it's clear that the song we know by this name is a patchwork of traditional verses and new additions by the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. Burns himself referred to the original song as a "glorious fragment." In a note to the British Museum, Burns wrote:
The following song, an old song, of the olden times…, has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man's singing….
Here is a rough English translation of the complete lyrics:
The verses:
Should old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?
And surely you will buy your pint!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne
We two have run about the hills
And picked the daisies fine
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot
Since auld lang syne
We two have paddled in the stream
From morn 'til dinner-time
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne
And there's a hand my trusty friend
And give me a hand of thine
And we will drink a right-good toast
For auld lang syne
The chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld Lang syne
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne
(Note: to retain the rhyme-scheme, I have refrained from translating "auld lang syne"; this phrase translates as "old long ago," recalling both the "long long time" of "Heroes And Villains" and the "long, long ago" of "On a Holiday.")
Here is the relevant passage of "Surf's Up":
Dove nested towers-
the hour was strike the street, quicksilver moon.
Carriage across the fog-two-step to
lamplight cellar tune.
The laughs come hard
in Auld Lang Syne
Even to a casual listener, the phrase "auld lang syne" fits very well in this context. After all, "Auld Lang Syne" is the "default" farewell-song of English-speaking societies (it has been translated into many other languages as well); its appearance here gives greater resonance to the parting described elsewhere in the song. But when one considers the full text, other parallels emerge. For example:
And we will drink a right-good toast
For auld lang syne
is echoed in these lines:
The glass was raised, the fired-roast.
The fullness of the wine.
A dim last toasting
And these lines, with their description of roaring seas separating the speaker and his "trusty friend" –
We two have paddled in the stream
From morn 'til dinner-time
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne
call to mind the farewell "at Port," and the "tidal wave," of these lines:
While at Port, adieu or die.
A choke of grief, heart-hardened eye,
beyond belief, a broken man too tough to cry.
Surf’s Up! Aboard a tidal wave
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