The conclusion of this essay, picking up on the discussion of lyrical/musical allusions in SMiLE Movement III. For a general introduction to this essay, please see Post 4. For Movement I, please see Posts 4 & 5. For Movement II, please see Post 6. Please note that footnote numbering follows previous posts.
• Lazy Moon
"Lazy Moon" – referenced, perhaps, in the line "Ol’ lazy mister moon want a getaway" ("On a Holiday") – was written c.1901; it's credited to "Cole and Johnson." Some thirty years later, it was sung by Oliver Hardy in the film Pardon Us; some seventy-two years later, it was recorded by Harry Nilsson (on the album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night).
Here are the lyrics:
Lazy moon, come out soon
Make my poor heart beat warmer
Light the way, bright as say
For my sweet little charmer
She's to meet me in the lane tonight
If the sky is bright and clear
Oh moon don't keep me waiting here tonight
Watching and waiting
Heart a-palpitating
Longing for my lady love so dear
Lazy moon, lazy moon
Why don't you show your face above the hill
Lazy moon, lazy moon
You can make me happy if you will
Now when my lady sees your face a-peeping
That's when I know her promise she'll be keeping
Tell me, what's the matter – are you sleeping?
Lazy moon
The film in which the song appears merits a brief discussion. Pardon Us was the first feature-length Laurel and Hardy film, and – like SMiLE – it was a troubled project. It began production as a two-reeler under the working title The Rap; but as shooting went on, and excess footage accumulated, the studio decided to release the picture as a full-length feature. Reactions to the initial preview were mixed, prompting Stan Laurel to withdraw the film from distribution. Laurel added some scenes (and a musical score) and deleted others. At least one elaborate sequence was completely rewritten and reshot. After a year of activity the film was re-released under the new title Pardon Us…to a second round of mixed reviews. One might almost say that Pardon Us, as released, amounted to a sort of celluloid Smiley Smile (unlike that album, however, the film was a commercial success).
The discussion of Penzance, above, touches on the fact that the "pirate" of "On a Holiday" was inspired, in part, by the bootleggers who have circulated dozens of unauthorized SMiLE releases over the years. In light of that explicit connection, it is noteworthy that the characters played by Laurel and Hardy go to prison for the very crime of bootlegging (homebrew rather than music, of course). They suffer through numerous misadventures, including an escape attempt (a "getaway"?). In a climactic sequence left on the cutting-room floor, they extinguish a fire deliberately set by the other inmates, rescuing the inevitable heroine.
Hardy's performance of "Lazy Moon," by the way, is embellished by a Stan Laurel soft-shoe dance.
• Pauahi 'O Kalani
"On a Holiday" contains an interesting historical/musical reference:
A shanty town – a chanty in Waikiki. And juxtapose
a man with a mystery. A blue Hawaiian – capture
his melody. And Liliuola Kalani will sing to me.
"Liliuola Kalani" is Lili'uokalani, the last Queen of Hawaii. The Queen was an accomplished songwriter – she wrote the haunting "Aloha Oe" – but the "chanty" she is to "sing" here is almost certainly her composition "Pauahi 'O Kalani." Pauahi was her niece; named after an aunt who was rescued, in childhood, from a fire, her name means "finished by fire" or "destroyed by fire" (an obvious link to "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," which stands between two SMiLE songs with Hawaiian connections: "On a Holiday" and "In Blue Hawaii"). Pauahi is both princess and goddess, glimpsed against the background of a sacred forest (a similar image occurs in "Aloha Oe," in which "the charming one" is described as dwelling in "the shaded bowers").
"Pauahi 'O Kalani" has been brilliantly discussed by my friend MacAndrew. With his kind permission, I will simply quote his analysis:
Pauahi 'O Kalani (Pauahi, The Royal One) is a song by Queen Lili'uokalani, the last Queen of the Hawaii Islands, who reigned from 1891 to 1893…. Its lyrics run:
PAUAHI 'O KALANI:
Noho ana ka wahine i ke anu o Mana
Mahalo i ka nani nohea o ka nahele
Ua 'ike i na paia 'a'ala ho'i o Puna
Ua lei na maile o Pana'ewa ho'i
Ho'i ana no na'e ke aloha i na kini
I ke one hanau i ka home i ke kaona
Hui:
E ola 'o Kalani e Pauahi lani nui
A kau i ka pua 'ane'ane
E ola 'o Kalani e Pauahi lani nui
E ola loa no a kau i ka wekiu
and in English:
PAUAHI, THE ROYAL ONE:
Our lady is there in the coolness of Mana
Admiring the beauty and the glories of the forest
She knows the fragrances of Puna's bowers
She has worn the maile from Pana'ewa
Her loving thoughts return to love her kin
To her home, her birthplace, she is returning
Chorus:
Live, Oh Highness, Pauahi, great royal one
'Til time shall [be] no more
Live, Oh Highness, Pauahi, great royal one
Live long, in truth, supreme in excellence
Queen Lili'uokalani, the daughter of High Chief Paki and High Chiefess Konia, composed this song for Pauahi, her foster sister. Pauahi was the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I and was named for her aunt, who was rescued from a fire as a baby. Now, what does "Pauahi" mean? It means: finished fire, destroyed by fire, burned. Ahem…
But there's much more: please confront this song with "Wonderful". Note that each of the female protagonists "knows how to gather the forest", "her loving thoughts return to love her kin" and she "returns to her home, her birthplace". Note that each is a sort of young Pagan Goddess: a "non-believer" can bump into her, but he's blind to the "coolness of Mana"… the Wonderful.
The two songs are practically speaking about the same person/archetype – or what?
• Anything Goes
The comments made in connection with the "Plymouth Rock" lyrics in "Roll Plymouth Rock" apply with equal justice to the reprise of those lyrics in "On a Holiday."
• Long, Long Ago
This song – used as a transitional link, in "On a Holiday," to the "whispering winds" section – was written by a gentleman named Thomas Haynes Bayly, c.1830. As the title suggests, it's a sustained reflection on time and love long past. Here are the lyrics:
Tell me the tales that to me were so dear,
Long long ago, long long ago:
Sing me the songs I delighted to hear,
Long long ago, long ago:
Now you are come my grief is remov’d,
Let me forget that so long you have rov’d,
Let me believe that you love as you lov’d,
Long long ago, long ago.
Do you remember the path where we met,
Long long ago, long long ago.
Ah yes you told me you ne’er would forget,
Long long ago, long go.
Then to all others my SMiLE you prefer’d,
Love when you spoke gave a charm to each word,
Still my heart treasures the praises I heard.
Long long ago, long ago.
Though by your kindness my fond hopes were rais’d,
Long long ago, long, long ago,
You by more eloquent lips have been prais’d,
Long long ago, long ago.
But by long absence your truth has been tried,
Still to your accents I listen with pride.
Blest as I was when I sat by your side,
Long long ago, long ago.
This is actually a rather remarkable lyric. The speaker is addressing his long-absent lover, who has now returned from her "roving"; and he is trying mightily to make himself believe in her – to feel toward her as he did before she left:
Let me believe that you love as you lov'd,
Long long ago, long ago
In that sense, this song is a blurring of past and present. And this blurring, appropriately, occurs at the point where the long-gone winds of the pirate seas are arriving, this very afternoon, to set the wind chimes tinkling: literally mixing past and present. And it's worth noting that the lyric begins with a plea for old stories and songs:
Tell me the tales that to me were so dear…,
Sing me the songs I delighted to hear
SMiLE itself – rich in musical and historical resonances – tells many an old tale, and sings many an old song. It's interesting, too, that SMiLE isn't the first work to quote "Long, Long Ago" in a new context. Charles Ives – a composer whose influence on SMiLE deserves a discussion of its own – incorporated "Long Long Ago" in his Fourth Symphony. Wilson and Parks are in good company.
• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
This reference occurs, in SMiLE, at the moment of transition from the flames of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" to the waters of "In Blue Hawaii." Here is the familiar version of the childhood prayer/song (author unknown):
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
As with so many of the songs quoted in SMiLE, additional meanings emerge when one confronts the complete text. Here is the original English prayer – said to date from the 18th century – from which our shortened version was taken:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I give my soul to Christ to keep.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels there aspread,
Two to foot, and two to head,
And two to carry me when I'm dead.
I go by sea, I go by land,
The Lord made me by his right hand.
If any danger comes to me,
Sweet Jesus Christ, deliver me.
He's the branch, and I'm the flower,
Pray God send me a happy hour.
And if I die before I wake,
I pray that Christ my soul will take.
This is a much different sort of prayer: richer in symbolism and less child-like in tone. Compare this to:
Water, water, water, water
Is it hot as hell in here, or is it me?
It really is a mystery. If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take my misery –
I could really use a drop to drink.
Somewhere in a placid pool and sink.
Feel like I was really in the…PINK!
In this connection, it is interesting to note the "sea" reference in the original prayer. Actually, there are quite a few "elemental" references: sea, land, branch and flower. And for good measure – remembering both the original working name for SMiLE (Dumb Angel) and Wilson’s public references to heavenly helpers – there is a quartet of angels as well.
Again, the original lyric has been significantly changed for use in SMiLE. This unusual – and highly ungrammatical – construction lets the verb "take" take two different objects: one preceding the verb and one following it:
I pray the Lord my soul to take my misery
By rights, this sentence should end with "take"; it is as if the speaker's despair is compelling him to talk on, beyond the expected ending. Like a final dramatic twist, the extra words bring us to a stop, focusing attention on this powerful line.
• Cool Water
Old-West influences reverberate throughout SMiLE, so a case can certainly be made for this cowboy tune as a possible song reference. Written by Bob Nolan, "Cool Water" was a chart success for The Sons of the Pioneers on two separate occasions, in 1941 and again in 1948. Here are the lyrics:
Verses:
All day I've faced a barren waste
Without the taste of water
Cool water
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water
Cool, clear, water
The nights are cool and I'm a fool
Each star's a pool of water
Cool water
But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn
And carry on to water
Cool, clear, water
The shadows sway and seem to say
Tonight we pray for water
Cool, water
And way up there He'll hear our prayer
And show us where there's water
Cool, clear, water
Dan's feet are sore he's yearning for
Just one thing more than water
Cool, water
Like me I guess he'd like to rest
Where there's no quest for water
Cool, clear, water
Chorus:
Keep a-movin', Dan, dontcha listen to him, Dan
He's a devil, not a man
He spreads the burning sand with water
Dan, can ya see that big, green tree?
Where the water's runnin' free
And it's waitin' there for me and you?
Cool, clear, water
Cool, clear, water
Compare this to the so-called "Water Chant":
Water, water, water, water
Is it hot as hell in here, or is it me?
It really is a mystery. If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take my misery –
I could really use a drop to drink.
Somewhere in a placid pool and sink.
Feel like I was really in the…PINK!
The desperate thirst, the contrast between barrenness and life, the intensely imagined water: these broad themes are common to both songs. But there are specific parallels as well. "Cool Water" gives us a character who is "a devil, not a man"; the Water Chant is set in a place that is "hot as hell." The speaker of the Water Chant prays for salvation ("I pray the Lord my soul to take my misery"); "Cool Water" is sung by "souls that cry," declaring "tonight we pray for water" and hoping that God will "hear our prayer." The "placid pool" of the Water Chant is the counterpart of the oasis of "Cool Water," by the "big, green tree" where "the water's runnin' free."
In some ways, the most significant similarity is the role, in both songs, of the single word "water." In the SMiLE song, of course, this is explicitly a chant; but the ongoing, obsessive repetition of the word in "Cool Water" amounts to a chant within the song, woven through the verses and choruses.
• Blue Hawaii
Although this song (composed by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger) is often identified with Elvis Presley (and the 1961 film to which it gave its name), this is yet another ode to "Old Hawaii." In fact, it was introduced by Bing Crosby in an entirely different film: Waikiki Wedding (1937). In that same year, Crosby’s recording charted at number 5. The time period is just about right. In a recent interview, Darian Sahanaja reports Van Dyke Parks's reaction to hearing, for the first time in many years, some of the Hawaiian elements of SMiLE: "That's so…December 6, 1941." 11 Bing Crosby's "Blue Hawaii" definitely belongs to that lost, unrecoverable moment.
Although the lyrics are pretty standard stuff, it would be fair to say that this song – like "In Blue Hawaii" – celebrates Hawaii as an idealized paradise:
Night and you and Blue Hawaii
The night is heavenly and you are heaven to me
Lovely you and Blue Hawaii
With all this loveliness there should be love
Come with me while the moon is on the sea
The night is young and so are we, so are we
Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii
And mine could all come true this magic night of nights with you
Come with me while the moon is on the sea (the moon is on the sea)
The night is young and so are we (so are we)
Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii
And mine could all come true this magic night of nights with you
• Aloha Nui Kuu Ipo
This song was composed by Alvin Kaleolani Isaacs in 1961. Isaacs was a well-known Hawaiian bandleader and composer who began writing songs at the age of fourteen, composing on a "crackerbox guitar" he had converted into a homemade steel guitar. Isaacs pursued music as a side interest until he was forced to retire from his "real" job – motorcycle patrolman for the Honolulu Police – after a traffic accident. He composed more than three hundred songs during his successful career, including this one:
Aloha nui kuu ipo
Aloha from across the sea
A lei, a kiss, a happy greeting
A lover's melody, kuu lei
'Tis heaven, dancing near the ocean
Beneath the moon and stars above
Aloha nui kuu ipo
Aloha, my love
For Isaacs, "aloha nui" is "a happy greeting"; for Brian and Van Dyke, at the end of "In Blue Hawaii," it "means goodbye."
A goodbye, and a conclusion to this meandering three-part discussion. Where has it taken us? What are we to make of all these subtle (and not-so-subtle) allusions, references and quotations? What is their ultimate effect – on the work, and on the listener? Instead of struggling after comprehensive answers, let me offer a very roughly-sketched theory. I think the song references in SMiLE produce a dual effect: a "micro" effect and a "macro" effect.
The "micro" effect is simply this: the use of quotation or allusion to focus the listener's attention on a particular passage or phrase…to add an additional layer of meaning by enhancing or establishing very specific connections. In "Cabin Essence," the allusions to "Workin' on the Railroad" and "Home on the Range" strengthen such connections: connections to the railroad's westward march, to frontier life, to the conquest of the continent. In "On a Holiday," the "long, long ago" allusion gives greater effect to the transition from pirate past to present-day afternoon. In "Wonderful," the allusion to "Ring Around the Rosey" sharpens the focus on childhood. (There are many more examples.) This is essentially a local effect, and it appeals first, I would submit, to the intellect.
The "macro" effect, on the other hand, relies on the total effect of all of the allusions…to connect the entire work more deeply to the traditions out of which it comes. (One might say that this "macro" effect is nothing more than the cumulation of the various "micro" effects.) This effect has to do less with specific historical images or symbols, and more with the overall "grounding" of SMiLE in a musical/cultural context.
If you will excuse the musical analogy, I imagine this effect as operating as harmonics do: enhancing the richness of the words and notes with sympathetic resonances ("good vibrations," if you will). We may not be conscious of the specific source of each and every allusion, but the echoes intensify the experience of the work as a whole. (This will be clear to anyone who has heard a comparison between a scale played with no harmonics and a scale played with full harmonics.) This is essentially a global effect, and it appeals first, it seems to me, to the emotions.
When this dual effect works, it is undeniably very powerful; and this should come as no surprise, since it engages, at the same time, both the mind and the heart. One scholar – writing about traditional Japanese music – has described just this sort of dual effect:
Listeners and performers alike bring to this music their deepest aspirations. Reflected in the often sonorous, sometimes shrill notes…, they hear the song of their soul. A child will hear a children's song; the young will hear a love song; the old a religious song. Work songs, harvest songs – a doctor may hear a healing song; a teacher may hear a teaching song. Through traditional…music, we hear the memory and mythology of our innermost natures, as well as our personal and collective histories. 12
Only a sketch of a theory; this discussion is by no means exhaustive. Consider the interplay among these musical quotations and the many other references – historical, literary, mythological – encountered in SMiLE. It's clear that this work is just beginning.
Footnotes
12Darian Sahanaja interview at musicangle.com, 2004; link no longer available.
13https://keidokyoto.wordpress.com/music-myth-memory/
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