Vegetables (song)
"Vegetables" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1967 album Smiley Smile and their unfinished Smile project. Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, the song is a tongue-in-cheek promotion of organic food that was inspired by radio evangelist Curtis Howe Springer. It was one of the last songs recorded for Smile, with most of the original sessions held in April 1967. Paul McCartney of the Beatles is often reported to have contributed celery crunching sounds at an April session, however, it remains unclear if his performance was retained on any existing recording.
Wilson had declared that he would issue "Vegetables", rather than "Heroes and Villains", as the lead single from Smile, which exacerbated tensions with Parks, who had felt that the song was one of their least representative efforts. Parks soon withdrew from the project, and Smile was scrapped. The Smiley Smile version was then largely rerecorded in June with an arrangement consisting of the group's vocals, electric bass, organ, chomped vegetables, and air blown into water bottles. Months later, the band reworked one of its outtakes into a new a cappella song, "Mama Says", that was released as the closing track on their 1967 album Wild Honey.
Wilson rerecorded "Vegetables" with an arrangement closer to what he had originally envisioned for the song on his 2004 album Brian Wilson Presents Smile. New edits of the song that approximate the original Smile version were also created for the compilations Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys and The Smile Sessions.
Background and inspiration
"Vegetables" was composed by Brian Wilson in 1966 and first recorded during the aborted Smile sessions. The song was based on Wilson's reported health obsession at the time. In a 1967 article, Wilson said, "I want to turn people on to vegetables, good natural food, organic food. Health is an important element in spiritual enlightenment. But I do not want to be pompous about it, so we will engage in a satirical approach." Parks said that the song was more specifically inspired by the radio evangelist Curtis Howe Springer, whom "Brian had a great fascination with", elaborating that Springer had spurred the "whole thing with vegetables. Curtis had an evangelist approach to his message. He was totally charismatic. And he needed a lot of money to continue his campaign. And, of course, it may be that we contributed to it somehow. We wanted to connect with this guy, maybe even meet him. We were sold on his health kick."Conversely, The Saturday Evening Post writer Jules Siegel said that while using marijuana with Wilson and the "Beach Boys marijuana-consumption squad" Michael Vosse mused at how violence in their "vegetative" state could not be achieved, provoking laughter and further discussion of being a vegetable. Siegel said that this encounter was what inspired Wilson to write the song.
Frank Zappa's song "Call Any Vegetable" was written around the same period as "Vega-Tables". Parks knew Zappa, having performed with the Mothers of Invention; Parks' wife Durrie later recalled, "when Van Dyke and Brian were working on a song about vegetables, we thought, 'This is a natural.' And we took Brian to meet Frank... I'll never forget the two of those guys shaking hands, talking about vegetables."
Although it is not definitely known to be true, "Vega-Tables" is generally believed to fulfill the Earth part of "The Elements" suite that Brian envisioned for Smile. One of the illustrations created for the album included "Vega-Tables" as part of "The Elements", however, a preliminary track list from December 1966 indicated "The Elements" and "Vega-Tables" as separate tracks.
The "Vega-Tables" spelling may have been inspired by the Vejtables, a group who opened for the Beach Boys at a concert on January 1, 1966.
Composition and lyrics
"Vegetables" is in the key of E major. The main chord progression of verses is I-IV-I. Musicologist Philip Lambert notes this progression as a recurring element throughout Smile, with other songs such as "Wind Chimes" and "The Elements: Fire" also utilizing it.While the subject matter was conceived by Wilson, the lyrics were written by his collaborator Van Dyke Parks, who incorporated wordplay and absurdist imagery into the song. An earlier recording, sometimes referred to as the "cornucopia" version, features an additional discarded verse: "Tripped on a cornucopia / Stripped the stalk green and I hope ya / Like me the most of all / My favorite vegetable".
Some versions of "Vegetables" feature an additional interpolated section after the verses involving Barbershop-style vocal harmonies sung by the Beach Boys. The lyrics are "Mom and Dad say/sleep a lot, eat a lot / brush 'em like crazy / run a lot, do a lot / never be lazy". This section was considered for inclusion on "Heroes and Villains" under the subheaders "Do a Lot" or "Sleep a Lot" in January 1967, prior to the recording of the rest of "Vegetables".
Artwork
Artist Frank Holmes, who designed the Smile cover artwork, created an illustration that was inspired by the song's lyrics, "The Elements" / "My Vega-Tables". Along with several other drawings, they were planned to be included within a booklet packaged with the Smile LP. In 2005, Holmes shared a background summary of his design choices:''Smile'' recording history
October 1966 – January 1967 sessions
The Beach Boys recorded the most rudimentary version of "Vegetables", a demo with different lyrics and a different vocal arrangement, on or around October 17, 1966. Band archivist Craig Slowinski suggests that the session may have taken place on this day, however the exact date is unknown. This demo contained the unused "cornucopia" verse.On November 4, Wilson produced a session dedicated to capturing a "humorous" situation featuring himself, Parks, Danny Hutton, Vosse, and a man named Bob. Towards the end of the exercise, the group plays a rhythm on bongos while chanting "Where's my beets and carrots" and "I've got a big bag of vegetables". On November 16, Wilson produced another humor session, this time dedicated to recording mock disagreements between Vosse and session drummer Hal Blaine. The latter play-acts as a man that is irate at Vosse for trespassing into his garden. It later turns into a serious conversation between Blaine, Vosse, and Wilson about the planetary alignments. Wilson completes the session by having his own mock disagreement with Blaine. Badman writes, "At one point, it is believed that these recordings will somehow figure into the 'Vegetables' track itself."
The first major session dedicated to tracking any part of "Vegetables" took place on January 3, 1967. However, at this time, part of the song had been configured as a section of "Heroes and Villains" and logged with the title "Do a Lot". Material recorded this day did not become part of the finished song. During the session, Wilson can be heard saying to his bandmates before a take, "If there's not anymore cooperation of this, I'm splitting, I mean it. We better get back into the groove, you know?"
March–April 1967 sessions
In February 1967, Wilson announced that "Vega-Tables" would be the lead single from Smile. At this time, the Beach Boys had engaged themselves in litigation against Capitol, and to taunt the record company, Wilson staged a mock promotion of the "Vega-Tables" by holding a photoshoot at the Los Angeles Farmers Market, where he posed in front of a fruit and vegetable stand. The location was at Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street, only feet away from where Wilson opened a health food store, the Radiant Radish, two years later.According to David Anderle, formerly the head of Brother Records, creative differences between Parks and Wilson had escalated since February. Parks was against having the song as the album's lead single, commenting, " 'Vega-Tables' to be given too much emphasis. For Smile, that celebrated collaboration, to be dependent on a commercial release of 'Vega-Tables' as a single, was to me tremendously ill-advised, wherever it came from."
On March 2, after a session for "Heroes and Villains", their partnership was temporarily dissolved. A recording session for "Vega-Tables" vocals was held the next day, but further session dates, scheduled on March 28 and 30, were cancelled. Parks returned to the project after March 31.
The band spent at least eight studio dates recording "Vega-Tables" before embarking on a U.S. tour on April 14. Parks' last recorded appearance on the album's sessions was for a "Vega-Tables" date on April 14, after which he withdrew from the project. Wilson then took a four-week break from the studio. On April 29, band publicist Derek Taylor reported that the single, backed with "Wonderful", would soon be released. He described it as "a light and lyrical, day to day, green grocery song on which Al Jardine sings a most vigorous lead."
McCartney visit
During the April 10 vocal session at Sound Recorders, which also saw work on "Wonderful" and "Child Is Father of the Man", Paul McCartney of the Beatles joined the Beach Boys in the studio for several hours. Asked about his involvement in a 2001 interview, McCartney said he had no memory of the session, where he was said to have chomped vegetables. However, in a 2016 Q&A given for his website, he offered a specific recollection:Jardine said, "I remember waiting for long periods of time between takes to get to the next section or verse. Brian lost track of the session. Paul would come on the talkback and say something like "'Good take, Al.'" KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer was also present, as he remembered, "We were in a booth, and we were supposed to shout out the names of vegetables. I was a young, punk kid at the time, and I shouted out 'TV dinners!' I didn't know..." Wilson's then-wife Marilyn recalled, "Brian had some fresh vegetables out, for the mood. He sprinkled salt all over the console table near the mixing board and started dipping celery into the salt and chomping on it. Paul followed his lead and picked up the celery and did the same thing. It was priceless to see this."
It is unclear if any record of McCartney's performance has survived, as his presence cannot be verified on existing session tapes. Craig Slowinski, who assembled the sessionography included with The Smile Sessions box set, stated: "I was ready to credit Sir Paul with 'veggie munching' but since no tapes were found with his voice or reference to him, we figured I'd better not. Too hard to say that any veggie munching on his part remained on tape through the final stages of production." Sessions co-producer Mark Linett said, "Unless Paul is being very quiet, there’s no evidence that he’s a part of the chomping. And there’s quite a lot of discussion going on while that particular track is being recorded."
After the "Vega-Tables" session, McCartney performed his song "She's Leaving Home" on piano for Wilson and his wife. Wilson said: "We both just cried. It was beautiful." In turn, he performed "Wonderful" on piano for McCartney. Beatles roadie Mal Evans wrote about singing the traditional "On Top of Old Smokey" with McCartney and Wilson, but was not impressed by Wilson's avant-garde attitude to music: "Brian then put a damper on the spontaneity of the whole affair by walking in with a tray of water-filled glasses, trying to arrange it into some sort of session." In a January 1968 interview, Wilson stated of the McCartney episode, "It was a little uptight and we really didn't seem to hit it off. It didn't really flow. It didn't really go too good."