Mount Vernon and Fairway
| Mount Vernon and Fairway | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| EP by | ||||
| Released | January 8, 1973 | |||
| Recorded | September 1972 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Fairy tale | |||
| Length | 12:05 | |||
| Label | Brother/Reprise | |||
| Producer | The Beach Boys | |||
| The Beach Boys EPs chronology | ||||
| ||||
Mount Vernon and Fairway (subtitled A Fairy Tale) is an EP by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was included as a bonus record with their 1973 release Holland. It is a 12-minute musical fairy tale, primarily composed by Brian Wilson, assembled by Carl Wilson, and narrated by manager Jack Rieley, with Brian providing the voice of the Pied Piper.[1] Brian also drew the sleeve cover.[1]
Background[]
In the summer of 1972, Wilson joined his bandmates when they temporarily moved base to Holland and recorded the basic tracks for the album of the same name.[2] While living in a Dutch house called "the Flowers" and listening repeatedly to Randy Newman's newest album Sail Away, Wilson was inspired to write a fairy tale that was loosely based on his memories listening to the radio at Mike Love's family home as a teenager.[3] Wilson said that he listened to Sail Away "over and over" while physically writing down the lyrics that became the fairy tale.[4]
I just sat around and drank apple sap ... and dreamed. And one night I was ... sitting there with a pencil and I started writing. And I found that if I kept playing the Randy Newman album, I could still stay in that mood. It was the weirdest thing; I wrote the whole fairy tale while listening to that album. It was the weirdest little mood I created. I was thinking about Mike Love's house, and I just wrote, "There was a mansion on a hill," and then later on, in my head, I created a fairy tale. ... Nobody was ready for that. Nobody. I remember, Carl said, "WHAT?"[5][6]
His 2016 memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, shares further details:
My first concept of the piece, which I thought of as a fairy tale, was much more ambitious. The six sections would be linked by a fairy-tale theme, and I wanted to cut new arrangements of some of the songs we used to hear on our transistor radios in the late '50s, like "A Casual Look." They would be interspersed throughout. It would be a whole trip about the group. I even had my imitation of Mike’s dad in there, yelling at Mike’s brother, Stan.[7]
Wilson later recycled the melody of "Better Get Back In Bed" for his unreleased song "Lazy Lizzie".[8] Likewise, one of the early versions of "Ding Dang" has a riff similar to "I'm the Pied Piper".[9]
Recording and release[]
According to Wilson, due to the fairy tale's relatively long length, the group rejected it for inclusion on Holland.[6] Wilson said that he subsequently "got fucked up" and "depressed", leaving Carl to do "all the editing on it and even did part of it himself when I wasn't there."[6] Ultimately, as a compromise, Carl proposed that Mount Vernon and Fairway instead be released as a bonus EP packaged with Holland.[10]
Mike Love's account differed. "Brian thought up the idea of the fairy tale in Holland, and we all thought it was great how the whole thing came together. We all loved working on it, and from the start we thought it made a great little 'present' to go with the album, so that's what we did."[11]
While most 7” singles and EPs are released in 45 RPM, this EP was released in 33 RPM.
Alternate release[]
An instrumental version of Mount Vernon and Fairway without narration appears on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys.
Track listing[]
All narration by Jack Rieley, except "Magic Transistor Radio", narrated by Brian Wilson.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mt. Vernon and Fairway – Theme" | Brian Wilson | 1:34 | |
| 2. | "I'm the Pied Piper – Instrumental" |
| 2:20 | |
| 3. | "Better Get Back in Bed" | B. Wilson | Carl Wilson | 1:39 |
| 4. | "Magic Transistor Radio" | B. Wilson | Brian Wilson | 1:43 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I'm the Pied Piper" |
| 2:09 |
| 2. | "Radio King Dom" |
| 2:38 |
| Total length: | 12:05 | ||
References[]
Citations
- ^ Jump up to: a b Badman 2004, p. 326.
- ^ Badman 2004, p. 317.
- ^ Badman 2004, pp. 317, 326.
- ^ YouTube video: Brian Wilson 1976 Full Interview; 1976 interview with Bob Harris.
- ^ Gaines 1986, pp. 253–254.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c White 1996, p. 301.
- ^ Wilson & Greenman 2016, p. 42.
- ^ Badman 2004, p. 368.
- ^ Boyd, Alan (March 18, 2006). "Re; The Alan Boyd Thread". Smiley Smile.
- ^ Carlin 2006, p. 182.
- ^ Tobler 1978, p. 70.
Bibliography
- Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-818-6.
- Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2.
- Gaines, Steven (1986). Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306806479.
- Tobler, John (1978). The Beach Boys. Chartwell Books. ISBN 0890091749.
- White, Timothy (1996). The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern Californian Experience. Macmillan. ISBN 0333649370.
- Wilson, Brian; Greenman, Ben (2016). I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-82307-7.
External links[]
- 1973 EPs
- The Beach Boys EPs
- American fairy tales