Still honoring the late Brian Wilson, today’s classic song of the day is the Beach Boys’ “Heroes and Villains,” which may be Brian’s most complex and sophisticated tune—even more so than the group’s previous release, “Good Vibrations.”
Brian Wilson wrote “Heroes and Villains” in collaboration with lyricist Van Dyke Parks, who wrote the words for most of the songs intended for the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds follow-up, the ultimately abandoned Smile album. In fact, “Heroes and Villains” was the first song that the two of them wrote together. Brian said he imagined the song as a kind of old west-themed musical comedy. Parks said he was inspired by the songs of Marty Robbins (such as “El Paso,” a previous classic song of the day) and the early history of the state of California. It also appears that Brian might have started the song as a reworking of the classic tune, “You Are My Sunshine,” although that might not be readily apparent to the casual listener
Like “Good Vibrations,” “Heroes and Villains” was created from a collection of musical fragments recorded over a period of several months. While “Good Vibrations” took 20 sessions over seven months to record and cost close to $25,000. “Heroes and Villains” upped the ante by taking 30 sessions over nine months (October 1966 to July 1967) to record and cost $40,000, an almost-obscene amount in those days. Brian started work on the song almost immediately following the completion of the group’s Pet Sounds album.
After all that work, “Heroes and Villains” was never really finished. Brian kept recording new bits and arranging and rearranging the short musical fragments, resulting in a number of different versions of the track. Some versions came in around three and a half minutes in length, others were close to eight minutes long. The order of the various fragments shifted from version to version, and some melodic themes were ultimately dropped or used in other songs. In all, there appear to be more than a dozen versions of the song, only some of which made it out to the public.
The first version of “Heroes and Villains” to be publicly available was on the Smiley Smile album, the group’s slapdash replacement for the aborted Smile project. That version, clocking in at 3:36, was released as a single in late July, 1967.
The “Heroes and Villains” single, though not as successful as the previous “Good Vibrations,” still hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 in the UK. While most artists would have been happy with that, it was a huge disappointment for Brian and the other Beach Boys, who were never big fans of Brain’s more experimental works.
In 2004, Brian and his crack backup band, the Wondermints, recorded a recreation of what would have been the Beach Boys’ Smile album. That album, Brian Wilson Presents Smile, included a 4:54 version of “Heroes and Villains” that included a previously discarded “Cantina” section and some slightly reordered segments. This version of the song, as well as the entire album, provides listeners with an idea of how Smile might have sounded as originally conceived, but using today’s recording technology.
A half-dozen years later, in 2011, the Beach Boys released a box set titled The Smile Sessions. It includes the original recordings for the Smile album, presented as a cohesive whole for the first time, loosely following the organization of Brian’s 2004 modern reconstruction. “Heroes and Villains” appears here in a 4:52 version in an even different arrangement.
The box set also includes alternate takes of several tracks—including four more versions of “Heroes and Villains.” The most interesting is a 7:44 version that includes more sections than you’ve probably heard before. It’s certainly the most interesting version—the more Brian, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
Why was “Heroes and Villains,” an admittedly brilliant composition, not more successful—and, more important, why has it dropped almost completely out of the public consciousness? (You never hear it on oldies radio today…) I think there are a number of reasons:
- First, “Heroes and Villains” is just too different. Where “Good Vibrations” was groundbreaking, it still sounded like it belonged next to the other songs being played on the radio at the time. More important, it sounded like a Beach Boys tune, albeit a more complex one. In contrast, “Heroes and Villains” wasn’t normal or traditional in any sense and sounded really different from the other tunes of the time. Also, for casual fans, it didn’t sound like a typical California summer fun song one might expect from the Beach Boys.
- Second, “Heroes and Villains” has too many tempo and mood changes, making it impossible to dance to. “Good Vibrations,” for all its fragmentary sections, still retained a steady tempo throughout.
- Third, the lyrics are way too sophisticated and difficult to comprehend for the average listener. Compare Parks’ hyperintelligent and well-researched historical lyrics with Mike Love’s dumbed down words in “Good Vibrations;” “Heroes and Villains” is just not a song you can sing along to.
Bottom line, “Heroes and Villains” was maybe a little too smart and too ambitious for its own good—or at least for the average listener. For most fans, “Heroes and Villains” just wasn’t as engaging as and didn’t have the same staying power of “Good Vibrations” and other Beach Boys hits.
All that said, there’s a lot to like about “Heroes and Villains.” The song is full of inventive and imaginative passages, as well as Brian’s typical unusual-but-highly-memorable melodies. I’m especially fond of the descending melodic line in the first part of the verse (“I’ve been in this town so long that back in the city I’ve been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long, long time”) and how Van Dyke Parks managed to fit words to it.
“Heroes and Villains” is arguably the most inventive tune to come from the musical genius of Brian Wilson. It shows just what Brian was capable of when he was firing on all (or most) cylinders. Despite its relative lack of mainstream success, “Heroes and Villains” is one of my favorite Beach Boys tunes and one I greatly admire and respect. It’s something else.
