Heroes and Villains

Heroes and Villains is the title of a song co-written by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and Van Dyke Parks. Originally intended as the opening track of the fabled SMiLE album (which was not completed until 2004) the song was recorded in a number of versions by The Beach Boys during 1966-67.

Related Topics:
Brian Wilson - The Beach Boys - Van Dyke Parks - SMiLE

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Composed in early 1966, "Heroes And Villains" was the first collaboration between Wilson and Parks, and it is reported that when Wilson first played the melody to him, Parks devised the opening line on the spot. Various musical themes in the song recur in numerous other songs and musical fragments which Wilson recorded for SMiLE.

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Although "Heroes And Villains" was the first song written for SMiLE, its recording was a difficult and protracted process. Mainly due to opposition from within the group, Wilson halted work on the other SMiLE tracks at the end of 1966 and concentrated on producing a version of "Heroes And Villains" for single release, but despite holding at least twenty recording sessions for the song of a period of several months and assembling several different edits of the track, he was apparently unable to complete the work to his satisfaction until after the May 1967 announcement that SMiLE had been shelved.

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The song went through a number of transformations, and at least two sections -- the so-called "Cantina scene" and "Bicycle Rider" segments -- were removed from the released versions, although the Beach Boys often included them in live performances of the song.

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A number of different edits of the song exist; one was released as a single in July 1967, a similar edit appeared on their September 1967 LP Smiley Smile. A third and rather different version was eventually released on the Beach Boys 30th anniversary boxed set Good Vibrations, issued in 1993 -- this included the Cantina Scene and some additional lines ("At threescore and five, I'm very much alive, I've still got the jive to survive with the heroes and villains").

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There have been persistent rumours of a far longer two-part edit, reputedly running for six, seven or even ten minutes, and that this edit was intended for single release, split across the two sides of a single. However it is possible that this rumoured long edit (if it exists) may in fact have been part of a trial assembly of the song and related fragments as part of the planned sequencing of the SMiLE tracks.

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The song was re-recorded in 2004 as part of Brian Wilson's new version of SMiLE.

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