Rio Grande (song)
Encyclopedia
"Rio Grande" is a psychedelic western saga co-written by Brian Wilson
and Andy Paley
and co-produced by Brian Wilson and Lenny Waronker
for Brian Wilson's first solo album
. Its modular set of movements hearkened back to the style that Brian Wilson used during the "Good Vibrations
"/Smile
era with musique concrète
. "Rio Grande" was evidence that he could still create brilliant, pictorial landscapes of music similar to Smile whenever he had the freedom, confidence, and courage to do so. It is the longest piece of music in the Brian Wilson catalogue at eight minutes and 12 seconds.
, the President of Sire Records, encouraged Wilson to make an impressionistic collage that had made Smile an interesting listening experience. Eugene Landy
suggested to Brian to make a suite about the development of an individual. However, it was Lenny Waronker
who insinuated to Brian to undertake a more complex, revealing, and provisional composition with an Old West theme inspired by the Howard Hawks
film Red River and also the movie Rio Grande
. A Hawaiian theme was also being considered at the time but was dropped in favor of a Western theme. Work on "Rio Grande" began on October 1, 1987, which happened at the same time as a Los Angeles earthquake. A similar concept being worked on during the same period involved "Saturday Morning in the City" and "Saturday Evening in the City" about describing an ordinary Californian suburban weekend but was soon dropped. Early titles before "Rio Grande" was chosen included 'Baby, Child, Adult,' 'Child, Adult, and Parent,' and "Life's Suite." The lyrics of "Life's Suite" (pun intended), written by Landy, were brought in at the last moment and were rejected out of hand by Waronker.
." The mosaic suite could easily be compared to the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" and "Rael" as a mini-rock opera. It also would easily have been perfect for the unrealized Americana theme on the original Smile. The ending of the short snippet of "Walk On By" on the Friends/20/20 two-fer is reminiscent of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" which later showed up in the middle of Part C of "Rio Grande" (see below). "Rio Grande" was recorded in sections at different studios across Los Angeles to sound like one cohesive work like earlier Smile recordings.
-like music similar to the "Fire" music he had created 20 years before. The Baystate Bluegrass
Band contributed to the suite as well as other different groups as stated above. 'Ride 'Em Cowboy' is repeated in a chant similar to his work on Smile (e.g. "You're Welcome", "With Me Tonight"). It segues into Part B with a steam engine whistle similar to the ending of "Roll Plymouth Rock
" on the 2004 Smile.
song sung by Gene Autry
or Roy Rogers
. It has a riff similar to one from The Beach Boys' "That Same Song." Part B is meta-physical and autobiographical in the sense of the 'river-as-allegory-of-life' idea, and the main character 'would swim the river but can't.' The Rio Grande
also takes him on an adventure or journey like a Lewis and Clark expedition. It evokes images of Lone Ranger, Tom Mix
, and Hopalong Cassidy
as well as other iconic Western figures and makes explicit reference to the Cherokee Trail
. In an earlier version of "Rio Grande", Part B included "Cool, Cool Guy" but was left out in the released version.
vignette before being interrupted by a Native American
rain dance followed by thunder and rain. The wordless vocal lines are similar to the "Fire" music from Smile
.
at the infamous "hamburger sessions" and/or "cocaine sessions." The odd 'Get A Job' interlude in the early version was excluded from the final version.
' imagery or have the out-of-the-box, ambitious enlightenment of the Smile-era work, it gave Brian Wilson
the progressive relativity of a genuine comeback album. Because of "Rio Grande", it was unmistakable that Brian Wilson was back on the path from the wilderness
to the distant frontier
. Mostly, "Rio Grande" unmasked a notion of the old Brian Wilson and helped bridge a gap between the original Smile and the long-awaited, eventual 2004 release of Smile
.
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
and Andy Paley
Andy Paley
Andy Paley is a noted record producer and musician who has been active since the late 1960s. His work includes stints as a producer for such noted musicians as Madonna, the Ramones, Jonathan Richman, Debbie Harry, Brian Wilson and Jerry Lee Lewis....
and co-produced by Brian Wilson and Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker is a record producer for Warner Bros. Records.-Career:He produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, The Beau Brummels, Harpers Bizarre, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, ...
for Brian Wilson's first solo album
Brian Wilson (album)
Brian Wilson is the eponymous first solo album by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, released in July 1988 on Sire Records. The album was reissued on Rhino Records with an extensive selection of bonus tracks in 2000.-Background:...
. Its modular set of movements hearkened back to the style that Brian Wilson used during the "Good Vibrations
Good Vibrations
"Good Vibrations" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys. Composed and produced by Brian Wilson, the song's lyrics were written by Wilson and Mike Love....
"/Smile
Smile (The Beach Boys album)
Smile is a previously unreleased album by The Beach Boys recorded throughout 1966 and 1967. The project was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow-up to Pet Sounds, but was never completed in its original form...
era with musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
. "Rio Grande" was evidence that he could still create brilliant, pictorial landscapes of music similar to Smile whenever he had the freedom, confidence, and courage to do so. It is the longest piece of music in the Brian Wilson catalogue at eight minutes and 12 seconds.
Creation of "Rio Grande"
Waronker and Seymour SteinSeymour Stein
Seymour Stein is an entrepreneur in the music industry who has been a part of the business since getting his first job as a clerk for Billboard magazine in 1958. Stein is a vice president of Warner Bros...
, the President of Sire Records, encouraged Wilson to make an impressionistic collage that had made Smile an interesting listening experience. Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Eugene Ellsworth Landy, Ph.D. was a controversial American psychologist and therapist known for his unconventional treatment and eventual exploitation of composer/musician Brian Wilson...
suggested to Brian to make a suite about the development of an individual. However, it was Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker is a record producer for Warner Bros. Records.-Career:He produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, The Beau Brummels, Harpers Bizarre, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, ...
who insinuated to Brian to undertake a more complex, revealing, and provisional composition with an Old West theme inspired by the Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
film Red River and also the movie Rio Grande
Rio Grande (film)
Rio Grande is a 1950 Western film. It is the third installment of John Ford's "cavalry trilogy," following two RKO Pictures releases: Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ....
. A Hawaiian theme was also being considered at the time but was dropped in favor of a Western theme. Work on "Rio Grande" began on October 1, 1987, which happened at the same time as a Los Angeles earthquake. A similar concept being worked on during the same period involved "Saturday Morning in the City" and "Saturday Evening in the City" about describing an ordinary Californian suburban weekend but was soon dropped. Early titles before "Rio Grande" was chosen included 'Baby, Child, Adult,' 'Child, Adult, and Parent,' and "Life's Suite." The lyrics of "Life's Suite" (pun intended), written by Landy, were brought in at the last moment and were rejected out of hand by Waronker.
Relation to Smile
The idea of "Rio Grande" was conceived as far back as 1970 when Waronker came by Brian's Bellagio mansion with Brian playing him the basic melody of "Cool, Cool Water." Waronker got the notion if he ever got the chance to produce him; he would want a synthesis of the commercial "Good Vibrations" combined with the pacific "Cool, Cool Water" leading to "Rio Grande" years later. Its different "feels" and movements relate specifically to "Cabin Essence", "Cool, Cool Water", and most of all, "Heroes and VillainsHeroes and Villains
"Heroes and Villains" is a song by the American rock band The Beach Boys, co-written by the group's leader Brian Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Originally intended by Wilson to be the centerpiece of the ambitious but shelved album Smile, a re-recorded version of the song was released on Smiley...
." The mosaic suite could easily be compared to the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" and "Rael" as a mini-rock opera. It also would easily have been perfect for the unrealized Americana theme on the original Smile. The ending of the short snippet of "Walk On By" on the Friends/20/20 two-fer is reminiscent of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" which later showed up in the middle of Part C of "Rio Grande" (see below). "Rio Grande" was recorded in sections at different studios across Los Angeles to sound like one cohesive work like earlier Smile recordings.
Part A: (0:01-0:57 minutes)
The first part, Part A, starts off with calliopeCalliope (music)
A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
-like music similar to the "Fire" music he had created 20 years before. The Baystate Bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
Band contributed to the suite as well as other different groups as stated above. 'Ride 'Em Cowboy' is repeated in a chant similar to his work on Smile (e.g. "You're Welcome", "With Me Tonight"). It segues into Part B with a steam engine whistle similar to the ending of "Roll Plymouth Rock
Roll Plymouth Rock
"Roll Plymouth Rock" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks in 1966 for the unreleased Beach Boys album Smile. The song is based on the incomplete Beach Boys recording "Do You Like Worms?" which was first published on Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys, a boxed set which...
" on the 2004 Smile.
Part B: (0:58-2:42)
Part B is the main theme of "Rio Grande" like an old cowboyCowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
song sung by Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
or Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
. It has a riff similar to one from The Beach Boys' "That Same Song." Part B is meta-physical and autobiographical in the sense of the 'river-as-allegory-of-life' idea, and the main character 'would swim the river but can't.' The Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
also takes him on an adventure or journey like a Lewis and Clark expedition. It evokes images of Lone Ranger, Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
, and Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....
as well as other iconic Western figures and makes explicit reference to the Cherokee Trail
Cherokee Trail
The Cherokee Trail was a historic overland trail through the present-day U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming that was used from the late 1840s up through the early 1890s. The route was established in 1849 by a wagon train headed to the gold fields in California...
. In an earlier version of "Rio Grande", Part B included "Cool, Cool Guy" but was left out in the released version.
Part C: (2:43-3:56)
In Part C, the listener is taken to what sounds like a campfireCampfire
A campfire is a fire lit at a campsite, to serve the following functions: light, warmth, a beacon, a bug and/or apex predator deterrent, to cook, and for a psychological sense of security. In established campgrounds they are usually in a fire ring for safety. Campfires are a popular feature of...
vignette before being interrupted by a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
rain dance followed by thunder and rain. The wordless vocal lines are similar to the "Fire" music from Smile
Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth. The smile can also be found around the eyes . Among humans, it is an expression denoting pleasure, joy, happiness, or amusement, but can also be an involuntary expression of anxiety, in which case it is known...
.
Part D: (3:57-6:11)
"Take Me Home" is the name of Part D, in which the music slows down to a dream-like state where the main character is thinking about his girl who on the other side. It sounds like a variation of Part B before ending with a vocal segue.Part E: (6:12-7:02)
Part E is the profound "Night Bloomin' Jasmine" section, which was written in 1979. It was one of a short list of songs or pieces by Wilson written in a minor key. An early version was recorded in 1982 with brother DennisDennis Wilson
Dennis Carl Wilson was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983...
at the infamous "hamburger sessions" and/or "cocaine sessions." The odd 'Get A Job' interlude in the early version was excluded from the final version.
Part F - (7:03-8:12)
The music in the last section is a reprise of Part B, bringing the journey full-circle in which the main character experienced one man out in the wilderness against nature, the old west, and the great outdoors. Like the opposites in Smile such as "Heroes and Villains" and 'Lost & Found' in Cabin Essence, opposites exist in "Rio Grande." These include: big man against little man, cowboy against Indian, and all men against nature. The opus closes with a thick, heavy drum being slammed.Significance of Rio Grande
Although it did not contain Van Dyke ParksVan Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks is an American composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, author and actor. Parks is perhaps best known for his contributions as a lyricist on the Beach Boys album Smile....
' imagery or have the out-of-the-box, ambitious enlightenment of the Smile-era work, it gave Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson (album)
Brian Wilson is the eponymous first solo album by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, released in July 1988 on Sire Records. The album was reissued on Rhino Records with an extensive selection of bonus tracks in 2000.-Background:...
the progressive relativity of a genuine comeback album. Because of "Rio Grande", it was unmistakable that Brian Wilson was back on the path from the wilderness
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
to the distant frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
. Mostly, "Rio Grande" unmasked a notion of the old Brian Wilson and helped bridge a gap between the original Smile and the long-awaited, eventual 2004 release of Smile
Smile (Brian Wilson album)
Smile, sometimes typeset with the idiosyncratic partial capitalization SMiLE, or referred to as Brian Wilson Presents Smile is a solo album by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Van Dyke Parks released on September 28, 2004 on CD and two-disc vinyl LP...
.
See also
- Brian WilsonBrian WilsonBrian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
- Rio GrandeRio GrandeThe Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
- Brian WilsonBrian Wilson (album)Brian Wilson is the eponymous first solo album by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, released in July 1988 on Sire Records. The album was reissued on Rhino Records with an extensive selection of bonus tracks in 2000.-Background:...
- Musique concrèteMusique concrèteMusique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
- SmileSmile (The Beach Boys album)Smile is a previously unreleased album by The Beach Boys recorded throughout 1966 and 1967. The project was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow-up to Pet Sounds, but was never completed in its original form...
Sources
- "The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece: SMiLE", Dominic Priore, c.2005
- "Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys: the Complete Guide to Their Music", Andrew G. Doe, c.2004
- "Wouldn't It Be Nice: Brian Wilson & the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds", Charles L. Granata and John Tobler, c.2003
- "The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds: The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century", Kingsley Abbott, c.2001
- "Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds, & Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius", Philip Lambert, c.2007
- "The Nearest Faraway Place", Timothy White, c.1994
- "Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson", Peter Ames Carlin, c.2006
- "Brian Wilson: Wouldn't It Be Nice", Todd Gold, c.1991
- "Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!", Dominic Priore, c.1995
- Brian Wilson CD Liner Notes, David Leaf, c.2000
- Friends/20/20 Two-Fer Liner Notes, David Leaf, c.1990
- Smiley Smile/Wild Honey Two-Fer Liner Notes, David Leaf, c.1990
- Sunflower/Surf's Up Two-Fer Liner Notes, Timothy White, c.2000