Here's the first section. The original track has upright bass, but since I have only electric bass, I used that instead:
I also wrote out the notation for the parts I learned (as always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong). Here's the marimba:
When I lookt at the sessionography later, I learned that there are four marimba tracks, all played by Van Dyke Parks. I inadvertently combined two parts in my notation. In track 5 of disc 4 of The SMiLE Sessions, Brian Wilson tells Parks to "hit 'em both at the same time" and later mentions "D and F#." There are half as many notes for the first two thirds of the track, so it seems that Parks played two notes simultaneously (on beats one and three) on one pass, and played single notes (beats two and four) as an overdub, aside from the few measures where there are two notes on each beat (the beginning of line five in my notation). I haven't figured out the other two marimba tracks yet.
I figured out the bass part for the entire track (as it appears on disc 1), but I played only the section for which I also know marimba. It seems that there's an edit at the end of that section anyway.
I referenced the 2004 SMiLE too and noted a few differences in the bass parts. Mostly, I was pretty impressed by how closely the 2004 SMiLE matches the track from 1966, but the difference in line 6 bothers me a bit. In track 5 of disc 4 of The SMiLE Sessions - at about 3:17 - Brian Wilson tells the bassist (Chuck Berghofer), "the pick-up is da da da da da," giving him the pitches for that part. I'm assuming that the musicians who put together the 2004 SMiLE had access to these tapes, so I can't understand why that's different if Wilson draws specific attention to it on the tape.
I figured out the bass part for the entire track (as it appears on disc 1), but I played only the section for which I also know marimba. It seems that there's an edit at the end of that section anyway.
I referenced the 2004 SMiLE too and noted a few differences in the bass parts. Mostly, I was pretty impressed by how closely the 2004 SMiLE matches the track from 1966, but the difference in line 6 bothers me a bit. In track 5 of disc 4 of The SMiLE Sessions - at about 3:17 - Brian Wilson tells the bassist (Chuck Berghofer), "the pick-up is da da da da da," giving him the pitches for that part. I'm assuming that the musicians who put together the 2004 SMiLE had access to these tapes, so I can't understand why that's different if Wilson draws specific attention to it on the tape.
