|
| Length = | Writer = | Label = Capitol | Producer = The Beach Boys | Last single = "Then I Kissed Her" (1967) | This single = "Heroes and Villains" (1967) | Next single = "Wild Honey" (1967) | Misc = }} "Heroes and Villains" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys written and produced by the group's leader Brian Wilson in collaboration with songwriter Van Dyke Parks. Envisioned as a three-minute music comedy, it was originally intended by Wilson to be the ambitious centerpiece of the group's forthcoming album ''Smile''. The album was instead shelved, and the song was issued in restrained form as a single in July 1967 with "You're Welcome" as the B-side. It charted at number 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Two months later, it appeared as the opening track to the group's ''Smiley Smile'' album. The song was the first written for the ''Smile'' project. Though the lyrics are distinctly Western with some allusions to the American Indian genocides, former wife Marilyn Wilson claimed that Brian meant the "heroes" and "villains" to represent the ones in his life. It was the follow-up single to the group's "Good Vibrations"; both tracks were produced using the same unorthodox method of recording a surplus of musical sections in piecemeal using multiple Hollywood studios. Only during its final production stages would the song then be reduced and assembled into a coherent structure. This proved difficult for Wilson, who grew increasingly frustrated over the virtually limitless number of possible song edits. Bandmate Al Jardine later expressed dissatisfaction with the final composite, calling it "a pale facsimile" of Wilson's original vision, believing that he had "underproduced" the song at the last minute. Reflective of the song's complicated production history, many significantly different alternate versions of "Heroes and Villains" have seen release on subsequent compilations, along with numerous pieces derived from unused sections interpolated within the song. These include "Gee", "Do You Like Worms?", "I'm in Great Shape", "Barnyard", and "My Only Sunshine". ==Origins== Brian Wilson intended "Heroes and Villains" to eclipse the Beach Boys' previous number one hit "Good Vibrations", taking inspiration from Phil Spector's productions of "River Deep - Mountain High" and "The Bells of St. Mary's" — specifically the former's bass line. Composed in early May 1966 mostly in a large sandbox holding a piano built in Brian's living room, "Heroes and Villains" was the first collaboration between Wilson and Van Dyke Parks in tandem with the later-to-be-excised "Barnyard" and "I'm in Great Shape". When Wilson first played the melody to him, Parks devised the opening line on the spot, modeling its lyrics in the style of Marty Robbins' "El Paso". Wilson credits Parks with the title, while Parks credits Wilson, explaining: "I think he made that up. I think it was a great title, and he suggested it. To me, 'Heroes And Villains' sounds like a ballad out of the Southwest. That’s what it was intended to be—as good as any of those—and, really, to be a ballad. This Spanish and Indian fascination is a big chapter in Californian history, and that’s what it’s supposed to be—historically reflective, to reflect this place. I think it did it." Then-wife Marilyn Wilson said: "There are so many screwed-up people in the music industry. The good guys and the bad guys ... That’s one thing Brian had in mind when they did 'Heroes and Villains. The song was thought to have been written about the Vietnam War, but Parks clarified: "'Heroes And Villains' had nothing to do with Vietnam, but with the Indian thing we were trying to exculpate our guilt, to atone for what we had done to the aborigines of our own place. There’s a lot of things about belief in ''Smile'', and its very question of belief is what was plaguing Brian at that time. What should we keep from the structure that we had, the hard-wiring that we had with religion? He had religion beat into him, and I did in my own way, too. So there’s a lot of thinking about belief, and you can hear it in the section with 'Child Is Father of the Man'." Although "Heroes and Villains" was originally written as a standalone song, it eventually led to the creation of more Western-themed music associated with the ''Smile'' album, including references to eggs and grits, barnyards, cabins, and railroads. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heroes and Villains」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|