By Patrick J. Miller | Observer Contributor
Song: Do You Like Worms/
Artist: The Beach Boys/
Writers: Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks/
Album: The Smile Sessions/
Release: 31 October, 2011
I promise you that not every Beach Boys review that I’ll do first will originate from the now-”finished” SMiLE project, but this song has been stuck at the back of my head for some time, that I had to give it a closer look.
Do You Like Worms, better known since its reinvention in 2004 as “Roll Plymouth Rock,” is another song that was considered for the SMiLE album. It was meant to be a lyrical journey across the United States of America, from coast to coast by means of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion, but in its original 1966-1967 state, it feels more like a journey half-recorded.
The song begins with an instrumental piece, accompanied by some humming at a very low register, barely heard. This is the first piece of evidence that the song is unfinished, because the “finalized” 2004 rerecording contained lyrics at its beginning, starting with “Waving from the ocean liner…” The instrumental piece, however, is fine all by itself.
After that piece is done, another one starts, punctuated by a bass line and a “rock, rock, roll Plymouth rock, roll over” chorus repeated twice, one of the few lyrics that were recorded during the original sessions. It works as a chorus.
Afterwards is the tack piano piece, provided by Van Dyke Parks, probably the “Bicycle Rider” segment. You see, the original overarching story was supposed to be told from the perspective of the Bicycle Rider. But so far, it feels fragmented, so the overall narrative at this point feels disjointed.
Next is the vocalizing segment. Punctuating the already-established tack piano composition is the “Ooga booga…”-ish vocals drowning everything out.
Already a minute and eight seconds in and I’m still trying to grasp what the overall trip is so far.
The song at this point starts again with the instrumental piece from the beginning, with a much louder humming section. It soon became one of my favorite parts of the entire song.
After a brief reprise of piece No. 2, we go back to piece 3, and it is arranged differently. Instead of the “Ooga booga” chorus line, we have a call back to the previous song, “Heroes and Villains.”
In fact, the whole song could be called an extension of the “Heroes and Villains” theme. The lyric starts off as “Bicycle rider, see what you done…”, and continues to the end of this piece.
And for new content, we now enter a new piece with some garbled “Native Hawaiian-esque” vocals by Brian Wilson. Apparently, I don’t think the message means anything, but this piece is my favorite part of “Worms,” as not only the vocals are so calming, so is the instrumental piece here.
The track finally ends with a second reprise of the tack-piano piece, and a vocal piece that would help it segue into the next song.
Probably one of its biggest problems, if there were any, was the incompleteness the recorded lyrics represented. Even if the knowledge of not everything that’s been recorded surviving, it still feels like a fragmented set of ideas rather than a full, coherent thought.
Overall, Do You Like Worms is a bit disappointing. I really wanted to like it, since I really enjoyed it by individual parts, but when jumbled together, it doesn’t feel right. It is clear that from what’s available, more recording would have been required to finish this track.
It’s available on the Smile Sessions Boxset [either one of them will have this track] [Amazon.com/$27.24 [2CD]]. Just don’t expect much. [4/10]
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