Progressive rock in its most informative years was an
exclusively British club (one need only discount the progressive-light banality
of Styx and Kansas). It's odd then that the LP that AM commends as a catalyst
for progressive music, The Mothers' Freak Out, is an American construct, as is
AM's choice for catalytic song, The Beach Boys' "Heroes and Villains." Ask any stranger on the street to name 10
Beach Boys songs, and "Heroes and Villains" won’t make the list.
The track, in all its incarnations (ultimately deconstructed
when released as a 45), "H&V" meets every prog criteria: epic in scope; time
changes and odd time signatures; complex, sophisticated instrumentation and
composition; conceptual ideas and heightened, lyrical content; classical and
jazz influences; indeed "H&V" goes out of its was to meet the guidelines. One
is hard-pressed to identify the track as a Beach Boys' song. Where the equally
complex "Good Vibrations" is so obviously a BB tune, "H&V" is so
painstakingly obtuse that the fact that it made it nearly into Billboard's Top
Ten is quite a statement about 1967's diversity.
Numerous segments, specifically written in modular fashion,
are strewn together to create a pop-music pastiche that's significantly more
adventurous than "Good Vibrations." Whereas ideas were tinkered with
for roughly six months to piece together "Good Vibrations," "Heroes and
Villains" took a year. "Good Vibrations" reached mass critical
and commercial success primarily because it is brilliant in theory and
execution, but it also benefits from the fact that it's lyrically relate-able.
"Heroes and Villains," for all its stunning vocal harmonies, lacks
such a linear lyrical plot. It makes no sense on any level.
When SMiLE was shelved in May 1967, so was "Heroes and Villains," but several tracks from the SMiLE sessions would reappear in later
years in severely toned down form. In the case of "H&V," what is left is the odd mix of melody and the
diversity of the lyrics (corny as Van Dyke Parks lyrics tended to be, they fit
like a puzzle and were transformed with Brian Wilson's musical compositions.
Think of "Surf's Up," one of AM’s choices for the most beautiful song ever, strip
away the gorgeous textures and melody, the voicing and the phrasing, and the
lyrics are just plain silly).
Parks would prove to be one of the most extreme surrealistic lyric writers, taking his cue from his love of James Joyce's word
play. Low on personal expression, the lyrics tumble along the chromatic shifts in the song and
fall into felicitous rhyme. "Heroes and
Villains" starts abruptly with the lyric without any musical introduction, with most of
the attention on developing the vocal tracks. The instrumental accompaniment
is limited to the organ, a harpsichord, and an occasional whistle - with
a standard rock band accompaniment mixed very lowly in the background. The verses take a simple falling major scale,
and convert it into a harmonic masterpiece, and the chorus starts from an
almost mindless, repetitive two-chord keyboard exercise into high order
counterpoint. Only then comes the best bit: "My children were raised" provides a new harmony for the falling scale, alters the tempo, and provides
the final push to prog perfection.
In another era, "Heroes and Villains" may have
revolutionized the 45 in the same way SMiLE may have revolutionized the L.P.
Instead, "Heroes and Villains" is a testament to a road not taken, the American
road to progressive music.
