Vega-Tables

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Vegetables” (early versions spelled as “Vega-Tables”) is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1967 album Smiley Smile. Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, it was one of the last tracks recorded for the unfinished album Smile and was briefly projected to be that album’s lead single. Like other tracks on Smiley Smile, the finished arrangement was more stripped-down than the version conceived for Smile.

The song was partly inspired by Wilson’s obsession with physical fitness in the late 1960s. In a contemporary article, he stated, “I want to turn people on to vegetables, good natural food, organic food. Health is an important element in spiritual enlightenment. But I do not want to be pompous about it, so we will engage in a satirical approach.” Another reported inspiration for the song was a humorous comment Wilson heard about the effect of marijuana turning him and his friends into a “vegetative” state.

The Beatles’ Paul McCartney is rumored to be a guest contributor on early versions of the track that were released for the compilations Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys (1993) and The Smile Sessions (2011). While many witnesses support that he contributed chewed celery noises at an early session, held in April 1967, researchers failed to uncover any audio evidence that would confirm his presence on any surviving recording of the song.

Background

The song was composed in 1966 and first attempted during the aborted Smile sessions. In a contemporary article, Wilson said, “I want to turn people on to vegetables, good natural food, organic food. Health is an important element in spiritual enlightenment. But I do not want to be pompous about it, so we will engage in a satirical approach.” Biographer David Leaf wrote that the song was based on Wilson’s reported health obsession at the time. The Saturday Evening Post writer Jules Siegel said that while using marijuana with Wilson and the “Beach Boys marijuana-consumption squad” Michael Vosse mused at how violence in their “vegetative” state could not be achieved, provoking laughter and further discussion of being a vegetable. Siegel said that this encounter was what inspired Wilson to write the song.

Although it is not definitely known to be true, “Vega-Tables” is generally believed to fulfill the Earth part of “The Elements” suite that Brian envisioned for Smile. One of the illustrations created for the album included “Vega-Tables” as part of “The Elements”, however, a preliminary track list from December 1966 indicated “The Elements” and “Vega-Tables” as separate tracks.

The “Vega-Tables” spelling may have been inspired by the Vejtables, a group who opened for the Beach Boys at a concert on January 1, 1966. […]

Smile sessions – Overview

Recording for “Vega-Tables” or “Vegetables” spanned from October 17, 1966 (1966-10-17) through June 15, 1967 (1967-06-15). On November 4, 1966, Wilson produced a session dedicated to capturing a “humorous” situation featuring himself, Parks, Danny Hutton, Vosse, and a man named Bob. Towards the end of the exercise, the group plays a rhythm on bongos while chanting “Where’s my beets and carrots” and “I’ve got a big bag of vegetables”. On November 16, Wilson produced another humor session, this time dedicated to recording mock disagreements between Vosse and session drummer Hal Blaine. The latter play-acts as a man that is irate at Vosse for trespassing into his garden. It later turns into a serious conversation between Blaine, Vosse, and Wilson about the planetary alignments. Wilson completes the session by having his own mock disagreement with Blaine. Badman writes, “At one point, it is believed that these recordings will somehow figure into the ‘Vegetables’ track itself.”

In February 1967, Wilson announced that “Vega-Tables” would be the lead single from Smile, although he had only recorded the “cornucopia” demo of the song at this point. To taunt the record company, Wilson staged a mock promotion of the “Vega-Tables” by holding a photoshoot at the Los Angeles Farmers Market, where he posed in front of a fruit and vegetable stand. Parks was against having the song as the album’s single. He later commented, “I am sure I would not have wanted ‘Vega-Tables’ to be given too much emphasis. For Smile, that celebrated collaboration, to be dependent on a commercial release of ‘Vega-Tables’ as a single, was to me tremendously ill-advised, wherever it came from.” In early April, the band spent at least eight studio dates recording “Vega-Tables” before embarking on a US tour on the 14th of the month.

Parks’ last recorded appearance on the album’s sessions was for a “Vega-Tables” date on April 14, after which he withdrew from the project. Afterward, Wilson took a four-week break from the studio. On April 29, publicist Derek Taylor reported that a single, “Vegetables” backed with “Wonderful”, would soon be released. He described it as “a light and lyrical, day to day, green grocery song on which Al Jardine sings a most vigorous lead.”

Smile sessions – McCartney visit

During the April 10 vocal session at Sound Recorders, which also saw work on “Wonderful” and “Child Is Father of the Man”, Paul McCartney of the Beatles joined the Beach Boys in the studio for several hours. Al Jardine remembered that:

“The night before a big tour, I was out in the studio recording the vocal [for “Vega-Tables”] when, to my surprise, Paul McCartney walked in and joined Brian at the console. And, briefly, the two most influential musical Geminis in the world had a chance to work together. I remember waiting for long periods of time between takes to get to the next section or verse. Brian [seemed to have] lost track of the session. Paul would come on the talkback and say something like “Good take, Al.”

KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer said he was present at this session with McCartney: “We were in a booth, and we were supposed to shout out the names of vegetables. I was a young, punk kid at the time, and I shouted out ‘TV dinners!’ I didn’t know …” Wilson’s first wife Marilyn said, “Paul came to the Vega-Tables session. Brian had some fresh vegetables out, for the mood. He sprinkled salt all over the console table near the mixing board and started dipping celery into the salt and chomping on it. Paul followed his lead and picked up the celery and did the same thing. It was priceless to see this.”

Asked about his involvement in a 2001 interview, McCartney said he had no memory of chomping vegetables at the session. In 2016, he offered a specific recollection:

“I just went round to the studio because they invited me. I just thought it would be fun to sit there and watch them record, ‘cause I’m a big fan. And so I was there, and then it was, I think, Brian who came over and said, “Oh Paul, got a favor to ask: would you mind recording something?” I thought, “Oh, no! But great, I could do that!” Oh God, I’m gonna be singing on a Beach Boys record or something, you know! I got a bit kind of intimidated and thought, “Okay, here goes nothing”. And they said, “Well, what we want you to do is go in there and just munch!” … Well, I can do that! So, if you hear somebody munching celery, that’s me!”

On the existing tapes for these sessions, McCartney’s presence cannot be verified, and it is unclear if any record of his performance has survived. Archivist Craig Slowinski, who assembled the sessionography included with The Smile Sessions box set, stated: “I was ready to credit Sir Paul with ‘veggie munching’ … but since no tapes were found with his voice or reference to him, we figured I’d better not. Too hard to say that any veggie munching on his part remained on tape through the final stages of production.” Sessions co-producer Mark Linett explained: “Unless Paul is being very quiet, there’s no evidence that he’s a part of the chomping. And there’s quite a lot of discussion going on while that particular track is being recorded.“

After the “Vega-Tables” session, McCartney performed his song “She’s Leaving Home” on piano for Wilson and his wife. Wilson said: “We both just cried. It was beautiful.” He performed “Wonderful” on piano for McCartney. Beatles roadie Mal Evans wrote about singing the traditional “On Top of Old Smokey” with McCartney and Wilson, but was not impressed by Wilson’s avant-garde attitude to music: “Brian then put a damper on the spontaneity of the whole affair by walking in with a tray of water-filled glasses, trying to arrange it into some sort of session.” In a January 1968 interview, Wilson stated of the McCartney episode that “it was a little uptight and we really didn’t seem to hit it off. It didn’t really flow. … It didn’t really go too good.“

Smiley Smile sessions

The Smile album was reported scrapped on May 5, 1967. Starting on June 3, “Vega-Tables” was rerecorded for the new album Smiley Smile, where it was respelled “Vegetables” and reworked as a kind of campfire song. Apart from its coda (recorded April 1967), the track was remade entirely from scratch. Wilson played the electric bass on this version and added organ overdubs to the final section of the song. […]

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Hi Paul, we’ve heard a story about you appearing on a Beach Boys song ‘playing’ a stick of celery. Is that true?

Yeah, that is true, yeah! I mean it was wild and wacky days, you know, and I just went round to the studio because they invited me. I just thought it would be fun to sit there and watch them record, ’cause I’m a big fan. And so I was there, and then it was, I think, Brian who came over and said, ‘Oh Paul, got a favour to ask: would you mind recording something?’ I thought, ‘Oh, no! But great, I could do that’. Oh God, I’m gonna be singing on a Beach Boys record or something, you know! I got a bit kind of intimidated and thought, ‘Okay, here goes nothing’. And they said, ‘Well, what we want you to do is go in there and just munch!’ …Well, I can do that! So, if you hear somebody munching celery, that’s me!”

Paul McCartney – From meatfreemondays.com, December 2016

Last updated on August 1, 2023