♫ Heroes And Villains ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

I promised Clive and Pete that I would make it up to them for playing Snoopy For President a few nights ago.  Clive was well pleased with his make-up song yesterday, Here Comes The Sun, so today I aim to play one for Pete!  This one’s for you, Pete!

Surprisingly, I don’t think I had ever heard this song by the Beach Boys before tonight!  Considering it was released in 1967 when I was 16 years old and it reached #12 in the U.S., I don’t know how it escaped my notice!   I would still not have heard it, but for Pete mentioning it some time ago in a comment.

According to SongFacts …

Brian Wilson wrote this with lyricist Van Dyke Parks. It was intended for the Smile album, but Brian Wilson abandoned the project and the album was not finished until 2004. Once the album was scrapped, Wilson recorded this with the intention of releasing it as a single.

This was the first time Wilson and Parks wrote together, and it is reported that when Wilson first played the melody to him, Parks came up with the opening line on the spot.

The Beach Boys did at least 20 recording sessions for this song over a period of several months, as Brian Wilson was very particular about it. Sections known as “Cantina Scene” and “Bicycle Rider” were dropped, although The Beach Boys often included them in live performances of the song.

A different version was released on The Beach Boys 30th anniversary boxed set Good Vibrations, which was issued in 1993. This version included the Cantina Scene and some additional lines (“At threescore and five, I’m very much alive, I’ve still got the jive to survive with the heroes and villains”).

When Brian Wilson was going through a period of nervous breakdowns, he referred to the voices in his head as the “heroes and villains,” which created a constant buzzing in his brain that he couldn’t turn off.

The song reached #8 in the UK and #12 in the U.S., as well as #38 in Finland, but did not chart in any other country that I can find.

Heroes and Villains

The Beach Boys

I’ve been in this town so long that back in the city
I’ve been taken for lost and gone
And unknown for a long long time
Fell in love years ago with an innocent girl
From the Spanish and Indian home
Of the heroes and villains

Once at night, cotillion squared the fight
And she was right in the rain of the bullets
That eventually brought her down
But she’s still dancing in the night
Unafraid of what a dude’ll do
In a town full of heroes and villains

Heroes and villains
Just see what you’ve done
Heroes and villains
Just see what you’ve done

Stand or fall, I know there
Shall be peace in the valley
And it’s all an affair of my life
With the heroes and villains

My children were raised
You know they suddenly rise
They started slow long ago
Head to toe, healthy, wealthy, and wise

I’ve been in this town so long
So long to the city
I’m fit with the stuff
To ride in the rough
And sunny down snuff, I’m alright
By the heroes and

Heroes and villains
Just see what you’ve done
Heroes and villains
Just see what you’ve done

Writer(s): Brian Douglas Wilson, Van Dyke Parks

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24 thoughts on “♫ Heroes And Villains ♫”

  1. Thanks so much Jill
    I actually preferred this one to ‘Good Vibrations’, because of its slightly weird take with lyrics mixing surf sound with an Old Wild West theme. I did like that ‘Freaky, Freaky’, arguably over produced vibe. (A bit like ‘Surf’s Up’). Al Jardine’s comments on the song indicate how important the Beach Boys harmonies were still as a component.
    I reckon the back story on the making of this song could fill up at least one sizeable chapter on any book about the Beach Boys, or the music of the latter 1960s. I wonder if it hold the record for the longest time to bring a song to the public?

    Liked by 2 people

  6. This song was in the Battle of the Bandson the rsdio in Winnopeg one night. It went down in flames — I cannot remember what beat it — but it was probably not played again.

    Liked by 3 people

  7. Loved it, and bought the single at the time. It was over a minute shorter than this, though: this is the reworked version that was released as part of The Smile Sessions, somewhere around 2010 I think. Great video!

    Liked by 3 people

  8. Prolonging procrastination I went in search of the Spanish and Indian home
    Of the heroes and villains. If finding is failure then out through the back door of Rosa’s cantina I must run.😘👍👍👍

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Pingback: ♫ Heroes And Villains ♫ | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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