"Look" (also known as "I Ran" and "Untitled Song #1") is an instrumental composed by American musician

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...

for

the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

' never-finished album ''

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...

''. Wilson later completed the track as "Song for Children", with new lyrics written by

Van Dyke Parks Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer who has composed various film and television soundtracks. He is best known for his 1967 album ''Song Cycle (album), Song Cycle'' and for his ...

, for the 2004 album ''

Brian Wilson Presents Smile ''Brian Wilson Presents Smile'' (also referred to as ''Smile'' or the abbreviation ''BWPS'') is the fifth studio album by American musician Brian Wilson, released on September 28, 2004 on Nonesuch. It features all-new recordings of music that ...

''.

Background

"Look" was one of the earliest pieces recorded during the ''

'' sessions. Musicologist Philip Lambert speculated that some parts of the music possibly evolved from one of the riffs in "

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record ...

Recording

The instrumental track for "Look" was recorded on August 12, 1966 at Western studio. It was titled "Look" on the tape box, but on the AFM sheet, it was logged as "Untitled Song #1" with a runtime of 2:16. The instrumentation featured upright bass, vibraphones, keyboard, French horn, guitars, organs, trombone and woodwind. Take 20 was marked as best.

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

documentation suggests that, on October 13, all six Beach Boys were involved in a vocal overdubbing session for the track, now logged as "I Ran (Formerly Untitled Song #1)" with a 3:10 runtime. Writing in ''

The Smile Sessions ''The Smile Sessions'' is a compilation album and box set recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on October 31, 2011 by Capitol Records. The set is the follow-up to '' The Pet Sounds Sessions'' (1997), this time focusing on the ...

'' liner notes, Craig Slowinski said that "a tape from that session has not turned up in a search of the Capitol and BRI vaults." In November, journalist Tom Nolan wrote about Wilson in ''The Los Angeles Times West'':

''Brian Wilson Presents Smile''

"Look" was later rewritten as "Song for Children" during the assembly of ''

'' (2004). According to

Darian Sahanaja Darian Sahanaja (born May 20, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and arranger who is best known for co-founding Wondermints in 1992 and playing with Brian Wilson's supporting band since 1999. He has also performed alongsi ...

: "I was moving things around in

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

, putting things together to show Brian. I dropped ' Wonderful' next to 'Look', and we listened to it. Brian's eyes lit up, and he said 'That's ''it''! That's how we'll do it!'"

subsequently supplied lyrics to be sung in overlapping harmony vocals to further establish connections with other tracks on the album, especially those within the second

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

, and it was renamed from "Look" to "Song For Children". In this version, the "Twelfth Street Rag" section is not performed. "Song for Children" served as the link between "Wonderful" and "

Child Is Father of the Man "Child Is Father of the Man" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys that was written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. It was originally recorded for the band's never-finished album ''Smile''. In 2004, Wilson rerecorded the song for ' ...

", thus being the second track of the album's second movement.

Personnel

Per band archivist Craig Slowinski. The Beach Boys *

Carl Wilson Carl Dean Wilson (December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's ''de ...

– vocals (sampled from a 1971 recording for ''

'') Session musicians (later known as " the Wrecking Crew") *

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

– drums * Jimmy Bond – upright bass * Frank Capp – bongos, tambourine,

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

* Ray Caton – trumpet * Dick Hyde – tuba * George Hyde –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

Barney Kessel Barney Kessel (October 17, 1923 – May 6, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Known in particular for his knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies, he was a member of many prominent jazz groups a ...

– 12-string electric guitar *

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles-based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon ...

– harpsichord * Al de Lory – grand piano * Jay Migliori – flute * Bill Pitman – Danelectro fuzz bass * Ray Pohlman – Fender bass

References

External links

* {{authority control 2011 songs 1960s instrumentals The Beach Boys songs Song recordings produced by Brian Wilson Songs written by Brian Wilson Songs released posthumously Songs written by Van Dyke Parks