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"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.

Unused sections
An early recording of the song, referred to as the "cornucopia" version, features discarded lyrics that were likely to be written by Van Dyke Parks: "Tripped on a cornucopia / Stripped the stalk green and I hope ya / Like me the most of all / My favorite vegetable".

Some versions also feature an interpolated section after the verses involving Barbershop-style vocal harmonies sung by the Beach Boys. The lyrics are "mom and dad say / sleep a lot, eat a lot / brush 'em like crazy / run a lot, do a lot / never be lazy". At one point, this section was considered for inclusion on "Heroes and Villains" under the subheaders "Do a Lot" or "Sleep a Lot".

Artwork
Artist Frank Holmes, who designed the Smile cover artwork, created an illustration that was inspired by the song's lyrics, "The Elements" / "My Vega-Tables". Along with several other drawings, they were planned to be included within a booklet packaged with the Smile LP. In 2005, Holmes shared a background summary of his design choices:

"That’s two separate worlds, where they’re able to put two things together. Its an idea I picked up from Asian art, from early woodblock prints, where you could look down into a building and see what’s going on in two or three different rooms. By having this different viewpoint, you’re able to incorporate more than one thing, so here there’s an interior and an exterior, and two separate worlds. It’s just a device to separate the graphics, so that you can experience two things.

That block on the left is supposed to be a photograph of a body of water, with those little black things you clip onto the corners. That was all to do with the elements, of course. ‘Vega-table’ is a split-up word, so I’ve got V-E-G-A sitting on the tops of tables, combining those two images. I got the interior out of the surf thing, with the sun and nature, and birds flying in the sky. Then there’s a picture of someone smiling there, probably Brian. Then there’s all the vegetables growing there, with the water coming down from the bolt of lightning and faucets coming out of the clouds, dripping water onto the plants. And of course the electric socket. Got to have electricity."

Overview
Recording for "Vega-Tables" or "Vegetables" spanned from October 17, 1966 through June 15, 1967. 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."

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.

According to Al Jardine, "I remember telling Brian, 'We’ve got to do something different on this thing.' What the hell, it was four in the morning.  I filled some water bottles, tuned it to the key of the song and blew air into the bottles.  What you hear sounds like an old organ."

"Vegetables" was mixed to mono on June 3, 1967. A recording for "You're with Me Tonight", held on June 6, was logged as a "Vega-Tables" session.

"Mama Says"
In 1967, the song was revisited for the last time as the closing track "Mama Says" on Wild Honey (1967). This version consisted of an extended re-recording of the unused "Do or Lot" or "Sleep a Lot" module. It was the first time a track with thematic links to Smile was used to close a later Beach Boys album, the others being 20/20 (1969) and Surf's Up (1971). Inexplicably, Parks' songwriting credit was not honored, and instead Mike Love was listed as the song's only co-writer.

Alternate releases

 * In 1993, a composite version from the Smile sessions was given its first official release, under its original title "Vega-Tables", along with a slew of other Smile material, on the Good Vibrations boxset.
 * In 2001, some recordings related to the song were released on the rarities compilation Hawthorne, CA.
 * In 2011, many more composite versions were made available on The Smile Sessions.
 * In 2013, a 1993 live performance of the song was released on the compilation Made in California with Carl Wilson and Al Jardine on lead vocals.

Cover versions

 * 1968 – Jan and Dean (under the name Laughing Gravy) on a single released in 1968 and later under Jan and Dean on their 1971 Jan & Dean Anthology Album and in 1974 on their Gotta Take That One Last Ride album. The version on Gotta Take That One Last Ride contains additional instrumental and vocal overdubs by Brian Wilson and American Spring in 1973.
 * 1991 – Sink, Vega-Tables
 * 2001 – "Receptacle for the Respectable" from the album Rings Around the World by Super Furry Animals also features Paul McCartney chewing celery and carrots.

Personnel
These credits pertain to The Smile Sessions version.

The Beach Boys
 * Al Jardine – lead, backing and harmony vocals, miscellaneous percussion and sound effects, vegetable chomping, whistling (uncertain credit)
 * Mike Love – backing and harmony vocals, laughter, vegetable chomping
 * Brian Wilson – backing and harmony vocals, laughter, grand piano, miscellaneous percussion and sound effects, vegetable chomping, detuned grand piano, electric harpsichord, whistling (uncertain credit)
 * Carl Wilson – backing and harmony vocals, laughter, miscellaneous percussion and sound effects, vegetable chomping, Fender bass, overdubbed ukulele
 * Dennis Wilson – backing and harmony vocals, laughter, miscellaneous percussion and sound effects, vegetable chomping, thump percussion, overdubbed drum, xylophone, rattling percussion

Session musicians


 * Arnold Belnick – violin
 * Samuel Boghossian – viola
 * Chuck Berghofer – overdubbed upright bass (verses)
 * Joseph DiFiore – viola
 * Joseph DiTullio – cello
 * Jim Gordon – hi-hat, castanet, cups
 * Raymond Kelley – cello
 * William Kurasch – violin


 * Nick Pellico – vibraphone
 * Bill Pitman – tenor ukulele (Danelectro bass on early takes)
 * Ray Pohlman – Fender bass (fade)
 * Lyle Ritz – upright bass (fade)

Partial sessionography
The details in this section are adapted from The Smile Sessions liner notes, which includes a sessionography compiled by band archivist Craig Slowinski. and from the Smiley Smile liner notes on the 1990 CD reissue, which features personnel credits compiled by David Leaf


 * January 3, 1967 – Columbia ["Do a Lot"] (the first session tracking any part of "Vegetables", at this time the song was still a section of "Heroes and Villains". Material recorded this day did not become part of the finished song)
 * Brian Wilson – group vocals, upright piano, overdubbed grand piano, overdubbed whistling (uncertain credit)
 * Dennis Wilson - group vocals, overdubbed thumb percussion (uncertain credit)
 * Carl Wilson - group vocals
 * Mike Love - group vocals
 * Al Jardine - group vocals
 * Bruce Johnston - group vocals


 * April 4, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Verse"] (this session produced the master take for the verse)
 * Brian Wilson – grand piano, backing and harmony vocals, laughter
 * Al Jardine - backing and harmony vocals, laughter
 * Dennis Wilson - backing and harmony vocals, laughter
 * Carl Wilson - backing and harmony vocals, laughter
 * Mike Love - backing and harmony vocals, laughter


 * April 6, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Verse"]] (this session produced the bass track and sound effects overdubs for the verse)
 * Chuck Berghofer – overdubbed upright bass
 * Brian Wilson - miscellaneous percussion and sound effects
 * Carl Wilson - miscellaneous percussion and sound effects
 * Al Jardine - miscellaneous percussion and sound effects


 * April 7, 1967 – Columbia ["Sleep a Lot"] (this session produced the "sleep a lot" section)
 * Brian Wilson – vocals, detuned grand piano
 * Dennis Wilson - vocals, thump percussion
 * Carl Wilson - vocals
 * Mike Love - vocals
 * Al Jardine - vocals


 * April 10, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Verse"] (this session produced the verse lead vocal and sound effect overdubs)
 * Al Jardine - double-tracked lead vocals, overdubbed veggie chomping
 * Brian Wilson – overdubbed veggie chomping
 * Dennis Wilson - overdubbed veggie chomping
 * Carl Wilson - overdubbed veggie chomping
 * Mike Love - overdubbed veggie chomping


 * April 11, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Chorus 1" and "2nd Chorus"] (this session produced the first and second chorus)
 * Brian Wilson – electric harpsichord, group vocals, whistling (2nd Chorus, uncertain credit)
 * Carl Wilson – fender bass, group vocals
 * Dennis Wilson – group vocals, xylophone, overdubbed drum (Chorus 1), rattling percussion (2nd Chorus)
 * Mike Love - group vocals, bass vocals (2nd Chorus)
 * Al Jardine - group vocals, bass vocals (2nd Chorus) whistling (2nd Chorus, uncertain credit)


 * April 12, 1967 – Gold Star ["Fade"] (this session produced the fade)
 * Bill Pitman - tenor ukulele (Danelectro bass with fuzztone on earlier takes)
 * Ray Polhman - Fender bass, overdubbed high Fender bass
 * Lyle Ritz - upright bass (arco)
 * Jim Gordon - hi-hat, castanet, and cups (drums and bongos on earlier takes)
 * Nick Pellico - vibes
 * Arnold Belnick - violin
 * William Kurasch - violin
 * Samuel Boghossian - viola
 * Joseph DiFiore - viola
 * Joseph DiTullio - cello
 * Raymond Kelley - cello
 * Brian Wilson - conductor (upright piano on earlier takes)


 * April 12, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Fade" and "Insert (Part 4)"] (these sessions produced the insert preceding the fade and the vocals on the fade)
 * Brian Wilson - grand piano, vocals (Insert Part 4), backing vocals (Fade)
 * Carl Wilson - vocals (Insert Part 4), backing vocals, overdubbed ukulele (Fade)
 * Mike Love - vocals (Insert Part 4), bass vocals (Fade)
 * Al Jardine - vocals (Insert Part 4), scat lead vocals (Fade)


 * April 13, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Fade"] (this session produced Brian's overdubbed falsetto vocal on the fade)
 * Brian Wilson - overdubbed wordless falsetto vocals


 * April 14, 1967 – Sound Recorders ["Ballad Insert"] (this session produced the ballad insert used as part of the song's outro)
 * Brian Wilson - lead vocals, stacked backing vocals, grand piano


 * June 3, 1967 – Sound Recorders (this single session produced most of the final Smiley Smile recording, along with some elements from the April sessions)
 * Al Jardine - lead vocals, "water bottle" sound effects
 * Brian Wilson – other vocals, electric bass, overdubbed organ
 * Dennis Wilson - other vocals
 * Carl Wilson - other vocals
 * Mike Love - other vocals