Length 2:15 Composer(s) Brian Wilson | Label Brother/Capitol Producer(s) The Beach Boys | |
Released September 18, 1967 (1967-09-18) Recorded June 29, 1967 (1967-06-29), Brian Wilson's home studio, Los Angeles | ||
"Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)" is an instrumental composed by Brian Wilson for American rock band the Beach Boys. Released in 1967 as the second track on the group's album Smiley Smile, the composition derives from "Fire" – a piece recorded by Wilson several months earlier, but left unreleased due to his paranoia.
Contents
Composition
Wilson said of this version, "That was sort of a song about a cold winter scene. We tried to paint a picture of winter and then spring, late summer, and then broke into winter. We used the 'Woody Woodpecker' theme because it was descriptive to us of spring and summer."
Biographer David Leaf noted its "bizarre woodpecking" percussion, the use of a squeeze box that emulates the iconic Woody Woodpecker laugh, and wordless vocals by the Beach Boys. Musicologist Daniel Harrison described the track (along with other Smiley Smile tracks) as "a kind of protomiminal rock music", and that "the lack of formal or harmonic development makes the listener focus upon other quaities such as instrumentation, timbre, and reverberation. A concentrated listening effort thus goes quickly to subtle details.
Legacy
Writer Richard Goldstein characterized "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter" as a precursor to the sound of experimental pop band Animal Collective. In 1996, the instrumental was included in David Toop's Ocean of Sound, a 2-CD compilation album meant to accommodate his book of the same name.