Heroes and Villains Part II

One of the great SMiLE mysteries is “Heroes and Villains (Part II).” The theory goes that this track was the b-side to the unfinished "Heroes and Villains" single, despite there being absolutely no hard evidence for this. The myth has been perpetuated to such a degree that the compilers of The SMiLE Sessions box set decided to tip their hat to it, calling a track by its name, while also admitting they found no evidence for its existence! There are several competing theories for “Heroes and Villains (Part II)”, and I'll try to give a non-bias breakdown of them...  

The Swedish Frog Theory 

This theory goes that Brian completed what he thought was his final master of "Heroes and Villains" on February 10th. Five days later, he was back in the studio, making more recordings that didn't seem to fit with what he recorded (Prelude To Fade on February 15th and the Gee/Part 2 iterations/Swedish Frog on February 20th). Why? Because anything worked on after the 10th (but before he scrapped it all in March and rerecorded everything) was not actually meant for "Heroes and Villains" proper, but its single b-side. 

Evidence for this theory is circumstantial. Michael Vosse claims:  

"The best version I heard, which was never completed, but at least I could see the form of it, was an A side B side version lasting about six minutes. It was a beautifully structured work; and Van Dyke was still very involved." 

 If you compile the Feb 10 master with Brian's rough edit of the Feb 20th reiterations (and end it with "Prelude To Fade'), you have about 6 minutes. Also, the Feb 20th iterations were logged as "Part 2" although that could notate the second part of the internal song, rather than a second part of the single. Despite no hard evidence, the Feb 20th iterations as well as other “Heroes and Villains” session outtakes were slung together and included on The Smile Sessions box, probably out of convenience than accuracy. Evidence against this theory is that Vosse seems to be mentioning what he saw as a finished product, rather than what Brian saw as a finished product.   

The Master 57045 Theory 

This theory states that while most of the "Heroes and Villains" recordings were all recorded under the same master #57020, some of the recordings were recorded under a different master #57045, and that was supposed to be "Heroes and Villains (Part II)". Specifically, the segments including the 'Bicycle Rider' chorus from January 5th and all of the remake sections from February 27th to March 1st (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Fade).   

Evidence for this is that the ‘Bicycle Rider’ section is logged as "Heroes and Villains Part 2", and the Chorus is logged as "Heroes and Villains: Part Two". But like the previous theory, both of these sections were second 'parts' (aka choruses) of the same internal song, and doesn't necessarily mean it's a second part to the single. Evidence against this is that Brian's master numbers were sometimes erratic and they often changed, and the separate master numbers for “Heroes and Villains” might be a red herring. Also, if you edit together what Master 57045 could actually sound like in a logical song structure as per the segment designations, you end up with something sounding like a simple remake of "Heroes and Villains" proper, rather than a b-side continuation as suggested by Vosse.   

The SMiLE Sampler Theory 

Another theory functions as an alternate explanation for the above Master 57045 Theory and resolves it with The Swedish Frog Theory: that the b-side to the "Heroes and Villains" single was going to be a sort of SMiLE Sampler, a preview for the album. That is why everything recorded after February 10th were remakes, intended to highlight various parts of the album, as one exclusive b-side on the single. That would also explain why there is a new master number assigned to the recordings...   

Unfortunately, there is no real evidence for this beyond analysis of what was recorded. Surely, Vosse or someone else would have mentioned this as Brian's intent? Without any actual evidence, this theory is conjecture, although admittedly interesting conjecture at least!  

The 'There Was No Part II' Theory 

The simplest explanation: there just never was a "Heroes and Villains (Part II)" to begin with. Despite changing master numbers, outtakes upon outtakes and 50 years of hearsay, there is simply no actual evidence that this stand-alone song ever existed, and any reference to "part 2" is simply the designation of a second part of the song that follows the verses. Evidence for this is that all of these sections—Bicycle Rider from 1/5/67, In The Cantina from 1/27/67, Gee and it's iterations from 2/20/67 and the Chorus from 2/27/67 all were designated as Part 2 or Part Two (with some of the Gee iterations designated as Part 3 and 4!). Thus it's reasonable to believe that ‘Part 1’ was the verse and all of these aforementioned sections were meant to follow it, at different points in time of the song's recording process.