A very curious track indeed, the medley of the old Gillespie/Davis standard and the Charles Mitchel standard, the later transposed in a minor key and sung in past tense. As aforementioned, Al Kooper claimed this was originally a part of "Heroes and Villains" (and was probably recorded on May 11th, 1966 but was scrapped and taped over), but by November 14th it was extracted from “Heroes and Villains” into its own track. By then it also featured a fade-out, called Part 2, recorded on that same day, as well as lead vocals from Dennis recorded on the 30th. Master tapes of that vocal track have been lost, so all known copies are sourced from (not great-sounding) mono acetates. It is of note that the original version of "The Old Master Painter" featured lyrics, and Brian even sings them to a cello player off-mic during the tracking sessions; it is unknown if Brian & The Beach Boys simply never got around to recording the vocals, or if it was always intended as an instrumental.
In looking for material to finish "Heroes and Villains" on February 10th, Brian stole the Fade for "Old Master Painter" and reappropriated it into “Heroes and Villains”, recording new backing vocals for it (as heard on the February 10th Cantina mix). That unfortunately left "The Old Master Painter" with no ending, which could explain why the title is listed last, noted with parenthesis and later crossed out on the memo to Capitol Records listing the tracks for SMiLE.
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