>Then again, that book does have some mistakes. Could this be one of them? Maybe, maybe not.
That's true, but I'm going to take this one as truth. When I met Brian in 1992 at the CMJ Music Fest (where he gave a a speech to college music journalism students) in NYC he signed this page in the book for me.
Brian's memory's not eidetic anyway. Back in 1978, he claimed 'Love of My Life' was on 'Sheer Heart Attack'.
Now, that doesn't automatically mean everything he says is wrong (far from it), but it does illustrate that him signing a page doesn't mean he condones everything it says - and, even if he did, that's not error-proof.
And even in the (still likely) case the poem comes from 1969, that doesn't guarantee at all that the music also does.
And even in the (far less likely) case both lyrics and music do come from 1969, that doesn't guarantee it was ever played by Smile. In fact, Tim claimed it wasn't. Tim's memory, like mine, like Brian's, like virtually anybody's, is not perfect, but I trust his more than Bri's because he's got a far shorter career to keep track of.
I was going to make a joke about Humpy Bong, but found this: 'In fact, as a result of meeting Freddie Mercury through the market stall that Freddie ran in London, Jonathan (Kelly, folk singer) had previously met Staffell and Smile and invited them to the studio where they performed a song together called "Fork in the Road" and at least three others, one being "Babylon".
I was going to make a joke about Humpy Bong, but found this: 'In fact, as a result of meeting Freddie Mercury through the market stall that Freddie ran in London, Jonathan (Kelly, folk singer) had previously met Staffell and Smile and invited them to the studio where they performed a song together called "Fork in the Road" and at least three others, one being "Babylon".
