"Cabin Essence" (alternately spelled "Cabinessence") is a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1969 album 20/20. It was originally intended for release on the scuttled 1967 album Smile.
The song features the repeated line, "Who ran the Iron Horse?" over harmonies. The song is noted for the use of the banjo and harmonica as well.
Brian Wilson stated that he and Van Dyke Parks wrote the song along with "Heroes and Villains" "Wonderful" and "Surf's Up" in a giant sandbox with a piano in it that Wilson had built in his living room. The song is noted for being one of a number of Smile tracks which contained controversial lyrics that the other bandmembers (most notably Mike Love) did not approve of. A recording session for the vocal overdubs, reportedly on 6 December 1966, saw tensions within the band boil over when Love confronted lyricist Parks on the meaning of the coda line "Over and over, the crow cries, uncover the cornfield. Over and over, the thresher and plover, the wheatfield". Love claimed the lyrics had no substance and were mere "acid alliteration". Consequently, Parks left the session and would eventually leave the project in the spring of 1967, which many consider to have doomed the album, already months overdue, though close to completion.
"Cabin Essence", however, was mixed and completed before the abandonment of the project. Although the final Smile version would have most likely been released in mono (in accordance with Wilson's usual mixing technique), the track was finally released in stereo (retitled "Cabinessence") on their 1969 album 20/20, with minor vocal overdubs. It was met with interest and praise upon its release in 1969 (along with "Our Prayer") due to its roots in the much publicised Smile project three years earlier.
The song was never performed live by the band.
An instrumental version can be found on the Beach Boys' 1993 Good Vibrations box set. The song was re-recorded by Brian Wilson's band and released on his 2004 version of Smile. A new mono mix of the song was prepared in 2011 for the Smile Sessions box set.
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