Brian Wilson's Saddest Song? (Beach Boys - Til I Die) 

Great analysis!

We need more music theory vids on The Beach Boys. This side of RU-vid is starved of content like this.

GOD BLESS BRIAN WILSON.

Love this song. It's not depressing. It's contemplative.

It kills my soul, hey hey hey. Brian is a genius.

Great counterpoint harmony's

Great video, it’s very well made. I always love seeing videos about the lesser known beach boy songs. You definitely earned my sub

I sorta get the circle of fifths stuff but is there some explanation why the harmonies are so haunting? Does that come from the production or is it the note choices in the harmony stacks? Great video!

I see you sneaking that picture of The Rutles in there! :D

I love the Rutles joke. So well placed :D

Brian Wilson had at the time was Depression

I love this video, but some of what you say is pretty odd to my ears. I see no reason to try and pin this song to one key or other. You point out that there’s a lot of G-C-F-Bb but then waffle on about the circle of fifths and conclude it’s in G (or Gm) when clearly the first 3 of those 4 chords says the key of C and the last 3 or those 4 says the key of F. Also, some of the chords you name I don’t quite agree. So many harmonies are stacked I don’t blame anyone for varying interpretation but eg. I’d call that Bsus4 an Em(+9) and.. the chords at 16:35 (where you talk about the bass vocals hovering around the key of Gm) are just your classic Merseybeat progression - in this case G-Bb-Eb-D-G (if it was the Beatles in ‘62 that last G would be a G6) .. to my ears it’s a bit of a nod to Walk Don’t Run, or more significantly, have a listen to the b.vocal melody over Em+9 just before the final fading G-Bb-Eb-D cycle, you might hear a nod to Pipeline (the Chantays, 1963), which is a clever pun on the theme of bobbing like a cork on the ocean, or more broadly, Beach Boys, Surf’s Up, very neat

Here's what Brian was doing when he wrote it: listening and going with what he liked. That's the explanation

Great analysis! This song in particular always struck a chord with me, along with Surf's Up as an album.

lots of beach boys fans love til i die for me This Whole World is the most underrated, it's secretly their best song and overlooked even by people who appreciate Sunflower

I was contemplating this song a few days ago, and I think this is some of the the most religious music ever written by a human! This song connects me with my own soul and the soul of humanity (lost my way, hey, hey, hey) in a most profound way. Thank you, beautiful soul Brian Wilson! "Surf's Up" is a MASTERPIECE next to "Pet Sounds."...and the whole Beach Boys catalogue! Genius, genius, genius! Strong analysis, THANK YOU!

This song has always had a calming effect on me, and I always thought it was strange because the lyrics talk of insignificance and that shouldn't be a calming idea, however I think your description of the chord progression in this song explains it, there doesn't seem to be a completely coherent structure to it, it's difficult to latch onto a key for the song, that combined with its tempo makes it sound meditative and recontextualises the lyrics (not completely, but the majority of them) it's like it's saying "I'm a cork in the ocean, it's a shame but that's all I'm going to be, might as well get on with it".

Well, actually, "Wonderful" is much more bizzareish-nice song from Brian. Far stranger, than this song is.

I find it interesting that he covers three of the four elements - water, air, and earth. He misses fire....

Wow. I've always loved Til I Die and You Never Give Me Your Money. Thanks for pointing out the similarities.

I heard ‘Until I die’ off the Album’Surf’s Up’ back in the mid 70’s and decided as a teenager it was one the best albums I had ever heard. It still is. 45 years later.

For me, "' 'Till I Die' by the Beach Boys" will always be (and has been for a very long time now) the answer to the old and annoying "What do you think is the greatest popular music piece ever?" party small-talk question... This is the one; this is the pinnacle of what has been accomplished within the "Rock/Pop" paradigm to date. Mark Hollis came pretty close when he recorded "After the Flood" in '91 (a full 20 years after "Surf's Up" was released); but, as of now, "'Till I Die" remains an unequaled solitaire, a one-of-a-kind achievement in human artistic expression.

It is philosophical in the context of the classical theme of three. The cork, rock and leaf in the cosmos. Man vs. universe. Desper’s mix is exquisite. And the reality is that they are in a business. It had to be marketable. The record company did not market them properly.

From my perspective, the Bsus4 gives the song a "C" feel. That's because you can resolve to the I basically any which way if you put something that sticks out right on the leading tone. Could just as easily have been Bdim or any chord that emphasizes the major subtonic. This also ties into that chord as being the crescendo of the chorus. This is harder for me to pinpoint exactly why, but the Em to Gmaj movement in the verse "feels" like the iii to V - this is just intuition from many years of writing music but can't say for sure. It then modulates to G for the outro, which is a pretty striaghtforward movement. That being said, this was also a period where BW had really begun shifting towards writing rock n' roll, so the movement from the minor iii to major III might have really been sticking in his mind. And clearly he's someone for whom certain themes really "stuck" and he'd go thru periods of writing everything in accordance with the current theme.

I was so happy when I guessed in my head that we were actually in G In the middle of the video. it’s the little things that make me happy to play by ear because anything after that fifth circle just confuses me with the Roman numeraling hahaha

Loved this, and this is one of my favorite songs of all time. And your analysis, or essay or whatever you want to call it was so smart and engaging. Nice one, thanks!

interesting analysis, Til I Die is one of my favorite Brian Wilson songs, the chord progression always intrigued me and the lyrics of course are haunting

Great vid, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I hear both C and Em/G tonalities splitting each verse. C since the Bb at "raging sea" just does not feel like a proper an arrival as C (maybe I just like that Final Fantasy fanfare too much, who knows). I hear Em/G because the Bsus4 CM7 could be contextualized as "clue chords" leading to Em (Vsus4 VI7 i), and then the arrival of that Em chord is accompanied by a texture shift (less voices, lower register) and harmonic rhythm giving the chord twice the duration of any prior chords that appear in the verses. You've probably considered such an idea as this but I shared just in case it happens to be a different angle for anyone. With that said, "towards G" is a good answer, and if we had to go with one key, I do agree with you on G-something. Again, great analysis! Glad someone gave this song its well-deserved deep dive.

Phenomenal video! I'd love to hear more Beach Boys chord analyses, maybe do Girls on the Beach?

How deep is the ocean of knowledge? How deep are the valleys in our lives? How long will i go on for?

This review was very detailed yet still succinct and to the point, I really enjoyed it! I hope to see more Beach Boys song reviews

I love the album and "Till I Die" and "Long Promised Road" are fantastic songs! I don't understand why commercially Surfs Up was disappointing! The Beach Boys were the greatest! I was talking about this album to my friends in High School and my friends thought it was great too! I want "Till I Die" and "Long Promised Road" played at my funeral! "Till I Die" is not depressing at all, it is contemplative, it is contemplative about life itself and our part in it!

Bravo! I could watch BBs/BW videos like this all day long. For the, um, record...in 40 years, I had never noticed the similarity to "You Never Give Me Your Money." Please imagine me smacking my forehead and muttering "Of course!"...

Plzz make more beach men vids! Love your analysis vids and am a huge bb fan. Maybe something from smile like cabin essence or wind chimes?? Or the later stuff like sail on sailer ;)????;););););) Either way keep doing whatcha doing!!!

I pretty much disagree with most of this and here’s why (I think it’s a good attempt but my conspiracy theory stuff is far…more weird?). I think Brian was combining a few songs into this. The first major one is Don’t Back Down: the chords are about facing a wave and don’t be afraid, get back up. Which happens to…start on a flat and have some weird key changes. “Oh, you gotta be a little nuts to show them who’s got guts. Don’t back down from that wave.” Can the cork back down? Can the rock in the landslide back down? Can the wind? Did Brian? So right there we have the idea Mike hated it. Maybe he did. He said it’s the best song Brian wrote lyrics for however, complaining solely about the line “it kills my soul.” Case closed, Mike said the downer line, right? Well… It’s been hinted but not confirmed. Bruce plays with Mike and says it’s Brian’s last great song and Mike does play this song at gigs (which seems weird if it’s such a downer). More plausible is that Dennis called it a downer, and this can be further insinuated by a Dennis song appearing called “Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Live Again” which he apparently wanted to end Surf’s Up with (Carl objected). Rieley (unreliable) also stated that Dennis pulled his songs because infighting, and furthermore, Rieley tried getting Brian to write a Fourth of July song, and Brian was not interested. So he got Dennis to do it. This mentioned in a rolling stone interview from around the time, which also featured choice comments from Van Dyke Parks about Brian. So I view it likely as Brian not wanting to deal with Dennis at the time and Dennis being the least likely to be into the song til I die, which Brian recorded specifically while Dennis was unavailable (everyone else appeared on the track). There have also been rumors to Brian objecting to Carry Me Home historically and I have personally seen Brian refuse to sing the word “Dying” in Sail on Sailor and trash those lyrics. But Mike, Al and Carl were very into TM at this time and Indian spirituality and that means reincarnation: that, life is struggle, so don’t back down. Hence, the cork running from the wave rises. The leaf will rise on a rainy day. How high is the sky? Whoops, wrong song. Another odd detail is that the concert album does not feature any of Dennis’s songs, nor does Brian appear on any Dennis songs except for possibly cuddle up after that episode, and Brian was very involved in the 1973 in concert album and no Dennis songs appeared (yet heroes and villains does appear) on what was released (and Brian and Bruce Johnston took the stage on one known occasion despite Brian supposedly being in bed and Bruce not being a beach boy). Chords start on the a flat, climbing unsteadily to C. When it centers there it goes to the fifth. Then, as if falling, it goes back to C. Oh Sisyphus, you’ve cheated death twice. You couldn’t die as a cork, nor a leaf. You will be punished to roll a rock up the hill for life. To kill his soul, Hades constantly made the rock go down in a landslide. When Brian rests at C, he looks unsure (the tense move to F) and then almost slips to B sus before regaining his footing and commenting…”aww shucks, I gotta go get the rock back up.” This loud ramble seems implausible, almost as if Til I Die might be some sort of Buddhist joke (while Brian denies this regarding smile…he also describes himself as a guy who read too much he wanted to make a comedy album)…there’s a band that gets little notice that Brian was likely obsessed with at this time. Reach Out was a major hit when Smile collapses, with the singer asking you to reach out, and he’ll be there, in times of trouble. That album featured a song by the association (cherish), a group that sounds very similar to The Beach Boys which would have a hit from a guy that would later become Brian’s best friend…coincidentally around the time of this song getting recorded. But the song that went through Brian’s mind was not on Reach Out. It’s the same old song. Literally. Brian stole a bunch of the lyrics of that for Wild Honey, an album that is Brian consciously trying to sound like the four tops. The weirdest part about Til I Die? If you listen to the demo, before the track comes in, Brian’s playing the riff from It’s The Same Old Song. It clearly was on his mind when this song was written. In terms of You Never Give Me Your Money, this is the right track: the chords in Til I Die are mostly the same idea. Instead of Am and descending the bass to D or F, Brian simply goes upwards. C to B flat to A flat, but in reverse.

wow I never really noticed the connection between til I die and you never give me your money - I'd watch an entire series that traces the connection between songs like this :)

This was amazing! Keep up the great work. Just played these chords on piano and love how right it feels despite being an unconventional progression.

The lyrics/theme are a bit similar to King of Pain by the Police. Wonder if Sting was a fan.

This was a super interesting video, great analysis!

hahah Love the Antz reference. I saw that in theaters with my mom when I was about 9 years old. She did not know how much of an adult movie it would be and not for kids at all.

I have a theory on the verse melody. ;)

I would have liked that the line “I’m a message in a bottle” be included somewhere by the idea of some Beach Boy

Fabulous job! I don't understand the chord stuff but that's fine...love the analysis and graphics. You probably know this, but Dave Edmunds made "Til I Die" the coda to his rendition of "Beach Boy Blood".

Great video!! this is one of the greatest songs everrrrr

One of my favorite

What is the name of the song you used at 7:54?

i love this song

Nicely done, mate! Really good musical and lyrical exploration.

The Rutles!!

I loved your analysis! I think that Til I Die really helps one to understand the 'sad songs about happiness' (or vice versa!) comment about Brian's music. Sometimes there is ambiguity because the lyrics are telling a different story to the melody, I hear calmness and acceptance in those final words rather than despair and there's no angst.

Interesting video. Thank you and keep it up. 👍

8:25 I love that you used a picture of The Prefab Four here lol Also your chord talk sent me through a rabbit hole and from what I could find, apparently Disney Girls, also from Surf's Up, is the Beach Boys song with the most chords at 31 (!!!!), followed by Friends from the album Friends (1968) with 26 chords. However, the former is 4m10s long while the latter is 2m33s, so I might end up inventing Chords Per Second as a way to measure their songwriting ability lmao

Speaker does good work....however, the film edit inserts are distracting, at times ridiculous.... they take away from the importance of the info. And with all his musical insight & bookworm knowledge......I bet this speaker has not himself written one acceptable song!!!

Underrated song ? I am pretty sure to not be the only one, but for me it is probably his greatest song, on par with Warmth of the Sun, Caroline no and Good Vibrations. The harmony vocals and the production have no equal, and the melody is just a miracle, a gift fallen from heavens.

The most ethereal and haunting sounds come from the vibraphone. It makes the song.

Fantastic song.

Wow! Fantastic video. Thanks for posting. 👍

You should do an analysis of surfs up

Very interesting song. the song itself reminds me of waves crashing on the beach and how the sea looks like endless nothingness. I guess the harmonies and the organ/xylophone contribute heavily to this swirling wave sea

Great video! Not sure if someone else has already mentioned this (there's a lot of comments), but Brian did produce a version of Irving Berlin's How Deep is the Ocean for Dick Reynolds in late 1965. So he was definitely intimately familiar with the song. I've always heard that lyric in Til I Die as a reference to this song. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rXBljjceb4s.html

This video is just amazing. Fantastic. Thanks for that ❤️

To me, it is the most gorgeous Beach Boys track they ever did. It was totally NOT Beach Boys "I Get Around/Surfin' USA" style. The album Surf's Up was concerned with personal and environmental health, and it kick started my passion into thinking more deeply about the state of the Earth and how we ought to be looking after it, instead of totally exploiting it - which we were very much doing in the 1960s with zero care for the outcome.

Great video!

I discovered this song a few days ago. It bowled me over. It just does something amazing to my head... glad others learned to love it as well. I've listened to it about 10 times since I discovered it... just let it wash over me.

This is just a fantastic analysis 👏

So true it’s a masterpiece !

Gotta love a picardy third, great analysis!

Thank you for you love and passion

I have to admit... that if Brian copied from the Beatles on this, as he seems to have done, it takes a lot of the pleasure out of it for me. Unfortunate. Oh well. He did create something new with fabulous lyrics, but now I can't unhear what was revealed. But I'll get over it! Still, I'm always afraid if I write a melody, it will be an accidental capture from somebody else, which I would find unacceptable. So if it sounds especially good, I tend to assume I subconsciously acquired it from elsewhere and I'm very suspicious of it.