- 'Til I Die
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"'Til I Die" Single by The Beach Boys from the album Surf's Up A-side "Long Promised Road" Released October 11, 1971 Format Vinyl Recorded Brian Wilson's home studio
August 15, 1970
July 30, 1971Genre Baroque Pop Length 2:41 Label Brother-Reprise 1047 Writer(s) Wilson Producer Brian Wilson & Carl Wilson The Beach Boys singles chronology "Long Promised Road"/"Deirdre"
(1971)"Long Promised Road"/"'Til I Die"
(1971)"Surf’s Up"/"Don’t Go Near the Water"
(1971)Surf's Up track listing - This article refers to the song by The Beach Boys. For the Potshot album, see Til I Die (album).
"’Til I Die" is the title of a song written by Brian Wilson for The Beach Boys. It is one of the few songs in which both the words and music were written solely by Wilson. The song was first released on the band's 1971 album Surf's Up and was subsequently released as the B-side of the "Long Promised Road" single.
Contents
Inspiration
According to Brian in the press material for the Surf's Up album, the song was inspired after a late night trip to the beach. Wilson recalled the events prior to him writing the song:
"Lately, I'd been depressed and preoccupied with death...Looking out toward the ocean, my mind, as it did almost every hour of every day, worked to explain the inconsistencies that dominated my life; the pain, torment, and confusion and the beautiful music I was able to make. Was there an answer? Did I have no control? Had I ever? Feeling shipwrecked on an existential island, I lost myself in the balance of darkness that stretched beyond the breaking waves to the other side of the earth. The ocean was so incredibly vast, the universe was so large, and suddenly I saw myself in proportion to that, a little pebble of sand, a jellyfish floating on top of the water; traveling with the current I felt dwarfed, temporary. The next day I began writing "'Til I Die", perhaps the most personal song I ever wrote for The Beach Boys...In doing so, I wanted to re-create the swell of emotions that I'd felt at the beach the previous night."[1]
Composition
The song was written over the course of several weeks as Wilson tried to express the feelings he had experienced on that night he had spent alone at the beach. As he himself explains, "I struggled at the piano, experimenting with rhythms and chord changes, trying to emulate in sound the ocean's shifting tides and moods as well as its sheer enormity. I wanted the music to reflect the loneliness of floating a raft in the middle of the Pacific. I wanted each note to sound as if it was disappearing into the hugeness of the universe.[1]
After asking Brian how he came up with the chords, Don Was recalls that "he told me that he was sitting at a piano, creating geometric patterns with his fingers, trying not to move the fingers on the outside of the patterns, but limiting changes to internal movements. When he landed on a shape that both looked cool and sounded good, he wrote it down. So, essentially he created this masterpiece by contorting his fingers into really groovy shapes." However, Was goes on to say "I've absolutely no idea whether this story has any basis in truth or whether he was just making it up on the spot to entertain me."[2]
According to some sources, one certain member of the band was less than impressed with Brian's new song.[3][4] Bruce Johnston remembers Brian "playing it for the band and one member of the band didn't understand it and put it down, and Brian just decided not to show it to us for a few months. He just put it away. I mean, he was absolutely crushed. This other person just didn't like it."[5] It has been speculated by several sources that it was Mike Love who initially criticized the song.[6] Love has, however, praised the song in retrospect, calling it "phenomenal."[7]
Wilson has stated that the line "I'm a cork on the ocean" was the first thing lyrically that came to him.[7] In the lyrics, Wilson compares himself to a cork on the ocean, a rock in a landslide, and a leaf on a windy day—seeing himself as a small, helpless object, being moved inconceivable distances by forces beyond his comprehension. "How deep is the ocean? How long will the wind blow?" The hopeless conclusion is given in the song's title. At one stage, due to the criticism the song had received from the band, Wilson changed the lyrics from "It kills my soul" to "It holds me up" or "It fills my soul" and "I lost my way" to "I found my way". However, the rest of the group insisted that the original lyrics be kept as the new lyrics contradicted the lyrics in the verses.
Despite the criticism, Bruce Johnston in particular has praised the song on several occasions by calling it the last great Brian Wilson song[5][8] as well as describing it as Wilson's "heaviest song."[5] Johnston has also stated that "the words absolutely fit his mindset".[7] Wilson also felt this was the case when he stated that "the song summed up everything I had to say at the time."[1]
Recording
The song was first attempted during the recording of the 20/20 album[9] although due to the negative reactions from a fellow band member, Brian wouldn't work on the song again for several months. The first dated session for the song was at Brian Wilson's home studio on August 15, 1970. Brian would record five takes of the song although the song would be left only partially completed. On August 26, the partially completed track was mixed although very little work would be done on the recording until later the following year when it became a full blown production.
The finished backing track features organ, guitar, vibraphone, an RMI electra-piano, bass guitar and a Maestro Rhythm King drum machine.
Years later Alan Jardine reminisced, "I love the use of the keyboards...but extraordinary use of the vocals. And it's really a good vocal sound, I think Desper [the engineer] deserves all the credit on that one, I mean we just had the best microphones, the best microphone technique and engineering on that particular piece and that particular time. It was just a wonderful piece of music."[7] Bruce Johnston has also expressed similar feelings towards the song as he states that "the track is very simple...and the great, great vocal arrangement that he wrote. Really, a great piece of work."[7]
Album and alternate releases
The song was first released on the bands album Surf's Up on August 30, 1971. However, in February of the previous year an alternate version of the song with a different backing track was played on the WPLJ FM radio station in New York.[9] The song has also appeared on several greatest hits compilations over the years including the 1981 album Ten Years of Harmony; the 1993 Good Vibrations box set and the 2002 release Classics Selected by Brian Wilson. An extended mix of the original recording, created by engineer Steve Desper, was included on the 1998 Endless Harmony Soundtrack. It is notable for having each instrumental layer come in after the other as an introduction and features more prominent vibraphone and organ throughout. The mix was reportedly done only for the engineer's self-interest with no intent for the song to see an official release. As Desper himself explains:
"[the band] went out for lunch or something like that and since the song was already mounted and a mix up, I put together what I thought was a structure that better showcased the harmonic beauty of Brian's writing. Somewhere thereafter I did play the track for Carl, but only in the interest of disclosure, not to sway him to change the structure that Brian intended."
A remake of the song was recorded - along with an accompanying video - by Brian Wilson for inclusion in the 1995 documentary I Just Wasn't Made for These Times and it would later appear on the films soundtrack. This version, produced by Brian and Don Was, is much more sparse than the original. In 2000, over a period of two days on April 7 and 8, Brian and his band recorded a live version of the song—based on Desper's extended mix—for inclusion on Brian's 2000 live album Live at the Roxy Theatre.
Single release
On October 11, 1971, the song was released in the United States as the flip-side of the "Long Promised Road" single, which had also been released earlier that year in May with a different B-side. The single entered the Billboard charts on October 30 in the #93 position. It would peak three weeks later at #89 on the Billboard charts, where it would remain for one more week until the single dropped off the charts altogether.[10] It was the first single by the group in 19 months to chart. However, at the time it was the lowest charting single in the group's history and it would remain so for a further eighteen years.[11]
Brian's re-recording of the song, which was featured in the I Just Wasn't Made For These Times documentary, was released as the second track on a relatively rare UK single in 1995. However, the single failed to make any impact on the charts.[citation needed]
Cover versions
The song has been covered by several artists in recent years. The band Medicine covered the song in 1993 on their "Never Click" single release. In 1996 The Josephine Wiggs Experience covered the song on their Bon Bon album. Brian's daughters Carnie and Wendy covered the song on their 1997 album simply titled The Wilsons, with Brian co-producing and co-mixing the track as well as guesting on vocals. Two cover versions by The Elements and Clark Burroughs Group appeared on the 1997 tribute album Wouldn't It Be Nice: A Jazz Portrait of Brian Wilson. Christy McWilson covered the song on her 2000 album The Lucky One. Marty Rudnick covered the song on his 2006 album More Songs About Cars and Girls. Doug Powell covered the song on the 2002 tribute album Making God Smile: An Artists' Tribute to the Songs of Beach Boy Brian Wilson. In 2005 on February 11, the Barenaked Ladies performed an acoustic version of the song at a MusiCares concert honoring Brian Wilson. This performance was later released on DVD. Lightspeed Champion also included a version of the song on his 'Bye Bye EP' (Domino 2010)
See also
- List of songs by The Beach Boys
Sources
- ^ a b c Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio. p. 288.
- ^ Williams, Paul (2003). How Deep is the Ocean?. pp. 212–13.
- ^ White, Timothy (1996). The Nearest Faraway Place. p. 286.
- ^ Granata, Charles L. (2003). I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. p. 211.
- ^ a b c Leaf, David (1978). The Beach Boys And The California Myth. p. 144.
- ^ Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. p. 162.
- ^ a b c d e The Warmth of the Sun podcast series: Episode 9
- ^ Boyd, Alan (Director) (1998). Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story (Documentary). Eagle Eye Media.
- ^ a b Elliott, Brad (2003). Surf's Up: The Beach Boys On Record 1961-1981. p. 183.
- ^ Elliott, Brad (2003). Surf's Up: The Beach Boys On Record 1961-1981. p. 421.
- ^ Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio. p. 300.
Categories:- 1971 singles
- The Beach Boys songs
- Brian Wilson songs
- Songs written by Brian Wilson
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