'Til I Die

Til I Die (disambiguation) March 2020 Til I Die 'Til I Die single.jpg single the Beach Boys Surf's Up Long Promised Road 1971 10 11 1970 8 151971 7 30 Beach Boys, Los Angeles Progressive popGaines Steven Steven Gaines Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys https://books.google.com/books?id=-qkJvajmU4EC 1986 Da Capo Press New York 978-0-45300-519-7 242 2:29 Brother/Reprise Brian Wilson The Beach Boys The Beach Boys Long Promised Road Deirdre 1971 Long Promised Road Til I Die Student Demonstration Time Don't Go Near the Water 1971 "Til I Die" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1971 album Surf's Up, subsequently issued as the B-side of the single "Long Promised Road". With autobiographical lyrics about death and hopelessness, it is one of the few songs in which both the words and music were written solely by Brian Wilson. An extended mix of the original recording, created by engineer Stephen Desper, was included on the 1998 compilation Endless Harmony Soundtrack. Background and composition "Till I Die" Til I Die Beach Boys.ogg Brian Wilson reportedly wrote Til I Die" while suffering from an existential crisis, having recently threatened to drive his car off the Santa Monica Pier and ordered his gardener to dig a grave in his backyard. According to biographer David Leaf, these episodes were treated as jokes by Wilson's family and friends.Leaf 1978 147 In a November 1970 interview, Wilson discussed his daily routine of "go[ing] to bed in the early hours of the morning and sleep[ing] until the early afternoon". He added: "I'm not unhappy with life; in fact I'm quite happy living at home."Badman 2004 279 According to Wilson's (since-discredited) 1991 autobiography Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story, the song was inspired by a late night trip to the beach: 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.Brian Wilson Wouldn't It Be Nice: My own Story https://archive.org/details/wouldntitbenicem00wils registration 1991 194 HarperCollins 9780060183134 The song was written over the course of several weeks as Wilson tried to express the feelings he had experienced that night at the beach. He explained: "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.Keith Badman The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm registration 2004 288 Hal Leonard Corporation 9780879308186 Explaining how Wilson came up with the chords, Don Was recalled, "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 admitted to having "no idea whether this story has any basis in truth or whether he was just making it up on the spot to entertain me."Paul Williams How Deep is the Ocean? 2003 212–213 Asked how he came up with the song in a 2007 interview, Wilson answered, "Well, I put a b note in g major 7th chord and it was a 3rd in the chord, and the note in the key of g resonates pretty well. Lyrically, I tried to put nature in there. Earth, water, rocks and leaves."Kubernick Harvey Harvey Kubernick Kubernick: Beach Boys "Feel Flows" Box Set https://www.musicconnection.com/kubernik-beach-boys-feel-flows-box-set/ Music Connection July 2, 2021 He stated that the line "I'm a cork on the ocean" was the first lyric that came to him. Across three short verses, 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, which is repeated in the song's ending tag. Recording Wilson recorded a solo piano demo of the song on November 4, 1969.Badman 2004 257 According to some sources, when he presented the song to the band, one member initially voiced criticisms.Timothy White The Nearest Faraway Place 1996 286Charles L. Granata I Just Wasn't Made For These Times 2003 211 Bruce Johnston remembered 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."David Leaf The Beach Boys And The California Myth https://archive.org/details/beachboyscalifor00leaf registration 1978 144 Grosset & Dunlap 9780448146256 Various sources state that Mike Love had called the song a "downer".Irvin Jim The Mojo Collection 2009 Canongate Edinburgh 9781847676436 245 https://books.google.com/books?id=AVQbF9lTBwgC&pg=PA245 Engineer Stephen Desper wrote that "the guys often thought the original lyrics to ['Til I Die] were drug derived."Desper Stephen Re: Beach Boys studio disasters and screwups? http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,26134.msg641253/topicseen.html#msg641253 smileysmile.net October 24, 2020 September 23, 2018 At one stage, to address the criticism, 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". Ultimately, the rest of the group insisted that the original lyrics be kept, as the new lyrics contradicted the lyrics in the verses.Peter Ames Carlin Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson https://archive.org/details/catchwaverise00carl registration 2006 172 Rodale 9781594863202 A recording of the song with these alternate lyrics was released on the 2021 compilation Feel Flows.Chidester Brian Busy Doin' Somethin': Uncovering Brian Wilson's Lost Bedroom Tapes http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/03/busy-doin-somethin-uncovering-brian-wilsons-lost-b.html?a=1 Paste December 11, 2014 March 7, 2014 December 11, 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20141211033306/http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/03/busy-doin-somethin-uncovering-brian-wilsons-lost-b.html?a=1 dead The first dated session for the song was at Beach Boys Studio on August 15, 1970.Doe Andrew G. GIGS70 http://bellagio10452.com/gigs70.html Bellagio 10452 Brian recorded five takes of the song although the song would be left only partially completed. Dennis Wilson was not present during this session due to filming dates for Two-Lane Blacktop, which resulted in a Maestro Rhythm King drum machine being used on the basic track. On August 26, the partially completed track was mixed although very little work was done on the recording until later the following year. June 2014 The last dated session occurred on July 30, 1971.Doe Andrew G. GIGS71 http://bellagio10452.com/gigs71.html Bellagio 10452 In Desper's recollection, Wilson played Hammond B3 organ while touring musician Daryl Dragon played vibraphone.Desper Stephen Stephen Desper Re: Brian Wilson's instrumental contributions to the Surf's Up album http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,21314.msg516754/topicseen.html#msg516754 smileysmile.net October 24, 2020 May 12, 2015 "Til I Die" was more or less an achievement in sound. ... After it was done I took a certain part of where I was singing and I made a mono tape loop and put my voice on the tape loop. I sent the loop into an echo chamber. I went into the echo chamber and listened to my voice in a circle and walked out of there in another world. —Brian WilsonSharp Ken Brian Wilson: God's Messenger https://americansongwriter.com/brian-wilson-gods-messenger/5/ American Songwriter January 2, 2009 25% right Al Jardine said of the song, "it's really a good vocal sound, I think Desper 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."http://filmeekeeda.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180329005044/http://filmeekeeda.com/ dead March 29, 2018 Filmee Keeda - Hollywood & Bollywood Movie review TV Shows March 29, 2018 Johnston stated that "the track is very simple...and the great, great vocal arrangement that [Brian Wilson] wrote. Really, a great piece of work." An extended mix of the original recording, created by Desper, was included on the 1998 compilation album 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. As Desper 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."Desper Stephen Stephen Desper Re: The Stephen Desper Thread https://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,1203.msg56851.html#msg56851 smileysmile.com October 24, 2020 December 31, 2006 Release The song was first released on the band's album Surf's Up on August 30, 1971. 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 at No. 93 and peaked three weeks later at No. 89, where it remained for one more week until the single dropped off the chart.Brad Elliott Surf's Up: The Beach Boys On Record 1961-1981 2003 421 It was the first single by the group in 19 months to chart, but their lowest charting single to date; it remained so for a further eighteen years.Badman 2004 300 Legacy and recognition Bruce Johnston would later praise "'Til I Die" as the last great Brian Wilson song Boyd, Alan (Director) Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story Documentary Eagle Eye Media 1998 and Wilson's "heaviest song." Johnston has also stated that "the words absolutely fit his mindset". Wilson concurred that "the song summed up everything I had to say at the time." In 2015, Mike Love named the lyrics of Til I Die" his favorite of any written solely by Wilson, although he admitted, "I don't like the line 'it kills my soul' but I understand what he's saying."Sharp Ken Mike Love of the Beach Boys: One-On-One (The Interview Part 1) http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2015/09/09/mike-love-of-the-beach-boys-one-on-one-the-interview-part-1/2/#sthash.om8yj2AB.dpbs Rock Cellar Magazine September 9, 2015 September 10, 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20180612170213/https://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2015/09/09/mike-love-of-the-beach-boys-one-on-one-the-interview-part-1/2/#sthash.om8yj2AB.dpbs June 12, 2018 dead Beach Boys biographer Jon Stebbins wrote that the song "proves that Brian could not only write beautiful music, but that he had the ability to communicate honestly and artfully with his lyrics as well. The track is decorated with a haunting vibraphone and organ bed, which frames the strong harmony vocal arrangement perfectly."Stebbins Jon Jon Stebbins The Beach Boys FAQ: All That's Left to Know About America's Band 2011 9781458429148 124 Backbeat Books Wilson recorded a new version of the song – along with an accompanying video – for inclusion in the 1995 documentary Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times and its soundtrack album. This version, co-produced by Wilson and Don Was, is much more sparse than the original. Brian's re-recording of the song 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.March 2010 On April 7 and 8, 2000, Wilson 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. A sample of the song appears as part of the soundtrack to the 2014 film Love & Mercy in the cue "The Bed Montage", composed by Atticus Ross. Personnel Credits from Craig SlowinskiSlowinski Craig Summer 2021 Surf's Up: 50th Anniversary Edition 134 34 Endless Summer Quarterly Magazine Charlotte, North Carolina David Beard The Beach Boys Al Jardine - backing vocals Bruce Johnston - backing vocals, Hammond organ Mike Love - lead and backing vocals Brian Wilson - lead and backing vocals, Hammond organ, Rocksichord, snare drum, Maestro Rhythm King MRK-2 drum machine Carl Wilson - lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar Dennis Wilson - backing vocals Additional musicians Daryl Dragon - bass guitar, vibraphone Stephen W. Desper - Moog synthesizer Cover versions List of cover versions of Beach Boys songs March 2010 1992 – Downy Mildew, "Elevator" EP 1993 – Medicine, "Never Click" single 1996 – The Josephine Wiggs Experience, Bon Bon Lifestyle 1997 – The Wilsons, The Wilsons (co-produced by Brian) 1997 – The Elements, Wouldn't It Be Nice: A Jazz Portrait of Brian Wilson 1997 – Clark Burroughs Group, Wouldn't It Be Nice: A Jazz Portrait of Brian Wilson 2000 – Christy McWilson, The Lucky One. 2002 – Doug Powell, Making God Smile: An Artists' Tribute to the Songs of Beach Boy Brian Wilson. 2005 – Barenaked Ladies, performing an acoustic version of the song at a MusiCares concert honoring Brian Wilson. This performance was later released on DVD. 2006 – Marty Rudnick, More Songs About Cars and Girls. 2010 – Lightspeed Champion, Bye Bye EP 2013 – Chris Schlarb, Psychic Temple II (features Sufjan Stevens and Ikey Owens)http://pitchfork.com/news/50644-listen-sufjan-stevens-sings-on-chris-schlarbs-cover-of-the-beach-boys-til-i-die/ Listen: Sufjan Stevens Sings on Chris Schlarb's Cover of the Beach Boys' Til I Die" Jenn Pelly May 7, 2013 Pitchfork September 13, 2019 References Category:1971 singles Category:The Beach Boys songs Category:Brian Wilson songs Category:Songs about death Category:Songs about loneliness Category:Songs written by Brian Wilson Category:Song recordings produced by Brian Wilson Category:Song recordings produced by the Beach Boys Category:1971 songs