brian is a great underrated lyricist imo:

lock them up like the con artists they are

in fact brian 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.

biographer david leaf said these episodes were treated as jokes by wilsons family and friends

in 1970 interview, brian talked about his daily routine of going to bed in the early hours of the morning and sleep until the early afternoon: I'm not unhappy with life; in fact I'm quite happy living at home.

in 1990 he recalls 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.

‘til i die was written over the course of several weeks as brian tried to express the feelings he had experienced on that night he had spent alone at the beach: 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.

brian said the line I'm a cork on the ocean was the first thing lyrically that came to him

in the song brian 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.

don was who did the 1995 documentary of brian that came with a new studio performance cd of brian playing deep cuts all selected by don was himself, including ‘til i die: brian 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.

that’s the re-recorded version for the doc “i just wasn’t made for these times”:

brian recorded a solo piano demo of the song on November 4, 1969 which still remains unheard of, recently this bootleg clip leaked and is the first time we ever heard in anyway a snippet of that demo ever:

when he presented the song to the band, one member initially voiced criticisms.

bruce said: i remember 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 and called it a downer.

JEEZ I WONDER WHO

he was so hurt he rewrote alternate lines to some of the most sad bars of the song and they recorded that version but ig carl and the others put some sense onto mike and let brian have his original version since the changes contradicts the verses anyway (something like “it fills my soul”instead of “it kills my soul” - that version also remains unheard to this day)

@RVI ^ this story alone is why the sometimes i feel so sad bar echoes so loudly and like the way the foxygen guy puts it in that quote why it says so much more than lengthy or complex lyrics (ok ill stop now)

this demo is in the worst quality ive ever heard

bet we won't hear this in good quality ever

i think it’s someone who tried to sneak record with his phone a clip that someone was playing to him which is why we hear noises

now as to why in 2021 it’s still not out go figure ... there is talks of a boxset titled feel flows confirmed by every band members and insiders that the label is holding off of on because ... they’re a lame ass label

as you can guess from the title it’s a boxset centered round surfs up era which leaves us great chances or hope that finally the piano brian solo demo of til i die could be on

unfortunately all the rumors are starting to die off leading us to believe the label might have shelved the boxset in order to focus on ... ah that’s it: nothing!

what better way to correct a legacy that has been handled so greatly over decades than just f***ing it up and shutting it more down

it’s not like if covid era has kept us busy touring wise and there was a perfect window there market it, nope nothing to see

😑🔫

i swear im gonna die before they make it right

another photo i love @sfsorrow

He considered one of the best

What about foxygen? They're great

Ah yeah this my fave PS jam

mmm? never heard anyone talk about his lyricism or make any praise in any discussions to articles or what not

Alice Cooper playlist

2. I Get Around - The Beach Boys (1964)

• In 1964, Cooper formed a band called The Earwigs with some buddies from his high school track team. The same summer, The Beach Boys' released their hit, "I Get Around."

Alice Cooper: It sounded great driving around with your buddies all summer and kind of hanging, That song, in itself, had that great summer sound to it. And so it really brings back the memories about being 14 and just almost emerging into getting your own car, getting a job, getting into high school next year. 'I Get Around' was one of the great records of all time.

i think of all alice songs this one def has a lil bbs pastiche through some of the harmonies in the choruses

@Womanpuncher69 what do you know outside of pet sounds and love you forgot

nothing else what u recommend, I remember that one album with the blueish dark moody cover u and cowboy posted before, but couldn't find it on Spotify

OH SURFS UP is it still not up there? that album is a MUST

if not for that one go for sunflower (which i rank higher than surfs up anyway) it’s as good as pet sounds

impossible

Obv never heard McCartney masturbate to the thought of God Only Knows lyrics

right but pet sounds is more of a collaborative effort im talking lyrics brian does alone

Ah I see

Apparently he underrates himself too since so many of his songs are collaborative

yeah he devalues himself in that subject and focuses more on the melodies and arrangements

but he did ‘til i die by himself (among others) and that alone is one of the bbs most beautiful poems oat

he did also soul searching where i think is really good for how simple it is, it’s brians style

and of course some of the love you songs, and much more

but the collaborators do help him bring more experience to it and vocalize verbally better some feelings and ideas he has

yeah Till I Die is super zenith

Glad he brought Parks etc into the fold though cause you know Brian by himself wouldn't have ever come up with Heroes and Villains as we have it and many others obv

yeah van snapped on that s*** - surfs up is insane, dominos line is chief kiss

but yeah the collaborators always bring the best of him, from gary to tony to van - all top tier, but also all of them have in common to go through brian and read him and his emotions and ideas and bring what is, despite many different collaborators in different eras, this cohesive recurring themes that are even more echoed when brian writes alone so there’s def a pattern that brian doesn’t give himself credit enough for

Eric Clapton: All of us in Cream: Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and I consider Pet Sounds to be one of the greatest pop LPs to ever be released. It encompasses everthing that's ever knocked me out and rolled it all into one. Brian Wilson is, without a doubt, a pop genius.

eric clapton on guitar