The Smiley Smile Message Board

What song(s) by the BB's do you consider the saddest? Whenever i listen to them it usually cheers me up :) but there are certain songs that give me a sad feeling..for example "Steamboat" :[ ... & sometimes "Let the Wind Blow".
Even though the the mood of the album Smiley Smile is considered "Dark" it still doesn't give me that vibe.  

It's Over Now.

Caroline No

TEARS IN THE MORNING

:'|

Wrinkles. Why did that dog have to die???!! :lol

Still I Dream Of It, Till I Die,  A Day In The Life Of A Tree.

Still I Dream Of It and Till I Die.

Wind Chimes, for today.

It is so sad... like the author is lying in bed, hearing these bells, realizing they're the only things he's got in his life at that moment.

Still I Dream Of It, of course.

Baby Blue, Day In The Life Of A Tree, Til I Die, Still I Dream Of it, It's Over Now

This may sound weird, because I don't think it was intended to be a sad song, but "Morning Christmas", particularly the last 30 seconds or so, is the song that by far makes me the most sad.  I often tell people that even the BB's sad songs make me happy, but this song is different in that it just leaves me sad, period.

Not weird at all, Eric -

I forgot that one! And it elicits the same feelings in me. Something like after-boozy feelings on a festive day and realising that not everything is all right and then longing for a glass of wine to dampen the sadness...

i've never heard that song til now and i love it :) the ending is so pretty.

Thanks!  Although the sadness I associate with it is slightly different...it is more about the passing of months and years and the longing for the innocence of childhood and simpler times...and also the pain of growing old and watching loved ones grow old.

I like it too, and I agree it's beautiful,  but it's not something I can listen to every day...too sad!

Summer In Paradise album

 :lol and top marks for wrongfooting us in a brilliant way!

yes i understand :] i couldnt listen to smiley smile everyday even though i think it's beautiful in a very screwed up strange way  ;D

Well it is sad because the group had become such a parody of themselves

Second for It's Over Now - Specifically the croaky Brian piano demo.

Caroline, No as well

I know... and you're right. With wrongfooting I meant: the reply is unexpected and yet true in a totally different spirit, and that made me laugh.

So: SIP is good for at least one reason, at last (gasp...)  ;D

I was laughing with you all along Don.  Just trying to explain my reason for SIP, it's a love thang. ;D

"She knows me too well", and "Kiss me, baby"! The lyrics and brians vocals brings tears to my eyes everytime.

A Day In The Life Of A Tree.

That coda is the saddest moment of music I have ever heard.

This!

Both are just heartbreaking

I might add "Baby Blue"

"A Day in the Life of a Tree"

Surf's up coda

One of their earliest recordings: "The Lonely Sea"
So simpel, so beautiful, so sad.

Forgot about that one. Very sad indeed.

Good picks...another one I'd choose is "Your Summer Dream" and who can forget "Sad Sad Summer" haha! That was probably Mike Love's group though.

That is explained in the song My Solution. Another sad song.  :'(

A Day In the Life of a Tree. :( :( :( :[ :[ :[

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 :'(

Dennis' "Thoughts of You" might be the saddest Beach Boys related song..."Caroline No" is right there too.

Might be a weird choice, but i always found "Ballad of Ole Betsy" to be pretty sad, especially ending. Brian sings the lyrics with a lot of emotion, even if it is about a car.

Summer in Paradise is the song that made me the saddest!  :)

"My Diane".

"Let's Put Our Hearts Together."  It's a hopeful song but as Peter Buck pointed out in his notes, it's just heartwrenching hearing Brian and Marilyn singing it together as their marriage was ending.

In My Room
Lonely Sea
Warmth of the Sun
I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
Caroline No
4th of July
I'll Bet He's Nice
It's Over Now


Do It Again kind of bums me out even though it's a great upbeat tune. It was their first attempt at nostalgia... looking backward instead of forward.
Never Learn Not To Love is a huge bummer too. Just the fact that they were choosing songs by Manson instead of Wilson is so f*cked to me.

If it weren't for the lyric, I would go with "Don't Talk"...the music just seems to profoundly ache in a beautiful way.

"Disney Girls (1957)" is my choice. Despite the apparent optimism (I've got my love to give/A place to live...), the lyric and music together pine for a lost love and a lost time, and produce a nostalgia that seems profoundly sad to me.

Baby Blue

The Lonely Sea is an awesome choice.

I would have to vote for Warmth Of The Sun.

For me it would have to be ‘Til I Die’ – it has the sound of absolute sadness and desperation all in one

I would’ve loved to have had an entire albums worth of songs in that vain.

Trufax.

Also, "Still I Dream Of It" would be my pick if we were talking Beach Boys material only.

Anything from Summer In Paradise.  :lol

Carry me Home. Dennis had such a sad quality to his voice so at odds with his early surfer dude image

I would add A Day in the Life of a Tree.

Although I don't think it was intended to be sad, "(I Saw Santa) Rocking Around The Christmas Tree" makes my eyes swell up a bit.

Salt Lake City... for personal reasons.  :'(

Still I Dream of It

The Night was so Young always kicks my ass, the yearning is very real...

And 'till I die kicks my ass

And My Diane

Don't Talk

 :'(





 :lol

Gotta agree with the Stebbins. Thoughts Of You by far.

Day in the Life of a Tree
Still I Dream of It
Lonely Sea
Warmth of the Sun

.... or "Moonshine". When Dennis sings, "It was you who said there won't be tomorrow. You said you love me now in another way...", it gets me every time.

"Our Favorite Recording Sessions"? Juuuuuust kidding.

"Day in the Life of a Tree" is pretty manipulative, in that it DEMANDS you to feel badly for that tree, dammit, but somehow even as I cynically go through the first couple of verses, by the time it gets to "Oh Lord, I lay me down" I like have to pull the car over and think about all the branches I've broken over the years or times I've let my dog pee on some roots, and I invariably end up in a glass case of emotionnnnnnnn!

"Til I Die" is actually the most perfect expression of despair I think I've ever heard in a pop song. It's my frame of reference whenever I feel my skin crawl with Scott's too on-the-nose lyrics in "Midnight's Another Day". When you're at the end of your rope, the imagery used in "Til I Die" is exactly what it feels like (at least for me), like you're reduced to a speck in a larger tumultuous environment that you can't control. In particular the image of the leaf trying to keep from being blown off its branch, asking "how long will the wind blow", just nails it perfectly. It's an unbelievably moving song.

"Don't Worry Baby" actually I find to be quite sad, because the melody and the delivery is so aching. I mean, yeah, it's about biting off more than you can chew and fearing that you'll lose a drag race, but it works enough on other levels that I think it's very sad. Especially in light of the fact that Brian seems to be always worried, like every minute of the day.


The ending of "When I Grow Up to Be a Man" gets me every time too as being so melancholic, "won't last forever", and all that.

caroline no or day in the life of a tree.  I'd probably give it to caroline no cause it has my favorite lyric.  the "you break my heart, i wanna go and cry, it's so sad to watch a sweet thing die, oh caroline why?"

The new Summer's Gone seems to come pretty close.

But I'd say It's Over Now, probably.

Getcha Back has a very sad, wistful, vibe, but there's hope there too, so I gotta discount that one.

Forgot about that one, but 100% agree with you.

This is exactly what I was going to write!

'Don't Worry Baby' is a like WIBN: It's incredibly happy yet achingly sad for some reason.

There's a book somewhere in which Greil Marcus compares in "In My Room" to the Beatles' "There's a Place" complaining that while Brian wallowed in sadness Lennon went and did something about it (It's in my miiinnnddd....). It always struck me as a weird passage and not at all convincing ... sorta like GM felt compelled to do a take-down of Brian's reputation. "There's a Place" is such a minor Beatles track (however enjoyable). Anyway, my point is, when I want to hear a sad Brian song, I WANT to wallow in it. It feels good.

I definitely think "Caroline, No" and "Til I Die" are my 1 and 2, but "Let Him Run Wild" is 3.

Seeing how "There's a Place" was recorded several months before "In My Room" I don't see how you can feel as though George Martin was trying to take down Brian's reputation... which in February of 1963 (when "There's a Place" was recorded) was pretty non-existent.

No... I meant GM as in Greil Marcus in his book, not George Martin in the studio. Sorry---should'a been clearer. I can't imagine Martin taking Brian down on anything....

Or even attempting. He has always seemed pretty in awe of Brian.

"A Day In The Life Of A Tree", for me. All songs from the BB universe included, agreed that "Thoughts Of You" either tops "Tree" or comes pretty close. "Thoughts Of You", if you've ever been there, just says it way too well and is too real. A lot of songs try to do the same, and a lot of them are certainly good, but not many get it just right like that one does.

Lot of good choices have already been mentioned. I know it's technically a solo track, but since it saw its first release on a Beach Boys compilation, "All Alone" is in the running.

Agreed on all counts.  Just listened to both today on a long car ride, and I was just blown away by the raw emotion that Denny just spills all over the place on "Thoughts of You."  It makes me feel a bit uneasy listening to it, to be honest - I feel like I'm prying on the innermost thoughts of a troubled soul without permission.  How many artists out there have the sheer balls to put something like that out there? 

Syd Barrett, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill, Nick Drake, Pete Townshend, Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple, Jason Pierce and many others. But Dennis is surely among the best.

Among those, I'm most familiar with Syd and Elliott. Elliott Smith I'll give you - extremely descriptive, real, and honest with his work. Syd, though, what are some examples you're thinking of? The best I can come up with would be something like "Jugband Blues", which is certainly expressing something real, but it doesn't really cut to the bone like "Thoughts Of You" or several of Elliott's song do. Same goes for a lot of the stuff by the other d00dz listed, but as I said, I'm not as familiar wit them.

Okay fair enough, I shouldn't have made such an overly broad statement.  Out of all those artists you listed I'm really only familiar with Lennon and Joni Mitchell, and they have their moments for sure, but for me, Dennis just takes it somewhere else.

End Of The Show does it for me every time!

You don't want POB to end because you know how the story of Dennis goes from there and it's just heartbreaking.

I think Brian's second piano demo of "It's Over Now" is pretty sad -- he sounds downright forlorn -- and it's up there for me with "Tree" and "'Til I Die".

You forgot Daniel Johnston.

Good call. For anyone looking for confessional aching music, look no further than Joni. She's exquisite. And Elliott's "Pretty (Ugly Before)" breaks my heart every time, especially since it was released posthumously.

Leaving This Town

This is an interesting topic.  A lot of the stuff might be introspective but there is a certain healthy acceptance of a bad situation. Lay Down Burden, Brian's solo, sort of finds a place that is one of the cycle of life.  I feel reluctant to call it all sad.  Most people have a sort of balance between being happy and not so, and the music has a way of finding that balance, and I think Pet Sounds broke ground with finding a "place" to put universal bad experiences.  It seems to me, or at least my experience has been that I learn most when things go badly, and now, if it almost a reflex, I try to step back and look at a disaster and want to "turn it around," and learn or make it a positive one.

Til I Die is brilliant, because it seems to take the rock in the landslide, leaf on a windy day, and cork in the ocean, and define life, both good and bad.  Part of Brian's genius is that he took those emotions, and first, wrote about them, which is therapeutic, instead of bottling them up, and published them, allowing the listeners a place to share experiences and growth opportunities. And, I wonder if women look at the music differently...

Does it fit with the earlier fun-in-the sun?  Maybe...at dusk.  ;)

"Dark Globe" and "Feel" definitely come to my mind as two of Syd's really honest (and excellent) songs. I am sure there are more if I put some more thought into it.

Has 'Oh Lord' been mentioned?

This is surely the saddest unreleased recording...

If you include outside projects I would have to go with "I Wish for You".

There's a handful that I love, but mess me up every time I hear them. The first song that came to mind was "All Alone". For me it's right up there with He Stopped Loving Her Today & some of the old Hank Williams songs as the most deeply depressing (yet greatest) songs I've ever heard. I know, technically solo Dennis, but I figured I could include it since the first time I heard it / it was officially released was on the Endless Harmony soundtrack

Also:
Their Hearts Were Full of Spring
A Young Man Is Gone
(already mentioned, but) The Warmth of the Sun
Auld Lang Syne
Spirit of America (it's just sad to me, not sure why)


Me too, & I always thought I was the only one who thought "it's kind of sad", lol

Totally with you, that one came to my mind as well

Of course, when I was 17 and I heard "When I Grow Up", I didn't find the ending sad. Now in my 30s I do. Go figure.

I don't know if 'Til I Die is the one that SOUNDS the saddest, for me it's a bit mellow but very atmospheric : i always picture myself on a small boat in the middle of the ocean, where i can't see anything around me.. just lying on the boat ...

But the lyrics are quite something, especially that final line "these things i'll be until i die" i don't know if it brings me down but it does makes me feel something special, it has to be one of my all time fav lyric ever.

Pacific Coast Highway.

...yeah.  I've just now been hit between the eyes by "Summer's Gone", but if anything, that's slightly less bleak than what came right before...

Wibble,
Jon Blum

summer's gone..beautiful but something about it makes me feel this is going to be the last beach boys song..

I wonder if it could be because that's what it was supposed to be. But anyway, I agree it's a pretty sad song. 

I think it is the last beach boys song, I don't think there is another album after this one.

Before tonight I'd have said "Til' I Die" without much hesitation (and perhaps somewhere in this thread, I already did!), but after just being hit with "Pacific Coast Highway" and "Summer's Gone" a few hours ago, I'd have to say they rank right up there alongside it.

The sadness of those tracks is quite different than "Til' I Die" - as depressing as it is to hear a young man singing about having lost his way and resigning himself to always feeling so helpless, it's even more powerful hearing that same man sing about being in the last stages of his life, knowing that it's all behind him, never to return.  I can't even imagine what that realization must feel like, but hearing Brian Wilson sing about it may very well be the saddest damn thing I've ever heard.  I haven't had a Beach Boys song just flat out knock me back in my chair like those final two tracks since, well, "Til' I Die".  The genius has returned.

When Brian sings "It's finally sinking in" on Summer's gone, my heart breaks..

What an incredible song

"Barbara" knocked me sideways when I first got the Endless Summer soundtrack, the part from 25 seconds in... just gets me, right at the heart strings. Also the simplicity of the production with just the pianos and guitar on the track help in giving that vibe that makes you feel sad.

I guess some people get emotions from lyrics of a song, me personally I get it from the melody and feel of a song and not so much the lyrical subject.

"Angel Come Home" I can't even listen to that anymore, thanks to ex-girlfriend...

Do share that story!

Every track on Summer In Paradise.

I guess "Farewell My Friend" doesn't count.

In that case, "Forever."

Dennis was the saddest Beach Boy, like the guy in The Band who died: Rick Manuel.

Mount Vernon and Fairway.

For purely personal reasons, "From There To Back Again" has become the saddest song ever for me, so sad that I can't listen to it. I hope someday I will be able to, because it's a great song.

Well the ex walked out on me, I went to work, I came back to an almost empty flat. Went to all the places I thought she would be with no luck. And as I was driving back "Angel Come Home" came on. Up until point I didn't realise the CD player was on in the car, I turned it up. Everytime I hear it takes me back to that time. So that tune still burns now. And the girl you ask... She had gone to live with a doctor she had been seeing for 8 months at the hospital she worked at.

What a bitch-a-rooney-dooney!

Wouldn't it Be Nice makes me cry sometimes. it's a really optimistic song, but I'm a cynic so I see it as a really sad song. wouldn't it be nice if we were older? well no, because by that time you'll have broken up. you know this deep down.

It's sad and optimistic all at once, which is part of its charm. Definitely optimistic overall, but I think the things you're saying are also in there somewhere.

You're Still a Mystery makes me sad, Als vocals hits me like a hammer.

Dennis' Thoughts Of You is raw sadness.

Summer's Gone.

Apart from all the obvious classics (When I Grow Up, 'Til I Die, you name it):

My Diane

A Day in the Life of a Tree

I Wanna Pick You Up

Lonely Sea

Don't Worry Baby (In Concert rendition)

The Lonely Sea--first real inkling of Brian's melancholy...
Warmth of the Sun--(astute choice from Adam) mourning transfigured, sadness made radiant...
Kiss Me Baby, She Knows Me Too Well--the sad (possibly delusional?) hope for reconciliation and the sad reality of an overcomplicated relationship ...
Here Today--the fungibility of romance...
I Just Wasn't Made For These Times--the knowing onset of incipient depression...
Caroline, No--cruel loss of innocence...
Til I Die--the ultimate state of fragile contingency...
4th of July, Carry Me Home--meditations on the tragedy and futility of war...
Thoughts of You--raw existentialist lament...
Summer's Gone--the bittersweet coming to grips with old age.

Lots of great great songs were chosen for this list.  And I have to say I got a chance to tell Brian how much his songs of loss and heartbreak resonated with me, especially Let Him Run Wild.

But 2 weeks ago I had the honor of transcribing the vocals and writing the chord charts for Summer's Gone, and it was very difficult to do, knowing the tour was ending.

Right now I'd have to pick that one.

Scott

Another vote for "Summer's Gone."  I'm a summertime person, always have, always will be.  I'm 30+ years old, and still cry when my family leaves the beach when our summer vacation is over.  The first time I heard the song, I cried - when I listened to it on my iPod on the last day of my family's summer vacation, I cried like a baby.  It's one of the saddest songs I've ever heard, yet I'm still in love with it and consider it one of my favorite Beach Boys songs. 

All Summer Long makes me pretty sad.

And Your Dream Comes True has some sad qualities about it. Maybe it's that punched-in/edited breathing sound?







question: ... are the mallets on all summer long a marimba or xylophone?

I don't know...your vocal on 'Ballad of Ole Betsy' moved the **** out of me when you all did it on 8 June 2012, and I'm not even normally a fan of that one. Ace job.

I'm gonna say "It's Over Now"--I can't even listen to it, it's too sad.

Runner up: "Shelter"--not quite as sad because it has joy in it also. But when "Do you still ever think of me" kicks in, I'm a blubbering mess. But I love it. Good job, Brian.

'Shelter' leaves me a blubbering mess also, but for very different reasons than the ones you've described...

If it was, I missed it.  Great pick!

Yes.  A Day In The Life Of A Tree.

By writing about a tree, I think Brian was able to illustrate the shocking emotional reality of his mental condition, circa 1971. Something he couldn't express if he wrote in the first person.  Even Till I Die (which is a better song) misses the mournfulness and sadness he felt.

It sort of starts up-close -- being a kid growing up with so much promise...and then just ever so slowly zooms out as time passes.  And that organ...just wails and weeps.  It's quite tough to listen to in this context for me.  I envision Brian with tears streaming down his face, silently playing this on the organ.

Surf's Up (Smile Sessions version), A Day In The Life Of A Tree, and anything from Pet Sounds.

All Summer Long is pretty sad, I wonder if it was intended to be originally or if the ending of American Graffiti just ruined it forever haha.  Also, I'm pretty sure it's a marimba.  I was a multi-percussionist in my high school concert band.  :)

I would say Still I Dream Of It and It's Over Now from the Good Vibrations box set are two of the saddest songs I've ever heard.

Kokomo.   That one really bummed me out and still does.    :P

Barbara.

‍

Wind Chimes is kind of sad, in a surreal way

Yes because of the era it was made. The old songs still have rays of hope for the future.

Summer's Gone is the only BBs song which is an epitome of sheer sadness. The rest of the canon is haunting at 'worst' & happy-go-lucky at best. I think that's what I like about The BBs' music: even the songs that normally considered sad sound optimistic. For example, A Day in the Life of a Tree is joyful & sunny, beginning to end. Don't hear anything sad in it, really.

But... but... it's about a tree in pain.  :'(

So what? Musically, it's very optimistic. I don't usually care about the lyrics. After all, it's not that difficult to filter them out, is it?

^
I can dig and respect it, you really, really, really don't care about the lyrics. But I think by ignoring them completely you really do miss much. Some of them are great in their own right, and in addition to that, part of Brian's genius is how his melodies, harmonies and arrangements suit and complement the lyrics. You'd get more out of the music if you'd allow the lyrics to be a part of the experience, instead of filtering them out. Don't Talk, I Went To Sleep, Custom Machine... Perfect symbiosis of music and lyrics!

As for the saddest song, you don't get any sadder than the one about the tree in pain. But there is some hope hidden in the music, though. Further proving my point, how music and lyrics often work together or argue to make these interesting contrasts.

What you said is right on the money & I do make exceptions towards certain songs, e.g. Cabinessence or At My Window because I like their respective lyrics for their complexity & simplicity. As for your 2nd point about "tree in pain", well, tastes differ & I dig yours. Wouldn't it be really boring if we all had similar musical preferences? I think yes.

That is interesting,  I cannot find anything even slightly, sunny or joyful in Day in the Life of a Tree..  In fact I can barely listen to it, I find it sad and melancholy.  I also find the music matches the mood of the lyrics also Jacks voice is perfect for the mood.  Doesn't mean I don't like it,  I actually love it,  just find it too much sometimes.  I cried so much the first time I heard it, the helplessness and (there is another word I'm trying like hell to remember, it's kinda like defeated).  Sunny?  nope.

Well, I can easily deal with the fact that I have maybe a bit weird ideas about 1 or another song. But that's how I hear - ADITLOAT is very light music-wise to me.

When VDP's voice kicks in during the coda, it's like someone smiling through tears. A small ray of hope.