Saddest Beach Boys Song :/

[CarCrazyCutie]

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)

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.

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

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

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

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

[keysarsoze001]

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.

[Ziggy Stardust]

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.

[Eric Aniversario]

Pacific Coast Highway.

[Jonathan Blum]

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

[Newguy562]

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

[Runaways]

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. 

[Newguy562]

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.

[Chris Brown]

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.

[Shady]

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

What an incredible song

[Sie W]

"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...

[Cabinessenceking]

"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!

[mjforever]

Every track on Summer In Paradise.

[Forshorn]

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.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Mount Vernon and Fairway.

[Sound of Free]

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.

[Sie W]

"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!

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.

[runnersdialzero]

"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!

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!

[Aegir]

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.

[runnersdialzero]

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.

[Domino]

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

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Dennis' Thoughts Of You is raw sadness.

[SgtTimBob]

Summer's Gone.

[phirnis]

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)

[Don Malcolm]

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.