Random Beach Boys Songs You Never Realized Are Super Dark And Depressing (14 items)

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  (#1) Never Learn Not to Love

  • The Beach Boys

  "Never Learn Not To Love" is a darker-than-usual Beach Boys song, not only because of its unhealthily obsessive lyrics, but due to its authorship. Charles Manson, the infamous murderer-slash-cult leader, first composed the song under the title "Cease To Exist." A frustrated musician, Manson was elated when Dennis Wilson asked to record it. However, there was one caveat: he was not to change Mason’s composition in any way.  

  But Wilson did. He changed the title, he punched up the lyrics, and he put his name on it. An enraged Manson showed up at Wilson's house and threatened to kill him, but didn't go through with the violent act; instead, Wilson supposedly beat Manson up. The humiliated Manson’s grudge against Wilson, music producer Terry Melcher, and the Hollywood elite overall eventually led to the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969.
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  (#2) 'Til I Die

  • The Beach Boys

  By 1971, the summertime vibe the Beach Boys made their brand was a relic from a more innocent time. Under the guidance of manager Jack Rieley, the now world-weary band released their most vulnerable and melancholy album to date, Surf's Up. The existential Brian Wilson-penned track "Til I Die" expressed his overwhelming feelings of mortality, as he explained:

  "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?  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."
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  (#3) "I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man" Is About The Wilsons' Abusive Father

  "I’m Bugged At My Ol’ Man" is a novelty ode to Brian Wilson’s father, Murry, from Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), released in 1965. The track is representational of Murry’s well documented, real-life abuse toward his son. In it, the narrator describes his father’s over-the-top punishments against minor infractions, which leave him locked in his room, with his possessions taken away, his hair cut off, and bread crumbs and water being the only thing for him to eat.
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  (#4) I Just Wasn't Made for These Times

  • The Beach Boys

  If you’ve ever felt lonely and adrift in the world, Pet Sounds’ "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times” might be your jam. The introspective Brian Wilson/Tony Asher-penned lyrics take the point of view of an empathetic, yet alienated, protagonist who can’t find comfort in any crowd.

  In 2011, Wilson said, “Either I'm too far ahead of my time' or 'I'm not up to my time'... [Now] I do feel I was made for these times."
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  (#5) The Trader

  • The Beach Boys

  Holland, the group's 1973 album, is rife with themes of separation and mortality. It's also the last place you’d expect a history lesson on Manifest Destiny, but “The Trader” is just that. The Carl Wilson/Jack Rieley penned tune tells the tale of a man who comes to the New World and claims the land as his own. With approval from the European powers-that-be, he then sets about displacing, enslaving, and slaughtering the native peoples he finds upon arrival. That's about as far from fun in the sun (or "the formula," as Mike Love allegedly called it) as you can get.
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  (#6) "She Knows Me Too Well" Is About Emotional Abuse

  "She Knows Me Too Well" appears on the 1965 release Beach Boys Today! Penned by Mike Love and Brian Wilson, the somewhat disturbing lyrics offset the song's lush harmonies. The protagonist is the type of man your mother always warned you about – jealous, insecure and possibly dangerous. As he explores his abusive behavior toward his girlfriend throughout the song ("I get so jealous of the other guy / And then I’m not happy till I make her break down and cry"), he deludes himself with the notion that everything’s all right in the relationship because "she can tell I really love her."
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  (#7) "A Day In The Life Of A Tree" Is About The Earth Dying Due To Pollution

  "A Day In The Life Of A Tree," an ode to ecology from Surf's Up, seems whimsical at first. It's written from the perspective of a tree – but it's being choked to death by pollution. Manager Jack Rieley sang lead and co-wrote the track with Brian Wilson:

  "Brian and I had been talking a lot about the sorry state of the planet back then. Forests were dying; the air had turned brown, the Earth's future was beginning to appear hazardous to health. When Brian first played the chords and sang the tentative melody for me, he asked what the song should be about, and I suggested a single tree as metaphor for the earth; that single tree as metaphor for more than ecology."
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  (#8) Caroline No

  • The Beach Boys

  As Brian Wilson explained, the Pet Sounds track "Caroline, No" was about "the loss of innocence" that comes with aging:

  "I'd reminisced to [producer] Tony Asher about my high school crush and sighed, 'If I saw her today, I'd probably think, God, she's lost something, because growing up does that to people.' But the song was most influenced by the changes [wife] Marilyn and I had gone through. We were young, Marilyn nearing 20 and me closing in on 24, yet I thought we'd lost the innocence of our youth in the heavy seriousness of our lives."

  Asher saw the song as, "Brian's wish that he could go back to simpler days... that the group could return to the days when the whole thing was a lot of fun and very little pressure."
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  (#9) "A Young Man Is Gone" Is A Sad Tribute To James Dean

  In the early days of rock n’ roll, "splatter platters" were all the rage. "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean, "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Peterson, and “The Leader Of The Pack” by the Shangri-Las were tunes that spoke of teen tragedy in melodramatic fashion. Unlike most of these pop hits, however, “A Young Man Is Gone," featured on the Beach Boys' 1963 album Little Deuce Coupe, was rooted in reality. The song "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring," written by Bobby Troup, was a favorite of the band’s. They reworked the lyrics and released it as a homage to actor James Dean, who died in a car crash on September 30, 1955.
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  (#10) "In My Room" Foreshadowed Brian Wilson's Agoraphobia

  Brian Wilson wrote the 1963 song "In My Room" from the viewpoint of a teen who feels safest and most comfortable in his bedroom. It's easy to see the tune as a foreshadowing of his agoraphobia; less than a decade later, he wouldn’t leave his bedroom for almost three years. He said of the song:

  "When Dennis, Carl and I lived in Hawthorne as kids, we all slept in the same room. One night I sang the song 'Ivory Tower' to them, and they liked it. Then a couple of weeks later, I proceeded to teach them both how to sing the harmony parts to it. It took them a little while, but they finally learned it. We then sang this song night after night. It brought peace to us. When we recorded 'In My Room,' there was just Dennis, Carl and me on the first verse... and we sounded just like we did in our bedroom all those nights. This story has more meaning than ever since Dennis's death."
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  (#11) "Don't Go Near The Water" Is About Ocean Pollution

  Earlier in their career, the Beach Boys invited the listener to the water’s edge. However, by 1971 and the release of Surf's Up, they implored the masses to stay away. "Don’t Go Near The Water" still features the group's trademark lighthearted harmonies, but the message is a serious one. The song is a socially conscious ode to environmental issues, warning that "The poison floating out to sea / Now threatens life on land."
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  (#12) The Warmth of the Sun

  • The Beach Boys

  In late November 1963, cousins Mike Love and Brian Wilson wrote the "The Warmth Of The Sun" with lost love and regret in mind. Love explained the reasoning behind the lyrics:

  "Maybe it was your first love and she broke your heart. Maybe it was a deep love that faded before you were ready to let go. Maybe it was the love you never felt but always longed for. Regardless, it’s the kind of love that lingers... long after she’s gone."

  The song took on a different meaning just a few hours after it was composed, when an assassin's bullet killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. When the Beach Boys went into the recording studio a few months later, it was, as Love puts it, "charged with emotion. I’ll never be able to hear or perform that song without recalling the loss of President Kennedy... Every time we sing it, the memory of that day is present."
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  (#13) Help Me Rhonda

  • Al Jardine

  1965’s "Help Me, Rhonda," the Beach Boys' second number-one hit, tells the tale of a broken-hearted man who lost his girl to another. He asks the mythical Rhonda (she wasn’t based on any one person) to help ease his pain, presumably with some action.

  The lyrics of "Help Me, Rhonda" are twisted enough, but the real drama happened while it was being recorded. A drunken Murry Wilson crashed the party to criticize the boys, and it was all caught on tape. For 39 excruciating minutes, the elder Wilson practically pushes Brian to his limits. At one point, you can hear father and son physically struggling for supremacy in the studio’s control room.
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  (#14) Don't Worry Baby

  • The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers

  "Don’t Worry, Baby," from the Beach Boys' 1964 release Shut Down Volume 2, started its life as a "reaction" record to the Ronettes’ "Be My Baby." While Brian Wilson wrote the song about his relationship with his then fiancée, Marilyn, it's also about a drag race challenge that the singer regrets making because of the potential risks to his popularity, masculinity, and life. His one silver lining? That no matter what happens, his girlfriend will support him.

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