Defend the Indefensible: Mike Love

Now Van Dyke Parks never came up with a couplet as good as that!

Then again, as is my custom whenever a BB/Wilson/Love thread raises its head:

"We're gonna sing a song that everybody KNOWS!
Not some acid shit 'bout column ruin domi-NOES!"

scapegoats are important. and i do like his ba-ba dip-di-dip-di-dip's.

stamos, parks, charlie manson...being a beach boy evidently leads to strange bedfellows.

So how would you like to see Mike Love perish?

Some thing, man, you don't forgive.

The article potrayed a sorry bunch to be sure — Mike, Brian, his wife, everyone. But what I remember most was not Mike, but Sean O'Hagan — I mean, here he was, given the chance of a lifetime to produce The Last Great Beach Boys Album...and he acted surprised and hurt that they turned out to be overgrown children! I mean, how can someone like him, whose every note has been lifted from these guys, POSSIBLY be surprised, much less offended, by that?

It just seemed like the height of self-centeredness to me and confirmed my impression that it wasn't just one guy or anything that ruined this band — that if anything, the real villain was the sorry-ass excuse for a music industry and all the leeches surrounding it. You wanna pin it on Mike, fine — but one tiny hole does not a ship sink. Even one on wicked waters.

Of course not. And, well, Carl's dead now, so that's that. Thanks, Sean.

Well, aside from the fact it's not "shit," yeah. I mean, it's just a little pretentious is all.

RE: Why is meditation so important to you?

ML: People ask me about the Beach Boys all the time. But the only thing worth talking about is peace--inner peace and collective peace, or what I call peace with a capital "P" There are different things one can do to establish and hasten the peace process. Meditation is one way.

RE: What has meditation done for you personally? What would you be like today if you hadn't made this discovery?

ML: Without meditation, I'd probably be dead. It has allowed me to transcend all the bothersome things that happen during the course of a day, a week, a month, a career or a lifetime. I go beyond a certain level of thought. Some of those types of thoughts come from a stressed physiology. They appear in your mind as, "I want to kill that person," "I want to kick the dog," "I want to hurt my wife," "I want to emotionally abuse people."

In Paris, in December of 1967, my first meditation was taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi--the founder of the transcendental meditation program. The feeling I had, physiologically and emotionally, was one of tranquility and deep peace. I was more relaxed and tranquil than I'd ever been. During meditation your metabolism and your breath rate go down to a level of rest, twice that of deep sleep. But you're not asleep, you're aware. It was so profound I thought, "Wow, this is so easy and so powerful. I feel so relaxed. If everyone did this, the entire world would be a different place." It's still an inspiration to me, that first meditation.

RE: But how can meditation lead to peace with a capital "P"?

ML: The history of mankind is a history of war. Think about the Protestants and the Catholics, or the Shiites and the Sunnis, or the ongoing conflicts in Jerusalem, which is the focus of people of three different religions. They fight about everything. Mankind invents things to fight about. There have been thousands of wars in recorded history. But Maharishi has come up with a formula for world peace, which he believes can be achieved with large groups of meditators. When people meditate, they have a calming effect on others. Also, if you have large groups of people listening to gandharva-ved music, they will connect with each other whether they're meditating or not. Just by hearing, one can connect to the transcendental level and stabilize the environment. This will have a peaceful effect throughout creation.

RE: World peace is a dream of humankind. What's stopping us from achieving it?

ML: I think it's society and our problems, as well as a lack of information and a lack of priorities. People have jobs and houses and families. People are too busy to think about the big issues. We need to change that.

mike love to world: "what's with these stupid JOB things you have? can't you not work, like me? what's wrong with you? it's YOUR FAULT that there's hate and war in the world. if only you'd quit those stupid jobs..."

Kidding, Matos. Kidding.

stuff, I mean shit, we've been sayin' it for years down here. I mean, I like "Smile" just fine, and the rest of it...funny, I was playing my skeptical-about-the-Beach-Boys friend (he does not surf nor does he appreciate a good muscle car, but digs the Residents) the song "Johnny Carson" just the other day, telling him "this is what the Residents could've done, had they had more talent," being the smart-ass I am ("Eskimo" being some kind of tone-poem shit), and then right after that the news came on and said that JC was dead. The way he kept it up made me cry. Like B. Wilson during recording that song about the fire, I was convinced I'd made it happen.

Please use the line as much as possible, Matos.

lolllll
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/bad-vibrations-beach-boys-frontman-sacks-founders-on-anniversary-tour-8176117.html

"Brian is very bummed," said Wilson's manager, Jean Sievers.
Aw, man.

I have to accompany my other half to a meet and greet with them tomorrow before the gig, ulp...

can you show them the mike love + weirdos thread?
anyhoo, brian's having a great time in England -- look!
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maxe3u9vhF1qa6myvo1_250.jpg

What if I had it up on my IPhone in my pocket, ready to go, that'd be kinda awesome/weird and stalker-y

if you could get a photo of yourself + mike love + the mike love weirdos thread, the circle would be complete. i think.

Oh man, I'll try!!!

That would make the best thread ever even better! INFINITY PLUS

MIKE L∞VE

Mike "I am all the Beach Boys now" Love?

I chickened out :(

It was kinda heavy and I was a tag-along so I kept a respectful distance

Natalie Duncan liked him!

The Beach Boys were really friendly, especially Mike Love. He was hilarious. He kept talking to me throughout the whole filming, just talking away about how I should sing Etta James. And he was very disparaging about Public Image Ltd, which I found hilarious. But that really put me at ease.

So, the Beach Boys are on "Later" with Jools, along with Public Image Ltd and Muse? With NatDunc..

Since when did "Later" have *interesting* lineups?

The xx are on as well.

XP - Yea, he flirted with my wife a bit. :)

OK, shall I defend Mike Love?

There are two "Beach Boys"

One set can do "The Hits" and be the "Beach Boys Experience" type funfunfun-ness, the "standard" edition, and not be expensive ticketpricewise..

And the other set can do the "Deluxe / Directors Brew" for those buffs that insist on the 'authentic' experience, and pay higher ticket prices.

There's also the matter of the health of those guys. I'd have thought this would be a blessing to Brian, as he was pretty much talking about retiring after his "Gershwin" concerts were done.

*Spoiler Alert*

Last nights gig was interesting in a few ways:

They played for 3 1/2 hours, not including a 15 min interval.

Most of the concert was continuous, like a medley format but without actually truncating songs (most of the early ones are within the 3 min rule anyways)

It started off sounding as if it was gonna be chronological, then they dropped Disney Girls, but the concert was fairly biased to pre-'66.

They did a few weird covers (California Dreaming) but also some deep cuts, Add Some Music, Good Timing, All This is That and a lot of early tunes from off the beaten path like Kiss Me Baby and The Ballad of 'Ole Betsy.

There were far too many people on stage for the early numbers, like 5 Guitarists and 4 Keyboard players.

For the BW lovers, they did In My Room, H&V, Good Vibrations, Our Prayer.

xp i don't think i'd categorize the b-side of Surf's Up as a dinner party record. "A Day in the Life of a Tree" -> "Til I Die" -> "Surf's Up" isn't exactly the lightest Beach Boys track run.

I liked how impressed he was by the goings on, but I was disappointed that the writers didn't have the guts to make a character intone ponderously "so now the dance of the dragons commences..."

the one time I saw what Mike Love calls "The Beach Boys" in 2010, he talked about some radio station that first played their music, and then he talked about how that station had drastically changed now, and he said "now they play music like this", and Mary J Blige "Family Affair" comes on, and he makes a horrified look.

it was somewhat hilarious as he seemed to think this was a new song despite it being 9 years old, less hilarious that it came across as "ewww URBAN music"

oops, wrong thread

no this the right thread

At this point, I would be very surprised if Mike Love lavished praise on anything that wasn't old and lily-white.

Mike Love fantasy decapitation when?

xp i don't think i'd categorize the b-side of Surf's Up as a dinner party record. "A Day in the Life of a Tree" -> "Til I Die" -> "Surf's Up" isn't exactly the lightest Beach Boys track run.

― Western® with Bacon Flavor

dinner donner party record (shout outs to jeanne thornton's _summer fun_)

I may have mentioned it before but I put together my own Surf's Up mix of just Brian, Dennis, and Carl songs and it's become one of my favorite Beach Boys records to listen to. Starting in 1970 Beach Boys records start becoming really patchy, with high highs and low lows. Dennis pulling his songs from _Surf's Up_ really hurt the record. Here's what I have:

Fallin' In Love
Sweet Mountain
Long Promised Road
Sound of Free
(Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again

Feel Flows
4th of July
A Day in the Life of a Tree
Til I Die
Surf's Up

That final three-song stretch is unfuckwithable, of course. Some of the Dennis songs I think were intended for his solo album which was to be called, uh, _Poops Hubba Hubba_, apparently. And "Sweet Mountain" isn't a Beach Boys song at all but "A Day in the Life of a Tree" doesn't have lead vocals by a band member either, and just like with that song, they all sing on the outro.

The Mike song is _good_, one of his best songs along with "Big Sur", but it doesn't really fit. There's a certain sort of purity to having an all-Wilson Beach Boys record...

There's a certain sort of purity to having an all-Wilson Beach Boys record...

True. When the first Pet Sounds box set used Brian's vocal for the stereo "Wouldn't It Be Nice" bridge (something Love put a stop to on all subsequent releases) I thought it was an improvement for similar reasons.

True. When the first Pet Sounds box set used Brian's vocal for the stereo "Wouldn't It Be Nice" bridge (something Love put a stop to on all subsequent releases) I thought it was an improvement for similar reasons.

― birdistheword

i thought it was because they couldn't find the master tape for the love bridge when the first box came out, and then they found the tape. was that a cover story?

It's a bullshit story. Listen to the 2001 standalone release where they restored Love's vocal on the stereo mix. Love's vocal is flown in from the final mono mix, and the result clearly has phasing issues which was unavoidable at the time. They can probably do a better job of it with the same "demixing" tools Giles has been using.

Spotted in an FB group:

1979 BOMP! Magazine: Nick Lowe on Mike Love:

"Like what's that bloke's name… Mike Love? Is he the one that wears that hat all the time? What a wanker that bloke is! When he came over to England, I saw him on the television. He was being interviewed and he was like this crass American tourist and he all but said your policemen are wonderful and I just came over here for the girls, you got so many pretty girls here. I thought, for fuck’s sake, what is this wimp doing? He had on this sort of LA beige suit on and the beads around his neck. He just looked like the biggest wanker I'd ever seen. And his stupid little yachting cap!"

Cupid must be angry at Mike Love.

Those aren’t the Beachboys and I doubt they voted
Mike Love is ,in the opinion of almost every musician I know , a shithead , most assuredly has no talent at all , and , as you can probably tell ...I just don’t like him https://t.co/GLZwvSFN2h

— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) October 19, 2020

:)

The best thing about that tweet is how he says two terrible insults, seems to be stepping back to deliver a death blow...and ends on a mild opinion.

https://i.imgur.com/G3G9INc.jpg

Mike still on the circuit

Is he doing the Biggie tribute?

He’s a member of Beats Antique

https://waynerobins.substack.com/p/beatles-beach-boys-headline-hall

Creedence’s greatest hits record has been in the top 40 every week from 1988 to now?

They might be figuring in the catalogue chart.

Creedence?

#onethread

But five years later, John Fogerty would pull a stunt that would make the ranting of Mike Love seem like a love-in. In one of the lowest moments of Rock Hall history, Creedence was admitted in 1993, but Fogerty refused to play with his bandmates. Tom Fogerty, the fourth member, died in 1990, and the Fogerty brothers, as appears to be the rule among the fraternal in high-stakes rock bands, had been estranged. But Stu Cook (bass) and Doug Clifford (drums), who played on every CCR hit with Fogerty, were at the event but not allowed on stage. Instead, in 1993, Fogerty performed backed by Springsteen and Robbie Robertson, among others. The CCR quartet, whose Chronicle: Twenty Greatest Hits remains in the top 40 on the Billboard top 200 album charts to this day, had started under various names in El Cerrito, Ca., since 1959. The rocking never stops, and the resentments never end.

Oh.

Forgot about that

He probably didn’t update that part of the article to now

Or did he?

https://consequence.net/2025/08/al-jardine-mike-love-brian-wilson-funeral/

“Mike wanted everybody to know that he wrote every single word of ‘Good Vibrations,'” Jardine said. “I didn’t feel the compassion, let’s put it that way. Mike’s got some serious megalomania problems.

Jardine swiped back in his own speech by saying, “Mike, I’ve written some songs with Brian myself. We wrote one called ‘Surfin’ Down the Swanee River.’ It just wasn’t as big as ‘Good Vibrations.'”

“I was focusing on Brian, and Mike was more focused on Mike,” he added. “I think that is what it boiled down to.”

In another self-indulgent statement, a representative for Love said Jardine’s account was “not true.” They continued: “Mike’s focus has always been on uplifting audiences around the world through the music he helped create with his bandmates and cousin Brian. His commitment has been to preserve and share this great American songbook while providing resources to fellow Beach Boys shareholders, including Al Jardine. In addition, Mike and The Beach Boys have dedicated significant time and support to nonprofit organizations using their platform to give back to communities in need.”

"fellow Beach Boys shareholders," christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZSAQX2uuUY

i have to assume it's been posted on some other Beach Boys related thread because the Mike Love rock and roll HoF induction speech is legendary.

And everybody that spoke after this made a form of the same joke: "Damn, I'm glad Mike Love didn't mention me!"