The "bad guy" in the band: who are the other Mike Loves in music?

Btw, I recommend reading Johnny Ramone's memoir Commando if you want some insight into the mind of a total shit. The lack of self-awareness is so complete that he doesn't cover up any of his awful behaviour. He's proud of it.

― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Thursday, May 22, 2014 10:39 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dee Dee didn't really represent himself very well in his books either.

both johnny and deedee's books come across, at least partly, as schtick.

i only have a problem with mike love when i have to see pictures/video footage of him. and all the latter-day awful live cheerleading he did with john friggin' stamos or whoever. he just LOOKS like such a jerk. but he has never lessened my enjoyment of the beach boys. i don't really pay too close attention to who does what on their albums. or even who is singing. bob weir has definitely lessened my enjoyment of the dead. i like some of his songs but most of them are nowhere near as good as hunter/garcia stuff and his voice has always been really annoying/not great. but, like i said, he seems like an okay guy. jerry always thought he was a great "original" rhythm guitarist but i think they could have almost any good guitarist playing with them and if anything they would have sounded better if someone else had been playing. i definitely think bob was the sloppy x factor.

that woman in bardo pond is kinda my donna & bob rolled up into one hippie with a flute. can't listen to that band because of her and i really like them otherwise! she ruins the experience for me. they totally would have been one of my favorite jam bands if she wasn't in the band. sad, i know. or mean. she's probably really nice. that violin though....ugh...

DON: A lot of critics, they think Glenn and I are "bad guys" *makes scare quoes with fingers*. But really if a band is a car, two guys gotta sit in the front. Those two guys in the Eagles are Glenn and myself. It would've have worked any other way.

GLENN: If two chicks had sat in the front seat, I an think of several ways we could work it.

DON: Well, yeah.

it's complicated in that he is also sort of the protagonist, but everybody else from Talking Heads sure seems to dislike David Byrne

Dean Wareham in Galaxie 500? Though I find him kind of likable these days.

great eagles quote. frey really pitches in to lift henley's prickishness to another level there.

what are the counter-examples, the good guys in bands of dicks? I always think of Gene Clark as the good guy of the byrds, but that's probably just because i like his stuff the most. maybe he was a dick too.

Byrne, Wareham are principal songwriters & musicians - something Mike Love never was. Feel like anybody who is that much of a creative leader of the band doesn't really qualify.

First: that Mike Love article is incredible.

I'm curious how many other examples there are where the dynamics play out like this--with the guy who handles the business of the band and is the asshole enforcer. A lot of times it is the main guy in the band--the David Byrne example, Jeff Tweedy kicking Jay Bennett out of Wilco by saying "a circle can have only one center," and then turning over the a huge chunk of his band's "personnel" 6-7 years into their existence.

I don't think anyone in Slint or the music-loving public at large considers him an asshole on any level, but Brian McMahan plays a role like this in Slint. The Spiderland 33 1/3 book basically paints him as an intense perfectionist that picked apart each component of their music obsessively until it met a certain standard of quality. But he's not necessarily the one with the chops or the ideas--that was Walford and Pajo.

And that recent Guardian article basically said he quit and imploded the band because there was no way this would ever be sustainable from the business/making-a-basic-living end.

That said, there is no evidence that he's an asshole on any level, or that the rest of the band resented him.

So he doesn't fit, so maybe he's just an example of that role on a smaller, non-asshole level.

fwiw yeah og post article is one of my favorite things Bagge ever did, had the accompanying drawing of Mike Love on the wall in our rehearsal space for a longtime, v motivating

altho the image in that link cuts off the "Motherfucker" on his t-shirt!

Definitely fans of early- to mid-period Wilco and Jay Bennett partisans viewed Tweedy as a Mike Love-figure.

Ginger Baker even though he's my favorite player in Cream. Does Sharon Osbourne count?

that Mike Love article is incredible.

yeah thanks for posting that. surprised it hasn't appeared here before.

I've referenced it, but it wasn't available online for a long time

but he has never lessened my enjoyment of the beach boys.

I honestly can't stand the sound of Mike Love's voice. You get these ethereal harmonies and then Mike steps in with his flat nasal bah-bah-bah's.

I dig Mike Love for ruining the Beach Boys

Cream might be 3-Mike Love band, but that Ginger Baker doc definitely makes the argument for him as king prick. I love the part when he just starts showing up at Blind Faith practices and they're all to scared of him to not let him in the band.

what a disaster for beach boys

feel like Lou Reed deserves a mention here for persecuting John Cale throughout the latter's time in the VU

The other guy from Supertramp, the one with the lower voice.

Andrew Eldritch is the Mike Love of the Sisters of Mercy

what would be the Supergroup of all Mike Loves?

Mike Love - lead vocals
Robbie Robertson - lead guitar, vocals
Johnny Ramone - rhythm guitar
Ginger Baker - drums

are there no hated bass players?

Crosby could play bass actually

Gotta be McCartney, right? Not a perfect fit given creative input, but tbh Johnny Ramine seems pretty creatively crucial to the ramones.

Paul McCartney - bass

xpost!

Definitely the dickies taskmaster of the Beatles, seems more business-minded as well

I'm sure Ginger wouldn't be thrilled with Crosby's bass work since he basically said Jack Bruce sucked once he switched to electric bass.

Dickish, I mean

Baker Ramone Love McCartney Army

God that'd be a terrible band

is Billy Corgan a Mike Love?

David Crosby was too high to be much of a problem to his bandmates. Stephen Stills, however, was exactly high enough to be a terrible problem to his bandmates.

Also Joey DeMaio or Peter Steele for asshole bassist in the asshole supergroup.

xp crosby was an egomaniac and agitator who played a big part in driving gene out of the band.

OK, fair enough on the Byrds. But CSN(Y) was a different story.

Billy Corgan doesn't fit, now that i think about it. You can't be the undisputed leader of a band and be a Mike Love. Need to be a pretender to the throne, more of a pre-torture Theon Greyjoy-type to be a Mike Love. Corgan's more of a Joffrey.

xp billy corgan is a brian wilson & a mike love

xps yeah i nominated crosby purely for his time in the byrds.

Lindsey Buckingham is the only member of Fleetwood Mac who isn't a Mike Love

Gene Simmons should actually be the bass player in The Mike Loves.

xpost sorry I don't actually know much of the ins and outs of Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey Buckingham is just a really dickish name.

and re crosby i don't dislike "mind gardens" but to most people it's the byrds' "student demonstration time".

lots of amusing search results here for it.

I thought that was Triad? or Chestnut Mare? Byrds have a few Student Demonstration Times.

"mind gardens" seems to be the most universally hated.

He sits behind his microphone: Johnny Carson
He speaks in such a manly tone: Johnny Carson

Ed McMahon comes on and says "Here's Johnny"
Every night at 11:30 he's so funny

^^^possibly the best song on "Love You" (not written by Mike tho)

So. In the movie "Frank," Domhnall Gleeson's character joins an existing band led by a reclusive visionary genius.

He proceeds to push the band in a more popular, less obscurantist direction, alienating the other band members.

Guess who else joined an existing band led by a reclusive visionary genius, then proceeded to push the band in a more popular, less obscurantist direction, alienating the other band members?

Anyone care to opine on who was the Mike Love of the New York Dolls?

John Stamos? (xp)