Defend the Indefensible: Mike Love

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0247,tracker_writer.inc,37005,.html

heart "all i wanna do is mike love to you"
air supply "miking love out of nothing at all"
nik kershaw "you mike"

When Brian came up with the songs for Pet Sounds, Mike was less than pleased, apparently. I feel he did have a point. Not because they were bad, but the whole was more a personal statement, and as such should really have been a solo album. But they took it on anyway and learned to love it.

Smile, again, was even more so. Smiley Smile was a band album, and not a bad album, and not exactly sticking rigidly to the formula either. Their one mistake was not doing Monterey, as they would have won the crowd over with their current stuff.

Mike Love was a member of the Beach Boys, and had a valid opinion. Had Brian been a stronger person, he would have gone and made Pet Sounds and Smile by and for himself. That he did not, was not Mike Love's fault.

I move.

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

Beach Boys role playing game

"Do you

A) Do a song that everybody knows OR
B) some acid shit bout "column ruins domino""

I'd like a Beach Boys AR where we tell Love to fuck off, throw him out of the studio and replace his vocals with Brian's original guides.

― birdistheword, Saturday, February 20, 2021 6:11 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You're looking for This is the thread where we tell Mike Love to FUCK OFF and Defenestrate Mike Love

it'll be called Pieces of Mike Love and pieces of his cold dead body are strewn about the studio, with a reanimated Dennis using his thigh bone to drum

Comes with a bonus CD of Tibetan thigh bone music by reanimated Genesis P Orridge

Mike Love was born March 15, 1941. pic.twitter.com/iJARB6pK4T

— Van Dyke Parks (@thevandykeparks) March 15, 2021

Trump missed a chance to name Mike "Secretary of Fun Fun Fun".

Photos provide an interesting contrast in two distinct ways to deal with balding.

every time this thread gets bumped I have to watch this 18 times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdYbymafUd0

LOL @ Parks's tweet.

He even got Skunk Baxter of the Doobies in there.

Stay away when there's a riot going on...

Mike Love was even an asshole in Radio Shack ads! pic.twitter.com/KKiKmvXAbB

— Victor Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) January 7, 2022

He was also into red hats even back then

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAT6UD8x-y0

"is anyone going to sing along with us?"

incredible to watch something like a LiveAid performance and he still gives off that asshole camp counselor from your childhood memory vibe.

was re-watching the grateful dead bio and it's kinda of funny that mike love is the pigpen that ended up in control of the band's legacy.

I want to believe:

#FBIWFO released a new photo of this man who who allegedly assaulted law enforcement personnel at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Do you recognize him? Call 1-800-225-5324 or visit https://t.co/t8G7LO4hxu to submit a tip. Refer to photo 398 in your tip. pic.twitter.com/nNgJLKht8y

— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) September 6, 2022

LMAO

So I’ll actually try to defend the indefensible. This song (which I found while poking around on the Feel Flows box) is terrific and one of Mike’s best lead vocals:

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

That song is also on the two-disc version, it's one of the better outtakes; it certainly would have been preferable to the Mike song that made it on Surf's Up. His vocal has a jaundiced edge without sounding snide or sarcastic, which is unexpected.

I wouldn’t change a thing about surfs up, even student demonstration time. I sort of like that it disturbs the mood of what would otherwise be an impeccable dinner party record.

Sweet and Bitter is great. It's one of several substitutions (along with 4th of July, Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again, and Back Home) that would have made the album much stronger.

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