Reply #7: Brian and Mike -- not so simple [View All]

[rlev1223]

There isn't any question that Mike Love's "Beach Boys"
enterprise is about the saddest thing imaginable, that he is
a pompous self-centered creaky senior citizen (he was the oldest guy in the band in the 60s -- do the math) and that the preening Johnston's only real achievement (aside from writing "I Write the Songs" for Barry Manilow) is that he is possibly even more self-absorbed.

It is also true that Wilson's public career is going though an astounding rebirth, thanks in large part to his current wife and the
musicians of the Wondermints. I have heard the live "Smile"
premier London concert recording -- don't ask how --and, although Brian's voice is, well, gone, the music is really wonderful -- anachronistically '60s vibes with almost Zappa-ish percussion touches, big worshipful vocals, some surprising atonal melodies, a great sense of humor...the rave reviews were spot-on. This was no "Brian's Back!" charity event, although it is really a celebration of his final burst of youthful genius. He couldn't come close to this kind of sophisticated writing today, no matter how occasionally interesting his new songs are.

All of that said (it was rather long, wasn’t it?) Mike Love must be given his due. The strutting arrogance with which he always defined himself (and has always admitted) prodded Brian and energized the whole operation in any number of ways; the early band couldn't have existed without him. He may be stuck in 1965, but he gets to sing some of the coolest lyrics of that era, and he wrote or co-wrote a lot of them, including :

All Summer Long
Add Some Music
Be True to Your School
(“when some loud braggart tries to put me down”)
California Girls
Catch a Wave
Fun, Fun, Fun
Help Me, Rhonda
Dance, Dance, Dance
Darlin’
I Get Around
Let Him Run Wild
Please Let Me Wonder
Surfin’ Safari
a rare, maybe unique, bit of introspection -- “Warmth of the Sun”
and of course, “Do it Again”

He is also credited with co-writing “Good Vibrations,” (although one suspects a complicated history. The Smile version’s lyrics are very different from the pop release.)


You almost can’t blame Love for not wanting to sit down and shut up.