Mike Love might be the most malevolent figure of eternal evil in the history of rock music

[jpgray]

:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veWu_xiwLn4&mode=related&search=

[underpants]

1. There is a two syllable word that describes Mike Love

but for now lets let this suffice

[Little Wing]

3. Fingerbang bang b b bang bang bang!

[skygazer]

8. Lysol?

O8)

[Blue-Jay]

16. You promised that you wouldn't share our "private pictures"!

Fucker!

[Burma Jones]

2. One can understand Brian Wilson's anguish.........

eccchhh

[XNASA]

4. Anybody besides me not get Mike Love?

:shrug:

[RedStateShame]

5. He is. Without question.

I get in "Beach Boys vs. Beatles" arguments with some of my friends from time to time, in which I always represent the Beach Boys, and my argument is almost always Do you think the Beatles could have accomplished anything if that dickweed Mike Love had been in the band? Usually, I win on that account. Even as much of a tool as Billy Shears--oops--I mean Paul Mccartney is, he barely registers on the Mike Love level of toolacity.(toolitude? toolness?)

[jpgray]

6. But Paul McCartney could write incredible songs

Mike Love could only write horrible lyrics. And "dance." And wear high-waisted pants.

[Danger Mouse]

10. And then he formed WIngs, and all his songs started to suck.

McCartney will never admit it, but he needed Lennon and Harrison to be anything. Without the Beatles, McCartney would be a nobody right now.

[last_texas_dem]

11. I disagree

Whether everything he did after the Beatles "sucks" or not is obviously a subjective opinion (and IMHO Paul has the overall most enjoyable post-Beatles output of any of them), it doesn't make any sense to argue that McCartney couldn't do anything w/o Lennon and Harrion and would be a "nobody." Wings were the most commercially successful group of the 1970's, so he obviously managed to be something without Lennon and Harrison. He may not be the most interesting Beatle, but I think it would definitely be possible to argue that he was the most talented.

[Danger Mouse]

14. I like 'Live and Let Die' but the rest of his Wings stuff just hurts my ears...

I guess it's a matter of personal taste as far as I'm concerned.

[jpgray]

15. Stuff like "Dear Boy" or "Too Many People" from Ram are quite good

McCartney always had the best voice (in pleasantness and technical terms) and was very consistent in songwriting, but John's high points are way higher than Paul's in the Beatles catalogue.

[Danger Mouse]

18. Paul had a lovely voice, which is why I find it a shame...

that so much of his post-Beatles music has been mediocre...
George Harrison and John Lennon had some of their best work post-beatles...but generally, I think all four of them had their absolute finest work when acting as a team.
There was just some kind of magic there.

[jpgray]

19. Their singing together was just brilliant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRv34Cat3Vw

[Danger Mouse]

20. Agreed...John, Paul and George had a beautiful three-part harmony...

without each other they couldn't recreate it.
Honestly, I think Abbey Road is their finest album and it's best that it was their next to last. They exited at the peak of their creativity. Hanging around too much longer, and they could've ended up like other 'classic' bands...producing unlistenable drek that makes you wonder what happened to the good music that they used to make...

[regnaD kciN]

25. Actually, "Abbey Road" was the final Beatles album...

..."Let It Be" had been recorded earlier, and then shelved as unreleasable. (It only came out later, after John had decided to let Phil Spector remix the tapes.) They decided to go into the studio and work "the old way" one last time, and "Abbey Road" was the result.

[LTR]

26. Oh, that's bullshit

McCartney was perhaps the best all-around musician in the band. He was proficient on bass, guitar, drums and keyboards. So much that Lennon even admitted once that McCartney was a better guitarist than him. And that solo on "Taxman"? Yep, you guessed it. Harrison let him do it. And McCartney played all the instruments on his most recent solo album, which was not bad.

Sure, McCartney has slipped at times, and put out some rather crappy songs. And sure, somtimes his lyrics are groan-inducing. Well, Lennon and Harrison have put out a few stinkers as well. Hell, John and Yoko actually put out an album consisting of them laying in bed talking and farting. And of course there's Ringo, but we won't go there. The difference between McCartney and Lennon and Harrison is that Mac took more of a pop approach to his works, while Lennon's music was often more direct and aggressive and Harrison's more spiritual and eclectic.

I do think it goes without saying that the sum was way better than the parts. The combination kept everyone in check, and helped avoid most of the self-indulgence that they would venture off into during their solo careers.

And believe it or not, the post-Beatles era did yield some pretty good songs (and albums) from McCartney, including (in somewhat chronological order)...

"McCartney" (especially Maybe I'm Amazed)
Another Day
The "Ram" album
My Love
Give Ireland Back To The Irish
The "Band On The Run" album
Junior's Farm
Live and Let Die
Much of "Venus and Mars"
Silly Love Songs
Mull Of Kintyre (one of the biggest selling singles in U.K. history)
With A Little Luck
Goodnight Tonight (McCartney's rather good attempt at disco, with a killer bass line)
Arrow Through Me
Coming Up
A good chunk of the "McCartney II" album (a homemade experiment with synthesizers that is probably the most experimental thing he's ever released, not counting the techno and classical stuff he did in the 90s)
"Tug Of War"
No More Lonely Nights
All of "Flowers In The Dirt" (this has a few very good collaborations with Elvis Costello)
Anything else he did with Costello, including "Veronica", co-written and co-performed by McCartney
Anything after and including "Flaming Pie"
"Driving Rain", a very underrated album from 2001

This is only a partial list. I'm sure I'm missing a few. And considering how many records he's sold over the years and how many artists he's influenced, I certainly wouldn't call him a 'nobody'.

To any one of you who dare calls McCartney a lightweight, I say, fuck all y'all!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

9. Billy Shears was Ringo, FYI n/t

[Mike Daniels]

7. The lead singer for Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Once said that the most amazing of Brian Wilson's accomplishments was that he was able to work with Mike Love for so long w/out killing him.

[crispini]

12. Those PANTS

:scared:

[graywarrior]

13. He's always looked 60 to me.

[Blue-Jay]

17. Aside from mike's cameltoe pants, why are the girls screaming?

I don't hate the beach Boys, but they're the UN-sexiest motherfuckers in the world.

[enigmatic]

21. If anybody deserves to be called Douchebag, it's Mike Love

The guy bathes in it before he goes out for the day.

[darkstar]

22. The guy is/was insufferable, even before I heard about his politics

and so on.

I worked a show of theirs in late 80s. The principles get ferried in by chopper w/ some pretty mind blowing security, i.e., a couple of suit and tie guys arriving by car ahead of them with radios, clearing people and road cases so the band could have 10.5 feet of hall width vs a measly 8, more biz suit security guys escorting them off the copter, etc. ML was last in.

There were two monitor mixers, one long time guy who just did the principal vocals and another guy who did the instruments and secondary vox. Well, the special vox mixer had had a death in the family; number two had to move in and I took on his usual role. Everyone seemed to understand the situation but Mike. I felt so sorry for the guy. It was beyond dirty looks all night from ML; more like "hope you have money for a plane ticket, chump, b/c you are fired." I think the guy even cried he was so stressed out.

Then the show ended. ML had one suit hand him a bottle and large, personal towel as he came off stage--guava puree or sterno or cotton or blend not really being the point here but the brusqueness of it all. And then, like a presidential candidate in a hotel that just had a bomb threat phoned in, another suit gently takes his elbow and they jog/trot in exit to chopper. ML left before anyone else, the rest of whom were content to amble and/ or smile at crew and/or debrief w/ band and share a quick laugh.

That's right. ML was last in, first out. He's important, you know?

[jpgray]

23. Every, and I mean -every- anecdote I hear about him is negative

Let's not even discuss his R&R hall of fame speech. x(

[Frank Cannon]

24. I can't stand him, but I have to say one good thing about him

He did improve the lyrics to the final version of "Good Vibrations", one of my favorite songs ever. Brian Wilson used all of Tony Asher's original lyrics on his (finally finished) Smile project a few years ago, and they were just horrible. Love had evidently made some useful contributions to the song that we all know and love.

That having been said, Mike Love is a total a$$carrot. No argument there.

[HughBeaumont]

27. Fitting he wears high waters, seeing how he's such a damned ANCHOR!

He's 24 there, looks like he's 45 and acts like he's 13 with those lame-ass stage movements. No wonder Big Bri had a nervous breakdown. No wonder the more hip American public viewed them as "rubes" and "squares".

I love how he always thought of himself as the "normal" one, the voice of reason. No, Mike, you held one of the best arrangers and overall musical talents back because he eclipsed you musically. He had to dumb his shit down to accommodate you. MIKE was the reason SMiLE never saw the light of day until 37 years after the fact.

Bastardo.