New Mike Love interview

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Well, please remember Mike is a Wilson relative: a rock star: a guy who's never really had to grow up like the rest of us and go get a job. He's just as messed up as a lot of other guys in his position.

That's fine. But others in his position have had far better social skills. In fact, just about everyone else.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

We can certainly agree on that point!

[Chris Brown]

Amazing how a founding/core member, frequent lyric writer (including those for some hits)  of a successful band can't even make mere mention of his contributions (while himself giving Brian higher acclaim) without someone coming stampeding up accusing him of "taking credit for their success" and using this as irrefutable evidence to support their own complex opinions of the guy!

Why do I even try?

I'm actually referring directly to his comments in the Endless Harmony documentary where he said, verbatim:

"Ultimately I think the Beach Boys meant so much to so many people because of the positivity and that was me."

And obviously the snicker he had when he said that doesn't come across via text, but to me, that's always been probably the most spiteful sounding Mike moment I've seen.  I get bragging about what he achieved, all the lyrics he wrote, the success of "Kokomo", etc.  And it's clear that he truly loves and admires Brian, taking every opportunity to praise him and his genius.  But that quote (including the subsequent line about Brian being melancholy) is just a blatant lie, and he knows it.  It just makes him sound so bitter.  Direct, disarming honesty is one thing, but that doesn't bug me - re-writing history does.

[Mr. Wilson]

If i consented to a interview And saw the headlines a few days later ..Saying the vilified beach boy.. Jeez i think id stop giving interviews..Poor guy cant win..Yes he has done some stupid stuff..Ha vent we all.??..And that Mike interview was from Goldmine magazine 92-93.. Front cover has Mike in concert on it.. I don't know what to say.. I have issues with Mike also.... I once saw Him standing onstage next to Dennis singing Surfer Girl.. Dennis leaned back on Electric Piano and it moved and he almost fell over..Meanwhile Mike moved in opposite direction.. No help for Dennis.. Its also in a concert video from late 70"s.. Carter Inaugural..??  My point is i think allot of you are overreacting.... I also don't like he wanted to turn BB into oldies act long before they should have been..!.. I don't think the interview was that bad just that he repeats himself too much.... He is 70 years old..Try to imagine BB without Mike.. You cant..Peace..!

[drbeachboy]

As many of you know, I am not a Mike hater and believe he deserves his due, but he does often come off as arrogant in interviews. I believe this is due from knowing that you made important contributions, but have to endlessly toot your own horn because others tend to ignore it and only heap the praise on Brian. As great as Brian's compositions are, I doubt that most or any of them would have been Top 40 hits without lyrics. After 45 years of this type of self promotion, you would think he would take a different tack, but I assume Mike likes the anti-hero role; the Villain to Brian's Hero.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Can we please remember it was Dennis who ever actually punched anyone in the band out, and that it was Mike getting the punching?

Once again: let's not be sore winners.

[Cam Mott]

Maybe it's me but there seems to agreement with what Mike says while disagreeing with what he means. Mike says SMiLE is great; how would that mean it's "nothing" in the sense that is being projected on it? He says the album was unfinished, it was in fragments. Some songs had been redone, some retro fitted, and conglomerated but the album was nothing in 1993 as it was unfinished and in fragments.

Well anyway if Mike speaks untruth wail away, argue with his perceptions if you were there and know better, and disrespect him for mentioning his under-appreciated accomplishments when he is asked about his career if you think that is fair and how you would want to be treated. Carry on.

[Mikie]

I once saw Him standing onstage next to Dennis singing Surfer Girl.. Dennis leaned back on Electric Piano and it moved and he almost fell over..Meanwhile Mike moved in opposite direction.. No help for Dennis.. Its also in a concert video from late 70"s.

Reminds me of the time.......didn't I read somewhere where Mike tried to push a piano over on Brian while on stage?

[Wirestone]

It does not make sense for him to call Smile "nothing".

Which is why he didn't do it.

There's an article given on this very thread where he says exactly that.

He did not say any such thing in the article this thread is about. In an article from 1993, Mike -- who had just gone through a bitterly contested lawsuit with his cousin -- was asked about the album. Part of what he said: "It would have been a great record but he [Brian] just didn't have the will or the ability to finish it. See, a lot of the Brian bullsh*t rests around that album and it's nothing, it's just fragments."

Notice: He said Smile was potentially great record. And that it was fragmented. Both of these things are true. To say he simply called the album "nothing" is like saying that he called Smile a "great record." Both statements use words he uttered in the quote, but they both use them ludicrously out of context.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Maybe it's me but there seems to agreement with what Mike says while disagreeing with what he means. Mike says SMiLE is great; how would that mean it's "nothing" in the sense that is being projected on it?

Well, in the interview you pasted, he doesn't say it's great. He says it "would have" been great but unfortunately because of Brian's lack of will and ability, it is nothing.

[Mikie]

From the 1993 interview:

"ML: What's left of "Smile" is a shell. It would have been a great record but he [Brian] just didn't have the will or the ability to finish it. See, a lot of the Brian bullsh*t rests around that album and it's nothing, it's just fragments."

There's only one way that I interpret that quote, and it's in context. He's minimizing the importance of SMiLE by saying it's "nothing, just fragments". It's not a completed album, so it's "nothing", he's insinuating. He's also saying that the attention that Brian gets because of Smile is B.S. That's how I see it.

And my response to that is if it's "nothing", then why they are now making three different CD and vinyl sets out of it, including a large 5 CD and 2 vinyl album box set with a book?

[Ron]

Did anybody notice Mike praise SMiLE in the interview?

[Mikie]

What interview.

[Wirestone]

From the 1993 interview:

"ML: What's left of "Smile" is a shell. It would have been a great record but he [Brian] just didn't have the will or the ability to finish it. See, a lot of the Brian bullsh*t rests around that album and it's nothing, it's just fragments."

There's only one way that I interpret that quote, and it's in context. He's minimizing the importance of SMiLE by saying it's "nothing, just fragments". It's not a completed album, so it's "nothing", he's insinuating. He's also saying that the attention that Brian gets because of Smile is B.S. That's how I see it.

And my response to that is if it's "nothing", then why they are now making three different CD and vinyl sets out of it, including a large 5 CD and 2 vinyl album box set with a book?

Why waste your time writing so much about a man you clearly hate?

What interview.

The 2011 one. You know, the one this thread is about. Here, I'll do it for you: "Here's the deal: When you have Brian at his strongest and Carl, Alan, myself and Bruce singing our asses off in the '60s, doing Pet Sounds, doing "Good Vibrations" and working on SMiLE, you can't top it. People can copy that, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with that group's level of chemistry and brilliance at that time. When you hear Brian Wilson sing "Wonderful" on the original SMiLE tapes it's unbelievable."

[Chocolate Shake Man]

He did not say any such thing in the article this thread is about.

I never said he did.

In an article from 1993, Mike -- who had just gone through a bitterly contested lawsuit with his cousin -- was asked about the album.

I'm not sure what the lawsuit has to do with his opinions on the album.

Part of what he said: "It would have been a great record but he [Brian] just didn't have the will or the ability to finish it. See, a lot of the Brian bullsh*t rests around that album and it's nothing, it's just fragments."

Notice: He said Smile was potentially great record. And that it was fragmented. Both of these things are true. To say he simply called the album "nothing" is like saying that he called Smile a "great record." Both statements use words he uttered in the quote, but they both use them ludicrously out of context.

Actually what's ludicrous is the comparison you're making. In this interview Mike Love did not say Smile was a great album. He did say it was nothing. So the example you give is quite flagrantly inaccurate. Like you mentioned, he said the album could have been great. In other words, in the state it was in, it wasn't great. This is a matter of opinion, of course, but I would disagree.

Furthermore, the impression that Mike gives of the album is entirely inaccurate. It was not "just fragments" as I've already dealt with here but it clearly bears repeating. Anyone who participated in the recording of both Our Prayer and Wonderful has to feel ashamed for coming to such a conclusion. Furthermore, many of the pieces that were fragments had a very definable place (Do You Like Worms, Wind Chimes, etc.) - so definable that The Beach Boys themselves easily placed them together with Cabin Essence as did Mark Linett with other tracks on the box set that Love himself had heard. Saying Smile was "just fragments" is almost akin to saying Good Vibrations is just fragments (as Phil Spector did to much of our ridicule here).

[Cam Mott]

Maybe it's me but there seems to agreement with what Mike says while disagreeing with what he means. Mike says SMiLE is great; how would that mean it's "nothing" in the sense that is being projected on it?

Well, in the interview you pasted, he doesn't say it's great. He says it "would have" been great but unfortunately because of Brian's lack of will and ability, it is nothing.

"It would have been a great record but he just didn't have the will or the ability to finish it." It is "nothing" because Brian didn't have the will or ability to finish, it is in fragments; it is not nothing because it is ungreat or because a lot of "Brian's bullshit" revolves around it or because Brian lacked will or ability. It was to be an album, it would have been great when finished but unfortunately it was not finished, it is nothing, it is fragments. It seems to me Mike's point is that it is great but unfinished? OK, well anyway.

[Wirestone]

Why pillory Mike for a 17-year-old interview that has been in public circulation for that entire time? What about the praise for Brian and the sessions in the current interview?

And it's basic reading comprehension that the original quote, the original interview, is coming from someone who is irritated and PO'd at Brian. But he doesn't say the album is disaster or terrible -- he says its a bunch of potentially brilliant fragments. Which is also true! Wonderful and some of those other songs had already been released in 1993. Mike is speaking about the project as a whole, which did indeed drown in multiple retakes of smaller and smaller sections of songs.

Edit -- And while I was typing this, Cam made the same point, much better. Mike is using the word "nothing" to connote the unfinished status of the album. not its quality.

[Ron]

Again, people are reading and seeing what they want to see.  IN THE INTERVIEW THE POST IS ABOUT,  Mike is asked about SMiLE.  This is his complete sane, completely complimentary to Brian, completely honest, completely loving response.  He can't win for losing.

The Beach Boys were working on SMiLE around then, which has become the Holy Grail of lost rock 'n' roll albums. What did you think about Brian and Van Dyke Parks' '04 version?

"I'm not qualified to comment too much. Here's the deal: When you have Brian at his strongest and Carl, Alan, myself and Bruce singing our asses off in the '60s, doing Pet Sounds, doing "Good Vibrations" and working on SMiLE, you can't top it. People can copy that, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with that group's level of chemistry and brilliance at that time. When you hear Brian Wilson sing "Wonderful" on the original SMiLE tapes it's unbelievable. Those tapes will be released November 1."

He just called Brian's version of Wonderful unbelievable.  He just said that the stuff they recorded on smile cannot be topped.  

OF COURSE, the haters didn't notice it.  Haters gotta hate.

[Mikie]

Like I clarified in a previous post, Wirestone, (the one you skipped over) I do not hate Mike Love. Far from it. And if you read my second or third post on this thread, I also posted that excerpt from the interview!  But if you want to twist and turn it to your liking, you go right ahead. It's pretty obvious to me that he did not like Smile, at least in 1993! And I believe he's not real high about the music of Smile today.

[Wirestone]

And I believe he's not real high about the music of Smile today.

Well, all we have are his words to go on. And he has high praise currently.

So he's either a villain because he doesn't like it, or he's a villain because he's lying and says he does.

[Ron]

MIkie, i'm not talking about you.  You're so vain.

[Ron]

And I believe he's not real high about the music of Smile today.

Well, all we have are his words to go on. And he has high praise currently.

So he's either a villain because he doesn't like it, or he's a villain because he's lying and says he does.

THE FUCKING INTERVIEWER STARTED WITH THE ASSUMPTION HE WAS A VILLIAN.  lol



(I lowercased lol so it would have some contrast to the caps.  Like a chuckle)

[Chocolate Shake Man]

And I believe he's not real high about the music of Smile today.

Well, all we have are his words to go on. And he has high praise currently.

So he's either a villain because he doesn't like it, or he's a villain because he's lying and says he does.

I'm sorry but anyone who happened onto these interviews who had never heard of The Beach Boys before would be suspicious. Love's remarks on the album both in 1993 and later in 1998 were fairly consistent. He didn't like listening to the Smile album - he said the same thing, years apart, and well beyond the lawsuit that PO'd him. Now just months before a major release, his words are mostly positive about it -- which is fair enough. I'd rather him not go slagging off the album to the public before it is due to be released. Nevertheless what he does say is enormously convenient.

[MBE]

See to me if Mike likes Smile doesn't matter. He did a good job singing on the sessions and helped considerably with Good Vibrations. The Asher lyrics were terrible.

Frankly he probably disliked it more once he got blamed for it not coming out. Maybe now he can hear it with a little less subjectivity, but he explained how he felt (as of 1998) and why in Endless Harmony. He has a right to think what he wants. Being in a band with Brian, Dennis, or Carl by 1978 probably colored his view of their early and fairly harmless drug use.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

THE friggin' INTERVIEWER STARTED WITH THE ASSUMPTION HE WAS A VILLIAN.  lol

You mean the article starts off that way because it makes for an interesting start to an article? High school journalism at its finest.

Still, I wouldn't put too much import on it.