Rock Cellar Magazine interview, Part 3

[SonoraDick]

http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2013/11/01/brian-wilson-al-jardine-mike-love-beach-boys-interview-part-3/#sthash.pltQp6wd.dpbs

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Brian Wilson: When we sang together, it was the best you could imagine, the greatest background singers. I’ll pick Carl on Darlin’, Mike on California Girls, and Dennis on Do You Wanna Dance and Al Jardine with Then I Kissed Her. Al is a great singer, very underrated and he didn’t get that many leads to sing in the group.” And as for me, I’ll choose Surfer Girl, the bridge to that is beautiful.

Mike Love: Don’t Worry Baby is an amazing Brian vocal along with falsetto part on the end of Fun Fun Fun, for Carl I’d choose Good Vibrations, Cottonfields for Al, which days a lot about his folk influences. I’d agree with Brian about his choice for Dennis’ best vocal, from a fun standpoint I’ll pick Do You Wanna Dance. Bruce did an amazing job on Disney Girls and for me because of the connection, the appreciation and the knowledge gained from the Maharishi I’d pick All This is That.

Al Jardine: Long Promised Road for Carl, Dennis I’ll Bet He’s Nice, for Mike I like the California Saga: Big Sur song, Disney Girls for Bruce without a doubt, and Brian I’ll pick Surf’s Up. I like my part in Their Hearts Were Full of Spring.

I found that part really interesting - plus the fact Al just loves his 'part' on Hearts the most! 

[Pretty Funky]

I was just about to high-light the same section. A great question and some interesting answers.

[Cyncie]

Now, THAT'S the way they should respond in interviews. No back biting from anyone. Real insight into the music and group dynamic, and Mike revealing some empathy for the reasons behind the Wilson brothers' drug abuse.

Nicely done by everyone. More of this and less of the public spats would go a long way to repairing some public perceptions.

[musicismylife101]

I think we should focus more on interviews like this instead of going back and forth on the same old arguments as seen in recent interview threads.

[phirnis]

Great to see so much appreciation for the Love You album. The way Brian talks about it comes across as totally naive, in a good way. Like, he used to watch the Johnny Carson show all the time, so why not write a song about it.

Alan seems to be heavily into the group's 70s work, which I think is wonderful. Also nice to see Mike pick Wild Honey as one of his favorites, I think it contains some of the very best work he ever did "with cousin Brian".

[Don Malcolm]

Sure seems as though there's enough common ground for the guys to bury the hatchet, doesn't it? I sill think that much of the underlying issue in the whole matter is that Brian developed an early ambivalence to working on songs with Mike, and that he wanted to call the shots in terms of who collaborated on what. Brian's desire (and his off-and-on behavior WRT that over the years) seems to have gotten under Mike's skin and into his bloodstream, where it continues to fester even as it circulates.

[clack]

Sure seems as though there's enough common ground for the guys to bury the hatchet, doesn't it? I sill think that much of the underlying issue in the whole matter is that Brian developed an early ambivalence to working on songs with Mike, and that he wanted to call the shots in terms of who collaborated on what. Brian's desire (and his off-and-on behavior WRT that over the years) seems to have gotten under Mike's skin and into his bloodstream, where it continues to fester even as it circulates.

Mike wants to be in the position of Joe Thomas -- in the trenches with Brian writing the songs from scratch, and, along with Brian,  calling the shots on the recording.

And, you know, that's not an unreasonable desire. If I were Mike, that's what I would want to do. Problem is, (1) Mike overestimates his talent (but then don't most of us?), and (2) writing with Mike is no longer where Brian's inspiration is to be found (and hasn't for been for decades).

No hatchet burying is going to solve what divides the Beach Boys. It really is, this time, that old PR excuse for band breakups : "creative differences".

[Micha]

(and his off-and-on behavior WRT that over the years)

WRT?

[Gertie J.]

w-ith r-egard t-o. get it now?

[Kurosawa]

Of special note to me:


Al Jardine: We always expected Brian to come up with the magic and there was Dennis learning keyboards all by himself, just watching and learning. We all were exposed to brilliant things that went down but he started writing his own original music which unfortunately got eclipsed by us because we were always looking for that next hit. Well, he didn’t write hits, he wrote anthems. He’s like the Wagner of the Beach Boys. He was on a whole other level that I didn’t even recognize. He was under a shadow but should have had his own solo career a lot sooner because frankly The Beach Boys model didn’t’ work for him anymore. We became this big harmony group and he was a solo star who never got a chance to shine. He ran out of time.

Rock Cellar Magazine: Mike, you co-wrote songs with Dennis and a few of them appear on the box including Sound of Free and a live version of Only with You taped at Carnegie Hall in 1972.

Mike Love: Dennis did some very beautiful and emotional things. The only time we really didn’t get along was when drugs entered the picture—when it was L.S.D., when it was heroin, when it was cocaine, when it was alcohol.

    The main problem I had with Dennis was when he was doing such serious drinking and drugging. When people go down that path their personalities change.

Dennis was a pretty damn good drummer. When he was clear and sober, he was great. But when he was all messed up with alcohol and drugs he was not and it hurt the group. I cared about him and also didn’t want to see the group go down the tubes. If you’re trying to do your best musically and someone is experiencing issues that bring the whole group down and jeopardize their very existence, then the rest of us have to rally and say, “Okay, we have a responsibility to ourselves and our families and the public to maintain a certain standard.“ That’s when we had to tell Dennis, “Go to rehab, get yourself together.”

He’d go to rehab for one night and then check out. For a few years it was a big challenge for all of us and it all stemmed from drugs and alcohol. That’s where the schism is. As far as a person, he was very generous. Musically, the girls loved him. He was energetic. Before he got into drugs, we had a real camaraderie in terms of “We’re gonna kick ass at this concert!”

Rock Cellar Magazine: Dennis was a multi-faceted artist, he wasn’t just a macho, rough and raucous hell-raiser, his songs expressed an emotional fragility and vulnerability.

Mike Love: Absolutely. The rough and raucous thing came as a result of a defense mechanism for having a father who was really abusive. All children are sensitive and the Wilson brothers happened to have a real tough childhood because of Murry Wilson, fortunately their mother, my aunt Audree was a real sweetheart. Everybody loved her and she was the softness to Murry’s hellacious hardness. So it affected each one of the boys in a different way.



It's amazing to me how much higher quality the writing is on this site than you usually see. Very impressed.

Also, these are the comments from Mike that a lot of us have wanted to see, and I think they got them because their interviewer was actually engaged and knew their subject matter.  Just great work.

[Niko]

w-ith r-egard t-o. get it now?

[Dove Nested Towers]

Fine observations from Al about Dennis' anthemic style, being the Wagner of the band who didn't fit the group dynamic and how they kept him down and he should've been a solo artist but ran out of time, also about Carl being the "truth"of the band, who always saw things in black & white & was totally committed to honesty, which didn't always serve him well, and Mike speaking compassionately & matter-of-factly about Dennis and his wildness being a compensatory reaction to Murry's difficult dynamic with him, and how they shared a gung-ho attitude early on about "kicking ass" in concert. Excellent interview, well conducted, very revealing and classy.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

This is just the Record Collector interview from several months ago. Rock Cellar appear have just cut it up into 3 parts, but it's all exactly the same. Presumably part 4 of the Rock Cellar interview will be RC's follow-up interview with Jack Rieley.

[Gohi]

"Part 2 followed in September, and now it’s time to wrap it all up. 
Here’s Part 3, the finale of the three-part joint interview."

[The Shift]

Don't the interview date back to the 2012 tour time, when all was sweetness and light within the band?  In which case there might well have appeared to be the potential for a continuation.

[chrs_mrgn]

Love all the talk of Love You. Maybe we will get some more live performances of material fm the album.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

"Part 2 followed in September, and now it’s time to wrap it all up. 
Here’s Part 3, the finale of the three-part joint interview."

Great. Still doesn't alter the fact that it's exactly the same interview - word for word - as was in Record Collector a few months ago...

[Gohi]

Ok. 

[The Shift]

"Part 2 followed in September, and now it’s time to wrap it all up. 
Here’s Part 3, the finale of the three-part joint interview."

Great. Still doesn't alter the fact that it's exactly the same interview - word for word - as was in Record Collector a few months ago...

Chronologically I think Rock Cellar's part 1 came before Record Collector's publication. Whatever, I still think its a C50-era interview published after the game by both parties.

[Micha]

w-ith r-egard t-o. get it now?

Sorry, me no native english speaker. Ssssank yu wery mutch.