Rolling Stone - Beach Boys Play Tour - Jeff replaces Christian Love

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Man, Mike Love just can't get  a break. He gets  a well deserved award, brings in JF, makes happy with Al and David (even playing a gig(s), and Rolling Stone puts this up today:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/son-of-a-beach-peter-matthew-bauer-on-kevin-loves-kokomo-problem-20140530

I am no ML lover but this really is OLD news.

Well at least Mike Love can take solace in the fact that this BB fan stopped paying attention to the NBA a few years after the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era, so I don't know what the hell this writer is taking about. And those old Mike quotes are hilarious. Those are the fun quotes. If Mike always gave interviews that read like that, that would be awesome.

"It was only recently brought to my attention that Kevin is, in fact, the nephew of #1 rock & roll villain Mike Love of the Beach Boys!"

Well he is rocks number 1 villain

Phil Spector killed a woman. Lostprophets singer was a pedophile.  Badfinger's manager drove Pete Ham to suicide. Don Arden sicced his dogs on his pregnant daughter and caused her to have a miscarriage.  Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend. Mike Love is not even the number 1 villain connected to the Beach Boys, that is either Charles Manson or Eugene Landy.

Mike is kinda sorta a dick, but so what?

Bigger Villians that immediately spring to mind for me, are people who.. you know.. .actually HARMED somebody, like the ones you mentioned.  Mike ran his mouth a little bit but hasn't hurt anybody who wasn't psychologically fragile to begin with, and even that's overstated.  I mean, how about Ike Turner beating Tina Turner's ass every day for 10 years?  I'm a little pissed about that.

How about Chris Brown beating Rihannas face against a car window for 15 minutes while they drove home from the grammies?  I'm still a little pissed about that.  Or hey, how about Kurt Cobain Cobaining himself and leaving his daughter alone with a psychopath for the next 15 years of her life?  I'm still a little pissed about that, too. 

If somebody wants to tell me that Mike Love hurt Brian's feelings... um....  well.  Who gives a sh*t?

People will go on for pages and pages and pages of why Mike's a dick because he browbeat Brian into scrapping SMILE or something while Murray actually physically beating Brian up gets hardly a mention into why Brian is damaged.

[ToneBender631]

Man, Mike Love just can't get  a break. He gets  a well deserved award, brings in JF, makes happy with Al and David (even playing a gig(s), and Rolling Stone puts this up today:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/son-of-a-beach-peter-matthew-bauer-on-kevin-loves-kokomo-problem-20140530

I am no ML lover but this really is OLD news.

Well at least Mike Love can take solace in the fact that this BB fan stopped paying attention to the NBA a few years after the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era, so I don't know what the hell this writer is taking about. And those old Mike quotes are hilarious. Those are the fun quotes. If Mike always gave interviews that read like that, that would be awesome.

"It was only recently brought to my attention that Kevin is, in fact, the nephew of #1 rock & roll villain Mike Love of the Beach Boys!"

Well he is rocks number 1 villain

Phil Spector killed a woman. Lostprophets singer was a pedophile.  Badfinger's manager drove Pete Ham to suicide. Don Arden sicced his dogs on his pregnant daughter and caused her to have a miscarriage.  Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend. Mike Love is not even the number 1 villain connected to the Beach Boys, that is either Charles Manson or Eugene Landy.

Mike is kinda sorta a dick, but so what?

Bigger Villians that immediately spring to mind for me, are people who.. you know.. .actually HARMED somebody, like the ones you mentioned.  Mike ran his mouth a little bit but hasn't hurt anybody who wasn't psychologically fragile to begin with, and even that's overstated.  I mean, how about Ike Turner beating Tina Turner's ass every day for 10 years?  I'm a little pissed about that.

How about Chris Brown beating Rihannas face against a car window for 15 minutes while they drove home from the grammies?  I'm still a little pissed about that.  Or hey, how about Kurt Cobain Cobaining himself and leaving his daughter alone with a psychopath for the next 15 years of her life?  I'm still a little pissed about that, too. 

If somebody wants to tell me that Mike Love hurt Brian's feelings... um....  well.  Who gives a sh*t?

People will go on for pages and pages and pages of why Mike's a dick because he browbeat Brian into scrapping SMILE or something while Murray actually physically beating Brian up gets hardly a mention into why Brian is damaged.

To be fair, Murray doesn't have 50 years worth of film footage on YouTube that people can comment on...

[Sheriff John Stone]

I think the number/percentage of people who dislike Mike Love is small, basically because I think the number of people who actually know who Mike Love is remains small. Or, as Ron pointed out above....many of his contemporaries are dead. Unfortunately, I don't think the Beach Boys ever got to that level where the average music fan knew the members by name. They almost did at the band's peak in the mid-1960's, and again in 1976, but could the casual music fan OR casual Beach Boys' fan say, "Yeah, the lead singer of The Beach Boys is Mike Love..." I believe that Mike Love's familiarity is limited to an image. Mike's image is that guy in the Beach Boys with the baseball cap who (lead) sings kind of nasally. To the casual fan he is the guy who sings most of the hits and who is "out front" during the live shows and is the MC! They like him. He makes the fans laugh with his jokes, he sings "their" favorite songs....he's the one they talk about in the parking lot on their way to their cars after the shows. I don't think they know the inside history or Mike's notoriety. If you showed them a picture of Mike they'd say, "Oh, yeah, I've seen that guy, isn't he in the Beach Boys..." But I'll bet most of them don't know his name.

Serious music fans know Mike and the/his history. At least they know what they read in the magazines, papers, internet, and some books. They might not know some of the TRUTHS that diehards like us have come to realize through message boards like this. They know about the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame speech, but even that is limited to the Rock & Roll Of Fame; I don't think the impact of Mike's speech is felt outside of that niche. It's ancient history that is only occasionally mentioned, again once a year if that.

In some ways, many casual music fans - and/or Beach Boys' fans - don't know the name of Brian Wilson. Did you ever mention Brian's name to a friend or acquaintance and they don't know who he is? Then you go on to mention that he's in the Beach Boys, he's the one with "the problems", the big, overweight one (I'm sorry but how do you describe him), the genius who wrote all the songs. And then they'll say, "Oh, yeah, I know who you mean..." In another thread we were discussing Brian (solo artist) being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Not like the other categories such as producer, sideman, or executive, but being inducted as an artist/group, Brian Wilson would be one of the lesser known "names" to the casual fan.

[MaxL]

At the risk of going off-topic; who sings lead on "Then I Kissed Her" now then?

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

At the risk of going off-topic; who sings lead on "Then I Kissed Her" now then?

That's more like going on topic

[Gertie J.]

*wink wink*

[HeyJude]

Here we go again. Mike is only rock's #1 villain to the cult of Brian Wilson.

This I don’t agree with. Whether Mike can justifiably be called a villain or not, I’ve run into many fans, more of the 60’s/70’s generation to be sure, who don’t know much about the BB’s and are nowhere near a Brian fanatic (or BB fanatic) who have come away with the impression that Mike Love is a villain/d**k, etc., and have done so by seeing his stage persona, interviews, etc.

[Cyncie]

Here we go again. Mike is only rock's #1 villain to the cult of Brian Wilson.

This I don’t agree with. Whether Mike can justifiably be called a villain or not, I’ve run into many fans, more of the 60’s/70’s generation to be sure, who don’t know much about the BB’s and are nowhere near a Brian fanatic (or BB fanatic) who have come away with the impression that Mike Love is a villain/d**k, etc., and have done so by seeing his stage persona, interviews, etc.

I agree. Mike's bad image is Mike's own doing with the assist of the press who enjoy a good controversy. If he wants to shed that image, he needs to get a good PR person and be a bit more gracious in interviews and in public.

I have a friend who was a Beach Boys fan in the general sense. She liked the radio hits, but didn't know anything about the group. We went to some Mike and Bruce shows and she became a Mike fan. She liked his ease on stage and he became her favorite member of the group. Then we went to C50. By that time she had dug into the group a bit more and was thrilled to see Brian onstage. Then came the blow up and the "firing" debacle. She is no longer Mike's fan. She's no Brianista, but she hated the way Mike handled that and her response was "If Brian wants to be in his own band, he should be."

The fact is, Brian engenders a certain empathy with the public that Mike does not. Mike needs to understand that. That doesn't mean he has to cater to Brian's every whim, but being a bit more generous in his public comments would help his case more than repeatedly pointing out that "Brian did drugs and I didn't."

[Cam Mott]

Here we go again. Mike is only rock's #1 villain to the cult of Brian Wilson.

This I don’t agree with. Whether Mike can justifiably be called a villain or not, I’ve run into many fans, more of the 60’s/70’s generation to be sure, who don’t know much about the BB’s and are nowhere near a Brian fanatic (or BB fanatic) who have come away with the impression that Mike Love is a villain/d**k, etc., and have done so by seeing his stage persona, interviews, etc.

I agree. Mike's bad image is Mike's own doing with the assist of the press who enjoy a good controversy. If he wants to shed that image, he needs to get a good PR person and be a bit more gracious in interviews and in public.

I have a friend who was a Beach Boys fan in the general sense. She liked the radio hits, but didn't know anything about the group. We went to some Mike and Bruce shows and she became a Mike fan. She liked his ease on stage and he became her favorite member of the group. Then we went to C50. By that time she had dug into the group a bit more and was thrilled to see Brian onstage. Then came the blow up and the "firing" debacle. She is no longer Mike's fan. She's no Brianista, but she hated the way Mike handled that and her response was "If Brian wants to be in his own band, he should be."

The fact is, Brian engenders a certain empathy with the public that Mike does not. Mike needs to understand that. That doesn't mean he has to cater to Brian's every whim, but being a bit more generous in his public comments would help his case more than repeatedly pointing out that "Brian did drugs and I didn't."

I think your friend illustrates the problem, the half/untruth which has passed as history taints peoples' perception of Mike and Brian. So Mike unfairly gets criticism/blame he doesn't deserve and Brian doesn't get criticism/blame he does deserve.

[KittyKat]

Here we go again. Mike is only rock's #1 villain to the cult of Brian Wilson.

This I don’t agree with. Whether Mike can justifiably be called a villain or not, I’ve run into many fans, more of the 60’s/70’s generation to be sure, who don’t know much about the BB’s and are nowhere near a Brian fanatic (or BB fanatic) who have come away with the impression that Mike Love is a villain/d**k, etc., and have done so by seeing his stage persona, interviews, etc.

We're talking NUMBER 1 villain in all of rock music.  He's not Number 1 outside of the fan base. He has competitors for Number 1. Maybe he'd make a Top 10 list or Top  20 among people who are familiar with the Beach Boys/Brian saga. Not all rock fans are, especially those who are younger.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Some candidates for the true crown of Rock's #1 Villain:

Jerry Lee Lewis - he shoots his bass players...

Phil Spector - he beat up his wife, terrorized his kids, fired handguns in studios and finally killed someone...

Ike Turner - abused Tina for years...

Bobby Brown - another wife-beater...

Colonel Tom Parker (born Andreis van Kuyjuk) - basically enslaved Elvis at his creative peak...

Eugene Landy - did far more, and lasting, damage to Brian than the 60s drugs ever did...

Murry Wilson - pretty much screwed up two of his three sons, sold Brian's publishing behind his back by forging his signature...

Jimmy Page - satanist (allegedly), enthusiastic practitioner of S&M (demonstrably)...

Ian Watkins - I think we've found our winner: utterly unspeakable piece of rancid sh*t who will hopefully and deservedly die in prison, slowly and painfully.

Alongside these charming men, Mike doesn't even register.

[guitarfool2002]

Add to that list: Gary Glitter and Chris Brown. Well, Brown isn't necessarily "rock" but a guy who beats up a beautiful young woman then goes on a public apology/penance media blitz while promoting the new records he just dropped, brags online about breeding fighting dogs, flaunts the fact that he "got away" light by showing up at and in some cases busting up various nightclubs while downing expensive booze, then all but cries "poor me" when the justice system does finally nail him...and still carries on promoting various sh*t he's involved with as if self-promotion is the main goal above all...he gets my nomination. Glitter is in a class of hell all his own.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Here we go again. Mike is only rock's #1 villain to the cult of Brian Wilson.

This I don’t agree with. Whether Mike can justifiably be called a villain or not, I’ve run into many fans, more of the 60’s/70’s generation to be sure, who don’t know much about the BB’s and are nowhere near a Brian fanatic (or BB fanatic) who have come away with the impression that Mike Love is a villain/d**k, etc., and have done so by seeing his stage persona, interviews, etc.

We're talking NUMBER 1 villain in all of rock music.  He's not Number 1 outside of the fan base. He has competitors for Number 1. Maybe he'd make a Top 10 list or Top  20 among people who are familiar with the Beach Boys/Brian saga. Not all rock fans are, especially those who are younger.

You can survey a hundred music fans and I would be surprised if more than one would even know who Mike Love is. If all of the music fans surveyed are under age 30 the number is less than one, IMO.

[Foster's Freeze]

Mike also will FOREVER get heat for going back to the Bruce and Mike show after the success of the 50th tour.  That lineup was what people wanted to see, have waited and wished to see and wanted to continue to see.

I've had the opportunity to shake Mike's hand and that was a thrill but even as a fan, I still cringe at the Rock and Roll HOF speech.  That's one I wish he could take back.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Mike also will FOREVER get heat for going back to the Bruce and Mike show after the success of the 50th tour.  That lineup was what people wanted to see, have waited and wished to see and wanted to continue to see.

Even though it was signed, sealed and delivered that 73 shows would be it ? Said this before, bears repeating: if it were Mike saying to Brian "but I wanna DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWSSSSS !!" the overwhelming response would be "tough sh*t buddy, you agreed". It's not what's being said, more who's saying it.

[Foster's Freeze]

Mike also will FOREVER get heat for going back to the Bruce and Mike show after the success of the 50th tour.  That lineup was what people wanted to see, have waited and wished to see and wanted to continue to see.

Even though it was signed, sealed and delivered that 73 shows would be it ? Said this before, bears repeating: if it were Mike saying to Brian "but I wanna DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWSSSSS !!" the overwhelming response would be "tough sh*t buddy, you agreed". It's not what's being said, more who's saying it.

I know that, what I should have said was that Mike was played as the bad guy in the whole situation regardless of what was already set in place.  The uninformed public sees hm as the easy bad guy.

[Autotune]

You know, Mike's said and done what he's said and done. But in this whole portrayal of him as a villain, I blame the messengers the most. Particularly press articles and certain BB authors who spread the notion since the late 60s that Mike damaged Brian's self-esteem to the point of aborting the Smile album, and being an obstacle in the completion of Pet Sounds. There is absolutely no way to blame Mike on this, yet this is precisely the origin of all backslashing. In a way Mike has been a victim of this too and has dealt with it to the best of his ability: being a gentleman most of the time, and coming up with shocking remarks about his abilities a few times.

[urbanite]

I don't believe most of what is said about Mike, but on occasion he does seem to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. 

[shelter]

Colonel Tom Parker (born Andreis van Kuyjuk) - basically enslaved Elvis at his creative peak...

No, his birth name was Andreas "Dries" van Kuijk. He was born in Breda in The Netherlands and forever left the country head over heels one day in 1927, hours after his greengrocer got robbed and killed.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Some candidates for the true crown of Rock's #1 Villain:

Jerry Lee Lewis - he shoots his bass players...

Phil Spector - he beat up his wife, terrorized his kids, fired handguns in studios and finally killed someone...

Ike Turner - abused Tina for years...

Bobby Brown - another wife-beater...

Colonel Tom Parker (born Andreis van Kuyjuk) - basically enslaved Elvis at his creative peak...

Eugene Landy - did far more, and lasting, damage to Brian than the 60s drugs ever did...

Murry Wilson - pretty much screwed up two of his three sons, sold Brian's publishing behind his back by forging his signature...

Jimmy Page - satanist (allegedly), enthusiastic practitioner of S&M (demonstrably)...

Ian Watkins - I think we've found our winner: utterly unspeakable piece of rancid sh*t who will hopefully and deservedly die in prison, slowly and painfully.

Alongside these charming men, Mike doesn't even register.

Let's not forget that other lovely fellow, and Beach Boys sessioneer who couldn't ever hope to out-evil Mike: Jim Gordon! Didn't Jim kill his wife and his mom with a claw hammer or something like that?

[Foster's Freeze]

Let's not forget that other lovely fellow, and Beach Boys sessioneer who couldn't ever hope to out-evil Mike: Jim Gordon! Didn't Jim kill his wife and his mom with a claw hammer or something like that?

His mother as a result of undiagnosed schizophrenia.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Colonel Tom Parker (born Andreis van Kuyjuk) - basically enslaved Elvis at his creative peak...

No, his birth name was Andreas "Dries" van Kuijk. He was born in Breda in The Netherlands and forever left the country head over heels one day in 1927, hours after his greengrocer got robbed and killed.

Thanks for the correction. 

[bgas]

Here we go again. Mike is only rock's #1 villain to the cult of Brian Wilson.

This I don’t agree with. Whether Mike can justifiably be called a villain or not, I’ve run into many fans, more of the 60’s/70’s generation to be sure, who don’t know much about the BB’s and are nowhere near a Brian fanatic (or BB fanatic) who have come away with the impression that Mike Love is a villain/d**k, etc., and have done so by seeing his stage persona, interviews, etc.

I agree. Mike's bad image is Mike's own doing with the assist of the press who enjoy a good controversy. If he wants to shed that image, he needs to get a good PR person and be a bit more gracious in interviews and in public.

I have a friend who was a Beach Boys fan in the general sense. She liked the radio hits, but didn't know anything about the group. We went to some Mike and Bruce shows and she became a Mike fan. She liked his ease on stage and he became her favorite member of the group. Then we went to C50. By that time she had dug into the group a bit more and was thrilled to see Brian onstage. Then came the blow up and the "firing" debacle. She is no longer Mike's fan. She's no Brianista, but she hated the way Mike handled that and her response was "If Brian wants to be in his own band, he should be."

The fact is, Brian engenders a certain empathy with the public that Mike does not. Mike needs to understand that. That doesn't mean he has to cater to Brian's every whim, but being a bit more generous in his public comments would help his case more than repeatedly pointing out that "Brian did drugs and I didn't."

I think your friend illustrates the problem, the half/untruth which has passed as history taints peoples' perception of Mike and Brian. So Mike unfairly gets criticism/blame he doesn't deserve and Brian doesn't get criticism/blame he does deserve.

For another illustration of this, I'll add:  The person that sold me the "Mike Love, Smiley Smile standup" was a super long time Mike fan and would NEVER have thought about parting with any of his collection ( ask Lee Dempsey); but I found him after C-50 and he was "totally disgusted with Mike" ( his terms) and was only TOO happy to part with it.
MUCH TO MY JOY!!  Thanxx to whomever gt the wirecrossing started....

[SMiLE Brian]

The quest for the other standups continues......

[dellydel]

"Jimmy Page - satanist (allegedly), enthusiastic practitioner of S&M (demonstrably)..."

I don't see how a fondness for Satan and S&M makes you a villain...