Mike Love on Love & Mercy: ‘Poor Brian, He’s Had a Rough, Rough Time’

[sea of tunes]

http://bedfordandbowery.com/2015/06/mike-love-of-beach-boys-on-love-mercy-poor-brian-hes-had-a-rough-rough-time/

 

[bgas]

Same old drivel, dissing his cousin as nicely as he can.

While it's great that he keeps up the touring machine, best scenario would be for ML to be shut down and shut up. Permanently

[SMiLE Brian]

What a bitter f*ckwit.

[sea of tunes]

I find it pretty humorous that he thinks anyone would be interested in seeing a movie about him. And he sure has a lot of thoughts about LOVE & MERCY for someone who hasn't seen it yet.

Maybe I'm being unfair, I don't know. But he always seems so uptight. He just needs to hang on, but I think he might lose the fight.

[SMiLE Brian]

Nice L&M scene reference!

[ontor pertawst]

Nice of him to mention drugs again.... and to stick up for Evan Landy. The poor guy needs all the support he can get. Maybe he can bring Evan Landy into his band... after Jeff and Ike, that would really stick it to BriMel, wouldn't it? Evan could hold a tambourine or something and shake it out of time with the music. Oh wait, they already have somebody that does that.

It's really cute that he thinks there's something cinematic in a movie about his life, tho. Stamos has an uphill battle ahead of him making it a reality!

[SMiLE Brian]

Mike has completely lost the plot if he supports the Landy family. Sounds like he was happier with BW not challenging his wretched version of the BBs in the 1980s.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

The hell?! Has he forgotten crying on tv  and being hurt by how Landy was treating Brian?!

[sea of tunes]

The hell?! Has he forgotten crying on tv  and being hurt by how Landy was treating Brian?!

Those were Visine drops...  (just kidding, I think).

[SMiLE Brian]

It apparently was an act....

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I gotta admit...I'm very disappointed to read this.

[CenturyDeprived]

Nice of him to mention drugs again.... and to stick up for Evan Landy. The poor guy needs all the support he can get.

Mike's quote is "certain drugs and stuff", and I wonder what the "stuff" part is referring to. I think the film drove home the point that in addition to drugs, there were people in Brian's life, however well-meaning, who perhaps may have exacerbated some of the hard times that Brian faced, for example with guilt trips and such. Mike was shown to be one of those people in the film at least to an extent, as far as my interpretation was of what I saw onscreen.

As anyone who has been on the receiving end of guilt trips by family members can attest, it can mess people up, some more than others. I can relate from first-hand experience, so I don't want to hear people refuting this as being impossible or hogwash; it's a "thing" that happens... and an intelligent person with the ability to self-reflect should be able to realize (and own up to the fact) that maybe it wasn't done in the best of ways, as opposed to saying "and stuff".

Anyway, I hope Mike does see the film, and hope he does feel it's a fair portrayal. If he addresses his thoughts on the film after having seen it, I think he'll have to choose his words carefully to be sensitive, and I think he is trying with this article, though not totally succeeding.  I hope for (yet don't whatsoever expect) a little bit of self-reflection and possible regret for past actions in his book, if he chooses to address other factors besides Murry, Landy, and drugs  (hint hint: a well-meaning, but sometimes overbearing and hurtful cousin!) that could have not been the best thing for a person with the onset of mental illness to have to deal with.

[phirnis]

... re-records of songs (hopefully with other artists) that we’re contemplating ...

 

[Mendota Heights]

It is obvious Mike hates Brian (and has been hating him for quite some time). Anyone who actually believes ML is sincere with his "my cousin Brian is a genius"-talk must be a flat earther.

[Mendota Heights]

I gotta admit...I'm very disappointed to read this.

I am not, it's just yet another confirmation of something we've known for decades.

[CenturyDeprived]

So I guess the 50th Anniversary of Pet Sounds is going to be conspicuously absent from the celebrations? And he's just gonna go straight to celebrating 50 years of Good Vibrations?

Mike co-wrote WIBN as well as IWFTD, so I don't know why he wouldn't want to celebrate such a masterpiece in the band's catalog with an anniversary celebration. Gonna be really weird if the band's best album is just jumped over.

[SMiLE Brian]

Agreed CD, but it seems Mike is getting really nasty and slandering BW at this point. If he only watched it with an open mind, he could see that he wasn't demonized in the movie. Impatient and surly, yes. Without sympathy, no.

[ontor pertawst]

I love that he can't name favorite films, just films that use The Beach Boys on the soundtrack... and then wraps up by mentioning "Fun, Fun, Fun." Clearly this is the kind of guy you get to help judge your film festival. What a fascinating turn of events, I wonder how that happened?

[CenturyDeprived]

Agreed CD, but it seems Mike is getting really nasty and slandering BW at this point. If he only watched it with an open mind, he could see that he wasn't demonized in the movie. Impatient and surly, yes. Without sympathy, no.

The way that Mike could get the most possible amount of sympathy at this stage of the game? Say in an interview or his book something to the effect of recognizing that he may have gone a bit far with the guilt trip stuff, or that maybe his interactions with Brian weren't always handled the best in hindsight. Saying those things would not hurt. It would be a healing, selfless thing to say, and it would gain him a brownie point or two.

[Mike's Beard]

I was reading the article and thought Mike was making perfectly vaild points but then I got to the part where he's sort of sympathsizing with the Landys and I just thought WTF?

[relx]

"The interesting thing to read is on Evan Landy. He is Landy’s son and spent years with Brian in a very intimate way. He has a whole different perspective of Landy and his motivation. Was he [Dr. Landy] overreaching? Probably. Did he cost a lot of money? Hell yeah. Did he want to be producer and the writer and stuff with Brian? Yes, he did. Did he go beyond the bounds of therapy? Probably. But, guess what? He also saved his life. So to read Evan Landy’s dissertation on it is very, very interesting because you get an intimate look at someone who was with Brian everyday for a few years. So it’s a whole different story that came out on Love and Mercy."

He is actually sympathetic to Landy, and only seems upset that he cost a lot of money. If anyone doubts that Mike Love is a scumbag, just show them this quote.

[ontor pertawst]

He may be a sentimental sap, but he's a bit more of a vicious, self-serving sap when it comes down to it. I look forward to the rousing defense of this awful gibberish. Fly, monkeys, fly!

Also, I can't wait to hear about the friendship he didn't have with Marlon Brando.

"Did he go beyond the bounds of therapy? Probably."

Jesus. How much does Mike Love have to hate Melinda Wilson to say something as f***ed up as that? Wow.

[relx]

You know, I once met Leonard Nimoy, and have been to almost all fifty states in the US. Time to write MY book.

[CenturyDeprived]

"The interesting thing to read is on Evan Landy. He is Landy’s son and spent years with Brian in a very intimate way. He has a whole different perspective of Landy and his motivation. Was he [Dr. Landy] overreaching? Probably. Did he cost a lot of money? Hell yeah. Did he want to be producer and the writer and stuff with Brian? Yes, he did. Did he go beyond the bounds of therapy? Probably. But, guess what? He also saved his life. So to read Evan Landy’s dissertation on it is very, very interesting because you get an intimate look at someone who was with Brian everyday for a few years. So it’s a whole different story that came out on Love and Mercy."

He is actually sympathetic to Landy, and only seems upset that he cost a lot of money. If anyone doubts that Mike Love is a scumbag, just show them this quote.

I have been very critical of Mike on many occasions, though I'm not sure he is being sympathetic to Gene Landy here, but that he agrees that he saved Brian's life at one point (as Brian himself agrees).

I'm not sure what Mike's getting at with the Evan Landy thing though. I agree that it's interesting to read another person's perspective (even if it's a warped one) just out of curiosity, but I'm uncertain as to why Mike is bringing up Evan's interview; is Mike implying there is a valid point/stance or two in Evan's interview? If so, what would that possibly be? It's bizarre for Mike to mention it, that's for sure.

Considering that I've read that 1980s Mike wanted to punch out Landy because he was so furious at what Landy was doing to Brian, I am baffled, unless he solely wants to point out here that Landy should be recognized for having saved Brian's life (a point of view I can understand to a point), but he seems to be going unusually soft on Landy otherwise in the article.

[mikeddonn]

Ontor, same as the one he didn't have with George Harrison!

Same old same old from Mike.  As usual he wants to 'flog a dead horse'.  50 years of this and that because C50 worked. He doesn't know when to quit and move onto something original.  It's why he still wants to write Kokomo over and over.  Maybe he just doesn't like change and can't move with the times. But still thinks he's cool and hip.