Mike Love - Unleash the Love - Due November 17 - w/ 2nd Disc of BB Remakes

[Mayoman]

Mike is live on ASCAP's instagram right now taking questions.

[Mayoman]

It ended up being a huge failure with no live questions and Mike mostly inaudible.

[SMiLE Brian]

Damn, I wish OSD and add some had taken part....

[pixletwin]

Everything I have heard (mostly from Mike's Facebook) is dead awful.

[Matt H]

I think the remake idea is bad, and I am not a fan of Mike Love.  I think Looking Back With Love is a terrible album.  I think that this album sounds to be much better than Looking Back With Love. 

[CenturyDeprived]

And I'll saying something else that will make me hated on here. Of the new songs on that Songs from Here & Back collection a few years ago, Mike's "Cool Head, Warm Heart" was by far the best new song, far better than Al's "PT Cruiser" or Brian's "The Spirit of Rock & Roll."
 

This is a very true statement.

[CenturyDeprived]

I'd seriously advise folks to, where the corresponding same track is available, seek out the circa 2004 Mike solo set floating around. I never thought the production on even *that* stuff was amazing, but it sounds far less processed.

The worst thing that's happened to the music industry, possibly ever, is the increased prevalence/normalization/expectation of Autotune being present in a very blatant, non-invisible and non-transparent manner. It's absolutely horrific and appalling from an artistic standpoint. Literally stomach-turning and repulsive to my ears.

[Wirestone]

And I'll saying something else that will make me hated on here. Of the new songs on that Songs from Here & Back collection a few years ago, Mike's "Cool Head, Warm Heart" was by far the best new song, far better than Al's "PT Cruiser" or Brian's "The Spirit of Rock & Roll."
 

This is a very true statement.

I'd say it's indisputable. I enjoy that tune a great deal.

[RangeRoverA1]

This is a very true statement.

When I sat down & listened to that compilation, I liked "Pt Cruiser" the best. It's cool, catchy, joyful & fast. Then I start reading boards (& sign up here) & to much amazement find actually people praise "Cool Head Warm Heart". I figured "Pt Cruiser" would be everybody's favorite. Still don't get what's so good about the other song. It's boring. Definitely disagree with "very true statement" whatever that means. Mike's best songs vary solid good to decent - CHWH is neither.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Damn, I wish OSD and add some had taken part....

Questions that need answers now:

Now that most people have trashed your new album, will that mean we don't have to listen to any more of your feeble attempts at songwriting?

Is it jealousy and your insecurity that prevents you from listening to Brian's new songs and watching Love and Mercy?

What the f*** happened to the Vibe Room?

Are you aware of the fact that you are the most hated laughed at clown the world of music has ever witnessed?

When Dennis passed away, were you bummed that the opportunity to meet women was completely over with?

Knowing he has a great voice, why did you shitcan Al Jardine from the Beach Boys?

You've been accused of smacking some of your wives around. Do you still do that and does it make you feel like a real man?

If you had to tour under your own dumb name, could you fill a corner bar?

Who picks out your hideous shirts, Robert Hall?

In the name of your beluHved Transcendental Meditation, do you still paint your face like a clown once a year?

Does br00th still run to the deli when you want a sandwich?

Are you poised to sue Brian again soon? There must be even more songs that you say you wrote.

Now that your voice is shot to hell, will you turn to autotune  again?

Do you have all of Ben Vaughn's Albums?

Since you don't play baseball, why did you choose a baseball cap over a rug?

[Wirestone]

Eh, PT Cruiser and Spirit are retreads of retreads.

Cool Head, Warm Heart is a catchy, well-arranged breath of fresh air, with on-message lyrics and a relaxed vocal from Mike. Probably his best songwriting effort since the 1970s. IMO, of course.

[Pretty Funky]

Damn, I wish OSD and add some had taken part....

Questions that need answers now:

Now that most people have trashed your new album, will that mean we don't have to listen to your feeble attempts at songwriting?

Is it jealousy and your insecurity that prevents you from listening to Brian's new songs and watching Love and Mercy?

What the f*** happened to the Vibe Room?

Are you aware of the fact that you are the most hated laughed at clown the world of music has ever witnessed?

When Dennis passed away, were you bummed that the opportunity to meet women was completely over with?

Knowing he has a great voice, why did you shitcan Al Jardine from the Beach Boys?

You've been accused of smacking some of your wives around. Do you still do that and does it make you feel like a real man?

If you had to tour under your own dumb name, could you fill a corner bar?

Who picks out your hideous shirts, Robert Hall?

Do you still paint your face like a clown once a year?

Does br00th still run to the deli when you want a sandwich?

Are you poised to sue Brian again soon? There must be even more songs that you say you wrote.

Now that your voice is shot to hell, will you turn to autotune  again?

Do you have all of Ben Vaughn's Albums?

Why the holding back? 

[RangeRoverA1]

PT Cruiser and Spirit are retreads of retreads.

"Spirit" like "Cool Head" is boring too. To me, it's easy - either I like song or dislike. I liked "Pt Cruiser", retread-not retread I rarely care about these things. Esp. if song's *really* good, as is case with "Pt Cruiser".

[wilsonart1]

Every night I pray to the heavens above...  you understand OSD

[Awesoman]

This is a very true statement.

When I sat down & listened to that compilation, I liked "Pt Cruiser" the best. It's cool, catchy, joyful & fast. Then I start reading boards (& sign up here) & to much amazement find actually people praise "Cool Head Warm Heart". I figured "Pt Cruiser" would be everybody's favorite. Still don't get what's so good about the other song. It's boring. Definitely disagree with "very true statement" whatever that means. Mike's best songs vary solid good to decent - CHWH is neither.

"PT Cruiser" is an extremely lame and derivative "spot the reference" car song.  The only thing remarkable about Brian's "The Spirit of Rock & Roll" is that Bob Dylan appears on the original recording.  The version on the Hallmark CD is a clunky re-recording of a mediocre unreleased song.  "Cool Head, Warm Heart" was at least an original, pleasant track that was surprisingly good considering it came from Mike Love.  No surprise here that people favored it over the other two songs. 

[SMiLE Brian]

OSD!

[KDS]

I'd seriously advise folks to, where the corresponding same track is available, seek out the circa 2004 Mike solo set floating around. I never thought the production on even *that* stuff was amazing, but it sounds far less processed.

The worst thing that's happened to the music industry, possibly ever, is the increased prevalence/normalization/expectation of Autotune being present in a very blatant, non-invisible and non-transparent manner. It's absolutely horrific and appalling from an artistic standpoint. Literally stomach-turning and repulsive to my ears.

It's also transforming talentless people into megastars (Ke$ha comes immediately to mind).  .

[HeyJude]

And I'll saying something else that will make me hated on here. Of the new songs on that Songs from Here & Back collection a few years ago, Mike's "Cool Head, Warm Heart" was by far the best new song, far better than Al's "PT Cruiser" or Brian's "The Spirit of Rock & Roll."

I don't think I've ever seen someone on this board express a liking for a Mike song only to be "hated" here.

Indeed, specifically concerning the Hallmark CD, if you go back to the threads from back when it came out in 2006, you'll find plenty of folks espousing that the Mike track was the best of the three. I'd easily say so. I don't think "Cool Head" is like a-list, life-changing material, but it's a catchy song and the type of thing Mike most excels at when he's left to his own devices. In a head-to-head with the other two "new" songs on the Hallmark CD, it's not exactly going up against a-list material. Al's song was a novelty bit, and had *already been released*, so it wasn't even new when that CD came out. Brian's re-re-re-recording of "Spirit of Rock and Roll" always struck me as kind of limp and lacking in energy. Dropping the key (a necessity vocally) didn't help either, nor did changing part of the drum pattern in the verses.

Though, to be fair in criticizing the guys for submitting the tracks that they did, I believe Alan Boyd posted all those years ago that Hallmark picked the songs. Presumably, they submitted a small pool of songs and Hallmark made the picks. So yeah, *they* chose "PT Cruiser." I'd be curious to know what else Al (and the other guys) submitted in addition to the final selections.

[HeyJude]

This is a very true statement.

When I sat down & listened to that compilation, I liked "Pt Cruiser" the best. It's cool, catchy, joyful & fast. Then I start reading boards (& sign up here) & to much amazement find actually people praise "Cool Head Warm Heart". I figured "Pt Cruiser" would be everybody's favorite. Still don't get what's so good about the other song. It's boring. Definitely disagree with "very true statement" whatever that means. Mike's best songs vary solid good to decent - CHWH is neither.

"Postcards" proved Al had some good stuff in the vaults at that time. I think the issue with "PT Cruiser" in part was that it had *already* been released, on a CD single with *FIVE* different mixes of the song no less. So part of the disappointment was that Al's track wasn't even new. Aside from that, I think the song comes off as a novelty bit (if not a car commercial; PT Cruisers were still being made back then) and retreads way too many other songs. It's like a "Rutles" version of a BB car song.

Mike's track was just catchy. Nothing more, nothing less.

Based on your stated preferences in other threads regarding other music  (BBs and others), you seem to have a pretty offbeat set of standards/preferences. In particular, you seem to dislike slow songs. In past threads, you've mentioned varying amounts of dislike for songs like "Don't Talk", "Pacific Coast Highway", "Summer's Gone", and in particular you seem to reference many songs specifically using the terms "slow" and "boring." It sounds like you weigh tempos of songs perhaps proportionately more than the musical content, in which case preferring "PT Cruiser" to "Cool Head" makes total sense. All just my interpretation/opinion of course.

[Matt H]

I went to Mike's website, and in the discography that is supposed to have solo and Beach Boys, the following albums are missing:

Looking Back With Love
Summer In Paradise
That's Why God Made The Radio

It seems odd that various Christmas re-treads are on there, but these are missing.

[KDS]

I went to Mike's website, and in the discography that is supposed to have solo and Beach Boys, the following albums are missing:

Looking Back With Love
Summer In Paradise
That's Why God Made The Radio

It seems odd that various Christmas re-treads are on there, but these are missing.

I'm not too surprised that SIP is missing.  SIP was the only album that wasn't represented in the C50 Tour Program, and it's also the only album that didn't have any tracks on the MiC box (other than the live version of the title track). 

[CenturyDeprived]

I went to Mike's website, and in the discography that is supposed to have solo and Beach Boys, the following albums are missing:

Looking Back With Love
Summer In Paradise
That's Why God Made The Radio

It seems odd that various Christmas re-treads are on there, but these are missing.

I'm not too surprised that SIP is missing.  SIP was the only album that wasn't represented in the C50 Tour Program, and it's also the only album that didn't have any tracks on the MiC box (other than the live version of the title track). 

Mike can just pretend it didn’t happen, like the 2005 lawsuit omission in his bio. Sounds like a solid plan.

[KDS]

I went to Mike's website, and in the discography that is supposed to have solo and Beach Boys, the following albums are missing:

Looking Back With Love
Summer In Paradise
That's Why God Made The Radio

It seems odd that various Christmas re-treads are on there, but these are missing.

I'm not too surprised that SIP is missing.  SIP was the only album that wasn't represented in the C50 Tour Program, and it's also the only album that didn't have any tracks on the MiC box (other than the live version of the title track). 

Mike can just pretend it didn’t happen, like the 2005 lawsuit omission in his bio. Sounds like a solid plan.

Considering the title track still pops up in his setlists, I don't think that's the case.  HJ might have more insight, but I think the exclusion of the album art from the C50 program and any studio tracks from the MiC set has something to do with the label / copyright, or something. 

[HeyJude]

I went to Mike's website, and in the discography that is supposed to have solo and Beach Boys, the following albums are missing:

Looking Back With Love
Summer In Paradise
That's Why God Made The Radio

It seems odd that various Christmas re-treads are on there, but these are missing.

I'm not too surprised that SIP is missing.  SIP was the only album that wasn't represented in the C50 Tour Program, and it's also the only album that didn't have any tracks on the MiC box (other than the live version of the title track).  

Mike can just pretend it didn’t happen, like the 2005 lawsuit omission in his bio. Sounds like a solid plan.

Considering the title track still pops up in his setlists, I don't think that's the case.  HJ might have more insight, but I think the exclusion of the album art from the C50 program and any studio tracks from the MiC set has something to do with the label / copyright, or something.  

I don't think anyone is quite sure why SIP was the lone album absent from some C50 montages/artwork compilations, etc. Brother owns the album outright as far as I know; they can do whatever they want with it.

Here's what we (maybe) know: The album was recorded of course without Brian, during a strange period around the same time he was being extricated from Landy. I don't know if Brian was even consulted or offered to "vote" on whether the album should happen. Considering three other BRI members participated in the album, it presumably wouldn't have mattered. So the album was recorded at a time when the other members strangely felt comfortable enough to do a Beach Boys album without Brian.

In subsequent years, Brian has (to varying degrees and at varying intervals) made more peace with the other BRI members than was the case in 1992 (when the fake autobiography lawsuit was still a fresh wound, among many other issues), and Brian and Melinda have asserted Brian's role and standing in BRI and in the BB legacy in general much more strongly than was the case in 1992.

Long story short, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian, and/or BRI on the whole, have quietly sort of "retired" SIP from the "canon" so to speak. It's not like they're literally trying to erase its existence. But it was done under circumstances that almost certainly would never take place today, and it probably makes the whole thing easier that the album was the biggest album flop of their career and went virtually unnoticed. Even *Mike* doesn't try to tout total failures for years and years. Mike has kept SIP in the setlist on and off, but that's about it. He doesn't wax nostalgic about the SIP *album* the way, say, Bruce might about "Sunflower." He briefly tried to recycle "Summer of Love" in that Baywatch episode where Brian made an appearance. But in any event, it probably doesn't bug even Mike that SIP remains out of print and that it isn't included in the "canon" when career-spanning artwork/montages are put together. So if Brian's thinking or the general thinking is to just quietly stop doing anything with the album, it's probably not something Mike is going to beef.

It's perhaps a bit like those weird mid-90s "Fleetwood Mac" projects done with Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason, or something like that. Totally legit projects done by enough members who controlled use of the name for the projects. But then at some point after the "classic" lineup reunited and that era was just kind of forgotten.

In a sense it's too bad; I'd love to hear Brian's thoughts/remembrances about that period of time and that album. I'm not sure anyone has ever got Brian on record talking about the SIP album. It's quite odd; the band didn't even try to fly in an old Brian track or two to give the veneer of a "group" album. I think the fact that the album tanked (despite promotion on multiple episodes of "Full House") was perhaps one of the only reasons Mike and the band weren't grilled mercilessly about why Brian was nowhere to be seen or heard on the album. Indeed, even Al was absent for most of the sessions due to various band issues, and Mike felt emboldened to do the album anyway.

I think SIP had to be a humbling experience for Mike even if he never would admit it. To loosely borrow some points I recall Wirestone making some time back about the album, SIP is notable because it's Mike trying as *hard* as he can. It's Mike pushing the entire project (creatively more of a "solo" album than even "Looking Back with Love"), he and Terry Melcher bringing their A-game, using then state-of-the-art technology to record the album. It's Mike as pure and unfiltered as you can get, with Carl and Al adding some nice vocals (which does nothing but help the project), and the album was a 100% failure by *any* objective measure.

If Mike wasn't able to use the SIP title track to constantly try to convince people he and Bruce care about the environment despite their other stated politics being often diametrically opposed to such ideals, he probably wouldn't even continue to do that one track in concert.

[KDS]

I went to Mike's website, and in the discography that is supposed to have solo and Beach Boys, the following albums are missing:

Looking Back With Love
Summer In Paradise
That's Why God Made The Radio

It seems odd that various Christmas re-treads are on there, but these are missing.

I'm not too surprised that SIP is missing.  SIP was the only album that wasn't represented in the C50 Tour Program, and it's also the only album that didn't have any tracks on the MiC box (other than the live version of the title track).  

Mike can just pretend it didn’t happen, like the 2005 lawsuit omission in his bio. Sounds like a solid plan.

Considering the title track still pops up in his setlists, I don't think that's the case.  HJ might have more insight, but I think the exclusion of the album art from the C50 program and any studio tracks from the MiC set has something to do with the label / copyright, or something.  

I don't think anyone is quite sure why SIP was the lone album absent from some C50 montages/artwork compilations, etc. Brother owns the album outright as far as I know; they can do whatever they want with it.

Here's what we (maybe) know: The album was recorded of course without Brian, during a strange period around the same time he was being extricated from Landy. I don't know if Brian was even consulted or offered to "vote" on whether the album should happen. Considering three other BRI members participated in the album, it presumably wouldn't have mattered. So the album was recorded at a time when the other members strangely felt comfortable enough to do a Beach Boys album without Brian.

In subsequent years, Brian has (to varying degrees and at varying intervals) made more peace with the other BRI members than was the case in 1992 (when the fake autobiography lawsuit was still a fresh wound, among many other issues), and Brian and Melinda have asserted Brian's role and standing in BRI and in the BB legacy in general much more strongly than was the case in 1992.

Long story short, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian, and/or BRI on the whole, have quietly sort of "retired" SIP from the "canon" so to speak. It's not like they're literally trying to erase its existence. But it was done under circumstances that almost certainly would never take place today, and it probably makes the whole thing easier that the album was the biggest album flop of their career and went virtually unnoticed. Even *Mike* doesn't try to tout total failures for years and years. Mike has kept SIP in the setlist on and off, but that's about it. He doesn't wax nostalgic about the SIP *album* the way, say, Bruce might about "Sunflower." He briefly tried to recycle "Summer of Love" in that Baywatch episode where Brian made an appearance. But in any event, it probably doesn't bug even Mike that SIP remains out of print and that it isn't included in the "canon" when career-spanning artwork/montages are put together. So if Brian's thinking or the general thinking is to just quietly stop doing anything with the album, it's probably not something Mike is going to beef.

It's perhaps a bit like those weird mid-90s "Fleetwood Mac" projects done with Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason, or something like that. Totally legit projects done by enough members who controlled use of the name for the projects. But then at some point after the "classic" lineup reunited and that era was just kind of forgotten.

In a sense it's too bad; I'd love to hear Brian's thoughts/remembrances about that period of time and that album. I'm not sure anyone has ever got Brian on record talking about the SIP album. It's quite odd; the band didn't even try to fly in an old Brian track or two to give the veneer of a "group" album. I think the fact that the album tanked (despite promotion on multiple episodes of "Full House") was perhaps one of the only reasons Mike and the band weren't grilled mercilessly about why Brian was nowhere to be seen or heard on the album. Indeed, even Al was absent for most of the sessions due to various band issues, and Mike felt emboldened to do the album anyway.

I think SIP had to be a humbling experience for Mike even if he never would admit it. To loosely borrow some points I recall Wirestone making some time back about the album, SIP is notable because it's Mike trying as *hard* as he can. It's Mike pushing the entire project (creatively more of a "solo" album than even "Looking Back with Love"), he and Terry Melcher bringing their A-game, using then state-of-the-art technology to record the album. It's Mike as pure and unfiltered as you can get, with Carl and Al adding some nice vocals (which does nothing but help the project), and the album was a 100% failure by *any* objective measure.

If Mike wasn't able to use the SIP title track to constantly try to convince people he and Bruce care about the environment despite their other stated politics being often diametrically opposed to such ideals, he probably wouldn't even continue to do that one track in concert.

Right, same with those Black Sabbath albums from the late 80s / early 90s, most of which feature only Tony Iommi, which were quickly forgotten once they reunited with Ozzy Obsourne, then later Dio, then later Ozzy again.   Many of those Sabbath albums aren't even in print. 

Back to SIP, I wonder if Mike with Carl, Bruce, and Al would've even attempted to release a Brian-less Beach Boys LP if not for the unexpected success of Kokomo.