New essay on my deep affection for Mike Love

[Aegir]

I'm pretty sure he also wrote Sumahama by himself.

[Amy B.]

Yes, lyrics can be very important. I was just listening to REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It.
Okay, so you can just bounce along to that beat, but the lyrics are a beat poem, and there's no melody there, except in the chorus. Yet it's a brilliant song. Same with Ebow (the Letter)-- the lyrics overshadow the melody.

I'd say it depends on the song. In the case of most BBs songs, though, the music overshadows the lyrics. Sorry, Mike, and all of Brian's other lyricists.

[RickD]

It was a little odd seeing Melinda Wilson's response to someone's post last evening on the Blueboard, about why Brian has no interest in rejoining the Beach Boys (Brian actually says different things at different times on the subject).  .  

in case anyone missed it -


(posted by Melinda Wilson on December 28, 2007 at 1:22 pm)

Message:

I would agree with a lot of what you have said and it seems well thought out. I would agree that Carl and Dennis wrote some beautiful music, as well and made huge contributions. Unfortunately for the rest of the band and I'm assuming you mean Mike, Al, and Bruce since Carl and Dennis are no longer with us, it's the composer of the music that gets these type of awards. I think that at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame induction when The Beach Boys were being honored, his cousin Mike made it really difficult on all the other members by what he had to say to the audience at that particular event. In the music world, it still goes unforgiven. Right or wrong, that's the way of the music business. Brian appreciates his late brothers and loves them and their contribution to The Beach Boys very much. He loves Al's contributions. He loves Mike's contribution, but is appauled by his cousins actions by literally stealing songs from him in the Wilson vs Love lawsuit in the mid 90's. He is also appauled by his cousins recents lawsuit that not only cost him much time and aggravation, and once again took money from him by having to defend a meritless overplead lawsuit. Brian won this particular suit, but his cousin continues to harass him (in Brian's eyes)by now appealing the judges verdict. Mike legally has every right in the world to the appeal, but Brian doesn't see it that way. He then filed a second lawsuit adding BRI to it without their permission, as a matter of fact they voted 3-l not to sue and that has too has now been thrown out of court, but not without Brian spending more money and having to deal with the aggravation once again. His cousin is also suing Al Jardine which Brian thinks is ridiculous and uncalled for. As you can see there is a lot of water under that bridge. Brian has moved on. He doesn't have anything to do with who the music industry chooses to honor. He is truly proud of his accomplishments, his brothers, his ex bandmates, his new bandmates and wishes everyone well. Just for the record, not one of his ex bandmates, The Beach Boys with the exception of Al Jardine has congratulated Brian for the Kennedy award. This may give you some perspective Jason. Thank you for your post Jason. L&M Melinda

[Mark A. Moore]

On the songwriting issue . . . there are several ways of looking at it.

On the one hand, you may have a musician who writes both music and lyrics . . . OR, you may have a musician who writes the music, and a lyricist (who otherwise cannot play or write music) who writes the words for the song.

In the later case, about all you can say is that the lyricist is not a musician, but at the same time IS a songwriter -- in a collaborative sense.

And songwriting partnerships can go either way. There can be existing music or melody, to which a lyricist will add words . . . OR . . . there can be a set of lyrics that comes first, which then are put to music (after the fact) by a musician/songwriter.

Bottome line is, the collaborators create the song, and thus each party involved is a songwriter. It's a terminology thing.

M.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

One lyric that sticks out as REALLY BAD is

'One, two, three! She's fallin in love with me! Four, five, six! She fell for all my tricks!'

I suppose that would work for Raffi who is singing songs for childeren.

[endofposts]

One lyric that sticks out as REALLY BAD is

'One, two, three! She's fallin in love with me! Four, five, six! She fell for all my tricks!'

I suppose that would work for Raffi who is singing songs for childeren.

Didn't Brian write that song all by himself? 

[donutbandit]

I'm pretty sure he also wrote Sumahama by himself.

This, I can believe.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

One lyric that sticks out as REALLY BAD is

'One, two, three! She's fallin in love with me! Four, five, six! She fell for all my tricks!'

I suppose that would work for Raffi who is singing songs for childeren.

Umm. Yeah, I guess so. Brian was capable of writing some pretty bad lyrics as well, I suppose.

Didn't Brian write that song all by himself? 

[Charles LePage @ ComicList]

It's often thought that the existence or survival of the Beach Boys as a concept and a band rests with Brian or Carl, but it rests just as much on Mile Love's shoulders.  No, he did not have the raw talent of any of the Wilsons, or even Al, but unlike any of the Wilsons, he generally was able to consistently be the voice and frontman of the band, night after night, while the drama unfolded around him.

He's no genius, and he's no saint, but he's an important part of the Beach Boys puzzle that cannot be disregarded.

[carl r]

...especially in the 60s, Love was quite an important part of the music.

Brian Wilson's solo set is a sharp reminder that Love is/was not necessary to perform his songs - his current band sound more like the wrecking crew of the '60s than any 80s incarnation of the Beach Boys. If Lucky Old Sun turns out to be any good on record then it further drives home the point that the Beach Boys ended up a drag on what Dennis, Brian and Carl were capable of.

So keeping the band together for so long... was it a good thing? But that's another question

[mikeyj]

Umm. Yeah, I guess so. Brian was capable of writing some pretty bad lyrics as well, I suppose.

Brian wrote some horrible lyrics too but he was also capable of writing decent lyrics. I do think he is under-rated as a lyricist, but of course Mike is the best lyricist in The Beach Boys in my opinion.

[Aegir]

...especially in the 60s, Love was quite an important part of the music.

Brian Wilson's solo set is a sharp reminder that Love is/was not necessary to perform his songs - his current band sound more like the wrecking crew of the '60s than any 80s incarnation of the Beach Boys. If Lucky Old Sun turns out to be any good on record then it further drives home the point that the Beach Boys ended up a drag on what Dennis, Brian and Carl were capable of.

So keeping the band together for so long... was it a good thing? But that's another question

I'd rather hear Mike sing "I Get Around" than Brian any day.

[carl r]

[/quote]I'd rather hear Mike sing "I Get Around" than Brian any day.
[/quote]

Fair point. But I'd rather hear "I'd Love Just Once To See You" or "Little Girl I Once Knew" or "Can't Wait Too Long" -  with Brian and band - than Mike with his granny Bruce on bongos. I think TLOS will illustrate that Mike Love has become really quite  redundant these days. 

[the captain]

Fair point. But I'd rather hear "I'd Love Just Once To See You" or "Little Girl I Once Knew" or "Can't Wait Too Long" -  with Brian and band - than Mike with his granny Bruce on bongos. I think TLOS will illustrate that Mike Love has become really quite  redundant these days. 

"These days" having begun in 1974 and not yet ended...

[Sheriff John Stone]

As satisfying as Brian's solo shows have been, particularly with the brilliance of the band and the diverse material, they have also been oddly unfulfilling.

When I hear Brian repeatedly (and I stess repeatedly), attempt a song with a Mike Love lead vocal, or a Mike Love bass vocal, I am underwhelmed.

I applaud (literally) Brian's effort, but, inside I'm saying to myself, "I'm sitting hear listening to a bunch of songs with Brian trying to duplicate Mike Love, and not doing it as well." It's kind of a strange feeling actually...

[tpesky]

I agree that Brian struggles singing the uptempo lead vocals of Mike, but in my experience (having seen Mike several times in the past 3 years) so does Mike. I cannot say overwhelmingly I prefer Mike on all of his leads today i. It is probably somewhere in the middle, some songs Mike sounds good, others not so much. ( looking at you BTTYS!) There are some  Brian does a nice job on, others not so much. I quite enjoyed Mike's son Christian on his Dad's old lead of Getcha Back. My solution: I would not mind Mike relinquishing some other leads as well. Not all , cause some songs Mike Love can still nail. I also wouldn't mind others in Brian's group stepping up to take some of the Mike leads.  It may be neccessary to do some minor key changes as well that alot of people wouldn't even notice, but it might help Brian and Mike sound better.  Unfortunately Beach Boy music is challenging to cover vocally unlike some other older singers/songs

[carl r]

I applaud (literally) Brian's effort, but, inside I'm saying to myself, "I'm sitting hear listening to a bunch of songs with Brian trying to duplicate Mike Love, and not doing it as well." It's kind of a strange feeling actually...

I felt the third part of the shows in September, the oldies set, was sort of added as an afterthought, I agree with those who don't really feel the need to see Brian sing "I Get Around" but I guess they felt obliged to provide these songs, with the price of the tickets perhaps. Maybe his voice isn't fitted to these too well, I had the feeling he was kind of impersonating Love as well, and he looks on autopilot when he's doing them. Whereas, when we sometimes heard him come in too early during the Lucky Old Sun set, I like to think it's because he's keen to sing it, and he believe Brian likes and needs a challenge, which the early surf numbers perhaps don't provide. But I guess he'll never tell us this either way.

Other than this, the other two parts of the show were something beyond, er, Love. I'd like to see a video release of this in much the same way as they did with the Smile performance...