Mike Love's mind

[The Heartical Don]

I wanted to post this tidbit for awhile, this might be a good place; you guys probably were aware of it anyway....

In Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place To Go", there's the line, "so we parked way out on the Kokomo". I often wondered if Mike got the idea for the "place" from that song. You know how he likes to take lyrics/lines from old songs....

AGD said that as far as he knew the only bit Mike write of "Kokomo" was the "Aruba, Jamaca" bit, and Terry Melcher wrote Carl's piece. The rest was Papa John.

The 'Aruba, Jamaica...Bermuda, Bahamas' bit is the bit I like most. It could have been a BW trick along two chords. True dat. End of discussion.

[Rocker]

I wanted to post this tidbit for awhile, this might be a good place; you guys probably were aware of it anyway....

In Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place To Go", there's the line, "so we parked way out on the Kokomo". I often wondered if Mike got the idea for the "place" from that song. You know how he likes to take lyrics/lines from old songs....

Well, I don't think this is the case. I could be wrong of course. But the term "kokomo" exists for a long time. There's also a blues singer by the name of Kokomo Arnold from the 40s (or around that time)

[LostArt]

According to Wiki, the song's name comes from a beach side bar in a large resort complex in Islamorada, Florida, in the Keys.  I went to the website of the resort, the Holiday Isle Resort complex, and there is a bar there by that name that features live entertainment, and they've used traces of the lyrics for their promo of the place.  Whether this bar has been named Kokomo since before the song was written, or if it adopted the name because of the song, I do not know.  It's likely not the same place that Chuck Berry sang about.

[Sheriff John Stone]

It's likely not the same place that Chuck Berry sang about.

No, probably isn't, and I wasn't trying to give Mike any more credit, really I wasn't.

You know how they say that stand-up comedians never forget a joke they've heard. Well, Mike Love reminds me of the type of guy who never forgot a lyric he heard, especially on those "oldies" he grew up with. I just thought there might be a connection between the Chuck Berry lyric and "Kokomo", and, maybe it was Mike's idea - maybe re-titleing it from something else. But, I guess he would've taken credit for that, right?