The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'd say, paying less attention to whatever backing track or melody the lyrics are married to: what are Mike's best lyrics?

My top 5:

1. Kiss Me Baby
2. California Girls
3. Please Let Me Wonder
4. Pacific Ocean Blues
5. Big Sur

1. Let The Wind Blow



Are there even anymore? haha jk

The Warmth of the Sun!

Sound Of Free

Good Vibrations
I'm Waiting For The Day

Continually, the ones he has yet to write

Yes. Exactly my favorites too.

I think Mike Love has one last ass whoopin left in him.  He's going to write one more great song, that just kicks ass.  Some will notice it's greatness, most will ignore it because it's Mike Love.  

When Mike Love is inspired he is by far the best lyricist on the Beach Boys. When he's nostalgic, he is about the worst lyricist. Although, Brian had some bad ones, as did Al.

I'd have to say Big Sur. Mike can be cheesy at times, but you have to admit that he's very good at describing certain things in his lyrics. Belles Of Paris is another example.

The original version of Big Sur made me cry.  Then it remained in my head for a month.  I sang it to myself while walking alone on a Northern California beach.  Great tune, great lyrics.

The original big sur is amazing with the classic production and great lyrics. How did Mike's bad habit of referencing old songs in lyrics begin?

Do It Again mentions "California girls and a beautiful coastline".

Pacific Ocean Blues? With the cold hearted slaughter of otter? Hmmm...I'll go with Good Vibrations.

I still don't know the truth about what lyrics Mike wrote. It's still questionable. It's his word against everybody elses - Brian doesn't remember exactly what Mike wrote and Murry and Carl and Dennis and Audree are not around to corroborate. So the 36 or whatever it was credits that Mike won in court in 1992? Who really knows? If he says he contributed a few lyrics to songs on Pet Sounds (other than the title) and Good Vibrations, may God bless him.

All I know is that "Beach Boys Today" and "Wild Honey" and "Holland" are in my top 5 favorite Beach Boys albums. Mike Love wrote quite a few lyrics to songs on those albums, and I really like those songs.  And Mike's lyrics to all those early 60's songs ain't that bad either, eh?

I remember both of us a few weeks ago were questioning how much of Good Vibes Mike wrote because he only ever talked about the chorus. With that in mind, though, one of the recent Beach Boys youtube videos shows him talking about writing other parts. I'm convinced that he wrote basically the full lyric with possibly a few things by Brian thrown in (certainly the title).

kiss me baby and i'm waiting for the day i'd say

Don't remember seeing that interview, but I'll search it down.  Thanks, Rock&Roll.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

Here's the clip. That part starts at about 1:45.

http://youtu.be/GfFb8jgmLD8

If Mike wrote the "I know there's answer" tweak to "Hang On To Your Ego" [I don't know for certain if he did] but if not, whoever did, turned that song from middlin' soon dated downer lecture to a universal song of trancedent hope. imo.

I was looking at the Pet Sounds credits earlier today. I saw Mike credited to Hang On To Your Ego! I put my reading glasses on to make sure I was seeing correctly. My memory is vague here, but didn't Mike OBJECT to the lyrics to Hang Onto Your Ego? And that's why it was changed to "I Know There's An Answer" and went unreleased for 24 years until that Japanese Pet Sounds CD came out in 1990?

I'm confused. Seems to me he objected to it, but he still sang on it and now he gets lyrical credit for it? Or am I wrong on one or two counts?

That was very interesting. I always wondered why Mike wrote the non-rhyming lyric "She goes with me to a blossom room." It's interesting it was originally "She goes with me to a blossom room we find (to whyme with "kind") but Brian decided to cut off the end of the line.

It shows Mike did write the lyrics, with Brian editing as he saw fit.

Back to the original topic of Mike's best lyrics, I'd go with "Good Vibrations," "Warmth of the Sun," "Let the Wind Blow" and "Kiss Me Baby."

He claims he wasn't cool with what he thought Brian and Sachen were using "ego" as a druggy reference. Although the way he took the reference it would be a sort of anti-druggy message as used in the song so that doesn't make sense. If you consider that Mike is on tape enthusiastically singing the lyric and even offering to sing the whole song when Al's futzing around bogs down the recording. I got a feeling Brian was the one who didn't like the lyric [cuz it is clunky as sung and stick's out like a sore thumb imo and I think you can hear Brian say he didn't like it on the SOTs in the conversations at the re-record, can someone else put ears on that] and turned to Mike to tweak it.

I always thought the verse was "blossom world".

me too

It's definitely blossom room. She goes with me to a blossom room. If you disagree, you have no ears or fears.

I guess I have no ears or fears then. 

Oops, my bad. It is "world." The Lovester himself confirms it in the video.

I guess Mike Love has no ears or fears either.

BUT WE ALL KNOW MIKE LOVE IS AN OPPORTUNIST ASSHOLE, HE'S SURELY LYING AND LACKING IN EARS/FEARS

Is it troll season again?  ;D

MIKE IS LOVE

Was Mike really anti drugs in 1966? Or is that revisionist history? I heard that he partook until around 1968 or so. Not sure when he started.

I don't know. Jimmy Lockert told me Mike brought a butt load of weed back from Rishikesh [?] or wherever he met up with the Maharishi and the Fabs which was apparently a distraction or was otherwise unappreciated by Lockert. When was that? Not sure it's true either.

There's a difference, of course, between using drugs and wanting to keep Beach Boys lyrics from drifting too far from the interests of the band's core audience. Mike was fairly insistent on this through the 60s. He broke his own rule with "Student Demonstration Time" and, for a while, developed an ecological fixation that may or may not have been more relevant to a Beach Boys audience than Brian's more soul-searching lyrics or the use of Van Dyke's more obscure arty lyrics. By the mid-70s, he was convinced that the core audience was all about nostalgia and nothing else.

Or even TM songs starting in 1968!

But he seems to talk a lot today about being against the drug taking going on with Brian and co. during the SMiLE period. I am guessing that is revisionist history.

Honestly though, nothing against Van Dyke, but Mike showed with Good Vibration that he was capable of writing a strong poetic lyric while still being commercial. I wonder if his main complaint was that Brian chose to use other lyricist even though he had success with Mike. Maybe he felt betrayed. Poor poor Michael.

You can also be cool with doing something yourself because we think we're special and can handle it whilealso thinking your cousin is special but your cousin can't handle it and it is not cool for him.

I don't think the Boys [not just Mike] thought their core audience was all about oldies but I do believe they knew which side of their bread was buttered and their target audience was hot for oldies beginning in the 70s. I would say from the time we heard ASL on the big screen at the end of American Graffiti. Maybe collectors of the live shows can confirm or deny but it seems to me all of the Boys [including Mike] can occasionally be heard chaffing at continual audience requests for oldies. Mike does seem like the most nostalgic lyricist maybe though but I don't know if that's because he is the most sentimental or he thinks the audience shares that feeling or expects it or all or none of those.