The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.albumlinernotes.com/The_Making_of_Pet_Sounds.html

I was just reading these and I have to say that I got extremely annoyed.  I don't know what it is.  I'll admit that I try so hard to like Mike Love.  It really isn't easy.  He just comes off as a douche.  I think he has a great and iconic singing voice but his attitude is so easy to loathe.  It's clear that Mike isn't interested in the creative aspects of the album at all, except that it was good for the group's popularity and for him financially.  He's so involved in the polls and the charts and I don't know, there's a lot of condescension in the way he wrote this.  Plus, the fact that he says that Good Vibrations should have been finished for Pet Sounds just proves that he thought Smile was bullshit.  He didn't like the lyric "Hang on to your ego" but Mike has not only hung on to his, he hugs it tightly.

Maybe you should click the link and read it again.  Notice the middle part of the interview where he basically kisses Brian Wilson's ass for paragraph after paragraph, talking about how Brian changed music forever. 

So when you read it, did you just ignore all that and only get upset when Mike was singing his own praises, instead of Brians? 

Yes, it's now unfashionable to hate Mike Love. In fact, if you want to be really cool and ahead of the game you need to start loving Mike and hating Brian.

UMM .In a 2000 interview Al Jardine stated the same thing + Bruce has said that so many times ive lost count..Old news..They ARE the BB so i guess it gives them the right to their opinion.

We're Beach Boys' fans. Now, here is a novel idea; let's try loving them all. :)

It's breaking news, turns out all along that Brian can be a jerk too!

Everybody's human and BBs are no exception.

I don't even understand why anybody would use that particular article to prove Mike's a jerk.  He's done much worse,. and in that article, he goes on and on at length about how Pet Sounds pushed boundaries and changed music, how nobody was doing that besides Brian, how Brian deserved all the credit, how their voices on the album are the greatest ever recorded, blah blah blah.  It's one of the most appreciative essays of Brian Mike's ever been involved with. 

Try finding the extensive interview in early 90"s GOLDMINE magazine.. Bet Mike wishes he hadnt given that interview.." Who the heck would want to buy an album called SWEET INSANITY"..It gets better i promise you..!

Bluebird tried.......

In the PSBS liner notes, ML also talks about life in the studio and where he liked to work on the mic. It's actually a fascinating insight to read about him focusing on the job at hand, getting the business of recording done during sessions. 

I am currently working on a Zen interpretation of Mike Love's notes in The Pet Sounds Sessions booklet.

AGD will be the recipient of the first copy.

"...Without him (Brian), the fruits of our efforts would never have been so distinctive or prolific.

Little did we know when we first recorded songs about surfing that one day we would be riding the waves of an endless summer in a musical eternity."



I mean, give the guy a break.

It's mostly a fine piece. The only thing I can see wrong with it is that he doesn't mention Tony Asher, which implies he downplays the role of other lyricists in BB history.

[EDIT: However, apart from Brian & Bruce, no other Beach Boy mentions him either]