The Smiley Smile Message Board

As much as Mike has been (sometimes rightfully) bashed, I thought it might be interesting to explore some of his best work - from vocals to songwriting to lyrics. I'm a little biased towards his late 60s-early 70s lyrics/songs, but I'd be interested to see if there's anything else that's worth another look.

Just some off the top of my head:

Aren't You Glad (I love how effortlessly he sings that song)
Big Sur (harmony-laden Landlocked version is great, Holland version not as much)
Meant For You (such a peaceful and meditative vocal performance)
All I Wanna Do (surprisingly heartfelt and deeply meaningful lyrics - one of my favorite 70s BB songs)

And, let us not forget the "goodnight baby, sleep tight baby" which got him co-writing credits on Wouldn't it Be Nice. (half kidding)

What's worth revisiting?

Lyrics to Pacific Ocean Blue and Only With You

Check out Mike's lead vocal parts on Kiss Me Baby. Astounding.

Yeah he was in fine voice during that era for sure.  I dig his voice on the alternate "Please Let Me Wonder" too.

Oh, let's see...hmmm, I like the lyrics and lead vocal to the RRHF speech, DFWTF quote, and Who's gonna hear this sh*t diatribe among others-maybe there's a box set of this stuff in the works. Stay tuned all you Myke fans. :p

"All I Wanna Do" would probably be top 10 material if I made such lists, and it was a song he wrote the basis of. Nice jerb, Mikey ^_^

Also, in b4 oldsurferd00d

Edit: Damn, mere seconds too late.

Absolutely. I should have clarified that I was looking for post-67 tracks - I think Brian could have elicited an amazing vocal performance from Mike (or indeed a homeless person with some rhythm) in his sleep in the early-mid 60s.

Lyrics for the "Today" and "Wild Honey" albums.   "Big Sur" (slow 4/4 version).  "All I Wanna Do".  Kinda cool to listen to his bass vocal isolated on "Forever", "Add Some Music", and "Breakaway".

Big Sur was the best song he wrote i think.  I love both versions, harmony one more, but still classic.

I don't get this. Mike Love is a major member and creative contributor to the greatest American rock and roll band of all time. He has brought joy to many, many people with beautiful vocal and lyrical contributions to some of the finest pieces of music ever recorded. Compare that accomplishment to being an old, ranting, bitter person on an Internet messageboard, spreading nastiness against someone who really doesn't deserve it, someone without whom this board would not even exist. Then ask yourself how you can live with yourself, mate, why you bother continuing, how you sleep at night. Just a suggestion.

As for post-67 Mike, another great one, I think, is his ragin' rock vocal on Denny's sex-rock romp All I Want To Do. Love his lead on Airplane too.

Yor're absolutely right, Space Cadet- it's a message board! Unless the rules have changed, it's still ok to submit an opinion. Whether you agree or not is of no consequence, and you can always ignore my posts if they upset you so much. Cheerio, matey. ;)

I am a big fan of "Cool Head, Warm Heart," actually.

Besides the other mentioned, which I mostly agree with, I would pick Country Pie & Alone On Christmas Day off the top of my head.

Didn't Mike write that one about OSD?  ;D

Still think the Hall of Fame speech is his crowning achievement.

I don't think he has any bad or half-assed leads post-Pet Sounds. Lots of variety with singing (literally - like on Meant for You/Big Sur)
His voice sounds great through effects (used rarely of course on All I wanna Do/Student Demonstration Time).


It's not until 15 Big Ones where his voices starts to get overly nasally/shrill on leads.

Agree with you totally, with the exception that "Student Demonstration Time" is one of the worst songs in the catalogue...

"Airplane" features one of my favorite Mike leads....

Something about Mike's Swag on "409" always struck me as about the coolest he ever sounded.  He sounds more like a bad-ass on that song than any other one... something about the casual way he sings the vocals, it's similar to how "Danny & the Juniors" sang things like "Rock & Roll is here to stay" and "At the Hop". 


"Well; I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes...
Before I knew there would be a time....
When I would buy a brand new 409...."

that.... is legend.  If you played somebody that song, then said "Here, that's the man who sang that" they'd fawn all over him.

His most impressive vocal would be to me though the aforementioned "All I wanna Do"... amazingly he showed shades of that Wilson magic even though he's not really a Wilson.  It's one of those rare instances where his voice reached the beauty of his cousins'. 

Others that jump out, you'd be remiss not to mention "California Girls".  Such a huge part of the pop music of the 60's, and he's the singer that did it.  That's such a memorable, and imitable vocal, everybody and their brother can sing that and when they do, they try to sound just like Mike did. 

If you look at his 'bass' vocals (wouldn't it really be a barritone?) almost every one of them without exception is pretty good. 

Another thing I think that's worth mentioning is the trick he and Brian used to play where they'd trade vocals.  Two jump to mind, "Catch a Wave"... Mike sings the lead, then the low line going into Brian's "Those who don't... just have to put it down!".  Another would be "Little Deuce Coupe"... Mike sings lead, then for the chorus immediately dives down into a bass vocal line, and lets Brian take the falsetto melody for the chorus.  The way their voices weaved back and forth on tracks like that was nothing short of magic.

Finally I'll mention one of the most mind blowing uses of his voice ever: "Let Him Run Wild"....

"I Guess You Know I!......"

".... waiiiiiited, for you girlllllll......."

Gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it. 

"Big Sur" - Holland version is very underrated imho; pure poetry set to music; love the group humming in the background

"Good to My Baby" - one of my favorite vocals of his for some reason

His lead vocals on the Lei'd in Hawaii recordings and 1967 rehearsals sound incredibly "laid-back" (in a good way)

As previously mentioned Mike wrote some good songs with Dennis (Sound of Free, Only With You and Pacific Ocean Blues). Bizarre that only 1 of them ended up on a Beach Boys` album. He also contributed to some other fine songs in the late 60s/early 70s including All I Wanna Do, All This is That, He Come Down and Big Sur.

During the wilderness period I would say that much of Mike`s best songwriting has come away from the group when he has been able to forget about the formula. Stuff like I Don`t Wanna Know, Daybreak, You`re Looking Better, Glow Crescent Glow, Sad Sad Summer, Pisces Brothers, Cool Head Warm Heart etc.

Some of the songs that he only sang on such as Country Pie (should have been released by the BBs) and One Good Reason are also worth a listen.

The latter is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i3U1FCoHLU

Viggie. For those who haven't heard it, seek it out forthwith. THE great lost Mike Love song, on a par with Big Sur.

There are so many during the hitmaking years, but my favorite of the lesser knowns is All I Wanna Do. It's a classic on an album full of classics. Not one weak track there IMHO. Mike really is a much more versatile singer than generally known.

Don't forget, Let the Wind Blow and Anna Lee, The Healer were mainly Mike's compositions.

Both great songs, too. An additional +2 against the "Mike was a talentless hack who never wrote a piece of music in his life and only leeched off of Brian's talents" camp.

All the songs mentioned are wonderful. I love the Holland version of Big Sur, and even enjoy his spoken word bit on Beaks of Eagles. I love his youthful voice and American Graffiti-esque delivery on Heads You Win, Tails I Lose and Surfin' Safari. I also tend to get shivers hearing his bass part on the verse harmonies of Wouldn't It Be Nice (doo, do-doo...) and his lead on That's Not Me. Gotta love his bass bit on the bridge of I Can Hear Music too.

I like Mike's voice from 1961-73 very much. I always thought Here Today was an amazing performance. After Smile I would say his work from 1969-72 as a whole was excellent. Wild Honey is a great album on all levels too. Mike did a lot of good work. Solo it's kind of sad that his best two albums (First Love, Unleash The Love) didn't come out. They aren't a patch on Dennis' work, but only the best by Brian (88, TLOS, BWPS) better them as far as solo work goes.

I'm Waiting For The Day is favorite and I wish Brian had let Mike use his "Devoted To You" voice more.

Songwriting:
1.Big Sur
2.Summer in paradise (live version)
3. Getcha back

Lead vocals:
1. Add some music to your day
2. Meant for you
3. Big Sur (Holland)

Word. And if those lyrics are his... whoa !

Yay !

  Mike's overall vibe in 2012 has been impressive. The dude is definitely thinking legacy.

  Let's just admit it: Mike Love is Brian Wilson's greatest lyricist. No offense to Gary Usher, Roger Christian, Tony Asher, Van Dyke Parks or  Jack Rieley, but Mike is Brian's once and future lyricist. "Fun, Fun, Fun" is worthy of Chuck Berry, and I will stack Chuck against any of the aforementioned wordsmiths.

 Don't get me wrong: As a fan, Mike has pissed me off over the years, but he deserves credit as one of the foundations of the legend.

 (BTW- Just recently, RS published a new collector's edition of the revised "500 Best Albums of All-Time" w/ PET SOUNDS at #2. About half of the essay went out of its way to portray Mike as a jerk. This line of thinking is starting to seem dated and simplistic, which come to think of it is pretty typical for Wenner's rag.)

Forgot "Brian's Back". One of his best - top 5 in my book. And agreed on "Kiss Me Baby" too.

There's more to like about Michael than there is to dislike. Great lyrics and bass vocals, the swagger (Michael was OG before the term existed), the bad jokes...what else do you want from a frontman? He's one of the five best in rock music.

Thank God none of us are like that.

Saying Mike was Brian's best collaborator is kind of like judging an artist by how much he sells. Who's more talented: the starving avant-garde artist that gets mentioned in textbooks and is respected after death, or the dude that just did a sketch of a cat for Hallmark and sold a couple million copies of his art? Brian built the Beach Boys brand, just like whoever built Hallmark's brand. All people like Mike and the sketch artist have to do is plug in their 'art' and it sells. Gary Usher's early success proves this. Obvious, you have to have some lyrical talent to score a hit, but Mike's lyrics aren't rocket science.

Mike deserves praise for his humour and resilience over the years. Especially considering a lot of the crap that's been written about him and became gospel. Perhaps he had no choice but to smile and move on, but he did it. This reunion is about the guys getting their dues, including Mike.

And a recent glorious moment: the "She said" in the video to DFTS. Ass-kickin' moment.

Well, Pop music is the art of making popular music, so by that objective measure Mike is out in front.

How come nobody ever calls into question Christian's, Usher's, Park's, Asher's worthiness as full credited collaborator in the creative honor? 

I'm not tearing down Mike Love. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Claiming Mike Love is a better lyricist in any artistic sense than Van Dyke Parks is, of course, nonsense, but you're going too far the other way here. Just look at his lyrics for Good Vibrations -- his lyrics ground the song -- a song whose chorus is about 'extra-sensory perception' in the sensory -- "I love the colourful clothes she wears/and the way the sunlight plays upon her hair/I hear the sound of a gentle word/on the wind that lifts her perfume through the air". As well as being good-sounding lyrics, they also over and over again emphasise the sensory and the physical, so that when later in the song it starts being about more abstract, ethereal notions, the listener will come along willingly, because it's starting from somewhere familiar.

It's a *stunningly* well-crafted lyric, as is Fun Fun Fun, and the fact that he apparently wrote it in a matter of minutes suggests a real talent there, and the fact that he's spent the last few decades squandering that talent on a series of horrors like Summer Of Love doesn't mean he wasn't capable of greatness (after all, how many great songs has Tony Asher written without Brian?)

I think it's interesting, actually, that Mike's greatest achievements as a lyricist have come when he's been given subject matter by someone else -- Good Vibrations already had an inferior dummy lyric, and Fun Fun Fun was suggested by Dennis IIRC, and both were written very quickly. Maybe what Mike needs is for someone to sit him down with a stopwatch and say "Here's a song title, you're not allowed to mention any old Beach Boys songs or place names, you've got ten minutes to write a lyric. GO!"

Mike is a talented person who has never valued his own talent enough. By the time he may have had some inkling of his abilities, he was too out of practice to fully regain them (he never really committed to working as a lyricist -- it was an outgrowth of his natural role of front man to the band).

It's a tragedy, in some ways. Brian has always had people to tell him how talented he was, and to encourage his more esoteric notions. Mike has never had that encouragement -- and may have actually discouraged it in himself for many years.

I love Van Dyke and Tony's work, and feel both were artists who ultimately created work that was at the highest levels of their ability. I don't know if Mike ever got the opportunity to do that -- to concentrate and craft his work the way they did. But songs like "Let the Wind Blow," and even recent things like "Cool Head, Warm Heart," suggest a person with real natural reserves of lyrical and (to an extent) musical ability.

I never did. In fact, I've always thought that they haven't received nearly the accolades that they've deserved. It seems that Van Dyke has always gotten extensive acknowledgement for his contributions, albeit for his work during a very short period. Asher second, especially when the Pet Sounds Sessions came out and the interviews and accompanying book pretty much covered it. But Usher and Christian - those guys' contributions have shown up on every Beach Boys greatest hits comps to date (along with the early 2-fers) and I don't think, with exception to the co-writer credits , that they've been given the songwriter credit in articles/publications/books that they've deserved for those great lyrics. I mean Christian....that guy was VERY hot in the early 60's with Brian, Jan, and others and contributed to their many hits.

Steve McParland released a few things on Usher and Christian that were very informative and filled the gaps. But for the most part, the general public doesn't really know their stories. I think they're highly underated.

Wonder what Roger and Gary would think of this 50th reunion.

Right on all counts.  Great analysis.

  Maybe Mike isn't Brian's greatest lyricist in purely artistic terms. The issue is that for years - decades - Mike was not credited as the main and/or contributing lyricist for tunes like "Be True to Your School", "I Get Around", "Help Me Rhonda, "Let Him Run Wild", "California Girls", "Kiss Me Baby", "When I Grow (to Be a Man)", etc, and as a result did not receive wide recognition as a lyricist, period.  That situation, and Mike's own behavior at times (R&R Hall of Fame) led to the widespread perception that he was essentially a talentless jerk, a line of reasoning still being promoted by RS magazine.  This theory is of course balderdash.

 Mike is not my favorite Beach Boy, but he IS essential to the group and its creativity. The 2012 reunion is making this point clear in a way that is both obvious and subtle, with a sense of grace that has eluded the band for many many years.  (I hope I don't  regret this post in a few months.) ;)

 

You probably will :)  But let's swim in it for a few weeks, eh???

This post is fairly On The Money, except for the caveat that Be True To Your School makes me want to vomit and is entirely not part of the groups legacy, because I refuse to believe it is so.

Although you have to admit that whilst Mike was talented, the Brian/Mike divide is still present. Brian wrote Lazy Lizzie, Hey Little Tomboy, destroyed his voice, released Imagination and had a terrible habit of not finishing amazing songs.  Mike Love still goes WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN, wore robes onstage, recorded Country Love and released Summer In Paradise.

Yet Brian is Mr. Pet Sounds yadda yadda and Mike wrote those wonderful lyrics, kicks ass singing those leads (although I have my doubts as to how great a singer he actually can be) and whilst he may be an asshole, he is our asshole and we love him for it. Popular culture hasn't caught up with us yet, mind.

Huh. Be True To Your School is one of my favourite records of all time, let alone The Beach Boys.

Space Cadet, I've  got to hand it to you-You've got a HUGE set of balls admitting that BTTYS is one of your fav BB cuts. That is raw courage to say the least for probably one of the most cringeworthy songs that they did back in the day. Cooler than cool when it was released, it quickly became passe after  my class of '66 graduated high school.

Let the Wind Blow is perhaps my #1 favorite Beach Boys song. And it was mostly Mike's songwriting.

Also the claim that a capella means nude. Although, I see that Bruce said it as well. Not sure where that joke originated.

Sumahama, Don't Go Near the Water, Big Sur and All I Wanna do are all great songs.

Great music can never become passe, old tiny penis. Great tune, great arrangement, great production, a master class in dynamics. The lyrics are a dream, but the same is true of much rock and roll music. I'd rather hear Mike Love sing about how great his school is than be invited by Robert Plant to squeeze his nonexistent lemon any day.

Point taken Mikie. I guess I was thinking of the PSMLy-type fans [not that there is anything wrong with that].

Is Leon still the mod of PSML? Is there still a PSML?

Yes and yes, I believe.

I can buy the idea that Mike's commercial sense helped sell Brian's muse to the world, but as a songwriter on his own, he had nothing. If Big Sur is your masterpiece, clearly you're no Irving Berlin. I prefer Sumahama personally, but the pleasure is all guilty. As for Let The Wind Blow, surely the middle section - where at least 80% of its greatness lies - is Brian's. I can certainly believe Anna Lee, The Healer is his.

(http://www.owned.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Alligator-getting-Owned-by-Hippos-600x363.jpg)

Mike's artistic sense, which combined commerciality and "relatability" with inspiration, helped make The Beach Boys what they were. Why is the word "commercial" used as a backhanded compliment anyway? I swear, some folks here think Brian is Charles Ives or something. He wanted to sell more records and have more hits than anyone else, the same as any other rock musician. That was, in fact part of his muse itself, a fierce commercial competitive streak. And once he felt the competition was lost, bam, way less great work, trickling down to nothing. We are here because of The Beach Boys' megapopular status.

I don't disagree that there was artistry in Mike's commercial sense, but I'm not persuaded that he had any particular talent as a composer.

Bruce has described Kiss Me Baby as "Mike Love at his lyric writing best"!

I'll take his word for it.

They are amazing lyrics.

Good thing there's nobody like that on this board. Making fun of Mike, out of bounds. Mocking others, totally kewl doodz.

No, I agree with ya, Cam. Just adding to what you said.

I haven't read the PSML since about 2002. Leon Lively. Last I heard, he was a producer or program director at a radio station in Columbus. Always played rare Beach Boys stuff. I remember Green Mansions, which I read but never posted on (thank God). Actually, I first started posting on the White back in '96 or '97 when Wheeler ran it.

I use to lift the needle off the record when it came to that song.  I was embarrassed for the band when I first heard it. Some people think the disco version of "Here Comes the Night" is disgraceful? I give Sumahama that distinction.

Come to think of it, maybe they should have redone the entire Wild Honey album as a disco album. Call it Wild Honey Disco! Weeeee!

 :lol Aren't you glad-glad-glad-gla-glad-glad-gla-glad-glad in the nude

Used to go to a night-club called the Buzz bar

A lot of cool stuff mentioned above, but there's scant mention of Looking Back with Love (happy to be corrected if I glossed over it), which has some great Mike moments:

Paradise Found is great and Mike was involved in the composition - and from a front man point of view, he lays it down On and ON and ON, and a pretty good job of Calendar Girl (although the actual song itself is on my sht list)

Prior to 15 Big Ones, i can honestly say their isn't a single Beach Boys song that i hate. Tears In The Morning, Student Demo Time, etc - they may not be entirely my cup of tea, but i can still at least see some merit in them. HOWEVER... Everyone's In Love With You - i can see absolutely no worth whatsoever in this song! It is absolutely ghastly - trite lyrics, vomit-inducingly twee singing, dreadful melody. Until the '80's, Mike's worst. 

I more or less agree. Maybe agree less on 15BO and after but for some reason I hate I Was Made to Love Her. I love Carl's voice and maybe that makes it worse for me. It is a place Carl's voice shouldn't have gone imo. But I digress, this is about Mike.

You ain't Mike Love. No one else is here, either, including me. There is no comparison to be made. I don't know what the deal is with you saying words such as "kewl" and "doods" in posts responding to me. I am fairly old as well, and much smarter than you, so the terms don't apply.

Gotcha Mikie. That's probably about when I dropped out of PSML too.

I'm on a roll, I also didn't mean to imply that you were a PSMLy fan. Not that there is anything wrong with it....I meant...aw, I'm gonna shut up.

I'd love to hear a clear version of Sumahama off First Love.  The spoken Japanese bit kills the one on LA for me.

Relatability? Really? A brand new word from Space Cadet! (must be a Myke fan)  :o

Seriously? I LOVE that song, and Carl's voice on it. Listen to the 'coz i love my baby, love my baby' vocal on the extended version and the WH sessions - stunning!

I agree that it's a great track, but as much as I love Carl's voice - I would say it's only the 5th or 6th best track on WH, and it can't best Stevie's original.

Check this out:

I Was Made To Love Her.  Beach Boys version.  With the "All through thick and thin, our love just won't end,
 'cause I love my baby, love my baby. Ah!" section copied and inserted from the Beach Boys Rarities album.  In stereo.

If you can't find it, make your own from bootlegs.  It sounds fantastic!!

Hey, hey, hey.......you son of a bitch!   ;D

I was thinking the other day, wondering what it'll be like when Mike dies. I wonder if the d00d will ever get his due instead of the piles and piles of flaming bullshit folks have made up for him. The guy who prevented Smile from being finished (despite being one of the people who worked to finish it), the guy who made Brian mentally ill, the guy who could "only" sing - because being a working, touring, and recording singer doesn't take a a lot of talent and isn't extremely taxing on the body or anything - typical rawk 'n' roller bullshit thinking, etc. etc. etc. etc.

Not the guy who wrote lyrics for the majority of their most well-known songs (another extremely under-appreciated talent - writing lyrics! Not easy), not the guy who wrote the entirety of the "Good Vibrations" lyrics (how's that for being anti-Smile?), not the guy who expressed concern but ultimately trusted Brian's judgement and sang his ass off on the Pet Sounds and Smile material, not the guy who had a handful of brilliant songs all his own (see thread), not the guy who, while not being a Brian or Carl in the voice department (who the f*ck is?), still delivered a number of great and sometimes stunning lead vocals in his time, leads that probably would not have been as good if handled by anyone else in the band. Nop. d00d could do nothing but leech off Brian's talents.

I'm not gonna say the guy was a saint at all, but the amount of sh*t thrown his way is really baffling. People need a scapegoat no matter the situation, it seems. Sadly, I don't see many people coming around even after he has passed.

:lol

^_^

I'd imagine that when Mike dies, there will be a sentimental piece on CNN.com, a blurb in your local newspaper, a mention on Good Morning America.  The man will be remembered.  Of course, he will in no way be remembered by the media/general public in the same way that Brian will be, but he WILL be remembered and revered and respected.  Sure, a bunch of YouTube idiots will cuss him out as the worst thing that every happened to the Beach Boys.  But I can't imagine the average fan will bash him after his death. 

He deserves his due.  He has changed, in my eyes, his attitude greatly these last few years.  I never really did like Mike Love.  I sort of have this real sentimental feeling towards him now.  Like, "Yeah, I forgive you Mike for acting like such a jerk all those years".  I don't know.  I'm sure Mike could care less if *I* or anyone else forgives him.  But it makes me feel better.  I think he genuinely cares for his cousin, the fans, and his legacy. He's doing it right this time around with this tour, and if this is the last thing people remember of Mike Love and his involvement with the Beach Boys, then that will leave them feeling with a fond feeling toward Mike.

God bless the man, he's been doing this for so long.

That last line says it all. He kept the band alive for all these years. It wasn't Brian. We owe a great deal to him. I only hope that no one second guesses my life especially while I'm still trying to live it.

If it wasn't for Brian, Mike wouldn't be touring right now with all those songs to sing for 2 1/2 hours.

Brian could have been sitting on his ass collecting residuals from CD sales and publishing royalties if he wanted to. Instead, he's been touring for the past 12 years entertaining crowds world wide with some great music and not making a lot of money at it.

And who wrote the lyrics to most of those songs? Lyrics which probably contributed greatly to their popularity given the era they came out of? imo imo imo

It's useless! Someone's just gonna say the lyrics don't matter much or Brian must've have heavily contributed to them no matter what the case. Even songs that are accepted to be mainly Mike's work, people act like they were there in the room with Brian and Mike and just know that whatever song in question is 90% Brian!

I'd be willing to bet that Mike was also contributing vocal melodies along with lyrics. I never hear this discussed.

  I remember reading an interview with Carl Wilson in what was probably the Sept 1983 issue of MUSICIAN. (Swiped it from my high school library at the beginning of 12th grade.) He said something along the lines of "It's not widely known but Michael had a hand in the vocal arrangements." Maybe someone can verify or validate this quote.

 This reunion is really something...it's turning me into a Mike Love apologist/fan!

Me neither.  Ever.  I've only seen/heard Mike comment many times on Brian's great ability at vocal arrangement and harmony.  If he had a hand in it, with his ego, don't you think he would have given himself credit for the vocals by now?  Or maybe he's yet to sue Brian again - this time for credit with vocal arrangements.  ;D

I wouldn't doubt that Mike had a hand in arranging vocals for his solo albums, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he contributed a couple of things for the Beach Boys sessions (i.e. MIU).  But whatever he knows, he knows from being around Brian.

I used to only like Brian before I found out about this site, in fact I actually labelled The Beach Boys on my ipod under Brian Wilson! :lol Through this forum i've found out a lot more about the Beach Boys and know that it was the contributions of all the Beach Boys and Mike in particular who made the group so great. Its when I see comments such as this on youtube that annoy me:

"Mike was the reason the band broke up. Brian was a total genius songwriter, and he wanted to move the band in a more artistic direction, but Mike only wanted fame and to make hits. He can be summed up with his famous quote "Don't f*ck with the formula, Brian." He hated Pet Sounds and tried to stop the band from making it, and successfully stopped the band from making SMiLE (until recently, because he needs the money). He bullied Brian because Brian was too crazy and nice to fight back."

::)

 Do you remember that Fall 1983 MUSICIAN feature? I'd forgotten about it until Erik's post rang a bell in my head. Do I think Mike Love was primary in the vocal melodies? No.

Y'know, this is a _very_ good point. Generally, when you have a lead vocalist (Mike) who writes lyrics to tracks (which he often did), that vocalist does play a role in fashioning the vocal melodies. Case in point, someone like Michael Stipe. Or any number of other guys who do the same thing. It makes sense. I mean, I don't doubt that Brian did the chorus melodies, and he probably knew the feel he wanted in the verse, but yeah, I can totally see Mike having input in that way.


I wouldn't doubt this either. I don't know about the arrangements for the full band, but I can easily imagine Mike suggesting do-wop style bass parts. And we know he contributed vocal hooks, too, so that probably counts.

No, but I gotta find it.  The only one I remember is Musician magazine with Brian on the cover. 1985, I think.

When Mike dies I would hope a Bill Hinche dvd is released in the vain of Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson. Also perhaps a book called 'The Guy Who Thought He Was the Beach Boys' by Jon Stebbins. I think there is a lot of interesting facts that haven't been heard by the masses. But Mike being too private a person to let a book like that get released. Although, the Carl estate perhaps still wants his privacy protected. So perhaps a revealing book like for Brian, Dennis and Dave would never be aloud for the other guys? But my selfish curiousity would love to learn more behind Mike and Carl.

I remember something like this too. Was it excerpted in one of Kingsley Abbott's books?

I never said he was primary! But it is not crazy at all (well, outside the realm of Beach Boys fandom) to consider the possibility that whoever is writing lyrics is also figuring out how they are to be sung. I'm just saying it's possible (and in my experience writing songs alone and with others: it is actually highly likely) and anyone who KNOWS otherwise is kidding themselves.... And I don't just apply this logic to Mike but also Gary Usher, Tony Asher, VDP and whoever else.... Though, with Mike it's especially likely considering he was a singer in the freaking band he was contributing lyrics for....

I suppose we'll just have to wait for the touching eulogy OSD doubtless has prepared for the truth to be told finally.

this is scanned in the media section under magazine scans.....here is a link to the page it is on...

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,10376.25.html

:lol :lol

Carl: "It's not widely known, but Michael had a hand in a lot of the arrangements. He would bring out the funkier approaches, whether to go shoo-boo-bop or bom-bom-di-did-did. It makes a big difference because it can change the whole rhythm, the whole color and tone of it."

"Brian drove Mike crazy. Mike would be in the middle of a lead vocal and Brian would stop it, the others told Brian they loved it, but Brian would 86 it and do it again!"

Thanks, Steve!   Good memories, Moon Dawg and Steve!