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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-ms-mike-love-beach-boys-on-brian-wilson-20121004,0,261746.story

Discuss.

Nevermind.  I swear I checked first!

Thanks for posting the link.

Excellent, straightforward and thorough.

Mike explained why he was not vested with the authority to fire fellow founding bandmates.

No surprises but a sincere explanation. Well done Mike.

Nice work by Mr. Love. And it clarifies what I believed to be true from the beginning.  That plans for Mike to continue his configuration of the band were agreed upon after the reunion tour ended. The only thing I didn't like is that nowhere does Mike mention his desire to work with his bandmates in the future. Although I imagine he hasn't closed the door on that possibility.  

Wow. After reading this I have a new-found respect for Mr Love. It's a rather nicely constructed explanation of the whole situation and his feelings about it. He seems sincere in his desire to set the record straight.

Well done Mike.

I agree, this is very well-put. Mike puts on his best face here.

 :grouphug

A very well stated article by Mike. It explains everything that we have discussed here over the past few weeks. It would be nice if Brian & Al put out a release backing the story. Mike really should not have had to take the heat for this mess. It is amazing that one comment by Brian, picked up by the press, blew this whole thing out of proportion.

I guess he just got really swept up in the whole thing. Suddenly he feels like a Beach Boy again, obviously enjoyed playing with Al, David and Mike again, and hoped it could continue.

Brian's not to blame for the 'sacking' myth.

Brian started the I don't understand why stuff in the CNN article. That touched off everything else. Wasn't blaming Brian, but the press ran with that quote and it got out of control after that.

It is a good article and I'm glad someone from the group finally set the record straight although given the speed at which news reaches people in 2012, it's still somewhat a day late and dollar short.  It does sound like the end of the group as a cohesive unit though.  That is obviously just my read on it but the vibrations that this could continue on with another smaller tour next summer right now seems like a distant whim.  Still looking forward to that tasty box set to keep us warm through the winter months.

Exactly.

Should the two threads be merged?

Really, though, who knows if he actually said that, and even if he did, I'd venture to guess it wasn't near the phrasing that was picked up by the press.

It doesn't matter if he actually said it, as that is what got into the press. The press picked that quote up and ran crazy with it.

Remember too, not one Beach Boy ever mentioned anything about being fired, but the press threw it out there like that. Even the heading in today's article says "...Wilson's firing".

Fair play, well written by Mike.

It's about damn time we got an explanation. Well said, Mike.

Very moving piece. Thank you Mike.

I wish Mike could put that same sensitive side of him into lyrics for a new record.

I don't think anybody in the band can be blamed for the media's laziness and penchant for exaggeration. That's on the media. I think most of them were lazy, and maybe a few knew Brian wasn't truly "fired", but were using extreme hyperbole to characterize a series of events which is nearly comical in how badly it was handled. A press release before the end of the reunion tour telling people you are going to continue touring without 3/5 of the band is not in any universe going to result in any positive reaction.

In any event, if we were to pinpoint where the debacle began from a PR/media standpoint, certainly it was Mike's press release that touched the whole thing off, and then it took off from there.

Hmm, good point. If an advertising guy could write the lyrics for "Pet Sounds," maybe a publicist can do "Pleasure Island."

Kidding, kidding! Stop with the kicking and punching, heeeey laaaady!

No, it wasn't Mike's fault. If the reunion hadn't been amended to add some 25 additional shows, the tour would have been over around mid-August. Not much for Mike to do considering the added London shows took the tour to September 28. What is worse: a press release letting people know, or pissing off unknowing concert goers?

In any case, it looks like he baked pissing people off into the cake. Especially those prone to be perennially pissy. Maybe the best course of action would've been to hold off booking M&B gigs until the conclusion of the tour, gauge the temperature a year later and give it an adequate buffer instead of immediately asserting dominance and benefiting from the added press by using the name.  Sure it was licensed and entirely within his rights to do so, but it still stinks from many vantage points even if they are well versed in the legal maneuvering and BRI intrigue backstory.

So what if "traditional gigs he always played" were off the table that year. I know, I know. What would Christian Love do with his time other than go to his Support Group for the Improbably Named? Might've helped avoid all this nonsense, tho.

Mike could've taken some advanced TM courses in the fall and winter, used his fatter bank account and yogic calm to write some good lyrics for Brian, maybe stay in LA for a spell to work with him like he always says he wants to do. Poor Nutty Jerry might not have been driven to drinking barbecue sauce straight out of the bottle.

Seriously, have you seen him lately? A broken man.

The shows were booked prior to the reunion tour. Man, we go around and around and around on this point. I swear it has to be selective memory issues when it comes to this point.

Well, don't book MORE. How many were booked before the reunion tour, anyway? Is that going to be the excuse for the next few years as well as to why they can't do anything together? Biloxi '14 is calling?

If the reunion tour had a finite end in the agreement, why would Mike cancel shows that were booked for after the reunion end date?

Do you really need an itemized list of the benefits of continuing a highly successful collaboration with the remaining original Beach Boys that led to a hit album, well received concerts, and tons of media exposure and waves of goodwill as opposed to playing Waco?

I know, he prefers doing that instead. So we have a difference of opinion! It's not the first time Mike Love did something I don't like nor the last. I'm looking at you, Country Love.

Still, it's a shame. I really liked him a lot more as a result of this reunion tour and appreciated his work over the decades more than I ever did before. So you're wrong about ML not being ever to change people's minds about him. He did for me this year! He's kinda pissing that away a bit now, however eloquent this piece.

it IS the same boring argument, tho.

"They were contractually obligated!"

"Sure. Nobody denies that. But it's just kind of foolish in light of this going so well."

"They were planned. Everybody knew this was going to happen. This was a one time only thing."

"Ah, it just doesn't have to be, tho. Why can't he swallow his pride a bit? He pays lip service to his cousin but doesn't want to keep touring with him? What's that about?"

"They were contractually obligated!"

"Sure. Nobody denies that..."

Be sure to catch more of this argument as it careens through the winter and most of 2013!

The reunion agreement was a contract. Shows were booked before agreement. Taking full band on the road after reunion tour means not enough money to pay everybody. Band gets pissed because they didn't get paid. Darian, Mikey and the rest can't feed their families. It is a business as much as it is an artistic venture. People need to get real about that side of it.

No one (well, as far as I can tell) has really harped on the existing October shows that had already been booked. I have argued they could have been cancelled perhaps, but regardless of that, what do the handfull of "already booked" shows have to do with Mike continuing to book shows? As I've said, if no more bookings pop up, then maybe these "what about the shows he already booked?" arguments will mean something. Otherwise, the issue isn't the small number of already booked shows, it's Mike's likely (which may be proven as definite) intention to continue booking shows and not doing more reunion shows. Will all of his shows be in "small markets?"

Aunt Audrey, eh?

While it largely doesn't matter, we don't know for sure that Mike/Bruce shows were booked specifically before the "reunion agreement" was even entered into. Mike may have not any non-reunion gigs booked at that point, giving Brian and Al some slight and largely unrealistic hope that Mike might forego his "contractual right" to not do more reunion stuff, and then at some point after Mike confirmed what was his contractual right was, which was to book shows afterward. Again, that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but we just don't know. It only matters if we believe maybe Brian and Al had some reason at some point to be hopeful Mike wouldn't do what he was technically allowed to do.

Further, we don't know the specific finances on either of these tours. "Not logistically or economically feasible" is open to interpretation. Maybe bringing such a band to small venues would mean reduced profits, but profits nonetheless. We don't know that there is or would be literally not enough money to pay band members. More to the point, Mike's statement doesn't address the possibility of any sort of compromise. It makes it sound like the choices are huge band/venues/cities, or small band/venues/cities.

They could maybe strip down the band a bit, maybe agree to smaller but still substantial profits, and a mixture of venue types.

Who could forget loveable Aunt Audrey and tyrannical-yet-heart-o-gold Uncle Murray. Surely the sixth and seventh Beached Buoys, respectively.

(Audrey Farber?)

I for one would have liked to see more mention in Mike's statement of Bruce Johnson and David Marx.

This topic is like beating a dead horse. If you don't get it after all these posts, you never will. My last post on the subject.

Same here, drbeachboy...I've already maxed out on this topic and with Mike's letter coming out today there really isn't any more new ground to cover here.  The reunion actually happened.  It's over now and we could possibly see them together again one day.  There's really nothing left to discuss.

Sorry but Give The People What They Want! Mike can fullfill his current obligations and then get together with Brian and the Boys next year. Give the fans a break! Keep it together!

If the reunion tour and album weren't so successful I could see why Mike would want to go back to his touring.

Life is short. The clock is ticking. Don't waste it.

Agreed. I'm going to lock this now.