The Smiley Smile Message Board

There are several stories about how Brian met and started working with his non-BB collaborators (from Gary Usher to Joe Thomas and everyone in between), but how did Mike start working with Terry Melcher? I know they knew each other since the 60s, but it seems like they didn't do anything together until the 80s. Were they always good friends? If Mike was looking for a new collaborator, how come he didn't turn to Bruce? By then he was a Grammy award winning songwriter, he was the other half of Bruce and Terry (if that's the sound that Mike was drawn to), and they seem to get along just fine. I hope Mike devotes a chapter or two to his relationship with Melcher in his upcoming book. Until then, what do you guys know?

Bruce got Mike and Terry together in the hopes they could write songs, and the rest is history.

Didn't he writes some lyrics for Don't Run Away?

People sometimes bring up the question of why didn't/doesn't Mike write with Bruce like it's one of the Great Beach Boys Mysteries. The most likely answer is they tried but it didn't work. You can't necessarily get two songwriters to jell together.

Terry once described his songwriting partnership with Mike as something akin to karate: apparently meaning there was a lot of dynamic back-and-forth, give-and-take.

  Bruce has generally written solo.

Maybe starting in the late 60's/early 70's; before that he seems to have mostly had co-writers. 

I asked David Crosby (an admitted fan of neither men) about the Love/Melcher partnership and he told me that it made perfect sense to him, and that they were more similar to each other than not.

What is Cros' beef with Terry Melcher? I thought he worked very well with the Byrds.

Was Dennis and Terry also friends?

<<I asked David Crosby (an admitted fan of neither men) about the Love/Melcher partnership and he told me that it made perfect sense to him, and that they were more similar to each other than not.>>

Fascinating, especially as Crosby had a rep as being an absolute asshat in those days... with an out of control ego.  More evidence of same can be found during bonus recording session highlights included on the CD re-issue of Notorious Byrd Brothers, wherein he humiliates drummer Michael Clarke almost to the point of a fist fight.   His rants on the Byrds section of the Monterey Pop Festival are also a treat.

That may have been the case and the examples are noted, but depending on who you're talking too David was also sort of the unofficial, underground "mayor" of the LA music scene for a period of time in the 60's...he knew everyone, or seemed to, at least around 65-67. Like a "Zelig" character, he turns up everywhere. Consider that somewhat lesser-known newsreel of the Beatles at an LA press conference when they hit town on tour, Crosby is seen standing in the shadows to the point where a reporter even asks the Beatles who he was. Consider who had access like *that*.

And he was also involved in the first time Van Dyke Parks met Brian

Terry and Crosby did not get on at all during the making of the first two Byrds albums. I also read somewhere once that Croz talked Roger Mcguinn into dumping Melcher as his producer halfway through the making of his solo debut.

Terry and David were like two heads on the same coin, David had the "political" influence on the streets and Terry had the influence and power with Columbia, aka "in the business" of music and meetings and all of that. They could make things happen in different ways at least for the times we're talking about, 65-67 especially.

Was Rock n Roll to the Rescue written during the 85 sessions or done specifically for Made in the USA ?

I like Brian's voice BETTER on 85 Album than on R&R to the rescue.   His voice sounds very weird on that song,an otherwise potentially good BB song.    Terry Melcher had a very interesting career and was around or involved in the making of some classic music.  I wonder sometimes how much his mother's connections were involved in getting him his break into the business.    Also, I don't recall ever reading how he and Bruce met and how their partnership  developed.

here's the croz/clarke fight mentioned earlier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAxCQX_oDbg

Bruce in fact co-wrote 'Somewhere Near Japan' with Terry, Mike, and John Phillips. Don't know why it was just a one-shot.

Mike and Terry could have used the help on their SIP songs, and it wasn't like Bruce was generating songs his own. Maybe a Love/Johnston pairing wouldn't jell, but I would have expected some Love/Johnston/Melcher credits --and it is a minor mystery why we never got them.

Yep! Along with Gregg Jakobson, charter members of the Golden Penetrators.

Worth mentioning that Melcher was also  a big part of some awesome Paul Revere and the Raiders singles.

Our Car Club, to the next level  :lol

I wonder if they had any custom G.P. t-shirts printed up… "Keep it clean with Al Jardine" style.

Yes. Before they met Melcher, they were an awesome live band, but hadn't really translated that to vinyl. The combination of their energized playing, Mark Lindsay's impressive vocals and Melcher's studio know-how made for some great records.

you know The Melch was buying everyone the best coke in Laurel Canyon with that Doris Day money

This might possibly be the dumbest question I have ever asked but is there a source for this information?

Charlie Manson?

Doris Day was infamously taken severe financial advantage of by one of her husbands, in the late '50s or early '60s if memory serves. So I'm not sure she was as loaded with bucks around then as one might otherwise think.

Maybe not Terry...maybe Mama Cass' boyfriend, still pretty close to the circle.  Seems to be all kinds of crossover encounters between Family and Victims.

IIRC, it was her son who helped her with her finances after that.

Terry did a heck of great job helping his mom out with her finances in that time. But this was the first time that I heard of him spending that money on cocaine. This sort of thing wouldn't really rub Mike the right way - plus - I really doubt that he would have wasted good cocaine on a bum like Charlie Manson as was implied previously. But stranger things have happened in the BB universe.

I was jk y'all. I also made up the name "The Melch.'

The Melchster?