The Smiley Smile Message Board

https://open.spotify.com/album/3bDPASvPa8Ev18ZUbXPrBt?si=-yBvhXZUT6-6LbgmjgC6_g

It's real.

Finally, Mike's beloved ode to muff diving can be heard by a new generation. Fans rejoice; Rockin' the Fan in the Boat

Looking at the lyrics it looks like something more manual

Ah well; it *is* a ‘digital release’ after all...

I didn't think Irving Azoff would start with this 

What's interesting is that, According to Amazon, this went up on February 16th. Two days before the Iconic Artists deal was announced.

The company behind this release—43 North Broadway—is one of the intellectual property vultures that has gained notoriety in the last few years from buying up defunct independent labels and then putting out these slipshod digital releases. They must have acquired Boardwalk’s assets at some point. Probably can safely assume that Mike/the BBs’ camp/Iconic had nothing to do with the release. Haven’t fully taken the time to examine this new digital version of LBWL but I think I’ve already noticed the left and right channels have been swapped from the original release.

Might be worth bringing up that 43 North Broadway’s legal standing regarding whether they actually the rights to the material they put out occasionally gets called into question… here’s a Washington Post article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/it-was-the-first-entirely-black-run-jazz-company-in-decades-but-was-black-jazz-records-actually-owned-by-a-white-guy/2020/08/26/a8c764be-e211-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html) detailing lawsuits they’re facing over the rights to the Black Jazz record label. I also noticed recently that 43 North Broadway put out a version of the Buckinghams’ Kind Of A Drag album on streaming services even though Columbia Records also has a version on streaming services (after Columbia acquired the rights to Kind Of A Drag from the independent label USA Records back in the ’60s). Hence my skepticism about any involvement with the Mike Love camp on this LBWL reissue…

:pirate :h5 :rock :thud :tm :spin :whatever :shrug :ahh :o ::) :lol

Crazy confession..:.I actually really like about 3/4 of this, especially on and on and on, and the last three songs.

You're not alone. I wouldn't use the word love, but some of this album is definitely a guilty pleasure, same with some of SIP.

I'm also quite fond of SIP. That's the good thing about music. Even a thing that a critic would destroy has it's merits as long as somebody gets some joy out of it.

Yep, same here - Always thought the vocals were superb, great production (other than the crap drums) but just a shame about some of the material
OH and a superb sleeve

Mike’s version of Teach Me Tonight was always a guilty pleasure of mine.

I guess this is my excuse to finally give this thing a listen. I've seen used copies in stores recently, but they weren't in the best shape.

If this thing is ever given a digital release for purchase I'd probably snag "Be My Baby" and "Paradise Found" perhaps. I do wonder why it's available for streaming but not purchase. I also really do wonder if it's legal. Anybody interested in contact Michael Edward Love or his people for their take on this?

Anyways, maybe I'll give this album a listen later. I had some old mp3s from a while ago that I never really dug into, so maybe it's time to get the album more of a chance. Obviously it doesn't have a great reputation at all, however there are some folks on this board whose taste I pretty much trust who have a soft spot for this album.

The very strange thing is when on Spotify, take a look at the artist listing for the album. Yes it states "Mike Love", yet it's a wholly different Mike Love artist listing compared to his other releases like UTL.

That's very, very weird, and almost comical that this discrepancy has gone unnoticed both by fans as well as whatever people in a corporate office who uploaded the songs to Spotify

"One Good Reason" was the Huey Lewis and the News formula before Huey Lewis!  (quick, call the lawyers!! lol)

"Lookin' Back With Love is the name of the new Mike Love album, and with the lame album cover and the even lamer in store display piece, we're sure to sell zero units - in Februrary!"   :lol

 :lol

Also on YT Music if you don't have Spotify:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mz57M2TockrnwTSAEPav6O0cq4foNZtn4

Still not on Apple Music.

Mike was not interested in having this album reissued on CD, let alone in high def.  He was approached several times by a legit CD reissue label and declined to proceed with a digital release.

I have a vinyl rip of it, but I am currently listening to the Spotify release now. I like about half this album, but I think there should have been more Beach Boys involvement personally.

It wouldn't have been a solo album for him if there was more Beach Boys inclusion, right?

As bad/mediocre/awful/sometimes guilty pleasure OK that this album is throughout, it's far more listenable relatively speaking to my ears than any other solo efforts that Mike has put out. Ironic that this would be the one he wants to bury.

Shame to hear. I quite enjoy the album, and it's a gaping hole in my CD collection. At least I have it on vinyl.

Really? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but do you have sources for this? I mean, with the amount of goofy Mike Love artifacts out there, it's interesting that as CenturyDeprived basically said, this would be the thing Mike would wanna bury and keep away from easy public consumption.

Also I know I've been on this one for a while, but it's also a shame that there is nothing available digitally from Mike's band Celebration except for the appearance of the song "Almost Summer" on a CD called (yep, you guessed it) Guilty Pleasures. Even if the whole Almost Summer soundtrack couldn't be licensed, one would thing there coulda been a Celebration anthology released with the all their songs from that soundtrack along with along with their self-titled album. Best to forget Disco Celebration though. Maybe leave that in obscurity.

I know there's a moment in the 1989 BBs campfire sessions where Mike seems to want to bury the LBWL album when Brian brings it up. It's pretty shocking to hear the album as obscure as that brought up by Brian almost a decade later.

Mike seems genuinely embarrassed, although he plays it off in a joking manner. Granted that was 32 years ago, but that's some decent evidence that he's certainly not proud of that work, and I don't think it ever got well reviewed or had many fans. 

How Mike could years later give the greenlight to any number of other more recent atrocities that he has released under his own name baffles the mind, because it would seem that at one point he at least expressed the ability to be embarrassed by his own work when it was substandard.

I was going to mention that same moment - Mike was clearly embarrassed by the mention of it.

I suspect - and have read, although I'm very much paraphrasing - that in the wake of Dennis' solo effort Mike was quite jealous of all the positive attention Dennis got. No surprise there. Suddenly within about a year of Pacific Ocean Blue - Mike has 2 albums worth of unreleasable solo material ready to go - and no-one would distribute it!!

I seem to remember also that there was a bit of an issue that arose when Mike was away doing the Maharishi's TM Sidhis course and the CBS contact was signed - precluding the release of solo albums. I think Mike may have been furious. This is just from memory, but I'm sure it's in Steven Gaines' book.

Point being, I think Mike was desperate to go solo -at that time- and then when his album didn't sell I think he realised solo albums were never going to be his strong suit! There's also the quote from, I think, the press conference after Dennis' death. Something like "We are not disbanding. We have tried specialisation, it doesn't work as well as the togetherness of the group". That one appears in the An American Band doco towards the end.

Interestingly, post Mike's album and pre Dennis' death, in the middle there is the Mike and Dean era and also the 1982 recordings with Adrian Baker.

You're absolutely right, I had totally forgotten about those unreleased solo albums that were presumably deemed unreleasable by labels that came *right in the wake of POB*. No way that timing is a coincidence.

It's remarkable because it really shows an instance of Mike nearly identically doing what he would do many years later when Brian solo shows got much better reviews than Mike... Mike would then decide to "up his game" and try to get competitive, lest he be outshined by the Wilson's to a degree that was too large for his ego to handle.

Interesting to think that as mediocre, which is to be generous, as the LBWL album is, it was something like the third and only successful attempt by Mike to get an album released.

The fact that he had recently tried a country album - and so quickly abandoned that genre - really makes it seem like he was having an identity crisis much like the character Buck Swope, played by Don Cheadle, did in the film Boogie Nights. And much like Buck eventually got absorbed back into the adult business which was his bread and butter, so did Mike soon do the same with being absorbed back into the band when nothing else worked.

I think I better clarify something. It was Carl who makes the togetherness comment I wrote about above.

Don't want to be thought to suggest it was Mike speaking.

I recall Mike saying "I'm not against it" in response to this question in an interview or fan chat a few years back.

Looks like LBWL has been pulled from download/streaming services. Wonder if 43 North Broadway got in trouble? :-[

My pet theory is that Iconic has bought the rights and are preparing a deluxe reissue for its 50th anniversary this October

please include session excerpts . . . please include session excerpts. . .

Disc 3 Track 12: Rockin' the Man In The Boad (Writing Session Highlights) [11:49]

That Mike has released 37 solo albums in the last five years but still hasn't pushed for LBWL isn't surprising. When Brian brings "Looking Back With Love" up during that '89 campfire bit, this is Mike's reaction:

(https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/200291479_2891953864407958_7949973781668566491_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=OVvLjyYf02sAX96EXE0&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=47a63bb10d232528e42fcaabd547bf14&oe=60CFE305)

 :o

The album is back up on streaming sites.


Also if you, "Big Daddy," know this or any of the other posters on here, does the digital version actually have reversed stereo channels from the original release? I know it would mean listening to two versions of this album in succession to find it, but does anybody know?

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTO55Z9lyoIZDEYqBQffCQVCJ2rxTwuxF0KAA&usqp=CAU)

Paradise Found is a rather lovely track. A minor classic in the weird, limited world of early 80s Beach Boy music.

Definitely the best song on the album. Either that or "Be My Baby" but I don't know if I'd call it a minor classic. A pretty good song though.

I kind of like Paradise Found. There's something weirdly satisfying about "Looking Back with Love," the song, too. Like there's a decent song trying to get out, and not quite making it... but then that smooth 80s production almost makes up for it, but not quite... Be My Baby, on the other hand... I dunno, I know Brian had a hand in it, but unlike some of the other 70s and 80s Specter covers, it just doesn't work for me. It's light years away from the covers on 15 Big Ones... and when you're falling way short of the *covers on 15 Big Ones*, I mean, at that point you're making some pretty bad music......

As I mentioned in (I believe) another thread not too long ago, “Looking Back With Love” is kind of an “MIU Album” without any other BB involvement (save whatever remains of a Brian contribution to “Be My Baby”). It’s solidly but not remarkably produced, competently recorded, it has competent but bland backing vocals, and it has a mixture of “not so bad”, neutral, and “not so great” songs, with one of Mike’s trademarks: Okay-but-not-great songs with somewhat worse lyrics. The most interesting thing about the lyrics, both okay and bad, are that *most* of them on this album are *not* written by Mike.

The title track has that sort of late 70s/early 80s yacht rock swing, and a good hunk of the album has that sort of almost-warm but still sterile late 70s/early 80s rock ballad sort of sound. The title track’s lyrics are sing-song-ish and pretty bad. It almost transcends “bad” and becomes some kind of special performance art to not only have *outside writers* write you lyrics like “good vibrations, assassinations”, but then also go on TV and mime the song and make a “gun shooting” motion with your hand when you get to that line.

The whole project is kind of morbidly interesting and fascinating, right down to the cover art. Despite the relatively obscure nature of the album, and despite Mike’s ego even concerning underperforming or bomb projects, it’s fascinating that Mike has just deleted this entire thing from his memory banks. Even fans that don’t like Mike and/or this album seem to give it more consideration and thought than he does.

While it may or may not fully be the case, the sequence of events concerning this album (Dennis getting a solo deal and doing one first, Mike writing a couple albums that went unreleased, and then Mike mostly hiring other people to write and produce a solo album for him that could get released) gives the impression that Mike's attitude was sort of "some of the other guys got solo deals, I want one!", and then he did it, got it out of his system, and never thought much about it again.

Make no mistake, if anything off this album had somehow hit big, we would have never heard the end of it. But nobody cared about the album, Mike has even *less* connection to the material because he didn't write much of it, so it flew *extra* under the radar over the years.

Mike literally even *looked* different than the album cover within a few months of it, which now makes me wonder if he ditched the beard at least in small part to just cleanse that album from his aura or whatever.

If nothing else Mike is a fairly sharp business man. He knows that the only real success he could ever have or will ever have is the associated with using the name the beach boys. Mike love as a solo artist would never and will never succeed

He had a certain amount of financial success, or at least some additional desirable cash, by doing his private gigs over the years. Throughout the 80s and 90s he was doing side gigs with his "Endless Summer Beach Band." Though, this was less about the star power of "Mike Love", and more about having a machine in place to essentially use some of the BB touring muscle to present a "tribute band" show with an actual BB.

It always seemed as if most of his non-BB work, especially post-70s, was an extra side hustle for some extra easy money. Those Adrian Baker remake CDs sold at gas stations and given away at car dealerships, the "Mike & Dean" gigs, the Endless Summer gigs, etc.

He was into the "Endless Summer Beach Band" gigs enough that he actually missed legit "Beach Boys" shows in 1990 to tour Japan with his side band.

Once he got a license in 1998 after doing some gigs as the "California Beach Band" to use the BB name, there was obviously little need to do side gigs. The main benefit would still be not having to pay any license fee to BRI. I'd actually be curious to know when the last time was that Mike did a "California Beach Band/Endless Summer Beach Band" gig outside of the Beach Boys. I know he has occasionally made "solo" appearances at events, but those are usually personal appearances with whatever band is the house band. He's done a few political gigs in recent years like that. But when was the last time he did his side gigs where it's basically most of the touring band minus Bruce?

I think the actual solo studio albums of new material have been varying forms of ego workouts. The '81 album seemed to be a "I want a solo album too!" thing after Dennis (and eventually Carl) put solo albums out. His more recent onslaught of solo albums starting with "Unleash the Love" in 2017 seem to also be driven by ego, but a more mild form where he seems to want to assert some sort of artistic sensibility even though I'm sure he knows these albums aren't going to be another "Kokomo." It probably helps as well that he's able to sort of muddy the waters by essentially presenting his new solo stuff in concert as "Beach Boys" material by playing it incessantly at "Beach Boys" shows.

Maybe one day, we will be fortunate enough to get a ‘Very Best of Mike Love’ solo compilation.

Imagine that ...  ;D

I would call it ‘All the Love in Paradise’

What would be your track list??

I'm sure he would license Kokomo for that set. Amazing that he didn't remake it for Unleash the Love.

As easy as it is to give Mike sh*t (deservedly) about either his personal politics or musical tendencies, I would be pretty hyped for a Mike Love Anthology style collection, compiling some of his lesser-known gems among his classic Beach Boy contributions. He's put out a lot of material I would rate poor-to-middling over the years, but I think there's certainly at least one full CD worth of solid/enjoyable/fun material out there...

Indeed. It could include the long-awaited mother lode - the official release of First Love and Country Love ...

both in full surround!!

We all know these puppies make Smile look like a bunt instead of a grand slam ...

Gimme "Wrinkles"