The Smiley Smile Message Board

Bad hats and receding hairlines, oh my! Mike Love!

Some of the greatest lead vocals and lyrics in music history, oh my.

*You know, as hard a time as we may give him, I saw the Beach Boys a lot in the eighties- their silver age as a live band- and always thought Mike was just a really great front man.  He was engaging and entertaining and always 100% into it- with the result that the audience always was as well.  Most impressively, he didn't come off as just repeating the same shtick every single night (though I'm sure he must have to some extent).  Even stuff like introducing the car medley always felt surprisingly fresh and spontaneous because he was into it and seemed to be enjoying himself.

If there's any justification to all the overexposure and the inevitable devaluing of the live act that followed, it's this: he never, ever phoned it in that I know of.  Every other band I saw as much- including the Who- did on occasion, but not Mike.

* "All I Wanna Do" is probably my favorite song on Sunflower.

* "She makes the Indy 500 seem like a Roman chariot race, now"- I love that line as much now as I did when I was seven.

Wonderful post.

A lot of my earliest childhood memories are of listening to Beach Boys songs and almost all of them had Mike leads. How can I not love the man for what he did? He's such a huge part of my life. Lawsuits aside, he's a great entertainer and a great man.

This is kind of hard for me. I don't really have any great love for him. I mean there are 5 guys in the BB (7 if you count Chaplin and Fataar) who, in my mind were far more talented than Mike.  And as far as being a frontman goes..... Dennis was far more charismatic than Mike.  On a track like Do You Wanna Dance or (going back earlier) something like Surfer's Rule show that Dennis could sing the uptempo early BB numbers every bit as well, if not better than Mike could.  I wonder what the perception of the BB would have been if the sex symbol had been the frontman instead of balding, goofy hat-wearing dork.

But what Mike does deserve credit for were his contributions to Brian's early music. Warmth Of The Sun for example. It's a shame that he felt so threatened when Brian started handing out leads to Al and Carl.  It's a shame that he let his insecurity get in the way of the band's progress.

His later contributions to the Sunflower, 20/20, Holland and Wild Honey albums were just as stellar.

Those were Carl's babies. One of the reasons I like those records because there's so little of Mike.

So little? He's in all the harmonies and sings 4 leads on Wild Honey, 3 leads on 20/20, 3 on Sunflower, 2 on Surf's Up, and 2 on Holland. He's there.

For whatever reason, i can easily seperate the harsh feelings I have for Mike's lawsuits from his music.  I think he was a big part of the band on many recordings, and even if you want to pigeon hole him into being all over the early stuff exclusively... then you have to explain exactly what's so wrong about Little Deuce Coupe... or California Girls... or Surfin' U.S.A.... or any of the what, dozens of great Mike Love lead vocals.  We all talk about the lesser known songs and the later, more creative? music a lot, but I don't think there's many on the board who don't mark out and sing along when they hear "I Get Around" on the radio. 

Plus, just HOW COOL is "Wellll, I saved my pennies.. and I saved my dimes....."

He wrote almost all the words for Honey, which is way more Brian than Carl.

I agree with Ian, Wild Honey is such a Brian Wilson record in its style and its sense of humor. That, Pet Sounds, and Love You. It's like the great triumvirate.

Very interesting that you mention this.

One of my absolute FAVORITE things about the Beach Boys is their once line up.

You had:

Brian the artistic, handsome, funny, reserved guy.
Carl the quiet, pudgy, handsome, soft spoken guy
Al the studious, reserved, elf of a man
Mike the "Goofy hat wearing dork".
Dennis the sex symbol, handsome, sexy, the all round Bond figure in the group.

That's the line-up in my head when I picture the Beach Boys. Sometimes I include Bruce and the later main stays, mostly not. Those five people paint such an interesting picture of a band. Full of differences, similarities, DNA, and fun. I love Mike because he was the goofy guy who danced funny while guitar solo's were being played. I love Al because he's that little man whose hand you just want to shake for ten minutes.

I'm sure many other people love this diversity and don't shun the group because one person is a little odd.

I fulfill that role in my band too!

I will too once I start balding.

Mike's vocals on Girl From New York City is freakin' awesome.  His distinctive voice is an important ingredient in the Beach Boys stew.

Mike Love: Amazing singer and writer. Poor human being.

The coolest guy ever  ::)

I agree with Katie!!!!

Wholeheartedly!

The day ML high fives Katie is the day I'll worship His Baldheadedness!

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I've heard at least two seperate people say that they've high-fived by Mike.  No joke.  The man is very generous with fans, as many fans who weren't looking for a reason to hate him before they went backstage will testify to.


Yeah, well me too.

I said the day he high fives Katie......

She'd have to seek him out, wouldn't she?

And you obviously missed her rolling eyes emoticon.

I missed Sly's mohawk.

It'd be nice to keep this as an appreciation thread for Mike.  There are so many multiple threads at all times for all the other stuff (someone's probably starting another one right now), you'd like to think that one thread could be spared to focus on the positive. 

In that vein, I'll single out "Wild Honey" and "Darlin'" as two more great sets of lyrics.  He held his own with Bob Hope and Jack Benny.  And his dance with Annette in the "Monkey's Uncle" title sequence is one of my favorite moments in all of Western Civilization.

Mike: "Sandy, baby, it's time we said goodbye..." Brian; "...said good-byyyyyye...."....it doesn't get any better than that.

Like the button on my lapel says, I Like Mike.

Another all-time high-moment- "Good To My Baby"- wow, what a great song, great performance from Mike's opening bass part to the end.  Wish they'd done that one live.

Brian did it, does that count?

Oh, yeah- was it one of the pre-shows or something?  Great song...would have loved to hear them tackle it in the seventies, though Brian's voice would have been missed.

They did it unplugged, I suppose that's what you mean by pre-show.