I know this is something of an impossible question, but the guy just had an unreal voice in his prime, so I think it might be fun to try and pin down our ideas regarding what might just be Brian's all-time greatest vocal showcase (for himself)

My three choices are:

1. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.

.... This one might not be the most obvious choice, but as a singer myself (I'm being kind to myself here) who has sung this one on occasion: it's a toughie.... Brian sings strongly throughout, traversing great plains of emotion. Each subsequent section of the song sequence gains power vocally. There are peaks and valleys, but not in such a more typical fashion where the verses are more laid back before going into a big chorus. No, Brian starts out with great intent and merely builds on this to great effect and with seemingly little effort .... It's quite amazing to me how Brian (and the rest of The Beach Boys) are able to nail the art of singing like few before or since, while hardly ever applying obvious vocal technique/tricks/vibrato/etc etc.



2. I'm So Young

.... Another not so obvious choice, perhaps, but this being a doo-wop ballad cover thingy, it's very easy to lapse into imitative, shrill affect in such cases, but Brian manages to be true to the original's pitch yet pull off a reading with almost painfully true emotion and with an almost shocking amount of body in his voice.

Mike's similarly sincere bass singing and Dennis' tag also help elevate this past doo-wop time capsule stuff and into insane awesomeness.

3. I'd Love This Once To See You

.... Has Brian ever sounded so relaxed and natural before or since this little gem? ...... As amazing as his falsetto is, I can never get enough of Brian in full, calm, almost conversational voice.

I'd love to see a "Vibe Room" as part of fan "Club Kokomo" type packages ...

Like, a fan can pay to get the usual meet/greet/picture but also sit Mike n Bruce down for their own Q&A!

With this scenario some real questions might be asked!

There should also be an "Excitations Room"

.... Use your imagination for that one.

No!!! We'll be passing around a hat to ensure that OSD is the very first person in this Vibe Room.

Excitation Room will be on his own dime.

These guys go out of their way to take time to do something nice for the fans and all you can do it poke fun.  You stay classy, San Diego.

I'm curious, did you post or express anything of the sort in the lead up to Brian's double Q&A session here and on his own board? I saw the pure, unbridled nonsense that was flying around social media bashing the whole notion of doing a Q&A, bashing how Brian responds in interviews, bashing the people on this board and the board itself, and beyond. Just a bunch of bitter bile being spewed which I was unfortunate enough to read because I was (formerly until I got the hell out) in the same friend network as some of those spewing the bile. Not naming names.

Now we're wagging fingers? Stay consistent.

I think it is a terrific development to have actual band members embracing the fan community in these ways, and reaching out in their own way with various online events like this. I think it's natural too to let a few jokes fly, have a few laughs, etc. But when it went as far as some of the comments (not so much here but involving people who are or were here) went before Brian's session, and if it gets out of hand with this one, yeah - that's taking things beyond the boundary of appreciating a gesture from any of these band members to the fan base.

I don't think people who are in the mind to defend Mike see much need for defending Brian..... Certainly not on this board, at least. We have threads here entitled "In Praise Of Brian" .... There's no lack of praise or defense for Brian.... Mike, however, is a different story.

I agree that it's fantastic these guys are embracing such things as these Q&A's... Anyone dissing Brian is coming from a position of ignorance to the man, therefore I can only merely feel sorry for them.

I'd love to see a "Vibe Room" as part of fan "Club Kokomo" type packages ...

Like, a fan can pay to get the usual meet/greet/picture but also sit Mike n Bruce down for their own Q&A!

With this scenario some real questions might be asked!

There should also be an "Excitations Room"

.... Use your imagination for that one.

Rereading this... It's interesting that he doesn't go into much about the lyrics on side two. Which ones were involved in that lawsuit again, fact-check fans and percentage buffs?

Such an uncharacteristic attack of modesty for Michael Edward Love after a hard-fought battle to regain his credit, hmm? I guess he's just a sentimental sap.

I don't think it's feigned modesty, but Mike (or anyone else for that matter) can't talk about everything in the world all the time ..... Maybe it just didn't occur to him in the 50 seconds or whatever it took to do the interview....

As for In The Back Of My Mind, maybe it's the song/track itself that Mike doesn't relate to so much, rather than the lyrics .... Warmth Of The Sun is pretty much a doo wop ballad given a Beach Boys treatment. Totally up Mike's alley, and with gorgeous BB's harmonies. Same with Let The Wind Blow, to a different extent .... I happen to love ITBOMM and think Dennis nailed it, but not everyone, least of all Mike Love, agrees.

Who said he was BW circa 64? I just think he nailed it in Vegas and sounds way better than Foskett. It was a nice addition to the setlist and did justice to the song.

No wonder Mike thinks he can't do it live with Chocolate Shake Man. If you wanna talk shrill, there's a shrilly shriller that shrills.

I dont't think Mike meant that no one on earth can sinf SHe Knows Me So Well. He was just being complimentary. Regarding the lyrics to the songs and collaborations with Brian on that album, it's curious that Mike isn't more outspoken about them. My theory is that the bulk or the concept of the "introspective" songs is Brian's, while Mike contributes part of the lyrics, polished some of Brian's lyrical ideas, or contributed a hook-- like on Good To My Baby.

Just my two cents.

I think he just doesn't want to be know really for such things.... Not going to speculate on why, but I think he's just too happy being the "excitations" and Kokomo guy.... To each their own.

Probably. But goes on detail about Warmth of the Sun. And also at least once about Let the Wind Blow. Maybe he feels those on Today! are mainly Brian's.

These Beach Boys guys are a confounding lot!

Who said he was BW circa 64? I just think he nailed it in Vegas and sounds way better than Foskett. It was a nice addition to the setlist and did justice to the song.

No wonder Mike thinks he can't do it live with Chocolate Shake Man. If you wanna talk shrill, there's a shrilly shriller that shrills.

I dont't think Mike meant that no one on earth can sinf SHe Knows Me So Well. He was just being complimentary. Regarding the lyrics to the songs and collaborations with Brian on that album, it's curious that Mike isn't more outspoken about them. My theory is that the bulk or the concept of the "introspective" songs is Brian's, while Mike contributes part of the lyrics, polished some of Brian's lyrical ideas, or contributed a hook-- like on Good To My Baby.

Just my two cents.

I think he just doesn't want to be know really for such things.... Not going to speculate on why, but I think he's just too happy being the "excitations" and Kokomo guy.... To each their own.

Who said he was BW circa 64? I just think he nailed it in Vegas and sounds way better than Foskett. It was a nice addition to the setlist and did justice to the song.

No wonder Mike thinks he can't do it live with Chocolate Shake Man. If you wanna talk shrill, there's a shrilly shriller that shrills.

So, are you saying The Beach Boys used to hang out at Fosket's Freeze back in Hawthorne)

Can't really identify with In the Back of My Mind because it's moody and introspective? Come on, that's just lame... Actually the song might sound pretty great if Mike would attempt to sing it in concert these days.

Very pleasant interview overall, would love to see a similar one with him about the Wild Honey album!

Now, here's an example of a Mike "criticism" that we need more of .....

The point is gotten across, but there are some positive and useful suggestions here. Phirnis isn't afraid to outright say "That's just lame" which is honest and respectable, in my opinion. He's not trying to armchair psychologist us into seeing Mike as the devil, nor is he just bashing away at the guy.

Bravo.

I feel the group's music is probably best enjoyed if you manage to appreciate the individual personalities for what they contributed to the bigger picture. I wouldn't want them to be a group of all Brians, even though he's clearly my favorite. In general, Mike's inability to fully appreciate some of the more melancholy material baffles me sometimes (Summer's Gone comes to mind as another example) but then it probably makes perfect sense from the perspective of a distinctively extrovert/outgoing person who's seen the crowds go crazy whenever he happened to sing Fun Fun Fun or Surfin' USA over the course of the past five decades. Glad he has so many great things to say about all the other songs on Today.

Agreed with completely.

Couldn't the interviewer just ask "how do you mean?" after Mike's answer? Was Bruce standing there ready to pistol whip?

Pinder, what are you even talking about? This thread is hardly a bucket of bile right now. Someone just mentioned the Elvis album and DB tweaked the piece.  

Zappa is great and everything, but lay off on this brain police stuff. The mods here are just trying to keep everybody happy and referee all this feuding, it's a pain in the ass for them enough without you insulting them further. I mean, you got a temp ban for goading and pushing GF to a ridiculous degree. So you wanna start it up again and pretend they are suffocating your free speech? No need to keep digging that hole!

Yeah, it's always the Mike likers who do things like "goad" and "push"

It's only us!!!!

And I think it's fairly easy to see that Challenger and myself aren't so specifically taking about this thread, but rather where such threads seem to generally go.

For the record I'm on the same page here. Mike's comment regarding In The Back Of My Mind is beyond odd. "Too introspective?" .... This from the guy who wrote some great, introspective lyrics on the very same album? .... I'd imagine there's more to the story.

Oh, here we go again. Mike Love can do no good. He can't be complimentary either. It's starting to look like there IS hatred towards the man among fans, only disguised in freedom of opinion, the justice in pointing evil deeds by him or the fact that a certain group of people do not take the BBs as seriously as you do.

Yeah, here we go again. Let's nip one this in the bud before it starts a 20+ page skirmish based more on provocation than actual words posted.

There are hardly any comments so far to justify your comment, and if people react to the interview in ways you don't agree with, it's not at all justification for using terms like hatred or suggesting it's anything beyond posting reactions to the article.

Where have any of the posters above gone that far into this perceived "anti-Mike" territory enough to justify getting called out as it looks like they have been? This firing preemptive strikes against things that haven't even been said feels more like attempts to provoke an argument or shut people down rather than have a discussion, and one thing it won't do is succeed in keeping people away from posting reactions and opinions.

+1

I dunno ..... Are things really so clear and simple on a board where folks are regularly accused of being "anti-Brian Wilson?" ........ But I guess such an accusation is perfectly acceptable and understandable because surely everyone can relate to whatever holy moly motivation might inspire such an accusation when it comes to Brian, of course.

One thing we can all agree on ...... people posting their reactions and opinions won't stop unless the brain police resort to perma-bans.

And as for provoking arguments: have we seen some of the thread titles this board has been gifted?

Can't really identify with In the Back of My Mind because it's moody and introspective? Come on, that's just lame... Actually the song might sound pretty great if Mike would attempt to sing it in concert these days.

Very pleasant interview overall, would love to see a similar one with him about the Wild Honey album!

Now, here's an example of a Mike "criticism" that we need more of .....

The point is gotten across, but there are some positive and useful suggestions here. Phirnis isn't afraid to outright say "That's just lame" which is honest and respectable, in my opinion. He's not trying to armchair psychologist us into seeing Mike as the devil, nor is he just bashing away at the guy.

Bravo.

It's amazing that a guy who compliments Brian so much and so often should get any real criticism at all ....

Just my two cents.


Let the shelling continue 

Brian on The New Leave It To Beaver! 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MdwhxyYDXE

His lead on Cherry Cherry Coop is bad-ass

Cheers everyone, especially AGD, & C Man - honoured responses for me first post. I agree with Rocker that the drums on this sound unlike any drummer used by the Boys before, not Dragon, Blaine, Jim Gordon et al. It'd just be interesting to know who it was given - to my ears- the funky instinctive nature of it that I have not really heard in other BB songs.
And if AGD doesn't know, then this query is doomed!

There's no such thing as Andrew G. Doe(n't) Know 

Isn't the horse on the cover of Notorious Byrd Brothers alongside the remaining band members something of a dig at Crosby?

I think it's rather telling seeing who's not participating on this thread .....

Some folks really just don't like the Beach Boys

CSN(Y) do nothing for me, but strangely, I think Crosby's first solo album is ace and I love the Crosby/Nash stuff and Still's solo albums/Manassas.

Byrds, with and without Crosby are the shiznit!

Ya...I like Pitter Patter too.  Here Today is a Fav...and wait... ... ...let me find my full - metal, industrial-strength umbrella...I have always really enjoyed He Come Down.  THAT's spirituality.  It moves me.  YES I believe it.  Great job.  2nd last great album of new material until Smile finally got released and until year 50 gave us TWGMTR.

But anything after Pitter Patter?  That's a great big enn ohh --- NO.

I'd say Mike sounds great on Sumahama, Goin On, Getcha Back (OK, he doesn't sound that good on that track, but I sooo love the song), Somewhere Near Japan, Still Cruising, and like Kokomo or hate it, Mike sounds pretty smooth. I love him on Isn't It Time.

Not the greatest song ever written, but Mike sounds great on Pitter Patter..... He and Al sound fab or the verse they do together as well.

well, I've asked the question many times: why on earth would you expect a guy like Mike Love to not be batshit insane in the first place, after being in The Beach Boys for over 50 year???

Well yeah, totally. And I respect that you can say that because it's true! I'm just saying that sometimes it's ok to back off a bit and admit that there's some behavior going on which is probably not particularly defensible.

Yeah, I can't help but feel like, if I'm going to justify (to myself at least) doing so, I shouldn't stop with Mike to be fair, and I really don't want to sit here and bitch, moan and speak ill of members of my favorite band.

I've also been a lifelong suspect of those who will endlessly cry over something someone has said while ignoring what others have DONE.

Mike was totally sober when causing trouble and ripping off the BBs legacy. His only drug is his ego.

 And his crutch is TM which he hides behind to justify his wacko behavior traits which additional face painting won't have an effect on.

and YOU talk about having a crutch!!!!!!  

WTF??? myKe luHv is a bleeding hypocrite who's "religious doctrine" preaches peace, luHv and understanding. Even a Kohkohdope could see that the pointster can't conveniently hide behind a religion to justify his ego.

Hmmmm, well all we really know about you OSD is that you get off on dissing Mike Love each and every day ..... I wonder if you've lived a completely rosy and blemish free existence

From Wikipedia:

Charity[edit]
Mike Love has been a longtime supporter of environmental causes and was among speakers at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Earth Day 2000 on the Mall in Washington, DC. Love was instrumental in forming StarServe ("Students Taking Action and Responsibility to Serve") which enlisted high profile celebrities to inspire America's youth to help serve their communities. He also created the Love Foundation, which supports national environmental and educational initiatives. Love personally donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina and helped the foundation raise an additional $250,000. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lake Tahoe School in Incline Village, Nevada, and was responsible for raising over $1 million to benefit the school. In 2010, Mike Love contributed to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's More Hope For The Holidays album with vocals on "Closing of the Year" as well as contributing his self-penned "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo". On the album he appears alongside Weezer, Brandi Carlile, and Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.[17] He performed a benefit concert for the foundation for the Children of the Californias which raised one million dollars to support the expansion of three new surgical suites. During the 50th Reunion Tour Love alongside the Beach Boys partnered with Operation Smile to raise funds for those in need of cleft lip and palate repair surgeries. In May 2013, Love was recognised for his decades of investment in education and national service by being awarded City Year's "Seven Generations Award".[18]

My God! What an SOB

"Santa's Goin' To Kohkohmoe" Really?? Effin A, man!! Self penned, huh? Brilliant stuff. And don't think he didn't write off the 100K. All of this reeks of a guilty conscious in light of the millions the greedster has in the bank-a mere pittance to be sure.

well, what have you contributed to society other than loads of bile spewed at a guy you don't know?

[he obviously was just doing the whole "take a year away" thing so people would be off of his back.]

I think we are getting close to being on the same page finally. Like some were trying to say a bunch of pages ago, Mike is saying (in 2012 and 2015) there was a lot of talk without follow up, talk without discussion. He/they were open to more dates and albums but when the C50 agreement ended the talk never amounted to something in-writing/set-in-stone/concrete that came before them or was discussed.

One of the arguments that Mike brought up back in 2012 was to “give it a rest” for a year to build up demand. Whether he really was serious about the idea or was just trying to get people off his back about why they weren’t going right back out on the road and into the studio, I don’t know. But Brian was talking in his LA Times article about more show offers presumably in 2012, not 2014.  

If anything, perhaps Mike thought that he could use the “give it a rest for a year to build up demand" thing as an excuse, to buy time and hopefully get Brian to cave to Mike's demands in the meantime. It was really just a made-up excuse though. C'mon. There's no way you can tell me a guy like Mike Love ever actually wants to give anything a rest touring-wise. If he wrote songs with Brian in a room and got to remain the center of attention in C50, he'd not have wanted to give it a rest.

Mike can claim that, and it might make logical sense to some people reading his side of the story, and get some people behind him, but ultimately it fails as an excuse. It's not consistent with any of Mike's touring actions, ever.

While we as hardcore fans, as well as promoters, know the difference between Mike’s “Beach Boys” and the C50 “Beach Boys”, I think his “give it a rest” argument lost a lot of credibility when the concurrent discussion also involved that he was *immediately* going back out on the road as “The Beach Boys.”

I mean, wouldn’t it build up *even more* demand if you literally take the BB name off the market for even just one season?

These are obviously rhetorical questions that are even more meaningless in light of that fact that, in my opinion, factors such as “market demand” had little or nothing to do with the reunion’s demise.

let's be honest: he obviously was just doing the whole "take a year away" thing so people would be off of his back.

This.

As HeyJude has pointed out, Mike has to own it, take the criticism for his actions... but he never will. Somehow he thinks his actions are always justifiable.

Oh, he owns it .... He gets paid, goes out and travels the world singing to crowds, while you sit here dissing him on a message board.... I think it's more like Mike owns you!

You're entirely missing my point, Pinder. Yes, he is traveling around having a ball, this is indisputable. But it's the inexplicable attempts to rewrite history that makes people like myself want to chime in, not to mention the inexplicable handful of defenders (and the quantity of people who would defend him is probably only a handful) that I can't wrap my head around, no matter how hard I try.

If, however, you want to say "he's a crazy, out-of-touch-with-reality rock star who is grasping at straws to try and deflect legit flak about things which should justifiably be criticized/questioned more, but he's a member of our favorite band and I'll forgive him more than I would virtually anyone else in a similar situation, simply because I love and am deeply emotionally attached to the music", well, then I could understand that point of view, even if I'd disagree with parts of it. 

well, I've asked the question many times: why on earth would you expect a guy like Mike Love to not be batshit insane in the first place, after being in The Beach Boys for over 50 year???

[he obviously was just doing the whole "take a year away" thing so people would be off of his back.]

I think we are getting close to being on the same page finally. Like some were trying to say a bunch of pages ago, Mike is saying (in 2012 and 2015) there was a lot of talk without follow up, talk without discussion. He/they were open to more dates and albums but when the C50 agreement ended the talk never amounted to something in-writing/set-in-stone/concrete that came before them or was discussed.

One of the arguments that Mike brought up back in 2012 was to “give it a rest” for a year to build up demand. Whether he really was serious about the idea or was just trying to get people off his back about why they weren’t going right back out on the road and into the studio, I don’t know. But Brian was talking in his LA Times article about more show offers presumably in 2012, not 2014.  

If anything, perhaps Mike thought that he could use the “give it a rest for a year to build up demand" thing as an excuse, to buy time and hopefully get Brian to cave to Mike's demands in the meantime. It was really just a made-up excuse though. C'mon. There's no way you can tell me a guy like Mike Love ever actually wants to give anything a rest touring-wise. If he wrote songs with Brian in a room and got to remain the center of attention in C50, he'd not have wanted to give it a rest.

Mike can claim that, and it might make logical sense to some people reading his side of the story, and get some people behind him, but ultimately it fails as an excuse. It's not consistent with any of Mike's touring actions, ever.

While we as hardcore fans, as well as promoters, know the difference between Mike’s “Beach Boys” and the C50 “Beach Boys”, I think his “give it a rest” argument lost a lot of credibility when the concurrent discussion also involved that he was *immediately* going back out on the road as “The Beach Boys.”

I mean, wouldn’t it build up *even more* demand if you literally take the BB name off the market for even just one season?

These are obviously rhetorical questions that are even more meaningless in light of that fact that, in my opinion, factors such as “market demand” had little or nothing to do with the reunion’s demise.

let's be honest: he obviously was just doing the whole "take a year away" thing so people would be off of his back.

This.

As HeyJude has pointed out, Mike has to own it, take the criticism for his actions... but he never will. Somehow he thinks his actions are always justifiable.

Oh, he owns it .... He gets paid, goes out and travels the world singing to crowds, while you sit here dissing him on a message board.... I think it's more like Mike owns you!