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Talk of this set changing the way the Beach Boys are viewed seems far fetched to me in relation to some of the theories being put forward.

Of course the set will be incredible for us die hard fans but Sunflower/Surfs Up and lots of previously unreleased bits and pieces from that era are already out there.

The SMiLE sessions are out there! Nothing is gonna beat that IMO in relation to changing the way the band are viewed.

Huge thanks to all the guys who helped put it together. I'm confident we will get it soon.....ish.

I agree, while Sunflower and Surfs Up are good the amount of times the record label rejected this material should mean at least something. I’m looking forward to hopefully hearing this stuff if and when it does get released but to think it’s going to be some profound revelation that will change music history is going a bit far.

Talk of this set changing the way the Beach Boys are viewed seems far fetched to me in relation to some of the theories being put forward.

Of course the set will be incredible for us die hard fans but Sunflower/Surfs Up and lots of previously unreleased bits and pieces from that era are already out there.

The SMiLE sessions are out there! Nothing is gonna beat that IMO in relation to changing the way the band are viewed.

Huge thanks to all the guys who helped put it together. I'm confident we will get it soon.....ish.

As much as I love "Cool Cool Water", in strictly commercial terms none of these songs saved Sunflower eventually.

It's true - I wonder if Slip on Through/This Whole World could have done better with proper promotion. It's the best single they possibly could've offered at that point in time, and on quality alone it clearly deserved to do well. I guess Add Some Music having been the lead single might have hurt their chances by reinforcing that the Beach Boys were old hat.

This is pure speculation and I know very little about the facts involved, but:

I think it's interesting to consider that Mike stated under oath (during one of his litigations against Brian) that Brian ceased contributing to the Beach Boys after 1967. I'm not sure to what degree his case hinged on this argument, nor can I remember which specific lawsuit it pertained to. Still, I think it's arguable that Mike has a lot of investment in preserving that false narrative.

Yes we've had the 1967-68 sets which got through seemingly without his objection, but they were pretty low key, especially Wake the World and I Can Hear Music which weren't promoted whatsoever. Maybe Mike has concerns about a well publicised release bringing Brian's level of activity in 69-71 into public attention. He certainly has long benefited from the 'Brian went to bed' myth - could it be that he actually fears legal ramifications if his statements in line with that myth are proven false in front of a larger audience?

Let's not forget, a few short years ago, very recently in fact, Mike started playing All I Wanna Do in concert. And he did it more than a few times.

And seemingly, he perhaps did it partly in response to growing positive Internet buzz about the song, as if he had forgotten that it was a song he had written that had this level of acclaim that he had been unaware of until recently.

So... that is at least a recent example of Mike responding positively to positive buzz about his contributions from that era.

What has changed since then?

Who knows how much bad blood was generated behind the scenes after the awful trophy hunting show which Brian and Al publicly spoke out against. Who knows how much that may have strained relations behind the scenes. If Mike is as vengeful as his buddy Donald Trump, he would perhaps do any number of things purely out of revenge.

As somebody else speculated earlier, I think this could have something to do with the amount of incredible Dennis Wilson content during that time which might make Mike feel more of an inferiority complex if it got too much Wilson-centric praise for his liking. I really think Mike can only tolerate a certain amount of public praise aimed specifically at *The Wilsons* before he lashes out. Yet of course, Mike would still have his chance to shine without a doubt on this box set. There is zero doubt in my mind he would still come out looking good from his contributions.

To take Mike out of the equation, I suppose it could be possible that there are some non band songwriters who contributed to some of the material who might be holding out for more money. But my hunch tells me that the answer is somewhere closer to the vicinity of some of the ideas I am hypothesizing about above.

I should also add, I'd love to be completely wrong about my ideas. I don't want any of this stuff to be true whatsoever. It speaks of dysfunction and utter tragic family dynamic and I hope to God that I am wrong. And I also hope that this set comes out and that I can eat my words which I would be more than happy to do.

The idea that the Feel Flows box would change the public perception of who the Beach Boys are and what they represent has me thinking, how would Mike and Bruce have to respond to this? Would it mean a return to guru robes for Mike (and showing his bald head on stage)? Would all the surfing, cars, girls songs be replaced with the likes of Be Still, Meant For You, Country Air, Wake the World, All I Wanna Do, This Whole World, Long Promised Road, All This is That, and the full California Saga? Would Bruce actually sit at a grand piano, in long pants, playing audible parts?
No more beach balls in the crowds; pass the incense and peppermints instead.
No more state fair and Seaworld gigs; instead, they would play colleges and coffee houses.
Instead of selling t-shirts and baseball caps, the souvenir stand would feature organic vege-tables, herbal supplements, and copies of Whole Earth News.

Just to be fair here, regarding the comments about the kind of talk Mike gets here: Have you looked at the internet recently? I'm jokingly saying that, but anytime you come across a Beach Boys related article or feature that allows reader comments you see that kind of talk at a far greater percentage than saying "here" as in this is the only place that calls out Mike Love, and it's from people who I'd bet 99% of them are not active on Beach Boys social media or web communities like this one. Again just to be fair.

Back to the issues of the box set: Whether it has anything to do with this box set or not, I think what "Cork On The Ocean" said above is worth considering even separate from this specific box set issue. That "American Family" TV movie is and was Mike Love's version of the band's history, there's no other way to describe it. When you watch it and notice that entire eras of the band's history and music are missing, in this case the same era covered by the box set, you have to consider why that is, and the post above does a good job of identifying it so anyone who watches it can judge for themselves. But when you have entire eras like the PS/Smile era painted with such a broad and ridiculous brush to where it shows Mike "saving" Brian from a gaggle of druggies and hangers-on, and when you have people who we *know* were not of that ilk yet were portrayed that way in the film, something definitely stinks, something isn't right. And the reasons for that are when you line up some of Mike's accounts of that era from lawsuits, books, interviews and whatnot and see that the scenes played out in that movie were what Mike thinks they were or wants people watching to think they were, the depictions are simply not factual for how it really was. It's as simple as that.

So when the entire era "missing" from Mike's televised version of events lines up with the era covered in this box set currently in limbo, whether or not one has anything to do with the other, it is definitely interesting to consider.

Well, while all signs point to Mike as far as we can tell right now - I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a moment and consider it might be more than one member, and/or someone else or some other series of events. After all, stranger things have happened and this is The Beach Boys (who would have thought it was Carl responsible for the 1995 potential album not happening?).

It’s a stretch, but let’s say there’s some tension behind the scenes on FF, and Mike doesn’t want to talk about it in the interview so kind of cuts away to talk about the 60th. “I don’t know how much is in the vaults” - quite possible he truly doesn’t. Maybe he signed off on FF, and Al Jardine is holding it up (ha), and Mike simply doesn’t care that much about it and moved on (“oh well, that seemed like a cool box set but we couldn’t get it together, what’s up next?”).

I went through the exercise to show that I’m not trying to show an anti-Mike bias. I certainly don’t think he usually deserves the kind of talk he gets around here. I think it is certainly possible he’s not the source of the holdup.

BUT - truly, this time all logic points to him being the issue. The whole tone in the interview sounded like was uncomfortable with that topic, and it sure seems like he wants to move right past it all to the next round of having fun fun fun in the sun. My own opinion on the why - just speculating - is that Mike doesn’t like the 1969-71 “brand” of the BB and wants to maintain control of the image of the group as he sees it now. I think he tolerates the Pet Sounds/Smile period because it was still during the commercially successful era, and he was still semi-at the forefront. Wild Honey he was involved with heavily. ‘68-69 didn’t have the commercial nor critical viability for anything beyond the download dump.

That said, I think there may be more to this than just Mike. The band has historically been way more guarded about the Brother era for some reason. I think I mentioned when I met Al, he was quite put off my my mention of “Lookin At Tomorrow”. It was odd. I wonder if there’s some type of perfectionism, someone not happy with some other aspects, or MORE than one member having concerns. Another thing to consider is: Al, Mike, Brian, and Carl’s family obviously let this thing get to the COMPLETED point only to THEN block it at the last minute. That means whatever people were saying months ago (Al & Bruce, etc) May not be relevant now. Something changed when it went from in-progress to finished. Part of why it’s relevant to know if they need a unanimous decision or not. One thing that doesn’t add up is if Mike was opposed to this era getting deluxe treatment, why/how would the project have gotten that far, only to have the breaks put on after? It’s all pretty peculiar.

Just thinking out loud.

I've been lurking for a long time, just popped back to say...dear god please get this box set out, it sounds too good.

A unanimous vote is madness considering the dysfunction. Should be majority.

In relation to this era, I was thinking of the An American Family Film, which I actually like...well Part One anyway. I'm not familiar with the intricate details, but Stamos produced that and it was kind of guided by Mike's heavy hand, or pen, right?

Smile falls apart, Brian's burning the album covers then immediately launches into Let the Wind Blow...ok sure. Then it's 1969, there's the Manson stuff, showing Brian giving away gold records while endlessly playing Shortin' Bread or whatever, while the guys record Add Some Music - a Mike co-written and lead vocal song. Dennis gets a moment with Forever. Then it jumps to 1973, Murry passes away, post-Watergate/American Graffiti they're popular again, Mike comes up with Endless Summer, and they're back playing the Surfin'/Beach/Cars songs, as apparently it should be. All is right again. Sunflower, Surf's Up, CATPST, Holland - all evaporated. Rieley, that whole era, it's like it never happened.

I get the albums didn't originally sell as well, the general public watching this thing wouldn't be as familiar, time constraints, etc. But maybe it got memory holed because he considers it all a blip in their career - an unfortunate detour. Could the FF veto be that he simply hates this era?