I'm meeting Mike Love's Beach Boys tomorrow

[RangeRoverA1]

Oh, and I don't care about the autotune on C50 Live.  Its a great document of a great tour with a killer setlist.  I'm fine with that.

Otm. Short of track or 2, I like it a lot. If the music is good, nothing will get in the way of enjoying it for me.

[Bicyclerider]

Meet and greets are designed to be very superficial, hello, where you from, great, let's take a picture.  They aren't the place for in-depth interviews unfortunately.  It sounds like you got more from the time with Bruce than most.

The burning questions for Mike that I have, and as far as I know have never been answered, is what he thinks of Smiley Smile.  I'd have probably brought a copy of it for him to sign to open the door for discussion.  His rewrite of He Gives Speeches as She's Goin' Bald is as trippy as anything on Smile.  Had he accepted this was where music was going and he was joining in the psychedelic lyric writing of the time, was he getting stoned at this point (he did use marijuana for a time until TM in early 68), was the group happy with the new DIY approach of Smiley vs. the big LA studio productions, how much input did the group really have in the arrangements and production of the songs since production was credited to the Beach Boys, what does he think now of Gettin' Hungry being released as a single by Brian and Mike, etc.

[punkinhead]

Meet and greets are designed to be very superficial, hello, where you from, great, let's take a picture.  They aren't the place for in-depth interviews unfortunately.  It sounds like you got more from the time with Bruce than most.

The burning questions for Mike that I have, and as far as I know have never been answered, is what he thinks of Smiley Smile.  I'd have probably brought a copy of it for him to sign to open the door for discussion.  His rewrite of He Gives Speeches as She's Goin' Bald is as trippy as anything on Smile.  Had he accepted this was where music was going and he was joining in the psychedelic lyric writing of the time, was he getting stoned at this point (he did use marijuana for a time until TM in early 68), was the group happy with the new DIY approach of Smiley vs. the big LA studio productions, how much input did the group really have in the arrangements and production of the songs since production was credited to the Beach Boys, what does he think now of Gettin' Hungry being released as a single by Brian and Mike, etc.

He really smoked weed? I've never heard or read that.

[wantsomecorn]

Meet and greets are designed to be very superficial, hello, where you from, great, let's take a picture.  They aren't the place for in-depth interviews unfortunately.  It sounds like you got more from the time with Bruce than most.

The burning questions for Mike that I have, and as far as I know have never been answered, is what he thinks of Smiley Smile.  I'd have probably brought a copy of it for him to sign to open the door for discussion.  His rewrite of He Gives Speeches as She's Goin' Bald is as trippy as anything on Smile.  Had he accepted this was where music was going and he was joining in the psychedelic lyric writing of the time, was he getting stoned at this point (he did use marijuana for a time until TM in early 68), was the group happy with the new DIY approach of Smiley vs. the big LA studio productions, how much input did the group really have in the arrangements and production of the songs since production was credited to the Beach Boys, what does he think now of Gettin' Hungry being released as a single by Brian and Mike, etc.

He really smoked weed? I've never heard or read that.

"We did this one night on the bus with the Buffalo Springfield all stoned and drunk and everything. It sounded great!"

- The Grateful Dead + The Beach Boys ~22:25

[Mr. Cohen]

Since someone brought up Smiley Smile, does anyone ever wonder if maybe it was an act of rebellion? Did the label ever say to Brian at some point, "Hey, you've done enough sessions. Deliver the album or no more sessions!" I had to imagine the pressure was intense. So perhaps Brian, in reaction, dashed off an album in his home as fast as possible as a sort of stoned f*** you. "No studio? OK! No problem. Here you go. I call it Smiley Smile." I might be way off, but I wonder.

[StillSurfin]

Cool story, Bruce seems like a nice guy.

[punkinhead]

I just thought of this...while Bruce was coming up with songs with Linda, did he sing or mention Al's Lady Lynda?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Cool story, Bruce seems like a nice guy.

Caught him on a good day...I definitely didn't, and neither did several other posters here.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

That said, though, I'm glad he was on good behavior that day, and definitely glad you shared the story.  I can imagine it must've felt kind of weird with Jeff, though.

[Jim V.]

Speaking of Bruce, I recently read a story that somebody at a recent show somebody came up to him and said something to break the ice, something like, "hey, I'm a big fan of Jan & Dean," to which he responded "not me"!

This is a bit rich considering this guy partnered with the other big surf music do-nothing, Dean Torrence, to remix and re-record early '60s Jan & Dean records as The Legendary Masked Surfers. Now I agree that Jan & Dean isn't that great, and that they are probably not worth much more than a best of CD, but the funny thing is with this is that Bruce himself doesn't even agree with his statement. I think it probably just comes down to his better than everybody, country club conservative asshole personality. He also probably realizes that he's not Brian Wilson or Mike Love (or even Al Jardine), so if he is kind of a dick to a Beach Boys fan, it probably won't stop them from supporting the group as the person probably doesn't give a sh*t about him anyways.

However, at least to me, in the past few years Bruce has severely damaged his reputation. He comes off as a cranky, "get off my yard", somewhat spiteful old white guy. Which coincidently are some of the most annoying people in the world.*


I'm a reasonably young white guy, and hope to be an old white guy at some point. So nothing against old white guys, just Bruce

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I think it probably just comes down to his better than everybody, country club conservative asshole personality. He also probably realizes that he's not Brian Wilson or Mike Love (or even Al Jardine), so if he is kind of a dick to a Beach Boys fan, it probably won't stop them from supporting the group as the person probably doesn't give a sh*t about him anyways.

Pretty much, yeah, and also the fact that he looks down on people who obsess over the BB music, as it's just (by his own words, from several sources) "a paying gig' to him.

[SIP.FLAC]

I'll take Jan and Dean over Bruce's tunes any day of the week.
The guy is a complete phony.

[SMiLE Brian]

Bruce was a grade A knock-off artist.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Grade F. Get it right, dammit!

[Niko]

I had a similar experience with Bruce that Bubbly Waves did - he was really nice and talkative, told me some stories, brought up getting a photo together, etc. I didn't expect to run into him so it took my brain a little while to catch up, but he really filled up the conversation.

It's a shame he has 'off' days where he's cranky, but my chance meeting with Bruce is a really great memory.

[Autotune]

I don't get the "I'm a fan but I hate Bruce sentiment". He's a great talent, a solid-crafted songwriter, an accomplished instrumentalist and singer... And he's immortalized on a few classic records. He produced LA Album, which seems to be a favorite around here. He's done and produced his due ammount of caca, just like any of us. But he's achieved much more than most of us; that's why I don't dig the "I'm above him" tone of some posts. True, based on his capacity he could have afforded a much bigger career than he has, but A) he accomplished a lot anyway by all means and B) by the time you're 70+ you have already achieved your peak years if not decades before.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I'm not taking away from his talent whilein the band (although I consider his solo work the weakest by far, and producing two out of my 3 least favorite BB records does him no favors)...I'm just saying that my own (thankfully limited) dealings with him were less than pleasant (to put it mildly), and I'm not alone in that regard.

[jeffh]

Yeah, I met Bruce when he was having a bad day also. I met him a second time and he was fine.

[southbay]

I have met Bruce approximately 10 times over the last 20 years. I kid you not when I say that on 5 of those occasions he was absolutely wonderful . Great conversation about the Beach Boys history, anecdotes about recording, signing things I didn't even ask him to sign. Some of these conversations lasted nearly an hour in length.  On one occasion he made sure I followed him into the venue when my name was mistakenly left off of the ticket and pass list--if not for him that night I would not have gotten in and he made sure I got backstage passes and tickets with the groups's family. Why I have no idea other than it was indeed one of his "good days". The other 5? Complete nightmare Diva behavior.

[bossaroo]

Here's my signed record, with Mike taking up an enormous amount of space and Bruce not completing his signature

kind of sums Mike and Bruce up in a lot of ways

thanks for sharing!

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Here's my signed record, with Mike taking up an enormous amount of space and Bruce not completing his signature

kind of sums Mike and Bruce up in a lot of ways

thanks for sharing!

[SIP.FLAC]

I don't get the "I'm a fan but I hate Bruce sentiment". He's a great talent, a solid-crafted songwriter, an accomplished instrumentalist and singer... And he's immortalized on a few classic records. He produced LA Album, which seems to be a favorite around here. He's done and produced his due ammount of caca, just like any of us. But he's achieved much more than most of us; that's why I don't dig the "I'm above him" tone of some posts. True, based on his capacity he could have afforded a much bigger career than he has, but A) he accomplished a lot anyway by all means and B) by the time you're 70+ you have already achieved your peak years if not decades before.

I don't think of myself as above Bruce, nor he above me. We both put our shorts on one leg at a time, his just ride a little higher.

[Ron]

She didn't really seem to mind the whole autotune disaster. I wonder if we're the only ones who really care.

Please believe you (and a few others) are most definately the only ones who care... or can even tell. 

[Ron]

Speaking of Bruce, I recently read a story that somebody at a recent show somebody came up to him and said something to break the ice, something like, "hey, I'm a big fan of Jan & Dean," to which he responded "not me"!

This is a bit rich considering this guy partnered with the other big surf music do-nothing, Dean Torrence, to remix and re-record early '60s Jan & Dean records as The Legendary Masked Surfers. Now I agree that Jan & Dean isn't that great, and that they are probably not worth much more than a best of CD, but the funny thing is with this is that Bruce himself doesn't even agree with his statement. I think it probably just comes down to his better than everybody, country club conservative asshole personality. He also probably realizes that he's not Brian Wilson or Mike Love (or even Al Jardine), so if he is kind of a dick to a Beach Boys fan, it probably won't stop them from supporting the group as the person probably doesn't give a sh*t about him anyways.

However, at least to me, in the past few years Bruce has severely damaged his reputation. He comes off as a cranky, "get off my yard", somewhat spiteful old white guy. Which coincidently are some of the most annoying people in the world.*


I'm a reasonably young white guy, and hope to be an old white guy at some point. So nothing against old white guys, just Bruce

One thing Bruce DOES do, is say he doesn't like people he knows and has actually met and worked with (Jan, and Dean).  You, on the other hand, have problems with anybody you imagine is a 'better than you country club conservative'. 

So since you espoused that, I'm still in camp Bruce.  You're giving him sh*t for his opinion, but yet you have an opinion about a whole group of people you created in your mind. 

Good day.

I SAY GOOD DAY, SIR

[tpesky]

Here's my signed record, with Mike taking up an enormous amount of space and Bruce not completing his signature

kind of sums Mike and Bruce up in a lot of ways

thanks for sharing!

This.