Michaels's Bald Head

[Moon Dawg]

243.msg586045#msg586045 date=1471049741]

It clearly has bothered him for a long time.

  I don't think so. The caps have been his trademark since about 1966, but Mike has been seen without a hat - bald - on many an occasion. IMO he came to terms with this issue long ago. By contrast, many rockers who had full heads of hair much of their public lives are trying to cover their hair loss with weaves, hairpieces, and transplants. Mike seems more dignified by comparison.

Actually very few times since the mid 70s has he been seen bald in public. Including major awards ceremonies.
I don't know that wearing hats almost constantly since 1966 is much different than wearing a wig. Achieves the same thing?
[/quote]


 I've seen several pics of Mike hatless.  Everyone knows Mike is bald under the hat. That's different from appearing in public with the illusion of hair. Much more honest hairwise than the likes of McCartney, Daltrey, Petty, most of Aerosmith, etc.  I'm not going to budge a flipping inch on this point.

[Lonely Summer]

I'm sure it was awful to be balding in the 60's and 70's. Hair was everything back then. If you look at very early photos of Paul Revere and the Raiders, you can clearly see that Mark Lindsay already has thinning hair. Sometime around 1966 he started wearing wigs, and has never been seen publicly without one - or a baseball cap. The hat is sort of a trademark for Mike but I don't think he has any big hangup about his hair. What I can figure out is how Al Jardine appears to have more hair now than he did in the 70's.

[bossaroo]

pretty sure i've heard the Derek Taylor bit, but where can we hear it again?? 

[bossaroo]

never mind... found it. it's on the Vocal Element boot. god Mike comes across as such a humorless ass. no spontaneity, no wit, no clue. it's kind of painful to listen to. Taylor clearly can't stand him (and vice versa) but it's fun to hear Mike become the butt of the joke for once.

[urbanite]

That construction hard hat he wore at the American Music Awards is one of the more ridiculous looking moments from Mike's career.  It's hard to believe one of the band members didn't tell him to take that stupid looking hat off, but they probably figured they would get no where with him.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

That construction hard hat he wore at the American Music Awards is one of the more ridiculous looking moments from Mike's career.  It's hard to believe one of the band members didn't tell him to take that stupid looking hat off, but they probably figured they would get no where with him.

He looked so poised to hog the mike and make another absurd diatribe, but I think he may have been pulled away by someone before he could spout off. That steel hard hat is most likely the closest thing to the absolute brightness of his bald, hatless, non turbaned head. It was also used to stroke his ego figuring he'd get the most attention he's so starved for.

[SMiLE Brian]

Kokomo will do that to a man...

[clack]

He was losing his hair at the same time he was losing his role as main lead singer.

What function does Mike serve when he's only doing 2-3 leads per lp and doesn't play an instrument? Looking prematurely middle-aged while trying to maintain his front-man status, in what was still a young person's game?

Must of been an insecure period for Mike. Wonder if it will get a mention in his autobiography.

[CenturyDeprived]

He was losing his hair at the same time he was losing his role as main lead singer.

What function does Mike serve when he's only doing 2-3 leads per lp and doesn't play an instrument? Looking prematurely middle-aged while trying to maintain his front-man status, in what was still a young person's game?

Must of been an insecure period for Mike. Wonder if it will get a mention in his autobiography.

This is a very good point.  Had to have been a tough time for him. I wonder, had the band not gone down the nostalgia route at that time, would he have perhaps at some point try to forge a new path in the band as an instrumentalist in some fashion?

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

He was losing his hair at the same time he was losing his role as main lead singer.

What function does Mike serve when he's only doing 2-3 leads per lp and doesn't play an instrument? Looking prematurely middle-aged while trying to maintain his front-man status, in what was still a young person's game?

Must of been an insecure period for Mike. Wonder if it will get a mention in his autobiography.

This is a very good point.  Had to have been a tough time for him. I wonder, had the band not gone down the nostalgia route at that time, would he have perhaps at some point try to forge a new path in the band as an instrumentalist in some fashion?

Tambourine school can be extremely expensive and we all know how myKe luHv is about keeping as much of that dollar as he possibly can.

[halblaineisgood]

Mike should at least have tried playing a more formal style of tambourinewith sticks.





Also, he should have worn a more formal hat .

[SMiLE Brian]

Right on!

[clack]

Mark Volman played sax back when the Turtles were a surf instrumental band. When they turned to folk rock, he became this fat guy banging a tambourine in back while Howard Kaylan sang lead and the rest played instruments. Volman didn't even write. You'd watch the Turtles perform and think, what the hell is that guy doing with the band? Is he a fan who won a contest, or something?

Some different turns of fate in the 70s, and Mike might have become a Mark Volman figure, a bald guy banging a tambourine, singing background and trying to look like he belonged there while Brian, Carl, Al, Dennis, and Bruce took their turns singing the bulk of the leads.

[Rick5150]

Jeez, you guys all act like Mike just stood around and occasionally hit a tambourine out of rhythm while the other guys sang and played instruments. I don't think that is fair to him because in reality, it was not like that at all. Mike also made some hand gestures from time to time.

[Senator Blutarsky]

Of all the live acts that are out there past and present, no one masters the pointing to the audience like Mike Love does.

[Autotune]

Hey guys, take a bath in reality:


https://youtu.be/J4_W2kCBhKY

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Hey guys, take a bath in reality:


https://youtu.be/J4_W2kCBhKY

Oh, I get it, the battle of the bad performances videos ! YouTube offers P L E N T Y of sour myKe luHv "performances" singing all those songs he didn't write.

[SMiLE Brian]

They all are "bad" performances!

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Hey guys, take a bath in reality:


https://youtu.be/J4_W2kCBhKY

Oh, I get it, the battle of the bad performances videos ! YouTube offers P L E N T Y of sour myKe luHv "performances" singing all those songs he didn't write.

Did you expect anything better than that from 'Autotune'?

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Hey guys, take a bath in reality:


https://youtu.be/J4_W2kCBhKY

Oh, I get it, the battle of the bad performances videos ! YouTube offers P L E N T Y of sour myKe luHv "performances" singing all those songs he didn't write.

Did you expect anything better than that from 'Autotune'?

 

[tpesky]

Not sure why Brian has adopted the "talking" leads more on this tour. But that tag with Brian and Al is one of my favorite later day BB moments. They did it in 2006, then the 50th, and now as well. Can't get enough of that.

[Pretty Funky]

Not sure why Brian has adopted the "talking" leads more on this tour.

Have a look at later Chuck Berry and Little Richard live clips. I'm no singer but I think it effects some older artists. Sad Brian is going that way as well.

[Pretty Funky]

That construction hard hat he wore at the American Music Awards is one of the more ridiculous looking moments from Mike's career.  It's hard to believe one of the band members didn't tell him to take that stupid looking hat off, but they probably figured they would get no where with him.

That was only 5 days after the RR Hall of Fame presentation and THAT speech. A hard hat was the minimum protection Mike needed that week.

[JK]

I have to laugh every time I read the topic title. Which Michaels? This man, perhaps? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Michaels_(actor)

[Aomdiddlywalla]

I think it's kinda bizarre that having the same hairline as a lot of the audience - particularly as they age too - is used to stigmatize Mike (there are, after all, plenty of other reasons...). I think it's pretty good that he didn't wear a wig like Simon and Garfunkel, or feel the need to get work done like Springsteen and Petty (who has a better hairline now than he ever did) or sport hair that looks suspiciously plastic, like Elton. Fairly sure Al may have had some work too. Ironically, if he were a young man now, he could sport the shaved look and come across as more 'male' than the rest of the band. He could get some tattoos and piercings and join a nu-metal band. Let's rawk, indeed.

Simon AND Garfunkel  shared a wig!!?