Mike Love \

[SMiLE Brian]

http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/08/17/mike-love-beach-boys-preview/88770362/

“Brian’s life is controlled completely," he said. "It has been since Gene Landy, and it still is. And he’s medicated. If he says something about Mike Love unsolicited, he’ll say things like, ‘He’s my favorite lyricist.’ If and when we do see each other, we revert back to childhood, which is great. So if it were just he and I, I don’t think there would be any problems. We would work through them. I know that for a fact. But that is not the way it is. So let’s just leave it at that.”

[Jim V.]

Pure class from Dr. Love.

[J.G. Dev]

"Through it all, Love kept the Beach Boys going as a successful touring act, and in 2012, the surviving members of the classic Beach Boys lineup — including Brian Wilson, Jardine and Bruce Johnston — reunited with Love for a 50th-anniversary tour and a new Beach Boys album, “That’s Why God Made the Radio.” The album had some worthy moments, but by June 2012, Wilson had left the tour and the highly celebrated reunion was over."

Wait, what??

[marcella27]

Yeah, I thought that line was a bit...questionable, too.

However, I don't think Mike comes across too badly in this interview.  He's relatively gracious (stating that the music will live on after the musicians are gone, which I interpret to mean that he realizes the music is the primary thing).  I know it's super-annoying how he goes on about drugs and booze in every interview, but I suppose it's possible that he genuinely feels very strongly about it, after seeing the effects on Brian and Dennis.  Anyway, as far as Mike Love interviews go, this one didn't make me snort out loud, or yell, so that's something.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Tape loop myKe luHv interview. SOS.  

[The_Beach]

Nice interview! I would love to seee Mike and Brian get together and collaborate another beach boys album!

[Chocolate Shake Man]

It's a bit of a catch-22 here. Mike criticizes the fact that Brian is medicated and that his life is structured in a particular way (what he calls "controlled" but I don't) but if that hadn't happened, Brian would have likely resorted to the kind of lifestyle choices that Mike also finds deplorable. So it's difficult to understand what Mike really wants.

It's also interesting that Mike feels that Brian's genuine perspective comes through when he is praising Mike. Meanwhile Mike's perspective about Brian is that he's controlled. You give a little, you get a little.

[Debbie KL]

So was there anything accurate in this interview?

 The PS claims are odd.  He didin't, in reality, write the music (goodnight baby, sleep tight baby?  Really?) but some lyrics.  Please tell me where his voice is on "God Only Knows, "Caroline, No, etc?" - yet he says he sang on every song.  

And Brian is "controlled" (such a load of garbage) and his lifestyle choices make Mike the only one able to tour these days...right.  But wait, isn't Brian doing roughly as many shows as Mike this year at age 74 (along with Al), and their voices aren't processed at his shows?  And he still writes, records and produces music that's actually released.  But apparently his lifestyle choices are inferior.

Thanks, Mike.  As always, a joy.

[bb4ever]

If Mike could get out of the way of his own ego, he might be an okay person.  The irony of it all is that Brian never craved or wanted the attention, he just got it by doing what he loved/being a musical genius.  Mike actually craves the attention, but doesn't have the goods to justify it.  Brian seems to me to be so innocently honest to the core, and I've NEVER heard him be mean-spirited in any way.  Brian admits to his foibles.  He doesn't try to portray himself as anything other than who he is.   On the other hand,  Mike's statements all seem a little tinged with an undercurrent of resentment that people don't recognize his musical brilliance and the fact that he is (or thinks he is) morally superior because he didn't do drugs.

 

[HeyJude]

The only disappointing aspect of this is that it's the same boilerplate stuff he has said in prior interviews.

I'll go ahead and hope/assume the wrong-on-numerous-counts blurb about the 2012 tour was not based on info from Mike but simply bad reporting/research on the part of the writer.

But the rest is just the same stuff. The Wilsons did drugs, I didn't. Brian's medicated. The implication that Brian wants to be best buds with Mike and say Mike is a genius, but someone else is keeping him from doing so (and is medicating him).

Just disappointing.

[HeyJude]

http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/08/17/mike-love-beach-boys-preview/88770362/

“Brian’s life is controlled completely," he said. "It has been since Gene Landy, and it still is. And he’s medicated. If he says something about Mike Love unsolicited, he’ll say things like, ‘He’s my favorite lyricist.’

Why do Mike's comments appear to pre-suppose that anybody is claiming Brian is saying negative things about Mike?

It's Mike who denigrates Brian in interview after interview. Brian says generally positive things about Mike whether solicited or unsolicited.

[HeyJude]

Yeah, I thought that line was a bit...questionable, too.

However, I don't think Mike comes across too badly in this interview.  He's relatively gracious (stating that the music will live on after the musicians are gone, which I interpret to mean that he realizes the music is the primary thing).  I know it's super-annoying how he goes on about drugs and booze in every interview, but I suppose it's possible that he genuinely feels very strongly about it, after seeing the effects on Brian and Dennis.  Anyway, as far as Mike Love interviews go, this one didn't make me snort out loud, or yell, so that's something.

It's almost verbatim the same stuff he has said in the past. Literally nothing new (unless it was Mike who said or implied Brian chose to quit the reunion tour in June of 2012).

But he's only gracious in the same way he always is, which is with a very thinly-veiled backhanded, patronizing tone.

Of course Mike feels strongly about the ills of the band's drug and alcohol abuse. The problem is that those issues haven't been a problem for the band for DECADES, and all of the parties involved are either dead or no longer abusing drugs and alcohol. He's like a 75-year-old parent reminding his kids of their mistakes from 30 years ago. He's answering questions nobody is asking. He's deflecting as well, obviously.

And the stuff about Brian currently being medicated (and implying others exert control over him, potentially in conjunction with the medicated state, and arguably conflating the Landy period with what's happening now) is inappropriate as a friend, colleague, family member, and business associate.

[SMiLE Brian]

I think this interview doesn't bode well for the book. Mike sounds like he wants to settle past scores instead of telling his life story.

[bachelorofbullets]

I'm going to help Mike out here.

"I'm very fortunate to have been involved with the Beach Boys"
"Brian is a musical prodigy.  If I was not Brian's cousin who knows what would have happened to me"
"I'd like to write some songs with Brian, but he chooses not to.  It's OK".
"Brian's mental health problems are unfortunate.  We all have our burdens to bare.  I wish things could have been different".
"If I could turn back the hands of time I would change many things, but I can't".

There, that was not so bad, was it Mike?

[bb4ever]

Very well put, Bachelorofbullets!!    If it weren't for Brian, Mike wouldn't be 'auto-tuning' Beach Boy songs all over the world to this day.

[clack]

I think this interview doesn't bode well for the book. Mike sounds like he wants to settle past scores instead of telling his life story.

My worry is that Mike seems to think that people want to read about how TM saved him, and that that's going to be the book's main takeaway.

I don't mind a chapter devoted to the subject ("Maharishi, India, Back in the USSR blah blah"). That I can just skip. And I suppose we'll have to have some Love family stuff. But what I really want is the inside dope on the Beach Boys -- the personalities, the clashes, the tours, the songwriting, the recording.

[KDS]

I'm going to help Mike out here.

"I'm very fortunate to have been involved with the Beach Boys"
"Brian is a musical prodigy.  If I was not Brian's cousin who knows what would have happened to me"
"I'd like to write some songs with Brian, but he chooses not to.  It's OK".
"Brian's mental health problems are unfortunate.  We all have our burdens to bare.  I wish things could have been different".
"If I could turn back the hands of time I would change many things, but I can't".

There, that was not so bad, was it Mike?

I do hope for some writing like this in the book.  If Mike is a true disciple of TM, that's the kind of answers he should be giving.  

Mike reminds me a lot of Gene Simmons.  Gene never misses an opportunity to put down former KISS members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, a lot of times for their drug and alcohol use, which Gene never used.  

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I'm going to help Mike out here.

"I'm very fortunate to have been involved with the Beach Boys"
"Brian is a musical prodigy.  If I was not Brian's cousin who knows what would have happened to me"
"I'd like to write some songs with Brian, but he chooses not to.  It's OK".
"Brian's mental health problems are unfortunate.  We all have our burdens to bare.  I wish things could have been different".
"If I could turn back the hands of time I would change many things, but I can't".

There, that was not so bad, was it Mike?

Mike has already said quote #1, The first sentences of quotes #2, 4 and 5.

[HeyJude]

I'm going to help Mike out here.

"I'm very fortunate to have been involved with the Beach Boys"
"Brian is a musical prodigy.  If I was not Brian's cousin who knows what would have happened to me"
"I'd like to write some songs with Brian, but he chooses not to.  It's OK".
"Brian's mental health problems are unfortunate.  We all have our burdens to bare.  I wish things could have been different".
"If I could turn back the hands of time I would change many things, but I can't".

There, that was not so bad, was it Mike?

Mike has already said quote #1, The first sentences of quotes #2, 4 and 5.

It's all about context, though. Quote #2 is often dripping with a patronizing tone, and is often followed immediately by Mike mentioning all the bad stuff that came after. Quote #4, especially when offered unprompted, basically just comes across as dredging up the ills of the past, and stating something that everybody already knows. More than anything, for someone who is so close to so much of this saga, he seems to lack a healthy amount of empathy for Brian.

The whole point of quote #5 would be to express regret about something he, and he alone, has done. There's one interview from the last couple years where he was asked if he had any regrets, where clearly the interview was looking for Mike to do some *self-reflection*, and he answered that the Wilsons did drugs.

[HeyJude]

I'm going to help Mike out here.

"I'm very fortunate to have been involved with the Beach Boys"
"Brian is a musical prodigy.  If I was not Brian's cousin who knows what would have happened to me"
"I'd like to write some songs with Brian, but he chooses not to.  It's OK".
"Brian's mental health problems are unfortunate.  We all have our burdens to bare.  I wish things could have been different".
"If I could turn back the hands of time I would change many things, but I can't".

There, that was not so bad, was it Mike?

I do hope for some writing like this in the book.  If Mike is a true disciple of TM, that's the kind of answers he should be giving.  

Mike reminds me a lot of Gene Simmons.  Gene never misses an opportunity to put down former KISS members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, a lot of times for their drug and alcohol use, which Gene never used.  

Regarding TM, the author of that Rolling Stone piece on Mike from several months back was one of (if not *the*) first interviewers to directly point out to Mike the irony of extolling the virtues of TM for decades while still seeming so angry and bitter. Mike's answer seemed to basically be that he'd be even *worse* if he wasn't doing TM. A potentially telling and potentially honest answer, but it means we're perhaps "not* going to get the level of humility from Mike that is seen in bachelorofbullets's post.  

[SMiLE Brian]

Yeah it sounds like he needs some lexopro or something. It's a strange combination of TM and anger for Mike that isn't working.

[marcella27]

Yeah, I thought that line was a bit...questionable, too.

However, I don't think Mike comes across too badly in this interview.  He's relatively gracious (stating that the music will live on after the musicians are gone, which I interpret to mean that he realizes the music is the primary thing).  I know it's super-annoying how he goes on about drugs and booze in every interview, but I suppose it's possible that he genuinely feels very strongly about it, after seeing the effects on Brian and Dennis.  Anyway, as far as Mike Love interviews go, this one didn't make me snort out loud, or yell, so that's something.

It's almost verbatim the same stuff he has said in the past. Literally nothing new (unless it was Mike who said or implied Brian chose to quit the reunion tour in June of 2012).

But he's only gracious in the same way he always is, which is with a very thinly-veiled backhanded, patronizing tone.

Of course Mike feels strongly about the ills of the band's drug and alcohol abuse. The problem is that those issues haven't been a problem for the band for DECADES, and all of the parties involved are either dead or no longer abusing drugs and alcohol. He's like a 75-year-old parent reminding his kids of their mistakes from 30 years ago. He's answering questions nobody is asking. He's deflecting as well, obviously.

And the stuff about Brian currently being medicated (and implying others exert control over him, potentially in conjunction with the medicated state, and arguably conflating the Landy period with what's happening now) is inappropriate as a friend, colleague, family member, and business associate.

I guess I feeling charitable when I read it?  I've just read and seen interviews where he comes off significantly more obnoxious than here.   

[lastofmykind]

Mike literally was telling the truth here, he didn't sugar coat it hide behind anything.  We may choose to have a certain level of disdain for how he chose to articulate or convey his thoughts but let me ask this question.  Can we really disagree with what Mike is saying?

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Mike literally was telling the truth here, he didn't sugar coat it hide behind anything.  We may choose to have a certain level of disdain for how he chose to articulate or convey his thoughts but let me ask this question.  Can we really disagree with what Mike is saying?

Yes.

His point that he "sang on everything" on Pet Sounds is a flat-out falsehood.

I disagree that Brian is controlled. And I disagree that there would not be any problems "if it were just he and I," whatever that implies.

[SMiLE Brian]

Yes, Brian Wilson is his own man these days making life choices on his own. His wife and friends are there to support these decisions as necessary. Life isn't about what Mike Love wants from Brian Wilson and that truth is making Mike a bitter old man.