And a woman in the backup band, Toni Tenille.
I wouldn't say the organization on the whole, and/or at least certain members with vested interests at various times, gets a lot of brownie points on that count. Setting aside the ridiculous cheerleader bit from the late 80s into the 90s, when BRI went after Al Jardine in 1999 over his "Family & Friends" band, having female vocalists was apparently cited as one of the strikes against Al's band. From a 1999 Rolling Stone article (pertinent points in
bold yellow):
Rolling Stone Online – December 8, 1999
“Beach Boy vs. Beach Boy”
While the Beach Boys were once musically illustrious, in the Nineties they’ve
spent more time in the courtroom than the recording studio. Lead singer Mike
Love sued his cousin Brian Wilson over composer credits. Carl Wilson led a
conservatorship to separate Brian from his controversial therapist Eugene Landy,
while the entire band sued Brian over statements in his biography. Now, the
band’s management is suing guitarist Al Jardine over his new band’s name “The
Beach Boys Family and Friends.”
The case comes to a head next Monday (Dec. 13) when Brother Records International
(BRI), the owner and administrator of the band’s trademark, will enter a Los
Angeles courtroom and attempt to permanently enjoin founding member Jardine,
57, from using any variation of the Beach Boys’ name. The action is directed
at a New Year’s Eve show in Huntington Station, NY,
and is the third time this year that BRI has filed a similar claim. (The others were dismissed.)
Jardine has filed his own lengthy counterclaim, and has insisted that he is taking
considerable pains to differentiate his touring outfit from that headed by Love, 58.
Jardine, was one of five founding Beach Boys, along with Love and the three
Wilson brothers -- Brian, Dennis and Carl. He did not play on the band’s earliest
Capitol albums, having left to attend school, but rejoined just before the Beach
Boys’ peak in the mid-Sixties.
He was not as well known as Love or the Wilsons, but was essential nonetheless.
He sang lead on “Help Me, Rhonda” and subsequently suggested that Brian
Wilson record the folk song “Sloop John B.” He also sang many of Brian’s
lead vocal parts onstage after Brian quit the road in 1965. BRI defines the Beach Boys
in legal terms as “smooth four-part harmonies, with all four males at the front of
the stage”; up until ‘98, Jardine was always one of those voices.
Love’s outfit is now billed as “The Beach Boys” while Jardine travels as “The
Beach Boys Family and Friends.” BRI now objects to Jardine using the Beach Boys
name in any format, and has awarded an “exclusive license” to Love for use of the
name -- even though each band has only one original member.
“Mike is the Beach Boys,” said BRI attorney Michael Flynn. “He sang and wrote
many of the original songs, and is recognizable to audiences as the band’s leader.
To have Al out there touring as the Beach Boys dilutes the trademark, but worst of
all it confuses the public.” Jardine’s lawyer, Vincent Chieffo, counters, “Alan is as
much of a Beach Boy as Mike, and it is deceptive for Mike to represent himself as
‘The Beach Boys.’ Mike is touring as he has for years, but is keeping the profits
once claimed by Carl and Alan for himself.”
Expectations notwithstanding, there is no confusion once you’ve entered the
venue. Love’s lieutenants are singer-keyboardist Bruce Johnston and guitarist David
Marks, both peripheral players in the band’s long history.
Jardine brings along
his two sons, along with Carnie and Wendy Wilson (Brian Wilson’s daughters, formerly with Wilson
Phillips). This is a major bone of contention, as BRI objects strenuously
to including “girls” in a Beach Boys context. Jardine disagrees, saying that
the female voices provide a boost that the music needs.Love presents a fast-paced thirty songs, drawn predominantly
from the surf years, in ninety minutes. Jardine has worked some of the more
artistically heralded, yet less commercially successful material from Pet Sounds
to Holland into the set with the surf/car/fun songs. In doing this, Jardine has run
afoul of the corporation. From the complaint: “Much of Jardine’s repertoire with
Beach Boys Family and Friends include many songs that the Beach Boys do not
regularly play in concert, songs [that] are about many issues that are not traditionally
associated with the Beach Boys, i.e. cars, surf, girls and fun.” Here, Love may be
flouting his own rules, as some of the songs on his set list -- “In My Room,”
“God Only Knows” -- don’t exactly fit the criteria. Love has also turned much of
the set into an all-purpose oldies show, including such classics as “Duke of Earl”
and “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”
Jardine’s inability to convince either Brian Wilson or Carl Wilson’s estate -- the
other shareholders -- to vote with him cripples his position (to convince either
would bring about a deadlock). According to Flynn, the Wilsons’ position has
little to do with family or friendship. “Mike has maybe five years of touring left,
and he generates a lot of income. Having Al out there threatens this income and
dilutes the trademark. So the Wilsons are only protecting their own interests.”
Does this mean that a profit motive has eclipsed friendship? “I don’t think there’s
been any friendship there for a while,” he said.
These struggles came to a head in 1997, when Love stated he would not appear
with either Jardine or Carl Wilson. BRI president (and Beach Boys manager) Elliott
Lott acknowledged the line was drawn, but defined it as an example of tough
love. “You need to put this into perspective,” he said. “Carl was very sick. He’d
lost his hair and had to wear a wig. He needed oxygen after every song. Mike
didn’t want to appear with Carl out of love for him.”
Carl Wilson died in February 1998. As the band’s longtime mediator, he had held
a balance between its arguing factions, and, according to several sources, his
death allowed these situations to become fractious.
If this band has become a corporation, it is also an institution. “I think the Beach
Boys should go on even if only Mike Love is in it,” said former Byrds leader
Roger McGuinn in an e-mail to Rolling Stone. “It would be sad for the world not
to have a Beach Boys band. I wouldn’t be in a band like that myself, but if Mike
wants to do it, it’s okay with me.”
At this point in the band’s history, it’s sad that the two men who collaborated on
the lyric “omnipresent love surrounds you/Wisdom warming as the sun/You and
I are truly one” (from 1972’s “All This Is That”) can now only snarl at each other
from across a courtroom.