What's Mike said now?

[rab2591]

Partly to try and clarify my previous post, and partly to further ease my mind from HJ, I'll quote this from the Other Board:

"Given the law of diminishing returns, Brian's recent problems and the high probability of it being mostly not that "new" at all, I just can't get worked up at all over the prospect of another BW album. For all its faults and problems, let No Pier Pressure be his last proper vocal release."

This is a textbook example of passive aggression. Translation in plain English: "Brian is toast and has been since Heaven knows when. Nothing by him will be any good in any case, so I'll accept even NPP as his final statement. At My Piano and Long Promised Road, and anything else he may do, may go f*** themselves."

See? Already deflagrated.

And so, I guess, that's it with my long relationship with BB fandom. Heaven knows it's been rough sailing. I'm returning to basics... the best music ever made by anyone in the world. The world of their music, where nobody will keep reminding either that Mike is Devil incarnate or that Brian is toast and did nothing good since 1966. The music by

Brian, Dennis, Carl, Mike, Alan, Bruce, David, Blondie, Ricky and all the others.

The Beach Boys.

Some of those people there have always done this. Back around 2010 I first came to this board and the general consensus being lobbed from some of these people was that Brian would always be a vegetable, he wasn't in control of his own life, and his band did all the work when it came to his music, etc etc. It was so prevalent that, as a new fan, it was easy to believe these things.

It took great posters like Wirestone and others to convince me otherwise that Brian is definitely in control of his life and that he makes his own music. Then NPP happened, and the floodgates opened. A small vocal segment of "fans" ripped every aspect of that album to shreds - to the point where Brian's very dignity was being attacked from many different angles.

Looking back on the near 15 years I've been apart of the fandom (which is but a drop in the bucket compared to some fans), I feel a lot of remorse for a lot of comments I've made and arguments I've started. But overall I feel an overwhelming sadness for the general fandom itself. It's just been kinda sad that a lot of online-interaction with fellow fans has tarnished the actual music for me and others I know. Which is why I have mostly stepped away from posting in recent years.

As for the band feuds, it's not just the Brian bashing that brings this fandom down, but yeah it's also the Mike bashing. I think Mike has done some very lousy things over the years, and I think he's deserved a lot of the criticism he gets, but not everything the man does deserves a mob of pitchfork wielding fans typing loudly from their living rooms (and I'll be the first to admit I've ripped into him over trivial things over the years).

If any of us were in Mike's shoes I wonder if we'd do anything much different...and I mean if we lived his entire life (from birth, to working at a gas station, to being screwed out of writing credits on famous songs, etc). Mike and Brian have both been shaped by their upbringings, their rise to fame, their own personal demons. We can shout from the sidelines, but it's gotta be much different when you're the one on the field, in the spotlight, and your entire life has been defined by the game.

No I'm not excusing Mike's behavior, but I don't think scrutinizing every thing the man does is going to make us happier as a fandom, and it's certainly not going to make the music sound better.

Zenobi, I think your comment about "returning to the basics" is spot on, it is exactly what so many of us need.

[All Summer Long]

Whenever I would voice my disagreement at the Beach Boys performing at the gig sponsored by the organization that promoted trophy hunting, or at the Trump rally, or Mike Love and Dean Torrence performing at Mar a Lago on New Years' Eve of 2020 without a mask in sight, I would get dismissed as simply a Mike Love hater who will never like anything Mike does because of the supposed nasty things he's done to the band. I will admit that I am not a Mike Love fan. I will never defend his politics, though, and I will never like him personally. Believe it or not, there are some issues in this world that are more important than the Beach Boys, and in my opinion, Mike is on the wrong side of them 99.9999% of the time.

I don’t want to restart this debate, but I didn’t know Dean was with Mike at Mar a Lego on NYE 2020.

[patsy6]

Whenever I would voice my disagreement at the Beach Boys performing at the gig sponsored by the organization that promoted trophy hunting, or at the Trump rally, or Mike Love and Dean Torrence performing at Mar a Lago on New Years' Eve of 2020 without a mask in sight, I would get dismissed as simply a Mike Love hater who will never like anything Mike does because of the supposed nasty things he's done to the band. I will admit that I am not a Mike Love fan. I will never defend his politics, though, and I will never like him personally. Believe it or not, there are some issues in this world that are more important than the Beach Boys, and in my opinion, Mike is on the wrong side of them 99.9999% of the time.

I don’t want to restart this debate, but I didn’t know Dean was with Mike at Mar a Lego on NYE 2020.

Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRwtDKguyso&t=31s. And this http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,27487.0.html. It says "Beach Boys" but it's really just Mike, Dean and a house band.

[HeyJude]

I presume Dean Torrence has a longer history of being involved with both Mike and Trump. There are a bunch of pics of a gig they did at "Mar a Lago" back in 1997:

[HeyJude]

Also, when Mike did that NYE 2021 gig, it resulted in one of my favorite article/photo combos of all time that I think underlines the absurdity of this stuff Mike was choosing to associate himself with:

[Zenobi]

Partly to try and clarify my previous post, and partly to further ease my mind from HJ, I'll quote this from the Other Board:

"Given the law of diminishing returns, Brian's recent problems and the high probability of it being mostly not that "new" at all, I just can't get worked up at all over the prospect of another BW album. For all its faults and problems, let No Pier Pressure be his last proper vocal release."

This is a textbook example of passive aggression. Translation in plain English: "Brian is toast and has been since Heaven knows when. Nothing by him will be any good in any case, so I'll accept even NPP as his final statement. At My Piano and Long Promised Road, and anything else he may do, may go f*** themselves."

See? Already deflagrated.

And so, I guess, that's it with my long relationship with BB fandom. Heaven knows it's been rough sailing. I'm returning to basics... the best music ever made by anyone in the world. The world of their music, where nobody will keep reminding either that Mike is Devil incarnate or that Brian is toast and did nothing good since 1966. The music by

Brian, Dennis, Carl, Mike, Alan, Bruce, David, Blondie, Ricky and all the others.

The Beach Boys.

Some of those people there have always done this. Back around 2010 I first came to this board and the general consensus being lobbed from some of these people was that Brian would always be a vegetable, he wasn't in control of his own life, and his band did all the work when it came to his music, etc etc. It was so prevalent that, as a new fan, it was easy to believe these things.

It took great posters like Wirestone and others to convince me otherwise that Brian is definitely in control of his life and that he makes his own music. Then NPP happened, and the floodgates opened. A small vocal segment of "fans" ripped every aspect of that album to shreds - to the point where Brian's very dignity was being attacked from many different angles.

Looking back on the near 15 years I've been apart of the fandom (which is but a drop in the bucket compared to some fans), I feel a lot of remorse for a lot of comments I've made and arguments I've started. But overall I feel an overwhelming sadness for the general fandom itself. It's just been kinda sad that a lot of online-interaction with fellow fans has tarnished the actual music for me and others I know. Which is why I have mostly stepped away from posting in recent years.

As for the band feuds, it's not just the Brian bashing that brings this fandom down, but yeah it's also the Mike bashing. I think Mike has done some very lousy things over the years, and I think he's deserved a lot of the criticism he gets, but not everything the man does deserves a mob of pitchfork wielding fans typing loudly from their living rooms (and I'll be the first to admit I've ripped into him over trivial things over the years).

If any of us were in Mike's shoes I wonder if we'd do anything much different...and I mean if we lived his entire life (from birth, to working at a gas station, to being screwed out of writing credits on famous songs, etc). Mike and Brian have both been shaped by their upbringings, their rise to fame, their own personal demons. We can shout from the sidelines, but it's gotta be much different when you're the one on the field, in the spotlight, and your entire life has been defined by the game.

No I'm not excusing Mike's behavior, but I don't think scrutinizing every thing the man does is going to make us happier as a fandom, and it's certainly not going to make the music sound better.

Zenobi, I think your comment about "returning to the basics" is spot on, it is exactly what so many of us need.

Thanks a lot for this post, Rab.
And by the way, your LOVE fanmix is simply fantastic. Thanks two lots for that!