Love and Leaf at UCLA: we need the video of this, folks!

[Don Malcolm]

The "too near faraway place" folks are just getting into their talking points about this surprising development--a sit-down interview with Mike Love conducted by David Leaf as part of his "Good Vibrations" class at UCLA, which seems to have occurred last week.

Photos and commentary have surfaced at the Beach Boys Reddit feed, and we await word that the interview in its entirety--along with audience questions directed to Mike via David--was filmed and will (hopefully) get posted at You Tube (or some other accessible internet location) sooner than later.

The accounts from those who attended indicate that there were no "fireworks" on display during the interview, something that a portion of fans might expect given the "difference of opinion" between the two men that has been front and center for nearly half a century. It's likely that certain parameters were established ahead of time, and that questions were structured to minimize any potential friction.

As is usual for certain folk at that somewhat ironically named message board, inflammatory bon mots too tempting to pass up. Example: "If MIKE LOVE can forgive David Leaf..."
(But to be fair to that poster, the rest of the sentence reads "...so can some of you.")  And of course, "lawyer girl" is in what us baseball fans like to call "mid-season form" regarding this matter, supplying some comic relief in the form of (her strange take on) David's "bias," which--as is often the case--goes off into some non-sequitur oriented tangents.

Let's hope we can see this unexpected but most welcome development soon in its entirety, which will permit everyone to draw more comprehensive conclusions concerning a momentous moment in the "insider's world" of the Beach Boys.

[Angela Jones]

I saw this too. The comment about Mike forgiving David irritated me (even if it did go on to suggest the other contributors to that message board should do likewise).  I don't see why Mike needs to forgive David. David Leaf has given his opinions. Mike's given plenty of opinions of people which one could argue deserve apology!

There might have been some interesting stories from Mike Love. I remember him telling one in the BBC series on the band, in which he recounted he was driving too fast and his passenger started by asking him to keep it to 50 mph (or something!) and by the end of the drive was begging him to keep it to 80 mph. Edited to reflect that this applies to quite a lot in his life at least for me! I started by sihing he\d modify hi behaviour a lot but as time went by came to accept more and more, if not happily!

But I find it hard to imagine being able to trust Mike's words - can't iimagine why!

One of the 'too near' people commented on how much weight Mike had lost and how this was down to loss of muscle mass, claiming this happened to all older people and citing Brian in his latest photographs. The last pictures I have seen of Brian certainly didn't suggest he was thin, even if he had lost some muscle mass.

[SMiLE Brian]

Nice development.

[Don Malcolm]

David Leaf has made the video of this conversation available via the UCLA Zoom feed...I've copied over the link from the thread at EH referenced in my initial post, along with the password...

ucla.zoom.us/rec/share/A2jGlh29ZyGkn-sBf8pZY7XyDJVH1piFr7N8tCybOEgELevx-NtAxNyYww9RAtDG.YT2aW23oYDJEK-K6?startTime=1746479215000

Passcode: ^4gN+3CF

The video is lengthy, just under two and a half hours, featuring many highly familiar comments from Mike, along with a few nuggets in areas not often covered in more compressed settings.

It's clear that some ground rules were laid out prior to the event--something on the order of "I won't ask about SMiLE if you omit the references you've been known to make about the Wilson brothers' substance issues." And that was adhered to scrupulously from both parties.

Indeed, there were only a few passing references to David's books during the conversation. The only area where things touched upon a touchy subject in this regard was when David briefly noted his work on the PET SOUNDS box set, which was delayed a year due to Mike's difficulty with some of what David had written.

Mike was effusive in his praise for PET SOUNDS throughout the conversation. As noted, however, there seems to have been a previous stipulation that SMiLE was off-limits...

David asked some questions in the third hour (after a series of questions from the audience) that Mike didn't quite grasp, which caused him to repeat a portion of what he'd said already. He held up rather well for a man of his years, however: he clearly still enjoys his role as the band's front man. (David noted that this has now been the case for sixty-four years, which is undeniably impressive.)

[Angela Jones]

I posted the link to this on Facebook and noted that perhaps some parameters were set. David responded to this and wrote that there had been no parameters, though of course it must have been obvious what would be controversial.

I haven't listened to it all yet. It is of course undeniable that Mike has kept the band going but I just have my doubts about the direction he had them taking. If I may quote from Lookin' at Tomorrow (an apt title in these circumstances)
'Well I don't mind that so much
Or the changing of my luck
But you know I could be doing so much more....'

The 'what if?' aspects of this band's story are so poignant. I'm glad for what we had but if only Brian had been given full rein. Or full reign.

And that reminds me of another song - 'Rings' or some believe 'Reins'.  I used to call this Brian's Frodo Song, though 'Reins' makes more sense. So autobiographical.

Reins around my neck so tight
One singer is wondering tonight
I can't tell if this is right.
Someone's got pressure on me.....

[Don Malcolm]

Thanks, Angela. I think the parameters I mentioned would certainly have been intuitively obvious for both Mike and David and could easily have come into play without being verbally articulated! 

As many have noted, Mike's work ethic is second to none, and he's cited his parents for instilling it in him. (He did so again in his early remarks at UCLA.) That certainly was instrumental in "keeping the summer alive," but, as you note, this came at the cost of ignoring all the other seasonal shadings that were emerging in Brian's work. Mike's regard for PET SOUNDS--so conspicuously on display during this conversation--was not nearly so evident 25-30 years ago when Brian and his band began playing the complete record front-to-back. Better late than never, of course, but Mike could have presented a more well-rounded look at the band's output at a much earlier point in time--and clearly chose not to do so until after the 50th anniversary tour, possibly as a way of saving face after the adverse publicity that ensued at the tour's conclusion.

I'm glad to see a cautious cordiality emerge from a long-time semi-adversarial situation...whether that will quiet things over at you-know-where is, of course, another thing. I think we can thank another David--David Beard--who has helped to establish a beachhead (pun kinda/sorta intended) with Mike and has gotten him to cover PET SOUNDS in a little more depth in a couple of recent ESQ interviews. I think all of that may have helped set the stage for what happened at UCLA...

[Robbie Mac]

The "too near faraway place" folks are just getting into their talking points about this surprising development--a sit-down interview with Mike Love conducted by David Leaf as part of his "Good Vibrations" class at UCLA, which seems to have occurred last week.

Photos and commentary have surfaced at the Beach Boys Reddit feed, and we await word that the interview in its entirety--along with audience questions directed to Mike via David--was filmed and will (hopefully) get posted at You Tube (or some other accessible internet location) sooner than later.

The accounts from those who attended indicate that there were no "fireworks" on display during the interview, something that a portion of fans might expect given the "difference of opinion" between the two men that has been front and center for nearly half a century. It's likely that certain parameters were established ahead of time, and that questions were structured to minimize any potential friction.

As is usual for certain folk at that somewhat ironically named message board, inflammatory bon mots too tempting to pass up. Example: "If MIKE LOVE can forgive David Leaf..."
(But to be fair to that poster, the rest of the sentence reads "...so can some of you.")  And of course, "lawyer girl" is in what us baseball fans like to call "mid-season form" regarding this matter, supplying some comic relief in the form of (her strange take on) David's "bias," which--as is often the case--goes off into some non-sequitur oriented tangents.

Let's hope we can see this unexpected but most welcome development soon in its entirety, which will permit everyone to draw more comprehensive conclusions concerning a momentous moment in the "insider's world" of the Beach Boys.

That was me who made that comment and I meant every single word.  David takes an unfair beating on that board and I was just reminding them that their hero doesn’t hate him as much as they do.

[Angela Jones]

The "too near faraway place" folks are just getting into their talking points about this surprising development--a sit-down interview with Mike Love conducted by David Leaf as part of his "Good Vibrations" class at UCLA, which seems to have occurred last week...

'As is usual for certain folk at that somewhat ironically named message board, inflammatory bon mots too tempting to pass up. Example: "If MIKE LOVE can forgive David Leaf..."
(But to be fair to that poster, the rest of the sentence reads "...so can some of you.") [/b] And of course, "lawyer girl" is in what us baseball fans like to call "mid-season form" regarding this matter, supplying some comic relief in the form of (her strange take on) David's "bias," which--as is often the case--goes off into some non-sequitur oriented tangents.

Let's hope we can see this unexpected but most welcome development soon in its entirety, which will permit everyone to draw more comprehensive conclusions concerning a momentous moment in the "insider's world" of the Beach Boys.

That was me who made that comment and I meant every single word.  David takes an unfair beating on that board and I was just reminding them that their hero doesn’t hate him as much as they do.

Thanks for your comment Robbie Mac. It was apt to note 'so can SOME of you' [my caps] because not all there are capable of reassessing their bias. AGD was unusually reticent but then he did make a contribution to David's book though I reckon even someone who hadn't attended the premiere could have described it just as well!

[Angela Jones]

PS David posted this link just in case you haven't seen it.

https://ucla.zoom.us/.../luEcq1LL-LmboyUTH2eORGrcoo...
Passcode: Nrn=9%e*

Reuniting with some of Brian's band. I haven't watched yet but I'm sure it will be enjoyable.

[Don Malcolm]

That was me who made that comment and I meant every single word.  David takes an unfair beating on that board and I was just reminding them that their hero doesn’t hate him as much as they do.

Good on you, Robbie! I think the issue that those folk continually ignore (or at least massively underplay) is that Brian wanted to transition the band into something that would work mostly without him, so that he could continue to explore other ideas. It's a touchy subject that David addresses head-on in key sections of the "Myth" update and in the SMiLE book. And many of the folks over at the "too close faraway place" have a core belief that Brian was duty-bound to stay with the Beach Boys as their imprisoned "genius" even as many of them fell down weeping at the resurrection of SMiLE in 2004. While we can understand the band's panic in the fall of 1967 when the stop-gap solution of Smiley Smile was a commercial fizzle, those actions did result in  a bizarre form of imprisonment for Brian, a situation he "remedied" via drugs and slow but steady psychological deterioration. Don Goldberg's autobio doesn't always get the time frame of events properly synced, but he captures the oddball dynamic of the Bellagio years and its cumulative impact on Brian. That part of the story is something that those in the "Love contingent" have distorted for their own revisionist agenda.

In the long run, after lots of friction and pain, SMiLE did emerge as a Brian Wilson project, robbing the Beach Boys of part of the credit for their efforts back in the day, but it's clear that the project was sabotaged in 1967 in several phases--first, the escalating friction over how SMiLE would be received as a "Beach Boy" product, compounded by the lawsuit with Capitol; second, after the issues had been apparently resolved (a "replacement" LP partially incorporating SMiLE material, a Capitol-affiliated record label that would purportedly release some kind of Brian Wilson version of SMiLE, and a new R&B-tinged direction for the Beach Boys), some key aspects of this arrangement seem to have been breached and fall through the cracks, the result of which is to tighten the vise on Brian, refocusing him on developing more material for the band--a situation he deflects with the passive-aggressive subversions that "slip on through" into the Friends LP ("Diamond Head," "Busy Doin' Nothing," "Transcendental Meditation"). The result of this rebellion is a record that bombs in the marketplace and ratchets up the pressure for a remedy, which results in "Do It Again" and the ultimately abandoned attempt to recast the "Good Vibrations" synthesis with "Can't Wait Too Long," which seems to be where the cumulative effect of all these twists and turns finally cratered on Brian, turning him into a recluse trapped in a mansion where, right below his bedroom sanctuary, his siblings soldiered on, making a fateful decision to cash in on the SMiLE myth with the tracks on 20/20; an action followed in short order by Murry's sale of Sea of Tunes.

The tale is truly Shakespearean in nature and scope, and we should all be grateful that Brian managed to survive it, much less complete SMiLE after how it was treated over the intervening years. The need for certain folk to control the narrative and ascribe/deflect blame for all of the drama associated with the band has long since gotten into the silly stage, and (as Angela has noted) several of the principals in all that have shown an increasing tendency to twist themselves into a pretzel regarding it all. We will probably never know the exact blow-by-blow of the 1967-68 events that cemented the recursively self-destructive (but strangely regenerative) usage of the SMiLE myth, but it's possible that Brian did "disappear" enough of what is still missing from the tape vaults to make it impossible for Carl & Jack to credibly assemble their "appropriated" version of it. The bizarre romantic in me kinda hopes that such was the case, because it would mean that Brian found a way to save SMiLE for himself and carried that the risk of that approach with him for decades before there was an environment where he could return to it on his own terms.

And perhaps, even though not one word about SMiLE was uttered in the Love/Leaf chat, some underlying understanding of what David's efforts helped to accomplish in further elevating Brian's stature prompted Mike to bury the hatchet and go as far as he could to embrace that artistic evolution in such a setting. We see Mike heaping praise on Pet Sounds throughout the interview, which might be as far as Mike can go in such a direction--but at least he did that as part of a tacit rapprochement with someone that he must have long considered to be a nemesis.

[Robbie Mac]

The "too near faraway place" folks are just getting into their talking points about this surprising development--a sit-down interview with Mike Love conducted by David Leaf as part of his "Good Vibrations" class at UCLA, which seems to have occurred last week...

'As is usual for certain folk at that somewhat ironically named message board, inflammatory bon mots too tempting to pass up. Example: "If MIKE LOVE can forgive David Leaf..."
(But to be fair to that poster, the rest of the sentence reads "...so can some of you.") [/b] And of course, "lawyer girl" is in what us baseball fans like to call "mid-season form" regarding this matter, supplying some comic relief in the form of (her strange take on) David's "bias," which--as is often the case--goes off into some non-sequitur oriented tangents.

Let's hope we can see this unexpected but most welcome development soon in its entirety, which will permit everyone to draw more comprehensive conclusions concerning a momentous moment in the "insider's world" of the Beach Boys.

That was me who made that comment and I meant every single word.  David takes an unfair beating on that board and I was just reminding them that their hero doesn’t hate him as much as they do.

Thanks for your comment Robbie Mac. It was apt to note 'so can SOME of you' [my caps] because not all there are capable of reassessing their bias. AGD was unusually reticent but then he did make a contribution to David's book though I reckon even someone who hadn't attended the premiere could have described it just as well!

Well, Andrew and David have a long, mostly positive history with each other.  A lot of fans forget how anti-Love AGD had been in the pre-internet era.

[guitarfool2002]

The "too near faraway place" folks are just getting into their talking points about this surprising development--a sit-down interview with Mike Love conducted by David Leaf as part of his "Good Vibrations" class at UCLA, which seems to have occurred last week...

'As is usual for certain folk at that somewhat ironically named message board, inflammatory bon mots too tempting to pass up. Example: "If MIKE LOVE can forgive David Leaf..."
(But to be fair to that poster, the rest of the sentence reads "...so can some of you.") [/b] And of course, "lawyer girl" is in what us baseball fans like to call "mid-season form" regarding this matter, supplying some comic relief in the form of (her strange take on) David's "bias," which--as is often the case--goes off into some non-sequitur oriented tangents.

Let's hope we can see this unexpected but most welcome development soon in its entirety, which will permit everyone to draw more comprehensive conclusions concerning a momentous moment in the "insider's world" of the Beach Boys.

That was me who made that comment and I meant every single word.  David takes an unfair beating on that board and I was just reminding them that their hero doesn’t hate him as much as they do.

Thanks for your comment Robbie Mac. It was apt to note 'so can SOME of you' [my caps] because not all there are capable of reassessing their bias. AGD was unusually reticent but then he did make a contribution to David's book though I reckon even someone who hadn't attended the premiere could have described it just as well!

Well, Andrew and David have a long, mostly positive history with each other.  A lot of fans forget how anti-Love AGD had been in the pre-internet era.

Is David Leaf even aware of all the absolute sh*t and slander that was flung specifically at Melinda Wilson in the past 20 years and who was doing it?

[Angela Jones]

Thanks to Robbie Mac, Don Malcolm and guitarfool for your excellent and thought provoking observations. 

What Brian was put through - Shakespearean tragedy or maybe even like Greek tragedy where the action is heard off stage and reported by messengers and where the actors wore masks to conceal facial expression. This is why some of us speculate about what was happening. it is clear that we are being fed narratives from people whom we cannot necessarily trust.

Some of Brian's songs actually address this. I've already mentioned Reins but even the Mount Vernon Fairy Tale does although Brian - kindly - allows the story to develop into the prince's brothers taking up the musical challenge. I hope Dennis and Carl did support Brian but Dennis was not driven by the music in the same way as Brian. He had too many issues.  And there was often too much rivalry amongst band members.  And then cutting up SMiLE for spares to cash in on the legend so that the music appeared piecemeal and out of context. It reminds me of the use of various bits of  famous classical music in advertisements.

As for 'too-near' it infuriated me when there was a recent post claiming SMiLE was a Beach Boys' project. In name perhaps but such an over-simplification.  And so ironic that people who are supportive of Mike Love's version of the Beach Boys claimed to be so emotional at the SMiLE Live premiere. The very people who wanted the formulaic Beach Boys songs to continue the endless summer leaving Brian locked in his dove nested tower like Rapunzel (Baby let your hair grow long!).

Perhaps David hopes to accentuate the positive although he hasn't really backed down on his opinions of the reasons SMiLE wasn't released back in the day. Both his books 'Myth' and 'God Only Knows'   even the titles suggest how elusive the truth is. The SMiLE book doesn't shy away from the dark stuff but has a more celebratory tone IMO. I can understand why anyone might hope not to be drawn into the old arguments whilst at the same time feeling unprepared to just ignore them! Brian deserves honesty. As always I'm thrown back to lyrics. 'They isolate their heads and stay in their safety zone...and what can you say that won't make them defensive?'.

[Robbie Mac]

The "too near faraway place" folks are just getting into their talking points about this surprising development--a sit-down interview with Mike Love conducted by David Leaf as part of his "Good Vibrations" class at UCLA, which seems to have occurred last week...

'As is usual for certain folk at that somewhat ironically named message board, inflammatory bon mots too tempting to pass up. Example: "If MIKE LOVE can forgive David Leaf..."
(But to be fair to that poster, the rest of the sentence reads "...so can some of you.") [/b] And of course, "lawyer girl" is in what us baseball fans like to call "mid-season form" regarding this matter, supplying some comic relief in the form of (her strange take on) David's "bias," which--as is often the case--goes off into some non-sequitur oriented tangents.

Let's hope we can see this unexpected but most welcome development soon in its entirety, which will permit everyone to draw more comprehensive conclusions concerning a momentous moment in the "insider's world" of the Beach Boys.

That was me who made that comment and I meant every single word.  David takes an unfair beating on that board and I was just reminding them that their hero doesn’t hate him as much as they do.

Thanks for your comment Robbie Mac. It was apt to note 'so can SOME of you' [my caps] because not all there are capable of reassessing their bias. AGD was unusually reticent but then he did make a contribution to David's book though I reckon even someone who hadn't attended the premiere could have described it just as well!

Well, Andrew and David have a long, mostly positive history with each other.  A lot of fans forget how anti-Love AGD had been in the pre-internet era.

Is David Leaf even aware of all the absolute sh*t and slander that was flung specifically at Melinda Wilson in the past 20 years and who was doing it?

David had other priorities in his life during that period.

[rasmus skotte]

In the long run, after lots of friction and pain, SMiLE did emerge as a Brian Wilson project, robbing the Beach Boys of part of the credit for their efforts back in the day, but it's clear that the project was sabotaged in 1967 in several phases--first, the escalating friction over how SMiLE would be received as a "Beach Boy" product, compounded by the lawsuit with Capitol; second, after the issues had been apparently resolved (a "replacement" LP partially incorporating SMiLE material, a Capitol-affiliated record label that would purportedly release some kind of Brian Wilson version of SMiLE, and a new R&B-tinged direction for the Beach Boys), some key aspects of this arrangement seem to have been breached and fall through the cracks, the result of which is to tighten the vise on Brian, refocusing him on developing more material for the band--a situation he deflects with the passive-aggressive subversions that "slip on through" into the Friends LP ("Diamond Head," "Busy Doin' Nothing," "Transcendental Meditation"). The result of this rebellion is a record that bombs in the marketplace and ratchets up the pressure for a remedy, which results in "Do It Again" and the ultimately abandoned attempt to recast the "Good Vibrations" synthesis with "Can't Wait Too Long," which seems to be where the cumulative effect of all these twists and turns finally cratered on Brian, turning him into a recluse trapped in a mansion where, right below his bedroom sanctuary, his siblings soldiered on, making a fateful decision to cash in on the SMiLE myth with the tracks on 20/20; an action followed in short order by Murry's sale of Sea of Tunes.

The tale is truly Shakespearean in nature and scope, and we should all be grateful that Brian managed to survive it, but it's possible that Brian did "disappear" enough of what is still missing from the tape vaults to make it impossible for Carl & Jack to credibly assemble their "appropriated" version of it. The bizarre romantic in me kinda hopes that such was the case, because it would mean that Brian found a way to save SMiLE for himself and carried that the risk of that approach with him for decades before there was an environment where he could return to it on his own terms.

Here in the last five lines Don is clearly alluding to the Mt. Vernon Fairy Tale with Brian's own rendition implied? Though not in so many words, but i sure did THAT within the "Dumb Angel/FairyTale flick (connecting these dots or "died" trying).
And remember that in 1972, they were contractually committed to deliver SMiLE as part of their next  album (:Holland) AS per "So Tough/Pet Sounds" ~ like a follow~up LP two~fer !
So the storyline in the fairytale WAS Brian's own  "Shakespearean" account of the SMiLE  myth (with the evil queen instead of the evil King (Murry) by proxy?)... Thanks for the input, Don !

[Angela Jones]

In the long run, after lots of friction and pain, SMiLE did emerge as a Brian Wilson project, robbing the Beach Boys of part of the credit for their efforts back in the day, but it's clear that the project was sabotaged in 1967 in several phases--first, the escalating friction over how SMiLE would be received as a "Beach Boy" product, compounded by the lawsuit with Capitol; second, after the issues had been apparently resolved (a "replacement" LP partially incorporating SMiLE material, a Capitol-affiliated record label that would purportedly release some kind of Brian Wilson version of SMiLE, and a new R&B-tinged direction for the Beach Boys), some key aspects of this arrangement seem to have been breached and fall through the cracks, the result of which is to tighten the vise on Brian, refocusing him on developing more material for the band--a situation he deflects with the passive-aggressive subversions that "slip on through" into the Friends LP ("Diamond Head," "Busy Doin' Nothing," "Transcendental Meditation"). The result of this rebellion is a record that bombs in the marketplace and ratchets up the pressure for a remedy, which results in "Do It Again" and the ultimately abandoned attempt to recast the "Good Vibrations" synthesis with "Can't Wait Too Long," which seems to be where the cumulative effect of all these twists and turns finally cratered on Brian, turning him into a recluse trapped in a mansion where, right below his bedroom sanctuary, his siblings soldiered on, making a fateful decision to cash in on the SMiLE myth with the tracks on 20/20; an action followed in short order by Murry's sale of Sea of Tunes.

The tale is truly Shakespearean in nature and scope, and we should all be grateful that Brian managed to survive it, but it's possible that Brian did "disappear" enough of what is still missing from the tape vaults to make it impossible for Carl & Jack to credibly assemble their "appropriated" version of it. The bizarre romantic in me kinda hopes that such was the case, because it would mean that Brian found a way to save SMiLE for himself and carried that the risk of that approach with him for decades before there was an environment where he could return to it on his own terms.

Here in the last five lines Don is clearly alluding to the Mt. Vernon Fairy Tale with Brian's own rendition implied? Though not in so many words but surely i did THAT within the "Dumb Angel/FairyTale flick.
And remember that in 1972, they were contractually committed to deliver SMiLE as part of their next  album (:Holland) AS per "So Tough/Pet Sounds" ~ like a follow~up LP two~fer !
So the storyline in the fairytale WAS Brian's own  "Shakespearean" account of the SMiLE  myth (with the evil queen instead of the evil King by proxy?)... Thanks for the input, Don !

I must check out that Dumb Angel flick. But coincidentally I recently posted to David Leaf: 'What would have happened had SMiLE come out in 1967? Brian almost asks this question himself at the end of the Mount Vernon Fairy Tale. That Pied Piper was a persistent fellow. And some had been preparing a welcome mat. I'm specifically thinking of Brian's band, David and thousands of the fans. So we got the 'whirling magic sound' and David's book tells the story - celebrates the story - because there is a happy ending.'

Thanks for reminding me of your take.

[rasmus skotte]

What Brian was put through - Shakespearean tragedy or maybe even like Greek tragedy where the action is heard off stage and reported by messengers and where the actors wore masks to conceal facial expression. This is why some of us speculate about what was happening. it is clear that we are being fed narratives from people whom we cannot necessarily trust.

Some of Brian's songs actually address this. I've already mentioned Reins but even the Mount Vernon Fairy Tale does although Brian - kindly - allows the story to develop into the prince's brothers taking up the musical challenge. I hope Dennis and Carl did support Brian but Dennis was not driven by the music in the same way as Brian. He had too many issues.  And there was often too much rivalry amongst band members.  And then cutting up SMiLE for spares to cash in on the legend so that the music appeared piecemeal and out of context. It reminds me of the use of various bits of  famous classical music in advertisements.

As for 'too-near' it infuriated me when there was a recent post claiming SMiLE was a Beach Boys' project. In name perhaps but such an over-simplification.  And so ironic that people who are supportive of Mike Love's version of the Beach Boys claimed to be so emotional at the SMiLE Live premiere. The very people who wanted the formulaic Beach Boys songs to continue the endless summer leaving Brian locked in his dove nested tower like Rapunzel (Baby let your hair grow long!).

Thanks, Angela!  As for Brian's songs dealing with the subject: in the fairy tale itself we do have a longhaired "Rapunzel"~like prince (Brian's look in '72 while living in the kingdom of HOLLAND, just see the backcover!), locked inside his "bedroom sanctuary" placed in a mansion~on~the~hill (with a "dove nested tower", no doubt).

#Love'emOrLeaf'em?
#shove'emOR"forgive'em"?

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