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Jerry Cole 1939-2008

Jerry Cole of the Wrecking Crew has passed away.

Our dear friend JERRY COLE died Wednesday night at his home in Corona, California. Funeral services are still pending but a public memorial is also being planned for the near future. Jerry's wife Gale was with him when he suffered a massive heart attack. Jerry was 68 years old and is survived by Gale and their daughters, Monique and Katrina, and son, Cane. Jerry's other son, Keith, died just a year earlier at the age of 28.

In what may be a truly fitting final tribute, Jerry and some of the original Wrecking Crew have been recording with Brian Wilson, for the first time since "Pet Sounds".

05.31.2008 • Beach Boys, Brian Wilson • Send feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

Art That Shook The World: Pet Sounds

This is described on Youtube as "A great BBC documentary from 2002 about The Beach Boys' 1966 album "Pet Sounds". Hosted by Mark Lamarr."

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05.27.2008 • Beach Boys, Brian Wilson • Send feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

How To Arrange A Successful Tour

Mike Love explains how to put together a successful concert.

"The songs are challenging and you have to be mentally engaged. I always preferred live appearances to recording, the spontaneous appreciation of the audience lifts you. It's nice to see the songs appreciated."

"Of course there are continual decisions being made, and different desires have to be satisfied. We get fans who are hard-core and others who have never seen us and want to hear the hits, so there's a whole range of tastes to accommodate" But the band don't exclusively play just the hits. "No, but we like to show more depth and play songs that may not have been big hits.

"We would never shun our biggest hits, though. After all, they gave us our fame. We have sections in the show that feature Pet Sounds and ballads, and it's the last part of the show where we do the up-tempo stuff. It's a balancing act really."

"We are always being told by people what the music meant to them. For example, a Naval captain told me that the night before he left for South East Asia, he spent the night with his girl and he heard our song Surfer Girl on the radio - and now it always reminds him of that night."

He also explains his relationship with Brian.

"Personally, things between us have always been OK," he claims. "It's always been other people that have caused the problems. We were together a couple of years ago at the Capitol building and he said that we should get together and I'm confident that if we could get together without any outside interference it would be great."

04.11.2008 • Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Mike Love • Send feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

Bruce Johnston: Mike Love Is Not Hitler

Notable quotes from a recent Bruce Johnston interview:

You know, I hope I’m a nostalgia merchant... I would say that Disney World is a nostalgia merchant. And they do a great job. I hope we do as good a job as they do.

Frankly, you can’t have the Beach Boys turning into the Ink Spots, or those guys from the ‘40s with about five bands using the name. It confuses the marketplace.

I think as an exercise in keeping him occupied, (Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE) is interesting... A lot of things could have happened, but they didn’t. And then they dust him off and roll him back out.

I talk to him every once in a while. But I’m never going to tell him that I’ll take “Pet Sounds” over what he’s doing now.

Without Mike Love, the Beach Boys would have never gotten this far. Brian’s absolutely brilliant, no doubt about it, but Mike kind of kept the groove going. He put the commercial sauce on stuff. It’s like you buy a really cool car and have it delivered to the dealership, but they detail it before you get it.

-- Mike Love gets the baddest rap, next to Hitler, I’ve ever seen. Hitler deserves it. Mike doesn’t.

There are guys like (author) David Leaf, who’ve spent years trashing Mike, and they’re partially successful in the world of minutia. But as far as the big picture goes, there’s that guy struttin’ the stage, singing these nasal, wonderful leads to songs he wrote, all these years later ... take Brian solo, Al solo or me solo, it’s just not gonna happen. But put Mike out there with Beach Boy music — and me, or Al or somebody — and it’s gonna do really great.

03.26.2008 • Bruce Johnston • 7 feedbacks » • PermalinkPermalink

The Snow Was Dismally Grey

Jessica Grabert expounds on the virtues of California and Pet Sounds:

There are palm trees in California in March. There are palm trees and fit bodies where there is snow and shit in Indiana. There are meth labs polluting the atmosphere and news stories played from NPR stations in the snow-covered sheen of the Midwest.

But in the west, there are convertibles, top down, cranking music that I’ve never heard before. This seemingly makes me a guru of all things nonsensical, perfectly sensible because abnormalities are perfect. California, land of anti-trends, wasteland of green economies, vegans, and vintage clothes. Play me some Leonard Cohen covers and I’ll be splendid, dammit. But the weather is warm; the top is still down and I can ignore the people for a little while.

The weather is warm and the Beach Boys are necessary. Pet Sounds is all allergies; Brian Wilson is crooning. I want him to love me. I want him to leave me. I want the sun to shine and the trees to cast shadows. If there is a God, I want him to reveal himself among the buds of new leaves.

03.17.2008 • Beach Boys, Brian Wilson • Send feedback » • PermalinkPermalink

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