Is this for real?!

[Aegir]

yet another Mike Love interview.. but I don't know, this one seems a bit too ridiculous.

http://troun.tripod.com/mikelove.html

[Compost]

If this is authentic...interesting fodder for conversation/argument.

[c-man]

If this is authentic...interesting fodder for conversation/argument.

It's real.  I bought the Goldmine the week it came out, and still have it.

[Chris Brown]

I read this one awhile back...definitely interesting.  He's a bit harsh on BW88, and Brian in general, but I guess that's not too much of a surprised. 

[shelter]

It keeps surprising me how Mike is pretty much the only musician that openly says that something isn't good because "it's not commercial enough". That guy has no artistic integrity whatsoever.

[Cam Mott]

There are links to some recent interviews with Mike on this board, what did you fellas think of those?

[RickD]

There are links to some recent interviews with Mike on this board, what did you fellas think of those?

phew ... the cavalry arrives just in time! 

[Cam Mott]

I loved your "Disco Duck".

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Carl Wilson once described the Smiley Smile album as being a bunt instead of a grand slam, meaning it was a cheap substitute for the Smile album. How do you look back on that record?

Too much acid. Brian got so wacked out by that time. He was so sensitive, so fragile from whatever he was doing and ingesting those non-prescribed medicinals. Anyway, he completely changed form being dynamic and competitive to being non-combative and non-dynamic, the opposite. And so Smile was in the same direction as "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes And Villains" and then all of the sudden a grinding screeching halt, a hundred and eighty degree turn, and it became Smiley Smile for whatever reason.

...................

That means that he liked SMiLE. In the article he quotes GV and HnV as being great songs. Says Smile was the same thing, then it crashed into Smiley.

I love how Mike only quotes songs off of albums which he sung on.  "Airplane was pretty....cuz ma voice is AWESOME".

Why is he so in love with Kokomo? If it failed in the charts he'd never speak of it; he thinks that because it was a hit that it has any artistic merit in it. It's as bad as a Hilary Duff song that's filling the airwaves now. It's a shitty attempt at writing a Brian Wilson type of song -- yet it falls into all the traps of a songwriter who is NOT Brian Wilson. All the cliche's that BW avoided in songwriting were used on the song. I find it hard to believe that he meditates each day also, a man so occupied with the commercial aspects of his own music and money is not a person who is usually looking for spiritual help. He probably does it to convince himself that he's not a shallow moron all the time. Once he's alone and there's no talk of music or royalties he'll be faced with himself and have to talk things over with himself.

[Rocker]

There's another interview from that time, maybe it's the same, where Bruce says really awful things about "Smile" and not the nicest things about Brian, if I remember correctly

[rb]

It keeps surprising me how Mike is pretty much the only musician that openly says that something isn't good because "it's not commercial enough". That guy has no artistic integrity whatsoever.

I dunno - commercial equals popular equals artistically successful, for some. The more people accepting your message, the more worthwhile your message must be. The difference between Mike Love and some other 'artists'  is that Mike was very open about having this opinion.

I'm just happy to find out that the guy can actually levitate.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

There's another interview from that time, maybe it's the same, where Bruce says really awful things about "Smile" and not the nicest things about Brian, if I remember correctly

I'd like to read that. I never thought Bruce to have a sour bone in his body.

[Cam Mott]

I dunno - commercial equals popular equals artistically successful, for some. The more people accepting your message, the more worthwhile your message must be. The difference between Mike Love and some other 'artists'  is that Mike was very open about having this opinion.

Isn't Popular Music the art of being popular musically?

[Charles LePage @ ComicList]

The term "popular music" is used in broad and narrow senses. At its broadest, it refers to all music other than classical music, also known as art music. In the early 19th century, the traditional songs of the common people were referred to as "popular songs." By the late 19th century these songs were referred to as "folk songs." At that time, a distinction was made between folk music and more recently developed urban popular music. Today, popular music is distributed via mass media such as recordings and radio (as classical music is now also). Popular music forms part of popular culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music

While Pop music is sometimes described as music produced commercially, for profit, "as a matter of enterprise, not art" it may more usefully be defined as a music whose content is driven by market as well as aesthetic forces. Pop "is designed to appeal to everyone" and "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste." In musical terms, it is essentially conservative" in that it attemps to resonate with a large segment of its target demographic rather than pushing artistic boundaries. It is "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers and concert promoters) rather than being made from below...Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged." (Frith 2001, p.95-96)

While Pop and Rock music each appeal to mass culture, often aim for (and achieve) commercial success, feature catchy tunes and melodies, and emphasize rhythm, Rock music has a more direct connection to the blues and folk from which it originated, while Pop can be thought of as the current incarnation of Popular music, which has existed for centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music

[Sheriff John Stone]

Why is he so in love with Kokomo? .

Maybe Mike loves "Kokomo" because he had a hand in composing it, it went to No. 1, and it sold more than any other Beach Boys' single.

Maybe he's proud of "Kokomo" because Brian Wilson had nothing to do with it, and it gives Mike a sense of vindication.

Maybe Mike likes "Kokomo" because millions of people came to see The Beach Boys in concert in the late 80's/early 90's based largely of the strength of that one song.

Maybe Mike does consider "Kokomo" art. If Brian had written it, I guarantee many people on this board would be calling Brian a genius, saying "See, he still has it. He can write a hit record any time he wants". Being a big Brian Wilson fan, I hesitate to criticize "Kokomo", even though I don't particularly care for it. I just think about "Night Time" (is delight time, it's starlight time, and it's the right time for me), "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long", "How Could We Still Be Dancin", "You've Touched Me", and the re-recording of "Little St. Nick" - and then I don't feel like criticizing Mike Love anymore...

[Dancing Bear]

It keeps surprising me how Mike is pretty much the only musician that openly says that something isn't good because "it's not commercial enough". That guy has no artistic integrity whatsoever.

Try asking Brian about Smiley Smile. What was the last time he talked about this album, 1968? Smiley Smile was his first flop  and it still hurts.

[Jon Stebbins]

Why is he so in love with Kokomo? .

Maybe Mike loves "Kokomo" because he had a hand in composing it, it went to No. 1, and it sold more than any other Beach Boys' single.

Maybe he's proud of "Kokomo" because Brian Wilson had nothing to do with it, and it gives Mike a sense of vindication.

Maybe Mike likes "Kokomo" because millions of people came to see The Beach Boys in concert in the late 80's/early 90's based largely of the strength of that one song.

Maybe Mike does consider "Kokomo" art. If Brian had written it, I guarantee many people on this board would be calling Brian a genius, saying "See, he still has it. He can write a hit record any time he wants". Being a big Brian Wilson fan, I hesitate to criticize "Kokomo", even though I don't particularly care for it. I just think about "Night Time" (is delight time, it's starlight time, and it's the right time for me), "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long", "How Could We Still Be Dancin", "You've Touched Me", and the re-recording of "Little St. Nick" - and then I don't feel like criticizing Mike Love anymore...

Very nicely put. I hate Kokomo, but you're damn straight Brianistas would be having a mass orgasm if BW put something equally shallow on the top of the charts...in a way "Rock and Roll Music" was already his Kokomo in 1976...sell out to have a hit.

 

[Aegir]

The thing is, I thought Mike's only contribution to Kokomo was "Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama, Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go", but he claims that he wrote the part about defying gravity and that he meant it as some sort of spiritual levitation thing.. I don't know.

Though it's funny when the guy alludes to the fact he has Smile bootlegs and Mike says, "You owe me twenty dollars!"

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

The interviewer was later beaten up by Mike's posse. They took the twenty and left the guy with a black eye and a severe case of watch-that-Mike Love-he's-gonna-get-ya-itus.

[Glenn Greenberg]

I like "Kokomo."

Always did.

Had Brian been involved in it, I genuinely believe that a lot of the dislike felt by BB fans toward the song would not exist.

It's far from the best thing the Beach Boys ever did, but it's catchy, it's memorable, it's harmless, and it's kinda fun.  It's relatable--who WOULDN'T want to go to a place like the one described in the song?

That said, my tastes lean more towards PET SOUNDS, SUNFLOWER. and SMiLE.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

But finding out that Mike wrote the words to California Girls didn't make me hate the song just because Mike was involved.

When I was getting into the Beach Boys, my knowledge was vague, I didn't even know who was who, but I could still distinguish what I would and wouldn't like in the future. 

[Rocker]

It keeps surprising me how Mike is pretty much the only musician that openly says that something isn't good because "it's not commercial enough". That guy has no artistic integrity whatsoever.

Try asking Brian about Smiley Smile. What was the last time he talked about this album, 1968? Smiley Smile was his first flop  and it still hurts.

He called it one of his fav Beach Boys-albums in 2004.

@Mr. Frogg: I only have that interview in german. There was a english version on the net but they did cut Bruce's part out of that.

[I. Spaceman]

Pet Sounds going to #10 was much more of a flop to Brian personally, than Smiley going to 45 or whatever was. Smiley was a f***-you move. I doubt he expected it to do any better than it did.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Well said. If PS had been more of a hit, who knows where Brian would've gone next? The failure of SMiLE to appear , added with the relative failure of PS, is what sealed his fate.

[Dancing Bear]

Pet Sounds going to #10 was much more of a flop to Brian personally, than Smiley going to 45 or whatever was.

Sure, I meant first commercial flop - to the outside world. But how do we know? Brian gave 300 interviews about Smile to promote his solo release, and he failed to mention Smiley everytime. I wonder if management vetoes those questions.

Smiley was a foda-you move. I doubt he expected it to do any better than it did.

Smiley is what it is and i'm glad to have it in my collection, but I REALLY don't know if it was f***-you music. Whenever Brian released a turd in the last 39 years, he must not be really trying? In theory 'Darling' wasn't a f***-you move, and I'd rather listen to most of Smiley Smile than this rehash of a Sharon Marie obscure single.

PS: I don't consider Smiley a turd