OK, I give The Beach Boys, post 1972, way too much leeway, but I don’t think I can let this one pass without calling BULLSHIT.
Take a look at the PR blurb that was on the email announcing an upcoming Beach Boys concert in Atlanta:
You can capsulize most pop music acts by reciting how many hits they’ve had and how many millions of albums they’ve sold. But these conventional measurements fall short when you’re assessing the impact of The Beach Boys. To be sure, this band has birthed a torrent of hit singles and sold albums by the tens of millions. But its greater significance lies in the fact that it changed the musical landscape so profoundly that every pop act since has been in its debt.
Captained by Mike Love, The Beach Boys play an astoundingly busy schedule of concerts, averaging 150 shows a year. In 1974 Mike Love’s concept album Endless Summer ignited a second generation of Beach Boys fans and stirred a tempest that rocked the music world.
Even more than the Beatles, The Beach Boys found through their music the key to unfading youth—and they made copies for everyone. To these guys, the beach isn’t just a place where the surf comes to play—it’s where life is renewed and made whole again.
Wasn’t Endless Summer a best-of record, rather than a concept album? (Not to mention a response to SMiLE, a real concept album that got squashed?)
If you are the only one left on the ship aren’t you automatically captain?
I’d say McCartney has the key to “unfading youth” over Mike Love any day.
Mostly I just can’t imagine that somebody had the sack to write this with a straight face!
Endless Summer was a concept album alright . . . conceived to make money for Capitol Records.
I love The Beach Boys — but I’ve said it before — the BS act that Mike Love and Bruce Johnston take around the country is horrible.
What Brian Wilson does, while somewhat sad as he reads 40 year old lyrics off a Teleprompter, is 100x more authentic than what Love does. He is the devil.
Actually, and this piece reminds me of the need to complete my long-awaited piece on The Satanic Beach Boys, I think the driving force of evil in the band is someone else. Love is merely this band member’s vessel. Stay tuned!
The current Beach Boys touring lineup with only Love and Johnston being anything close to authentic Boys is equivalent to, say, Roger Daltrey and Kenny Jones assembling a bunch of hired guns and going out on the road as The Who.
I always knew that John Stamos is secretly the devil’s spawn.
Well, Roger is currently touring Tommy…zzzzzz.
I think I threw up in my mouth a little. Brian Wilson should sue Love for releasing a concept album without his consent.
TB
Hopefully, not anyone I know . . . R.I.P. Dennis, Carl, & Murry.
That’s unfortunate — unless something has changed — his voice was shot the last time I saw “The Who” seven years ago.
Captained by Mike Love? I think of him more as Der Surfuehrer.
I saw Rog open for Eric Clapton last year and he sounded much better than he had previously.
He doesn’t write and Cds are not selling so he has to tour to make money. I think he knows this is his last chance for TOMMY and that if The Who ever tour again it he will have to be very selective on songs he can sing. The crowd at the Clapton show LOVED him (Clapton on the other hand played mid tempo blues and no hits for 2 hours and was pretty dull)
HA!
I love it, Mike Love is just trolling people now, perhaps us in particular. “Captained by Mike Love” is just brilliant, specifically using the sports terminology to both appeal to those of us who live in that music/sports nerd sweet spot and to deliver a solid shot to Brian and his fans with the “I was the cool one, Brian was the nerd” implication. If you take it from a nautical perspective – as Love’s love of captain’s hats demands – it also ties into my theory of Mike Love as the architect of the greatest Rock Mutiny. Come to think of it, is this “Captained by Mike Love” sentiment the secret origin behind Love’s choice of headgear for the last few decades?
After that, the part about Endless Summer being Love’s concpet album is A+ material to rile up his enemies, and that whole last paragraph, which works in a slam about the Beatles and then compares the Beach Boys music with enlightenment, eternal youth and reincarnation, has to have been written by Love himself. Tremendous.
Well, just to be contrary, I will take the opposite view: i.e., you have to come up with something positive to say if you are promoting an event. I mean, it wouldn’t do to say: “Decades after ceasing to be of any cultural relevance or musical interest, the Beach Boys bring their tired-ass act to Atlanta. Piloted by Satan’s First Mate Mike Love, this dead-in-the-water faux nostalgia act offers less musical credibility than a Journey cover band. Strictly for get-a-lifers only.”
misterioso, can you write my band’s next press release?
I’m on it, bro.
Endless Summer or Endless Blather?
You can capsulize most pop music acts by reciting how many hits they’ve had and how many millions of albums they’ve sold. (Yes, that’s what capsules do, they summarize rather than print a long stroke piece)
But these conventional measurements fall short when you’re assessing the impact of The Beach Boys. (heights, widths, and cubic volume must be included)
To be sure, this band has birthed a torrent of hit singles and sold albums by the tens of millions.(not to mention all the other less metaphorical birthings, right, wink, wink)
But its greater significance lies in the fact that it changed the musical landscape so profoundly that every pop act since has been in its debt. (except Chuck Berry, who really needed a better attorney)
Captained by Mike Love, The Beach Boys play an astoundingly busy schedule of concerts, averaging 150 shows a year. (“Captained” in the sense of Battle Of The Network Stars NBC team which has fewer of the hot, young women on it)
In 1974 Mike Love’s concept album Endless Summer ignited a second generation of Beach Boys fans and stirred a tempest that rocked the music world. (an amazing compliation that improved upon their best selling albums – Greatest Hits, All The Best, Essential Tracks From, Top 10 Records of, and Mike Love’s Favorites!)
Even more than the Beatles, The Beach Boys found through their music the key to unfading youth—and they made copies for everyone. (Plastic surgery? Puerile self-Loving delusion? Heavy usage of cosmetics? Time Travel? Dorian Gray’s Elixir? Finding the lowest common denominator and dividing? What is this secret key!?)
To these guys, the beach isn’t just a place where the surf comes to play—it’s where life is renewed and made whole again. (and where they find an occasional piece of metal – after the flotsam, garbage, used needles, and seagull turds are sorted out.)
Endless Bummer.
Rog had some kind of growth in his throat (dunno if it was cancerous, or what) that was affecting his singing. He had some new fangled procedure done (post – Super Bowl show, I believe), which was supposed to give him back his full range.
Please be fair to Mike Love, who still retains youth through his ageless vocal abilities and relatively young looks, considering his actual age. Further proof of this would be Mike Love’s album he recorded, a CD which featured re-made versions of Beach Boys classics and fan favorites.
“Endless Summer” was an excellent concept album. The concept was for Capitol Records to repackage The Beach Boys’ classic material with new artwork, including updated drawings of members of The Beach Boys dressed for success in 1970s fashion attire. Such changes included long hair, beards and 70s stoner inspired clothes. Rightfully so, this concept album introduced The Beach Boys to new and different market segments.
Mike Love has made hefty contributions to the music world and to society, with his charities still running in full motion. Perhaps rocktownhall.com could launch a charity called Rock Town Hall For The Children and raise millions of dollars.
Today, Mike Love leads a busy life, performing nearly 150 dates per year and eating foods that boost his health and vitality. Mike Love enjoys spending time with and robbing the cradle by enjoying his current wife, who is said to be an old soul trapped in a young body. His current version of The Beach Boys is essentially a traveling jukebox, performing the hits; all killer and no filler.
The upcoming Beach Boys reunion will showcase a mixture of hits, fan favorites and lesser-known songs that translate well in a live concert environment.
Al Jardine’s temper is calmed and the genius Brian Wilson can perform in a concert environment. Love wears his captain’s hat with pride, so all hands on deck for a spectacular Beach Boys 50th anniversary tour!
Welcome aboard, tucansam! This is great stuff. I’ve never considered Love’s diet and Jardine’s temper before. If you’d care to expound I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one who’s all ears.
For the record, I’m the guy around here who thinks Love was as key to the band’s early success as anyone and that “Kokomo” is one of the Beach Boys’ Top 5 songs post-Pet Sounds.
I finally got around to watching Love’s HoF speech, and frankly, it was not nearly as embarrassing as I thought it would be. Yeah, he comes off like a hard on who is his own number one fan/frenemy, but the in underlying message he seems to be trying to encourage/challenge/taunt his peers into having their own version of a punk rock revolution in which they strip away all of the bullshit, ignore all of the suits, and get back to the basics. Of course, all of the back story makes it seem a bit disingenuous…
Mike, welcome to Rock Town Hall!