Contemporary Authors

• Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy Blue Rider Press (New York, NY), 2016

1. Good vibrations : my life as a Beach Boy https://lccn.loc.gov/2016026426 Love, Mike, 1941- author. Good vibrations : my life as a Beach Boy / Mike Love. New York : Blue Rider Press, 2016. 436 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm ML420.L8855 A3 2016 ISBN: 9780399176418 hardcover alkaline paper

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Love

  Mike Love
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  "Michael Love" redirects here. For other uses, see Michael Love (disambiguation).

  This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2006) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
  Mike Love
  Mike Love.jpg
  Mike Love performing in 2006
  Background information
  Birth name Michael Edward Love
  Born March 15, 1941 (age 76)
  Los Angeles, California, U.S.
  Origin Hawthorne, California, U.S.
  Genres
  Rock pop
  Occupation(s)
  Singer songwriter
  Instruments
  Vocals tambourine saxophone
  Years active 1961–present
  Labels
  Capitol Brother EMI Boardwalk Creole Epic
  Associated acts
  The Beach Boys Celebration Mike & Dean
  Michael Edward "Mike" Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist who co-founded the Beach Boys. Characterized by his nasal, sometimes baritone singing, Love has been one of the band's vocalists and lyricists for most of their career, contributing to each of their studio albums. He is often regarded as a malign figure in the band's history, a reputation he acknowledges: "For those who believe that Brian [Wilson] walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist."[1]

  In the 1960s, Love collaborated with Wilson and was a lyricist on singles including "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964) and "California Girls" (1965). During this period, his lyrics primarily reflected the youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, which helped fashion pop culture's perception of the "California Dream".[2] Starting in 1968, Love became a teacher of Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The experience influenced his lyrics to take on themes of astrology, meditation, politics and ecology. Following this, Love's lyrical direction shifted to attempt to recapture the band's earlier, lighthearted sound. In the late 1970s, Love began working on solo albums, releasing his first and only in 1981: Looking Back with Love. In 1988, he, along with the other founding members of the Beach Boys, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The same year, the song, "Kokomo", co-written by Love, reached number one in the United States and was nominated for a Grammy.

  In 1998, following the death of cousin Carl Wilson, Love and longtime Beach Boy Bruce Johnston were given an exclusive license to tour under the name "The Beach Boys". The other surviving Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, embarked on solo endeavors. In 2011, the group reunited to produce a new album and embark on a tour for their 50th anniversary. Following the 50th anniversary reunion shows, Love resumed touring only with Johnston.

  Contents [hide]
  1 Early life
  2 Career
  2.1 1960s
  2.1.1 Disputes
  2.2 1970s–80s
  2.2.1 Side projects
  2.3 1990s–2000s
  2.4 2010s
  3 Influences and lyricism
  4 Personal life
  4.1 Marriages and family
  4.2 Spiritual beliefs
  4.3 Political views
  4.4 Charity
  5 Discography
  5.1 Studio albums
  5.2 Singles
  6 References
  7 Bibliography
  8 External links
  Early life[edit]
  Love's mother, Emily (known as "Glee") Wilson, was the sister of Mary and Murry Wilson, a family resident in Los Angeles since the early 1920s. Glee married Edward Milton Love, the son of the founder of the Love Sheet Metal Company, in 1938. Michael Edward, the first of six children, was born in the Baldwin Hills district of Los Angeles, in 1941; thereafter the family moved to the upmarket View Park area. Mike attended Dorsey High School and graduated in 1959. Unsure of a career direction, he pumped gas and briefly joined his father's company, whose fortunes dramatically declined in the late 1950s. Both Milt and Glee Love were active in sports, and Glee had a distinct interest in painting and the arts. Like her brother, Murry, however, she was also strong-willed and, according to her husband, a dominant personality. The family was close-knit and regularly socialized with Murry and Audree Wilson and their sons. Murry Wilson was a part-time songwriter.

  Mike Love befriended the Wilson sons and often sang at family get-togethers at the Wilsons' home in nearby Hawthorne, especially at Christmas. It was here, under the vocal harmony guidance of Brian Wilson, that the Beach Boys sound was established, predominantly influenced by Brian's devotion to the Four Freshmen's arrangements. Musical accompaniment during this formative phase was solely Brian's self-taught piano, but this was quickly expanded by the guitar contributions of Brian's college friend Al Jardine (whose fundamental interest was folk music) and Carl Wilson (whose idol was Chuck Berry).[3] With the failure of Love Sheet Metal, the family was forced to move to a modest two-bedroom house in Inglewood, closer to the Wilsons.

  Career[edit]
  1960s[edit]

  Mike Love with the Beach Boys in 1966.
  Love played rudimentary saxophone in the first years of the fledgling garage band that evolved from the Pendletones to the Beach Boys.[4] He also established himself, along with neighbor Gary Usher,[5] local DJ Roger Christian, and others, as a collaborator with Brian Wilson in the band's original compositions.[6] As the Beach Boys' career developed, all members contributed lead vocals to hit songs; but Love remained the central vocal focus on songs like "Do It Again".[citation needed] As a writer, Love's lyrical growth is evident from "The Warmth of the Sun", a song written on November 22, 1963, partly in response to the assassination of President John F Kennedy.[7]

  Disputes[edit]
  For more details on this topic, see Pet Sounds § Group infighting, and Collapse of Smile § Mike Love allegations.
  Love has been reported as resisting Brian Wilson's shift in songwriting style during the Pet Sounds and Smile sessions. Love has repeatedly dismissed the claims as hyperbole,[8][9][10] though he has admitted that he refused to sing certain lines in Pet Sounds[11] and had reservations about Van Dyke Parks' lyrics for the Beach Boys.[8][12] According to Erik Hedegaard of Rolling Stone, Love is considered "one of the biggest assholes in the history of rock & roll" due to the allegations.[8]

  During an argument in December 1966 during the recording of the song "Cabin Essence", Love asked Parks to explain the meaning of the line, "Over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfields"; Parks demurred, walking out of the recording session. Though Parks continued to work on the project until March 1967, it has been hypothesized that his partnership with Wilson ended in part due to Love's reservations.[13][14] Love has since stated that he appreciates Parks' "brilliant" lyricism on an artistic level, though he had feared the lyrics were too abstract for a relatable Beach Boys record.[12] In a letter to UK music magazine Mojo, Parks described Love's views as historical revisionism, and stated his belief that Love's hostility to Smile was the "deciding factor" in the album's postponement.[15]

  1970s–80s[edit]

  Love (front-right) performing with the Beach Boys in 1971
  Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as Brian Wilson's weight, health, and mental stability fluctuated wildly, Mike Love continued to tour, effectively leading the Beach Boys on stage, with Carl Wilson as de facto musical director of the band. Love's songs became increasingly solo compositions (words and music) such as "Big Sur" (1973), "Everyone's in Love With You" (1976) and "Sumahama" (1978).

  In 1988, the Beach Boys had a US number 1 hit with "Kokomo", the only number 1 the band achieved without Brian Wilson's involvement.[citation needed] Love (along with "Kokomo" co-writers Scott McKenzie, Terry Melcher, and John Phillips) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award (1988) in the Original Song category, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Kokomo".

  Also in 1988, Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other founding members of the Beach Boys. At the induction ceremony Love delivered a hostile speech, criticizing, among others, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney.[16] When asked in 2016 if he regretted anything about the night, Love said "Yeah, I regret that I didn't meditate [earlier that day]."[8]

  Side projects[edit]

  This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately.
  Find sources: "Mike Love" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR · free images (September 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
  In 1976–77, Love and partners Ron Altbach and jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd created the short-lived Love Songs Records. This was to be the vehicle for releasing Love's solo records along with the band Celebration and other projects. The company had its own recording studio and publishing facility at Loves's residence in Santa Barbara Calif.[citation needed]

  In the mid-1970s he fronted the band Celebration, which achieved the top 30 hit single Almost Summer (co-written with Brian Wilson and Jardine).[citation needed]

  In the late 1970s Love recorded two unreleased solo albums, First Love and Country Love. Love's first and only official-release solo album, Looking Back with Love (1981), included versions of pop standards like Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" as well as self-penned numbers such as "Paradise Found".[citation needed]

  Love worked with Dean Torrence in the early 1980s on singles and on the compilation Rock 'n' Roll City.[citation needed]

  1990s–2000s[edit]
  See also: Love v. Wilson

  The touring line-up of Mike Love and Bruce Johnston's "The Beach Boys Band", plus guest member David Marks, in 2008
  In 1992, Love sued Brian for defamation regarding claims made in the 1991 memoir Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story. The case was settled out of court by publisher HarperCollins, who awarded Love $1.5 million. It was the first of numerous lawsuits that Love would file against Brian.[8] Two years later, Love won a legal proceeding to establish what he considered to be proper authorship credit for many of the Beach Boys songs he co-wrote. Love claimed that Murry Wilson had avoided crediting him with his early lyrical contributions to Brian's songs, denying Love accrued royalties.[8]

  After the death of Carl Wilson in 1998, Love continued to tour with the Beach Boys, along with Bruce Johnston and a supporting band of new musicians, occasionally including actor John Stamos. He leased exclusive rights to tour under the Beach Boys name in a boardroom settlement with Brother Records, the Beach Boys' company.[citation needed] In 1998, Love and his closest ally in the Beach Boys, Bruce Johnston, recorded the album Symphonic Sounds: Music of the Beach Boys with London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, London. Featured on the disc were newly arranged versions of songs like Johnston's "Disney Girls (1957)" and "Darlin'" featuring Matt Jardine.[citation needed]

  Love contributed one track to the 2003 Bruce Springsteen tribute CD (singing "Hungry Heart"), and also lent his voice to a Bruce Johnston–produced album for the Kings Singers. He also re-recorded a number of classic Beach Boys hits, released on the collections Catch a Wave, Salute NASCAR, and Summertime Cruisin'. In 2003 Love announced plans for a new solo album, variously reported as Unleash The Love and Mike Love, Not War (not to be confused with the Beach Boys bootleg of the same name). Two conspicuous tracks off the work-in-progress are "Cool Head, Warm Heart", which appeared on an official Beach Boys–related collection, and "Pisces Brothers", a reminiscence of his time in India with George Harrison.[citation needed]

  On November 3, 2005 Love sued Brian Wilson and the Mail On Sunday newspaper because the Beach Boys' name and Love's image were used in a promotional CD that was given free with the paper to promote the 2004 Brian Wilson presents Smile release. Love argued that the unauthorized (by Brother Records Inc.) free CD resulted in loss of income for the band. The lawsuit was dismissed on May 16, 2007 on the grounds that it was without merit.[17][clarification needed]

  2010s[edit]

  Love performing in 2012
  On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Love would reunite with Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks for a new Beach Boys album and 50th anniversary tour in 2012. The group appeared at the 2012 Grammy Awards on February 12, followed by a 50-date tour that began in Tucson, AZ in April. Love commented on working with Marks once again, stating, "David rocks. ... When he does those leads on "Surfin'," "Surfin' Safari" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" it's so authentic. He and Carl committed on playing guitar since they were ten years old and ... neighbors with each other from across the street in Hawthorne. He's a fantastic musician and a really fantastic guy. ... It's going to be really great to be with him."[18]

  On June 5, 2012, the Beach Boys' reunion album That's Why God Made the Radio was released. Eleven tracks were co-written by Brian Wilson (mostly with Joe Thomas). The Love-composed track "Daybreak Over the Ocean" features Love's children Christian and Hayleigh on backing vocals, augmented by Jeff Foskett and the remaining original Beach Boys.[citation needed] In September 2012, Love and Bruce Johnston announced via a press release that following the end of the reunion tour The Beach Boys would revert to the Love/Johnston lineup, without Wilson, Jardine or Marks, all of whom expressed surprise despite such dates having been noted in a late June issue of Rolling Stone. In the ensuing media fallout, it was widely reported that the three had been 'fired' by Love.[citation needed]

  Love (far left) and Johnston (far right) performing as the Beach Boys in 2014
  In 2013, while discussing his unreleased solo albums, Mike Love Not War and First Love, Love noted, "I've stockpiled these things for decades now, but we finally have a team to get my music out. There's a song called "Going to the Beach", a Beach Boys summertime classic. Mike Love Not War is about the hopes and aspirations of those on the planet who like to see more positivity and harmony. I want to get a couple of people to sing with me on it, [including] Neil Young. He's as anti-war as he might be. It all goes back to John and Yoko saying "Give Peace a Chance" and Marvin Gaye singing "What's Going On".[19]

  Love was awarded Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.[20] His autobiography entitled Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy was published on September 13, 2016.[21][22]

  Influences and lyricism[edit]
  In writing many of the Beach Boys songs, Love drew inspiration from the lyrics of Chuck Berry along with Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote many of the Everly Brothers' songs including "Devoted to You" and "All I Have to Do is Dream". He explained, "They were both the fun, descriptive pictorial vignettes as well as the more sweet, romantic and devotional lyrics. ... Even before that and more fundamental than that, I was always into poetry. I would read English literature or American literature and poets and poems. I would be really bad at math but I'd really be into language, for instance, Spanish or liberal arts, specifically ancient poetry like Chaucer."[23]

  Personal life[edit]

  This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
  Marriages and family[edit]
  Love has been married to Jacquelyne Piesen since 1994 and has eight children: two with Piesen and six from his four previous marriages.[24] Love is a vegetarian who practices and teaches Transcendental Meditation, wears Indian Ayurveda rings and partakes in traditional Hindu ceremonies.[25][26] He currently resides in the Lake Tahoe area.[27]

  In addition to being cousin to the Wilson brothers, Love is the brother of former NBA basketball player Stan Love and of Pink Martini harpist Maureen Love, and is the uncle of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball player Kevin Love.

  Spiritual beliefs[edit]
  Mike Love was among the first pop musicians to become involved in the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, through his meeting with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.[citation needed] Having commenced Transcendental Meditation studies in December 1967,[28] he accompanied the Beatles, Donovan, Prudence Farrow, and Mia Farrow on their famous trip to the guru's ashram at Rishikesh in India in early 1968. The 1968 Beach Boys album Friends has some of the first Mike Love lyric compositions relating to his experiences in India and Transcendental Meditation, themes he continues to write about in his lyrics to the current day.[citation needed]

  Political views[edit]

  The Beach Boys with President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan at the White House, June 12, 1983
  A photographed handshake between Love and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s led many to label Love as a political conservative, although he describes himself as a progressive.[29]

  Charity[edit]
  Mike Love has been a longtime supporter of environmental causes and was among speakers at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Earth Day 2000 on the Mall in Washington, DC. Love was instrumental in forming StarServe ("Students Taking Action and Responsibility to Serve") which enlisted high-profile celebrities to inspire America's youth to help serve their communities.[30] He also created the Love Foundation, which supports national environmental and educational initiatives.[citation needed] Love personally donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina and helped the foundation raise an additional $250,000. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lake Tahoe School in Incline Village, Nevada,[not in citation given] and was responsible for raising over $1 million to benefit the school.[30]

  In 2010, Mike Love contributed to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's More Hope For The Holidays album with vocals on "Closing of the Year" as well as contributing his self-penned "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo". On the album he appears alongside Weezer, Brandi Carlile, and Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.[31] He performed a benefit concert for the foundation for the Children of the Californias which raised one million dollars to support the expansion of three new surgical suites. During the 50th Reunion Tour Love alongside the Beach Boys partnered with Operation Smile to raise funds for those in need of cleft lip and palate repair surgeries. In May 2013, Love was recognised for his decades of investment in education and national service by being awarded City Year's "Seven Generations Award".[30]

• Mike Love - https://mikelove.com/about/

  A look into the life of Mike Love

  Grammy® Winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, Michael Edward Love, grew up under the Southern California sun where he soaked up a life of music, surf, sand and sport. Beginning their singing careers as teenagers, Mike and his cousin, Brian Wilson, frequently sang at family get-togethers and holiday gatherings. These early influences served as the inspiration to form the legendary group, The Beach Boys, which first consisted of Mike and his cousins, Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson along with neighbor David Marks and High School friend Alan Jardine.

  On April 30th 2016, Mike kicked off his 50 Years of Good Vibrations tour. The hit “Good Vibrations,” which is widely considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of rock and roll, celebrates its 50th anniversary on October 10 th of this year. In honor of this prolific time in the life of the Beach Boys, Mike will release his highly-anticipated memoir titled GOOD VIBRATIONS: My Life as a Beach Boy, on September 13th. The book will be published by Blue Rider Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA).

  In the fall of 1961, Mike wrote the lyrics and melody to The Beach Boys’ first song, “Surfin’,” along with Brian Wilson. This led to the signing of the band by Capitol Records. Following the song’s debut, Mike and his cousin Brian went on to co-author numerous tracks, which included eleven Top 10 singles in the first five years of the band. Hit after hit, Mike created many of the concepts, and wrote or co-wrote the lyrics and hooks to several of the most performed songs in pop music history including: “Good Vibrations,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Surfin’ Safari,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “Do It Again,” “Kokomo” and the incomparable “California Girls,” which featured Bruce Johnston’s debut vocal recording as a member of The Beach Boys.

  For more than fifty years, Mike Love has been the lead singer and front man of The Beach Boys, taking the sounds of America’s band to every corner of the globe. His distinctive and iconic vocal range is synonymous with fast-paced rock ‘n’ roll tracks, as well as many of the band’s softer ballads. Mike’s vocal versatility is central to many of the bands signature hits including: “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Be True to Your School,” “Little Saint Nick,” “When I Grow Up (To Be a Man),” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “That’s Not Me,” the bridge on “Sloop John B” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” which is featured on the iconic Pet Sounds album. Beyond his unique persona and sound as the lead singer, Mike’s dynamic bass vocals provided the foundation of the group and anchored the legendary Beach Boys harmonies. Love’s voice is a style of its own. He combines his steady bass/baritone with a whimsical intonation— indicative of the ultra-cool, self-confidence and innocence of the early 1960s.

  In December of 1967, The Beach Boys were invited to Paris to perform at a benefit for UNICEF. The curtain opened to a very distinguished front row including Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, George Harrison and John Lennon. At Maharishi’s invitation, Mike, along with Carl, Alan and Dennis were initiated into the practice of Transcendental Meditation. Mike was profoundly affected by the first meditation experience, stating, “If enough people were to practice TM, the world would be a better place.” He continues to practice TM today and supports organizations such as the David Lynch Foundation, which promote the vast benefits of Transcendental Meditation.

  In 1979, Mike’s idea to celebrate July 4th with a free concert annually culminated into two shows in 1985 where The Beach Boys would play Philadelphia during the day and the Washington D.C. Mall later that evening. This resulted in record- breaking attendance— with The Beach Boys performing live for over 1.5 million people in a single day.

  In 1988, Mike and the other members of The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, Mike co-wrote the #1 hit “Kokomo,” with John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas, and producer Terry Melcher. This was 22 years after Mike co-authored the Beach Boys’ #1 hit of the 60’s, “Good Vibrations,”— marking the longest span of time between number one records of any artist in music history. Both “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo” were nominated for Grammy® awards. “Kokomo” was also nominated for a Golden Globe ® Award.

  In 2001, the band was the recipient of the Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award.

  In 1990, Mike was the first artist to respond to President George H. W. Bush’s call for service as part of the Thousand Points of Light Initiative. Mike began StarServe, as part of The Thousand Points of Light “Students Taking Action and Responsibility to Serve,” enlisting high profile celebrities and athletes to inspire young people to serve their communities. More than twenty years later, Mike continues his commitment to young people. For his work in continued education, Mike was the recipient of the 2013 Seven Generations Award by City Year, a national education organization that identifies at risk students and encourages them to reach their full potential through mentorship. Mike is also an Advisory Board Member of the Surfrider Foundation, and a longtime supporter of environmental causes. In 1992, Mike was a speaker at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, and again on Earth Day 2000 on the Mall in Washington, D.C. In 2002, Love proudly carried the Olympic torch for the Salt Lake City, UT Olympic Games.

  In 2012, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks reunited for their 29th studio album, That’s Why God Made The Radio, and The Beach Boys’ 50th Anniversary Tour.

  In 2013, The Beach Boys released a career-spanning, six-CD collection titled Made In California, which chronicled the band’s 50-year storied career from their earliest demos to their most recent recordings. Love executive-produced the new box set, which showcased more than seven and a half hours of Beach Boys classics and more than 60 previously unreleased gems including home demos, alternate takes and mixes and live concert, television and radio performances. The box set also featured an original, previously unreleased Beach Boys track “Goin’ To The Beach,” written by Love.

  In 2014, Mike debuted a solo single “Pisces Brothers” in tribute to The Beatles singer and fellow Piscean, George Harrison. The track, which was released on George’s birthday, was inspired by the time the two spent together in India in 1968.

  In 2014, Mike received The Ella Award, a lifetime achievement award by the Society of Singers. He joined a prestigious array of honorees including Ella Fitzgerald, Smokey Robinson, Elton John, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. The night was filled with one-of- a-kind performances and tributes from a host of legendary performers and artists, including Mike’s fellow Beach Boys (Al Jardine, David Marks and Bruce Johnston) and the children of The Beach Boys (including Carnie and Wendy Wilson), as well as music legends, Bill Medley, Dean Torrence, Micky Dolenz, Christopher Cross, America, Rita Wilson and David Lee Roth.

  Throughout his career, Mike has co-authored more than a dozen Top 10 Singles, cementing The Beach Boys legacy, alongside The Beatles and Michael Jackson, as the only artists to have produced twelve Top 10 Singles, within 5 years.

  Today, Mike is happily married to Jacquelyne, and is the proud father of eight children. Mike primarily resides on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. He continues to enjoy life on the road, performing over 150 sold-out shows a year all over the world. The endless Summer Tour will continue in 2016 as The Beach Boys celebrate fifty years of Good Vibrations and Pet Sounds…

QUOTED: "an honest reader will see that solid dependability has its own merits, in
art and life."

Good vibrations
Brian Doherty
Reason.
48.8 (Jan. 2017): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Reason Foundation
http://reason.com/about
Full Text: 
Mike Love, the nasal singer and frequent lyricist for the Beach Boys, is one of the most hated men in rock. The early reaction to his memoir Good
Vibrations (Blue Rider) suggests that the book isn't going to change that. Love and his cousin Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' main composer and
vocal arranger, are painted in fan history as, respectively, the Antichrist and the man who walks on water.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Wilson represents sensitivity and artistic exploration in this saga; Love, brash showmanship and a bourgeois approach to entertainment as a
business. It took both men to create and maintain The Beach Boys as America's longest-lasting and still quite successful band; Love is proud that
2015, 53 years into their career, saw the largest number of Beach Boys performances ever.
Love admits some of the more far-out music his cousin made didn't necessarily thrill him, a sin to the Wilson fanatics who see him as a Tinker
Bell who must be believed in to thrive. But reading the story of Love being cheated over writing credits and suffering bandmates (and cousins)
who indulged in debilitating drug abuse and descended into mental illness, an honest reader will see that solid dependability has its own merits, in
art and life.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Doherty, Brian. "Good vibrations." Reason, Jan. 2017, p. 61. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA474769737&it=r&asid=36bb7cc58dc1962f60e80ea2b630e17a. Accessed 19 Mar.
2017.
3/19/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1489980201899 2/11
Gale Document Number: GALE|A474769737

---
QUOTED: "At the merciful end of this book Love is 75, a two-faced gluten-free bellend, banging on about mindfulness and universal love in one paragraph
and in the next saying of his dead cousin, 'Since Carl's passing, the shows have never been better.' This book will cheer up keen observers of
asshats who think they're all that."
"Love's book is a cross between a boast and an excuse."

3/19/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1489980201899 3/11
Falling out with Love
Julie Burchill
Spectator.
332.9822 (Nov. 26, 2016): p45.
COPYRIGHT 2016 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)
http://www.spectator.co.uk
Full Text: 
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beachboy
by Mike Love
Faber, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 448
I Am Brian Wilson: The Genius Behind the Beach Boys
by Brian Wilson
Coronet, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 320
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Volcanic fallings out within bands are an ever-recurring motif in the history of rock music. There's an obvious reason for this: most musicians
pick up an instrument in the first place not because they hear the call of Euterpe but because they're sailing on the HMS Ain't Gettin' None.
They dream of fame, fortune and the cream of international crumpet, so they form a band with like-minded fellows--and then find that not all
musos are created equal. One member will inevitably become the focus of female attention. Usually it's the lead singer, who will often be the
prettiest; imagine how the three ugly Doors felt, expertly playing their instruments while teenage girls screamed with lust at drunk, shambling,
beautiful Jim Morrison.
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was an exception; no teen idol, he was talented beyond belief. His bandmates, more physically blessed, veered
between awe and exasperation at this half-mad genius. Now one of them--Wilson's misnamed cousin Mike Love--has put his feelings down on
paper.
Aware of the misery memoir conventions, he begins by saying 'Make no mistake, I wasn't raised at Disneyland.' But he is such a braggart that he
is soon telling us that his childhood home had 'three floors, 14 rooms, five bathrooms, and amenities of all kinds ... the chandelier cast a soft glow
over the living room ... the swimming pool beckoned.'
3/19/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1489980201899 4/11
Soon, despite the sun-kissed Cali upbringing, you're getting a distinct whiff of David Brent and Alan Partridge; 'I didn't have a lot of close
friends, or maybe just didn't let many people get close to me. I was more comfortable as a renegade.' At high school he is racist to the point of
using the N-word freely to his black classmates' faces, but that's OK because 'I got along with the black kids, partly because I was good at sport. I
could cross these racial boundaries.'
What with Brian Wilson being universally worshipped, Love is smart enough to know that attacking the real source of his inferiority complex
would make him look like a bitter bully. Instead, he goes after Dennis, Brian's brother, the looker of the band and also conveniently dead. There's
an extended passage about Dennis being beaten up by two professional goons which reads like an outline to a Tarantino sequence--you can
practically hear Love licking his lips. To make up for not being sexy like Dennis, he offers to suck female co-performers' toes in order to relax
them.
Wilson, predictably, comes across as a charming, infuriating, bemused child-genius. Mind you, you can understand Love's frustration when
Wilson succumbs to the arch-charlatan Dr Eugene Landy, who turned him into a zombie cash-cow, causing him to reject all contact with his
former bandmates and co-write with him a book amusingly called Wouldn't It Be Nice, in which Love is described as 'smarmy' and 'creepy', and
that writing songs with him 'nearly killed me several times over'.
You can see why Wilson wanted to draw a line between his and Love's input. Wilson's love songs are up there with Cole Porter, while Love's are
like something you'd hear at a suburban orgy. There's one bloodcurdling little number called, ahem, 'Rockin' the Man in the Boat' about a pervert
spying on a masturbating female, and even worse is 'Hey Little', which would have got his collar felt if he was resident in Blighty.
At the merciful end of this book Love is 75, a two-faced gluten-free bellend, banging on about mindfulness and universal love in one paragraph
and in the next saying of his dead cousin, 'Since Carl's passing, the shows have never been better.' This book will cheer up keen observers of
asshats who think they're all that. But if I were you, I'd spend the money on a Beach Boys record instead.
Or, indeed, on Brian Wilson's new memoir. From the start you know you're in for something special. Someone once explained to me the
difference between being childish (bad) and being childlike (good), but sadly I was too childish to grasp it. But this book reads like the work of a
child who has lived an extraordinarily eventful life, which he is still struggling to understand as he enters his dotage.
Whereas Love's book is a cross between a boast and an excuse, Wilson's is so painfully honest and affecting I found it impossible to read more
than a chapter at a time. But it has nothing of the misery memoir about it, perhaps because the survival of such talent feels like a victory for the
human race, let alone the man himself.
It's a peculiar book, veering between banality and the lyricism of a man widely considered to be one of America's greatest poets. His pathological
modesty (when a fan comes to his door, Wilson welcomes him in but asks: 'Are you sure you want to see me? Not John Lennon or Harry Nilsson?
I'm all washed up'), and constant amazement at compliments from far lesser artists, make you wonder whether these are coping mechanisms for
genius visited upon a man who is not conventionally intelligent.
He ends the book wondering about future collaborators, such as Paul McCartney ('But I am not sure if he would really want to') or Barry Gibb
('He is like King Kong'). But mostly he sits in his chair in his den, as his wife explains to him patiently, day after day, that his brothers are dead
and the voices in his head are not real.
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Brian Wilson does not live by any of the advertising jingles that pass for beliefs in our secular society. He doesn't think he's 'worth it', and he's
certainly not 'comfortable in his own skin'. But he was born with something that makes most of us look like the useless, self-satisfied monkeys we
are; a talent so extreme it's hard to believe that he was not in some way touched by the hand of the Lord.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Burchill, Julie. "Falling out with Love." Spectator, 26 Nov. 2016, p. 45. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472239708&it=r&asid=4faf773e0a5f0fbce7d17bfaf0670a42. Accessed 19 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A472239708

---
QUOTED: "The book is so relentless in
its efforts to build up his part thatyou feel that Will Ferrell should consider turning it into a film."

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Hang on to your ego
David Hepworth
New Statesman.
145.5336 (Oct. 14, 2016): p44.
COPYRIGHT 2016 New Statesman, Ltd.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Full Text: 
I Am Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman
Coronet, 307pp. 20 [pounds sterling]
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy
Mike Love with James S Hirsch
Faber & Faber, 436pp. 20 [pounds sterling]
According to the blurb accompanying I Am Brian Wilson, this is the book in which the co-founder of the Beach Boys "tells his extraordinary life
story for the first time, in his own words". Note what comes after the comma. This is actually the second time Wilson has told his extraordinary
life story. In 1991 he had his name on a book called Wouldn't It Be Nice. When people took exception to some of its contents, Wilson confessed
that he hadn't read it. The work in that case had been done by a ghostwriter, Todd Gold.
In 1991, the power was wielded by Eugene Landy, the sinister psychotherapist who controlled Wilson's life for most of the 1980s and in the early
1990s. Landy died in 2006, hence the release two years ago of the Wilson biopic Love and Mercy, in which he could serve as the villain, and now
this second autobiography, ghosted by Ben Greenman and, one senses, guided by Wilson's wife and manager, Melinda.
Greenman seems to have started Wilson on certain topics and then been happy to follow him down the meandering paths of his memory. The
Beach Boy is, like so many rock stars, a rambling man. To many musicians, the world is sounds, not stories; feelings, not facts. This book
proceeds accordingly. From old tunes that we all remember to new ones that we have already forgotten, and the precise details of a 40-year-old
mix retained by the same mind that can't remember what happened when he met the US president, this is a strangely accurate picture of what it's
like to interview a rock star, with many of the longueurs left in. There's a lot about food--one of the few features of a working musician's daily life
that he can control. Even now, when Wilson finds something that he likes on the menu, he has it every night. Parents of 14-year-old boys may
recognise the syndrome.
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There is an odd flattening effect in Wilson's recollections that gives you some idea of his state of mind. About fifty pages in, he starts discussing
making music with his family; then he remembers how, when he was going to Florida to write a song with Jimmy Buffett, somebody told him
that they would be close to Kokomo, the name of a Beach Boys song that Wilson didn't write, which was co-written by Terry Melcher, whose
former house Sharon Tate was living in when she was murdered by the Manson gang, who had been friends of his brother Dennis; and, on the
flight, Wilson was told that Kokomo was just an invention, which made him think about the time when he went to see a cousin in hospital and
wrapped his head in toilet paper so he looked like a mummy. It's like spending a long time with someone who makes no allowance for the way
the rest of us process information. It's a trifle wearing.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The Beach Boys as a creative force lasted just four action-packed years, from the song "Surfer Girl" in 1963 to "Heroes and Villains" in 1967.
The story of the Beach Boys, on the other hand, has endured for more than five decades. They were a family band formed around the three
Wilson brothers and their cousin Mike Love and managed by the Wilsons' martinet father, Murry. Brian co-wrote and arranged the songs but
wasn't built for the pop star's life. In 1964 he had a breakdown on a plane to Houston and withdrew from touring. He mostly stayed at home in the
studio, wrote the songs and taught the band members their parts. That worked while the songs were pouring out of him. Then he was laid low by
a combination of mental instability, overindulgence in psychedelic drugs, morbid overeating and writer's block. By this point, his PR man Derek
Taylor had announced that he was a genius. The problem was that he could no longer deliver the hits. "I love being a genius, but I hate the
responsibility," he said.
After 1967, Wilson could only come up with glimmers of what he had once done without trying. Nevertheless, the narrative of his genius has
been kept going ever since in magazine features, boxed sets of recorded relics, sentimental dramas, unconvincing re-creations and score-settling
memoirs. Rock'n'roll myths get halfway around the world before the truth has got its pants on.
According to scripture, Brian Wilson is the hero of the Beach Boys, and the band's lead singer, Mike Love, is the villain. There have certainly
been times when Love has behaved like a thundering arse, such as when he went off-script at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony and
accused Mick Jagger of being "chicken-shit to get onstage with the Beach Boys", or when he decided that the band should go on tour with the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, or the many occasions he has tried to make up for the lack of hair on his head by showing us a bit more of the hair on his
chest. However, even arses are capable of being wronged and Love was the victim of one of the pop-music crimes of the 20th century when the
catalogue of Beach Boys songs that he had co-written (often without credit) was sold at a knock-down price at the end of the 1960s by Murry
Wilson.
Daddy Wilson thought that he was doing the shrewd thing. He had assumed that the songs were about to be valueless. Now we know that they are
invaluable, and we know how this story plays out. The guys who joined the band as teenagers are married to each other and that catalogue until
death. Love and Wilson are the only two principals still standing and they were awkward participants in the tour that was put together in 2012 to
mark the band's 50th anniversary.
Love's new book, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, is named after one of the songs he wrote the words for. The book is so relentless in
its efforts to build up his part thatyou feel that Will Ferrell should consider turning it into a film. The scene in which Love's wife, Jacqueline, and
Brian's wife, Melinda, clash backstage over which Beach Boys songs Wilson's and Love's offspring will be allowed to perform could be a corker.
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Love's wife makes the mistake of referring to her husband as Brian's partner. "I'm his f* * *ing partner," is Melinda's response. Cut to the band
looking nervously at each other as they sing "Good Vibrations".
Between Love's insistence on mentioning every luscious lovely who has been unable to keep her hands off him and Wilson's perfect recall of
every compliment he has ever been paid by a well-known musician, there's enough in both books to make you stagger away thinking that these
grandfathers, neither of whom will see 70 again, should get over themselves. They both finish with expressions of gratitude that they are able to
keep doing what they started doing as teenagers. They recognise the members of the group who barely achieved middle age. Not at any stage
does either seem to realise just how absurd his life has been. They both take themselves preposterously seriously. It would take a more forgiving
disposition than mine to read these books again for anything but money.
David Hepworth s "1971--Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year" is published by Bantam Press
Hepworth, David
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hepworth, David. "Hang on to your ego." New Statesman, 14 Oct. 2016, p. 44+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470366705&it=r&asid=79c2550ffd504086ed6e97ff65a213eb. Accessed 19 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A470366705

---

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Love & Wilson
Ben Segedin
Booklist.
113.1 (Sept. 1, 2016): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text: 
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy. By Mike Love and James S. Hirsch. Sept. 2016. 448p. Penguin/Blue Rider, $28 (9780399176418): ebook,
$ 13.99 (9780698408869). 782.421.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
I Am Brian Wilson. By Brian Wilson and Ben Greenman. Oct. 2016. 320p. Da Capo, $26.99 (9780306823060). 782.421.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
If Dennis was the rebel and Carl the angel, then Brian was the genius and Mike the business-minded hothead. And while the Beach Boys are
known for their gorgeous harmonies, their personal and professional lives were anything but harmonious as these two new memoirs confirm.
Beach Boys member Love chronicles how the Wilson brothers found massive success with songs celebrating West Coast surf and car culture. He
describes how mental illness hobbled Brian, who spent years out of commission on drugs. Dennis, Love explains, was sexually insatiable,
generous to a fault, and for a time allowed Charles Manson and some of his followers to live in his mansion. Dennis also had an affair with
Love's former wife Suzanne (prompting Love to contemplate killing him), and later married a woman who claimed to be Love's daughter. Much
vilified by music aficionados, Love attempts to set the record straight, describing how he collaborated with Brian on many of the group's more
well-known songs but wasn't given writing credit until years later, following a lawsuit. Admittedly, he was more concerned about commerce than
art, but he never said, "Don't fuck with the formula." Love might not make converts out of haters, but with the structure and focus provided by
coauthor Hirsch, Good Vibrations tells a memorable story of a band whose "music is now part of our country's DNA."
On a flight to Houston at the end of 1964, a breakthrough year of hits including "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "I Get Around," the voices in Brian Wilson's
head became unbearable, prompting the decision to cease touring with the Beach Boys. More at home in the studio, Wilson fought hard to
complete Pet Sounds, an album now considered a masterpiece. Plagued by voices of doubt--from his dad, the group, the record label, and in his
head--Wilson attempted to complete SMiLE, but the pressure proved to be too great, sending him into drug-fueled isolation, followed by "nine
years of bullshit" under the tyrannical guardianship of a now infamously unethical psychologist. Wilson finally escaped Dr. Eugene Landry's
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influence with the help of Melinda, a car salesman who became his wife. He completed SMiLE nearly 40 years later, initiating a new period of
creativity. "My story is a music story and a family story and a love story, but it's a story of mental illness, too," writes Wilson. Music journalist
Greenman helps keep this meandering memoir coherent and poignant.--Ben Segedin
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Segedin, Ben. "Love & Wilson." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 26. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755009&it=r&asid=9e5167323e3a927ceb456f111f8c6497. Accessed 19 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463755009

---
QUOTED: "In this fiercely honest,
sometimes arrogant, memoir, Love transfixes readers with his stories of the rise and fall of the band."

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Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy
Publishers Weekly.
263.28 (July 11, 2016): p58.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy
Mike Love, with James S. Hirsch. Blue Rider, $28 (448p) ISBN 978-0-399-17641-8
In the 1960s, Love, along with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, rode high on a wave of the Beach Boys' popularity until it eventually
came crashing to the shore when a swell of infighting, as well as Brian's deteriorating mental condition, washed over them. In this fiercely honest,
sometimes arrogant, memoir, Love transfixes readers with his stories of the rise and fall of the band, his own work as a songwriter, and his deep
engagement with spirituality and the ways that it has influenced his music. As a teenager, he was obsessed with Chuck Berry's poetic lyrics and
with R&B in general, while Brian was fascinated by the folk music of Ricky Nelson and the harmonies of the Four Freshman. By his 20s, Love
recalls that he and his cousins recognized their tremendous musical gifts and that there was "magic in that gene pool" that needed to be set free.
Before long, Love was writing lyrics for songs such as "I Get Around," "Don't Worry Baby," "California Girls," and "Good Vibrations." In spite
of Love's lyrical contributions to the songs, he's not given credit on the records: "I knew I was losing out on songwriter royalties.... I just wanted
my own name on the label." By the late '70s, the band fractured, and in mind-numbing prose, Love describes his legal battles to win a settlement
against Brian for lost royalties. Love's sobering look at the ups and downs of a rock and roll band nevertheless ends on a note of hope that music
can provide harmony in word and spirit for a struggling world. (Sept.)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy." Publishers Weekly, 11 July 2016, p. 58+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA458915376&it=r&asid=d2c1d298f63e3a148ea82bee362896ab. Accessed 19 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A458915376

Doherty, Brian. "Good vibrations." Reason, Jan. 2017, p. 61. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA474769737&it=r. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017. Burchill, Julie. "Falling out with Love." Spectator, 26 Nov. 2016, p. 45. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472239708&it=r. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017. Hepworth, David. "Hang on to your ego." New Statesman, 14 Oct. 2016, p. 44+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470366705&it=r. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017. Segedin, Ben. "Love & Wilson." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 26. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755009&it=r. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017. "Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy." Publishers Weekly, 11 July 2016, p. 58+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA458915376&it=r. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

• The Guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/13/good-vibrations-life-as-beach-boy-mike-love-review
  Word count: 1311

  QUOTED: "there’s a strong case for Love being the Beach Boys’ most reliable narrator. And given that the story involves Charles Manson, Leonard Bernstein, Republican fund-raisers, parental abuse, mental illness and a cataclysmic fall from grace, as well as some of the greatest music of the 20th century, it’s a story well worth reading."

  Good Vibrations by Mike Love review – the Beach Boys’ ‘villain’ speaks out
  Love lacked the sensitivity of his cousin Brian Wilson, but he kept the band going after their fall from grace. He tells his side of an extraordinary story
  Beach Boys in their pomp (from left) ... Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Dennis Wilson
  Beach Boys in their pomp (from left) ... Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Dennis Wilson Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Redferns
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  Bob Stanley
  Thursday 13 October 2016 02.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 14 February 2017 12.36 EST
  Pop music’s villains have usually been in management, or record company executives, but there are a select number who are musicians. Some are actual criminals – Gary Glitter – while others have been condemned for their conservatism and lack of adventure; the artist Jeremy Deller has claimed that Oasis “destroyed music in Britain for years”. Among these bad guys, there’s a special place reserved for Mike Love of the Beach Boys. For five decades he has been held responsible by fans and many critics for cowing the band’s free-spirited songwriter Brian Wilson, Love’s cousin, with barbs such as “Don’t fuck with the formula”. Some see a direct link between Love’s behaviour and Wilson’s breakdown and withdrawal from the pop scene in the early 1970s.

  Fifty years after the release of “Good Vibrations”, the group’s masterpiece and a contender for the greatest pop single of all time, both Wilson and Love have written autobiographies. I Am Brian Wilson: The Genius behind the Beach Boys (Coronet, £20) is Wilson’s second; both of his books have been ghostwritten and his memory is apparently poor. As Wilson’s brothers Dennis and Carl are no longer around to tell their side of the story, there’s a strong case for Love being the Beach Boys’ most reliable narrator. And given that the story involves Charles Manson, Leonard Bernstein, Republican fund-raisers, parental abuse, mental illness and a cataclysmic fall from grace, as well as some of the greatest music of the 20th century, it’s a story well worth reading.

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  Mike Love is a “jock”, more interested in sports and moneymaking than complex chord changes or appealing to critics. He lacked the sensitivity of his cousins, but they harmonised together from an early age. Cross-country captain at school, he describes his younger self as a “renegade … a peacenik and a badass … I sent the message: don’t mess with Love”. Unlike the Wilsons, who lived in the working-class Los Angeles district of Hawthorne, Love grew up in a house with a pool, sundeck and five bathrooms. This was thanks to his father’s business, Love Sheet Metal, whose fortunes dipped dramatically in the early 1960s. Losing the family home led to a keen sense of thrift.

  Love comes across like a science experiment: if a jock were thrown into the heart of the 1960s cultural revolution, how might he emerge? Initially he smoked dope like his bandmates, but by the turn of the 70s became fiercely anti-drugs. In 1970 he fasted for three weeks, living on juice, tea and water; as a consequence of his light-headed state, he was arrested after driving through several red lights and ended up in Edgemont psychiatric hospital in a straitjacket. Like the Beatles, Love fell hard for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and transcendental meditation; unlike the Beatles, he stuck with it. During the early 70s he took time out to study an advanced siddhi meditation programme, a three-month stay in Switzerland following a three-month stay in France, “changing venues to take advantage of off-season hotel rates”.

  It’s easy to laugh at Love’s gaucheness and narrow-eyed barbs. He cites a “fascination with ethnicity of any kind”; of Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher, he says “Though he didn’t have any Beach Boy records, Tony loved our music”. Still, there’s no doubt Love kept the group together through a series of crises. Although they were hailed as the best group in the world by Melody Maker readers in 1966, ahead even of the Beatles, the counterculture turned heavily against them after the non-appearance of the troubled Smile album and their withdrawal from the Monterey Pop festival in 1967. In November 1966, they were No 1 in the US and UK with the Grammy-nominated “Good Vibrations”; they spent Thanksgiving 1969 playing the Corn Palace in Sioux City, Iowa, to 50 people.

  The Beach Boys, from left to right, Brian Wilson, David Marks, Mike Love and Al Jardine perform in concert in Sydney, 2012.
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  The Beach Boys, from left to right, Brian Wilson, David Marks, Mike Love and Al Jardine perform in concert in Sydney, 2012. Photograph: Rick Rycroft/AP
  On the verge of splintering into various solo projects after the 1973 album Holland, the Beach Boys were rescued by Love, who took hold of their live shows and turned them into flag-waving rallies of patriotic nostalgia. Given the patchiness of their catalogue since, keeping the group together wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but it’s hard not to be impressed by the hundreds of thousands who turned out to see the Beach Boys on various Fourth of July parties in the 1980s.

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  For Love haters, it’s also instructive to be reminded of just how young the Beach Boys were when they were thrown into the spotlight by the surf music craze – the youngest member, David Marks, hadn’t turned 14 when they had a hit with “Surfin’ Safari” in 1962. It all disintegrated rapidly into drug-addled paranoia, revenge attacks and thoughtlessness.

  It says a lot about Love’s low standing and the persuasive powers of Dennis Wilson’s music that the drummer isn’t regarded as the Beach Boys’ real monster – after all, he slept with Love’s first wife, ending their marriage, and later married one of Love’s daughters. Love claims that Dennis and Carl both supplied their bed-ridden brother Brian with cocaine and heroin in the late 70s, which would seem barely credible if we hadn’t already been told that Dennis and Love’s estranged wife had hired Susan Atkins, a Manson gang murderer, as a babysitter.

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  What rankles most with Love is the suggestion that his first reaction on hearing backing tracks to the timeless Pet Sounds album was to warn Brian Wilson “Don’t fuck with the formula”. “It’s the most famous thing I’ve ever said,” he writes, “even though I never said it.” On other occasions, though, he dismisses fine but less publicly vaunted Beach Boys records, such as the Love You album (1977), as “weird”. He claims to have written the verses for “Good Vibrations” on a crosstown car journey, dictating them to his wife without missing a beat.

  I’m ready to believe he wrote the leering lyrics to “California Girls”, and he is proud to have added the “round round get around” intro to Brian’s otherwise finished “I Get Around”, but “I love the colourful clothes she wears /and the way the sunlight plays upon her hair”? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but the Love who has written this book would surely regard that lyric as pretty “weird”.

• LA Times
  http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-my-life-as-a-beach-boy-review-20160823-snap-story.html
  Word count: 1396

  QUOTED: "Love is able to articulate the depth of his feelings for the music in a way that will send fans back to their stereos to crank up “Surfin’ U.S.A.” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “The Warmth of the Sun” whether they have an ocean handy or not."

  Mike Love's memoir 'Good Vibrations' recalls the Beach Boys harmonies and strife
  Mike Love
  Mike Love performing in the later years, a photo from his memoir "Good Vibrations." (BRI)
  Sarah Rodman
  Mike Love is acutely aware that he is perceived as a villain.

  In his new autobiography, “Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy,” Love puts the conventional public framing of his relationship to his cousin and musical collaborator Brian Wilson simply: “For those who believe that Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist.”

  But every villain is the hero of his own story and “Good Vibrations,” which oscillates from riveting to boilerplate to dull and back again over the course of 400-plus pages, lays out Love’s origin story, adding fodder to the tale of a legendary band.

  When so much has been written, documented on film, interpreted dramatically and sworn into the official record in court, the idea of distilling “the truth” about the Beach Boys as an entity is as slippery as an unwaxed surfboard.

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  Add the prism of individual recollections, some addled by substance abuse, and it becomes nigh impossible. But Love attempts to live his truth and “Good Vibrations” is an intermittently fascinating read for those interested in both the minutiae surrounding the birth of “California Girls” and the details of fractious family lawsuits.

  Mike Love, center, horsing around with bandmates Brian (left) and Dennis Wilson.
  Mike Love, center, horsing around with bandmates Brian (left) and Dennis Wilson. (From the book "Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy")
  Which is, of course, the ultimate Beach Boys irony. As Love puts it, the Beach Boys — initially made up of three brothers, a cousin and a friend — were all about harmony on record but often about discordance outside the studio. Given the melancholy underpinnings of some of their most famous hits, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that if everybody goes surfing, odds are some are going to wipe out.

  From the early, sun-dappled years as the band rose alongside California surf culture to the descent into the deep — presaged by a history of family dysfunction and exacerbated by fights over both creative and personal matters, betrayals, untimely deaths and the grind of endless touring — the Beach Boys story is as murky as its records are pristine.

  Love details his childhood and school years — surrounded by musical siblings and cousins but feeling a remoteness from his parents — and also makes clear the contrasts between the Loves and Wilsons, particularly financially. He explains how, in his view, the abusive behavior and inexperience of his uncle Murry — father of band mates Brian, Dennis and Carl, and the eventual band manager — affected them personally and professionally.

  But he emphasizes early and often just how close he and Brian were as kids, performing at family and church events and staying up late listening to the radio, harmonizing on arrangements that Brian cooked up on the fly. “We both had other friends and we both had girlfriends, but I don’t know that either of us had a better friend.”

  Love also reminds readers how true the band name was: They really were boys, either still in or just out of high school, when they began their ascendance. They may have sounded carefree singing about girls and cars, but the ride was fraught from the start. Love chronicles the winding road from early gigs to studio alchemy to romantic dalliances to packed arenas to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

  You don’t get to that pinnacle without encountering a colorful cast of characters. For Love, the list is long and glittery and includes, but is not limited to, several presidents, many rock stars — including Marvin Gaye, Glen Campbell and multiple Beatles and Rolling Stones — Muhammad Ali, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (from whom he acquired a lifelong devotion to Transcendental Meditation) and, for those who may have forgotten the connection, briefly and awfully, Charles Manson.

  He weaves those names into a story that is largely hellbent on dispelling the “Brian was the genius and the rest of the guys just showed up to sing” narrative. It was a story arc that also bothered other members of the group, including Wilson’s brothers Carl and Dennis, as they slogged it out on the road while chief architect Brian painstakingly fitted many of the pieces together in the studio.

  In his quest, Love is methodical, mostly reasonable, at times introspective, other times funny, and presents several compelling arguments, backed by other eyewitness accounts and even legal documents and court transcripts. (Perhaps most famously, Love successfully sued Brian for songwriting credit on 35 songs, including many big hits.) He also freely admits that his concerns were often aligned with the commercial prospects for the music, never disputing that he was more “Kokomo” and Brian was more “I Just Wasn't Made for These Times,” but defending his artistic contributions as a singer and songwriter.

  However, he also repeatedly, unreservedly expresses his admiration for the estimable gifts of his cousin as well as the other members of the group and those who orbited it over the years.

  That he is also given to self-congratulation, occasional pettiness, admits he has had a temper problem, was a frequently unfaithful husband and perhaps wasn’t in the running for father of the year honors with his oldest children, and goes off on tangents about monarch butterflies that may test the limits of even the most die-hard lovers of both the Beach Boys and butterflies — actually bolsters his case in a way that may be surprising. He is flawed certainly, but a villain? God only knows.

  To the people who believe that Brian rules and Mike drools, what Love writes will not matter one iota. And Wilson himself will have potential chance for rebuttal when his memoir “I am Brian Wilson,” written with Ben Greenman, is released in October.

  But for those interested in Love’s perspective, “My Life as a Beach Boy” is a generally solid read. (And suitable, unsurprisingly, for the beach.)

  Mike Love of the Beach Boys at home in Rancho Santa Fe in 2012.
  Mike Love of the Beach Boys at home in Rancho Santa Fe in 2012. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
  Perhaps most importantly the book serves as either a reminder for some or a first glimpse for others at how ecstatic Love is to be a Beach Boy. At how proud he is to have become a part of the fabric of American history for several generations, and likely more to come, whether people know — and loathe — his name or not. At how the music transcended the story and spread California sunshine around the globe.

  He recalls, poignantly, recording “The Warmth of the Sun” shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy and how, for the Beach Boys, the song transcended its romantic roots. “He may be gone,” he wrote of JFK, “but his idealism, like any lost love, would linger forever. The studio was absolutely charged, and the vocals were filled with a depth of emotion rarely experienced in the life of any band.”

  Apart from the lifestyle it brought him and the litany of heartbreaks that followed its success, Love is able to articulate the depth of his feelings for the music in a way that will send fans back to their stereos to crank up “Surfin’ U.S.A.” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “The Warmth of the Sun” whether they have an ocean handy or not.

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