In Defense of Mike Love

Due to the well-established mystique surrounding Brian Wilson, Mike Love has not received the proper recognition for his role in the Beach Boys' success. Since the group's inception, through the rise, decline, and eventual comeback in the mid-70's of the Beach Boys-through the legal hassles, drug abuse, and breakdowns of others in the band, Love has remained the constant, reliable presence. Although, ultimately, Brian Wilson deserves (and receives!) the lion's share of the credit for the Beach Boys, Mike Love's contributions should never be overlooked in the manner that they currently are.

Love contributed much to the Beach Boys' musical legacy. He co-wrote (with Brian) most of the early hits (I Get Around, Help Me Rhonda, Fun Fun Fun, Wendy, Be True to Your School, Little Honda, Shut Down, Dance Dance Dance, Little Deuce Coupe, Little Saint Nick, When I Grow Up, California Girls, Good Vibrations), as well as some of the sturdier LP cuts (the Warmth of the Sun, All Summer Long, Do You Remember?, Drive-In, Don't Back Down, 409, Catch a Wave, Farmer's Daughter, Hawaii) from that period. It was a travesty for Love not to receive co-writing credit for California Girls after having written the memorable lyrics for it (as it was equally ridiculous for Chuck Berry to eventually receive 100% credit for Surfin' USA). Love also co-wrote some of the better Beach Boys tracks during their period of commercial decline (Meant For You, Transcendental Meditation, Do It Again, Add Some Music, Cool Cool Water, California Saga [Big Sur]). He supplied the background bass vocals for Good Vibrations, I Can Hear Music, and countless other songs, and sang lead on many of the hits. He even played the sax on Shut Down! Love's musical contributions should not be underestimated. As Terry Melcher (producer of the early Byrds and early Paul Revere and the Raiders) stated, Love is a powerful musical force.

It can also be argued that Love's commercial sensibilities equaled Brian's, and were perhaps even stronger. It was Love who gave the lyrical accessibility to some of Brian's most memorable arrangements (California Girls, some key lines to Good Vibrations- done under time pressure) and who expressed skepticism that the Pet Sounds/Smile-Era ambitions were straying away from what made the Beach Boys commercially successful (I'm NOT suggesting, though, that Brian shouldn't have followed this direction!). It's no coincidence that the highest-charting Beach Boys single from 1968 until 1976's Rock-and-Roll Music was Do It Again, a co-written effort whose lyrics scream Mike Love (and features Brian's remarkable falsetto simulation of a trumpet) and that, of the four Beach Boys Number One singles (I Get Around, Help Me Rhonda, Good Vibrations [to be fair, this song is at least 85% Brian], and Kokomo), only Love shares a co-writing credit on each. Brian also gives Mike credit for encouraging them to compose their own songs, and this alone should ensure Love's place in rock history.

Love should also be given primary credit for helping the Beach Boys stay viable for half-a-century- through Brian's withdrawals, through Dennis Wilson's self-destruction, through the personnel changes, and a steep commercial decline with dwindling audiences (one show in New York featured fewer than 500 spectators), Mike was there, trying to keep it all together. While Brian stayed in California, Mike was the emcee and front man on all the tours, giving his all in every appearance, including gutsy shows at the Fillmore East in 1971 as surprise guests at a Grateful Dead concert (at that time, certainly not a Beach Boys audience), and in Czechoslovakia just after the Soviet invasion in 1968. Perhaps Love's most subtle contribution, which had a profound impact on keeping the Beach Boys name alive, was a suggestion in 1974 to Capitol Records to title a proposed Beach Boys greatest hits compilation Endless Summer, which hit #1 in part because of the name, spent nearly three years on the charts, and sparked an immediate revival for the group, culminating in stadium concerts.

It's easy to diminish Love's role in the Beach Boys story when under the spell of the personality of Brian Wilson. I, myself, am a huge Brian fan, attending his Pet Sounds show at Jones Beach in 2000 and a show in Holmdel, New Jersey during the 2004 Smile tour. Exposure in 1993 to Endless Summer helped me cope with a break-up (in particular, I recall the songs Don't Worry Baby and Let Him Run Wild having a huge impact). Many artists are admired, but few are as loved in the manner that Brian's fans love Brian. Brian is the personification of authentic, untainted innocence, almost like a man-child of sorts, to which men-children such as myself and other Brian Wilson fans I know can relate. Fans such as myself empathized with the painful anecdotes of his suffering and withdrawal from public life, as if we were suffering right alongside this beautiful man, typically ill-at-ease in public, not really quite understood by others, indeed just not made for these times. "He was just the sweetest, most naive guy- so honest and sincere," recalled his wife Melinda after first meeting Brian, and we all agree. Compare this idyllic and accurate portrait of this great artist to the extroverted showman and more practical Mike Love, and it's easy to underrate Mike Love as an artist.

I believe that Brian IS a musical genius, but do not buy attempts to portray Love as Salieri to Wilson's Mozart on the basis of the non-release of Smile back in 1967. There were several different reasons Wilson (and others) gave for abandoning the project, but to assign Love not liking the lyrics on the Smile tracks as the main reason makes no sense- why, then, was Heroes and Villians released as a single, inferior versions of Wonderful and My Vegetables released on Smiley Smile, and other Smile tracks (Our Prayer, Cabinessence, Surf's Up) released on other albums?

Mike Love is not perfect. His speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was regrettable and, in hindsight, we wish he had encouraged the Smile ambitions, just to see what could have been produced when the ideas were fresh in the minds of Brian and Van Dyke Parks (not that any encouragement would have guaranteed the album would have been released in 1967). However, Love played a crucial role in the history of the Beach Boys and should be given proper credit for this.