So Mike Love pays money for the right to tour as "The Beach Boys"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

...with Bruce Johnston, who is as close to "original" as you're going to get (he came in when Brian originally stopped touring).

John Cowsill is in the band, who was an original member of...yeah, The Cowsills.

Love seems to be getting his money's worth..."The Beach Boys"...or whatever you want to call 'em...are booked almost daily through Thanksgiving 2004.

This is the "official" site:

http://www.beachboysband.net/



The way it's "officially" explained on the Beach Boys Fan Club Web Site (http://www.beachboysfanclub.com/bbtours.htm#mikebrucetour) is:

"MIKE LOVE & BRUCE JOHNSTON

Mike Love has licensed the Beach Boys' name for his tour, which also features Bruce Johnston. Supporting performers include Randell Kirsch, John Cowsill, Tim Bonhomme, Chris Farmer, Scott Totten, and Mike Kowalski."

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. I don't see anybody named Wilson in that band.

That ain't the Beach Boys. Brian's nuts and his brothers are dead. Let it rest, Mikey.

[emulatorloo]

4. Brian is not nuts

He has his troubles, but he is still going strong

http://www.brianwilson.com/

[OneBlueSky]

2. they're playing Wolf Trap? . . .

my, how standards have diminished . . .

[NightTrain]

3. Without Brian Wilson, they're NOT the Beach Boys!

Period. End of story.

[emulatorloo]

5. And Brian's touring Europe now and US this Fall, so why bother n/t

[Rooktoven]

6. Mike Love is a hack

Save your money for seeing Brian Wilson if he comes to your area.

[rlev1223]

7. Brian and Mike -- not so simple

There isn't any question that Mike Love's "Beach Boys"
enterprise is about the saddest thing imaginable, that he is
a pompous self-centered creaky senior citizen (he was the oldest guy in the band in the 60s -- do the math) and that the preening Johnston's only real achievement (aside from writing "I Write the Songs" for Barry Manilow) is that he is possibly even more self-absorbed.

It is also true that Wilson's public career is going though an astounding rebirth, thanks in large part to his current wife and the
musicians of the Wondermints. I have heard the live "Smile"
premier London concert recording -- don't ask how --and, although Brian's voice is, well, gone, the music is really wonderful -- anachronistically '60s vibes with almost Zappa-ish percussion touches, big worshipful vocals, some surprising atonal melodies, a great sense of humor...the rave reviews were spot-on. This was no "Brian's Back!" charity event, although it is really a celebration of his final burst of youthful genius. He couldn't come close to this kind of sophisticated writing today, no matter how occasionally interesting his new songs are.

All of that said (it was rather long, wasn’t it?) Mike Love must be given his due. The strutting arrogance with which he always defined himself (and has always admitted) prodded Brian and energized the whole operation in any number of ways; the early band couldn't have existed without him. He may be stuck in 1965, but he gets to sing some of the coolest lyrics of that era, and he wrote or co-wrote a lot of them, including :

All Summer Long
Add Some Music
Be True to Your School
(“when some loud braggart tries to put me down”)
California Girls
Catch a Wave
Fun, Fun, Fun
Help Me, Rhonda
Dance, Dance, Dance
Darlin’
I Get Around
Let Him Run Wild
Please Let Me Wonder
Surfin’ Safari
a rare, maybe unique, bit of introspection -- “Warmth of the Sun”
and of course, “Do it Again”

He is also credited with co-writing “Good Vibrations,” (although one suspects a complicated history. The Smile version’s lyrics are very different from the pop release.)


You almost can’t blame Love for not wanting to sit down and shut up.

[mitchum]

8. As much as I loath Mike Love, I must agree with your "defense" of him

He is a nasty piece of work, but his contributions to the Beach Boys are considerable

[rlev1223]

9. probably his worst fate

is just being him, ogling teenage girls at county fair gigs.