The Beach Boys: Good vibrations despite disputations
The Beach Boys have a new orchestral album, and Mike Love tells he’s not on bad terms with Brian Wilson.
It was the subject of many of their songs, but these days Beach Boys founding member Mike Love is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a little more selective before going out on a surfing trip.
“I don’t surf so much these days!” laughs Love down the phone from Wabash in the US state of Indiana.
The 77-year-old maintains though that if the conditions are favourable, he is occasionally happy to get back on a board.
“If I’m In Hawaii and the surf is more gentle I may attempt it — but I sing about it beautifully!
“But no, our lifestyle now is touring. Once in a while, we find ourselves in a place where it is conducive to surfing. It is really beautiful to try your luck at it again.”
That Love and fellow Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, 75, aren’t wiped out from a gruelling touring schedule is impressive enough.
Last year, they performed at over 180 concerts in around 170 different locations. And they only seem to be getting busier as a new album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is set to arrive.
Simply titled The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the record sees the original recordings of the band’s celebrated vocal harmonies paired with new symphonic arrangements recorded at Abbey Road studios.
The collaboration has breathed new life into some of the band’s most famous songs, as far as Love is concerned.
He cites a re-working of a track he and fellow founding member Brian Wilson penned together in November 1963, as his favourite moment from the album.
“‘The Warmth Of The Sun’, which my cousin Brian and I wrote together, is a beautiful ballad. But to hear it with the complement of the orchestra is just fantastic.
“It is pretty neat, because people will be familiar with the songs but the orchestra’s arrangements really embellish them and give them a whole new incarnation.”
You might think that, after 50 years of touring, Love may be weary of singing the same tunes night after night.
“No, I had a hand, not only in singing those songs, but also writing them as well. The majority of people will come to see us because they know and are hoping to hear certain songs from you, whether it be ‘Good Vibrations’ or ‘California Girls’ or something from the Pet Sounds album.
“I don’t ever want to disappoint anybody and I love those songs.
“We’re obsessed with recreating them live as close to the original recordings as possible. We even sing them in the same keys.”
The history of The Beach Boys is plagued with feuds about their artistic direction and legal disputes.
After the band’s overwhelming commercial success with surf rock songs about cars, girls and the beach, Wilson retired from touring in 1964 to concentrate on songwriting and producing.
The more elaborate sound of subsequent Wilson-led projects, the seminal Pet Sounds and the recording process for the unfinished album Smile resulted in infamous infighting over the band’s creative direction.
Love has been criticised by some sections of the band’s fan base for reportedly being resistant to Wilson’s songwriting shift.
Love wrote in his 2016 memoir: “For those who believe that Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist.”
In 2012, Love, Wilson, Al Jardine, Johnston and early guitarist David Marks reunited for a 50th anniversary tour and an album featuring new material.
When the tour ended, Love announced new Beach Boys shows that would not involve Wilson.
Wilson and Jardine now tour with a separate group. Hopes for another tour with Wilson gained traction in May, when Love posted a get well soon note on Facebook to his cousin who had to undergo back surgery.
Love’s voice adopts a more bristly tone when the subject of the band’s previous arguments are brought up.
Asked if there was any awkwardness about the past when the band got back together, Love says: “Not really. In 2012, I think we did over 70 concerts together to mark the 50th anniversary.
“We all have the part we played, literally and figuratively. We all know each other very well.
“But as many bands do, there are feuds. People go and do their own separate things and then once in a while, when it’s right, they come together. I think it’s pretty normal.
“The things that you are alluding to happened long ago and it’s water over the dam.
“I sent Brian a sympathetic note the other day. Brian travels with his own band so we don’t often see each other. But we know of each other’s whereabouts most of the time.
“Brian has had back problems for many years and I’ve had them in the past as well. So I feel for what he’s going through.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
