I thought I'd weigh in on the recent (and supposed) 'firing' of Brian, Al and David by Mike Love.

Is anyone reading this really surprised Love did this? I've been posting for years that the Beach Boys is no longer a band but a corporation. And it's CEO is named Mike Love.

As we all know, Mike has owned the name and the touring rights for years; his 'Beach Boys' (he and Bruce Johnston, who just keeps his mouth shut and remains a valuable employee) have been touring for more than 12 years. When this anniversary was first announced, it took quite awile for the project to materialize (about a year and a half).

Why? It was all about control - as it always is with Love. Mike wanted his group of musicians to be the backing group, and Brian wanted his. That's why there were 13 or so musicains on the tour...and I'm assuming (though I don't know for sure) that all five surviving members split the majority of the profits equally. In other words, for the first time, Mike wasn't in charge.

Cut to the end of the tour; did anyone seriously think that Mike Love was going to give up control - and the majority of the profits? What, and rely on an obviously fragile Brian again? Keep in mind that several peopole that are part of the touring band were on hiatus this spring and summer (read: out of work), and needed to get back to their day jobs. The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary was ALWAYS about a set amount of dates, an album, a DVD, etc - then back to business as usual.

By the way, Mike did not 'fire' the other Beach Boys; he can't fire Brian and Al since they, too, are owners of the "The Beach Boys" licensing name and Brother Records (not to mention a very recent interview with Brian where he stated they are going back in the studio together). Brian and Al - but not David, unfortunately - are still Beach Boys. No one fired anybody. They simply were not asked to continue in the touring group after the 50th tour was over.

Am I - or any BB fan - happy about this? Hell no! I would LOVE (pun intended) to see the five guys remain together to tour. I saw the show in Denver at Red Rocks and was absolutely blown away on how good it was, even though everyone was concerned about Brian's fragility.

Here's what I think: NONE of this mess would have happened if Brian, Al, Bruce and the estates of Carl amd Dennis had not let Mike have control of the Beach Boys - maybe someone here can enlighten us on how the hell that happened?


Patrick Stibbs
On the Spot Productions
onthespotradio.com

Nice post, I agree with most of it.

I read some long winded press release from Mike the other day online...it seemed feasable til he said back in '66 he was supportive of Pet Sounds!

So is he now denying his famous "don't f-uck with the formula" quote?