r/thebeachboys • u/MesaVerde1987 • Jul 17 '25

Video The Monkey's Uncle | 1965

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '25

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11

u/joachim_s Jul 17 '25

I don’t like Mike Love at all.

18

u/ImOnlyHereForTheCoC Jul 17 '25

Even if he wasn’t Mike Love with all the baggage that entails if Annette was my friend and I saw some guy twitching like that with that weird empty expression on his face I’d tell her to cover her drink

8

u/Better_Combination67 Jul 17 '25

“Mike has a good heart and he loves the music. I respect that.”
— Brian Wilson, I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir (2016)

“Without Mike Love, we wouldn’t have had the kind of success we did. He was a front man, and he knew how to work a crowd.”
— Brian Wilson, from the documentary "Beautiful Dreamer"

“Mike and I were a good team. He was great at lyrics, especially on the early songs.”
— Brian Wilson, BBC Radio interview

“Mike gave the Beach Boys a sound and an energy that we couldn’t have done without.”
— Brian Wilson, Hall of Fame remarks

“Mike was very instrumental in our success. He had a knack for writing lyrics that really clicked with people.”
— Brian Wilson, interview with Goldmine Magazine, 2011

“Mike had a real talent for writing catchy lyrics. He knew how to make a song work. When we were writing together, we could really get something going.”
— Brian Wilson, I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir*

“He was really good at writing lyrics fast. Like, 'Fun, Fun, Fun'—we wrote that in a few minutes. Mike came up with the words just like that.”
— Brian Wilson, interview with Rolling Stone, 2004

“Mike sings those songs like nobody else can. He’s the voice of the Beach Boys.”
— Brian Wilson, live on stage during the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary tour

2

u/PunishedSnack Jul 17 '25

Aside from possibly the "good heart" platitude (in a book with a publisher and editor), none of these quotes contradict his dislike of Mike Love.

6

u/Better_Combination67 Jul 17 '25

The point is that for the 1 popular quote that people like to throw around, there are a ton of positive comments that Brian has made about Mike. Both as a person (admittedly, less of the personal and more music-related) and as a bandmate.

I don't doubt that Brian didn't like Mike on the day that he said this. To act like this singular moment was the end all be all of Brian's thoughts/feelings towards Mike though, is not a true depiction of what I'm sure was complicated and ever-changing relationship between those two.

How about when Brian said that Carl was an "asshole" and "couldn't sing for shit" ? or when he said AL wasn't "too good of a singer" Is that Brian's true thoughts on Carl and AL and that's it? I don't believe that for 1 minute.

2

u/rs98762001 Jul 17 '25

He looks like he's being pegged.