Crappy Music Monday: Mike Love
Mike Love is a douche-nozzle.
Pretty much everyone knows this. Beach Boys fans, rock music journalists and radio people like myself who have been unfortunate enough to be faced with the daunting task of interviewing him, can all agree on this one thing: Mike is an ass.
It's hard to count the ways regarding why he's a jerk. But let me try...
1) Mike hated “Pet Sounds”.
Now resoundingly considered a cornerstone of popular music and a Brian Wilson masterpiece, Mike bitched about the project every step of the way. He called it pretentious and “stupid” and, in the process, probably sent an already mentally unstable Brian Wilson over the edge. Once the record received rave critical reviews, however, Mike happily stepped forward to take credit for the album he had hardly anything to do with.
As an aside, Brian Wilson titled the album, 'Pet Sounds' following an argument he had with Mike Love. Mike was upset because Brian demanded multiple takes to get certain harmonies just right. Mike response was “Who is gonna hear this sh&#? The ears of a dog?”
2) He's sued Brian Wilson multiple times, usually for songwriting credits that he doesn't deserve. For example, in 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', instead of singing 'Goodnight, my baby', which was Brian's original lyric, he improvised and instead sang, 'Sleep tight, my baby'. For this, he wanted 50% songwriting royalties. Thankfully, a court ruled against him and he didn't get it.
3) He wrote Kokomo.
4) He donated a bunch of money to the PMRC in an effort to censor artists like Prince, Twisted Sister and Frank Zappa.
5) John Lennon, at the height of his own douchiness (the famous "Lost Weekend") once called Mike Love the “biggest piece of sh&# I ever met.”
And if that doesn't convince you, check out Mike Love's drunken induction to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, wherein he basically calls fellow inductees, the Beatles "trash" in front of Julian Lennon, Yoko Ono, Ringo and George:
But here's what makes him the Crappy Music Monday artist this week...
Some brilliant YouTuber took the time to mash together Mike at his “best” on stage.
And so, friends, I present the only “lead vocalist” in a band to actually be the worst vocalist in a band...Mike Love!
And please remember, going forward - that if you hear "The Beach Boys" are in town...they're not. It's Mike Love. Unless Brian Wilson is on hand, you're not seeing the real thing. You're seeing this guy; the epitome of the jack-ass at the office that takes credit for a project he didn't contribute to at all.