(The following was written for the Jacksonville State (Ala.) school newspaper, The Chanticleer, sometime in the fall of 1981, about 35 years ago):
Being older than the average college student I really remember when the Beach Boys first reached the top of the charts in the early ‘60s, and for one reason or another they have always been one of my favorite groups (their harmony, simple lyrics, harmony, fun approach, harmony…). Brian Wilson, the leader of the group and its primary songwriter, because of the legend he is, emerged as somewhat of a hero of mine. And I honestly thought if Brian decided not to show up for one of their scheduled concerts, it would be the one in Jacksonville.
He showed up. And as I walked thru the door backstage he was the first person I noticed in the room, standing over the food table playing in the dip. I’d seen the Beach Boys twice previously, but I’d never had the chance to meet them. I introduced myself to Brian, asked if he could talk, and he said he didn’t feel like talking, he was sick. So went my dream meeting with Brian Wilson.
But I found a willing conversationalist in the form of Brian’s cousin, Mike Love, who sat with his bride and discussed the Beach Boys - past, present and future.
Mike has a current solo album called “Looking Back With Love,” for obvious reasons, and says the single from the album is being added well at radio stations all across the country.
The Beach Boys' next album, due out in November, will be a compilation of old material entitled “Ten Years of Harmony.” And their next studio album should be released in January, 1982.
Mike says the group is hoping to do some symphonic arrangements of some of their old songs, such as “Good Vibrations,” “Surfer Girl,” “California Girls,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?”, “Heroes and Villains,” and the beautiful song that was played before and after the concert thru the sound system, “God Only Knows,” which the audience heard as interpreted by the London Symphony Orchestra. Mike sees the summer concert series as being the ideal time to work with a symphony.
Also in the works is a movie starring Mike Love with the Beach Boys, which will be humorous and musical, and have scenery with lots of pretty girls. Mike compared the content of the movie, “California Beach,” which he has written the title song for, with the old Bing Crosby-Bob Hope road movies.
Brian’s brother Carl is now working on a solo career, but plans to rejoin the group the first of next year. And brother Dennis Wilson was sick and couldn’t make the concert. Mike admitted to having a cold, too, but it didn’t seem to affect his singing any.
When asked about the music Brian had recorded following his nervous breakdown, in the late ‘60s, and the rumor that although it was some of the best material Wilson had ever written or recorded he had destroyed the tapes, Mike revealed the tapes had not been destroyed but that Brian had just filed them away. He called it “great music,” but added that it’s only “fragmented,” nothing whole, and responding to the question of whether or not it would ever be released he said, “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
The concert was the most complete Beach Boys concert I’ve ever seen. I saw them in ’74 without Brian, who wasn’t touring with them at the time, and it was like I hadn’t seen the Beach Boys at all.
In 1977 when I saw them for the second time, Brian was with the group, but they were promoting the “15 Big Ones” album, and really didn’t concentrate on their oldies.
The current tour isn’t to promote Mike’s new album. He sang nothing but old Beach Boys’ songs. The group seems to have realized, with their current success being an oldies medley, and not tragically, that people really love to hear their surfin’ songs, and their songs about cars and pretty girls, and Tuesday night they didn’t miss a one, including “Sloop John B,” “Do It Again,” “In My Room” (which was sung by Bruce Johnston, who also sang the Barry Manilow classic with he penned, “I Write the Songs”), “Long Tall Texan,” “School Days” (sung by Al Jardine), “Be True to Your School,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “Barbara Ann” (Bruce Johnston on vocals again), “409,” “Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “I Get Around,” “Surfin’ Safari,” “Surf City” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
Their encore included “Good Vibrations,” “Rock and Roll Music,” and “Fun, Fun, Fun.” And fun, fun, fun it was.
