Mike Love sues Brian Wilson

[Martin Q. Blank]

I'm now more convinced than ever that there's a place for Mike in Evil Celebrities Hell.



Beach Boys Feud Feud Feud

By Josh Grossberg
E! Online

So much for good vibrations.

Beach Boys member Mike Love has filed a lawsuit against former band mate Brian Wilson over Smile--the famously unfinished Beach Boys opus that Wilson completed and released on his own last year to much acclaim, and at Love's expense.

The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that the promotional blitz by Wilson "shamelessly misappropriated Mike Love's songs, likeness, and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the Smile album itself," per court papers obtained by City News Service.

Wilson, the Beach Boys' principal songwriter and general mastermind, scrapped Smile at the height of the seminal surf band's popularity in 1967, a few weeks before the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The lost sessions became the stuff of music legend; based on the surviving songs and snippets, some music aficionados argued Smile would have rivaled Sgt. Pepper's in the pop pantheon. Per rock history, it was Love who was fought against the release of Smile because it differed dramatically from the Beach Boys' standard surf sound.

Love, who cowrote and sang lead on many early Beach Boys classics, alleges that the publicity campaign for Wilson's solo Smile negatively affected sales of Beach Boys albums. Particularly aggrieving Love was Wilson's decision to give away more than 2.6 million copies of a Beach Boys compilation disc in an edition of Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper.

Love's suit seeks damages amounting to "millions of dollars in illicit profits," claiming the campaign diluted the Beach Boys' brand name, and an additional $1 million-plus for international advertising "designed to correct the effects of its unfair competition and infringing uses." Other defendants include Mail on Sunday and the Sanctuary Records Group.

Reps for Wilson and Love could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Smile, which features the classic "Good Vibrations," was among the most critically hailed albums of 2004. It also earned Wilson his first competitive Grammy.

Love, who cofounded the band with cousins Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, and friend Al Jardine, is the only member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame quintet to continue using the Beach Boys moniker.

As Brian Wilson, the most talented and reclusive of the bunch, managed to overcome decades-long depression and launched a successful solo career, both his brothers have died. Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983, while Carl Wilson succumbed to cancer in 1998.

The three surviving members--Love, Wilson and Jardine--each own a share of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records. However, due to legal wrangling through the years, Love is the only member allowed to use Beach Boys name for touring purposes.

(Wouldn't it be nice if they all just got along? Jardine tried touring under the name "Beach Boys Family and Friends" with Brian Wilson's daughters Wendy and Carnie, but an appeals court barred him from doing so.)

 

[Spike]

What a parasite. Mike Love profited from Brian Wilson's genius for decades. For him to claim that he had suffered financial damage from the release of Smile is outrageous. He's just pissed that he didn't get a cut without lifting a finger.

Spike

 

[algernon]

Wow, what a joke. Love bullied the hell out of Brian and tried to de-rail PET SOUNDS for gosh sakes( Brian's "ego music"). This is just absurd.

 

[Martha Washington]

anybody see that Beach Boys T.V. movie a while back?
Mike Love was billed as "Creative Consultant" and, as it turns out, Mike Love had just as much to do with the success of the Beach Boys as the Wilsons!!
In fact, if it weren't for Mike Love discouraging foo-foo artsy psychedelic CRAPOLA, the Beach Boys might have gone the way of the Model T!
His efforts to 'connect with the fans' and encouragement to make the songs about cars and girls are the TRUE source of the Beach Boys enduring popularity!!!

It was a Laff Riot.
This lawsuit is a laugh riot too.

What a great big steaming bowl of CROW it must be for Mike Love to have something he championed the crib-death of to be celebrated as one of the VERY best albums, ever, by ANYBODY.

I'm not surprised that he's not taking it well.

Remember the delay on the Pet Sounds box?
I heard Mike counted the time they used the word "genius" to describe Brian.
something tells me that he's been keeping count for a good long time.

I think Nick Lowe put it best: "That bloke's a WANKER!"

 

[Martha Washington]

did you see that "hall of fame" thing where he said the Beatles and Stones were afraid of the Beach Boys kicking thier asses???
kicking ass?
in his little hat?

 

[algernon]

did you see that "hall of fame" thing where he said the Beatles and Stones were afraid of the Beach Boys kicking thier asses???
kicking ass?
in his little hat?

ooooohhhh, man...thats one of the GREAT TV moments!!! It's soooo funny! To be on that level and to be THAT petty: SO funny. " We play 290 gigs a year! I'd like to see the Fab Four mop tops best that" or somethin like that....wonderful!

 

[Martha Washington]

you know, I had a chance to see the Al Jardine thing and I really wish I had.
I'll bet it was a nice way to kill an hour for free.

 

[algernon]

Dennis Wilson described Al Jardine: "A Man waiting for a bus." Isn't that great?? I mean, the cat left the Beach Boys to go to dental school!

 

[Martha Washington]

well, I still await an official 'bootleg' of Smile just because of the way all them voices went together.
people who don't like the Beach Boys say "why do you like them?" and I can think of no better answer. it's the sound all the voices make together. it gets me in my guts like a tuning fork.

 

[algernon]

I miss Carl Wilson's voice, but all in all I really think the voices on SMiLE are much superior to the original Beach Boys. I will admit that Mike Love's lyrical contribution to "Good Vibrations" is better than Asher's original which Brian used . I will give the devil his due there. But most of the voices heard on PET SOUNDS were Brian's over-dubs after the other guys went home.