Mike Love: “Brian Wilson asked me to sing him our songs shortly before he died.”
The summer sun shines brighter in no song than in the songs of the Beach Boys, a legend practically since their inception on the California coast. Not even the recent death of Brian Wilson, the true creative heart of the band, has stopped the group from continuing its concerts, even though it has been years (decades) since it has included only one of its original members.
We're talking about Mike Love, cousin of the Wilson brothers and, at 84, the only survivor of the Beach Boys' golden age, when their harmonic choruses invaded the charts and stood up to the Beatles invasion in the United States. Considered the villain of the story in contrast to Wilson, famous for his complaints regarding the authorship of some songs, Love is responsible for keeping the quintessential surf band on the road on a long trip that will take them to Sitges this July 25th to open the Jardins de Terramar festival (they will also visit Roses, Marbella, and Cádiz).
“I’ve always loved live music because you see the effect it has on the audience,” the vocalist says over the phone from Beverly Hills, “you see the happiness it brings, the positivity, the energy, and the response—that’s always been a great thing for me.” Although the band has released 18 studio albums since Wilson’s departure in 1967, it’s the dozen or so from their early days that continue to take center stage at the concerts, where Love is surrounded by nine musicians, including another veteran in Bruce Johnston, who enlisted in 1965, still in time to participate in California Girls , as well as his son Christian Love, who provides guitar and vocals.
Read also Pemi Fortuny: “It’s with my band that I feel truly at ease, I feel at home.” Sergio Lozano
“We play a lot of music, maybe for up to two hours, we love it,” says Love, who likes to start with the early hits, Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA and other surf-themed tracks. “Then we move on to car songs like I Get Around, 409, Little Deuce Coop , and then into our more serious repertoire: The Warmth of the Sun, God Only Knows and Sloop John B. ” The songs on Pet Sounds , the band’s most critically acclaimed album, include essential tracks like the hit “Good Vibrations” and Kokomo, one of the few songs from the post-Wilson era, originally composed for the soundtrack of the film Cocktail .
Although Beach Boys concerts are, per se, a tribute to the past, this time there will be a special focus on Brian Wilson, who died at the age of 82. Love has had a somewhat contentious relationship with him, but that hasn't stopped them from staying in touch all these years. "I visited him at his house just three weeks before he passed away," Love sadly reveals. "He asked me to sing him all our Beach Boys songs, and we had a great time."
This final stage contrasts with past disagreements, which include clashes over the band's direction in the 1960s, allegations over the authorship of some lyrics, and disagreements during the reunion attempt that took place in 2012. A history clouded by Love's own wars, of which the attack launched against Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger during the band's induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 is still remembered.
Read also Steve Jones: “Punk wasn’t about starting a band to sell clothes.” Francesc Bombí-Vilaseca
Nothing to do with his recent appointment as a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the suggestion of actor Jon Stamos, known for starring in the series Full House (here translated as Full House ) who will also be present as a member of the band in Sitges: “I said a few words and we played four songs, it was a great evening and a great honor to join all those fantastic and creative people who have preceded me” he comments.
This recognition is doubly significant for Love, as it confirms his much-discussed role as co-writer of some of the Beach Boys' hits. “My cousin Brian was inducted many years ago, but he and I did Good Vibrations, California Girls, I Get Around, and Fun, Fun, Fun together, although I wasn't credited. My uncle [Brian's father and the band's manager] didn't include my name on the original recordings when they came out; it wasn't a nice gesture,” he comments, “but being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame goes a long way toward correcting that inaccuracy.”
“Often, my cousin Brian and I would sit at the piano, and he’d have an idea for a song, or I’d have an idea for a song,” he recalls of his collaborations with Wilson. “For example, we were on tour in Salt Lake City, Utah, when I came up with the idea to do Fun, Fun, Fun . I told him I had the idea for the lyrics, the tempo, and everything else. We went into the studio, recorded the track, and all that—that was one instance where I came up with a concept,” he says.
Other times, it was Wilson working on a song and Love would help him with the lyrics, as in the case of Help Me Rhonda , which went on to reach number one. “I wrote a lot of the lyrics, a significant amount of the words, the same as with I Get Around , we worked together, but he was really good at structuring the harmonies, the melodies and the chord progressions. I was more into the lyrics, the concepts and the choruses, like 'round, round, get around' in I Get Around , or 'I'm picking up good vibrations, she's giving me the excitations' in Good Vibrations .”
Love was one of the first musicians to embrace transcendental meditation in the 1960s, like Mick Jagger and John Lennon, a habit he still maintains today, and which helps him stay in shape for concerts. He also warms up his vocal cords before each concert with his son Christian. “If we didn't do it, we wouldn't be as strong at the beginning of the concert as we'd like,” he explains, relying on his health to continue. “I have a philosophy that says if you can't do it, don't do it; there's a limit imposed by nature.”
lavanguardia
%3Aformat(jpg)%3Aquality(99)%3Awatermark(f.elconfidencial.com%2Ffile%2Fbae%2Feea%2Ffde%2Fbaeeeafde1b3229287b0c008f7602058.png%2C0%2C275%2C1)%2Ff.elconfidencial.com%2Foriginal%2Fc76%2F696%2F723%2Fc76696723af3498010519efd24884ae4.jpg&w=1280&q=100)