THE BEACH BOYS: Not having that much Fun Fun Fun

My brother-in-law Antony sent me a brief message on Facebook. He basically agreed with what I wrote yesterday about The Beach Boys on Later with Jools Holland, and sent me the following link. The story of how this band is unravelling before our eyes continues, and I make no apologies for featuring it heavily here on the Gonzo Daily.  This is rock and roll history in action...

It's hard not to spend the last night of the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary tour trying to read the runes of the relationship between Mike Love and Brian Wilson. The former, the owner of the Beach Boys name, has told the latter – his cousin and the genius emeritus of American pop – that as of the end of this show, the Beach Boys reverts to being Mike Love plus hired hands, with no room for Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks.

During Add Some Music to Your Day, when Wilson sings "You can feel it touching your heart," he looks over his right shoulder, directly at Love, who glances back with all the sentiment of a workhouse beadle who has been asked for more food. And come the end of the show, it is Wilson who seizes Love's hand for the group bow.

Read on...

THE BEACH BOYS: Watching a car crash

Last night I watched Later with Jools Holland on the BBC iPlayer. It featured an appearance by The Beach Boys and following the news that I posted yesterday about the band splitting, I was interested to see what was probably the final TV appearance by all the members of the classic lineup who are still alive.

It was like watching a car crash.

Just look at the two segments I have posted below. Brian seems somewhere else entirely, and heavier than he has appeared in years. The only time in the whole show that he appeared animated was during PiL's set (they were magnificent, by the way), when he was bopping along happily to Deeper Water. But the body language between the members during the interview was so angry and defensive that the whole thing made very uncomfortable viewing.

Brian's lead vocals on Heroes and Villains were excruciating  Something is very badly wrong with that particular group of elderly performers, and I have a sneaking suspicion that yesterday's announcement did not tell anything like the full story. And now I have absolutely no idea who are the heroes and who are the villains.

 

BEACH BOYS SPLIT AGAIN

The other day I received a smashing Brian Wilson/Beach Boys DVD from those jolly nice folk at Chrome Dreams. I will be reviewing it properly in the next week or so, but one thing was very self-evident; Mike Love seems to be a very strange man. According to generally accepted history, there are two poles within the Beach Boys: Brian, the tortured genius, and Mike the bread head businessman who discovered TM and became even more of a breadhead businessman. But watching this film, it became increasingly difficult to know which was which. 

One of them was a pudgy chap with shortish hair and sad eyes, and the other had wild staring eyes glaring out from a forested beard that a whole family of owls could have nested in, and furthermore he always seemed to be dressed like Rasputin, in some sort of weird monk's cowl. Furthermore, everyone interviewed repeated that the chap with the sad eyes wasn't mad at all, merely insecure. Now the mad monk has done something else unexpected.

I like the Beach Boys, I have always liked the Beach Boys, and was particularly happy when - earlier this year - the surviving members of the original line-up reunited and made a smashing album which reaffirmed one's faith in human nature. That's why God made the Radio is a lovely record, and had Brian Wilson's fingerprints all over it. It has the same DNA as Smile, Pet Sounds, and the other bona fide classics that Wilson has masterminded over the years. Now, in a surprise move, Mike Love has kicked Brian, Al and David Marks out of the band.

Read this story from Something Else:

Through the news release issued by the Beach Boys tried to portray their latest split as a planned event following a celebrated 50th anniversary album and tour, new comments from ousted leader Brian Wilson tell a different story.

Mike Love, it’s now clear, has decided to retake a central role in the Beach Boys, having led an offshoot group that only includes second-generation member Bruce Johnston for the last 14 years. Wilson, in new comments to CNN, says Love told him in no uncertain terms that Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks — the only other surviving original members of the Beach Boys — were not welcome. Seems Love thinks too many shows with them will dilute the reunion concept’s impact.

This, after Wilson had said just weeks before that he was hopeful for a quick return to the studio for the Beach Boys, who released That’s Why God Made the Radio earlier this year to rapturous praise and then embarked on a record-smashing tour. That concert series — and, apparently, the dream of a long-hoped-for end to these squabbles — draws to a close on September 28, 2012, at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Read on...

ANT-BEE: Do You Like Worms?

Back in 1990, after I recorded the first ANT-BEE LP 'Pure Electric Honey' for Voxx Records in CA, I ventured back into the recording studio in Van Nuys to record the next single. At the time I had been heavily listening to unreleased recordings of the Beach Boys legendary 'Smile' sessions from 1966/67 (Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece). I decided to do a cover of one of the more obscured songs from those glorious sessions called “Do You Like Worms?” (At this point, nobody had ever covered this particular track). I intently studied the outtakes of the song I had acquired and then with the help of Jon Criss on piano, Rick Snyder (from Capt. Beefheart's band) on bass and Roy Herman on guitar I began to record my interpretation of the song. I performed all the vocals, percussion, keyboards and tape manipulations on the track.

Before the recordings were actually complete, someone had gotten a hold of an early mix of my version of “Worms?”, and mistaking it as an unreleased 'Smile' outtake from 1966, proceeded to play the recording on a Beach Boys radio special. The show's DJ touted my cover as a rare unreleased gem from the 'Smile' sessions, forever confusing the public at large as to the origin of this recording. From there the track was bootlegged on several European Beach Boys 'Smile' bootlegs. On one such bootleg from France, a DBL CD and a TPL LP with colored vinyl, copies of original track sheets from the sessions are enclosed. When it comes to my version of “Worms” the track sheet says it was recorded in November 1966 – I was only 6 years old then!

For many years I have argued (in vein) the position that this version of “Do You Like Worms?” is not an outtake from the Beach Boys 'Smile' sessions of 1966, but in fact is a cover by ANT-BEE (me), recorded in 1990. The track in question was even released on the second ANT-BEE album 'With My Favorite Vegetables' – yet for the most part people still believed it was a rare Beach Boys outtake. Finally, back in 2004, when Brian Wilson recorded his version of the 'Smile' album, he did a live tour to support the release. In the tour program that was available at the shows, there was an actual mention about ANT-BEE being the first band to cover “Do You Like Worms?”, vindicating my efforts finally after 14 years!

Billy James

ANT-BEE

JON: I think this is The Beach Boys, but after Billy's story, I'm not too sure...