Mike Love | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Michael Edward Love |
Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | March 15, 1941
Origin | Hawthorne, California, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupations |
|
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1961–present |
Labels | |
Member of | The Beach Boys |
Formerly of | Celebration |
Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the Beach Boys which he co-founded with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-baritone singing, Love has been one of the band's vocalists and lyricists for their entire career, contributing to each of their studio albums and serving as their frontman for live performances. During the mid-1960s, he was one of Brian's main collaborators, contributing lyrics to hit records such as "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964), "I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), "California Girls" (1965), and "Good Vibrations" (1966).
Drawing inspiration from Chuck Berry and Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Love's lyrics primarily reflected the youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, which helped fashion pop culture's perception of the "California Dream". [1] Love also had a significant role in the Beach Boys' vocal arrangements – particularly the doo-wop element in their sound. Starting in 1968, Love was a student of Transcendental Meditation (TM) under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and became a TM teacher in 1971. The experience influenced his lyrics to take on themes of astrology, meditation, politics and ecology. In the late 1970s, Love fronted Celebration, a short-lived band that consisted of Beach Boys touring musicians, and began working on solo albums, releasing his first in 1981, Looking Back with Love .
Love is often vilified by fans and critics due to his history of conflicts with his bandmates, a characterization he has disputed. Many of his contributions to the group's hits were not officially recognized until the 1990s, when he sued Brian for writing credits on 35 songs. Love remains uncredited for another 44 Beach Boys songs he claims to have co-written. Following Carl Wilson's death in 1998, the band members and their corporation, Brother Records, Inc., granted Love an exclusive license to tour under the Beach Boys' name. Since then, Love has maintained a near-constant touring regimen with his edition of the group, and has released three more solo albums. He has not performed with Brian since their 2012 reunion tour.
Love's honors include an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beach Boys in 1988. Beyond music, he has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as environmentalism, juvenile diabetes, and music education.
Michael Edward Love's mother, Emily "Glee" Wilson (1919–1979), was the sister of Audrey and Murry Wilson, a resident of Los Angeles since the early 1920s. Glee married Edward Milton Love (1918–2013), the son of the founder of the Love Sheet Metal Company, in 1938. Mike Love, the first of their six children, was born in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles [2] on March 15, 1941. Thereafter the family moved to the View Park neighborhood. He attended Dorsey High School and graduated in 1959. Unsure of a career direction, Love pumped gas and briefly joined his father's company, whose fortunes dramatically declined in the late 1950s. Both Milt and Glee Love were active in sports, and Love's younger brother Stan Love later played in the National Basketball Association. Glee had a distinct interest in painting and the arts. Like her brother, Murry, however, she was also strong-willed and, according to her husband, a dominant personality. The family was close-knit and regularly socialized with Murry and his family. Murry was a part-time songwriter. [3]
Love often sang at family get-togethers at his cousins, the Wilsons', home in nearby Hawthorne, especially at Christmas. It was here, under the vocal harmony guidance of Brian Wilson, that the Beach Boys sound was established, predominantly influenced by Brian's devotion to the Four Freshmen's arrangements. Musical accompaniment during this formative phase was solely Brian's self-taught piano, but this was quickly expanded by the guitar contributions of Brian's college friend Al Jardine (whose fundamental interest was folk music) and Carl Wilson (whose idol was Chuck Berry). [4] With the failure of Love Sheet Metal, the family was forced to move to a modest two-bedroom house in Inglewood, closer to the Wilsons. [5]
Love played rudimentary saxophone in the first years of the fledgling garage band that evolved from the Pendletones to the Beach Boys. [6] He also established himself, along with neighbor Gary Usher, [7] local DJ Roger Christian, and others, as a collaborator with Brian Wilson in the band's original compositions. [8] To help write many of the Beach Boys songs, Love drew inspiration from the lyrics of Chuck Berry along with Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote many of the Everly Brothers' songs including "Devoted to You" and "All I Have to Do is Dream". He explained, "They were both the fun, descriptive pictorial vignettes as well as the more sweet, romantic and devotional lyrics. ... Even before that and more fundamental than that, I was always into poetry." [9]
Carl Wilson commented that, "It's not widely known, but Michael had a hand in a lot of the arrangements. He would bring out the funkier approaches, whether to go shoo-boo-bop or bom-bom-did-di-did-did. It makes a big difference, because it can change the whole rhythm, the whole color and tone of it." [10] He also credited Love, an avid fan of doo-wop combos, with influencing Brian to listen to black R&B records. Writer Geoffrey Himes claimed that without "Mike's R&B influence ... Brian couldn't have possibly become 'Brian Wilson.'" [11]
In early 1964, Brian Wilson shifted the Beach Boys away from beach-themed music. [12] That November, Love told a Melody Maker reporter that he and his bandmates wanted to look beyond surf music and avoid living in the past or resting on the band's laurels. [13] He is also credited with naming their album Pet Sounds (1966). [14] Asked for his favorite Beach Boys album in a 1994 interview, Love responded, "I guess Pet Sounds ... because of the orchestrations and arrangement. Because it's not just about cars or girls or school, but it's about feelings." [15]
Conversely, Love has also been reported as resisting the group's new direction. In the description of music journalist Erik Hedegaard, Love gathered a reputation as "one of the biggest assholes in the history of rock & roll" due to such accusations. [16] Love commented in a 2007 interview,
The people around Brian who do his PR have always perpetrated these myths about what I liked and didn't like. So, I'm perfectly happy to own up to what I said and what I didn't like, but it's a bunch of crap to say that I didn't like the Pet Sounds album. It's fantastically crafted. ... I just think that some people who lionise Brian try to build him up by thinking if they tear down anybody else, me in particular, that that's a way of building him up. It's quite unnecessary and unfortunate, but that whole thing about me not liking the album is absolute trash. It's completely false. [17]
Similarly, Love dismissed most of the reported claims about his reservations with the Smile album: "I never said anything bad about any of the tracks. I admit to wanting to make a commercially successful pop record, so I might have complained about some of the lyrics on Smile". [16] In 1970, Love stated in Pop Chronicles that Smile was "good stuff" and "a fantastically-produced album", adding that "it'll come out, eventually." [18] Brian said that the collapse of Smile was not due to Love's opposition to the lyrics. [19] However, Van Dyke Parks, the album's lyricist, blamed Love with putting "a stop" on the album. [20] In a 1971 Rolling Stone article, business associate David Anderle quoted Love saying, "Don't fuck with the formula". Over the ensuing years, the quote was repeated in myriad books, articles, websites, and blogs. [21] Anderle later said that his statement about "the formula" had been misinterpreted. [21] Love returned to co-writing with Brian for the Beach Boys' December 1967 album Wild Honey , the group's first foray into R&B. [22]
Love stated in 1978 that the group's unhappiness with Capitol's promotional efforts had led them to change record companies in the late 1960s. "They promoted us very well for the first four or five years, then they failed ... in promoting the change, which would have been very commercially sensible on their part, but they didn't ever do it. In '68 or '69, they were still promoting us as the number one surfing group in the USA. How relevant was that after 'Good Vibrations', Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile or Vietnam and everything else?" [23] In his 2016 memoir, he wrote that, unlike Brian, he was never concerned about being taken seriously by critics, and felt that detractors of their early songs showed "elitism at its worst: because so many people loved our music, there must be something wrong with it." [24]
In late 1967, Love became one of the many rock musicians who discovered the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi following the Beatles' public endorsement of his Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique in August 1967. In December, Love and his bandmates attended a lecture by the Maharishi at a UNICEF Variety Gala in Paris, [25] and were moved by the simplicity and effectiveness of his meditation process as a means to obtaining inner peace. [26] In January 1968, the Beach Boys attended the Maharishi's public appearances in New York [27] and Cambridge, Massachusetts, after which he invited Love to join the Beatles at his training seminar in Rishikesh in northern India. [28] Love stayed there from February 28 to March 15. [27] He later claimed to help Paul McCartney with the lyrics of "Back in the U.S.S.R.", recorded for the Beatles' White Album (1968). [29]
While in Rishikesh, Love planned a U.S. concert tour that would feature the Beach Boys and the Maharishi as co-headliners. [30] [31] The tour begun in May 1968 ended abruptly after five shows due to the disappointing audience numbers and the Maharishi's subsequent withdrawal to fulfill film contracts. [32] In his 2016 autobiography, Love wrote: "I take responsibility for an idea that didn't work. But I don't regret it. I thought I could do some good for people who were lost, confused, or troubled, particularly those who were young and idealistic but also vulnerable, and I thought that was true for a whole bunch of us." [33] Despite the ignominy of the tour, the Beach Boys remained ardent supporters of the Maharishi and TM. [34] Love became a TM initiator in 1972 and later progressed to more advanced levels such as the TM-Sidhi Course. [34]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Love wrote the words and music of several Beach Boys songs, including "Big Sur" (1973), "Everyone's in Love with You" (1976) and "Sumahama" (1978). [35] In 1978, he co-founded the band Celebration, which achieved the U.S. Top 30 hit single "Almost Summer" (co-written with Brian Wilson and Jardine). [36] Besides his work with Celebration, he also recorded two solo albums in October and November 1978. First Love was produced by Love's Celebration collaborator Paul Fauerso and featured original songs by Love and vocals from cousin and Beach Boys bandmate Carl Wilson. Country Love was a country album produced by Al Perkins (a pedal steel guitarist formerly of The Flying Burrito Brothers and Manassas) and mostly featured original songs written by Love. Both albums were not released but were later bootlegged; Love later revisited and re-recorded several songs from First Love later in his solo career and with The Beach Boys. The First Love version of "Brian's Back", written about the fairly recent return of Love's cousin and Beach Boys bandmate to recording and touring with the group, was later released on the Beach Boys' 1998 compilation album Endless Harmony Soundtrack . [37] [38] [39] In 1981, he released his first solo album (third to be recorded, but first to be released), Looking Back with Love (1981), with production by Curt Boettcher.
In 1988, the Beach Boys had a U.S. number 1 hit with "Kokomo", the only number 1 the band achieved without Brian's involvement. [40] Love (along with "Kokomo" co-writers Scott McKenzie, Terry Melcher, and John Phillips) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award (1988) in the Original Song category, and was nominated for a Grammy Award, for "Kokomo". [41] Also in 1988, Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other founding members of the Beach Boys. At the induction ceremony Love delivered a hostile speech, criticizing McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and Mick Jagger. [42] When asked in 2016 if he regretted anything about the night, Love said, "Yeah, I regret that I didn't meditate [earlier that day]." [16]
In 1992, Love, along with Jardine and several Wilson family members, sued Brian for defamation regarding claims made in his 1991 memoir Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story . The case was settled out of court by publisher HarperCollins, who awarded Love $1.5 million. It was the first of numerous lawsuits that Love would file against Brian. [16] Two years later, Love won a legal proceeding to establish what he considered to be proper authorship credit for many of the Beach Boys songs he co-wrote. Love successfully argued that Murry Wilson avoided crediting him with his early lyrical contributions to Brian's songs, denying Love accrued royalties. [16] He later called it "almost certainly the largest case of fraud in music history". [43]
After the death of Carl Wilson in 1998, Love continued to tour with the Beach Boys, along with Bruce Johnston and a supporting band of new musicians, occasionally including actor John Stamos. He leased exclusive rights to tour under the Beach Boys name in a boardroom settlement with Brother Records, the Beach Boys' company. However, former bandmate Jardine had been touring under the banners "Beach Boys Family & Friends", "Al Jardine, Beach Boy" and "Al Jardine of the Beach Boys" during this time and Love decided to sue him in order to prevent the use of the name. In the lawsuit the courts ruled in Love's favor, denying Jardine the use of the Beach Boys name in any fashion. Jardine proceeded to appeal this decision in addition to seeking $4 million in damages. The California Court of Appeal proceeded to rule that, "Love acted wrongfully in freezing Jardine out of touring under the Beach Boys name", allowing Jardine to continue with his lawsuit. [44] The case ended up being settled outside of court with the terms not disclosed. [45]
In 2000, ABC premiered a two-part television miniseries, The Beach Boys: An American Family , that dramatized the Beach Boys' story. It was produced by Stamos and was criticized for historical inaccuracies. Love was an advisor to the film. Some critics accused him of having the film overstate his role in the group and portray negative depictions of Brian and Smile collaborator Van Dyke Parks. [20]
On November 3, 2005, Love sued Brian and the British newspaper The Mail On Sunday because the Beach Boys' name and Love's image were used in a promotional CD that was given free with the paper to promote the 2004 Brian Wilson presents Smile release. Love argued that the unauthorized (by Brother Records Inc.) free CD resulted in loss of income for the band. Wilson's wife Melinda alleged that, during the deposition, Love turned to Wilson and remarked, "you better start writing a real big hit because you're going to have to write me a real big check." [46] The lawsuit was dismissed on May 16, 2007, on the grounds that it was without merit. [47] [ clarification needed ]
In 2011, Love reunited with Brian, Jardine, Johnston and David Marks for a new Beach Boys album and 50th anniversary tour beginning in 2012. [48] In September 2012, Love and Johnston announced via a press release that following the end of the reunion tour the Beach Boys would revert to the Love/Johnston lineup, without Brian, Jardine or Marks, all of whom expressed surprise. Although such dates were noted in a late June issue of Rolling Stone, it was widely reported that the three had been "fired". [49]
Love's autobiography, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy , was published on September 13, 2016. He wrote the book as a response to "many inaccuracies" that had he claimed were said about him over the decades. [50] It was published one month before the release of Brian's autobiography, I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir . When asked about the book's negative comments toward him, Love responded: "He's not in charge of his life, like I am mine. His every move is orchestrated and a lot of things he's purported to say, there's not tape of it." [51] As of November 2016, Love claims that he has not read Brian's book. [51]
On November 17, 2017, Love released his second solo album Unleash the Love . [52] On October 26, 2018, Love released his third solo album, Reason for the Season , featuring traditional and original Christmas music. Love's fourth album 12 Sides Of Summer was released on July 19, 2019. The album Mike Love Not War followed in 2023.
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(March 2016) |
Love has been married to Jacquelyne Piesen since 1994 and has eight children: two with Piesen and six from his four previous marriages.[ citation needed ] As of 2015, he resides in Incline Village, Nevada on the northern shore of Lake Tahoe. [16] Love is a vegetarian who practices Transcendental Meditation, wears Indian Ayurveda rings, and partakes in traditional Hindu ceremonies. [53]
In addition to being a cousin of the Wilson brothers, Love is the brother of former NBA basketball player Stan Love, and Pink Martini harpist Maureen Love, and the uncle of Miami Heat basketball player Kevin Love. [54] Shawn Marie Love, a woman who was married to Dennis Wilson in his final months of life, alleged to be Love's daughter, an accusation that Love denied. [55]
Love describes himself as a progressive. However, a photographed handshake between him and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and his longtime friendship with Donald Trump has led many to label him as a conservative; Love responded that being friendly with someone does not imply endorsing all of that person's opinions. [56] Notwithstanding the friendly relationship between the Beach Boys and George H. W. Bush for many years, in 1992 the band raised money for the TM-backed Natural Law Party. At the time, Love announced he was switching his support from Bush to NLP candidate John Hagelin. [57]
In 2018, Love praised Donald Trump for his "support of music historically" and was present at the signing of the Music Modernization Act in October. [58] After Trump's election, the Beach Boys were asked to perform in the festivities for 2017 Trump's inauguration, [59] and Love initially responded positively, saying Trump had "been a friend for a long time. Does that mean I agree with everything he says? No. But... if we were asked [to play his inauguration], I'm sure that we would." [60] Instead, during the evening of Trump's inauguration day, Love's Beach Boys performed at the Texas State Society's "Black Tie & Boots" Inaugural Ball. [61]
In February 2020, Brian Wilson and Jardine's official social media pages encouraged fans to boycott the band's music on animal rights grounds, after it was announced that Love's Beach Boys would perform at a Safari Club International convention in Reno, Nevada. The concert proceeded despite online protests; Love issued a statement that his group has always supported "freedom of thought and expression as a fundamental tenet of our rights as Americans." [62] In October 2020, Love's Beach Boys agreed to play as the headliner at a high-dollar fundraiser for Trump's reelection campaign in Newport Beach. [63] In a press release, Wilson and Jardine disavowed the use of the Beach Boys' name and music at the event, stating "we have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero." [64] Love again played at Mar-a-Lago's New Year's Eve celebration that year, alongside other acts. [65] [66] In 2022, Love attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). [67]
Love has been a longtime supporter of environmental causes and was among speakers at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Earth Day 2000 in Washington, DC. He was instrumental in forming StarServe ("Students Taking Action and Responsibility to Serve"), which enlisted high-profile celebrities to inspire America's youth to help serve their communities. [68] He also created the Love Foundation, which supports national environmental and educational initiatives.[ citation needed ] Love personally donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina and helped the foundation raise an additional $250,000. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the Lake Tahoe School in Incline Village, Nevada,[ failed verification ] and was responsible for raising over $1 million to benefit the school. [68]
In 2010, Love contributed to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's More Hope For The Holidays album with vocals on "Closing of the Year" as well as contributing his self-penned "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo". On the album he appears alongside Weezer, Brandi Carlile, and Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. [69] He performed a benefit concert for the foundation for the Children of the Californias which raised one million dollars to support the expansion of three new surgical suites. During the 50th Reunion Tour, Love, alongside the Beach Boys, partnered with Operation Smile to raise funds for those in need of cleft lip and palate repair surgeries. In May 2013, he was recognized for his decades of investment in education and national service by being awarded City Year's "Seven Generations Award". [68]
Studio albums
With Celebration
Other albums
Singles
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by its vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, the band is one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create its unique sound. Under Brian's direction, it often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.
Smiley Smile is the twelfth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. Conceived as a simpler and more relaxed version of their unfinished Smile album, Smiley Smile is distinguished for its homespun arrangements, "stoned" aesthetic, and lo-fi production. Critics and fans generally received the album and its lead single, "Heroes and Villains", with confusion and disappointment. The album reached number 9 on UK record charts, but sold poorly in the U.S., peaking at number 41—the band's lowest chart placement to that point.
Carl Dean Wilson was an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's de facto leader in the early to mid-1970s. He was also the band's musical director on stage from 1965 until his death.
Sunflower is the 16th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on August 31, 1970 by Reprise Records, their first for the label. It received favorable reviews, but sold poorly, reaching number 151 on the US record charts during a four-week stay and becoming the lowest-charting Beach Boys album to that point. "Add Some Music to Your Day" was the only single that charted in the US, peaking at number 64. In the UK, the album peaked at number 29.
Brother Records, Inc. (BRI) is an American holding company and record label established in 1966 that owns the intellectual property rights of the Beach Boys, including "The Beach Boys" trademark. It was founded by brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and their cousin Mike Love. As of 2011, the corporation was equally owned by four shareholders and directors: Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and the estate of Carl Wilson.
Alan Charles Jardine is an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best known as the band's rhythm guitarist, background vocalist, and for occasionally singing lead vocals on singles such as number-one hit "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), "Then I Kissed Her" (1965), "Cottonfields" (1970), and a cover of the Del-Vikings’ "Come Go with Me" (1981). His song "Lady Lynda" was also a UK top 10 hit for the group in 1979. Other Beach Boys songs that feature Jardine on lead include "I Know There's an Answer" (1966), “Vegetables" (1967), a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” (1978), and "From There to Back Again" (2012).
Wild Honey is the thirteenth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on December 18, 1967, by Capitol Records. It was the group's first foray into soul music and was heavily influenced by the R&B of Motown and Stax Records. The album was the band's worst-selling at that point, charting at number 24 in the US. Lead single "Wild Honey" peaked at number 31, while its follow-up "Darlin'" reached number 19. In the UK, the album peaked at number seven.
Friends is the fourteenth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on June 24, 1968, through Capitol Records. The album is characterized by its calm and peaceful atmosphere, which contrasted the prevailing music trends of the time, and by its brevity, with five of its 12 tracks running less than two minutes long. It sold poorly, peaking at number 126 on the Billboard charts, the group's lowest U.S. chart performance to date, although it reached number 13 in the UK. Fans generally came to regard the album as one of the band's finest.
Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" is the 18th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released May 15, 1972 on Brother/Reprise. The album is a significant musical departure for the band and is the first to feature the Flames' Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar as additions to their official line-up. It sold poorly and was met with lukewarm reviews, but later gained stature as a cult favorite among fans.
15 Big Ones is the 20th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released July 5, 1976, by Brother/Reprise. It includes a mix of original songs and renditions of rock 'n' roll and R&B standards. The LP was the band's first album with production credited solely to Brian Wilson since Pet Sounds (1966). As such, its release was accompanied by a controversial media campaign that declared his comeback as an active member of the Beach Boys' recording and touring group.
The Beach Boys Love You is the 21st studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released April 11, 1977, on Brother/Reprise.
M.I.U. Album is the 22nd studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 25, 1978. Characterized for its easy-listening sound, the album was produced by Al Jardine and touring member Ron Altbach during one of the most acrimonious periods in the band's history. It sold poorly, peaking at number 151 in the U.S, and was met with confused reactions from critics and fans.
Still Cruisin' is the twenty-sixth studio album by the Beach Boys, their thirty-fifth official album, and their last release of the 1980s. It is also the last album of new material released during a brief return to Capitol Records.
"Kokomo" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from the 1988 film Cocktail and album Still Cruisin'. Written by John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, Mike Love, and Terry Melcher, the song was released as a single in July 1988 by Elektra Records and became a number one hit in the US and Australia. It was the band's first original top-20 single in 20 years and their first number-one hit in 22 years as well as their final top 40 hit.
"Do It Again" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was released as a standalone single on July 8, 1968. It was written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love as a self-conscious callback to the group's earlier surf image, which they had not embraced since 1964. Love and Wilson also share the lead vocal on the song.
"Wake the World" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1968 album Friends. It was written by Brian Wilson and Al Jardine about getting up in the morning for work. In addition to appearing on Friends, "Wake the World" was released as B-side to "Do It Again" in July 1968. The song has since appeared multiple times on the band's live setlists and has been described as a cult favorite.
"Vegetables" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1967 album Smiley Smile and their unfinished Smile project. Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, the song was conceived by Wilson as a tongue-in-cheek promotion of organic food. Another reported inspiration for the song was a humorous comment Wilson heard about the effect of marijuana turning him and his friends into a "vegetative" state.
The 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour was a 2012 world concert tour by the American rock band the Beach Boys. The tour marked the first time since 1982 that founding member Brian Wilson had consistently performed on a full tour with the band. The tour also marked the first time that the Beach Boys had played at the Hollywood Bowl since 1967, having sold it out both times.
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. Since then, the band has undergone many variations in composition, with representation by fill-ins onstage. As of 2021, the only principal members included in the Beach Boys' touring band are co-founder Mike Love and 1965 addition Bruce Johnston.
In May 1968, the American rock band the Beach Boys undertook a concert tour of the United States with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, their Indian meditation guru. The tour preceded the release of the Beach Boys' Friends album, which similarly reflected the influence of the Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique on the band, and was a commercial and critical failure. The program comprised a set of songs by the Beach Boys, followed by a lecture from the Maharishi on the benefits of meditation. Twenty-nine concerts were originally scheduled, many of them in college venues, but the venture was abandoned after three days of low ticket sales and hostile audience reaction to the Maharishi's segment. The guru's commitment to making a documentary film about himself, for Four Star Television, was cited as a further impediment.
He grew up in Baldwin Hills, California, an L.A. suburb inland of the 405...