Brian Wilson, after earning a Grammy tonight, confirmed something that Beach Boys fans had feared following the disastrous conclusion of the band’s 2012 reunion tour: It won’t be happening again.
Wilson, who claimed an award in the best historical album category for The SMiLE Sessions deluxe box set, found himself on the outside looking in — along with fellow original Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks — when last year’s scheduled tour dates concluded.
That cast a pall on That’s Why God Made the Radio, the Beach Boys’ first album of original material in decades — and, once again, put Wilson’s cousin Mike Love back in the spotlight.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Want to hear something that’s devastatingly ironic now? Head straight to ‘Isn’t It Time,’ once a sun-streaked moment of joy from Beach Boys’ ‘That’s Why God Made the Radio.’]
Mike Love, who has run his own version of the Beach Boys for years, refused to extend the tour, despite Wilson’s very public pleas to go on.
The result: After years of public squabbling, their celebrated reunion collapsed with a stunning finality. Wilson, Jardine and Marks recently announced a joint appearance, even as Love has led his version of the Beach Boys back to smaller venues, casinos and fairs.
Wilson had overseen the carefully constructed reissue of his lost masterwork The SMiLE Sessions just before rejoining the Beach Boys. Inevitably, the media assembled at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, where the Grammys are continuing tonight, asked if there was any chance of another joint venture.
“No,” Wilson said. “I don’t think so.”
[amazon_enhanced asin=”B007U1FEJE” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B005HWUB4Q” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B00005ASHM” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B001BFHZME” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B005J29HCQ” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /]
- Angell & Crane, “Himalayan Dial-Up” from ‘Angell & Crane’ (2024): Video Premiere - November 22, 2024
- Michael Attias, “Avrils” from ‘Quartet Music Vol. II- Kardamon Fall’ (2024): Streaming premiere - October 11, 2024
- Bryn Roberts, “Aloft” from ‘Aloft’ (2024): Video Premiere - September 20, 2024
Brian Wilson created all of the music, the harmonies, the arrangements, the productions. Mike Love couldn’t even play an instrument. Brian completely left Mike Love in the dust by 1966 when he found greater artistic success with other lyricists. I laugh because Mike Love can have the Beach Boy name as he has since ’96 as everyone else quit then. Ironically they never gave themselves that name. It was a record exec. Mike Love – purveyor of banal lyrics (and some real absurd behavior over the years) is stuck playing fairs with a name that was just forced on them. If it doesn’t say “Brian Wilson” on it, nobody really listens. (Kokomo was John Phillips and Terry Melcher with Love adding some familiar banality to some of the lyric lines).
The end of the reunion was not disastrous. What’s disastrous is that even after some of the best music the Beach Boys ever made wins a Grammy, all anybody wants to know is if there was going to be another reunion tour. How stupid the media are in this country.
The end was a complete and utter disaster.
To refresh your memory: That end point would be on September 28, 2012, at London’s Wembley Stadium, with Brian Wilson … the creative life force of the Beach Boys … begging to continue their aptly celebrated reunion tour while Mike Love said no.
The Grammy you are referring to came months later … the following February, in fact … in recognition for a massive reissue of an album that Wilson masterminded 45 years before … and that Love hated.
The two things are not related. That might be why “the media” focused on them separately.