What are you reading these days? | Page 69 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I happened to be looking back through Mike Love’s book “Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy,” to see if my visceral hatred has ebbed.

Nope, not a single bit of softening to it.

From all of Love’s constant historical revisionism to try and portray himself as an equal with Brian Wilson, his constant petty and snide comments about the other members of the band and Brian’s current wife Melinda, his incessant whining that “I’m not a bad guy, really!” and that he doesn’t deserve his reputation of infamy, but most of all, his unparalleled hatred and jealousy of Brian’s music and the fact that he became considered the genius behind the group, it’s far too much to take, and truly vile and loathsome.

Not to mention there are many things Love conveniently leaves out of his narrative, especially regarding his history with ex-wives and children, several of his many lawsuits against Brian (including the one where he sued over Brian’s completed solo version of SMiLE in 2004, suing him over an album and material that he despised because it wasn’t following the old tired threads of “fun, summer, surf and cars” of the past), and so on. All this with his constant assertions that “I wrote this part, I deserve credit for it.” Say what you will about Paul and the Barry Miles book, at least Paul has persuasive evidence to back it up. Not to mention the way Love takes Paul’s politeness as a sign of being a friend, then in that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech we’ve cringed at many times, takes a steaming dump over his supposed friend, as well as The Beatles as a whole, and The Stones.

It’s no wonder that Mike Love is considered the villain of The Beach Boys ‘ story; not the Wilsons’ abusive father/manager Murry, not Brian’s manipulative and sleazy therapist Eugene Landy, not even Charles Manson. I dare say he is without a doubt, the asshole of rock and roll, with Ritchie Blackmore a very close second, just in terms of actual rock stars; if you put him in with people involved in the industry as a whole, including figures like Allen Klein, Phil Spector, Landy, Metallica’s therapist Phil Towle, and so forth; Love still winds hands down!

How is it that someone who studied meditation of the Maharishi with The Beatles could come out of that experience and use it in his everyday life, and become MORE of an asshole?

Timothy said
I’ve read a number of books recently due to lockdowns and free time.

[…1984

Animal Farm

Fahrenheit 451

On my to read list: The Count of Monte Cristo, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World]

  

Some of my favourites, I hope you like Brave New World, there is always the comparison between 1984 and BNW – who was most right, but I suppose it depends  to some degree on which side of the Iron Curtain you lived in the last half of the 20th Century. Many in the Eastern Bloc would fall heavily on 1984 as their reality, not fantasy. Both books are “right” in many ways. I only read Fahrenheit 451 this year, always meant to and it was fantastic.

In the summer we found a  great hardback copy of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago in one of those  old red telephone boxes that have been converted into little book depots, where you can take or exchange a book or leave  money. I haven’t started it yet. but don’t want to leave it until spring, I think it’s a winter book. Recently read Lamentation by C. J. Sansom, a Tudor mystery, with a  hunchback lawyer as the protagonist, sounds grim but it’s great. That was chosen randomly, found out it was book 6 of a series, so I am now on Book 1; Dissolution.