The moment Brian Wilson and Mike Love began their decades-long feud
The sunshine surf that The Beach Boys washed ashore in the early part of the 1960s took the world by storm in the spirit of ‘Good Vibrations’ – but the reality behind the scenes was hardly sunshine and roses. For the part of frontman Brian Wilson and his cousin bandmate Mike Love, the warring factions between the pair have been a well-documented saga in the past half century and longer of musical lore, rendering them into a place of permanent broiling brawl.
Of course, much threatened to plague the band in the five decades between their breakout and ultimate final reunion tour in 2012 – not least Wilson’s own pernicious mental health issues – but Love was almost always somewhat of a contentious presence on every level from artistic difference to complex legalities over credits.
However, as much as Wilson and Love’s fiery feuds have never been a private subject, the sheer span of their animosity stretches back so extensively that it is difficult to pinpoint which exact moment in the pair’s relationship set the wheels in motion towards complete destruction. After all, they were a family band – and the scale of their fallouts inevitably has wreaked havoc throughout the private dynasty hugely over the years.
But ironically, the pair’s first sparring match actually began amid a pivotal crossroads for the band which would spur them on to new stratospheric heights. The release of Pet Sounds in 1966, without question, tilted the Beach Boys’ world onto a whole new pioneering axis, upon which all leaned into the groove – except Love. Taking umbrage to the departure from shiny ‘Surfin’ USA’ into the land of swirling psychedelia, Love tarred the content of the seminal album by saying: “Some of the words were so totally offensive to me that I wouldn’t even sing ’em because I thought it was too nauseating.”
However, if he thought that was a bridge too far, he had another think coming in the form of Wilson’s next experimental odyssey, Smile. Famously in Wilson’s words “disgusted” with the project, Love uttered his most fated phrase with regard to the supposedly contentious album, proclaiming “Don’t fuck with the formula!” – words that haunted the singer ever since.
Ultimately, as the years wore on, those sharp-slinging matches turned into much more sinister spats, firstly with regard to Wilson’s mental health and addiction issues, which then descended into an ugly legal battle over Love’s contributions to the band and credits he should be owed. In the end, it was a war that landed in the courtroom and resulted in Love winning his appeal for his name to appear as a writer on no less than 35 songs from the Beach Boys’ back catalogue. In some ways, it was a sweet redemption, but one that still left Wilson with a decidedly bitter taste.
Despite the overtures for peace seemingly making headway with the band’s 2012 reunion tour, it was Love who ripped the fragile truce to smithereens when he made the shock declaration that he would continue touring with the outfit, minus Wilson in tow. It was the final straw to break the camel’s back, and the previously healed fractures in this close-circle unit ruptured into irreparable chasms. Keeping it in the family is all well and good until things head south, and we have plenty of examples in music to prove that. But the good thing is, if, by some miracle, Wilson and Love ever want to put their fighting days behind them, they already have a perfect model pair to look to for inspiration. Just ask Oasis.
