The Beach Boys explained: the running feud that broke up the band
Few names in music are afforded the same acclaim or notoriety as The Beach Boys. Having recorded a deluge of timeless classics and changed popular music forever with groundbreaking releases like Pet Sounds, the sheer importance of the Californian outfit cannot be disputed. Like many successful groups, however, the pseudo-surfers were eventually torn apart by a bitter feud within the line-up, resulting from the vague and often cited cause of ‘musical differences’.
It was back in 1961 when The Beach Boys first established themselves, driven by the songwriting mastery of Brian Wilson and marked by their family connections. That early line-up included Brian Wilson alongside his brothers Dennis and Carl, with the rest of the group filled out by cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine.
On the surface, this family affair might have given the band a stronger bond, but, as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout musical history, being in a family band often leads to many more arguments, and intense levels of conflict – just ask Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Kinks, Oasis, or any number of other groups marred by sibiling rivalries. Nevertheless, it was the band’s manager (and the Wilson brothers’ father), Murry Wilson, who was the root of a lot of tension during those early years.
Placing incredible pressure on the band, as their self-appointed manager, publisher, and co-producer, Murray seemed to harbour incredible levels of resentment and jealousy against the band after they began to gain notoriety during the early 1960s. Colossal hits like ‘Surfin’ USA’ and the stunning album Surfin’ Safari didn’t seem to alleviate any of the pressure or abuse inflicted on the band by Murry, who was both physically and psychologically abusive to his sons.
This pressure led cracks to form in the inter-personal relationships of the band, even during those early years. Al Jardine quit the band after only a few months, to be replaced by David Marks, who was then pushed out by Murry Wilson, only to be replaced by Al Jardine once again. What’s more, the patriarch of the Wilson family began imposing strict rules on the band, including a ban on alcohol, profanities, and even speaking to women, with harsh fines imposed for breaking those rules.
When did The Beach Boys first start showing signs of breaking up?
Eventually, in 1964, Brian Wilson stood up to his father, sacking him from the management role and cutting ties between Murry and The Beach Boys, despite the father’s best efforts. However, the psychological damage to the band and to Brian Wilson was already done, and the songwriter experienced a complete mental breakdown later that year, leading him to retire from touring altogether.
Although The Beach Boys continued to tour without Wilson for a while, the band were increasingly moving towards becoming a studio-only group, which never sat right with Mike Love. Love became even less infatuated with the idea of Wilson’s studio explorations when the band came to record the magnum opus album Pet Sounds. One of the greatest, and certainly most important, albums ever recorded, the album marked a complete shift in the output of The Beach Boys, towards something much more profound, arty, and inventive.
Love and Jardine were not best pleased with this change in sound, causing a rift between the pair and the rest of the group, who stood by Brian Wilson’s clear songwriting genius. This rift never really subsided, even in the years and decades following Pet Sounds. With Brian Wilson’s mental health deteriorating throughout the late 1960s, his admission to a psychiatric hospital in 1968 allowed Love to take the reins of the group, and he wasn’t going to relinquish them in a hurry.
Failed, forgotten, and underrated albums followed throughout the 1970s, before Wilson’s triumphant return on The Beach Boys Love You in 1977. Initially titled Brian Loves You, Mike Love was incredibly resistant to the ideas presented by Wilson, and the commercial failure of the album seemed to vindicate his views, despite the mastery of the songwriting on that album. Brian Wilson would continue to work on another Beach Boys project, Adult/Child, but this was again marred by the songwriter’s feud with Mike Love, and that album remains unreleased to this day.
“The last two years have been the most important and difficult time of our career. We were at the ultimate crossroads.”
Carl Wilson, 1980
During a performance at Wembley Stadium in 1977, Love attacked Wilson with a piano stool onstage, furthering the rift and causing Wilson to become increasingly estranged from the band he formed. “The last two years have been the most important and difficult time of our career,” Carl Wilson declared back in 1980. “We were at the ultimate crossroads. We had to decide whether what we had been involved in since we were teenagers had lost its meaning. We asked ourselves and each other the difficult questions we’d often avoided in the past.”
Adding to the difficulty of that period, Brian Wilson’s drug addiction and worsening mental state plagued the band. After overdosing on a cocktail of cocaine, alcohol, and various other mind-altering substances, The Beach Boys recruited therapist Eugene Landy to assist Wilson day-to-day, but Landy became increasingly controlling of the songwriter, eventually formally removing him from The Beach Boys in 1982.
Dennis Wilson drowned the following year during a diving trip, providing a tragic end to the ‘classic’ Beach Boys line-up of the three Wilson brothers, Love, and Jardine. However, the band might as well have gone their separate ways years prior. Even though The Beach Boys never-to this day-formally broke up, the rift and rivalry between Mike Love and Brian Wilson severely impacted their output and quality in the post-Pet Sounds years.
Even when the 21st century dawned, with Dennis and Carl Wilson deceased and interest in The Beach Boys largely disappearing, the hatred between Wilson and Love continued to rage on. Love repeatedly sued Wilson for royalties and songwriting credits for Beach Boys material while continuing to tour with Bruce Johnston as The Beach Boys. Meanwhile, Wilson embarked upon a commendable solo career, performing alongside his old bandmates Al Jardine and David Marks.
