Just say no. The “Beach Boys” -the Mike Love nostalgia creation which ended the Brian Wilson returning 50th Anniversary tour when he could very easily have extended it, said this on the eve of their July 3rd gig at Hyde Park: “‘I don’t know how that firing controversy started. I’d love to work with Brian again.’The anniversary tour was originally 50 dates, and got extended to 73. At that point, Brian said: ‘No more dates for us, please. ‘So once we finished those 73 shows we went back to the line-up of the band before he rejoined.”
That might be true but it sure doesn’t coincide with what Al Jardine and Brian Wilson said at the time and while after seeing Wilson solo at the Highline just a couple of months before, I have no doubt he was telling the truth when he claimed that without his late brothers there was no real Beach Boys and hooking up for a 50th Anniversary would be solely a business proposition. Which proved to be true and my review was a little too kind though friends and family hated it.
It’s hard to know what to do with the Beach Boys so many years after the fact, it is at that “closing time” part of its life, at some point, say 20 years from now, the generation that grew up with it will have died out and where will that leave the music? Cheezy advertising jingles, that’s where it will leave them.
I’d be happy to see Wilson solo-the last time was two years ago. But with the Beach Boys? It’s too sad.