Saturday, November 05, 2005

WOULDN'T IT BE NICE TO LIVE TOGETHER?

The trouble about the resurfacing of Beach Boy internal warring over Brian Wilson's Smile excursion is... well, it's really hard to care overmuch, isn't it? Mike Love has filed some court papers:

Love accused Wilson, his cousin, of promoting the 2004 release of Smile in a way that "shamelessly misappropriated Mike Love's songs, likeness and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the Smile album itself".

Love, the Beach Boys' lead singer and the owner of the name of the band, is seeking millions of dollars in damages.


There is something more interesting than old men bearing grudges here: in the middle of all the moaning about Wilson's recent activities, Love has included a complaint about the Mail on Sunday giveaway of a Beach Boys compilation. He reckons the 2.6million copies distributed with the MoS cost sales of paid-for Beach Boys compilations. (How many of the Mail On Sunday's readership who hadn't already bought a Beach Boys best of who were stayed from their plans to go down the shops is hugely debateable - a readership who still largely believe the Falklands War isnt over aren't the most obvious Beach Boys audience, surely?)

But don't run away with idea that it's all personal or anything:

"Mike has a lot of affection for Brian and they have a good relationship and cordial relations," said Love's lawyer, Phil Stillman. "There's obviously some problem with the way Brian's [associates] have promoted the albums. They remain family and the co-founders of a very important band in rock'n'roll history."

In other words: you might be family, but this is business. It's a little like the Mitchell brothers.


1 comment:

Miss Templeton said...

I figured you'd grab this one. But there's a Bono/Pat Boone/Rev. Billy Graham story that's shaping up nicely. My version of it on my site, but you'll have your own analysis I'm sure.

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