Will harmony reign on the Beach Boys’ 2012 tour?
Famously fractious musical legends hit the road in April
The surviving founding members of the Beach Boys are poised to celebrate their 50th anniversary by touring together for the first time in more than 45 years. And fans are keeping their fingers crossed that the musicians can get along harmoniously despite a history of not-sogood vibrations.
Principal tunesmith Brian Wilson is set to rejoin longestranged cousin Mike Love and Al Jardine for a 50-date trek launching in April at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. They’ll be accompanied by Bruce Johnston, a member since 1965, and David Marks, who played with the band in the early ’ 60s and late ’ 90s. (Wilson’s brothers and co-founders Dennis and Carl respectively died in 1983 and 1998.)
But the focus will no doubt be on the three core members, who have sparred verbally and legally since Wilson, widely viewed as the group’s troubled creative genius, stopped touring with the Beach Boys in the mid-’60s. Many bands with famously fractious pasts have reunited for fun and profit: The Police had massive success on the road, and Van Halen’s upcoming tour is expected to be a hot ticket. Still, the Beach Boys, who have had more top 40 hits than any other American band (36), seem to bring some particularly weighty baggage.
Love has sued Wilson twice, first alleging that Wilson’s publisher father denied him coauthorship credits for numerous songs. The second case involved the use of the band’s name in marketing Wilson’s 2004 solo album, Smile. (Love received royalties in the former lawsuit; the latter was dismissed.)
Love also sued Jardine — who ceased touring with the band after Carl Wilson’s death — over Jardine incorporating that name in another outfit, the Beach Boys’ Family and Friends. That case was settled out of court.
“It couldn’t have been easy for these guys to get to this point,” says Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony Decurtis. “Let’s hope everybody’s in a good mood.”
In a December press release announcing the tour — and a new studio album, also due this year — Jardine, Wilson and Love had nothing but kind words for one another.
“I miss the boys, and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again,” Wilson said.
Love noted in his statement that he and Wilson had praised each other during early sessions for the upcoming album, which Wilson will produce, with Love serving as executive producer.
Love told Rolling Stone that the Beach Boys have confirmed dates in Japan and plan to go to Europe, and “the idea is to do four or five shows a week.”
“The promoters and venues that want us, they want to hear a lot of hits,” he added. “But I think stuff from the Pet Sounds album and Smile will undoubtedly be included. It will be a comprehensive thing.”
Decurtis says, “It seems the strategy is to position Mike Love as Brian Wilson’s (creative) equal, though that’s not remotely the case. If this is going to work, Mike can’t feel slighted.”
Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry trade publication Pollstar, doubts that Wilson’s own well-documented psychological struggles will be a factor.
“The fact that Brian Wilson has toured on his own for a while should ease people’s minds,” Bongiovanni says. “He had bad stage fright for a long time, but he’s clearly gotten over that.”
Bongiovanni predicts that the tour “will be the Beach Boys’ biggest in years — in decades, maybe. The public will recognize that it’s special because of Brian, and you also have Al Jardine back in the group.”
The Beach Boys have, in some incarnation, “played everywhere for decades now, generally at a modest ticket price,” Bongiovanni allows.
“If they were to charge $300 a ticket, the public may not go for it. But their music is still the soundtrack to many people’s lives.”