Earlier this week, The Beach Boys announced that they would continue touring without Brian Wilson following the conclusion of the group”s tremendously successful 50th anniversary reunion tour later this month.
A source tells Hitfix that co-founder Mike Love made the decision to go on without Wilson and Al Jardine as part of the touring group. “Brian and Al would love to continue,” the source says. “Mike Love does not.”
As Beach Boys fans know, this year”s 50th anniversary tour marked the first extended tour to include Wilson in decades. Love -alongside fellow Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and other musicians -has toured under the Beach Boys moniker for years.
Love addressed the issue in a press release put out Monday, which stated, “The 50th Reunion tour was designed to be a set tour with a beginning and an end to mark a special 50-year milestone for the band.” “As we move on, Bruce and I look forward to performing live for Beach Boys fans everywhere,” Love said in the statement. Today, a representative for Love added, “the number of concerts for the 50th anniversary tour was mutually agreed to by all the members, as was the album.”
However, the band may be far from done. At a standing-room only Los Angeles event at the Grammy Museum Tuesday night with the entire group, Wilson said, “I wouldn”t mind getting together with Mike and guys and recording an exciting rock and roll album.” His comments drew enthusiastic applause from the fervent audience. Later, another source told Hitfix that there are a number of incomplete songs left over from “That”s Why God Made The Radio” studio album released in June that Wilson plans to work on later this fall that could be part of a “rock and roll album.”
Love told the Los Angeles Times last night that he’d be interesting in recording another album, “if I could write some songs with Brian.”
Originally reluctant to take part in the 50th anniversary tour, Wilson has embraced the effort with gusto since the tour started this Spring. He told me in May, shortly after the tour started, “It”s a great moment in time to be on stage with the guys.” He has told other publications that he would like to continue touring with the band “indefinitely.”
The Q&A at the Grammy Museum revolved more around the band”s illustrious past than its future, with guitarist David Marks talking about moving in across the street in Hawthorne, Calif. from the Wilson brothers -Brian, Carl and Dennis- when he was seven. “Before you know it, we”re touring around the country,” he said. Love recounted a story about Marks, who spent his 13th birthday on the road with the group, discovering a bottle of vodka hidden in Love”s saxophone case and having to deal with Marks” irate dad.
Wilson also recounted some well-known stories for the die-hards, including his reaction to hearing The Beatles” “Rubber Soul” album: “It made quite an impression. I went to the piano and started writing ‘God Only Knows”,” from “Pet Sounds.”
He also simplified the reason why it took decades for The Beach Boys” incomplete set, “Smile,” the band”s intended follow-up to “Pet Sounds,” to come out. “We couldn”t finish ‘Smile.” My collaborator and me were doing a lot of drugs,” he said. “It was too advanced and too avant garde. We shelved it for 35 years.” After Wilson”s wife and publicist encouraged him to revisit it, the finished work premiered in London in 2004.
The Beach Boys concluded the evening with a jubilant five-song acoustic set composed of “Surfer Girl,” “California Girls,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “Kokomo,” and “I Get Around.”
On Oct. 9, Capitol will release The Beach Boys “Greatest Hits,” as a continuing part of the 50th anniversary celebration.