Don't fuck with the formula

Mike Love photographed with the Beach Boys in 1966

"Don't fuck with the formula" is a quote and subject of controversy attributed to the Beach Boys' lyricist and co-lead vocalist Mike Love circa 1967. Love stated, "It's the most famous thing I've ever said, even though I never said it."[1] It originates from a 1971 Rolling Stone magazine article in which business associate David Anderle reported disagreements from within the Beach Boys' circle. In the ensuing decades, the line has been repeated in myriad books, articles, websites, and blogs.

The remark is usually referenced to when bandleader and composer Brian Wilson began subverting the formula that brought the Beach Boys their initial success: songs with lyrics that embraced girls, cars, and surfing. This departure started with the band's 1965 album Today! and reached a tipping point with Pet Sounds (1966) and Smile (abandoned in 1967). At the time, Anderle was a portrait artist and talent manager who Wilson recently employed as the head of the Beach Boys' new label, Brother Records. The writer of the Rolling Stone article, Tom Nolan, mentioned that "Mike wanted the bread, 'and don't fuck with the formula.'" Anderle later said that his words were "taken slightly out of context".

Wilson's bandmates were worried that he was going to break away as a solo artist. The group, including Wilson, also feared that the public would be confused by their more experimental music. Love does not deny expressing reservations with the lyrics of Pet Sounds and Smile, but believes that the "formula" quote was part of a larger narrative perpetuated by Wilson's former drug suppliers to avoid accountability for his subsequent mental decline and struggles with substance addiction.

Background

Love and Wilson performing with the Beach Boys, 1964

In early 1964, Brian Wilson began his breakaway from beach-themed music.[2][nb 1] When he resigned from touring in order to focus on songwriting and producing, the rest of the band assumed that he would continue making music that their audiences expected of them. Although The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (both released in 1965) were more sophisticated and elaborate than previous albums, they were still within the realm of acceptability for the band, producing a reasonable level of record sales and chart activity. This was not the case for the next two album projects, Pet Sounds (1966) and Smile (unreleased), where Wilson's bandmates were not entirely supportive of his new creative ambitions.[4][nb 2] Wilson was also encumbered by pressure from Capitol Records and the group's fanbase.[7] The label continued to bill the Beach Boys as "America’s Top Surfin' Group!", expecting Wilson to write more surfing material for the yearly summer markets, even though he was no longer interested in writing songs with that subject matter.[8]

Origin of quote and denials

Love performing with the Beach Boys at Central Park in 1971

The statement "don't fuck with the formula" originates from a 1971 Rolling Stone magazine article written by freelancer Tom Nolan titled "The Beach Boys: A California Saga".[1] Nolan's article devoted minimal attention to the group's music, and instead focused on the band's internal dynamics and history. In the field of music writing, its style was unprecedented, as journalist David Hepworth writes, the "story within was destined to become a classic piece from that brief interlude when pop writing collided with New Journalism ... It combined admiration for the group's achievements with distaste for their strange, inner world in a way that hadn't been done before".[9] The relevant text pertaining to the "formula" quote is as follows:

Mike Love was the tough one for [business partner] David [Anderle]. Mike really befriended David: He wanted his aid in going one direction while David was trying to take it the opposite way. Mike kept saying, "You're so good, you know so much, you're so realistic, you can do all this for us—why not do it this way," and David would say, "Because Brian wants it that way." "Gotta be this way." David really holds Mike Love responsible for the collapse [of the band's management]. Mike wanted the bread, "and don't fuck with the formula."[10]

Anderle later stated that the line "was taken slightly out of context" and that Love was more concerned with the "bottom line" than the "artistic" side of business.[11][nb 3] Earlier in a 1968 article, Anderle elaborated that the "first problems" with Brian's bandmates were when they asked "we shouldn't go this far out, why are we knocking success? Let's stay within the frame of, let's do this simple dumb thing, let's not go too far out, let's not lose what the Beach Boys are, uh let's not change our physical image, let's wear the striped shirts and the white pants."[15] He also encouraged Wilson to leave the group, and was "sure they saw me as somebody ... who was fueling Brian's weirdness. And I stand guilty on those counts."[16]

Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher did not recall hearing the remark and could not verify whether it was actually spoken. He said that, "it seems very much like Mike. And to tell the truth, I think he had a point," arguing that Pet Sounds "was not much of a success" and that its music "was [probably] not what Beach Boys fans were expecting."[17][nb 4] Asher added that Love "never was critical about what [Pet Sounds] was, he was just saying it wasn't right for the Beach Boys."[19] Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks believed that Love's "mislaid jealousy" was "the deciding factor" in Smile's cancellation.[20] In a 1998 deposition related to the memoir Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story, Wilson testified that Love had never spoken the line to him, and when asked if Love's opposition to the lyrics made him shelve the album, he responded: "No. There weren't as many lyrics as there was just—see, Smile wasn't a lyrical thing."[21]

Love denied ever telling Wilson "don't fuck with the formula", adding that the Beach Boys "have no formula. In 1967 alone, the year I supposedly made that comment, we recorded Wild Honey, an R&B album that was entirely different from anything we'd ever done, and I cowrote ten songs and sang three leads."[22] In 1975, he voiced appreciation of the musical form and content of "Surf's Up" from Smile, which he believed went beyond what is normally expected of commercial pop music,[23] and in the same 1992 article where he refers to some of the Pet Sounds lyrics as "nauseating", he calls Parks a "very gifted musician", saying: "He's great. He's one of the nicest persons in the world. And I tell him, 'Hey, I thought your lyrics, Van Dyke, were brilliant, except who the fuck knows what you're talking about!' That's exactly how I talk to him (laughs). And he and I joke about it."[14][nb 5]

Cultural resonance

According to his detractors, it all started in 1966, in a recording studio, with Love expressing his dislike for Brian's work on what became Pet Sounds, one of the greatest albums of all time. ... [he] is [now] considered one of the biggest assholes in the history of rock & roll. That's been the popular opinion of him for several decades. He just can't seem to shake it.

—Erik Hedegaard, Rolling Stone, 2016[25]

Over the ensuing years, "don't fuck with the formula" was repeated in myriad books, articles, websites, and blogs.[1] The remark is usually invoked to signal the conflicts that arose between Wilson and Love when the former began subverting the "formula" that brought the Beach Boys their initial success: songs with lyrics that embraced girls, cars, and surfing.[26] Following the collapse of Smile, Wilson gradually ceded production and songwriting duties to the rest of the band and self-medicated with the excessive consumption of food, alcohol, and drugs.[27] Nolan's article inspired a 1978 biography by David Leaf, titled The Beach Boys and the California Myth, which concluded that "If Brian sought refuge within drugs, in reaction to all the pressure, then everybody must share the blame—the record company, the family, the Beach Boys, and Brian's entourage."[28]

In his defense, Love stated that the "formula" quote was part of a larger narrative perpetuated by Wilson's former drug suppliers. He explained that he was held responsible for the collapse of Smile only when the accounts of "Anderle and the other hipsters" were used as sources in writings about the Beach Boys. He said that their role as Wilson's drug suppliers was understated so that they would avoid accountability for Wilson's subsequent mental decline and struggles with substance addiction, thus shifting the blame onto himself.[1] Referencing Leaf's book, Love commented that it "unsurprisingly" included attacks toward Brian's wife Marilyn, who "had called Brian's new friends 'users' because she saw how they exploited Brian for their own careers while bringing the drugs into her house. ... I was even more outspoken about the drugs and my contempt for these same opportunists, so I took the brunt of their scorn."[21] In the revised 1985 edition of his book, Leaf wrote that he "no longer indict[s] the world of 'being bad to Brian,' when it’s apparent that Brian has been hardest on himself."[29]

In 2017, Rolling Stone included the cousins' discord as one of "Music's 30 Fiercest Feuds and Beefs". Contributor Jordan Runtagh wrote that when Wilson "sought to move the band beyond their fun-in-the-sun persona. Love found the new musical daring pretentious, and feared alienating the fans originally won over by their carefree surfing image."[30] C.W. Mahoney of The Washington Free Beacon commented that in the 2016 memoir I Am Brian Wilson, "Wilson takes the opportunity to elaborate his victim narrative, airing grievances about Mike or Murry or Carl or Dennis not always liking his creative decisions and how deeply it wounded him ... While Wilson deserves pity for his struggles with sanity, that pity is stretched to the breaking point when you realize how [many millions of dollars] he could afford to throw away."[31][nb 6]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ That November, Melody Maker reported that Mike Love and the group wanted to look beyond surf rock and avoid living in the past or resting on the band's laurels.[3]
  2. ↑ Today! established Wilson's new lyrical approach toward the autobiographical. Journalist Nick Kent writes: "In songs like 'She Knows Me Too Well' and 'In the Back of My Mind', Wilson's dream lovers were suddenly no longer simple happy souls harmonizing their sun-kissed innocence and dying devotion to each other over a honey-coated backdrop of surf and sand. Instead, they'd become highly vulnerable, slightly neurotic and riddled with telling insecurities."[5] Following a 1990s court case, Love was awarded a co-writing credit for these songs (along with many others) that did not exist previously.[6]
  3. ↑ Whenever Wilson composed for the Beach Boys, he typically relied on others to provide lyrics to his music. At this stage, he usually worked with Love,[12] whose assertive persona provided the youthful swagger that contrasted against Wilson's explorations in romanticism and sensitivity.[13] Occasionally, Wilson would work with lyricists outside of his band's circle. Love recalls that he "was not happy" when this would occur—except in the case of Roger Christian, whose special knowledge of motor jargon he says benefited the group's car songs.[14]
  4. ↑ Peter Ames Carlin writes in his 2006 biography that Asher still remembered "hearing Brian complain about Mike instructing him, in no uncertain terms: 'Don't fuck with the formula.'"[18]
  5. ↑ After being told in 2011 of Love's self-proclaimed love for the Smile material, Parks reportedly stated laughingly, "I'm just incredulous. I can't believe that he's an enthusiast. I wouldn't condemn him if it took him some time to come to that conclusion. I'll just say that they have an expression in Texas that goes along with such a delayed reaction and that is: he's a little slow out of the shoot [sic]. All hat and no cowboy."[24]
  6. ↑ Mahoney surmised that the book was likely to be no more legitimate than his previous memoir from 1991.[31] When asked about negative comments from the book, Love responded: "He’s not in charge of his life, like I am mine. His every move is orchestrated and a lot of things he's purported to say, there’s not tape of it."[32] In 2014, fans reacted negatively to the announcement that Wilson would be recording a duets album, comparing it to a "cash-in". A Facebook post attributed to Wilson responded to the feedback: "In my life in music, I’ve been told too many times not to fuck with the formula, but as an artist it’s my job to do that."[33]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Love 2016, p. 164.
  2. ↑ Priore 2005, p. 28.
  3. ↑ Welch, C (November 14, 1964). "Beach Boys Brought their own vegetables – so audiences beware!". Melody Maker. p. 18.
  4. ↑ Matijas-Mecca 2017, p. xxi.
  5. ↑ Kent 2009, p. 13.
  6. ↑ Doe, Andrew G. "Album Archiveq". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24.
  7. ↑ Matijas-Mecca 2017, p. 24.
  8. ↑ Carlin 2006, p. 62.
  9. ↑ Hepworth 2016, p. 223.
  10. ↑ Nolan, Tom (October 28, 1971). "The Beach Boys: A California Saga". Rolling Stone (94).
  11. ↑ Love 2016, p. 164; Matijas-Mecca 2017, pp. xx–xxi, "bottom line"
  12. ↑ Carlin 2006, p. 73.
  13. ↑ Schinder 2007, p. 108.
  14. 1 2 "Good Vibrations? The Beach Boys' Mike Love gets his turn". Goldmine. September 18, 1992.
  15. ↑ Priore 1995, p. 224.
  16. ↑ Gaines 1986, p. 174.
  17. ↑ Dontsurf, Charlie, ed. (March 2007). "Pet Sounds: Words by Tony Asher" (PDF). In My Room. p. 1.
  18. ↑ Carlin 2006, p. 84.
  19. ↑ Leaf, David (Director) (2004). Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile (Documentary).
  20. ↑ "Letters". MOJO magazine. February 2005.
  21. 1 2 Love 2016, pp. 163–164.
  22. ↑ Love 2016, pp. 164–165.
  23. ↑ Cohen, Scott (January 1975). "Beach Boys: Mike Love, Carl Wilson Hang Ten On Surfin', Cruisin' And Harmonies". Circus Raves. p. 27.
  24. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (June 24, 2011). "The astonishing genius of Brian Wilson". The Guardian. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  25. ↑ Hedegaard, Erik (February 17, 2016). "The Ballad of Mike Love". Rolling Stone.
  26. ↑ Matijas-Mecca 2017, pp. xx–xxi.
  27. ↑ Matijas-Mecca 2017, pp. xxii, 113.
  28. ↑ Love 2016, p. 162.
  29. ↑ Sanchez 2014, p. 25.
  30. ↑ Runtagh, Jordan (September 15, 2017). "Music's 30 Fiercest Feuds and Beefs: Brian Wilson vs. Mike Love". Rolling Stone.
  31. 1 2 Mahoney, C.W. (November 19, 2016). "Hang On to Your Ego". The Washington Free Beacon.
  32. ↑ Fessier, Bruce (November 17, 2016). "Beach Boys seek to overcome discord with new wave of Love". The Desert Sun.
  33. ↑ Michaels, Sean (June 12, 2014). "Brian Wilson fans furious at Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey collaborations". The Guardian.

Sources

  • Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2.
  • Gaines, Steven (1986). Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306806479.
  • Hepworth, David (2016). Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-1-62779-400-8.
  • Kent, Nick (2009). "The Last Beach Movie Revisited: The Life of Brian Wilson". The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780786730742.
  • Love, Mike (2016). Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-698-40886-9.
  • Matijas-Mecca, Christian (2017). The Words and Music of Brian Wilson. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-3899-6.
  • Priore, Domenic (1995). Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile!. Last Gap. ISBN 0-86719-417-0.
  • Priore, Domenic (2005). Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece. London: Sanctuary. ISBN 1860746276.
  • Sanchez, Luis (2014). The Beach Boys' Smile. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62356-956-3.
  • Schinder, Scott (2007). "The Beach Boys". In Schinder, Scott; Schwartz, Andy. Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313338458.
  • Hepworth, David (October 16, 2016). "Why I want to tell the Beach Boys to get over themselves". New Statesman.
  • "'Smile' – My First 25 Years : a summary so far" (2011–13) – series of blog posts ruminating on Smile and various tangential aspects of 1960s pop and the band's history
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