I grew up in the era (1970s) when the Beach Boys were “old fogey music”, the stuff your old brother listened to. Beach music? That stuff you find on juke boxes down at the VFW? Bleech. Cars, girls and surfing. Boooooring.
As I get older, I find I like them a little more. We watched Echo In The Canyon (documentary about the 65-67 LA folk rock scene) last night, in memory of.
But Pet Sounds may have good songs, but it isn’t a good album.
I remember the mild shock of learning that “Kokomo” wasn’t a 1960s track that had somehow become suddenly and massively popular in the late 80s.
To honor Brian’s legacy as a great songwriter, musician, and record producer, I feel the responsibility to emphatically point out that he bears zero responsibility for that song.
Brian Wilson is dead and Mike Fucking Love is still alive!
beach boys are july 4th listening for me.
On the other hand, Brian outlived Dennis, Carl, Eugene Landy, Jeffrey Foskett, Andy Paley, Joe Thomas, and his wife Melinda. He survived longer and better than many of us would have predicted.
The actual article is pure satire. Maybe accurate satire according to people here, but Love didn’t say any of it.
Satire is great, but I always take a step back when people mistake it for something real.
Absolutely true. The Beach Boys were considered very dated when I was in high school in the mid 70’s.
My view has changed over the years. I look back at classic rock on a broader scale.
Well I was close. 
When I was four to five years old (1974-75), my parents would play four albums for me, over and over (and I’d play them myself): Pete Seeger’s “Greatest Hits,” the Beatles’ “Revolver,” Marlo Thomas and Friends’ “Free to Be You and Me,” and the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds.”
My favorite song from Pet Sounds was “Wooden Nippy Nigh,” the opening track. 
Decades later, it was “You Still Believe in Me”
Nowadays, it’s “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)”. What perfect music. Heartbreaking.
(My parents’ copy was the re-released double LP with Carl Wilson’s solo album “So Tough,” with a band that he put together called the Passiions. I remember even then being intrigued by a darker-skinned fellow in the band’s liner photo. Turns out that was the guy who played the George (sort of) character in “The Rutles” — Rikki something? He’s of Cape Malay descent — South Africans with a mixed heritage that includes Indian. Anyway…)
A.k.a. “Wooden Tit Bean Ice”
Sounds like a track from Buckwheat Sings
Not a solo album; an official Beach Boys album, albeit with minimal input from Brian. The “darker-skinned fellow” was Ricky Fataar. He and Blondie Chaplin were South African musicians who were members of The Beach Boys for a while in the 70s.
They were part of the great band I mentioned earlier.
Dennis (not Brian)…
…Wilson was friends with Charles Manson when Manson was a bit sane and was trying to be “talented” and set him up with an agent (Doris Day’s son?) who didn’t think Manson was talented enough. This agent was a previous owner of the ill fated Tate/Polanski house.
Terry Melcher was the agent’s name, and yes, he was Doris Day’s son. He was the target of that murder, but more importantly, Manson and some of his people knew the layout of the house, because Melcher had been living there when he turned Manson down, so that’s where they struck. Also, Melcher was living with Candace Bergen in that house for a while, and Mark Lindsay was also a roommate!
Interesting - thanks!
Yes, I just read now that the reissue of Pet Sounds was a freebie, to help out folks who couldn’t get the albums that were out of print. It likely made the Carl… album sound even worse than it was, due to comparison with the earlier masterpiece.
Pet Sounds was considered a flop when it was released. People really wanted the radio-friendly Beach Boys, not the low-key downer tunes. It took decades before it somehow became a greatest ever album.
The NYTimes
The album peaked at No. 10 — low for one of the most popular acts at the time — and was the first Beach Boys album in three years not to reach gold status, Butler wrote in a chapter of an academic book. The Beach Boys’ record company, Capitol, rushed out a greatest-hits that outsold the album of original music.
One of the dangers of being the first. It may have done better if it followed Revolver. Image-wise the Beach Boys weren’t the best ambassadors for dragging Pop music into the realm of high art. Mike Love was obnoxiously right about that.