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MIKE LOVE, a founding member of The Beach Boys, performs with the band at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park in Winter Haven on Sunday.
WINTER HAVEN | "Why don't we rev up those hot rods one more time?" Mike Love asked a sizeable crowd at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park on Sunday. The Beach Boys were about halfway through their 1 1/2-hour show and had just featured a sinuous performance of slow-jam "Still Cruisin.'"
What followed was Love's biggest real showcase of the afternoon, a segue of 1962-64 car songs that helped cement the group's role as chroniclers of America's young. Whether singing his own lyrics ("I Get Around") or those by the late Gary Usher ("409") or Roger Christian ("Little Deuce Coupe"), Love's singing has always involved more playing a character than hitting the right notes. Drawing from Chuck Berry's persona and injecting a touch of Eddie Haskell, Love mixes braggadocio and a love for wordplay to convey something transcendent about cars, girls, beaches and the other tribal rites of high school.
On "Shut Down" in particular, he still has a certain fire in his delivery discussing a race between rivals, and that's the point where it becomes apparent: Love's friendly rival remains, of course, his cousin and collaborator, Brian Wilson. The two formed the group 47 years ago, and Wilson more or less left the live show to Love and the other original members three years later. Wilson gets hailed as a genius, Love as not one. But he has worked to keep his version of their group vital, and when he hits his stride on the car songs, he usually succeeds.
Even his dopey humor works. Performers at the park have frequently included a patriotic song or two as the country is at war. However, when Love introduced one song by calling it "probably the most (patriotic) song ever written," tongue poked cheek: The song was inspired by "our ladies in uniform," he continued, before giving away "Be True to Your School" by adding, "cheerleader uniforms."
He politely explained that his generation learned patriotism through school spirit under the Friday night lights. And he followed the song with a nod to his nephew Kevin, who the night before had led UCLA to a Final Four berth.
And some laughs weren't out of humor. He and longtime sixth Beach Boy Bruce Johnston shared a giddy one near the end of "God Only Knows." Johnston sang lead on the song, which has always been a difficult one in concert both because of its delicate structure and a series of chords that defies establishing its key.
On the 1966 recording, Wilson had the two and the late Carl Wilson sing a wordless bridge that often meanders in concert. They perform it in Carl's memory and because it is Brian's greatest melody. When the bridge worked, well, the happiness clearly showed.
The 31-song set featured a half dozen other lead vocalists, including Love's son Christian and a long-ago competitor, drummer John Cowsill from the family act The Cowsills. The group was ragged by studio standards, but kept the fun intact. That means loads to listeners still hungry to hear "California Girls," "Kokomo," "Surfin' U.S.A." and the others.
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