this is the first time i heard if that reddit place. i asked about it and they asked whether they want to do a satirical version of that essay to post on that site

🪷 Mike Love Was Right, Actually: A Clinical Diagnosis of Pet Sounds and Smile

Look. I still believe Pet Sounds and Smile are masterpieces. But after watching five documentaries, seventeen YouTube essays, and a TikTok where Brian Wilson blinked weirdly, I’ve come to the only logical conclusion:

Mike Love was 100% correct.

Yes, Smile had some good songs. Yes, Pet Sounds changed music. Yes, Brian was a “genius.” But did we need a grown man building a sandbox under his piano and handing out firefighter helmets during recording sessions? Was that music? Or was that an early warning sign of Smile-induced psychosis?

Mike Love saw it all. The panic attack on the plane. Brian quitting touring. The sandbox. The hash brownies. The flutes. The ego death. The dogs barking in stereo. The lyric “Hang On To Your Ego.” At that point, what was he supposed to do? Sit back and say, “Wow Brian, please continue writing abstract acid-fuelled tone poems about vegetables”?

No. He did what any concerned cousin/real estate psychic/future TM spokesperson would do. He asked a simple question:

“What the hell is a columnated ruins domino?”

And for that… he was vilified.

Meanwhile, Brian surrounded himself with “spiritual advisors,” amateur hypnotists, and jazz oboists named Alfonzo who encouraged him to record in a tent. Marilyn literally said they were parasites. The man was holding dinner parties with Van Dyke Parks and a goat.

But when Mike Love says “maybe this isn’t a good idea,” suddenly he’s the villain??

Let me be clear: if Brian had listened to Mike and just stuck to singing songs about surfing and cars, he might still be happy today.

Instead, we got Smile—a psychedelic masterwork that was also a cry for help in 7/8 time.

People like to romanticise the tortured artist, but no one ever thinks about the tortured cousin who has to co-write Kokomo just to keep the band afloat.

So next time you praise Pet Sounds for inventing sound itself, maybe pour one out for Mike Love, who only wanted Brian Wilson to put his shirt back on and write songs about hot rods again.

⸻

TL;DR:
Mike Love didn’t kill Smile. He tried to stop it from killing Brian.