OFF: Judge Rules Jardine Cannot Tour As Beach Boys

[Doug Pearson]

Unfortunately, this article leaves out the most pertinent statement by the
judge(s) ruling the case.  Of course, this is American law, so it can't
necessarily be applied to similar situations under UK juristiction, but
anyway ... from:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/29/MN157086.DTL

"The court said a former member of a famous band now touring on his own may
have the right to mention the band's name, but not in a way that wrongly
suggests sponsorship or endorsement."

That sounds like a fair summary judgement, as it applies to any similar
dispute, to me (of course, what exactly constitutes "sponsorship or
endorsement" is always subject to debate).

(WARNING: Beach Boys trivia ahead, turn back before it's too late!)

The ironic thing is that Al Jardine is being sued by Mike Love (a lawsuit-
happy guy who had also successfully sued Brian Wilson over songwriting
credits - including those for songs written while by Wilson when Love
wasn't even in the USA!), who currently licenses the name "Beach Boys" from
the corporation owned by Love, Jardine, Brian Wilson, and the late Carl
Wilson's estate.  In the late 1970's, it was Mike Love and Al Jardine
*together* who KILLED the band by ganging up against the creative portion
of the band (Wilson brothers Carl and Dennis, now both deceased, and anyone
who thinks that Dennis Wilson wasn't a musical contributor because he was
the drummer needs to hear his BRILLIANT solo album, 'Pacific Ocean Blue')
while Brian Wilson was too addled (and under the "supervision" of Love's
cousin) to stand up for his brothers.  The result was that the band stopped
making fascinating & creative (if flawed) albums
like 'Sunflower', 'Holland', and 'Love You' and started churning out utter
crap like '15 Big Ones' (with the wretched cover of "Rock'n'Roll Music")
and 'LA Light Album' (famed for a crappy disco bastardization of their
classic "Here Comes The Night"), culminating with the truly
horrid "Kokomo".

Yeah, about the nicest thing I can say about Al Jardine is that he's not
Mike Love ... (ironically, the only person who deserves to be able to use
the band name, Brian Wilson, isn't even using it!)

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com