20 January 1988., Waldorf Astoria, New York City, New York, USA
You heard from Cousin Brian, the reason we started making music, the reason that kept us going, and it sounds corny, but you can hear it in the harmonies, those of you who are musicians. And the reason people love the Beach Boys is because we love harmony.
We love music and we love harmony. And we love all people too.
When I went to high school, my cousin Brian and I would jump over the fence, ditch class and we’d go surfing. Now we couldn’t surf very good, but it was the whole lifestyle thing.
We would listen to the music, the R & B music of the time, and some of our favourite records were the doo-wop type of deals. There you again with harmony.
And I think it's wonderful to be here tonight, but I also think it's sad that there are other people who aren't here tonight. And, uh, those are the people who have passed away, those are the obvious ones. But the other not-so-obvious ones are people like Paul McCartney, who couldn't be here tonight because he's in a lawsuit with Ringo and Yoko. That's what he sent a telegram to some, uh, high priced attorney in this room, you know. And that's a bummer, because we're talking about harmony, right, and the world. If we can't get it together in America and in England, and harmony within our groups. I mean, believe it, you can believe it the Beach Boys have their own "interstescene" or whatever you call it, squabbles. But that's a bummer when Ms. Ross can't make it, you know? The Beach Boys have continued to do, about, we did about 180 performances last year. I'd like to see the Mop-Tops match that! I'd like to see Mick Jagger get out on this stage and do I Get Around versus Jumpin' Jack Flash, any day now.
Now a lot of people are going to come out of this room tonight and say, 'Mike Love is crazy!' Well they've been saying that for years. There aint nothing new about that.
But what I’m talking about is, forget this room. The United States is just 6 percent of the population of the world. That’s why I came here tonight with Muhammad Ali, Mohammad! Salaam-Alaikum! I didn’t here you say ‘alaikum shalom’. Alaikum shalom, he said it.
Okay I don’t care what anybody in this room thinks. You know when they were talking about ... this guy with the guitar. You know, Arlo’s father? Woody Guthrie ... yeah. Well I knew that, because my father used to sing some of those songs. And my mother, the Wilson, Emily Wilson, first cousin of Brian, Carl and the late Dennis, the surfer of the group. When they first came to California they were a Kansas dustbowl Swedes who didn’t have enough money to rent or buy a house , they lived in tents, on the beach in Hunnington California when they first came out. And now we're sitting in this room with all this glitterati glissando. All six percent of us. And we're hassling, we're fighting, interstescene squabbles, you know, messing around.
What I want to see is this whole room recognise that there is one Earth here, and I want us to do something fantastic with all this talent. and all this wonderful spirit and soul.
And I'd like to see some people kick out the jams, and I challenge The Boss to get up on stage and jam. (during Mike's pause, someone in the house band plays the theremin line of "Good Vibrations" during the crowds tepid response)
I wanna see Billy Joel, see if he can still tickle ivories, lemmee see.
I know Mick Jagger won't be here tonight, he's gonna have to stay in England. But I'd like to see us in the Coliseum and he at Wembley Stadium because he's always been chickenshit to get on stage with the Beach Boys.