MIKE LOVE HAS RELEASED A SONG IN TRIBUTE TO GEORGE

One Track Mind: The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, “Pisces Brothers” (2014)

Mike Love has released a song in tribute to George Harrison, who would have been 71 on Tuesday. The longtime Beach Boys frontman calls it “Pisces Brothers,” since he and the late Beatles star shared the same astrological sign.

It’s clear, from the emotion of Love’s comments in this clip from the Queen Latifah Show yesterday, that they shared something else too: A lifetime spent in the shadows of more famous bandmates’ genius.

“It’s a really sentimental song for me,” Love says. “I think anybody that ever loved the Beatles or the Beach Boys, and appreciated that there is a lot of diversity among each group — instead of picking out your favorite, and dissing the rest of them. I think that’s the completely wrong approach. I think if you look at the Beatles, or you look at the Beach Boys, you’ll see that there are several individuals that all bring something to that chemistry that makes success. So this song is all about remembering George Harrison, and his contribution to music.”

The creative impetus for “Pisces Brothers” dates back to a shared trip to India, when Love joined the Beatles, Donovan, actress Mia Farrow and others in 1968 in search of spiritual enlightenment through the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. A number of previous songs, many of them found on the Beatles’ subsequent self-titled release and on the Beach Boys Friends album, grew out of this trip — including “Dear Prudence” and “Sexy Sadie” from the Fabs and “Anna Lee, the Healer” from Love and Co., among others.

“In the song, I talk about it not being for fortune or for fame, but for enlightenment that we came,” Love adds. He continues quoting from the song: “How sublime it was, an atmosphere divine. Special moment, now and the past; music and memories are all that last.”

The song also references Hari Krishna, which many fans will remember from Harrison’s music, and directly quotes from “Here Comes the Sun,” which he recorded with the Beatles for 1969′s Abbey Road.