Mike definitely had a nice, respectable beard during 1966-1972ish. Even though it's not a musical contribution it kicks ass.
You also have to admit it's fun to hear Mike joke around using his stand up skills on the Beach Boys Concert live album. His monologue at the beginning of Graduation Day is great. When he's talking about hair school and summer school I even laughed.
But even bigger than his looks or humor, his musical contributions did indeed help the Beach Boys, even though most won't want to admit it! Being primarily a lyricist he added a cool vibe to Brian's deeply complex melodies. Whether or not Mike was cool among his peers like he makes himself out to be he wrote pretty cool lyrics. His lyrics on "I Get Around" makes me not want to fuck around with those guys. While that's his coolest lyric his writing grew and he wrote some really great introspective lyrics before Brian continued in that direction. Look at "The Warmth of the Sun" and side two of The Beach Boys Today.
to be continued
