Michael Vosse
{{Short description|American journalist and publicist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}
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| image = Michael Vosse.jpeg
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| birth_date = {{start date|1941|5|20}}
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|1|20|1941|5|20}}
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| occupation = Writer, journalist, publicist
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Michael Vosse (May 20, 1941 – January 20, 2014) was an American journalist and A&M Records publicist. He is best known as assistant to Brian Wilson during the formation of the Beach Boys' Brother Records and the recording of the album Smile (1966–67).{{cite book|last=Dillon|first=Mark|title=Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys: The Songs That Tell Their Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAP0yVAVq3YC|year=2012|publisher=ECW Press|isbn=978-1-77090-198-8|page=130}}{{cite book|last=Badman|first=Keith|title=The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio|url=https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-818-6|pages=151, 153, 156, 162}}{{cite news|last1=Kiehl|first1=Stephen|title=Lost and Found Sounds|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2004/09/26/lost-and-found-sounds/|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|date=September 26, 2004}} His work also included limited time serving as a television producer, and narrator.
Background
Vosse's father was a man who printed one of the first books in the United States about the drug LSD.{{cite magazine|last=Nolan|first=Tom|title=The Beach Boys: A California Saga|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=October 28, 1971|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-beach-boys-a-california-saga-19711028|issue=94|access-date=August 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925234941/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beach-boys-a-california-saga-244579/|archive-date=September 25, 2018|url-status=dead}} Early in his professional life, Vosse was a television production assistant who acted as a liaison between record companies, musicians, other artists, and "the underground".{{cite book|last=Carter|first=Dale|chapter=Into the Mystic? The Undergrounding of Brian Wilson, 1964–1967|editor-last=Lambert|editor-first=Philip|title=Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective|url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nv935376j|year=2016|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-11995-0|page=174}} In college, he was friends with David Anderle, who later became the first head of the Beach Boys' company Brother Records.{{cite book |first=Peter Ames |last=Carlin |author-link=Peter Ames Carlin |title=Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYyovo_AbqAC |year=2006 |publisher=Rodale |isbn=978-1-59486-320-2 }} According to Beach Boys biographer Steven Gaines, Vosse was also "a part-time stringer" for the journalist Jules Siegel.{{cite book|last=Gaines|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Gaines|title=Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys|url=https://archive.org/details/heroesvillainsth00gain|year=1986|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=New York|isbn=0306806479|url-access=registration|page=158}}
Association with Brian Wilson
Vosse was introduced to Brian Wilson by Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks.{{sfn|Carter|2016|pp=173–176}} Beach Boys publicist Derek Taylor arranged for Vosse, then a magazine reporter, to interview Wilson for the forthcoming release of their late 1966 single "Good Vibrations". The day after their meeting, Wilson called Vosse and offered him a job recording sounds of nature. During this time, Vosse appeared with Wilson on The Lloyd Thaxton Show, with Wilson speaking about the benefits of eating vegetables.{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=101}}
The Beach Boys terminated their employment of Vosse in March 1967, as Wilson's bandmates resented the fact that they had been paying the salary of an aide who worked solely for Wilson.{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=119}} In 1969, Vosse penned an article for Fusion that expounded on his side of the Smile story,{{cite journal|last=Vosse|first=Michael|title=Our Exagmination Round His Factification For Incamination of Work in Progress: Michael Vosse Talks About Smile|journal=Fusion|date=April 14, 1969|volume=8|url=http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q476/marcus1970/}} and in 2004, he appeared in the documentary Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile.{{cite AV media|people=Leaf, David (Director)|year=2004|title=Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile|medium=Documentary film|url=}}
Later career
Following his association with the Beach Boys, Vosse worked for the Monterey Pop Festival committee,{{cite book|last=Hoskyns|first=Barney|title=Waiting for the Sun: A Rock 'n' Roll History of Los Angeles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7oB2UKVxgQC|author-link=Barney Hoskyns|year=2009|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-943-5|page=154}} and then as an assistant to the vice president of A&M Records, and was involved with the Flying Burrito Brothers.{{cite book|last=Proehl|first=Bob|title=Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czfUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|year=2008|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-2903-2|pages=79–80}}{{cite book|last=Einarson|first=John|title=Hot Burritos: The True Story of The Flying Burrito Brothers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WB4AyaDa6kEC&pg=PA105|date=2008|publisher=Jawbone Press|isbn=978-1-906002-99-2|page=88}} He was assigned by the label to accompany them during their infamous cross-country tour in the late 1960s.{{cite book|last1=Hundley|first1=Jessica|last2=Parsons|first2=Polly|title=Grievous Angel: An Intimate Biography of Gram Parsons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lu8sHvkpLS4C&pg=PA138|year=2005|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=0-7867-3795-6|pages=139–140}} In 1987, Vosse wrote, produced and narrated the television special "The Music Never Stopped" for KGO-TV.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}
Death
Vosse died on January 20, 2014.{{cite web |last1=Friedman |first1=Lynn |title=R.I.P. Michael Vosse |website=Google+ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190310052848/https://plus.google.com/+LynnFriedman/posts/6uKzfgFVH9E |archive-date=March 10, 2019 |date=January 21, 2014 |url-status=dead|url=https://plus.google.com/+LynnFriedman/posts/6uKzfgFVH9E}}{{better source needed|date=January 2015}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{The Smile Sessions}}
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Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople
Category:American music journalists
Category:American writers about music
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