The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

Anyway, back to the question - Classic, of course. My favourites would have to be Headquarters (You Just Might Be The One/Shades Of Grey/For Pete's Sake/Early Morning Blues and Greens), and PAC+J (Salesman, Door Into Summer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, What Am I Doin'..), but I love virtually everything they did.

Favorite Monkee : Micky Dolenz.

there's a wicked davy jones can't dance thread on the "i hate everything" board, by the way.

"As We Go Along" is so perfect it almost makes me swoon, particularly when coupled with the footage from "Head" of Peter walking into the snow. Even after Nesmith and Tork had left they could still achieve moments like "Ticket on a Ferry Ride", a shivering, crestfallen lament that matches up to anything from the early years. In between was a lot of fun and possibly too many syrupy Jones ballads.

the Monkees are everything!

yes, but I can't remember which was recorded first.

Pool it!

Secret fantastic Monkee's song: "Your Auntie Griselda". How many Peter songs are there, anyway?

Davy hataz need to listen to "Early Morning Blues and Greens" ..
..My steaming coffe warms my face/ I'm disappointed in the taste ...

..but in general, yeah, I fuckin' hated Davy Jones. Mickey & Mike were the band...

fritz you forgot: mike nesmith's mum invented tippex

The 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee documentary was a trip.

And if you haven't heard "Zor and Zam" - from "The Birds The Bees & The Monkees" - do so at once. They do a SPOT-ON imitation of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, and Dave (I believe it's him singing it) sounds so much like Grace Slick it's scarey. Shivers are sent to my spine just thinking of it.

1) What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?
2) Daydream Believer
3) Sometime in the Morning
4) Love Is Only Sleeping
5) Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow

Classic of course (apart from "Listen to the Band")

The TV show was cack, though.

The Monkees are endlessly fun to analyse, but pretty uneven as far as pure listening enjoyment goes fer me. Even the Rhino best of has a few stinkers (I mean, "I Wanna Be Free", wtf?)

anyhow, definitely classic. I for one like the tv show, though I've only seen the same 4 episodes over and over again. I approve of Head.

My teenage years would have somehow been a little less fulfilled without "She" from their second album. Or was it their second hit from their first album?

Never ashamed to wear my Monkees badge here...

verdict: CLASSIC!

Some more Davy love: "You And I" called the star game what it was far more accurately than "So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star."

Some more Mike love: "Carlisle Wheeling" is one of only 3 or 4 songs I will always always always know every every single word to.

Some more Micky love: His morning radio show here in NYC is occasionally humorous, at least when he's not being snarky to people asking him Monkees questions.

Fairly easily one of the best things any of the Monkees ever did. That bridge is pretty astonishing.

'Sometime In The Morning' perhaps?

Only classic as long as Davey sings lead. He was the one who managed to sound English. Mickey sounded like a fucking American country singer. The Monkees - like absolutely everybody else - were at their best when they sounded like The Beatles, like on their debut album.

geir shouldn't you be looking for a white whale somewhere?

He was the one who managed to sound English.

that, almost creepily coincidentally, is cos he was english

Stephen Stills was a great guitarist, listen to Buffalo Springfield - it wasn't all Neil Young ya know!

i know buffalo springfield well, and i always thought of him as very competent, but lacking taste or focus, too prone to meandering and throwing out boringly weird counterintuition. Not something I'd say of the utterly direct and thrilling guitar lines in 'do i have to do this...'

speaking of which, i believe neil young plays (beautifully) on 'as we go along' from 'head'

I imagine Geir means Mike here. Does Geir usually swear? Is this in fact Geir at all?

i still have this slight cognitive dissonance that the beatles are being characterised as having no r&b or country influences upthread. why i'm letting it worry me i don't know but it just takes sheer myopia and wishful thinking into the realms of performance art

One of these days the kids will see some Monkees TV shows and we'll be watching that intensely. (I have "Head" but I'll spare them that for the moment...)

Pete would have to be Phoebe, from the ditziness to the enviro-awareness.

Davy is Rachel: all body, no brains

Mike's the hardest to pinpoint, I guess he combined Ross's intelligensia defensiveness with Monica's pedantry.

WCBS in New York, from 6:00 to 10:00. I think AOL streams it online as well.

P.S. Among Stephen Stills' other talents: he played percussion on the Bee Gees' "You Should Be Dancing," I'm told.

P.P.S. Among the great songs the Monkees wrote themselves: "Sweet Young Thing," "Randy Scouse Git," "For Pete's Sake," "... All Over Again," "You and I," "Mommy and Daddy," "Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye," "Good Clean Fun," "Tapioca Tundra," and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" (to POX).

"Goin' Down"'s lyrics were written by Diane Hildebrand, as confirmed by Micky recently (though the music was their reinvention of "Parchment Farm" and Micky's masterful delivery of those tongue-twisting lines deserves loads of credit).

-- Joseph McCombs (jmccomb...) (webmail), April 5th, 2005 4:52 PM. (link)

Ah, right. I remember seeing thison the end of one of the Monkees' shows and thinking "That's surely after the fact" but no it wasa b-side of "A little bit me" if i rem....

"Goin' Down"
"Pleasant Valley Sunday" (still fucking relevant)
"Mary, Mary"

Destroy:
"That Was Then, This Is Now"
The New Monkees

P.S. to Mr. Grout - "Goin' Down" was the B-side to "Daydream Believer." The B-side of "A Little Bit Me" was "The Girl I Knew Somewhere."

And if I ever see a karaoke bar with "Goin' Down," fuck if I'm not gonna try it.

I would love to hear someone pull that off - that's a fucking tongue twister.

SOCK IT TO ME!

I am puzzled by Ewing upthread saying that the Monkees invented everything.

...up there with the finest Pinefoxian pronouncements!

"The Girl I Knew Somewhere" is indeed of the gods.

Only for the second season, though I think they changed it to this for both seasons in reruns.

Anyone seen "Head"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOI-SDYGviM

"You should spend more time on it (music) because the youth of America depend on you show the way." - Zappa

Yes. It's the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwYXCOMKto

"Circle Sky" rocks so hard. Just listen to that shrieking mass of hysterical Mormon jailbait!

Anyone seen "Head"?

Only more than almost any other film in the history of cinema <--- saddo

Just saw a bunch of bands pay tribute to the Monkees at Southpaw in Brooklyn tonight. Made me all shades of happy. Especially the ones who did "Cuddly Toy" and "Porpoise Song" and "Steppin' Stone."

Giving a listen to Headquarters today. It's a perfect summer album, and was number one right behind Sgt. Peppers during the summer of 1967 for two months or so, though maybe it should be slotted more alongside Odessey and Oracle, 5th Dimension and Da Capo. The album should get more overall credit -- the sole single off it was the fairly atypical (for the album, not for the Monkees) "Randy Scouse Git" aka "Alternate Title" but the net result means that the whole stands on its own pretty nicely as perfectly in-the-moment pop, especially given that it was pretty much the only album where the four called most of the shots and did most of the performances down the line, aside from a bit of bass from Chip Douglas and some brief horn/string parts.

Anyway, "You Just May Be the One" should be more famous than it is.

"You Just May Be the One" should be more famous than it is

Def in my top five of Monkees tunes.

Has anyone else seen that new Monkees doc on Smithsonian On Demand? Straight up, Don Kirshner was a royal a-hole. What I didn't know is that the boiling point for his relationship with The Monkees was the song "Sugar, Sugar". The band refused to perform it, so Kirshner threw a fit and then formed the fictional The Archies so they wouldn't argue with him.

Headquarters is such a touchstone for me I almost can't put it into words. In 1966/67, the Monkees TV series (and from there, the records) ruled my life. I replayed their first three albums COUNTLESS times. So obsessed was I that I really don't remember much other contemporaneous music (hello, Beatles) until "Quick Joey Small" by Kasenetz-Katz became my favorite record (fall of '68.)

Never mind the furthermore, the plea is self defense

Hey hey, we're the bitter dudes who hate each other. Or at least Davy is.

In fairness, Mike has hated the others for at least two decades now.

In addition to my comment over here, it's worth pointing out that Jones is kinda really super-jealous of his former bandmates because they've all been successful at other ventures, while the only way he gets an audience aside from occasional acting gigs is through Monkees reunions or singing Monkees songs. Nesmith obviously has his legacy income from Liquid Paper and his business ventures, and Tork tours quite a lot both on his own and with his blues band. Don't really know what Dolenz does, although I do know he does some painting. Jones also hates that Dolenz sang more of their big hits than he did.

Makes him sound like the Eric Idle of the band...

And in further proof that Facebook will soon be taken over by the AARP, Peter Tork, responding to Davy’s comments, said that he is on Facebook and slammed Nesmith saying: “We’re not even Facebook friends. But I do have more friends of Facebook that he does.”

lolz

haha, that is great.
My wife's company re-published Mickey Dolenz's autobio a few years back. The worst thing I have ever read.
Love the Monkees, though!

My wife's company re-published Mickey Dolenz's autobio a few years back. The worst thing I have ever read.

Details. Badly written, stupid stories, what?

http://luvdavy.tripod.com/kissagod.html

And I just sat there,
absorbing His essence,
and smiling and smiling.

I hear it can happen that way.

oh the Dolenz book is all of the above -- horribly written, delusional ... just dumb.
"The concert tour was a box-office smash (it was the top grossing tour of 1986), we were the darlings of MTV, our new single had gone gold and our album, platinum. All of these accomplishments were unheard of for a group that hadn't released a record in 20 years. Offers were coming in from left and right, from movies to TV specials to megabuck commercials. The consensus of the press was, "It's the most amazing comeback in rock & roll history!"
And so forth ...

That was then...

the whole thing is padded out with a bunch of "screenplay" kind of segments, too. There are some good chapter titles, though
"Lights - Camera - Madness!"
"The Long and Whining Road"

My grandfather worked for the Monkees in the 1960s, which means the only movie premiere my father ever went to as a boy was when he was ten and he saw "Head." He still talks about that movie, though he hasn't seen it since 1968.

I read that too quickly and thought your father was working for the Monkees when he was ten.

The consensus of the press was, "It's the most amazing comeback in rock & roll history!"

I'm pretty sure this wasn't the consensus.

I read that too quickly and thought your father was working for the Monkees when he was ten.

Well, maybe that, too. A wonderful street team of third graders talking up your band at recess (getting your demo in the hands of the jr. high school hipsters) could've been the difference between being a rich monkee or a disbanding zombie.

"The Door Into Summer", from 1967, sounds like CSN two years before the fact. I know that Stills tried out for the band, and wondered for a moment if he'd written this song. But no, it's Douglas/Martin. It's a great song!

Three-piece reunion tour

Saw them yesterday at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Really liked it - as they dust off a lot of the album tracks, including from Head (the set list for the tour is on the net if you need to check). Davy recreates the dance sequence from Head, Peter looks really cool and clearly enjoyed himself, and Micky....Well, Micky was a bit quieter than I expected.

Go see them if you get a chance.

saw Head for the first time in a long time last night at a local library. they played the 5.1 mix, decent volume. sounded amazing.

learned that davy's dance partner in that scene is toni basil. common knowledge i guess but news to me.

A fellow Monkee-maniac just shared this with me on FB. Someone's MIA.

Part of what's so cool about Headquarters is that they pull off their usual range of styles like a normal band would have, but of course there really were no normal bands with an assortment of individuals like the Monkees were. So the range on that album is really wide.

Rest of US tour cancelled due to "Business Reasons".

damn you, US economy, DAMN YOU.

Lol Michael Nesmith is probably telling everyone within earshot today "I told you so" (and then, "Stop wearing my hat!").

I've gotten hooked on "Sunny Girlfriend" recently. Got your pop, rock, and country mixed nicely in just 2:30.

Wonder if OP DJP has learned to play "Stepping Stone" on his new guitar yet?

Learn *intro to "Valleri" by lunchtime and report back

(*cut from Dan's frowning face to someone else's hands a la Mike Nesmith)

lol all these ideas! guitars really are the best

I just want to state for the record that I was the guy Blount hyped re: singing "Goin' Down" at karaoke, but I'm pretty sure I did get out of breath and screw up somewhere along the way. Man that was fun though. Ssssssock it to me!

My #1 favourite. (I think the guitars might be mixed up and Mickey's vocal down on the album.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvMP2ya_AGs

Tork turned 70 today.

Four days after Carole King turned 70--and "Take a Giant Step" is hers and Goffin's.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/29/davy-jones-dead-monkees/

damnnnnn

oh shit

One of my earliest gay crushes, I think, from when Nickelodeon started rerunning eps. :(

;_; for real

dang, dude was probably my least favorite singer in the monkees but daydream believer is still a classic

holy shit

RIP

bummer : (

rip little man

I saw Jones in 1990 in a local production of "Oliver Twist" in which he played Fagin.

RIP Davy

Not gonna lie, I disliked "I Wanna Be Free" and "The Day We Fall In Love" so much as a kid.

But this one is just great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKKjTNorf38

RIP Davy, you were a huge and important part of my childhood.

this one deserves to be here -- davy wrote this one, neil young plays guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6cpo_5lMWs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17214430
davy jones rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOI-SDYGviM

Always liked their version of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" later covered as well by various punk and hardcore bands. RIP, 66 is too young.

RIP Davy... Doesn't he deserve his own thread?

aww RIP

:( RIP

was a fan at 6, and residually since. So long.

Huge fan as a kid, amazed as an adult how well their best songs survive their moment.

eesh, USA Today obit says Jones sang lead on i'm a believer. COME ON.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-02-29/obit-monkees-singer-davy-jones/53304196/1

Not only that, but Radio 2 just marked his passing by playing "I'm A Believer." Sigh.

Still, I always thought wee DJ would be the last Monkee to go rather than the first. RIP small man from Manchester...I wrote about the Monkees twice on my number one albums blog; their debut http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2009/07/monkees-monkees.html and the follow-up http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2009/07/monkees-more-of-monkees.html

Though "Daddy's Song" from the Head soundtrack is probably Davy's best Monkees performance. He'll be much missed.

obit says Jones sang lead on i'm a believer

Apparently they had Tork listed as Peter Tosh, too!

Classic on several levels. But especially in Davy's honor.

RIP Davy. Thanks for being an important part of a still ridiculously underrated band.

My least favourite Monkees, but Cuddly Toy, Daddy's Song and, of course, Star Collector are stone cold classics. I'll even forgive you for singing The Day We Fall In Love.

I know "Porpoise Song" is mostly Dolenz, but Davy knocks it out of the park (or off the bridge, as it were). Probably my favorite Monkees song.

Surprised how sad I am about this...Saw the Monkees in May last year in London, and hoped they'd come back to Europe.

It's sad.

I just didn't expect to hear of any of them passing for quite some time.

Looking forward to spending 10 or 15 minutes on this with my class tomorrow. (Should not be interpreted as "I'm glad he died.") The creation of the Monkees is such an amazing story when placed in the context of the Beatles, and I think I can make the kids understand when you fast-forward to Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, etc.

aw, this is sad. what a great band.

my wife was and is a monkees obsessive and is devastated. i can only imagine what will happen when nesmith goes :(

One thing I'm clarifying as I figure out what I want to play tomorrow is that almost every Monkees song I love was sung by someone other than Davy (mostly Mickey). But I did find one of his that's in my pantheon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnMuwzm7kw4

When Nesmith goes....I don't even want to think about that.

He was a great Nilsson interpreter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0emLj0d66DQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ornP4eeCyBI

A young Alice did ask "Did he marry that girl?" after seeing that bit in "Head"

this is *AMAZING*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jarviscocker/2011/01/monkees-manufacturing.shtml

wow. RIP

Isn't Nesmith as rich as a czar?

heir to the whiteout fortune
smart investment moves too iir

this is *AMAZING*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jarviscocker/2011/01/monkees-manufacturing.shtml

― piscesx, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 6:01 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, that is good.

one of the weirdest things about the monkees is bert schneider (RIP) and bob rafelson. there's something both haunting and just really ebulliently (sp?) funny about these dudes creating the show/band and then going on to make art films and eventually produce a scatching documentary about the vietnam war. it's both completely of its time and kind of exceptional.

I have very good memories of watching the Monkees show reruns in the summer of '86 at the height of their comeback.

Then they released "That Was Then This is Now."

a little harsh but hey that was Spitting Image in the 80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJUG8G00HQY

So many great Davy tracks on the classic albums - "When Love Comes Knocking at Your Door," "Hold on Girl," "Forget That Girl," "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind," "Early Morning Blues and Greens," "Hard to Believe."

I agree

Forgot about "Dream World" from The Birds, the Bees, and the Monkees. That's a nice tune.

how does this not get a brand new thread?

RIP

Love the way Mike drops his head like the Rock-afire Explosion at the end of some kid's quarter at the end of that "Cuddly Toy" clip.

Also originated the Axl Rose dance.

RIP Davy... Doesn't he deserve his own thread?

Abso-fucking-lutely. I love the Monkees and, even though he could be an irritating little bastard, Davy is a definitely a big part of that. He always seemed so youthful and full of beans/himself that it's odd that he's the first one to die. RIP Davy.

Morrissey is recording a tribute with that very title.

"Davy was
the first of the gang with a cane in his hand
and a top hat held high
the first of the monkees to die..."

(with full respect, and RIP obv)

Mike Nesmith on his Facebook page:

All the lovely people. Where do they all come from?

So many lovely and heartfelt messages of condolence and sympathy, I don’t know what to say, except my sincere thank you to all. I share and appreciate your feelings.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

While it is jarring, and sometimes seems unjust, or strange, this transition we call dying and death is a constant in the mortal experience that we know almost nothing about. I am of the mind that it is a transition and I carry with me a certainty of the continuity of existence. While I don’t exactly know what happens in these times, there is an ongoing sense of life that reaches in my mind out far beyond the near horizons of mortality and into the reaches of infinity.

That David has stepped beyond my view causes me the sadness that it does many of you. I will miss him, but I won’t abandon him to mortality. I will think of him as existing within the animating life that insures existence. I will think of him and his family with that gentle regard in spite of all the contrary appearances on the mortal plane.

David’s spirit and soul live well in my heart, among all the lovely people, who remember with me the good times, and the healing times, that were created for so many, including us.

I have fond memories. I wish him safe travels.

"Daddy's Song", "Star Collector", "Here Comes Tomorrow", "Early Morning Blues & Greens", "Daydream Believer" all fabulous, plus his persona on the TV programme was remarkably non-sickening. Plus, how strange was it that he had an actual charting single a full year before the Monkees debut?

RIP Davy

http://open.spotify.com/track/0tnt3gxEkh3cK3zO95is7f

love this song so much

http://open.spotify.com/track/49EoBTPBSmPUeRmPTJsIBX

this one, too

Admittedly finding good Dayy songs is not easy, but they are there. See "You an I" upthread.

Always loved "Shades of Gray", unique combination of Davy + Peter's voices ... must admit Peter's vocals make me well up on that one (bit like Florian Schneider's on "Radioland")

There are a ton of good Davy songs!

There's a lot of bad ones too, his good/bad ratio is the lowest overall

Man, thought of another one i really love: "Someday Man"!

Man, thought of another one i really love: "Someday Man"!

well, with such a classic song tis to be expected.

then again i prefer the original paul williams version of that

Really, the most amazing thing about The Monkees to me is how completely distinctive their voices were, yet how well they blended and harmonized with each other.

The only 'famous' person to live in the village where I grew up. Well the only one where it seems kind of cool that he lived there too. Ben Elton not so much.

And he was in my favourite joke in a Monkees ep.
Man on horseback: Water my horse!
Davy Jones: I'm not a stable boy!
Man on horseback: I don't care about your mental health, water my horse!

http://open.spotify.com/user/djperry1973/playlist/1On2wqSUL6d5g3QVuBafYo

All of the Monkees singles according to Wikipedia

RIP. My favorite song atm is "Cuddly Toy".

I discovered the Monkees when I was first getting into the Beatles and my little brothers had gotten into them too but had moved on to other groups from the era. They had a few VHS tapes of the shows and my mom still had a bunch of old Monkees LPs. I got the "Head" movie because my idol Frank Zappa was in it.

Oh to live in the 60s, when even 'manufactured' pop acts rocked and were trippy.

^^^ lookit Jann Wenner!

listening to all of these songs just reminded me of how much I love "Porpoise Song"; Davy's doubling on the lead-in to the chorus and his harmony line always jumped out at me as a special detail of that song that elevated it

Didn't realize until recently that "Porpoise Song" was written by Carole King!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/01/opinion/browne-davy-jones/index.html

A mostly good article that has a spectacular implosion at the end.

"Davy Jones didn't die for our integrity sins, but the Monkees' reputation has suffered plenty for them."

say wha?

haha I kind of skipped over that sentence because of how clumsy it is

Finding out that I quite like Instant Replay and The Monkees Present. Lots of Boyce and Hart, lots of Nesmith, the Davy stuff with Bill Chadwick, Micky's "Little Girl" - nice records on the whole. I never listened to them before - I guess because I just looked at the covers and figured they were just product coming from a band on its way out. The covers didn't suggest anything to me beyond that. Now I see what they are, though. They're a band that treated albums as collections of whatever was around that would come out every six months or so with artwork that was more like commercial design (in a good way - both of those covers are quite attractive) than fine art or whatever most rock record covers were at the time. I really like this model - a band that's working and that you can really follow. They also toured in '69 and made TV appearances and stuff.

Yeah, I sort of forget how many Monkees records there were. Up through The Monkees Present is eight LPs between 1966 and 1969! Plus two seasons of a TV show, a feature film, and of course touring and all that. Pretty super intense version of music as a gigging job, without any of the street cred that comes with being a "proper rock band" etc. You can see why Tork bailed.

Their run on the Billboard album chart for '66-'67 is amazing. The Monkees hits #1 on Nov. 12/66, about two months after its release. It stays there for 13 weeks, until it's replaced by More of the Monkees for the next 18 weeks--31 straight weeks at #1. Herb Alpert takes over for a week, and then Headquarters becomes their third #1 album in seven months. It only stays there for a week, giving way to Sgt. Pepper's by a band many dub as "the new Monkees."

is there a good thorough monkees anthology i should pick up that doesn't have, like, EVERYTHING but hits most of the high spots, incl. album tracks? or should i just put that together myself?

I was talking to a few baby boomers about The Monkees and I'm pretty surprised that "I hate them cos they're fakes" is still something people hold against them. Are you really upset that Glen Campbell or Neil Young is playing guitar rather than Michael Nesmith? That a member of The Wrecking Crew is playing drums rather than Micky Dolenz? That they're singing songs by Harry Nilsson and Carol King?

which is why boomers are the fucking worst ppl in human history

awww

in the aggregate
I mean just scientifically

Didn't realize until recently that "Porpoise Song" was written by Carole King!

http://soundcloud.com/almostbetterthansilence/monkees-demos-porpoise-song

covers of the songs king wrote/co-wrote in the 66-69 period are my favorite thing ever

Wow that is awesome.

I was talking to a few baby boomers about The Monkees and I'm pretty surprised that "I hate them cos they're fakes" is still something people hold against them. Are you really upset that Glen Campbell or Neil Young is playing guitar rather than Michael Nesmith? That a member of The Wrecking Crew is playing drums rather than Micky Dolenz? That they're singing songs by Harry Nilsson and Carol King?

Wow, real vintage first-world problems these. Even some critics are still towing the old party line. For the longest time, the AMG Monkees bio was by Richie Unterberger, who was mildly condescending towards the band up until the section on the the revival, where he gets nastier. I remember in particular his swipes at Rhino for reissuing the catalog with something along the lines of "the sensitivity one associates with Charlie Parker outtakes". The bio has been replaced, but they still have his Missing Links reviews, all of which reach a "some nice stuff, but really who cares?" conclusion.

I also recall a review in one of the old AMG books of a Box Tops comp by another writer that had several Monkee disses thrown in.

holy crap, that King demo! that's great!

re: compilations - I came in through the double-LP "Then & Now" best-of from the 80s. It has basically all you need if you only want one Monkees thing in your collection, although of course I can quibble over alarming omissions, especially since it does favor the singles or would-be singles and thus leaves out things like "Your Auntie Grizelda" which were in there to sustain their wacky-antics vibe from the show but are also totally awesome in their own right. There might be better comps now...

This is my favorite Davy lead on a Monkees song, a B-side between Instant Replay and Presents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-lyW33lddU

Friend and ilxor J0seph McC0mbs noted this was Paul Williams' first major songwriting credit.

(Sorry the bad quality and flanging.)

Lol you weren't kidding about Unterberger:

Missing Links, Vol. 2

Nineteen rare and unreleased tracks that, like the rest of the Monkees' output, ranges from excellent to insufferable, with plenty of mediocre material between. The highlights are the sprightly pop-rocker "All the King's Horses" (a 1966 Mike Nesmith original) and alternate versions of two of the group's best singles, "Words" and "Valleri." These alternate takes aren't exactly better, but they are definitely different and less elaborately produced. Most of the rest is either lightweight 1966 pop/rock or weedy 1968 Mike Nesmith country-rock tunes that foreshadow his solo work; several cuts are alternate versions of songs that were hardly notable efforts in the first place. An exception is the live 1968 recording of the unusually forceful Nesmith original "Circle Sky," which was featured in their movie Head (although a studio version was substituted on the actual soundtrack album). Odds and ends like an instrumental banjo piece by Peter Tork and a Spanish Christmas carol are pleasant but inessential. A thoughtfully compiled CD, it nonetheless really gives this group more respect than they're due by treating these artifacts with such importance.

unterberger is such a narrow little shit

is there a good thorough monkees anthology i should pick up that doesn't have, like, EVERYTHING but hits most of the high spots, incl. album tracks? or should i just put that together myself?

Amateurist I liked this comp when I bought it about 10 yeras ago:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Definitive-Monkees-Limited-Edition/dp/B000059QC0/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1330854443&sr=1-9

But, you know, the first five albums are available for eleven quid in the uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Album-Series-The-Monkees/dp/B003097AAQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1330854443&sr=1-1

That King demo is so wonderfully spooky. Thanks for posting that.

; )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxBM9IiIEDY&feature=related

Pretty sure I found out about this song from ILX. Davy's channeling of Grace Slick is super spooky (0:43).

^^^ that's Mickey.

holy shit re: the Carole King demo

Changes is pretty good, too, if you like things like Kasenetz/Katz records or the Archies. It's Jeff Barry, Andy Kim, and Bobby Bloom - obviously, those guys bring a lot to the table. Davy didn't like it apparently. He seems to have gotten himself into an even more difficult situation with his contract with Bell afterwards, although I haven't heard those records (except for "Girl," obviously!).

Peter Tork piece.

that is excellent

Avoid the comments section, as per usual..

I think this should be the case for ANY article online, unless you really want to stoke any feelings of misanthropy.

It was a really nice story.

David came bouncing over to me and yelled above the volume, "WE'RE GONNA FORM A GROUP!"

Love this.

and this:

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/12000635/Images/113/081227982805.jpg

holy shit re: the Carole King demo

― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Monday, March 5, 2012 11:56 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i have two CDs of king demos, they are ace.

I have not watched the sitcom in close to 40 years -- is it amusing? Less or more surreal than Green Acres?

also can we talk about great tunes from king's psychedelic period?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yodok8wBv0g

I have not watched the sitcom in close to 40 years -- is it amusing? Less or more surreal than Green Acres?

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, March 7, 2012 2:30 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's...okay. People can overstate how anarchic and zany it is; it's definitely more Help! than A Hard Day's Night, but if you did say "what do I imagine a network TV weekly episodic version of Help! would have been like," it's slightly better than that. And the songs are good. I'm going to a Davy tribute night next week where they're showing Head and some selected episodes; I'll report back afterwards!

Nesmith talks to Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/surviving-monkees-to-launch-first-tour-in-15-years-20120808

I had thought Tork was in bad health...? I'm glad he's well enough to do this. I thought the thread revive might be a Tork RIP or something about Nesmith's upcoming London shows.

maybe a year late, Nesmith?

DAVY JONES HOLOGRAM.

"This seems like a good time to do this – the right time" (now that Davy, who I hated, is dead)

yeah hard to miss that subtext there

Missed the quote marks on DL's post at first glance, and was thinking he said now is a good time to see a reunion, now that Davy's dead. He *was* my least favorite of the pre-fab four, though.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151752834879170&set=a.10151752768629170.1073741826.19721149169&type=1&theater

seeing them in one week's time

Set List from one of the first dates:

"Last Train To Clarksville"
"Papa Gene's Blues"
"Your Auntie Grizelda"
"The Kind Of Girl I Could Love"
"She"
"Sweet Young Thing"
"I'm a Believer"
"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
"You Told Me"
"Sunny Girlfriend"
"You Just May Be the One"
"Mary, Mary"
"The Girl I Knew Somewhere"
"Early Morning Blues And Greens"
"Randy Scouse Git"
"For Pete's Sake"
"No Time"
"Words"
"Daily Nightly"
"Tapioca Tundra"
"Goin' Down"
"Porpoise Song"
"Can You Dig It? "
"Circle Sky"
"As We Go Along"
"Daddy's Song"
"Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again"
"Daydream Believer"
"What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?"

Encore:
"Listen To The Band"
"Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky"
"Pleasant Valley Sunday"

my wife is going to the show in austin next week, she has never seen mike nesmith who is her favorite so she is stoked

That's actually a really cool setlist. Love the big sequence of "Head" tracks near the end. Also:

Encore: "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky"

HAHAHA classic!

yeah, that one made me double-take! Pretty great set-list really.

well here's today's Spotify listening decided

seeing them in one week's time

― Uncle Cyril O'Boogie (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, July 25, 2013 11:30 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And so I did. A nice night out. Sadly, they've dropped "Daily Nightly" & "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky" (I'm rather ticked about the former actually). The venue was an 'in the round' place with an overstuffed stationary stage (the 13th Floor Elevators cut an unreleased at the time live album there), and even though I had kind of a shitty seat over on the side, I was still about 20' from Nesmith. Tork's probably the MVP, he was running wireless and frequently played and sang--in surprisingly fine voice--to all areas of the house.

If you're going to any of the remaining shows, be sure to get there early as they are playing a nicely curated program of clips (commercials, stuff from the show, promo films of tracks they don't do live--RIP Davy) before the show starts.

http://popdose.com/5-reasons-why-this-monkees-tour-matters/

I don't think this has been posted previously? Diane Hildebrand's original "Early Morning Blues and Greens":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBIj9E38h2E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMa1yJdcEyU

This song is so fun! Early Beatles mode but the background vocals are super trippy.

I watched "Behind the Music" earlier and it's too bad they split w Kirshner they could have made some great proto-glam/proto-punk bubblegum singles.

Apart from their producers tho, they were a really good secret untrained drone rock band.

'headquarters' is my wife's fav monkees album

they did make at least one classic proto-glam/proto-punk bubblegum single- stepping stone! and yeah, they also had some great drone rock- see "sweet young thing". that said the split with kirshner definitely propelled them to new artistic heights; kirshner never would've let them get away with something like "writing wrongs".

I'm watching In the Heat of the Night, and I had no idea until I looked it up that the two guys who do "Foul Owl on the Prowl" (the song the creepy diner guy plays on the jukebox) were also responsible for this great Monkees imitation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0tPpu5OiPI

They are also responsible for "What Am I Doin' Hangin' 'Round" from PAC&JL.

Full Blu-Ray set early next year:

http://monkeesstore.warnermusic.com/music/the-monkees-complete-tv-series-blu-ray.html

Contains _Head_ and _33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee_ as well. Specs:

-10 Blu-ray discs
-58 episodes
-Newly remastered in stunning HD from the original negatives for the very first time, plus the 1969 TV Special "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee"
-The 1968 Monkees film "HEAD" in HD with never-before-seen outtakes
-Also includes bonus material, commentaries from all four Monkees, original Kellogg's Monkees commercials and more
-This fan-only edition includes exclusive packaging and a 7" featuring two previously unreleased TV mixes
-Strictly limited to 10,000 individually numbered sets
-Shipping January 2016
-Only available at monkees.com

Ehhhh...I was recently thinking about buying the newish DVD sets because they're super-cheap compared to the old Rhino sets. I'm not sure the perks of this thing outweigh the expense for me. Sounds pretty sweet, though.

My plan to get my relatives to buy this for me as a gift is backfiring and now I think I'm going to end up with a rabid penguin ;_;

Just heard that Boomer Castleman, of co-leader with Michael Martin Murphey of Monkee labelmates and Nesmith friends The Lewis & Clarke Expedition (discussed in the last revive) died last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roCAC4qFhQA

Restoration compare/contrast video up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq4CQr2Ld6k

Wha?

https://mobile.twitter.com/xtcfans/status/693070406757040128

I saw that -- he was posting about writing for other people earlier this month, so I guess that's the other.

Who constitutes the Monkees these days? In other words, is Mike involved?

wow, I'm sure this will be much better than XTC

Watched some Monkees on TV today. There was a cold open where Frank Zappa was dressed like Mike Nesmith and Mike Nesmith was dressed like Frank Zappa and they were riffing on each other's music. Then there was a montage set to "Mother People" where they played a car. I knew Zappa was in the movie but didn't realize he was on the show too!

^^In the final episodes, each Monkee got to pick a guest star: Nez picked Zappa; Dolenz picked Tim Buckley; Jones picked Charlie Smalls (the guy who had the original idea for adapting "The Wiz"; and I forget who Tork picked.

Who constitutes the Monkees these days? In other words, is Mike involved?

He toured with them in 2012, 2013 and 2014; didn't in 2015.

i bet if these dudes could get on the final ballot they could make the rrhof

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-monkees-plot-50th-anniversary-tour-new-lp-good-times-20160205

tl;dr edit: New album...only Tork & Dolenz involved...Nez busy writing a book...Adam Schlesinger producing...Rivers Cuomo, Noel Gallagher, Ben Gibbard, Andy Partridge contribute new songs...Nez, Neal Diamond, Carole King, Nilsson contribute vintage songs and even recordings to be overdubbed.

Nilsson writing from beyond the grave?

It's a '60s copyright they never recorded.

it's strange how many of these collaborations/songwriting gigs Andy seems to do given how few of them actually pan out. Fuzzy Warbles is littered with songs he wrote for someone or other that never got used.

Andy Partridge has now confirmed the collaboration on Twitter: "One of my songs,YOU BRING THE SUMMER is going to be on the new Monkees album,Good Times......wow.........just wow, {do it good lads}."

Album Out May 27th

Track Listing:

1. "Good Times" (Harry Nilsson)
2. "You Bring The Summer" (Andy Partridge)
3. "She Makes Me Laugh" (Rivers Cuomo)
4. "Our Own World" (Adam Schlesinger)
5. "Gotta Give It Time" (Jeff Barry/Joey Levine)
6. "Me & Magdalena" (Ben Gibbard)
7. "Whatever's Right" (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart)
8. "Love To Love" (Neil Diamond)
9. "Little Girl" (Peter Tork)
10. "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" (Noel Gallagher/Paul Weller)
11. "I Wasn't Born To Follow" (Carole King/Gerry Goffin)
12. "I Know What I Know" (Michael Nesmith)
13. "I Was There (And I'm Told I Had A Good Time)" (Micky Dolenz/Adam Schlesinger)

10. "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" (Noel Gallagher/Paul Weller)

bhwhahahahahaha

I hear that as a kind of Your Auntie Grizelda novelty track

I think I forgot this was happening. Or maybe just assumed it was a weird dream I had.

Sad that there won't be any of Davy's maudlin PUA ballads on this one.

maybe Noel/Weller's is a Belle & Sebastian pastiche

Davy's on one track in a sort of "Free as a bird" way

I think it's the Nilsson one, which is based off a vintage demo.

Today, I saw a Monkees lp boxset, I mean isn't that the ultimate 'loads of copies out there' um, mints?

11. "I Wasn't Born To Follow" (Carole King/Gerry Goffin)

Cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpp-Ry2ZNhY

The Rivers Cuomo-penned song is out.

The complete series/Head/addenda blu-ray box is actually tempting me.

is there a lazier songwriter than Cuomo gah he is so terrible

xpost I'm pretty tempted, too, but not $200 worth of tempted. Hopefully that price will drop at some point.

yeah i was excited when they announced that but $200, nah.

it's also in some kind of needlessly large deluxe box that won't fit on your DVD/Blu-Ray shelf. i find that obnoxious.

That's Mickey on "It Makes Me Laugh," yeah? It barely sounds like him.

yuck what is that crap? give me any random Monkees 60s album filler over this Weezer-Monkees

The Weenkees

Nothing could have conveyed the idiocy of those lyrics better than putting them in the video.

I like it!

"she makes me laugh"? more like, "this song is laughable"!

i'll be here all week.

It sounds nothing like and recalls pretty much nothing of the Monkees so maybe this is finally the sequel to Pool It! I've been longing for.

Micky asked Ami who's that band that her kids like these days and she said she thought they were called Weezer and by the time this conversation got back to her mortified kids Micky had already recorded the song.

It sounds nothing like and recalls pretty much nothing of the Monkees

It sounds like a '60s-ish band with a tambourine player. Lyrically, this is the band that did "Cuddly Toy."

sincerely hope that everybody involved in this cash-in garbage dies ASAP

I think I just read that they did, iirc.

it's not that bad, y'all calm down.

Lyrically, this is the band that did "Cuddly Toy."

I mean that was written by Nilsson, and not specifically for the band, so . . . ?

Cuomo isn't fit to lick Nilsson's shoes

Rivers Cuomo is a better songwriter than 3.5 Neil Diamonds

The complete series/Head/addenda blu-ray box is actually tempting me.

I'm glad I went for it when it was first announced -- the money was there so I thought "Eh, let me just pay now and that way it'll feel like a bonus when it finally comes out." The more they keep adding to it the more I'm intrigued, but it sounds like they've at least reached final cut-off.

It sounds nothing like and recalls pretty much nothing of the Monkees

It sounds like a '60s-ish band with a tambourine player. Lyrically, this is the band that did "Cuddly Toy."

― timellison, Thursday, April 28, 2016 10:08 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

r u serious? "Cuddly Toy" is a great melody, especially that Beatlesy minor key middle 8. i think the lyrics are a bit deeper than you give them credit for, i see it of a mind w "Under My Thumb"/"Get Off My Cloud"-era Stones or Floyd that peculiar British take on psychedelic, a twee/regressive/(proto-punk?) cynical whimsy tinged with sex and drugs

my main problem w this song is the production, it sounds like a robot. the words are all choppy. the swing is not there, you can get a more rock swing from a casio keyboard beat. the meter of the words is just not enjoyable for me to hear.

the melody could be cool maybe but it sounds like someone who has played music so much they don't even know what to do anymore and are just trying bad ideas just for the sake of not being bored while writing song #536

I was just arguing that the silliness in the lyrics does not seem out of character for a Monkees song to me at all, especially a Micky song. If "Cuddly Toy" was not the most apt song to bring up, there are others.

It's not the silly lyrics that make it not sound like a Monkee's song but rather the fact that it doesn't sound like a Monkee's song. And I wouldn't argue that it's bad, just that it doesn't sound like a Monkee's song.

I have no idea why I just possessive-ized Monkees four times.

The Andy Partridge tune is out, and basically sounds like they copied and pasted Mickey's auto-tuned vocals into an XTC demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_D6XNpYxdU

The phrasing is so Partridge-esque that Schlesinger and Partridge may have directed him line-by-line.

It's okay but I will never think of it again pretty much, I don't hear much in the way of auto-tuning in Dolenz's voice though, I'm sure it was corrected but it's still a little wayward in places.

Drummer sounds like Prairie Prince too

p good, does sound much more like an XTC song than a Monkees one but whatever

"Birth of an Accidental Hipster" is awesome!

the hell this reunion album is kinda awesome huh?? craziness

I mean at least a part of this is the surprise and low expectations but goddamn this is all good-to-great and really nicely produced

really like the very white album/nilsson-y "i was there (and i'm told i had a good time)"

(not to be confused with the actual nilsson song on this album)

I didn't like that Rivers Phoenix tune at all the first time I heard it, so was steering clear of this album, but I finally put it on just now thanks to the accolades and kind of digging it, even that RP tune.

I like the production, neither too modern slick nor too retro schtick.

Ha, I said Rivers Phoenix twice instead of Rivers Cuomo.

http://i.imgur.com/mMRCcSD.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-5E6_qtXAw

I was steering clear because I've had mixed results with non-60s Monkees material but at a bare minimum the song "Good Times" is worth the price of admission for me

In related Monkee news, Wounded Bird has just done an expanded reissue of The Lewis and Clark Expedition album, which iirc has never been officially released on CD before.

This album really is surprisingly (for me, a non-Monkees fan anyway) good. Maybe most surprising is that songs written by actual Monkees (Tork's Little Girl and Nesmith's I Know What I Know) are as good as any of the other (also good) songs by the ringer songwriters.

No surprise about Michael Nesmith, a fantastic songwriter.

The surprise there may be that he's using a good song on a Monkees album rather than saving it for one of his own. Still haven't heard it, except for the Cuomo one, which I may have liked more had I not read the lyrics while listening to it.

Looking at his discography over the last 20 years, he's the opposite of prolific, so he may have been grateful to have a Monkees album to place the one or two really good songs he had in the can.

http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2016/06/07/andy-partridge-interview-the-monkees-good-times-xtc-songwriting/#sthash.LtlqW0S1.ok6InECj.dpbs

Mike Nesmith's final Monkees concert is tonight. There's been some good footage on facebook of the last few nights.

Deep regret that thanks to accidental timing I missed both the Veldt playing SF -- which would have been the first time I'd ever get to see them at long last -- and the Monkees down in Monterey, where Nesmith joined them since he lives in Carmel Valley. Ah well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7rphYKTmI8

this song pretty much rules. love the part where he's not singing any words and they play w the echo on his voice. Nirvana would've done done an amazing cover of this.

i love that album

yes! me too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80dnoJZqYgE

Putting it on today for the first time in ages. Ehhh..... nice recordings, but maybe a little too much gentle twee dream-boy stuff for my taste (why the fuck is Davy going on and on about this stupid circus poster?), even if Nez's moves towards West Coast freakout stuff are much appreciated. "Daydream Believer" is obv a towering all-time classic, and "Valleri" rocks despite a pretty underwritten lyric, but the non-pro-written, non-Nesmith material is kinda generic. "P.O. Box 9847" has a decent enough hook. I miss the token Peter "Monkees antics" type song, too!

I always wondered if The Monkees were just doing their own circus poster song in homage to "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite."

"The business is changing, boys! If you want to make it with the kids in today's musical landscape, it's posters they want! Have you seen how the Beatles are selling? It's not all 'woo woo woo' and 'she loves me,' nosirree, they're selling big and what they're selling is circus posters!"

I think it's a transitional album where you've still got some of the old Monkees methodology and sound on the singles tracks and the re-recording of "I'll Be Back up on My Feet" and then the more singular directions emerging for Jones, Dolenz, and Nesmith.

There's a Tork track called "Lady's Baby" that didn't make the album but is widely available.

The business is changing, boys! If you want to make it with the kids in today's musical landscape, it's posters they want

lol what a crazy time the 60s were - made-for-TV cash grabs exploiting lite garage psych and victorian whismy.

there are definitely stronger Monkees albums and i agree w Dr. C's assessment on a little too much dreamy twee but i dig it. "Magnolia Simms" has them effortlessly drifting close to Tiny Tim's comedic old-timey orbit.

Instant Repay is even more of a hodgepodge. The Monkees Present gives more of a sense of where they were at that particular time. Shame that Tork was gone and the original plan of a double album didn't pan out.

There's a Tork track called "Lady's Baby" that didn't make the album but is widely available.

It's a bonus track on the 90s CD of the album. Tork also cut "Long Title...." at this time, but it was held back for Head. It's interesting that he was using Buffalo Springfield guys on those recordings--in their own way they are as much B.S. tracks as anything on Last Time Around.

I heartily recommend that Monkees Day-By-Day book Andrew Sandoval did awhile back--a surprisingly fascinating look at the L.A. Studio scene in that post-Spector/pre-Mellow Mafia era.

The story of Craig Smith has a relevance to that as well, since he was briefly championed by Nesmith while in the band Penny Arkade -- it gives a sense of what Nesmith's pull was for a time in terms of recording access, high quality demos etc. Links and more in the thread I started:

Craig Smith/Maitreya Kali

Yeah, I had that book from the library, it's great. xp

Monkees FB page just posted that "I'm a Believer" hit #1 50 years ago this week.

Looking at it now, I see they stuck a couple of 1966-era tracks on The Monkees Present, too. Still, that's probably the closest thing to a real Monkees record post-Head.

Obviously, there was too much of a tendency somewhere in their organization to treat albums as product. With some effort, maybe you can still track what each member was trying to do through those later albums.

i was just complaining a couple days ago about the relative lack of love this record gets! Nez is at his weird apex, and Micky is firing on all cylinders as well. The older re-recorded tunes sound out of place, it's a shame about the lack of Tork, and I don't ever have much nice to say about Davy, but what a great album. I love "Writing Wrongs" especially.

I made a Spotify playlist of late period Nesmith tracks that did not make the albums:

http://open.spotify.com/user/timellison/playlist/0V0njdsfqrfebPayjDCXgX

have we talked about the monkees doing "nine times blue" on the johnny cash show in '69? so good.

also, here is a swedish/finnish twee group doing a cover of "if i ever get to saginaw again". very nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gJ67EC39J0

re-listening to TBTBATM again, i forgot how big a "Paperback Writer" ripoff "P.O. Box 9847" was. lol @ "I'm not liking what I'm typing."

Guys! Great recent one hour interview with The Nez: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdzAuyPLU0

I know, eleven months ago on a link above but..

david riverstone Reply

August 30, 2016 at 10:56 pm

Could I email Andy Partridge? I’d like to talk with him about the origins of his song Dear God. I love this song and lyrics.

Are intersting

i've been reading nesmith's new memoir called "infinite tuesday: an autobiographical riff" which gives you a pretty good idea of the tone/self-importance contained within

Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze was on Iain Lee's radio show the other night where he said he's been asked to write a song for the next Monkees album

oh my god

i've been reading nesmith's new memoir called "infinite tuesday: an autobiographical riff" which gives you a pretty good idea of the tone/self-importance contained within

i don't know, i'm not gonna read that shit.
it's not as good as the recent mike love autobio. it's very light on actual stories, especially about the monkees. actually it's pretty bad overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1KE2gEEYdI

this Instant Replay cut is bonkers, it sounds like Mickey Dolenz spent a lost weekend massively stoned listening to Piper at the Gates of Dawn on repeat. going back to the conversation we were having itt in january, i'd love to read a book about studio pros and bubblegum craftspersons in the late 60s/early 70s struggling to decide what to do with all this bizarre and dissonant nonsense. see also: Trippy Country-tinged Pop with AM radio hooks from the late sixties to mid-seventies

it sounds like Mickey Dolenz spent a lost weekend massively stoned listening to Piper at the Gates of Dawn on repeat.

It's very likely hed I'd exactly this

*he did

either way

With Sherman Hemsley?

"as we go along" is a treat

Head soundtrack one of the best rock albums of the 60s imo

Ah man, sad news that Peter Tork has passed on:

https://variety.com/2019/music/people-news/peter-tork-the-monkees-dies-dead-1203144914/

Oh no, RIP Pete ;_;

He was my favorite from the show, which I haven't seen since I was in elementary school, but still.

They were all my favourites, apart from Davy Jones.

Nez's thoughts...

https://www.facebook.com/michaelnesmith/posts/10157204684445116

And a short post from Mickey

https://www.facebook.com/poplustforlife/posts/149419906083129

well, this is depressing.

:( RIP

Ah, hell. And to think I was pleased to see this thread bumped. RIP, buddy.

Really need to finish writing my fake Pool It! 33 1/3 so at least one of them is still alive to sue me.

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzMWdDBaqHk

rip big man

I didn't see the show much or at all as a child, but the Monkees have meant a great deal to me at least since I was about 16. There was never a very long period where they didn't factor into my life in significant ways. I'm very sorry to see Peter go.

I like the Peter Tork advice columns that I've seen - would be interested to see more:

Ask Peter Tork

In this Twitter thread, we celebrate The Monkees and talk about our favorite Monkees songs

— DJP (@djperry1973) January 16, 2020

pretty excellent selection there.

oddly, i've had both "you just may be the one" and "she hangs out" in my head on and off the last few days.

Listened to Pleasant Valley Sunday first thing this morning

Happy birthday to Davy Jones and Mike Nesmith! My basic list drawn from a CD-R I burned in the early '00s.

Has there ever been an Artists Poll on the Monkees? I'd definitely be up for that. Not sure how many other hardcore Monkees' fans there are on ILX these days though.

The participants list might just come down to a little bit me, a little bit you.

I guess I'm medium-core inasmuch as I know the OG four-piece albums (and, erm, Pool It!) like the back of my hand and have seen Head more times than I can count. Recently heard some decent singles from their trio/duo years which encouraged me to check out those albums.

I was shockingly old when I learned that Davy and Mike share a birthday.

actually, scrolling up, this thread has a lot of still-active names! idk maybe worth a go?

I could make a Top 10 easy (and I've voted in a number of polls where I submitted a list with less than 10 songs). Going back to DJP's original post, while I don't agree they surpassed the Beatles in any department, I do agree there was some kind of genius at work there (just in the songs? something more). And they even had their own imitators! (The Five Americans' "Western Union," the Move's "Wave the Flag and Stop the Train," the Lewis and Clarke Expedition's "Destination Unknown," no doubt others.) Found this cover on a country compilation I bought a couple of weeks ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11F2PW8lcEk

It's kind of amazing how solid all the albums are. They're much more than the sum of their considerable hits.

It was the Missing Links compilations that turned me into a Monkee Nut, the sheer amount of good material that was never released is really remarkable.

I'd certainly vote, mostly for album tracks.

I haven't heard the outtakes but would investigate any which received a lot of acclaim.

I assume this cover is common knowledge (unless it's not?) but I was just listening to Taj Mahal last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbZapq69xQ

I was looking at the list of records from Critic's Choice: Top 200 Albums, an early example of an all-time record poll published in 1978. Number 58 is Michael Nesmith - And The Hits Just Keep On Comin'. It's pretty difficult to imagine this on any individual's all-time list now, much less a collective one (although I bet someone will inform me that it's an all-time, must-hear classic).

It's very good!

"Take a Giant Step" would be a contender for my #1.

I have the Gambaccini book with Nesmith at #58; for what it's worth, there weren't many voters, and I think it got there on the basis of a single #1 vote (John Tobler).

Makes sense, it's just a record I would associate with "here's an interesting oddity you may have overlooked" rather than "bow ye before this canonical work".

I suppose it's a similar situation that put Genevieve Waite - Romance Is On The Rise at number 98.

Same thing, yeah. That was probably the most fascinating thing for me when I first bought the book; all these weird albums I'd never heard of at the time that got in there via a single vote. (Other examples: David Ackles Dory Previn, John Phillips, Huey Smith.)

I might participate in a POLL.

i could do a ballot. would also be interested in the results of a solo career / side project poll.

i will submit a ballot on my wife’s behalf since she is a monkees superfan

I interviewed Dwight Yoakam years ago, and just dug out this nugget about the influence the Monkees had on him:

And Michael Nesmith, interestingly enough. The Monkees. Michael Nesmith wrote “Different Drum,” which Linda Rondstadt had her first hit with. And Michael Nesmith is a transplanted Texan who also had his own solo albums that I was a fan of, that served as an inspiration point. In my teens, to illustrate how country music was pertinent, he had an album with two top ten hits. One was called “Joanne” (sings) “Her name was Joanne, and she lived in a meadow by a farm…” Anyway, there’s another one called “Standing In The Light of the Silver Moon.” So there are things as disparate as one of the guys from the Monkees that influenced country rock and influenced me, ultimately.

Solo career is pretty pointless as Nesmith's solo career dwarfs every one else's in terms of quantity and quality.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

Would anyone vote for any Monkees song post-1968? I don't know that material and have not been very curious.

Last hit was "D.W. Washburn," no?

Then Head and "Porpoise Song" right after that, but the best I've heard about the subsequent records is "adequate".

I like "Tear Drop City" released in '69, but recorded in '66. Boyce and Hart kinda rewriting "Last Train to Clarksville."

Who will run this POLL?

I don't know the albums post-68, but I also like "Tear Drop City," as well as "Good Clean Fun" and "Listen the Band" - both solid Nesmith songs that I got to know through the two-disc version of the Then & Now comp.

Also, just a reminder that we still have an 'order and timing' thread for ballot polls. Things have really cooled down on that front for various reasons, and it doesn't seem like we're still assuming a new poll idea needs to wait its turn behind all past ones. But it would probably be good, if someone wants to do Monkees, to check in just to make sure it's not stepping on the toes of someone else who was just about to roll out a poll they've been waiting ages to do. ILM Ballot Polls for 2020 and beyond -- the ordering, timing, "I would have voted if I'd known about it," etc

Oh, and everyone should hear "Shorty Blackwell" if you haven't; Mickey's attempt to write another "A Day in the Life."

Sorry, wasn't pushing for a POLL immediately, am aware there is a backlog etc.

Yes, there's no hurry.

Just suggesting support for one, is all.

"If I Ever Get To Saginaw" is a really great Monkees deep cut, from the Instant Replay expanded issue. Sung by Nez (but written by someone else I think), it's kind of a heart-rending tale of wayward youth and its consequences. If not a Teenage Symphony To God, surely a Teenage After-School Special To God.

fwiw I didn't intend to chide anybody about proposing a poll! just wanted to shout-out the order-and-timing thread really. the process (such as it is) has settled out by consensus into something way chiller than it was five years ago.

You’re not the only cuddly toy to ever enjoy cutting in line.

I think each and every song on Head gets a slot on my ballot. (There are only six songs on the album.)

I was re-shelving some records and turns out I have the Nesmith album--no recollection of where or when I got it, or what it sounds like.

recently enjoyed his contributions to the commentary track for Repo Man, def worth a listen there

His Facebook posts are pretty enjoyable.

...And The Hits... is a neat album. The lineup--just Nesmith on guitar (and barely audible keyboards) and Red Rhodes on steel--is something I'm surprised other Roots/Americana artists haven't run with, but I guess you need an instrumental wiz like Rhodes on board to really make it work.

As a moderate fan of this group, I was wondering which vaguely comparable (pop, singles-oriented) acts from the late 60s I would judge "equal to or weaker than the Monkees":

EQUAL TO THE MONKEES:
Buffalo Springfield?
Hollies
Left Banke
Mamas and the Papas
Turtles

WEAKER THAN THE MONKEES:
Lovin' Spoonful
Move
Rascals
Troggs

DON'T KNOW THEM WELL ENOUGH:
Association
Box Tops
Four Seasons (a little too early to compare?)
Tommy James

Zombies, fer shure

I am kind of a moderate fan of this group as well, albeit with a couple of ins, which is kind of why I would like a poll - no pressure! - as an excuse for a deeper dive.

The one band from that list I would unhesitatingly put ahead of them would be the Buffalo Springfield. I wouldn't call them a singles band, though--one big hit, nothing else inside the Top 40.

If we're evaluating the Monkees as a "singles band" they might blow everybody on that list out of the water. They just have so many carefully-crafted gems by so many great professional songwriters. OTOH they'd fall beneath most or all of the Motown heavy-hitters.

Old Lunch: I'd say Odessey and Oracle puts the Zombies ahead, there's no single Monkees album as consistent as that.

Clemenza: that's certainly a fair take, Buffalo Springfield were definitely highly ambitious. I find all their records spotty (never heard the box set), and Richie Furay is a null to me.

Doctor Casino: By "singles band" I didn't mean I was evaluating only their singles, I mean I was avoiding comparing them to e.g. Quicksilver Messenger Service or Country Joe and the Fish (who are both a lot weaker than the Monkees). A lot of Monkees singles are more irritating than catchy to me.

I like all of those bands, apart from the Hollies, who I've never paid any attention to.

The Troggs are lower tier though, much as they have some real bangers.

The Monkees, by their very nature, are much more eclectic than any of the bands on the list - I mean, you're talking about an entity that contained both Davy Jones and Michael Nesmith. The Turtles are probably the closest to the Monkees, I'd say.

I like all of these bands too, but rank them all below the best of the era. To me, the Hollies are not well-represented by their compilations, it wasn't until I heard albums like Butterfly that I understood the appeal of Graham Nash.
The Move are also pretty eclectic, despite having only one songwriter, but at some point that shades into wondering if they know what they actually want to do.

@ Halfway - fair enough! I also don't know a lot of those bands as well as I know the Monkees, so off the top of my head I think I could name 3-4 singles by the Association, of which I like 1-2.

I went through the list of top 60s acts on Acclaimed Music to jog my memory for this list.

Paul Revere & the Raiders are a pretty good comp for the Monkees.

Stylistic yeah, and they even did some of the same songs. One, at least. But did they put out as much material?

yah there are at least six full-lengths!

I was misinformed!

My vote would definitely go to the Monkees' run of singles, but the Raiders had at least three I love: "Just Like Me," "What's It Gonna Be," and "Tighter." (Not that big on "Hungry.") They seem really similar in terms the way they were marketed (and treated by whatever rock press existed) as novelties, and by the jangly power-pop of their best songs. I'm blanking out on the song they shared.

The Sex Pistols did it too. The Raiders did it first, but The Monkees had the hit.

"Stepping Stone," right.

Raiders had a much lengthier career, from early 60s to well into the 70s, many hit singles and albums, and a TV show, yet I don’t think they’re remembered/loved in the same way as The Monkees.

Don't know them very well, had them pegged as "garage rock" (more than the Troggs, who had several ballad hits).

I only know the hits: "Kicks," "Just Like Me," and then "Indian Reservation" and "Arizona," probably forgetting a few others.

"Steppin' Out" is great too!

scott seward LOVES the Raiders/Paul Revere/Mark Lindsey, I'm sure there are good posts by him abt them somewhere

Also worth emphasizing that the Monkees (and Nesmith solo, too, for that matter) feature some all time Wrecking Crew playing. Peak Wrecking Crew could be Nesmith's "The Wichita Train Whistle Sings" album.

Whoever came up with the guitar lick of "Pleasant Valley Sunday," man ... that's on par with "Paperback Writer" (which it's probably referencing).

It's not Louie Shelton?

Hm. Seems like it might be Mike Nesmith himself.

Never heard Paul Revere & the Raiders but I think that's something I share with the entire population of the UK.

Paul Revere & The Raiders are great! Worth exploring imo

“Let Me” is a great rocker from later in their career, 1969. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIL7YT9asO0

Somebody mentioned The Wrecking Crew but an interesting thing, to me anyway, is that during the Kirshner era lots of tracks were also recorded in NYC with Brill Building musicians/streetteam

Here's a Spotify recreation of the "all the Monkees you will ever need" 70-song double C90 mixtape I put together around 1990 after Missing Links, Vol. 2 came out.

https://open.spotify.com/user/hideouslump/playlist/7HuOSVKchQ2PsJyaMXqPhn

To give you an idea of how good the Missing Links collections are, there's 11 tracks from Vol. 1* and 3 from Vol. 2**.

TAPE 1, SIDE 1
I Wanna Be Free
I'll Be Back Up On My Feet
Daddy's Song
Last Train To Clarksville
You Told Me
Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again
Good Clean Fun
Words
Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)
Salesman
Shades Of Gray
The Porpoise Song
Nine Times Blue*
Mary Mary
You Just May Be The One
Through The Looking Glass
Listen To The Band
(Theme From) The Monkees

TAPE 1, SIDE 2
Star Collector
Daily Nightly
St. Matthew**
She
Don't Call On Me
As We Go Along
Forget That Girl
Oklahoma Backroom Dancer
All Of Your Toys*
If You Have The Time*
I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone
Circle Sky
Love Is Only Sleeping
Time And Time Again*
Your Auntie Grizelda
I Can't Get Her Off Of My Mind
I'm A Believer

TAPE 2, SIDE 1
Sunny Girlfriend
Auntie's Municipal Court
Cuddly Toy
Valleri
The Kind Of Girl I Could Love
All The King's Horses**
I Don't Think You Know Me At All*
Pleasant Valley Sunday
My Share Of The Sidewalk*
Lady's Baby*
Laugh
Saturday's Child
Of You*
I Love You Better
Daydream Believer
Sweet Young Thing
War Games*
Gonna Buy Me A Dog

TAPE 2, SIDE 2
Randy Scouse Git
Early Morning Blues & Greens
Take A Giant Step
She Hangs Out
Zor And Zam
Come On In**
Papa Gene's Blues
Someday Man
A Girl I Knew Somewhere
Carlisle Wheeling*
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
The Door Into Summer
Tear Drop City
Goin' Down
Party*
Tapioca Tundra
For Pete's Sake