The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

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