The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

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.