The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

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.