The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

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."