The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

great nesmith tribute on wfmu right now. playlist available after: https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/111213

Excellent, thanks. Listening on the app now.

Y'all do know that today is Capricorn Jones Day, don't you?

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

Is that from 33 1/3 Revolultions Per Monkee?

Head

Oh, no, Head, (xp), still need to rewatch.

"Long Title..." is one of the only Pete tracks issued while he was in the band...his actual backing on the recording is a version of Buffalo Springfield.

The budget for that Head party scene was probably higher than whatever they had for the entirety of 33 1/3.

Guess I can either watch the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4nT-5DyjX0
or just look at the extensive screen grabs here:
https://monkees.coolcherrycream.com/pictures/head

Golden football helmet of Easy Rider makes an early appearance here!

Was reading some guy who was kind of the lone holdout who hated “Me and Magdalena” but I dunno, to me it’s some kind of perfect heartfelt weatherbeaten old buddy song, some kind of Monkees “Two of Us” #OneAfter909

They played "Long Title...." along with the rest of Head on the post-Davy tour. Set list and show looks pretty good! https://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/11/18/shows-ill-never-forget-the-monkees-november-16-2012/

I saw them the next summer, and that was basically the show I got, except they switched out "Daily Nightly" and the "I Wanna Be Free" vid for "No Time" and what I see now was the live debut of "Door Into Summer". Really fun show! They opened up with a clip show that included things both from the show and movies & TV that used Monkee music on their sound tracks, like Mad Men, Breaking Bad*, and Scorsese's After Hours.

*IIRC, Dolenz was wearing a Heisenberg tee onstage.

Cool! There are couple of live versions of “Door Into Summer” from the Mike and Micky tour on YouTube, one with video that seems to have Coco Dolenz on backing vox, one with no video but really good sound.

Guess the first hit, the official video, has both. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1iqrWnSsp0

There seems to be some speculation about why Mike rejoined to tour so soon after Davy passed. I don’t know enough and it’s not really my place to say, but I can imagine that the set list possibilities became more interesting.

Looks like when Micky tours Coco sings some leads. Just saw a pretty good version of “Different Drum.”

“The Door Into Summer,” “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,” by Jimmy Webb, which Linda Ronstadt sang, among others, “All You Zombies,” by The Hooters- any other Heinlein-titled songs out there?

OMG first song on Headquarters Sesssions is a Dino, Desi and Billy cover.

XP "Stranger In Strange Land" by Leon Russell and a different track with that name by the Blackburn & Snow (written by David Crosby).

Thanks! Not to be confused with Sam Phillips's "Signposts," from Walker Percy's Signposts in a Strange Land, which is quoted in full in the lyric.

Speaking of Peter, digging the first, Headquarters version of "Can You Dig it?"

While I have your attention: should I finally get around to watching that Harry Nilsson doc?

Yeah, although if you have access to the DVD/Blu release, make it that as there's some good extras, including a number of fun stories from Jimmy Webb's interview.

Thanks. Might just end up watching it on Tubi.

Micky is one of the first to speak.

Thought I read somewhere that The Monkees recording “Cuddly Toy” was a big break for him.

Yeah, Nesmith actually brought the Nilsson songs in, and actually recorded lead vocals on it and "Daddy's Song" before they were handed over to Davy (Nez versions later released as bonus tracks).

Nezsplaining w/all the "actually's"

Ha!

They played the Nez version of “Daddy’s Song” on that excellent WFMU tribute the day before yesterday.

Perhaps you should get one of those NEZ Dispenser t-shirts I just found at Amazon UK. I know that I want one.

Ugh, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle, speaking of UK.

Wonder if I can make it through Headquarters Sessions before midnight.

Nilsson wrote "The Story of Rock'n'Roll" for the Monkees, who attempted it during the Headquarters sessions, but never got so far as a vocal. The Turtles ended up flopping with it as a non-LP single just prior to putting out "Elenore". The Turtles version is notable for the debut of Flo & Eddie's "Incredi-Voices" high backing vocals, later to feature in a # of T.Rex hits and album cuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqrcGouxWd4

I’m only just on Setting Up the Studio for “Randy Scouse Git” so it will be a while before I get to that one I assume.

Read somewhere that the reason we have all this Monkees product is that around the time of The New Monkees, Raybert won back the rights and turned around and sold them to Rhino.

Sorry: Setting Up the Studio for "Alternative Title."

Monkees Chat transcibed here: https://monkees.coolcherrycream.com/songs/monkee-chat-studio-dialogue
There are some ? marks for one of the speakers, but clearly it is Chip Douglas.

Man, the backing vox on "Shades of Gray" are tight! Almost inclined to drink the Ron Hicklin Kool-Aid on this one, but every reputable source says Davy, Peter and Micky, which my ears are telling me too if I listen closely.

Read somewhere that the reason we have all this Monkees product is that around the time of The New Monkees, Raybert won back the rights and turned around and sold them to Rhino.

According to Sandoval book, what happened Schneider & Rafelson approached Columbia Pictures with the idea of doing a extended new cut of Easy Rider, only to find out that all the outtakes (technically the property of Raybert/BBS) had been removed from Columbia's warehouse and destroyed. They sued and won, getting all the Monkees stuff back from the studio, which they then sold to Rhino, who'd already done some deep-dive Monkees reissues. Ironically, Sony Pictures Television (sister company to Columbia Pictures) still handles the show in syndication.

I'm not exactly sure how the music rights worked out, because the Screen Gems/Colpix music library was spun away from RCA and got rebranded as part of Bell Records, which became part of Arista, who did the initial mainstream '80s Monkees reissues and maybe Pool It?

Thanks. Do you have the older edition of that book, or the new supersized version?

I had the older one, which I got as remainder.

Cool, because now that one seems to be fodder for my $900 Grandmothers thread.

I remember me or a roommate having The Monkees Greatest Hits or whatever on Arista and not digging “Shades of Gray” or “Listen to the Band” which to me both sounded out of place, whereas now “Shades of Gray” sounds great to me in context on Headquarters. I don’t know what magic Rhino had to do to get all the rights squared away but it certainly is some kind of Lord’s Work for the poor listener. On a related note, I just looked at a record earlier today on 45cat that was originally on Red Bird I think, and saw that the publishing was Trio, which I happen know was Leiber and Stoller, but they had pieces lots of different publishing companies, so many so that I think once Jerry said “only Mike can keep track of it.”

Oh, it was "Chapel of Love" I was looking at, or, more exactly it's B-side, "Ain't That Nice," which was not written by them, but Earl King. There was another time I was looking at the sheet music for some standard, can't recall which right now, and I could see three or four publishing companies on there, most of which I associated with them, so I assume it was one of their latter-day acquisitions.

To bring it back to The Monkees: although it was writen by Leiber and Stoller, "D.W. Washburn" was published by Screen Gems I see, but the B-side of the later, better Coasters version is published by Trio as expected.

"Shades of Gray" is one my favourite Monkees' songs. As is "Listen to the Band".

I know, I know. I am one of those old, shallow Monkees fans who really only liked the most obvious bubblegum and garage numbers and The Stone Poneys, "Different Drum," only just now having my eleventh hour Come to Papa Nez moment. FP me if you like.

I guess I am trying to say that they were ill-served by that hits collection I had, which had a somewhat similar effect as The Beatles Red & Blue collections, although obviously a lot shorter. Even if the songs on it were good there was something off about the sequencing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkees_Greatest_Hits

I don't remember the regular albums being available at the time, it's not like when I bought my used The Notorious Byrd Brothers there were copies on display or even in the racks of Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd..

But just noticed More Greatest Hits of The Monkees, which looks really good. Maybe if I had come across a copy of that back in the day, things would have been different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Greatest_Hits_of_The_Monkees

^^Killer tracklisting.

Rhino eventually handled the vinyl reissues of the regular albums in the mid-'80s; according to the later CD liners, their edition of Changes was only charting version, as the O.G. version tanked.

Prior to that, it seems like the earlier albums wouldn't have been a high priority to reissue, as they had to be pretty easy to find used. The earlier Rhino releases from the catalogue were strictly rarities/unreleased comps.