The Monkees: Classic or Dud?

I was lucky, I heard "Valleri" in like 1986 and never looked back, always liked them and had a 100-minute mixtape from a friend that I listened to a lot

So you are saying I could have bought those records, I just wasn’t looking for them and they weren’t being presented to me.

No. If anything I was musing on why that music had seemingly been consigned to the scrap bin of history, AKA cheapie bins, thrift stores, Goodwill etc. before Rhino stepped in and treated the catalogue with respect and scholarship.

Okay, thanks. I never had the full-on crate-digger dumpster diver instinct, so I would tend to go to the, not necessarily higher end but at least somewhat curated used record stores, where in my experience that stuff was nowhere to be found.

I imagine Monkees lps were the Hootie CDs of their day.

Do you think in a Rhino-less they would have comeback just not at the same level, or would they be consigned to limbo à la Dave Clark?

bit of an unfair comparison imo, Dave Clark got screwed by their publishers so there were never any reissues at all iirc?

I think it was Dave Clark himself who caused a lot of his own problems by not playing nice with reissuers.

ah ok, wasn't totally sure of the specifics there

Anyway, I was partly trolling, mostly thinking out loud. To answer my own question, I’d say a lot of it might have happened the same way, played out the same way, but maybe on a somewhat slightly smaller scale, and there might have been some lingering bitter aftertaste without had not Rhino acquired the rights and done right by them with the deluxe treatment.

Seems to me most acts eventually escape the cut-out bin somehow, with the exception of, say, Vikki Carr: POX.

The more I think about this, it was inevitable.

I agree. '60s nostalgia was really blowing up, their songs were popping up in After Hours and The Wonder Years, CDs were starting to happen...

Watched this Tork on Letterman in '82 video this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfSuwTGpV5Q

In the main interview (starting around 11 minutes in) Peter mentions that the first four albums had blown up again in Japan, which of course leads to the reunion question.

Cool, thanks. He does a stumble entrance, nice.

This interview is good! Think the band was
playing "One Nation Under a Groove" during one of the breaks.

Wonder how many songs Micky sounds like Grace Slick on. "Daily Nightly" and "Zor and Zam" for sure.

As We Go Along is another. Maybe my fave monkees song.

Good one!

Is Bobby Hart's book, Psychedelic Bubblegum any good? I see mixed reviews online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eaWNN27mU0

I just looked at my Red Rolling Stone guide. Dave Marsh gives four stars and a strong review to the greatest hits collection that was available at the time. Which kind of proves that all the albums were out of print, I think. Also no mention of them on Greil Marcus's Treasure Island. So yeah, they had some respect as a singles going steady band at the time at least.

Xgau gives some grudging nods of approval but was not quite convinced:
https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/columns.php
https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/column2.php

Marcus doesn't really strike me as being someone who'd be pro-Monkees.

Paul Williams HATED them. I had the Crawdaddy coffee table anthology with all the 'What Goes On' news columns reprinted in toto; frequently there'd be sections within said columns that read like "Dylan said to be in studio...possibly recording for a new label/Bobby Hebb new single due next week/WHOLE PARAGRAPH ON WHY THE MONKEES SUCK & WILL HAVE NO LASTING INFLUENCE ON ROCK HISTORY/Jefferson Airplane set to perform at Fillmore East in February"

Heh, maybe he especially hated tham because of the other Paul Williams.

https://greilmarcus.net/ask-greil-2019/

it's kinda wild to think of paul williams (the critic) actually hating something. i read a couple of his books a long time ago and my lasting impression was that i'd never encountered a critic so enthusiastic about everything he was writing about. which is quite a feat when you're writing about, like, 80s bob dylan!

The Monkees: Classic or Dead?

This river scene is getting old
I’m hungry, sleepy, wet and cold

https://monkees.coolcherrycream.com/articles/1968/02/hullabaloo/how-a-record-is-made

The grass is always greener
Growing on the other side

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/michael-nesmith-monkees-last-interview-final-tour-micky-dolenz-1278666/amp/

Just saw that and came to post. Good stuff.

Yesterday was the birthday of Aquarius, I mean Norman MailerPeter Tork.

And today is the anniversary of the day Chip Douglas arranged "Happy Together" for The Turtles.

As We Go Along is such a beaut. Mickey slays on this. I’m surprised there aren’t more covers of this

Take the sound collages out and Head may well be the best EP of all time.

otm (on the monkees)

Keep seeing reminders that it's Micky's birthday today.

Mickey along with Coco and some others rehearsing "Valleri" in a tiny cruise ship room: https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=499444991737376

Aargh. Micky.

This footage popped up in the new Linklater:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3iMP0SFIqA

As does a Monkees LP on the <SUNDAZED> label. I really hoped somebody got fired for that blunder.

!

WIthout clicking, looks like they are singing "Nine TImes Blue."

I'm watching Richard Linklater's new rotoscoped film Apollo 10 1/2 - which I'm enjoying a lot - and something unintentionally funny happens about 55 minutes from the end. One of the characters puts on a Monkees record...and the label says "Sundazed," a modern day reissue label, not one that existed in the '60s. So I guess when they shot the movie, the art or props department bought a Sundazed reissue thinking nothing of it, and then the animators rotoscoped that reissue label.

Ahhh, I really need to scroll up before I post...C. Grisso/McCain caught it.

Even funnier is thst one of the other records one of the sisters handles is the first Souther Hillman Furay Band album, a dollar-bin staple released in the mid-'70s.

Furay's Buffalo Springfield buddy Neil sittin' in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvN6LA0dCQs

LOL. Cameron Crowe would never make this mistake!

(But Linklater's a far better filmmaker and the movie's highly entertaining so I'll let it slide.)

Ahhh, I really need to scroll up before I post...C. Grisso/McCain caught it.

― birdistheword, Tuesday, April 5, 2022 8:10 PM

I'm glad you did, because now I understand what "the new Linklater" refers to. I also assume that the Cash show episode came after the movie's period, correct?

The core of the film takes place in 1969, so the Cash episode should be correct in terms of the period. (They also make a reference to Tork's departure, with the narrator asking "why is there only three of them?")

It's a really good film, FWIW. On paper, I thought it was going to be Linklater remakes The Wonder Years but that does a huge disservice to what he's done. It's deceptively light, but it really is about pop culture, growing awareness and shared, ephemeral experiences - themes that run through a lot of his best work. It never devolves into self-involved or self-pitying nostalgia.