The Monkees

bit under-rated weren’t they? Seem to just get dismissed as a manufactured early boy band but they had some pretty subversive stuff considering. Head is a real odd movie

post some Monkees bangers

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was quite some time before i realised this wasn’t a beatles song

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My Wife in enormous Monkees and Michael Nesmith fan. Ever since meeting her in 2011, its basically been Monkees everything. A family I kind of married-into.

Here’s 1 of my favorites from Head (a song ironically, she doesn’t like much).

Also here’s a favorite of mine and hers among Nez’s solo work. The Red Rhodes slide-guitar solo is pure bliss.

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“Porpoise Song” was probably the Monkees at their most progressive.

Unlike the Beatles, they did not write much of their own material; their songs were supplied by well-known songwriteers such as Neil Diamond, Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Harry Nilsson, Boyce & Hart, and others. Nesmith wrote a few of their later songs, and made a pretty good fist of it.

I don’t think this one was a single, so it probably qualifies as a “deep cut”:

Interesting lyrics, too. “The Door Into Summer” is a story by Robert Heinlein; possibly the lyrics are referencing themes in the story.

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yeah some of their stuff is surprisingly out there
that said

Not quite correct. They were chosen for their acting ability rather than musicianship, but both Nesmith and Tork were skilled on certain instruments; the other two could play after a fashion, and of course they got better at it as time went by. Amusingly, the instruments that each one ended up playing were largely the result of deciding what would look best on camera, rather than who was actually best at each instrument. Accordingly, Jones, who knew how to play drums and would have been the logical choice for drummer, was considered to be too short and the producers were afraid he would not be noticed; hence he instead became frontman on vocals and percussion, with Dolenz on drums.

So it’s true to say they were a “boy band” by any definition of the term… but as time went by they pissed off producer Don Kirschner by expressing the desire to take control of their music, to play their own instruments and record their own material. This eventually led to Kirschner’s dismissal. Frustrated, Kirschner then went on to produce the Archies. The Archies had no such elevated aspirations and did not talk back to him, because the Archies did not actually exist.

I know

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Bad thread

Why?

And today it’s been announced that Peter Tork has died. He’d been diagnosed with cancer a decade or so ago. So I can see lots of re-evaluations of the band coming along in the next week or so. Personally, I think they had some good stuff and some not so good stuff. Some of their best is spot on, though. Boy band? Maybe. Does it matter. Not every band comes together by meeting at school. Advert for a band for a TV show or adverts in NME, what’s the difference?

pretty gutted right now to learn about Peter.

It was a long battle, and at least he’s at Peace now.

I am seeing Nesmith and Dolenz next month and anticipate a pretty big tribute.

RIP Peter!

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