"Hey, hey it’s the Monkees!" How many of you remember that tagline? Thanks to my older sister, I was introduced to the pop kings at very young age. I was only 8 years old back then and it was a very impressionable age for me, growing into the prepubescent stage searching for idols to look up to.
I remember my sister getting all of her rave magazines like 16 Magazine and Tiger Beat and pulling out the pictures of the band, spraying them with perfume and hanging them on her wall, man I thought she was so weird. A few years later, I would be doing the same thing with sports idols, minus the perfume of course, and then eventually I would gravitate towards rock stars in my early teens.
Hearing all of this music now is an absolute joy because not only is it good music, it brings my childhood right back to me. Those feelings are becoming more sweet and precious with every year that passes. Rhino digs down deep again and reissues The Monkees and More Of The Monkees, two albums that made history.
This was an entertainment breakthrough, much like full-length movies by bands like The Beatles. It caught everyone off guard, including the creators, and it turned into a huge win for the music industry. The brainchild of Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider came to be by advertising for band members in Variety. Don Kirshner was also a key component in the band’s recorded output. The TV show was about a bunch of guys taking you on their madcap adventures and in between singing you their songs. If you watch the shows today you realize just how cornball it all was, but at the time, it was brilliant and it all worked.
The albums are remastered on two discs, both mono and stereo versions (both versions sounded great to me) with bonus tracks, and they include interesting booklets telling the story of the band with archival photos. Not only did I get an education on what really happened all those years ago, I heard many tracks that may have never graced my ears.
This band was a true phenomenon and they actually outsold the Beatles for a few years! I found that astounding. The one song I loved and remembered clearly was Mike Nesmith singing the catchy "The Kind Of Girl I Could Love." There were many more songs that were unforgettable as well - "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "Last Train To Clarksville," and “She,” come to mind. After listening to Nesmith sing lead I wondered why it did not happen more often.
Article comments
1 - Vern Halen
Deja vu goin' on here - wasn't there a Monkees reissue review on BC earlier this week?
No matter - it just gives me a chance to say again how great theses albums are - I've heard many of the bonus tracks, too, some of which qualify as the great lost Monkess' tunes. And let's not forget the tunes that were actually released - Nesmith's Mary Mary, the thrashy Steppin Stone and the nervy She could've been garage punk classics in another reality.
Thanks for the article, MM.
2 - Jet in Columbus
Great, just GREAT. Now the themesong's gonna be stuck in my head all day. Thank you very much. Seriously, it's a shame that more people didn't take these guys seriously, because they had a lot of writing talent behind them like Neil Diamond and, Boyce & Hart.
I can't help laughing when I hear I'm gonna buy me a dog, or Auntie Grizelda.
One of my "Secret favorite songs" was by the Monkees, which isn't in this collection called "The door into Summer"
I like the way they tell the story lyrically in "Pleasant Valley Sunday" too.
thanks for the memories.
Jet
3 - Vern Halen
Door Into Summer & Pleasant Valley Sunday are off their bestest album: Pisces, Capricorn Aquarius & Jones Ltd. A dumb name for a great piece of work - the perfect combination of playing to strengths in the singing, writing, performing & production departments.
4 - Jet in Columbus
Now?
You know my girl
Now?
Yeah
You know my girl just called me up,
And she woke me from my sleep. (snoring)
You should have heard the things she said.
You know she hurt my feelings deep.
I'm gonna buy me a dog.
(A dog?) A dog. (Why?) Why...
'Cause I need a friend now.
(Babe, you need all the friends you can get, I'm telling ya.)
I'm gonna buy me a dog.
My girl, my girl, don't love me no how.
Don't ruin my song, man.
(It was already ruined before it was wrote.)
Where's the verse?
She used to bring me my, my newspapers.
(You don't even know where it's at.)
'Cause she knew where it was at.
She used to keep me so contented,
But I can teach a dog to do that.
I'm gonna buy me a dog.
(You couldn't teach a dog to do that, you can only train elephants.)
'Cause I need a friend now.
(I need a friend now.) Now.
(Yeah) I'm gonna buy me a dog.
(A dog. Here Rover, Fido, Spot.)
My girl, my girl, don't love me no how.
I 2 3, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Hike. Hike. Hike.
(I was late on that one. I just got back from Africa, you know. I was playing cards with the natives.) Oh, Zulu's? (No, I usually won.) (laughing) I wish I had a glass of water. (Why, are you thirsty?) No, I want to see if my neck leaks. I'd buy a raccoon but John already has one. ($35 bucks.) Where do I come in?
I'm gonna buy me a dog.
(Dog.) A dog. Yeah
'Cause I need a friend now
(Yeah Yeah) Boop boop she boop a lop ram a lamb
I'm gonna buy me a dog.
What my girl?
My girl don't love me no how.
How now brown cow.
I think I'm gonna buy me a dog.
Yes, sir, I'm gonna buy me a dog. If I was looking for a word to describe what I'm gonna buy it would be,
(Would it be?)
I think it would be dog.
(Would it be dog?)
Definitely dog.
It would come spring my from lips.
(Springing…let's get out of here.)
Boing Boing.
It would be springing.
(Is that it Tommy?
Could you turn it off please?
Can somebody open the door and let us out?
They're coming to take us away!
Oh ha he he ho ho
They're coming to take us away!)
5 - Vern Halen
Cool, Jet - now let's see the the transcription for the vocal solo in "Auntie Grizelda."
6 - Jet in Columbus
She knows her mind all right, your Auntie Grizelda,
She says she knows my kind, she might, maybe so.
Oh, yeah, she's raised you right, your Auntie Grizelda,
You only know the things she wants you to know.
I know she's having a fit,
She doesn't like me a bit,
No bird of grace ever lit on Auntie Grizelda.
You can't begrudge her style, your Auntie Grizelda,
She couldn't budge a smile and do it for free.
So righteous making fudge, your Auntie Grizelda,
So proper judging others over her tea.
You look just like her you do,
I know by looking at you,
That you've been listening to your Auntie Grizelda.
[ad lib]
Oh, no, don't look at me like Auntie Grizelda
It takes much more to be someone of your own.
You've got to make it free from Auntie Grizelda
Or just like her you'll have to make it alone.
I know she's having a fit,
She doesn't like me a bit,
No bird of grace ever lit on Auntie Grizelda.
Auntie Grizelda, Auntie Grizelda
7 - Vern Halen
Ha - you skipped over the ad lib part - where Peter's either speaking in tongues or doing imitation scat - that's what I was after! But I don't think anyone's bothered to transcribe that yet.... hm.... a project for a rainy day.... beats listening to the Pat Boone metal album I suppose.
8 - Jet in Columbus
Here's a piece of trivia I bet you didn't know. The Monkees were one of the first groups to use synthesizers in their music.
Mickey bought a first-model Moog from a friend and didn't know how to play it, but after playing around for only a day, he used it (and quite well) on the song "Daily/nightly"
Jet
9 - Vern Halen
Actually, I knew that. I've got PAC&J Ltd as a reissue - a bonus track of Daily Nightly without the moog sounds pretty naked.
Other trivia - Stephen Stills was turned down in his Monkees' audition because he had crooked teeth (I think he ws suposed to be Peter). And Neil Young played some guitar on the soundtrack for Head. And Nesmith's mother invented White Out (or Liquid Paper) - when she sold the patent, she died soon after, leaving Mike with a pile o' cash.
I don't believe how much of this crap I know. I'm going away now to listen to something else & clear my spirit of Monkeeshines. Maybe... some Partridge Family.....
10 - JR
How come you list both 2nd discs after both 1st discs? It's a little confusing dividing the track listings up like that.
Does that "first recorded version" of "Valleri" have the rippin' guitar part by Louis Shelton?
11 - Vivian
I might be younger than a lot of people that have heard of or seen the Monkees but I still think that they rocked!
My favorite song by them would have to be "(I Prithee) Do Not Ask For Love".