The Monkees: All Things Monkees (Official Thread)

SloopJohnB

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As an original Monkees fan back in 1966/67 (I was 8 going on 9)...

monkees2.jpg


I love this hidden gem off the Headquarters album, one of the two albums I'm holding up in the above pic..

Early Morning Blues and Greens



Memories of Laurel Hill Lane and best friends...
 

SloopJohnB

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One of the coolest moments on The Monkees TV show was when they first played the song "Valleri". It was so heavy and cool for them, and I remember the AM radio station that I listened to playing bootleg recordings of it. Everyone loved it, but it was unreleased. This is the original version from the TV show...



The Monkees eventually recorded and released an official version...



I'll never forget listening to the TV version on WAAB AM radio, with the song being interrupted in the middle by the message "WAAB exclusively".

I always liked the original raw version better...
 

Radagast

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This "group" was put together to capitalize on a void that The Beatles were not available to fill. America's young girls wanted music idols that were on TV every week. Four likable lads were chosen to fill that need. Songs were written for them by other artist like Neal Diamond . They faked their way through their first year or so. They became Famous for Being Famous. They wowed and wooed the female teens of the day. In the meantime they did produce, with much help, some good songs. Their singer had talent discovered on the London Stage. Mike Nesbith was the air to the inventor of White-Out, a product used to correct typing errors before word processors and computers came on the scene. He went on to be a studio producer for other artist.

As a group, I score them a C- .:whistle:
 

Hurdy Gurdy Man

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I personally think the four individuals chosen to BE the Monkees displayed infinite gall when they expected to be allowed to take complete creative control over the TV show.With the music,I can understand,because all four Monkees(particularly Tork and Nesmith)did have prior musical experience,Davy Jones as part of a traveling theatre group that performed "Oliver" many times.(You can see Jones with his peers performing a scene from the famous musical on the February 9,1964 broadcast of "The Ed Sullivan Show",the very same night the Beatles delivered the most popular musical performance of all time)However,none of the "Pre Fab Four" had any business whatsoever instructing NBC producers and execs how to run the show.I can see that they felt the need to break away from Don Kirchner and NBC because they wanted to fly on their own wings and I can maybe understand the musical end of that becauase they did make some fairly decent songs on their own when they became a "real band",but attempting to wrest control of the creative nature of the TV show away from NBC was ballsy to the point of absurdity.Now I know Mickey Dolenz did direct that last episode and even quite well,but the bottom line here is these guys,instead of realizing what a huge break the whole Monkees project was for them(the band could have easily had Stephen Stills as a member among the other 400 applicants),they let the whole thing to their heads and VOILA!All of a sudden they're television executives themselves.Apparently,the Monkees,if there had been a third 1968-69 season,wanted to do something muchin the style of "Laugh-In",which probably would have come off as some sort of lack of imagination rip off.In season two,you can see the show morph into something with rather bizarre yet interesting episode concepts and they were being original and creative in doing so.And don't even get me started on Mickey Dolenz.Ever since he started hangin' out with the likes of the Beatles and Brian Wilson,he seemed to egotistically equate his art with theirs.Seems to me,this guy really let the Monkees thing go to his head,as if it started out as a real band.NBC became so exhausted with arguing over what the ides for season three should have been,the show was dropped and end result was far less PR due to no longer having a weekly tv series to promote new material.Songs from later albums that hardly fared well on the Billboard chart might have been bigger hits with this now absent advertising.As far as critiquing the quality of the music is concerned ,I agree with the previous post of an overall C- rating.PS.Concerning the aforementioned possibility of Stephen Stills being a Monkees,he was turned down due to what the producers considered "bad teeth" that wouldn't be so photogenic for television.Instead,Stills recommended a friend of his audition for a role,Mr. Peter "Auntie Grizelda" Tork...............
 

SloopJohnB

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Well, even as a kid back in the 1960's I knew The Monkees were fake compared to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones (trust me, my older brother made fun of me for liking them). But their music and TV show was very popular among us youngsters back then. BTW I was also a big fan of the real groups too.

The music of The Monkees brings me back to a magical time in my life, a time of innocence I guess...



P.S. - I recently dragged out my DVD set of the show, so I'm on a bit of a nostalgic trip right now :)
 
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Hurdy Gurdy Man

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I saw Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz perform along with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as part of what I believe was the Monkees first ever oldies tour back in '76.Wonderful show,even with Peter and Mike in absence.As far as all this "Pre-Fab Four" stuff goes,the Monks have taken entirely too much undeserved heat for this.After all,that was the concept for the premise of the show.Many people forget that the Monkees thing was a TV project first,THEN the boys worked more and more at becoming a real band,which many feel they did indeed accomplish.Perhaps not 100% effectively,but one must admire their ambition to break away from the "Beatle-Rip-Off" thing(particularly the "Head" movie),which in my mind it never really was.The idea was to base a show on the rather heavy wave of long haired pop acts that was occuring at the time and the producers,writers and director(s)heavily succeeded in their venture as between the first two LP'S,the band held the number one position on the national album chart for 31 straight weeks(13 for "The Monkees" and 18 for "More of the Monkees")while the tv series won the 1967 Emmy for outstanding comedy series.Hall of Fame?Only in a wing devoted to the rock video( of there isn't one already and the Monkees aren't already inducted there).I've cyberchatted with many fans of the Beatles,Stones,Led Zeppelin,the Who and even Pink Floyd who are self proclaimed Monkee lovers.How exactly does this take place.Because so much of the Monkees' better know tracks are worthwhile and in more than a few cases,just downright fun.
 

Mr. Bob Dobolina

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I'm a huge fan of The Monkees. I first saw the show on Saturday morning reruns in the late 60s-early 70s. I loved the music and I was too young to care who played what. I just knew I liked it. I guess that's why I don't care now. If I cared who played on the records I'd have to stop liking The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Them, Herman's Hermits, The Association and The Box Tops, among others. Something I've always found funny was, if you think about it, The Sex Pistols are the punk version of The Monkees. Johnny Rotton auditioned for the band by miming to an Alice Cooper record. Sid Vicious couldn't play a lick on the bass. They were "cast" because they looked right. They did a movie called "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle", exposing the whole thing. Heck, they even did a cover version of "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone". They knew the deal from the beginning, yet the hipper than thou critics that won't give The Monkees their due fall all over themselves praising the Pistols as "authentic". Ah well, so it goes.
 

SloopJohnB

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I was at the perfect age back in 1966 when The Monkees TV show debuted, I was 8 years old. And that is exactly what it was...a TV show about a fictional rock band called The Monkees, loosley based on the famous Beatles. It was a very zany and entertaining show with some very good actors and songwriters. Pretty soon the music of this fictional band was being played on AM radio right alongside the real bands, and sometimes surpassing them on the charts. The Monkees were releasing very real singles and very real albums, just like a very real band.

I guess fiction became blurred with reality, with very successful results. It was fun while it lasted, and they had something to say...

Zor and Zam



By the age of ten the show had been cancelled and I was more interested in The Doors and some new group called Led Zeppelin. But The Monkees will always live on in my heart.
 

Hurdy Gurdy Man

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Wasn't "Zor and Zam" the last song used in the last Monkees episode "The Great Frotus Caper"?At any rate,interesting track.How do you like the entire "Birds and Bees" LP?I know it boasts "Daydream Believer" and "Vallerie",which is quite possibly my favorite Monkees 45 as well as it was their final top ten hit."Birds and Bees" was their last major chart album,coming at a time when the wheels were really starting to fall off the wagon,particularly the Monks' relationship with NBC...........
 

Mr. Bob Dobolina

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Yes, "Zor and Zam" was used in the last episode, though not the album version. "Good Morning" by The Beatles is also used in the episode, the first time the Fabs let one of their songs be used on a TV show (not counting the Beatles cartoons, of course). I'm not a big fan of "Birds the Bees and The Monkees". It was basically the four guys doing their own sessions, not working together as on the two previous albums. There are no Peter tracks, his only appearance is his piano playing on "Daydream Believer". Micky does sing on one of Mike's songs, otherwise (again, with the exception of "Daydream Believer") it's a collection of solo tracks.
 

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