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The Monkees ?
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Five
Five
960 posts

Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 28, 2010, 22:22
The Sea Cat wrote:
Five wrote:
dodge one wrote:
My Paisley patterned flying carpet is broken down this week.
Someone dumped some mango chutney down its gas tank.
The Patchouli stink coming out of the tailpipe is UNBELIEVABLE.
Even the radio that plays nothing but Donovan is not working.
You can see how that could rankle....surely?


OMG, the same thing happened to me ... !!

must be a bi-coastal serial hippy-hater in action! call the FBI! but first hide the weed!

(dude, you crack me up ... thanks!)


Your point being?


no point at all, sorry if I said something wrong ... got no side to take and no axe to grind ...

love
5
The Sea Cat
The Sea Cat
3608 posts

Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 28, 2010, 22:25
No problem at all, Five.

:-)
Five
Five
960 posts

Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 28, 2010, 22:26
:)
keith a
9565 posts

Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 28, 2010, 22:44
Im guessing that the Monkees are viewed differently over here, Dodge. The Pistols covering Stepping Stone obviously helped up the hip ante, but even efore that I can remember the so-called serious music papers proclaiming Last Train To Clarkesville as a classic.

I must admit my knowledge amounts to little more than the more famous tracks, but I am interested in hearing their albums as I find some of those 45s to be damn good pop - but then I must confess I am a bit of a pop tart to be honest, D1!!

I must give a special mention to Alternate Title - Randy Scouse Gitt which was one of those records I loved when I was a kid.
Dog 3000
Dog 3000
4611 posts

Edited Oct 28, 2010, 23:37
Re: The Monkees !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oct 28, 2010, 23:26
Damn! Don't even get me started on this topic, I don't have time!

I think The Monkees was a super huge important group, a key influence on CSNY, The Sex Pistols and Backstreet Boys (among many others)!

The records are generally pretty good -- the first two are backed by "The Candystore Prophets", the same session dudes behind The Byrds first album (and Sonny & Cher and the rest of the Hollywood hits of the day), and produced by Boyce & Hart (who wrote most of the tunes.) Material is hit or miss, but when it hits it's perfect 60's pop-rock.

Starting with the third "Headquarters" it gets more interesting, though unless you're a nut like me you should stop well before their final album "Changes" (1970) when they were reduced to a duo of Davy & Micky (the joke at the record company was that if one more member quit, the last guy would be billed as "The Monkee"!)

Best LP to start on is probably "Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones" (1967) -- the first pop album with a moog. The "Head" soundtrack is also great, but really just 6 songs. "The Birds The Bees & The Monkees" also pretty interesting.

On video:

"Head" is a CLASSIC 1960's film, and an important part of the Hollywood story of the time. Directed by Bob Rafelson (who also directed the most arty & interesting episodes of the TV show) and co-written by Jack Nicholson, whose next film together was the acclaimed "Five Easy Pieces". Supposedly the funds for "Head" were somehow plowed (or diverted) into a little film called "Easy Rider" (in the cantina scene with the transvestite, watch carefully and you'll see Nicholson and Dennis Hopper hanging out on the set when the Monkees "break the fourth wall.")

The TV show is mostly corny kid comedy, though in the second season it starts to become artier and you'll find sneaky hipster drug references and stuff.

If you can rent the DVD's individually somehow, just grab the final disc from Season 2 which has the best episode of the show ever (the very last one to air, "The Frodis Caper" -- Frodis being the Monkees' codeword for pot on the set) AND their incredibly surreal 1969 TV "comeback" special called "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" which is the strangest mindfuck ever to get broadcast on American TV!

Or lucky for you, it appears "33 1/3" is on youtube!

Awesomely psychedelic intro (featuring Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOleTcuQuo

Mime dancing about evolution, followed by one of the most embarassing musical numbers ever perpetuated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7sJBGVOj3Y

(That'll scratch the surface . . . Damn, I am supposed to be working!)
Dog 3000
Dog 3000
4611 posts

Edited Oct 28, 2010, 23:32
Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 28, 2010, 23:31
The only Nesmith solo joint that has really impressed me is "Tantamount To Treason" c. 1972. That's a weird vibey "prog country(?)" album.

The earlier "First National Band" albums might be classics if "country rock" is your thing (it's not really mine.)

Don't think I've heard his later ones though (he did a concept album, think it was called "The Prison" -- never heard it.)
ToneStone
ToneStone
1768 posts

Re: The Monkees !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oct 28, 2010, 23:40
Great post and spot on viewpoint
ToneStone
ToneStone
1768 posts

Re: The Monkees !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oct 28, 2010, 23:48
Series 2 is where it gets weird . . . . down to more control i believe

And i always loved Jones and Tork's shirts that were made by a lady in LA called Janie i think

http://www.mainstreetmallonline.com/fanstuff/members/buhhoe3/listings/090610eBay005.jpg
zphage
zphage
3378 posts

Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 29, 2010, 03:39
IanB wrote:
[quote="dodge one"]Perhaps the most spectacular examples of new light being shed on a band are Led Zep in the late 80s and Queen in the last decade or so. LZ were considered to be representative of the worst excesses of pre-Punk rock n roll and then suddenly they weren't. Queen were largely despsied by hispters from the release of Bohemian Rhapsody onwards (if not before) but they too are now considered perfectly ok. As with Page and Co all it took was a few contemporary artists to start name-checking them and hey presto they're hip again. Even Prog has made a small comeback from the shadows (praise be) off the back of Radiohead, Elbow, Labradford and many others.

As time goes on and mainstream contemporary rock gets shittier and shittier we are all looking in dusty cupboards for things that are not of the avant garde and might still turn us on or have been over-looked in some way. Whether it is the Zombies, Badfinger, Creation or PFM we're all after new sounds that crank old handles and I can see how The Monkees records, whoever made them, could fit into that.



some good points

Zep has always a huge following in the US, they never really fell out of favor, just went from strength to strength currently at 111.5 million in US sales.

Queen, however, experienced the loss of their fanbase in the US:

'80 The Game went platinum, '82 Hot Space and '84 Works each fell to gold,

that's up to 500k unit drop off for each, at that time

'86 Kind of Magic only went gold in 2002, it took 6 years

'89 Miracle has not gone gold

total of 32.5 million units

Many bands have benefitted from reassessment via the GenXers and millenials as Dog's post shows.

The tunage is there and the lines that once divided are lost as the quality of current music drops.

in the US,

Tim Buckley
Gram Parsons
Beach Boys
Scott Walker
Nick Drake
Monkees
Abba
T.Rex
have benefitted from rediscovery/reassessment

there has always been a strong line of division between pop (AM Radio) and rock (FM Radio) in the US, with the demise of AM radio top 40 and FM free form, and the advent of two new generations influenced by '77 punk the lines have dropped away.
Sin Agog
Sin Agog
2253 posts

Re: The Monkees ?
Oct 29, 2010, 06:25
I'm not sure I'm gonna just sit back and nod along to comments about how current music is getting worse and worse.


Today's kids have better taste than ever. I bet children are weirding their muso parents out the world over with their internet-schooling. Everytime I'm playing something like Caetano Veloso at the shop I work at, some kid comes up to the counter knowing exactly what it is. No way in hell would that have happened ten years ago. And most of the crowd at gigs I've seen recently like Throbbing Gristle and Daniel Johnston have been around sixteen/seventeen.

I remember reading Caesar's commentaries and seeing a passage where he bemoans the younger generation and how the world will go to seed when they're put in charge etc. It's a total empty (and natural) gesture to comfort yourself in your redundancy.

Even the chart music isn't all that bad if you sit back, relax- stop squirming!- and just listen with open ears.

Of course, the fact that the scene is so splintered makes it a little harder to find new acts that stand out, but it also means that there are dozens of bands out there who cater to exactly your sensibilities- it just requires a little bit of effort on your part to scout them out.

Thanks to illegal downstealing, the lines between genres are being knocked down. New musicians are absorbing everything at once and incorporating it into their new sounds. Personally, I think this is one of the most exciting periods of music in a long time, but I guess it's easier to have a whinge than actually listen to it. ;)
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