Micky Dolenz's new album Dolenz Sings Nesmith is wayyy better than anyone had the right to expect. Everything about it is just ... perfect. You should add to cart immediately, because it's the type of thing you like, with the quality you demand.
Let's start with the song choice - just jaw-droppingly informed, hip, and made me raise a thin fist accompanied by a wheezy right-on croak. I couldn't have come up with a better program, and neither could you. Wupes, I just ... goddam adult diapers ... brb.
Then there's the man's singing. Dolenz had one of the great pop voices, and it's still there. Is it auto-tuned? Does anybody give a tiny-violin bew-hew any more? Do we kick away an old man's stick as he crosses the road, on account which he's cheating? All I hear is a swell set of pipes for a man any age, leave alone a septua- a septagen - a guy in his seventies.
The real surprise is the production. We have the great voice and the great songs as a given. Think Pisces Aquarius, not Headquarters. It's that good. It sparkles and shines. Detailed, deep, old-school organic, and every song is treated on its merits - no cookie-cutter used here. Christian Nesmith - we salute you, dude.
The root of all this is creativity (and love, leave us not forget). The arrangements are frequently surprising. Re-imagined is the term The Young People use, and for once it's the right one. Dolenz croons, rocks out, has himself a fine old time. Is this the best version of Different Drum I ever heard? It's as good as the original, but startlingly different. Is Circle Sky higher than the original? Yes, it is, a blissful psychedelic haze.
I'd sooner measure the times by the good times than the bad. Coming soon after Nesmith's sublime Lost RCA Recordings, Micky Dolenz is making it a great year.
Should you be desirous of auditioning this long-playing LP in the sequesterment of your lushly-buttoned upholstery, tell us about how you came to love Monkees records more than life itself. Or some, anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right that this a fabulous record. If only for the opening cut of Carlisle Wheeling.
ReplyDeleteTV Show.
My love returned big time in the ninties with the release of all the rarities cds.
Once again got to hear ALL THE KING'S HORSES and ALL OF YOUR TOYS, (thought I dreamed them), Classica (that's right), like ROSEMARIE and all of the Nesmith Tunes.
This album belongs with the posthumous Nilsson album as one of the great pop records.
IT IS FREAKING FANTASTIC!
DeleteI loved the Monkees from the beginning, but it was a love that dared not speak its name for many years. Oh, I struggled with my shame, eventually coming out with Head, which was hip. Still is. Now I have it on my phone.
Some shames should still be shames. I did listen to the new Dolenz lp, and its really more of a Nesmith, Jr album (which Dolenz himself admitted in an interview). It has its moments, but its so damn slick it keeps sliding away from my speakers.
DeleteSlick? You mean professional? Produced? That's jake with me. If I ever need surgery, I hope I get a slick surgeon, too.
DeleteAs to it being "really" an album by [add name of producer, backing musicians, pizza delivery guy, here] that's just coninuing the old tradition of denying the Monkees any credit at all.
It's really a Dolenz/Nesmith album. Micky singing Mike's songs. Micky's idea.
Slick as in lacking any true soul or emotion. It just comes off as plastic to me. I appreciate The Monkees for what they were; a vehicle for some then songwriters to get paid.
DeleteThanks for that comment right out of the Hipster Playbook, 1966!
DeleteWell, yes, and no. Just because it's well-made doesn't mean it lacks "true" soul and emotion. These are real people playing real music. Real songs. Like the best of LA pop since the studios opened their doors to musicians.
You want plastic, look to the latest "Rn'B" or pop charts. Bot Music.
The real people playing thw real music on thise songs, were not The Monkees.
DeleteWhy did you never see Dolenz and Larry Storch together?!? ;-)
That's fair enough, pmac. But if you look at the cover it doesn't say Monkees anywhere. You seem to be having trouble with this.
DeleteFrank Sinatra, Wilson Pickett, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, just about everybody who made an album under their name didn't include the musicians on the front cover.
It's a Micky Dolenz album called Dolenz Sings Nesmith. That should be a clue. And Christian Nesmith gets the credit he's due, too.
GREAT pop is always produced well. Slick or professional matters not to me.
DeleteSo Nesmith Jr.or Mickey..who cares it's a great POP record.
Yeah, but the real people playing the real music on DOZENS of songs in L.A. were often not the kids on the LP cover...not to mention Motown, Memphis, New York, and Nashville studio musicians who were left unnamed. The Monkees were "fake" but what's in the grooves is usually top-notch pop music. Rock critics put a premium on "authenticity." They also had an aversion to pop music in general. Track down Jon Landau's review of McCartney's "RAM" if you want a good laugh....
DeleteWhen The Monkees TV show premiered, I thought I was way too cool for them. My fourteen-year-old sister, on the other hand would have let them gang rape her. Repeatedly. One evening I sat down with little sis, who was wearing her Monkees cap and watched the show with her. I remember being surprised by the humor, and the music. For the next few years all my sister played was the self-titled first album, More of the Monkees, and Headquaters (My birthday present to her), which were high quality and finely crafted pop records.
ReplyDeleteAround '68 she discovered weed and Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.
Weed goes with Joan Baez like beer with Bible class.
DeleteSomehow I nevr thought drugs went with the Monkees. Now HEAD was the film the Beatles should have made.
ReplyDeleteShould have, but couldn't. Unlike the Monkees, who were used to working as a team with the best creatives in the business, the Beatles considered their own creative genius would work its magic for Magical Mystery Tour. Hard Day's Night still has its nostalgic appeal, Help is a messsy bore, and MMT an embarrassment, and the beginning of the public's disillusionment with the Fab Four.
DeleteSearch for Monkees Head over there>>>>> if you've a mind to (blow)!
I threw sh!t at Hendrix when he opened up for the boys in Seattle. I blame the fleeting veneer of youth. You guys are right about Head....where Ringo makes an appearance....as well as in 200 Motels, which is cool. The other three Quarrymen, if you listen to anything unproduced by George Martin would lead one to almost certainly conclude that if there was creative genius in the band it was definitely George..............Martin that is. Have you guys seen this 50th anni release of All Things Repast? Minus Apple Jam? It's kind of a burn, ain't it? I've tried hard, through out life, to appreciate Hari's works but it just always seems like something's missing, which I can't put a finger on. Like, maybe the whole bass track, or talent, or originality. Perhaps I'm minus the grey cells or the stuff really is just muddy to make it seem deep. Thoughts gents and er, um, ladies?
ReplyDeleteYou are treasured here for your bold (as love) anti-Hendrix stance, FGW. The only Beetle I can listen to these days is Lennon at his most commercial, and ('fess up) Band On The Run, which I love despite it being a Maccalbum. Harrison, I dunno. After all these years, I just ... dunno. Nor care overmuch.
DeleteNot to beat a dead horse into the ground...but, we keep coming back to 4/5 and all of its fractal mathematic properties. (Huh?)
DeleteThere was really four 5th Beatles. Their names were John, Paul, George and Ringo.
The Monkees were no different. Without Don Kirshner, there would have been much less vision in the ear of the production. Don Kirshner was supposedly fired after he assembled More Of The Monkees and released it while the four 5th-Monkees were doing the grunt work in England(like hanging out with The Fabs). But THAT album was the release that nullified everything else that could or would or should have happened. No album by anyone starts out better than More Of does with Micky singing She. Neil Diamond was also Kirshner's ace up the sleeve. Without Don Kirshner, the Monkees would have been as worthless as the Beatles would have been without George Martin. There is a reason that groups don't get to produce their own records. And those reasons often look like George Martin...or have the insight and instinct of Don Kirshner. If it's great...it still needs to be strategized. In that regard, I think Kirshner did the best work when it all gets itemized on an accountant's 10-key. The Beatles would have been a much less formidable entity without the REAL Beatle. Likewise without the Kirshner's 'paw' would not have been 'playing' their own instruments on Headquarters. Go ahead! FIRE me...I've already cemented your Immortality in the museum of industry cash cows. Did ANY other ACT in music or film ever get to be such a privileged role in their own function? I don't think ANYONE has been afforded that kind of REALITY. So, the best thing that Mike, Micky, Davy and Peter ever did was understand how important being a 5th ANYTHING can be. They were that smart. The firing of Kirshner was a staged piece of drama to blur lines and frustrate SAG card holders. Successful on both counts.
None of this has anything to do with ME becoming a Monkees fan. That happened with the TV show and the Last Train To Clarksville...NOT in that order.
The BEGINNING!!!
" ... without the Kirshner's 'paw' would not have been 'playing' their own instruments on Headquarters."
DeleteHuh? Me no understand - are you saying Kirshner should be credited (in some way other than negatively) for Headquarters? And there's no need for the quotes around playing.
Kwai........what a great dissertation. Kudos and thanks. I wrote all my music pieces on the LA Free Press while watching the Monkees on TV....about a decade ago....the Monkees were on all day. It inspired a youth sense of wonder and the times. Walking around in continuous drizzle in Washington state with the ole transistor firmly in pocket. I have all the Monkees product and some how missed the Kirshner connection which should have been painfully obvious. Love the aside on the SAG card, it shows some insider status. Much to consider and ruminate on. Thank you and you too FT3.
DeleteIt should have read
Delete"without Kirshner's '[monkeys] paw', the group would not have been 'playing' their own instruments on Headquarters". No credit needed for anyone. The object is revenue. The Wrecking Crew would have worked perfectly in the illusory Headquarters victory. Did they really have the energy or time to learn production/musical skills when they already did the most important part(sing). The important thing was to completely blur the lines and there would be no need to make such a wish(play their own instruments) when there was better anonymous musicianship already in place. The boys already had too much work to do so why teach Micky to play drums at this point? The actors were already a REAL group in the eyes of music lovers. Why throw the captain out of the boat? There's no way that Kirshner was let go for releasing the More Of The Monkees album without their permission. That was his function. To play it out so dramatically only adds to the absurdity of such a scenario. My hunch is that The More Of The Monkees release made them reread their Colgems contracts and it was then that they realized they were squirrels on a wheel more than anything else. They might have realized that Kirshner's contract was supremely lucrative compared to their own...so who else to lash out at? I wish I knew what Raybert's piece of the action was.
In other fantastic TRUTHS, I like the thought that the HEAD project might have already been in conception...HEAD-quarters! Perhaps Jack Nicholson sympathized early on with them and had the real story in his memory...which became the script for HEAD!
Micky could already play the drums - no Gene Krupa, but hey. Peter and Mihael were folkies before the Monkees, and both could play. Davy juggled a tambourine. Headquarters is a fine album, regardless of instrumental dexterity. Their point made and their identity as a group established, they went back to using session men for the next album, their best. They'd done what they wanted to do, without Kirshner pulling their strings. Hypothesizing about what would have happened if they hadn't broken their Kontrakt seems futile to me - how could it have gone any better for them than Pisces and Head? And Nesmith's solo career?
DeleteBob Rafelson was way aHEAD of his time.
ReplyDeleteHmm ... aHEAD ... aHEAD ... duh ... *shrugs* ... nope.
DeleteBut
DeleteHe would have been lost without Mr Nicholson's script
Oh.....
Wait
Cheers
ObeygRavity
The Monkees contributed a lot to the script, they just weren't credited. On the other hand - Nicholson's editing was crucial to the soundtrack album, and he didn't get credited for that, either.
DeleteI liked them from the git-go but Pleasant Valley Sunday is when I started to be impressed.
ReplyDeleteThey have so many strong singles and album tracks that could have been singles.
DeleteThe Monkees could have been much more than they were...
ReplyDeletebut, I think the initial success was completely unforeseen and so their 'realness' became their demise. They should have been even more selective...perhaps, even killing the TV show after one season. That would have blurred the lines plenty to allow for fewer clunkers on the later albums. The wave didn't have to break. They could have still made HEAD and commanded much more respect musically with Kirshner's original formula. The TV show wore them out!
"The Monkees could have been much more than they were..."
DeleteThat's exactly what they were - much more than anyone anticipated. Kirshner was music biz personified, a product control freak. Look at it this way - what did he do after he lost the Monkees? He created a cartoon show, because he couldn't deal with humans. Nesmith leading the break from his control was a crucial part of the story, when they became a Real Group. Their Pinocchio moment - breaking the puppet strings, the umbilical cord.
To say that Head would have been better, leave alone made, with Kirshner in control is endearingly nuts, though.
"That's exactly what they were - much more than anyone anticipated".
DeleteThey could have been much more than THAT
By the time Headquarters became his unemployment line, I doubt that he needed to do anything else. He was able to stick his name on things like ROCK CONCERT(Friday nights TV show) and continue to broker the goods for the rest of his stable. I've never seen any details about what he made on The Monkees...and I'm pretty sure there was a big rea$on for that. I never said HEAD would have been better or that Kirshner would be included. But, his FORMULA is pretty well tried and true. No need to keep him around if they learned all that he had taught them. Even if it was the painful kind of education.
I can't imagine anything "much more" than Pisces and Head. That's as good as pop gets.
DeleteDaily Nightly was always on my psilocybin cassettes. Tapioca Tundra and Auntie's Municipal Court, too. I think one of their most under rated songs was She Hangs Out. Two versions were recorded and I still can't decide which I like the best. Cleavage National Anthem!!!
DeleteThank you, Farq! I can't wait to hear this album!
Gee whiz, Kwai! I the hurly-burly of our debate I quite forgot! Look below a little later!
DeleteI loved their tv show, that and Laugh In were the best for me, and actually had a bunch of Nesmith's solo albums. There's something about Nesmith's voice and lyrics on his solo LPs that just seems so damn intelligent, amazing.
ReplyDeleteHey, and on a sort of related link, I found a link for a New Orleans LP from the young generation of the 60s, one of them hard to find ones, like it or get bent as they say;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FUH16GolE4
You're very welcome to comment anonymously, but add a stupid name at the end of your comment so we can think of you as a Real Boy, okay?
DeleteDang, I forgot to mention that when I was in the Ophelias, Sam the guitarist and I got bored with the plodding pace and with Mark Zanadrais we started the Catheads/Androgynauts. The first thing we recorded was a version of Mary Mary. I never did anything more, officially, with the Catheads and moved on to the Hollow Men.
ReplyDeleteOphelias. One of my favorites ever.
DeleteThis old-school Stealth Link© contains a special Bubblegum Bonus!
ReplyDeletehas anyone ever covered GOIN' DOWN? perfectly percussive vocal.
ReplyDeleteWe're all waiting for your version ...
DeleteA tarpaulin, might do the trick.
DeleteTsk.
DeleteMy kid sister was getting into the Monkees cuz the Beatles et al were "getting too weird." I loathed them. But to be fair, in retrospect they made some fine pop music.
ReplyDeleteI credit (or blame, according to some of you) two boxes of Post's Alpha-Bits cereal, from the backs of which I got "Steppin' Stone" and "Valleri," back in the days when I didn't have the quarter you were supposed to use to steady the kiddie record player needle arm and had to use a couple of knockouts from an electrical box instead.
ReplyDeleteWe could judge this book by it's proverbial cover...
ReplyDeletebut the symbolism might speak too loudly of monuments, valleys, and mittens...
of left and of right...
of this and of that.
But there's no way to deny that our own shadows fall where they may...
that old classics never stop running...
and that the songwriter need not be his own chauffeur!
I was pleasantly entertained by this album. It isn't trying to prove anything.
And so...Micky AND Mike both shine like shadows in Monument Valley.
And, don't worry, if Mike was singing Micky's songs, Micky would also be along for the ride.
And, perhaps, Amy Dolenz would be producing!
The best thing here is that we see that Nesmith's compositions lend themselves to new interpretation and that Micky was always the best singer for the job. A clear picture that solo careers might be the only choice an artist might have.
Those are the broad strokes, anyway!
Thank you, Farq!
I have argued before, and will again I am quit sure, that the Monkees could be argued to be just as important to the growth of Rock and Roll/Pop music as the Beatles.
ReplyDeleteEvery week this merry band was beamed into households. And they made the pursuit of music look as fun and fulfilling as any profession in the world. Who would not want to be trying to make a living with a group o friends/family and have wacky hijinks?
The Beatles were the serious art side, the Monkess were the fun o living side of that time in music.
The Monkees had full support of all media in place before they began.
DeleteThe Beatles did not. It's amazing that The Monkees' early mega success didn't bring about a complete rethink of how the group would maximize all objectives. Instead they were worked into the dirt as if they were doomed just because the TV show had run it's course. This album (Micky Sings Mike) makes one thing perfectly clear. The group could have carried their career farther as a group than as a nostalgia act and its solo offshoots.
So, I agree with your statement. If you have your own TV show and all of the teen mags at your disposal, the rest is simply paying attention to the industry demographics and the respective Neilson Sound Scans. Nesmith's solo career would have added an addition platform for group projects. Peter Tork should never have been allowed to leave. Contracts can be renegotiated and teamwork can be restored. It's too late now. But The Monkees provide the true model of how the industry operates.
It's worth remembering that The Monkees was a TV show first and foremost - that was the business concept. Like any other TV show actors were chosen after auditions. They weren't auditioning to be musicians in a band, they were auditioning to act the parts of musicians in a band. That's what makes their story absolutely unique. It's as if the A-Team renogotiated their contract to become a real Private Military unit. It's unprecedented in show business, a real breaking down of the fourth wall. And that transition is a major theme of Head. Every clichéd scene is deconstructed, shown for what it is. The irony is that at the end, the beginning arrives, and they're back in the box. Not back like in a box back, not back like in a race, not back so they can keep it, but back in time and space. Look at the badges the employees of the Big Corporate Factory are wearing - the black box. Just when they think they're out ...
DeleteBut, that might be why most movie goers didn't understand HEAD...
Deleteby the time it was released, The Monkees were not playing out fictitious roles about TV show characters. The lines had been supremely blurred and so the viewer's mind gets even more torqued by the ultra humor that were all movie props, backdrops, and ANTI-Monkees set-ups. It must have been very depressing to the group when the film had been so thoughtfully produced. They were a real group and nobody understood what they were really saying. Even the mylar album cover genius was lost...since it was meant to reflect the head of the person looking at it. They were unique because they weren't acting anymore. Now, THAT's psychedelic.
Nice article from the Village Voice here.
DeleteThank you for the great article with the super cool scans! I loved it.
DeleteOne day, the movie will find its groove! I can't believe nobody wants to admit that it is a triumph! I guess the line about cold gravy just turns people off.
Tee hee hee! And no mention of financing Easy Rider. That's Hollywood for ya!
Clearly I missed the time slip into the alternative world in which Herman's Hermits are also regarded as musical and cultural icons. The Monkees were fun with some good songs. No more no less.
ReplyDeleteYou're clearly missing something, but it's not a time slip.
DeleteThanks FT III lovely to have this and the bonus too....Cha..ch changes..as for cover and typography it spot on cop of this of course,,clever dudes :-)
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilsson_Sings_Newman
Micky sells out! (and in a good way):
ReplyDeleteLink
I heard 'em, I heard 'em. I heard 'em. I heard them on the X! I loved their hair.
ReplyDeleteI'm here for the blissful psychedelic haze.
ReplyDelete