Listen To The Band, long out of print, remains the best (and best-sounding) overview of pop's most misunderstood - and least understood - band. Their covert agenda? Have some fun. Dance, laugh. Was it not Descartes who said "if life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten, and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing. When you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly, chumps! Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing!"
Listen to the band! It's Saturday morning, sunshine coming through the windows and you're lacing up your favorite sneakers. the whole wide world at your feet.
This post made necessary thru necessity. Stay groovy.
There''ll be a short intermission while I do various Sisyphean tasks associated with domestic routine, including putting off sorting the clean laundry pile. Again.
ReplyDeleteTell us about yer routine chores, assuming you have any. What token gesture do you make to keep your groovy hippie pad looking spick and span? The more trivial the better.
Well its late autumn so most of the immediate chores are in the garden disposing of the remnants of this summer's weather spoiled crops then putting away all the potted tender summer flowers bulbs and plants for the winter. We've also had the tree surgeons in and have around 5 years worth of wood (for burning) to process and store to be seasoned and also the preparation of this winters fuel ready for use in the fires. I've also got an array of branches and three other smaller trees to fell and process. After that there's leaves to clear, repairs and maintenance to do (on wooden gates, garden structures, garden tools and machinery etc as well as gutters to clear after the leaves have dropped) and random tidying up work before we can shut down the outdoor work for the year. Then the wife has a list of carpentry work she wants me to do before the need to give the house an autumn 'spring' clean before we get the Christmas decorations out. I'm going to be busy. I just hope the weather holds long enough to complete the outside work.......
ReplyDeleteOh and Ive just bought a ratcheted clamp in an attempt to fix the broken frames of a pair of glasses
Ratcheted clamp, you say? Fixing broken glasses frames? Mmm. Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?
DeleteIt was when I discovered it won't work without a considerable amount of ingenuity and adaptation. Still whilst I'm pondering how I might rig it did I mention I've also got to clean an inkjet printer's heads with a syringe, some rubbing alcohol and a couple of sheets of blotting paper?
DeleteAnyone else getting a semi from this? Just me then.
DeleteFT3
sweeping the bathroom floor. Woof.
ReplyDeleteI'm 8 or 9, at my friemnd Ronnie's house, and we are bouncing on his and his brother's beds screaming along to The Monkees--Stepping STONE--and one of his several older brothers, the oldest, if memory serves, came in muttering about this stupid childish shit we were listening to, told us to listen, and put on the Velvets. I was as thoroughly unimpressed--read: bored--as a nine year old could be and after we dutifully listened to a side of said LP we asked if we could put The Monkees back on and at least in my memory he called us stupid little fuckers and left.
7-8 years later I kinda sorta figured out maybe he'd been on to something....
I like to think the world is big enough - and our tastes broad enough - to embrace both The Monkees and The Velvet Underground. What am I saying? The Velvet Underground sucks and blows simultaneantly. And, while I've got my dander up - or as far up as it gets these days - (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone is more "Velvet Underground" than anything the Velvet Underground ever did.
Deleteevening made; fair enough
DeleteIn FLAC (which I ain't played, so test it out and get back to me if there's something missing) with book and art scans:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/pDkdu48VxFz
And here is the @192 version, with all the scans, as approved by th' Thinking Fellers Union:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/hd7ksenmmEF
I saw Jimi deluged in those chocolate stars candy they used to sell at the theatre. Kids were pelting the Experience with them and booing Jimi, trying to get his druggy ass off the stage so those maestros of pop music could take the stage.
DeleteEver since my 4 year old grandson and I first read the Paddington book "The Chores List", we always make a chores list every time we get together (fortnightly; we live 120 miles apart). It's always the same, so compiling it is both tedious and great fun at the same time. The central activity is building a brio train track.
ReplyDeleteThe bestest Monkees track is "Hey Hey We're The Monkees", obviously:
Which other group - and they were a Group, early days - could possibly have done that? "Hey Hey we're The Elbow"? "Hey Hey We're The Byrds"? "Hey Hey We're The Soft Machine"?
Thinking about it . . . maybe The Ramones!
Cheers, Peanuts Molloy.
The Velvet Illusions' "(We're The) Velvet Illusions" (from '67) is a superb and winningly unironic take on the genre. FoamFeatured© on Acid Dreams a few days back.
DeleteThe Monkees were more than the sum of their parts...or something like that. I highly recommend Nesmith's auto-bio "Infinite Tuesday". Much more than a Monkee!
ReplyDeleteAnd Steppin Stone wuz a favorite tune, along with Goin' Down.
Delete-not Bob
One of my fave chores is making sure our two bird-baths are full. There's a simple pleasure in watching them use it.In regards The Monkees - well written, well played, well sung pop music is never a bad thing and when I play people the Porpoise Song no one guesses who it is.
ReplyDeleteI have long argued among friends, and friend-like or foe-like beings, that in their own way the Monkees wee as important as any group to the growth and bloom of Rock music in the 60s and early 70s. They were beamed into homes each week, living a life that seemed to be absolutely fabulous. Playing music, going to parties, meeting cute girls (and Julie Newmar!!!) having adventures...all the while making it appear as if playing music for a living was the most FUN thing you could be doing. Countless little heathens such as myself took in every minute. Either in original run or,as in my case, Saturday morning reruns. And many of us decided to pick up guitars or drums and give it a go. Thanks goes out to them for making the dream available that we didn't even know we needed.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember seeing The Monkees on Dutch TV, loved it at the time of course. And I was even more pleased with my Monkees Mobile Husky car ;-)
Deletehttps://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics/miniature-curbside-classic-the-monkeemobile-by-husky-one-owner/
As for chores, I sometimes do the dishes...
Thanks Farq for this great collection as well as the lp size booklet scans, much appreciated!
When people start mocking the Monkees, I become deaf.
ReplyDeleteAlso, think about how different music history would have been had Steven Stills gotten the gig instead of Peter Tork. . . --Muzak McMusics
If you haven't heard Monkee records for some time, I think you'll find this collection a real treat. Everything comes together - composition, performance, production. And the mix is generally reckoned to be the best they ever had, before or since. To dismiss them - the records - because the Monkees weren't playing on all their records is petty, snobbish, completely irrelevant, and above all boring.
ReplyDeleteFun quiz: which tracks in this collection feature Neil Young?
(Plenty of Monkees on th' IoF©, both group and solo - hit that search button - and don't miss Tork's solo album.)
Fans of Neil Young ought to check out The Monkees’ “Instant Replay” boxed set…
ReplyDeleteOh, and… Yes, the Rock Snob mantra dismissing the group as puppets is old phake news.
Oh, and… Not super familiar with the present Rhino set, even though it IS, in fact, in The Archives, LP-sized box ‘n all… Some place in the stacks o’ wax, misfiled in the piles o’ files… But.. Short(er) Answer: “You and I,” plus maybe 1 or 2 others, IF present, on the Set.
Thanks, and, “Hey, Hey, we’re… not lightweights!”?
- B.
(Typin’ atcha from the sunny seaside town the stood in for “Clarksville” in the group’s promo film…)
Full list of session men here (and it's awesome):
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/2137223-The-Monkees-Listen-To-The-Band
Neil on "As We Go Along" and "You And I." The hip set in LA, all the "credible" rock musicians, were into The Monkees (including Frank Zappa). They didn't freeze them out or denigrate them, they knew they were good. Simple as that.
Fun quiz - who said, “I fully expect the Monkees to go from strength to strength. This is no here today and gone tomorrow group. The Monkees are going to surprise everyone.”
Bringing things closer to the current century let's not forget the Sex Pistols' stab at Steppin' Stone. Let's, however, forget the Dickies slaughtering She.
DeleteWhat a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteA specific job yesterday was sorting out if I wanted to keep any of the over a hundred 7” and 12” records I was given recently. The short answer is not many, but did include:
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini, Seasons In The Sun, Uptown Girl, My Ding-A-Ling, Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race as included on Fab Foam Feature ’Another Thirty Minutes Of Songs Nobody Should Have To Listen To Again’. One album “Ronco presents ‘Fun Rock’ as seen on TV” features some spectacularly bad songs, I think it’ll be a keeper as it includes a fave of mine Ray Stevens - The Streak, which was a big hit here in the UK in 1974. “Don’t look Ethil!”
Davy Jones was good in Coronation Street - though I can't remember if he was Ena Sharples' grandson or her nephew. Anyone? It's driving me mad...
ReplyDeleteGrandson. May your madness be abated.
ReplyDeleteI wash up by hand every night. My wife doesost of the cooking - this requires multi pot use, rice or pasta or spuds to boil over, gravy/ jus / sauces to be spread over the surfaces and floors etc etc etc. When I last complained that me washing up takes longer than her cooking time she stridently retorted: Well, surely it's worth it? I meekly replied that: No it wasn't really and I'm fed up with it. Since then she has enjoyed my efforts with a loaf of bread and cheese.Hey ho.
ReplyDeleteWhen did you let Galton and Simpson write your life?
DeleteHonestly, the only things missing are the skeleton and zinc bath in the living room. Oh, dirty ole man.
DeleteIt was not Descartes who said “I fully expect the Monkees to go from strength to strength. This is no here today and gone tomorrow group. The Monkees are going to surprise everyone.” It was - envelope please - Paul McCartney.
ReplyDeleteSomething that occurs to me as I listen to this swell collection is the fast tempo of many of the songs. Didn't think about it at the time, but in the Mid-Tempo Era of Taylor Swift and contemporary *cough* "R and B" it really stands out. This stuff is quick!
Thank you for this deliverable! I have a newfound appreciation for the group after listening to this. It also brightened my day, which was sorely needed in light of recent US election results.
ReplyDeleteBack then, of course, the US gubmint was flying thousands of young sons to the other side of the world to die for Henry Kissinger. Catching that Last Train To Clarksville. I doubt there's ever been a time when music wasn't an escape from some shitstorm or other.
Delete