I debated on whether to write this or not. When the Monkees are mentioned some people cringe but they have a place in my 5-year-old self…plus how many bands can say that Jimi Hendrix opened up for them… though maybe the worst pairing ever.
While writing this I’m not saying they deserve to be remembered as a top rock group. Not at all but they do need to be recognized for their influence on a couple of generations. They influenced a lot of kids to form bands…mostly because of their weekly prime-time television show and ensuing hit singles. In the 80s they had a big comeback with a tour and massive airplay on MTV… I got to see them then…without Nesmith though.
When I was around 5-6 years old and watched the Monkees in syndication many years after they did the show. I loved them. I thought WOW… I must be in a band one day. Little did I know that being in a band was not living in a cool place at the beach and having adventures at every turn…not to mention everyone getting along…it doesn’t happen. They had fun songs and influenced me…After I went through the Monkees faze I discovered the Beatles, The Who, Stones, Kinks…anything British but I have a soft spot for some of the old Monkees songs.
The Monkees basically took A Hard Days Night movie humor and made a television show around a life of a mid-sixties rock band. Kids wanted to form bands after seeing them romp around the screen with girls…who wouldn’t want that gig? Michael Stipe from REM is one that states he was influenced by the Monkees.
They were not allowed to play on their first couple of albums…only sing…The Monkees were put together by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for Screen Gems with two real musicians in the band…Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork… Micky Dolenz (he did sing in cover bands before The Monkees) and Davy Jones could sing and act…. and Mickey quickly learned drums.
When news came out that they didn’t play on their albums they were roundly criticized in the 1960s. They fought Don Kershner who controlled what they sang…. and won… The funny thing is many sixties pop bands didn’t play on their records and the Monkees actually started to play their own instruments on their third album (Headquarters) and writing some songs for every album afterward.
In the second season of their tv show they started to gain more control there also… Some of those last episodes are very pot influenced…especially the episode called “The Frodis Caper”… The episodes started to get surreal and break the fourth wall…the second season is worth a watch…all of them are fun but the 1st season is more formulaic.
HEAD The Movie…they made a trip movie called Head that Jack Nicholson helped to write… Personally, I like it but I like 60s movies like this. The one song that stands out is The Porpoise Song. The movie tears down the Monkee myth… One song/chant is the “Ditty Diego “… The first lines are “Hey, hey, we are the Monkees You know we love to please A manufactured image With no philosophies“…They didn’t take themselves seriously at all…they knew where they were at as far as a band goes. When they made the movie they knew it would destroy their image…that was the point.
I do still like some songs by them…anything wrote by Michael Nesmith (famous also for Elephant Parts), Pleasant Valley Sunday, Randy Scouse Git, Steppin Stone and Saturday’s Child.
All in all, they ended up singing and playing on some of the best-known sixties pop-rock hits….plus they drove one of those cool sixties tv cars…the Monkeemobile.
yeah, i openly loved them, too –
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Thank you for the comment!
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It’s true: the Monkees lead us into the Kinks and the Stones. The Monkees were a great introductory for us wee lads n’ lassies to the “grown up” stuff.
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the gateway drug to bigger things )
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Yes . . . if sugar was our “drug” back in the day! Count Chocula was my drug of choice.
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my name is beth, and I loved trix )
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Hahahahaha! The first step is admitting it!
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They opened the doors for the Beatles for me…then The Who, Kinks, and Stones followed.
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And got me into country-rock. Yeah, I know, Gram Parsons and all, but that was way over my wee-little head back then.
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Oh yea…mine also. He came later for me. They Byrds though I did pick up on from cousins I had.
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On my list of desert island discs, The Monkees Headquarters LP is a near sure thing. The rest would all be George Harrison albums, but that is for another topic.
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My favorite song off of that one is Randy Scouse Git… it is a good album.
Love George Harrison’s albums.
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Reblogged this on blackwings666.
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thank you
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I have to say I am a little late to the monkee party but im happy I arrived at all. I do like the show and the songs are great my parents have told me how they watched the tv show and my dad was at a concert held in Utah where the monkee’s played and other bands as well, and he met them before the show and “they were pretty cool” which as my dad refers to alot of things as “alright” pretty cool says alot to me. He also seen them in a few other concerts in different states. As someone who is a newer fan watching the show and listening to the music for about 2½ yrs I have to say the songs lyrics/beat r great and totally hold up over time. The TV show some episodes r dumber then others but hands down the shows they play now days are so stupid, at least on the dumber episodes of the monkee’s they have the song at the end. Also I have to say I like how they used adult females. Now days they have a 30 yr old be a teen and a actual teen 16-18 be a adult, its just a sketchy line. I like how they break the 4th wall as well and the phrase davy say sometimes “dont do that”.
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