Monkees – What Am I Doing Hanging Round?

This is a really good song by the Monkees. It was written by “Wildfire” author, Michael (Martin) Murphey and Owen Castleman and was an album track. If you watched a lot of their shows on reruns like I did…I knew their album tracks by heart. This would have been a good single. It has a great country/rock sound like most of his songs do.

It was on the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. that peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada and #5 in the UK in 1967.

Owens “Boomer” Castleman was the co-writer on this song and was a member of The Survivors, a pre-Monkees group that included Michael Nesmith, Bill Chadwick, Michael Martin Murphey, and John London.

What Am I Doing Hanging Round?

Just a loud mouth Yankee I went down to Mexico.
I didn’t have much time to spend, about a week or so.
There I lightly took advantage of a girl who loved me so.
But I found myself a-thinkin’ when the time had come to go…

[Chorus:]
What am I doin’ hangin’ round?
I should be on that train and gone.
I should be ridin’ on that train to San Antone,
What am I doin’ hangin’ round?

She took me to the garden just for a little walk.
I didn’t know much Spanish and there was no time for talk.
Then she told me that she loved me not with words but with a kiss.
And like a fool I kept on thinkin’ of a train I could not miss…

[Chorus]

Well it’s been a year or so, and I want to go back again.
And if I get the money, well I’ll ride the same old train.
But I guess your chances come but once and boy I sure missed mine.
And still I can’t stop thinkin’ when I hear some whistle cryin’….

[Chorus]

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

44 thoughts on “Monkees – What Am I Doing Hanging Round?”

    1. I tell you…they had really good songs. This one and Randy Scouse Git was written by them which is cool.
      AC/DC yesterday…the Monkees today

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  2. This is a good one. When I was little, I only knew them for their TV show. They had good songs. The video is hilarious.

    I hope you and your family have not been affected by the storms and flooding in your region. I’d seen the storms moving through, and didn’t realize until yesterday that it caused flooding too.

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    1. Thanks for asking…no we are fine. Where we live in 2010 when Nashville was practically under water…we didn’t even know until we turned on the news and saw boats on streets.

      We are fortunate…many people in surrounding areas were not as lucky.

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      2. A lot of guitars and music history was lost in that. I saw a mall underwater…or rather didn’t see a mall that was underwater.

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      3. I remember seeing that on TV, it was crazy. When I first went through the city, maybe 2013, I looked and wondered “how did that happen? How was so much submerged?” .Then again near here, there’s a “creek” which often is dry and at most usually has a few inches of water and is one or two feet wide that washed a teen driving a car away to his death a few years ago in a severe storm… water is the silent killer when it comes to storms.

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      4. We live in the country and during that time I wasn’t watching the news and I knew it had been raining for a few days…the creeks were a little high where I live…but nothing seemed out of sorts.
        We turned on the news…there was a boat on Charlotte Avenue in Nashville and a stop sign under water…that is when I knew. I know many people who lost their homes. No one had flood insurance.

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      6. Oh it was called the “flood of the century”…google it…it was awful and historic

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      7. Ok. Now I remember why I didn’t remember the flooding. May of 2010, I was still recovering from my chemical poisoning from Dec. 2019. I had to move out of my house, lived with my insurance agent & his wife, then my yoga teacher’s boyfriend, then co-workers and, finally, sleeping in our travel van in the driveway. I couldn’t live in my own house for about six months and I was on medical leave. Life was a big ole blur.

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      8. You mean December 2009 right? Unless you had a time machine lol… Wow that sounds like an adventure

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  4. I took my younger sister to see the Monkee’s when they played Dallas. They were actually darn good in a live setting. It was clear that Nesmith and Tork were the real musicians of the group. It was like a Beatles concert of the early 60s, 10,000 little girls screaming. Oh yeah, I still have their albums in my history box.

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    1. I saw their reruns in the next decade…when I was 8 in 75 and they made me want to play music. It was years before I actually did but they made it look fun.
      I had a cousin to see them in Memphis…she was in love with them.

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      2. I forgot…but yes I saw them in 1986 without Nesmith in Nashville…good show and they were loud…I mean loud.

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  7. Love this one, in fact I played it the other night off Youtube, there’s loads of great Monkees shows and videos on there, they seem to have been digitally revamped so the faded colours on the Box sets DVD’s I bought are fresh and new as the day they first aired.

    Mike Nesmith is hugely under-rated as a songwriter, and this is one of my faves of his. Micky Dolenz has cut an album of Nesmith covers coming out any day now: Dolenz Sings Nesmith. Might be interesting….!

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    1. I still do watch the show…
      Nesmith could have played with a lot of bands…he was a good player and writer.

      Thanks for that info abut the new album. I’ll be looking for that.

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    1. Thank you John! That means a lot. When Deke started to follow me and I visited your site…I was thinking…man these guys will stop reading mine when I post the Monkees…because they like harder music…but geez…a lot of you have commented positive which blew me away.

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      1. Heck no, I like all kinda music. The Monkees were the first vinyl I ever bought so keep on posting. You know, I should do a 10 set of The Monkees for My Sunday Song. I might steal your idea.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. I used to be dismissive about The Monkees at first, given they initially were a “fake band” created for TV. But long ago I changed my mind. They really had many great songs. Plus, eventually, they all learned to play instruments. That video is hilarious and just as much fun to watch as it is to listen to the song.

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  11. Strangely enough I’ve always been more familiar with Nesmith’s solo stuff than The Monkees. I never really enjoyed what I’d heard… this album was recommended to me years ago and I just never got round to checking it out. On the strength of this song, I’ll make an effort…

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  13. Good to see so many comments about a band that were better than any cobbled-together band should have possibly been. But what the hell/who the hell is that massively tall guy who’s simulating Davy Jones? Also, I must admit I was the only one of my pals who would drag out a taped-direct-from TV VHS copy of ‘Head’ rather than watch the series re-runs. ‘Head?’ Talk about blowing up the band’s future prospects!
    I like ‘I Wanna Be Free’ myself out of the none-hits.

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    1. Head…I watch that movie every other year or so. They flipped the switch on themselves…”A manufactured image.”
      I’m not a famous or great musician…but the reason I started to play was because of the Monkees. I think they influenced more people in the 60s and reruns in the 70s (that was me) to want to play music…than they were given credit for…hell I would say the 80s also with the Monkee revival.

      They made being in a band seem fun…they failed to show the back biting and the politics but that doesn’t matter…it WAS fun being in a band. I found them when I was 7 and the Beatles when I was 8 in 75…from there I was lost. It took me until 1983 but I joined my first one then. They had some great pop hits of the 60s.
      I Wanna Be Free was one of my first favorites.

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      1. Serious part: However music speaks to you, if you have the ear, you can’t help but listen. And if it moves you to pick up a guitar or a harp, so much the better.
        From your comment the Monkees spoke to you early and you listened at a formative part of your life. Music becomes SO personal and epiphanous.
        Trivia Part: ‘Head;’ The gal dancing with black and white Davy is Toni Basil!?!!!

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      2. Yes it is…! from Davey Jones to “Hey Mickey”

        Yes I agree with what you said…the Monkees set me up and the Beatles knocked me over.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. I’ve LOVED The Monkees since I religiously watched the TV show as a little kid in the ‘60s. Mike was always my fave and this song is also a fave. But I must correct you here and say that Nesmith did not do-write this; it was, in fact, co-written by Michael Martin Murphy (later of “Wildfire” fame) who apparently was a friend and former bandmate of Nesmith in his pre-Monkees days 😊. Enjoy the blog! Cheers!

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    1. I was a 2nd generation Monkees fan…I was 7 in 1974 and watched them on reruns. I thought they were still together.
      Thank you…it’s correct now!

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