Monkees – Listen To The Band

Buddy Miles and the Monkees! Below in one of the clips of this song.

This was the last song they released that I liked…it was at the time Peter Tork quit. The band I was in…this was the lone Monkee song we would do and it always got a good response.

This song was released as a single in 1969. It was the first time Michael Nesmith would sing on a Monkee’s A side…and he was long overdue. He also wrote it and produced it. He started to write it while in Nashville at RCA studios. The song features a brass section that plays during the instrumental section as if the brass were the band.

The Monkees went into MGM studios in November of 1968 to tape their NBC television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, they were just two years away from their commercial peak… selling records by the millions, a hit TV show and battling with the other bands for chart supremacy. But their show went off the air that March, and their psychedelic movie Head flopped in theaters just a couple weeks earlier. They were on the way down.

Their most recent LP, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, peaked at #3 on the Billboard Album charts and generated the single “Daydream Believer.” It was enough to get NBC to green light a TV special, though wheels were in motion before critics got a look at Head. The Monkees could have created a television in the same zany, carefree style of their old show in an attempt to win back some old fans, but they decided to double down on psychedelic.

The show was a psychedelic mess that did not restart their career. At this time Peter Tork had grown tired of it all and it was his last appearance with the band. The one clip that was worth it was the clip of this song. Buddy Miles comes in on drums in the middle and really rocks it out.

Listen To The Band

Hey, hey, mercy woman plays a song and no one listens,
I need help I’m falling again.

Play the drum a little louder,
Tell me I can live without her
If I only listen to the band.

Listen to the band!

Weren’t they good, they made me happy.
I think I can make it alone.

Oh, mercy woman plays a song and no one listens,
I need help I’m falling again.

Play the drum a little bit louder,
Tell them they can live without her
If they only listen to the band.

Listen to the band!

Now weren’t they good, they made me happy.
I think I can make it alone.

Oh, woman plays a song and no one listens,
I need help I’m falling again.

C’mon, play the drums just a little bit louder,
Tell us we can live without her
Now that we have listened to the band.

Listen to the band!

…

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.

28 thoughts on “Monkees – Listen To The Band”

  1. Amazing back catalog of music from these guys. I know this is not the tune but have you ever heard Dan Baird’s cover of Daydream Believer? It’s off of one of his live albums. Think the same album features a cover of Dancing Queen as well lol..

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    2. Good version of Daydream Believer…I really like that Deke… I like anything the guy does. I do wish he would do a quick regrouping with the Satellites.

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      2. I know man….I just posted something…I don’t know if you would be interested but…well just look at it. Dan Baird is on one video on this guy’s page talking about how he met Neil Young and other things….he is a cool dude. Fun guy.

        31 years….wow

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      4. Yes I agree…that guitar player they had goes well with Baird…they need to make it happen. They should have got more airplay than they did.

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  3. I want to find a stereo recording of this song. I have the original mono in my collection but would love to hear the space of instruments, especially the psychedelic bit at the end.
    The first video (the long one) reminded how influential psychedelia had become at that time. Also, I couldn’t help hearing some Frank Zappa influence in that wild production. Some “Lumpy Gravy” here and there?

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    1. They were friends with Zappa…Nesmith was anyway so that is probably true. Have you ever seen that tv show it came from? It’s like a psychedelic variety show basically.
      I love when Buddy Miles comes thundering in.

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      3. Thanks for the link. I saw “Head” but not the TV special. I’ll have to make up for the long loss of time by finding a copy of the video.

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    1. Yes…to see Buddy Miles…one of the best drummers of the 60s and 70s playing with the Monkees on that live cut…it gave them a sort of legitimacy. Yes it was a band effort….by this time they played everything.

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      1. which of course, few 60s bands did but still they get crapped on for some reason for not playing all their own instruments on all their records. Go figure

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  5. I’ve heard this song but never knew that it was a Monkees song. That performance is ah.. interesting. I am surprised that NBC gave it the go ahead – its kind of a wonderful creative mess, but don’t really see it fitting on a network Tv special. Agree though its cool when Buddy Miles comes roaring on.

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    1. It couldn’t have fit unless the network thought it was going to be like their sitcom…which it wasn’t….it was more like their movie Head…which that movie is out there.

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