They influenced the Sex Pistols and toured with Jimi Hendrix, but… they’re The Monkees. They were a group manufactured for television stardom, but they still managed to make some excellent pop tunes. What to make of these guys? Let’s weigh the pros and cons…
THUMBS UP: It’s pretty easy to mock or just plain ignore The Monkees, but in spite of their Hollywood origins, they were first-rate pop interpreters, and at least three songs on this collection reach close to the apex of pop music: Neil Diamond’s ‘I’m A Believer’ and Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart’s ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ and ‘(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone’. Against all odds, the latter became a staple in live sets for the early Sex Pistols, and was then ingrained as a Punk standard. For those who claim The Monkees weren’t really musicians (sadly true in Davey Jones’ case), I give you Michael Nesmith. His song ‘Listen To The Band’ is a sneak preview of his later, ground-breaking country-rock work with The First National Band. For those of us introduced to The Monkees through MTV’s late-80’s re-runs of their TV series, it can be extremely difficult to take these guys seriously. But if you can force yourself to sit down and give their best a listen, you’ll hear that they had their moments…
THUMBS DOWN: More than the Merry Pranksters, the 1968 Democratic national convention, Altamont, or a string of political assassinations, The Monkees were proof positive for me that my parents generation was totally and certifiably nuts. Pop idols? These goofballs?? Well, yes and no. They certainly had their fans, but they inherited most of the 12 year old girls who abandoned The Beatles when the Fab Four went psychedelic. The Monkees’ teenybopper crowd was the main reason that Jimi Hendrix bailed on opening for them after only a few dates of a scheduled tour. But their constructed-for-television origins made them suspicious to most hipsters in the 60’s. And really, any Greatest Hits collection that includes a song like ‘The Monkees Theme’ (“We’re too busy singin’/To put anybody doooooown”) is worthy of serious suspicion. ‘Daydream Believer’ grates. ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’ fizzles. Some of this collection is great, most of it isn’t. In most cases I could probably accept that, but not from a band with this much artistic baggage…
[And thus began a thoughtful, measured discourse on The Monkees...]
Tags: Davey Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Nesmith, Michael Nesmith & The First National Band, MTV, Neil Diamond, Sex Pistols, The Beatles, The Merry Pranksters, The Monkees, The Monkees Greatest Hits, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart
2 November 2009 at 12:41 pm |
I had a serious crush on these guys growing up. I wrote to their fan club (address found on album cover of older sister of friend) but it was long after they disbanded. I always have a Monkees song on my IPod. No shame. Their TV show made me happy. Their music still does.
2 November 2009 at 4:03 pm |
So this is longwinded but funny…
In the mid-80s, ‘86 I think, the Monkees came back. Remember that? Their show was on every afternoon at like 3:30 and it created enough of a buzz that the Monkees, minus Mike Nesmith, toured again. Being the serious stoner that I was back then, I found their show usually funny, in a 60s stoner kind of way. Kind of like the 3 Stooges, but psychedelic. So me and a couple friends decided to go see them. “Hehehe we’re gonna see the Monkees” …Anyhow, my younger sister and her friends, who were like teenyboppers asked me to take them to the show when the tour came through, ’cause all these young gals just thought the Monkees were the bomb!
So me and 3 stoner buddies were chaperones for my sister and a couple of her friends. It was friggin’ hilarious, and a little bit scary. At the time the Monkees were in their 40s and I don’t think Mickey Dolenz had any front teeth for some reason. I remember him looking like a hockey goalie. I think the dude from Herman’s Hermits was there too, and a couple of other people like that. I really didn’t know what to make of a sea of young girls singing along to “Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” and all of the Monkees songs, screaming their heads off and crying when Davey Jones belted out “I Gotta Be Free”, while bowing down on one knee.
None of these teenyboppers were alive when the songs were originally released and all of the performers were old enough to be their fathers. It was like a weird version of repeat Beatlemania…and a year later it was so over. The next time I heard they were around was after I moved to NYC…Dolenz and Jones gave a free lunchtime show in the WTC plaza in the early 90s.
2 November 2009 at 4:04 pm |
a little bit of shame…. but “i’m a believer” and “stepping stone” make me smile.
2 November 2009 at 5:53 pm |
I’m going against the grain. Thumbs down. Their most redeeming value to me is nostalgia and little else. And yes, I’m a bitter old bastard.
2 November 2009 at 6:44 pm |
This may be the most influential album of all time, and of any genre—certainly rock and roll. Major thumbs-up!
5 November 2009 at 12:24 pm |
You’re officially on the record here, Mr. WB Furr! Thanks for your hearty input…
3 November 2009 at 10:42 am |
As age and reality have forced me to be honest with myself and admit my chance at cool is long gone, I’ve lightened up on these guys. Getting away from the “they’re not the Beatles” argument, which is way too trite, it’s hard to knock four guys whose impact is solidified in the pop culture annals and who still today float around the edges (I don’t have a casino tour booked at this time). Am I more likely to spend $150 to see a McCartney reunion show in a stadium than $40 to see Dolenz at Chinook Winds, sure. But my kids will dance around with equal abandon to Yellow Submarine or I’m a Believer–and I’m not going to make them listen to my live Neil Diamond version, so cred goes to the Monkees.
Here’s a fun-for-fans link to hear some interesting interpretations of Monkees tunes: http://wayoutjunk.blogspot.com/2006/08/here-no-evil-tribute-to-monkees.html
And Micky did a great kids bedtime album in the early 90s called Micky Dolenz Puts You To Sleep–lovely renditions of Nilsson, Beatles, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Hollies.
3 November 2009 at 4:22 pm |
loved these guys as a wee lad watching them on the telly….
hated them as puffy goofballs as a teen and angry young man…
now totally appreciate and dig, if you dig deeper than the greatest hits there are some cool tunes. plus the whole story… = i’m on board, maybe not as a staple but certainly a “guilty” pleasure…
3 November 2009 at 6:20 pm |
The soundtrack for Head is a hundred per cent worth it, though. “The Porpoise Song”. Ooh.