November Playlist - A Jeff Winter's Tale

An hour's worth of stuff put together on the train home from London following Everton's 2-2 demolition of Fulham. Should be served with a bottle of Carmenere

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5 underrated Monkees records

As I suggested in my review of Eric Lefcowitz's biography, much of the Monkees' more interesting output emerged once creative control had been seized from Don Kirshner. While quality levels varied across the albums of the late 1960's and there was no consistent sound due to the variety of influences, they did produce a number of excellent records that did not receive the recognition of their earlier efforts. Here are five that deserve further examination:

While I Cry

A Mike Nesmith song from 1969's 'Instant Replay', 'While I Cry' gave an indication of the country direction its author would head in once he had left the band. Simple lyric, lovely harmonies, gentle melody. Ace, and maybe my favourite Monkees record.

 
As We Go Along
To suggest seizing the power over their music meant that there was no outside creativity employed by the band would be misleading, it was merely done on their terms. Carole King and Toni Stern's 'As We Go Along' was used as a B side to 'Porpoise Song (also co written by King), both songs forming part of the soundtrack to 'Head', the Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson movie that interests and confuses in equal measure. Featuring Ry Cooder, Neil Young and King herself on guitar, it is one of Micky Dolenz's best vocals.

 

You and I

A rare Davy Jones writing credit again featuring Neil Young on guitar, hence a heavier sound not too dissimilar from Buffalo Springfield. The reflective lyrics give an indication of Jones' acknowledgement that perhaps the band's time had begun to pass:

"In a year or maybe two,
We'll be gone and someone new will take our place,
There'll be another song,
Another voice, another pretty face"

 

Daily Nightly

A Nesmith composition that was one of the first records to employ the Moog Synthesizer. From the 'Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones' album (1967), the psychedelic sound is a clear nod to the music being made by both the Beatles and the Stones around this time.

Circle Sky
Another from the Head soundtrack complete with driving bassline and a more aggressive than normal Nesmith vocal. The footage is taken from the movie and the naked anti-war element of this section no doubt provides further evidence as to why the film sank without trace at the time. $165616

Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made for TV Band – Eric Lefcowitz

The concept of pop acts landing their own TV shows, cartoons and films is a well-worn tradition, much of the inspiration for which can be traced back to one place. Eric Lefcowitz’s accessible read details the formation of the Monkees, the brainchild of producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, and their somewhat about-face transformation (in comparison to many of those who followed them) from a manufactured, made for TV band with limited control over its own output to a ‘proper’ group destroyed by ego and a changing cultural climate.

Of particular interest is the description of the techniques used in the stringent and gruelling selection process (auditionees including Harry Nilsson, Stephen Stills and Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks) by which messrs Jones, Dolenz, Tork and Nesmith were chosen, the legacy of which can be seen in programmes such as the X Factor. Rafelson and Schneider receive much credit for channelling the feel of the Beatles film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ into the TV series and realising that as the Beatles attempted to leave behind the innocence of their early releases, and the fans that attracted, towards a more psychedelic sound, a gap had emerged in the market. The groundbreaking combination of aggressive marketing and artificially assigned ‘personalities’ to each of the four also laid the foundations for the blueprint used on many manufactured acts, The Spice Girls being an obvious example.

Where the Monkees differed from these acts however was the speed at which Tork and Nesmith in particular, as professional musicians before the band, resisted the efforts of larger than life music publisher Don Kirshner – brought in to oversee the music side of the operation – to maintain a vice-like grip of creative production. A central theme running through the book, right up to its conclusion, is that all four to a greater or lesser extent felt disrespected by their peers and hamstrung through their career by the genesis of the Monkees and the inference that they were essentially puppets due to the use of session musicians and much of their music being written by others (as the book points out, an unfair stigma to bear when scrutinising the working practices of The Beach Boys, various Motown acts and others). Greater freedom in all areas, following Kirshner’s sacking, ultimately exposed the various musical differences and gave the impression of the group being four individuals pulling in separate directions. As much as this led to output of varying quality, culminating in the film Head – now considered a cult classic, then a vaguely offensive mess that represented the final nail in the coffin – a sense of artistic integrity at least prevailed.

The four complicated personalities and their contribution to the initial success, downfall, brief resurrection in 1986 and ultimate fracture are examined in length, Jones particularly coming across poorly as a money-fixated, jealous and petty individual, possibly explaining the other three’s slightly lukewarm reaction to his death earlier this year. Possibly just to this slightly cynical mind Nesmith emerges as the most likeable character; the least happy to accept mediocrity and, post Monkees, someone who quickly realised the potential of music as a visual medium – ironically his production company was prominent at the birth of MTV, whose later decision to re-screen the band’s TV show in some ways acted as a curse in his efforts to be known as something other than just an ex-Monkee.

Ultimately this is a decent read, although I would have welcomed greater musical scrutiny of the late 60’s albums, which contain some of the more interesting records the Monkees made. The use of multiple chapters with just a few paragraphs in each was also a random irritation. Nonetheless, as a case study of the way a non-organically formed band could be selected, marketed and achieve almost instant success (and an almost as rapid descent back again), sowing the seeds for many imitators across the world, it is a worthy musical biography.