STACK NZ September 2016 Issue 77

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A nyone can easily locate the YouTube clip
of the 1967 recording sessions for The
Beatles' extraordinary A Day in the Life.
The montage shows celebrity pals hanging
around: Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull,
Donovan clowning with George Harrison, a
youthful and happy Keith Richards, Harrison's
wife Pattie Boyd sipping wine, Marijke from the
hippie clothiers The Fool earnestly waving a
wand…
And in this illustrious inner circle, Mike
Nesmith from The Monkees chats with John
Lennon, and there's a glimpse of fellow Monkee
Mickey Dolenz.
No matter what critics thought of them – and
many complained they were just a made-for-TV
band who didn't play their own instruments;
initially true – musicians didn't have a problem
with The Monkees.
The Monkees hung out with various Beatles
and the Laurel Canyon set in Los Angeles
(Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, and
others). It's worth remembering Stephen Stills
auditioned for the Monkees but didn't make the
cut, so suggested to his folk-singing pal from
New York, Peter Tork, that he try out.
The generation whose lives had been changed
by The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in
February 1964, and had their passion confirmed
by the Fab Four movie A Hard Day's Night later
that year, enjoyed The Monkees' television series
for what it was: just a colourful knock-off of
The Beatles' film with some classy pop songs
scattered about.
The Monkees were entertainment, plain and
simple, especially for kids arriving into pop just as
The Beatles were leaving it behind with albums
like Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt Pepper's. They
became surrogate Beatles for young teens, and
their songs Last Train to Clarksville (the theme
from the show), I'm a Believer, Pleasant Valley
Sunday, the garage-rock of Stepping Stone, Valleri
and many more were prime cuts of '60s pop and
all over radio. Globally.
Okay, they didn’t write them, and early on
didn’t play on their records (like The Beach
Boys, Association and others did, huh?), but
they were fun… and they took their music onto
concert stages where they did play their own
instruments. Then they wrote.
Long ago The Monkees ceased being a guilty
pleasure and became recognised within the
landscape of pop; their 1968 myth-destroying film
Head -- which contained appearances by Frank
Zappa, boxer Sonny Liston and Jack Nicholson
(who co-wrote it) -- remains a bewilderingly trippy
movie, both slapstick and cynical.
Because of the television show re-runs and
their songs staples on pop radio, The Monkees
never really went away… but even so, we can
say they're back.
This year there has been the “new” album
Good Times! on which the late Davy Jones
appears from archive tapes to sing Love to Love
(written by Neil Diamond in the '60s), and Mickey
Dolenz duets with the late Harry Nilsson on the
title track. (Nilsson had written their hit Cuddly
Toy back in their heyday.)
Elsewhere, songs for the still-alive Monkees –
Tork, Dolenz and Nesmith – come from fans like
XTC’s Andy Partridge, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo,
Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller (the excellent,
psychedelic Birth of an Accidental Hipster) and
others, including their '60s hit-team Tommy
Boyce and Bobby Hart pulled from the vaults.
Good Times! is uneven and it helps if you don’t
think of it as a Monkees’ album, because that
invites comparisons with their hits of old.
Those hits and more get brushed off with
The Monkees 50 – yes, it's half a century since
they debuted – which is three-CD catch-all
set from their earliest work to a couple of the
best songs from Good Times!. It’s not just a
decent overview, but also acts as an enjoyable
homework assignment because The Monkees
(not Jones obviously, or Nesmith who was
always the most reluctant Monkee) are touring
again, playing Christchurch and Auckland in late
November.
On stage Dolenz and Tork will look old –
they're in their 70s – but that's the price of
having a music and television career half a
century ago. What's ageless is the shameless
appeal of the Monkees' classic pop.
For more interviews, overviews and reviews
by Graham Reid see:
Long ago The Monkees
ceased being a guilty
pleasure and became
recognised within the
landscape of pop
visit MUSIC FEATURE
20 SEPTEMBER 2016
MUSIC
Graham Reid looks at past and present glories of
America’s answer to the Fab Four.
Hey hey it’s The
Monkees!