American musician, songwriter, actor
POPULARITY
5 episodes with mike nesmith
4 episodes with mike nesmith
3 episodes with mike nesmith
4 episodes with mike nesmith
4 episodes with mike nesmith
2 episodes with mike nesmith
6 episodes with mike nesmith
2 episodes with mike nesmith
2 episodes with mike nesmith
September 10-16, 1966 This week Ken welcomes singer/songwriter/Dramarama frontman and fellow TV addict John Easdale to the show. Ken and John discuss how weird it is to chat about normal and fun things in 2025, the introduction of color TV, the 1966 television season, being the envy of the block when your family has the first and only color TV, The Dramaram lp Color TV, being beneath the Zenith, how old TVs were massive pieces of furniture, how people always take convinience over quality, the new embrace of hi-fi audiophile culture, the all you can eat aspect of streaming, The Monkees, living with your band, when long haired rock groups were on every TV show, educating yourself on film, the inspiration of punk rock DIY spirit, dropping off paying attention to new media at a certain point, focusing on making things instead of consuming them, Nightmare on Elm St 4: The Dreamaster, "Anything, Anything", KROQ, Rodney on the ROQ's connection to The Monkees, WFNX, how Freddy Kruger unbroke up Dramarama, growing up in Wayne New Jersey, how Dramarama all went to high school together, relocating to L.A., Made-For-TV bands, the 80s Monkees reunion shows, Rhino Records, Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, knowing the horrors of animals on TV now, Canadian TV guide, Frankenstein Jr, The Impossibles, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, NY Metro TV, Davey Jones on Ed Sullivan, Ken forgetting that Lidsville was Butch Patrick, Jack Wild on HR Puffnstuff, Ken's theory of rock n roll popularity tied to visual media innovation, The Monkees Head, Mike Nesmith, Repoman, lost media, tape wiping, loving digital comics, living in the future, Batman '66, burning out quickly, Bruce Lee, The Green Hornet, wanting to be Mickey Dolenz, Lost in Space, how Adam West was a beautifully strange guy, Milton Berle, how cartoons went into space when they lost all inspiration, and how Ken and John's pop culture filled minds may save history in the appocalypse.
Send us a message, so we know what you're thinking!In case you hadn't noticed, we love a good cover version! This episode, we're looking at covers - staples, covers from strange sources, and some songs that have had a LOT of covers, including a bunch of covers of Bowie's “Heroes”. Our Album You Must Hear before You Die is “Is This It?” by The Strokes. This punk/Britpop-influenced album got rave reviews on release in 2001 from Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and New Musical Express. We're not convinced. In Knockin' on Heaven's Door, we mourn the loss of Wayne Osmond (of the Osmond Brothers), Chad Morgan, the Aussie country great, and Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary. We hope they get to sing a rousing chorus of “Puff the Magic Dragon together. As usual, there's heaps of fun. Enjoy!! Playlist (all the songs and artists referenced in the episode) Playlist – “Heroes” covers References: Heroes, REM, Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”, “Hallelujah", Bob Dylan, “All along the Watchtower”, "If Not for You”, Olivia Newton-John, Johnny Cash, American Recordings, “All the Young Dudes”, Mott the Hoople, Ian Hunter, XTC, White Music, “This is Pop”, Devo, “(I can't get no) Satisfaction”, Zoot, “Eleanor Rigby”, Rick Springfield, Howard Gable, Alison Durbin, 801, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, ” 801 Live, "You Really Got Me”, Ministry, “Lay Lady Lay”, Al Jourgenson, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Elvis Presley, John Cale, June 1, 1974, Slow Dazzle, Fragments of a Rainy Season, Nirvana, "The Man Who Sold The World", “Unplugged”, Mick Ronson, Linda Ronstadt, “Different Drum”, Stone Ponies, Mike Nesmith, “You're No Good”, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, Cowboy Junkies, “Sweet Jane”, Fine Young Cannibals, “Suspicious Minds”, Talking Heads, “Take Me to The River”, Elvis Costello, “(What's So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding”, George Benson, “On Broadway”, Mia Dyson, “The Passenger”, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Sara Blasko, “Flame Trees”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, Reg Livermore, “Celluloid Heroes”, The Kinks, Peter Gabriel, Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours, Motorhead, David Hasselhoff, Blondie, Oasis, Nico, Moby (with Mindy Jones), Phillip Glass, “Superman”, Lifes Rich Pageant, “There She Goes Again”, “Pale Blue Eyes”, “First we take Manhattan”,
Six String Hayride Classic Country Podcast, Episode 54. Pay It Forward In 2025Farewell 2024. Chris and Jim tell the story of the Country Songs that we got hooked on as kids and ask the community to help share the music in 2025. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Gene Autry, Mike Nesmith, and Hank Williams create the sounds that captivate two youngsters in the late 1960's and early 1970's. We take that original thrill of discovering music and commit to spreading the good word through the new year. Chris reminds me of a Willie Nelson show we recorded in 2003, Jim offers up a simple Ginger Irish Whiskey drink, and Chris finally notices that I am an actual ginger. Remember why you love music in the first place and share that vibe with your tribe in 2025. Happy New year. Live Long and Prosper. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=81625843https://www.facebook.com/groups/523422553475291
Quite Nights on the internet and sometimes you find some very cool stuff. This episode Mike Nesmith’s exploration with video and being ahead of the curve when it cans to music videos. what came of this was this projects. Elephant parts: A 1981 video album of music and comedy bits made with his Cohort director […]
This week's show, after a 1977 Costello croon: brand new Rifles, T.S.O.L, Idaho, La Luz, Beachwood Sparks, Special Pillow, and The Half Cubes, plus Manfred Mann, Big Maybelle, Sharon Tandy (with Fleur De Lys), Mike Nesmith & the 1st National Band, John...
We're on vacation so we're replaying some of our favorite interviews from 2023. New shows return starting January 2. Today we're flashing back to July when I spoke with prog rock power couple Circe Link and Christian Nesmith. You might know Christian as the son of Mike Nesmith from the Monkees. He and his partner Circe created an album in 2022 called Cosmologica and it's become quite possibly my favorite progressive rock album ever. So I had to talk with Circe and Christian about the making of the album, and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
TVC 632.3: Music and television historian Chuck Harter shares some final thoughts on the the legacy of The Monkees television series (NBC, 1966-1968), including the revival of interest in both the group and the series in 1986 (following the MTV marathon); the mid 1990s revival, including the tour in England featuring all four Monkees; Mike Nesmith's insight into why all four members gelled, despite their different backgrounds and interests; and why Davy Jones was the only Monkee who truly understood the Monkees phenomenon. Chuck wrote Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees, the excellent documentary that explores the ongoing impact of the Monkees phenomenon. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Merry Christmas you beautiful people.It's a packed show, so let's get started.Inspired by my segment last week, Mary Polte sent us a link to a forgotten Monkees single. It's actually We Three Monkees as Mike Nesmith didn't get involved.It's a cover of Christmas is My Time of Year and you can have a listen here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVnZSrNE3FUThen Jennifer Kay shares the story of when she, her sister and in a separate story her son found out the truth about Santa Claus.Next up Bob Baker talks to us about Rubbish.This episode's version of A Christmas Carol is a 7 minute study guide summary. It's surprisingly thorough and the speech emojis are quite funny.If you have a spare 7 minutes you might want to check it out:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fzPJUtstn4Then Bob is back and he has a nice way to start each day with a mug of Christmas.Check out Bob's podcast here:https://4fpodcast.buzzsprout.com/Next up we look at The Burning of the Devil, a yearly custom that starts off the Christmas season in Guatamala. It's also a good oportunity for a spring clean (in the middle of winter).Then it's the quiz... woo hoo!If you want to get in touch, why don't you.Email: totalchristmas@gmail.comWebsite: totalchristmaspodcast.comMerry Christmas
Forrest, Conan Neutron, and DJ Andrew World talk about Bill Fishman and Mike Nesmith's 1988 MTV Parody Tape Heads with Ravencon's Michael Pederson. This movie stars John Cusack and Tim Robbins as two slacker security guards who get fired and try to pursue their creative dream: becoming music video directors.RavenCon: ravencon.com/
Korel Tunador Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson It was such a treat to sit down again with treasured friend, Korel Tunador. I've sure missed him. Crazy talented and oh, so fun, quintuple threat––guitar, keyboards, sax, accordion, and vocals, Korel, who's been playing with Rob Thomas the last many years, spent a dozen + with the Goo Goo Dolls, toured with Katy Perry, and Jada Pinkett Smith's Wicked Wisdom, and prepped to tour with Hanson, filled us in on how he got each, how the experiences played out, from never making it on the road (the latter) to the Ted Lasso almost religious experience he's currently living with Rob Thomas and company. Now focused on vocal coaching - pros to unknowns, Korel took us on his journey from piano at 5 in Pittsburgh to stadiums and TV. Explaining how anyone can sing… on key, and learn to harmonize… it's all about patience and perseverance. Even me? I may have to take him up on that. Korel's primary instrument of choice is his voice. As if to punctuate the point, he treated us to his new, emotive, Drain on Me, the also new, You Belong to Me, not sad he said, yet it also brought a tear… and Korel's closer, his classic, The Town of Artichoke, which left me giddy, and flying high, as it always does. One of the sweetest humans on the planet, Korel's played my living room thrice, and was part of the Women Who Write extravaganza produced by Mike Nesmith at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. I'll be forever grateful to Zoe Moon for connecting us, and for Zooms like these that reconnect us even when he's busy as hell, and miles away. If you're a pro on the road looking to up your vocal game, or a layman like me, considering how lovely it would be to shock your loved ones and whip out an unexpected harmony or two, Korel can be reached @koreltunador.com - few funner to hang with for any reason. Korel Tunador Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson Wed, May 24th, 5 pm PT, 8 pm ET Streamed Live on The Facebook Replay here : https://bit.ly/3q6hpge
Our fifth edition of the ever-popular Better Than The Beatles series focuses on the first, and greatest, manufactured pop group: The Monkees. Literally cast into the limelight of pop superstardom, The Monkees, at their peak, outsold the Beatles while simultaneously filming weekly episodes of their zany and ultra-hip eponymous hit TV series.You'll go bananas for our first foray: Last Train To Clarksville (2:19). This infectious oldies radio anthem leaves the station at Paperback Writer and jumps the track at the Vietnam war. Weldon identifies Mickey “Good Diction” Dolenz as rock's greatest dramatic enunciator.Next we go out of our tree for A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You (47:00), some bubblegum-dung that Weldon and Erik have been flinging at their ears for years, already.The third instalment from our troublemaking troop is Pleasant Valley Sunday (1:17:25): a thinly veiled suburban sound-off. We go ape over the vocables before barbe-cueing up one of our most crucial digressions ever: the historical importance of Superchannel in Alberta. Another tidy piece of Monkee business, Valleri (1:56:55), is our last song from the Monkees' golden era. Weldon cracks the textbooks with his exploration of the Boom-Bip-Bip ending and Erik admires Mike Nesmith's air guitar. And what's this? Starry-eyed Davy Jones doing a classic American garage rock scream?!Last but not least (Bo Diddley Award spoiler?), we listen to the apex-beautiful Me & Magdalena (2:18:12), zoological proof that the Monkees were still eating the Beatles lunch in 2016, long past their Hey! Hey!-day.Due to their ensemble-cast approach to hit-making, the Monkees have been a polarizing entity in the rock pantheon for decades. Regardless, Weldon and Erik, the Dian-Fosseys-of-fake-phenomena, finally and conclusively determine, herein, that the Monkees are indeed more swinging, more rocking, more charming, cuter, and straight-up better than the Beatles. Welcome to the Jungle!
The Monkees were a fictional band that became from their 1960s music sitcom: Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork. Micky's the sole survivor on a new tour: Micky Dolenz Celebrates The Monkees. AXS TV started airing the series rerun as extra promotion. As a big fan of The Monkees, I ranked 10 of The Monkees' charted hits. Theme Song: "Dance Track", composed by Jessica Ann CatenaThe Monkees' Top 10 Hits playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7mzqWD64L1jbmpHTtVEUSf?si=53e12fb96c2243ee&pt=93601de6c9a84d88c65ba3222d7e89e210. “(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone” (1966)9. “Words” (1967)8. “Valleri” (1968)7. “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (1967)6. “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” (1967)5. “Mary, Mary” (1966, 1968)4. “Last Train to Clarksville” (1966)3. “Daydream Believer” (1967)2. “Theme from The Monkees” (1966-1967)1. “I'm a Believer” (1966)The Monkees: https://www.monkees.com/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/themonkeesSpotify music catalog: https://open.spotify.com/artist/320EPCSEezHt1rtbfwH6CkTour: https://mickydolenz.com/tour-datesAXS TV: https://www.axs.tv/app/https://www.axs.tv/tv-schedule/Micky Dolenz interviews:CBS This Morning (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwdxEkP9M4s&pp=ygUfY2JzIHN1bmRheSBtb3JuaW5nIG1pY2t5IGRvbGVueg%3D%3DRolling Stone (2023): https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/micky-dolenz-last-monkee-standing-1234692863/AXS (2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eXaO4SudH8Boy Meets World - "Rave On" episode (1996): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x857au7Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me- "I'm a Believer" clip (1999):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKhOpKanHG4&pp=ygUcaSdtIGEgYmVsaWV2ZXIgYXVzdGluIHBvd2Vycw%3D%3DShrek clip (2001): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3bI7kbVBwM&pp=ygUUSSdtIGEgYmVsaWV2ZXIgc2hyZWs%3DSmash Mouth: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i%27m+a+believer+shrek+smash+mouthRelated Episodes: Ep. 9 - 25 Obscure Holiday Songs: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/20557113Ep. 25 - Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" History: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/24520817Ep. 86 - FRIENDS Theme Song: "I'll Be There For You": https://www.spreaker.com/episode/45174015Ep. 107 - 13 Halloweenish Songs: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/47235117Ep. 114 - Mike Nesmith Tribute: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/47977772Ep. 175 - Burt Bacharach Top 20: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/52777483Ep. 181 - BET/VH1 History: https://www.spreaker.com/user/jesscatena/ep-181-bet-vh1-mergers
Ronna lives in Brooklyn but is a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. She is a Moth Slam winner, has been featured on the PBS-WGBH Stories from the Stage series, and is a National Storytelling Network (US) slam finalist. You can learn more about her by visiting her web site or following her on Instagram or Twitter.If you're interested in getting tickets to see Keith (and five very talented storytellers) at the PHI Centre in Montreal, just follow this link! Hope to see you there.As for Lionel Richie's All Night Long (All Night) (YES! That's the full title) it's pretty easy to underestimate as a cultural phenomenon in the early 80s. First of all, those of us of (um) a certain age will remember that Richie performed it at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The single itself went to number one in six different countries (including Canada) and the video (which, to be honest, is a hilarious throwback for me today) was actually produced by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. Too much 80s pop culture!!! As always, the story might sound even a little bit more interesting to you if you listen to the whole song. (Or if you're interested in a little rabbit-hole, Jacob Collier's Grammy winning re-arrangement)As always, remember to follow the show on instagram, twitter and facebook and to get over to the website to sign up for the TVK mailing list.
#Timmyboy
Hey, hey, we're thrilled to say that this week Phil & David are joined by a legendary entertainer and the last of The Monkees standing, the great Micky Dolenz. Over lunch from L.A.'s iconic Barney's Beanery, Phil offers a surprising and hilarious childhood confession that involves Micky. David discusses working with Micky and Neil Diamond on their first ever duet performance of "I'm A Believer." And Micky tells some fabulous stories about his exciting career in music, including time hanging out with The Beatles, as well as his years working as a TV director and showrunner in England. All this plus Micky discusses the origin story of The Monkees and shares some favorite memories of Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.
John's guest is legendary master percussionist, Luis Conte. Luis discusses moving from his native Santiago, Cuba to Los Angeles at age 15, and his first big break touring with "The Hues Corporation.” John and Luis do a deep dive into Luis' incredible and prolific career as a first call studio and touring percussionist with artists such as Madonna, Phil Collins and Jackson Browne, and some great stories including his audition for Madonna's band, playing drums with Phil Collins' big band and much more! Please subscribe to Live From My Drum Room! https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnDeChristopherLiveFromMyDrumRoomhttps://linktr.ee/live_from_my_drum_room
Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 554, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: It's A Leap 1: It's the next year that will be a leap year. 2000. 2: Some of these largest marsupials can travel up to 16 feet in one leap. Kangaroos. 3: In 1958 this country predicted its Great Leap Forward would establish a Communist utopia. China. 4: In song Kenny Loggins and Bruce Springsteen are among artists who've taken a "leap of" this. Faith. 5: This "Leviathan" philosopher's last words concerned his "leap in the dark". Thomas Hobbes. Round 2. Category: Rock Trivia 1: John Lennon insisted "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was inspired by a painting by this boy, his son. Julian. 2: The original title of this Buddy Holly hit was "Cindy Lou". "Peggy Sue". 3: The Stone Poneys' hit "Different Drum" was written by Mike Nesmith before he joined this group. The Monkees. 4: In 1956, Elvis' initial 2-week run at this famous resort city was shortened due to poor audience response. Las Vegas. 5: Their 1977 hit "We Are the Champions" was once the theme song of the N.Y. Cosmos soccer team. Queen. Round 3. Category: On Colonial Maps 1: Lubumbashi in the Congo was founded as Elisabethville, after a queen of this country. Belgium. 2: Da Nang was called Tourane when the French controlled what's now this country. Vietnam. 3: Occupied by Morocco, the area now called "Western" this was formerly "Spanish" this. Sahara. 4: This independent state off the Malay Peninsula was once part of Britain's colony of the Straits Settlements. Singapore. 5: What was once Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, is today this capital. Jakarta. Round 4. Category: The 1955 Emmys 1: =. =. 2: =. =. 3: Set in a Kansas army camp, this show won 4 Emmys: Writing, Comedy Series, Director and Comedian. You'll Never Get Rich or the Sergeant Bilko show (The Phil Silvers Show). 4: His current act could include mime of his picking up a "Best Specialty Act" Emmy. Marcel Marceau. 5: Choreographer Tony Charmoli waltzed away with an Emmy for this Lucky Strike music countdown show. Your Hit Parade. Round 5. Category: Peace 1: In Dec. 1985, 2 drs. helped save a reporter's life at an Oslo news briefing about their winning this award. Nobel Peace Prize. 2: To join this group founded in 1961, you must commit to work in the host country for 2 years and learn its language. the Peace Corps. 3: Formed in the turbulent '60s, it nominated Eldridge Cleaver as its 1st presidential candidate. Peace and Freedom Party. 4: Long a prisoner, he said, "To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy", who then becomes a partner. Mandela. 5: 1648's peace of Westphalia ended this long conflict. the Thirty Years' War. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/
In this episode, Frankie has a great "Deep Cut" from Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" LP; Tim's is from Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. Booker T & The MG's is Frankie's "Best Instrumentals" and Tim's is from Toto's debut album, "Girl Goodbye. Our Featured Artist this week is one our favorite artists--Sting. Enjoy!!
Breaking into the music business and building a sustainable career requires hard work, dedication, patience, and not a little bit of luck, but it also requires a single-minded focus on the music, which today's guest has in spades! Andrew Sandoval is best known as a Grammy Award nominated reissuer, compiler, and engineer of historical albums, containing popular music from the rock era, but he also has ongoing independent careers as an author, DJ, journalist, songwriter, and professional musician. Andrew's journey began in 1986 as the editor and publisher of the fanzine, New Breed. This project blossomed into work as a reissue director for labels such as Rhino Records and PolyGram, where he compiled and reissued classic albums by everyone from The Kinks, The Beach Boys, and The Zombies to the Bee Gees, Elvis Costello, and Big Star. He also toured and recorded with the legendary Dave Davies of The Kinks, was a ‘tour producer' for 60s TV pop sensation, the Monkees, and authored the 2005 book, The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story, which he has since released a fully updated and expanded version of. Additionally, Andrew hosts the weekly radio show, Come to the Sunshine on Luxuriamusic.com. His encyclopedic knowledge of and love for everything 60s pop is truly awe inspiring! Today, Andrew joins us to discuss how he turned his deep love for music into an enduring and sustainable career, highlighting the critical role of self-motivation, learning by doing, and separating the art from the artist, as well as ensuring that your skillsets are versatile enough to help you make ends meet! Andrew's story illustrates that, in order to make it in music, you have to love it, but you also have to do your homework, put in the time and, sometimes, fake it till you make it! Make sure to tune in today to learn more from the one and only, Andrew Sandoval. Key Points From This Episode: Andrew reflects on what it took to create a fanzine like New Breed from scratch. How his deep love for music blossomed into a sustainable career. The story of how he came to work at Rhino Records and the education he received there. Insight into the process of reissuing an album and Andrew's advice for getting started. The critical role that self-motivation plays in the music industry. How artists react when Andrew reissues albums with raw or forgotten recorded material. Why Andrew tends to separate the artist from the art. His experience of receiving a Grammy Award nomination for the Los Angeles Nuggets compilation, 'Where the Action Is!' A glimpse into Andrew's journey as an author and the process of publishing a book. The story of how he became the Monkees' manager and went on to revise the book. Why he chose to publish and distribute the revised edition himself through Beatland Books. Andrew highlights the importance of flexibility and versatility in the music industry. What his job as ‘tour producer' for the Monkees entailed. What it was like to work with Mike Nesmith in the final months of his life. The preparation and passion that goes into running the radio show, Come to the Sunshine. Why Andrew believes that, to make it in music, you have to love it but you also have to do your homework and put in the time. Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/cometothesun (Andrew Sandoval on Twitter) https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-sandoval-90488313/ (Andrew Sandoval on LinkedIn) https://www.amazon.com/Monkees-Day-Day-Story-Sensation/dp/1592233724 (The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation) https://beatlandbooks.com/ (Beatland Books) https://beatlandbooks.com/preorder-your-book/ (The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story (Revised Edition)) http://cometothesunshine.com/ (Come to the Sunshine) https://luxuriamusic.com/ (Luxuriamusic.com)
No new episode this week so here's one from the ILRR vaults. Comedian Sean Donnelly stops by to talk about all things Monkees. Did Mike Nesmith basically invent MTV? Did they even play their own instruments? Do they get too little, or too much respect from other musicians? Recorded the day Mike Nesmith died, enjoy this never before heard episode!
Well friends, we've come to the end. It's been quite a trip...we started with a Royal Flush and ended with a Frodis Caper. We've come a long way through these 58 episodes and 15 specials...we've dived (dove?) deep into the Monkees catalogue with the Randomatic Countdown Featuring The Woolhat Of Mystery...we've reacted to live shows and side albums and we even spoke to Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz! We've had a blast going through all of the episodes and the music with you...with everything that's been going on since we started in the fall of 2019 one great thing we could always look forward to was hanging out (virutally) and talking about the Monkees for all of you. Oh yes, the episode! This episode was written and directed by none other than Micky Dolenz and is a great tribute to the Monkees tropes that have come in a bunch of episodes throughout the series. It's a really fun episode and a fantastic swan song for the series we all love: The Monkees.
The Modcast turns into a Monkeecast this week. Top to bottom this show is all pre-fab four. Related at least. The Monkees were constructed no doubt. But what a construction. This modcast is a first. In 16 years I've never done a show focusing on just one band. The closest I ever came was back in 2020 when I did a whole modcast featuring bands that sounded a lot like The Style Council, Modcast #459: In The Style Of. But this one is different. This focuses on The Monkees music and you'll get a few of their lesser known tracks along the way, as well as some of the members later solo material, and then some interesting covers of Monkees songs and songs clearly inspired by and sampling The Monkees. So buckle up baby it's gonna be quite a ride. Let's go monkey around. As always find a complete track list plus a bonus third set of music, and all the important links to all the important stuff over on the modcast homepage at www.mistersuave.com. This week's third set is a doozy, tons of covers of The Monkees' (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone. And keep up with me between modcasts:TwitterFacebookInstagramSpotifyiHeart RadioSubscribe with iTunes Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World. Mod friendly music mixes since 2006.
Book Writer and Monkee Mania Radio DJ Charles Rosenay chats with Mac about his new book and Horror, Beatles and Monkees. They talk about: First Horrow Films. Favorite horror movies and some celebs top ten. Doing Cons. How they first heard of The Monkees. Going against any Fads. Remembering the beautiful soul that was Mike Nesmith. and more! Look for more at The Forever Adventure Network
August 28 - September 3, 1993 This week Ken welcomes film critic, screen writer and all around movie oracle Drew McWeeny to the show. Ken and Drew discuss Ken's shock that people listen to the show, 1993, the Late Night Wars, moving to LA, going to an Arsenio taping, loving Letterman, the beauty of late night TV, Tom Snyder, being terrified by the Son of Sam, watching TV late at night, SVHS, getting a snapshot of a time and place, being heavily into laserdiscs, Ken Crane, what The Grimace's Second Wife watches, 227, spin offs, the beauty of YouTube, Dick Cavett, Ken's dislike of Leno, Mike Nesmith's Television Parts, It's Gary Shandling's Show, the shock of Letterman not getting The Tonight Show, Leno screwing over Conan, the magic of panels, closed captioning, how bad they still are, the writer's strike, The "New" Mission Impossible, developing an MST3k Habit, rent-a-friend, Dream On, Tales from the Crypt, Body Bags, John Carpenter, Mick Garris, Ken's love of The Real World, SNL, loving late night pay cable in the 80s and 90s, USA Up All Night, The Creature Feature Movie Guide, TV Guide 2 star movies, the debut of Nickelodeon's SNICK, why animators were the best kinds of nerds, Ren & Stimpy, Bruce Campbell, Briscoe County Jr., 120 Minutes, The MTV Music Video Awards, The MTV Movie Awards, getting fired from being a tour guide at Universal Studios, MTV Week in Rock, Roseanne, the sad decline of Tobe Hooper, Invaders from Mars, Stephen King's Sleepwalkers, The Larry Sanders Show, Tall Hopes, The John Larroquette Show, loving The X-Files even though it's not on yet, Bonnie Hunt's The Building, Bob, Eye Witness Video, how important music videos were, knowing the directors, and how much the world has changed.
Book Writer and Monkee Mania Radio DJ Charles Rosenay chats with Mac about his new book and Horror, Beatles and Monkees. They talk about: First Horrow Films. Favorite horror movies and some celebs top ten. Doing Cons. How they first heard of The Monkees. Going against any Fads. Remembering the beautiful soul that was Mike Nesmith. and more! Look for more at The Forever Adventure Network
The Monkees were a cultural phenomenon born out of television executives' desire to manufacture a rock group to cash in on the popularity of the Beatles. Over the years, Mike Nesmith, Peter Dork, Mikey Dolenz and Davy Jones have been unfairly written off as the Pre-Fab Four and accused of not playing their own instruments. Which wasn:t true since all four members were musicians (Peter Tork is said to have been a phenomenal banjo player) and a lot of this misconception of their music abilities stems from the fact the powers that be not allowing the four to play or write their own music relying heavily on studio musicians to play on the albums. With all that said, The Monkees still managed to stand the test of time and 50+ years since their debut new fans are still being introduced to both their television series and music. And despite all that, the Beatles got the Monkees too. With the recent passing of Mike Nesmith, Bret, Jamie and Andrew talk about watching the Monkees in repeats, what songs they enjoyed and who their favorite Monkee was. Bret talks about his opportunity to talk with Mickey Dolenz about doing voice acting for the Tick animated series as well as his friendship with the late great Harry Nilsson. And the three attempt to sit through an episode of the 1980s series The New Monkees. Is it as bad as everyone remembers it being? Oh who are WE kidding? NOBODY remembers that series. So here we come. Walking down the street. Hey hey!! Its the Mental Suppository… talking about the Monkees.
Feelin' Turned Out A Punk, I'm feelin' Turned Out A Punk. Today on the show we are joined by Repo Man's “Kevin the Nerd” and music virtuoso: Zander Schloss! Join Damian as he sits down with the Circle Jerk and Weirdo to discuss his journey from playing in a funk band at the Watts Tower Jazz Festival to being one of Watt's favourite guitarists! Mike Nesmith's casting genius, “Piss Bottle Man” memories, jam sessions with Joe Strummer and so much more: THIS IS NOT TO BE MISSED! Also, don't miss Zander's fantastic new solo album “Song About Songs”, out March 4th on Blind Owl Records! Also, don't miss the Circle Jerks on their 40th anniversary tour, more info at circlejerks.net ! Also, head over to turnedoutapunk.com and grab a shirt for this show! Also touched on: Not really liking punk Hating the punk rock cops The first Clash record is “ok” playing the Watt's Tower Festival with the Juicy Bananas “like a fucking human hurricane” “You look like you could use a break”: getting told about the Circle Jerks audition Running into Suicidal Tendencies' bass player at 7-11 Meeting Alex Cox while hanging around UCLA Getting a break on Repo Man from Mike Nesmith Replacing Chris Penn after he replaced you Getting hazed by the Circle Jerks “What are you doing playing bass in the Circle Jerks for?!”: Becoming Joe Strummers' Guitarist The highest praise from Watt The Piss Bottleman video shoot Tapeheads and so much more!!!!!
Episode 143 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Summer in the City'”, and at the short but productive career of the Lovin' Spoonful. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More" by the Walker Brothers and the strange career of Scott Walker. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, all the songs excerpted in the podcast can be heard in full at Mixcloud. This box set contains all four studio albums by the Lovin' Spoonful, plus the one album by "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler", while this CD contains their two film soundtracks (mostly inessential instrumental filler, apart from "Darling Be Home Soon") Information about harmonicas and harmonicists comes from Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers by Kim Field. There are only three books about the Lovin' Spoonful, but all are worth reading. Do You Believe in Magic? by Simon Wordsworth is a good biography of the band, while his The Magic's in the Music is a scrapbook of press cuttings and reminiscences. Meanwhile Steve Boone's Hotter Than a Match Head: My Life on the Run with the Lovin' Spoonful has rather more discussion of the actual music than is normal in a musician's autobiography. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Let's talk about the harmonica for a while. The harmonica is an instrument that has not shown up a huge amount in the podcast, but which was used in a fair bit of the music we've covered. We've heard it for example on records by Bo Diddley: [Excerpt: Bo Diddley, "I'm a Man"] and by Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind"] and the Rolling Stones: [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Little Red Rooster"] In most folk and blues contexts, the harmonicas used are what is known as a diatonic harmonica, and these are what most people think of when they think of harmonicas at all. Diatonic harmonicas have the notes of a single key in them, and if you want to play a note in another key, you have to do interesting tricks with the shape of your mouth to bend the note. There's another type of harmonica, though, the chromatic harmonica. We've heard that a time or two as well, like on "Love Me Do" by the Beatles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love Me Do"] Chromatic harmonicas have sixteen holes, rather than the diatonic harmonica's ten, and they also have a slide which you can press to raise the note by a semitone, meaning you can play far more notes than on a diatonic harmonica -- but they're also physically harder to play, requiring a different kind of breathing to pull off playing one successfully. They're so different that John Lennon would distinguish between the two instruments -- he'd describe a chromatic harmonica as a harmonica, but a diatonic harmonica he would call a harp, like blues musicians often did: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love These Goon Shows"] While the chromatic harmonica isn't a particularly popular instrument in rock music, it is one that has had some success in other fields. There have been some jazz and light-orchestral musicians who have become famous playing the instrument, like the jazz musician Max Geldray, who played in those Goon Shows the Beatles loved so much: [Excerpt: Max Geldray, "C-Jam Blues"] And in the middle of the twentieth century there were a few musicians who succeeded in making the harmonica into an instrument that was actually respected in serious classical music. By far the most famous of these was Larry Adler, who became almost synonymous with the instrument in the popular consciousness, and who reworked many famous pieces of music for the instrument: [Excerpt: Larry Adler, "Rhapsody in Blue"] But while Adler was the most famous classical harmonicist of his generation, he was not generally considered the best by other musicians. That was, rather, a man named John Sebastian. Sebastian, who chose to take his middle name as a surname partly to Anglicise his name but also, it seems, at least in part as tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach (which incidentally now makes it really, really difficult to search for copies of his masterwork "John Sebastian Plays Bach", as Internet searches uniformly think you're searching just for the composer...) started out like almost all harmonica players as an amateur playing popular music. But he quickly got very, very, good, and by his teens he was already teaching other children, including at a summer camp run by Albert Hoxie, a musician and entrepreneur who was basically single-handedly responsible for the boom in harmonica sales in the 1920s and 1930s, by starting up youth harmonica orchestras -- dozens or even hundreds of kids, all playing harmonica together, in a semi-militaristic youth organisation something like the scouts, but with harmonicas instead of woggles and knots. Hoxie's group and the various organisations copying it led to there being over a hundred and fifty harmonica orchestras in Chicago alone, and in LA in the twenties and thirties a total of more than a hundred thousand children passed through harmonica orchestras inspired by Hoxie. Hoxie's youth orchestras were largely responsible for the popularity of the harmonica as a cheap instrument for young people, and thus for its later popularity in the folk and blues worlds. That was only boosted in the Second World War by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, which we talked about in the early episodes of the podcast -- harmonicas had never been thought of as a serious instrument, and so most professional harmonica players were not members of the AFM, but were considered variety performers and were part of the American Guild of Variety Artists, along with singers, ukulele players, and musical saw players. Of course, the war did also create a problem, because the best harmonicas were made in Germany by the Hohner company, but soon a lot of American companies started making cheap harmonicas to fill the gap in the market. There's a reason the cliche of the GI in a war film playing a harmonica in the trenches exists, and it's largely because of Hoxie. And Hoxie was based in Philadelphia, where John Sebastian lived as a kid, and he mentored the young player, who soon became a semi-professional performer. Sebastian's father was a rich banker, and discouraged him from becoming a full-time musician -- the plan was that after university, Sebastian would become a diplomat. But as part of his preparation for that role, he was sent to spend a couple of years studying at the universities of Rome and Florence, learning about Italian culture. On the boat back, though, he started talking to two other passengers, who turned out to be the legendary Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, the writers of such classic songs as "Blue Moon" and "My Funny Valentine": [Excerpt: Ella Fitzgerald, "My Funny Valentine"] Sebastian talked to his new friends, and told them that he was feeling torn between being a musician and being in the foreign service like his father wanted. They both told him that in their experience some people were just born to be artists, and that those people would never actually find happiness doing anything else. He took their advice, and decided he was going to become a full-time harmonica player. He started out playing in nightclubs, initially playing jazz and swing, but only while he built up a repertoire of classical music. He would rehearse with a pianist for three hours every day, and would spend the rest of his time finding classical works, especially baroque ones, and adapting them for the harmonica. As he later said “I discovered sonatas by Telemann, Veracini, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Hasse, Marcello, Purcell, and many others, which were written to be played on violin, flute, oboe, musette, even bagpipes... The composer seemed to be challenging each instrument to create the embellishments and ornaments to suit its particular voice. . . . I set about choosing works from this treasure trove that would best speak through my instrument.” Soon his nightclub repertoire was made up entirely of these classical pieces, and he was making records like John Sebastian Plays Bach: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Flute Sonata in B Minor BWV1030 (J.S. Bach)"] And while Sebastian was largely a lover of baroque music above all other forms, he realised that he would have to persuade new composers to write new pieces for the instrument should he ever hope for it to have any kind of reputation as a concert instrument, so he persuaded contemporary composers to write pieces like George Kleinsinger's "Street Corner Concerto", which Sebastian premiered with the New York Philharmonic: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Street Corner Concerto"] He became the first harmonica player to play an entirely classical repertoire, and regarded as the greatest player of his instrument in the world. The oboe player Jay S Harrison once wrote of seeing him perform "to accomplish with success a program of Mr. Sebastian's scope is nothing short of wizardry. . . . He has vast technical facility, a bulging range of colors, and his intentions are ever musical and sophisticated. In his hands the harmonica is no toy, no simple gadget for the dispensing of homespun tunes. Each single number of the evening was whittled, rounded, polished, and poised. . . . Mr. Sebastian's playing is uncanny." Sebastian came from a rich background, and he managed to earn enough as a classical musician to live the lifestyle of a rich artistic Bohemian. During the forties and fifties he lived in Greenwich Village with his family -- apart from a four-year period living in Rome from 1951 to 55 -- and Eleanor Roosevelt was a neighbour, while Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy, was the godmother of his eldest son. But while Sebastian's playing was entirely classical, he was interested in a wider variety of music. When he would tour Europe, he would often return having learned European folk songs, and while he was living in Greenwich Village he would often be visited by people like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and other folk singers living in the area. And that early influence rubbed off on Sebastian's son, John Benson Sebastian, although young John gave up trying to learn the harmonica the first time he tried, because he didn't want to be following too closely in his father's footsteps. Sebastian junior did, though, take up the guitar, inspired by the first wave rock and rollers he was listening to on Alan Freed's show, and he would later play the harmonica, though the diatonic harmonica rather than the chromatic. In case you haven't already figured it out, John Benson Sebastian, rather than his father, is a principal focus of this episode, and so to avoid confusion, from this point on, when I refer to "John Sebastian" or "Sebastian" without any qualifiers, I'm referring to the younger man. When I refer to "John Sebastian Sr" I'm talking about the father. But it was John Sebastian Sr's connections, in particular to the Bohemian folk and blues scenes, which gave his more famous son his first connection to that world of his own, when Sebastian Sr appeared in a TV show, in November 1960, put together by Robert Herridge, a TV writer and producer who was most famous for his drama series but who had also put together documentaries on both classical music and jazz, including the classic performance documentary The Sound of Jazz. Herridge's show featured both Sebastian Sr and the country-blues player Lightnin' Hopkins: [Excerpt: Lightnin' Hopkins, "Blues in the Bottle"] Hopkins was one of many country-blues players whose career was having a second wind after his discovery by the folk music scene. He'd been recording for fourteen years, putting out hundreds of records, but had barely performed outside Houston until 1959, when the folkies had picked up on his work, and in October 1960 he had been invited to play Carnegie Hall, performing with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Young John Sebastian had come along with his dad to see the TV show be recorded, and had an almost Damascene conversion -- he'd already heard Hopkins' recordings, but had never seen anything like his live performances. He was at that time attending a private boarding school, Blair Academy, and his roommate at the school also had his own apartment, where Sebastian would sometimes stay. Soon Lightnin' Hopkins was staying there as well, as somewhere he could live rent-free while he was in New York. Sebastian started following Hopkins around and learning everything he could, being allowed by the older man to carry his guitar and buy him gin, though the two never became close. But eventually, Hopkins would occasionally allow Sebastian to play with him when he played at people's houses, which he did on occasion. Sebastian became someone that Hopkins trusted enough that when he was performing on a bill with someone else whose accompanist wasn't able to make the gig and Sebastian put himself forward, Hopkins agreed that Sebastian would be a suitable accompanist for the evening. The singer he accompanied that evening was a performer named Valentine Pringle, who was a protege of Harry Belafonte, and who had a similar kind of sound to Paul Robeson. Sebastian soon became Pringle's regular accompanist, and played on his first album, I Hear America Singing, which was also the first record on which the great trumpet player Hugh Masakela played. Sadly, Paul Robeson style vocals were so out of fashion by that point that that album has never, as far as I can tell, been issued in a digital format, and hasn't even been uploaded to YouTube. But this excerpt from a later recording by Pringle should give you some idea of the kind of thing he was doing: [Excerpt: Valentine Pringle, "Go 'Way From My Window"] After these experiences, Sebastian started regularly going to shows at Greenwich Village folk clubs, encouraged by his parents -- he had an advantage over his peers because he'd grown up in the area and had artistic parents, and so he was able to have a great deal of freedom that other people in their teens weren't. In particular, he would always look out for any performances by the great country blues performer Mississippi John Hurt. Hurt had made a few recordings for Okeh records in 1928, including an early version of "Stagger Lee", titled "Stack O'Lee": [Excerpt: Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O'Lee Blues"] But those records had been unsuccessful, and he'd carried on working on a farm. and not performed other than in his tiny home town of Avalon, Mississippi, for decades. But then in 1952, a couple of his tracks had been included on the Harry Smith Anthology, and as a result he'd come to the attention of the folk and blues scholar community. They'd tried tracking him down, but been unable to until in the early sixties one of them had discovered a track on one of Hurt's records, "Avalon Blues", and in 1963, thirty-five years after he'd recorded six flop singles, Mississippi John Hurt became a minor star, playing the Newport Folk Festival and appearing on the Tonight Show. By this time, Sebastian was a fairly well-known figure in Greenwich Village, and he had become quite a virtuoso on the harmonica himself, and would walk around the city wearing a holster-belt containing harmonicas in a variety of different keys. Sebastian became a huge fan of Hurt, and would go and see him perform whenever Hurt was in New York. He soon found himself first jamming backstage with Hurt, and then performing with him on stage for the last two weeks of a residency. He was particularly impressed with what he called Hurt's positive attitude in his music -- something that Sebastian would emulate in his own songwriting. Sebastian was soon invited to join a jug band, called the Even Dozen Jug Band. Jug band music was a style of music that first became popular in the 1920s, and had many of the same musical elements as the music later known as skiffle. It was played on a mixture of standard musical instruments -- usually portable, "folky" ones like guitar and harmonica -- and improvised homemade instruments, like the spoons, the washboard, and comb and paper. The reason they're called jug bands is because they would involve someone blowing into a jug to make a noise that sounded a bit like a horn -- much like the coffee pot groups we talked about way back in episode six. The music was often hokum music, and incorporated elements of what we'd now call blues, vaudeville, and country music, though at the time those genres were nothing like as distinct as they're considered today: [Excerpt: Cincinnati Jug Band, "Newport Blues"] The Even Dozen Jug Band actually ended up having thirteen members, and it had a rather remarkable lineup. The leader was Stefan Grossman, later regarded as one of the greatest fingerpicking guitarists in America, and someone who will be coming up in other contexts in future episodes I'm sure, and they also featured David Grisman, a mandolin player who would later play with the Grateful Dead among many others; Steve Katz, who would go on to be a founder member of Blood, Sweat and Tears and produce records for Lou Reed; Maria D'Amato, who under her married name Maria Muldaur would go on to have a huge hit with "Midnight at the Oasis"; and Joshua Rifkin, who would later go on to become one of the most important scholars of Bach's music of the latter half of the twentieth century, but who is best known for his recordings of Scott Joplin's piano rags, which more or less single-handedly revived Joplin's music from obscurity and created the ragtime revival of the 1970s: [Excerpt: Joshua Rifkin, "Maple Leaf Rag"] Unfortunately, despite the many talents involved, a band as big as that was uneconomical to keep together, and the Even Dozen Jug Band only played four shows together -- though those four shows were, as Muldaur later remembered, "Carnegie Hall twice, the Hootenanny television show and some church". The group did, though, make an album for Elektra records, produced by Paul Rothchild. Indeed, it was Rothchild who was the impetus for the group forming -- he wanted to produce a record of a jug band, and had told Grossman that if he got one together, he'd record it: [Excerpt: The Even Dozen Jug Band, "On the Road Again"] On that album, Sebastian wasn't actually credited as John Sebastian -- because he was playing harmonica on the album, and his father was such a famous harmonica player, he thought it better if he was credited by his middle name, so he was John Benson for this one album. The Even Dozen Jug Band split up after only a few months, with most of the band more interested in returning to university than becoming professional musicians, but Sebastian remained in touch with Rothchild, as they both shared an interest in the drug culture, and Rothchild started using him on sessions for other artists on Elektra, which was rapidly becoming one of the biggest labels for the nascent counterculture. The first record the two worked together on after the Even Dozen Jug Band was sparked by a casual conversation. Vince Martin and Fred Neil saw Sebastian walking down the street wearing his harmonica holster, and were intrigued and asked him if he played. Soon he and his friend Felix Pappalardi were accompanying Martin and Neil on stage, and the two of them were recording as the duo's accompanists: [Excerpt: Vince Martin and Fred Neil, "Tear Down the Walls"] We've mentioned Neil before, but if you don't remember him, he was one of the people around whom the whole Greenwich Village scene formed -- he was the MC and organiser of bills for many of the folk shows of the time, but he's now best known for writing the songs "Everybody's Talkin'", recorded famously by Harry Nilsson, and "The Dolphins", recorded by Tim Buckley. On the Martin and Neil album, Tear Down The Walls, as well as playing harmonica, Sebastian acted essentially as uncredited co-producer with Rothchild, but Martin and Neil soon stopped recording for Elektra. But in the meantime, Sebastian had met the most important musical collaborator he would ever have, and this is the start of something that will become a minor trend in the next few years, of important musical collaborations happening because of people being introduced by Cass Elliot. Cass Elliot had been a singer in a folk group called the Big 3 -- not the same group as the Merseybeat group -- with Tim Rose, and the man who would be her first husband, Jim Hendricks (not the more famous guitarist of a similar name): [Excerpt: Cass Elliot and the Big 3, "The Banjo Song"] The Big 3 had split up when Elliot and Hendricks had got married, and the two married members had been looking around for other musicians to perform with, when coincidentally another group they knew also split up. The Halifax Three were a Canadian group who had originally started out as The Colonials, with a lineup of Denny Doherty, Pat LaCroix and Richard Byrne. Byrne didn't turn up for a gig, and a homeless guitar player, Zal Yanovsky, who would hang around the club the group were playing at, stepped in. Doherty and LaCroix, much to Yanovsky's objections, insisted he bathe and have a haircut, but soon the newly-renamed Halifax Three were playing Carnegie Hall and recording for Epic Records: [Excerpt: The Halifax Three, "When I First Came to This Island"] But then a plane they were in crash-landed, and the group took that as a sign that they should split up. So they did, and Doherty and Yanovsky continued as a duo, until they hooked up with Hendricks and Elliot and formed a new group, the Mugwumps. A name which may be familiar if you recognise one of the hits of a group that Doherty and Elliot were in later: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "Creeque Alley"] But we're skipping ahead a bit there. Cass Elliot was one of those few people in the music industry about whom it is impossible to find anyone with a bad word to say, and she was friendly with basically everyone, and particularly good at matching people up with each other. And on February the 7th 1964, she invited John Sebastian over to watch the Beatles' first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Like everyone in America, he was captivated by the performance: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand (live on the Ed Sullivan Show)"] But Yanovsky was also there, and the two played guitar together for a bit, before retreating to opposite sides of the room. And then Elliot spent several hours as a go-between, going to each man and telling him how much the other loved and admired his playing and wanted to play more with him. Sebastian joined the Mugwumps for a while, becoming one of the two main instrumentalists with Yanovsky, as the group pivoted from performing folk music to performing Beatles-inspired rock. But the group's management team, Bob Cavallo and Roy Silver, who weren't particularly musical people, and whose main client was the comedian Bill Cosby, got annoyed at Sebastian, because he and Yanovsky were getting on *too* well musically -- they were trading blues licks on stage, rather than sticking to the rather pedestrian arrangements that the group was meant to be performing -- and so Silver fired Sebastian fired from the group. When the Mugwumps recorded their one album, Sebastian had to sit in the control room while his former bandmates recorded with session musicians, who he thought were nowhere near up to his standard: [Excerpt: The Mugwumps, "Searchin'"] By the time that album was released, the Mugwumps had already split up. Sebastian had continued working as a session musician for Elektra, including playing on the album The Blues Project, which featured white Greenwich Village folk musicians like Eric Von Schmidt, Dave Van Ronk, and Spider John Koerner playing their versions of old blues records, including this track by Geoff Muldaur, which features Sebastian on harmonica and "Bob Landy" on piano -- a fairly blatant pseudonym: [Excerpt: Geoff Muldaur, "Downtown Blues"] Sebastian also played rhythm guitar and harmonica on the demos that became a big part of Tim Hardin's first album -- and his fourth, when the record company released the remaining demos. Sebastian doesn't appear to be on the orchestrated ballads that made Hardin's name -- songs like "Reason to Believe" and "Misty Roses" -- but he is on much of the more blues-oriented material, which while it's not anything like as powerful as Hardin's greatest songs, made up a large part of his repertoire: [Excerpt: Tim Hardin, "Ain't Gonna Do Without"] Erik Jacobsen, the producer of Hardin's records, was impressed enough by Sebastian that he got Sebastian to record lead vocals, for a studio group consisting of Sebastian, Felix Pappalardi, Jerry Yester and Henry Diltz of the Modern Folk Quartet, and a bass singer whose name nobody could later remember. The group, under the name "Pooh and the Heffalumps", recorded two Beach Boys knockoffs, "Lady Godiva" and "Rooty Toot", the latter written by Sebastian, though he would later be embarrassed by it and claim it was by his cousin: [Excerpt: Pooh and the Heffalumps, "Rooty Toot"] After that, Jacobsen became convinced that Sebastian should form a group to exploit his potential as a lead singer and songwriter. By this point, the Mugwumps had split up, and their management team had also split, with Silver taking Bill Cosby and Cavallo taking the Mugwumps, and so Sebastian was able to work with Yanovsky, and the putative group could be managed by Cavallo. But Sebastian and Yanovsky needed a rhythm section. And Erik Jacobsen knew a band that might know some people. Jacobsen was a fan of a Beatles soundalike group called the Sellouts, who were playing Greenwich Village and who were co-managed by Herb Cohen, the manager of the Modern Folk Quartet (who, as we heard a couple of episodes ago, would soon go on to be the manager of the Mothers of Invention). The Sellouts were ultra-professional by the standards of rock groups of the time -- they even had a tape echo machine that they used on stage to give them a unique sound -- and they had cut a couple of tracks with Jacobsen producing, though I've not been able to track down copies of them. Their leader Skip Boone, had started out playing guitar in a band called the Blue Suedes, and had played in 1958 on a record by their lead singer Arthur Osborne: [Excerpt: Arthur Osborne, "Hey Ruby"] Skip Boone's brother Steve in his autobiography says that that was produced by Chet Atkins for RCA, but it was actually released on Brunswick records. In the early sixties, Skip Boone joined a band called the Kingsmen -- not the same one as the band that recorded "Louie Louie" -- playing lead guitar with his brother Steve on rhythm, a singer called Sonny Bottari, a saxophone player named King Charles, bass player Clay Sonier, and drummer Joe Butler. Sometimes Butler would get up front and sing, and then another drummer, Jan Buchner, would sit in in his place. Soon Steve Boone would replace Bonier as the bass player, but the Kingsmen had no success, and split up. From the ashes of the Kingsmen had formed the Sellouts, Skip Boone, Jerry Angus, Marshall O'Connell, and Joe Butler, who had switched from playing "Peppermint Twist" to playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in February 1964. Meanwhile Steve Boone went on a trip to Europe before starting at university in New York, where he hooked up again with Butler, and it was Butler who introduced him to Sebastian and Yanovsky. Sebastian and Yanovsky had been going to see the Sellouts at the behest of Jacobsen, and they'd been asking if they knew anyone else who could play that kind of material. Skip Boone had mentioned his little brother, and as soon as they met him, even before they first played together, they knew from his appearance that he would be the right bass player for them. So now they had at least the basis for a band. They hadn't played together, but Erik Jacobsen was an experienced record producer and Cavallo an experienced manager. They just needed to do some rehearsals and get a drummer, and a record contract was more or less guaranteed. Boone suggested Jan Buchner, the backup drummer from the Kingsmen, and he joined them for rehearsals. It was during these early rehearsals that Boone got to play on his first real record, other than some unreleased demos the Kingsmen had made. John Sebastian got a call from that "Bob Landy" we mentioned earlier, asking if he'd play bass on a session. Boone tagged along, because he was a fan, and when Sebastian couldn't get the parts down for some songs, he suggested that Boone, as an actual bass player, take over: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Maggie's Farm"] But the new group needed a name, of course. It was John Sebastian who came up with the name they eventually chose, The Lovin' Spoonful, though Boone was a bit hesitant about it at first, worrying that it might be a reference to heroin -- Boone was from a very conservative, military, background, and knew little of drug culture and didn't at that time make much of a distinction between cannabis and heroin, though he'd started using the former -- but Sebastian was insistent. The phrase actually referred to coffee -- the name came from "Coffee Blues" by Sebastian's old idol Mississippi John Hurt – or at least Hurt always *said* it was about coffee, though in live performance he apparently made it clear that it was about cunnilingus: [Excerpt: Mississippi John Hurt, "Coffee Blues"] Their first show, at the Night Owl Club, was recorded, and there was even an attempt to release it as a CD in the 1990s, but it was left unreleased and as far as I can tell wasn't even leaked. There have been several explanations for this, but perhaps the most accurate one is just the comment from the manager of the club, who came up to the group after their two sets and told them “Hey, I don't know how to break this to you, but you guys suck.” There were apparently three different problems. They were underrehearsed -- which could be fixed with rehearsal -- they were playing too loud and hurting the patrons' ears -- which could be fixed by turning down the amps -- and their drummer didn't look right, was six years older than the rest of the group, and was playing in an out-of-date fifties style that wasn't suitable for the music they were playing. That was solved by sacking Buchner. By this point Joe Butler had left the Sellouts, and while Herb Cohen was interested in managing him as a singer, he was willing to join this new group at least for the moment. By now the group were all more-or-less permanent residents at the Albert Hotel, which was more or less a doss-house where underemployed musicians would stay, and which had its own rehearsal rooms. As well as the Spoonful, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty lived there, as did the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Joe Butler quickly fit into the group, and soon they were recording what became their first single, produced by Jacobsen, an original of Sebastian's called "Do You Believe in Magic?", with Sebastian on autoharp and vocals, Yanovsky on lead guitar and backing vocals, Boone on bass, Butler on drums, and Jerry Yester adding piano and backing vocals: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Do You Believe in Magic?"] For a long time, the group couldn't get a deal -- the record companies all liked the song, but said that unless the group were English they couldn't sell them at the moment. Then Phil Spector walked into the Night Owl Cafe, where the new lineup of the group had become popular, and tried to sign them up. But they turned him down -- they wanted Erik Jacobsen to produce them; they were a team. Spector's interest caused other labels to be interested, and the group very nearly signed to Elektra. But again, signing to Elektra would have meant being produced by Rothchild, and also Elektra were an album label who didn't at that time have any hit single acts, and the group knew they had hit single potential. They did record a few tracks for Elektra to stick on a blues compilation, but they knew that Elektra wouldn't be their real home. Eventually the group signed with Charley Koppelman and Don Rubin, who had started out as songwriters themselves, working for Don Kirshner. When Kirshner's organisation had been sold to Columbia, Koppelman and Rubin had gone along and ended up working for Columbia as executives. They'd then worked for Morris Levy at Roulette Records, before forming their own publishing and record company. Rather than put out records themselves, they had a deal to license records to Kama Sutra Records, who in turn had a distribution deal with MGM Records. Koppelman and Rubin were willing to take the group and their manager and producer as a package deal, and they released the group's demo of "Do You Believe In Magic?" unchanged as their first single: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Do You Believe in Magic?"] The single reached the top ten, and the group were soon in the studio cutting their first album, also titled Do You Believe In Magic? The album was a mix of songs that were part of the standard Greenwich Village folkie repertoire -- songs like Mississippi John Hurt's "Blues in the Bottle" and Fred Neil's "The Other Side of This Life" -- and a couple more originals. The group's second single was the first song that Steve Boone had co-written. It was inspired by a date he'd gone on with the photographer Nurit Wilde, who sadly for him didn't go on a second date, and who would later be the mother of Mike Nesmith's son Jason, but who he was very impressed by. He thought of her when he came up with the line "you didn't have to be so nice, I would have liked you anyway", and he and Sebastian finished up a song that became another top ten hit for the group: [Excerpt: (The Good Time Music of) The Lovin' Spoonful, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice"] Shortly after that song was recorded, but before it was released, the group were called into Columbia TV with an intriguing proposition. Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, two young TV producers, were looking at producing a TV show inspired by A Hard Day's Night, and were looking for a band to perform in it. Would the Lovin' Spoonful be up for it? They were interested at first, but Boone and Sebastian weren't sure they wanted to be actors, and also it would involve the group changing its name. They'd already made a name for themselves as the Lovin' Spoonful, did they really want to be the Monkees instead? They passed on the idea. Instead, they went on a tour of the deep South as the support act to the Supremes, a pairing that they didn't feel made much sense, but which did at least allow them to watch the Supremes and the Funk Brothers every night. Sebastian was inspired by the straight four-on-the-floor beat of the Holland-Dozier-Holland repertoire, and came up with his own variation on it, though as this was the Lovin' Spoonful the end result didn't sound very Motown at all: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Daydream"] It was only after the track was recorded that Yanovsky pointed out to Sebastian that he'd unconsciously copied part of the melody of the old standard "Got a Date With an Angel": [Excerpt: Al Bowlly, "Got a Date With an Angel"] "Daydream" became the group's third top ten hit in a row, but it caused some problems for the group. The first was Kama Sutra's advertising campaign for the record, which had the words "Lovin' Spoonful Daydream", with the initials emphasised. While the group were drug users, they weren't particularly interested in being promoted for that rather than their music, and had strong words with the label. The other problem came with the Beach Boys. The group were supporting the Beach Boys on a tour in spring of 1966, when "Daydream" came out and became a hit, and they got on with all the band members except Mike Love, who they definitely did not get on with. Almost fifty years later, in his autobiography, Steve Boone would have nothing bad to say about the Wilson brothers, but calls Love "an obnoxious, boorish braggart", a "marginally talented hack" and worse, so it's safe to say that Love wasn't his favourite person in the world. Unfortunately, when "Daydream" hit the top ten, one of the promoters of the tour decided to bill the Lovin' Spoonful above the Beach Boys, and this upset Love, who understandably thought that his group, who were much better known and had much more hits, should be the headliners. If this had been any of the other Beach Boys, there would have been no problem, but because it was Love, who the Lovin' Spoonful despised, they decided that they were going to fight for top billing, and the managers had to get involved. Eventually it was agreed that the two groups would alternate the top spot on the bill for the rest of the tour. "Daydream" eventually reached number two on the charts (and number one on Cashbox) and also became the group's first hit in the UK, reaching number two here as well, and leading to the group playing a short UK tour. During that tour, they had a similar argument over billing with Mick Jagger as they'd had with Mike Love, this time over who was headlining on an appearance on Top of the Pops, and the group came to the same assessment of Jagger as they had of Love. The performance went OK, though, despite them being so stoned on hash given them by the wealthy socialite Tara Browne that Sebastian had to be woken up seconds before he started playing. They also played the Marquee Club -- Boone notes in his autobiography that he wasn't impressed by the club when he went to see it the day before their date there, because some nobody named David Bowie was playing there. But in the audience that day were George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, and Brian Jones, most of whom partied with the group afterwards. The Lovin' Spoonful made a big impression on Lennon in particular, who put "Daydream" and "Do You Believe in Magic" in his jukebox at home, and who soon took to wearing glasses in the same round, wiry, style as the ones that Sebastian wore. They also influenced Paul McCartney, who wasn't at that gig, but who soon wrote this, inspired by "Daydream": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Good Day Sunshine"] Unfortunately, this was more or less the high point of the group's career. Shortly after that brief UK tour, Zal Yanovsky and Steve Boone went to a party where they were given some cannabis -- and they were almost immediately stopped by the police, subjected to an illegal search of their vehicle, and arrested. They would probably have been able to get away with this -- after all, it was an illegal search, even though of course the police didn't admit to that -- were it not for the fact that Yanovsky was a Canadian citizen, and he could be deported and barred from ever re-entering the US just for being arrested. This was the first major drug bust of a rock and roll group, and there was no precedent for the group, their managers, their label or their lawyers to deal with this. And so they agreed to something they would regret for the rest of their lives. In return for being let off, Boone and Yanovsky agreed to take an undercover police officer to a party and introduce him to some of their friends as someone they knew in the record business, so he would be able to arrest one of the bigger dealers. This was, of course, something they knew was a despicable thing to do, throwing friends under the bus to save themselves, but they were young men and under a lot of pressure, and they hoped that it wouldn't actually lead to any arrests. And for almost a year, there were no serious consequences, although both Boone and Yanovsky were shaken up by the event, and Yanovsky's behaviour, which had always been erratic, became much, much worse. But for the moment, the group remained very successful. After "Daydream", an album track from their first album, "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" had been released as a stopgap single, and that went to number two as well. And right before the arrest, the group had been working on what would be an even bigger hit. The initial idea for "Summer in the City" actually came from John Sebastian's fourteen-year-old brother Mark, who'd written a bossa nova song called "It's a Different World". The song was, by all accounts, the kind of thing that a fourteen-year-old boy writes, but part of it had potential, and John Sebastian took that part -- giving his brother full credit -- and turned it into the chorus of a new song: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"] To this, Sebastian added a new verse, inspired by a riff the session player Artie Schroeck had been playing while the group recorded their songs for the Woody Allen film What's Up Tiger Lily, creating a tenser, darker, verse to go with his younger brother's chorus: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"] In the studio, Steve Boone came up with the instrumental arrangement, which started with drums, organ, electric piano, and guitar, and then proceeded to bass, autoharp, guitar, and percussion overdubs. The drum sound on the record was particularly powerful thanks to the engineer Roy Halee, who worked on most of Simon & Garfunkel's records. Halee put a mic at the top of a stairwell, a giant loudspeaker at the bottom, and used the stairwell as an echo chamber for the drum part. He would later use a similar technique on Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer". The track still needed another section though, and Boone suggested an instrumental part, which led to him getting an equal songwriting credit with the Sebastian brothers. His instrumental piano break was inspired by Gershwin, and the group topped it off with overdubbed city noises: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"] The track went to number one, becoming the group's only number one record, and it was the last track on what is by far their best album, Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful. That album produced two more top ten hits for the group, "Nashville Cats", a tribute to Nashville session players (though John Sebastian seems to have thought that Sun Records was a Nashville, rather than a Memphis, label), and the rather lovely "Rain on the Roof": [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Rain on the Roof"] But that song caused friction with the group, because it was written about Sebastian's relationship with his wife who the other members of the band despised. They also felt that the songs he was writing about their relationship were giving the group a wimpy image, and wanted to make more rockers like "Summer in the City" -- some of them had been receiving homophobic abuse for making such soft-sounding music. The group were also starting to resent Sebastian for other reasons. In a recent contract renegotiation, a "key member" clause had been put into the group's record contract, which stated that Sebastian, as far as the label was concerned, was the only important member of the group. While that didn't affect decision-making in the group, it did let the group know that if the other members did anything to upset Sebastian, he was able to take his ball away with him, and even just that potential affected the way the group thought about each other. All these factors came into play with a song called "Darling Be Home Soon", which was a soft ballad that Sebastian had written about his wife, and which was written for another film soundtrack -- this time for a film by a new director named Francis Ford Coppola. When the other band members came in to play on the soundtrack, including that track, they found that rather than being allowed to improvise and come up with their own parts as they had previously, they had to play pre-written parts to fit with the orchestration. Yanovsky in particular was annoyed by the simple part he had to play, and when the group appeared on the Ed Sullivan show to promote the record, he mugged, danced erratically, and mimed along mocking the lyrics as Sebastian sang. The song -- one of Sebastian's very best -- made a perfectly respectable number fifteen, but it was the group's first record not to make the top ten: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Darling Be Home Soon"] And then to make matters worse, the news got out that someone had been arrested as a result of Boone and Yanovsky's efforts to get themselves out of trouble the year before. This was greeted with horror by the counterculture, and soon mimeographed newsletters and articles in the underground papers were calling the group part of the establishment, and calling for a general boycott of the group -- if you bought their records, attended their concerts, or had sex with any of the band members, you were a traitor. Yanovsky and Boone had both been in a bad way mentally since the bust, but Yanovsky was far worse, and was making trouble for the other members in all sorts of ways. The group decided to fire Yanovsky, and brought in Jerry Yester to replace him, giving him a severance package that ironically meant that he ended up seeing more money from the group's records than the rest of them, as their records were later bought up by a variety of shell companies that passed through the hands of Morris Levy among others, and so from the late sixties through the early nineties the group never got any royalties. For a while, this seemed to benefit everyone. Yanovsky had money, and his friendship with the group members was repaired. He released a solo single, arranged by Jack Nitzsche, which just missed the top one hundred: [Excerpt: Zal Yanovsky, "Just as Long as You're Here"] That song was written by the Bonner and Gordon songwriting team who were also writing hits for the Turtles at this time, and who were signed to Koppelman and Rubin's company. The extent to which Yanovsky's friendship with his ex-bandmates was repaired by his firing was shown by the fact that Jerry Yester, his replacement in the group, co-produced his one solo album, Alive and Well in Argentina, an odd mixture of comedy tracks, psychedelia, and tributes to the country music he loved. His instrumental version of Floyd Cramer's "Last Date" is fairly listenable -- Cramer's piano playing was a big influence on Yanovsky's guitar -- but his version of George Jones' "From Brown to Blue" makes it very clear that Zal Yanovsky was no George Jones: [Excerpt: Zal Yanovsky, "From Brown to Blue"] Yanovsky then quit music, and went into the restaurant business. The Lovin' Spoonful, meanwhile, made one further album, but the damage had been done. Everything Playing is actually a solid album, though not as good as the album before, and it produced three top forty hits, but the highest-charting was "Six O'Clock", which only made number eighteen, and the album itself made a pitiful one hundred and eighteen on the charts. The song on the album that in retrospect has had the most impact was the rather lovely "Younger Generation", which Sebastian later sang at Woodstock: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Younger Generation (Live at Woodstock)"] But at Woodstock he performed that alone, because by then he'd quit the group. Boone, Butler, and Yester decided to continue, with Butler singing lead, and recorded a single, "Never Going Back", produced by Yester's old bandmate from the Modern Folk Quartet Chip Douglas, who had since become a successful producer for the Monkees and the Turtles, and written by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio, who had written "Daydream Believer" for the Monkees, but the record only made number seventy-eight on the charts: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler, "Never Going Back"] That was followed by an album by "The Lovin' Spoonful Featuring Joe Butler", Revelation: Revolution 69, a solo album by Butler in all but name -- Boone claims not to have played on it, and Butler is the only one featured on the cover, which shows a naked Butler being chased by a naked woman with a lion in front of them covering the naughty bits. The biggest hit other than "Never Going Back" from the album was "Me About You", a Bonner and Gordon song which only made number ninety-one: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful Featuring Joe Butler, "Me About You"] John Sebastian went on to have a moderately successful solo career -- as well as his appearance at Woodstock, he released several solo albums, guested on harmonica on records by the Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and others, and had a solo number one hit in 1976 with "Welcome Back", the theme song from the TV show Welcome Back, Kotter: [Excerpt: John Sebastian, "Welcome Back"] Sebastian continues to perform, though he's had throat problems for several decades that mean he can't sing many of the songs he's best known for. The original members of the Lovin' Spoonful reunited for two performances -- an appearance in Paul Simon's film One Trick Pony in 1980, and a rather disastrous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Zal Yanovsky died of a heart attack in 2002. The remaining band members remained friendly, and Boone, Butler, and Yester reunited as the Lovin' Spoonful in 1991, initially with Yester's brother Jim, who had played in The Association, latterly with other members. One of those other members in the 1990s was Yester's daughter Lena, who became Boone's fourth wife (and is as far as I can discover still married to him). Yester, Boone, and Butler continued touring together as the Lovin' Spoonful until 2017, when Jerry Yester was arrested on thirty counts of child pornography possession, and was immediately sacked from the group. The other two carried on, and the three surviving original members reunited on stage for a performance at one of the Wild Honey Orchestra's benefit concerts in LA in 2020, though that was just a one-off performance, not a full-blown reunion. It was also the last Lovin' Spoonful performance to date, as that was in February 2020, but Steve Boone has performed with John Sebastian's most recent project, John Sebastian's Jug Band Village, a tribute to the Greenwich Village folk scene the group originally formed in, and the two played together most recently in December 2021. The three surviving original members of the group all seem to be content with their legacy, doing work they enjoy, and basically friendly, which is more than can be said for most of their contemporaries, and which is perhaps appropriate for a band whose main songwriter had been inspired, more than anything else, to make music with a positive attitude.
A pop movie is normally a chance to consolidate, rather than destroy, an image, which is why the Monkees' sole trip in front of the camera is such a strange affair. Produced by BBS Productions at the same time as they were making Easy Rider - and with the Dennis Hopper cameo to prove it - 1968's Head is a freeform collection of surrealist sketches, musical numbers and anti-war agitprop, shot through with a viciously sarcastic take on the band's status as a consumer product and co-written by Jack Nicholson. Yes, that Jack Nicholson. It flopped hard before accruing a devoted cult following, but as The Dreaming Machine's Joe and Graham discover on this week's show, it isn't all that different to the Monkees' extremely meta television series. Along with the events of a film its director Bob Rafelson described as "fifty movies in one", there are detours to discuss how and when "manufactured" became pop's gravest slur, the extraordinary career of choreographer Toni Basil, and the film production career of the late Mike Nesmith. Pop Screen, like the Monkees, is a meaningless consumer product designed to distract the youth from what's really going on with the military-industrial complex, and if you want to help us do that you can donate to our Patreon, where backers will receive a monthly bonus episode, Graham's Doctor Who reviews, extended cuts of our other movie show Directors Uncut and lots of other goodies that aren't available anywhere else. For more information, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. #popscreen #head #moviereview #themonkees #mikenesmith #bobrafelson #petertork #davyjones #mickeydolenz #vietnamwar #jacknicholson #frankzappa #tonibasil #dennishopper
This is my tribute to Michael Nesmith and his legacy of standing firm against the status quo with a sincere heart.
The Colvin Brothers give 2021 the boot by looking back at the many classic rockers who passed during a year where in most cases, that's the only thing worth talking about. Dusty Hill, Don Everly, Graeme Edge, Mike Nesmith and Charlie Watts are among the big names we lost in the second year of Covid 19 and we alsohonor Ed Asner, Michael K Williams, Norm MacDonald and our sister Jennifer, who we lost in February . The Colvin Five takes a look at what old magazines you still have lying around the house and The Sizz tells us about hanging out with Doug Gray and THe Marshall Tucker Band last week at The Paramount in Midletown. The Colvin Brothers Show airs Sundays at 6pm on z93hv.com and is sponsored by Mahoney's Irish Pub & Steakhouse, 35 Main St, Poughkeepsie (845) 471-7026. Stop in for a pint today! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/colvin-brothers-on-z93/support
In this episode we invite Holly George-Warren — beamed in from upstate New York — to tell us about her long and distinguished career as a journalist, author and editor.Holly revisits her North Carolina childhood and early infatuation with pop radio, then talks about her move to New York City in the early '80s, her East Village bands Clambake and Das Furlines, and her long tenure at Rolling Stone Press. Barney, Mark and Jasper ask her about the latest of her many books — her acclaimed 2019 biography of Janis Joplin — and tie this in with two clips from a 1984 audio interview with Peter Albin of Big Brother & the Holding Company, including his account of Joplin's impact on the band in 1966.Conversation turns to the passing of Michael Nesmith, the Monkee who walked away from pop fame to commence life as an eccentric country singer-songwriter. We hear a clip of the lugubrious Texan speaking about the Monkees in 1974, then discuss "America's Beatles" [sic] and Nesmith's own singular musical legacy.Mark and Jasper talk us out with their reflections on new library pieces about John Peel (1969), the Cockettes (1971), Daft Punk (1997) and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (2000).Many thanks to special guest Holly George-Warren; please visit her website hollygeorgewarren.com for details about her books, including Janis: Her Life and Music.Pieces discussed: Janis Joplin, Peter Albin audio, The Monkees, Michael Nesmith, Mike Nesmith audio, Marc Bölan, John Peel, The Cockettes, Ronnie Scott, The Sex Pistols, The Life and Work of Basquiat and Christmas singles.
Drew Davenport and Tekurah discuss the amazing Mike Nesmith and revisit some of his season 1 episodes. Support the show by leaving a Rating & Review and be sure to visit www.dragonwagonshop.com for official Monkees Pawdcast shirts, mugs, and masks! Join the romp with Tekurah and other listeners at our official discord https://discord.gg/G7fUhXdakP The Monkees Pawdcast is a part of the Dragon Wagon Radio independent podcast network. Learn more at www.dragonwagonradio.com
In this episode we invite Holly George-Warren — beamed in from upstate New York — to tell us about her long and distinguished career as a journalist, author and editor.Holly revisits her North Carolina childhood and early infatuation with pop radio, then talks about her move to New York City in the early '80s, her East Village bands Clambake and Das Furlines, and her long tenure at Rolling Stone Press. Barney, Mark and Jasper ask her about the latest of her many books — her acclaimed 2019 biography of Janis Joplin — and tie this in with two clips from a 1984 audio interview with Peter Albin of Big Brother & the Holding Company, including his account of Joplin's impact on the band in 1966.Conversation turns to the passing of Michael Nesmith, the Monkee who walked away from pop fame to commence life as an eccentric country singer-songwriter. We hear a clip of the lugubrious Texan speaking about the Monkees in 1974, then discuss "America's Beatles" [sic] and Nesmith's own singular musical legacy.Mark and Jasper talk us out with their reflections on new library pieces about John Peel (1969), the Cockettes (1971), Daft Punk (1997) and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (2000).Many thanks to special guest Holly George-Warren; please visit her website hollygeorgewarren.com for details about her books, including Janis: Her Life and Music.Pieces discussed: Janis Joplin, Peter Albin audio, The Monkees, Michael Nesmith, Mike Nesmith audio, Marc Bölan, John Peel, The Cockettes, Ronnie Scott, The Sex Pistols, The Life and Work of Basquiat and Christmas singles.
Mike Nesmith of The Monkees was a hugely influential figure in Richard's life, not only in music but in pop culture and comedy. On December 10th, Nesmith passed away at the age of 78, just a few weeks from his 79th birthday. Here with us to share memories of Papa Nez (as he's sometimes called) is Cary Gordon, host of the Metal Geeks podcast. Ever wonder what celebrities eat? Find out in this amazing book - The Positively Disney Cookbook: Personal Recipes From Your Favorite Celebrities Across the Disney-Verse. We welcome author Kimberley Bouchard on to talk about this book and the celebrity stories behind these recipes. Carrie Fisher, Daniel Logan, Peter Mayhew, Terri Hardin and Margaret Kerry are just a few of the 80+ celebrities. If you are not hungry now you will be in a few minutes. Sign up for the Skywalking Network Newsletter Never miss a podcast, Zoom discussion link or Pop Culture Trivia! Check out these SKYwalking NETwork Podcasts: Resilience Squadron - Sharing the adventures and challenges of disabled fans across and in the Star Wars universe Classic Marvel Star Wars Comics - Delving into each issue of the Star Wars comic series 1977-1986 The Max EFX Podcast - Chronicling the 35-year Special Effects film career of Max Cervantes Neverland Clubhouse - Two sisters, and best friends, sharing Disney adventures Talking Apes - focusing on the original Planet of the Apes films and TV shows Totally Tell Me Everything - Two ladies, one topic, three questions. Sarah Woloski and Bryn MacKinnon learn, share and grow. Star Warsologies - A podcast about Science and Star Wars SPONSORS Small World Vacations is an official sponsor of Skywalking Through Neverland. Contact them for a no obligation price quote at www.smallworldvacations.com. Tell them Skywalking Through Neverland sent you. SUPPORT THE SHOW Find out how you can become a part of the Skywalking Force and unlock bonus content. CONTACT US Instagram: http://instagram.com/skywalkingpod Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkywalkingPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skywalkingthroughneverland Send emails to share@skywalkingthroughneverland.com and follow us on Facebook. If you dug this episode, click over to iTunes | Stitcher | YouTube and leave us a review! Never Land on Alderaan!
Welcome back!This episode features a farewell to Mike Nesmith, some Bigfoot News, the Mandela effect, Better than WHAT.com, the Fox News Christmas Tree, the return of the McRib, Ghislaine Maxwell, a January 6th update, Alex Jones, Bennies in magazine ads? The war on Christmas Bob Dole and some Christmas Wrapping paper teasers.
In this episode we welcome the wonderful Norman Jopling to join us in RBP's sleek Hammersmith recording suite (yeah, right) and reminisce about his days as a budding "pop reporter" on Record Mirror.As a rhythm 'n' blues obsessive in early '60s London, Norman was the first music journalist to write about the "Rollin' Stones" — in May 1963 — and he tells Mark, Barney & Jasper about the Sunday night in Richmond when he first saw and heard Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill & "Charles Watts" blow the roof of the town's Station Hotel. He also talks about his Record Mirror colleagues Peter Jones, Ian Dove & the legendary Guy Stevens; about giving the 19-year-old Eric Clapton a lift on his scooter; and about the interviews he later did with Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix.From there we return to the episode's broadly Stonesy theme, hearing audio clips from Robin Eggar's 1997 audio interview with the late Charlie Watts and discussing the man's unique drumming style and endearingly unpretentious personality. Also sadly lost to us this year — this week, to be precise — are reggae icon Robbie Shakespeare and "freaky deke" critic Greg "Ironman" Tate; we pay tribute to both these giants.With Norman pitching in, Mark talks us out with his thoughts on newly-added library pieces about Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach (both Maureen Cleave interviews from 1964) and Columbia's Clive Davis (a Loraine Alterman interview from 1974). Jasper rounds things off with remarks on Sophie Heawood's 2009 Snoop Dogg interview and Michael Gonzales' retrospective piece on Common's Electric Circus album.Many thanks to special guest Norman Jopling; keep an eye out for his book Shake It Up Baby.Please note that this episode was recorded before the death of Mike Nesmith, so we'll be paying tribute to him in the next episode.Pieces discussed: Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, London R&B, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Watts audio, Sly and Robbie, Greg Tate, Phil Spector, Union Gap, Carol Grimes, Clive Davis, Gary Numan, Burt Bacharach, Keith Richards, The Smiths, Lisa Roxanne, Snoop Dogg, Common and John Miles.
We think the title pretty much says it all. Yoni really is pissed off! Why? American politics (as usual); his wife having a serious accident which didn't need to happen; an outrageous move by the German government toward the family of a holocaust survivor; the deaths of Stephen Sondheim and Mike Nesmith. Really? What more does one need? Again, a word of warning to the easily offended — yet again, this week's show once again brings out the New Yorker in Yoni, so be prepared for language that may offend the delicate sensibilities of certain members of the audience. Like we said — he's really pissed off!
In which we remember the lightness of touch and winning gallows humour of Mike Nesmith and the interesting ways he made and spent his fortunes. And it's 50 years since There's A Riot Goin' On, the most radical record to ever top the US charts, and 40 years since the girls transformed the Human League. Plus Hepworth's “confessions of an amateur weed smoker”, the less you pay for records the better they are, and the gloriously daft reason ELO's first album was called “No Answer” in the States. New patrons are literally piped aboard with a bosun's whistle!Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episode 86: I will be talking about Christmas Windows Displays at Department Stores in Chicago and remembering Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pete-kastanes/message
Episode 86: I will be talking about Christmas Windows Displays at Department Stores in Chicago and remembering Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pete-kastanes/message
Like all of us, I was shocked and saddened to hear about the death of Mike Nesmith. I just saw him perform as part of the Mike and Micky Monkees Farewell Tour just a little over a month ago. I did think Mike looked a little frail, but he sounded great and the show was fantastic.I was fortunate enough to have Mike as a guest on the show twice, first on April 19th 2017 when his memoir "Infinite Tuesday" had just come out. He also called in about a year later on April 12, 2018, when the paperback version came out.I'm happy and honored I was able to spend time with him.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
One day in 2000, I was standing chatting to Mickey Dolenz in Dublin Hotel before we did an interview for radio. Billy Bob Thornton walked over, said, 'Hey, hey! I flew all the way to Dublin to see the Monkees show! Aren't they cool, man?" I said, "They always were." And they were. Even as a child I knew that. So, I am very sad to hear of Mike Nesmith's death. I never interviewed him but this is me and Dolenz telling the story of The Monkees in a way that he said had never been told before. I loved their music.
Pat welcomes legendary lead singer of The Monkees, Micky Dolenz, to the Zoom Room to discuss his new album "Dolenz Sings Nesmith."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Here we go again! Join Nate as he talks to author and journalist D.X. Ferris (33 1/3: Reign in Blood, The Story of Donnie Iris & the Cruisers). D.X. shares how focus and knowing what he wanted in life has brought him the success he has found as a writer. But first, Nate makes a case for the Monkees and performs a cover of the Mike Nesmith classic, “Nine Times Blue.” --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ytmj/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ytmj/support
Writer/producer John Levenstein (Arrested Development, Kroll Show) stops by to make a case for The Monkees' induction into the Rock Hall. Also discussed in this episode is John's experience writing comedy for Mike Nesmith, taking a "hero's dose" of drugs, and the Archies.
Writer/producer John Levenstein (Arrested Development, Kroll Show) stops by to make a case for The Monkees' induction into the Rock Hall. Also discussed in this episode is John's experience writing comedy for Mike Nesmith, taking a "hero's dose" of drugs, and the Archies.Have a listen to all the great podcasts over on Pantheon!
Ladies Night Out Amy Barnes bit!Being a Spiritual Mother or Father - Pastor Steve Cordle.Lord, Save Me from My Side Hustle: Hard work is a Virtue, but Scripture warns of its vice. - Rebecca Rene Jones.The Southern Baptist Convention deals with the ideas of marriage, divorce, and spousal abuse.Mike Nesmith from The Monkees - just saw his net worth today is $50M, but it's due to what his mom invented, not due to his music.Mariah Carey and Mental Health - Amy Simpson.Companies complaining they can't find enough truck drivers to ship their stuff because of Amazon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Whole Shebang: The Minute-by-Minute Velvet Goldmine Podcast
In Minute 38 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk Mandy's sexy goth look of exhaustion, Cecil's more authentically oldster exhaustion, and the need for a snug coat overnight at a summer festival in England, the concept of early trauma being a source of genius, the legendary Whistler/Wilde exchange on plagiarism and their entire artistic and professional rivalry, the origins of music video and its early innovators in form of Bowie, the Beatles, Queen, and Mike Nesmith.... and then we begin our multi-day deep dive into the video for “The Ballad of Maxwell Demon,” which features a look at Curt Wild as the Great God Pan, the monochromatic deco(r) genius of Syrie Maugham, brightest of the Bright Young Things Stephen Tennant, the history of the fop, Beau Brummel, and sumptuary laws, and the trope of giant eyes looking in through the windows of tiny houses. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
