Podcasts about monkee

Hey hey! Micky Dolenz was a Monkee, and once he stopped Monkeeing around his career took him to some unusual places. Few stranger than this one-off BBC television drama, part of the Premiere strand of single plays. It's a bleak, eccentric snapshot of a now almost unrecognisable time when Hell's Angels patrolled the streets, single parenthood was a mark of shame and British television channels could afford to make shows.In the first in a two-part look at Premiere's pop connections - which will conclude over on our Patreon - Mark Cunliffe joins us again to talk about the often grim lives of the film's cast, the strange niches they often got cast in, and their connections to everyone from Joan Collins to Saddam Hussein. We also discuss Cliff Twemlow, and Graham makes a confession that risks his career...As noted above, we've got a sequel to this episode coming out which Rocky Horror fans won't want to miss - and you won't miss it if you join our Patreon, where you'll also find weekly articles on Doctor Who, The X-Files and The Twilight Zone, plus an end-of-month podcast (Last Night...) that rounds up the wide variety of things we've been watching recently. Follow us on Instagram, BlueSky and Facebook to find out more.

Kennst du das Gefühl, dass dich die Start-up-Welt mitreißt – und du manchmal Gefahr läufst, dich selbst aus den Augen zu verlieren? In dieser Episode von „beschwingt“ spreche ich mit Martin, Co-Founder und CEO von Monkee, über die spannende Reise vom Konzernmanager zum Impact-Gründer. Wir nehmen dich mit hinter die Kulissen eines Start-ups, das es sich zur Mission gemacht hat, Millionen Menschen zu mehr finanzieller Gesundheit zu verhelfen – und sprechen vor allem aber auch ganz offen über die persönlichen Herausforderungen, die dieser Weg mit sich bringt. Wir besprechen: - warum „Save now, buy later“ mehr ist als nur ein Slogan – und wie Monkee Menschen hilft, ihre Ziele nachhaltig zu erreichen - welche Highs und Lows Martin auf dem Weg vom sicheren Konzernjob zum Start-up-Gründer erlebt hat - wie es gelingt, bei aller Leidenschaft für das eigene Business nicht auszubrennen, sondern bewusst Grenzen zu setzen - warum echte Erfüllung im Unternehmertum mehr braucht als nur Passion und ständiges „Hustlen“ - wie Martin seinen Alltag gestaltet, um Energie, Familie und Business in Balance zu halten – und welche Rolle dabei auch persönliche Rückschläge und Learnings spielen Diese Episode ist für dich, wenn du wissen willst, wie nachhaltiger Erfolg im Business UND im Leben wirklich funktioniert – und warum es sich lohnt, immer wieder auf dich selbst zu achten, während du Großes bewegst. Hier findest du Martin und Monkee: https://at.linkedin.com/in/martin-granig-52775054?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name https://monkee.rocks Arbeite mit mir: Du möchtest gemeinsam mit mir daran arbeiten, dein Business um dein Leben herum zu kreieren? Buche dein 1:1 Strategiegespräch und wir entwickeln deine individuelle Roadmap: https://calendly.com/chiara-bachmann/1-1-strategie-call-mit-chiara-bachmann Abonniere gerne den "beschwingt" Podcast auf deiner Lieblings-Podcast-Plattform oder auf Youtube und verpasse keine Folge. Wenn dir die Episode gefallen hat, hinterlasse gerne eine Bewertung und teile den Podcast gerne mit anderen Unternehmer:innen, denen beides wichtig ist: Businesserfolg und Lebensqualität. Folge mir auch gerne auf Instagram unter @chiaraivanabachmann & besuche meine Homepage unter https://chiarabachmann.com

(3:39) - Robots that can climb trees or restore coral reefsThis episode was brought to you by Mouser, our favorite place to get electronics parts for any project, whether it be a hobby at home or a prototype for work. Click HERE to learn more about the critical role that robots will play to feed the projected 9.1 BILLION people on earth in 2050! Become a founding reader of our newsletter: http://read.thenextbyte.com/ As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

Mariam Kariman, Owner of The Fresh Monkee, joins Mesa Chamber Director of Communications Bob Nelson in discussing the healthy protein shakes they offer and her experience as a small business owner.  Learn more about The Fresh Monkee at: freshmonkee.com The Mesa Chamber of Commerce Inside Business Podcast is a production of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. Each episode is recorded in the University of Phoenix Podcast Studio. Inquiries regarding the MCIBP can be made via email to info@mesachamber.org.  The Podcast interviews members and individuals/organizations on topics of interest to Mesa Chamber members. Learn more at mesachamber.org. ©2025 Mesa Chamber of Commerce  

This week we’re MONKEEING AROUND with DINO KOVAS! Dino tells us about his childhood as a Monkees fan, his encounters with the guys, and how he became a New Monkee! Monkeeing Around is a part of the ESO Podcast Network, Executive Producer Mike Faber. #monkees #newmonkees #dinokovas #larrysaltis #martyross #jaredchandler The post New Monkee Dino Kovas Part 1 – Monkeeing Around – Episode 70 appeared first on The ESO Network.

This week we're MONKEEING AROUND with DINO KOVAS! Dino tells us about his childhood as a Monkees fan, his encounters with the guys, and how he became a New Monkee! Monkeeing Around is a part of the ESO Podcast Network, Executive Producer Mike Faber. #monkees #newmonkees #dinokovas #larrysaltis #martyross #jaredchandler

Monologue:Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim (49 Miles and 12,100 feet of Climbing)Make Believe AstronautsRobot Half MarathonDakota Meyer Re-Enlists to Marine Corp.Monkee's of Dripping Springs is a high-end women's boutique located in the heart of Dripping Springs, Texas. Owned and operated by Elona Appleby, the boutique features a carefully curated selection of clothing, accessories, gifts, and shoes from a range of premium brands and designers. Elona's passion for fashion and dedication to building genuine connections are reflected in every aspect of the Monkee's experience. Whether shopping in-store or online, customers are welcomed into an inviting, personalized environment designed to make them feel special. Under Elona's leadership, Monkee's of Dripping Springs has become more than just a boutique—it's a vibrant part of the community and a destination for style, inspiration, and connection.Based in Dripping Springs, Steve Mallett and Michelle Lewis invite you into their world of engaging conversations with guests who bring fresh ideas, humor, and wisdom to the table. They dive into everything from life's absurdities to community quirks, adding their signature twist of small-town charm and bold candor. Think of them as the funny neighbors with the best stories, the ones who always tell it like it is. With a healthy dose of Hill Country spirit, they explore local gossip and topics that connect us all—proving you don't need to be famous to be extraordinary; you just need a microphone and the courage to share your voice. Every episode is a mix of laughter, insight, and connection, making this podcast one you won't want to miss! New episodes weekly! Send us a textSupport the showSPONSORS: The top Real Estate Pro's at The Mallett Integrity Team. Call-512-627-7018 SouthStar Bank a tradition of full-service community banking for over 100 years. www.southstarbank.com Nomic Power Solutions your trusted partner in Austin for turnkey backup generator installation, service, and maintenance for your home. Cody/Dillon-512-387-4232 Jovie Belterra-Nestled within the Belterra master-planned community, discover your path to joy and wellness at the exquisite 55+ apartment community. Thanks for listening! Follow us, leave a review, TELL A FRIEND!AppleSpotifyInstagramWebsitemallettandmichelle@gmail.com for inquiries on advertising or gue...

Bill Chadwick - "Interview" https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/148615

Hear how Micky Dolenz of The Monkees recent recordings are exploring new ground, and how he celebrates being part of one of the most popular bands of the 1960s. Also: Invisible Theatre's production of "What the Constitution Means to Me"; and how Adiba Nelson's new children's book is a love letter to those seeking representation and a connection to spirituality.

Hear how Micky Dolenz of The Monkees recent recordings are exploring new ground, and how he celebrates being part of one of the most popular bands of the 1960s. Also: Invisible Theatre's production of "What the Constitution Means to Me"; and how Adiba Nelson's new children's book is a love letter to those seeking representation and a connection to spirituality.

There's a Mega Python, a Gateroid, a Monkee, and two former mall rats.

  Episode 166:New Version Of An Old One November 20, 2024 I hope you're well and ready for some music from a lot of West Coast bands today. You know, we dig into these great albums of the 60s and 70s and some of you younger listeners may not have been on the Earth at that time. You know, just a little gleam in your daddy's eyes? So hello to you younger listeners today . A lot of us were brought up listening to this music that we're gonna hear today and some of us are getting to hear it another time. If it's new to you, just dig it! I like to play many album cuts of mostly familiar songs but I do like to throw in some new songs or songs that we really don't hear that much back in the day. Oh! I never thought I'd use that phrase “back in the day“but there it is. We're going to hear from Crosby Stills Nash and Young, a Monkee, yes they can be trained, Nashville's Orleans and quite a number more. As always, I want to thank all the supporters of this program who monthly contribute through Patron.podbean.com/talesvinyltellssupport. I bow to you, thank you and invite everyone to check out how you can show your love for this awesome music of the hippie generation, whether you were there or just get down with the albums of that time. Remember that Tales Vinyl Tells can be streamed as it happens on RadioFreeNashville.org Wednesdays at 5 Pm Central time and all the episodes are listenable and downloadable on your favorite podcast app (I say probably), just don't try Spotify. They say it doesn't allow them to pay their millionth of a cent royalty to artists and I get that. So whatever they say, they remove it so you'll just have to listen elsewhere. Like Podbean.com or PlayerFM or maybe even StudioMillsWellness.com/tales-vinyl-tells. Take your pick or pick your take. Rock on, take care, stay well and be nice. BH

Vieves takes a confusing journey into social media where she discovers a top-shelf parody in service of appliance marketing. But the real headline is the bounty of great content sent in by the Ad Council, from a Monkee-driven cross promo to a chocolatier's humiliating admission. Here are links to the ads we talked about in this week's show: Curry's Air Fryer: American Psycho https://www.tiktok.com/@currys/video/7435239059892473120 American Psycho Business Card Scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4UQf7zb3Pk Opzelura: Big Media Moments: Celebrate https://www.ispot.tv/ad/684k/opzelura-big-media-moments-celebrate Blue Star Counterfeit Diamond Rings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSvRosTq_k Monkees Nerf Ball Kool-Aid Commercial https://youtu.be/34RZOTtlvkM?si=27pjIR9DkXe9ayDV Lindt Chocolate https://youtu.be/cFB0XBV6JdU?si=_uZK3rgjnukqhuj0 Santa Fe Railroad Commercials Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR4Pl4hOB139uEosndclKOCJEssHCMF2G Amtrak Commercials Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR4Pl4hOB139WIheR4Hq0HHmJqDCereCt Oral B: Brush Like A Pro https://www.ispot.tv/ad/5e6l/oral-b-io-round-cleans-better-9999 Raising Cane's: Post Malone on National Chicken Finger Day https://www.ispot.tv/ad/10E4/raising-canes-national-chicken-finger-day-featuring-post-malone

This week we’re Monkeeing Around with Derek Miner of Mixing Links: The Monkees on Disc and Matt Sweatman of Elaine and Matt Watch TV to discuss The Monkees’ 1969 television special, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee! We also discuss the latest news from MonkeeMania Radio, an update from Beatland Books, Peter Tork and The Monkees […] The post 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee – Monkeeing Around – Episode 61 appeared first on The ESO Network.

This week we're Monkeeing Around with Derek Miner of Mixing Links: The Monkees on Disc and Matt Sweatman of Elaine and Matt Watch TV to discuss The Monkees' 1969 television special, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee! We also discuss the latest news from MonkeeMania Radio, an update from Beatland Books, Peter Tork and The Monkees being inducted into the New England Music Hall of Fame, and a new live album from Micky Dolenz! Our 'You May Also Like' recommendation this week is SUPER 8 Goes J-PoP! from Super 8 Music! Monkeeing Around is a part of the ESO Podcast Network, Executive Producer Mike Faber. #monkees #33revolutuionspermonkee #monkeemaniaradio #iwantmymmr #beatlandbooks #petertork #mickydolenz #davyjones #mikenesmith #newenglandmusichalloffame #liveatthetroubadour #super8music #super8goesjpop

Send us a textOn this episode Tom and Bert discuss and review the Greatest Theme Songs of all time, Part 2!Many people from the "Golden Age" of TV, which were the 1950's through the 1990's, will recognize many of these great shows that have been watched by generations over the years.The "Theme Song" had a major impact on getting your attention and hopefully bringing you in to watch the show.From "The Jetson's" (9:39); to the "The Monkee's" (11:51); to  "M*A*S*H" " (21:29); and "I Dream Of Jeannie" (30:56); to "Welcome Back Kotter" with John Travolta the leader of the "Sweat Hogs" (33:46); we bring you a recap of each show with the backdrop of most of the songs that made them famous.Some other classics to check out as you go through the podcast are, "Bewitched" (39:05); "Taxi" (44:28); and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"  (52:43).Enjoy the show!You can email us at reeldealzmoviesandmusic@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page, Reel Dealz Podcast: Movies & Music Thru The Decades to leave comments and/or TEXT us at 843-855-1704 as well.

Hey Hey, it's The Monkee Men! We are thrilled to speak with Ron McNeil who created this Monkees tribute band as well as Frankee Mendonca who perfectly embodies the role of Davy Jones. We just saw them in concert and it was like watching a lost episode of The Monkees TV show. Ron and Frankee give us a peek behind the curtain and tell us what it takes to put together this show that takes its parts from the TV series and their beloved music. This is as close to having the actual Monkees (circa 1966) as we can get and they do not disappoint! Many thanks to Bryna Dambrowski for setting up this interview.   Today in Star Wars History - 9/30/2010   Verizon Wireless releases the highly anticipated limited edition DROID R2-D2 by Motorola. The phone was available for $249 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.     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!

Hey Hey, it's The Monkee Men! We are thrilled to speak with Ron McNeil who created this Monkees tribute band as well as Frankee Mendonca who perfectly embodies the role of Davy Jones. We just saw them in concert and it was like watching a lost episode of The Monkees TV show. Ron and Frankee give us a peek behind the curtain and tell us what it takes to put together this show that takes its parts from the TV series and their beloved music. This is as close to having the actual Monkees (circa 1966) as we can get and they do not disappoint! Many thanks to Bryna Dambrowski for setting up this interview.   Today in Star Wars History - 9/30/2010   Verizon Wireless releases the highly anticipated limited edition DROID R2-D2 by Motorola. The phone was available for $249 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.     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!

Effy looks, laughs, and listens. Petár saw those legs and they sure were long. —— Get early episodes, bonus minisodes, merch discounts, Effy video blogs, puppy content and weather reports in the Pleasure Zone: patreon.com/weekendateffys Sponsor the podcast: weekendateffys@gmail.com SEND EFFY: 650 Ponce De Leon Ave Ste. 300 #2936 Atlanta, GA 30308 Book EFFY: effylives.com Wear EFFY: wrestlingis.gay - Petár and the aliens: @lowskydance etsy.com/shop/LOWSKYDANCE --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/effylives/support

The latest installment of the Stone Cold Crazy Countdown Show with your host Abbey Thomas. Join Abbey as she counts down albums 14 & 13 from her list of the top 20 albums of the vinyl era. Don't Monkee around, come take this musical Journey with Abbey! It's Stone Cold Crazy ya know?!

Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Sneaky Dragon – the anti-bellum podcast! This week: questionable; mugged; civil service; rootless; missing the point; sound affect; Dreddful praise; genre fluid; Monkee man; dancing daze; excitable lawyers; good night Vienna; étranger in an étrange land; I love the nightlife; serious foodies; coked up wine; sit down and fight; no dummies; […]

Movie of the Year: 1984Repo ManCan Repo Man take the title of our 1984 Movie of the Year?In the early 80's, UCLA film student Alex Cox wanted to move from student films to features. Remaking his student film by the same name, Repo Man would have a budget of 500 grand and be filled with punk rockers. Enter Michael Nesmith, everyone's least favorite Monkee. At the time, Nesmith's pockets were flush with that sweet liquid paper money, so he, along with universal, decided to turn Repo Man into a real movie. Well…as real as it turned out to be.Repo Man tells the story of Otto, a young punk who has nothing going for him in post-apocalyptic Edge City. The apocalypse here, however, doesn't come after a bomb has dropped, or zombies have attacked. This is after the apocalypse created by voting in conservatives (boo; furthermore, hiss). Otto takes a job as a repo man, and suddenly has a purpose, a mentor, and a girlfriend. Everything would probably end slightly less than fine if it wasn't for a Chevy Malibu barreling towards our characters.Coming up this season we have some of the most fun movies we've covered and some of the most amazing guests we've ever hosted. Stay tuned, everyone, because things are just getting started.Visit our websiteUse our Amazon page!Like us!Follow us!

Ron McNeil, founder of legendary Beatles tribute The Fab Four takes us behind the scenes as he starts a brand new tribute to The Monkees. Hear all about how he built his line up of Monkee Men and the attention to detail involved. From costumes to comedy and the story of building the drum kit from hell, it's a fun episode you're sure to enjoy.

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

LISTEN: On the Monday, Nov. 6 edition of Georgia Today: The federal government sends relief to farmers in Northwest Georgia struggling with drought; Georgia is getting money from the CDC to tackle racial and ethnic disparities in health care; and Micky Dolenz of the Monkees pays tribute to Athens music legends R.E.M. 

Zilch#187 with Glenn Gretlund from "7a"talks the deluxe 55th Anniversary release of Boyce & Hart's critically acclaimed 1968 album “I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite?” Limited 180gm red colored vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition. Released in March 1968, I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite? was the most successful merging of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart's distinct artistic styles. Whether it be Tommy's sweet pop concoctions or Bobby Hart's bluesy soul leanings, the two fully blend on this, their second long player. The album arrived on the heels of the duo's explosive success, writing and producing for the Monkees. I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite? made the charts in April 1968. A&M had a strong and fostering relationship with their artists at that time and Boyce & Hart would return with another album (It's All Happening On The Inside) and three more singles. Nevertheless, their second album was a peak commercially and artistically and still holds up decades later, as one of the finer pieces of pop craftsmanship from one of the most prolific eras of rock music. This deluxe 55th Anniversary edition has been remastered and includes extensive liner notes by Monkees manager and historian Andrew Sandoval. For more Monkee related releases (and more!), please visit: https://www.7arecords.com/get it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Wonder-What-Shes-Doing-Tonight/dp/B0C6B65ZZNor https://www.importcds.com/i-wonder-what-shes-doing-tonite-180gm-red-vinyl/5060209950464https://www.deepdiscount.com/i-wonder-what-shes-doing-tonite-180gm-red-vinyl/5060209950464Originally Aired 9/7/23We were born to love one another. Support Zilch, get a cool shirt! www.redbubble.com/people/designsbyken/works/12348740-zilch-podcast?c=314383-monkees-inspired-art Join our Facebook page If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here Download (right click, save as)

This week we’re MONKEEING AROUND with Melanie Mitchell, author of Monkee Magic: a Book about a TV Show about a Band! We also discuss the upcoming vinyl release of Micky Dolenz Puts You to Sleep from Friday Music and a special on 7a Records’ Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart you don’t want to miss! In … Monkeeing Around – Monkee Magic with Melanie Mitchell – Episode 35 Read More » The post Monkeeing Around – Monkee Magic with Melanie Mitchell – Episode 35 appeared first on The ESO Network.

This week we're MONKEEING AROUND with Melanie Mitchell, author of Monkee Magic: a Book about a TV Show about a Band! We also discuss the upcoming vinyl release of Micky Dolenz Puts You to Sleep from Friday Music and a special on 7a Records' Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart you don't want to miss! In our 'You May Also Like' segment this week we highlight one of Veronica and Chucks' favorite bands, The Ruen Brothers! Monkeeing Around is a part of the ESO Podcast Network, Executive Producer Mike Faber.

This week we’re Monkeeing Around with The Monkee Men! We’re joined by Joshua Jones, Frank Mendonca, and Ron McNeil to discuss their landmark Monkees tribute group on the heels of their first public performance! We also discuss the latest news from 7a Records and Micky Dolenz! In this week’s ‘You May Also Like’ segment we … Monkeeing Around – The Monkee Men – Episode 34 Read More » The post Monkeeing Around – The Monkee Men – Episode 34 appeared first on The ESO Network.

This week we're Monkeeing Around with The Monkee Men! We're joined by Joshua Jones, Frank Mendonca, and Ron McNeil to discuss their landmark Monkees tribute group on the heels of their first public performance! We also discuss the latest news from 7a Records and Micky Dolenz! In this week's 'You May Also Like' segment we mention "Plein D'Amour", the latest release from the current iteration of The Guess Who. Monkeeing Around is a part of the ESO Podcast Network, Executive Producer Mike Faber.

Whoooo's number ooooone? (BA BA BAAAAAA!) That's not a spoiler, by the way, so you'll have to listen to our First-Name Basis finale to find out which name song is the most iconic of all time -- and also what SDB's grandma called farts, differing sources of iconicity, listener testimony from an Eileen, which song has a reliable narrator, and when the "M" in "MILF" stands for "Monkee." Season picks crash and burn, we split babies and bemoan overalls...it's the usual chaos and kismet, and it's (sorry in advance) SO GOOD! SO GOOD! Our intro is [deep breath] Elliott Smith, Ben Folds, Andrew Byrne, Laura Barger, AND Jack Baldelli; interstitial music provided by the Police; and our outro is by Dover. SHOW NOTES For more information/to become a patron of the show, find us on Patreon ...or on Instagram ...or on Facebook Not sure what's going on here? Start at the beginning of the First-Name Basis season Your guide to Jersey rest stops Weird Al's first Emmy SDB's future Mary Mary dress Montclair's own Kreskin The first First-Name Basis Single

Pod Crashing Episode 252 With Alan Williams From Monkee Mania Radio We live in amazing times. If you think it. You can build it. Broadcasters and other creative minds have been given several different platforms to bring their art of sight and sound to life. Alan Williams has taken his love for the Monkee's to a first ever internet radio station. But how did it unfold? What were the legal barriers? How did it almost come crashing down? Monkee Mania Radio is on the air!

There's a quote attributed to Louis Armstrong: “All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song”. Apocryphal? Who knows? Still, it does raise the question as to what folk music actually is. It can be contemporary contemporary or traditional. It can be associated with any number of cultures. It can be instrumental or songs without instrumental accompaniment. The songs can be about tales of heroes, cads, fair maidens, murder, politics, or.....that very infrequent topic of song – love. Welcome to episode 167 of Love That Album podcast. I am joined once again by Shane Pacey, singer and guitarist for The Bondi Cigars, The Shane Pacey Trio and Pacey, King & Doley. His own music may be rooted in blues (another category that's more varied than is often given credit for), but Shane has a passion and huge knowledge about English folk music. Together we discussed the music of Scottish guitarist Bert Jansch. Bert was part of supergroup Pentangle (LTA episode 134), but before, during and after that group he recorded many albums in his own name. He has been put in the “folk” caregory, but he was part of a generation of UK musicians that were keen to expand what folk music could be. Bert and contemporaries like John Renbourn, Davy Graham, Wizz Jones and John Fahey were huge fans of American blues and jazz music. They sought to put all their musical passions into a pot and stir. Bert developed a guitar style that made him a revered figure amongst rock musicians like Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page and Neil Young, yet his playing was never about the flash or histrionics. He just quietly played original and traditional songs in HIS own sweet way....and his singing voice was not a classic voice in the rock sense, and yet it draws you in – there was no one who played or sang like him. Shane and I talk about Bert as musician, our relation to his work, contemporaries, and we focus on two of his albums – 1971's “Rosemary Lane” and 1974's “L.A. Turnaround” (produced by a Monkee and featuring a 5th Beatle on bass). It's always great having Shane bring his musical expertise to the show. I hope you dig this one. You can find Shane's music on line at https://shanepaceytrio.com.au/ or https://bondicigars.com/ or https://shanepacey.bandcamp.com/album/the-gardener. Here's a link to a tribute concert to Bert that we mention in the show: https://youtu.be/Y_MyH_Uc--s Download this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice or you can get it from the website at https://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/love-that-album-episode-167-bert-jansch.html Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows. You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum Proudly Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a quote attributed to Louis Armstrong: “All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song”. Apocryphal? Who knows? Still, it does raise the question as to what folk music actually is. It can be contemporary contemporary or traditional. It can be associated with any number of cultures. It can be instrumental or songs without instrumental accompaniment. The songs can be about tales of heroes, cads, fair maidens, murder, politics, or.....that very infrequent topic of song – love. Welcome to episode 167 of Love That Album podcast. I am joined once again by Shane Pacey, singer and guitarist for The Bondi Cigars, The Shane Pacey Trio and Pacey, King & Doley. His own music may be rooted in blues (another category that's more varied than is often given credit for), but Shane has a passion and huge knowledge about English folk music. Together we discussed the music of Scottish guitarist Bert Jansch. Bert was part of supergroup Pentangle (LTA episode 134), but before, during and after that group he recorded many albums in his own name. He has been put in the “folk” caregory, but he was part of a generation of UK musicians that were keen to expand what folk music could be. Bert and contemporaries like John Renbourn, Davy Graham, Wizz Jones and John Fahey were huge fans of American blues and jazz music. They sought to put all their musical passions into a pot and stir. Bert developed a guitar style that made him a revered figure amongst rock musicians like Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page and Neil Young, yet his playing was never about the flash or histrionics. He just quietly played original and traditional songs in HIS own sweet way....and his singing voice was not a classic voice in the rock sense, and yet it draws you in – there was no one who played or sang like him. Shane and I talk about Bert as musician, our relation to his work, contemporaries, and we focus on two of his albums – 1971's “Rosemary Lane” and 1974's “L.A. Turnaround” (produced by a Monkee and featuring a 5th Beatle on bass). It's always great having Shane bring his musical expertise to the show. I hope you dig this one. You can find Shane's music on line at https://shanepaceytrio.com.au/ or https://bondicigars.com/ or https://shanepacey.bandcamp.com/album/the-gardener. Here's a link to a tribute concert to Bert that we mention in the show: https://youtu.be/Y_MyH_Uc--s Download this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice. The wider back catalogue of episodes can also be found at http://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows. You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum Proudly Pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello! Coming to you from my ACTUAL storage spot this week. Pumped to finish the tour up and get back on my regular posting schedule. Love yall. Thanks for sticking with me.  

When Beatlemania swept the nation in the 1960s, the only logical and properly capitalistic response was to ask: “How can we steal this idea and turn it into a good ol' American money grab?” And thus was born the idea for a show featuring four talented, eccentric bandmates who just want to make some noise, shake a timbourine, and go on some wild adventures. But when these fictional band buddies decided to break the fourth wall of their TV show by taking control of the music production itself, things went, well, a little bananas…Ray teaches Rob about the Monkees, a uniquely American creation that shamelessly ripped off and riffed on the success of the Beatles; how producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider (no relation) found their four lead actors; how the only Monkee with no drumming experience ended up behind the kit; Don Kirschner's “Golden Ear”; why you shouldn't believe everything you read about Monkees album sales; and whether, after all is said and done, the Monkees were a legitimate band, or just a wannabe group of actors with instruments.If you like what we are doing, please support us on Patreon.TEAMRay HebelRobert W. SchneiderMark SchroederBilly RecceDaniel SchwartzbergGabe CrawfordNatalie DeSaviaARTICLESEPISODE CLIPSSmash Mouth - I'm a BelieverI'm a Believer - the MonkeesJay & the Americans Come a Little Bit CloserFats Domino - Be My GuestThe Monkees - Opening Theme (H.Q)The Monkees - Last Train to Clarksville 1966The Monkees - Steppin' Stone [WideScreen]Davy Jones “Girl” - the Brady Bunch *HQ*The Fonz | Top 10 AaayyysThe Archies - Sugar,Sugar (Original 1969 Footage HD)(Theme From) The Monkees - The Monkees | Karaoke Version | KaraFunADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS“Happy Bee” and “Malt Shop Bop”• Kevin MacLeod (

John Billings has worked as a touring bass player with national acts including Donna Summer, Wynonna Judd, and Rick Springfield, as well as various incarnations and combinations of the '60s pop superstars The Monkees.  My guest, John Billings, and I discuss: Jeff Dwoskin shares his Monkee memories with John who was at two of those concerts! The Monkees 50th Anniversary Show in Detroit and the Mike and Micky Show in Chicago. John Billings discusses working with Rick Springfield on the road John discusses giving up a career in the pawn show and leaving LA for Nashville whereas his musical career just took off! We discuss John's love of KISS and his favorite KISS songs Working with Donna Summer for 17 years and how he learned about her passing John makes a solid case that Donna Summer deserves the same treatment that other artists received after their passing John and Jeff draw and share comparisons of being on stage doing comedy vs music and how similar it is in terms so how the show is impacted by the energy of the audience Meeting and becoming a part of Micky Dolenz's band and ultimately a part of The Monkees. Touring with the Monkees and the freshness the Goodtimes album brought to the tour with its contributions of so many solid new Monkees songs John shares many touching memories of being with Michael Nesmith on the final tour before his passing John discusses Wine Down Nashville, a cozy little spot in the same little strip mall where you can get great wine and great entertainment. and much more! You're going to love my conversation with John Billings Wine Down Nashville Instagram Twitter Musical Credits SPONSORS: AIRDOCTOR: Head over to https://airdoctorpro.com and use promo code CLASSIC, and depending on the model, you'll receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off! FACTOR MEALS - Head over here and use code classic50 to get 50% off your first box. Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host): Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter Podcast website Podcast on Instagram Join my mailing list Buy me a coffee (support the show) Subscribe to my Youtube channel (watch Crossing the Streams!) Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zilch#186 with Glenn Gretlund from "7a" discuss Michael Nesmith's "Pretty Much your standard ranch stash" 50th Anniversary release For more Monkee related releases (and more!), please visit: https://www.7arecords.com/We were born to love one another. Support Zilch, get a cool shirt! www.redbubble.com/people/designsbyken/works/12348740-zilch-podcast?c=314383-monkees-inspired-art Join our Facebook page If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here Download (right click, save as)

We're just sipping Green Day coffee and yipping through a few miscellaneous subjects. Including: A reunion of Slipnutz (one of the greatest bands ever to specialize in slipping on nuts); Disney animator Ron Clements (we're looking forward to his version of DC's goofy robot team the Metal Men); a concert report on the last Monkee standing, Micky Dolenz; a look at the debut albums of 1967 (including the big three: Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Mr. Spock); and a Chickens in the News story from Woonsocket, Rhode Island involving DoorDash, Mr. Hibachi, and a frazzled hen who just wanted to cross the road. The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Cosmic Pizza!  

I think that by now the Monkees have overcome their epithet of "Prefab Four," which I suppose was clever but not especially accurate. At least three of the Monkees were musicians who could act. I'd argue that Micky Dolenz was an actor who could play music. (More on that below.) Having said that, however, he's got one of the best voices of the rock and roll era, so my label comes from the fact that he came from acting rather than from music, as the others did. That they didn't write most of their own music is really of no consequence, given that the pressure for artists to write their own material wasn't really there yet. Similarly, the Monkees were under a tight contract, which made that difficult. Every move they made toward autonomy was met with resistance. In Michael Nesmith's case, it meant some acrimony between him and the label. At any rate, as I mention early in the show, "Daydream Believer" was the Monkees' last Number One hit, but it was only  their second-to-last Top Ten in the United States.  (Their last was 1968's "Valleri," which peaked at #3.) After that, it was the bottom half of the Hot 100 for the band until a brief comeback in 1986. While the  band members had achieved the autonomy they sought, they were also drifting apart as a group. Dolenz had lost interest in drumming, preferring instead to let session musicians take over. Producer Chip Douglas also noted that Dolenz was the weak link musically. He said that Dolenz' work on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. was cobbled together from several takes of the same song. The cancellation of the show and the poor reception of the film Head didn't help either. Finally Peter Tork quit the group by  buying out his contract at the end of 1968. By the time their television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee aired in April 1969, Tork was long gone. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Click here to become a Patron of the show. As a Patron, you get access to a weekly newsletter that publishes at least 48 times per year (stuff happens once in awhile, ya know?). You also get occasional goodies like: Giveaways Special videos Bonus Episodes A Sense of Pride for Having Helped Foster an Independent Creator

This week we’re still MONKEEING AROUND with New Monkee Marty Ross! In part two of our talk with Marty Ross we discussed Marty’s early childhood band, his transition from a pariah in the Monkee Fan community to host of MonkeeMania Radio, the thirty year secret behind the song Affection, how the New Monkees saved a … Monkeeing Around- New Monkee Marty Ross Part Two – Episode 26 Read More » The post Monkeeing Around- New Monkee Marty Ross Part Two – Episode 26 appeared first on The ESO Network.

Zilch #185! Cool It! It's POOL IT! this time I am joined by Elliott Marx as we discussed a controversial album in the Monkees catalog.See Micky Live Get the book herehttps://beatlandbooks.com/For more Monkee related releases, please visit: www.7arecords.comWe were born to love one another.Support Zilch, get a cool shirt!www.redbubble.com/people/designsbyken/works/12348740-zilch-podcast?c=314383-monkees-inspired-artJoin our Facebook pageIf you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file hereDownload (right click, save as)

This week we’re still MONKEEING AROUND with New Monkee Marty Ross! In part two of our talk with Marty Ross we discussed Marty’s early childhood band, his transition from a pariah in the Monkee Fan community to host of MonkeeMania Radio, the thirty year secret behind the song Affection, how the New Monkees saved a … Monkeeing Around- New Monkee Marty Ross Part Two – Episode 26 Read More » The post Monkeeing Around- New Monkee Marty Ross Part Two – Episode 26 appeared first on The ESO Network.

Intellectual Property: Was Netflix's use of a YouTube video in the Tiger King documentary fair use? - Argued: Wed, 22 Mar 2023 11:19:57 EDT

Zilch #184! Micky does Fallon, New Beatland book details, 7a Records News, The Monkees in Goldmine Magazine, & More! Ken & Christine talk about all the latest happenings in the Monkeesverse, and they speculate what songs they'd like to see Coco perform onstage with the Micky Dolenz Band. and More!See Micky Live Get the book herehttps://beatlandbooks.com/For more Monkee related releases, please visit: www.7arecords.comWe were born to love one another.Support Zilch, get a cool shirt!www.redbubble.com/people/designsbyken/works/12348740-zilch-podcast?c=314383-monkees-inspired-artJoin our Facebook pageIf you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file hereDownload (right click, save as)

Episode 162 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Daydream Believer", and the later career of the Monkees, and how four Pinocchios became real boys. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf. 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 No Mixcloud this time, as even after splitting it into multiple files, there are simply too many Monkees tracks excerpted. The best versions of the Monkees albums are the triple-CD super-deluxe versions that used to be available from monkees.com , and I've used Andrew Sandoval's liner notes for them extensively in this episode. Sadly, though, none of those are in print. However, at the time of writing there is a new four-CD super-deluxe box set of Headquarters (with a remixed version of the album rather than the original mixes I've excerpted here) available from that site, and I used the liner notes for that here. Monkees.com also currently has the intermittently-available BluRay box set of the entire Monkees TV series, which also has Head and 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. For those just getting into the group, my advice is to start with this five-CD set, which contains their first five albums along with bonus tracks. The single biggest source of information I used in this episode is the first edition of Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees; The Day-By-Day Story. Sadly that is now out of print and goes for hundreds of pounds. Sandoval released a second edition of the book in 2021, which I was unfortunately unable to obtain, but that too is now out of print. If you can find a copy of either, do get one. Other sources used were Monkee Business by Eric Lefcowitz, and the autobiographies of three of the band members and one of the songwriters — Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith, They Made a Monkee Out of Me by Davy Jones, I'm a Believer by Micky Dolenz, and Psychedelic Bubble-Gum by Bobby Hart. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript When we left the Monkees, they were in a state of flux. To recap what we covered in that episode, the Monkees were originally cast as actors in a TV show, and consisted of two actors with some singing ability -- the former child stars Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz -- and two musicians who were also competent comic actors, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork.  The show was about a fictional band whose characters shared names with their actors, and there had quickly been two big hit singles, and two hit albums, taken from the music recorded for the TV show's soundtrack. But this had caused problems for the actors. The records were being promoted as being by the fictional group in the TV series, blurring the line between the TV show and reality, though in fact for the most part they were being made by session musicians with only Dolenz or Jones adding lead vocals to pre-recorded backing tracks. Dolenz and Jones were fine with this, but Nesmith, who had been allowed to write and produce a few album tracks himself, wanted more creative input, and more importantly felt that he was being asked to be complicit in fraud because the records credited the four Monkees as the musicians when (other than a tiny bit of inaudible rhythm guitar by Tork on a couple of Nesmith's tracks) none of them played on them. Tork, meanwhile, believed he had been promised that the group would be an actual group -- that they would all be playing on the records together -- and felt hurt and annoyed that this wasn't the case. They were by now playing live together to promote the series and the records, with Dolenz turning out to be a perfectly competent drummer, so surely they could do the same in the studio? So in January 1967, things came to a head. It's actually quite difficult to sort out exactly what happened, because of conflicting recollections and opinions. What follows is my best attempt to harmonise the different versions of the story into one coherent narrative, but be aware that I could be wrong in some of the details. Nesmith and Tork, who disliked each other in most respects, were both agreed that this couldn't continue and that if there were going to be Monkees records released at all, they were going to have the Monkees playing on them. Dolenz, who seems to have been the one member of the group that everyone could get along with, didn't really care but went along with them for the sake of group harmony. And Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, the production team behind the series, also took Nesmith and Tork's side, through a general love of mischief. But on the other side was Don Kirshner, the music publisher who was in charge of supervising the music for the TV show. Kirshner was adamantly, angrily, opposed to the very idea of the group members having any input at all into how the records were made. He considered that they should be grateful for the huge pay cheques they were getting from records his staff writers and producers were making for them, and stop whinging. And Davy Jones was somewhere in the middle. He wanted to support his co-stars, who he genuinely liked, but also, he was a working actor, he'd had other roles before, he'd have other roles afterwards, and as a working actor you do what you're told if you don't want to lose the job you've got. Jones had grown up in very severe poverty, and had been his family's breadwinner from his early teens, and artistic integrity is all very nice, but not as nice as a cheque for a quarter of a million dollars. Although that might be slightly unfair -- it might be fairer to say that artistic integrity has a different meaning to someone like Jones, coming from musical theatre and a tradition of "the show must go on", than it does to people like Nesmith and Tork who had come up through the folk clubs. Jones' attitude may also have been affected by the fact that his character in the TV show didn't play an instrument other than the occasional tambourine or maracas. The other three were having to mime instrumental parts they hadn't played, and to reproduce them on stage, but Jones didn't have that particular disadvantage. Bert Schneider, one of the TV show's producers, encouraged the group to go into the recording studio themselves, with a producer of their choice, and cut a couple of tracks to prove what they could do. Michael Nesmith, who at this point was the one who was most adamant about taking control of the music, chose Chip Douglas to produce. Douglas was someone that Nesmith had known a little while, as they'd both played the folk circuit -- in Douglas' case as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet -- but Douglas had recently joined the Turtles as their new bass player. At this point, Douglas had never officially produced a record, but he was a gifted arranger, and had just arranged the Turtles' latest single, which had just been released and was starting to climb the charts: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together"] Douglas quit the Turtles to work with the Monkees, and took the group into the studio to cut two demo backing tracks for a potential single as a proof of concept. These initial sessions didn't have any vocals, but featured Nesmith on guitar, Tork on piano, Dolenz on drums, Jones on tambourine, and an unknown bass player -- possibly Douglas himself, possibly Nesmith's friend John London, who he'd played with in Mike and John and Bill. They cut rough tracks of two songs, "All of Your Toys", by another friend of Nesmith's, Bill Martin, and Nesmith's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (Gold Star Demo)"] Those tracks were very rough and ready -- they were garage-band tracks rather than the professional studio recordings that the Candy Store Prophets or Jeff Barry's New York session players had provided for the previous singles -- but they were competent in the studio, thanks largely to Chip Douglas' steadying influence. As Douglas later said "They could hardly play. Mike could play adequate rhythm guitar. Pete could play piano but he'd make mistakes, and Micky's time on drums was erratic. He'd speed up or slow down." But the takes they managed to get down showed that they *could* do it. Rafelson and Schneider agreed with them that the Monkees could make a single together, and start recording at least some of their own tracks. So the group went back into the studio, with Douglas producing -- and with Lester Sill from the music publishers there to supervise -- and cut finished versions of the two songs. This time the lineup was Nesmith on guitar, Tork on electric harpsichord -- Tork had always been a fan of Bach, and would in later years perform Bach pieces as his solo spot in Monkees shows -- Dolenz on drums, London on bass, and Jones on tambourine: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (first recorded version)"] But while this was happening, Kirshner had been trying to get new Monkees material recorded without them -- he'd not yet agreed to having the group play on their own records. Three days after the sessions for "All of Your Toys" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", sessions started in New York for an entire album's worth of new material, produced by Jeff Barry and Denny Randell, and largely made by the same Red Bird Records team who had made "I'm a Believer" -- the same musicians who in various combinations had played on everything from "Sherry" by the Four Seasons to "Like a Rolling Stone" by Dylan to "Leader of the Pack", and with songs by Neil Diamond, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Leiber and Stoller, and the rest of the team of songwriters around Red Bird. But at this point came the meeting we talked about towards the end of the "Last Train to Clarksville" episode, in which Nesmith punched a hole in a hotel wall in frustration at what he saw as Kirshner's obstinacy. Kirshner didn't want to listen to the recordings the group had made. He'd promised Jeff Barry and Neil Diamond that if "I'm a Believer" went to number one, Barry would get to produce, and Diamond write, the group's next single. Chip Douglas wasn't a recognised producer, and he'd made this commitment. But the group needed a new single out. A compromise was offered, of sorts, by Kirshner -- how about if Barry flew over from New York to LA to produce the group, they'd scrap the tracks both the group and Barry had recorded, and Barry would produce new tracks for the songs he'd recorded, with the group playing on them? But that wouldn't work either. The group members were all due to go on holiday -- three of them were going to make staggered trips to the UK, partly to promote the TV series, which was just starting over here, and partly just to have a break. They'd been working sixty-plus hour weeks for months between the TV series, live performances, and the recording studio, and they were basically falling-down tired, which was one of the reasons for Nesmith's outburst in the meeting. They weren't accomplished enough musicians to cut tracks quickly, and they *needed* the break. On top of that, Nesmith and Barry had had a major falling-out at the "I'm a Believer" session, and Nesmith considered it a matter of personal integrity that he couldn't work with a man who in his eyes had insulted his professionalism. So that was out, but there was also no way Kirshner was going to let the group release a single consisting of two songs he hadn't heard, produced by a producer with no track record. At first, the group were insistent that "All of Your Toys" should be the A-side for their next single: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "All Of Your Toys"] But there was an actual problem with that which they hadn't foreseen. Bill Martin, who wrote the song, was under contract to another music publisher, and the Monkees' contracts said they needed to only record songs published by Screen Gems. Eventually, it was Micky Dolenz who managed to cut the Gordian knot -- or so everyone thought. Dolenz was the one who had the least at stake of any of them -- he was already secure as the voice of the hits, he had no particular desire to be an instrumentalist, but he wanted to support his colleagues. Dolenz suggested that it would be a reasonable compromise to put out a single with one of the pre-recorded backing tracks on one side, with him or Jones singing, and with the version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" that the band had recorded together on the other. That way, Kirshner and the record label would get their new single without too much delay, the group would still be able to say they'd started recording their own tracks, everyone would get some of what they wanted. So it was agreed -- though there was a further stipulation. "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" had Nesmith singing lead vocals, and up to that point every Monkees single had featured Dolenz on lead on both sides. As far as Kirshner and the other people involved in making the release decisions were concerned, that was the way things were going to continue. Everyone was fine with this -- Nesmith, the one who was most likely to object in principle, in practice realised that having Dolenz sing his song would make it more likely to be played on the radio and used in the TV show, and so increase his royalties. A vocal session was arranged in New York for Dolenz and Jones to come and cut some vocal tracks right before Dolenz and Nesmith flew over to the UK. But in the meantime, it had become even more urgent for the group to be seen to be doing their own recording. An in-depth article on the group in the Saturday Evening Post had come out, quoting Nesmith as saying "It was what Kirshner wanted to do. Our records are not our forte. I don't care if we never sell another record. Maybe we were manufactured and put on the air strictly with a lot of hoopla. Tell the world we're synthetic because, damn it, we are. Tell them the Monkees are wholly man-made overnight, that millions of dollars have been poured into this thing. Tell the world we don't record our own music. But that's us they see on television. The show is really a part of us. They're not seeing something invalid." The press immediately jumped on the band, and started trying to portray them as con artists exploiting their teenage fans, though as Nesmith later said "The press decided they were going to unload on us as being somehow illegitimate, somehow false. That we were making an attempt to dupe the public, when in fact it was me that was making the attempt to maintain the integrity. So the press went into a full-scale war against us." Tork, on the other hand, while he and Nesmith were on the same side about the band making their own records, blamed Nesmith for much of the press reaction, later saying "Michael blew the whistle on us. If he had gone in there with pride and said 'We are what we are and we have no reason to hang our heads in shame' it never would have happened." So as far as the group were concerned, they *needed* to at least go with Dolenz's suggested compromise. Their personal reputations were on the line. When Dolenz arrived at the session in New York, he was expecting to be asked to cut one vocal track, for the A-side of the next single (and presumably a new lead vocal for "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"). When he got there, though, he found that Kirshner expected him to record several vocals so that Kirshner could choose the best. That wasn't what had been agreed, and so Dolenz flat-out refused to record anything at all. Luckily for Kirshner, Jones -- who was the most co-operative member of the band -- was willing to sing a handful of songs intended for Dolenz as well as the ones he was meant to sing. So the tape of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", the song intended for the next single, was slowed down so it would be in a suitable key for Jones instead, and he recorded the vocal for that: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"] Incidentally, while Jones recorded vocals for several more tracks at the session -- and some would later be reused as album tracks a few years down the line -- not all of the recorded tracks were used for vocals, and this later gave rise to a rumour that has been repeated as fact by almost everyone involved, though it was a misunderstanding. Kirshner's next major success after the Monkees was another made-for-TV fictional band, the Archies, and their biggest hit was "Sugar Sugar", co-written and produced by Jeff Barry: [Excerpt: The Archies, "Sugar Sugar"] Both Kirshner and the Monkees have always claimed that the Monkees were offered "Sugar, Sugar" and turned it down. To Kirshner the moral of the story was that since "Sugar, Sugar" was a massive hit, it proved his instincts right and proved that the Monkees didn't know what would make a hit. To the Monkees, on the other hand, it showed that Kirshner wanted them to do bubblegum music that they considered ridiculous. This became such an established factoid that Dolenz regularly tells the story in his live performances, and includes a version of "Sugar, Sugar" in them, rearranged as almost a torch song: [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Sugar, Sugar (live)"] But in fact, "Sugar, Sugar" wasn't written until long after Kirshner and the Monkees had parted ways. But one of the songs for which a backing track was recorded but no vocals were ever completed was "Sugar Man", a song by Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer, which they would later release themselves as an unsuccessful single: [Excerpt: Linzer and Randell, "Sugar Man"] Over the years, the Monkees not recording "Sugar Man" became the Monkees not recording "Sugar, Sugar". Meanwhile, Dolenz and Nesmith had flown over to the UK to do some promotional work and relax, and Jones soon also flew over, though didn't hang out with his bandmates, preferring to spend more time with his family. Both Dolenz and Nesmith spent a lot of time hanging out with British pop stars, and were pleased to find that despite the manufactured controversy about them being a manufactured group, none of the British musicians they admired seemed to care. Eric Burdon, for example, was quoted in the Melody Maker as saying "They make very good records, I can't understand how people get upset about them. You've got to make up your minds whether a group is a record production group or one that makes live appearances. For example, I like to hear a Phil Spector record and I don't worry if it's the Ronettes or Ike and Tina Turner... I like the Monkees record as a grand record, no matter how people scream. So somebody made a record and they don't play, so what? Just enjoy the record." Similarly, the Beatles were admirers of the Monkees, especially the TV show, despite being expected to have a negative opinion of them, as you can hear in this contemporary recording of Paul McCartney answering a fan's questions: Excerpt: Paul McCartney talks about the Monkees] Both Dolenz and Nesmith hung out with the Beatles quite a bit -- they both visited Sgt. Pepper recording sessions, and if you watch the film footage of the orchestral overdubs for "A Day in the Life", Nesmith is there with all the other stars of the period. Nesmith and his wife Phyllis even stayed with the Lennons for a couple of days, though Cynthia Lennon seems to have thought of the Nesmiths as annoying intruders who had been invited out of politeness and not realised they weren't wanted. That seems plausible, but at the same time, John Lennon doesn't seem the kind of person to not make his feelings known, and Michael Nesmith's reports of the few days they stayed there seem to describe a very memorable experience, where after some initial awkwardness he developed a bond with Lennon, particularly once he saw that Lennon was a fan of Captain Beefheart, who was a friend of Nesmith, and whose Safe as Milk album Lennon was examining when Nesmith turned up, and whose music at this point bore a lot of resemblance to the kind of thing Nesmith was doing: [Excerpt: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, "Yellow Brick Road"] Or at least, that's how Nesmith always told the story later -- though Safe as Milk didn't come out until nearly six months later. It's possible he's conflating memories from a later trip to the UK in June that year -- where he also talked about how Lennon was the only person he'd really got on with on the previous trip, because "he's a compassionate person. I know he has a reputation for being caustic, but it is only a cover for the depth of his feeling." Nesmith and Lennon apparently made some experimental music together during the brief stay, with Nesmith being impressed by Lennon's Mellotron and later getting one himself. Dolenz, meanwhile, was spending more time with Paul McCartney, and with Spencer Davis of his current favourite band The Spencer Davis Group. But even more than that he was spending a lot of time with Samantha Juste, a model and TV presenter whose job it was to play the records on Top of the Pops, the most important British TV pop show, and who had released a record herself a couple of months earlier, though it hadn't been a success: [Excerpt: Samantha Juste, "No-one Needs My Love Today"] The two quickly fell deeply in love, and Juste would become Dolenz's first wife the next year. When Nesmith and Dolenz arrived back in the US after their time off, they thought the plan was still to release "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" with "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" on the B-side. So Nesmith was horrified to hear on the radio what the announcer said were the two sides of the new Monkees single -- "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", and "She Hangs Out", another song from the Jeff Barry sessions with a Davy vocal. Don Kirshner had gone ahead and picked two songs from the Jeff Barry sessions and delivered them to RCA Records, who had put a single out in Canada. The single was very, *very* quickly withdrawn once the Monkees and the TV producers found out, and only promo copies seem to circulate -- rather than being credited to "the Monkees", both sides are credited to '"My Favourite Monkee" Davy Jones Sings'. The record had been withdrawn, but "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was clearly going to have to be the single. Three days after the record was released and pulled, Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork were back in the studio with Chip Douglas, recording a new B-side -- a new version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", this time with Dolenz on vocals. As Jones was still in the UK, John London added the tambourine part as well as the bass: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)"] As Nesmith told the story a couple of months later, "Bert said 'You've got to get this thing in Micky's key for Micky to sing it.' I said 'Has Donnie made a commitment? I don't want to go there and break my neck in order to get this thing if Donnie hasn't made a commitment. And Bert refused to say anything. He said 'I can't tell you anything except just go and record.'" What had happened was that the people at Columbia had had enough of Kirshner. As far as Rafelson and Schneider were concerned, the real problem in all this was that Kirshner had been making public statements taking all the credit for the Monkees' success and casting himself as the puppetmaster. They thought this was disrespectful to the performers -- and unstated but probably part of it, that it was disrespectful to Rafelson and Schneider for their work putting the TV show together -- and that Kirshner had allowed his ego to take over. Things like the liner notes for More of the Monkees which made Kirshner and his stable of writers more important than the performers had, in the view of the people at Raybert Productions, put the Monkees in an impossible position and forced them to push back. Schneider later said "Kirshner had an ego that transcended everything else. As a matter of fact, the press issue was probably magnified a hundred times over because of Kirshner. He wanted everybody thinking 'Hey, he's doing all this, not them.' In the end it was very self-destructive because it heightened the whole press issue and it made them feel lousy." Kirshner was out of a job, first as the supervisor for the Monkees and then as the head of Columbia/Screen Gems Music. In his place came Lester Sill, the man who had got Leiber and Stoller together as songwriters, who had been Lee Hazelwood's production partner on his early records with Duane Eddy, and who had been the "Les" in Philles Records until Phil Spector pushed him out. Sill, unlike Kirshner, was someone who was willing to take a back seat and just be a steadying hand where needed. The reissued version of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" went to number two on the charts, behind "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank and Nancy Sinatra, produced by Sill's old colleague Hazelwood, and the B-side, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", also charted separately, making number thirty-nine on the charts. The Monkees finally had a hit that they'd written and recorded by themselves. Pinocchio had become a real boy: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)"] At the same session at which they'd recorded that track, the Monkees had recorded another Nesmith song, "Sunny Girlfriend", and that became the first song to be included on a new album, which would eventually be named Headquarters, and on which all the guitar, keyboard, drums, percussion, banjo, pedal steel, and backing vocal parts would for the first time be performed by the Monkees themselves. They brought in horn and string players on a couple of tracks, and the bass was variously played by John London, Chip Douglas, and Jerry Yester as Tork was more comfortable on keyboards and guitar than bass, but it was in essence a full band album. Jones got back the next day, and sessions began in earnest. The first song they recorded after his return was "Mr. Webster", a Boyce and Hart song that had been recorded with the Candy Store Prophets in 1966 but hadn't been released. This was one of three tracks on the album that were rerecordings of earlier outtakes, and it's fascinating to compare them, to see the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches. In the case of "Mr. Webster", the instrumental backing on the earlier version is definitely slicker: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Mr. Webster (1st Recorded Version)"] But at the same time, there's a sense of dynamics in the group recording that's lacking from the original, like the backing dropping out totally on the word "Stop" -- a nice touch that isn't in the original. I am only speculating, but this may have been inspired by the similar emphasis on the word "stop" in "For What It's Worth" by Tork's old friend Stephen Stills: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Mr. Webster (album version)"] Headquarters was a group album in another way though -- for the first time, Tork and Dolenz were bringing in songs they'd written -- Nesmith of course had supplied songs already for the two previous albums. Jones didn't write any songs himself yet, though he'd start on the next album, but he was credited with the rest of the group on two joke tracks, "Band 6", a jam on the Merrie Melodies theme “Merrily We Roll Along”, and "Zilch", a track made up of the four band members repeating nonsense phrases: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Zilch"] Oddly, that track had a rather wider cultural resonance than a piece of novelty joke album filler normally would. It's sometimes covered live by They Might Be Giants: [Excerpt: They Might Be Giants, "Zilch"] While the rapper Del Tha Funkee Homosapien had a worldwide hit in 1991 with "Mistadobalina", built around a sample of Peter Tork from the track: [Excerpt: Del Tha Funkee Homosapien,"Mistadobalina"] Nesmith contributed three songs, all of them combining Beatles-style pop music and country influences, none more blatantly than the opening track, "You Told Me", which starts off parodying the opening of "Taxman", before going into some furious banjo-picking from Tork: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "You Told Me"] Tork, meanwhile, wrote "For Pete's Sake" with his flatmate of the time, and that became the end credits music for season two of the TV series: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "For Pete's Sake"] But while the other band members made important contributions, the track on the album that became most popular was the first song of Dolenz's to be recorded by the group. The lyrics recounted, in a semi-psychedelic manner, Dolenz's time in the UK, including meeting with the Beatles, who the song refers to as "the four kings of EMI", but the first verse is all about his new girlfriend Samantha Juste: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Randy Scouse Git"] The song was released as a single in the UK, but there was a snag. Dolenz had given the song a title he'd heard on an episode of the BBC sitcom Til Death Us Do Part, which he'd found an amusing bit of British slang. Til Death Us Do Part was written by Johnny Speight, a writer with Associated London Scripts, and was a family sitcom based around the character of Alf Garnett, an ignorant, foul-mouthed reactionary bigot who hated young people, socialists, and every form of minority, especially Black people (who he would address by various slurs I'm definitely not going to repeat here), and was permanently angry at the world and abusive to his wife. As with another great sitcom from ALS, Steptoe and Son, which Norman Lear adapted for the US as Sanford and Son, Til Death Us Do Part was also adapted by Lear, and became All in the Family. But while Archie Bunker, the character based on Garnett in the US version, has some redeeming qualities because of the nature of US network sitcom, Alf Garnett has absolutely none, and is as purely unpleasant and unsympathetic a character as has ever been created -- which sadly didn't stop a section of the audience from taking him as a character to be emulated. A big part of the show's dynamic was the relationship between Garnett and his socialist son-in-law from Liverpool, played by Anthony Booth, himself a Liverpudlian socialist who would later have a similarly contentious relationship with his own decidedly non-socialist son-in-law, the future Prime Minister Tony Blair. Garnett was as close to foul-mouthed as was possible on British TV at the time, with Speight regularly negotiating with the BBC bosses to be allowed to use terms that were not otherwise heard on TV, and used various offensive terms about his family, including referring to his son-in-law as a "randy Scouse git". Dolenz had heard the phrase on TV, had no idea what it meant but loved the sound of it, and gave the song that title. But when the record came out in the UK, he was baffled to be told that the phrase -- which he'd picked up from a BBC TV show, after all -- couldn't be said normally on BBC broadcasts, so they would need to retitle the track. The translation into American English that Dolenz uses in his live shows to explain this to Americans is to say that "randy Scouse git" means "horny Liverpudlian putz", and that's more or less right. Dolenz took the need for an alternative title literally, and so the track that went to number two in the UK charts was titled "Alternate Title": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Randy Scouse Git"] The album itself went to number one in both the US and the UK, though it was pushed off the top spot almost straight away by the release of Sgt Pepper. As sessions for Headquarters were finishing up, the group were already starting to think about their next album -- season two of the TV show was now in production, and they'd need to keep generating yet more musical material for it. One person they turned to was a friend of Chip Douglas'. Before the Turtles, Douglas had been in the Modern Folk Quartet, and they'd recorded "This Could Be the Night", which had been written for them by Harry Nilsson: [Excerpt: The MFQ, "This Could Be The Night"] Nilsson had just started recording his first solo album proper, at RCA Studios, the same studios that the Monkees were using. At this point, Nilsson still had a full-time job in a bank, working a night shift there while working on his album during the day, but Douglas knew that Nilsson was a major talent, and that assessment was soon shared by the group when Nilsson came in to demo nine of his songs for them: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "1941 (demo)"] According to Nilsson, Nesmith said after that demo session "You just sat down there and blew our minds. We've been looking for songs, and you just sat down and played an *album* for us!" While the Monkees would attempt a few of Nilsson's songs over the next year or so, the first one they chose to complete was the first track recorded for their next album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones, Ltd., a song which from the talkback at the beginning of the demo was always intended for Davy Jones to sing: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "Cuddly Toy (demo)"] Oddly, given his romantic idol persona, a lot of the songs given to Jones to sing were anti-romantic, and often had a cynical and misogynistic edge. This had started with the first album's "I Want to Be Free", but by Pisces, it had gone to ridiculous extremes. Of the four songs Jones sings on the album, "Hard to Believe", the first song proper that he ever co-wrote, is a straightforward love  song, but the other three have a nasty edge to them. A remade version of Jeff Barry's "She Hangs Out" is about an underaged girl, starts with the lines "How old d'you say your sister was? You know you'd better keep an eye on her" and contains lines like "she could teach you a thing or two" and "you'd better get down here on the double/before she gets her pretty little self in trouble/She's so fine". Goffin and King's "Star Collector" is worse, a song about a groupie with lines like "How can I love her, if I just don't respect her?" and "It won't take much time, before I get her off my mind" But as is so often the way, these rather nasty messages were wrapped up in some incredibly catchy music, and that was even more the case with "Cuddly Toy", a song which at least is more overtly unpleasant -- it's very obvious that Nilsson doesn't intend the protagonist of the song to be at all sympathetic, which is possibly not the case in "She Hangs Out" or "Star Collector". But the character Jones is singing is *viciously* cruel here, mocking and taunting a girl who he's coaxed to have sex with him, only to scorn her as soon as he's got what he wanted: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Cuddly Toy"] It's a great song if you like the cruelest of humour combined with the cheeriest of music, and the royalties from the song allowed Nilsson to quit the job at the bank. "Cuddly Toy", and Chip Douglas and Bill Martin's song "The Door Into Summer", were recorded the same way as Headquarters, with the group playing *as a group*, but as recordings for the album progressed the group fell into a new way of working, which Peter Tork later dubbed "mixed-mode". They didn't go back to having tracks cut for them by session musicians, apart from Jones' song "Hard to Believe", for which the entire backing track was created by one of his co-writers overdubbing himself, but Dolenz, who Tork always said was "incapable of repeating a triumph", was not interested in continuing to play drums in the studio. Instead, a new hybrid Monkees would perform most of the album. Nesmith would still play the lead guitar, Tork would provide the keyboards, Chip Douglas would play all the bass and add some additional guitar, and "Fast" Eddie Hoh, the session drummer who had been a touring drummer with the Modern Folk Quartet and the Mamas and the Papas, among others, would play drums on the records, with Dolenz occasionally adding a bit of acoustic guitar. And this was the lineup that would perform on the hit single from Pisces. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who had written several songs for the group's first two albums (and who would continue to provide them with more songs). As with their earlier songs for the group, King had recorded a demo: [Excerpt: Carole King, "Pleasant Valley Sunday (demo)"] Previously -- and subsequently -- when presented with a Carole King demo, the group and their producers would just try to duplicate it as closely as possible, right down to King's phrasing. Bob Rafelson has said that he would sometimes hear those demos and wonder why King didn't just make records herself -- and without wanting to be too much of a spoiler for a few years' time, he wasn't the only one wondering that. But this time, the group had other plans. In particular, they wanted to make a record with a strong guitar riff to it -- Nesmith has later referenced their own "Last Train to Clarksville" and the Beatles' "Day Tripper" as two obvious reference points for the track. Douglas came up with a riff and taught it to Nesmith, who played it on the track: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] The track also ended with the strongest psychedelic -- or "psycho jello" as the group would refer to it -- freak out that they'd done to this point, a wash of saturated noise: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] King was unhappy with the results, and apparently glared at Douglas the next time they met. This may be because of the rearrangement from her intentions, but it may also be for a reason that Douglas later suspected. When recording the track, he hadn't been able to remember all the details of her demo, and in particular he couldn't remember exactly how the middle eight went. This is the version on King's demo: [Excerpt: Carole King, "Pleasant Valley Sunday (demo)"] While here's how the Monkees rendered it, with slightly different lyrics: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] I also think there's a couple of chord changes in the second verse that differ between King and the Monkees, but I can't be sure that's not my ears deceiving me. Either way, though, the track was a huge success, and became one of the group's most well-known and well-loved tracks, making number three on the charts behind "All You Need is Love" and "Light My Fire". And while it isn't Dolenz drumming on the track, the fact that it's Nesmith playing guitar and Tork on the piano -- and the piano part is one of the catchiest things on the record -- meant that they finally had a proper major hit on which they'd played (and it seems likely that Dolenz contributed some of the acoustic rhythm guitar on the track, along with Bill Chadwick, and if that's true all three Monkee instrumentalists did play on the track). Pisces is by far and away the best album the group ever made, and stands up well against anything else that came out around that time. But cracks were beginning to show in the group. In particular, the constant battle to get some sort of creative input had soured Nesmith on the whole project. Chip Douglas later said "When we were doing Pisces Michael would come in with three songs; he knew he had three songs coming on the album. He knew that he was making a lot of money if he got his original songs on there. So he'd be real enthusiastic and cooperative and real friendly and get his three songs done. Then I'd say 'Mike, can you come in and help on this one we're going to do with Micky here?' He said 'No, Chip, I can't. I'm busy.' I'd say, 'Mike, you gotta come in the studio.' He'd say 'No Chip, I'm afraid I'm just gonna have to be ornery about it. I'm not comin' in.' That's when I started not liking Mike so much any more." Now, as is so often the case with the stories from this period, this appears to be inaccurate in the details -- Nesmith is present on every track on the album except Jones' solo "Hard to Believe" and Tork's spoken-word track "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky", and indeed this is by far the album with *most* Nesmith input, as he takes five lead vocals, most of them on songs he didn't write. But Douglas may well be summing up Nesmith's *attitude* to the band at this point -- listening to Nesmith's commentaries on episodes of the TV show, by this point he felt disengaged from everything that was going on, like his opinions weren't welcome. That said, Nesmith did still contribute what is possibly the single most innovative song the group ever did, though the innovations weren't primarily down to Nesmith: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] Nesmith always described the lyrics to "Daily Nightly" as being about the riots on Sunset Strip, but while they're oblique, they seem rather to be about streetwalking sex workers -- though it's perhaps understandable that Nesmith would never admit as much. What made the track innovative was the use of the Moog synthesiser. We talked about Robert Moog in the episode on "Good Vibrations" -- he had started out as a Theremin manufacturer, and had built the ribbon synthesiser that Mike Love played live on "Good Vibrations", and now he was building the first commercially available easily usable synthesisers. Previously, electronic instruments had either been things like the clavioline -- a simple monophonic keyboard instrument that didn't have much tonal variation -- or the RCA Mark II, a programmable synth that could make a wide variety of sounds, but took up an entire room and was programmed with punch cards. Moog's machines were bulky but still transportable, and they could be played in real time with a keyboard, but were still able to be modified to make a wide variety of different sounds. While, as we've seen, there had been electronic keyboard instruments as far back as the 1930s, Moog's instruments were for all intents and purposes the first synthesisers as we now understand the term. The Moog was introduced in late spring 1967, and immediately started to be used for making experimental and novelty records, like Hal Blaine's track "Love In", which came out at the beginning of June: [Excerpt: Hal Blaine, "Love In"] And the Electric Flag's soundtrack album for The Trip, the drug exploitation film starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and written by Jack Nicholson we talked about last time, when Arthur Lee moved into a house used in the film: [Excerpt: The Electric Flag, "Peter's Trip"] In 1967 there were a total of six albums released with a Moog on them (as well as one non-album experimental single). Four of the albums were experimental or novelty instrumental albums of this type. Only two of them were rock albums -- Strange Days by the Doors, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd by the Monkees. The Doors album was released first, but I believe the Monkees tracks were recorded before the Doors overdubbed the Moog on the tracks on their album, though some session dates are hard to pin down exactly. If that's the case it would make the Monkees the very first band to use the Moog on an actual rock record (depending on exactly how you count the Trip soundtrack -- this gets back again to my old claim that there's no first anything). But that's not the only way in which "Daily Nightly" was innovative. All the first seven albums to feature the Moog featured one man playing the instrument -- Paul Beaver, the Moog company's West Coast representative, who played on all the novelty records by members of the Wrecking Crew, and on the albums by the Electric Flag and the Doors, and on The Notorious Byrd Brothers by the Byrds, which came out in early 1968. And Beaver did play the Moog on one track on Pisces, "Star Collector". But on "Daily Nightly" it's Micky Dolenz playing the Moog, making him definitely the second person ever to play a Moog on a record of any kind: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] Dolenz indeed had bought his own Moog -- widely cited as being the second one ever in private ownership, a fact I can't check but which sounds plausible given that by 1970 less than thirty musicians owned one -- after seeing Beaver demonstrate the instrument at the Monterey Pop Festival. The Monkees hadn't played Monterey, but both Dolenz and Tork had attended the festival -- if you watch the famous film of it you see Dolenz and his girlfriend Samantha in the crowd a *lot*, while Tork introduced his friends in the Buffalo Springfield. As well as discovering the Moog there, Dolenz had been astonished by something else: [Excerpt: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Hey Joe (Live at Monterey)"] As Peter Tork later put it "I didn't get it. At Monterey Jimi followed the Who and the Who busted up their things and Jimi bashed up his guitar. I said 'I just saw explosions and destruction. Who needs it?' But Micky got it. He saw the genius and went for it." Dolenz was astonished by Hendrix, and insisted that he should be the support act on the group's summer tour. This pairing might sound odd on paper, but it made more sense at the time than it might sound. The Monkees were by all accounts a truly astonishing live act at this point -- Frank Zappa gave them a backhanded compliment by saying they were the best-sounding band in LA, before pointing out that this was because they could afford the best equipment. That *was* true, but it was also the case that their TV experience gave them a different attitude to live performance than anyone else performing at the time. A handful of groups had started playing stadiums, most notably of course the Beatles, but all of these acts had come up through playing clubs and theatres and essentially just kept doing their old act with no thought as to how the larger space worked, except to put their amps through a louder PA. The Monkees, though, had *started* in stadiums, and had started out as mass entertainers, and so their live show was designed from the ground up to play to those larger spaces. They had costume changes, elaborate stage sets -- like oversized fake Vox amps they burst out of at the start of the show -- a light show and a screen on which film footage was projected. In effect they invented stadium performances as we now know them. Nesmith later said "In terms of putting on a show there was never any question in my mind, as far as the rock 'n' roll era is concerned, that we put on probably the finest rock and roll stage show ever. It was beautifully lit, beautifully costumed, beautifully produced. I mean, for Christ sakes, it was practically a revue." The Monkees were confident enough in their stage performance that at a recent show at the Hollywood Bowl they'd had Ike and Tina Turner as their opening act -- not an act you'd want to go on after if you were going to be less than great, and an act from very similar chitlin' circuit roots to Jimi Hendrix. So from their perspective, it made sense. If you're going to be spectacular yourselves, you have no need to fear a spectacular opening act. Hendrix was less keen -- he was about the only musician in Britain who *had* made disparaging remarks about the Monkees -- but opening for the biggest touring band in the world isn't an opportunity you pass up, and again it isn't such a departure as one might imagine from the bills he was already playing. Remember that Monterey is really the moment when "pop" and "rock" started to split -- the split we've been talking about for a few months now -- and so the Jimi Hendrix Experience were still considered a pop band, and as such had played the normal British pop band package tours. In March and April that year, they'd toured on a bill with the Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens, and Englebert Humperdinck -- and Hendrix had even filled in for Humperdinck's sick guitarist on one occasion. Nesmith, Dolenz, and Tork all loved having Hendrix on tour with them, just because it gave them a chance to watch him live every night (Jones, whose musical tastes were more towards Anthony Newley, wasn't especially impressed), and they got on well on a personal level -- there are reports of Hendrix jamming with Dolenz and Steve Stills in hotel rooms. But there was one problem, as Dolenz often recreates in his live act: [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Purple Haze"] The audience response to Hendrix from the Monkees' fans was so poor that by mutual agreement he left the tour after only a handful of shows. After the summer tour, the group went back to work on the TV show and their next album. Or, rather, four individuals went back to work. By this point, the group had drifted apart from each other, and from Douglas -- Tork, the one who was still keenest on the idea of the group as a group, thought that Pisces, good as it was, felt like a Chip Douglas album rather than a Monkees album. The four band members had all by now built up their own retinues of hangers-on and collaborators, and on set for the TV show they were now largely staying with their own friends rather than working as a group. And that was now reflected in their studio work. From now on, rather than have a single producer working with them as a band, the four men would work as individuals, producing their own tracks, occasionally with outside help, and bringing in session musicians to work on them. Some tracks from this point on would be genuine Monkees -- plural -- tracks, and all tracks would be credited as "produced by the Monkees", but basically the four men would from now on be making solo tracks which would be combined into albums, though Dolenz and Jones would occasionally guest on tracks by the others, especially when Nesmith came up with a song he thought would be more suited to their voices. Indeed the first new recording that happened after the tour was an entire Nesmith solo album -- a collection of instrumental versions of his songs, called The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, played by members of the Wrecking Crew and a few big band instrumentalists, arranged by Shorty Rogers. [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith, "You Told Me"] Hal Blaine in his autobiography claimed that the album was created as a tax write-off for Nesmith, though Nesmith always vehemently denied it, and claimed it was an artistic experiment, though not one that came off well. Released alongside Pisces, though, came one last group-recorded single. The B-side, "Goin' Down", is a song that was credited to the group and songwriter Diane Hildebrand, though in fact it developed from a jam on someone else's song. Nesmith, Tork, Douglas and Hoh attempted to record a backing track for a version of Mose Allison's jazz-blues standard "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Mose Allison, "Parchman Farm"] But after recording it, they'd realised that it didn't sound that much like the original, and that all it had in common with it was a chord sequence. Nesmith suggested that rather than put it out as a cover version, they put a new melody and lyrics to it, and they commissioned Hildebrand, who'd co-written songs for the group before, to write them, and got Shorty Rogers to write a horn arrangement to go over their backing track. The eventual songwriting credit was split five ways, between Hildebrand and the four Monkees -- including Davy Jones who had no involvement with the recording, but not including Douglas or Hoh. The lyrics Hildebrand came up with were a funny patter song about a failed suicide, taken at an extremely fast pace, which Dolenz pulls off magnificently: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Goin' Down"] The A-side, another track with a rhythm track by Nesmith, Tork, Douglas, and Hoh, was a song that had been written by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio, who you may remember from the episode on "San Francisco" as being a former songwriting partner of John Phillips. Stewart had written the song as part of a "suburbia trilogy", and was not happy with the finished product. He said later "I remember going to bed thinking 'All I did today was write 'Daydream Believer'." Stewart used to include the song in his solo sets, to no great approval, and had shopped the song around to bands like We Five and Spanky And Our Gang, who had both turned it down. He was unhappy with it himself, because of the chorus: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] Stewart was ADHD, and the words "to a", coming as they did slightly out of the expected scansion for the line, irritated him so greatly that he thought the song could never be recorded by anyone, but when Chip Douglas asked if he had any songs, he suggested that one. As it turned out, there was a line of lyric that almost got the track rejected, but it wasn't the "to a". Stewart's original second verse went like this: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] RCA records objected to the line "now you know how funky I can be" because funky, among other meanings, meant smelly, and they didn't like the idea of Davy Jones singing about being smelly. Chip Douglas phoned Stewart to tell him that they were insisting on changing the line, and suggesting "happy" instead. Stewart objected vehemently -- that change would reverse the entire meaning of the line, and it made no sense, and what about artistic integrity? But then, as he later said "He said 'Let me put it to you this way, John. If he can't sing 'happy' they won't do it'. And I said 'Happy's working real good for me now.' That's exactly what I said to him." He never regretted the decision -- Stewart would essentially live off the royalties from "Daydream Believer" for the rest of his life -- though he seemed always to be slightly ambivalent and gently mocking about the song in his own performances, often changing the lyrics slightly: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] The Monkees had gone into the studio and cut the track, again with Tork on piano, Nesmith on guitar, Douglas on bass, and Hoh on drums. Other than changing "funky" to "happy", there were two major changes made in the studio. One seems to have been Douglas' idea -- they took the bass riff from the pre-chorus to the Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Help Me Rhonda"] and Douglas played that on the bass as the pre-chorus for "Daydream Believer", with Shorty Rogers later doubling it in the horn arrangement: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daydream Believer"] And the other is the piano intro, which also becomes an instrumental bridge, which was apparently the invention of Tork, who played it: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daydream Believer"] The track went to number one, becoming the group's third and final number one hit, and their fifth of six million-sellers. It was included on the next album, The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees, but that piano part would be Tork's only contribution to the album. As the group members were all now writing songs and cutting their own tracks, and were also still rerecording the odd old unused song from the initial 1966 sessions, The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees was pulled together from a truly astonishing amount of material. The expanded triple-CD version of the album, now sadly out of print, has multiple versions of forty-four different songs, ranging from simple acoustic demos to completed tracks, of which twelve were included on the final album. Tork did record several tracks during the sessions, but he spent much of the time recording and rerecording a single song, "Lady's Baby", which eventually stretched to five different recorded versions over multiple sessions in a five-month period. He racked up huge studio bills on the track, bringing in Steve Stills and Dewey Martin of the Buffalo Springfield, and Buddy Miles, to try to help him capture the sound in his head, but the various takes are almost indistinguishable from one another, and so it's difficult to see what the problem was: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Lady's Baby"] Either way, the track wasn't finished by the time the album came out, and the album that came out was a curiously disjointed and unsatisfying effort, a mixture of recycled old Boyce and Hart songs, some songs by Jones, who at this point was convinced that "Broadway-rock" was going to be the next big thing and writing songs that sounded like mediocre showtunes, and a handful of experimental songs written by Nesmith. You could pull together a truly great ten- or twelve-track album from the masses of material they'd recorded, but the one that came out was mediocre at best, and became the first Monkees album not to make number one -- though it still made number three and sold in huge numbers. It also had the group's last million-selling single on it, "Valleri", an old Boyce and Hart reject from 1966 that had been remade with Boyce and Hart producing and their old session players, though the production credit was still now given to the Monkees: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Valleri"] Nesmith said at the time he considered it the worst song ever written. The second season of the TV show was well underway, and despite -- or possibly because of -- the group being clearly stoned for much of the filming, it contains a lot of the episodes that fans of the group think of most fondly, including several episodes that break out of the formula the show had previously established in interesting ways. Tork and Dolenz were both also given the opportunity to direct episodes, and Dolenz also co-wrote his episode, which ended up being the last of the series. In another sign of how the group were being given more creative control over the show, the last three episodes of the series had guest appearances by favourite musicians of the group members who they wanted to give a little exposure to, and those guest appearances sum up the character of the band members remarkably well. Tork, for whatever reason, didn't take up this option, but the other three did. Jones brought on his friend Charlie Smalls, who would later go on to write the music for the Broadway musical The Wiz, to demonstrate to Jones the difference between Smalls' Black soul and Jones' white soul: [Excerpt: Davy Jones and Charlie Smalls] Nesmith, on the other hand, brought on Frank Zappa. Zappa put on Nesmith's Monkee shirt and wool hat and pretended to be Nesmith, and interviewed Nesmith with a false nose and moustache pretending to be Zappa, as they both mercilessly mocked the previous week's segment with Jones and Smalls: [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith and Frank Zappa] Nesmith then "conducted" Zappa as Zappa used a sledgehammer to "play" a car, parodying his own appearance on the Steve Allen Show playing a bicycle, to the presumed bemusement of the Monkees' fanbase who would not be likely to remember a one-off performance on a late-night TV show from five years earlier. And the final thing ever to be shown on an episode of the Monkees didn't feature any of the Monkees at all. Micky Dolenz, who directed and co-wrote that episode, about an evil wizard who was using the power of a space plant (named after the group's slang for dope) to hypnotise people through the TV, chose not to interact with his guest as the others had, but simply had Tim Buckley perform a solo acoustic version of his then-unreleased song "Song to the Siren": [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Song to the Siren"] By the end of the second season, everyone knew they didn't want to make another season of the TV show. Instead, they were going to do what Rafelson and Schneider had always wanted, and move into film. The planning stages for the film, which was initially titled Changes but later titled Head -- so that Rafelson and Schneider could bill their next film as "From the guys who gave you Head" -- had started the previous summer, before the sessions that produced The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees. To write the film, the group went off with Rafelson and Schneider for a short holiday, and took with them their mutual friend Jack Nicholson. Nicholson was at this time not the major film star he later became. Rather he was a bit-part actor who was mostly associated with American International Pictures, the ultra-low-budget film company that has come up on several occasions in this podcast. Nicholson had appeared mostly in small roles, in films like The Little Shop of Horrors: [Excerpt: The Little Shop of Horrors] He'd appeared in multiple films made by Roger Corman, often appearing with Boris Karloff, and by Monte Hellman, but despite having been a working actor for a decade, his acting career was going nowhere, and by this point he had basically given up on the idea of being an actor, and had decided to start working behind the camera. He'd written the scripts for a few of the low-budget films he'd appeared in, and he'd recently scripted The Trip, the film we mentioned earlier: [Excerpt: The Trip trailer] So the group, Rafelson, Schneider, and Nicholson all went away for a weekend, and they all got extremely stoned, took acid, and talked into a tape recorder for hours on end. Nicholson then transcribed those recordings, cleaned them up, and structured the worthwhile ideas into something quite remarkable: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Ditty Diego"] If the Monkees TV show had been inspired by the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges, and by Richard Lester's directorial style, the only precursor I can find for Head is in the TV work of Lester's colleague Spike Milligan, but I don't think there's any reasonable way in which Nicholson or anyone else involved could have taken inspiration from Milligan's series Q.  But what they ended up with is something that resembles, more than anything else, Monty Python's Flying Circus, a TV series that wouldn't start until a year after Head came out. It's a series of ostensibly unconnected sketches, linked by a kind of dream logic, with characters wandering from one loose narrative into a totally different one, actors coming out of character on a regular basis, and no attempt at a coherent narrative. It contains regular examples of channel-zapping, with excerpts from old films being spliced in, and bits of news footage juxtaposed with comedy sketches and musical performances in ways that are sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes distasteful, and occasionally both -- as when a famous piece of footage of a Vietnamese prisoner of war being shot in the head hard-cuts to screaming girls in the audience at a Monkees concert, a performance which ends with the girls tearing apart the group and revealing that they're really just cheap-looking plastic mannequins. The film starts, and ends, with the Monkees themselves attempting suicide, jumping off a bridge into the ocean -- but the end reveals that in fact the ocean they're in is just water in a glass box, and they're trapped in it. And knowing this means that when you watch the film a second time, you find that it does have a story. The Monkees are trapped in a box which in some ways represents life, the universe, and one's own mind, and in other ways represents the TV and their TV careers. Each of them is trying in his own way to escape, and each ends up trapped by his own limitations, condemned to start the cycle over and over again. The film features parodies of popular film genres like the boxing film (Davy is supposed to throw a fight with Sonny Liston at the instruction of gangsters), the Western, and the war film, but huge chunks of the film take place on a film studio backlot, and characters from one segment reappear in another, often commenting negatively on the film or the band, as when Frank Zappa as a critic calls Davy Jones' soft-shoe routine to a Harry Nilsson song "very white", or when a canteen worker in the studio calls the group "God's gift to the eight-year-olds". The film is constantly deconstructing and commenting on itself and the filmmaking process -- Tork hits that canteen worker, whose wig falls off revealing the actor playing her to be a man, and then it's revealed that the "behind the scenes" footage is itself scripted, as director Bob Rafelson and scriptwriter Jack Nicholson come into frame and reassure Tork, who's concerned that hitting a woman would be bad for his image. They tell him they can always cut it from the finished film if it doesn't work. While "Ditty Diego", the almost rap rewriting of the Monkees theme we heard earlier, sets out a lot of how the film asks to be interpreted and how it works narratively, the *spiritual* and thematic core of the film is in another song, Tork's "Long Title (Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?)", which in later solo performances Tork would give the subtitle "The Karma Blues": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Long Title (Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?)"] Head is an extraordinary film, and one it's impossible to sum up in anything less than an hour-long episode of its own. It's certainly not a film that's to everyone's taste, and not every aspect of it works -- it is a film that is absolutely of its time, in ways that are both good and bad. But it's one of the most inventive things ever put out by a major film studio, and it's one that rightly secured the Monkees a certain amount of cult credibility over the decades. The soundtrack album is a return to form after the disappointing Birds, Bees, too. Nicholson put the album together, linking the eight songs in the film with collages of dialogue and incidental music, repurposing and recontextualising the dialogue to create a new experience, one that people have compared with Frank Zappa's contemporaneous We're Only In It For The Money, though while t

On Today's episode, we are discussing President Biden's recent 60-minutes interview, the latest from the migrants sent to Martha's Vineyard, a FBI whistleblower case, and Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.  Time Stamps: 9:05 Biden's interview blunders 25:27 Marthas vineyard Migrants 32:17 FBI Whistle Blower 39:45 The Queen is laid to rest

Zilch#181 with Glenn Gretlund & Mark Kleiner from "7a" discuss their new Micky, Davy & Peter releases. For more Monkee related releases, please visit: www.7arecords.com Aired 9/20/22Check out Music from thr Monkeesverse on Monkee Mania Radio, 24/7 with Ken Mills, Christine Wolfe and a bunch of DJs that are bringing you music you will love..Listen here https://live365.com/station/Monkee-Mania-Radio-a57014We were born to love one another.Support Zilch, get a cool shirt!www.redbubble.com/people/designsbyken/works/12348740-zilch-podcast?c=314383-monkees-inspired-artJoin our Facebook pageFind us on Twitter @ZilchcastIf you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file hereDownload (right click, save as)

Monkeypox – it's the hip, new disease sweeping the globe and appearing almost simultaneously in over a dozen different countries on four different continents. The speed at which “monkeypox” cases have begun to be reported in the media is astonishing, leading some to think this might be the next stage of the pandemic psy-op. Interestingly, in March 2021, there was a tabletop exercise on how to effectively deal with a monkeypox outbreak. The World Health Organization is now meeting to ratify its global health treaty. Each bit of trauma increase the technocratic grip on humanity. Timing is everything.#GroundZero #ClydeLewis #MonkeePox https://groundzeromedia.org/5-23-22-monkee-pox-im-not-a.../ Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis is live M-F from 7-10pm, pacific time, and streamed for free at groundzero.radio. There is a delayed broadcast on our local Portland affiliate station, KPAM 860, from 9pm-12am, pacific time. For radio affiliates near you, go to talkstreamlive.com. To listen by phone: 717-734-6922. To call into the show: 503-225-0860. The transcript of each episode will be posted after the show at groundzeromedia.org.In order to access the entire archived shows/podcasts, you must sign up on our secured server at aftermath.media. If you want access to the entire online Ground Zero library, which includes videos, audio clips, e-books, e-magazines, documents, a news aggregator, a social media platform, plus the archived shows/podcasts, it's $12 a month. Check out the yearly specials!