Episode 1302 Talkback: Spotlight on The Monkees
Pants
Posts: 567
In this episode we shine our spotlight on The Monkees. We discuss how we first got into The Monkees, our favorite songs, our favorite episodes, trivia, the upcoming tour and more. This episode was originally a CGS iPhone app exclusive but now gets a wider release (1:25:27)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
*ducks to avoid incoming thrown bottles and rotten food*
I bought all the re-issued CDs in the early 90's and have to agree that Andrew Sandoval's liner notes are like mini text books. My favorite album is Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd. I love the eclectic nature of that album, every style is represented well and I think that range is the Monkees strength. Thru their short carreer they have classic timeless Pop( Last Train to Clarksville), Show Tunes( Cuddly Toy), Psychedellia ( Daily Night, Tapiaoca Tundra), Country Rock ( What Am I Doing Hangin' Round? ) brilliant social commentary( Mommy and Daddy, Pleasant Valley Sunday) .
In 1991 when I broke up with my first love, I was so depressed that while at work in my Warehouse job, every trailer I loaded and unloaded and wrote "Love is Only Sleeping" in chalk on the back wall. I was unloading a truck some months later to see my pathetic graffiti still on at least one trailer.
I met Davy in the mid 90's when he played a week long gig at my casino and i was his escort. He famously was hitting on each and every cocktail server, including my future wife and not surprisingly women 30 years his junior loved him with no real connection with the 60's Monkees.
Met Mickey at Wizard World Philly or maybe Big Apple Con and have a photo of my oldest daughter and Mickey.
I cant list my favorite episodes as I dont know the titles but they were very innovative at times, though the repeatition sometime hurts individual episodes. The Monkee Vs the Machine toy episode is great as you guys covered.
If I have to list 3 favorite songs:
3- Early Morning Blues and Greens A great Davy Jones song in the Norewgian Wood vein at least lyrically.
2- Love is Only Sleeping I'm a Mike Nesmith guy and that opening guitar riff is killer.
1- The Girl I Know from Somewhere. Best broken heart love song ever.
I am seeing them Friday Night in Jersey and cannot wait though Davy's passing was a hard price to pay to see Mike.
Great episode. This is why I love CGS.
The Picture Frame is my favorite episode, Pleasant Valley Sunday, She and Valleri are my favorite songs.
I never knew about them passing on Sugar, Sugar, i kinda want to hear what they would have done with it.
Thinking about the Monkees and these other shows got me thinking about all of the TV shows I loved as a kid: Winkie Dink, Gumby, Superman, Adam West's Batman, Underdog, George of the Jungle, Speed Racer, The Pink Panther, Green Acres, The Beverly Hill Billies, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie - the list goes on and on.
But, like so many of you said on this episode, I have special and fond memories of The Monkees. I, too, of course, had the biggest crush on Davy Jones, was a member of the Monkees fan club, had the records, etc. etc.
I live in So Cal, & The Monkees will be performing at The Greek Theater in LA I believe. They show isn't sold out, as Goldstar was offering reduced priced tix at one time. However, I am not going to be going to the show. While I loved all the members of the band, without Davy, it just won't be the same. It's a shame that -as popular as they were in their day - they never toured together as a complete group in many years (if ever! as I have no recollection of them touring, but I am old and my memory isn't what it used to be).
Anyway, thanks for a fun show. And, BTW, how do I find @Pants singing on You Tube? How is it listed?
This episode made me SO SO happy to listen to. I have been a fan of you guys for a few years now and THIS episode pushed me over the edge to actually comment. My comment you ask?
THANKS.
My finance and I are seeing them at the Beacon here in NYC for our Xmas present. She has no idea but this will be my "perfect" gift since we are both fans and had a weird realization of it one day in the car. I will let her listen to this episode after December 2nd.
Just to get it on there...the comic stuff you do is AWESOME as well but this one just made my one day off from the restaurant a VERY good one.
So I was already pretty familiar with them by the time the 20th anniversary revival came around, but that just made me an even bigger fan. Their Bangor, Maine, tour stop that year was my first real concert, and a hell of a show it was, too (even if Herman's Hermits couldn't play as scheduled because Peter Noone's visa ran out!).
Top 3 Favorite Episodes (I don't know titles):
1. The Christmas episode where the show spoiled, bratty Butch Patrick the meaning of Christmas. One of my favorite Christmas episodes of any show ever, actually.
2. The one with Julie Newmar where they all fight over her. For whatever reason I thought the repetition of "Do fish swim?" every time she asked one of them if they were really into one of her interests was very funny as a kid.
3. The one where they're movie extras and they have to contend with the mean star played by Bobby Sherman, then plot to replace him with Davy.
Top 3 Favorite Songs (as of right now):
1. Pleasant Valley Sunday - the best song ever written about suburban ennui and first world problems!
2. (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone - Maybe the hardest song the Monkees ever recorded, and one that translated very well to punk (love the Sex Pistols' version).
3. Sweet Young Thing - Mike wrote a lot of great songs, but I like how this combines his country sensibilities with some funk and psychedelia.
Honorable mention (tie): Gonna Buy Me a Dog and Zilch... I love it when they get silly.
Thanks for this great episode. I've already listened to it several times.
And the football player in the war scene is Ray Nitschke, former linebacker great of the Green Bay Packers in the 60's. He was also in the original and better version of The Longest Yard.
Loved this episode, guys. I made the personal discovery of the Monkees during the MTV marathon of the show back in '86 or '87. Whenever that show was on MTV or Nickelodeon, I watched it and was hooked ever since. For Christmas of '87, I got a vinyl copy of That Was Then, This Is Now...The Best of the Monkees and played that album non-stop. I was greatly disappointed when Nickelodeon stopped showing reruns of the show and when I moved from my old home over a decade ago, I somehow lost that record and a bunch of others. Somehow they may have ended up in a box that got thrown away by mistake.
I now own a few MP3s of some of their music (no full albums) and can watch the show on METV. The nostalgic feeling I have for this group still lives on.
I've been a major Monkees fan since I first discovered them via re-runs of the show in the early 70's. (I was also born the same year the show was - 1966. Coincidence, perhaps?) The first albums I ever owned were original copies of their albums passed down to me from one of my Aunts, who bought them herself when they first came out. I've been hooked and collecting ever since. Sadly, the only time I got the chance to see the band live was during the '86/'87 reunion tour.
Pants, If you ever want to talk The Monkees sometime, hit me up with a PM or my email. We seem to have very similar taste when it comes to them. Our Top 3 songs (while for me, was nearly impossible to narrow down to just that few) are almost identical. I'd only swap out "You Told Me" for "You Just Me Be The One". I love the joyful count in, and the way Nesmith hangs on the "ing" part of "Times have made me shy of girls and all the games that they are play-----ing". Other than that, was happy to see you chose "As We Go Along" (an underrated classic from Head, featuring Ry Cooder, Danny Kortchmar and Neil Young on guitar) and "The Girl That I Knew Somewhere" as your other two faves. Peter's Harpsichord solo on the latter may just be one of my favorite things in any song, ever. Kinda surprised you didn't play some of Nesmith's demo version, where he handles the lead vocals on the song. As much as I'm fond of Nesmith, I am glad that Micky ultimately sang lead on it. I also think that Micky was/is one of the finest Pop/Rock singers ever. There are times on some of their recordings where he is not only doing the leads, but doubling and even tripling himself on the harmonies. Impressive stuff.
If you, or anybody else is interested in more of what I think of the Monkees music, here's a link to an "Album by Album" thread I was leading in another forum over at DVDTalk.com., back after Davy Jones passing earlier this year. We only got through up to Then And Now - The Best Of The Monkees, and didn't end up covering Pool It or Justus, but it's a fun and insightful read.
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/music-talk/599480-album-album-thread-monkees.html
Thanks again for this show!
I'm like Jamie D I use to watch The Monkees after school never got tired of watching the reruns. I think it was the music I was more interested in, to this day I can sing along with most of the songs and have a bunch of them on my iPod but can only describe a few of the story lines from the episodes.
Here are a three of my favorite songs, I tried to list songs that did not get mentioned in the episode.
Here is the famous video of Pants singing Pleasant Valley Sunday