January Record Club - The Monkees, "Pisces, Aquarius, Ca..."

First, I’m glad to have ganews’s notes because I can’t really get the subtleties of who’s-playing-what and such. I did end up watching a fair amount of The Monkees. I’d seen a bit in a Nick-at-Nite marathon as a kid and a bit very late at night or early morning during the brief interval I had broadcast TV after college. My parents apparently have Hilbert’s cable provider and one of the infinite channels squeezed in is a nostalgia one which often shows The Monkees. It took a while to get acclimated to—I thought they were speeding it up a bit to fit in more drug and no-slip bathtub commercials, but no, it was really fast-paced. Once you’re at its speed it’s very easy to get caught up in its goofiness, and it started to remind me of 30 Rock after a while. I did not see the Zappa one, though.

So, having some respect for them as TV entertainers, I’m glad to have an excuse to listen to their music.

“Salesman” a lot less frenetic than I expected. Have to wonder whether there’s some inspiration from the Monkees’ corporate minders (including its creators) as well as their own contractual obligations. Looking at Nesmith’s wikipedia page, his last vocalizations as a pre-reunion Monkee were in a nerf commercial, closing it out with “Enerf’s enerf!”

“She hangs out” is likewise extremely mellow, though it builds to some urgency once the brass chimes in and the drums and bass seem to move a bit more forward.

“The door into summer” is folksier than I’d expect from the Monkees, but still good, solid late-sixties stuff. I wouldn’t mind having this on a mixtape and this generally isn’t my kind of thing. It’s a very California, Laurel Canyon kind of song. Semi-repeating ganews’s observation these songs get better as they get louder.

Although I don’t think it was called, or even coalesced into a single, “Laurel Canyon sound,” I had to stop giggling when someone was very seriously telling me about its musical importance (“no way, that’s a real thing!”). Actually Zappa lived there and he and the Monkees had some kind of involvement so there’s definitely some interface there.

“Love is only sleeping” is again something very identifiably 1967 but still good and competent.

“Cuddly toy” is obnoxious. I made it forty seconds before going to the next song, and I feel I was more than charitable towards the song.

“Words” starts very not-what-I’d-expect before turning into what I’d think a good Monkees song would sound like, a bit like the Zombies coming to life and becoming simian (more in mood than in instrumentation). This is a compliment.

“Hard to believe” that I didn’t skip this song. That little brushing made me think someone near me was scratching a table or rubbing their coat or something, esp. since in stereo it only seems to be in the right ear.

“What am I doing hangin’ ’round?” What are you doing hangin’ ’round? Why is in both -ing and -in? Is it a liaison, like in French (or in the correct version of “pahk the cah in…” where it’s “pahk the car in…” because the r in car is followed by the vowel in in)?

“Pleasant Valley Sunday” is so competent and obvious—it’s seriously boring until the bridge. I think the mini, subdued freak out is necessary.

“Daily nightly” reminds me of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” but with Moog replacing the tape loop effects. I wonder who put synths and loops together in pop music first.

“Don’t call on me.” Living in W. Hollywood I’m used to the local locales getting name-checked, but I didn’t expect a Chicago one (I never lived in the Loop, though). I’ve exposed myself to so much lounge-y sixties-seventies background music I’ve started to like it, and its slow airiness follows from and leads naturally into the gentle crowd sounds at the beginning and end.

“Star collector” is pretty obvious and blah—it sounds like Beatles pastiche to me, but you could probably call it a pastiche of any number of groups. This is like the ground state for sixties pop rock…until the Moog comes in and turns it into something else for a little while, and then the finale turns it into something better. It’s like this song has filler within it.

“Goin’ down” is where we get fast paced again, and basically lives thanks to Micky’s pronunciation. Even if it’s not the original ending it’s a great one to finish off the album, energetic and warm.

Energetic and warm is a pretty good way of describing the album. I don’t think it’s the best at anything, but it’s not a bad candidate for β—second-best at everything. It’s almost an ideal soundtrack for a sixties party, or at least a mid-sixties party—you’ll sample a lot of the better popular music moods of the time, done well.