Check out this Head-era Monkees interview with longtime Philadelphia DJ Hy Lit. At the 4:07 mark, Mike Nesmith starts talking about the band’s next album, a proto-KISS solo album concept, in which each Monkee leads a side of a double album through his personal musical vision. Mickey Dolenz joins in with a note about his interest in electronic music and his Moog synthesizer, which goes way over Lit’s head. Soon after Peter Tork starts calling for an end to the interview. The late Davy Jones looks really cute.
Rock Town Hall asks you to imagine the track listing, in descriptive terms, including sequencing and real and/or imagined song titles, for this planned double album.
If you can manage any of that challenge, how would your Monkees double-album concept release have stacked up against the KISS solo albums?
I was watching the pilot episode of the Monkees last night, which had the auditions of Davy & Mike, which were interesting to watch.
As for that double album, I think it would have probably ended up like this:
1. Mike Side: The country-rock songs like “Listen To the Band” that he recorded in Nashville in the summer of ’68.
2. Micky Side: A mismash of R&B pastiches & Moog bleepings, w/lyrics decrying the current state of society.
3. Peter Side: “Peace, Love & Get Together” songs in the Buffalo Springfield/Crosby, Stills & Nash vein.
4. Davy Side: A mini-Broadway musical about a short English lad’s rise from humble beginnings to the top o’ show biz.
I can’t really judge the Kiss solo albums since I’ve never heard any of them all the way though. Come to think of it, I’ve never heard an entire Kiss album either, and I don’t feel particularly compelled to start now.
As for the proposed Monkees album:
I believe Peter Tork was a closet folkie singer-songwriter type and that’s the sort of stuff we’d have heard from him.
Nesmith would have gone country and countryish-rock, though he was capable of some weirdness like 1969’s “Listen To the Band” where Nashville meets monster brass and psychedelia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQZaKSYglIs
I think Dolenz would have been wildly eclectic with a try-anything-once attitude. He sang lead on “Porpoise Song”, which was a magnificent piece of late flower-power lushness written by Goffin/King.
I suspect Davy would have stuck with pop and ballads. He seemed to be the least musically adventurous of the bunch.
I mostly agree with diskojoe and tonyola. Mike’s side would’ve been C&W. Micky’s would be fairly eclectic, definitely some Moog stuff. Davy’s would be mostly love ballads, but he’d stick his surprisingly credible acid-rocker “You and I” (with Neil Young!) in there. Peter’s side would’ve been a 24-minute version of “Your Auntie Grezelda.”
I hope Mike side would shy away from this kind of thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRWTz3zY1WY
I just heard/saw this monstrosity for the first time and I think it would be a a great candidate for the “Say Something Nice” series. It would have made a decent Mystery Date too.
So, we already know Nesmith was the creator of country-rock. Did this song come out before Over-Nite Sensation? Was Nesmith Zappa before Zappa was Zappa?
“Cruisin'” was released in 1979 on Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma, though the video didn’t hit the airwaves until a couple years later as part of Elephant Parts. I disagree with cdm – while the song is an oddball, it’s more interesting than much of the schlocky country that Nesmith was cranking out in the 1970s, and the video was something of a landmark in 1981.
David Jones got his start in musical theater. Here he is in “Oliver!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fLLuQgIss
I learned Thursday night that chickenfrank does a killer version of “Consider Yourself.”
I don’t mean to hijack this thread but I saw something that I was interested in getting the RTH reaction to.
An online acquaintance of mine stated:
“You know, I could totally hear — and I mean this in a really good way — the Buzzcocks and the Monkees swapping songs.”
For the record, I can agree with that.
(Is there a post in the making here about bands swapping songs or has that been done already?)
That’s a great idea. Let me look into the archives tonight and see if we can’t launch such a thread tomorrow morning. Thanks!
This was made during Nesmith’s hard-drugs phase.
Man, I went from thinking “Peter’s side would be the worst, by far” to trying to wish a 24-minute version of Auntie Grizelda into existence.