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Patches - bring tears to my eyes
Drift Away - I probably don't own 50 albums but I've got one with that on it
Shaddup You Face - I chuckled
Psycho Chicken - you are on your own
And from the remakes thread "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone - Monkees" I figured I was probably the only person who would ever admit publically that they STILL like some of the Monkees' stuff.
I figured I was probably the only person who would ever admit publically that they STILL like some of the Monkees' stuff.
The Monkee's rep has come a long way, dude. Yes, they were completely prefab (like plenty of great Motown and R&B bands werent?) but a) they rebelled and b) they made some great records no matter who was on 'em.
I figured I was probably the only person who would ever admit publically that they STILL like some of the Monkees' stuff.
posted by Carbolic 03 October | 20:27
I didn't know there was any shame to liking the Monkees. They were responsible for some of the greatest pop songs of the 60's ("Valleri", "Words", "Pleasant Valley Sunday" to name a few) and have a much higher ratio of good songs than many other bands from the era. And as jonmc pointed out, they may have started out as a cookie cutter pop band but they took control and pushed their sound and took chances. I fucking love the Monkees.
The Monkees I love outright as a great band. The Partridge Family appeal for most is more kitch. I'm not a fan of the whole catalog, but I will stand by "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" as a great song. Especially for the wah-wah guitar in the middle of the chorus.
Slack, I've always been of the opinon that there were two (at least) "1960's." On places like MeFi, because of the preponderance of "creativeclass," brats with ex-hippie parents, we hear a lot more about the Human Be-In, Haight-Ashbury, Laurel Canyon 60's and truth be tols thathad very little to do with what most Americans went through. For folks like my parents (a small-town Vermont girl and a straight-from-high-school-to-Nam Queens boy) the sixties had more to do with the Four Seasons, the Grass Roots, Motown and the Beach Boys than the Grateful Dead. That stuff didn't penetrate to Middle America till much later, and by then the "pioneers," wanted nothing to so with it. Typical. But sad.
I was born in 1960 and grew up in New Orleans. My parents were a little old to be hippies (They would have been about 26 in 1960 and weren't at all into current music) but I have a cousin and an aunt who were exactly the right age to be fully into the 60s early 70s scene. I watched the Monkees and the Partridge Family at home and my Aunt and Cousin exposed me to The Band, Hendrix, etc.. I had hippie teachers who had us singing folk songs at school. On Fridays they'd combine our two 3rd grade classes and one of the teachers would sit crosslegged on a desk playing guitar leading us in singing Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore and Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Kum By Ya, etc.. My cousin, who would have been 14-15 at the time made our mothers take us to a Love In held at Audubon Park across the street from Tulane in 66 or 67. In the 5th grade we had a teacher who would let us bring records to class on Fridays. It was all Motown and Three Dog Night.I didn't realize how unusual it was at the time. My kids probably got a better basic education but not nearly the extras.
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