REVIEWS U.S. 1960s


May-June 2010 andy@shindig-magazine.com KEEP THE APE ROLLING!


It could've been their White Album as the prefab four grew apart and recorded solo but it ended up as a tantalisingly incomplete hack job. This expansive, repackaged, rarities-packed special edition goes some way to redressing the balance. By DAVID BASH.


THE MONKEES The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees: Deluxe Edition Rhino Handmade 3-CD www.rhinohandmade.com


Folks, there’s no getting around it: The Monkees are cool. It wasn’t always that way, though. I’ll never forget a time when I was attending Syracuse University, in my dorm room playing ‘Tapioca Tundra’, a song from the very album which is the


subject of this review: The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees. A guy on my floor heard the music coming through my open door, peeked his head in and said, “This is really good, who is it?”, to which I replied, “The Monkees”. Without missing a beat, he said “It sucks”, and walked away. But thanks to Rhino Records’ reissues of Monkees LPs in


the ’80s, along with other less tangible factors, the band experienced a renaissance and, several (CD) reissues later, there are numerous people who not only think The Monkees are cool, but that they were one of the more formidable bands of the ’60s. While The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees is certainly


not considered the best Monkees album by most fans (that honour would most likely go to Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones Ltd), it’s certainly one of the better ones, and deserves the sumptuous treatment Rhino Handmade has given it. One could dub The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees the band’s “psychedelic album”, and although the psychedelic element is more often subtle than overt, it’s definitely there. For example, while the opening cut, ‘Dream World’, is


sung by Davy Jones and is much more a lush pop song than anything else, the effects on Davy’s vocals and on the instruments give the tune a palpable psychedelic tinge. The next track, the wonderful ‘Auntie’s Municipal Court’, gets similar treatment, and the vocal interplay between Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith, along with the good timey feel of the song, is a fine example of acid-folk. ‘We Were Made For Each Other,’ which otherwise might be considered a sappy Davy ballad, is saved by some beautiful harpsichord fills and a tear-jerking melody. ‘Tapioca Tundra’ is a Nesmith masterpiece, forging his standing as “The Psychedelic Cowboy” with its decidedly Western feel intermingling with weird vocal and instrumental effects. ‘Daydream Believer’ is next and, whether one thinks it’s good or bad, it deserved to be a #1 hit. The final cut on side one of the original album is ‘Writing Wrongs’, on which Nesmith goes completely over the top, singing in obscure metaphors in a voice that seems to come from deep inside a cave, with instrumental backing which goes from ominous to frenetic in the blink of an eye. Side Two of the original album leads off with the Micky Dolenz shuffle, ‘I’ll Be Back Upon My Feet’, which is in some ways the ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ of the album with its ever-present horns. Next is ‘The Poster’ and the psychedelic tinge of the production once again overcomes Davy Jones’ Anthony Newley proclivities. ‘PO Box 9847’, written by noted Monkees songwriting team Boyce & Hart, features Micky singing very thoughtful words about writing a “looking for love” letter over a Middle Eastern-style backing. ‘Magnolia Simms’ is Nesmith at his most playful, doing a ’20s send-


“So how come none of my songs made the LP?” Peter Tork (far right) grins and bears it.


up complete with sound effects and a moonshine-soaked vocal. The other big hit on the album, ‘Valleri’, which, Nesmith’s proclamation as being the “worst song ever made”’ notwithstanding, is a fabulous tune with Davy rockin’ out about as well as he ever did. The album closed with ‘Zor And Zam’, the ‘White Rabbit’ of the album; a tune which could have been a children’s song if not for the ominous war overtones – not to mention the more subtle acid flavour. But the real reason to purchase this three-disc reissue is to


get the mono mix of the album, which was rare as fuck up until now. While not quite the Revolver in mono experience, the mono Birds has some striking differences to its stereo counterpart, like the ultra in-your-face guitar figures on ‘Auntie’s Municipal Court’ and ‘Tapioca Tundra’, easier to decipher lyrics on ‘Writing Wrongs’ and a much slower version of ‘Valleri’ (odd because, if anything, you’d think they’d have sped up the single mix). Overall, the mono mix is much more “present” and, therefore, a more psychedelic experience than the stereo. Each of the three discs is filled out with scads of bonus


cuts, featuring alternate versions of album tracks and recordings made during the album sessions (some of which may have ended up on a proposed double version of the album). On disc one, as a counterpart to the stereo album, most of the bonuses are in stereo, the highlights of which are Micky Dolenz’s bawdy ‘Through The Looking Glass’, Peter Tork’s ‘Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?’, which was a contender for the album but ended up on the soundtrack to Head instead, Nesmith’s introspective ‘Carlisle Wheeling’, the go-go dancing ‘Rosemarie’, a beautiful country- tinged backing track of ‘We Were Made For Each Other’, which makes the tune sound kinda Brian Wilson-esque, and


the ‘Your Mother Should Know’ rip ‘Me Without You’. Disc two features mono versions of many of the disc one


bonuses but has a few surprises of its own, like Tork’s slow take on ‘Come On In’ (a much faster version of which (with different lyrics) would open The Association’s Birthday) and the TV show version of ‘Zor And Zam’, which is much more sinister than the one on the album. Disc three is titled The Birds, The Bees & The Rarities, and it lives up to its name with 31 (!) bonus tracks, the best (and most sought after) of which are a take on ‘Auntie’s Municipal Court’ with Mike’s lead vocal (it totally works!), two versions of ‘Tapioca Tundra’ (one more dizzying than that on the album, and the other an acoustic version which helps us finally understand all the lyrics), Nesmith’s ‘Nine Times Blue’ with Davy singing (no, he doesn’t ruin it!), Micky’s take on ‘Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby)’, a stereo version of ‘Magnolia Simms’ (why wasn’t this on the original stereo album?), and the backing track of ‘I Wasn’t Born To Follow’, which, if completed, would have likely sounded more like The Bee Gees than The Byrds. The only minor carping one might have with all this


material is that there may be too much. Do we really need multiple versions of ‘Alvin’, ‘Lady’s Baby’ and ‘Merry Go Round’? Still, it was the producers’ (primarily the estimable Andrew Sandoval) wish to give us practically everything they had available in the vaults, and it’s difficult to fault that kind of generosity. Andrew Sandoval’s wonderful liner notes – full of session information and other essential facts – round out this absolutely wonderful package. Hey, hey, you really need to buy it today!


David Bash 53


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