*Here we come walkin' down the street...*

The Monkees have long been a part of my music collection, but until fairly recently, they have been strictly a “greatest hits” band to me – meaning, I never delved into their non-singles. As I believe I stated elsewhere, I got into The Monkees in my early teens and bought a greatest hits album. Unfortunately, I never really moved beyond those hit songs.

 

I feel like The Monkees kind of got a bad rap when they first came out in the mid-60s and it’s kind of stuck with them. The Pre-Fab Four. A manufactured band who didn’t write their own music and don’t play their own instruments. Never mind the fact that there are a number of groups from that time (and since) that don’t write music and use studio musicians on their albums – particularly the latter. The Beach Boys, The Mamas and The Papas, The Temptations were all basically vocalists in the studio. Even so, that wasn’t entirely true. Maybe they didn’t play or write much on their first album or two, but Mike and Peter were both decent musicians before they were cast as Monkees. And I think a certain amount of props has to be given to Micky – who initially only played guitar – for learning to play the drums so quickly. And they were expected to do an awful lot – not only acting in a television show, but recording albums and making personal appearances and doing live performances. All in all, I find what they were able to accomplish very impressive.

 

The early songs were often composed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and are amazingly catchy – like “Last Train to Clarksville”, the fast-paced “Let’s Dance On”, the sweetly sung “I Wanna Be Free”, and rocking “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone” (which has always been a favorite of mine). Neil Diamond contributed a few tunes as well like “I’m A Believer” and “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)”. Then of course, the exceptionally accomplished Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote some great Monkees hits like “Pleasant Valley Sunday”. And yes, The Monkees themselves did write a number of their own tunes. Mike Nesmith wrote “Mary, Mary”, “Tapioca Tundra” , “Sweet Young Thing”, “The Girl I Knew Somewhere”, “Listen to the Band” (a personal favorite of mine) and a number of others. Peter Tork wrote the appealing “For Pete’s Sake” that was featured as the closing theme for the 2^nd season of the TV show. Micky, inspired by a party thrown for them by The Beatles, wrote the tune “Randy Scouse Git”. Davy even co-wrote a few songs like “Hard to Believe”. Oh, and if you want to check out a definite lyric challenge, look up the song, "Goin' Down", written by all four band members. Crazy fast lyrics!

 

As I’ve been checking out more Monkees albums, I’m finding that my favorite of their albums is the 1967 released Headquarters. It’s really an exciting album. It’s the first album made after producer, Don “The Man With The Golden Ear” Kirshner was dismissed and you can hear the amount of enjoyment, excitement, and energy the band put forth into making it. Upon its release, it raced up the charts to number one, only to be bumped firmly into the number two spot by The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper.

 

The album kicks off with the country-tinged rocker written by Mike, “You Told Me”, featuring some excellent banjo playing by Peter. Boyce and Hart’s “I’ll Spend My Life With You” is a lovely ballad sung by Micky and is followed by the catchy “Forget That Girl” with Davy providing the vocals. Mike takes the duty as lead singer on the fantastic song, “You Just May Be The One” – and Micky provides excellent harmonies. “Shades of Gray” is more of a grown-up song for the band, lyrics reflecting on the uncertainty of the mid-1960s – and features

superb vocals by Davy and Peter. “For Pete’s Sake” is a fantastic tune with an addictive guitar riff and very “Summer of Love” lyrics that I love. “Mr. Webster” is a slower song that tells the sad story of Mr. Webster and features a lot of tambourine by Davy. Another Nesmith penned song follows with “Sunny Girlfriend” and then a classic 1950s rock and roll inspired song, “No Time” (and there’s a Beatles reference in this song!). “Early Morning Blues and Greens” is another lovely Davy sung ballad. And the album ends with Micky’s excellent “Randy Scouse Git” – I love the piano part and the contrast between the verses and the chorus. Though, I think my favorite song (at least of the moment) is one of the bonus tracks, “All Of Your Toys”. That song is fantastic and very addictive. It’s a bit Beatle-esque, but I love that tune and the use of harpsichord and piano. Micky does a great job on the vocals and I also thoroughly enjoy the background vocals. It was written by Mike’s friend, Bill Martin and the tune was slated to be a single originally, but couldn’t be released due to copyright issues.

 

Like I mentioned, I never thoroughly explored the band’s full catalogue of songs – and while I still have a bit more to peruse, I think I’m beginning to fully appreciate how remarkable this band was. In fact, the more I’m getting to know them, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to pick a favorite member. It was originally Davy, because of his adorable face and British accent (I got to see him live in ’04!), but now… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just go watch some more of them and I’ll be able to decide… Until then, I’ll leave you with this.

 

*Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty...*

Just a brief ramble about my song of the moment...

The past week or so I've been listening to a lot of music from 1966 and 1967. During the course of this, I've stumbled back onto a song that has been a part of my music collection for many years, but somehow I've not paid a lot of attention to it, other than the fact that it's a pleasant song. Hearing it again this week, after not really listening to it for a while, I've found myself completely addicted.

The song is "Different Drum" by The Stone Poneys. I think I first became aware of this song when I was around 14 or so. It was played on a radio station called "Memories" (that has since become a country music station) quite often. I enjoyed the song and would always sing along with it, but it was several years later before I realized that the song was penned by Monkee, Michael Nesmith.

Coincidentally, I got into The Monkees around that same time (the TV show was on in the mornings before I had to go to school), but I'd never considered any of The Monkees songwriters at that time. Strangely enough, Mike Nesmith wrote some of my favorite songs The Monkees performed like "Tapioca Tundra", "Listen to the Band", and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere". But I'd honestly never heard Mike's version of "Different Drum" until this week. (How behind am I?!) His version has a lot more of a country flavor to it and features some cool guitar work, but I still think Linda Ronstadt's rendition is the definitive version. Her voice seems to resonate with a defiance that seems to be missing from other performances I've found of this song.

As for the song itself... I love the lyrics, though I suppose they're a bit wordy - at least in comparison with a lot of what was going on in the Top 40 of the mid-'60s. I am finding that I have a thing for unusual rhymes, which this song has a few. I love the classical influence in the production, featuring a harpsichord and strings... and I love the unconventional structure to the song - not following the typical verse-bridge-verse configuration of many pop songs of the time. Also, as I think I've mentioned before, I dig the fact that it's quite clearly a break up song ("It's just that I am not in the market for a boy who wants to love only me") and it's set to a rather upbeat tune. Love the contrast of that.

Anyway, I suppose I've rambled enough for now, so I'll just leave you with the song.

Blab It To The Rabbitt…

Okay, so this entry is a bit of a departure from my usual posts. I’m writing more about radio history than music – but I figure radio and music go together, and since this is my blog, I can do as I like!

 

So, several months ago I stumbled across some old airchecks from various radio stations in the 1960s. I think by now it’s quite obvious that I am inclined towards that particular decade and I loved getting this glimpse into the normal lives of people from that time. When it comes to history, I’ve always been more fascinated with the lives of the Average Joe or Jane than the famous political figures, so these old airchecks were quite a find for me. I found myself looking into various artists I hadn’t previously explored and I quickly became a fan of one DJ in particular. The St. Louis radio station, KXOK’s Johnny Rabbitt (aka Don Pietromonaco).

 

I was immediately attracted to his style on the radio. He doesn’t just tell you what song is going to play next, he really put on a show! I was very amused by his banter with his self-created sidekick, Bruno J. Grunion. And when I found out that Bruno didn’t actually exist, but was voiced by Johnny Rabbitt himself, I was thoroughly impressed.  After doing a bit more research I found, that he’d often get to the studio early and record his Bruno drop-ins before the show, then converse with the pre-taped voice on the air and then there were times when he did both voices live. That takes the talent of a true actor to pull off something like that, I believe. While I think these kinds of antics were more common back in the day, I still believe that Don Pietromonaco was an extremely talented individual. He stepped into the Johnny Rabbitt role in 1964 and became a local legend of sorts.

 

I know that a lot of work had to go into each show – they were carefully crafted with laugh-tracks, sound effects, gags, contests, games, prizes, requests and dedications.  I know he didn’t do it entirely on his own – he had help from the production team of KXOK, but he did earn some of the highest ratings ever recorded in the St. Louis area. He also ran a couple teen nightclubs and helped raise millions of dollars for medical research.  And of course, he created memories for thousands of St. Louis teens… After listening to as many broadcasts featuring him as I’ve been able to find, I can say with absolute certainty, had I been a St. Louis teen in the ‘60s, I’d have been a Johnny Rabbitt Army Member.

 

 

 

 

 http://630kxok.stlmedia.net/index.html

Top 40 of the '60s

For the past several months I’ve become a bit infatuated with Top 40 stations from the mid-‘60s, particularly a local station that I parents listened to while growing up. I found a website with a ton of airchecks between 1963 and 1968 and while you don’t hear much music (it’s mostly just the DJs talking and old commercials), it has caused me to branch out and hunt down some of the songs from the time period. Some were very easy to find, but some were songs released by local bands, and those were particularly hard to get my hands on.

As you’re probably aware by now, I have a pretty large music collection and have an affinity for the ‘60s, but there were a ton of songs released during that decade and I only owned a small fraction of it. Of course, I had all The Beatles songs and quite a bit of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Mamas & The Papas, The Beach Boys, The Doors, The Who, The Kinks and The Monkees, but there were a number of songs that were pretty good sized hits that I had either not heard before or never paid much attention to.

“Red Rubber Ball” by the Cyrkle is one of those songs that I’d heard but didn’t really know. Co-written by Paul Simon with a happy tune, it’s a song I really enjoy. And the lyrics – I like the sentiment of being okay with the end of a relationship, particularly the chorus: “I think it’s gonna be alright. Yeah, the worse is over now. The morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball.”

“Sunny” by Bobby Hebb is another song that I’d heard and never listened to the various nuances of the song that make it so great – and one of the most covered popular songs. I think because the song has been covered so many times, I didn’t immediately make the connection that it was originally from the ‘60s. There were a couple other songs that I also hadn’t realized were from the ‘60s. One was “But It’s Alright” by J. J. Jackson and the other was “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” by Jimmy Ruffin – which has a very popular song on my playlist in the last few months. It’s really an amazing song – I really enjoy the last 28 seconds of the song, but I always enjoy the bits of songs that the vocalist is adlibbing a bit off of the original melody.

The Association’s “Along Comes Mary” is another one I’ve become hooked on in the last year or so. It’s got kind of an unusual melody and some pretty cool harmonies (though, it is The Association, so that should be expected)… And there’s a jazzy flute solo, which is something you don’t hear much these days. It’s also pretty fun to sing because some of the lyrics aren’t words you hear a lot and the rhythm of the words is kind of unique.

“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” was originally recorded in the early ‘50s, but Mel Carter’s version released in ’65 may be the definitive version.  “Cara Mia” by Jay and the Americans tends to make me giggle a little. Not because it’s a bad song or not well performed, mostly because it’s so different from a lot of what you hear now and even back when it was released in 1965. It was a pretty big hit… I think it topped out around #4 – and Jay could really hold those high notes. I really should look up the lyrics because there are pieces of the song that I just end up singing gibberish.

“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” by the Four Tops and “Get Ready” by The Temptations are great Motown tracks that I had kind of disregarded until recently – and I’m not quite sure why. I probably had just heard them too much on the local oldies station or something so I never stopped to really listen to them. I had originally only known the song, “You’re the One” sung by Petula Clark, but I’ve found that I prefer The Vogues’ version. “Because” by The Dave Clark Five is a lovely ballad and I ended up hunting down Chad & Jeremy’s song, “My How The Time Goes By” after seeing them on The Dick Van Dyke Show (in an episode that satirized Beatlemania). “Catch the Wind” by Donovan is a gorgeous melody with some very lovely lyrics. I think it’s a tune that’s often mistaken for something written by Dylan… and it is definitely Dylan-esque with the acoustic guitar and harmonica. “Nowhere to Run” by Martha and the Vandellas is a great, driving song – and love the snow chain percussion. It gives the song a pretty distinctive style. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by The Supremes is another song I seemed to have disregarded in the past. I do have a tendency to get a little bored with The Supremes sometimes, because all of their songs have a very similar sound, but this is a really like this song. I really appreciate the sentiment behind it – though last year, I related it directly to my job – at least the chorus. And there are a couple Barbara Lewis songs I really like - "Baby I'm Yours" and "Make Me Belong To You". She really does a very good vocal performance on both tunes, though, I think I may be a little more partial to the latter (and it has a nice little keyboard interlude).

“The Game of Love” by Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders is a song I was really infatuated with when I downloaded it this past spring. There’s so much in this song that I feel is noteworthy, the drum beat, the twangy guitar, and use of tambourine. And I really like how the tempo picks up during the bridge then stops and goes back into the original tempo… Yeah, I dig that. “I Go To Pieces” is my favorite Peter & Gordon song … I really like the piano bit during the chorus.

Paul Revere & The Raiders are very new to my music collection and were added specifically because of the airchecks I had found from the old radio stations. Up until then, I’d really only known them for “Indian Reservation” and that is not one of my favorite songs. Their stuff from the mid-‘60s is pretty good though. The first song of theirs I added to my collection was “Kicks”… Great guitar riff in that song. A few other songs that are worth mentioning are “Hungry”, “Him or Me, What’s It Gonna Be”, and “Too Much Talk”.

There were 2 groups that I did discover solely because of my aircheck research: The Excels and The Aerovons. The Excels were a Michigan based blue-eyed soul group… My favorite of their songs (the few I was able to locate, that is) is “Little Innocent Girl”. The Aerovons were a psychedelic - Beatle-esque group from St. Louis. The song “Resurrection” is my favorite.

Dino, Desi & Billy are the latest of the mid-‘60s groups I’ve gotten into. I’m quite aware that they aren’t the most talented band of the ‘60s – not by a long shot, but some of their songs, like “If You’re Thinking What I’m Thinking” are just plain fun, and in my book, it’s okay to have songs just for fun. And the video for the song “Thru Spray Colored Glasses” is something I find very amusing. I’m all about the transistor radio hanging from the rearview mirror and the random ‘60s dancing!

Nostalgia and Clarients

So this is just a little mini-post because I really only am going to discuss one song in this post.

I’ve recently downloaded the song “Stranger on the Shore” by Acker Bilk. I don’t know if I’d ever really heard the 1961 version of the song performed by Acker Bilk until recently – while listening to Songza playlist, “Number One Hits from the ‘60s” or some such.  Kinda hard to believe that a clarinet solo hit number one (though, I believe this was in the UK). He apparently wrote this tune for his daughter and named it after her, “Jenny.” Though, it was the theme song to a British show, “Stranger on the Shore”… thus, the title.

The film that caused me to really take notice of the tune was in The Majestic. I don’t know if it’s because of the film or if it’s the song itself, but it has a very nostalgic and wistful feel to it – at least to me.  But I’ll let you be the judge.