Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band by Eric Lefcowitz

Author:Eric Lefcowitz
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Music, Biography
ISBN: 9780943249001
Publisher: Retrofuture Products
Published: 2011-05-15T03:41:08+00:00

On Pisces, Aquarius, the Texas twang of Nesmith, the purist folk of Tork, the music hall sentimentality of Jones, and the rock’n’soul of Dolenz finally gelled.

Chip Douglas instructs Jones on vocals. “Daydream Believer” would be Douglas’ last high-profile production and the group’s final number one single.

Chapter Thirty-Six

The good vibes of the Ojai escapades quickly dissipated as the group returned to the daily grind of shooting episodes of the TV show. There was, however, a bit of good news. Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd. was the number one album on the Billboard charts, the fourth consecutive Monkees LP to achieve this distinction.

Arguably, Pisces, Aquarius was the finest album ever produced by the Monkees, which was a testament to the talents of Chip Douglas, who managed to weave all the disparate elements into a cohesive artistic statement. Not everyone agreed. Nesmith (surprise) was unhappy about his lack of input. “This last album was completed in nine days,” he told Hit Parader magazine about Pisces, Aquarius. “It’s been cut in our own time between TV rehearsals and everything else. How creative can you be in that amount of time?”

Nesmith’s prickly comments notwithstanding, Pisces, Aquarius was an inspired set of songs. The selections were light years away from the Brill Building bubblegum favored by Kirshner. The Nesmith-sung opening cut, “Salesman,” (a swipe at the Golden Ear?) established a new tone. No longer “too busy singing to put anybody down,” the group seemed content to pass judgment this time, signaling a different vision of the Monkees had arrived.

One track in particular, “Cuddly Toy,” was downright naughty. Written by a bank clerk named Harry Nilsson, the song was about a deflowered groupie who gives in “without a fight”—a darkly malevolent tale of lost innocence hidden by a sprightly melody. The inclusion of the song was a breakthrough moment for Nilsson. Royalties allowed the fledgling songwriter to quit his job and devote himself full-time to a career in music (Nilsson’s stunning nine-song demo session, arranged by Douglas for the group to listen to, is well worth seeking out on the Internet).

Pisces, Aquarius was stacked with off-kilter gems. “Daily Nightly,” Nesmith’s wild foray into psychedelia, was a bizarre stroll through the “phantasmagoric splendor” of Los Angeles. It was notable for Dolenz’s swooping Moog synthesizer, one of the earliest appearances of the newfangled instrument on a pop record. Nesmith also contributed heartfelt vocals on Bill Martin’s “The Door Into Summer” and Michael Martin Murphy’s “What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round?”

It wasn’t all roses. Always the weak link in the musical chain, Jones brought things to a halt with the sappy ballad “Hard To Believe” (an enormous hit, curiously enough, in the Philippines) which he co-wrote with three songwriters.

Conspicuous by his absence was Tork, whose only songwriting credit was the novelty intro to “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” a trifle called “Peter Percival Patterson’s Pet Pig Porky.” The long-gestating “Lady’s Baby” had not been delivered and Tork’s presence, in general, was non-existent.

Later, Tork expressed his disappointment that the “all Monkees” band ethic of Headquarters had fallen by the wayside.

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