Author Topic: Best Monkees album?  (Read 11138 times)

not that clay

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Best Monkees album?
« on: April 27, 2011, 02:46:16 PM »
Where to start with The Monkees?

masterofsparks

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2011, 06:46:54 PM »
Conventional wisdom will point you to Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones Ltd., which is a fine choice and probably their most consistent album. I would call Head my personal favorite just because I love The Porpoise Song so, so much.
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Eric Fishlegs

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2011, 09:34:01 PM »
Where to start with The Monkees?

I'm gonna be lame and suggest the 2 disc Monkees Anthology. Whatever you do just ignore POOL IT! though I'd bet the cover alone would be enough to keep you far away.

HEAD features a unreleased demo of Peter Tork singing "Can You Dig it?" which is pretty hillarious. The guy wrote a great song, but it was not a great song suited to his vocal abilities.


dave from knoxville

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2011, 06:15:13 AM »
You'll have to spend a little, but I absolutely love this box

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Box-Monkees/dp/B000056W0H

You can probably find it cheaper than this; I got mine new for like $28. It's worth it if only for the Mike Nesmith songs, plus you get an insight into their Beatley ambitions, some of which work (like the Porpoise Song) and some of which are hilariously wrong.

davidgoeschatting

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2011, 09:56:40 AM »
Where to start with The Monkees?

The way I entered was through a greatest hits collection to sample the different eras, and to see if there were enough good songs out there to keep pursuing (there are). It may be clean and simple to start at the beginning. Monkees and More of the Monkees have a bunch of good and great songs, and you'll be following their progression. Happy listening.
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Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2011, 01:03:59 PM »
The critical consensus is onto something with Pisces, but I have a soft spot for The Birds, The Bees, and The Monkees.
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Eric Fishlegs

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2011, 08:35:26 PM »
Speaking of which, I also reccomend the book MONKEE BUSINESS by Eric Lefcowicz. The whole story is quite an interesting one.

Also, one of my favorite exchanges in the history of TV came from the Monkees-

Ben Cartwheel- "You! Water my horse."
Davey- "Me? But I'm not a stable boy."
Ben-"I don't care about your mental condition. Just water the horse."


JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2011, 08:21:59 PM »
I am a big fan of More of the Monkees.  "She" is one of my favorite tracks to open an album ever. 

Just steel yourself for "The Day We Fall In Love" which takes the Nobel prize for sappiest piece of shit ever.
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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2011, 11:39:23 AM »
Not to funsuck and buzzstomp, but isn't "Cuddly Toy" vastly creepier than Gary Puckett's "Young Girl"?
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Wes

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2011, 12:35:14 PM »
Not to funsuck and buzzstomp, but isn't "Cuddly Toy" vastly creepier than Gary Puckett's "Young Girl"?
I don't think so. The narrator for Cuddly Toy is a creep, but he's basically saying "Yeah, I cheated on you, you caught me, but you're just some dumb lovestruck kid and I can find someone new in about five seconds." I'm kind of inferring the "caught cheating" subplot, but I think it's there. In any event, the toy/Christmas present/tell your mother stuff seems to be there to insult the girl for being not as worldy and invoke the "I'd already lost interest in you anyway" feeling, not to (necessarily, at least) claim said cuddly toy is a child.

So, still a scumbag, yeah, but nowhere near as terrifyingly creepy as Puckett, who appears to be  literally singing "I can't be trusted around this underage girl, who is to blame because she trapped me into havin' the hots for her with her clothes, makeup and mind control."
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dave from knoxville

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #10 on: May 04, 2011, 12:39:33 PM »
Not to funsuck and buzzstomp, but isn't "Cuddly Toy" vastly creepier than Gary Puckett's "Young Girl"?
I don't think so. The narrator for Cuddly Toy is a creep, but he's basically saying "Yeah, I cheated on you, you caught me, but you're just some dumb lovestruck kid and I can find someone new in about five seconds." I'm kind of inferring the "caught cheating" subplot, but I think it's there. In any event, the toy/Christmas present/tell your mother stuff seems to be there to insult the girl for being not as worldy and invoke the "I'd already lost interest in you anyway" feeling, not to (necessarily, at least) claim said cuddly toy is a child.

So, still a scumbag, yeah, but nowhere near as terrifyingly creepy as Puckett, who appears to be  literally singing "I can't be trusted around this underage girl, who is to blame because she trapped me into havin' the hots for her with her clothes, makeup and mind control."

Of course, on the other hand, there's "She Hangs Out"


How old d'you say your sister was? (sister was, sister was)
How old d'you say your sister was? (sister was, sister was)
You know you'd better keep an eye on her (eye on her, eye on her)
Do the ronde ronde ronde do the rond rond
She hangs out
She hangs out

I heard you taught your sister the bugaloo (bugaloo, bugaloo)
I heard you taught your sister the shigaling too
(shigaling
too, shigaling too)
Well, she can teach you a thing or two (a thing or two, thing or two)
Do the ronde ronde ronde do the rond rond
She hangs out
She hangs out

Well, she hangs out, hangs out
every night, every night
You know you best get down here on the double
Before she gets her pretty little self in trouble
She's...so fine...so fine

I say, how old d'you say your sister was? (sister was, sister was)
How old d'you say your sister was? (sister was, sister was)
You know you'd better keep an eye on her (eye on her, eye on her)
Do the ronde ronde ronde do the rond rond
She hangs out
She hangs out

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2011, 12:51:00 PM »
Mmmm, not convinced. First, I wasn't claiming the creepiness of "Cuddly Toy" lies primarily in the suggestion of pedophilia (although the toy/choo-choo train stuff doesn't exactly discourage the idea) so it might be argued I'm comparing apples to oranges.  But look--and believe me, this is the first time in my life I have ever googled "Gary Puckett lyrics"--at least the "Young Girl" singer tells the girl to get herself out of harm's way when he finds out she's underage. The "Cuddly Toy" singer appears to have found/fucked/forgotten her and is now telling her to get over it, she's just a dime-a-dozen slut anyway.  Of course there are lots of songs on this theme, but in this case the jolly melody and jocular tone really pin the creepiness meter.
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Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2011, 07:22:33 PM »
Mmmm, not convinced. First, I wasn't claiming the creepiness of "Cuddly Toy" lies primarily in the suggestion of pedophilia (although the toy/choo-choo train stuff doesn't exactly discourage the idea) so it might be argued I'm comparing apples to oranges.  But look--and believe me, this is the first time in my life I have ever googled "Gary Puckett lyrics"--at least the "Young Girl" singer tells the girl to get herself out of harm's way when he finds out she's underage. The "Cuddly Toy" singer appears to have found/fucked/forgotten her and is now telling her to get over it, she's just a dime-a-dozen slut anyway.  Of course there are lots of songs on this theme, but in this case the jolly melody and jocular tone really pin the creepiness meter.

Did the singer feel her, too? Because that would confirm my longtime theory that The Mentors were really The Monkees with black hoods on.
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buffcoat

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #13 on: May 12, 2011, 09:34:18 AM »
"This Girl is a Woman Now" is the creepiest of the Puckett triptych.


Do you think Kirby Puckett's creepiness was driven by his insane need to keep up with his older brother?
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

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Re: Best Monkees album?
« Reply #14 on: May 12, 2011, 10:30:14 AM »
"This Girl is a Woman Now" is the creepiest of the Puckett triptych.

Eewww.  Googled it.  Need shower now.
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