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Post by Charlie O. on Jan 14, 2021 19:47:44 GMT
"Are you telling me that you don't see the connection between government and laughing at people?"
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Post by oh oooh on Jan 21, 2021 12:49:39 GMT
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-543157-1345258614-1137.jpeg.jpg) The Birds, The Bees & The MonkeesI think I might have to put up a bit more of a ROBUST DEFENCE of this one 'cos I don't feel there's a great deal of enthusiasm for it. Not as much as for the preceding couple of LPs, anyway. I think it's a really satisfying collection. It reminds me just a little bit of the White Album in that, stylistically, it's all over the shop. Can we start with side one? That seems logical. The Davy songs are soppier than anything he'd done up to that point, but the melancholy of something like 'Dream World' gives it a bit of heft. And what an arrangement! But alongside the gorgeous Manilow-esque likes of 'We Were Made For Each Other', which DJ absolutely SELLS, there's this piece of Nesmith madness: I don't care if they played on it or not, but fuck if it doesn't sound like 'European Son To Delmore Schwartz' in that middle section! This follows 'Daydream Believer', by the way. See what I mean by 'White Album'? And on the same side you've got Papa Nez doing his tinny megaphone vocal over the lovely 'Tapioca Tundra'. Actually his three songs on this side are all magnificent (the other being 'Auntie's Municipal Court') (he only got two on the whole of the previous album). The second side starts with 'I'll Be Back Up On My Feet' which (I've just found out) was written by Linzer and Randell, the same team who penned 'Let's Hang On' and 'Working My Way Back To You', and which the band had recorded at the start of their careers. It's not up to that standard, but it's good enough. 'The Poster' is better - I'm a sucker for that PEEP PEEP Moog sound. Silly but catchy as fuck. 'Magnolia Simms' is, for me, the weakest of the Nesmith songs but it's still fine, and 'Valleri', well you know. It's magnificent. And then there's 'Zor and Zam', which I think some people like. I don't care for it much, the band in serious mood. |
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Post by Charlie O. on Jan 21, 2021 18:58:37 GMT
Stop me if you've heard this one before: I was given The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees for my third birthday - the first LP I could call my very own. My brother Jim had their first four. Even at age three, there was something about the overall vibe that I found off-putting, even though I liked every individual song. At that age and for many years after, I knew nothing about how the album came to be made - for that matter, I knew nothing about record-making in general. I still thought the Monkees themselves were making all those noises, aside from the trumpets and violins. Now I can see what it was: they weren't even trying to make it sound like a band anymore. It isn't just that it's stylistically all over the shop song-wise - it's all over the shop in terms of production and arrangement styles as well. It really doesn't cohere at all. Even More Of The Monkees, with its multitude of writers, producers and musicians, a few real DUDS, and with little input from the actual Monkees, sounds more like an "album statement" than this. But I do still like every song, except maybe "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" (what the HELL happens three quarters of the way through the chorus? What made them think that was acceptable?). And just to be contrarian  , "Magnolia Simms" is one of my favorites! A delightful tune. At three, I thought the big scratch effect was a defect in the record; it wasn't 'til a year or so later that I was able to read the "Technical note" on the back cover. Another thing I didn't appreciate at the time, because I was playing it on a mono record player: in the stereo version, the song comes out of just one speaker. I call that seeing the concept through. (Though maybe not to the degree Moby Grape did on their second album, where you had to actually switch your turntable speed to 78 in order to hear "Just Like Gene Autry".) Really, though Nesmith's songs on this album aren't generally his best, I love that he's kind of sowing his musical wild oats all over the place.
Finally, something I wrote eleven years ago (!!) on BCB:
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Post by oh oooh on Oct 6, 2021 21:27:44 GMT
Nez last night  |
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Post by oh oooh on Oct 6, 2021 21:28:19 GMT
and Mickey  |
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~ / % ? *
god
disambiguating goat herder
Posts: 5,532
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Post by ~ / % ? * on Oct 6, 2021 22:26:06 GMT
Nez last night Good to see he is well, looks very much like a Dr Seuss character. |
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Sneelock
god
Better than Washington...
Posts: 8,564
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Post by Sneelock on Oct 6, 2021 22:35:35 GMT
I do not like Don Kirchner's jams.
I do not like them Sam I Am.
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, "Magnolia Simms" is one of my favorites! A delightful tune. At three, I thought the big scratch effect was a defect in the record; it wasn't 'til a year or so later that I was able to read the "Technical note" on the back cover. Another thing I didn't appreciate at the time, because I was playing it on a mono record player: in the stereo version, the song comes out of just one speaker. I call that seeing the concept through. (Though maybe not to the degree Moby Grape did on their second album, where you had to actually switch your turntable speed to 78 in order to hear "Just Like Gene Autry".) Really, though Nesmith's songs on this album aren't generally his best, I love that he's kind of sowing his musical wild oats all over the place.
