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Friday 27 March 2015

Alphabet Beats #085: M is for....The Monkees


M is for....
 


Back when I was a kid the TV always threw up a wee delight or two musically speaking. One particular show and band that always seemed to be on the TV were The Monkees. Their show actually was cancelled in 1968 (when I was a mere nipper of 5 years old!) but even up to the mid and late 70's it was still on the box! And I could hardly believe it that every episode in full is up on You Tube! Check it out here!

The Monkees of course were a band that was "created" for a TV Show but Micky, Pete, Davey and Mike took the step to make fiction a reality and actually became a band. Micky Dolenz would later describe it this way, "The Monkees really becoming a band was like the equivalent of Leonard Nimoy  really becoming a Vulcan!" It's a pretty amazing story, which you can discover in this documentary:

Their Theme Song is almost like a Manifesto for every Youth Music Scene that has sprung up over the years and when I was a teenager their music was brought to life even by the Punk Scene with the Sex Pistols playing '(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone'!

One of the things I like about The Monkees is that their music is not disposable pop music, rather it has a longevity about it that I'm fairly certain few would have predicted back in the late 1960's and I don't think you can talk about the music of that era without mentioning them. Yes it all went a bit downhill for them once the TV Show was cancelled but the music that came out of that has stood the test of time.

Personally I feel no sense of shame saying that I was and still am a fan of the music of The Monkees and it's great today to be able to spolight them in Alphabetical Beats.



The Music Box (2001)


Summer 1967: The Complete U.S Concert Recordings (2001)


The Albums.
    The Monkees (1966) #1 US + UK
    More of The Monkees (1967)

#1 US + UK.
     Headquarters (1967) #1 US, #2 UK.
    Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd. (1967) #1 US, #5 UK.
    The Birds, The Bees and the Monkees (1968) #3 US.
    Head (1968) #45 US.
    Instant Replay (1969) #32 US.
    The Monkees Present (1969) #100 US.
    Changes (1970) #152 US.
    Pool It! (1987)
#72 US.
The Monkees Live (1987).
     Justus (1996)  

The S4L Top Ten:
The Monkees
06. Words

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