EVEN MORE MORE OF THE MONKEES!

EVEN MORE MORE OF THE MONKEES!

J. Kordosh

A few months ago a friend of mine—a collector of the first order—played a tape that had come his way. It was the Monkees from a live performance in Japan circa 1968 and it was, in a word, incredible. Suffice it to say that anyone who ever thought the Monkees "couldn’t play” would—after hearing this tape—revise his or her opinion. When I met the Monkees at a studio where they’d just finished rehearsing their stage show, I mentioned the bootleg tape, thereby indicting (albeit correctly) the recent Live 1967 LP.

"Gosh, I wish they would’ve released that (bootleg) instead,” said Micky Dolenz with no trace of guile. Davy Jones mentioned they had a fine potential live album from last year’s tremendously succesful tour.

"But that Japanese ’68 tour, that was good, huh?” Dolenz continued.

It was not only good, it was great. Mindboggling. One might wish every fiftieth band these days could turn in a set of comparable worth.

And above all that, it’s nice to know that a member of that band cares if a concert played some 20 years ago was any good.

Like it or not, the Monkees are still back. On the heels of Live 1967 and Missing Links (take my word that there are many more unreleased studio cuts that smoke that, too) comes Pool It!, the first "new” Monkees album in a couple of decades. I asked the erstwhile trio if they’d done any writing for the new disc.

‘They did,” Dolenz answered. “I didn’t write anything on it ’cause I’m terrible.” Here is wisdom Dave Davies has never known.

“I wrote one tune,” Jones offered.

“I wrote one,” added Peter Tork, comfortably stretched out on a sofa plopped, for no apparent reason, in the middle of the studio-cum-rehearsal-hall.

It’s abundantly clear that the Monkees feel no urge to apologize for being so uncool as regards songwriting. Davy Jones put it this way: "We got so many great tunes—I don’t know what it is, but it’s sort of inhibiting when there’s so many great tunes around. You’ve got your own tunes you want to do and you’ve gotta believe in them—and I guess I believe in mine, and I would’ve liked to have done more. Next album I will do a couple more.” Perhaps the Bangles are reading this.

Speaking of them—which Micky Doienz wasn’t, but I just was—Micky added: “We’re doing what a lot of people are doing these days. They’re pop/rock tunes. Y’know, the Monkees would’ve done ‘Manic Monday’ or—”

“ ‘West Side Story,’ ” interjected Tork. “ ‘All I Need Is A Miracle’ or ‘West End Girls,’ ” Dolenz finished. "I mean, that’s the kind of stuff we would’ve done 20 years ago.”

Davy: “And our timing—”

Peter: ‘‘And speaking about our timing—”

Davy: ‘‘—it’s off.”

Not so: the Monkees really are masters of repartee, self-denigration and a skewed Marx Brotherish wit, just like all those TV shows would have had you believe. You’d have to hear the following on tape to get a feel for just how fast these guys are, but here’s another small example:

Davy: “We’re sort of working together;

I think we’re not arguing because we’re all so tired.”

Peter: “We are too arguing!”

Davy: “We do argue a bit.”

Peter & Micky, together: “No we don’t!”

Micky, after much laughter: “It’s getting tight.”

And it really is. The Monkees are entertainers in the best sense of the word. God knows they’ve put out enough great records to guarantee their place in what I’ll call musical history, but moreover—way moreover—they’re flat out entertaining. Talk to them. See them in concert. Watch those decades-old reruns. I’ll tell you, this thing is for real.

• • •

It’s true, as fans have been hoping, that the Monkees will be making a movie. They’re scheduled to begin shooting around Christmastime with the film to be released next summer. And—as is true of all Monkees projects nowadays—the fellows themselves have the well-known creative control. Or, as Davy Jones succinctly put it: “We’re just putting in all our own ideas and they’re gonna throw them out and write their own.”

Micky—who’ll be directing the thing— elaborated. “We’ll contribute heavily, of course, as we used to. Not necessarily scripting it, but certainly conceptually.” When asked if the movie will be a light romp, he replied: “No, it won’t be light. It’ll be heavier than an old Monkees show, but it won’t be Head. It’ll be somewhere between Ghostbusters, Mad, Mad World and Time Bandits—a comedy/adventure. A little bit of Kramer vs. Kramer, All Quiet On The Western Front, some Chekhov.”

“I wanna make it clear, I want it to be like The Wizard Of Oz, y’know?” Davy added.

“That would be nice,” Micky replied, making no munchkin reference. Dolenz said they couldn’t simply do a rehash of the old Monkees schtick; interestingly, Jones said they could—and that it would sell. Jones was probably right, but what the hell.

“With the Monkee movie we’re going to do what the Star Trek movie did for Star Trek,” Micky offered. And, since Monkee fans are certainly wondering, he added: “Mike (Nesmith) has said he’d love to do the movie and, depending on his availability, he will.” To which Davy added: “We’re meeting with the movie people and that’s clear in our minds and their minds and Nesmith’s mind—that he’s gonna join us.”

Even so, it won’t be as good as Head.

• • •

When they toured last year, the Monkees had 28 songs in their show. This year they have 38—it seems they’ve been reading their fan mail (Davy: “We’re pulling in 1,000 letters a week”; Micky: “Well, more than that”; Davy; “Yeah, that’s just me”)—and their fans want to hear “Words” and “When Love Comes Knockin’ At Your Door” and some of the stuff from Head. Dolenz added that Mike Nesmith will also be on the road with them—if available—“for a couple of dates.” Even without him, though, the show promises to be an extravaganza. “We just did a rehearsal here,” Peter said. “If we don’t cut something, if it runs as long as we just rehearsed it, we’re gonna run an hour and 50 minutes.” When asked what’s changed, he replied: “What’s changed is that we used to know where to stop.”

Undoubtedly they still do. But, having taken their careers totally in their own hands (Jones is directing the stage show),

the Monkees work under enormous time pressures. “We had an entire production company behind us 20 years ago,” said Dolenz. “Massive: Screen Gems, Columbia, RCA—none of that now. We have a manager,” he laughed. Still, there’s no reason to think the expanded show will be less than terrific. If Madonna can tour and make money and earn plaudits for

making ambiguous and schizophrenic artistic statements—and reliable sources assure me she can—there’s no reason the Monkees can’t do the same, minus the plaudits, of course.

Speaking of which, back to that bootlegged Japanese tape. Peter Tork wondered if it was recorded in Osaka, “ ’cause we really kicked in Osaka,” but I don’t know. “We hit a groove once,” said Tork. “I think we were doing ‘Sunshine Factory’—you know that one.”

Micky (singing): “She owns and operates her own sunshine factory. How many girls here tonight?”

Peter: “It was that groove every musician dreams of getting.”

Davy: “It was great. It was happening, y’know? The back-up band came on and did a set—the Tigers, or something like that—and they were so bad they made us sound good. We were inspired.”

Peter: “Jones’s eyes lit up, and he’s banging the tambourine and he bounces over to me. And at the end of the song he screams, ‘We’re gonna form a group!’ ”

Which they did, so enjoy them.