What? No "Pleasant Valley Sunday"?

[mollyringle]

VH-1's Bubblegum Babylon special last night inspired me...

But first, a warning: People who are not Monkees fans should probably move along to the next entry on your friends list. This will not interest you at all.

People who are fans of the Pre-Fab Four: today I spent some time procrastinating by mp3-izing a selected set of Monkees songs to put on the iPod (because, really, how can I do any meaningful work without adding more songs to the iPod?). Narrowed my selection down to 14 choices, and, as is often the case with such things, they are not the usual Monkees top-40 fare.

The Davy-Jones-cute-n-catchy-vocals:
Daydream Believer (OK, fine, I included Daydream Believer. Come on, you HAVE to include Daydream Believer.)
Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)

The psychedelia:
Porpoise Song
Daily Nightly

The mushy but nice:
Shades Of Gray
Sometime In The Morning

The Mike-Nesmith-country-western-crossover:
Nine Times Blue
Tapioca Tundra (Possibly my favorite Monkees song. It's so weird, you have to love it.)
The Kind Of Girl I Could Love
Papa Gene's Blues
Carlisle Wheeling (Re-released later by Mike, solo, as "Conversations", if I remember rightly.)

Miscellany:
Randy Scouse Git
All Of Your Toys (The first song the boys recorded all by themselves...awww.)
The Door Into Summer

Oh, as to "Pleasant Valley Sunday," I do like it, but don't love it, that's all. "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone," in contrast, annoys the hell out of me.

Comments

[lordreaibn.livejournal.com]

heheheh :D

I dont love the group, but my dad does like them quite a bit. It has rubbed off on me some, I must admit. :)

[dorei.livejournal.com]

I like the Monkees ... saw em in concert back in '86. Shades of Gray ... that was one of the ones that was actually sung by Peter, wasn't it?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I love "Pleasant Valley Sunday." It and "Last train to Clarksville" are scathing indictments of the late 60's early 70's. The first is a rant about conformity, the second is a war protest song.

And they were so utterly bubblegum that no one noticed the subversion.

[maidazia.livejournal.com]

heehee. You just made my day. I used to watch the Monkees, and I only recognized maybe three of the titles. I feel young.
Please don't think I'm saying you're old [as a matter of fact, I believe I'm older than you.] But earlier today, I mentioned to one of my employees [a 19 year old girl] that I was excited to hear the theme from "The Greatest American Hero" on our 70's station on the satallite today and she responed with, "Cool. What show is that from?" Grrr. Youth.

PS. Bubblegum Babylon did totally rock though. Such memories.

[jedmiller.livejournal.com]

Awww...

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<reels [...] afternoon...>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Awww... <reels with memories of reruns on Channel 5 many a weekday afternoon...> But you didn't mention "I Wanna Be Free," which ran through my head for about 3 days in sixth grade.

Hey, did you ever see that episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" where Boyce & Hart (the behind-the-scenes band) played a Monkees-like band Jeannie created and had all these wacky adventures with Tony and Jeannie? They kept playing this one song over and over, which I <i>think</i> was called "Out and About"...

Wow, that was something I fully expected to never, ever talk about out loud again.

[kenshi.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on! Pleasant Valley Sunday has got to be one of the most subversive songs ever written. You've got to respect that at least.

i can't hear you in this noisy railroad station

[bluegreen17]

well,we both love the monkees,but have different leanings amongst the songs. i think my absolute fave is 'last train to clarksville'. next would be 'im a believer'(i hate smashmouth's cover). i loved the first two albums best. i used to watch the original show and my sister had the albums.
and my favorite monkee is peter. who's yours?
oh,and 'valerie'.
i rewatched most of those shows about 15 years ago when mtv was showing them,and i went to see the monkees sans nesmith with my friend keith. we were both in our early thirties and when the band jumped on stage,we screamed. i'd always wanted to scream over a band!

Almost a sin...

[stremph.livejournal.com]

It looks like you have slipped in something and fallen into my friends list.

I would have included "As We Go Along" if I were you, as that is absolutely my favorite Monkees song ever. I have yet to hear "Tapioca Tundra."

Head is one of my favorite movies ever.

I also would have added "Your Auntie Grizelda," if for no other reason than to be nice to Peter.

[gavinworld.livejournal.com]

All excellent choices. My top two Monkees songs are "The Girl that I Knew Somewhere" followed by "Daydream Believer." I need to sit down add to the list at some point.