THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Monkees, "Love Is Only Sleeping"

Drawn from previous posts, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping

Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil

Produced by Chip Douglas

From the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.

The Monkees may be the most unfairly overlooked and underappreciated superstar artists of the rock 'n' roll era. If that seems like a contradiction in terms, consider the bickering but congruent sets of facts that the Monkees were enormously popular but critically reviled in their day. The legacy of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork continues to attract newer fans and delight long-time believers as well, even as know-nothing pundits deny the group's merit and The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame sticks its fingers in its ears (and its head up its ass) and murmurs Neener-Neener-CAN'T HEAR YOU! whenever someone makes the logical case that it's way past time to induct the Monkees.

The Monkees' third album Headquarters is generally considered the group's masterwork, and for good reason. Headquarters captured a brief and magic moment in the Monkees' career, as the made-for-TV combo exerted some control over their recordings for the first time, shedding the puppet strings and willing themselves into existence as a functioning studio band. They weren't allowed to play on their first two albums. They played on every single one of the tracks on Headquarters. 

That said, their fourth album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. is always going to be my favorite. Both Headquarters and Pisces were released in 1967, a time when the Monkees were at the peak of their rockin' pop stardom. The Monkees did play on Pisces, but the demands of a TV series, concerts, and the occasional recreational WHOOPIE! made them too busy (and maybe not sufficiently motivated) to be THE band in the booth.

So studio musicians served as auxiliary Monkees on Pisces. That fact diverges from the DIY purity of Headquarters, I guess, but Pisces retains both a pop sheen and a spirit of adventure, all of it effectively executed by the Monkees and company. You can't go wrong with Headquarters or Pisces.

With lead vocal and guitar by Michael Nesmith, organ by Peter Tork, percussion by Davy Jones, harmony vocals by Micky, backing vocals by Davy, with producer/bassist/acoustic guitarist Chip Douglas and drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh expanding the ranks of in-studio believers, the Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil song "Love Is Only Sleeping" was planned to be the Monkees' fifth US single, following immediate predecessor "Pleasant Valley Sunday"/"Words" (both sides of which were included on Pisces). A mastering error on the never-issued "Love Is Only Sleeping" 45 scotched its release long enough for someone at the record company to reconsider the potentially risqué notion of "Love" and "Sleeping" sharing canoodlin' space in the same out-of-wedlock title; "Daydream Believer" replaced "Love Is Only Sleeping" as the next designated 45. And American youth were safe from, y'know, sex.

But what an amazing single this would have been. As an album track on Pisces, "Love Is Only Sleeping" was the centerpiece of my decade-after-the-fact embrace of the album when I was in high school. 

The effect bordered on seismic.

I've written elsewhere of my discovery of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. (and the 1968 Head soundtrack) as a high school senior in the Spring of 1977. I had already heard "Love Is Only Sleeping" in TV reruns, but it really hit me for the first time in '77. Lyrically, the song may be about female sexual dysfunction (more so than Sandie Shaw's deceptively-titled "Girl Don't Come" anyway), but it's so much more than that. It's a tale of hope. It's a tale of frustration and despair conquered by passion and persistence, sweet deliverance earned and embraced. Chip Douglas' bass and Nesmith's guitar slice, as Michael's lead vocal shimmers with cool, calm confidence, all made breathier and more inviting by harmony from Dolenz. Love is only sleeping. Try it! It can work for you, too!

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. was part of my crucible, that period from late 1976 through freshman year in college ('77-'78), a two-years-and-change span of wonder when I discovered so much from the past and the then-present. KISS. Punk. THE RAMONES!! The Flashcubes. The Kinks, the Yardbirds, the Runaways, the Sex Pistols, the Jam. When I deepened my understanding of the British Invasion, when I first heard the phrase "power pop," and when I began to realize that the Monkees were so, so much more than what I saw on TV.

When speaking to my peers in '77, "Love Is Only Sleeping" was Exhibit A in pleading my case on behalf of The Monkees. Teenagers in the '70s deemed the Monkees uncool. I knew better. 

This track helped me prove it.

It's been almost 57 years since a group called the Monkees released an album called Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. Sometimes love is only sleeping. Its dreams carry through to the day, and back again to the night. A shiny new tomorrow will follow. 

Love. The promise is whispered. The promise is true.

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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available for order; you can see details here. My 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is also still available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. 

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