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!
Here they come...again.
2016 was not a good year. No, 2016 was not a good year at all. Still, even lousy years are allowed a positive moment. 2016's best moment was the release of Good Times!, a triumphant new album by the Monkees. Leading up to the album's appearance, I wrote that I was less than captivated by its first teaser single "She Makes Me Laugh," fully taken with its second teaser "You Bring The Summer," and just awed by third single "Me & Magdalena." By the time the album itself was released at the end of May, my anticipation was at Defcon 1.
The album lived up to my expectations--surpassed them, really. I had retired--PERMANENTLY!!!!--from writing record reviews years before. In 2016, I came out of retirement just long enough to write my Good Times! review. I followed with a supplemental piece on the album's bonus tracks, and circled back later to craft my hypothetical speech inducting the Monkees into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. But it should.
No one saw Good Times! coming. The surprise announcement that surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith--Davy Jones had passed away in 2012--would mark the group's 50th anniversary in 2016 with a new Monkees album called Good Times! was unexpected enough, and word that the Britpop modgasm gathering of Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Paul Weller of the Jam and Style Council had collaborated on a new composition for this new Monkees record bordered on the flabbergasting.
But the result? Lord! "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" builds a rainbow bridge from the best of the Monkees circa 1968 into this far-future world of the 21st century, a track that sounds simultaneously classic and contemporary. If it had magically appeared on 1968's The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees or the Head (also in '68), it would have been the greatest cut on the former and the second-greatest on the latter. Yet it doesn't sound retro at all, at least not to my ears. Nesmith sings this with a force and conviction that almost sounds like he's still that young maverick of fifty years ago, just a bit more seasoned, certainly wiser, but resolutely unbowed. Dolenz chimes in vocally to make it a pop song. Together, they make it a classic. Listeners of the ultracool satellite radio station Little Steven's Underground Garage voted "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" as The Coolest Song In The World for 2016. I'm a believer. You'd best believe I agree.
Good Times! was eagerly anticipated, and it lived up to desperately sky-high expectations. "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" is a freakin' psychedelic pop masterpiece, and it may be one of the all-time greatest tracks to ever bear the Monkees' brand name. If I were to rank my preferences among the fourteen official studio albums released under the Monkees' aegis, Good Times! might place as high as # 3 (behind Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and Headquarters), and no lower than # 5 (depending upon if I put the Head LP at # 4 or # 5). I like Good Times! even more than I like--love!--the two Don Kirshner-era albums (The Monkees and More Of The Monkees) and The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees. Good Times! is a sublime album; "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" is its tipping point. The greatest comeback album ever made.
When The Monkees TV show's co-creator Bob Rafelson died in 2022, it was a coincidence that the episode of our (pre-recorded) weekly show that aired immediately following news of Rafelson's passing happened to include another spin of "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster." Not that there was anything accidental (nor remotely--ugh--hipster) about Rafelson himself; he seemed to always know what he was doing, or if he didn't know, he could figure out what to do next.
But I do believe the Monkees' prevailing relevance, decades after the fact, far surpassed whatever dizzying heights Rafelson and his partner Bert Schneider envisioned when they concocted the concept. "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" had nothing whatsoever to do with Rafelson and Schneider. But it was nonetheless part of the end result of the maverick creative fire they sparked so many years ago. High on a roof top, singing a song, choirs of angels all sing along. Accidents will happen. Brilliance is deliberate. And here it comes, walkin' down the street.
I wish the Monkees had done another proper album; 2018's Christmas Party doesn't count. Tork and Nesmith are gone now, leaving the Mick as the last Monkee standing. I hope he does another full-on album, and I mean a new mix of originals and undiscovered songwriting gems from various sources, not a Monkees album, nor a Dolenz Sings [fill in the blank]. But I'm grateful that we fans have what we have.
Good Times! 2016 can suck it. 2020, 2024, and our contemporaneous Hellscape can do likewise. I'm heading out to the sunshine, babe.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is due out soon; meanwhile, you can get an autographed copy of my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) here, and you can still get my previous previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.
