10 SONGS: 4/28/2022

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1126.

NICK FRATER: Buggin' Out

This little mutant wireless TIRnRR shindig has found Nick Frater's 2021 album Earworms to be a productive resource for the sacred task of programming better radio. I mean, you've got the plethora of spotlight-ready pop ditties on the album itself, and you've got the sundry li'l shots of Fab courtesy of the Rubutles, Frater's answer to the rhetorical question of the Rutles and a bonus tangent to Earworms. A tangent known by its trousers. Yeah, of course we're playing Earworms.

And Earworms is the gift that keeps on giving. Its track "Buggin' Out" has been released as a digital single, paired with the non-album "How About It Girl? (Sara Pt. 2)." And that gives us an excuse to open the show with the A-side. Better radio. We thanks ya, Nick.

THE BUSBOYS: Love On My Mind

While I believe the BusBoys shoulda been bigger in the '80s--neither "New Shoes" nor "The Boys Are Back In Town" made the Billboard Hot 100, and their Ghostbusters track "Cleanin' Up The Town" only scared its way up to a chart peak of # 68--they were nonetheless a legit and large part of that decade's pop culture. My favorite BusBoys track is "Minimum Wage," from their 1980 debut LP Minimum Wage Rock & Roll, though I don't remember whether or not I saw them perform the song on ABC's late-night SNL ripoff Fridays. The most indelible '80s memory of the BusBoys remains the sight of them singing "The Boys Are Back In Town" in Eddie Murphy's 1982 breakout flick 48 Hours. C'mon--how was that song not a hit?!

Pfui...but water under the bridge. In our shiny, shiny 21st century, the BusBoys are back with a new single, "Love On My Mind," and it's a worthy continuation of the A-list material that shoulda been top of the pops during the Reagan regime. No nostalgia moves here; good stuff is timeless, and this is good stuff.

AMOEBA TEEN: New Material World

Listen: we know a good idea when we steal it.

When we were programming this week's show, Dana asked me if I was planning on playing Amoeba Teen. "Why, yes!," I replied, "I am going to play Amoeba Teen!" And then Dana informed me of his plan....

Now, UK pop sensations Amoeba Teen have a new album, Amoeba Teen, its release preceded by a digital single of its track "New Material World," which we already played on a recent edition of TIRnRR.  Norman Weatherly reviewed the album for Weathered Music, and gave it the appropriate rave. In his piece, Weatherly noted that "The single...is as New Wave as a song can get. It bristles with guitar lines that would have been at home in a New Wave playlist nestled between Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile."

We know a good idea when we steal it.

Dana played Brinsley Schwarz' "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?" I swapped out my original intent to spin Amoeba Teen's "Melody Told You" and reprised "New Material World" instead. Dana followed with Rockpile's "Heart." We conceded credit to Weatherly on air; it was his idea. 

But it's ours now!

GYMNASIUM: Coast To Coast Companion

Aw, I like this. We're predisposed to dig stuff from the mighty Red On Red Records label anyway, and this latest single from Gymnasium rewards that interest with exactly the sort of toe-tappin' sense of invigmoration we seek. The track will be on Gymnasium's forthcoming album Hansen's Pop 'n' Rock Music '22, and I betcha we'll be predisposed to dig that, too.

POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart

Great song. Fabulous song. And I know something about it that you probably don't know. It has something in common with [redacted]. It's enough to put an extra beat in any heart. 

THE FLASHCUBES: Soldier Of Love

Unsung soul legend Arthur Alexander's classic "Soldier Of Love" is probably best-known as a Beatles performance originally heard only on bootlegs. I certainly heard the Beatles' then-unreleased "Soldier Of Love" well before I heard Alexander's original, and I may have heard Marshall Crenshaw's cover even before I heard John Lennon pleading for his lover to lay down her arms.

But, before Arthur Alexander, Marshall Crenshaw, or the Beatles, I was introduced to "Soldier Of Love" by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Visiting my girlfriend in NYC over spring break in 1979, I dragged her to a Bowery club called Gildersleeves to see the 'Cubes. 

They were fantastic, of course. The Flashcubes were always a great live band, and they were at their peak in 1979. And they included "Soldier Of Love" in their set, as they piledrived their way through covers and originals in a performance that caused even supposedly jaded New Yorkers to yell up at the 'Cubes on stage, "Hey, you guys are good!"

A couple of months later, in May of 1979, the Flashcubes were still playing "Soldier Of Love," and it's on the tape of an incendiary live show captured on the recent archival release Flashcubes On Fire. Before Arthur Alexander, Marshall Crenshaw, or the Beatles, the Flashcubes were the first to teach me a song called "Soldier Of Love." Jaded New Yorkers knew they were good. The rest of the world is still trying to catch up.

FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

HOOVER AND MARTINEZ: The Scene Of The Cryin'

We've been corresponding with Jamie Hoover for ages, honestly. The Spongetones! The Van deLecki's! Jamie and Steve! Stepford Knives! Whatever rockin' pop dba Jamie utilizes in the moment, it's likely gonna score a berth on the ol' TIRnRR playlist. Hoover and Martinez, our Jamie's current collaboration with Christine Martinez, is no exception to established pro-Hoover policy. Plus it's, y'know, swell! The 3P is their debut three-song digital single--available NOW!!!--and it commences airplay with this week's spin of "The Scene Of The Cryin'." We'll have another track from Hoover and Martinez next week. Policy, man. Gotta stay with our policy.

THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping

I love sooooooo many of the Monkees' tracks. "Porpoise Song" is my top pick, but I had difficulty narrowing my Monkees faves raves to even a Top 25. 

"Love Is Only Sleeping" is for damned sure one of my Monkees essentials. I discovered it in mid-'70s reruns of the TV show; even though I watched the show in prime time during the '60s and on Saturdays in the early '70s, I don't recall noticing that song until I was a teenager watching cable TV out of New York. And I really tuned into the song when a girl I knew somewhere let me borrow her copy of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. during my senior year in high school, spring 1977. 

It made an impression.

LINDA RONSTADT: You're No Good

There is no progress to report on the status of my above-mentioned, long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). A publisher has the completed manuscript, and is reviewing it to determine if it's a suitable project for his company. It's a long shot, but it's within the realm of plausible possibility. 

This wonderful Linda Ronstadt song is among the 175 tracks discussed in the book's current draft, and it's also in the slightly shorter back-up blueprint I've prepared. I remain hopeful that you'll get to read it someday.

Wouldn't that be good?

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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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 1/6/2022

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1110.

MICHAEL NESMITH: Rising In Love

When the news of Michael Nesmith's death broke on December 10th, we had already recorded our 12/12/2021 edition of TIRnRR. That show happened to include a spin of the Monkees' "You Just May Be The One," and we had time to go back and insert a comment that "This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio remembers Michael Nesmith" before that song played. That particular song has long been among my favorites, its appeal enhanced by the fact that it's a Nesmith song performed by the Monkees themselves--Michael, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork--as a self-contained band, with only producer Chip Douglas helping out on backing vocals. Too busy singing and playing to put anybody down.

My mother passed the day before Nesmith did. On December 10th, I was sitting in our old family house, gathered in the kitchen with my wife, daughter, sister, and my daughter's fiancé, trying to postpone the need to discuss funeral plans. A glance at my phone delivered the extra gut punch that the world had lost Nesmith. While the death of an artist you never met can't be compared to the immediate ache of having to say goodbye to a loved one, the loss is still palpable. The people and things we love affect us; our art and our culture affect us. Family affects us. Love affects as, it should. As it must.

(I lost my Uncle Carl--Mom's younger brother, and the source of my own name--exactly two weeks after Nesmith checked out, in the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning. 2021 was not my favorite year. December 2021 in particular can suck it.)

Dana and I take this silly little mutant radio show seriously, or at least as seriously as one can take a silly little mutant radio show. We wanted to pay tribute to Nesmith, but the end of the year was locked into special programming, with the 23rd annual TIRnRR Christmas show on the 19th and our year-end countdown show on the 26th. The Christmas show included the Monkees' "Riu Chiu" (as well as Angela Lansbury's "We Need A Little Christmas" from Mame, in memory of Mom), and we played the Monkees' "You Told Me" (NESMITH!) on the countdown show to represent the Monkees' place at # 2 on the list of our most-played artists in 2021, second only to those four kings of EMI, the Beatles. We also played "Sometime In The Morning," which was our 40th most-played track during the year.

That left January 2nd as the date for TIRnRR's Nesmith tribute. We made Nesmith both our featured performer and our featured songwriter, with each set including at least one Nesmith performance (solo, with the Monkees, with the First National Band, etc.) and at least one track by another artist doing a song Nesmith wrote.

There was never any question of how the show should open. "Rising In Love"--from Nesmith's 1992 album "...tropical campfire's..."--is such an uplifting number, and a long-time go-to on this show. Over the years, we even tried to get Nesmith's permission to use the track on one of our TIRnRR compilation albums, but there was no real chance of that; he didn't know us from the rest of the mass of people inundating him with requests for time, stuff, benediction, and/or attention. He didn't know us at all.

But we knew him. Not in the sense of those close to him, not like the folks for whom his passing isn't the loss of a hero, but the more devastating loss of family or friend; I know that dreadful feeling in my own family. Still, as fans and admirers, we all knew Michael Nesmith in our own capacity, from afar. We grieve with his family, with respect and love. That love rises. Rising, rising, rising up again.

MICKY DOLENZ: Circle Sky

2021 saw the Monkees--with just our Micky and Michael remaining from the original quartet--hit the road for their farewell concert tour. The year also brought Micky's album Dolenz Sings Nesmith, a delightful collection of Micky singing songs written by his good friend Mike. The album was produced and directed by Michael's talented son Christian Nesmith, with Christian's wife Circe Link on board to help make the whole thing sound exquisite. "Circle Sky" was originally performed live by the Monkees in their 1968 film Head. Christian Nesmith rearranged the song for Dolenz Sings Nesmith, altering its previous hard rock approach into something more ethereal, yet no less rocking. Listeners of Little Steven's Underground Garage voted this The Coolest Song In The World for 2021. We approve of this message.

POP CO-OP: The Only Thing I Really Want

Steve Stoeckel! Bruce Gordon! Stacy Carson! Joel Tinnel! Four adventurers who cheated death! Four men living on borrowed time! These are THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN!

Wait. That ain't right. These guys aren't the Challengers of the Unknown; they're POP CO-OP! And no offense to Challengers Ace, Rocky, Prof, and Red, but the act of being a compelling rockin' pop combo is at least as essential as saving the world in DC Comics. 

The lads of Pop Co-Op have been doing their part to save this world from boredom and banality, with their invigmoratin' records Four State Solution (Your Favorite Album of 2017) and Factory Settings (Your Favorite Album of 2020), as well as contributions to sundry snappy compilation records (like, for example, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4). As they pursue their current goal of unleashing Your Favorite Album of 2022, they've graced us with "The Only Thing I Really Want," from the recent compilation Happy Holidays 2021 From Futureman Records!! What's next for Pop Co-Op? The answer to that challenge is unknown...for now.

THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND: Propinquity

Featuring Nesmith as a songwriter gave us opportunities to include tracks by the Continental Drifters, Susanna Hoffs, Michael Carpenter and the Cuban Heels, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Gary Owen, and even Floyd Cramer covering Nesmith. And it gave the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band their TIRnRR debut, with this lovely rendition of "Propinquity."

IRENE PEÑA: Shut It Down

Throughout 2021, America's Sweetheart Irene Peña commemorated the tenth anniversary of her debut album Nothing To Do With You by releasing each of its tracks one by one in a monthly series of digital singles. December brought us the 11th and final single, "Shut It Down." They're all great, and hearin' 'em all now makes us further regret that it took us so damned long to discover the magic of Irene. Where have we been all this time? We coulda been Irene Peña fans years before our 2016 initiation into those ranks! Oh, the humanity! Awright. At least we're fans now, and any record you ain't heard is a new record. We presume the mighty Big Stir Records will be reissuing Nothing To Do With You as a physical release, so sign us up for that.

MICHAEL NESMITH: Rio

Growing up--okay, theoretically growing up--I listened to radio all the time. Duh. Until my late teens, that meant AM Top 40, but by the time of my senior year in high school, the wider vistas of FM started to woo me away from AM. WOUR-FM in Utica stole my loyalty from Syracuse's WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM.

In the '70s, it was not considered cool to dig the Monkees. I will leave it to your imagination to figure out my two-word reply, then and now, to anyone who tried to tell me what I could or couldn't like. 

I don't remember whether or not I ever heard the Monkees on WOUR; the station had an absolutely killer Friday night oldies show, and its daily fare would often mix '60s sides by the likes of the Animals, the Rascals, and the Dave Clark Five with its program of then-recent '70s stuff, so it's possible the Monkees got a spin or two somewhere in there.

But I do remember that OUR played Michael Nesmith. "Rio," from Nesmith's 1977 album From A Radio Engine To The Photon Wing, got regular airplay, and I recall a WOUR DJ expressing appreciation for Nesmith's clever 'n' catchy album titles. WOUR was cool; a cool station playing music by a former Monkee implied that the Monkees were cool...but I already knew that, didn't I? Nesmith was as much a part of my 1977 WOUR-FM experience as the Kinks, Graham Parker, the J. Geils Band, the Bonzo Dog Band, the Yardbirds, the Greg Kihn Band, the Rubinoos, Starz, Nick Lowe, John Lennon, Joan Baez, and the Sex Pistols, old and new stuff playing together, as a benevolent God intended. Thou shalt dig whatever seems dig-worthy. 

Including Michael Nesmith. And including the Monkees.

ORBIS MAX: On Time

This is really cool. The latest track from that prolific pop resource Orbis Max is a cover of "On Time," a song written by Vinnie Zummo and Dave Kaufman, the latter aka renowned NYC pop DJ Dave the Boogieman. I don't know the precise back story, but I gather that Vinnie and Dave were in a group called Stone Ridge in the late '60s and early '70s. Orbis Max's new version of Stone Ridge's "On Time" comes from Stone Ridge 2022 Tribute, a new compilation from Power Popaholic Productions. In the spirit of Rhino Records' much-loved set The Best Of Louie Louie, Stone Ridge 2022 Tribute serves up different versions of just the one song, with the Pozers, Joe Ricardello, Jose Estragos, Vinnie Zummo, and Dave Kaufman also appearing alongside the Orbis gang to take their own shots at "On Time." Estragos supplies two versions, one in English and one in Spanish. ¡Bueno! We'll hear the Orbis Max track again on next week's TIRnRR.

THE STONE PONEYS: Different Drum

From a previous edition of 10 Songs:

It tickles me how I still occasionally run into folks who are amazed or amused that Michael Nesmith of the Monkees wrote "Different Drum," the 1967 Stone Poneys hit that introduced that group's lead singer Linda Ronstadt to the world at large. On the "Two Many Girls" episode of the Monkees' TV series, Nesmith even performs a brief version of the song as a parody of a bumbling folk singer, Billy Roy Hodstetter. (That particular episode is otherwise notable for TV censors' decision to blur actress Kelly Jean Peters' cleavage, lest American youth be, I dunno, too busy gawking to put anybody down.)

Cheer up, Kelly Jean! Oh what can censors mean to an unblurred believer...?

Ronstadt herself is dismissive of "Different Drum," associating the song with her memory of its recording and her unhappiness with the process. But it's a wonderful, wonderful pop song, and no one has yet matched her rendition of it. No, not even Billy Roy Hodstetter. And not even Nesmith, whose own version was rootsier and perhaps more authentic in its approach, but not as striking. Nesmith wrote it; he wrote a lot of great songs, and performed the definitive versions of many of them. But "Different Drum?" Linda Ronstadt owns that one.

MICHAEL NESMITH AND THE FIRST NATIONAL BAND: Joanne

For all of the Monkees' success in the '60s, the group's fame and fortune did not survive intact into the next decade, at least in terms of the public's perception. The Monkees' music and legacy would eventually prove to be more resilient than seemed likely at the time--there are very good reasons why we're still talking about the Monkees now, decades after the TV show was cancelled--but in 1970, the Monkees' days at the top of the pops had ceased.

Micky Dolenz never had a solo hit. Davy Jones never had a solo hit. Peter Tork never had a solo hit. But, while Top 40 singles certainly weren't Michael Nesmith's primary (nor even secondary) ambition, he got one anyway. His 1970 single of "Joanne," credited to his group Michael Nesmith and the First National Band, was a modest hit, peaking at # 21 on the Hot 100, but it was a former Monkee still on the radio at the dawn of the Me Decade. Its mournful Americana echoed across the land.

It still echoed in 1977. Riding with my Mom and Dad to visit my brother Art and his family in Nashville over Christmas break, "Joanne" came on the radio as Dad drove through Virginia. From my perch in the back seat of our Impala, I asked Mom to turn the radio up a bit, and told her the voice we heard belonged to Mike Nesmith, from the Monkees. She edged the volume slightly North (as we headed South), just enough for the sound of Nesmith and his First National Band to fill the car. Mom remembered the Monkees, but was a bit surprised that one of them was singing country music on the radio. She liked the song--not in the way she liked Pete Fountain or Frank Sinatra, but, y'know, little victories, man. Nesmith's lament of "Joanne" spurred us on toward Tennessee. 

In this far future environment of the 21st century, Mom was a fan of this blog. Every day, when I'd visit her, she asked me to read her whatever I'd posted that day, or what I'd posted over the past few days, once the damned COVID limited my visits to her nursing home. My brother Rob would also read her my blog posts during his own visits. Mom was proud of me, and I wish I could read this to her right now.

Because I remember the road that got us here, through time and trouble, smiles and tears. There was music playing all along the way. One time, that music happened to be a country tune sung by a Monkee. I can still hear it. Thanks for turning the radio up, Mom.

THE MONKEES: Listen To The Band

Weren't they good? They made me happy. I've been quoting that line from Nesmith's "Listen To The Band" a lot. In this uncertain world of wonder and woe, happiness is a treasured commodity. For my Mom, my Uncle Carl, my Dad and all we've lost in years gone by, for all you have lost, and for Michael Nesmith, and Davy and Peter, among others: we were happy to have you in our lives. You were good. You made us happy. I'm not sure, but I think we can make it alone.

If we have to.

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MICHAEL NESMITH: The 10 SONGS Archives

Due to my own current circumstances, I find myself unable to wrap my head around the idea of writing a proper eulogy for the late, great Michael Nesmith. A piece I wrote a few years back about the Monkees' recording of Nesmith's "The Girl  Knew Somewhere" will serve as my tribute to Nesmith, reflecting my respect and gratitude for what Nesmith's work and music have meant to me in my life.

As a supplement to that, here is a collection of Nesmith-related entries from my weekly 10 Songs feature over the last two years, offered in celebration of the legacy of Papa Nez. They are presented in chronological order. There were, of course, a few more Monkees entries over the course of the 10 Songs story; today's post is limited to entries with a more direct Michael Nesmith connection.

Play, Magic Fingers.

 THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer [4/14/2020]

In the mid '70s, when I was starting to realize that there were more Monkees songs out there than the mere handful contained on my brother's copies of The Monkees and More Of The Monkees, one of the mystery tracks that specifically tantalized me was this beguiling wisp and its lyrics about echoes of a penny-whistle band and laughter from a distant caravan, seen and heard on reruns of the group's TV show. In 1977, I discovered it was called "The Door Into Summer," from a fabulous 1967 album called Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. Pisces remains one of my all-time Top 10 albums.

Davy Jones passed away in 2012, and we lost Peter Tork in 2019. Surviving Monkees Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz have a new live album, The Mike & Micky Show, and their in-concert rendition of "The Door Into Summer" is timeless, evocative, and irresistible. I really hope this band decides to make a new studio album.

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer [5/20/2020]

I like the Monkees. Their new live album The Mike & Micky Show is just fantastic, and this is its best track. Wonderfully played by a superb group of musicians (who, again, REALLY NEED TO RECORD A NEW MONKEES STUDIO ALBUM!), expertly and lovingly reproduced for your home enjoyment. Michael Nesmith is in fine voice, Micky Dolenz is always in fine voice, and I'm sorry, but I can't stop talking about how great their band sounds with them. New studio album. Now. Please?

THE STONE PONEYS: Different Drum [6/16/2020]



It tickles me how I still occasionally run into folks who are amazed or amused that Michael Nesmith of the Monkees wrote "Different Drum," the 1967 Stone Poneys hit that introduced that group's lead singer Linda Ronstadt to the world at large. On the "Two Many Girls" episode of the Monkees' TV series, Nesmith even performs a brief version of the song as a parody of a bumbling folk singer, Billy Roy Hodstetter. (That particular episode is otherwise notable for TV censors' decision to blur actress Kelly Jean Peters' cleavage, lest American youth be, I dunno, too busy gawking to put anybody down.)

Cheer up, Kelly Jean! Oh what can censors mean to an unblurred believer...?

Ronstadt herself is dismissive of "Different Drum," associating the song with her memory of its recording and her unhappiness with the process. But it's a wonderful, wonderful pop song, and no one has yet matched her rendition of it. No, not even Billy Roy Hodstetter. And not even Nesmith, whose own version was rootsier and perhaps more authentic in its approach, but not as striking. Nesmith wrote it; he wrote a lot of great songs, and performed the definitive versions of many of them. But "Different Drum?" Linda Ronstadt owns that one.

THE MONKEES: Pleasant Valley Sunday [7/9/2020]


Between my twenty years freelancing for Goldmine, my decades of on-line pop proselytizing, the radio show, and this blog, I think I've written more about the Monkees than I've written about any other act. My sister hooked me on the TV show when I was six in 1966, reruns in the '70s reinforced that prevailing interest, but it was the music itself that moved me the most. A prefabricated band? A manufactured image? Man, I do not care. Many of the records are fantastic, so the circumstances of their genesis are irrelevant. For further study in my acts as a Believer, see this, this, this, this, and this. GO! I'll wait here.

If I had to pick one track to summarize the Monkees' recorded legacy, it would be "Pleasant Valley Sunday." They had bigger hits--"Last Train To Clarksville," "I'm A Believer," "Daydream Believer"--and there were lesser hits like "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" that could be seen as emblematic. One could make a case for using Michael Nesmith's "Listen To The Band" or "You Just May Be The One," the latter a track from the group's DIY album Headquarters, and one of the very few tracks to feature only the members of the Monkees as players. "Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)" gets a chapter in my book-to-be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), because an infinite number of records can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Like the Beatles, the Monkees offer us an embarrassment of riches.

Nonetheless: "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, it has that legacy connection to the Monkees' prefab origin under Don Kirshner's aegis, and it also has all four of the Monkees present and accounted for on the track (a relative rarity among the Monkees' hits; I think "Daydream Believer" was the only other Top 10 hit to include all of the Monkees). It's from my favorite Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., the record that offered the best mix of the Monkees themselves singing and playing alongside other musicians. The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their song. Here they come.

THE MONKEES: Daily Nightly [7/15/2020]

Psychedelic! Micky Dolenz sets the Moog on stun while reciting Michael Nesmith's stream-of-WTF lyrics about the 1966 demonstrations on the Sunset Strip. In an interview on the Monkees' TV show, Dolenz mused that newspaper reporters mis-characterized the demonstrations as a riot because "riot" only has four words and is easier to spell. Separate from the interviews, the stunning black and white "Daily Nightly" video--Darkened rolling figures move through prisms of no color--also aired on the show, and I was duly hypmotized. From my favorite Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.

THE MONKEES: Birth Of An Accidental Hipster [9/24/2020]

The Monkees' 2016 album Good Times! was eagerly anticipated, and it lived up to desperately sky-high expectations. It is indeed a pretty damned good album, and I still listen to it often. And I still think of "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" as THE one track that just kicks the whole thing to the next level. Here's what I wrote about the track in a discussion of my 25 all-time favorite Monkees tracks:

No one saw this one coming. The surprise announcement that surviving Monkees Dolenz, Tork, and Nesmith--Jones 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 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 The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees or the Head soundtrack 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 masterpiece. 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.

THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping [12/15/2020]

In 1967, "Love Is Only Sleeping" was almost released as the Monkees'  fourth single, a plan nixed when some label or network stiff realized the potential scandal of suggesting that love = sleeping (i.e., bouncin' with frisk-filled intent). It would have been the first Monkees 45 cut with lead vocals by Michael Nesmith instead of Micky Dolenz or Davy Jones. Peter Tork never got anywhere near singing lead on a Monkees A-side. The song is a highlight of my favorite Monkees album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., and this is what I said about it in a blog piece about my Top 25 Monkees tracks:

I've written elsewhere of my discovery of the Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and Head albums 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, this Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil 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!

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.

THE MONKEES: Sunny Girlfriend [acoustic remix of master vocal] [1/5/2021]

It still strikes me as a little bit odd that many of us routinely buy multi-disc deluxe reissues of what were originally single LPs. Odd or not, we're fans, and we want this stuff. I think the expanded Pet Sounds was my first such willful overkill, and when I heard the announcement for Rhino Handmade's three-disc version of the Monkees' 1967 album Headquarters, I was in. That set's unique acoustic remix of Michael Nesmith's "Sunny Girlfriend" became my preferred version of the song. Here's what I wrote about it in a previous post about my 25 favorite Monkees tracks:

Nesmith's "Sunny Girlfriend" is one of the many highlights on Headquarters, a rollickin' country-rock romp with a freewheeling ambiance that gives sound and form to the feeling of liberation and possibility the Monkees must have felt as they sought to establish themselves outside of Kirshner's assembly line. The joy is infectious, and even more so in this acoustic remix found on the 3-CD Headquarters Sessions set. She owns and operates her own sunshine factory. If ultimately a put-down of a girl who "doesn't really care," it is neither hapless nor vindictive, and maintains its joy from start to finish.

THE MONKEES: What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round? [3/2/2021]

The four original members of the Monkees--Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork--reunited in 1996 for an album called Justus and a one-hour TV special. A brief British tour followed in 1997. Those U.K. dates would be the final times that all four Monkees appeared together on stage. Jones passed away in 2012, and Tork left us in 2019.

While in England in '97, the Monkees spoke to the British rock press, and the exchanges were sometimes contentious. Not always contentious, mind you, but enough to contribute to an overall bad feeling, particularly as far as Nesmith was concerned. 

I remember reading some of this press, and I would agree that there was an occasional sheer, petty bitchiness in some of the reporting. But the one thing that stands out most in my memory from all of that was an offhand remark from Nesmith about a 1967 Monkees LP track called "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?"

"What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" is one of my favorites, as discussed in a previous post about my top 25 Monkees tracks. It was on my favorite Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., and I've often used it as evidence to plead my case on behalf of he Monkees' greatness. Talking to Mojo magazine in 1997, Nesmith referred to the song as "the bottom of the music."

What the actual...?! Man, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one. Here's what I wrote about it in that Top 25 post:

"'Bottom of the music?' Really, Michael? This is a sterling, stirring example of sprightly country-flavored pop music, co-written by Owens Castleman and future country star Michael Martin Murphey. There was a rumor that the Byrds were the studio band on this track, but it's Nesmith on guitar with bassist/producer Chip Douglas, drummer 'Fast' Eddie Hoh, and banjo wiz Douglas Dillard (himself an associate of the Byrds), with Micky and Davy backing up Michael's lead vocals. This may be my all-time favorite Nesmith vocal, and it's a compelling, engaging record that shouldn't ever be dismissed by anyone, not even by the guy who sang it."

When Michael Nesmith returned to the Monkees in 2012, the three surviving prime mates included "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" in their concert setlists. Nesmith's attitude toward some Monkees material had, I think, softened a bit by then. Maybe he was just putting up with the song to serve the needs of a 21st century Monkees show. I like to think his assessment of the song evolved, and that he grew to appreciate its virtues. From the bottom of the music, to the top of the music. 

I guess our chances come but once, and boy I sure missed mine. Not so. For as long as we live, we always have more chances to connect and re-connect with the music we love. We even have chances to discover the merit in music we'd previously disdained. That helps to make it worth hangin' 'round, doesn't it?

THE MONKEES: Pleasant Valley Sunday [4/6/2021]

"Pleasant Valley Sunday" is one of only two of the Monkees' U.S. hit A-sides to feature all four of the Monkees. Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith are also all present and accounted for on "Daydream Believer," as well as on the charting B-side "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," and on the British hit "Alternate Title" (aka "Randy Scouse Git" here in the States, where neither it nor any of its fellow Headquarters LP tracks made it to a 45). Here's what I wrote about "Pleasant Valley Sunday" in a piece celebrating my 25 favorite Monkees tracks:

"If we had to pick one track to represent the Monkees, my choice would be 'Pleasant Valley Sunday,' the second best song that Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote for the group. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" is the definitive Monkees track, with a mix of contributions from the Monkees themselves and their studio pals--Micky on the lead vocal (with Davy and Michael singin' along), Michael on electric guitar, Peter on piano, Davy on percussion, plus [bassist] Chip Douglas, [drummer] 'Fast' Eddie Hoh, and Bill Chadwick (the latter on acoustic guitar)--performing a track from one of Don Kirshner's favorite songwriting teams, but all engaged in the track to a degree and in a manner that could not have been possible when Kirshner was in charge. Some have condemned the lyrics as too pat and predictable in their dismissal of suburban values, and there's some merit in that criticism. It doesn't matter. The song is perfect, the performance is pristine. The local rock group down the street is working hard to learn their song...and succeeding in that effort beyond anyone's wildest dream."

The other Goffin-King song referenced above is "Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)," which also happens to be The Greatest Record Ever Made.

MICKY DOLENZ: Different Drum [4/27/2021]

This is precisely the sort of record for which the pimply hyperbole Awesome! was invented. I'm a first-generation fan of the Monkees, hoppin' into that barrel full o' hijinks during the first season of the group's TV series in 1966. I've wished in previous posts for surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith to record a new studio album with members of the Monkees' ace touring band, a cracklin' combo that includes Christian Nesmith (Michael's son) and the incredible vocal talents of Coco Dolenz (Micky's sister) and Circe Link (whose "I'm On Your Side" was included on our compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and was TIRnRR's most-played track in 2017). This combination of talent could create a mighty fine work, indeed.

The forthcoming new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith is the next-best thing, and a fantastic thing by any reasonable expectation. The elder Nesmith has no direct involvement, but the title's truth-in-advertising tells you that it's album of Nesmith songs, all engagingly rendered by Dolenz. Christian Nesmith arranged and produced, it sure sounds like Coco 'n' Circe providing the heavenly vocal blend that supports our Mick, and the overall effect is just delectably inviting. Man, this sounds wonderful. Dolenz remains in fine voice, and the material is, of course, top-notch.

The album is due out in May. The raving enthusiasm expressed above is inspired by bits from a teaser video, and by the release last week of the advance single, "Different Drum"/"Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care)." Both of these tracks fulfill the giddy promise of what I hoped to hear. How great is Micky's version of "Different Drum?" It challenges Linda Ronstadt's sublime hit version with the Stone Poneys for the title of Best Ever. I'm very much looking forward to hearing the whole album.

MICKY DOLENZ: Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care) [5/4/2021]

Five years ago, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio was playing teaser tracks from the Monkees' then-forthcoming album Good Times!, a work that transcended even our giddy fanboy expectations. Now, in this far-future post-apocalyptic world of 2021, we're playing both sides of the advance single from the new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith, which is due May 21st. We played A-side "Different Drum" last week, B-side "Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care)" this week, and May 21st really is too, too far away. We already care! We've been caring!  

MICKY DOLENZ: Different Drum [5/25/2021]

At this writing, I have just received my CD copy of the new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. But I've already heard enough of it to know I love it. We've been playing the digital single of "Different Drum," and we'll be playing at least one other track from Dolenz Sings Nesmith on next week's show.

(We will, in fact, be playing a lot of Micky Dolenz material on next week's show: new and old, solo and with the Monkees, and in other incarnations, too. It's been a long time since we've been able to spotlight a Featured Performer on TIRnRR. It's time for that spotlight to fall upon Micky Dolenz.)

MICKY DOLENZ: Circle Sky [6/4/2021]

For a very long time, I've wanted an episode of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio to spotlight Micky Dolenz as a Featured Performer. I can't explain why it took me so long to get around to following through with that intent, but the release of Dolenz's stunning new album Dolenz Sings Nesmith, a collection that offers Mr. Mick covering 14 songs written by his friend and coworker Michael Nesmith, moved the notion to an urgent Do It NOW!! status. 

There are rules in place that govern how many tracks we can play by a specific act in a single show: Four. That's it. You can't pull off a proper Feature with just four songs. Fortunately, Micky's long career has provided enough varied rockin' DBAs for us to get the job done in this case. Four songs by Micky with his most famous combo, the Monkees. A bunch of other limited-use billings. And four solo tracks.

We've been playing "Different Drum," the first single off Dolenz Sings Nesmith, and I knew I wanted to close the main part of this week's show with that. I wanted to play "Many Years," a track from Micky's 2012 album Remember. I wanted to play a side from his 2016 7a Records single "Chance Of A Lifetime"/"Livin' On Lies," opting for the latter. I wanted to play a lot more of Micky's solo recordings, especially some of his '70s and '80s single sides, but we couldn't do that. Four is the number. The number is four. It made more sense to open and close the show with Dolenz Sings Nesmith. "Different Drum" at the end. "Circle Sky" at the beginning.

"Circle Sky" was performed live by the Monkees in their bitter and brilliant 1968 film Head, with Nesmith singing lead. Dolenz Sings Nesmith producer Christian Nesmith came up with a decidedly different arrangement of the song for this album, employing an approach based on traditional Indian music. The result is mesmerizing, and congruent with the memory of Micky in the audience at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (as seen in Monterey Pop), smiling the widest smile ever as he applauded the performance by Ravi Shankar. There was no other choice: TIRnRR's Micky Dolenz Feature had to begin with "Circle Sky."

THE MONKEES: Pleasant Valley Sunday [6/4/2021]

Micky sang lead on so, so many great Monkees tracks, and limiting ourselves to just four of them was a challenge. "As We Go Along?" "I'm A Believer?" "Last Train To Clarksville?" "The Girl I Knew Somewhere?" "Words?" "Goin' Down?" "For Pete's Sake?" That's not even a preface to a long list of worthy possibilities issued under the Monkees brand name. 

But we made our selections. We had other Dolenz performances of "Porpoise Song," "Steppin' Stone," and "Randy Scouse Git," and we allowed one Monkees cover with the Flashcubes' version of "She." Dana's fondness of "Sometime In The Morning" made that one an obvious choice. The underrated "Oh My My" is my lovely wife Brenda's favorite Monkees track, so that was in. I wanted to include something from 2016's triumphant Good Times! sessions, and opted for the non-album "Terrifying," a track in dire need of much wider exposure and acclaim. That left room for one classic Monkees track from the '60s.

And it had to be "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Book it. And here's to one of the voices of that local rock group down the street. This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio humbly salutes Micky Dolenz.

MICKY DOLENZ: Grand Ennui [6/8/2021]

With P. P. Arnold taking control of this week's "Different Drum," we still wanted to play something from the sublime new Micky Dolenz album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. "Grand Ennui" is a track exclusive to the album's CD release--sorry, vinyl and download fans--and we would have played it as part of last week's Micky Dolenz feature if logistics had allowed it. 

THE MONKEES: You Just May Be The One [11/16/2021]

"You Just May Be The One" is a track from the Monkees' 1967 album Headquarters. It was produced by Chip Douglas (credited under his real name Douglas Farthing Hatlelid) and engineered by Hank Cicalo. Douglas also sang back-up on the track.

You know who else was on that session? The Monkees. And no one else.

The song was written by Michael Nesmith, who sang lead and played electric and acoustic guitars. Peter Tork played bass. Micky Dolenz played drums. Davy Jones played tambourine. Yes, the precise line-up and instrumentation we saw on their TV show. Peter, Micky, and Davy joined de facto deputy Monkee Chip Douglas to sing behind their wool-hatted prime mate Michael. It's the Monkees. For all the ill-informed crap we've heard about the Monkees not playing their own instruments, this is the Monkees. No slight to the amazing Chip Douglas, whose integral contributions made it all happen, but on "You Just May Be The One," it is effectively only the Monkees.

And it's fantastic. It shoulda been a single.

Both Davy and Peter have left us. On Sunday night, as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio blared its mighty sound across the whole friggin' planet, surviving Monkees Mike and Micky took the stage in Los Angeles for the final date of the Monkees' farewell tour. There will still be a few more stand-alone shows--a cruise with the Beach Boys, and isolated make-up dates for previously-scheduled concerts postponed because of...well, you know--but this is the end of the road. 

We were lucky to have them. Thank you, Micky, Davy, Peter, and Michael. 

Oh, and a side note to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: #inductthemonkees

POSTSCRIPT: 12/10/2021

My brain has insufficient bandwidth today to process the sad news of Michael Nesmith's passing. Suffice it to say that I was and remain a fan. My deepest sympathies to all those close to him in real life (especially Micky, Christian, Circe, and Andrew), as well as to all of my fellow Believers.

Weren't they good? They made me happy. Rest in peace, Mr. Nesmith.

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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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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