THE MONKEES - THE BIRDS, THE BEES and The MONKEES [1968] | THE RECONSTRUCTOR

HEY, HEY . . . . . . . . .  

The Monkees - The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees (1968)

I have said before what the Monkees meant to me in my youth and like perhaps The Loving Spoonful I soon left hem behind as I grew past my teenage years and more influenced by more serious artists (Bob Dylan, Love, The Doors, to name but a few . . . ) and yet they still mean something to me and The Reconstructor has made a gem here. . . . .

"The Monkees released their fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., on November 6, 1967, through Colgems Records. The second album in which the band exerted creative control, it marked a departure from its predecessor Headquarters by featuring hired studio musicians in a more prominent role, with drummer Eddie Hoh playing on nearly every single song on the album. The band still performed the majority of the instruments, with Mike Nesmith's guitar and Peter Tork's keyboards prominently featured in the album, but that move signaled that the group was losing interest in playing in their own records a mere six months after they began to do so. This loss of interest became apparent as, when sessions for a new album started the very next month, producer Chip Douglas was gone and the band had diverted to their old method of recording: completely performed by studio musicians, and with a single Monkee coming in to record lead vocals. The only difference was that before, those sessions would be produced by Boyce & Hart or somebody like Jeff Barry or Carole King, and this time around they were produced by the band members themselves. Sure, they still retained the creative control Nesmith and Tork so yearned for, but the togetherness and unity of something like Headquarters was long gone. And with the TV show coming to an end, the writing seemed on the wall."

His extensive notes (thesis!?) is well worth a read and the album is worth a listen as his second attempt (version) of what happened at the end of The Monkees. Read on . . . . (link above)

Tracklisting:

Through the Looking Glass 

We Were Made for Each Other 

Writing Wrongs 

I'll Be Back Upon My Feet 

Valleri

Lady's Baby 

-

Magnolia Simms

P.O. Box 9847

Tapioca Tundra 

Auntie's Municipal Court 

Alvin 

The Girl I Left Behind Me

Zor and Zam

Nesmith, Jones, Tork, and Dolenz on the set of HEAD, February 1968.

HEAD (trailer)