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Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
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InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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The Monkees
“More of the Monkees” hit the pop charts like a shot across the bow of everything that seemed ‘cool’. Teenagers destined to become hippies hated the band, the TV show, and everything that the Monkees represented, feigning a preference for the more ‘sophisticated’ sounds of the Lovin’ Spoonful and Buffalo Springfield. Little did they know that either of these bands would have sold their credibility for a piece of the Monkees superstardom; in point of fact, the Lovin’ Spoonful almost were the Monkees but were rejected for a lack of personality, while Stephen Stills (of the Buffalo Springfield) got axed for the gap between his front teeth. “More of the Monkees” shipped with pre-orders of 1.5 million copies and then continued to sell in significant quantities, so naysayers who figured the band as one-hit wonders had to quickly reformulate their perspective.
Stylistically speaking. “More of the Monkees” duplicates the layout of their first album, but with exaggerated characteristics. The good bits are much better, while the bad bits are almost unbearable. Neil Diamond and the team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin provide some of the best songs of their careers (“I’m a Believer” and “Sometime in the Morning”, respectively). Monkee Mike Nesmith proves that he is exceptionally qualified to write his own material for the band, too. “Mary Mary” and “The Kind of Girl I Could Love” are album highlights, with a countrified, rocking edge that must have put some doubt in the minds of those who claimed that the bandmembers could not play their own instruments. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart provided hits for the first album, and although they didn’t provide the hit single here, they would have to settle for writing the best Monkees song ever, “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone”, and the hook-laden opening track, “She.” These six tracks mark a high-water mark in the band’s career, but the balance of the album shoots a hole in the bucket. “Your Auntie Grizelda” is an oafish attempt at humor, but not nearly as bad as the forced stupidity of “Laugh,” sung by the hapless Davy Jones. As bad as that track is, poor Davy is also saddled with the most painfully insipid love song ever written, a sappy moon-pie called “The Day We Fall in Love,” (which he sings as “luff”).
The dual disks present the album in both stereo and mono, with little discernible difference to the casual listener. The real bonus is in the extra tracks, which add a few excellent songs that were woefully overlooked, along with alternate mixes of songs from other albums. If you have ever harbored doubts about this band, then it’s high time you check your preconceived notions at the door. When “More of the Monkees” is good, it is very, very good, so relax, lighten up and be very grateful that CD changers make it easy to skip over the bad tracks.
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