Mention 'The Monkees' to your average rock fan and brows will furrow at the thought of the elephant in the room - 'they're not a 'proper' band', 'they didn't play their instruments', 'manufactured pop' - yes I've heard all the arguments for the prosecution, but I'm not going to pitch in with my own case for the defence. Not yet anyway and besides, I think 'I'm A Believer' should be allowed to speak for itself.'I'm A Believer' is a Neil Diamond song that, as performed by The Monkees, straddles the line where pop meets rock. Or where underground meets overground; in truth there's not much to 'I'm A Believer' at all - a guitar lick here, an organ flourish there and the constant tambourine rattle to hold it all together. Nothing brash and nothing showy but the spareness mixed with hooks of melody and chorus fuse the counterculture appeal of ? and the Mysterians or The Standells with a commercial British beat sheen that pulls the listener along in it's race to the finish line.
Drummer Mickey Dolenz takes lead vocal duties and, while hardly the most dynamic of vocalists, he nevertheless brings a naturalistic touch to compliment the everyman lyric that uses Paul's road to Damascus conversion as a metaphor for a cynic falling in love. "I thought love was only true in fairy tales, meant for someone else but not for me" - sings Dolenz with sheepish embarrassment at the fool he's been before hardening into certainty on the "And then I saw her face, now I'm a believer" after the scales have fallen. This is love as celebration, not reverence and Dolenz sings like he wants to share his good fortune with the whole world. It's cute, it's charming, it's corn free and it's far more believable than the performance on the number one it displaced.
And as far as that elephant goes, that's my point - The Monkees' 'I'm A Believer' is a song and performance with heart that's blended seamlessly into the sixties canon. There's no hint of the churned out production line that 'real' music fans are wont to poo poo; Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider may well have been greedy for a hit to promote their knockabout Beatlesy TV show, but the hands that crafted this (from Diamond's pen to Jeff Barry's production) are hands that cared for and respected the medium they were working in. Ah sod them, 'I'm A Believer' is terrific.
The Monkees have suffered with the stigma of 'artificial band' and 'pre-fab four' for all of their recorded output. Which is unfortunate, unfair and undeserving. Ok, to begin with they only performed vocal duties, partly because of time restraints due to 14 -16 hour days recording their tv show, and partly because Peter and Mike where the only accomplished musicians at the start. Micky learned to play the drums in-between tv and singing duties but certainly there were more accomplished session musicians at the disposal of the producers, so why not use them? After all, since 1964 The Beach Boys had been using various members of 'The Wrecking Crew' (the famous session musicians consisting of Hal Blaine and Glen Campbell among others) to supplement their sound, and in fact, apart from the vocals, there is very little group input, beyond Brian Wilson, into the Beach Boys masterpiece, 'Pet Sounds'. And let's not even talk about the Motown artists who all relied on 'The Corporation' to tell them how to dress, dance, sing, do their hair, and in some cases, who to sing with. But all that gets swept aside when discussing the Monkees. And let's not forget EVERY original Monkees LP contained at least one self-penned song and some even contained self produced songs. The Monkees second highest charting single in the UK, behind 'I'm A Believer' and ahead of 'The Last Train To Clarksville', 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You', 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' and "Daydream Believer' is the 1967 single 'Alternate Title', written by band member Micky Dolenz, which peaked at number 2, behind the Beatles 'All You Need Is Love'. The Monkees third LP, 'Headquarters', which peaked at #1 in the USA and #2 in UK (behind Sgt Pepper) consisted of all four Monkees playing various instruments with just a few 'guest' appearances by friends or specialist musicians. They would continue to use their own instruments for the most part for their future recordings. The origins of the Monkees may have been 'artificial' - responding to an ad to make a tv programme about a musical group - but that should not detract from the fact that they evolved into a bone-fide group, with more talent than they have been given credit. They are still the only artists (solo or group) to have 4 U.S. number one LP's in the same calendar year (1967 - 'The Monkees', 'More Of The Monkees', 'Headquarters', and 'Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd.')(although the Beatles had 4 U.S. #1 LP's in a 12 month period, just not the same calendar year). Love them or hate them, they definitely have a place in pop / rock history, something which so far has been over-looked by the powers that be who determine which artists should reside in the 'Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame'. How many inductees in the hall of fame NEVER played any instruments or wrote or produced any songs? And here is what Berry Gordy said of The Jackson Five when they were inducted into the Hall of Fame - the Jackson 5 were “the last big stars to come rolling off my assembly line" and they "rehearsed and recorded in California under Gordy’s tutelage. In fact, the group lived at his Hollywood mansion for a year while they refined their act" and they "worked with "The Corporation", a Motown songwriting and production team". Assembly line? Tutelage? "The Corporation"? Not much difference between them and the Monkees... except the Monkees wrote songs from day one and took control of their output after 6 months.... and the Jackson 5 are in the Hall of Fame and The Monkees are not!
ReplyDelete