I grew up during the sixties when the Beatles and the Stones were the only two groups that were cool to follow.
It wasn't cool to follow the Monkees because they were considered to be fodder for the kiddiewinks.
I have only just recently realised how much I like a few of the Monkees tracks from around that time.
I really like Daydream Believer, Last Train to Clarkesville and Pleasant Valley Sunday. There, I've said it. Although I never spent a great deal of time listening to them at the time, I'm finding as I get older, their music invokes some really pleasant memories from the past.
Is there any music which has grown on you as you advance in years but couldn't admit to liking because they just weren't cool at the time? Funny how tastes change.
Maybe some of the 70's country. Ronny Milsap, Don Williams, Barbara Mandrell and such. When your young, country ain't cool but as time goes by, you realize what a dork you were not to give it a listen instead of dismissing it. And rhinestones do look cool in the right light.
don kirsner lived in my hometown. My uncle did work for him and he always brought us the new monkee albums before they went public. I loved the monkees. Mark Ribot (longtime tom waits guitarist) and I went to school together and Max wienberger of the e street band grew up around the corner. diana ross lived in town too. Lots of music back then! Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
This ought to bring a few chuckles. My first LP was Diana Ross presents the Jackson 5. I got to admit that I never really liked michael Jackson solo much, but I still can listen to the old J-5 stuff. You shouldn't feel so bad now tooka. ---------- snakes in Seattle
One of the great pleasures is learning to cover a tune (imo esp. with a band) that you've known of, but never played, and discovering in the process what a fun tune it is to play. I had that experience memorably with the Beatles "Birthday Song". I never thought much of the tune until our band covered it as a surprise to our guitar player on his birthday: I was astounded at what a romping tune it was. Otherwise, I think there's tunes/artists that didn't click with you when they were popular because of where you were coming from at the time.
Unless you have narrow tastes, there's really a ton of good tunes out there to work. And then, due to the condition of the music business right now, alot of the good quality music doesn't even get out there and you discover it through the music rags.."guitar player", "Rolling Stone", "Electronic Musician", "Keyboard Magazine", etc.
There are BUNCHES of groups and styles that I didn't like when I was young, but do now. It's not because they weren't "cool," it was just my taste. My taste was very narrow. I only liked the really hard stuff, and not all of that, even. I liked some stuff that wasn't "cool" in my neck of the woods (The Doors, e. g.), and didn't like some stuff that was (Janis Joplin, e.g.)
My taste has greatly expanded over the years. I'm surprised at how much I like now. Tom Waits, Loreena McKinnett, River Dance, Amanda Jenssen, a lot of rock bands I didn't used to like, the list goes on.
Tooka, you are the man. I, under the cover of darkness also borrowed a best of Monkee's cd last week and have been listening to it in the car. The Monkee's seriously rock, and thats coming from a hardcore Punk rocker like myself.
"I grew up during the sixties when the Beatles and the Stones were the only two groups that were cool to follow.
That's funny, Tooka--in my world, you had to follow a lot more--like Janis Joplin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Canned Heat, Bob Dylan, Dave Brubeck, The Band, Hendrix--and, if you ever expected to get laid, you had to at least pretend to like Motown. I liked getting laid a lot--I learned the lyrics to a lot of Motown songs so I could sing along--damn--it was really easy to get laid back then. . . ---------- ==================================== Always be yourself--unless you suck. . . -Joss Whedon
Yep, The Monkees were under-rated. I was born in 1960, so I loved them as a kid. The really cool people (older than me) were into the West Coast Scene (Neil Young, etc) and the Stones. Unfortunately, as a seven-year-old, I developed a dislike for Hendrix and then the metal scene that came along in about 1970, and switched to Classical music instead, not switching onto Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Velvet Underground, Brian Eno, Nico, Kevin Coyne, Faust, krautrock, David Bowie and other things (a lot of it very pretentious) until about 1976, although I did also start liking Deep Purple at 15. Never bought more than Made in Japan, though. Liked the Sex Pistols in 1977, but found punk got flabby and ballady pretty quickly and didn't like much else.
Never went to many gigs - saw the B52s, Tangerine Dream, Weather Report, Steel Eye Span (my friends were into folk, but I wasn't), Squeeze. That's about it, sad to say!
---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
Last Edited by on Jan 25, 2011 3:33 AM
i had to listen to my dad's choice of music in all of our car trips. SUUUUCKED!! but after college, i really started to enjoy his music. all those big bands and the singers that went along with them.
That Joanne cut is beautiful, couldn't be sung any better IMO.
Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were professional guitar/bass players when the Monkees were thrown together. And Davey Jones was an exceptionalfront man. So the only guy who had to play catch up was Micky Dolenz, who had to try and learn to play drums almost overnight.
So I always thought they were a legitimate band, even though they were snubbed by almost everyone who was cool at the time. (Actually they were mainly snubbed by guys who played guitar, chicks LOVED the Monkees)
when i was a teen ager i was into singing doo wop,and my favorite stuff was black gospel and jazz sax i didn`t get into rock n` roll until i got hit with chicago blues...
My sad confession is the first album I ever bought was The Wombles.
If you don't know what they are google it!
Strange thing is, many,many years later the drummer who did that session played in my band when I lived on the Isle of Man. ---------- The Pentatonics Myspace Youtube
"Why don't you leave some holes when you play, and maybe some music will fall out".
Just a quick Monkey story: Back in the 60's I had to take my sister to a Monkees' concert at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. The opening act was The Jimi Hendrix Experience!
The Wombles? Oh Man, I gotta go and lie down. I thought it embarrassing to mention the Monkees but even the kiddiewinks who were fond of the Monkees looked down on the Wombles.
I respect you for coming out with that. It takes a man to admit to liking the Wombles. (Snigger snigger).
If you were in a Top 40 band in the late 60's, early 70's, you had to play Credence Clearwater, so I grew to resent them. Of course, now, with a little distance from all that, I can really appreciate them.
Haha. Micky Dolenz is appearing in a play in my hometown in the UK. If I bump into him I'll let him know he now has a bunch of closet fans he never knew existed. The statute of limitations on this previously 'uncool' act must have expired now and the Good Taste Police are no longer making arrests. So what the heck.... 'hey, hey, we're the Monkees'.
How about Little Jimmy Osmond?......Nah that's a step too far:)
