This
month marks the 55th anniversary of the release of The Monkees fifth
studio album, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, which was issued in
April of 1968. While it was home to two of the last hit singles to
come from the group during its heyday, it was also the first major
indicator that the band’s fortunes were about to take a nosedive.
After the production coup of early 1967, which saw the group wrestle control of their music away from the dictatorial hands of Don Kirshner, the honeymoon phase that graced their third album, Headquarters, would be short lived. The camaraderie that guided the production of Headquarters, driving the group to handle all the playing themselves in order to prove their merits as a band, began to crumble once they started work on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
The reality was that they were four disparate individuals with completely different musical priorities and sensibilities. Reverting to their previous production approach, the group began to rely on session musicians again while they also separated into discrete production teams. By the time they started production on The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, the segregation between the members was essentially complete. Each had their own team of musicians and techs, often working in different studios in the LA area. Whereas the previous two records had the benefit of Chip Douglas’ production to tie things together, he was dismissed for this album and had no hand in its creation. There was still an agreement that all work created under these conditions would be credited as “produced by The Monkees”, but the concept of them being a band was now in name only.
This situation resulted in a collection of songs for the album which was wildly divergent and eclectic in style. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but does make it difficult to give a singular LP product a sense of cohesion, though it was not significantly different than what The Beatles were going through while producing their “White” album. Davy pursued his show tunes style, Mike indulged in country rock and bizarre psychedelic experiments and Micky explored his soul and baroque pop leanings. Sadly Peter Tork’s work remained mysteriously consigned to the outtakes bin as none of his songs were selected for the final track listing. In fact, Peter only played piano on Daydream Believer, so he was effectively absent from the album save for his picture on the cover. One has to wonder how much this played into his decision to be the first to quit the band, but it should be noted that he contributed two songs on the HEAD soundtrack, their next album before his departure.
In addition to the songs created for the album, a couple of tracks left over from the sessions for the previous LP managed to find their way into this collection. These included the hit singles, Valleri and Daydream Believer, both of which hit #1, though the latter would be the last such success for the band. The album also features some particularly innovative elements, especially with the songs from Mike and Micky. Micky’s P.O. Box 9847 & Zor and Zam showed off his ability to deftly slip social commentary into bubblegum pop while Mike’s Writing Wrongs featured an extended, tripped-out arrangement that took the listener through a series of shifting dreamy soundscapes. And Magnolia Simms emulated the squeaky sound of a scratchy, skipping vintage phonograph, much to the confusion of some listeners, necessitating a warning on the LP’s back cover that the “skipping” was intentional and not the result of faulty stereo equipment or a damaged record.
Upon release, the album managed to climb to #3 on the US charts, which wasn’t terrible, but was shy of the #1 slot their first four albums had easily secured. In the UK, the album didn’t chart at all, though the two singles did well. It was clear that the tide was beginning to turn on their popularity, however. The last episode of their TV series aired barely a month before the LP’s release and news of the show’s cancellation soon followed.
With the end of the series, producer Bob Rafelson was ready to bury the project in order to pursue a feature film career and saw the band’s feature film project as the perfect opportunity to desecrate their “manufactured image” while simultaneously making a social commentary on commercialism and consumer culture. Not that The Monkees were victims in this. They were completely complicit in this process and were looking to break out of their "pre-fab four" kiddie band box, a metaphor seen repeatedly throughout the movie. They were desperate to be seen as a legitimate creative force, but the backlash of popular opinion ultimately overwhelmed the group. With the commercial disaster of both the movie and a poorly conceived subsequent TV special, the group soldiered on through a few more albums, shedding members like so many falling leaves, before the whole thing collapsed in 1970.
Fortunately, history has has seen fit to rehabilitate the band’s image and allow them a remarkable renaissance in the 21st century. Their legacy of classic, timeless and innovative pop music has survived the reactionary and unfair misjudgements of the past. Now, we can appreciate all the marvels that lurk in the grooves of these records. Like most of their catalogue, Rhino Handmade have issued a deluxe expanded edition of the album featuring both stereo and mono mixes and a plethora of alternate mixes and outtakes. The sheer volume of the bonus material included in these reissues begs the question of how they managed to be so stunningly productive within such a relatively short period of time. It was really only a handful of years where they were initially active, yet they left behind an incredible catalogue, a treasure trove that would take any musicologist a lifetime to fully comprehend.
After the production coup of early 1967, which saw the group wrestle control of their music away from the dictatorial hands of Don Kirshner, the honeymoon phase that graced their third album, Headquarters, would be short lived. The camaraderie that guided the production of Headquarters, driving the group to handle all the playing themselves in order to prove their merits as a band, began to crumble once they started work on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
The reality was that they were four disparate individuals with completely different musical priorities and sensibilities. Reverting to their previous production approach, the group began to rely on session musicians again while they also separated into discrete production teams. By the time they started production on The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, the segregation between the members was essentially complete. Each had their own team of musicians and techs, often working in different studios in the LA area. Whereas the previous two records had the benefit of Chip Douglas’ production to tie things together, he was dismissed for this album and had no hand in its creation. There was still an agreement that all work created under these conditions would be credited as “produced by The Monkees”, but the concept of them being a band was now in name only.
This situation resulted in a collection of songs for the album which was wildly divergent and eclectic in style. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but does make it difficult to give a singular LP product a sense of cohesion, though it was not significantly different than what The Beatles were going through while producing their “White” album. Davy pursued his show tunes style, Mike indulged in country rock and bizarre psychedelic experiments and Micky explored his soul and baroque pop leanings. Sadly Peter Tork’s work remained mysteriously consigned to the outtakes bin as none of his songs were selected for the final track listing. In fact, Peter only played piano on Daydream Believer, so he was effectively absent from the album save for his picture on the cover. One has to wonder how much this played into his decision to be the first to quit the band, but it should be noted that he contributed two songs on the HEAD soundtrack, their next album before his departure.
In addition to the songs created for the album, a couple of tracks left over from the sessions for the previous LP managed to find their way into this collection. These included the hit singles, Valleri and Daydream Believer, both of which hit #1, though the latter would be the last such success for the band. The album also features some particularly innovative elements, especially with the songs from Mike and Micky. Micky’s P.O. Box 9847 & Zor and Zam showed off his ability to deftly slip social commentary into bubblegum pop while Mike’s Writing Wrongs featured an extended, tripped-out arrangement that took the listener through a series of shifting dreamy soundscapes. And Magnolia Simms emulated the squeaky sound of a scratchy, skipping vintage phonograph, much to the confusion of some listeners, necessitating a warning on the LP’s back cover that the “skipping” was intentional and not the result of faulty stereo equipment or a damaged record.
Upon release, the album managed to climb to #3 on the US charts, which wasn’t terrible, but was shy of the #1 slot their first four albums had easily secured. In the UK, the album didn’t chart at all, though the two singles did well. It was clear that the tide was beginning to turn on their popularity, however. The last episode of their TV series aired barely a month before the LP’s release and news of the show’s cancellation soon followed.
With the end of the series, producer Bob Rafelson was ready to bury the project in order to pursue a feature film career and saw the band’s feature film project as the perfect opportunity to desecrate their “manufactured image” while simultaneously making a social commentary on commercialism and consumer culture. Not that The Monkees were victims in this. They were completely complicit in this process and were looking to break out of their "pre-fab four" kiddie band box, a metaphor seen repeatedly throughout the movie. They were desperate to be seen as a legitimate creative force, but the backlash of popular opinion ultimately overwhelmed the group. With the commercial disaster of both the movie and a poorly conceived subsequent TV special, the group soldiered on through a few more albums, shedding members like so many falling leaves, before the whole thing collapsed in 1970.
Fortunately, history has has seen fit to rehabilitate the band’s image and allow them a remarkable renaissance in the 21st century. Their legacy of classic, timeless and innovative pop music has survived the reactionary and unfair misjudgements of the past. Now, we can appreciate all the marvels that lurk in the grooves of these records. Like most of their catalogue, Rhino Handmade have issued a deluxe expanded edition of the album featuring both stereo and mono mixes and a plethora of alternate mixes and outtakes. The sheer volume of the bonus material included in these reissues begs the question of how they managed to be so stunningly productive within such a relatively short period of time. It was really only a handful of years where they were initially active, yet they left behind an incredible catalogue, a treasure trove that would take any musicologist a lifetime to fully comprehend.
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