"I Wanna Be Free"

Yester-day I listened to The Monkees (specifically, the second disc of the deluxe edition), and I noticed a small thing about "I Wanna Be Free."  The "down" in the line "Without any strings to tie me down" has a melisma.  Instead of one syllable, it's sung to two, and the second syllable has a lower pitch than the first one (it's B to A).  The melody to which "down" is sung goes down, musically representing the tying down that's in the lyric.

Headquarters

A couple days ago, I was writing out notation for what I know of the bass part of "Early Morning Blues and Greens."  (And, of course, while doing so, I found that I had some errors in my recording.)  Because I was already at the Headquarters album in my music collection, I tried figuring out some of the bass part for "You Told Me."  I'd figured out a bit of it before, but not to a high enough degree of accuracy.  (And on a different occasion, I figured out the chords, but I didn't feel they were worth posting about on their own.)  In any case, I realized that - for large sections - the bass parts for "You Told Me" and "Early Morning Blues and Greens" have the same rhythm:

I just put the notes on the middle line so that they're centered; the rhythm is what's relevant here, not the pitch.

It's not a very common rhythm (I'm pretty sure I haven't run across this rhythm in any other bass parts, and there seem to be some pretty common rhythms in bass parts), and it's a musical element that provides a bit of cohesion to the Headquarters album.  It's unsurprising then that - according to the liner notes of the deluxe edition of the album - both bass parts were played by Chip Douglas.

"Monkees on the Line"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkees on the Line" - the twenty-eighth episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (27 March 1967).  It was written by Gerald Gardner, Dee Caruso, and Coslough Johnson, directed by James Frawley, and featured the song "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "The group is pressed into service as unlikely operators of an answering service."

"Early Morning Blues and Greens"

A couple days ago, I learned the bass part for roughly the first half of "Early Morning Blues and Greens" from Headquarters.  This evening, I learned the electric piano part for that same section.  I flubbed one transition (although I'm not confident I have all of the transitions correct anyway), but - without practicing it for a few days - I don't think I could do any better:

"Monkee Mother"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkee Mother" - the twenty-seventh episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (20 March 1967).  It was written by Peter Meyerson and Robert Schlitt, directed by James Frawley, and featured the songs "Sometime in the Morning" and "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "When The Monkees can't pay the rent, their landlord moves a more mature tenant (played by Rose Marie) into their pad."

"Jericho"

I was recently reminded of the song "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho."  The Monkees' version, titled just "Jericho" (which is actually an outtake from the Headquarters sessions and a bonus track on the deluxe edition of Headquarters), is the only version I know so that's the version I started thinking about.  I'm sure this isn't specific to their version, but the line "And the walls came a-tumblin' down" descends, as if to musically represent the walls' coming down.  Starting with "walls," I think it's a diatonic descent in B major from F# to B, with some notes repeated.

"Monkee Chow Mein"

This morning I watched "Monkee Chow Mein," and I noticed some familiar-sounding dialogue.  After the Dragonman says that they have to find "the boy with the long hair named Peter," Toto says, "That's a strange name for long hair."

I'm not sure if this joke from The Monkees is meant to resemble it, but there's a similar exchange in the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night.  A reporter asks George Harrison, "What would you call that hairstyle you're wearing?" to which he replies, "Arthur."  The jokes aren't structured the same way, but both involve giving a person's name to a hairstyle.

"Monkee Chow Mein"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkee Chow Mein" - the twenty-sixth episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (13 March 1967).  It was written by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, directed by James Frawley, and featured the song "Your Auntie Grizelda."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "During a visit to a Chinese restaurant The Monkees get tangled up in a plot to unleash the dreaded Doomsday bug."

In the book, the episode title is given as "Monkees Chow Mein," but on the DVD, it's "Monkee Chow Mein."

"A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" b/w "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"

Like I mentioned in this post, Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation says that "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" b/w "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" was released in March 1967.  The DVD trivia for "Alias Micky Dolenz" (which I watched on its original air date) has a more specific date and claims that it was 8 March (fifty years ago to-day), coincident with Micky's birthday:

"Alias Micky Dolenz"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Alias Micky Dolenz" - the twenty-fifth episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (6 March 1967).  It was written by Gerald Gardner, Dee Caruso, and Dave Evans, directed by Bruce Kessler, and featured the songs "The Kind of Girl I Could Love" and "Mary, Mary."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "Micky's resemblance to a vicious killer causes calamity."

"A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" b/w "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" b/w "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" - the Monkees' third single (Colgems 1004) - was released in the U.S. fifty years ago this month (March 1967).  The U.K. release (RCA 1580) was on 31 March.