"Papa Gene's Blues"

I listened to the deluxe edition of The Monkees at the end of October and noticed that the bass part in "Papa Gene's Blues" is much more prominent in the alternate mix that's included as a bonus track.  Yester-day, using this alternate mix for reference, I figured out the bass part and transcribed it.  As always, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.

"I Wanna Be Free"

I listened to the first disc of the deluxe edition of The Monkees this morning and noticed a small feature in "I Wanna Be Free."  The line "Walk along the sand" is sung to a (mostly) conjunct melody (B D C B A), and because the melody is step-wise, there's a musical sense of that "walk[ing]."

While looking at the lyrics again, I also noticed the first line of the bridge:  "I wanna hold your hand."  This is also the title phrase of a Beatles song, but I don't know if this line is meant to be a reference to it.

"Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers"

I watched "Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers" this morning and noticed a detail in the set dressing.  When the Monkees go to the Vincent Van Go-Go, one of the paintings in the background is Van Gogh's "La Berceuse":

This painting is later seen in "The Picture Frame," which I wrote about here.

"So Goes Love"

Recently, I learned the bass part in "So Goes Love."  As always, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.

"Early Morning Blues and Greens"

Recently, I learned some of the organ in "Early Morning Blues and Greens" and re-learned as much of the electric piano part as I used to know (I'd written down only half of it).  I started wondering about the specific type of electric piano that this part was played on, so I did some research.

The liner notes of the deluxe edition of Headquarters list simply "electric piano" in the credits (played by Peter Tork), but I think the liner notes do reveal the specific electric piano, if only inadvertently.  The first two pages of the booklet show a picture of Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith in RCA Studios in March 1967:

(Because I couldn't find the same picture on the internet, I scanned my copy of the liner notes, so the quality may not be the best.)

To the left of Nesmith, behind his pedal steel guitar, there's an electric piano.  The date of this picture (March 1967) matches the recording date for "Early Morning Blues and Greens" given in the liner notes (22 March 1967 "& other dates"), so it seems likely that this is the very electric piano used for the track.  I compared this instrument to various pictures on the internet, and I think it's a Wurlitzer 140B.

Here are some pictures of a Wurlitzer 140B for comparison:

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"The Day We Fall in Love"

Last year, I learned the bass part for "The Day We Fall in Love."  I finally got around to scanning the notation to-day.  As always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong.

"I Know What I Know"

At the beginning of "I Know What I Know," the production is rather sparse, just Nesmith's voice and piano.  Musically, this reflects the solitude mentioned in the bridge:  "Alone I am, with waiting heart / Alone I am, a world apart."

"Wasn't Born to Follow"

In the line "I will want to dive beneath the white cascading water" in "Wasn't Born to Follow," "water" is sung with a descending melisma (B A G), musically giving a sense of that "cascading."

"Birth of an Accidental Hipster"

In the repeated line "Do you know where we go?" in "Birth of an Accidental Hipster," the "go" is sung with a glissando (at first A to E but later it's B to F#), musically giving a sense of movement.

Extra voices sing the line "All sing along," giving a sense of "all" and demonstrating that "sing[ing] along."

"Little Girl"

The first two lines of "Little Girl" are "Little girl, don't you be brought down / Cheer up, I'll turn your frown sunnyside up," and the "down" and "up" are illustrated through the melodies to which they're sung.  "Be brought down" is sung to descending notes (D C# A), and "up" is sung with an ascending melisma (E F# G#).

"Me & Magdalena"

Under the lines "As the sun is slowly sinking / Into a distant ocean wave," in "Me & Magdalena," the bass part descends, musically reflecting that "sinking."  Furthermore, the first two pitches are C and B, and since these form the smallest possible interval (a half-step), there's even a sense of that "slowly."

"Our Own World"

The second verse of "Our Own World" starts with the lines "We been writing rhymes / And trading lines / It sounds so good."  That "good" is sung with a melisma (G Bb G F G Bb G F), musically giving a sense of degree (for that "so").

"She Makes Me Laugh"

In the chorus of "She Makes Me Laugh," there's the line "And I could hang out with her all day and night."  "Day and night" is a merism.

"Good Times"

I still have quite a few notes from the last two years that I need to flesh out into posts here.  I'm going to try to catch up over the next week or so.

In the lines "Till there's dancin' in the streets again / And music ev'rywhere" in "Good Times," the three syllables of "ev'rywhere" are each sung to a different pitch (Eb D C), musically giving a sense of that breadth.

Changes

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, the Monkees' ninth album - Changes (Colgems COS-119) - was released in the U.S. fifty years ago this month (June 1970).  Sandoval doesn't mention a U.K. release.

Side One:

1. "Oh My My"
2. "Ticket on a Ferry Ride"
3. "You're So Good to Me"
4. "It's Got to Be Love"
5. "Acapulco Sun"
6. "99 Pounds"

Side Two:

1. "Tell Me Love"
2. "Do You Feel It Too?"
3. "I Love You Better"
4. "All Alone in the Dark"
5. "Midnight Train"
6. "I Never Thought It Peculiar"

"Pleasant Valley Sunday"

This morning I was thinking about "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and I realized a number of features in it.

Just in thinking about the song, I realized that the three syllables of "ev'rywhere" in the line "Charcoal burnin' ev'rywhere" are all sung to different pitches (C A G), musically giving a sense of that breadth.

When I read the lyrics, I discovered some other things.  In the first verse, the ends of the lines don't really rhyme:

The local rock group down the street is tryin' hard to learn their song
They serenade the weekend squier who just came out to mow his lawn

The slant rhyme between "song" and "lawn" illustrates that the "local rock group" hasn't learned its song well enough.  It's not quite what it's supposed to be yet.  Additionally, the use of a plural possessive ("their") in place of a singular ("its") grammatically demonstrates something of a division within the group; they're not acting as a whole.

The second verse does have line-ending rhymes, and there's also internal rhyme:

See Mrs. Gray; she's proud today because her roses are in bloom
And Mr. Green, he's so serene; he's got a TV in ev'ry room

These added rhymes give a sense of the perfection of the "pleasant valley."  Because these rhymes include characters' names, there's also a sense of how ingrained this perfection is and how essential it is for those who live there.

In referencing the recording again, I also noticed that "room" in the backing vocals is sung with a melisma (G F#), for a sense of "ev'ry."

In the last line of the bridge ("I need a change of scenery"), "scenery" is sung with a melisma (B A G# F# E), musically giving a sense of that "change."  There's also a shift in octave between the A and G#, which emphasizes this.

"Whatever's Right"

Last night, I figured out the guitar phrase and chords in "Whatever's Right" and noticed a few interesting musical features.

Like the riff in "Last Train to Clarksville," the first two notes of the guitar phrase are Gs an octave apart.  Both songs were written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, so I think this might be an intentional resemblance.

While the song is in G major, there are quite a few chords that contain accidentals:  E major (G# accidental), A major (C# accidental), C minor (Eb accidental), and D minor (F natural accidental).  This disregard of what notes "should" be in G major musically represents the sentiment of the song:  "I know that you'll do whatever's right."

At the end of the line "And even if it doesn't turn out like I planned," the chords change from C major to C minor, which musically demonstrates the feeling of disappointment in that lyric.

"Here Come the Monkees"

A little over a year ago, I was thinking about the song that the Monkees sing in "Here Come the Monkees" in order to help Vanessa Russell study for her history test.  I think the words are:

When Patrick Henry was in Virginia
He made a speech we all recall
He said to the people of a Charlotte town,
"United we stand, divided we fall"

The melody is something like:

What I realized back in March last year is that "divided we fall" is sung to a descending phrase (G G Gb F Eb), musically illustrating that "fall[ing]."  One of the tune's two accidentals occurs in the same phrase, which gives a sense of dissidence.  In the opposite sort of illustration, almost all of "United we stand" is sung to the same pitch (Eb).

"Oh My My" b/w "I Love You Better"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Oh My My" b/w "I Love You Better" - the Monkees' twelfth and final single (Colgems 5011) - was released in the U.S. fifty years ago this month (April 1970).  The U.K. release (RCA 1958) was "probably 1970."