"It's a Nice Place to Visit"

I recently read in Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story about the broadcast of the first episode of the second season of The Monkees ("It's a Nice Place to Visit" on 11 September 1967), so I started watching the series again on Bluray.  A couple days ago, I watched "It's a Nice Place to Visit" and noticed some significance in the names of a few characters.

The episode starts with the Monkees stuck in El Monotono, Mexico because the Monkeemobile has broken down.  They enter a cantina where they meet a waitress named Angelita, and almost immediately, she and Davy fall in love.  Davy comments that her name means "little angel."  She, in turn, asks what the name David means, but, interrupted by a joke from Mike, he doesn't answer.  Soon, the Monkees run afoul of El Diablo, a bandit who basically runs the town.  He abducts Davy because of his romantic involvement with Angelita, whom he claims is his girl, and after the rest of the Monkees pose as bandits to infiltrate El Diablo's gang and rescue Davy, El Diablo challenges Micky to a duel at high noon.

The meaning of the names Angelita and El Diablo match how these characters treat the Monkees and also highlight the contrast between them.  Angelita (whose name means "little angel") falls in love with Davy, but El Diablo (whose moniker means "the devil") abducts and threatens to torture him and tries to kill Micky in the duel.

The name David means "beloved," which fits well with the situation in this and many other episodes where a girl instantly falls in love with Davy.

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On the DVD, one of the trivia items is:

When Michael (El Nesmito) wonders whether they [the Monkees in disguise as bandits] should carry a club card or some badges, Micky (El Dolenzio) sneers, "Badges?  We don't need no steenking badges!" which is a nod to the character Gold Hat from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Warner Bros., 1948).

There are further similarities in that Gold Hat is also a bandit and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre also takes place in Mexico.

"(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone"

Recently, I listened to Paul Revere & the Raiders' Greatest Hits.  Yester-day, I was looking into their version of "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone"*, and I noticed something that's also true of the Monkees' version (which was actually recorded after the Raiders' version).  The vocal part moves to a higher register halfway through the verses (basically the same melody, just up an octave), and so in the first verse, this corresponds to the "high" in the line "You're readin' all them high-fashioned magazines," although the lyric uses "high" a bit more metaphorically.

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*It's included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue.  The guitar phrases in the introduction, which aren't included in the Monkees' version, bear a strong resemblance to the first few phrases of the guitar solo in the Beatles' "I Feel Fine."

"She Makes Me Laugh"

I listened to Good Times! yester-day and noticed a small feature in "She Makes Me Laugh."  In the line "And I would like to be with her for a while," "while" is sung with a melisma (C# B A), providing a sense of duration.

When I referenced the lyrics, I also noticed that the line "She's fine as any valentine" exhibits internal rhyme.  To some degree, this additional rhyme mirrors the narrator's high regard for the girl.

"Daydream Believer"

Last week, I learned the piano part in the introduction and verses of "Daydream Believer."  To this, I could add the string part from the second verse, which I learned in November 2017.

I played both parts on my Nord Electro 5D.  I used "Black Upright" for the piano (recorded in mono and with the treble boosted) and one of the Hohner String Melody II samples for the string sound.

"Jericho"

In the impromptu version of "Jericho" from the Headquarters sessions (listed as "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" on the super deluxe edition), there are the lines:

You can talk about your men of Gideon

You can talk about your men of Saul

But there's none like good old Joshua

At the battle of Jericho

The contrast between the nearly identical first two lines and the line about Joshua highlights his uniqueness ("there's none like... Joshua").

I neglected to note this before, but the Biblical event that the song relates is recounted in Joshua 6.  "Your men of Saul" seems to be just a general allusion, but "your men of Gideon" refers to Judges 7, in which Gideon and three hundred men attack the Midianites.  Like Joshua's attack on Jericho, Gideon's attack was also preceded by the blowing of trumpets.

"Mr. Webster"

I listened to the deluxe edition of Headquarters last month and noticed a few small features.

Halfway through the line "Said, 'Sorry stop.  Cannot attend'" in "Mr. Webster," there's a rest in the vocal and instrumental parts, mirroring that "stop" in the telegram.

In the first recorded version (available as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of More of the Monkees), there's a rest in the vocal but not in the instrumental parts.

"Little Girl"

When I listened to Good Times! recently, I noticed a lyrical ambiguity in "Little Girl," specifically in the lines "Cheer up; I'll turn your frown sunnyside up / Come fill your cup."  "Come" could be either a continuation of "I'll" ("I'll turn your frown sunnyside up / [And I'll] come fill your cup") or an imperative that's separate from the preceding line.  The structure of the following verse (with its lines "Stand up; we'll go to town / Go for a ride") suggests the former, but I think the latter is also viable.

"Me & Magdalena"

A few weeks ago, I happened to read some of the lyrics in Bob Dylan's "Romance in Durango" (from the Desire album), and I noticed the phrase "me and Magdalena" in the first verse:

Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun

Dust on my face and my cape

Me and Magdalena on the run

I think this time we shall escape

Of course, this reminded me of the Monkees song "Me & Magdalena."  The phrase stood out to me because, unless I'm mistaken, it's rather ungrammatical since the pronoun should come last ("Magdalena and me").  I listened to both songs recently, but I don't think there's really any connection between the two aside from this phrase.  While it might be just a coincidental similarity, I thought I'd note it all the same.

"Last Train to Clarksville"

I watched "Monkees at the Movies" this morning and noticed a feature in "Last Train to Clarksville" that I've already noted in a couple other songs:  the phrase "all alone" in the line "I can't hear you in this noisy railroad station all alone" alliterates, and because the two words begin with the same sound, there's a sense of that singularity.

"Monkees Get Out More Dirt"

I watched "Monkees Get Out More Dirt" last night and noticed a trivial detail.  The music that Peter plays (accompanied by some string players) in order to impress April seems to be based on the adagio from Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052.

"Since You Went Away"

In the line "Things are much better since you went away" at ~2:08 in "Since You Went Away," "better" is sung with a melisma (F# E D), giving a sense either of the comparative degree of the adverb itself (more notes for a higher degree) or of the degree of the modifying adverb "much."

"Long Way Home"

I listened to Pool It! yester-day and noticed a handful of small features.

I've noted this with other songs, but "Long Way Home" also contains the phrase "all alone" (in the line "But don't leave me here all alone") and since the two words alliterate, there's a sense of the singularity of being alone.  In its occurrence at ~3:01, "alone" is also sung with a melisma (C E D), giving a sense of the degree of "all."

"(Theme from) The Monkees"

Yester-day, I figured out the chords for "(Theme from) The Monkees," although I'd already figured out a section while writing this post a couple years ago.  The album version contains a couple key changes; it starts in C major, and while the song fades out rather than resolving, the coda cycles through a progression in D major (D major | G major | A major).  The version that was actually used in the television show goes even further; it starts in C major and resolves in E major.  To some degree, this key change (in either version) demonstrates the lines "But we're too busy singin' / To put anybody down" since the song ends in a higher key than where it started.