"Success Story"

I watched "Success Story" a couple days ago.  I've been thinking about the Beatles' movie A Hard Day's Night quite a bit recently, so I may be making too much of this, but I think the film's influence on The Monkees could be evident in that it's Davy's grandfather who's one of the main characters in this episode, just as Paul's grandfather is one of the main characters in the Beatles' movie.

This may have been noted before, but it also occurred to me that the ending credits of The Monkees use the same style as those of A Hard Day's Night; both show a sequence of still photos of the band members in various poses and with various expressions.

"Your Auntie Grizelda"

Recently, I read the entry for 14 October 1966 in the 2021 version of The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story.  The backing track for "Your Auntie Grizelda" was recorded on this day, and Jack Keller, who co-wrote the song with Diane Hildebrand*, comments:  "The truth of the matter is that it was inspired by the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger singing '19th Nervous Breakdown.'"  I hadn't know about the connection between these two songs, but in thinking about them and figuring out some parts for both, I discovered that they do have a number of musical similarities.

The first line of each verse of "Your Auntie Grizelda" is sung to a phrase something like this:

(The first half of each of the next three lines is the same, although one is a fourth higher.)

The title line of "19th Nervous Breakdown" ("Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown") is sung to a phrase something like this:

Both phrases begin in the same way:  with a pick-up on the fourth beat of the bar and two pairs of notes of the same pitch.  Generally, both phrases descend but end with a small ascent (a half-step in "Your Auntie Grizelda" but a whole step in "19th Nervous Breakdown").  Additionally, both phrases have a flatted seventh, although they occur in different places.

I figured out the chords for both songs, and although they're in different keys ("Your Auntie Grizelda" is in D major, and "19th Nervous Breakdown" is in [a slightly flat] E major), the verses have the same structure:  eight measures of the tonic, four measures of the sub-dominant, four measures of the tonic, two measures of the dominant, two measures of the sub-dominant, and then back to the tonic (which lasts for six measures in "Your Auntie Grizelda" but which merges into the chorus in "19th Nervous Breakdown").

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*In the book, it's spelt "Hildebrand," but in the credits of the deluxe edition of More of the Monkees, it's spelt as "Hilderbrand."  I'm not sure which is correct.

"Monkee Vs. Machine"

I recently started re-watching The Monkees series.  When I started reading the re-written version of Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story, I decided to watch the shows and listen to the albums after I read about their broadcast or release.  I'm also using this as an opportunity to watch the series on Bluray.  I got The Monkees: The Complete Series on Bluray years ago, but I've watched only select episodes, not all of them.

Last week, I watched "Monkee Vs. Machine" and noticed a subtle reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.  Near the end of the episode, when Mike leans out the window to throw what is essentially a boomerang, one of the buildings in the background seems to bear the name "Hotel Bates":

(This is a screenclipping from the DVD.)

The famous location in Psycho is the similarly named Bates Motel.

"Kicking Stones"

Recently, I read about "Kicking Stones" in The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story (I'm currently in September 1966).  I know it only as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of More of the Monkees.  Last night, I figured out the chords, and while doing so, I noticed the phrase "all alone" in the line "Feelin' dejected and all alone."  I wrote about this before with "I'll Spend My Life with You," but it's applicable here, too:  because both words in "all alone" start with the same sound, there's a sense of the singularity of being alone.

"I'll Spend My Life with You"

Yester-day, I got the super deluxe edition of Headquarters in the mail.  I haven't listened to it yet, but while thinking about the album this morning, I realized something about "I'll Spend My Life with You."

The first half of the first verse contains opposites:

People come, and people go

Movin' fast and movin' slow

I'm in a crowd, yet I'm all alone

During the last of these lines, the pedal steel guitar plays a descending phrase and then an ascending phrase.  These opposite directions mirror the contrasts in the lyrics.

"No Time"

I know this has been noted before, but I couldn't find it quickly and had to look it up for myself.  I'm writing a short post about it mostly so that I'll be able to reference this again if I need to.  At ~0:35 in "No Time," Micky says something that sounds like "Rock on, George, for Ringo one time."  This is the same thing that Ringo says in the Beatles' "Honey Don't" (at ~2:20).

"Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky"

I was thinking about "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky" recently, and I realized that there are a couple significant rhetorical effects.  Of course, there are the alliterative Ps throughout, and there are also two rhetorical catalogues ("pizza pie, pumpkin pie, pineapple pie, pizza pie, mince tarts" and "pie for breakfast, pie for lunch, pie in the afternoon, and pie before he went to bed").  Both of these features provide a sense of amount (the "so much pie" mentioned near the end).

"Sweet Young Thing"

I was thinking about "Sweet Young Thing" yester-day and realized that in the line "The seeds of doubt you planted have started to grow wild," the phrase "to grow wild" ascends (C# D E), musically giving a sense of the upward motion of that growth.

"(Theme from) The Monkees"

I was thinking about "(Theme from) The Monkees" yester-day, specifically the bass part during the first verse, which is something like:

For most of this, the bass alternates between the root and the fifth of the chords (A minor | F major | D major | G major).  Musically, this gives something of an impression of footsteps, and this matches the "walkin'" that's in the lyrics:  "Here we come / Walkin' down the street."

"I'll Spend My Life with You"

Last night, I figured out the chords for "I'll Spend My Life with You," and then I noticed a couple features.

In the line "I'm gonna turn around, head for home," "home" is sung to a C note, and at the same time, the chord progression moves to a C major.  The song is in C major, so these are the tonic note and tonic chord, respectively, and they provide a musical sense of coming home.

When I referenced my transcription of the lyrics, I also noticed the phrase "all alone" in the line "I'm in a crowd, yet I'm all alone."  Because these two words start with the same sound, there's a sense of the exclusivity of being alone.

"Daily Nightly"

This morning, I was thinking about "Daily Nightly," and I realized that the words "glitters glibly" exhibit both alliteration and assonance and that there's a balance between them because they have the same number of syllables.  (I can't decipher the first few words of the line, but the rest of it is "look down upon a world that glitters glibly.")  These features attract attention to themselves, so in a way, they act as the verbal equivalent of that "glitter[ing]."

Head

I've been re-reading Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman recently.  This morning, I ran across a line that sounded familiar.  Near the end of Act 1, Willy Loman says, "Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money."  Of course, this made me think of what Peter says in Head:  "Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor."  While there's a clear resemblance between these two, I don't know if it's intentional or coincidental.