"Ladies Aid Society"

Last week I listened to the first disc of the deluxe edition of More of the Monkees, and a couple days ago, "Ladies Aid Society" was in my head when I woke up.  According to Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, the track itself was recorded in late August/early September 1966 (around the same time other tracks on More of the Monkees were recorded) but wasn't released until The Monkees Present in 1969.  I don't have The Monkees Present, but from what I understand, the bonus track on More of the Monkees is the same recording.  It's just a mono mix where The Monkees Present uses a stereo mix.

Because the song was stuck in my head, I realized that it has sections in different time signatures.  The verses - sung by Davy Jones - are in 4/4, but the choruses - apparently sung in falsetto by some of the session musicians - are in 3/4.

The only other song I can readily think of that also has sections in 3/4 and 4/4 is the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."  According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was recorded in early March 1967.  So the half-3/4, half-4/4 time signature of "Ladies Aid Society" predates that of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."  It just wasn't released until years later.

"Sometime in the Morning"

Yester-day I listened to the first disc of the deluxe edition of More of the Monkees, and I workt on my transcriptions a bit.  I think it was because I was looking at the lyrics while listening to them that I noticed something about "Sometime in the Morning," specifically about the bridge:

Now in her childlike eyes
You see the beauty there
You know it was always there
And you need no longer wear a disguise

The "there" of "You know it was always there" is a perfect rhyme with the "wear" of "And you need no longer wear," and those two phrases have the same number of syllables (seven), so - as far as rhyme and syllable count are concerned - "a disguise" isn't necessary.*  There's even a bit of a pause in Micky's vocal between "no longer wear" and "a disguise," which seems to underscore that it's poetically unnecessary.

In the same way that the phrase "a disguise" isn't necessary to fill in some more syllables of that line or rhyme with the previous line, the lyric itself is also saying - a bit more literally - that a disguise isn't necessary.

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*Of course, in order to make sense, that line does need "a disguise" because - even though it's an infinitive here - wear (in this sense) is a transitive verb and needs an object.

"I'll Spend My Life with You"

After listening to Headquarters recently, I figured out and notated the lead and harmony vocal parts for the second chorus of "I'll Spend My Life with You" (the first chorus doesn't have a harmony part, and the last chorus has a slightly different rhythm at the end, but the note values in the second chorus sounded like they would be easy to figure out).  While notating the parts, I remembered that the second and third iterations of the chorus can have two different readings because of the to/too homophone pair.  I wrote a post about this last June (before I started this project), and I thought I should post that here too:

To-day I listened to the first disc of the deluxe edition of the Monkees' Headquarters album, and I noticed an ambiguous word in the chorus of "I'll Spend My Life with You."  The last two lines could be rendered as "And if you want me to / I'll spend my life with you" or "And if you want me too / I'll spend my life with you."

The first rendering is an example of elliptical phrasing.  Because the same phrase is repeated in the second line, it's omitted from the first, lest there's the lengthy "And if you want me to [spend my life with you] / I'll spend my life with you."

The second rendering indicates a reciprocity with the "too."  The "if you want me too" implies that the singer/speaker also wants the girl he's addressing.

Because the chorus is repeated (the first chorus has some different lyrics, but the iteration with these "And if you want me to(o) / I'll spend my life with you" lines is sung twice), both renderings could be understood in turn.

"Mr. Webster"

Although I can't find a source I deem credible, 22 May is listed in a few places at the specific day that Headquarters was released in 1967.  I listened to it yester-day (the first disc of the two-disc deluxe edition, anyway), and I remembered something I was going to write about "Mr. Webster" months ago but apparently completely forgot about.  It's just a minor point, but the "raise" in the line "Each time Frisbee promised him a raise" is higher than the notes preceding it.  The phrase "promised him a" is sung to B notes, but for "raise," the melody moves up to a C.  The pitch rises there as something of a representation of the "raise" in the lyric.

Headquarters

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, the Monkees' third album - Headquarters (Colgems COM-103 [mono], COS-103 [stereo]) - was released fifty years ago this month (May 1967).  The U.K. release (RCA SF 7886) followed in June.

Side One:

1. "You Told Me"
2. "I'll Spend My Life with You"
3. "Forget That Girl"
4. "Band 6"
5. "You Just May Be the One"
6. "Shades of Gray"
7. "I Can't Get Her off My Mind"

Side Two:

1. "For Pete's Sake"
2. "Mr. Webster"
3. "Sunny Girlfriend"
4. "Zilch"
5. "No Time"
6. "Early Morning Blues and Greens"
7. "Randy Scouse Git"

"Monkees on Tour"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkees on Tour" - the thirty-second episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (24 April 1967).  It was written and directed by Robert Rafelson and featured the songs "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," "Last Train to Clarksville," "Sweet Young Thing," "Mary, Mary," "Cripple Creek," "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover," "I Wanna Be Free," "I've Got a Woman," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," and "I'm a Believer."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "A mini-documentary showing a day in the life of The Monkees during their first concert tour."

"Monkees at the Movies"

When I watched "Monkees at the Movies" this morning, I noticed a pretty obvious Shakespeare reference.  I thought it would be mentioned in the trivia on the DVD, but since it wasn't, I thought I'd make a note of it here.  About five minutes into the episode, after the Monkees have discovered how much of a jerk Frankie Catalina is, Micky says, "No longer shall we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Catalina."  He appears in an older style of clothing and holding a skull:

Both of these are references to Hamlet.  In his famous "To be or not to be..." soliloquy, Hamlet wonders about "suffer[ing] / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (III.i.65-66).  Much later in the play, he picks up the skull of the King's jester (which had been buried for twenty-three years) and says, "Alas, poor Yorick" (V.i.177).

For what it's worth: in "Monkees Get out More Dirt," two episodes before this one, Mike quotes from Hamlet too.

"Monkees at the Movies"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkees at the Movies" - the thirty-first episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (17 April 1967).  It was written by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, directed by Russell Mayberry, and featured the songs "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," "Valleri," and "Last Train to Clarksville."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "The group is cast as extras in a teen-exploitation beach part flick… until Davy is cast into the spotlight."

"Monkees in Manhattan"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkees in Manhattan" - the thirtieth episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (10 April 1967).  It was written by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, directed by Russell Mayberry, and featured the songs "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," and "Words."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "At the urging of a would-be producer The Monkees hit the Big Apple to star in his rock'n'roll musical."

"Monkees Get Out More Dirt"

When I watched "Monkees Get Out More Dirt" this morning, I noticed some literary allusions (which aren't pointed out in the DVD trivia).

At the end, after April announces her engagement to Freddy Fox III, Davy says, "April is the cruelest month."  This is the first line of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land."  Then Mike says, "Well, I guess it just goes to prove what Shakespeare said: 'To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the-" at which point he's interrupted by Micky.  Specifically, this is from Shakespeare's Hamlet.  Polonius says to Laertes "This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man" (I.iii.82-84).

"Monkees Get Out More Dirt"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkees Get Out More Dirt" - the twenty-ninth episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (3 April 1967).  It was written by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, directed by Gerald Shepard, and featured the song "The Girl I Knew Somewhere."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "A soap opera develops when Mike, Micky, Davy, and Peter all fall for the same woman, a luscious laundromat owner (played by Julie Newmar)."

"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.