well it's not by them but it's on their 45, 'then i saw her face, now i'm a believer': the thing about the tv monkees is that they convince you about value of pop (sez he who sometimes belts out yummy yummy yummy i've got love in my tummy).
@@alanclayton9277God I hated that song. As I remember it came out in 69 by the Ohio Fruitgum Express or something like that and went to #1 ! but at the same time the classic " Yesterday When I Was Young " failed sneaking in only for a week or two into the top forty just ! We all remarked on that incredulously. Nobody plays Yummy Yummy .... Anymore. Thank God ! 🤡
As a kid I often thought about how cool that would have been a player on the school Baseball team he coached. Those bus rides to game (and your classes) would have been interesting.
@abigaildevoe Yes & he was a good teacher. Not particularly friendly but very intelligent & very straightforward. He didn't like Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf thought it was contrived. Liked The Doors Riders On The Storm. He was really thin at the time. Driving an older & decidedly not flash car ( Datsun ) & definitely not fiscally flush. ✌️
Most people do not have a clue but Magical Mystery Tour is a classic. There is a tent show in the movie where a band from England appears and sings their own composition, Death Cab For Cutie. The Bonzo Dog Band members were pissed off when the Magical Mystery Tour album came out that their song was not on the album as a guest band of The Beatles. I agree that their song should have been included on the album. Watch Magical Mystery Tour again, The Bonzo Dog Band in the tent show has a stripper performing during their song.
Hi, it's me again! I love how you get Mike, some of the funniest scenes in the show are when Mike's in the background or off to the side doing the funniest Shiite without saying a word!! RIP Wool Hat❤
Thank you for doing this... more importantly, for being able to understand by context just how criminally misunderstood and thus underappreciated the band was. I would not call Head "plotless", however. I would argue that "Head" was the band's very public, and very intentional suicide attempt; A suicide on every conceivable level, as well as a surprisingly clever way of saying goodbye to their fans, goodbye to their own ordeal(s), and goodbye to their ambitions on becoming respected as a "real group", all at the same time. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.. The film literally begins with and ends on this motif, and is filled with all sorts of variations of an impossible-to-achieve death in the interim. Death by jumping off a bridge wont kill them. Death by arrows wont kill them. Death by drowning wont kill them. Death by war wont kill them. Death by thirst wont kill them. Death by boxing. Death by gas. Death via being strapped to a factory conveyor belt. Death by dismemberment at the hands of mindless fans. The death of a child's belief in his father. The death of fun at Mike's birthday party. The death of the illusion. Even _ego death_ , for Pete's sake....yet, nothing seems to kill them. They wanted to thoroughly kill their facade for good, kill any hopes of remaining "cool", kill any possibility of continuing...and do so in every comically morbid but nonetheless entertaining way possible, but they knew they couldn't, which leaves them in a completely intractable position. _That position_ is "the box". Yes, its complicated, but it's beautiful for what it leaves the viewer with.....an odd sense of culpability for the band's demise. You get the feeling that as a fan, you contributed to the problem; that you asked too much of them, perhaps at the expense of more important things...and this is the real price of what you wanted from them. Remember the opening song about the beginning being the end? The money's in, we're made of tin, we're here to give you more? You want more? Ok, this is what "more" looks like. This is what "more" is going to cost you. If you don't believe me, just watch the final scene -- Right after they jump off the bridge, just when you think they've been liberated from the box, and finally free, the viewer discovers they're just inside another box again, carted away by VIctor Mature's character--the embodiment of Hollywood. They know they're never going to be able to achieve that "on-every-level" suicide. They'll always be "in the box", whether they like it or not. Their position is so intractable that they can't even suicide their way out of it... and that's the plot/theme I think you missed. (Don't feel bad for missing this, btw---I completely missed it too at first. It took me 2 or 3 times of watching this film before it clicked.) Beyond that, it's a truly beautiful piece of 60's zeitgeist in its own right, as confusing and overwhelming as the times themselves were. Few films capture that time like "Head" does. It still has an innocence to it, something that still resonates 50+ years later. And you're spot-on by realizing how beautifully filmed and thoughtfully edited it was. It's a master-work. One you understand the "let's attempt suicide on every level" plot of Head, everything else falls into place, and the film begins to makes sense. You realize the execution montage at the outset was meant to physically repulse any excited-to-see-the-Monkees audience members, and the "Gimmie A 'W'!!!" Gimmie an 'A'! !! Gimmie an 'R'!!!! scene was intentionally designed to make them as suddenly and as wildly unhip and unpopular to younger audiences as fast as possible, right out of the gate. The linebacker in the trench is America's brainless "win at all costs" Vietnam-era self image. Victor Mature is the embodiment of the Hollywood machine, the Goliath to the David the Monkees represented... The "porpoise is waiting" refers to the myth that porpoises are supposed to save humans from their deaths. This movie is hidden with little easter eggs (did you notice the flame change color as Peter spoke in the box?) ...Maybe watch it again, this time knowing the people you're watching were, by that point, sick of being the cartoon characters they became, sick of the requirements of fame, sick of being forced to live an illusion bordering on a lie..and so sick of it that they did everything in their power in one fell swoop to divorce themselves of it, once and for all....once you grasp that, you realize that you really can't blame them for choosing this sort of multi-lateral suicide. They understood the futility of it. They knew they were, and forever would be The Monkees in the public's eye, the big inescapable black box we all put them in. Just as the movie itself says in the factory scene, _".....A new world, who's only preoccupation will be how to amuse itself...The tragedy of your times, my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want."_ "Head" is in every way a brilliant film, and just as criminally underrated as the band itself was. It's almost as if they knew even this film would fall along similar lines... that the film, itself, would be a failed attempt at suicide, and something that would remain largely misunderstood and under-appreciated. They gave us exactly what we wanted. BTW--Keep up the excellent work...but you really should cover a Devo album or two. Talk about underrated/under appreciated..
Can you please post this on a blog or something so I can easily share it and go back and reread it? I think there are lots of easter eggs too. Every time I watch it I notice something new and that's one of the reasons it's one of my favorite films. Would you like to share any you noticed? Expanding on the death theme there is the girl threatening to jump and Mike and Micky are just cynically betting on it, death isn't real to them and really nothing is in their Hollywood bubble. There is also just a lot of things in the movie that refer to their experiences, some they put in consciously and some are either subconious or my brain is just pattern seeking 😂 An example of what I mean is the scene where Mike and Micky have Davy walk off the set and that's what happened on the first day of filming, those 3 were striking and only Peter showed up. So either that was put in later to dig at them or to suit my theory: maybe attitudes, opinions, feelings, experiences that they were having seeped into their surreal dream like plot. There are just a lot of things where you could say oh this could represent this thing from their past or even their future, like the film, it's not really linear past present future it's more of a loop. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey 😂
Btw, why they called it "Head".... likely because the first frame of a film reel stock says "HEAD", followed by the radial line sweep number count down before the start of the film. The use this frame in the film itself, so..
Mine too.. I love this song. Once I sat down and looked at the lyrics, and understood the deeper meaning of it, I loved it even more.. Its a bittersweet song about the band just giving up, and giving out... It's sad, but honestly really beautiful at the same time.
@@abigaildevoe B-Roll Abby needs her own episode where she fails to even scratch the surface of the meaning of what's being reviewed, and you argue with her. You have an alarmingly razor-sharp skill and talent for artistic criticism for someone your age.. to contrast that talent with a terrible review would be hilarious. :) Or, perhaps do something like, "Wait, soooo, you're saying...that.......Dark Side Of The Moon wasn't ...about...the moon???!?" ...Make it a reoccuring thing to have her go into a catatonic 300-yard stare as her brain quietly explodes as the epiphany sits in. :)
This is your best episode yet. Brilliant. Bonzer. Fantastic. Awesome. Wonderful. Amazing. And good. The lyrics of Porpoise Song are not meaningless, not by a long shot. It is a cleverly enigmatic commentary on life as a product of your environment and how hard it is to break away from it. A couple of lines are often misunderstood: 'riding the backs of giraffes for laughs' is a reference to Micky Dolenz in his early TV series 'Circus Boy'. And the line 'clicks clacks' is NOT clicks, clacks, it is actually 'cliques, claques'. Every lyric site gets that wrong because every lyric site copies from one another so errors are perpetuated. Porpoise Song is a majestic track that deserves more recognition - the single version is even better because the album cuts out the final 'sting' at the end. 'Head' the movie is about The Monkees trying to break free from their image and everything they do brings them right back to where they started. Even suicide is no escape. 'Head' the album functions as a movie soundtrack, but also stands alone as an album that can take you wherever your imagination and cerebral and/or emotional response to the music leads you. There are many gems in The Monkees catalogue. Thank you Abby for this milestone, your stuff is always good but with this episode you ascended to unprecedented heights.
So from my understanding the original album only had the 2:00 Porpoise Song version, and then in the 80's with their comeback and all their catalog was reissued and in demand, they revamped the HEAD album to feature the longer 4:00 single version of Porpoise Song, which of course makes the album a couple minutes longer. When I was getting into the Monkees during this time as a young kid I purchased the Head soundtrack on cassette tape, and it was the longer version. That is how I grew up with this album. Then later, when I got into vinyl, I specifically ordered (off Discogs) the vinyl version with the longer Porpoise Song, which I believe is the only way to listen to this album, as streaming services and newer vinyl reissues reverted back to the short version, unfortunately. To make things worse, the Spotify version of the album is so edited, changed and dissected it's irritating. Anyways, the whole affair is off-putting because this is one of my favorite Monkees albums and 60's albums ever.
Head is in my top 10 movies, and I love showing it to people who just expect teenybopper fluff. Blown a few minds and made some life long Monkees fans!
I don’t give a damn what the so-called “serious Rock” crowd ever had to say on the matter. Those first four Colgems albums are Classics. As for “Head”, don’t listen to the clueless crowd that whines that the film is “about nothing”. Look at the scenes between the lines, you’ll find one of the greatest slams of fame and what it does to people that you’ll ever find.
The first 6 Monkees albums are great, including Head. The actual songs on Head are fantastic. The last 3 Monkees albums without Peter (& eventually Michael) are completely forgettable.
When my father rented Head (thanks nickelodeon) I rationalized after watching it that they were just tired of doing the silly 30 minute thing. I was about 12. Was very fortunate to see them on their 20th and 30th anniversary tours. ✌
I took a musicals class as part of being a film student in college - our professor showed us the Daddy's Song sequence and I was absolutely transfixed. Those match cuts are insane and the work that went in to both the choreography and editing can't be understated. One of these days I'll get around to watching the rest!
Thank you for 100 episodes of your... Knowledge of classic rock Incredible fashion sense Countless MC5 callbacks (And Eric Clapton ones, too) Ability to shine a light on underrated artists/albums Delightful sense of humor I could go on forever, but I think I'll stop it at there. Keep kicking out those jams, Abby ❤
I just found the movie to be really sad, as they realize they climbed the wrong mountain and were now trapped there. Or as the movie ends, with them still trapped in the box. I got the feeling they didn't have a clear vision of what they wanted to be beyond "not this". I do love Davey's number, as it feels like a glimpse into what he really wants to be doing.
I'm stuck in meetings at work all day, but I fully plan on digesting this video when I get home... because not only am I a life-long Monkees fanatic, but HEAD is one of my two favorite films ever made. Like, I watch it once every couple of months and have the entire thing memorized from top to bottom. Oh, and what a dang soundtrack, too! Thanks for covering this one, Abby!
@@abigaildevoe I love B-Roll Abby, but hearing her speak was startling, like Charlie Chaplin speaking for the first time in "Modern Times." I was thinking of her as kind of a blend of Carol Merrill and Harpo.
I posted this comment in a previous video but since this'n is 'bout The Monkees-Head I'll say it again. Mike was a customer in the Carmel music store where I worked 'n we would strike up conversations 'bout Monkees lore. I mentioned my love for Head 'n he enthusiastically agreed. I attended his concert in Sand City in 2019. His sons Christian 'n Jonathan were in the band 'n photographer Henry Diltz musta taken a thousand photographs.
Thank you for the deep dive on this incredibly talented foursome, their indecipherable film, and the wonderful album it produced. I love the Monkees' albums, and Head is one of the best. Porpoise Song and Circle Sky are classics. Congratulations on 100 episodes! Your show is unique, interesting, entertaining and very insightful. Thanks for all your hard work!
I’ve been waiting for this!!! PLEASE do Elephant Parts next, it’s the crown jewel of the (Grammy-winning) Mike Nesmith cinematic universe! (you can just hold up the laserdisc and pretend it’s a vinyl record, no one will be able to tell!)
31:35 Let's take a moment to give kudos for the EXCELLENT video/audio timing of the edits in the next ten seconds. Many other examples, too. Abby, you are truly a pro! (it's Toni BAAA-sil, by the way, like the English pronounce it:)
Congratulations on the 100th episode of Vinyl Monday! VM is not only my favorite thing on YT right now, it's my favorite thing on TV. Great fun, enthusiastic attitude, and sympathetic reviews of classic albums. Like all the best music review shows, it's like kicking back with a good friend and shooting the shit about records, one of the coolest ways to spend your time. I love seeing these albums through fresh eyes, and getting turned on to stuff I shoulda known. Knowing that I have literally dozens of vids to watch from your back catalog means a summer of listening to good music, and reconsidering some basic assumptions. Thanks, Abbie! P. S. The threads are spot on! Totally groovy!
@@denniswood1437 You're right, they did write Pleasant Valley Sunday. They also wrote for the Monkees: Star Collector, Take a Giant Step, and Sweet Young Thing with Nesmith. I feel like Porpoise Song, Pleasant Valley Sunday, and Goin Back all kind of have a similar vibe/mood/perspective that's really cool.
I hope you enjoyed making this episode as much as we enjoyed watching it, Abigail! I think Micky summed it up just before a watching he was present at. “If you have any idea what it’s about, please tell me!” He said the same thing about 33 & 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. I had an idea an episode like this was coming. After all, you hear Circle Sky in between scene switches in your episodes. RIP, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith. I’ll see all of you in the great Circle Sky! PS Ok, true fact. I went nuts trying to find out about the ending theme. It was beautiful! I know, none of the Monkees performed on it. It sounded like something Mozart might’ve composed. But he didn’t, Ken Thorne did. Is it my favorite song from it? No, like you, Circle Sky and The Porpoise Song are mine. Favorite scenes (I think I’ll pick a favorite from each Monkee): The Coke machine. Very Micky. His frustration is something we can all relate to. The price of a Coke for a machine now in 2024- let’s just not go there, please! Daddy’s Song. Always great seeing Davy burst into song and dance. He and Toni tear the rug lovingly! “I’m always the dummy!”- No doubt Peter resented playing that “dummy.” It was not him! He resents having to clobber the surly waitress, I mean waiter in drag, too! Odd? Even!- I was going to choose Mike’s birthday party but that’s too cynical. This on the other hand shows Mike trying to be romantic. I had heard he asked the kisser out in some takes and she said “Are you kidding?” So there you have it- an intriguing mess! It could’ve made 3-10 episodes of their show but that would’ve required more padding out than there already was! And how can we forget that donkey summing it up much like the one who spoke to Balaam? In comparison, the Monkees had nothing on Balaam, one of “ze craziest people!”
My favorite movie EVER, this is a wonderful concise deep-dive into both its history and its Nicholson Mixtape soundtrack LP. Love all the songs, Peter, Carole, and Nesmith get to shine in particular. While Davy was perfect to perform Daddy's Song, if Nez had danced, it would've be an extra meaningful moment. Mike Pozen seriously deserved some kind of accolade for his film editing in both Head, and the previous episodes of the show he worked on for that matter. The movie is the best finale to the Monkees there could ever be. Congrats on 100 episodes, wonderful video! Oh and, while most lyric sheets for Porpoise Song have "clicks, clacks" in the second verse, I've been fond of hearing it as "cliques, claques" since it fits the Monkees' situation well.
Born in 1956, I was 10 when the Monkees hit. The influence the show & their music had on me is incalculable. All this is to say, your review, analysis and appreciation for Head (the movie & album) was surprisingly moving for me. I admire your passion for the music that made up the soundtrack of my youth. Your grasp of the vibe of the time is astonishing for someone your age. I've learned this by watching many of your first 99 episodes. So, watching this missive on Head, I get that you understand the confusion of a young preteen & teenager of the late 1960s. Music, and the acts supplying it, were my anchor in an otherwise baffling world. You explain why Head portrays my young perception of life from 1966-1969. Honestly, a tear came to my eye listening to your conclusion. Knowing someone 43 years my junior digs where I was at back in those days touched me, and I thank you for that. You are doing a great thing for all of us who love this music (and the films). And you do it with such a great entertaining & sincere enthusiasm. I look forward to what you do next! ❤✌️
You can add my name to this entire paragraph lol. I was also born in 1956. My late younger brother was a huge fan when he was a kid. Abigail is such an intelligent sweetie and cracks me up also. she was born in the wrong time period...she belongs with us.
Now you're talkin'!!! If Taylor Swift suddenly became politically outspoken, really, really Darkly Humorous, Intellectual, and a serious ARTIST, ergo fully FREAKING OUT her established tween audience = what the Monkees did with this amazing movie. It made the whole 'Arc' of their career into a Performance Art statement. One of the best Movies ever made.
Micky was a voice of a generation. Just mesmerizing. Same feeling with Michael and Micky harmonizing together. Their voices blended so amazingly that I'd put them as one of the best vocal duos of the 60s.
Congratulations on 100 videos and thank you for all the research and recording you do. I'm sure I've watched over 95% of them. You always make me laugh, liked the B-Roll Abby today too.
I think "Head" is a brilliant title for a film. I also think it was brilliant that the word "head" only appears at the "tail" of the film. Film leaders (numerical countdowns that preceded movies on film prints) had the word "head" on them, and the word "tail" was on outro leaders. This would indicate whether a film was "heads out" or "tails out" to a projectionist. If it was tails out that meant the reel of film needed to be rewound before being projected. I recall that this film was beginning to get back into the public consciousness, after over a decade of being totally forgotten, in 1982. In March of that year I interviewed Tork on my radio show prior to him presenting a print of the film at the famed New York club The Bottom Line. Shortly afterwards, the film started to appear at various revival houses and college campuses to an enthusiastic response from audiences in their 20s and 30s. I first saw it at the renowned Theater For The Living Arts in Philadelphia at a sold out show in 1983.
Just learned that Head is in the Criterion Collection as part of the BBS box set of films which include Easy Rider, Last Picture Show, and Five Easy Piecesz
I totally agree with you about "As We Go Along" I played it for my father in palliative care as he was fading away...he noticeably responded to it and, he had no idea who/what the song was. I truly believe that Dolenz is one of the greatest pop/rock vocalists of his era Cheers PS - The only other song that my father responded to anywhere close to AWGA was The Kinks "Days" I am very thankful for these moments shared with him during his final days
It's the self-same helmet. Depending upon who you believe, it was his HS football helmet, a brother or cousin's HS football helmet or a random find at a thrift store. On the other hand, I believe no one including myself.
When I was a kid (in the 80s), I only had 2 Monkees albums: Headquarters and Head. I kind of assumed "Head" was a reference to the earlier album. Like, if the Beatles had named Sgt. Peppers "Hard" in a backward glance to "Hard Day's Night," as if to say "we're over HERE now, folks." I know I listened to Headquarters a lot more, but was still fascinated by Head. It was very shiny (mylar - now I know!) and VERY weird! Thanks and congrats on 100 vids!
Dearest Abby, I'm a 59 year-old woman and adore what you do and HOW you do it! I find a piece of my younger self in your inhibition and creativity. Congrats on 100! Do it til the sun goes down in your eyes. I would be proud to be your mom, but I'll settle for being a fan... And looking for new music insights with your flair down the line!!
I read on IMDb that Sean Lennon and Les Claypool cited Head as a major influence on their musical collaboration "Monolith of Phobos". Lennon commented, "Head is, like, my Bible. Any project or important thought I've ever had was inspired by Head." Have you read that; I mean independent of IMDb? Somehow, I find that hard to believe considering he's lived with 2 of the most creative geniuses of the 20th - 21st century. Of course anything is possible. I must admit, Abby, your comprehensive review of the movie persuaded me to revisit it after 50 years of having it out of my Head.
This was great. It was an hour? I didn't even realize it, I was just mesmerized thru the whole thing. I loved that movie, never even thought of checking out the soundtrack. I don't I ever even saw it for sale anywhere. I need to watch the movie again. Congrats on a century of vinyl!
I was literally in Vietnam in 1968. Thank you for your insightful reviews. I grew up with classic rock. Your analysis always teaches me new facts. Thanks, again for highlighting Vietnam. After serving I joined the anti-war movement. ☮️❤️
Amazing video! Really loved your analysis, but I did notice one small mistake. The Utah performance filmed for Head was actually the second-last US show from the classic era. They did a second performance the same day at a different venue in the city specifically for the fans (the venue for the Head show changed at the last minute, so they did another show at the originally planned venue due to the fact some fans didn't know of the relocation and showed up there). The concert wasn't filmed or recorded like the other one, and unfortunately, there's not much information about it around. Luckily, there are a few pictures of the event. You can identify them based on the fact the Monkees all look the same physically (same hairstyles, for example), but they were dressed much more casually (Peter Tork was wearing a white t-shirt instead of his sweater, for example). Anyway, sorry about this! I sometimes get a little too obsessed with stuff like this...
The single 'Porpoise Song' / 'As We Go Along' is one of my earliest memories as a kid in 1968. I was all of 2 years old. Very haunting, especially 'Porpoise'. My favourite line from 'Head' is not from one of the Monkees. It's from the man from the factory scene. I use it as one of my Bandcouver show's station ID's at Co-op Radio here in Vancouver BC Canada: "Tragedy of your times ,my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want". A rather ominous quote.
I discovered the film by accident when it was shown on UK tv late at night on the newly launched channel 5 in the late 90s. I recorded it to VHS and watched it so many times. I must dig out out the DVD and watch again. It’s been a while. I agree about As We Go Along, everything about it is fantastic.
Roundabout 1972,”Head” played as a Late Late Movie. At 9 yrs old, I was out of my mind for the Monkees TV show, but had no idea they’d made a film. Expecting an extended version of the show, my tiny mind could not make sense of what I was seeing. Where were the Monkees? What is this bridge? Oh wait. Is that them? They’re jumping off a bridge? Under water instead of fake playing the song?? I blinked uncomprehendingly through scene after scene until I fell asleep during “Can You Dig It.” The next day, I couldn’t be sure if I’d actually seen what I saw or dreamed it. A decade or so hence, I saw it in college as a midnight movie. It was just as my 9 year old mind remembered it, but no more comprehensible. Abigail, as ever, your take on the whole mess is insightful and fair.
Congratulations on 100 episodes Abby! You've done an amazing job and watching you grow as a content creator has been awesome. Someday I'll finally sit down and watch this crazy movie.
Wow. Not sure what more I can say. This was epic and fascinating. Thank you. Oh, and you almost make me laugh at least once in every video. And thank you for that also.
The Monkees set up BBS to make great movies at Columbia. They set it up very smart, as long as a movie didn’t cost over a million or so, they had complete artistic control. Films like Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces and Hearts and Minds, to name a few, made history and still hold up.
Major Monkees fan here. THANK YOU for this episode! It was delightful. And it's always great to hear the Monkees getting the appreciation they should. A few corrections, if I may: Not an 8 hour TV special; 8 1 hour specials were proposed by Rafelson. NBC agreed to 3. After the mess that was 33 1/3, NBC said "no thanks" to any more. Monkemania Redux in 1986 was spurred by reruns on MTV, not on Nickelodeon. Nick At Nite ran the show after. Recording Ditty Diego was the last time the 4 Monkees were in a studio together until they recorded the album Justus in 1996. Peter had different management than the other 3. That, not merely loyalty to the producers, is why he didn't strike with them at the start of filming. Harry Nillson was an "up-&-coming" songwriter, true. Carol King, however, was already a giant in the business by the time she worked with the Monkees.
Wrong. Nickelodeon was hardcore first and foremost the main showcase of the TV show. MTV played the music videos, promos, and interviews and it wasn't until later that they played some of their episodes in some quantities. Then later is when the Nick At Nite airings happened. But as a kid who watched and recorded EVERY Monkees episode in 1986-87, NICKELODEON was THE channel.
Okay. i thought MTV's weekend marathon of episodes -- what they called "Pleasant Valley Sunday" -- predated Nick's showing by a little bit. But i may be remembering only Nick-at-Nite & not Nickelodeon for kids. Thanks for the clarification. i will maintain that it was MTV's marathon that spurred the 2nd round of Monkeemania in '86/'87. MTV was crazy popular at the time.
I was a Monkees fan when they first came out and watched their show every week. My best friend had their first album, I got their 2nd album for my Birthday. I wasn't even aware of "Head" until some time in the 70's when I first saw it on broadcast TV. Even then I recognized it as an irreverent self - depracating work of genius.
I watched 33&1/3 recently. I really enjoyed the Brian Auger & Trinity segment. Low budget, to be sure, but counterculture vibe was everywhere. Summer of Love. Summer of Monterey Pop. "Head"y times.
Thank you so much for making Head your 100th episode. Love that album. I never made the obvious connection between Head and Zappas Lumpy Gravy... another one of my favorite albums. So I put on my Head cd after the episode and, oh no, it stopped playing after track 7. So I cleaned the disc and tried again, and still nothing after track 7. So I'm off to discogs for another copy of this essential album.
Head is one of my favorite Monkees albums. It's wild, absurd, and ultimately fantastic. It took me many years and several watchings to finally appreciate the movie. It wasn't until it was shown after a Monkees TV marathon, when I realized this is the Monkees version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The TV versions of Mikey, Mike, Davy, and Peter slowly become self aware, but not enough to do anything to change their outcome. And every attempt to break out ends with them ending up back in their wacky, absurdist world. At least, that's my reading of the film. Great episode, and thanks for covering the strange story of Head. Congrats on 100 episodes!
I became a Monkee fan when I saw 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee on its original broadcast! I was barely a human being at that point, but it affected me the same way that the Beatles on Ed Sullivan affected an earlier generation. But I never heard the Head soundtrack until my 30s, and I was blown away. My favorite songs are the Porpoise Song, As We Go Along, and Circle Sky. Years later I met Peter Tork at a house concert, and he signed my vinyl Head album. I was floating on air. Thanks, Abigail, for this video, and thank you for doing what you do because there just don't seem to be enough of us gals in the music biz on any level. You're doing GREAT!
Finally found “Head” on a streaming service. Expected it to be self-indulgent and unwatchable but found it surprisingly insightful and ahead of its time. Very interesting questions about media and reality that seem very relevant today.
Head was one of those movies that I saw at a very impressionable age and it helped informed alot of my eventual art philosophy in how films can or should be made. It was my first real surrealist abstract film and it got me to get into the practice of inferring from a text and using that to inform how I saw the film thematically (the form / editing is stunningly evocative too, it speaks volumes on its own). It took me years to really come to some sort of peace, with me turning twenty five this year its political and systemic factors finally seem to translate. Films can be ironic, cyncial and hopeful in equal measure, art works between the lines not in absolutes and i cant help but get a bit emotional reflecting back. Remember its not about the box we may or might not be in that never mattered in the first place, we can be safe and free within ourselves and each other despite the external things that are out of our control (our value and importance goes beyond the tools they give us or the current binaries that stifle the human condition, think of it like a proto I Saw the TV Glow). That's what Head has always meant to me, amazing video as always Abi
Yes I heard Teri Garr tell David Letterman that one version of the title. My theory is that it's kinda an inside joke for filmmakers. At the beginning of every movie is the word "Head" to tell the projectionist it's the first part of the movie. So no need for a title since it's going to say head anyway.
I actually got to see Head on the big screen back in 2018. It was a fundraising event at The Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts, as well as the movie being screened Micky Dolenz was there to do a meet and greet, and he gave a lecture about the history of how the movie came about before screening it not only was it an awesome event seeing the movie on the big screen, but hearing Micky’s lecture was also a great thing. He definitely has the reputation and he’s earned it based on this experience that I had of being the nicest one of the whole group. He was very pleasant very open and thanks everybody for having him there, probably only two things that was kind of sad was that he did do a brief Q&A, and before he even started that he showed us his ears which obviously he has to wear hearing aid and said I am going to apologize right now if I ask you to repeat your question, obviously years of being a non-drummer drummer have taken its toll on his ears. The other thing that was a little sad was that Mike was supposed to be there, but was home resting as he just got out of the hospital for his quadruple bypass. I heard because this was a touring event that it was going to be both Mike and Micky doing the lecture. sadly, we didn’t get to hear Mike talk about it because of him being home resting still though it was a very, very cool experience.
Great vinyl hour (or so) and very entertaining as usual. Congrats on your first 100. Love your outfits. You must spend serious time on your clothing and that is very cool. You always look great. Keep up the superb. work Abigail.
A purely bloody wonderful 100th, celebrating in top form and letting the topic affect the form of the video. Many thanks. I was a kid when the tv show was in re runs and frequently confuse it with Get Smart. I loved both. Cut to young adulthood and that tarry snobbery you get when you start to define yourself by being hard-centred about your tastes or (far worse) contrarian, and I shunned The Monkees who were having a moment with the bubblegum revival in my undergrad years. Much later, I bought one of those mini LP cover boxes with the first few albums in for a very low discount and just put them on one after the other. And it was fine (of course it was fine with the likes of Mickey Dolenz on vocals and Diamond, King and Boyce and Hart on writing duties!). Later Head was part of a Criterion box of Rafelson and co's turn of the decade movies and I liked it much better than Help. I like things being of their time but the anarchy of the movie is like a sampling of explosive youth that can be enjoyed any time. Great pick!
The Movie was not easily accessible, or understood at the time. More is known now, especially the Book 'The Monkees, Head, and the 60s' even given high praise by Rafelson as the best "As for Head, no-one has so thoughtfully elaborated on its meaning. The movie is elusive. But not to him or anyone who reads the book. And that includes me.” Bob Rafelson
Bob Rafelson was part of BBS, and along with Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner they made Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show and Hearts and Minds, all funded by the Monkees
100th Edition Special? Girl, ALL your editions are special! Always thought the album was better than the film (but didn't get to see the film until decades after I'd bought the album!). Fave tracks - Circle Sky and Daddy's Song. I seem to recall Stephen Stills auditioned to be a Monkee, himself in '66. Hopefully The Moody Blues and Guess Who will feature somewhere in the next 100?
Well done Abby this film actually makes sense for me now ! Lol. You took on a very difficult and complex project and explained it really well. 😊. The monkees played Australia in 1968. My history teacher was in the support band on that tour. He told us they had to play behind the curtain to boost the sound of the group. Because the screaming from the fans was so loud! Lol. It wasn’t that they couldn’t play their instruments but he explained it more of a rock n roll review than a traditional rock show. So only two monkees would be on the stage while Mickey or Mike would be off the stage changing their clothes. And they needed a bass player or a drummer to cover that. He said they treated them really well. And apparently they played them a early rough cut of Head on a projector back at the motel. He told us the ending he saw was different from the ending in the original movie.
Your copy of Head has a hole through the cover which means it's a promotional copy that was distributed to radio stations before the album was released, so it's an original 1968 promo copy.
Honestly its not a bad album but its a soundtrack album so everything levels out 🙃 I don't think this album would make a dent in my 60's rotation but Circle Sky would totally be in Side Note I didn't think a song from Head would be the bummer for the transition 😂
"Monkees is the craziest people!" I unironically love the film and my Japanese pressing of the soundtrack. the 4 actor/musicians were so insanely self-conscious of the image they were meant to project, that a cynical apathy pervades the movie. their drugged up reaction to being helpless cogs in a money making Hollywood machine remind me of the California punk bands that appeared a decade+ later such as Dead Kennedys, Flipper, and pre-Rollins Black Flag. thanks for reprising Circle Sky's cool riff and covering this obscure classic!
You have a phenomenal voice as a writer and presenter, genuinely one of my favorite people to hear talk about music. You've got an insight and a passion and a drive to put work into these videos that is truly extraordinary. Here's to 100, and to the future!
Wow, Abby. Your shows are always well-researched, interesting, and fun, but maybe they’re getting to be almost necessary. Head is a fascinating Monkees tangent, but you explain why, and you’re not coming from the perspective of an old person claiming the superiority of his culture over today’s, but a young person explaining to her own generation why it’s culturally relevant to them. Necessary if there’s going to be a continuing understanding between generations, because if you can’t pass something you’ve learned along the way to the next generations, then what’s the point of life? Thank you.
Re-watching this - I love that sometimes a Vinyl Monday can turn into Abby having a slight existential crisis. (I don’t actually “love” it, but that’s not as funny)
I don't know the specific history timeline well enough, but there was a point where Davy had to contest mandatory British military service. Could his two week absence from filming HEAD be because of that?
Head is as great and baffling as 200 Motels. Both are deliberately confusing and bore / annoy half the audience and open the minds of the other half to new creative possibilities. Also both films suffer for having a strong first half and a draaaaag in the second.
to those who will try to correct me on The Line: see the first line of the description.
what’s your favorite monkees one-liner? comment below!
Just like ABBA I never understood why The Monkees were such a big deal. Happy100th Vinyl Monday episode Abby. 🎉
Chemistry it's all about the chemistry
But I failed chemistry
well it's not by them but it's on their 45, 'then i saw her face, now i'm a believer': the thing about the tv monkees is that they convince you about value of pop (sez he who sometimes belts out yummy yummy yummy i've got love in my tummy).
Mountain sides put arms around the unsuspecting city.... or... I'm either feeling very good or else I am insane
@@alanclayton9277God I hated that song. As I remember it came out in 69 by the Ohio Fruitgum Express or something like that and went to #1 ! but at the same time the classic " Yesterday When I Was Young " failed sneaking in only for a week or two into the top forty just ! We all remarked on that incredulously. Nobody plays Yummy Yummy .... Anymore. Thank God ! 🤡
Peter Tork was my social studies teacher in 10th grade. Occasionally on Fridays we would have Monkees Q&A's !
As a kid I often thought about how cool that would have been a player on the school Baseball team he coached. Those bus rides to game (and your classes) would have been interesting.
omg no way you went to one of the schools he taught at?!
What year was that?
@abigaildevoe Yes & he was a good teacher. Not particularly friendly but very intelligent & very straightforward. He didn't like Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf thought it was contrived. Liked The Doors Riders On The Storm. He was really thin at the time. Driving an older & decidedly not flash car ( Datsun ) & definitely not fiscally flush. ✌️
@@robgronotte178-79
Critics: "Magical Mystery Tour is an outright disaster for the Beatles. For the first time, the boys have failed."
The Monkees: "Hold my beer."
Most people do not have a clue but Magical Mystery Tour is a classic. There is a tent show in the movie where a band from England appears and sings their own composition, Death Cab For Cutie. The Bonzo Dog Band members were pissed off when the Magical Mystery Tour album came out that their song was not on the album as a guest band of The Beatles. I agree that their song should have been included on the album. Watch Magical Mystery Tour again, The Bonzo Dog Band in the tent show has a stripper performing during their song.
Abigail, bless you and thank you for this!!!
Hi, it's me again! I love how you get Mike, some of the funniest scenes in the show are when Mike's in the background or off to the side doing the funniest Shiite without saying a word!! RIP Wool Hat❤
Didja see Dennis Hopper in the background at around 53:00?😮
Thank you for doing this... more importantly, for being able to understand by context just how criminally misunderstood and thus underappreciated the band was. I would not call Head "plotless", however.
I would argue that "Head" was the band's very public, and very intentional suicide attempt; A suicide on every conceivable level, as well as a surprisingly clever way of saying goodbye to their fans, goodbye to their own ordeal(s), and goodbye to their ambitions on becoming respected as a "real group", all at the same time. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye..
The film literally begins with and ends on this motif, and is filled with all sorts of variations of an impossible-to-achieve death in the interim. Death by jumping off a bridge wont kill them. Death by arrows wont kill them. Death by drowning wont kill them. Death by war wont kill them. Death by thirst wont kill them. Death by boxing. Death by gas. Death via being strapped to a factory conveyor belt. Death by dismemberment at the hands of mindless fans. The death of a child's belief in his father. The death of fun at Mike's birthday party. The death of the illusion. Even _ego death_ , for Pete's sake....yet, nothing seems to kill them. They wanted to thoroughly kill their facade for good, kill any hopes of remaining "cool", kill any possibility of continuing...and do so in every comically morbid but nonetheless entertaining way possible, but they knew they couldn't, which leaves them in a completely intractable position. _That position_ is "the box".
Yes, its complicated, but it's beautiful for what it leaves the viewer with.....an odd sense of culpability for the band's demise. You get the feeling that as a fan, you contributed to the problem; that you asked too much of them, perhaps at the expense of more important things...and this is the real price of what you wanted from them. Remember the opening song about the beginning being the end? The money's in, we're made of tin, we're here to give you more? You want more? Ok, this is what "more" looks like. This is what "more" is going to cost you. If you don't believe me, just watch the final scene -- Right after they jump off the bridge, just when you think they've been liberated from the box, and finally free, the viewer discovers they're just inside another box again, carted away by VIctor Mature's character--the embodiment of Hollywood. They know they're never going to be able to achieve that "on-every-level" suicide. They'll always be "in the box", whether they like it or not. Their position is so intractable that they can't even suicide their way out of it... and that's the plot/theme I think you missed. (Don't feel bad for missing this, btw---I completely missed it too at first. It took me 2 or 3 times of watching this film before it clicked.)
Beyond that, it's a truly beautiful piece of 60's zeitgeist in its own right, as confusing and overwhelming as the times themselves were. Few films capture that time like "Head" does. It still has an innocence to it, something that still resonates 50+ years later. And you're spot-on by realizing how beautifully filmed and thoughtfully edited it was. It's a master-work.
One you understand the "let's attempt suicide on every level" plot of Head, everything else falls into place, and the film begins to makes sense. You realize the execution montage at the outset was meant to physically repulse any excited-to-see-the-Monkees audience members, and the "Gimmie A 'W'!!!" Gimmie an 'A'! !! Gimmie an 'R'!!!! scene was intentionally designed to make them as suddenly and as wildly unhip and unpopular to younger audiences as fast as possible, right out of the gate. The linebacker in the trench is America's brainless "win at all costs" Vietnam-era self image. Victor Mature is the embodiment of the Hollywood machine, the Goliath to the David the Monkees represented... The "porpoise is waiting" refers to the myth that porpoises are supposed to save humans from their deaths. This movie is hidden with little easter eggs (did you notice the flame change color as Peter spoke in the box?) ...Maybe watch it again, this time knowing the people you're watching were, by that point, sick of being the cartoon characters they became, sick of the requirements of fame, sick of being forced to live an illusion bordering on a lie..and so sick of it that they did everything in their power in one fell swoop to divorce themselves of it, once and for all....once you grasp that, you realize that you really can't blame them for choosing this sort of multi-lateral suicide. They understood the futility of it. They knew they were, and forever would be The Monkees in the public's eye, the big inescapable black box we all put them in. Just as the movie itself says in the factory scene, _".....A new world, who's only preoccupation will be how to amuse itself...The tragedy of your times, my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want."_
"Head" is in every way a brilliant film, and just as criminally underrated as the band itself was. It's almost as if they knew even this film would fall along similar lines... that the film, itself, would be a failed attempt at suicide, and something that would remain largely misunderstood and under-appreciated.
They gave us exactly what we wanted.
BTW--Keep up the excellent work...but you really should cover a Devo album or two. Talk about underrated/under appreciated..
Pow... Bullseye 🎯
BOOM!!! Bingo!!! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🎉
Fantastic summary. Spot on! And I concur 100% about Devo.
Can you please post this on a blog or something so I can easily share it and go back and reread it?
I think there are lots of easter eggs too. Every time I watch it I notice something new and that's one of the reasons it's one of my favorite films. Would you like to share any you noticed?
Expanding on the death theme there is the girl threatening to jump and Mike and Micky are just cynically betting on it, death isn't real to them and really nothing is in their Hollywood bubble.
There is also just a lot of things in the movie that refer to their experiences, some they put in consciously and some are either subconious or my brain is just pattern seeking 😂 An example of what I mean is the scene where Mike and Micky have Davy walk off the set and that's what happened on the first day of filming, those 3 were striking and only Peter showed up. So either that was put in later to dig at them or to suit my theory: maybe attitudes, opinions, feelings, experiences that they were having seeped into their surreal dream like plot. There are just a lot of things where you could say oh this could represent this thing from their past or even their future, like the film, it's not really linear past present future it's more of a loop. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey 😂
Btw, why they called it "Head".... likely because the first frame of a film reel stock says "HEAD", followed by the radial line sweep number count down before the start of the film. The use this frame in the film itself, so..
About time the Monkees got their recognition as the zany stars they deserve. What a way to celebrate 100 episodes. Here's to 100 more!
You mean finally get their recognition as Serious Avant-garde Artists. They're well known for being 'Zany' ;)
"The Porpoise Song" is my favorite Monkees song. I wish it got more recognition along with their other more well-known hits.
Mine too.. I love this song. Once I sat down and looked at the lyrics, and understood the deeper meaning of it, I loved it even more.. Its a bittersweet song about the band just giving up, and giving out... It's sad, but honestly really beautiful at the same time.
Vhat a great song, written by Carol King..
My fave as well. So beautiful.
It is the best one
quite simply the BEST B-ROLL footage in VINYL MONDAY HISTORY. i always knew b-roll abby was a star
Abby got to play both Mike and Peter in this.
@@Rhubba she's a better actor than both
Abby Roll
@@Rhubba and micky, he was the one tying the sheets in the scene from the show!
@@abigaildevoe B-Roll Abby needs her own episode where she fails to even scratch the surface of the meaning of what's being reviewed, and you argue with her. You have an alarmingly razor-sharp skill and talent for artistic criticism for someone your age.. to contrast that talent with a terrible review would be hilarious. :) Or, perhaps do something like, "Wait, soooo, you're saying...that.......Dark Side Of The Moon wasn't ...about...the moon???!?" ...Make it a reoccuring thing to have her go into a catatonic 300-yard stare as her brain quietly explodes as the epiphany sits in. :)
This is your best episode yet. Brilliant. Bonzer. Fantastic. Awesome. Wonderful. Amazing. And good.
The lyrics of Porpoise Song are not meaningless, not by a long shot. It is a cleverly enigmatic commentary on life as a product of your environment and how hard it is to break away from it. A couple of lines are often misunderstood: 'riding the backs of giraffes for laughs' is a reference to Micky Dolenz in his early TV series 'Circus Boy'. And the line 'clicks clacks' is NOT clicks, clacks, it is actually 'cliques, claques'. Every lyric site gets that wrong because every lyric site copies from one another so errors are perpetuated. Porpoise Song is a majestic track that deserves more recognition - the single version is even better because the album cuts out the final 'sting' at the end.
'Head' the movie is about The Monkees trying to break free from their image and everything they do brings them right back to where they started. Even suicide is no escape. 'Head' the album functions as a movie soundtrack, but also stands alone as an album that can take you wherever your imagination and cerebral and/or emotional response to the music leads you. There are many gems in The Monkees catalogue.
Thank you Abby for this milestone, your stuff is always good but with this episode you ascended to unprecedented heights.
So from my understanding the original album only had the 2:00 Porpoise Song version, and then in the 80's with their comeback and all their catalog was reissued and in demand, they revamped the HEAD album to feature the longer 4:00 single version of Porpoise Song, which of course makes the album a couple minutes longer. When I was getting into the Monkees during this time as a young kid I purchased the Head soundtrack on cassette tape, and it was the longer version. That is how I grew up with this album. Then later, when I got into vinyl, I specifically ordered (off Discogs) the vinyl version with the longer Porpoise Song, which I believe is the only way to listen to this album, as streaming services and newer vinyl reissues reverted back to the short version, unfortunately. To make things worse, the Spotify version of the album is so edited, changed and dissected it's irritating. Anyways, the whole affair is off-putting because this is one of my favorite Monkees albums and 60's albums ever.
@@sugadelicsavagesoul8623 Streaming sucks.
Head is in my top 10 movies, and I love showing it to people who just expect teenybopper fluff. Blown a few minds and made some life long Monkees fans!
I don’t give a damn what the so-called “serious Rock” crowd ever had to say on the matter. Those first four Colgems albums are Classics. As for “Head”, don’t listen to the clueless crowd that whines that the film is “about nothing”. Look at the scenes between the lines, you’ll find one of the greatest slams of fame and what it does to people that you’ll ever find.
The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees is a classic too 😀
Yea, what he said.
It's not about "nothing" it's about looking but not finding. And remembering what you didn't find.
The first 6 Monkees albums are great, including Head. The actual songs on Head are fantastic. The last 3 Monkees albums without Peter (& eventually Michael) are completely forgettable.
When my father rented Head (thanks nickelodeon) I rationalized after watching it that they were just tired of doing the silly 30 minute thing. I was about 12. Was very fortunate to see them on their 20th and 30th anniversary tours. ✌
I took a musicals class as part of being a film student in college - our professor showed us the Daddy's Song sequence and I was absolutely transfixed. Those match cuts are insane and the work that went in to both the choreography and editing can't be understated. One of these days I'll get around to watching the rest!
Thank you for 100 episodes of your...
Knowledge of classic rock
Incredible fashion sense
Countless MC5 callbacks (And Eric Clapton ones, too)
Ability to shine a light on underrated artists/albums
Delightful sense of humor
I could go on forever, but I think I'll stop it at there.
Keep kicking out those jams, Abby ❤
I love this movie...don't ask me why I love it, don't ask me to explain it. Daddy's Song and Mike's Birthday Party are brilliantly filmed and edited.
I just found the movie to be really sad, as they realize they climbed the wrong mountain and were now trapped there. Or as the movie ends, with them still trapped in the box. I got the feeling they didn't have a clear vision of what they wanted to be beyond "not this".
I do love Davey's number, as it feels like a glimpse into what he really wants to be doing.
I'm stuck in meetings at work all day, but I fully plan on digesting this video when I get home... because not only am I a life-long Monkees fanatic, but HEAD is one of my two favorite films ever made. Like, I watch it once every couple of months and have the entire thing memorized from top to bottom. Oh, and what a dang soundtrack, too! Thanks for covering this one, Abby!
What is your other favorite?
I like that B-Roll Abby is slowly becoming a separate character from the main Abby
she has been since the sgt pepper's episode like 2 years ago!
@@abigaildevoe I love B-Roll Abby, but hearing her speak was startling, like Charlie Chaplin speaking for the first time in "Modern Times." I was thinking of her as kind of a blend of Carol Merrill and Harpo.
The nuttiest thing of all is how the "sequels" to Head ended up being - in a way - Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces!
I posted this comment in a previous video but since this'n is 'bout The Monkees-Head I'll say it again. Mike was a customer in the Carmel music store where I worked 'n we would strike up conversations 'bout Monkees lore. I mentioned my love for Head 'n he enthusiastically agreed. I attended his concert in Sand City in 2019. His sons Christian 'n Jonathan were in the band 'n photographer Henry Diltz musta taken a thousand photographs.
Thank you for the deep dive on this incredibly talented foursome, their indecipherable film, and the wonderful album it produced. I love the Monkees' albums, and Head is one of the best. Porpoise Song and Circle Sky are classics. Congratulations on 100 episodes! Your show is unique, interesting, entertaining and very insightful. Thanks for all your hard work!
I’ve been waiting for this!!!
PLEASE do Elephant Parts next, it’s the crown jewel of the (Grammy-winning) Mike Nesmith cinematic universe!
(you can just hold up the laserdisc and pretend it’s a vinyl record, no one will be able to tell!)
I think B roll Abby needs her own series - a spin off 😂
31:35 Let's take a moment to give kudos for the EXCELLENT video/audio timing of the edits in the next ten seconds. Many other examples, too. Abby, you are truly a pro!
(it's Toni BAAA-sil, by the way, like the English pronounce it:)
Congratulations on the 100th episode of Vinyl Monday! VM is not only my favorite thing on YT right now, it's my favorite thing on TV. Great fun, enthusiastic attitude, and sympathetic reviews of classic albums.
Like all the best music review shows, it's like kicking back with a good friend and shooting the shit about records, one of the coolest ways to spend your time. I love seeing these albums through fresh eyes, and getting turned on to stuff I shoulda known.
Knowing that I have literally dozens of vids to watch from your back catalog means a summer of listening to good music, and reconsidering some basic assumptions. Thanks, Abbie! P. S. The threads are spot on! Totally groovy!
"Justice for Gerorge and Ringo"?
Nah, "Justice for my man Peter"
"This is my sitcom, and I'm gonna keep performing until I hear the fking laugh track". Wonderfully said. Congrats on the Century
I love "Porpoise Song" from the Head film & soundtrack album!
Carole King wrote it. Harry Nilsson wrote 'Daddy's Song'.
@@myradioon You're right. I think Carole King also wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees with her ex-husband Gerry Goffin
@@denniswood1437 You're right, they did write Pleasant Valley Sunday. They also wrote for the Monkees: Star Collector, Take a Giant Step, and Sweet Young Thing with Nesmith.
I feel like Porpoise Song, Pleasant Valley Sunday, and Goin Back all kind of have a similar vibe/mood/perspective that's really cool.
I hope you enjoyed making this episode as much as we enjoyed watching it, Abigail! I think Micky summed it up just before a watching he was present at. “If you have any idea what it’s about, please tell me!” He said the same thing about 33 & 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. I had an idea an episode like this was coming. After all, you hear Circle Sky in between scene switches in your episodes. RIP, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith. I’ll see all of you in the great Circle Sky!
PS Ok, true fact. I went nuts trying to find out about the ending theme. It was beautiful! I know, none of the Monkees performed on it. It sounded like something Mozart might’ve composed. But he didn’t, Ken Thorne did. Is it my favorite song from it? No, like you, Circle Sky and The Porpoise Song are mine.
Favorite scenes (I think I’ll pick a favorite from each Monkee):
The Coke machine. Very Micky. His frustration is something we can all relate to. The price of a Coke for a machine now in 2024- let’s just not go there, please!
Daddy’s Song. Always great seeing Davy burst into song and dance. He and Toni tear the rug lovingly!
“I’m always the dummy!”- No doubt Peter resented playing that “dummy.” It was not him! He resents having to clobber the surly waitress, I mean waiter in drag, too!
Odd? Even!- I was going to choose Mike’s birthday party but that’s too cynical. This on the other hand shows Mike trying to be romantic. I had heard he asked the kisser out in some takes and she said “Are you kidding?”
So there you have it- an intriguing mess! It could’ve made 3-10 episodes of their show but that would’ve required more padding out than there already was!
And how can we forget that donkey summing it up much like the one who spoke to Balaam? In comparison, the Monkees had nothing on Balaam, one of “ze craziest people!”
My favorite movie EVER, this is a wonderful concise deep-dive into both its history and its Nicholson Mixtape soundtrack LP. Love all the songs, Peter, Carole, and Nesmith get to shine in particular. While Davy was perfect to perform Daddy's Song, if Nez had danced, it would've be an extra meaningful moment. Mike Pozen seriously deserved some kind of accolade for his film editing in both Head, and the previous episodes of the show he worked on for that matter. The movie is the best finale to the Monkees there could ever be. Congrats on 100 episodes, wonderful video!
Oh and, while most lyric sheets for Porpoise Song have "clicks, clacks" in the second verse, I've been fond of hearing it as "cliques, claques" since it fits the Monkees' situation well.
Born in 1956, I was 10 when the Monkees hit. The influence the show & their music had on me is incalculable. All this is to say, your review, analysis and appreciation for Head (the movie & album) was surprisingly moving for me. I admire your passion for the music that made up the soundtrack of my youth. Your grasp of the vibe of the time is astonishing for someone your age. I've learned this by watching many of your first 99 episodes. So, watching this missive on Head, I get that you understand the confusion of a young preteen & teenager of the late 1960s. Music, and the acts supplying it, were my anchor in an otherwise baffling world. You explain why Head portrays my young perception of life from 1966-1969. Honestly, a tear came to my eye listening to your conclusion. Knowing someone 43 years my junior digs where I was at back in those days touched me, and I thank you for that. You are doing a great thing for all of us who love this music (and the films). And you do it with such a great entertaining & sincere enthusiasm. I look forward to what you do next! ❤✌️
You can add my name to this entire paragraph lol. I was also born in 1956. My late younger brother was a huge fan when he was a kid. Abigail is such an intelligent sweetie and cracks me up also. she was born in the wrong time period...she belongs with us.
Now you're talkin'!!! If Taylor Swift suddenly became politically outspoken, really, really Darkly Humorous, Intellectual, and a serious ARTIST, ergo fully FREAKING OUT her established tween audience = what the Monkees did with this amazing movie. It made the whole 'Arc' of their career into a Performance Art statement. One of the best Movies ever made.
The beginning where they guy falls in the water and the colors get all trippy and porpoise song starts playing, magical.
LETS GO SHE DID A MONKEES ONE AT 100 🎉🎉🎉🎉
This film. Is a thing that exists.
And I love it.
Micky was a voice of a generation. Just mesmerizing.
Same feeling with Michael and Micky harmonizing together. Their voices blended so amazingly that I'd put them as one of the best vocal duos of the 60s.
The Porpoise Song is, well, one of my favorite songs. The movie is one of the best deconstructions of pop culture ever made.
The pause after the laugh track line shows your spot on comedic timing. I like your sense of humor & smarts!
Rock on, Abbie! 🌻
Like the man said, "It cannot be a part of me / For now it's part of you." Keep up the great work. You are a river to your people.
Thank you for this great review... Porpoise song and As We go Along are my all-time Monkees faves
Congratulations on 100 videos and thank you for all the research and recording you do. I'm sure I've watched over 95% of them. You always make me laugh, liked the B-Roll Abby today too.
I think "Head" is a brilliant title for a film. I also think it was brilliant that the word "head" only appears at the "tail" of the film. Film leaders (numerical countdowns that preceded movies on film prints) had the word "head" on them, and the word "tail" was on outro leaders. This would indicate whether a film was "heads out" or "tails out" to a projectionist. If it was tails out that meant the reel of film needed to be rewound before being projected. I recall that this film was beginning to get back into the public consciousness, after over a decade of being totally forgotten, in 1982. In March of that year I interviewed Tork on my radio show prior to him presenting a print of the film at the famed New York club The Bottom Line. Shortly afterwards, the film started to appear at various revival houses and college campuses to an enthusiastic response from audiences in their 20s and 30s. I first saw it at the renowned Theater For The Living Arts in Philadelphia at a sold out show in 1983.
Just learned that Head is in the Criterion Collection as part of the BBS box set of films which include Easy Rider, Last Picture Show, and Five Easy Piecesz
I totally agree with you about "As We Go Along" I played it for my father in palliative care as he was fading away...he noticeably responded to it and, he had no idea who/what the song was.
I truly believe that Dolenz is one of the greatest pop/rock vocalists of his era
Cheers
PS - The only other song that my father responded to anywhere close to AWGA was The Kinks "Days"
I am very thankful for these moments shared with him during his final days
Nicholson wore a similar gold football (possibly the same?) helmet in Easy Rider.
It's the self-same helmet. Depending upon who you believe, it was his HS football helmet, a brother or cousin's HS football helmet or a random find at a thrift store. On the other hand, I believe no one including myself.
I think it's a masterpiece. It blew me away when I first saw it. The editing is amazing for its time.
It really flows in its own way. Extremely watchable.
When I was a kid (in the 80s), I only had 2 Monkees albums: Headquarters and Head. I kind of assumed "Head" was a reference to the earlier album. Like, if the Beatles had named Sgt. Peppers "Hard" in a backward glance to "Hard Day's Night," as if to say "we're over HERE now, folks."
I know I listened to Headquarters a lot more, but was still fascinated by Head. It was very shiny (mylar - now I know!) and VERY weird!
Thanks and congrats on 100 vids!
Dearest Abby, I'm a 59 year-old woman and adore what you do and HOW you do it! I find a piece of my younger self in your inhibition and creativity. Congrats on 100! Do it til the sun goes down in your eyes. I would be proud to be your mom, but I'll settle for being a fan... And looking for new music insights with your flair down the line!!
This may be your best episode yet. Happy 100!! 🎈
I read on IMDb that Sean Lennon and Les Claypool cited Head as a major influence on their musical collaboration "Monolith of Phobos". Lennon commented, "Head is, like, my Bible. Any project or important thought I've ever had was inspired by Head."
Have you read that; I mean independent of IMDb? Somehow, I find that hard to believe considering he's lived with 2 of the most creative geniuses of the 20th - 21st century. Of course anything is possible. I must admit, Abby, your comprehensive review of the movie persuaded me to revisit it after 50 years of having it out of my Head.
This was great. It was an hour? I didn't even realize it, I was just mesmerized thru the whole thing. I loved that movie, never even thought of checking out the soundtrack. I don't I ever even saw it for sale anywhere. I need to watch the movie again. Congrats on a century of vinyl!
I was literally in Vietnam in 1968.
Thank you for your insightful reviews. I grew up with classic rock. Your analysis always teaches me new facts.
Thanks, again for highlighting Vietnam.
After serving I joined the anti-war movement.
☮️❤️
Amazing video! Really loved your analysis, but I did notice one small mistake. The Utah performance filmed for Head was actually the second-last US show from the classic era. They did a second performance the same day at a different venue in the city specifically for the fans (the venue for the Head show changed at the last minute, so they did another show at the originally planned venue due to the fact some fans didn't know of the relocation and showed up there). The concert wasn't filmed or recorded like the other one, and unfortunately, there's not much information about it around. Luckily, there are a few pictures of the event. You can identify them based on the fact the Monkees all look the same physically (same hairstyles, for example), but they were dressed much more casually (Peter Tork was wearing a white t-shirt instead of his sweater, for example). Anyway, sorry about this! I sometimes get a little too obsessed with stuff like this...
The single 'Porpoise Song' / 'As We Go Along' is one of my earliest memories as a kid in 1968. I was all of 2 years old. Very haunting, especially 'Porpoise'. My favourite line from 'Head' is not from one of the Monkees. It's from the man from the factory scene. I use it as one of my Bandcouver show's station ID's at Co-op Radio here in Vancouver BC Canada: "Tragedy of your times ,my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want". A rather ominous quote.
I discovered the film by accident when it was shown on UK tv late at night on the newly launched channel 5 in the late 90s. I recorded it to VHS and watched it so many times. I must dig out out the DVD and watch again. It’s been a while. I agree about As We Go Along, everything about it is fantastic.
Roundabout 1972,”Head” played as a Late Late Movie. At 9 yrs old, I was out of my mind for the Monkees TV show, but had no idea they’d made a film. Expecting an extended version of the show, my tiny mind could not make sense of what I was seeing. Where were the Monkees? What is this bridge? Oh wait. Is that them? They’re jumping off a bridge? Under water instead of fake playing the song?? I blinked uncomprehendingly through scene after scene until I fell asleep during “Can You Dig It.” The next day, I couldn’t be sure if I’d actually seen what I saw or dreamed it. A decade or so hence, I saw it in college as a midnight movie. It was just as my 9 year old mind remembered it, but no more comprehensible. Abigail, as ever, your take on the whole mess is insightful and fair.
Another amazing video. I loved the monkees, even went to their concert in Sacramento probably 84-5ish.
Congratulations on 100 episodes Abby! You've done an amazing job and watching you grow as a content creator has been awesome. Someday I'll finally sit down and watch this crazy movie.
it's available to watch for free on tubi!
Wow. Not sure what more I can say. This was epic and fascinating. Thank you.
Oh, and you almost make me laugh at least once in every video. And thank you for that also.
The Monkees set up BBS to make great movies at Columbia. They set it up very smart, as long as a movie didn’t cost over a million or so, they had complete artistic control. Films like Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces and Hearts and Minds, to name a few, made history and still hold up.
Great to hear someone else say As We Go Along is their best song. I've always felt that way, and people just look at me weird when I say that.
Major Monkees fan here. THANK YOU for this episode! It was delightful. And it's always great to hear the Monkees getting the appreciation they should.
A few corrections, if I may:
Not an 8 hour TV special; 8 1 hour specials were proposed by Rafelson. NBC agreed to 3. After the mess that was 33 1/3, NBC said "no thanks" to any more.
Monkemania Redux in 1986 was spurred by reruns on MTV, not on Nickelodeon. Nick At Nite ran the show after.
Recording Ditty Diego was the last time the 4 Monkees were in a studio together until they recorded the album Justus in 1996.
Peter had different management than the other 3. That, not merely loyalty to the producers, is why he didn't strike with them at the start of filming.
Harry Nillson was an "up-&-coming" songwriter, true. Carol King, however, was already a giant in the business by the time she worked with the Monkees.
Wrong. Nickelodeon was hardcore first and foremost the main showcase of the TV show. MTV played the music videos, promos, and interviews and it wasn't until later that they played some of their episodes in some quantities. Then later is when the Nick At Nite airings happened. But as a kid who watched and recorded EVERY Monkees episode in 1986-87, NICKELODEON was THE channel.
Okay. i thought MTV's weekend marathon of episodes -- what they called "Pleasant Valley Sunday" -- predated Nick's showing by a little bit. But i may be remembering only Nick-at-Nite & not Nickelodeon for kids. Thanks for the clarification. i will maintain that it was MTV's marathon that spurred the 2nd round of Monkeemania in '86/'87. MTV was crazy popular at the time.
I was a Monkees fan when they first came out and watched their show every week. My best friend had their first album, I got their 2nd album for my Birthday. I wasn't even aware of "Head" until some time in the 70's when I first saw it on broadcast TV. Even then I recognized it as an irreverent self - depracating work of genius.
I watched 33&1/3 recently. I really enjoyed the Brian Auger & Trinity segment. Low budget, to be sure, but counterculture vibe was everywhere. Summer of Love. Summer of Monterey Pop. "Head"y times.
Thank you so much for making Head your 100th episode. Love that album. I never made the obvious connection between Head and Zappas Lumpy Gravy... another one of my favorite albums. So I put on my Head cd after the episode and, oh no, it stopped playing after track 7. So I cleaned the disc and tried again, and still nothing after track 7. So I'm off to discogs for another copy of this essential album.
Excellent film - and a wonderful coda to the TV series with its reflection on illusion, consumerism & reality!
Head is one of my favorite Monkees albums. It's wild, absurd, and ultimately fantastic. It took me many years and several watchings to finally appreciate the movie. It wasn't until it was shown after a Monkees TV marathon, when I realized this is the Monkees version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The TV versions of Mikey, Mike, Davy, and Peter slowly become self aware, but not enough to do anything to change their outcome. And every attempt to break out ends with them ending up back in their wacky, absurdist world.
At least, that's my reading of the film.
Great episode, and thanks for covering the strange story of Head. Congrats on 100 episodes!
I became a Monkee fan when I saw 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee on its original broadcast! I was barely a human being at that point, but it affected me the same way that the Beatles on Ed Sullivan affected an earlier generation. But I never heard the Head soundtrack until my 30s, and I was blown away. My favorite songs are the Porpoise Song, As We Go Along, and Circle Sky. Years later I met Peter Tork at a house concert, and he signed my vinyl Head album. I was floating on air. Thanks, Abigail, for this video, and thank you for doing what you do because there just don't seem to be enough of us gals in the music biz on any level. You're doing GREAT!
Finally found “Head” on a streaming service. Expected it to be self-indulgent and unwatchable but found it surprisingly insightful and ahead of its time. Very interesting questions about media and reality that seem very relevant today.
Head was one of those movies that I saw at a very impressionable age and it helped informed alot of my eventual art philosophy in how films can or should be made. It was my first real surrealist abstract film and it got me to get into the practice of inferring from a text and using that to inform how I saw the film thematically (the form / editing is stunningly evocative too, it speaks volumes on its own). It took me years to really come to some sort of peace, with me turning twenty five this year its political and systemic factors finally seem to translate. Films can be ironic, cyncial and hopeful in equal measure, art works between the lines not in absolutes and i cant help but get a bit emotional reflecting back. Remember its not about the box we may or might not be in that never mattered in the first place, we can be safe and free within ourselves and each other despite the external things that are out of our control (our value and importance goes beyond the tools they give us or the current binaries that stifle the human condition, think of it like a proto I Saw the TV Glow). That's what Head has always meant to me, amazing video as always Abi
Yes I heard Teri Garr tell David Letterman that one version of the title. My theory is that it's kinda an inside joke for filmmakers. At the beginning of every movie is the word "Head" to tell the projectionist it's the first part of the movie. So no need for a title since it's going to say head anyway.
I like this album head by the Monkees,this album breaks away from the manufactured pop, brilliant
I actually got to see Head on the big screen back in 2018. It was a fundraising event at The Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts, as well as the movie being screened Micky Dolenz was there to do a meet and greet, and he gave a lecture about the history of how the movie came about before screening it not only was it an awesome event seeing the movie on the big screen, but hearing Micky’s lecture was also a great thing. He definitely has the reputation and he’s earned it based on this experience that I had of being the nicest one of the whole group. He was very pleasant very open and thanks everybody for having him there, probably only two things that was kind of sad was that he did do a brief Q&A, and before he even started that he showed us his ears which obviously he has to wear hearing aid and said I am going to apologize right now if I ask you to repeat your question, obviously years of being a non-drummer drummer have taken its toll on his ears. The other thing that was a little sad was that Mike was supposed to be there, but was home resting as he just got out of the hospital for his quadruple bypass. I heard because this was a touring event that it was going to be both Mike and Micky doing the lecture. sadly, we didn’t get to hear Mike talk about it because of him being home resting still though it was a very, very cool experience.
Always loved Mickeys sneakers and striped shirt ensemble but that brocade jacket is phenomenal.
amazing video - best i could find about the history of head!
Great vinyl hour (or so) and very entertaining as usual. Congrats on your first 100. Love your outfits. You must spend serious time on your clothing and that is very cool. You always look great. Keep up the superb. work Abigail.
A purely bloody wonderful 100th, celebrating in top form and letting the topic affect the form of the video. Many thanks. I was a kid when the tv show was in re runs and frequently confuse it with Get Smart. I loved both. Cut to young adulthood and that tarry snobbery you get when you start to define yourself by being hard-centred about your tastes or (far worse) contrarian, and I shunned The Monkees who were having a moment with the bubblegum revival in my undergrad years. Much later, I bought one of those mini LP cover boxes with the first few albums in for a very low discount and just put them on one after the other. And it was fine (of course it was fine with the likes of Mickey Dolenz on vocals and Diamond, King and Boyce and Hart on writing duties!). Later Head was part of a Criterion box of Rafelson and co's turn of the decade movies and I liked it much better than Help. I like things being of their time but the anarchy of the movie is like a sampling of explosive youth that can be enjoyed any time. Great pick!
Trivia: Woman dancing in Daddy’s Song is Toni Basil did the song in 1980s “Hey Mickey”
The Movie was not easily accessible, or understood at the time. More is known now, especially the Book 'The Monkees, Head, and the 60s' even given high praise by Rafelson as the best "As for Head, no-one has so thoughtfully elaborated on its meaning. The movie is elusive. But not to him or anyone who reads the book. And that includes me.” Bob Rafelson
Bob Rafelson was part of BBS, and along with Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner they made Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show and Hearts and Minds, all funded by the Monkees
I am so glad you enjoyed the movie. I love it! And, I cannot be friends with anyone who doesn't like, my friend.
This was a great video. You've got a new subscriber.
100th Edition Special? Girl, ALL your editions are special! Always thought the album was better than the film (but didn't get to see the film until decades after I'd bought the album!). Fave tracks - Circle Sky and Daddy's Song.
I seem to recall Stephen Stills auditioned to be a Monkee, himself in '66.
Hopefully The Moody Blues and Guess Who will feature somewhere in the next 100?
Great episode! Loved the Ringo click track insert.
Head is my second favorite film of all time
Love your sense of humor Abby. I couldn't imagine anyone else doing this format and carrying it off so intelligently and, dare I say, flawlessly.
Well done Abby this film actually makes sense for me now ! Lol. You took on a very difficult and complex project and explained it really well. 😊. The monkees played Australia in 1968. My history teacher was in the support band on that tour. He told us they had to play behind the curtain to boost the sound of the group. Because the screaming from the fans was so loud! Lol. It wasn’t that they couldn’t play their instruments but he explained it more of a rock n roll review than a traditional rock show. So only two monkees would be on the stage while Mickey or Mike would be off the stage changing their clothes. And they needed a bass player or a drummer to cover that. He said they treated them really well. And apparently they played them a early rough cut of Head on a projector back at the motel. He told us the ending he saw was different from the ending in the original movie.
This is SO well done!!
Thank You, Abby!
Happy 100!
Your copy of Head has a hole through the cover which means it's a promotional copy that was distributed to radio stations before the album was released, so it's an original 1968 promo copy.
Leave it to the Marvelous Devoe. She finally does The Monkees and she does "Head".
Ah, the Wilhelm scream! Nice.
FINALLY someone noticed it
@@abigaildevoe You can't miss it!
Honestly its not a bad album but its a soundtrack album so everything levels out 🙃
I don't think this album would make a dent in my 60's rotation but Circle Sky would totally be in
Side Note I didn't think a song from Head would be the bummer for the transition 😂
"Monkees is the craziest people!" I unironically love the film and my Japanese pressing of the soundtrack. the 4 actor/musicians were so insanely self-conscious of the image they were meant to project, that a cynical apathy pervades the movie. their drugged up reaction to being helpless cogs in a money making Hollywood machine remind me of the California punk bands that appeared a decade+ later such as Dead Kennedys, Flipper, and pre-Rollins Black Flag. thanks for reprising Circle Sky's cool riff and covering this obscure classic!
You have a phenomenal voice as a writer and presenter, genuinely one of my favorite people to hear talk about music. You've got an insight and a passion and a drive to put work into these videos that is truly extraordinary.
Here's to 100, and to the future!
Wow, Abby. Your shows are always well-researched, interesting, and fun, but maybe they’re getting to be almost necessary. Head is a fascinating Monkees tangent, but you explain why, and you’re not coming from the perspective of an old person claiming the superiority of his culture over today’s, but a young person explaining to her own generation why it’s culturally relevant to them. Necessary if there’s going to be a continuing understanding between generations, because if you can’t pass something you’ve learned along the way to the next generations, then what’s the point of life? Thank you.
Leon Russell signed ✍️ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers to his Shelter label. Dwight Twilley band member Phil Seymour recommended the band.
yes he did! i covered that in my TPATH episode about a year ago
Re-watching this - I love that sometimes a Vinyl Monday can turn into Abby having a slight existential crisis. (I don’t actually “love” it, but that’s not as funny)
I don't know the specific history timeline well enough, but there was a point where Davy had to contest mandatory British military service. Could his two week absence from filming HEAD be because of that?
Thanks Abby! 😊
Head is as great and baffling as 200 Motels. Both are deliberately confusing and bore / annoy half the audience and open the minds of the other half to new creative possibilities. Also both films suffer for having a strong first half and a draaaaag in the second.