Doing Things Wrong

A Joke from the Sixties

Well, it's that time of year again, time to renew the web hosting. And for those of you that don't know, that has become a lot more expensive than it used to be. Fifty dollars a year is now several hundred. Not to mention the price of domain names has gone up ten-fold.

And I just found out that the nice folks at PayPal disabled all my Support buttons, and I never got a notice (although that may be my fault.) In any case, it is all working again now, so if you would like to make a small donation to help defray these costs, it would be greatly appreciated.

I actually had this album, what a blast from the past!

Who remembers the Monkees? When I was a little kid, this show was in syndication every day after school. I loved the slapstick. At the end of every episode was a music video that I didn't really appreciate then. Here is the intro to the show:

The Monkees were a made-up band put together by producer Don Kirschner to cash in on Beatlemania. They weren't supposed to be musicians at all, but actors playing musicians. Actually, they were musicians, or became musicians, that was the start of the trouble for the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejw_LOi-nhk
The Beatles were among their biggest fans, and Mickey wrote this song about an evening spent with "the four kings of EMI." You can see they are doing a pretty good job of pantomiming the instruments, because they really could play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW923_oO75o
Julie Newmar! ( aka Catwoman )

The Monkees had some of the best songwriters and studio musicians in the business backing them. That's why their music holds up a lot better than a lot of other Sixties stuff. For example, who can name more than two songs by Jefferson Airplane?

Here is Carole King doing a song she wrote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUzs5dlLrm0
and the Monkees version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcXpKiY2MXE
By Boyce & Hart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQMuIvF_Si8
The ending theme for the show eventually became this song, written by Peter.

The four boys ultimately wanted to be a real band. But Don Kirschner wanted absolute control. So they split with him, and the show ended. A theatrical movie Head was a commercial failure, but is worth watching for any fan. Head was their chance to finally say what they really wanted to say. Unfortunately, Head alienated their teenage-girl fanbase, and just confused everyone else.

I think Head was kind of brilliant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX28cgKHHyc
Don Kirshner went on to create the Archies, a band that would never argue with him
... and decades later, we got this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFUOnT0ZnUc
This became a punk anthem that has been covered by just about everyone.
This is probably all that today's kids know of the Monkees

The Monkees also gave Jimi Hendrix a big break - they took him on tour as their opening act. Monkees fans didn't know what to make of Hendrix, and he soon left the tour. The Monkees were one of the best bands of the 1960s, even if they weren't completely real, and their music will last a lot longer than much of the drug-addled nonsense of that era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiQUnxNEDqk
Here's a whole episode, one of the best

12/10/21: RIP Mike Nesmith


My take on necks

When you play a guitar, are you tightly clutching the neck, or are you holding mostly air? Even if you tightly clutch the neck, does the actual shape really matter? As long as it does not present any obstacles to movement, the answer is NO. So what is all this fussing over neck profiles? MARKETING, that's what. The actual curve around the back of the neck is fairly irrelevant, apart from the overall thickness.

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