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 shewrote.
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.
I make my own marker dots with a 1/4" plug cutter and whatever scrap I have around. I've made every color of plastic, maple, rosewood, purpleheart, and others. I just ordered a sheet of 3mm ABS for five bucks that will produce a lot more dots than you could buy for that much, and also better ones. Many of the 1/4" dots you get are not really 1/4", thanks to the @%^#$ metric system. You make 1/4" holes, and then the dots are undersized. I don't have a 6mm Forstner bit. The dots I make actually have to be tapped into the holes, they're that good a fit.
