I've seen that one. I never bought it, since I have the original albums on CD. I usually try to avoid most compilations like that, but I was forced to buy two cheap Monkees hits collections just to get one new song on each one. Although I can't complain about getting "Ceiling In My Room" at any price, since it's one of the Monkees best songs ever! It should have been an original single.

Ceiling will probably turn up on the Birds and Bees reissue?

I hope so. That would be a great addition. "The Birds The Bees & The Monkees" is an interesting album. Aside from "Daydream Believer" and "Valleri," it's kinda got an overall dark tone to it. Songs like "Writing Wrongs" and "The Poster" show a slightly darker side to Mike's and Davy's songwriting. Even "We Were Made For Each Other" sounds sarcastic. And the plea for love in "P.O. Box 9847" is a far cry from the secure love in "I'm A Believer." It's a different kind of Monkees, but I like it.

I love the album sessions, I thought that was more closer to the White Album than Present was.


I remember Harold Broson referring to them as the 'Goldmine' sessions. I listen to the Arista mix CD recently and it sounds cleaner than the Rhino one.

Oh yeah. Goldmine is a good word for it. The Birds The Bees & The Monkees sessions had each of the members getting very innovative and experimental. Different sounds, different types of music. They were making some great stuff. If they had just done one more season of their show, we could have heard all of these great songs on it. They made so many extra recordings that several were bound to be on TV only, just like the stuff from the first album sessions. Imagine this kind of experimental stuff on prime-time NBC-TV. Interesting.

Had they would have done a 3rd season, it would have been a different format, if NBC would have been OK w/ it. We could have perhaps seen those songs performed live?

Oh yeah. That would have been cool. To actually have them performing live on television. They should have done that in Season 2 to silence the critics. I don't know why they didn't.

The Powers That Be of course still controlled them. They were more concern w/ taking control of the music.


Though if they had their way, it would have been the 3rd season. They did some control over season II, near the end and script approval.

Yeah. If they only had enough control to make a 3rd Season they way they wanted to. It would have been very interesting. I think Screen Gems underrated their talents. I think they would have made a great show and it would have been a success. And they would have had more hit records and might have stayed together longer.

Too bad for Raybert's strict "no outside cameras" policy. As the BBC planned to do an special on them for Tops Of The Pops.

Well, I'm sure they had their reasons for that policy.

They felt the Monkees were already popular enough and didn't want overexposure. But we could have seen some live performances and one more release.

quote:

Originally posted by juansamus:
Why does the harpsicord fade in a few beats late? Was this an error? If so, will it be fixed like the wrong mix of "Auntie Grizelda" on the MOTM deluxe?

It's not an error; what you are hearing is a stereo remix of the original Mono Master. It's the 1995 remix that was done for the Greatest Hits compilation and which has subsequently been used on other compilations.

Hey David. Actually, it is an error. It's a 2007 remix.. and the harpischord does come in late. I compared it with the 1995 remix and it is definitely different.