The Monkees: HEAD

"HEAD" is a sound collage created by a large group of artists, collectively known as The Monkees. Although the original four mop-top television actors spearheaded the project as a way out of the anti-art pigeon hole the group worked so hard to establish, musicians and actors from Frank Zappa to Neil Young, Jack Nicholson to Dennis Hopper contributed to create one of THE most adventurous concept records ever achieved. This was around the time of Sgt. Pepper, Their Satanic Majesties Request, and Pet Sounds. All worthy contenders, but looking back decades later, do any of those records come close to experimenting as far out as HEAD? What were The Beatles, The Stones or The Beach Boys actually conceptualizing about? A fantasy marching band, a blend of Hippy nostalgia and the Devil, a psychedelic collection of Beach songs? All of these groups tried to incorporate what was happening around 1966-67, but scattered thematically behind blown up egos and million dollar pay checks. The Monkees would be no different, if it weren't for the fact that they were on their way down the ladder of success and in the camera's eye as talentless actors portraying mediocre musicians. The Monkees TV show had been canceled, due to the fact that their core audience were growing up quicker than their rise to celebrity stardom. Coincidentally, Michael Nesmith, who played the smarter of the four on the show, took to "life imitating art" by actually putting up a fight to get HEAD made, before they were pushed under the rug like so many other 60's acts with few hit singles. HEAD was not confusing as to what it was conceptually about. It is a psychological drama, a greek tragedy if you will, only the greek tragedy is their career. The story goes through all of the character's talents and facades, their autobiographical climb to Hollywood, and tragically exploring the end of media-mania the way they saw it, from the perspective of the group locked in a box with no way out. Every mini-drama they had experienced was incorporated into the film's plot. The soundtrack would work as a backdrop, just the way The Who's “Tommy” did, except this would be where The Monkees would really shine. Most of the material was composed by the four, utilizing the best musicians on the west coast as back up players, and more importantly, the film's schizophrenic theme would examine the invention of Stereophonic sound. The Beatles, The Stones and The Beach Boys would throw an orchestra in the left speaker, and the multi-part harmonies in the right, but The Monkees had an advantage, having worked and directed their own show for two years, they incorporated Shakespearian odysseys with LSD induced machinery technology on top of the invention of surround sound Stereo panning. There are moments on the record where you'll here spoken word, eastern philosophy emerging out of the left, while delayed tape loops circling out of the right. They truly composed from a film director's angle, instead of a songwriters. If you were to strip the Rolling Stones of their instruments, would they be able to write a rock and roll record? That's the difference... though The Monkees really did play instruments to an extent, they were four actors given %100 freedom to make a rock and roll record, and jet-setters that they were, they brought along the finest musicians in the country to come on board.

It begins with a fade in, a ceremony about to begin, but disrupted by the group committing suicide. A striking enough intro for ya? This would obviously be a metaphor for their own career suicide, as they knew their teenybopper fans would hate this. It would lead into the opening track- “Porpoise Song”, sang by Mickey Dolenz with harmonies by Davy Jones. The lyrics are surreal, like a Salvador Dali painting, chanting "The Porpoise is waving goodbye" as in the big whale of commercial success has come and gone. Without a second of silence, an anti-war parade is spliced in, but with sarcasm as a way of opposing the Vietnam War like a football game gone amok. As the crowd cheers W-A-R, Nesmith's "Circle Sky" kicks in, a song protesting Vietnam in its lyrics, while rumbling drum fills float underneath. This track ends with a gun shot moving into a blatant drug song entitled- "Can you dig it?", a fuck-you to the war, an original written by Peter Tork about smoking dope and adolescent insignificance. This was the way of the draft dodgers. Marijuana was an act of rebellion as much a way of passing the time. Here's where Tork, who was more about the music than anything else, worked his instrument talents into the mix. Not only is he playing Moogs and Theremins, but works in odd-time signatures dabbling in what would later become Progressive Rock elements. Peter would eventually quit the band after the making of this album, being that he was solely about the music, and didn't want to continue making television appearances as a Pop star. "Can you dig it?" would close side one.

Side Two opens with another track to use unusual time changes, predominantly 5/4 on this one, but a light, much softer ballad called- "As we go along". The title speaks for itself. The song's about the improvisation of the material, like an actor without a script, "we'll make up our story as we go along" Dolenz sings over beautiful Neil Young guitar lines jamming away to Ry Cooder's acoustic strumming. Snippets from the film are used as segue-ways like someone flipping through radio stations to get to "Daddy's Song", Davy Jones' centerpiece written by Harry Nilsson, an upbeat Show-tune which showcases Davy's penchant for Broadway, and his Manchester tone vibrato accentuating as only he can in the band. Again, this is the idea behind HEAD, to show The Monkees for what they truly were, not a mod-rock band, but their true talents.

We end with another original by Tork- "Do I have to do this all over again?"- a garage rocker with lyrics pertaining to the way they were treated on the set of the television show. But as the song erupts, it's a slap in the face to the TV producers, being that we near the end of the album, as the song blends into The Maharishi philosophizing about beliefs and conditioning, the inner workings of the Monkee-machine on the youth of America. It's almost like they're trying to admit to a fallacy they played out, but offering they're point of view, having sincerity and integrity to the fact that it's all entertainment in the end. Whether it's the Mamas and the Papas or The Velvet Underground, this is entertainment, and it's sincere and ridiculous at the same time. The final encore is the fade in of all of the tracks, all at once, while a monotonous voice repeats- "Head... Head..." like you're coming out of a bad acid trip, clarity breaks through with a tongue in cheek String section plucking away, without seeing the film, the listener imagines closing credits.

So, I urge you to return to Sgt. Pepper, a band behind a band, and compare it with HEAD- which of the two is more realistic, and which is incoherent drug euphoria? HEAD is a real life backstage pass to a Hollywood movie set, but in song form. Pepper strays too much between mini-vignettes about God knows what, a girl leaving home, an abused wife, a benefit for Mr. Kite? Lucy in the sky with... you get my point. And though The Beatles had the upper hand melodically (nobody could out sing the Beatles), The Monkees were more intelligent thematically. They really reach out to the listener with subjects we can relate to while still freaking us out sonically. I mean, the subjects are themselves. You can't get more biographical than HEAD. Who else had done anything like that at the time? For all the "Paul is dead" clues Pepper had, even the album cover is more cerebral! It's a mirror with the word- HEAD written over your face. Has anyone ever done that before or since? I don't think the world has caught up to it yet. It's like a Godard film in musical composition. And that's literally what they were influenced by at the time. Not only from a creative distance, but personally. Foreign filmmakers, surrealistic painters, junkies and movie stars were the kind of artists The Monkees kept in company with. It really was an accident of genius that HEAD got made... or were they smarter than we gave them credit for? (A)