Like many Rhino Handmade releases (available only via Internet), the Monkees' "Headquarters Sessions" is marketed for fanatics. Indeed, this set - which contains over three discs filled with all the outtakes and studio chatter you could ever hope for or need is essentially the Holy Grail of Monkees material. Informal versions of "Cripple Creek," "Don't Be Cruel," "Nine Times Blue," "The Story of Rock and Roll" (made into a modest hit by the Turtles), and "She's So Far Out, She's In" are only a handful of the set's rarites. On the tracks that would become the "Headquarters" album, it becomes obvious this was an amateur band struggling to get through a simple take. However, you can feel the camaraderie (even though Davy Jones is absent from some of this) between musicians Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork, while actor Micky Dolenz is heard numerous times throughout apologizing for yet another drum flub. In this potentially volatile scenario, there is a sense of friendship and lack of studio ego, which is exactly why this package is so charming. These are mainly actors, struggling to prove their musicianship, maintaining their cool while finding out the hard way how difficult the recording process actually is. After "Headquarters," the Monkees would never attempt to go into the studio again depending wholly on themselves. Their individual musical direction, especially in Nesmith's case, would be required from then on. Along with the mainly unreleased instrumental versions of these tracks, studio flubs and conversations is the scrapped mono version of "Headquarters" with a completely different song sequence that included Nesmith's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." --- Al Campbell / Edited by Monkeesrule43 Online
Description
This four-disc package gathers the only known professionally documented concerts by the Monkees on their 1967 summer tour. Each of the four discs contains a complete performance hence the repetition of material. Disc one contains a monophonic demo recording made by crew member/photographer Winton Teel. The results of which were the criterion in whether or not it would be feasible to send a crew and equipment to sonically capture later dates on the tour. It becomes obvious that the results, while favorable, were far from optimal. The set list and stage antics were similar on every stop of the Monkees '67 tour. The "Theme From 'The Monkees'" would blare from the PA system and the lads would bound out of two mock Vox audio speaker cabinets. The self-contained quartet would then churn through hit singles as well as a few choice album cuts. Each band member is likewise featured in a spotlight performance; "Cripple Creek" being the most solo of them all, as Peter Tork was usually accompanied by nothing more than his own banjo. Backing up the other three soloists is the five-piece pop combo the Sundowners. They are particularly effective on Michael Nesmith's cover of Willie Dixon's "You Can't Judge a Book (By Looking at the Cover)." The show wraps up with the return of the self-contained quartet grinding through garage rock renditions of hits such as "I'm a Believer" and "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone." --- Lindsay Planer / Edited by Monkeesrule43 Online
