More of that fine American law enforcement...

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 1:46pm

This comes as no surprise, of course, given that the feebs have always had it in for anyone left of Attila the Hun. But it is good to see someone with relatively deep pockets push back a little. From Billboard:

Micky Dolenz Sues FBI to Get Full File on The Monkees

My Gawd. The Monkees? The Rafelson/Schneider invent-a-band, straight out of Central Casting, as agents provocateurs? Be still, my thumpin' heart... Say it ain't so! Them reds, they is everywhere. Or was. Or were. I get confused.

A portion of the document released by the FBI noted that an FBI informant attended a show on the band’s inaugural 1967 tour, describing, “subliminal messages” that were allegedly depicted on the screen, “which, in the opinion of [informant name redacted] constituted ‘left wing intervention of a political nature… These messages and pictures were flashed of riots, in Berkley, anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam, racial riots in Selma, Alabama, and similar messages which had unfavorable response from the audience.”

I always did think that "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was pretty subversive, so there you go. Our tax dollars at work. Sure is good that they don't do this kind of thing anymore, amirite?

I'm trying to imagine what *my* file looks like...

Tags: 
fbi
surveillance state
making shit up
misplaced effort
not it's not a joke
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Submitted by dystopian on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 3:00pm
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Those darn Monkees. I always liked Mickey ... and he was actually a great singer. I was just the right age (12) to be amused despite how campy and cliche it was. Actually learned a few of those first early hits on the guitar. Later would throw them in to other pieces where they had no place... couple bars of that I'm a Believer riff, WTH. Wink Pleasant Valley Sunday was a great song, methinks written by Carole King/Gerry Goffen. The partial line that hit home and stuck with me was 'here in status symbol land'. Which so well described where America was going. And now what it has become.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
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both - Albert Einstein

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 3:56pm
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@dystopian

They were very inspiring to me, despite the fact that only a couple of them could actually play at the time. In fact, for my entire career until it perished in the fire last March, the front head on my acoustic kick drum said simply "DRUM", as a nod to Micky from their ill-fated movie "Head". That was an inside joke that literally *nobody* ever got- never a word. I derived a lot of amusement from that over the years...


thumb_drum.jpg

Michael Nesmith turned his mother's fortune (she was the inventor of Liquid Paper white-out, and sold it to Gillette for 40mumble million dollars) into a very nice musical career in his own right as a writer and producer. Which also goes to show that the best way to make a small fortune in rock and roll is to start with a large one. (;-)

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Submitted by dystopian on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 10:01pm
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@usefewersyllables Funny about the gag no one got. Yeah Mike did a lot. Having some backing must be handy. Wasn't Mike Nesmith a key principle founder of MTV? He was the one real player originally, and had a song co-writing credit for Different Drum... a great song that has stood the test of time. But he did not play that outstanding lead solo on the hard rockin' song Valerie. That was some studio session dude on the original. The other guys eventually learned to play, later. It was all studio session musicians on the records, and Mike in particular resented it since he could play.

And good song too man!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
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Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 08/31/2022 - 10:42am
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@dystopian

was Louie Shelton, assuming of course that Da Google is to be believed... I didn't know that before today. So many great players did so much work behind the scenes then, whether in the Wrecking Crew or not. I did know that Fast Eddie Hoh and Hal Blaine did most of the drum work while Micky was still learning the trade...

Thanks for the kind words about the Lyrics. I'm still working through the grieving process of realizing that all the recordings were lost in the fire- all the masters were fried. And my offsite "disaster prevention" copy on hard disk appears to have died from disuse over all these years, and won't spin up any more. Oh well, maybe I'll re-record them one day. I can still hear them in my head, even if nobody else can.

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Submitted by dystopian on Thu, 09/01/2022 - 9:37am
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@usefewersyllables Oh man, I can't imagine losing that to a fire... I have 50+ years of bird notes and photos that need to be digitized and put in a couple places... still hoping to get to it.

Yeah that wrecking crew, and all the great studio players, unsung heroes in the day...

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Submitted by Sima on Fri, 09/02/2022 - 10:18pm
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@usefewersyllables
I would be devastated, as I imagine you were. I'm currently trying to save all the stuff I 'created' (mostly writings, I'm not super musically inclined, although I love music!) into some form besides paper that I can look at later. Kudos to you for keeping on, and I hope the songs can get written down or recorded somewhere new!

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Submitted by doh1304 on Wed, 08/31/2022 - 3:20pm

@dystopian
"Valerie. That was some studio session dude"
There is a long running argument as to whether that "dude" was Glen Campbell or Jimmy Page. I'm a totally incompetent guitarist, but I'd say Campbell. He was known as a flamenco guitarist and Page wasn't. Valerie sure sounds flamenco.

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On to Biden since 1973

Submitted by dystopian on Thu, 09/01/2022 - 9:40am
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@doh1304 I had heard that same dispute, despite it apparently having no evidence. It went around for many years. As a guitar wanker and Monkee fan at 12, later I looked into it since I liked the song, and was surprised to find neither was the correct answer. Wink

I agree, that lead does have a flamenco flair to it. It was spicy stuff at the time for pop music.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 5:11pm
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song I wrote back in the day that certainly landed me with a file. 1981, I think it was. We only played it out a few times, because it was too much like a couple of other tunes we did, by bandmates who were better songwriters (and better able to fictionalize current events). This is kind of a protest of the Manhattan Project, smashed together with Project Xylophone from Atlas Shrugged, just because I wanted to... Entitled "The Gadget":

v1: the whole thing seemed so innocent
when we first started out
the smiles were all so broad
we knew we'd win
and there was money comin' in
we were doing the right thing, who could doubt

chor: the next time we'll get it right
the next time as time will tell
the next day it'll be all right
anyway, next time

v2: the big day dawned a shiny gray
and all the plans were laid
those endless nights of verbal fights
and slide rule wars on workshop floors
our one and only gadget rolled out
into the light of day
chor:

bridge vox (sprechstimme):
i never thought they meant it
when they told me what it'd do
it's this kind of shit that
makes you old and gray, he said
and i never figured that they'd ever
really use that thing we built
and i never thought it'd go
as far as this
i never thought it could all
come true
i never thought those bills would
all come due

v3: that time we lost west texas
clear down to the rio grande
and that was just a test run anyhow
and that little town near omaha
if the fuses hadn't blown
woulda ended up just like they had planned

chor:

v4: walt kelly had it right, I say
he told us all along
we have met the enemy and they are us
don't mind those downwind folk they say,
buy in or get off the bus
but who will be left to tell us
we were wrong

chor and out

Written, in part, to try to chase away the white-flash nightmares. Didn't work.

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