Got a question for you. And I think know what you’ll answer. And I think I can make you change your mind.
So, the question is … The Monkees: cool or not cool?
I think you said “not cool.” But give me the opportunity to change your mind.
Do you remember Frank Zappa appearing on the show?
Yeah, you forgot about that, didn’t you? The stock of The Monkees just went up in your eyes, didn’t it?
That’s all I had. What about you? Got something you want to share? It’s Wednesday Night Open Thread.
What’s on your mind?
The Monkees were not only cool, but they were subversively cool. And CBS would trot out weekly videos of bubbly but seriously downbeat songs like “Pleasant Valley Sunday” or “Tapioca Tundra” but aimed at 9-year-olds. I’m surprised Hoover didn’t have them investigated. Or maybe he did.
How’d he do dat???????????????
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xh9GaDgRWX4?rel=0
How about having Jimi Hendrix as your opening act?
Purple Haze all in my brain…..and on my TV.
You guys really need to quit monkeeing around,k?
I’d make a joke here involving a Frank Zappa album and song but I’ve already done that in an earlier thread today and I don’t want to sound repetitive.
My main problem with The Monkees’ TV show was that if they were on, the cartoons were over.
I saw the Monkees back in ’68. They did a great show and really were good musicians and performers. They just were NOT song writers on teh caliber of Boyce & Hart.
Cool? Definitely cool.
Among those who wrote songs for the Monkees:
Carole Bayer Sager
Jeff Barry
Neil Diamond
Carole King
Barry Mann
Harry Nilsson
Neil Sedaka
John Stewart
Paul Williams
I remember a Monkees documentary that aired in the past couple of years (“The Making of . . . ” or something).
Mike Nesmith described how their producer, or director, or production company was getting frustrated with their demands, towards the end of the series, so they dumped The Monkees in favor of The Archies, instead, because animated characters do what you tell them to and don’t talk back.
My favorite Nesmith story involves him punching a hole into a wall, pointing at it then at Don Kirshner and telling him “That could have been your head.”
Ah, those fabulous 1960s!! Riots, assassinations, riots, school busing, riots, Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, riots . . .
I’m more of an eighties guy, myself – the 1780s. Not only because of the music of Mozart and Haydn, although that alone would make it better than the 1960s, but also because of the wonderful things that happened in the United States of America in the 1780s – defeating the British (the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783), drafting, debating, and ratifying both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (which is, of course, part of the Constitution, but was ratified separately), and inaugurating our first President, George Washington, on April 30, 1789. He was born February 22, 1732, near Colonial Beach, in Westmoreland, Virginia. He was an extraordinary man in many respects. The one that impresses me most is that he refused power. It isn’t clear whether George III actually said, upon hearing that George Washington was going to resign as commander of the Continental Army and retire to Mount Vernon, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man of the world,” but it’s true that very few men would have had the character to resign a position of that much power. He would almost certainly been elected for a third term as President, but he refused to run, setting a precedent for Presidents that lasted until 1940.
Happy Birthday, George Washington, the Father of Our Country!!
Other than Cincinnatus, what popular and powerful leader ever voluntarily gave up power when there was no requirement to do so?
With that one act, he became greater in history than all the others. He also became an icon by which all other men of power will be measured.
I imagine that even initial supporters of Napoleon eventually started to wonder if he was ever going to step down; and that very healthy skepticism is forever going to be in people’s minds before they elevate someone to the highest power in their country. “He’s going to be the right man for this moment,” they will (or should) think, “but does he have the character of Washington? Is he ever going to relinquish control?”
Washington also got praise from Frederick the Great of Prussia, who considered the Trenton campaign brilliant, and that meant something in those days.
Hilarious clip up until they smashed the car :\