The Monkees - Can You Dig It? (1968)
I was browsing the Steve Hoffman site the other day when I came across a thread inviting suggestions for albums from bands in another timeline, and member Chimbica from Brazil suggested an album by The Monkees, which they would have released when their attempt at a full-blown psychedelic album was shelved following disagreement within the band. Instead they decided to record a parody of The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper', and Chimbica posted the cover which would have housed the album. It's a stunning piece of work, and must have taken him ages to complete, deciding who to include and putting together the montage, and I felt that it was too good to be lost on the site so decided to compile an album which could use it. This post is therefore The Monkees psychedelic album which they never made, compiled from the best psyche-pop that they recorded in 1967 and 1968. Most people just think of The Monkees as a bubblegum pop band, but later in their career they were really pushing the boundaries of what they could achieve, culminating in one of the most overtly psychedelic films ever made, 'Head'. Strangely enough, only a couple of tracks on here come from the 'Head' soundtrack, as they were producing some fine acid-tinged music way before that, so sit back, tune in and drop out to the psychedelic sound of The Monkees. I've cross-faded some of the tracks, like they used to do back then, but if anyone wants to hear an unedited version then I can post that later. And no, I don't know why Johnny Rotten is standing next to Peter Tork!
Track listing
01 Porpoise Song02 The Door Into Summer03 Auntie's Municipal Court04 Daily Nightly05 Can You Dig It?06 Little Red Rider07 Tapioca Tundra08 Love Is Only Sleeping09 Circle Sky10 As We Go Along11 Writing Wrongs12 Pleasant Valley Sunday13 All Of Your Toys14 Zor And Zam
Great album! I think the reason Johnny Rotten is there is because The Sex Pistols used to perform a version (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone in their early years.
ReplyDeleteYou want psychedelic Monkees crossfades? Ground zero rebuild of Head here:
ReplyDeletehttps://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2020/03/lockdown-escape-music-dept.html
I did see your post, but I'm afraid that I passed it by as I already have the original soundtrack album, plus the remake by Alternate Albums And More!, but now I realise from doing mine the effort involved in making these I'm downloading it right now.
DeleteI hope you enjoy it, pj. It's very different to other alternate Head albums. You'll need some headphone time to yourself to get the most out of it.
DeleteNice
ReplyDeleteSplendid stuff.
ReplyDeleteI watch The Monkees every Sunday at 5:00 pm, PST. Now I have an album to listen to at 4:20 pm PST, before the show starts! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat project pj. Just one thing - is it called Can You Dig It or Drumm? My download is tagged as the latter, and that's what's on the bass drum.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Drum.
ReplyDeleteI've called it 'Can You Dig It?' but the original cover had the word 'drum' on the drumhead, so I was originally going to call it that until I realised that it didn't make a lot of sense so I re-named it. Must have uploaded the old file, so will correct that.
DeleteJust checked the file and see that it still includes 'Ticket On A Ferry Ride' which I eventually decided not to include, so looks like an update will be needed.
DeleteThanks for the Monkees. Please post the unedited version.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteBeen awhile since you posted this, but yes... Please post the unedited version of this! As cool as this is, psychedelia should never be "edited" IMO. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe split tracks are already on Soulseek, and there's a separate download on Yandex so dive in. The unedited version is just the individual tracks without the crossfading,.
DeleteThank you. I always thought that The Monkees were a pleasant surprise; better than what the original design called for.
ReplyDeleteSo where is the list of everyone on the cover for those of us who can identify ALMOST everybody but are losing our minds trying to figure out who the others are?
ReplyDelete