Micky Dolenz - Don't Do It (1983)

George Michael Dolenz Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California on 8 March 1945, and by the age of six he was already doing screen tests, landing his first recurring role as Corky on the TV series 'Circus Boy' at the age of 10. He toured the country with his elephant "Bimbo" promoting the show, which ran for three years, but when he reached his teens he started to develop an interest in music. He sang lead with a number of club-level rock bands, including Micky & The One Nighters, who specialized in covering The Rolling Stones and Jerry Lee Lewis songs, and it was during this period that he recorded his first single, 'Huff Puff'/'Don't Do It', although the record was not released until 1967. In 1965 Dolenz was cast in the TV series 'The Monkees', beating out over 400 other applicants for the role, and while he was initially meant to simply play the fictional group's drummer, his vocal skills meant he became lead singer on many of their songs. Along with Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, Dolenz became first a TV star and then a rock & roll idol, as the fictional band had smash hit singles with 'Last Train To Clarksville', 'I'm A Believer', and 'Pleasant Valley Sunday'. They released nine albums, and sold over 60 million records worldwide, with 'The Monkees' TV show lasting two seasons, followed by their cult feature film 'Head', before they finally broke up in 1970. Dolenz was always interested in working behind the camera as well as acting and music, and he wrote and directed one of the final episodes of the TV series, but he kept a foot in the door of the music industry by cutting a handful of solo singles for MGM Records, as well as one 45 with producer Michael Lloyd under the name Starship. 

He stepped back into music in 1976 with the album 'Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart', in which he and Davy Jones teamed with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who wrote and produced many of The Monkees' most memorable tunes. The album and subsequent concert tour received favourable reviews but attracted few paying customers, and in 1977 Dolenz travelled to England to appear in the London production of 'The Point', a stage musical based on Harry Nilsson's 1971 concept album. While he expected to stay in London for three months, he ended up staying for twelve years, establishing himself as a successful director in television and the legitimate stage. 1993 saw Dolenz publish a memoir, 'I'm A Believer: My Life of Music, Madness And The Monkees', and as plans were set in motion to celebrate the Monkees' 30th Anniversary in 1996, the original four members reunited to cut the album 'Justus', with all the material written and performed by the group. While the foursome planned an international concert tour in support, Nesmith bowed out after a run of shows in the United Kingdom, and it marked the last time the classic line-up would work together. In 1998, Dolenz brought out a solo album titled 'Demoiselle', which presented his original demos for eight songs he had written in the '90s. Although he will always be most remembered for his distinctive vocals on many of the Monkees' hit singles, his attempt at a solo career both before and after The Monkees has remained largely unappreciated, and so to put that right here are all the singles and b-sides that he recorded between 1965 and 1983. It includes both tracks recorded in 1965 by Micky And The One Nighters, which were later released as two separate split singles in 1967 to cash in on his new-found fame, as well as one joint single with Davy Jones in 1971, and the one under the name Starship, long before Jefferson decided to use it.   

Track listing

01 Huff Puff (single as Micky And The One Nighters, recorded 1965, released 1967)
02 Don't Do It (single as Micky And The One Nighters, recorded 1965, released 1967)
03 Do It In The Name Of Love (single with Davy Jones 1971)
04 Lady Jane (b-side of 'Do It In THe Name Of Love')
05 Easy On You (single 1971)
06 Oh Someone (b-side of 'Easy On You')
07 Unattended In The Dungeon (single 1972)
08 A Lover's Prayer (b-side of 'Unattended In The Dungeon')
09 Johnny B. Goode (single as Starship 1972)
10 It's Amazing To Me (b-side of 'Johnny B. Goode')
11 Daybreak (single 1973)
12 Love War (b-side of 'Daybreak')
13 Ooh She's Young (single 1973)
14 Love Light (single 1979)
15 Alicia (b-side of 'Love Light')
16 To Be Or Not To Be (single 1982)
17 Beverley Hills (b-side of 'To Be Or Not To Be')
18 Tomorrow (split single with The Bugsy Malone Gang 1983)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Neil Diamond (1972) **UPDATED**

I know 'The Long Way Home' had a dodgy beginning, and I tried pitch correcting and got nowhere, but then I had a brainwave and patched it with sections from the middle of the track, so download again for a better copy of the song.  

Neil Diamond started his musical career writing and singing his own songs for demos, and his first recording contract was billed as "Neil and Jack", an Everly Brothers-type duet with high school friend Jack Packer. They recorded the singles 'You Are My Love At Last'/'What Will I Do', and 'I'm Afraid'/'Till You've Tried Love', both released in 1962, and despite positive reviews from Cashbox and Billboard magazines they were not successful. Diamond signed with Columbia Records as a solo performer later in 1962, and in July 1963 they released the single 'Clown Town'/'At Night', which once again received complimentary reviews, but it still failed to make the charts. Columbia dropped him from their label and he went back to writing songs in and out of publishing houses for the next seven years. He wrote wherever he could, including on buses, and used an upright piano above the Birdland Club in New York City, but he was only able to sell about one song a week during those years, barely enough to survive. The privacy that he had above the Birdland Club allowed him to focus on writing without distractions, and this freedom resulted in more interesting songs beginning to appear, including 'Cherry, Cherry' and 'Solitary Man', and the latter was the first record that Diamond recorded under his own name which made the charts. He spent his early career in the Brill Building, and his first success as a songwriter came in November 1965 with 'Sunday And Me', a Top 20 hit for Jay and the Americans, but that was just the beginning, as this was followed by 'I'm A Believer', 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You', 'Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)', and 'Love To Love', all performed by the Monkees. 'I'm A Believer' became a gold record within two days of its release and stayed at the top of the charts for seven weeks, and other notable artists who recorded his early songs were Lulu, Cliff Richard and Deep Purple. In 1966, he signed a deal with Bert Berns's Bang Records, then a subsidiary of Atlantic, and his first release on that label was 'Solitary Man', which was his first true hit as a solo artist, and he followed that with 'Cherry, Cherry' and 'Kentucky Woman'. He began to feel restricted by Bang Records because he wanted to record more ambitious, introspective music, such as 'Brooklyn Roads', but Berns wanted to release 'Kentucky Woman' as a single, while Diamond proposed 'Shilo', which was about an imaginary childhood friend. Berns believed that the song was not commercial enough, so it was relegated to being an LP track on 'Just for You', his second album for Bang. Diamond wrote every song on 'Just For You', and it included his own versions of the hit singles 'I'm A Believer' by The Monkees and 'The Boat That I Row' by Lulu, but it wasn't long before all of the songs on the record had been noticed and covered by other artists, and so this post is Neil Diamond's second album as interpreted by some well-known and some not so well-known artists of the late 60's. To flesh out the post to a reasonable length I've also included the b-sides to a couple of his 1967 singles, taken from his previous album on Bang. 

Track listing

01 Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon (Cliff Richard 1968)
02 The Long Way Home (Quentin E. Klopjaeger With The Gonks 1968)
03 Red Red Wine (Jimmy James And The Vagabonds 1968)
04 You'll Forget (The Wanderer's Rest 1967)
05 The Boat That I Row (Lulu 1967)
06 Cherry Cherry (Wishful Thinking 1967)
07 I'm A Believer (The Monkees 1966)
08 Shilo (Springbok 1971)
09 You Got To Me (Gene Pierson 1968)
10 Solitary Man (The Kitchen Cinq 1967)
11 C'est Pour Vous Que Je Chante (Thank The Lord For The Night Time) (Les Hou-Lops 1967)
12 Oh, No No (I Got The Feeling) (Wool 1972)
13 Do It (Keith Allison 1967)

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 Song
02 The Door Into Summer
03 Auntie's Municipal Court
04 Daily Nightly
05 Can You Dig It?
06 Little Red Rider
07 Tapioca Tundra
08 Love Is Only Sleeping
09 Circle Sky
10 As We Go Along
11 Writing Wrongs
12 Pleasant Valley Sunday
13 All Of Your Toys
14 Zor And Zam

Mike Nesmith - Papa Gene's Blues (1969)

Mike Nesmith was already a singer/songwriter before he was recruited to become one of The Monkees, having written 'Different Drum' in 1965, later to be recorded to great effect by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, and become a Top 20 hit for them in 1967. His talent was obviously recognised by the producers of the show as he was allowed to sing his own 'Papa Gene's Blues' on The Monkees' first album, when the other songs were written by such stalwarts of the Brill Building as Boyce & Hart, David Gates and Goffin & King. From that point on he managed to get at least one of his songs on every Monkees album, often singing them himself, until by the time of 'The Monkees Present' in 1969 he was contributing a quarter of the material. Although he had the greatest solo success with the country-rock of his First National Band, not all his songs were in that style, and included pop, rock and ballads as well. I wondered what an album of just Nesmith songs would sound like, and so chose all the songs that he either wrote and sang, or had a hand in composing, from The Monkees' albums between 1966 and 1969, and it's actually pretty good. 'Listen To The Band' was the first time he was allowed to sing on the A-side of a single, although his 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere' was deemed good enough to appear as the b-side of 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You' in 1967, and by the time that the band made their film 'Head' he was coming up with songs of the calibre of 'Circle Sky'. Mike was always my favourite Monkee, mainly for his laid-back, don't-give-a-shit attitude, but as the TV series and the albums wore on I realised that he was also the most musically talented, which was a big plus for me. While collecting these tracks I found that he actually wrote a number of other songs which were recorded by The Monkees but which were shelved by the record company, and which only recently surfaced on the three CD 'Missing Links' set, and so they will be the basis for a second volume later. 

Track listing

01 Papa Gene's Blues
02 Sweet Young Thing
03 The Kind Of Girl I Could Love
04 Mary, Mary
05 You Told Me
06 The Girl I Knew Somewhere
07 Sunny Girlfriend
08 You Just May Be The One
09 Don't Call On Me
10 Daily Nightly
11 Auntie's Municipal Court
12 Writing Wrongs
13 Magnolia Sims
14 Tapioca Tundra
15 Circle Sky
16 Listen To The Band

Peter Tork - For Pete's Sake (2016)

Although Peter Tork didn't write that many songs while a member of The Monkess, he did come up with one of my very favourites in 'For Pete's Sake'. He was the quiet one of the group, but could also be the funniest, and alongside Mike Nesmith was the most musically talented member of the group. He was a folkie at heart, but threw himself into the pop-orientated medium for the TV show, and so when the band were eventually allowed to write for the albums, his songs reflected his first love. As a tribute following his death at just 77, here's a collection of the songs most associated with him, including songs he wrote or co-wrote, and also songs on which he sang lead or co-lead vocal. He was still contributing songs right up to the band's triumphant come-back album in 2016, penning the mellow 'Little Girl' for 'Good Times!', and I've reviewed that elsewhere as being so much better than it had any right to be. The version of 'Words' on here is an early take, with some tasty backwards guitar on it, and as with the earlier Nesmith album, I've included Tork's contribution to 'Zilch', extracted from the completed take. 'Your Auntie Grizelda' might have been something of a novelty number, but it was Tork's first lead vocal on a Monkees' album, and became something of his party piece at gigs, but by 'Shades Of Grey', which was a co-vocal with Davy Jones, we found that he could be a serious singer as well. 'Justus' wasn't a bad album, and included two fine Tork originals in 'I Believe You' and 'Run Away From Life', but the general consensus is that 'Pool It!' is best avoided, therefore I've omitted Tork's sole contribution to that one, so enjoy the music of this very under-rated but talented musician. 

Track listing

01 Can You Dig It?  (Tork)
02 Shades Of Grey
03 Your Auntie Grizelda
04 For Pete's Sake  (Tork, Richards)
05 Words
06 Zilch  (Tork, Dolenz, Nesmith, Jones)
07 Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again  (Tork)
08 Lady's Baby  (Tork)
09 Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky  (Tork)
10 Goin' Down  (Tork, Dolenz, Nesmith, Jones)
11 Tear The Top Right Off My Head  (Tork)
12 Band 6  (Tork, Dolenz, Nesmith, Jones)
13 Come On In
14 (I Prithee) Do Not Ask For Love
15 I Believe You  (Tork)
16 Little Girl  (Tork)
17 Run Away From Life  (Tork)
18 Wasn't Born To Follow