Happy birthday!

This was posted by Al Jardine on facebook:



Happy Birthday Mike Love, have a wonderful day with your family and wishing you lots of happiness and good vibes! Al & Mary Ann Jardine


Nice gesture I think.

Very nice.

Nevertheless a good song and one that I'm surprised M&B don't make room for in the setlist more often.

I imagine it'll be part of the UK sets in a couple of months.  I like it too.

Curious. I was born in '85. Did it do well over here?

Monkee bashing continues among people of a certain age because the group didn't come together organically the way bands were supposed to, they didn't play on the records at the start, and they were the faves of the teen magazines. This argument is old, I'm tired of laying out the defense for the Monkees, if you don't like their music, don't listen to it. If you hate the tv show, don't watch it.

People love to be negative. The whole Internet is that way.

Which leads to people defending their positions time and time again. Feels like I've been defending the Monkees - and the Beach Boys, Paul Revere and the Raiders, etc - all my life. You can't win an argument like this. People already have their minds made up, mostly based on misinformation, there's no chance of persuading them that they might be wrong.

What pisses me off is that these imbeciles feel the need to blarp out their crap at every available opportunity. Hmmm, a Monkees thread...who's going to  be posting in that. Do you suppose, perhaps....Monkees fans? So what, one guy who hates them thinks he's going to change everyone's opinions or something?

I'm pacing the floor.

Stick with what you're good at, as they say.

Not horrible, not great, kind of schmaltzy to me.

Unabashedly. I'm a sucker for that.

I prefer to think of myself as the Sarah Palin.

So you are an ideologist! So far I thought you were just someone with firm points of view.

I meant I am hot and opinionated.

Or it means you look like a tranny. Which is okay, to each his or her own.

I do enjoy throwing on a dress for the odd occasion. You know Halloween, Kiwanis skit, Say Yes To The Dress season premiere,...

Hey, me too. Doesn't seem fair that women can wear pants no problem but a man in a dress is still so taboo. I like a little breeze between the knees, y'know?


Nicko, do you honestly believe Mike would have answered the questions I laid out? I sure as hell don't. Maybe I should have tried regardless, and if he had just done it here I would have. I just didn't feel like wasting time to join some other forum I'll never visit to ask some questions that'd just get ignored anyway. Based on the fact that Mike seemed to stick to the old talking points I'd say I made the right call.

Well, for the sake of 5 minutes of your time, we and you will never know. Yeah, good call.

I did NOT say that Davy Jones was a jerk.  

No, you just implied it, dumped ass all over his career, refused to give evidence and f***ed off. Like a sterling, classy person who should be seen as a great barometer for baseless and unsolicited judgement calls on much beloved dead performers.

Production-wise it sounds a bit out of place on 15 Big Ones

Oh absolutely. I believe that was my experience listening to 15 Big Ones for the first time, all these pretty good but uninspired ho-hum covers and then hey! Something new. And pretty good too.

I was just speaking about Heaven on another thread and it reminded me - does anyone have a link to Carl & Myrna Smith performing that on TV? It definitely used to be up but I haven't been able to find it lately. From The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder or something like that.

I'd love Brian to perform Carl's 'Heaven' live. His version released on his website was really nice. Has he ever played it live?

Curious for some thoughts on this song. I know it's quite often maligned, perhaps a little unfairly I think. Cheesy, yes, but I find much to enjoy in the vocal performance and arrangement.

One thing that spoiled it for me is learning the story behind it. I'd been enjoying the song for a couple of years before I heard that. I'm someone who has practiced TM, so I've nothing against it per se, I just liked it better when I thought the song was about a 'that girl'. The one who has the attention of everyone in the room, everyone men & women alike can't help loving her a little, but she herself seems beautifully oblivious. We all know one. I sure as hell do.

I think the song tries to tread that ambiguous line - kind of like a lot of religious music aiming for secular crossover potential does actually, where the subject of the song could be a woman or it could be God/Jesus.

But the lyrics make much more sense in the TM interpretation and once you know that was the inspiration you can't hear it any other way. Now when I hear it I can't help but picture Mike with bluebirds flying around his head while he sees Maharishi in soft focus from across the room. Nevertheless a good song and one that I'm surprised M&B don't make room for in the setlist more often.

I believe he is.

Those photos from Facebook? He's looking good for 74. He honestly should ditch the hats, he's a pretty good looking older man without 'em.

Happy birthday Mike

As for Mickey and Davy?  I'll supply NO detail.  

Good, nobody asked you to. Besides, essentially saying a dead guy was a jerk and offering no explanation tells us all we need to know about the whole thing.

Behold this shitty video of a supremely talentless 69 year old singing crap songs aimed at 8 year old girls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK-9ZRDCPxY

I don't have time to argue with you.  Your dismissal of Stephen Stills and Danny Hutton in favour of Mickey Dolenz says it all.  The Monkees were...primarily...for the amusement of little girls and their parents.

It must make things so much easier to know you have the only and correct opinion. You met Micky and weren't impressed huh? I doubt he was either to be fair.

Hmmm, by cracky I can't think of a single one outta the bunch. Oh well...

Come on OSD - I bet if you had some truth serum, you'd come clean with all those Mike leads you love...

Your bark is worse than your bite I bet!  

Could be, but I've been so over the nasal, teenage dronings of the luHvster for decades now. It was fun for awhile in high scholl and a few years after that but quite honestly, while growing up, I grew out of most of the sand, surf, and beach thing. Every fan ages to their own beat.

Not even Here Today or That's Not Me?

Pet Sounds is da bomb-my favorite however, all they way back to the initial listening, I always wondered why Brian didn't use Al  or Carl instead of the luhvster on those tunes.  

Probably because Brian thinks/thought Mike had some vocal talent suited to the song.

I suspect you wonder that a lot to be honest. We could probably trace it all the way back to wondering why a different sperm didn't make it to Mike's mom's egg. Hey, I'm coming to a conclusion here....and I don't want to put words in your mouth but......I'm starting to think you don't like Mike?

Ya think???  

I'm not sure. Post about it another 200 times or so just for clarifications sake on your position?

Tell ya what son, let's make it an even 400 - if that doesn't get it done, we'll go the full 12 rounds. 

I imagine by the time you hit 400 your bitterness will have eaten you alive. Or if by then Mike's no longer around you'll have finally got around to picketing his funeral Westboro style with 'God Hates Mike' signs and got it out of your system.

He told you.

Not really. He dodged the question and rephrased his answer to a previous question. Most people's greatest regrets involve mistakes they've made or things they wish they didn't do. I guess Mike has transcended all that and is a perfect being free of such petty human errors. Remorse? Bah! The f*cker can levitate. What could he possibly have done to feel repentant about?

It'd just be refreshing to see the guy fess up to making a mistake or two, acting a little out of line once, getting drunk at an awards show, that kind of thing. Rather than pointing out once again that his cousins did drugs decades ago.

Amen. A substantial part of why there is a great deal of well-documented frustration towards the man, to put it mildly, is because he never publicly admits to doing anything wrong. And I mean ever. It's always somebody else who takes the fall. I should add that it drives me crazy to know people who are like that in general, it's not exclusive to Mike by any means. That's one of the worst traits a person can have.

Exactly. That's my one real complaint with him. I could forget everything else if he just acted a bit more humbly and self-awareness for once. His hardcore defenders on here too, if you would just give an *inch* and admit that the man isn't perfect it'd go a long way.

So you think when he basically admitted he'd been an alcoholic at one point, he wasn't saying there was anything wrong with that?

Brian Wilson did not go cold turkey after Landy took over in 1975.

I meant cold turkey from Landy, Landy being the drug Brian needed for a period to get him through and that eventually would have killed him in the metaphor I was going for.

Hmmm, by cracky I can't think of a single one outta the bunch. Oh well...

Come on OSD - I bet if you had some truth serum, you'd come clean with all those Mike leads you love...

Your bark is worse than your bite I bet!  

Could be, but I've been so over the nasal, teenage dronings of the luHvster for decades now. It was fun for awhile in high scholl and a few years after that but quite honestly, while growing up, I grew out of most of the sand, surf, and beach thing. Every fan ages to their own beat.

Not even Here Today or That's Not Me?

Pet Sounds is da bomb-my favorite however, all they way back to the initial listening, I always wondered why Brian didn't use Al  or Carl instead of the luhvster on those tunes.  

Probably because Brian thinks/thought Mike had some vocal talent suited to the song.

I suspect you wonder that a lot to be honest. We could probably trace it all the way back to wondering why a different sperm didn't make it to Mike's mom's egg. Hey, I'm coming to a conclusion here....and I don't want to put words in your mouth but......I'm starting to think you don't like Mike?

Ya think???  

I'm not sure. Post about it another 200 times or so just for clarifications sake on your position?

People like to divide people into good and bad. Truth is, as anyone who's been around the block will know, everyone you meet will vacillate between the two to varying degrees. Landy's influence on Brian seems more comparable to a drug or alcohol addiction. It began as something needed to get Brian through the day, to help him function and eventually it's grip on him became near fatal and he had to go cold turkey or die.

Pool It came up in one of the BBs threads and I thought I'd use this one rather than derailing the former. It's one of the only Monkees albums I've never listened to. Is it as bad as people say or is a lot of it to do with disappointment that they reverted to session musicians and outside writers. Or both?

This was a nice interview. It wasn't particularly enlightening, but there was nothing unpleasant to hear either. If anything, it was slightly boring because of the lack of revelations, but that's forgivable.  A couple of thoughts:

-- Asked about POB, Mike talked about his lyrics and then took a turn into talking about environmental songs. He didn't express any thoughts about Dennis' work on the album. Based on some of his other comments (like his comment on In the Back of My Mind), he's not really into raw, emotional, introspective songs, so I guess that makes sense.

--He again emphasized the positivity of the Beach Boys' catalog (and Wink added "No message songs, just fun songs"), which ignores the aspect of the music that captivated a lot of the fans-- the sense of longing, the melancholy, the expression of insecurities and uncertainties, etc.

--I was pleased that he didn't say anything negative about today's music.  In fact, he had nice things to say about Adele, Katy Perry , and Amy Winehouse. When asked why today's music doesn't stay on top of the charts for as long as it did in the 60s, he mentioned changes in radio, which I think is a big part of it.

I think there was a definite sense of 'if you can't say something nice...' about it, but it didn't seem to forced.

Wink did a great job in my opinion, but then I've always been a sucker for that old-school professional broadcaster style.

Hmmm, by cracky I can't think of a single one outta the bunch. Oh well...

Come on OSD - I bet if you had some truth serum, you'd come clean with all those Mike leads you love...

Your bark is worse than your bite I bet! 

Could be, but I've been so over the nasal, teenage dronings of the luHvster for decades now. It was fun for awhile in high scholl and a few years after that but quite honestly, while growing up, I grew out of most of the sand, surf, and beach thing. Every fan ages to their own beat.

Not even Here Today or That's Not Me?

Pet Sounds is da bomb-my favorite however, all they way back to the initial listening, I always wondered why Brian didn't use Al  or Carl instead of the luhvster on those tunes. 

Probably because Brian thinks/thought Mike had some vocal talent suited to the song.

I suspect you wonder that a lot to be honest. We could probably trace it all the way back to wondering why a different sperm didn't make it to Mike's mom's egg. Hey, I'm coming to a conclusion here....and I don't want to put words in your mouth but......I'm starting to think you don't like Mike?

I was hoping there'd be weirder screen names for Wink to say.  Would've been great with that classic 50's radio voice:  "And now a question from RottenApplez420..."

 

Still, the interview allowed us to hear Mike speak the actual words "smoke weed", which I don't think I've ever heard him say before. So at least there's that.

Very true.  I was surprised to hear him say that.  

Wink: "...or as we called them in my day: jazz cigarettes!"

I would very, very much like to know what it was like to hang out with a stoned Mike Love.

I'd like to picture him singing "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen", and then cracking up.

I think a little more weed would've done him good.

Wonder what high Al would be like too?

Like Al, is my guess.

Relaxed and personable, which is what in needed to be. Nicely put together too, the 2 camera setup looks great. The Warmth Of The Sun question that I couldn't remember if I asked or not got answered too - although by someone else I think!