TAXI.com

If you ever wished you could have just one more honest-to-God Monkees album, prepare to be thoroughly shocked, amazed and ...satisfied.

Yeah, guilty pleasure and all, but we take our pleasures where we find 'em, and you can find the Monkees on Spotify. Happy 50th, Prefab Four!

For more: http://www.monkees.com/

I LOVED the Monkees! Never had any albums though - of anything!! No Beatles albums, Beach Boys, Hendrix, nothin - Just my elder sister's singles. Not sure if it was cause we were so darn poor or simply because the UK was always a very singles based market. A bit of both I expect. But I've been playing catch up ever since. If it wasn't for Youtube I wouldn't even know half the Beatles album tracks ML grew up studying.

But The Monkees had that TV show us kids all loved. They had great characters.

There was a good documentary about The Monkees not that long ago - If I remember correctly they got a bit cocky and thought they could write songs just as good as the pro writers who gave them their first hits - Things got heated, wrote their own 2nd album I think, didn't do well and that spoiled the otherwise great thing they had going.

Weren't they the first "manufactured" band, handpicked for their personalities as much as anything, ALA The Spice Girls etc? It's all valid in my book.

Can't find that documentary but here's a similar one when you've got an hour to spare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSGrQijLcaY

I particularly relate to the GUILTY PLEASURE comment - I have to play Barbie Girl with the windows shut! But I'm a EURO POP fan so you'll probably hate me now. Completely straight but I just LOVE cheesy, fun, almost gay music - I dunno why - Oh, and ACDC, a complete opposite.

Still like their main hit songs but try to steer clear of TOO much nostalgia as I hear enough of it accidentally, played in pubs while setting up a DJ friend's gear, endlessly playing 60's music, or 80's, and on my Dad's radio that used to play "MR BLUE SKY" about once per hour before he passed away - I love it but it drove me NUTS - I think I'd pass away too if I was forced to listen to old hits all the time and nothing else.

I like a VARIETY. - I do like modern music much more if I'm honest - No, that's an unfair statement - let me backtrack - Oh, I'm not sure now. Think I'd better shut up!

One of my elder sisters who's records I used to play till I could start buying my own, refuses to listen to any modern music "turn that rubbish off" "it all sounds the same" - which clearly isn't true unless we're daft enough to only listen to one kind of music - Yet she'll try to get me to come and watch THE TREMOLOES (SILENCE IS GOLDEN ETC) playing at a family fun day or whatever and it irks me that she won't give modern music a chance - but quite happy to go and watch very old men who used to be famous, who she probably used to fancy. I don't get why older people generally become so convinced THEIR music was the best era when they stopped even listening at 21...

...She has LITERALLY never eve heard of Mike Oldfield / Tubular bells - It's a bit shocking.

That must be when she stopped listening. Other sister the same - If it ain't Motown, it sucks. Even denies liking Hendrix now but I played her records to death so I know she did. Family arguments ensue!

The Monkees could've easily won your favourite song competition Mojo!

Just kiddin - I know you hate Eurovision, KINDA understand why but it's moved on a lot lately and Taxi members could be missing out on some great opportunities as Americans can and do enter and win.

Nobody seems to be aware of that, not even an important looking American songwriter website, saying the exact opposite.

So how did Diane Warren get in, and all the US winners, songwriters and singers? Tons of them. Why not a US TAXI member? What Taxi member doesn't want 204 Million people hearing their song sang live? Used to be more like 300M+ The craziness lost some fans.

But the Monkees were PERFECT for the format as it was in the 60's / 70's - Could've swept the board because they appealed to all ages - a bit like the Beatles did I guess until they got a bit weird by some people's standards. Eurovision is essentially FAMILY entertainment, hence the massive variety and very showy, sometimes funny.

I think PUNK threw the biggest spanner in the works as far as POP is concerned - I loved punk too but it did spoil the "guilty pleasure" of innocent pop songs, just darn good fun songs - Pop suddenly became a dirty word, a "guilty" pleasure.

A lot of EDM in the ESC in recent years and Sweden playing a massive role in pop worldwide obviously, Max Martin and all that, - but Michael laughed his socks off when I said a great EDM track he'd just played sounded like the music they play while acts are walking on the Eurovision stage - It wasn't meant as a joke, but glad if it cheered him up. It was actually meant as a compliment to the Taxi member as it would have fitted right alongside the 12 Avicii LEVELS type tracks they played during that section in the 2015 show.

It's surprising how many Americans actually enter and win as songwriters or singers, representing other nations. There's a lot more American involvement in Eurovision than most people realize - and a lot more US hits - at least 4 major hits, 13 US singers, 2 US song winners, 1 US host, Justin Timberlake guested, Celine Dion and ONJ did well out of it, Abba obviously, RIVERDANCE a spectacular success worldwide, spawning the craze for Celtic music

Diane warren entered but was let down by Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical style, I feel, although she did improve our score.

Diane Warren Eurovision interview - Speaking generally about her songwriting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcKThpgIj34
The song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBykhFyy-ZE

Julie Frost won for Germany with SATELLITE, sang by LENA - I didn't realize it was American! The second American winner - I'm still trying to find what the first American song was to win. Any clues???

SATELLITE...
Your original American version sang by Julie Frost herself...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELJFxcP ... LJFxcPW00Q
Sang live by LENA for GERMANY 2010 winner...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qnsZgQe1tU
After winning - The happiness all thanks to Julie but she is nowhere to be seen - America deserves a mention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkRmKKnIHGA
Katrina (and the waves) won for us hopeless Uk'ers and she was brilliant, really helped us out.

Personally I'd love America to be allowed to enter officially as Australia has finally been allowed to - and nearly won - and deserved to win TBH - But Oz has been broadcasting the ESC for 33 years, 50% of the country watch -
Unfortunately the US only just started broadcasting it live but KIDS (teens +) have caught on quick there and say they feel left out, "Why aren't we IN it!?"

They are - Just not in an obvious way. The songwriters don't get the fame - barely even a mention any more!

Their reaction is hilarious, seeing it for the first time ...

YOUTUBERS REACT TO EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAiAsGfWSr0

Australia's entry - Were they robbed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ymFX91HwM0

Gotta dash now but one thing Taxi members might enjoy studying is the 252 expert judges votes which are PUBLISHED for our scrutiny on the ESC site, - so we can compare just how different the experts verdicts are to the general public of their own nations, see what a vast difference there often is. It's just interesting for a songwriter, that's all.

Gotta dash - Hope you haven't minded me gas bagging and going OT.

Steve

No worries; going off topic is a bit of an art form, hereabouts.

I didn't care for the Monkeys at all.

The Beatles? I have maybe one young childhood memory, and that was standing in the front bench seat of an old Pontiac, listening and singing to "she love's you yeah,yeah, yeah", on the radio with my aunt in the pharmacy parking lot waiting on my mom. I've not really listened to the Beatles much
They do have a couple of good songs.

This is a cool concert from the archives. Beatles, The Who, Kinks, Rolling Stones, The Animals....
https://youtu.be/sBxdgxx4fag

http://www.nme.com/awards/history/1966

Hi again all - I'm a bit new to this posting lark, avoiding all social media type things normally because I'm an "aspie", short for Asperger's Syndrome, a kind of autism that's not meant to be that bad - Depends who's got it! Basically, it just makes me the most nervous person you ever met.

The worst aspect is that I genuinely haven't got a clue when I'm breaking social etiquette - so I just checked the rules of the forum, a tad late, then panicked thinking I'd committed a cardinal sin by adding you tube links to material I don't own - (reading the bit about not uploading material you don't own - Not sure what it means exactly as I'm not sure how you'd upload any actual material - so I just GUESSED maybe it means we can't post links to stuff that isn't ours)

A bit relieved to then see those interesting links, Len, to NME award shows - so hopefully YT links are OK after all. Phew. Don't wanna be banned for a daft mistake.

Those look interesting, Len - Got a slight shudder when Jimmy Saville made an appearance though - perhaps you'd have to Google why though rather than me try to explain - He is no longer a popular guy here - Quite the opposite. Again, I;m conscious that to explain why may break a forum rule, although he is now dead anyway and what I am alluding to is very well known.

It's actually a relief to hear someone who doesn't like the Beatles, even though I do. There are plenty of Scousers (Liverpudlians) who can't stand them, which always seems a bit ironic. I loved them when I was 5 or 6 through to early teens when Marc Bolan, T.Rex, The Sweet, David Bowie, Gary Glitter (another one no-one likes to talk about - no comment) and a few other "Glam rock" acts got me excited again -

Those NME shows look particularly interesting to me cause I've got a few thousand NME etc magazine/newspapers dated from 1961 to the 90's all kept in date order and nice and clean - I just wish I could share them with people because they make such fascinating reading and the colour printing of those early papers was amazingly vivid - Elvis leaps off the page - And the journalism was a lot more matter of fact, less opinionated or pretentious than it became in the 70's. I think they were just trying to fill pages with University student style critique - more like spitefulness & hate in many cases - to compensate for the dramatic increase in advertising flared jeans, punk rock badges and clobber, disco lights. Each years pile gets thicker and thicker for that reason.

Steve

Pardon me for asking, but are we ever gonna forgive the Monkees for not being the Beatles? Schmaltz was part of Vaudeville, boy bands are a staple of pop music; the Beatles were themselves marketed as a boy band, and people only found out later that the songwriting team(s) was in the band; such an innovation that the Monkees sadly lacked, or so it was thought. Tork, Dolenz and The Nez have turned in some great work, over the years, (yes, some of it is comparable to Diane Warren and Neil Diamond) and I think that makes the fact that they were essentially foisted on unsuspecting teenagers of the era irrelevant. That rhymes with "elephant", and...yet another Monkees skit is born, if you still have the imagination for it. Certainly the Beatles' legendary cheekiness inspired all that followed, but the Prefab Four were given unprecedented access to the minds of small American children like me. And look how I turned out!

Forgive the Monkees? How about give credit to the wrecking crew??

https://youtu.be/hhl-3EOYTkc

When I get time I hope to check out some of that material Mojo, written by the Monkees band members you mentioned - I didn't know they had top songs later - sounds like they deserve a respectful close listen.

TBH, I never actually perceived them (as a kid fan) as having any connection whatsoever with the Beatles (I think we should be fined a quid or a dollar every time we mention the B***** - I get sick of hearing about them, regardless of liking them a lot at the time) - To me, they were completely separate things - probably because I was just a bit ignorant at that age of how the world works, parodies, or whatever. I just enjoyed them for what they were.

Incidentally - I'm so ignorant I didn;t even know the phrase "prefab four" - eventually googled it and made the connection. Ah! I did laugh my head off seeing The Ruttles hopping in and out of Taxi's and ten or 20 minutes more but then got bored of the joke and should be working anyway. But I get that the Monkee's were first to extract the hiss out of the B****** - if that really was the intention - I just didn;t get that angle as a kid, just loved them and their singles - Like I say, never got to hear albums of anything in those days. Didn;t even hear stereo til I was 19 - what a disappointment after all the hi fi books led me to expect to feel the artist was right in front of me. Just as happy with mono most of the time therefore. But this is a guy who often had to listen to records the Edison way, after he went deaf - ie pencil between teeth (I no long have any! - Teeth, not pencils! Typical Brit not looking after nashers) - and a needle in the other end tracking the groove - or shredding it more like. But it did actually work great if you stuck your fingers in your ears!!! Just very hard to dance while doing all these things.

I'll shut up. Supposed to be demolishing "studio" - Local authority not happy about all the sound insulation. Say all that (mostly fireproof) material is a fire hazard. Think neighbour is just tryna get me evicted.

Ste

Len911 wrote:Forgive the Monkees? How about give credit to the wrecking crew??

https://youtu.be/hhl-3EOYTkc

I love me some Wrecking Crew; I think Denny Tedesco is a forum member.

Going 'public' with the recommendation to check out the Micky Dolenz CD (I think 2012-ish)
Remember - with guest guitarist Phil Keaggy; produced by David Harris.
Ol' Micky can still sing and belt 'em out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfoDvYNNBkQ