The Kings of Colgems

The Monkees Annual, published in the UK in 1968 and bought at my primary school jumble sale in 1983

This week’s mix is a special one. Following on from the Beatles mix which I made early last year, I have made one featuring another of my favourite bands from when I was younger — The Monkees.

This is a band that was created for the well-known, eponymous TV series, but is musically important in its own right. While the more pop-focused songs fronted by Davy Jones are perhaps the most familiar, the musical talent in the band was really in Michael Nesmith, whose country music leanings led to a successful post-band career, and Micky Dolenz, a multi-instrumentalist who allowed the band to make songs with some admirably complex musical infusions. The Monkees go way beyond pop, as evidenced in their psychedelic film from 1968, Head, co-written by a young Los Angeles-based actor and screenwriter named Jack Nicholson.

Blessed with musical talent, room to experiment, and some incredible songwriters (including Neil Diamond and Carole King), they are, to me, an important addition to the bands of the 1960s that effortlessly transitioned from pop, through psychedelia, into mature music that stands up today.

Here’s the track listing.

• I Wanna Be Free
• Ditty Diego
• Pleasant Valley Sunday
• Band 6
• Mary Mary
• Six-string Improvisation
• Oh My My
• Writing Wrongs
• Your Auntie Grizelda
• Steppin’ Stone
• Special Announcement
• Birth of an Accidental Hipster
• Mr. Webster
• Valleri
• Fever
• Last Train to Clarksville
• Twelve-string Improvisation
• Head radio ad
• Peter Gunn’s Gun
• Porpoise Song
• What Am I Doin Hangin’ Round
• Goin’ Down
• Jericho
• A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
• Listen To The Band
• Daily Nightly
• Ticket on a Ferry Ride
• For Pete’s Sake

It’s slightly shorter than my other mixes, at 1:10. Hope you like it. It’s embedded below and here’s the direct link to Soundcloud (The rest of my mixes are on Mixcloud).

The title of this blog post refers to what the Monkees called the Beatles — “The Four Kings of EMI” in their song Randy Scouse Git, with Colgems being the Columbia/RCA joint venture record label created to release the Monkees’ songs.