Monkees- Instead of D.W. Washburn what should the single have been?

Sorry if this has been posted before but here's a great short article on how "It's Nice to be with you" became a pop reggae classic:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090621/ent/ent5.html


Also, did you know Anne Murray covered it?




(My favorite verison is the one from Live in Japan, btw!)

 

Random thoughts from a Monkee fan.......
In the early 90's there was a song by Arrested Development called Mr. Wendal. It got to #6 in the charts. It is a teeny bit like D.W. Washburn would you say? In my opinion it is. Reminded me of D.W. Washburn because the storyline of both deals with homeless people never mind the reason.......

 

I remember Anne Murray doing "Daydream Believer". What a great singer she was....sounded a lot like Karen Carpenter to me.

 

At best, I tolerate "DW Washburn"... I'm not sure what I would have picked in its place, but I think of all the original (60s era) singles, it's probably the worst one, although "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" is right up there breathing down DW's neck...

 

Lester Sill,who'd made the choice of issuing it,said later in 1990,before He'd passed away,He'd later regretted his decision to had done so,never realizing it was about a "Homeless Sot" as He'd put it! Two other Tracks were recorded at the same session," You're A Big Ball Of Fire,AKA I didn't Know You Had In You,Sally" and "Shake 'Em Up (And Roll Em)",two more Lieber/Stoller written tunes they'd did with The Coasters!

 

D.W. Washburn > Every other Monkees song

 

I've yet to hear "I Didn't Know You Had It In You, Sally" (I didn't know about the RHINO "bonus 45" release of that song until after the fact), so I can't comment on that one... The Monkees cut of "Shake 'Em Up" is tolerable but far from being great...

 

I'm guessing "D.W. Washburn" lovers like me, also love the McCartney "Granny Tracks" - you know, "You Gave Me The Answer", "When I'm 64", "Honey Pie", "English Tea"... like me.

And those what can't stand "D.W." also dislike McCartney's brit-music hall or "twee" stuff.

Thoughts?

Jeff

 

For me, I just don't care all that much for "DW Washburn" in the grand scheme of Monkees singles: I just think that there had to be something better that they could have released at the time, especially as an "A" side...

I don't mind the Beatles/McCartney songs you mentioned though, just like I don't mind The Monkees (well, Mike Nesmith's Monkees era) cut of "Daddy's Song" with it's "Roaring 20's" type of vocals...

 

I love all those tracks and those Kinks songs that have a similar feel.

 

Always look on the sunny side of life!... even when you're on the slide...

Agreed.

Jeff

 

Not true with me!
I like the English music-hall 'granny' stuff Paul did!
Bit I do not like DW Washburn at all! It's a bad carbon copy of "granny" music!

 

Washburn was really something different, being based in R&B, more of an Apollo Theater thing. But even in the Drifters version (which is better), hardly the greatest thing Lieber & Stoller wrote in this vein.

 

Yeah that is right about the song itself.
The Monkees' production is a bad carbon copy of music-hall 'granny' genre.

 

True. The real producer was likely Shorty Rogers who also came out of R&B and jazz, but his work for the Monkees was terrible.

 

Here's that cover of It's Nice To Be With You by Boris Gardiner



I like it better than the Monkees arrangement, less heavy sounding.

The Monkees have a great catalog, but in a lot of cases the arrangements on the songs don't help. The Birds, Bees box set proved to me that they should have kept Chip Douglas, or else should have got another contemporary producer to work with.

They had a lot of good songs to work with, but often those songs were treated to lesser musical arrangements that made them sound like a worse song. Part of that is the Monkees themselves choices and partly it's record company people like Lester Sill or whoever.

Who knows how D.W. Washburn would have come out if Chip Douglas was around (ironically he might be playing bass on it!) or if Mike Nesmith had produced it!

I think that given the same song choices, with different musical arrangements and producers, the results could have been much much better.

 

I don't know what this statement has to do with the ongoing discussion (and I'm not really interested in that), but you need to bear in mind that at the time of Head, Nicholson was a struggling B-movie writer / producer who did some acting work to pay the bills. His greatest achievement at that point was the brace of westerns he'd made with Monte Hellman, neither of which had been released in the US, and neither of which would ever see a US theatrical release. Compared to the majority of the Monkees' collaborators, he was a nobody in 1967/68.

 

The scatted section is the chorus, isn't it? No conventional lyrics, but still a singalong chorus.

 

"Carlisle Wheeling / Tear The Top Right Off My Head"


Or- as the flip side- the Chip Douglas produced version of "We Were Made For Each Other". Would have just needed to get Jones in the studio to finish it.

 

He was a professional entertainer who the band worked well with in 1968. That was my point. It does not matter what his stature was in 1968. He was a professional then who has proved to be one of the most critically acclaimed professionals since.

 

I've grown fonder of DW over the years - I like the quirkyness of it, but it should have been the flip, with I'll be Back Upon My Feet from BBM as the A-side IMHO. Considering how everything was fracturing for the Monkees at that time, they still managed to put out some brilliant material that in hindsight, is much more acclaimed and appreciated these days - remembering the fact, they were never supposed to be an ACTUAL band, but they pulled it off pretty good for a while!

 

The backing track for "Sally" (written by Randell / Linzer) was recorded in winter 1967 with vocals added during summer 1969. "Shake 'Em Up" was recorded after "Washburn" (as a possible follow up).

 

Not getting involved with this debate but I must correct you here. Both Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork are playing on "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (Dolenz is most likely on acoustic there) and "Daydream Believer".

 

If you would like to hear what a finished Monkees version of "I Was Not Born To Follow" could have sounded like, check out this rendition by The Lemon Pipers. It's nearly the same arrangement.