Ever make your own "lost" Monkees album?

Okay, so the majority of fans are aware that the most of the studio albums released by The Monkees sans Headquarters, Pisces and a few other drips and drabs were essentially just collections of solo performances by the various members.

With that in mind, has anyone ever tried to assemble further Monkees albums out of the various solo albums and singles? I've created a few and found the results pretty pleasing for the most part. I would love to see other peoples' proposed line-ups.



Monkees 1964-'65:

It Ain't Me Babe (Jones)
The New Recruit (Nesmith)
Don't Do It (Dolenz)
Take Me to Paradise (Jones)
How Can You Kiss Me? (Nesmith)
The Girl from Chelsea (Jones)

Just a Little Love (Nesmith)
Dream Girl (Jones)
Searching (Nesmith)
Huff Puff (Dolenz)
Until It's Time for You to Go (Nesmith)
This Bouquet (Jones)



Monkees 1970-early '72:

Oh Someone (Dolenz)
Silver Moon (Nesmith)
Look at Me (Jones)
Unattended in the Dungeon (Dolenz)
Grand Ennui (Nesmith)
Rainy Jane (Jones)

Road to Love (Jones)
Joanne (Nesmith)
Easy on You (Dolenz)
Girl (Jones)
Dedicated Friend (Nesmith)
Lover's Prayer (Dolenz)



Monkees late 1972-'73:

Mama Rocker (Nesmith)
Ooh She's Young (Dolenz)
Rubberene (Jones)
Release (Nesmith)
Who Was It? (Jones)
Love War (Dolenz)

Different Drum (Nesmith)
Daybreak (Dolenz)
I Can Make You Happy (Jones)
She Still Thinks I Care (Nesmith)
You're a Lady (Jones)
It's Amazing to Me (Dolenz)


Your thoughts? Has anyone assembled one for the later 70s, 80s or beyond?

 

Nothing prior or post Monkees. But I did make myself a Monkees CD-R (long before the deluxe editions came along) with all the wonderful tunes that didn't appear on album (from "All The Kings Horses" to "Someday Man). Still a good listen.

 

I'm not very familiar with the Monkees other than Headquarters and "Pisces..." so I didn't realize they recorded lots and lots of stuff that was never originally released. Was that their decision? Colgems? They must have been in the studio every other day.

 

I believe the decisions of what got released or not was generally left up to Colgems musical directors Don Kirshner (first two albums) and Lester Sill, although the group and producer Chip Douglas did push for a few things to be included on Headquarters.

 

Where's Peter?

Darryl

 

I wish there was something from him to include! I've been hoping he'd go into his storage and polish up and release "Release" for over a decade now.

 

We've made very similar albums.

I prefer to fly in a couple rejected tracks from The Monkees LP sessions and the last Blessing Colpix recordings, but my Early Recordings Of The Monkees album is pretty close to yours:

Early Recordings Of The Monkees (late '66)

SIDE ONE
All The King's Horses
So Goes Love
Don't Do It
Just A Little Love
It Ain't Me Babe
Who Do You Love

SIDE TWO
I Wanna Be Free (Fast Version)
Get Out Of My Life Woman
Huff Puff
How Can You Kiss Me
The Girl From Chelsea
Until It's Time For You To Go

Also, I would have cut It Ain't Me Babe off the re-release of the David Jones album and flown in Take Me To Paradise in it's place. This album would also only be available in mono. A later album, I called Tantamount To Treason, was the Dolenz and Jones MGM singles and tracks from Nesmith's album of the same name.

Tantamount To Treason (late '72)

SIDE ONE
Mama Rocker
Oh, Someone
Who Was It?
A Lover's Prayer
Wax Minute
Unattended In The Dungeon

SIDE TWO
Bonaparte's Retreat
Rubberene
Easy On You
Highway 99 With Melange
You're A Lady

I made an edit in Melange where I flew in bits of the Davy and Micky songs, along with the existing bits of the Nesmith tracks, it's pretty cool. I know the timing's off on the Nesmith tracks, so we'll have to conclude he held onto his tracks while the others caught up. I'll be okay if a couple other of the original Tantamount tracks went out on a single. Nesmith released his solo trilogy and Davy put out his album, too, with Bell before this. They then regrouped for this album, then went back to their solo work.

 

I like your line-ups. We seemed to select a lot of the same tracks, as you pointed out. I still haven't got a copy of the new Monkees Super Deluxe edition, so I wasn't able to add the two new Nez tracks. I find his early stuff to be surprisingly solid though-- "How Can You Kiss Me" in particular is a great early L.A. folk rock track.

 

I have parted out the Nesmith tunes, and they lead off my Nesmith albums collection.

 

What's your track list?

PS- Love your avatar. That's one of my favorite Phil albums.

 

Easy enough. Its Mikes vocals in order of release with the Missing Links tracks salted in approximating the recording date, with the Nashville sessions ending it. Leads nicely into the First National Band album.

 

From this thread: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/alternate-fantasy-monkees-albums.188735/page-13

OK, it was a tough challenge, but I think I made a listenable Monkees “New Millennium” playlist.

I started with Davy. His 2 CDs “Just Me 2” & “She” are pretty terrible. It’s Davy going through the motions with someone playing all the instruments on a cheesy keyboard. Uninspired stuff. Fortunately, I found 2 songs on i-tunes. “Amore” which is pretty good and, “Your Personal Penguin” which is a fun kid’s tune. “She” was the only tolerable tune off his 2 CDs IMO.

Peter’s CDs are more fun, but Peter’s vocals are . . . an acquired taste. “Bound to loose” is a decent tune and it has Peter on Banjo. I tried to stay away from remakes, but this version of “For Pete’s Sake” is pretty good. I didn’t take anything from the 1st Blue Suede shoes CD, but I took “Easy Rider” from his most recent CD with James Stanley. Nice harmonies.

Mike only released “Rays” and about half those tunes are instrumentals. I stuck to songs with vocals, choose my 3 favorites and had to edit the fades since on the CD many songs run together. The CD is very unMonkee but I think the 3 I picked don’t stick out too bad.

Micky’s 2 CD’s were “King For A Day” & “Remember”. I like the second much better. Again, I tried to stay away from remakes (“Prithee” is really good though). I like the 2 non-covers from Remember so I picked them.

Although I had my doubts along the way, overall I think this playlist works. Try it! All the songs are on i-tunes.

1. Many Years - Mickey Dolenz

2. Bound To Loose - Peter Tork And Shoe Suede Blues

3. Boomcar - Michael Nesmith

4. Do Not Ask For Love - Mickey Dolenz

5. Amore - Davy Jones

6. For Pete's Sake - Peter Tork And Shoe Suede Blues

7. Quiet Desperation - Mickey Dolenz

8. She - Davy Jones

9. East Rider – James Lee Stanley & Peter Tork

10. Rays - Michael Nesmith

11. Crying In The Rain (Featuring Coco Dolenz) - Micky Dolenz

12. Your Personal Penguin - Davy Jones

13. There It Is - Michael Nesmith

14. Remember - Mickey Dolenz

 

Excellent! This was just the sort of post I was looking for in this thread. I'm going to try to procure the tracks I don't already have and assemble this. It's nice to finally have some songs from Peter to work with.

 

Does anybody happen to know when Davy's version of "Man We Was Lonely" from JFTR2 was recorded?

 

If this is helpful, Jason, I have 1971 listed in my notes, but (this was years ago) I do not recall where I located that information

 

Thanks! It likely has to be either 1971 or '72. Things like writing credits and dates are notoriously hard to come by for lots of Davy's solo stuff. I have a list of songs I'm trying to track down info for, but I won't bore the board with it.

 

That was supposedly part of a 1971 demo he recorded to schlep around to record labels. Other songs were his demos of "Rainy Jane", "Fire And Rain" and "Rainmaker" etc.

 

Ahhh, cheers! You have now definitively answered a question that the entire internet could not solve for me.

Unfortunately I already went and included that song on my late '72-'73 comp.

Somewhat off topic, but since we're discussing Davy's solo stuff, does anyone agree with me that these demos absolutely slay what came out on the Bell album and its follow-up singles? I find Davy a surprisingly convincing singer-songwriter type (even if he didn't write most of these particular songs to the best of my knowledge).

 

AGREED!
I think you, GV1967, and I could discuss this topic, and many other Monkees topics, all day long...

Also, a big thank you to everyone on this board, including Mr. Hoffman, who makes this so enjoyable.
Seriously, this is the most I ever smile when staring at a computer screen!
Happy and healthy wishes for the new year to all of you!

P.S. If anyone (Mr. Velez, GV1967, Wade, BobT, and all of the other Monkees experts here) can confirm, add, or correct (song titles or songwriting credits) the list of David Thomas Jones' early 1970's non-LP recordings:
Man We Was Lonely (Paul McCartney) 2:12 1971
King Lonely the Blue(Doc Pomus/Bob Andriani) 2:46 1971
Bye Bye Brown Eyes (Roger Cook/Roger Greenway) 2:27 ’72-‘73
Feeling Good a.k.a. Dragonfly (Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley) 4:35 ’72-‘73
Kansas (?) 1:06 ’72-‘73
Bath a.k.a. Leaving Here This Morning (Harry Nilsson) 1:43 ’72-‘73
Was It a Dream? (?) 2:49 ’72-‘73
Fire and Rain (James Taylor) 3:20 ’72-‘73
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You (Bob Dylan) 2:22 ’72-‘73
Blossom (James Taylor) 1:55 ’72-‘73
Rainmaker (Harry Nilsson/Bill Martin) 2:41 ’72-‘73
Thank Heaven for Little Girls (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe) 2:15 ’72-‘73
Yeah be Yeah (David Jones) 2:17 ’72-‘73
Bluebird (in My Garden) (David Jones) 2:05 ’72-‘73
Butterfly (David Jones) 1:47 ’72-‘73
I'm Coming Home (David Jones) 1:29 ’72-‘73
Cried My Heart Out (David Jones) 1:39 ’72-‘73
Makes Me Feel Fine (David Jones) 2:18 ’72-‘73
Goodbye Old Friends (David Jones) 2:33 ’72-‘73
Photograph (of Someone That I Knew) (David Jones) 1:53 ’72-‘73
Please Believe Me (David Jones) 2:18 ’72-‘73
I Feel Blue (David Jones) 0:30 1972
Didn't Do Today (Takes 1 & 2) (David Jones) 2:04/2:00 1972
Put Another Log on the Fire (Takes 1 & 2) (David Jones) 2:08/2:30 1972
I Can Understand It Easily (David Jones) 1:55 1973
I Can Make You Happy(Danny Janssen/Sue Steward)1:50 1973
They Will Make My Song a Number One (David Jones) 0:58 1973
Country Woman (Maurice Gibb) 1:15 1973
Things We Said Today (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) 1:59 1973
Clowns (?) 2:37 1973

 

Was "Things We Said Today" ever officially released? I'd love to hear that! Are there any other songs on this list that didn't make it on to the "Just For The Record" series? Thanks!!!

 

I currently don't own any of the following, and my Davy Jones solo library is quite extensive. Wow, I can't believe I actually just publically admitted to that last bit, but there you go!

I Feel Blue (David Jones) 0:30 1972
Didn't Do Today (Takes 1 & 2) (David Jones) 2:04/2:00 1972
Put Another Log on the Fire (Takes 1 & 2) (David Jones) 2:08/2:30 1972
I Can Understand It Easily (David Jones) 1:55 1973
They Will Make My Song a Number One (David Jones) 0:58 1973
Country Woman (Maurice Gibb) 1:15 1973
Things We Said Today (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) 1:59 1973
Clowns (?) 2:37 1973

("I Can Make You Happy" wasn't on JFTR but did appear on a compilation I have titled "Rare Tapes".)