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

Another tidbit to chew on:"Daydream" was to have been an B-Side,"Love Is Only Sleeping" the A,but a mixup in masters forced RCA to make the Flip the A,and took a proposed Lp track for "Pisces..","Goin' Down",and slapped it on the flip instead-Could You even imagine if the original proposed 45 was issued? Don't think it would've had the same impact,I think,Myself!

 

The later version has that weird minor chord change in the chorus that sullies it. It just doesn't work - makes me cringe every time.

 

Yeah, that's exactly what kills "DW" for me, Micky's over-the-top whooping and screaming.
Funny thing is, I really liked it back then, but now it's pretty cringeworthy.

 

I think Micky eventually started singing a lot of stuff "in character" as wacky Monkee Micky. I'm one of the maniacs who thinks that "Shorty Blackwell" has a lot of cool musical ideas happening, but his cutesy, shrill vocals ruin it for me. Of course, he was delivering some of the best performances of his life on "Porpoise Song" and "As We Go Along" at the same time, so who knows?

 

If they had released Love Is Only Sleeping, and then still released Daydream Believer they wouldn't have needed Dee Dubya.

I love the Monkees but D.W. still makes me scratch my head...

 

"Love Is Only Sleeping" is my favorite song on Pisces. I love the arrangement and what Davy and Micky are doing on background vocals. Would it have been a hit? Who knows? It still kind of bewilders me that "Valleri" was a #3 hit in 1968, given that it was an old song by the time it was released -- the original version had been played on TV a year or so before, right? I guess that doesn't really matter. I prefer the original version myself, ditto for "Words."

 

I'm split on which version of "I'll Be Back Upon My Feet" I like better: I'd probably go with the original as far as being the one I personally like better, but for the one that could have made it as a single, I'd probably say the re-recorded version...

 

I saw Peter Tork at the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago last year. The opening act was a student group called "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Norden" from (IIRC) a Monkees CLASS (!?!) at the school, who started the show with a bunch of Monkees songs. They did "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" and their performance followed the arrangement of what I know as the "TV version." I too prefer the original version of the song, but I kind of like the later one too.

 

I love a lot of the earlier versions of some of their songs, but I prefer the later version of "I'll Be Back Upon My Feet" with the beautiful horns and the very cool cuíca.

 

...is that the thing at the beginning that sounds like a monkey grunting?

 

I thought that was Micky singing that part for ages.

 

Through The Looking Glass

 

That would have been a much better choice. Davy was the only one producing commercial sounding pop songs at that point.

 

I used to think it was Nesmith. Really.


Silly me.


By the way, I prefer the second version of that song. I think it is far superior. That minor chord during the chorus makes it that much better. Horns are great too.

 

I thought Nesmith was the voice uttering "aaah!" at the end of "Hard To Believe" for the longest time. But it can't be him, right?

 

I don't believe Nesmith was anywhere near the sessions for that song. Besides, all the instruments where played by that one guy. What's his face?

 

Kim (Kieran) Capli (or Copli as listed on the back cover). There is (or was) a guy here on the forums who knew him.

 

Kim Capli-beat me to the answer by less than a minute

 

It's not something you hear every day.. Monkees leading the way again.

 

Maybe get Al DeLory to put some strings on The Girl I Left Behind Me.

 

I've read that about "Love Is Only Sleeping", but I've also read that they decided not to release it because it might have been too "risque' "... Maybe they really didn't go with it because (at the time) they didn't want to release a single with that trouble making Nesmith on lead vocals J/K

Anyway, as far as the originally intended single: I'm thinking that if "LIOS" was plugged as the "A" side, it would have been a hit because The Monkees were still pretty hot at the time, but I think "DDB" might have become the bigger song anyway and they might have reversed the tune's "A" and "B" side status (the same way "Someday Man" and "Listen To The Band" were "reversed" when "LTTB" was becoming the more popular side...)

 

So I know the fun debate of "What should have been released besides the DW Washburn" on the monkees summer 1968 single pertains to what was available that was finished and realistic but--

What if Nesmith had finished Good Times in early 1968? It's now shored up and slated for release-- nearly 50 years later!

It could not have fared any worse than DW Washburn, correct? It is certainly more upbeat than DW.

 

The release of D.W. Washburn was done for several reasons:

1. It was a summer single, and Sill thought the record had a Lovin' Spoonful / "Daydrream" feel and thought it could be a hit.
Besides, if he wanted, Sill could have recorded more commercial sounding backing tracks (Wasn't Born To Follow - I'll be back upon my feet) in March and got Micky and Davy into the studio to record vocals.

2. Colgems - Screen Gems policies. No Monkee-written song would be an A-Side. Remember that policy didn't stop until 1969. Two, only a Davy or Micky vocal would be considered for an A-Side. Again that stopped in 1969.

3. I think Lester Sill wanted to give his protegees, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, a piece of the Monkee's money pie. They hadn't had a hit in a while and it was a way to earn them some money as well as a sign of friendship.

It's not a bad release on it's own, but it was released at the time of Richard Harris, Herb Alpert, and Serigo Mendes...a very AC list.

However the most obvious song to be a single should have been "Through The Looking Glass."

It fit the Screen Gems policy of single release and would have been seen as a reward for making "Valleri" a success.

BTW: I used to live next to a Bell Records executive. During the Monkees '86 revival, he showed me some old Colgems memos. The real choice for a follow up was "Daddy's Song." The label wanted to jump on the Nilsson-Beatle hype wagon, and thought Davy really nailed the vocal. Bert and Bob said no. They decided to use it for the movie. RCA was premature to take his version off Ariel Ballet.

 

Besides Colgems sigining Bones Howe to be their producer was really the final straw to make them viable. I think that either the Monkees did care so much or the Screen Gems policy changed so they nd his could have creative freedom. Think Snuff Garrett and 1966's troubles.

 

"D.W. Washburn"