I hope you enjoy them- 2 very fun sets to own. The backing tracks on Instant Replay are really quite good.
I will! Thanks I’m excited. I wish the rest were affordable! Well $60 affordable I mean. Who wants to shell out $300+ for BBM? That would be very hard for me to do. Maybe I’ll luck out someday. At least I’ll be able to purchase Headquarters and PAC&J deluxe editions when they first come out so I can get a good price.
On the official store there is! Only recently did the Present box set sell out. Shoulda grabbed it before it went! Oh well
The Present set is a really good set, filled with all sorts of bizarre stuff. If you can find it at a good price, I would grab it!
Wow! I just ordered Instant Replay too. Thanks! I got BBM from a very kind friend a while back, so IR will be my second one. I was late to the game.
I can't wait for the Headquarters & PACJ Super Deluxe Sets. One is coming at the end of the year. Probably Headquarters. Surprised no one has started a ... what to expect / predictions .. thread. Hint hint!
2nd favorite for me. HQ Sessions is my absolute favorite. Some might say it is not a super deluxe set, but it is 3 discs like all of the other ones, so I count is as such until if/when a super deluxe Headquarters is released and in my hands.
I only wish they had taken the "Nez completist" approach with his backing tracks from that late '67-early '68 BBM period as they did with the Present box. There are only a handful that I can recall ("Empire," "Tears of Joy"). It's also a shame that the Nilsson vocal demo of "Mister Richland's Favorite Song" didn't make the cut considering Nez played on it and "Good Times" has since been used. I still recall Andrew speaking very enthusiastically about it in his 1996 Goldmine interview when Justus came out. It was actually one of his rare documentation mistakes, as he attributed it to all the Monkees playing on it during the Headquarters sessions. Now, it's evident he was mistaking that session for the Nilsson-only demo session from March 1967, the one where he first played "Cuddly Toy" for them.
Wonder how Rhino will fit and release The Micky and Mike Live Show (CD) and hopefully (blu-ray) and (uncut hopefully) plus the (unnecessary) Christmas Party Lp and the Headquarters Super Deluxe Edition in before the year's end? I'm hoping Sandoval releases the PACJ set and a revised expanded edition of his Day by Day book sometime next year. Any others hoping these all get released sooner rather than later? We Monkee fans are getting older and would like to have time to enjoy these releases. I have no interest in Hughes projects. Let him put out mediocre stuff for cash grabs. Maybe he can collaborate with Friday Music. Only things that interest me are the projects that Rhino hires / contracts Andrew Sandoval to put together.
Have there been any hints from Andrew? He usually will put something on facebook. The last I knew of was hinting at the Kinks Arthur 50th. Lately, I haven't seen much and kind of wonder if Rhino wants anything to do with big Monkees projects/Sandoval anymore. It'd be a total shame if their two most important albums didn't get the super deluxe treatment.
We seem to be on the same page with these Super Deluxe Sets: I'd rather have PAC&J.....do HQ last.....we have a HQ set already (I know, I know! people want the 3rd single session backing tracks.....meh). .....PAC&J is the last true album box not released.....but I'd suspect the HQ Box does come out first.....the early albums have more interest, they'll all come out. I could see Sandoval doing an update once the last box comes out. I'd tie it in with a SD Box for Missing Links (with a lot of extras....that fill in the outtakes and backing tracks). I have yet to buy Monkees Forever or Summer Of Love comps.....pointless.....maybe I'll pick them up in the Amazon "cut out" bin (super discounted) I'm really more interest in comparing my collection with the forthcoming mixology (mixography...which is it?) book.
A Missing Links box actually makes sense, as these were actual albums that were released, albeit compilations of stuff that was recorded decades earlier. Plus, a lot of the tracks have shown up elsewhere in different versions with different vocals, etc., so these would in effect be the "originally released versions" which are at least partly out of print. There could be bonus tracks from pretty much any era, and they'd all fit. But maybe there would be too much overlap with the sets already released. It annoyed me to see things like the alternate mix of "Long Title" on the BBM deluxe, then repeated on HEAD, although I understand why it needed to be on the latter. But repeating the alternate "Circle Sky" on the Present deluxe was kind of silly.
A Missing Links reissue box could get incredibly messy in that the albums alone probably need some kind of padding out to justify reissuing. Do you incorporate the bonus tracks from the Nineties and Aughts reissues (pre-Super Deluxe boxes) and other loose ends like "I Didn't Know You Had It In You Sally?" Do you exclude alternate mixes, e.g., the version of "Rosemarie" from the 1995 Instant Replay release? Do you use that space for any remaining curiosities and trinkets that haven't been collected, e.g., "Who Will Buy," "Mister Richland's Favorite Song," "Tears of Joy," etc. - that is, things that could represent a Missing Links IV. Even though there is largely a "clean out of the vaults" approach to the Super Deluxe boxes, I feel Rhino has opted to hold onto some dry powder - and, after several reissue campaigns, it is truly DRY powder - in order to add an inducement or two to future reissues or collections. To illustrate, Boyce & Hart's last Monkees session in 1969 yielded "My Storybook of You" and an unfinished backing track called "Love Bandit " (AKA, "Suzanna Sometime" per session logs and Andrew's book). It has the distinction of being the only Boyce & Hart track/backing track that has never been issued. Given their import to the Monkees story, I fail to see why all the Nesmith backing tracks from 1969 were included on the Present Super Deluxe but this was not. It's especially odd after "Whatever's Right" was not only repurposed/re-recorded for Good Times! and then the backing track from 1966 was issued on the MOTM box. Originally, I imagine the intent was to include only tracks with Monkee involvement - but that dictate went out the window several times on the boxes. So, while there has been a latter-day punctiliousness about including all contemporary mixes - the "Circle Sky" mix for a 1969 Greek single being a prime example - there are things with arguably more intrinsic interest either being left in the vaults or not being made available beyond one-offs. It would be nice if Rhino at least made the various vinyl bonus tracks from the Super Deluxe sets available to buy digitally.
He stated on FB I believe that the next Super Deluxe Edition would be released later this year. Christmas Party Lp in August. On one of the Zilch eps it was mentioned that the Live Micky & Mike CD would be released sooner than thought .. or something along those lines. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
If anything, I’d prefer the concert video be held back. I need Christmas Party on LP and more Super Deluxes! I finally got my hands on two of them (IR and MOTM) but the others are too expensive. As another poster said, I was late to the game as well and why don’t they reissue The Headquarters Sessions and Summer 1967 and sell em for $60 a pop? It’d give more fans a chance to have them and they’d make some money. I want em too!
For Headquarters, honestly just mono + stero versions of the album + everything from The Headquarters Sessions and I’d be content.
A “Circle Sky” single in Greece? In 1969? That’s why there’s a different mix, with the vocals more “up front”? Thanks for clearing that up. The question was raised yesterday, while discussing “Circle Sky” in the Monkees Day-By-Day song discussion thread going on. No one seemed to know why this other mix existed! Anyhow, yes, making the more rare songs — as well as unique mixes of more familiar songs - available more places, or via download at the very least, would be great. Not the Rhino method, generally, though. They seem to be all about high-priced, deluxe sets with limited availability now, and if you miss out or can’t afford then it’s tough s*** for you. As a Grateful Dead fan who also has to be choosy about what pricy, limited edition box sets of live shows to buy each year (Not to mention their quarterly “Dave’s Picks” that always sell out), it’s tiresome and disappointing. It’s great Rhino still champions physical media, but not offering fans other options to buy music they’d like is, IMO, lousy business.
There were a couple songs on there that were excerpts. The full versions were on the Rhino web site at one time. Hopefully Andrew has found more. I want everything we can get. No limits.
I think they should finish what they started first, the Super Deluxe Sets. Heck, release both later this year. Enough with the useless vinyl releases, especially for the Christmas Album.
I wouldn’t say useless D-rock, there’s plenty of people like myself and other fans who want Christmas Party on LP for their collection.