1969 was 50 years ago...

November 30, 1969:

Directed by Charles Grodin, the Simon & Garfunkel TV special Songs Of America airs on NBC, getting smashed in the ratings by an ice skating presentation on another channel. The program has a very political tone, and marks the broadcast debut of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'.

Footage outtakes from the TV special accompany this video of 'America':

 

November 30, 1969:

The Monkees play at the Oakland Coliseum Arena in California. It will mark the group's last live appearance for 15 years.

 

November 30, 1969:

The Oscar Peterson Trio & Dexter Gordon are taped for Danish television, playing 'Polkadots and Moonbeams'.
Dexter Gordon - Tenor Sax; Oscar Peterson - Piano; Sam Jones - Bass; Bobby Durham - Drums.

 

A few days late but my ticket stubs from the Batlimore and MSG shows that were recorded for the Ya Ya's album. I bought these off of ebay over the years as I was too young to go to the shows but they are my little piece of Stones history from my favorite tour.

 

A DVD of the snow was included with a deluxe edition of the Bridge album a few years ago. PBS showed it too. I found it pretty fascinating, although I don’t know that it holds up to multiple viewings. Unfortunately, the whole show doesn’t appear to be on You Tube.

 

'Rambler' was too apropos for Boston.

 

Yeah, couldn't find anything on the ytube for it. Good thing they didn't have the tube back then - a lot less would likely have gotten done.

 

And why was that?

 

That is wicked, many kudos to you and I must saw what an incredible thread this has been!

 

Because Mike Nesmith left the group shortly after, when he completed his contractual obligations. Dolenz and Jones did one more album, as a duo, that didn’t sell and The Monkees were over. For awhile.

I’m not sure “15 years” is correct though. Although Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones reunited in the mid-70s for an album and couple of tours (Both with songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart), and I think Dolenz and Jones each did some smaller scale tours, separately, with Peter Tork after that, I’m pretty sure “The Monkees,” in name, didn’t reunite until 1986.

That was Dolenz, Jones, and Tork, after their big comeback thanks to MTV airing reruns of the old TV show. Nesmith sat that tour out (Apart from a guest appearance in L.A.), but it was a massive one (Some reports say it was the top tour of ‘86).

Sporadic reunions and occasional new records since, with varying degrees of success, sometimes with Nesmith and sometimes without. He’s mostly been back on board since 2012, and 2016’s Good Times was one helluva good retro sounding, power pop record.

 

A lot happened for me that year I turned 4 in the March and that summer we moved from the first house I lived in, just before that I'd had to go into hospital for nearly a week which was quite traumatic for a 4 year old and I started nursery-school a few weeks later in September.

I do have musical memories as least as early as 3 (in the first house) hearing certain names on the radio remembering certain songs.

 

Wasn't Nesmith the real talent though, at least at that time?

 

Other factors: they were no longer doing their TV show (canncelled in 1968 after two seasons), which was originally the unifying purpose for the band's existence. Peter Tork had quit the band at the end of 1968 (forming a new group, lacked focused, and nothing came of it). Nesmith was leaning more towards country music and wanted to record a solo album. A mid-year British tour was scheduled, then postponed, and later canceled (the group had toured Australia and Japan in 1968 with Tork, who felt the band was generally under-rehearsed).

Critics and fans reportedly came away from '69 shows confused by the mix of The Monkees' pop sensibilities with the R&B lounge flavor of Sam & The Goodtimers - the seven-piece R&B band (who had formerly worked with Ike & Tina Turner) that opened shows and backed the Monkees during their 1969 tour. The tour itself was a meandering on-and-off-again prospect, starting at the end of March and running throughout the remainder of the year (including several dates in Mexico), interspersed with rounds of recording, plus TV appearances. The L.A.-based Goodtimers were more akin to a band one would hear playing behind James Brown or a Stax Soul revue - so the melding with the Monkees was somewhat 'experimental' in flavor and presentation, with concerts often lasting two and a half hours.

Towards the end of the year, shows (including a concert at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City) were canceled, possibly due to poor ticket sales - though other accounts and photos from the tour show audiences of thousands. Two more singles stalled on the charts. The Monkees Present album was released in October, but barely cracked the Top 100, despite cross-promotion with Kool-Aid. Dolenz would later say of their ongoing efforts, it 'was like kicking a dead horse. The phenomenon had peaked.' In November, Nesmith began to make it known that he would be departing The Monkees over the next several months to form a new group.

Milwaukee, June:



Anyway, here’s what The Monkees sounded like with The Goodtimers backing them - in April on The Joey Bishop Show:


1969 North American Tour

 

Sounds like the writing was in the wall and it was essentially over.

 

Yeah... The post TV show Monkees was alternately intriguing, fascinating, and perplexing.

The show ended due to mutual agreement. The group wanted to turn into more a “Laugh-In” or “Smothers Brothers” type show mixing music and comedy, featuring guest musicians to jam and play with them (The show was already doing this, with people like Frank Zappa and Tim Buckley appearing in season two). NBC wanted more of the same. The show was getting trippier, with with drug and anti-war references more overt, so no shock the two sides couldn’t work it out.

Then came the group’s feature film, the wildly trippy, bizarre, but (IMO) awesome HEAD. It’s a cult classic now, but a kiddie movie it was not. The counterculture crowd that might’ve appreciated it either didn’t know about it or stayed away since it was by “that manufactured group,” so it tanked. A shame, as the soundtrack is fantastic. Here’s the four guys playing live (And it is them, recorded live). Keep watching. Pretty shocking stuff, for the time:



Anyway, the movie tanked, but the Far East tour at the end of ‘68 was a success (Including a live telecast from Tokyo). The group was still hugely popular in both Japan and Australia. But Tork left at the end of the year, after shooting the even more bizarre 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee TV special (Aired early 1969). So Micky, Davy, and Mike soldiered on for two more albums and a North American tour.

The hits dried up in the U.S., although they were scoring hits in Australia, etc., and while the music was hit and miss there were some great songs that should’ve been hits (“Someday Man,” “Listen to the Band,” for instance).

The tour wtih Sam and The Goodtimers was, by several reports, pretty damned good. An odd mix, perhaps, but intriguing and ambitious. Sadly, there are no known recordings apart from the TV appearance posted here. attendance was spotty. Some shows were sellouts, others drew less well. Some festival dates, like the Milwaukee show pictured above, but the ride was coming to an end.

Regardless of how one feels about the group, I find their story a fascinating one. The fact we’re still taking about them, and they’re still drawing crowds and selling albums, 50+ years speaks to the strength of the songs (Regardless of who wrote or played on which ones).

 

Well, it depends. Nez was already an accomplished musician and songwriter (Pre-Monkees, he’d already written “Different Drum” and the Butterfield Blues Band had covered his “Mary Mary”). Definitely a major talent.

But Peter Tork was, by Nez’s own admission, the best musician in the group. Guitar, bass, banjo, all kinds of keyboards he played them all. The famous piano lick to “Daydream Believer”? He played it on the record, but he also came up with it. Probably should’ve gotten a co-writing credit. He started out as a Greenwich Village folkie who’d played Stephen Stills, pre-Buffalo Springfield.

Micky Dolenz had played guitar in a band, and even cut a single before being a Monkee, but was not a drummer. He had to learn it to be able to tour and eventually play on some of the records. He would play some guitar and keys on the group’s recordings (Including the first Moog synthesizer on a rock record!). Mostly though, he’s one of the great, underrated voices of the rock era. He still sounds amazing today (Again, check out 2016’s Good Times album).

Davy’s my least favorite Monkee, but he had his moments. He’d starred in Oliver! on Broadway (Was on Ed Sullivan the same night as the first Beatles appearance!), and cut a solo album in 1965. He wasn’t really a rocker, but he sang some great songs, and started writing some over time.

Sorry for all the rambling, and derailing this thread a bit. Point being, these guys weren’t untalented. They were just four very different guys thrown together to portray a band, rather than actually forming one organically.

 

November release, 1969:

Joe Cocker’s album Joe Cocker! is released, featuring mostly cover songs - including a few newer Beatles songs. Cocker is backed here by the Grease Band - who played on his first album and at Woodstock. However, Cocker would soon part ways with the group, citing a reluctance to tour.

 

November release, 1969:

Changing Horses is the fifth album by the Scottish psychedelic folk group, The Incredible String Band. The album sees the group continuing use of unique instruments, while integrating a standard musical structure. It is seen as a transitional album in which the band shifts its musical textures, including utilization of electric-based instruments. The album also marks the point when the band openly gave up the use of drugs and joined the Church of Scientology.

 

BJ Thomas had been in the music biz for a large portion of the decade as a member of various groups as well as a solo performer but up until '69 had only managed one Top 10 hit, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry in '66. This last year of the decade gave him two and they also served as bookends. Hooked On A Feeling, sans ooga-shaka, peaked at #5 in the early part of the year and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head which ended the year in the Top 10 and of course, would go on to hit the top in early '70.

 

Eventuality it had to show.

 

If only they would issue more box sets marking this anniversary, there's a chance I might remember.

 

November, 1969:

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass appeared at Royal Festival Hall in London, England, at the Royal Variety Show.

 

December 1, 1969:

The Carpenters appear on television on the Your All-American College Show, with 'Ticket To Ride'. This single would get ride as high as #54 in the charts.

 

December 1, 1969:

Chicago bluesman Magic Sam - born Samuel Gene Maghett - dies suddenly of a heart attack, aged 32. He is perhaps best known for the songs 'All Your Love', 'Easy Baby', and 'Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)', as well as known for his distinctive tremolo guitar playing. Born in Mississippi, Sam moved to Chicago in 1956, where his guitar playing earned him bookings at blues clubs on the West Side. Together with recordings by Otis Rush and Buddy Guy (fellow Cobra Records artists), the Westside Sound was a manifesto for a new kind of blues.

 

December 1, 1969:

Jimmy Smith is playing at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, France.