Shorty Blackwell -- 1/5. I'll be the first to (apparently) say it. The emperor has no clothes here. Any of the other duets with Coco would have been greatly preferred -- even all of them one after the other.
"Shorty Blackwell" It's very ambitious and I want to like it, and I'm sure I used to like it more than I do now, but I find it's about 30% good and 70% annoying! 2/5.
Ambitious, different, unclassifiable, quirky, challenging ... and, of course, totally unlistenable. 1/5
Never fear Hadean75! I’m with you. I don’t get it. I can appreciate the uniqueness of the song, but I still find it annoying. I’m a cat owner, but it still doesn’t resonate with me. To each their own, but I have to give it a 1/5.
There might be something to this. Shorty Blackwell is one of my favorite Monkees tracks. It's wildly creative and wonderfully melodic. There is great beauty in the music and the vocal arrangements (even if they are pitchy here and there). The only Monkees track that reaches for the Epic in this way is Writing Wrongs, except that the instrumental break in Writing Wrongs is boring and kills the songs momentum. Shorty Blackwell has great momentum. It just keeps jumping to something new and interesting. I've been giving most tracks on Instant Replay a 4/5, which ranks it very highly in their catalog. Shorty Blackwell is the lone 5/5. Instant Replay was the last core Monkees album I purchased. Shorty Blackwell is a great way to close it.
Wow. "Shorty Blackwell" is a tune that is really, really hard for me to listen to until the end. The only 2 times I have made it all the way through this song was today, for proper rating purposes, and that time I got into my 75 yr old mother's stash of medicinal, and even then it was pretty tough. I give Micky props for the effort but I just don't get it. A 2/5 is about the best I do (BTW...it was mine not mom's, I told a fib)
I'm not familiar either, but wow, the Ms and Ps sure had a signature vocal sound. They were even more identifiable than The Fifth Dimension. If someone asked me who this is, if I had never heard this before, I would have immediately said Ms & Ps.
Shorty Blackwell is one of those songs that I really don't like at all but somehow I dont skip it if it comes on. However it will never make a homemade Monkees compilation of mine 1/5
He's only taking a vacation now so he can come back and (in full Shorty Blackwell style) proclaim loudly "I'VE BEEN AWAAAAAY!!!"
Shorty Blackwell 5/5 Only part I don't care for is the very first part "Shorty Blackwell, Shorty Blackwell. Be friends with me. Beeeee friends with meeeee" Other wise I love it. Love Micky and CoCo's harmonies. Love all these complex parts. Production is great. I love the ending too. "I am my" ... There was a theory about how this might have been about Nesmith.
I think it's more than just about Nez. I think it's an obtuse "state of the union" address on both the group and Micky's life at that very second. Again....a not-so-distant cousin to RANDY SCOUSE GIT.
I wouldn't consider Randy Scouse Micky's masterpiece. I think "Little Girl" from Present and "Midnight Train" from Changes are two of his best. I also love "Just A Game" and of course "Shorty Blackwell".
I used to know more about statistics but so far are we looking at a large standard deviation for this track? I give Shorty Blackwell a 3. Unlike most songs which I give a 3 to because it is not my top Monkees tune but not a bad song. But as others have who commented on this song, the 3 can mean a lot when the song is 5 plus minutes long and goes through so many changes. They do have good parts, the bad for me is from the 3-4 minute mark. I like the beginning and ending more. It is a good track to end the LP with, one that we will be wrapping up our overall thoughts next.
I once thought it was about Peter who had just left the group ("He built a house upon a hill/Ask him if he's happy and then give him a pill"). Micky confirmed at the 1986 Philly Monkees Convention that it isn't about Peter. It's really another of Micky's "stream of conciousness" songs like 'Randy Scouse Git', partly about his cat and a bit of commentary on the music business. ("Black and shining"- a record, "Hurry up get me a master" - a master tape).
I've always dug the conspiracy theory that some of the lyrics are about Michael. The classical piano piece after polishing my shoes gets me every time.
