Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye -4/5 First time I heard this was on the Saturday morning run in fall of 69 before Presents was released and that always signaled to me a new album was forthcoming. Loved the bango use in this song by Burton and nice to include Davy on background vocals. Good Dolenz and Ric Klein collaboration.
'Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye' - ummmm.... it's okay, but it's not a highlight even on 'The Monkees Present' LP, let alone their overall catalog. 3/5
BBBBB -- it's like a lot of the songs on this album. They aren't terrible. But they feel like skippable album filler tracks (and are super short so at least they don't overstay their welcome...) The problem is that there are too many filler songs on this (very very short) album. 2/5.
Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye - 3/5 Certainly a precursor to those quirky early Seventies singles Micky made. It feels like counterpart/sister song to Midnight Train, with the double time chorus and the banjo. Hal Blaine's "Monster Tom Set" flourishes are always a hook for the ear. And Mr. Burton plays some "Hot Licks" on the banjo just as adeptly as on his Telecaster. I prefer this to Pillow Time. This is a random spot to drop this thought in, but I wish they had more aggressively pushed for their contemporary material for Present, especially the songs that mined the genre-splicing that was going on with Sam and the Goodtimers backing them. Steam Engine, You're So Good (Micky singing a Nez production), Little Red Rider (the latter two with overdubs by the Goodtimers horns), Someday Man and Opening Night were closer to their live approach and much more authentic examples of Michael, Micky and David in 1969 than Ladies Aid Society and Looking For The Good Times - and far stronger songs than Never Tell A Woman Yes and Oklahoma Backroom Dancer. There certainly was not marketability for it at the time, but one wonders how a double-album with three sides of solo material and a set of live material from 1969 would have fared retrospectively. They were morphing in such interesting ways that it would be curious to see how this amalgamation of the "trio" (for it really wasn't in reality) and their musical pursuits would have played out through roughly 1972, without Jeff Barry or Screen Gems Music hanging over their heads.
I remember Goin' Back enterprises, Golden Treasures, the Rhino hotline, Monkee Business Fanzine and Maggie's Monkees Hotline. Oh the good old days Searching in the ad sections to find records or people selling cassette tapes with copies of the Lps. Before everything was available online. The search was part of the fun of it. That and learning the unique story of The Monkees.
Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye First of all: Dang, did the Monkees or Colgems have something against commas? Come on, guys! Upon first listening to Present, this was one of the tracks that stood out to me (in a good way). I like the harmonica, but especially the banjo picking and the acoustic guitar plucks. I also enjoy the alternating and overlapping lead and backing vocals, particularly towards the end of the song. (As an aside: Wikipedia says the backing vocals are “Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Unknown,” but a) I don’t hear Davy anywhere, and b) I could swear that the “Unknown” is Coco.) One of my favorite moments in this song is how Micky's voice sounds when he sings “You waste my tiiiiime, taaalkin’ about dyin’!” 4/5
Today's song is Never Tell a Woman Yes: One thing that I really appreciate is that Nez was willing to experiment with any and all forms of music at this time. So while this may not be one of his best compositions, I'm glad that it was included on the album. He and Micky really stretched themselves during this era, sometimes perhaps over-stretching themselves, but better that than settling on middle of the road mediocrity. This is an enjoyably lighthearted offering. 3.5/5. I should still be able to post songs as usual over the next couple of days, but won't be able to note down the ratings. Things will return to normal on Sunday all being well.
'Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye' is a fairly decent pop song, but there's nothing about it that really stands out for me. Enjoyable but ultimately unsatisfying.
I'm afraid I don't really have a lot of time for 'Never Tell a Woman Yes'. It may be worth mentioning, however, that here Michael displays his talent for an unexpected internal rhyme with the word 'man' (though 'ran' is not as unexpected as rhyming it with 'Joanne' post-Monkees).
"Never Tell A Woman Yes" It's a good song but not one that ever sticks in my head. I have to hear it whenever it's mentioned because I can never remember how it goes. But I guess I like it all right anyway. 3/5
‘Never Tell A Woman Yes’ was a song I didn’t know how to take the first time I heard it. It was certainly the most unusual song I heard from Michael Nesmith up to this time. Like the previous ‘’What Am I Doin’ Hanging Round?’ it was a story song with some pretty provocative imagery which he would revisit in his solo career with ‘Grand Ennui’, ‘Nevada Fighter’ among others. The humor is pretty dry, the music being a counter balance to the lyrics. Read the lyrics without listening to the music and you’ll see that the accompaniment is pretty unusual. It’s definitely stands out from the rest of the album besides songs that have preceded it from other albums. As has been noted, it is a very experimental and daring song coming from Nez. Of his four songs, this for me is one of two of Nesmith’s weaker album contributions. It’s not bad, it’s just different. 3/5.
2.5/5 for Never Tell A Woman Yes. Unfortunately, definitely the lowest score I’ve ever awarded a Papa Nez song. I almost always skip this one. Neat story, good vocal and backing track, but it’s a bit too long and just in general doesn’t resonate with me.
"Never Tell A Woman Yes" -- 2/5 Here it is, folks -- my least favorite Nesmith tune of the '60s. This old-timey novelty pastiche is the type of thing that I just don't like to begin with. All that "rooty toot toot" nonsense.... "WELL WHO NEEDS IT!?", as I heard someone say in a movie once. But even then, this song rubs me the wrong way for other reasons, too. It's evident to me that Mike was not always putting his best foot forward for new material here. By the time Present was issued, it had already been close to a year since "Listen To The Band" had first been performed for 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, and although "Good Clean Fun" is a fantastic song and was selected as the single, I've never felt like Mike thought much of it. Nesmith had so much top notch material in the can at that time, that I will always be convinced it was being intentionally held over for his solo albums. Don't know who made the call -- Brendan Cahill, Lester Sill, The Monkees themselves -- regarding what was to be included on albums by this time. But someone selected this silly, nothing song over "Nine Times Blue", "Some Of Shelly's Blues", "Hollywood", "The Crippled Lion", "Little Red Rider", "Calico Girlfriend" (all used within the next year on the first two FNB albums), and the great King/Stern track "Down The Highway". This and "Ladies Aid Society" were deemed suitable for release, but "Steam Engine" and "If You Have The Time" were left to languish in the vaults. It's tough not to judge this album against everything it could have, and should have been, and this song is an easy target. I rarely let this one play on the occasions that I give this album a spin. Sigh.
Honestly replacing BBBBB and Ladies Aid Society with Steam Engine and If You Have The Time would’ve made this album 100X better. Replace Never Tell A Woman Yes with Some Of Shelly’s Blues too
I'll take "Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye" over "Mommy And Daddy" and "Pillow Time"...and probably "Little Girl". But I'm probably in the minority there. I'm soooo looking forward to reviewing the songs on the second side of this album.
Never Tell A Woman Yes- A kind of interesting story song. This seems to be the quasi-novelty song that might have shown up in 1966-1967. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out if the woman stayed at the end, or if Nez tossed her out since "He Likes To Be Alone". Finally, someone on this forum straightened me out. This is not the worst Nesmith sung tune on this album (that will come later), but it really isn't a strong one either. I give this a low end 3/5, as I do sort of like it. A very uneven album 3 very good songs followed by 2 not so great (I will reserve opinion on the side closer until tomorrow).
