063: The Monkees - Headquarters (1967)
“The fact that they made the music around me and without me was much to my chagrin. I was very disappointed about that.”
—Peter Tork
Hey, hey, it’s Discord & Rhyme! If, as alleged, the Monkees were a fake band, you’d never know it from listening to their 1967 album Headquarters - on which they wrote (most of) the songs and played (most of) the instruments. On this episode, Ben leads a discussion about this fascinating and fun anomaly in the career of the Pre-Fab Four. He’s joined by Micky, Peter, and Mike — oops, we mean by Amanda, Dan, and Rich.
Miscellany
In the segment on “Shades of Gray”, Ben accidentally says that Davy played the piano, when it was actually Peter. He wasn’t fired over this, but it was a close vote.
The gibberish opening of “No Time” (“Hober reeber sabasoben/Hobaseeba snick/Seeberraber hobosoben”) was an allusion to the comedy style of Bill Cosby. Understandably, it hasn’t aged nearly as well as the hippie sentiments in “For Pete’s Sake.”
The Monkees credited the composition of “No Time” (which was not composed in any sense of the word) to engineer Hank Cicalo, as a thank-you for his hard work on the album. The royalties from “No Time” allowed Hank to buy a swimming pool.
About ten minutes after we finished recording, Amanda realized that the chorus of “No Time” is lifted from “Rockin’ Robin.”
Breakdown of bass players on Headquarters: Peter Tork (“You Just May Be the One”), Jerry Yester (“Shades of Gray”, “I Can’t Get Her Off My Mind”), John London (“Mr. Webster”, “Sunny Girlfriend”), Chip Douglas (all other songs).
Carole King has a net worth of $70 million, and yes, that is a happy story, because she’s a national treasure and seemingly a really nice person.
It’s clear from the subtext of “Sunny Girlfriend” that the protagonist allows her sunshine factory workers to unionize. These days, they’re all living comfortably from the 401(k)s she opened for them in the late 1970s. Also, the factory is an energy-efficient green building. So she’s cool.
Other links
"The Devil and Peter Tork" episode (YouTube)
All The Monkees episodes (YouTube)
Discord & Rhyme’s Headquarters playlist (Spotify)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Ben Marlin (host)
Amanda Rodgers (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Dan Watkins
Headquarters tracklist
You Told Me
I'll Spend My Life With You
Forget That Girl
Band 6
You Just May Be The One
Shades Of Gray
I Can't Get Her Off My Mind
For Pete's Sake
Mr. Webster
Sunny Girlfriend
Zilch
No Time
Early Morning Blues and Greens
Randy Scouse Git
Other clips used
The Monkees:
The Last Train to Clarksville
Goin' Down
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
The Girl I Knew Somewhere
I'll Spend My Life with You (original version)
I Don't Think You Know Me
Randy Scouse Git (Micky Dolenz solo version)
Daydream Believer
Me & Magdalena
Porpoise Song
Oh, What a Night
Tema dei Monkees
Others:
Dionne Warwick - Walk On By
Belle and Sebastian - I'm Waking Up to Us
Billy Joel - Shades of Grey
The Mamas & the Papas - Words of Love
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - For Pete's Sake
Simon & Garfunkel - A Most Peculiar Man
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Mistadobalina
The Guess Who - No Time
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Travelin' Band
Band/album personnel
Micky Dolenz - vocals, drums, zither, electric rhythm guitar, shaker, timpani
Davy Jones - vocals, percussion
Michael Nesmith - vocals; electric and acoustic lead, rhythm, and 12-string guitars; steel guitar, organ
Peter Tork - vocals; acoustic 12-string and electric guitars; piano, organ, celeste, electric piano, bass, banjo
Chip Douglas - bass, producer
Hank Cicalo - engineer
John London - bass
Jerry Yester - bass
Frederick Seykora - cello
Vincent DeRosa - French horn
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
The Monkees - Zilch (this episode only)
You can buy or stream Headquarters and other albums by the Monkees at your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.