The Monkees "DW Washburn"

When I was a little kid, I was a HUGE fan of The Monkees.

Oh sure, the TV series had been cancelled years and years earlier.  But the show lived on in syndication.

And during the show, they would run commercials for this amazing, incredible, one-of-a-kind "Greatest Hits" LP.

It had all the songs I loved, plus many many more.

It seemed like the most colossal, important and special thing a Monkees fan could ever ever own.

It would make my life complete.

I pestered and pestered and pestered my folks to get it for me.  And they did.

I watched the mailbox every day for months for my package.

And it arrived.

I may have only been around 8 or 9.  But I was old enough to know that I'd been rooked.

The album cover was some very, very basic pencil drawings of the guys.  And the BACK of the album cover, which would normally list an album's songs, was just the same image repeated.  And it it was on cheap, cheap cardboard.

The paper sleeve was plain and you could find the song titles, written on the sticker.

But there was no gatefold.  No liner notes.  No song credits.  Nothing.

This spectacular spectacle of a once-in-a-lifetime collection, was as minimal as possible, and pretty darn cheap-ass.

That being said, the music was still great, and I got to know some fun deeper cuts like "DW Washburn." 

I wore out all 4 sides of "The Monkees" on my little record player, a bit wiser in the knowledge that while the music can move you, the TV is probably lying to you.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Monkees "Sweet Young Thing"

There's a line in Dave Kish's radio station biography, where he writes about learning to read by looking at album covers.  I always thought that was funny, if slightly improbable.

Then, not long ago, I was looking at list of songs by The Monkees, and I saw the title "Sweet Young Thing," a deeper cut off their first album, and it brought back a flash of a memory.

I was obsessed with The Monkees, right about the same time I was learning to read.

And I remember holding an album cover in my hand and sounding out the title to this song:

"Sssweeeet  Ewwwing Thing.  Sweet Eww-ing Thing."

From my "Learning To Read" work in school, I knew the word "Sweet" and I knew the word "Thing" and I knew the word "You."

But I didn't know what "You" with an "NG" on the end was.

Listening to the record, I figured it out . . .

Thus began a long history of learning words and phrases and definitions, via music.

All this week, I'll post about how a love of music has taught me a vocabulary word or two.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Monkees "Pleasant Valley Sunday"

When you're a kid, your world is very small.

So why wouldn't The Monkees write a song about the greater Haverhill area?

It seemed perfectly logical.

We'd pass the highway sign for "Pleasant Valley" while headed down 495 to go to my Uncle Joe's house, and though I couldn't see if from the back seat of our wood-paneled station wagon (or our yellow Dodge Dart), I knew, via the lyrics, that a very wonderful town lived just beyond the tree-line.

Kids don't know much about irony either. I thought they were singing about a simple, happy place, not a deathbed of conformity.

Anyway, now when I travel down Route 495, I smile and remember a less cynical place off the exit, that only existed in a elementary school kid's head.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Monkees "For Pete's Sake"

You can’t explain syndication to a kid.

At least, my mother couldn’t explain syndication to an 9 year old me.

I was in our basement/TV room, devastated. I'd just learned that my favorite band was breaking up and ending their run on TV.

I was crying. Inconsolable.

How could The Monkees do this?

Well, little did I know, The Monkees TV show had been off the air for a decade at this point. It was the late 1970s, and I was in grammar school.

I had been watching The Monkees almost every day, for months, on what I now understand was a local independent TV station that aired reruns of programs all day long.

I loved the songs. I loved the guys in the band. I loved the wacky antics.

But on this day, what I had witnessed, nearly destroyed me.

The last episode of the series aired. I remember clearly that it was introduced as such (though for all my internet searching, I can't seem to find any information about it) by the band, saying that the series was ending.

This was it. It was all over. There would be no more Monkees. No more Davy falling in love. No more Mickey saying something hilarious. No more time spent in that awesome flat. No more playing along to songs on my tennis racket.

Mom kept trying to explain to me that just because it was the last episode that was made, it wasn't the last time the show would ever air.

But I would not be convinced. I mean, Mike Nesmith was just on TV, saying it was the last episode. C'mon, who would know more about the situation (or anything, for that matter), Mike Nesmith or my Mom?

Finally, somewhat exasperated, my Mom got out the TV Guide. She turned the page to tomorrow and looked up the time-slot. "The Monkees" was scheduled to air. And the same thing for the same time the next day.

I still didn't fully believe her, but it was enough to stop the full mental breakdown, or loss of will-to-live.

I rested, uneasily.

Twenty-three hours later, I was in front of the television.

Twenty-three hours later, there was an episode of The Monkees on my TV.

It turns out those last closing credits, weren't the last closing credits, for Pete's (and Mickey's and Davy's and Mike's) sake . . .

(Did you know that the closing credits song is called "For Pete's Sake"?)

See the closing credits on Youtube.


See the opening and closing credits on Youtube.

Supergrass "Alright"

Here's another Weekend Post:

In the 90s, there was a rumor that Steven Spielberg was going to work with Supergrass to make a new "Monkees"-type TV show. Never happened. I was disappointed. I loved "The Monkees." I'm going to have to write about that soon.



Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show. They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.