The Monkees - More of the Monkees (1966)

The Monkees' first self-titled album was released in October 1966 through Colgems Records, a month after the debut of the TV series of the same name, and two months after the release of the hit single "Last Train to Clarksville". When released, the music from the TV show became a bigger success than the show it was created to promote, with more people buying the records than watching the show on NBC. In a move controversial to this day, the band members themselves were not allowed to contribute instrumentally to the album, and while Monkee Mike Nesmith produced a couple of sessions, and even used Peter Tork as a guitarist on the sessions, the group was mostly left to contribute only vocally, with most of the playing and writing coming from the Boyce & Hart duo and their backing band, the Candy Store Prophets. This displeased the band to some extent, as they were led to believe they were to be making instrumental contributions to the band's recordings, especially the two musicians of the lineup, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith. This arrangement, which was chalked up to the hectic schedule they were subjected to in order to make an album as fast as they could, was however maintained when the time came to record their second album, which would be titled More of the Monkees and was also to be the source of much discord between the band and their management.

A rushed release, released quickly in order to capitalize on the massive and surprising popularity of their first record, the four Monkees weren't even aware that the album had been released, let alone been given any say on the sequencing or artwork of the album. The band learned that MoTM had been released while on tour, when they saw copies of it on a record store window, and were furious with it's artwork, a promotional piece for a department store which saw them wearing their clothes, as well as its self-congratulatory liner notes, courtesy of musical director Don Kirschner, which lathed praise onto the songwriters involved while only mentioning the Monkees in passing. Even more egregious in fact was Kirschner's job at song selection: such horrible schlock as "The Day We Fell in Love" was selected for the album while much stronger material was left in the bin, which even lead Mike Nesmith to call the album "probably the worst album in the history of the world". It was this incident and the horrible job their management did at creating a sophomore album that infamously led Nesmith to punch his fist into a hotel room wall and together with the other three members basically demand artistic control over the Monkees, which gave us such great albums as Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, where they played their own instruments themselves and were allowed to produce their own albums.

That leaves us with the question: what if the Monkees' second album was better? Considering the fact that the album was so badly compiled it lead to the revolt that yielded the Monkees' most creative and free period, you'd think the sheer lousiness of the second LP was the price to pay for it. However, the sheer amount of quality material left in the cutting room floor practically begs us to improve on it, and I believe that the key to better quality control could be following the TV show's musical choices. A whole four songs from the mid-to-late 1966 sessions that gave us MoTM appeared on the series without making it to the album, while conversely three songs that did appear on the album were nowhere to be seen on NBC. That's pretty counter-productive, as you'd think promoting a song on national television without it being released anywhere is a waste of resources, especially when you consider all but one of the songs from the debut album were used in the show. That means only songs that were part of the show or strongly considered for it will be included, with us only subbing in the new songs where the more subpar tracks are removed. There's also no problem with adding songs that were later re-recorded for future albums, with those re-recordings simply being substituted by different songs further down the road. Without further ado, here's what our revamped sophomore album looks like:

She (More of the Monkees)
When Love Comes Knockin' (More of the Monkees)

Mary, Mary (More of the Monkees)

Words (More of the Monkees)

You Just May Be the One (The Monkees)

I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone (More of the Monkees)

-

Look Out (More of the Monkees)

The Kind of Girl I Could Love (More of the Monkees)

I'll Be Back Up on My Feet (More of the Monkees)

Sometime in the Morning (More of the Monkees)

Valleri (More of the Monkees)

I'm a Believer (More of the Monkees)

Bonus tracks:
Laugh (More of the Monkees)

Your Auntie Grizelda (More of the Monkees)

I Don't Think You Know Me (More of the Monkees)

The Monkees performing live for the first time in Honolulu, December 3, 1966

Side one starts as usual, with the 1-2-3 punch of "She", "When Love Comes Knockin' (At Your Door)" and "Mary, Mary". Of those, "She" and "Mary Mary" were both featured in a couple of episodes of the TV show, while "Knockin'" was meant to be featured in the "Monkees at the Movies" episode of the series, but was replaced at the last minute by "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You", which means it also qualifies by our parameters of following the TV show, or at least makes for a sensible exception, since it's a pretty good song. Speaking of which, "Words", which was featured in the TV show in its original version, replaces "Hold on Girl", which wasn't featured at all and frankly isn't very good. As for the fifth track, we could keep "Your Auntie Grizelda", as it was featured in the TV show a couple of times and even is a fan favorite. However, since in my opinion, it's a pretty mediocre novelty track, and Peter already has a lead vocal spot on the LP in "Words", I decided to replace it with a second Mike Nesmith lead vocal, the original version of "You Just May Be the One", which was even featured with more prominence on the show than "Grizelda" ever was. Finally, side one ends as it usually does, with "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", one of the most prominently featured songs on the TV series, and the b-side to the "I'm a Believer" hit single, closing out the first half of the album.

Side two still opens with "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" and "The Kind of Girl I Could Love", as the two songs were featured in episodes of the series. However, we use an extended mix of "Look Out", which brings its length to 2:50 due to an instrumental bridge and was the version of the song that was used in The Monkees, to begin with. Following that, we substitute the hideous "The Day We Fall in Love", which thankfully wasn't used in the show, with "I'll Be Back Upon My Feet, which was. And curiously enough, those two songs were written by the same two people! Who knows what accounted for the gap in quality between those two. The fantastic "Sometime in the Morning" still has the same spot as it did before, being used in a couple of episodes, and it's followed by Boyce & Hart's "Valleri", the greatest omission of the original album. The song was featured in the TV show, and was so popular in that, that DJs started taping the song straight off the TV and playing it on air, making it one of the few songs to become a radio hit without even being released! It replaces the very weak novelty track "Laugh", which despite being featured twice in the TV show, doesn't hold a candle to "Valleri". It's followed by album closer and hit single "I'm a Believer", which was featured more than five times on the series and is quite literally the only song you cannot remove from this album.

Clocking in at slightly shorter than 30 minutes, this revamped version of More of the Monkees presents a considerable upgrade in quality and consistency, feeling much more cohesive and whole. A duo that definitely benefits from these swaps is Boyce and Hart, who go from a measly two songs on the record to a more respectable four. Still a far cry from the seven they got on the debut, but already much better. This album also features three Nesmith songs, of which he sings two, which I would mirror in my alternate The Monkees album, by substituting "I'll Be True to You" with "All The King's Horses", and making three songs per album his standard quota. Besides the tracklist, the other main objection of the band with the album was its artwork, which we fix using a still photo from the "Find the Monkees" episode, to which we add their logo. We also get a second single off it, with "Valleri" backed by "Mary, Mary" getting released right after "I'm a Believer". Also, as bonus tracks, we have the aforementioned "Laugh" and "Your Auntie Grizelda", as well as "I Don't Think You Know Me", which was meant for the "One Man Shy" episode but left unused. It's a shame The Monkees were kept from releasing the best of what they had available due to external influence and band politics, since we would all have benefited if the best-selling album of 1967 was of better quality than it ended up being.

Sources:
- The Monkees - More of the Monkees

- The Monkees - The Monkees

- The Monkees First Season Episode Index

The Beatles - Everest (1970)

The Beatles' thirteenth and final album, Abbey Road, was released on September 26, 1969, through Apple Records. It was recorded between February and August of the same year, coming hot on the heels of the failed "Get Back" sessions of January, in which they tried to "strip down" all the complex overdubbed work they had done ever since they had stopped touring, and go back to a more natural, live sound, as inspired by The Band's Music from Big Pink and other, rootsier music coming in late 1968 as a reaction to psychedelia. Said sessions ended with tensions very high and its album and television special both postponed indefinitely, with George Harrison quitting the band and then returning a few days later, and a couple of attempts of putting an album together by engineer Glyn Johns in February without much success. During the sessions for Abbey Road, the group were notably on good spirits, leaving their differences and business issues aside and focusing on creating one more album for the band. Things worked out so well, in fact, that before John Lennon made his famous announcement of "wanting a divorce" in September 1969, the band had made tentative plans of a follow up to Abbey Road. And even after said announcement, things stayed quiet and unsure as to the future of the band up until the release of Paul's McCartney album, which announced the breakup for good.

That leaves us with the main question of this reconstruction: what if the Beatles had made one more album after Abbey Road? While this question has been asked incessantly for more than 50 years now, we can make this old debate more interesting by adding some rules to it, so as to not turns this into a "My favorite solo Beatles tracks" playlist all over again. Those rules are that all of the songs up for consideration have to have been written before The Beatles broke up in September 1969, and preferably intended for use by the group or seriously considered to be so.  Additionally, only recordings from the 1970/71 period will be considered, as going any further than that would mean deviating too considerably from the established Beatles sound, which would make for a jarring listening experience. As Abbey Road before it, Everest would be produced by George Martin, engineered by Geoff Emerick, and recorded during the time period of January 1970 to April 1970, which was spent working on the finishing touches to Let it Be. Imagining such a record had already been released in May 1969, as originally planned, this frees up the early months of 1970 and gives the band the need for new product to fulfill the beginning of their new contract with Capitol. That gives the band yet another reason to go into the studio, which is always a good thing, isn't it?

We can also establish the format we will be following with the album. Given Lennon's dissatisfaction with the Abbey Road medley and the tendency the band had to not repeat themselves, this would probably be simply a collection of standalone songs, the normal 14 tracks of a Beatles record divided into something like 5 John, 5 Paul, 3 George, and 1 Ringo, as was the case with Revolver way back in 1966. With that, George again gets the most songs he's ever gotten in a single LP, especially considering Ringo's song was basically ghostwritten by him anyway. We'll use most of the songs John and Paul had available, since they tended to record or release almost everything they wrote, and they each have five spots to fill, which means only George will face any serious scrutiny as to what will be included. He had about 15 songs in the can at this point, which means we'll have to select the three which were the most seriously considered or rehearsed by the band. No easy task, especially considering the quality of his material, but we've got some songs that are clear forerunners in this, such as "All Things Must Pass" or "Let it Down", which were actually rehearsed very seriously by the band during the Get Back sessions. Thankfully for Ringo, he actually had a song he was working on, which means he will get a lead vocal spot as well. With that, let's move on and take a look at the tracklist:

Gimme Some Truth (Imagine)

All Things Must Pass (All Things Must Pass)

Every Night (McCartney)

Jealous Guy (Imagine)

Teddy Boy (McCartney)

Look at Me (Plastic Ono Band)

Isn't it a Pity? (All Things Must Pass)

-

Another Day (RAM)

Let it Down (All Things Must Pass)

Oh Yoko! (Imagine)

Junk (McCartney)

Oh My Love (Imagine)

It Don't Come Easy (Ringo)

The Back Seat of My Car (RAM)

Download link:
The Beatles - Everest (1970)

Paul and George at the last Beatles recording session, January 3rd, 1970

We can start off with the closest we'll get to an actual Beatles song in this reconstruction, "Gimme Some Truth", begun during the January 1969 Get Back sessions. With lyrical contributions from Paul and slide guitar by George, it features 3/4 of the group, the most we'll be getting here. It is followed by George's "All Things Must Pass", written on Thanksgiving 1968 at Dyan and The Band's Woodstock home. Rehearsed extensively during the Get Back sessions, it's probably one of the easiest inclusions we will be making here. Another result of the January 1969 Twickenham rehearsals, comes Paul's "Every Night", a more stripped-down song than the two that came before it. Following that, are three songs that date from their March 1968 trip to Rishikesh, India. The first is John's "Jealous Guy", first written as "Child of Nature", then rehearsed during the Get Back sessions and finally reworked for the Imagine album. The second is Paul's "Teddy Boy", which Paul had been pressing the band to record for quite some time. They had evaded it for three albums, but I think they would have had to record it this time around. The third is John's "Look at Me", a solo John recording that wouldn't be out of place in the White Album. Following is Version Two of "Isn't It a Pity", the oldest song on the album, that George had been pushing on the band since 1966, and I would hope that he finally got it into an album.

Opening side two is "Another Day", a product from the January 1969 Get Back sessions and a number one single for Paul. It's followed by the alternate Take 1 of George's "Let it Down", written alongside "All Things Must Pass" in Thanksgiving 1968 and rehearsed during the January 1969 sessions. The choice of an early take is due to the less bombastic arrangement used in it, more closely matching the way the Beatles rehearsed it. It's followed by the latest and probably most controversial inclusion into the album, May 1969's "Oh Yoko!". While some (including myself) would rationally steer clear of a song that was so overtly about her, this is 100% a song John would have pushed onto the others, much like "The Ballad of John and Yoko". It's followed by the last of our Rishikesh numbers, Paul's great "Junk", which again would've fit into the White Album quite easily. It's followed by another more somber number, John's "Oh My Love", featuring George on lead guitar. It was written in December 1968 alongside "Don't Let Me Down", and why it wasn't used on Let it Be is beyond me. It's followed by Ringo's lead vocal, "It Don't Come Easy", begun right after the White Album was released and finished with George's help. Closing off the album is Paul's "The Back Seat of My Car", one of the many piano ballads he wrote during the Get Back sessions, being in my opinion the best of the bunch.

Clocking in at 48-minutes with two same-length sides, Everest is the same length as Abbey Road, even though it's a pretty long record by the time's standards. And when considered on a song-by-song basis, it's honestly a stronger record than Abbey Road, only losing when it comes to cohesiveness, for obvious reasons. It's also a pretty somber, subdued album, pretty heavy on ballads and light on happier, poppier material, which makes sense considering the psychological state the band was in at the time. Once again, George absolutely steals the show with his songs, absolutely deserving the extra song he got here, and once again probably writing what probably are the best songs on the album. As for a single off the album, I could see them releasing a "Jealous Guy"/"Another Day" double A-side single, much like "Come Together"/"Something" before it, and it being a pretty big hit. Maybe even a non-album single consisting of "Instant Karma!"/"Maybe I'm Amazed", two fantastic songs that break the rules of our reconstruction but were already written by February 1970. Since all of these songs are leftovers, it's only fair that we use a leftover title for Abbey Road, inspired by the brand of cigarette engineer Geoff Emerick smoked. This collection only goes to show that The Beatles were too soon gone, and had at least one album left in them, even with all the turmoil that went on around them at the time.

Sources:

Paul McCartney - McCartney

John Lennon - Imagine

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

Paul and Linda McCartney - RAM

John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

Ringo Starr - Ringo

The Monkees - Changes (1968)

The Monkees started shooting their debut feature film at Columbia Pictures Studios in February 1968. Under the working titles Changes and Untitled, the movie represented a seismic shift from the beloved TV series the band had gained recognition for. Not wanting to simply make a ninety-minute version of an episode, both the band and creators Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider consciously tried to make a movie much more controversial and experimental than what had been seen during the last two years on NBC. The band, Rafelson, and actor and screenwriter Jack Nicholson (yes, that Jack Nicholson!) held a retreat in December 1967 in Ojai, California, where the six of them brainstormed and came up with ideas for the film. Nicholson then took the ideas created during this retreat and used them as a basis for his screenplay, a chaotic, psychedelic sequence of seemingly unrelated mini-plots portraying the band as stuck on an endless loop of not having control over their own lives and being kept "in a box", both literally and figuratively, with the band trying and failing many times to escape and have their freedom. By May 1968, filming was complete, and the movie, which at various points during production was named either Untitled, creatively enough, or Changes, was retitled HEAD, after the target audience for the film. It was a movie that set out to destroy the band's manufactured public image and either destroy them completely in the process or have them reborn as countercultural icons and serious artists.

The movie flopped, as it was too far out for the teenybopper audience, and they had too much of a teenybopper reputation to be taken seriously by the far-out, hip crowd who the movie was meant for. This means they managed to please neither their old fanbase nor those who The Monkees hoped would be their new fanbase, trying to make the transition from pop idols to serious musicians. With that, the iconoclast leanings of the movie's plot (if you can call it that) can be seen as a means for Nicholson, Schneider, and Nicholson to kill the Monkees, as an ironic sendoff to their manufactured image and constraining nature, as the concept had reached its theoretical peak. However, confusing plot and controversial themes aside, one of the undisputed highlights of the movie was its soundtrack. The six songs and one link track featured in the movie ranked up as some of the best things the Monkees ever did, and remain a cult classic and deeply beloved by fans to this day. However, when the time came to release the music, the decision was made to feature only those seven tracks, with orchestral scores by Ken Thorne, sound effects, and film dialogue thrown into the sequence seemingly at random and with little thought, by Jack Nicholson of all people. With the flop of the movie and the sheer weirdness of the way the soundtrack album was presented, the album was a flop as well, charting at a dismal #45 on the Billboard albums chart, this from a band who had never had a record chart lower than #3 before.

That leaves us with the question: What if HEAD was a full-length album instead of just a soundtrack? And in order to answer that, we will have to look to their biggest inspiration: The Beatles. On their two soundtrack albums, they had music from the film on side one, as well as other songs and singles on side two to round out the record. That means we need to find six or seven songs that wouldn't sound out of place with the greatness of these film songs and could complement them well. To do so, we will only be including songs that weren't featured in any other Monkee album or were left unreleased at the time, for the very simple reason that their late discography is a mess. That has the added benefit of this rejigged version of HEAD being able to simply slot into your current Monkees collection without any repeated songs or conflicts, which is a good thing. As for other rules, anything from November 1967 to August 1968 is fair game, as the songs on side one were culled from the same time period. I just probably won't use any leftovers from Mike's June 1968 Nashville sessions, as to me they feel like something else entirely and wouldn't fit in well, and none of Davy's self-written songs will be used either, even though there are plenty of them. Frankly, I don't particularly love any of his attempts at songwriting from this period, and they don't fit in great with the weirder side of the soundtrack, which is a pretty important factor here. With all of those parameters out of the way, here's what our expanded HEAD looks like:

Porpoise Song (Head)

Ditty Diego - War Chant (Head)
Circle Sky (Head)
Can You Dig It? (Head)
Daddy's Song (Head)
As We Go Along (Head)
Do I Have to Do This All Over Again (Head)

-

Look Down (Missing Links, Vol. 3)
Nine Times Blue (Missing Links)
Rosemarie (Missing Links)
My Share of the Sidewalk (Missing Links)
Carlisle Wheeling (Missing Links)
It's Nice to Be With You (Music Box)
D.W. Washburn (Music Box)

Tork, Jones, Nesmith, and Jones on the set of the film Head, April 1968.

Starting off our soundtrack, we have all seven songs featured in the film in their regular studio versions. Even though I was tempted to include the longer single version of "Porpoise Song", the fact that this was the version featured in the movie, and the side was already pretty long (for Monkees standards, that is) as it was, I decided against it. I also decided against using the live "Circle Sky", as the studio version sounds much more in tune with the other six. When these songs are put together on one side with no sound effects or Ken Thorne scores to break the flow, they really sound amazing, the Monkees in their psychedelic pop peak. That degree of quality only serves to make our job harder, having to put together another seven outtakes that measure up to these great songs. That doesn't mean this collection of songs is without its flaws though, and it's those we will be trying to address when expanding this to a full album. Those include the fact that Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones are severely underrepresented on the soundtrack, with only one vocal each. It's no surprise that Micky dominates the album, but we need to increase the other two's share on side two in order for things not to get too lopsided. Meanwhile, with two songwriting credits and one lead vocal, this is the most representation Peter Tork had ever gotten in a Monkees album, which means we don't have to worry about representing him on side two in any way. With that, we know all that we have to fix or add on side two, and all that's left is song selection.

We can start things off with the obvious additions, both sides of their 1968 non-album single of "D.W. Washburn" and "It's Nice to Be With You". Even though they're definitely not hit material, they're both pretty good songs, and the former would work pretty well as an ironic sendoff to the album. Looking at the outtakes from the Birds, the Bees, and the Monkees sessions, there are only three Mike Nesmith-written tracks that weren't included in a period album: "Carlisle Wheeling", "Nine Times Blue" and "My Share of the Sidewalk", with the latter being sung by Davy. With that, our job in song selection has just gotten considerably easier. All three can be included, with the psych-country of "Carlisle Wheeling" fitting in very well with the rest of the album, and "My Share of the Sidewalk" managing to solve both the lack of Mike and the lack of Davy simultaneously. Pretty impressive! "Nine Times Blue" is a bit too country-ish to fit with the rest of the material, but it's such a great song that it'd be criminal to leave it in the vaults, warranting its inclusion. We can also add Davy-sung "Look Down", giving Carole King her third songwriting credit on the album, and Micky's own "Rosemarie", a nice psychedelic oddity that fits in well with the rest of the material. With that, we end up with five Micky leads, four Davy leads, three Mike leads, one Peter lead, and a group lead vocal on the acapella "Ditty Diego" link track, making for a much more balanced record and fixing many of the issues I previously pointed out.

With two sides clocking in at about 19 minutes each, we have our first 14-track album from them since Headquarters, which will be renamed Changes, after one of the movie's working titles. Also tying in with that name change is this fan-made cover I found while doing my research, emphasizing the psychedelic, trippy side of the album. As for quality, although the second side isn't quite as great as the first, it has more than its share of quality moments and great songs, with the two combined making a much stronger album than The Birds the Bees and the Monkees, almost managing to stand up to the same quality standards as Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones. This expansion would probably have helped the album's commercial chances as well, as the LP now has much more value for money than before, with double the songs. It still wouldn't make it to the top 10 or anything, but at least it now has a fighting chance among other records and isn't a glorified double-EP anymore. As for singles, "Porpoise Song" b/w "As We Go Along" is an amazing 7" and it's criminal that it didn't chart higher than it did, which means it's still released in this timeline. The demise of the Monkees was still inevitable, and was probably even intended, but this version of the album would allow the band to have a much more dignified farewell by releasing one of the strongest albums of 1968, a psychedelic pop classic that needed to be complete to really be able to demonstrate the changes the band was going through.

Sources:

The Monkees - HEAD
The Monkees - Music Box

The Monkees - Missing Links
The Monkees - Missing Links, Vol. 3