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)

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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